Thoughts on the In A Wicked Age RPG

I first ran this a year or two ago for a small group of friends.  The players all liked it - I wasn't so sure.

The other day I got a chance to try to again.  It suited perfectly the fact that I had no time to prepare.  It was satisfactorily story-rich, allowing us to weave an interesting (to us) tale of a boy, a ring, magic and a prophecy, all played out in modern-day London.  However, there were a couple of things that didn't ring true for me:

1.  Because characters and Particular Strengths are created by the group, everything in the story is transparent.  I don't like this because it means I can't hold back surprises for the players, and my group enjoy them.  (In this session I fudged it and kept some Particular Strengths secret until I wanted them to explode into an appropriate scene.)
2.  The dice mechanics are hard and unintuitive.  For example, remembering what round we were in during a conflict was tricky - I'm sure we got it wrong at times - as was working out who was answering who in challenges involving three or four characters.
3.  Negotiating the outcome of a conflict just didn't appeal to us.  I don't quite understand what sort of group does get off on this - it just held up the game in a way that seemed jarring to us.

I love the Oracles, the quick-play possibilities and the idea behind the escalating rolls in a conflict.  But the things I've outlined above make me think I probably won't play it again.