Have you played The Riddle of Steel? Of course you haven't, you only play d&d, space d&d and d&d clones.The Riddle of Steel is STILL the absolute greatest TTRPG system ever created and you're wasting your time in this hobby every moment you don't play it. There has been several attempts to replicate the majesty of design in this book since its release and all have failed.Do yourself and your group a favor and download The Riddle of Steel pdf.
>>96720541But I have and that's why I played some of it's successors
what so good about it?
>>96720619Not OP, but the main draw of Riddle and it's successors is the combat system and the narrative ties each character has to the world. In Riddle that takes the form of "Spiritual attributes" which have mechanical effects of adding dice to tests with a relevant drive and also are your means of advancing your character instead of a raw XP value.The combat is some of the best in the medium, but the games have been grappling with the same handful of problems since Riddle's inception ~30 years ago.
>>96720619Also not OP, but its combat system is superbly good for one-on-one duels using late medieval long swords. That's because it was design by guys who sparred IRL using late medieval longswords. It is pretty good with other melee weapons, shit for ranged weapons, and lol-tier for everything else. House-ruling is key.t. someone who owns three of the books and has played it for years.
>>96720541give a thorough and nuanced argument why this game is better than harnmaster 1e
>>96720541I ran it years ago but ran into the wall of trying to teach my crunch allergic players its rules admittedly I probably didn't do a very good job and haven't bothered to run it since. I should really find another group for it but I haven't been bothered to put in the effort
>>96720619Character creation and progression are tied to clear motivations and the game world by spiritual attributes.Combat is descriptive, tactical and dangerous. Players generally want to avoid fighting or risk death.Fantasy races actually feel different. Dwarves are tough as hell and the fey are magical.Skills get better with practice. The more you do something the better you get at it.
>>96720541Oh yeah? What's the core gameplay loop?
>it's a dice poolFuck off.
other conan based systems?
How do the spiritual successors compare? Anyone played them? Song of Swords, Blades of the Iron Throne, etc.
>>96729282I've played Song of Swords the most personally, out of all it's successors it's the one that's closest that isn't made by the same guy. But it's got it's share of flaws that require some homebrewing to smooth out the quirks and kinks.Blade of the Iron Throne is made by one of the original Riddle authors to my understanding, so it's gonna play the closest. At least from what I've read.Sword and Scoundrel and Band of Bastards are a more rules lite approach with less focus on the HEMA combat. I have the books but haven't really read through them since it doesn't interest me as much. It's got some neat ideas, like building your own weapons.
>>96720687That sounds incredibly fucking boring and poorly designed.
>>96732106You sound like a fag and your shit's all retarded. It's actually great. Combat against multiple opponents is generally suicide and so is charging against ranged weapons. Granted, the system doesn't handle mass combat very well, but most systems don't.
>>96720541How well does this system handle fighting monsters and other non human creatures? Asking cause I want to run a game in this system where players are exploring a strange land with monsters and the like.
>>96734833Reasonably well, Riddle itself even has an expansion that covers fighting monsters like gargoyles and dragons or even mundane things like dogs and horses. The system (and it's successors) are actually pretty good at handling non-humans, they just struggle with mass combats like 4 players vs 15 brigands.
>>96732636Again, that sounds incredibly boring and poorly designed.>Range is shit>except if it's the NPCs>You have to do 1v1s while the rest of the party sits there with their thumbs up their asses doing fucking nothingThat's the worst possible way you could handle TTRPG combat. They are COOPERATIVE games. Only a selfish, narcissistic sociopath could enjoy a game where they're the only one who gets any spotlight.
