RoS: The Eye of the Storm

[Clinton R. Nixon]

My group and I finished our four-part Riddle of Steel campaign last night. (The earlier sessions, in order, are here, here, and here.

In the final session, our group really let loose, moving from a cautious, one-swing-per-session mode into a full-bore blood-and-gore-soaked finale. The story so far has involved the three protagonists accidentally starting and then trying to stop a peasant revolt in the country of Farrenshire.

As the session began, they had cornered a member of the Brotherhood, an underground serf-revolt organization, and tried to interrogate him. When vinegar didn't work, they resorted to honey, leaving him relatively unharmed. (Well - stabbed in the back and conked on the noggin, but alive.)

After some time, they managed to intercept a boat bringing in weapons for the revolt, which is where the big climax hit. Two of the main antagonists were on the scene, both sorcerers, and an extended conversation took place between Chris Chinn's character, Jocelin, and Thomas, a boy-aged-to-old-man sorcerer. When the other sorcerer, Puck, an Unseelie, was roused to anger, Jocelin and Martin, another PC, were easily dispatched, with Martin being thrown 50 feet into the water, and Jocelin being blinded by a bit of Glamour 2 and cast into the hold of the ship, where they had bound a captured Gol Captain.

All hell broke loose as Savaric, the last PC, brought the guard with him. Not noticing Savaric, the two sorcerers let loose Lightning on the guards, frying them instantly. Unfortunately, this left two sorcerers with no magic left, and Savaric and Martin, after making his way back to the boat, dispatched the two with some difficulty.

Jocelin had even more difficulty being blind in the hold of a ship with an enormous Gol, but the three heroes emerged victorious and the climax was done.

Still - one last thread was left dangling as Martin's brother, the infamous and nasty Baron Duval, showed up, accusing Martin of having been behind the entire revolt. The PC's found out not long afterwards that the opposite was true as Duval attempted to assassinate the king himself since his plans had been foiled, and Martin and Duval had the most fucking tense duel I've ever seen.

Spiritual Attributes ruled the day, especially in the last duel - both combatants had combat pools of around 14, and Martin had a Destiny of 2 to take back the barony from his brother, and Duval had a Destiny of 4 to become the king. After many exchanges, Martin threw almost all his pool into a thrust at the throat, and Duval tried to counter with everything he had. Basically - whoever lost the roll died there on the spot. I don't think anyone breathed as the dice were rolled, but Martin won and the day was over, the revolt stopped, and Martin appointed the new Baron Duval.

We really enjoyed Riddle of Steel. I could definitely see running it again - or playing it, which I crave. The Spiritual Attributes are definitely the high point of the system, although the incredibly nasty combat was nice, too. We ended up with one PC with a broken arm and another with a chest full of cracked ribs.

[Jake Norwood]

Clinton-

Glad to hear that you enjoyed it. Really glad to hear. Playing is a ton of fun--more fun than GMing (Seneschalling...) I think, and I've always preferred to GM. The casualties are perfect for an end-of campaign play, IMO. The "hold your breath" effect that TROS combat has makes it hard for me to play other, older, favorite combat systems due to the loss in intensity and control. We'll be running WEG Star Wars d6 this weekend with some old friends, and we'll see how I feel about it (I used to really dig it).

I would love to hear more details about gameplay, pros, cons, and highpoints outside of simple plot lines (realizing that due to the SAs plotline is actually mechanically important).

Thanks for posting,
Jake

[Bankuei]

I think we had a great time, and really tried to push the system in many ways.  Some things we noticed:

•Almost all manuevers boil down to "More dice for me" or "Less dice for you", we spent a bit of time looking up the manuevers.  Perhaps if you look at using a base priniciple mechanic that can be applied towards the manuevers and allow players to create new manuevers using that, might make handling and search time a little less.

•Based on that, my character did quite a few "non-traditional" combat stunts, like slamming a door into someone's face, kicking a barrel at someone, knocking people over the edge of a ship, etc.  Some generic rules or advice for adjucation would be great.  It most cases, we ruled along the lines of "Spend 4 cp, ok, roll, you got it!".

•Throwing objects is remarkably slow and ineffective.  Twice were knives thrown, for minor wounds.  One would think that having a higher skill would allow one to refresh the MP pool a little faster(by way of training).  My character threw his quarterstaff at a target about 10 feet away, with the intent to trip him, again, a fail.

•It is indeed easier to improve skills at an expert level, than a beginner level.  Savaric raised several skills, simply because he would succeed three times in a row, then make his MA check.  Jocelin failed to raise even 1 skill, despite using them several times, because he couldn't make 3 successes...  Understandably his MA check would be easy, but it basically boils down to making 3 hard rolls, then 1 easy one, as opposed to 3 easy ones, and 1 hard one...

•I know Clinton had a bit of a hard time involving all of our SA's.  Perhaps if folks start out with a bit of background/premise, then develop characters based off that, it would be easier.  I'm thinking something like The Questing Beast's Accords.

Chris