I love the Negotiation mechanics in this game. I think it adds more to roleplaying than just a roll and success or fail. And I want to implement this system into some other games, maybe even expand upon it.

But I have a question about the current list of motivations and pitfalls. Do you think the twelve listed can adequately accommodate most character values a PC or NPC might have?

Do you think there could be other values that could be considered Motivations or Pitfalls that could be used as well?

One of my players wants to play him, but I can't figure out his class:
Thought Void Elementalist, but as I understand it, he doesn't like using magic

Censor, becuase fighting against evil
Shadow, do to low magic class and edgy

Before anything else, let me be plain clear that this is no blame towards MCDM or anyone else crowdfunding djordices. Love the game myself and I`m happy to see the comunity grow.

That being said, with the recent launch of the Crows' crowdfunding, that I was really hoping I could join it. But again, when prices get converted from USD to BRL, and considering import taxes and everythin, prices become prohibitive for mostly everyone around here. I myself do not want to spend about 4k+ BRL at a single TTRPG product.

So it got me thinking (and that is the real intent on the post), how large is Draw Steel (+ Crows now) brazilian community, and how many people would be interested in see at least this kind of dice available through national sources? Or it already exhists, and I never saw it?

I want to share a story of how it took a half hour to figure out how to open a door.

The party arrives at a great stone door with a circle carved in its face. A hole lies in its center. There are two sticks laying on the ground, one stick roughly the radius of the circle, the other half that. Earlier the party had solved a riddle to reveal a couple numbers: 7 and 22. The task was clear: make the clock on the door read 7:22.

One problem, they have to attach the sticks to the hole somehow. They spend several minutes debating how to do so until one of them takes a silver hammer they used in the most recent encounter and tied the sticks to it and jammed it in the hole such that the hands were pointing at 7 and between 4 and 5. Nothing.

What about 22:07? 10 and between 1 and 2. Nothing. What if the clock is upside down? They flipped the hands on the face. Still nothing.

We spent half an hour on this puzzle until they made a bargain with the werewolf they detained to help solve the puzzle in exchange for his freedom. He wasn’t nefarious, he just didn’t know how the heck the door wasn’t opening when they set the clock to 7:22.

They return to the door and show him their solution. He lowers his head in disappointment, grabs the hour hand, and moves it between 7 and 8 til it clicks and the door swings open.

The players flip the virtual table.

I liked this puzzle because on the surface it looks really straightforward, but requires an attention to detail with how the players engage with the world. “I set the clock to 7:22” would solve it if it took them forever to figure out how to make the hands work. But since they solve it quick, describe where the hands are pointing. And that’s when the fun begins. In today’s age, not a lot of folks regularly engage with analog clocks for the hour hand part to be a twist, but are familiar enough to understand the basics and still get an aha moment when the twist is revealed.

A bit of a longer video showcasing how you can build encounters and preplace tokens on the battlemap, even setup reinforcements!

A quick video on how to upload objects to make bridges over elevation gaps!

Title. Do monsters follow the same rules as heroes when it comes to getting additional actions if they crit on a power roll?

Is a Triggered Action an ability? Trying to see if my Chronokinetic Mastery of a Free Disengage movement when I use Inertial Shield gives me a surge when it says for 4 Discipline, for Chronokinetic mastery, "The First time on a turn that you willingly move 1 or more squares as apart of an ability, you gain 1 surge"

Hi, I’m a new director I’ve never ran this game before. But reading up on the rules I’ve noticed a big gap in what characters are allowed to do.

There’s a huge tab dedicated to projects: crafting and enchanting items, researching lore, and even learning certain signature abilities from masters of other classes. But very conspicuously missing to me is a list of magical spells like in DND that you can learn. What I really want is to allow my players to dabble in a bit of magic if they want to.

DND doesn’t have a direct way of doing this but most classes have at least one subclass that lets them take spells from the larger spell table, I find that I really want a fury to be able to shoot fire if they want, and are willing to learn a firebolt spell. Or for players to be able to find a scroll depicting a magic spell that they can learn from and permanently amend their ability lists.

Do you think it’s worth it to homebrew something for this? Or would you say this is missing for a reason, or have I missed something? Thanks for your help

Hello everyone, a long while ago I posted in this and other related Draw Steel subreddits about a kit I was developing for the Timescape, to emulate something akin to Blaster Rifles from Star Wars.

