‘Draw Steel’ is a Fantasy Tabletop RPG Without the Slog
Draw Steel is finally getting playtests released, and it’s a fun, dynamic, game with a focus on player fun and excitement.
Earlier this year the MCDM RPG Draw Steel earned nearly six times its goal on Backerkit to fund the high fantasy tabletop RPG. Playtests and early versions of the system are starting to become available, and with them internet buzz. So what is this game? How is it different from other fantasy RPGs on the market? And should you pre-order it before final copies go to print?
Draw Steel
From the initial campaign for Draw Steel seemed to pitch itself as a more approachable version of some of the fantasy TTRPGs we already know. There would be dungeons to explore, but it wouldn’t be a game focused on dungeon crawling nor exploration. Which is… vague. But much more promisingly, they claimed to cut down on “slog” and designing combat so that battles get more exciting as time goes on. Which is refreshing if you’re used to a game where battle might feel a little repetitive and dragging. From its inception, this was designed to be a fast paced, fun, and player friendly game.
But this isn’t a game defined by what it’s not. There’s interesting game design that makes Draw Steel feel much more balanced and unique. A more cinematic play-style makes for encounters that encourage creativity, while streamlined rules and dynamic abilities keep the action feeling fresh and exciting.
Character Creation
So far only the playtest has been released, so many aspects (the number of classes, for example) will likely be expanded upon. But to start we have five classes which range from magic users to barbarians and everything in between. Each class gains ‘heroic resources’ at a given rate, and they can cash in these resources to use their class-specific heroic abilities. But not having the resources for these special abilities is alright, since every character also has more common ‘signature’ abilities. If you’ve ever played a video game where basic moves are free and special moves take a little longer to charge, you’re familiar with the concept.
Characters are made up of quite a few pieces including ancestry, culture, career, class, kit, and complications. Some of these are pretty standard. Most fantasy games have you pick your race and class, and kit is your items and armor with more steps. But each character also has specific advantages and disadvantages, as well as a non-heroic career. By TTRPG standards, it’s a pretty standard process. But this makes for a well rounded character full of personality and history.
Gameplay
Rolling for success and failure for anything in this system is on a tiered chart of success using your ‘power roll.’ The power is similar to D20 rolls in D&D- it’s just what you do for almost all checks. In Draw Steel you use two d10, add your relevant characteristic and edges, subtract your bane, and consult the tiers. Tier one is 11 and under, two is 12-16, and three is 17 and above. Which means there’s no guess work, no saying, “yeah, that’s good enough to pass in this situation,” and none of your DM looking at the dice and being coy as to the success or failure of your roll. Every tier has something else happen, and everybody knows what tier you’ve landed on.
This also means there’s no turns where a character ends up being entirely useless or nothing happens. Which I think we all know, is the worst.
That said, I wouldn’t say this is a simple game. Tactics are important, and players will learn to be careful where on the map their various adventurers are in combat. And to me, this only adds to the dynamic nature of Draw Steel. It can be easy to zone out between turns in other TTRPGs. But with this you need to think about your next move and how it will relate to your party members’ moves.
Draw Steel was fully backed back in January, but if you’d like to learn more or pre-order your own copy, you can do so on the MCDM site.
Did you back Draw Steel? Have you checked out the play test rules? What do you think of this new TTRPG system? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
