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 What is the Riddle of Steel?
The Riddle of Steel is a “Blood Opera” style fantasy role playing game from Driftwood Publishing, headed by Jake Norwood. It boasts a gritty, realistic combat system, freeform “create a spell on the fly” magic and an innovative character advancement system.
The Project:
This is a play test review. I’m not going to address the contents of the book. You can find a capsule review covering that better than I could. Brian Leybourne’s capsule review is quite good. I will, however, make a couple brief comments. The book is hardcover, which is a major plus in my eyes. While the layout and artwork are fair, the sheer amount of information packed into this 260+ page book is astounding. On the other hand, sometimes the information is spread out across 20 to 30 pages, which can make finding what you need to know a pain. Fortunately, there is an extremely comprehensive index to help you out.
I rounded up three people to help with the playtest, and set myself up as Seneschal (GM), as I was the only one with a book at the time. I provided the players with a setting pack, and a chargen pack. Neither player had read the MRB at the time of the initial game session. I wanted to see how easily the game could be picked up. The players themselves are old hands at gaming, but have been completely out of the gaming loop, playing Everquest or playing LARP or 2E AD&D for the last few years.
I didn’t want to overwhelm the players immediately, so I ignored the sections on non-human races and sorcery. However, I used the sorcery rules as written for an NPC sorcerer, so I could get the feel of them before allowing the players to run amok. I sold them on the combat system right away. We are all fans of WFRP, for both the setting and the combat system, and when I told one about “Surface Organs Removed” he said “When do we play?”
The first session we played was a demo, with pregen characters, designed to demo the system to the players. It involved a basic test of the skill system (Gambling, actually), and two combat situations, including one with Spiritual Attributes. In between the first and second session, we made characters as a group.
The second was the first “real” session, and was simply the best “first session” I’ve ever had for a game system. Considering this happens even with systems I am quite familiar with (including various flavors of D&D), The Riddle of Steel gets full marks for instant involvement. I have played several more sessions, and each has been highly enjoyable, without a dud game in the lot.
Basic Mechanics and system:
The Riddle of Steel is a die pool game using d10’s and a single d6 for wound location resolution. Botches occur on a failure including double 1’s. Botches can be bad; for example, one of the PC’s botched a 2 die Full Evasion right after killing two guys with a Double Strike...and got stabbed in the wang. D10’s give you additional rolls each time you roll a 10. This also applies to rolls made with these bonus dice, so a roll of 35 or higher is entirely possible (and sometimes necessary). All rolls have a TN, where higher numbers make for harder tasks. In short, a sturdy, simple system that allows for all kinds of shenanigans, with no real frills or headaches. Players of WW games will feel right at home with this system.
Die pools are medium sized, ranging from 4 to 23 dice in my games, with a potential maximum of 45. You will only ever see a die pool of 45 once, if ever. Most die pools in combat situations range from 10-20 in size.
Character Creation:
Character creation is nicely handled. The prioritization schedule really killed the usual munchkin tactics of one player, because of the “trading off” between skills, stats and weapon proficiencies, while still delivering him the kind of character he wanted. He opted for a warrior type, with considerable combat skills.
Another interesting aspect of the character creation system is rather than having players roll for social class, it allows them to choose. For example, a character could be a Baron of a small nation, with a handful of armed men, a small amount of land, and several hundred peasants that he is responsible for. On the other hand, he could be an escaped slave or prisoner, with the gamut of social classes between.
There are 10 base statistics that are assigned points during the process of character creation and 5 more that are “derived” from the values of the assigned attributes. Stats are rated from 1 to 10, and while most characters have 15 stats, sorcerers can have up to 20. This may cause people used to less stat-heavy systems like Tri-Stat to suffer headaches, but in play, the apparent mountain of statistics have little impact on the smooth flow of the game.
The statistics themselves denote die pools, and are used to resolve skill use, or may be used raw in situations that call for them, at the Seneschal’s discretion. It turns out that Perception is very important in this game, especially for skill use, as one of my players has already learned to his chagrin (“It’s Perception! It’s gotta be useless!”).
