The Riddle of Steel- an introduction to the game

[Trav]

Just the other night I had the chance to start running a Riddle of Steel game.  There were four of us in total, I was the seneschal.  We talked about what type of game we wanted to play and everyone decided they wanted to have tragic characters who were down on their luck.  They all decided to play non-sorcerer human characters.

When I first showed the system to them, all they could think of was rolemaster, due to all the charts and such.  They all remembered how poorly any game we ever played in with rolemaster and were very apprehensive to the game until I explained that the only similarity was the game used charts.

Most of the players were very intimidated by the system.  The night we played, I had read through the combat system a few times, and one other player had read through it as well.  The other two players had no idea what they were getting into.  All of us sat down and  decided that for the first game they would rather learn about the system and try to get a grasp on that before we really focused heavy on the story and their characters.  

We started the game off in a fairly large dukedom in Cyrinthmeir, at a harvest festival.  There were tournaments going on and the players decided to enter different sword/archery/jousting tournaments.  This gave me a great opportunity to introduce combat, maneuvers, and highlight many other interesting facets to the game.  It went fairly well, but I really wished we had more than just one book.  

The player who had read through the rules caught on quickly and had no problems with the system.  After one combat, one of the other players had grasped onto everything except maneuvers, and after a few seconds of explaining how maneuvers worked he understood it completely.( He may have caught onto it quickly because he does fence and has a better understanding of actual sword fighting).  The last player had a little bit harder time with it, but I think he understood it for the most part.  One player even got to learn about just how important luck is, as it kept him to just a broken nose instead of losing an eye.  After we played through a few combats everyone was shocked at just how simple the system was, eventhough it looked so intimidating.  

One player had to leave, but the other two wanted to keep on playing.  We started to pick up the story a bit, but still kept the focus on the system.  The two of them had determined that a family was being held hostage so that the father of the family would spread bad information to the duke.  The players decided to go and try to rescue the family from their captors.  Luckily for the players, the captors had no idea that the characters knew and they were able to get the jump on them.  Here the players got to learn the benefits of fighting with weapons with better reach, and especially the advantage to two against one.  They also got to realize just how deadly a bow and arrow can be when the target doesn't know you're there.  

After the game the two players and I sat down and talked about the game.  Everyone was really impressed with the system.  There were only two complaints.  The first was that the game was a little sluggish.  This was caused by the lack of understanding the system, and the complaint was made knowing that after playing the game a little bit more it'll pick up.  The other complaint was the possibility of high character turnover.  Which is when I explained this is exactly why you should be picky when you jump into a fight.  

Overall, the game was largely a success.

travis farber

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Trav!

This is what really jumped out at me from your post:

the other two wanted to keep on playing. We started to pick up the story a bit, but still kept the focus on the system. The two of them had determined that a family was being held hostage so that the father of the family would spread bad information to the duke. The players decided to go and try to rescue the family from their captors. Luckily for the players, the captors had no idea that the characters knew and they were able to get the jump on them.

Having the players generate the primary conflict in a TROS scenario isn't canonical - ie, it's not in the book or implied there. However, both in short-term (one-session) and extended play, I've discovered that it's certainly a successful strategy to take for this game.

I'm not suggesting that the players have GM-style control over the scenario, and certainly not that they would know everything about what's happening and why. What I'm describing is very much like what Seth ben-Ezra lays out in detail for his game Alyria, which should be available in brief form fairly soon (Se-e-eth!!), which itself is influenced by some discussions on the GO Sorcerer forum about Sorcerer & Sword. The players express interest in an area, group of people, and a conflict that brews there; then character creation or development occurs to embroil everyone in it.

[Quick clarifier: this also works with already-established characters; ie, character creation or previous gaming history can come first.]

It works exceptionally well through the medium of TROS' Spiritual Attributes, especially when players carry out a lot of dialogue when choosing them.

Sounds to me like you have the makings of an excellent game happening.

Best,
Ron

[FruitSmack!]

The game was a blast over all.  

I was very impressed with TROS.  The only potental hang up with the game I see (and mind you this isnt an issue for us, just talking in general) is that the spirtual points require the GM (and players for that matter) to really focus on the story of the charaters.  

In the game that trav ran it really wasnt a big deal because our guys wanted to participate in a local tourney (ala Knights Tale, woo hoo!).  It was a good way to learn the system, but the issue could come up that latter, after we play for a bit, if trav didnt bring up some of the PCs spritual stuff, the game would loose quite a bit.

Of course, its not really an issue 'cause trav's a great GM, even if he dosnt admit it...

Aaron