The Riddle of Steel

There are times when I play a game I have a hard time identifying why I enjoyed it. Was it the people at the table? Was it some mechanical quality that peaked my interest? Was it that wonderful combination of both?

With some games this reflection is easy. I enjoyed one aspect of The Mountain Witch, the duel. The ritualized way in which we played it, with rolling a die in secret, then revealing it, creating a tension at the table not unlike a samurai movie. The reveal becomes the pass, where you find out whom took the fatal cut.

It is basically Rochambeau, but such a perfect version of that game, that you forget what you are doing in service of the narrative. I couldn't tell you anything else about the rest of the mechanics of the game though. Nothing else stuck.

The Riddle of Steel is a lot like that, but had a larger impact on how I think about game design. It is also deeply coupled with a friendship I developed and a hobby I have since put down, which gives it a certain kind of stickiness. It has a legacy in my design work that inevitably shows up.