Hi everybody!
Just a few weeks ago I got my own Riddle of Steel Rulebook and I think this RPG is REALLY great. But I've got some newbie questions that popped up during reading. This is one of them:

On page 20 the text says: "Also, because some weapons resemble others in use and form, ability in one weaponmay grant free points in another (allowing you to train "from defaults", elaborated upon in Book Three)."

Can this be true? This would mean that if I take an A Priority in my Proficiencies and "Greatsword" as my first Proficiency, I would be able to get the following:

Greatsword 8
Case of Rapiers 6 (default from Rapier)
Cut & Thrust 5 (default)
Dagger 7
Doppelhander 7
Mass weapon and shield 6 (default from Sword and Sield)
Pole-arms 7
Pole-axe 7
Brawling 6 (default from Dagger)
Rapier 7
Sword and Shield 7
Wrestling 6 (default from Dagger)

I think this should not and can not be!
Please explain the passage cited above to me!

Greetings,
Jadetiger

Why would that be so bad? You still have a weapon that you will fight with most of the time that you are better with than the rest.

This topic has been discussed quite extensively on these boards in the past. Suffice to say the search facility should pop up more than a few references.

Having said that however, the basis for this design choice is simple. TROS eschews game balance (OMG!) in favour of realism, especially in reference to the combat system. Now while I'm not suggesting that you should, those that number crunch are quite able to get some very interesting proficiency levels by default by strategically placing their original proficiency points. In any case I wholeheartedly support the design choice and think its refreshing. Convincing others that balance isn't the be-all of game design is another matter. People seem to have been brain washed by d20-dom and their mantra of "balance, balance, balance". Who knows. The idea behind it being that, if you had a certain level of skill in one proficiency, and that gave you a certain level of familiarity with another proficiency (default) then why would your skill go backwards as soon as you spent points on the second default proficiency? make sense?

Play with the numbers if you like, make a choice (that is after all what the game is about) and get them dice a'rollin.

Jason K.

edited: to clear up my muddlings

Ask anyone who as has trained in any kind of martial art. They will tell you the three most important things to learn are timing, distance, and technique. Once you have those skills you are can fight with any weapon. Further study of specific weapons or styles will give you a better understanding of the unique characteristics of that weapon, and do translate into an advantage in the real world and in a game, but the real important things are universal: What is the other guy doing, how do I have to move to counter it, when do I move to be where I need to be at the proper moment.

Those things don't change much.

While what everyone else said stands, one thing to remember is that the maximum default level for a proficiency is 6...so knock those 7s and 8s down.

they look kosher to me.. none of the defaults are higher than 6... and his highest trained score is 8, ok with the choice of A for proficiencies...

Also don't forget that you can't use the fancy maneuvers with a default alone. It isn't quite clear from the rules, but I suppose anything that requires a minimum proficiency level cannot be done with a default alone. So you need to spend at least one proficiency point per weapon you really want to master,

It's possible that some of those defaults are a bit off.. But then, it's also possible that you spent points to raise some of those, and didn't mention how they were spent. I'd have to check back over them when I have my book handy...

But yeah, as the others have mentioned, this is indeed the case.

Looks right to me. What you've got is a player who's said "What's really important to me, right off the bat, is that my character is really good at using weapons."

And voila, they are.

They're still going to get their head handed to them in a fight if they do something stupid or their opponent cares a lot more about it than they do.

So they can pick up just about any weapon and use it competently. Why is that bad?

James
[Edit: forgot to add my name]

Wolfen wrote: It's possible that some of those defaults are a bit off.. But then, it's also possible that you spent points to raise some of those, and didn't mention how they were spent. I'd have to check back over them when I have my book handy...

But yeah, as the others have mentioned, this is indeed the case.