How to Introduce Draw Steel to Your Friends

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

Intro

So, I’m sure you’ve heard about Draw Steel, the hot new TTRPG from Matt Colville’s MCDM that is scheduled to release later this year? If you haven’t, don’t worry; stick around ‘cause you might have found your new favorite game.

If you have heard about Draw Steel, though, you’re probably wondering how to introduce it to your friends. You’re already excited about the game, you might have even playtested it on the MCDM Discord; all that’s left is getting your friends to play it with you!

The problem is that it isn’t the simplest RPG out there, you know… If you just dump the unformatted playtest PDF in front of them, you’ll most likely gonna have a bad time.

But don’t sweat, I can help you. Last week I presented Draw Steel to a bunch of strangers in my FLGS to great success, and I’ll tell you the ten easy steps I followed to leave my players wanting a little more DS in their lives.

Of course my method might not be the best for you, but I’m sure you’ll at least learn something from my experience.

The goal here is to have you run a two to three hour session where your friends have fun, that’s all. I even made five pregen character sheets to make your life easier!

My name Caio, and this is The Dice Society. Now let’s draw steel and get started!

Don’t push it

Ok, let’s begin with step number 1, and this is the easiest: don’t push it.

We play TTRPGs to have fun, so don’t force your friends to play Draw Steel. The game is still in playtest, so if they’re not in the mood, just let it go and try again once the core rulebooks are out. With all of the art and proper layout, they might get more interested.

If they do agree to play, don’t shove a whole campaign down their throats. Do a one-shot first and see how they like it! Then you can start thinking about running it again.

And that’s it for step 1! Easy, right? Apparently Matt is gonna make a whole video pretty soon about how it’s not fun to demand that your friends play other games, so go watch that too if it’s out already.

Read the rules

Anyway, on to step number 2: read the rules.

If you don’t have the playtest documents yet, this is the time to go get them. You can preorder the core rulebooks on BackerKit or pay eight bucks to join MCDM’s Patreon; either way you should be able to access the most recent version of the rules.

Make sure to go over the rules before the session, but don’t necessarily try to read everything. You probably only need to read the most important rules, like tests, combat, and how to run monsters.

There are also plenty of resources out there to help you learn Draw Steel. I’m leaving links down below to a crash course by @xentis and @JesterOC, to a cheat sheet by @strattonimbus, and to a video introduction by me!

Just get acquainted with the rules. If it’s your first time running DS, you’re probably gonna make some mistakes anyway. The goal here is to have fun, not actually learn everything about a game that’s not even out yet.

Prep

Now it’s time for step number 3: prep.

Once you’re a little familiar with the rules, you have to prep a simple adventure. I recommend using acts one and two of the Bay of Blackbottom, one of the playtest adventures that came with the first backer packet.

If you want to run your own adventure, my suggestion is having a first scene with a few Tests and a second scene with a no-frills encounter. You might also want a montage test before wrapping up the session, but that’s optional.

Remember that this will be your friends’ first time playing, so don’t hit them too hard; use straightforward monsters like humans or goblins.

Then just get them to the table, physical or virtual!

Pitch

Once they’re all in place, hit them with step 4: the pitch.

This is when you’re gonna talk about what Draw Steel is. The first three pages of the manuscript are perfect for this; talk briefly about the fact that this game is heroic and cinematic, about its main differences from D20 games, and what this game is good (and not so good) for.

No rules yet, though! Don’t jump the gun.

This is also when you’re gonna talk about what made you excited for Draw Steel. Highlight the stuff that made you back the game, that made you want to run it. This is very personal, of course, but for me it was actually Flee Mortals!

Character sheets

Once you’re done pitching the game, move on to step number 5: the character sheets.

For my demo of Draw Steel I made some compact character sheets that were already filled out. I used @lord_durok’s pregens and tweaked @mrmattdollar’s Character Sheet Toolkit to arrive at what I think is a pretty good introductory experience.