The interesting thing here is that while many characters can be “fighter” types (using the more classical definitions) each is quite distinct in his abilities and driving forces. There was a little confusion over how proficiency defaults operated on the part of the players, but this cleared up quickly. Defaults are a great addition to the game. In some games, one is unable to use a short sword, even though one may have skill in long sword or dagger. With the number of proficiencies available (14 melee weapon and 8 missile), there will be a marked difference in how individual players approach combat.
However, fighting men aren’t the only concept available in The Riddle of Steel. Every character type in class based games can be made here; thieves, clergymen, bards, wizards, and many more. Courtly knights, templars of one church or another, courtiers, bandits, sailors and merchants may be developed quite quickly, and this just begins to scratch the surface.
Concepts are only partially defined by the skill packet system. Each character chooses 2 packets of skills, and these generally group 10-15 skills together that are common to the concept. Packets are labeled “Courtier”, “Knight”, “Peasant”, “Entertainer”, and so on. There are 14 packets, meaning that there are nearly 200 “classes” available in this game.
The skill packet system is nice. It eliminates the sometimes hours-long hunt for skills, while not pigeon holing characters into rigid stereotypes. Overall I consider this to be a fair compromise between the two extremes of skill selection. A player chooses two skill packets for his character that help to define what the character can do. Each packet includes about 15 skills. After skill packet selection, one is allowed to choose additional skills or boost current ones, based on the character’s Mental Aptitude stat, which allows for further personalization or tweaking.
Advantages (Gifts) and disadvantages (Flaws) didn’t appeal to my players. They eventually asked if they could use home brew Enemy flaws instead. I figured this would make for a good game, so I agreed. There is, however, an Allies advantage, which is where my players got the idea. The Gifts and Flaws section could use some more fleshing out. Do not think that the list is skimpy. There are several examples of each given, with major and minor versions of most.
There is a separate section of additional Gifts and Flaws for sorcerers. This list, while smaller, seems better thought through and adequate for its intended use.
Equipment
Probably the longest part of character development was purchasing equipment. The equipment lists are fairly thorough, and has prices in 3 different currency rates. I was pleased to see this extra work put in by Driftwood Publishing. It saves me the effort and time of converting prices myself. I also got a chuckle out of some of the entries, e.g. “Wolf (not happy)”.
SA’s were decided by the players during the break between the first and second session. I will discuss Spiritual Attributes after I review the combat system. One player had bought himself a book and finished his character pretty quickly. The other had only the chargen pack to go on, so he came up with a concept that we broke down at the start of the second session.
In both cases, the players wound up with the characters they envisioned: powerful combat types, with a lot of hate and revenge to work out. Looks like my players wanted to fight.
Combat System:
The combat system initially has a fairly steep learning curve, and seems quite daunting when one considers the amount of maneuvers available. Even with my previous practice with it, and Brian Leybourne’s very excellent combat simulator, there was some "hmmm....who gets initiative? How does this maneuver work?" at first. This cleared up by the second session. By the third session, we were running large multiple opponent combats using full maneuvers with ease. The system is picked up very quickly, even by those who do not spend time with the combat simulator.
Not only that, but this combat system is FAST. The charts and maneuvers are daunting at first glance, to be true. However, a chart only really needs to be referenced once, maybe twice, during a combat. This actually means much less time spent overall in a combat than other systems that involve whittling down large amounts of hit points, or repeated double digit addition and subtraction.
There is some concern about how lethal the system is to player characters. In our first session, the pair of players was attacked by chain mail wearing footmen armed with long swords. There were a lot of rounds of "I slash at area VI for 5 dice" and "He parries with 5 dice" with no result in the first session. The PC's and the footmen had 11 dice each in their pools, after armor and SA's. Even if the PC's hit, the chain would usually soak up the damage. Evenly matched opponents are fairly evenly matched, it would seem. Eventually the footmen killed the PC’s, but had to throw larger 8 die attacks in order to do so.
On the other hand in the second session, when the PC’s were 21 die combat monsters on horseback with multiple SA’s firing, they were hacking down their foes with great ease. When a character is outclassed, death can come quick.
