Riddle of Steel

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Game type: RPG
Core or Supplement: Core rules and   campaign setting
Publisher: Driftwood Studios
Medium: Hardbound
Price: $ 32.95

The Riddle of Steel is a fantasy role-playing game that does what I thought was impossible. The Riddle of Steel offers a viable fantasy role playing game that can stand alongside and some places surpass the venerable Dungeons & Dragons.

Usually when I see that a company has come out with a fantasy role-playing game I've often wondered what they were thinking. This is the oldest genre of role playing games and has been completely dominated by D&D since the beginning. Most players cut their gaming teeth on D&D and while these players may eventually spread their wings for other genres like sci-fi, dark future, gothic horror and such there is usually little incentive to look further for their fantasy fix than the D&D that they already know.

Riddle of Steel however, has what it takes to break that cycle. This is truly an exceptional game. The combat mechanic, magic, character creation and game focus is original, and very appealing. In fact I was so impressed with the game as a whole that I am already converting my own fantasy role-playing world from D&D to Riddle of Steel.

Character creation is point based. You have a set amount of points that must be used to buy your race, social class, skill levels and magical ability. Characters have very definite strengths and weaknesses. This adds a much more realistic flavor to the game. Nobody in real life can do everything so characters are no different. The focus of character creation is on concept. Players have to create philosophies, quotes, and goals. It is then the game master's job to form adventures around the characters' concepts. I like this focus as it almost guarantees that the players will get the kind of situations and adventures that they were picturing in their mind's eye when they first thought up their characters.

The combat mechanic can be as simplistic or as detailed as you desire. A game master can decide to either go with traditional "I swing, you swing" combat or can opt for the game's detailed and realistic combat system which is based on weapon type and combat style that the player desires. This includes hit locations and such. You can get cut up in this game! Players should really consider their battles carefully. It also deserves mentioning that this is the only RPG that is endorsed by the Association of Renaissance Martial Arts (www.arma.org).

The magic is what I really liked though. Magic is broken up into areas of focus. This covers matter and time manipulation, illusions, mind control and reading, clairvoyance etc. This does not mean that a player has to specialize however. Using the point based character creation a player can learn as many of the areas of focus as he or she desires. Spells are created on the fly using the guidelines given at each level of expertise and then compared to how drastic an effect you want to create and what you are affecting. This then gives you a difficulty number that you have to beat. If your roll is successful, then the affect works. It can be very exciting to come up with creative ways to achieve spectacular results with as little effort as possible. The flip side of magic is that after you cast a spell you must resist aging as life is pulled from your body. The trick is that you have a set dice pull that must be used for both casing and resisting the aging affects. So an aspiring wizard needs to be careful how he throws his power around.

The Riddle of Steel also has a campaign world that comes along with it. The detail on the world covers geography, philosophy, and religions of the various nations. The world is still loose enough to let game masters run free. The system itself however, is not geared toward this world. If a game master wants to use his own world then he should be able to apply Riddle's mechanic with little trouble.

Riddle of Steel also comes with creatures to combat and NPC's to deal with. This is a stand-alone book and the creators intended it to be so. Everything that you need to start playing is right there for you. I would also like to note that this book has true table of contents and excellent index. I know many of the gamers out there are saying, "What, a usable table of contents AND an index? Impossible." It's true though.

I highly recommend this game, and I hope that players and game masters will give this game a try. You won't be disappointed and you may even find that the fantasy world does not begin and end with D&D.

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Quick Note from the GM:
While Riddle of Steel is designed to be a stand-alone rulebook, there will be supplements for it in the not-so-distant future.  Look for good things to keep coming from Driftwood