Now let’s take a look at what the compact sheets look like.

Each pregen is only two pages, and contains no extraneous information. The first page is the most important, and contains facts about the character on the left side, stats and trackers down the middle (including conditions), and their most important abilities on the right side.

The second page contains all other abilities and three mini cheat sheets to help your players remember the most important rules. I even made some slight adjustments to avoid confusions, like marking Free Strikes as Free Triggered Actions since this is their most common use case.

It’s all color coded too, with actions and signature actions in red, maneuvers in blue, and triggered actions in green. If it’s free, it gets an F, if it has a cost, it gets a number. Some pregens even get note cards that clarify rules that are specially relevant for them.

If you decide to use my compact pregens, you can get them for free from the link in the description.

Either way, once you get the premade character sheets out, I suggest talking a little bit about their ancestries and classes so that your players can express their preferences.

This is when you can try to draw them in by saying, for instance, that dwarves grow crystals on their faces, that tacticians can command the battlefield, or that each character comes built in with an inciting incident.

Power roll

Only now that your players have chosen their characters, I suggest that you move on to step 6: explaining the power roll.

This is the core resolution mechanic of Draw Steel, so I think it’s also the first rule you should cover. I personally wouldn’t even mention combat abilities yet, just that, for Tests, one should roll 2d10, add a characteristic, and sometimes also add a skill.

Explain the three outcome tiers, that there are no Difficulty Classes like in D20 games, and that’s it! Don’t overdo it; this step should feel as simple as possible, with a few examples but no dissertation on the qualities of the power roll.

Start

And now that they are onboarded, it’s time for step 7: start the adventure!

Let your players name and introduce their characters so that they get in the mood. Describe the situation they’re in and let them roll a few Tests before getting into combat, just to warm up.

If you’re running the Bay of Blackbottom, the Voyage Vignettes are perfect for this.

Draw steel!

Once your friends are comfortable with the power roll, spring step 8 on them: draw steel!

Start the combat by explaining how rounds work in the game, alternating between Director and players. Then, go through the stuff that every character has, like stamina, recoveries, surges, and speed.

If the monsters go first, let the players see what a regular turn looks like. Once it’s the players turn, grab their attention once more to explain how actions, maneuvers, and triggered actions work, then finish off by talking a little bit about the specifics of what each character can do.

I personally suggest going player by player and summarizing the abilities on the first page or their compact character sheet. Once you’re done, they will be well-equipped to decide which character should go and take their very first turn.

Heroic resources

If you’re feeling bold, you can power through to step number 9: explaining heroic resources.

I waited a couple of player turns to get into heroic resources, but you can choose to wait more or less depending on how well your friends are doing.

This was a delicate step for me because it’s probably the one that adds the most complexity to the game. You have to tell them what their resources are and how they can be spent on heroic abilities.

This will likely prompt them to look at the second page of their pregens, which is exactly what you want. They might even ask about free strikes or weird class specific abilities. Perfect; let them!

As the battle goes on, remind them to keep track of their resources and help them choose what to do on their turns if they ask for your help.

Feedback

When the battle is over, wrap up the session and ask your friends how they liked it. That’s it! This is step number 10: you did it!

Now it’s up to you. If you all really liked it, you might want to run again! Also: you might not have liked it! That’s fine too, no one’s forcing you to like Draw Steel. Just remember to wait for the full release before giving it another go, because art and layout really help.

Outro

Anyway, those were my ten tips for how to introduce your friends to Draw Steel: don’t push it, read the rules, prep a little, pitch the game, hand out pregens, explain the power roll, start the adventure, run a single combat, help your players remember their coolest abilities, and then ask for feedback.

If you want more Draw Steel content, including my DS news podcast, subscribe to The Dice Society on YouTube! If you also sign up to my newsletter, you’ll be among the first to play my upcoming Draw Steel adventure: Green Fog at Morning.

See you all next time, thank you very much, and goodbye!