I’m okay with the wealth system just because as a player, I can start off being the rich money bags I always strive to be in games. I enjoy being the Tony stark or Bruce Wayne of the group.

However, I have yet to find one director who fully understands how wealth works. They are always trying to charge me for everything and bring my wealth to 0 and I have to explain to them that’s not how wealth works.

I normally wouldn’t care, but during character creation, I’m making an active decision to weaken parts of my character to gain extra wealth when I could be mechanically combat stronger. So if they don’t play RAW for wealth, then I made those decisions for nothing and now I’m nerfed.

Anyone else experiencing this?

Hello everyone! I've finally returned to my series of written class analysis guides after a bout of issues with my PC setup and a nasty cough, which has made getting my thoughts on the Talent collated much harder than normal.

The Talent has many unique abilities that are interesting to compare, with the Strained mechanic especially making this guide have a lot of cross referencing done with how abilities interact with other game mechanics such as condition immunities from Ancestries.

The biggest rules mechanic that I want to draw attention to for the Talent is "End of Next Turn" effects. A creature that gains an EoT condition during their own turn will only suffer from it until the end of the current turn.

This makes some Strained costs less punishing than they appear, while also making things like the Entropy Ward far less effective at what they're trying to do, so it's important to look out for.

Overall I really like the Talent for having many viable and varied signature abilities, and most of their Clarity costing abilities are also made very interesting by the unique Strained effects.

Previous Guides

Censor
Conduit
Elementalist
Fury
Null
Shadow
Tactician

I notice that in the Crack the Sun part 1 preview, it is repeatedly stated retainers do not count as heroes for the purposes of encounter-building.

What do you think of this new rule? I think it makes retainers a little too strong and must-have, since they are an extra body and an extra set of turns and strikes.

MCDM Patrons now have access to playtest Crack the Sun Act 1! Feedback survey closes on July 22nd

Seems to me like the Summoner (and to a lesser extent the Beastheart) might be a lot of fun for a PC in a duet style game.

I’m curious about opinions/experience on how different classes interact with Duet style play. Like could a Tactician work at all? Is a Censor disadvantaged because generally they’re more focused on locking down a single target? Is the Void Elementalist no longer the best subclass?

Does anyone have quick tips to convert stat blocks from 5e to DS?

I want to add modules from Candlekeep to one of my Draw Steel sessions; while some things have a near 1 to 1 replacement others would involve basically creating brand new monsters.

I'm hoping there's a way to shortcut conversions from CR to EV, HP to Stamina, DC checks etc.

I've started running DT and we just finished part 1. I've been reading the adventure between the sessions and was very impressed with how it's written and how easy it is to run.

The truth is, this is my first premade adventure, as I avoid them because they sometimes get a bad rep or they (supposedly) require so much reading and adapting that it's easier to write your own thing from scrath.

And I wanted to ask: how does it compare to other premade adventures quality-wise and how easy it is to read and run (be it for D&D, PF1/2, Lancer or else)?

Edit: Thank everyone for replies! Happy to see a lot of reviews and personal experience. I guess I got really lucky with MCDM ;)

In terms of rounds, not real-world time.

I've played through Road to Broadhurst and The Delian Tomb, with other players and also solo, and it feels like combat goes by too quickly. In the solo game (I don't have detailed notes for the group games, running it takes enough time) I recorded 5 encounters ending on round 1, 11 on round 2, and 4 on round 3. Checking the events of the final rounds, I noted 11 having 'actually' ended on round 1, the same on round 2, and 1 on round 3 - 'actually' ended meaning a substantial number of actions were taken on those turns, rather than just one or two to mop up defeated enemies.

Does this track with general experiences? It feels too quick to me - I'd prefer a 2 - 4 or 3 - 5 range - and it makes classes with heavily frontloaded HR gain, like the Conduit, much more powerful compared to classes like the Elementalist where part of their gain comes in the form of effective discounts for repeated use. Behold The Mystery is a pretty bad way to spend 3 Essence if you're only going to get 1 additional use, maybe.

