On DrivethruRPG

>on DrivethruRPG
>see game called Blade of the Iron Throne or some shit like that
>claims to be a sword and sorcery RPG meant to model stories like that of Robert Howard, Fritz Lieber, Michael Moorcock, etc.
>check out the comments to help decide whether to make a purchase or not
>full of people bickering about the realistic way to model half-swording and mordhaus techniques

Oh yeah, I remember that classic Conan moment when upon encounter an enemy in armour, he grabbed his sword by the blade and smashed his head with the pommel. Not like Conan regularly just caves in helmets with the blade by dint of sheer might alone; that would be extremely out of place for a genre as grounded in strict realism as Sword and Sorcery.

So is sword and sorcery just another term like pulp, used to signify that this game isn't D&D, regardless of whether it has shit-all to do with the genre it's supposedly emulating?

Sword & Sorcery is a broad term, and one that bubbled up from the murky cauldron of publishers and fandom at that. It's not like it's been nailed down as absolutely excluding any realism.

I would say strict autism simulation is out of character, and certainly isn't offering a game in the vein of Robert Howard, Fritz Lieber, or Michael Moorcock.

It's not like you can smash quality helmets in with the pommel anyway.

That game is weird in that it tries to use a rule system that was originally designed for super crunchy realistic combat for something that is probably better served by something more focused on individual acts of bravado and almost overwhelmingly competent characters.

And then their biggest mistake was trying to sell the game as a sequel to the older Super Combat Simulator and as Conan the RPG simultaneously.

A lot of RPG fans have a bizarre fetish for realism regardless of how inappropriate it might be in what they're applying it to or how they're doing it.

And of course the same people always have blindspots for if they like a way thing works. 'Realism' is almost always just 'I don't like this thing so it's badwrongfun'.

Is it not good? I was using it to create a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon RPG and a SoulsBourne Rpg so we'd finally have something in that regard.

It's a better realistic combat simulator than a Sword and Sorcery game. It incorporates a lot of elements that pay lip service to the genre like an okay sorcery system and a scale of civilization from barbarian to decadent city dweller, but that sort of conflicts with the very detailed weapon maneuvers and minutia in equipment. It's also a fucking d12 dice system, which is kinda fucking weird.

If you want more Sword and Sorcery, I'd look towards something like Barbarians of Lemuria or maybe the free version of Mythras. If you want realistic combat simulator, it's a totally fine and functional system. Also be sure to look at the original, which is called Riddle of Steel, and the other games that are trying to do what that game tried to do, Band of Bastards and Song of Swords. Make sure you search for Band of Bastards RPG or you'll get Italian Nazi porn.

I thought the stances, maneuvers, and combat exchange system were a good way to emulate the dynamic maneuvers of an Action-RPG system. When I read through it it seemed more cinematic.