Solving The Riddle of Steel

[SWBaxter]

So what is it? Just more deadly combat bolted onto D&D?

Nope, it's a separate game. The basic mechanic is dice pools - you roll a bunch of dice, and every one that's over a given target number gives you a success. The number of successes you get determines whether you succeed or fail, and by what margin.

TROS' combat system is really interesting in two respects; the first is that it's very deadly, and appears to be pretty realistic without being hugely complicated. The second is that skill at using the combat rules is actually a fairly major factor in determining who wins. Out-thinking your opponent is a critical part of surviving fights, which is pretty neat IMHO.

The magic system isn't mechanically complicated, but it is very freeform and spellcasters can be very powerful. There isn't really any pretense of balance - a spellcaster who's willing to pay the price can accomplish some pretty fantastic effects, the only balance to his power is whether it's worthwhile shortening his lifespan to do so. That's the price of magic, it ages you prematurely; the tradeoff wouldn't make much sense in a standard D&D setting, but it works well in TROS because character goals and motivations are an intrinsic part of the advancement mechanics.

Others have covered those advancement mechanics pretty well.

The final really interesting thing about TROS, IMHO, is the campaign world. It's one of the better Earth-inspired settings, and I really wish they'd published it in a full book of its own. Particularly good, IMHO, are the various religions, which are close enough to real world religions to be recognizable but sufficiently different that players can separate their own beliefs from their characters'.

It's not a good game for a kills-things-and-take-their-stuff playstyle. But in its niche - character-driven crossed with grim-n-gritty buttkicking - it's a darn good game, IMHO. Lots of good stuff at the website, too:

http://www.theriddleofsteel.net/

 

[yangnome]

The fact that it isn't D&D is what attracts me to it for this game/setting I am using. Not that I am opposed to D&D, but it was very difficult to adapt to the game I was running. The PCs in my game were all prisoners inside a prison (most of them were political prisoners). The game spanned from level 1-6. A lot of the game focused on character challenges for the characters (moral decisions, etc.) Most non-roleplay encounters were one on one fights, using no weapons or improvised weapons. It was level 3 before the players saw their first copper pieces. It worked in the end, but I think TRoS sounds much better suited to fit the style game I was trying to achieve.

 

[Morte]

A lot of the game focused on character challenges for the characters (moral decisions, etc.)

TRoS could serve you well, if you want your occasional fights to use crunchy tactical mechanics that favour players who grok the system.

Another good system for capturing personalitiy/morality/loyalty and general character schtick is FATE (review here), which is as abstract as TRoS is crunchy. This gives your PCs "aspects" -- phrases loosely describing them as an author would see them -- and grants the players some control over the dice or the narrative when their aspects are relevant. Thus it recreates the way fiction works (e.g. a prison drama) rather than reality (e.g. a prison).

I figure one or the other would suit you pretty well, according to how much crunch you want. Example: TRoS tends to tell you exactly which tendon got severed by a weapon slash, and you'll get different results for swords and halberds. FATE tells you you got an "Injured" on your wound track which means you're at -1 until you sort it out, but the specifics could refer to anything from a severed tendon in combat to losing a point-of-law in a courtroom drama.

 

[Zoatebix]

I'd never heard of FATE before. Thank you. I was thinking when I read your description that "aspects" sounded a lot like Fudge, and lo and behold when I followed the link, I discover that's what FATE is based on. Cool stuff. Especially since it's released under the OGL and his its own SRD. The little gears up in my head are turning up a storm.

Edit: I definately need to do a lot more reading, though...