I have to say that the mounted combat itself worked out very well. I'm sure that if the PC's weren't mounted, they would have gotten killed, and the simple rules lent themselves to transparent mechanics. Though I hunger for a "horse hit location table", making do with the ones in the MRB is easy enough. Rumor has it one will be released in the “Of Beasts and Men” supplement due out in [May or june]
Multiple opponent rules slowed us down somewhat due to confusion over how to apply combat pools when split among opponents. When the Baron took out two at once using a sword and dagger Double Strike, things cleared up pretty quick. The combat system delivers death quite nicely. The multiple opponent rules are quite vicious: either you can maneuver so that only one enemy can face you at a time, or you can try to hack them all down in a frenzied whirlwind of death. Either choice is resolved quickly.
The size of the die pools for the characters initially shocked me. While mounted, one of the characters had 21 dice, and was running on 18 after getting knocked off his horse during the climactic battle in the second session. The other had 17 mounted. I think this is awesome, actually. This really brings the capabilities of many maneuver combinations to the fore.
The hit location charts are fairly complex. Certain areas can have wildly differing values for armor, esp. area IV (which covers upper arm, shoulder, neck, and chest). This is confusing to keep track of on the paper man/armor diagram on the character sheet. Some common sense and interpolation is needed from time to time in a combat.
There is no hit point mechanic in The Riddle of Steel. Damage, while very realistic, can be a bit of a pain (no pun intended) at first to keep track of, with 3 different effects: Pain, Shock and Blood Loss. Fortunately, Shock isn’t recorded (it is a simple die pool penalty that comes into effect immediately), and Pain is a simple persistent reduction of dice pools. Blood Loss is a simple roll at the start of every round, with easily resolved effects. First Aid rolls are simple to execute. Healing, of course, takes a lot of time…weeks or even months, and there is no divine healing magic.
Overall the combat system does deliver what it promises: swift, cinematic, bloody battle.
Skills:
The skill system is quite different from the combat system. You want to roll over your skill value, rather than under. This means that lower values are better, which is counter-intuitive at first.
The system itself is quite decent, if not spectacular. Simple or extended rolls take care of pretty much everything. Default values for skills ensure that players may try to use quite a number of different skills. For example, the default for Hunting is 13, which means that a player must roll over 13 with his pool. However, for someone with the Hunting skill, the skill value may be 7 or 8. Skill advancement takes place separately from Attribute of Proficiency advancement, and is dependent on using the skill in question, rather than on “levels gained”.
Skills are actually resolved by rolling stats against the value f the skill itself, with additional dice if the Seneschal decrees. Spiritual Attributes may also affect the size of the die pool.
Spiritual Attributes:
At first, when I saw Spiritual Attributes (abbreviated as SA) in the Quick Start, I thought “Bleah. Lame”. I have since changed my mind.
Actually, changing my mind was easy. Once I learned that Spiritual Attributes gave you extra dice, I thought “Wicked!” Then, when I found out that characters advance through using Spiritual Attributes, I was in love. This is a fiendishly clever way to reward players, advance characters, develop story lines as well as cause the player to think about why their characters are doing the things they do in the first place, all at once. Killing things and taking their stuff is pointless, unless the person you are killing is King Lazarus, and the thing you are taking is his crown, because he killed your brother.
In the middle of a game, one of my players looked at his fistful of dice while counting up his combat pool, then looked at me and said "I need more dice....SA's are cool!"
The SA's really helped in getting the players to visualize a character they wanted to play, and gave me great pointers on the kind of game they wanted. Essentially what they allowed us to do is for me to say: "This is the game. This is the setting i'm using. What kind of game do you want to play?" with the players saying "We want a blood soaked tale of honor, hate, destiny and revenge." We probably wouldn't have come up with this concept if we had all sat around and talked about it; it came about as a result of defining the SA's.
In addition, they are the ultimate boon to the GM. SA’s provide clear direction on what the players want to do in the game.
