In Vagrus - The Riven Realms you play as the Vagrus of a comitatus which literary translate to „Leader of a Caravan“ in game. 

The Riven Realms are a harsh place to live in, and as you play you can dig into the lore of the world the developer came up with.
There is no overarching story in the game that takes you from the start of the game to the end of it, instead you experience more or less self-contained stories along the way to your chosen victory condition. They all contribute, some more as others, to the world building and will deepen your understanding of the in game world, though.

This means you have to read a lot! At least during your first time in the riven realms.

For me, the game is a mix between a caravan trading sim / adventure book / tactical combat RPG.

Gameplay loop is basically you making money by doing trading through tasks or by yourself or through mercenary contracts. Then you use the earned money to finance exploring and proceed with some quests.
The difficulty in this game mostly comes from not knowing what the future holds for you.
Be it related to the sweet spot of the size of the comitatus you want to keep all the time, the amount of supplies you need to take with you when you go exploring, the skills that are worth investing in and so on.
And yes, there are circumstances where a failed skill check can lead to death.
However, the game autosave every in game day and whenever you leave a settlement, so even if you do not save manually from time to time you do not lose much playtime.

If you like story rich games, give it a go!
If you do not like to read, this game is not for you!

In Vagrus - The Riven Realms you play as the Vagrus of a comitatus which literary translate to „Leader of a Caravan“ in game.  The Riven Realms are a harsh place to live in, and as you play you can dig into the lore of the world the developer came up with. There is no overarching story in the game that takes you from the start of the game to the end of it, instead you experience more or less self-contained stories along the way to your chosen victory condition. They all contribute, some more as others, to the world building and will deepen your understanding of the in game world, though. This means you have to read a lot! At least during your first time in the riven realms. For me, the game is a mix between a caravan trading sim / adventure book / tactical combat RPG. Gameplay loop is basically you making money by doing trading through tasks or by yourself or through mercenary contracts. Then you use the earned money to finance exploring and proceed with some quests. The difficulty in this game mostly comes from not knowing what the future holds for you. Be it related to the sweet spot of the size of the comitatus you want to keep all the time, the amount of supplies you need to take with you when you go exploring, the skills that are worth investing in and so on. And yes, there are circumstances where a failed skill check can lead to death. However, the game autosave every in game day and whenever you leave a settlement, so even if you do not save manually from time to time you do not lose much playtime. If you like story rich games, give it a go! If you do not like to read, this game is not for you!