Well, it got kind of out of hand. 1 kit turned into 2, turned into 3, turned into an idea for a chronicle from a fictional Mercenary company in the Timescape, detailing what they have encountered into The Timescape Tracts.

This is the first issue of that Chronicle, but I assure you, there will be more, eventually. Not sure exactly when, but I have plenty of ideas.

In this issue you will find 3 kits, 2 complications, 2 first Echelon titles, and a brand new Ancestry known as the Bufopods, giant toad creatures skilled in jumping and crafting oils out of the bufotoxins their glands produce.

Everything you see in the magazine was either public domain art, allowed for me to use by Eldritch Foundry, or I did it myself. Hopefully if this makes a little money, I can go back and get some professional art done for it, and maybe some layout, since I did all of that myself too.

I hope you like it!

Most of my experience being a director/DM I have just invented my own campaigns, scenarios, and maps so I have had no problem sketching the outlines onto gridpaper and describing the rest for my players. However, the Fall of Blackbottom has such gorgeous maps it feels like a shame to keep them all to myself! Back during the patreon post for TFoB I had office depot print all the maps, but many have significantly changed/improved since then. Is anyone familiar with cost effective ways to print the new maps? Is it "good enough" to sketch the outlines and share 8.5"x11" prints of the maps? Anyone else run into similiar issues?

We're open for pre-orders!

The campaign went better than we ever could have expected, raising a total of £278,859 / $377,800 and smashing through loads of stretch goals. The whole community has been amazing. Absolute madness.

If you missed the crowd funder and are still interested in NS:DD, check out our pre-order store. We'll have monthly updates of where development is up to, and we'll be releasing playtest materials at the end of this year!

So in the Delian Tomb adventure, my players have just cleared the second level. In this section, the adventure awards a couple of items that seem... useless? For lack of a better word, in the adventure itself.

1. The Imp's Tongue - a consumable that allows the user to speak and understand any language (maybe some caveats, the rules are not in front of me) for an hour.

2. The recipe and ingredients to make Unblinking Candles - candles that don't go out. A hardy light source, basically.

Are there any encounters or anything within the adventure, as written, where these items have an intended use case? I haven't spotted any yet, but I'm unsure if designers provided these for a particular reason

Hey, it's your friendly neighborhood homebrewer back with some more tools for your table! This time we're lifting an entire mechanic (almost) wholesale from another great TTRPG to bring a little chaos and player agency to your game

When a Character succeeds with a natural 19 or 20 on a Test out of combat, they automatically receive a success with a reward. It can be hard to come up with these on the fly, but the good news is that you don’t have to! Use the following rules for Critical Rewards instead to give players agency to decide their reward in the moment.

These homebrew rules are a lightly modified version of the Opportunities system in Fabula Ultima, which is a great game that you should check out if you need a break from Draw Steel! (This is not a sponsored post, I just wanted to provide proper attribution for an awesome mechanic).

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Critical Rewards

When you roll a Characteristic Test and get a natural 19 or 20, you critically succeed! You automatically receive the best outcome possible and gain an additional reward.

You may pick an option from the list below or come up with a different twist that fits the current scene. The Game Master has final say on whether a reward is appropriate to the current situation.

Note that this is meant to apply to Characteristic Tests only — not Power Rolls in combat, as there is already a suitable reward (gaining an additional Main Action). Per Director approval, you may receive a Critical Reward in combat when you use a Maneuver to perform a Test.

Reward	Details
Advantage	The next Check performed by you or an ally this scene receives a Double Edge
Affliction	A creature suffers a negative affliction, gaining a Bane on skill checks using a characteristic which you specify (agility, might, etc) for the rest of the scene
Bonding	You create a Bond towards someone or something. You gain an Edge when performing checks that interact with a creature or object with whom you have a bond. Assign an emotion to the Bond like “mistrust,” “affection,” “loyalty,” “hatred,” “reliance” (etc). The Bond lasts until no longer narratively appropriate or the player chooses to forsake it
Faux Pas	Choose a creature present on the scene: they make a compromising statement chosen by the person who controls them
Favor	Your actions earn you someone’s support or admiration
Information	You spot a useful clue or detail. The Game Master may tell you what it is or ask you to introduce the detail yourself
Lost Item	An item is destroyed, lost, stolen or left behind
Plot Twist!	Someone or something of your choice suddenly appears on the scene
Scan	You discovery a vulnerability, tactic or pitfall of a creature you can see
Unmask	You learn the goals and motivations of a creature of your choice

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I think this turns a moment that could be underwhelming (i.e. the Director is not prepared with an interesting reward, so you get something meh like an Edge on your next test) into a moment where the players can really shape and twist their own stories. Giving them the chance to choose their own reward and take a big swing means that the critical success — which only happens 3% of the time, mind you — really feels meaningful, and gives players a feeling of agency and ownership over their own narrative, connecting them more deeply to your world.

