Now that I have it, my thoughts.

[arxhon]

Well, I've had the mainbook for a couple of days now, and read it from cover to cover (including acknowledgements and the index).

The combat system is all i hoped it would be, and more. Kudos! 16 pages of damage tables....drooool.

Magic is a little confusing, but i'll get through that once i start mucking with it. That's mostly because of the open-endedness i think. The system for magic is great though. Really fits what i imagined magic should be like. It also explains why all wizards are old. ;)

The index is excellent! Everything you could ever hope to find is in there, including a few oddities like 'Cricket, Talking', 'Booby' and 'Pizza' (LMAO!) Congrats to whoever compiled it, they did awesome.

I really like the sense of humor that underlies a lot of the game itself...watching Geralt kack down member after member of Stefan's family was neat, and the bits in the Seneschal's section about pizza and pencils....priceless! The entry in the equipment lists: 'wolf (not happy)' made me laugh, too.

An interesting detail that i discovered: the capital of Dardanet is Earta (Jake's wife's name, that's so cute....), though the Darnadet/Otamarluk conflict seems a little odd, what with 500 miles of Taveruun in the way.

My only (minor) quibble is the armor section, mostly on Zones Protected. After the combat, character generation and all the attention paid to currency and the world guide, the paucity of detail for armor was a bit of a letdown, especially since the quickstart has a table for Zones Protected on pg 23 (though it is missing DTN's for shields) while the main book lacks this. Oh well, i'll just use the quickstart information and expand from there.  Will this be addressed in TFoB?

The world guide is well thought out, though i was having a little difficulty figuring out how Gelure invaded Farrenshire before deciding that it was a naval invasion (i recall something about the Gelurian navy occupying the bay). The treatment of religion is great. I really like how Xanar is a saint/god in one and a demon/destroyer of the world in another.

Overall, i am very impressed, and will now have to recruit/draft/gang press some people into playing it with me. That won't be hard, once i hype TROS at them.

[Valamir]

If I recall right Earta did the index...and yes Cricket, Talking is a real entry that will actually take you to the page where a talking cricket is indeed mentioned :-)

I think the paucity of armor was basically because 1) its usually pretty obvious which zone is covered, and 2) fantasy games in particular often have villains with odd armor locations (I forget which game had the guy with the HUGE helmet and 1 mailed leg with the opposite mailed arm)

[arxhon]

Yeah, i saw that entry, and checked up on what a talking cricket was about...:-)

Well, i was more concerned about hashing out what a shoulder or knee cop would cover, and whether a chain shirt would cover area VI. Personally i think a shirt would cover area VI for 2 reasons: a)everyone i know who is going to play is going to try to 'stab him! right in the balls! yeah!' to much childish glee (hell, i laugh at the idea myself), and b) a chainmail speedo would seem a little wierd.

I guess i don't want to interpolate a price for a set of greaves or plated boots. I know someone is going to ask me how much something is, and what does it cover. I'm lazy....

The fact that the QuickStart had locations, while the main book did not is my real gripe. It's no trouble extrapolating.

[Shadeling]

Yeah, i saw that entry, and checked up on what a talking cricket was about...:-)

Well, i was more concerned about hashing out what a shoulder or knee cop would cover, and whether a chain shirt would cover area VI. Personally i think a shirt would cover area VI for 2 reasons: a)everyone i know who is going to play is going to try to 'stab him! right in the balls! yeah!' to much childish glee (hell, i laugh at the idea myself), and b) a chainmail speedo would seem a little wierd.

I guess i don't want to interpolate a price for a set of greaves or plated boots. I know someone is going to ask me how much something is, and what does it cover. I'm lazy....

The fact that the QuickStart had locations, while the main book did not is my real gripe. It's no trouble extrapolating.

In regards to the chain shirt, they usually go below the waist line, but don't necessarily cover the groin. If a character is wearing a chain shirt, have him also wear leather breeches or something like that.

[Michael Tree]

Would a chain hauberk (a chain shirt extending to just above the knees, or so) be considered to be a chain shirt in the rules?

[arxhon]

Well, i would figure that a hauberk would cover lower legs and areas around there. That, at least, is fairly simple. Cost wise, i have no idea, and for CP mods, say....-1?

See, this is the thing. It looks like we're going to have to play fast and loose with the armor for the time being. Not that this is really a terrible thing, it just means we have to get somewhat creative with the armor.

[Shadeling]

Well, i would figure that a hauberk would cover lower legs and areas around there. That, at least, is fairly simple. Cost wise, i have no idea, and for CP mods, say....-1?

See, this is the thing. It looks like we're going to have to play fast and loose with the armor for the time being. Not that this is really a terrible thing, it just means we have to get somewhat creative with the armor.

See, then you have a problem, what about when someone does an Vertical Swing upward? The can hit the inner thigh, groin, and so on.  A chain hauberk is not going to actually protect all of that, as it is not fastened over that area.

[arxhon]

And so it begins....

...an interminable arguement about what armor will and will not cover. This is the kind of thing i was hoping to avoid, both with my players and on this forum.

[Valamir]

I agree Arx.  Discussions like that triggers my "why in the world does that distinction possibly matter" response.

[Mike Holmes]

I think that what Arx and Val are trying to say is that the GM should just make arbitrary adjudications. Is it more fun for the upward swing to get caught on the taught chain shirt bottom saving the character barely, or is it more interesting to have the mook get his jewels broke. TROS is not about winning by having better armor coverage. Players and GMs both should be satisfied with any plausible answer.

If a player is concerned, play out a realistic scene of trying on the armor, etc, and decide then what it covers and what it does not. Every suit is unique. If the player doesn't like the coverage, he's free to have the character look for another, or haggle for a better price or whatever. This ambiguity is room for creativity, not a constraint.

Mike

[Jake Norwood]

Here, here, Mike. Amen.

Earta is Albanian for "the golden one," and Dardanet is Weyrth-Albania. (Oh, and yes, Earta--my wife--is Albanian.) That's also why the Marluk-Dardanet conflict is so important. Unfortunately when Taveruun was written (it was Rick's) I forgot to specify that it needed to connect the conflict between Marluk and Dardanet, and the Editor missed it, too. Oh well.

So glad to hear about the book.

The approach to armor was to solve the hauberk problem, actually...and should be handled just as Mike described.

Jake