stepnix | the riddle of The Riddle of Steel

friend read through Riddle of Steel, which is mostly famous for its detailed combat system, and I'm struck by how much of a historical anomaly it is

Author commentary describes it as responding to "dnd is too gamey and easy these days (00s)" which i mostly associate with OSR takes, but, Riddle of Steel is tackling that by trying for more and more detailed and realistic rules, rather than the retrocloning or simplification that OSR takes would try; and the authors and games that tended to reference it were Forge narrativists, who were neither doing Low Fantasy nor trying for HEMA realism.

I'm reminded of Shadow of the Demon Lord doing Grime Murder Hours Fantasy at a time when that was a popular OSR aesthetic, but in a grid combat way, inspired by D&D 4e. This is a departure from both the OSR stereotype and the Riddle of Steel method, but still appealing to a desire for brutal combat and dark fantasy that all three tried to claim.

moral of the story: aesthetic will betray you, you gotta talk about rules