After my initial read
Things I like:
I agree.
My dislikes.
1) Endurance seems way way too important in your overally survival. I can't say players going less than a 3 ever.
You're probably right but seeing as the default is 2 I don't see it being too much of an issue. Since the setting will be more condusive to socially based characters physical hardiness may not be as much of gem as in your usual adventuring type games. Of the six sample characters presented two have Endurance ratings of two. Both of them are definitely non-combatants, a septa and a magister.
2) I'm not sure if the heavy armors DR is worth the huge penalty to your defenses.
I've seen considerable debate over this and I'm still not convinced either way. I think that the numbers are
probably pretty sound. If you look at the damage rating of weapons vs. the protection value of armors heavy armor is still fairly attractive. If anything this can be viewed as rules working toward the conventions of the setting. It is implausible to be wearing the heavier armors unless you are expecting a fight. I imagine this is in place to prevent the D&Disms of every other warrior type being fully decked out whatever the situation. If worse comes to worse, and the numbers are too high, the scale is short enough that you could knock a point off and still maintain a relative balance amongst the armors.
3) The table for determines magnitudes of success aren't that intuitive.
True. But like so many rules it becomes a matter of played familiarity after a while. Roll the dice enough and you start to get a feel for the results.
All in all I have high hopes for this game. At the very least it looks to be a good system for playing heavily political games of court intrigue and land grabbing. I think if I pick it up, and I probably will, Westeros will not be my setting of choice. As much as I've loved the books I can't imagine playing in that setting. There is so much canon and implications that it would just get really messy. Most of the people I game with have read the series and I can't even envision one game that wouldn't devolve into a debate over something in the novels.
And why not even a hint of a magic system in the quick-start? Not even a hint. I know it's a super low magic setting but, c'mon, just a taster would have been nice.