This is only my third rpg.net review, so any feedback and hints/advice etc will be happily accepted. I don't do a lot of reviews, simply because a product has to particularly stir me (one way or the other) for me to bother. My review of Angel the Board Game (for example) was born of a desire to ensure that nobody else ever had to have the misfortune of buying that travesty of a game. Happily, The Riddle of Steel is a game that pulls me in the other direction. I'll try to be as objective as I can in this review, but I guess I should warn you to keep in the back of your mind as you read it that I *love* this game.
An additional warning - this review turned out a lot longer than I expected. Sorry about that.
The Riddle of Steel - Roleplaying with an Edge is a new non-D20 low fantasy roleplaying game from newcomers Driftwood Publishing. The game is actually not in general release yet (it will be shipped to stores in August) but you can buy a copy off their webpage (see link at the bottom of this review) and if you ask nicely, the author will even sign it for you (more on him later as well).
I'll break this review down into chapters (called Books) and give as much game information along the way as possible. Then at the end I'll give more generalised comments, my opinion, and some interesting links. The overall look of the book is very nice. It's a 260 page hardback, with a nice picture of a warrior holding a sword on the cover, and the same sword, shattered, on the back cover. The interior art is only of average quality, mostly line drawings. They generally have nothing to do with the page they're on, but break up the flow of text nicely, and every page has at least one small picture on it (which is nice, except when I'm reading it at work and people are looking at me strangely because the textbook I'm supposedly reading has warriors with huge swords adorning the pages).
Book One - In the Beginning.
This chapter introduces the system very basically to the reader. In essence, it's similar to the Storyteller system - the player has a pool of d10s, and rolls them against a number, counting how many reach that number or higher. Unlike storyteller, 1s do not cancel successes, but if you have two or more 1s and no successes then you have botched. 10s add and roll again. The ten attributes are introduced (Strength, Agility, Toughness, Endurance, Health, Willpower, Wit, Mental Aptitude, Social and Perception). All have a maximum of 10 and a human average of 4. The chapter also introduces skills, which are a simple number that you buy DOWN with experience. The skills system is (IMO) very elegant, as your skill level represents the difficulty number and you roll whichever attribute is appropriate in the situation. For example, you might have a Riding skill of 7. To ride your horse across difficult terrain would involve an Agility roll against this difficulty, but to withstand a very long ride you might instead roll Endurance. To impress onlookers with your horse skills might involve a Social roll against that skill, and so on. A nice system. Spiritual attributes are also introduced (Conscience, Destiny, Faith, Drive, Passion and Luck). They are very "Pendragon" and involve things that are important to your character, like a vow to protect someone, or a hatred of a certain person. When these situations arise, you may have additional dice to roll (such as while attacking your hated person). The only thing I dislike about the spiritual attributes is that most of them use slightly different systems for implementation. It's a minor irk, but one that gets me a little.
Book Two - The Birth of a Legend
This chapter covers character creation. It's a slightly odd system (one I have not seen before) but it's really quite interesting. Basically, you have six "aspects" of your character. They are Race, Class, Attributes, Skills, Proficiencies and Gifts. You have to assign each a priority from A to F. The higher a priority each has, the better. A basic Human has a priority of F, so most characters wont need to worry about Race, but a human with magical ability (if you want to play a sorceror) and other races (Fey) have higher priorities, so if you want to play one of those, you'll have a lower priority in other areas which govern how many skills and so on you have. Your class priority determines your starting wealth, and your ability to earn money by working during the campaign (Priority F is a slave, so it's to be avoided). Attributes and Proficiencies are pretty self-explanitory, the lower a priority you assign, the fewer points you get to assign to your 10 Attributes and to weapon proficiencies (which includes spell proficiencies, more on that later). The game also has merits and flaws, but instead of trading points for them as in other games, the priority you assign to the Gifts aspect determines what you get (from 2 major merits at priority A down to a major flaw and a minor flaw at priority F). Skills are bought in packages, such as "Warrior" and "Scout", each package giving you 10 or so skills, and the priority you assign to the Skills aspect determines your starting rank in those skills. The chapter is rounded off with the creation of a sample character and the low point of the chapter - an entire page of charts to randomly determine your height and weight (IMO an utter waste of space, just make something up to suit yourself and move on). All in all, a very interesting character creation system.
