Draw Steel Designer Q&A

[@PhoenixScientist]

3:45 to start the stream

[@KikoKay-Kay]

The hero we needed ❤🎉

[@davidren2401]

Doing the lord's work

[@TheEzzran]

Absolute legend

[@mactireliath2356]

I’m loving the lobby tunes, MCDM is at the top of their game for the soundtrack work

[@nicholasbielik7156]

A friend and I were talking about Draw Steel’s implementation of heroic fantasy vs D20 Fantasy’s approach to the genre. I mentioned that Michael Moorcock never has his heroes go fight wolves in the woods because they aren’t powerful enough yet. Looking forward to being able to do cool stuff at first level!

[@BasementMinions]

Absolutely adore how much thought has been put into the monsters from a GM usability standpoint. The fact that everything I need is in the monster block and I don't have to look up spells to figure out which ones are actually usable or a Homebrew my own to make a monster functional it's amazing. Also the fact that you guys have dedicated Terrain objects! And they are even balanced according to level and encounter costed is truly next level.

[@sarooku]

The cycle of play with victories, recoveries, respites and XP sounds brilliant. Solving the whole "my party wants to rest after every battle" and making it more fun and rewarding for players to keep going "just one more fight". Love it!

[@igrek4035]

The animation on the shadow is really cool!

[@steegen101]

I can't wait to see something like a Dimension 20 team play Draw Steel. I'm lucky to have some rules to read, but experience (even vicarious experience) teaches way better than text imo. Easy-access familiarity with Draw Steel in the great package of a show is something I'd be extremely excited to see

[@noahblack914]

I would _love_ to watch the Dimension 20 folks play this. I bet they'd have an absolute blast with it.

[@elogan5817]

One respite activity is "building a road"? Finally, I can play a movie accurate Lightning McQueen without homebrewing!

[@cholulahotsauce6166]

Get those victory points

[@angelalewis3645]

@@cholulahotsauce6166 Right!? 😂

[@relhaz4326]

My selling point for draw steel is that you don't have to put as much work into making things varied and interesting. The designers already did it. Sure some of its because its new but even just reading through the monster book things are much more interesting. None of the stat blocks are "the creature swings their sword". Theres always some little bit more

[@mcolville]

"This creature casts a spell from another book! Go look it up!"

[@marmotman151]

1:00:00 Regarding this. I think it could be very beneficial to package a few starting adventures with the "Starter Kit". Gives a little more choice than "Well this is *the* starter adventure, so we'd better start here." Instead "Oh, so theres three start scenarios. Which one sounds the most interesting?"

[@stbananastein]

This is a great idea. Guess time will be the limiting factor

[@marmotman151]

@stbananastein It's a vision from the Good Idea Fairy. She comes in the night and takes away your meetable deadlines and leaves gold veneer on your pillow. It's not something I would expect. Above and beyond the normal kind of package.

[@mactireliath2356]

A few shorter, condensed story “pitches”, with varying genres, themes, and locations.

[@ThomasGiles]

Might be a bit much to create 3x the amount of content for a box, for no more cost or whatever. Maybe that's not what you meant but... Could be cool though to have 3 opening scenarios/encounters that kick the same adventure off. Then they all lead into the same starter kit adventure from there. Perhaps with a little different info and treasure from that encounter which flavours the whole angle the players look at the adventure with.

[@harryravenkiller8580]

I have been a patron since MCDM announced their interest in a new game. Life has gotten in the way since then, so I have not really been reading the Patron. After this interview, I'm going to read me some rules😅

[@rj3thatsme]

Hello Video On Demand People (it's me, I'm video on demand people)

[@joeking1956]

Hello, Mr. I'm Video Demand People!

[@BMHume]

The best people, frankly, I think we can all agree.

[@Graelcase]

Dozens of us!

[@AwesomeWookiee]

I really appreciate that most levels in Draw Steel after 3rd aren't that big of a deal. Sure there's scaling and fun new options, but the complexity is packaged in with the tactical premise of the class and subclass at level 1. Means that once you get people playing, they know almost everything they'll ever need to.