I’m usually the Director, so I was excited when a player asked to run this for the Group. It gave me a chance to see Dark Heart of the Wood from the player side, I also read through it afterwards.

The threxyls are fun! The stat blocks are solid and fit the theme well.

The combat encounters are also well designed, with a nice mix of brute force and clever solutions. For example, there’s a fight in an overgrown chapel where an ambusher uses darkness and low visibility to their advantage.

Opening the windows, removing that darkness, completely shifts the encounter and levels the playing field. I like this kind of design a lot, encounters where players can either push through or try to find smarter solutions, without being forced into one approach.

Overall, the group had a good time with it.

However, I don’t think it’s as easy to run as it should be, and that’s an issue.

1 - Crucial information is implied, not stated

There are several places where it feels like the writer assumes the Director will just fill in the gaps. In practice, that means extra prep.

For example, the adventure says the village has no food left, so players can’t take a Respite unless they brought supplies. But supplies aren’t tracked in Draw Steel, so this reads more like a vague way of saying “no resting during the adventure” without actually stating it clearly.

The biggest issue is the final fight.

The map has strong verticality that clearly gives the dragon an advantage. There are teleporters leading to a corrupted source of Green that can be cleansed, forcing the dragon down for a final stand.

That seems like the intended structure, but it’s never actually stated. The adventure just presents the map elements, the teleporters, the well, and the dragon, and leaves the Director to assemble how it all connects.

That’s a lot of interpretation for a climactic encounter.

2 - The structure is more restrictive than it needs to be

At one point, progression is explicitly blocked unless players complete all prior scenes and retrieve a specific item.

I’ve run plenty of linear adventures, so structure itself isn’t the problem. The issue is that these mandatory scenes mostly function as lore delivery, not meaningful decision points.

It feels like the same structure could work without forcing every step, and the information could just as easily be delivered organically or in a post-adventure debrief.

As written, it adds rigidity without adding much gameplay value.

Verdict

The production quality is what you’d expect from an MCDM product, and there’s a good adventure in here.

But I don’t think it’s a $20 “run it out of the box” one-shot. I’d happily pay that if I could drop it on the table and go. But as written, it requires enough interpretation and reconstruction that it stops being plug-and-play.

At that point, the price is hard to justify.

Another month has passed and Goblin Panel is coming back: Tuesday 6th, 10PM GMT!

We're talking Crows RPG, Ironsworn, the Red Road adventure and more.

Hi, sorry if this is a silly question I'm quite new to draw steel but do antihero tokens either,

- Reset each session like hero tokens or,

- Carry over with the amount the character has each session.

I have a feeling it may be the latter but I am unsure,

also if they do reset each session how would this interact with the non-reseting hero tokens rule, would that rule just sort of make the complications benefit redundant?

hey folks!

we’re playing our first session next week. one of my players got a 1st echelon trinket (Flameshade Gloves) during the character creation process, and that really attracted the eye of one of my other players.

they’re playing a Revenant (and are stoked about it) and they were looking at titles, saying that “Presumed Dead” might be one that they already have. i said i don’t see why not, and gave them the title. comes with a first echelon trinket so i gave them a Divine Vine.
Another player asked about the Mage Hunter title, but i ruled that that particular one sounded like it should be obtained through gameplay, however i said he could have a first echelon trinket since the other two got one. i cannot remember if he picked one or not but let’s assume he did (this was all last night’s session 0).

i dont want to trivialize titles or trinkets, so before we play for real next week, a couple questions:

1. is this going to completely break the balancing of first level? titles are typically earned through gameplay i know, but it would fit their specific backstory.
2. also, there’s 3 players in the party, so are trinkets a terrible idea or does it make sense? was gonna give them a follower right away anyway.

thanks for reading my question, looking forward to hearing your advice.

Curious if anyone else has run into this.

Player in my current group, game has been amazing, but the previous session, we all (including Director) noticed a slight issue with the direct way consequences on tests can be treated.