What rewards have you used at your table? What would you add to this list?

Posted before about players using Retainer stats for a one shot; they liked it so much that I extended the story, went from level 1-10 over a few sessions spanning 3 in-game years.

If you've got players who are slow to learn new systems, or just don't like learning new systems, this went over really well for getting them into DS with an incredibly low bar. Edited the mechanics in a few little ways, and this was the final version:

Everyone plays as a level 1 retainer from Rulebook 2: MONSTERS, and levels up during time skips. Make up as much as you want about the Hero who has been training you, why they fight evil, how they treat you, and how you treat them back. You have 6 recoveries and any 5 skills of your choice.

Instead of gaining victories, you level up after each encounter, puzzle, or montage test.

All sidekicks have the heroic resource Cooperation.
-You gain 2 Cooperation at the start of your turn.
-You gain 1 Cooperation the first time each round that you target an Ally with your main action, maneuver, or triggered action. [increases to 2 at level 4]
-You gain 1 Cooperation the first time each round that you are targeted by an Ally or benefit from the Aid Attack maneuver. [increases to 2 at level 7]
-You can spend Cooperation on the following effects. You may only use each Cooperation effect once per round.
1 C, Power Up - Free Maneuver; Gain a surge.
2 C, Synchronize - Maneuver; Perform the Aid Attack maneuver, but grant a Double Edge.
3 C, Recharge - Free Maneuver; Regain the use of an Encounter ability. [retainer stat blocks have once-per-encounter moves they can learn at levels 4, 7, and 10]
4 C, Not Like This! - Free Triggered Action, when an ally within 5 takes damage; The ally can spend any number of recoveries.
5 C, You Go On Ahead, I’ll Catch Up - Action; All creatures of your choice with P<Strong are taunted by you. Enemies taunted in this way cannot willingly move away from you. You may move up to your speed, then make a signature attack. You then move and attack again as many times as your current recoveries, then lose all of your recoveries. If you have no recoveries when you use this ability, you may instead give your life to shift and attack 3 times, then perish.
During a Montage Test, you may use this ability when you would fail a test on your turn; the party achieves 2 successes immediately, and your character gives their life in the process.

There were a few more bonuses they earned, including a custom title:

Gravetender - While adjacent to the corpse of an ally, gain one of the following benefits of your choice:
You have an edge on all power rolls.
Your stability is increased by 2. As a free triggered action when an enemy ends their movement within 1 square of the corpse, or willingly moves through the corpse’ space, you can push them 2 squares away from the corpse, ignoring stability.
You have damage immunity equal to your highest characteristic.

Hero Tokens weren't allowed initially, as the party weren't 'real heroes' yet, but did eventually earn them via heroics. All other default actions and maneuvers were of course allowed.

I'm prepping for an introductory adventure right now, hoping that the table will enjoy the game enough to extend it to a full campaign.

Looking at the material I have prepped, the basic flow of this adventure will be:

• An ambush on the road to kick off session 1 (easy combat)
• Some story beats and a "secure a barricade" montage
• Another fight at said barricade (standard combat)
• Some story beats and a tricky negotiation
• A final fight to quash the threat (hard combat)

All in all, it's possible for them to earn as few as 3 victories from this and as many as 8. I am also not sure exactly how many recoveries they'll have remaining after the last fight, which raises the question - do I force them to take a respite at the end? Like, if they have 6 victories and are riding high on their masterful play, shouldn't I give them an opportunity to push on? To enter another fight with 6 victories and feel super powerful?

How would you handle this? Should I plan some kind of additional fight that they can take on before being forced by the narrative to take a break? Or is it reasonable to just declare "you've defeated the threat, the town thanks you and invites you to rest and recuperate, free of charge, at the inn."