[@noahblack914]

Wanted to share that I've been watching Arcane for the first time. I often look at shows and think "This is kinda a D&D show. What D&D classes would these people be?" But I look at Arcane and think "Oh, this is a Draw Steel show!" The power of the characters and the awesome things they can do, the way fights involve knocking/throwing people around. That's definitely how I'm gonna sell it to my players.

[@Forke13]

A few months ago I have started a low roleplay DnD Campaign with very episodic adventures ranging from 2 to a couple of sessions. We are very optimized and dungeon crawl oriented and are looking for more tactical challenge. I think Draw Steel will get a go in that group and it would be the first time any of us played another game than DnD.

[@Vael221]

Both of my groups are officially switching over to Draw Steel and I am really excited.

[@Adrian_Lee6113]

Missed the live stream, catching the VOD instead. Hyped for Draw Steel! I’m one of the folks who is stoked for a physical copy to look through, although when PDF is released I will definitely dig through that, too! Cant wait for full release!

[@matthewsnow-zj1cu]

You had me at X-Men. Specifically this feels like a Claremont Era game from everything I’ve seen: Unique character abilities, oversized action and movement, and a rich dynamic and interconnected sandbox built as the stage for the adventure, with the potential for cosmic hijinks (Time Raider-Star Jammer arcs) but still focused on the characters. Very much looking forward to the final packet and the finished product.

[@MrPinkpanzer]

Really excited to have the physical book to put in front of my players. Keep up the good work, I'm very excited.

[@Pyre001]

The bat ears on the elf are dope!

[@sonder_ua]

Guys! I really believe in your game! I wish it will be a blast and shine among other TTRPGs, just like your every other product. You are one of the coolest developers and authors!

[@chriswilkerson4074]

I’m excited. The only thing I’ve heard that gives me pause is Wealth. I have simple ideas in my wind to create a relationship between ‘treasure’ and wealth comparable to the setup for victories and experience. Basically during an adventure you can earn ‘treasure’ as a generic term representing gold or jewels or trade goods or anything. Only when the party returns to safety for a respite can the turn the treasure into ‘wealth’. This allows for the director to decouple experience from wealth and allow for characters who may be fabulous wealthy but inexperienced or poor veterans and anything in between. It also allows players to indulge in the fantasy of getting rich!

[@mrhicksy777]

Love the idea of the rival system, really wanna see that in practice

[@TomCrow-l6h]

I really appreciate the question about teleportation and flying, (starting from around 27:37 to about the 30:00 minute mark). Mini-rant incoming: The very first character I finally got to play in DnD 5e was a winged tiefling. It was an illusionist wizard that I forced myself to build as a "controller"/support caster rather than your standard blaster mage, as a challenge to myself. The very first thing I had to discuss with the DM and with anyone in friend groups that played DnD about this character was the fact that the character had a 30-ft fly speed at level 1. Gamebreaking. Where I had to write out entire essays to explain that, no, in fact, goblins can still shoot arrows at you, and most of your spells and abilities at low-ish levels are still range-limited, and just because your character can fly doesn't automatically make them untouchable. "But what about chasms and bridges?! HMMM? Trivialized!" to which my only answer could be "well whoop-dee-fucking-doo! no, not the CHASM, the greatest Monty Python test of heroic character!" This "identity confusion" that the d20 systems have about their power level, stemming from their dungeon-crawling "gritty mudcore" roots, came up again in Pathfinder 2e. One of my biggest problems with PF2e's design is how the devs are so overly precious about balance at the cost of fun and cool options. Built-in Flight is extremely limited and for some reason has to scale and follow the balancing of the Fly spell. For some reason. They've come around and changed that in Starfinder 2e, where access to flight mechanics is ubiquitous from level 1, whether technological, magical, or innate due to body plans. My point being, it's so refreshing to see this game's designers just fully embracing its design assumptions and distancing from the gritty dungeon crawl's "balance" requirements, because it doesn't serve the fantasy. I've been looking for a heroic power fantasy that doesn't handcuff you in the name of balance like PF2e does, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to get a lot of enjoyment from Draw Steel. It's been a real treat just watching MCDM iterate on designs and question assumptions and just chuck away ancient cruft that doesn't fit the vision.