Book Three - Training
This chapter covers skills and skill packages. Most characters can choose two packages to suit their character concept. A templar style character might choose Knight and Clergyman, for example, while Sailor and Thief might suit a swashbuckler concept. The chapter goes on to describe every skill in detail, then goes on to cover the Merits and Flaws, and finally to weapon proficiencies. I'll cover how those work in the combat chapter. Finally, chapter three covers experience. You gain experience by roleplaying your spiritual attributes (your passions and vows and so on, remember).
Book Four - The Codex of Battle
This chapter covers how combat works. It's a little complex, so I'll try and summarise it. In a nutshell, combat is very very deadly. There are no hit points or anything similar in this game, if you get hit you are either dead, or on your way to dying. In fact, the first hit in combat often decides the eventual outcome. Basically, each character has a "combat pool" of d10's (made up by his agility and his level of proficiency with the weapon he's using). There are a series of attack and defense maneuvers, attacks are things like cut, bash, and so on and defenses are things like parry, block, counter (riposte). The attacker declares an attack, declares where he's aiming it, and says how many dice he will use from his combat pool. Then the defender chooses a defense and number of dice as well. The difficulty is determined by the maneuver and the weapon used (a basic sword might be 6 to attack and 7 to parry, while a shield is only 4 to block with, that kind of thing). Each tallies successes, and if the defender wins the attack is foiled and he gains initiative. If the attacker wins, he hits and keeps initiative. Damage is determined by the strength of the attacker, the damage potential of the weapon and the number of successes over the defender. This number is reduced by the defenders toughness and whatever armour he has at that location. The final result is checked against a table which describes the wound received, and the amount of blood loss, shock and pain. Yes, that means lots of tables, every body location (there are 14) has a table for cutting, thrusting and bashing attacks, plus a generic table for fire, electricity and the like. It sounds very rolemaster, but in a typical exchange you'll only look at the tables once or twice because thats usually enough to kill one or the other combatant, so it's not too bad. Blood loss accumulates as you gain wounds, so you can bleed to death from your wounds even if you're not hacked to pieces, and shock and pain reduce your combat pool making it harder for you to resist the next attack. After every 2 attack/defends, a new round is declared and the pools refresh (except dice lost to pain).
Book Five - The laws of Nature.
Covers encumbrance, carrying, falling, healing and aging. Fairly standard stuff.
Book Six - Sorcery.
Oh my. This chapter requires several reads, and even so still remains the most complicated part of the book. The basic idea of the world is that magic and sorcerors are extremely rare and extremely powerful. Even a seasoned warrior would be stupid not to run if a puny starting-level mage was standing far enough away to get a spell off and wanted to kill him. Let me reiterate that - mages are IMMENSELY powerful in this game. To compensate for that, a) they have fewer and weaker skills, money and so on due to the priority system of character creation, and b) spells tend to age them. Even a single spell might age a sorceror by up to a year if he's not careful (2-3 months is more the norm) so an incautious sorceror will age himself into an early grave. Magic is kind of like Mage The Ascension, in that there are spheres of magic (called Vagaries), which you buy ranks in. Spells are made by combining effects from different vagaries and then rolling dice from your Sorcery Pool to try and cast the spell. You have to decide how many dice from your pool to assign to trying to actually cast the spell, and how many to assign to resisting the spell from aging you. It's an interesting system, but complicated, and IMO the weakest part of the game. One good thing is that there are a lot of sample spells to get you thinking along the right lines.