The players are immediately rewarded for doing things that motivate their characters. In fact, Spiritual Attributes may be spent in play for immediate effects, even in the middle of a combat.
Character Advancement:
The age old problem of making characters more powerful and skilled is simply addressed in The Riddle of Steel. In essence, it rewards the characters (and players) for doing the things they care about. Spiritual Attribute points are gained by performing these actions, and then may be spent on new Advantages, improving Attributes or Proficiencies or buying off Disadvantages. Each SA point spent gives an Insight Point, which may be cashed in for bonus priorities on your next character, should the current character die. As long as you spend at least 1 SA on your current character, the next one will have a bonus. The more you spend, the better the bonus. This allows the bereaved player to jump in right away with a new character of equivalent power to the one he lost.
Skills, on the other hand, are improved by repeated use, and it gets harder to improve skills as one gets better at them. This is a solid and reliable mechanic, if unimaginative. Then again, a skill improvement system doesn’t need to be imaginative, is only has to make sense and work. The skill system is fairly realistic, and recording advancement is simply a matter of checking a few boxes on the sheet.
By the second session of play, the players in my game were already improving their characters. The system delivers immediate, tangible results that are tailored to the character itself, rather than the abstracted, sometimes unrealistic jumps in power frequently found in games that rely on experience points.
Sorcery:
Magic is extremely powerful. It is also extremely rare. There are no clerics or wielders of divine magic in The Riddle of Steel. Sorcerers are hunted in many lands. The system is very open-ended. Basically, one decides the effect desired, then creates the spell according to the Nine Vagaries (“schools”) of magic, and then casts it using a Sorcery Pool. Magic exacts a terrible toll on its users: they age. No wonder wizards always look old. The system is a little more muddled here, and some tables are improperly referenced. Just about the only things magic cannot do is restore life to the dead and restore youth.
One problem is the sheer open-endedness of the magic system. It can be difficult and somewhat time consuming while in play to decide how your spell concept translates into Vagaries and difficulties. There are no “utility” (continual light, et al.) spells that most people would be familiar with, which is a plus in my eyes.
Even a weak sorcerer can wreak havoc. Spiritual Attributes can apply to rolls involving the Sorcery die pool, and helps ensure that players are only going to try to cast when it is important to them. This is the only thing that cvan really keep a player from wrecking a game, although if he's in the mood, ha can do so quite easily.
The World:
There are 30 nations given a half page or more of background information each in a gazetteer style manner in the world section. A brief history and summaries of the various religions are also provided. The world is based somewhat loosely on the Dark to Middle Ages with Europe, Asia and Africa all lumped together on one very large continent.
Some may not find the setting that exciting. Others, like myself, find it intriguing. There are dozens of adventure seeds in the world section, and the evocative descriptions of some of the more forbidding lands are enough to plan campaigns around. Personally, I like to see a more wide open setting where I can run loose with my imagination than one choked by “official supplements”. World wide war is looming, as one Emperor invades the northern lands, and another Empire prepares to wage holy war on the soft, decadent West. The nations caught between are involved in their own, petty squabbles, oblivious to danger. There is a lot of potential on Weyrth; one simply has to look for it a little bit.
Religions are introduced, and well developed. The ones provided are slightly analogous to ones in the real world (as is most of the rest of the setting), and will provide much adventure and strife in the game world, as most are opposed to each other.
The size of the setting also means that GM’s can drop their own setting in with little difficulty. For example, I created a fairly historically accurate version of 6th Century Anglo-Saxon England and fired it into a section on the map, where it wound up covering an area of about 2mmx2mm (about 50 miles across). The amount of potential for adventure is huge already, before I even try to expand the game into the larger world. The same concept applies to any setting that the group may want to explore. Interested in ancient Egypt? It’s there. So is gaming in an equivalent of fallen Rome. Finally, if none of the nations presented interest you, there are several blank countries that the GM may fill in at will.
If the setting doesn’t appeal to the GM, he can substitute whatever setting he wants. The game is not tied to any particular world, unlike many others systems.
Running the Game:
All the previous stuff is great, but how does the system run for someone wanting to be the GM?
In a word: Great.
