First and foremost, I want to say that I'm going to continue giving the system a shot, but DAAAAAAAAANG was I unimpressed with my first session running.
Two major problems:
- Encounters felt long. Up to 18 actions per round for the GM to handle in 2 different encounters. Given how cramped the rooms were for some areas, this means up to 18 Strikes per round. Even so, these become extremely tedious encounters.
- Long combats means probability shakes out more often. 18 Strikes means you're really likely to crit with the monsters every round or pretty close to it.
What I really want to focus on, though, is how absolutely tedious these encounters felt. Sure, challenging-ish. Whatever.
I didn't enjoy running the game because the mechanics felt bogged down and, frankly, bad in larger encounters.
If the game feels bad running trivial encounters at level 1, I don't even want to imagine combats where I actually have to think at higher levels. It sounds like masochism. As an example, I'm thinking fights like Karzoug from Rise of the Runelords. That already sounds exhausting. Looking forward in Doomsday Dawn, part 5 looks horrifying. Encounters with 10+ enemies? Just...no.