Book Seven - The world of Weyrth
This chapter otlines the world that the game is set in (of course, you can just take the rules and use your own world if you so wish). There is a small full color map of the world (and a larger one available for free download on the webpage). The "known world" consists of one massive continent, split up into many smaller countries. Each country gets about half a page or so of information regarding its Geography, Religion, Politics/Military, Legal System, Economics, Inhabitants/Culture, Places of Note, and Player Bonuses for your character being from that country. There are some non-fleshed out countries to allow you to insert any culture you feel might be missing. The cultures are a mixed bag, many drawing on real Earth cultures and some entirely made up. This is a large chapter crammed full of choccy goodness, although the player bonuses aren't really balanced against each other in any way (the author conceeds this, and states catagorically that balance isn't an issue he cares about, which is fair enough for some, but many groups will find that most of their characters seem to come from the same areas that just happen to be one of the few with nice bonuses and no penalties). Weyrth is not like most other fantasy worlds - the predominant life form is human, and most of the other people you'll encounter are other humans. There are a small number of Fey, Rock Dwarves, Halflings (not small hairy footed people, but a cross between a human and a fey) and some unseelie such as goblins. In some countries, non-humans are little more tham myths, as far as the population are concerned. This is a nice change from the typical fantasy world which has many races all crammed in together, and gives it an almost "real world" feeling. The chapter rounds off with the standard equipment list and prices etc.
Book Eight - The Seneschal
Every new roleplaying game out there tries to think of a new name for the guy who runs the game. I don't know why this is, just trying to be different I guess. This one uses Seneschal. One name is as good as another in my book and I'll just keep using GM. This chapter has the standard "how to roleplay, and don't do it with people you don't like" blurb, and then moves into more advanced advice, including suggestions on how to run sessions, a good number of adventure hooks, stats for various animals and the local equivalent of Orcs (Gols), Trolls (Vilkolak) and a few demons and so on. There are also some template NPC's here. There are not many animals or monsters, and no hit tables for them (you just extrapolate from the humanoid hit tables), but such things will presumably be in the Bestiary book planned for release some time this year.
Appendices
The appendices have the combat hit tables, a glossary and a really good index, plus weapon statistics. For some inexplicable reason, the glossary is printed over the top of an extremely ugly and obscuring background image with lots of swords on it, making it almost impossible to read, but fortunately the index and charts have plain backgrounds and are quite readable.
Summary
This is a really good book and a great game. There's a lot I didn't mention, such as flavour stories at the start of every chapter (unfortunately, one of them gets used twice, but it's a minor gripe). There are a few grammatical mistakes, but nothing glaring and it's actually a lot better than many other RPG books I have seen. Worth mentioning is the fact that Jacob Norwood (the primary writer) is an extremely friendly and approachable guy. Not since Shane Hensley and John Goff of Pinnacle have I encountered a game designer so keen and willing to get in tight with his readers, chew the fat with them, answer all their questions and basically give them a real sense of closeness with the process of game design. Check out the forum "The Riddle of Steel RPG" in rpg.net's forums to see what I mean (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3612) - he's the poster called Garalt. There's also a really good webpage at http://www.theriddleofsteel.com with lots of downloadable goodies.
Combat is very deadly in this game, which may be a concern for GMs.. sorry.. Seneschals whose players are used to charging in and going toe to toe with opponents, safe in the knowledge that as a 13th level fighter they have enough HPs to take 20 or so good sword blows before backing off. In the designers own words, "What keeps your characters from getting whacked is the same thing that kept man alive in the world back when it was this deadly (which, technically, it still is): cunning and wits. TROS isn't a hack-and-slash game...it's more about thinking your way through problems". In other words: run away when necessary, attack with surprise, gang up on opponents. Basically use every nasty trick to give yourself the advantage. The game is survivable if you're a little cautious, but gung-ho hack-and-slashers may find themselves making up new characters fairly regularly. If this doesn't sound like your bag, this is not the game for you.
As I mentioned at the top of this review, the game is not available in stores yet, but it can be bought via the webpage and I highly recommend that you do so. You wont be disapointed. Style 5, Substance 5.
Brian.
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