Naturally, the GM should know how to apply the rules of the game, and be at least a little familiar with combat. Most of the rules are simple, requiring no mathematics whatsoever, or memorization of charts or modifiers.
The first game was really a quick scrawl on a single sheet of paper, with the events described in pretty much the order they were going to happen, and some stats. I went into the second game with 3 index cards with some notes scrawled on them, mostly events that took place in the first half hour of play, and one further event that was a ‘maybe’. I also took 3 pages from the GM screen available at http://www.theriddleofsteel.net and the hit location table pdf. In addition, as previously mentioned, I had written an 8 page setting handout for the players to ground themselves in.
The players told me what kind of game they wanted to play. Not verbally, but by defining their Spiritual Attributes. This process has enabled me to tailor the game to their desires, rather than trying to shoehorn sometimes incompatible characters together into a contrived plot (ever play with an assassin and a paladin in the same party?).
A great many games have been run with only a couple of index cards of notes for potential enemies and an event or two. The players drive the game. The players tell the GM what they are going to do in the overall world, rather than the other way around. In other words, the players say “We want to kill the King of Hrothwulf, because he killed our families” and the GM provides the events of the world. Simple, yet effective.
This may not be what players for more traditional games are used to, where the GM will provide the evening’s goal and then try to direct the players towards completing it. The potential of players sitting there and looking at each other is there, but is minimal, since SA’s will drive the players to some action other than “we look for something to kill” (a comment I’ve heard before, in many a game over the nearly 20 years I’ve gamed). In fact, the ancient concept of a dungeon crawl for the sake of killing and looting goes right out the window.
You can do a lot of prep before each session if you wish, but this game really emphasizes a more free-form approach than more traditional gaming on the part of the GM.
High Points of the Game:
The Spiritual Attribute system is the most innovative part of this game. The combat system comes a close second. Each is a wonderful mechanic taken on its own, but when combined, they make for an amazing experience. It’s not called “Blood Opera” for nothing. People will die quickly in this game, and emotions will run high, both for the players, and for their characters.
The sorcery system is strong, although it may seem fuzzy to those new to the game. However, it quickly responds to intelligent play, and really provides a new, exciting dimension to the wizard stereotype.
Potential Issues With the System:
The system needs something to determine how to get up after a knockdown. One of the players got knocked down in the first session, and there were no rules to cover standing up. We eventually resolved the situation with an Agility roll and the expenditure of a couple of CP.
Combat uses a Toughness based system, where Toughness reduces damage received. While simple, this tends to lead to “naked dwarf syndrome”, where unarmored characters with no armor are harder to injure than average characters in chain mail or even plate.
Buying initiative (a tactic involving someone trying to beat someone else to the punch) is complicated and highly variable. Probably the most complicated rule in the game.
The lack of detail on the setting will drive those who are used to seeing every village placed for them and every NPC detailed will hate the setting for its deliberate vagueness.
The only problem with Spiritual Attributes is the fact that a player can be involved in a session and not actually use any, thereby gaining no “experience” for the session. This can be a real problem unless the players collaborate and choose at least a few SA’s in common, and try to diversify their choices with something that might conceivably come up in situations other than combat.
The biggest flaw I see in the Sorcery system is the pseudo-scientific explanation given for some of the effects and Vagaries. This gives bad precedent for a lot of ongoing debates on whether or not illusionary light can actually illuminate a dark room, the potential of laser beams and genetic manipulation, as well as the infamous fireball debates.
Sorcery is almost TOO powerful, although, as mentioned, kept in check somewhat by the inherent danger of casting powerful magic.
Closing Notes:
The Riddle of Steel delivers a great game. It avoids the rut of most fantasy systems by not rehashing Tolkein for the umpteenth time, or going for all out strangeness, a la Skyrealms of Jorune. The book itself is complete enough to play the game right away. If you are looking for a beer and pretzels kind of game played one afternoon and then forgotten, then The Riddle of Steel isn’t what you are looking for. On the other hand, if what you want is player driven, intense games that ignore the formulas, then I heartily recommend you get this game.
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