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.