Roll and keep has a curve for certain. I found after a month or two I was reading the dice quickliy though.

The drama dice especially as reward and the ability to call raises are, in my opinion, really wonderful innovations.

Like you, I found the fake early modern Europe to be too confusing. However I did find that players without history degrees really responded to it as a fun digest form, and that really seemed to be the line of division.

As a frequent GM and sometime player I recommend to you an underrepresented character type that plays nice for gms. The master of disguise