What Is This Game? | How to Draw Steel #0

This video was originally published on YouTube. For links and references, please see that platform as this page only contains the transcript.

Intro

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the pilot of what I hope to be a series teaching you how to play Draw Steel. This one is going to be super short just to get your mouth watering with all that’s about to come.

So, without further ado, what is Draw Steel?

What is Draw Steel?

Draw Steel is a heroic fantasy tabletop roleplaying game made by MCDM, the company created by RPG YouTube legend Matt Colville.

If you don’t know what a tabletop RPG is… Hmmm… Well, I can’t help you right now. My suggestion is watching something like Critical Role just to get your bearings, then come back here to learn more about this specific game.

Draw Steel is in the same genre as Dungeons & Dragons, the oldest and most well-known RPG in the world. This means that players embody (usually) heroes who (usually) save the world (usually) by fighting evil monsters. This is the heroic fantasy part of the cover.

When talking about Draw Steel in particular, though, we also include two more keywords there: tactical and cinematic.

Tactical means that every player has a bunch of interesting options to deploy during combat, so the party has to strategize and work together to beat the villains. The game is also played on a grid or battle map to help everyone visualize what’s going on.

Speaking of visualizing, cinematic here means that character abilities have evocative names and flavor text that help paint a mental picture of what is happening in the fiction. Also, the game doesn’t care about stuff that movie heroes usually don’t worry about, like counting coins or tracking inventory.

Ok, so this is Draw Steel: tactical heroic cinematic fantasy. But what makes this particular combination very fun to play?

Why Draw Steel?

Without getting too much into specific mechanics here, I think this game is what the current edition of D&D wished it was.

In Draw Steel, even martial characters have meaningful options in combat. Because of how abilities work, there are no missed turns. And the gameplay loop ensures that heroes don’t need to rest every other fight.

The result is a system where combat is so fun that you won’t be looking up advice online about how you can get it over quicker.

And by the way, “tactical” doesn’t mean the game is only about combat. There is plenty of flavor, awesome rules for negotiations, and a deep character building system that makes your characters way more three-dimensional than what you might be used to.

Look, I’m not saying that the game is perfect or even the right choice for most people. If you want gritty dungeon crawling, this isn’t the game for you; if you want rules-light social intrigue, look elsewhere…

What I’m saying here is that Draw Steel implements pretty well what most current D20 games sell you, but hardly ever deliver: a game where you feel like a big damn hero while facing evil monsters.

Outro

So, if you think Draw Steel might be your cup of tea, make sure to follow my humble channel to be notified when the next chapter drops. Also follow my friends Goblins Points for Draw Steel news and interviews, and Rise Heroes Rise! for all of your actual play needs.

In case you want to introduce your friends to Draw Steel, check out my video on the subject and take a look at my recent adventure: You Meet in an Ambush. Links below.

That’s all for today. Thank you very much and goodbye.