This OSR-adjacent High Medieval historical RPG is a gem. It’s pretty much all combat system, but I’d call that a feature not a bug. Stara Szkola combat runs on a small pool of d20s, called the Martial Pool, that are earned as part of character generation and advancement through the various medieval professions that stand in as classes. Every turn you have tactical decisions to make about how much energy to put toward movement, attack, and defense, all balanced against the attributes of the weapons you wield and the armour you are wearing. For a small die pool system it manages to add a wealth of interesting decision points during combat while humming along with a quick, slick base mechanic.

The system can be used as-is in the implied medieval setting, but is also ready to hack into any other game that uses the six stat and hit point framework common to many old school RPGs. I’m busy hacking in to fit into a classic fantasy type framework and possibly also a medieval monster hunting type game. I’ll give any system two big thumbs up when it inspires me to write and play.

I was a play tester, being taken through the Devil's Pass sandbox, alongside a group I regularly play a variety of games with - predominantly Call of Cthulhu. Compared to what we usually play there was a much geater emphasis on combat, and the nuances within that, but we still got to roleplay and investigate which played to our strengths as a cautious party.

Character creation was a little more in depth than I'm used to, normally random dice rolls, in this system you choose a path as you level and this dictates available skills and the price of abilities etc.. You will learn that your life path ties in to everything, and having a varied group with differing strengths was a real win for us. First time character creation was a bit slow, I had to look back and forth through the book a few times. By my second and third character I was far more confident, and had a much better grasp of how to optimise my spending. That's another aspect you will need to take to heart, you are supposed to optimise, to try and gain every advantage, and ALL the bonus dice.

The combat feels brutal, with elements of player skill and the luck of battle coming into play. Quality of armour and your weapons play a big role, so does preparation and teamwork, the use of cover and propping of ranged weapons all matter. In one fight, I grappled a guy down so that another player could finish him, one of my teammates disarmed a crossbowman and promptly shot him with his own weapon, another used a trained horse to distract a thief. Be flexible with your thinking and you will be rewarded, but maybe that's down to a good GM.

Overall, it took 9 sessions, probably totalling over 20 hours of lunatic slaughtering, and by the very skin of our teeth we survived. We definitely got to a place where the combat felt very fluid, without losing the sitauational precariousness. Having experience, and knowing your character better, things like deciding to weapon swap rather than reload the arbalest when you're short on time, will help you a great deal. I did very little damage with my normal gear as I was a poor hunter, but improvisation made up for that - apologies to those on my own team I wounded. As an archer I was constantly falling back, and when I was in melee I took an absolute beating. I scrounged better gear, spent more MP moving, and let the more "tanky" members take the brunt of the attack.

Definitely worth running with some reliable friends, with an advisory of caution - you aren't the unkillable hero, survival takes effort and a little luck.

A great system for lovers of tactical combat and historical gaming, though it could be easily implemented into any setting. The rules are very clear and readable (even for new players). The skill system will be very familiar to players of more modern-style games, though this could be handwaved for a more oldschool style of skill system. My only complaint is that there are a few issues converting other OSR monsters for use in this system and no guide to help.

EDIT: I had missed a small section of typing that answered some of my questions. On another note, the version I had downloaded and really enjoyed is no longer available (at the moment) with a much more designy (fancy fonts and lots more art) version in it's place. I personally prefer the older, cleaner looking version and would like if they put that back up as an option.