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Now that I have run a few games. I would like to point a few things out. I did not use the Rider profession. This was due to my lack of knowledge of the rules for mounted combat at this time.
 
Most played Kin.
Dwarf, Elf, Orc
Least played races.
Halfling: Mainly due to very weak race trait compared to others.
Over all the Halfling, and to a lesser extent Wolfkin. Need a boost to their Kin talent to be on par with the others.
 
Most played professions.
Fighter: Mainly due to amount of starting equipment.
Ranger: Mainly due to skill set and traits.
Least played professions.
Druid, Spellbinder, Peddler: I think this is more to do with my players then the classes.
Over all the profession did not make a big impact on game play. The exception to this is stating equipment for fighters is such that almost all of my players for one game where fighters, with one ranger. This game was the second one being played by most of the players.
 
Skills: Of the skills some are far more important. The critical skills my players came up with are as follows. Crafting, Scouting, Survival, and Healing. By far they felt the need to make sure multiple characters in the group could do them. All other skills was a mixed bag of how useful they where.
 
Talents: This will be limited by professions played in games I have run.
Druid: Only one player. Player felt the path of healing was a defeatist path. Due to needing to take damage to heal damage on a one for one bases. He would not use it ever. He did go Path of the Sight but felt Path of Shifting Shapes was good as well.
Fighter: All players went The Path of the Blade.
Ranger: Most felt the Path of the Beast was a waste of time. Path of the Arrow was very popular, followed by Path of the Forest.
Minstrel: Only one player he chose Path of the Warcry.
Peddler: No players.
Riders: No players (see above)
Rogues: Players had a tough time choosing and felt all the talents where good.
Spellbinder: No players.
 
Combat & Misery
I tried to worn my players about how deadly this game would be. However every time a new player came in. Their first response is OMG this is bad, this is really bad.
Most players did like the using of cards for initiative.
Most players loved the simplified ranges for combat. Along with the lack of a tactical battle map.
Universally no player ever used dodge after they found out you are prone after.
They did come to see needing a shield or to have a parry weapon. After the first game I just used “You can parry with any weapon you just don’t get the gear modifier”.  This fixed a lot of problems after the first game.
 
Over all we had a blast playing the game. Every one enjoyed it enough they agreed they would play it again.
 

Thanks for sharing! How do you feel about the different Talents and their balance? I felt like the Talents that give you additional actions in combat (Defender for instance) seemed extremely useful.

Thanks for sharing!

I think the unbalanced starting equipment is an issue that needs addressing, as I can see this being the case with many groups (lots of players choosing Fighter simply for the starting gear). It's a deadly game, after all, and gear is pretty important.

Good houserule about Parry. I feel this may be better than my suggestion of a -2 penalty if it didn't have the Parry trait.

As for Dodge, I really can't blame the players for not ever using it, hopefully this will get some love and attention in the next draft of the rules.

Defender and its similar talents are very good. But not so good players automatically chose them over others. Their is one exception after the first few games. Every one playing a ranger got Fast Shooter. Fast shooter is such a game changer for archery that it's almost a requirement to have level one.

I think the unbalanced starting equipment is an issue that needs addressing, as I can see this being the case with many groups (lots of players choosing Fighter simply for the starting gear). It's a deadly game, after all, and gear is pretty important.

Who in their right mind would choose profession by what gear they have? Gear is interchangeable, profession talents are not. Just sayin'.

Defender and its similar talents are very good. But not so good players automatically chose them over others. Their is one exception after the first few games. Every one playing a ranger got Fast Shooter. Fast shooter is such a game changer for archery that it's almost a requirement to have level one.

True that. When I playtested, I had a ranger who was caught with a boss in melee from the start of the combat. Seeing how bad he was in melee and how good he was with a bow, he asked me if he could shoot instead. I had to answer "Well, you have your melee weapon out, so first you need an action to take out your bow. Then you'll need an action to move away if you don't want a -3 penalty for shooting in melee. Then you'll have to use an action to ready your bow. And then you can shoot if you're still alive at that point". I know it was realistic, but clearly it was also frustrating.

Who in their right mind would choose profession by what gear they have? Gear is interchangeable, profession talents are not. Just sayin'.

Yep, sounds ridiculous, but surprisingly enough, in low fantasy games I find this to be the case with some players. Seems to be Calagnar's experience here, too.

I do tend to run campaigns which are short in duration (10-15 sessions) where money is hard to come by, so it could just be a couple of players' reactions to that.

Nice report, thanks for that!

I think the unbalanced starting equipment is an issue that needs addressing, as I can see this being the case with many groups (lots of players choosing Fighter simply for the starting gear). It's a deadly game, after all, and gear is pretty important.

Who in their right mind would choose profession by what gear they have? Gear is interchangeable, profession talents are not. Just sayin'.

Yes gear is interchangeable. However every class gets a trait so their interchangeable as well, and anyone can put a point in any skill. What makes a character is their ability scores. From their you can do any kind of character using any profession. You just don't have the special talents to use will power to make it simpler to do. So when you brake down the mechanics of the game it dose make sense to start with the most equipment possible.

I think the unbalanced starting equipment is an issue that needs addressing, as I can see this being the case with many groups (lots of players choosing Fighter simply for the starting gear). It's a deadly game, after all, and gear is pretty important.

Who in their right mind would choose profession by what gear they have? Gear is interchangeable, profession talents are not. Just sayin'.

Yes gear is interchangeable. However every class gets a trait so their interchangeable as well, and anyone can put a point in any skill. What makes a character is their ability scores. From their you can do any kind of character using any profession. You just don't have the special talents to use will power to make it simpler to do. So when you brake down the mechanics of the game it dose make sense to start with the most equipment possible.

I don't agree. Do you honestly claim that you or one of your players would roll a fighter just for the gear even if what you/they really wanted to play was a sorcerer? I really can't see gear making up for missing out on magic. Even if the choice was between fighter and ranger I'd have a hard time justifying choosing the fighter over the ranger "because of better starting lewtz", if only for the fact that it would feel as if I was missing out on being a "true" ranger. Different strokes, I guess.