[@Nastara]

It depends on what experience you want to make. PF2e does not want flying at first level because it is not that kind of game. A lot of fantasy story gates flight when the story gets more epic in scope. Pathfinder has 2e its heroes start starts scrappy and has different design and fantasy goals. It isn’t trying to be Draw Steel. That being said they need to stop making winged races at 1st level or make them rare. Meanwhile Starfinder is Sci Fi. In most Sci Fi fiction flight is trivial and ranged weapons are everywhere so they decided flight is trivial.

[@chrism6315]

Agreed, if I want to achieve success in crossing a chasm I'll go for a walk in a fucking mountain, my superhero fantasy charachter should be doing superhero shit, not 'that was a nice day backpacking and a picknick' mid 40's weekend shit.

[@benfisher4783]

I started my first draw steel campaign on the first of January. My players got six victories and best the first mini boss and took a respite. Looking forward to the next session.

[@IceWater7227]

Over Chrismas I played this with my 55 year old mother (first time she has played any kind of RPG at all) and my siblings. The game went great and we are planning a recurring monthly game now!

[@bigsarge2085]

Awesome, guys! Thanks for the view behind the curtain.

[@FoxxTrick]

My group was waiting for the final PDF. With the adventure pitches survey, they got inspiration and will be switching to Draw Steel.

[@anthonywritesfantasy]

Man, y'all are some of my favorite designers. I mean, you're also some of the only designers I know by name. So there's that, but...

[@MrAxelotl]

Thanks for a really interesting stream as usual team! Super excited to play the finished game! Currently (slowly) making our way through Fall of Blackbottom with the first backer packet rules, and everyone (including my wife, who had decided that D&D was too tedious and not fun for her) is having a great time! Also I know it's not the point but Matt's comment on Balatro's matchfinding system really made my neck hairs stand up 🙈 (Balatro is a single player exclusive game)

[@zukawastaken]

Love Willy's glasses

[@jezuit666]

Super psyched.

[@luca8479]

I’m very excited about the possibilities of this game, especially for my game of writers and strategists. I’m hoping there will great digital tools for playing in person too, I know my players would be way easier to transition if there was a great digital character sheet. Thanks for a fascinating development journey!

[@esoel]

I'm really escited to try this, but I think I am going to follow your advice and wait for the final PDF. I don't have much time to play and I don't want to scare off my friends immediately with a wall of text...

[@snowniel]

I think for me, D&D 5th edition really clicked when I had it run for me and I saw it being run by someone else. It would personally really help me if I saw someone else run it or run it for me

[@stbananastein]

Yeah, I'm very much looking forward to new videos with the current rules for making a character, maybe a director prep session, then a few let's plays

[@Magic__7]

Im interested, and the more i hear, the more i want to play, but not till i can get a book in my hand

[@GnarledStaff]

“How can an array be a boolean?” Fuck bro, don’t put that evil on me.

[@jjustapple]

11:42 incredible placement of "Matt water"

[@kicksjp]

Catching the VOD. I have a question if anyone is able to answer it. Is the system of Draw steel entrenched in the world that is designed with it? Or is the system designed to be used with a homebrew world etc?

[@mcolville]

I don't think there's anything about the mechanics of Draw Steel that is unique to the world of draw steel. But only you can answer that question for yourself!

[@j0nasbs]

Ancestries are easy to adapt and is fun to create new ones, same for Complications, Careers, Kits... The part that might be harder to design are the classes and subclasses, but they are not tied to the setting as much as the Ancestries. People on the Discord have been designing all kinds of new stuff already for their own settings and there's a group of people adapting things for Eberron.

[@nathanlee2942]

One of the things the designers talked about a long, long time ago (back when many systems in the game were still without prototypes) is that the easier something is to homebrew, the more closely it can be tied to the setting. Because that way if people want to strip out any and all of the setting, they can! But things which are very hard to homebrew (i.e. an entire class) isn't really tied to the world. Not in any major way, that is.

