History TabletopGame / TheRiddleOfSteel

* AnAxeToGrind: Hatchets, battle axes, kern axes, bhuj axes, take your pick.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Modified Tools [[CaptainObvious allows one to use improvised farm tools as weapons.]] Escrima can also be used for this.

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-->'''What is the Riddle of Steel?'''
-->It is invincibility--to strike with all and to be struck by none.
-->It is understanding--to ask questions and to know the answers.
-->It is peace--to walk without fear, to know that the end is in your own hands.
-->It is skill--to feel the elegance found in violence, and to know the beauty found in stillness.
-->It is Spirit--To gaze into the face of your God and to know him before he comes for you.

''The Riddle of Steel'' is a d10 tabletop role-playing game published in 2002 by the now defunct Driftwood Publishing. The system is set in a LowFantasy equivalent of Earth called Weyrth and prides itself on historical accuracy and a realistic combat system.

!!''The Riddle of Steel'' provides examples of:

** With the Flower of Battle supplement, it is entirely possible to run ''DeadliestWarrior'' style duels between almost any two kinds of fighters from any period in history stretching back to Roman times and coming as far forward as the early 19th century.

* CastFromHitPoints: Magic-users pay an extremely heavy price for their gift. Using magic can take literally years off your life in a single spell.

The designer, Jake Norwood, was a senior Free Scholar in the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts and is the current president of the Historical European Martial Arts Alliance. As such, there is a corresponding increase in the level of historical accuracy when ''The Riddle of Steel'' is compared to other systems, such as ''DungeonsAndDragons'' or ''{{GURPS}}''.

* GroinAttack: Thrust to Zone X, or upward swing to Zone VI. Both usually result in simultaneous HighOctaneNightmareFuel and a CrowningMomentOfFunny.

* OneHitKO: Oh yes, it happens. It can even be taken BeyondTheImpossible at times--a level 5 wound is often immediate fatality regardless of the source of damage. With a large enough degree of success, it is entirely possible to reduce a man's face to LudicrousGibs with your ''fist''.

* GameBreaker: Several.
** The Accuracy and Careful gifts allow one to place his strikes at less heavily armoured parts of the opponent's body/more heavily armoured parts of the body, or even [[ImplausibleFencingPowers stab people in the groin through plate armour]].
** The progressive schools of swordsmanship allow students to roll against a target number of 7 for Duck and Weave, a maneuver that normally requires a target number of 9. This maneuver allows the defender to reduce an attacker's CP for every margin of success the defender wins by.
** Magic. Broken on purpose. A level 3 movement spell (target number 8) is capable of instantly accelerating up to 2,000 pounds of material to lightspeed. Suffice to say, there is no defense.
** Dedicated grapplers in heavy armor are even more dangerous here than in ''{{Exalted}}''. The advantage for massively outweighing your grabbed opponent is nearly impossible for anyone not VERY well built for grappling to overcome.

* DualWielding: The proficiencies "Case of Rapiers" and "Kenjutsu: Dai-sho".

** And is pretty much useless against any sort of armor better than leather. Its cutting attacks, however, are given the best possible TN one can roll against (5), and the attendant Kenjutsu proficiency has the terrifyingly awesome Evasive Attack maneuver. It generally balances out to being a reasonably solid weapon against anybody not wholly decked out scalp to toes in metal armor.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Modified Tools [[CaptainObvious allows one to use improvised farm tools as weapons.]]

* ImprovisedWeapon: Kenjutsu allows one to use improvised farm tools as weapons.

** The Bastard Sword, however, is quite possibly the single best all-purpose weapon one can take. Straight sixes for TNs, strong thrusting damage, Long reach, armor piercing, and uses the most generally versatile proficiency in the game.