Very tense situation, all Heroes are down to 2-1 recoveries, but we want to press on with our 5 victories. Director loves it. As we are trying to find any advantage we can, many Heroes want to make tests to: See if we can hear how many foes there are, see if we can stealthily open the ritual chamber's door to count the victims, check to see if a particular victim is present, etc.

After the first Hero was prompted to roll and got a tier 2 on a Medium test, the consequence was that the director gained 2 malice. We all realized that oh wait...we shouldn't risk the malice gain for the upcoming encounter as it could very well mean the life of a Hero. So it felt kind of bad that we were incentivized to NOT try anything creative with anything that might prompt a test. Not saying the Director was even wrong to choose this consequence, it felt very thematic in the danger the Heroes are facing, but it definitely stopped all attempts to make tests.

So the question is: Should the Malice-gain consequence be used sparingly by the director? Should it be avoided once the heroes are below a certain amount of recoveries? I've heard the "Hero loses a recovery" consequence feels even worse, but in some situations it definitely feels like the Malice gain consequence might prompt counterproductive play.

EDIT: It was a tier 2 on a Medium test, not tier 1. I believe it was to sneak to the door, which was successful but then the Director gained 2 Malice. Some of the comments do have me inclined to agree, this is just the risk in trying to make a test. It just felt like a lot of Malice piling on following a group test to sneak into the location before all of this. That group test had a lot of tier 2 results on Medium Agility tests.

I've seen posts and comments here seeking and giving advice about how to help new players get into Draw Steel when they might not totally get it at first. It would be great to gather those insights here!

And to be clear, you can check my history, I'm always the guy who promotes transparency. Heck, i showed every single monster's stamina in my game. I sometimes even showcase monster abilities before combat. I'm all for transparency and showcasing what is happening behind the screen to the player in terms of mechanics.

Which is why it's so weird to me that, running negotiations without letting the player know a negotiation is happening, is kinda, fun? Way more fun than I normally would for giving hidden numbers into RP. And my player is also having fun.

Basically, i usually run my game like this. "Alright everyone, we're entering negotiation. Here are the stats."

But when I don't do that, I just mentally note, write it in a note somehwere, or even just have it in the vtt that stats and motivations and pitfalls, my players suddenly just, be a GREAT negotiator(???) they don't even know it's happening and they're crushing the rp. They asked the npc about what they want very naturally, they express themselves well, they formed their argument as if it was a part of the conversation and it felt very cool. Even more amazingly, the player who has never enter a negotiation for the freight and fear of rolling low because "boo hoo i have a -1 on presence I can't join this session y'all have fun" now just, naturally engage in the conversation.

You know what's more amazing? Given, my players are GREAT roleplayer. They can put themselves as their character, like stat. On demand. Borderline a switch-on button is being clicked somewhere on their brain. Maybe because we do a lot of character work in character creation? Maybe it's because we care about our heroes motivation? Maybe because i let them know that this thing is important to know and to declare to me? Idk. But, it's fucking great seeing them making conversation. And i just, ask for a persuasion roll sometimes. Or even just give them an auto success if it's a good argument. Tell them "they're getting impatient", and other things like that. And the conversation flows much more smoothly.

Why is that? Is it just, objectively better? Have y'all tried doing something similar? Or perhaps even, you've been running it this way and you're not even aware that the other side of very methodical, mechanical, and meticulous negotiation exist?

I feel like I'm finding diamond in a pit that is already full of gold, you get what i mean?

After reading over the beast heart and summoner I am wondering if there is any chance to get a subclass or class centered around fighting with clones of oneself.

The pet mechanic is cool, so is the minion mechanic, but neither class has abilities that can be flavored as clones oneself reasonably. The null has some abilities that imply moving so fast there seems to be more than one of him, but there is no actual mechanic beyond that flavor.

I know it's a very niche idea, but the game seems very magical in nature, so I think it might work. What would it take for something like this to be made? Is there already a way to play this fantasy that I am missing?