[@chastermief839]

Mostly? there's a couple things here and there that you might need to homebrew but it's mostly all friendly to generic fantasy. most of the Orden flavor will peel off like a sticker if you don't want it, but if you don't like the idea of gith having 4 arms or halflings having a supernatural stealth ability, then you'll need to do a bit of scrubbing. it also kinda depends on how entrenched YOUR setting is to d&d fantasy. does your lore hinge on major distinctions between sorcerers and wizards? is it assumed that all druids in your setting can use wildshape? etc.

[@gravityvertigo13579]

So hype

[@Leviathan8509]

Great stream.

[@finlayrobertson1355]

Look at those dudes! Like a bunch of nerdy frikkin rockstars!

[@mactireliath2356]

Hands together in prayer for more info on the Null And info request for vehicles: caravans, ships, skateboards or tanks(?)

[@303cisco303]

Don’t forget to add links or search words in the book to chain of ackron videos.

[@civilbeard]

Great stream!

[@luisquecedo7385]

How are the non fight aspects of the game? Is it good to make a more narrative campaign?

[@mcolville]

I would say: it's certainly light years better than d20 fantasy. The negotiation rules alone. Then you get Montage rules, Research and Crafting. Downtime activities. I mean, you heard it in the stream! You can take use your Respite activity to go visit family!

[@luisquecedo7385]

@@mcolville wow, thanks for replying, wasn't expecting one from the channel. Saw the stream yeah and seemed you can get victories without fighting even but still seemed too focus on combat, without it, seems you won't need a respite. I'll give it a chance when it comes out. I actually download a few resources from Patreon but gotta admit reading the files that are pure plain text and the format discouraged me hehehe Thanks again Matt end GL.

[@chastermief839]

crunchy combat is still the meat and potatoes of the system, IMO. but like matt said, it's light years ahead of d20 fantasy. not just because of the integrated systems like respite and negotiating, but also because of how deep the character creation is. this game asks you questions about the culture you were raised in and the type of role you played within that culture. that's what matt is talking about when he says "three dimensional characters" and it gives the whole game a lot of narrative weight and momentum that d&d or Pathfinder lacks.

[@davidholman6709]

Love your design philosophy and fascinating to follow this design process. I just wish you were designing a different game. No use for avengers style dnd.

[@sharkoconnor]

How do I find the "looking for group" channel that matt refers to at teh 1hour and 18 min mark?

[@shdwfriend2128]

Do you have plans to create a bot for Discord in the same vein as Avrae (i.e. connected to the character sheet)?

[@williamwhite2680]

i disagree that the abilities "their is no space between" or flying etc.. are trivializing a challenging its the player using the tools at their disposal to overcome challenges. clever thinking and use of your abilities should be rewarded and you should be allowed to do cool shit. also im looking forward to run an eberron or dark sun game in draw steel.

[@bigteej5821]

Tempt me not with the summoner!

[@angelalewis3645]

I was mostly listening and then suddenly I looked over and saw Willy’s NOSE! 😂

[@heyimbilliejean]

I really hope you do get the Wizard working, because they're what I play in all fantasy games, so I won't even be interested in your game until you do.

[@RiskyVolt]

Elementalists are a pretty good second to a wizard

[@idlemindedmage6925]

What a short-sighted way to think.... The game explicitly doesn't use vancian magic, but is still filled to the brim with magic options and flavor. You can play a wizard, you're just not playing a D20 mage.

[@heyimbilliejean]

@@idlemindedmage6925 Girly pop, I don't play D20. Way to make assumptions. They explicitly said in the video they couldn't make the wizard work and don't have a classic mage class; The thing I want. And just so you know, you are being shortsighted by saying that, because you will convince literally no one with that attitude. Calm down.

[@heyimbilliejean]

@@RiskyVolt They're, from everything I've seen, primarily blaster focused. That's not a playstyle I enjoy, so it's not suited for me.

[@andrewcurl909]

They're probably not going to make a Wizard class that has an infinitely expandable Book of Bypass Challenges. But there's lots more to the elementalist than Blasty Blasty. Void elementalist in particular.