TDS 010: Draw Steel Backer Playtest

TDS 010: Draw Steel Backer Playtest

· Caio Lente · #podcast  #mcdm  #ttrpg  #draw-steel 

This episode was originally published on YouTube and Spotify. For links and references, please see those platforms as this page only contains the transcript.

Intro

Hello everyone and welcome to the tenth episode of The Dice Society podcast!

In case you’re joining me for the first time, my name is Caio and I’m the author of thedicesociety.com. This is a show about the upcoming Draw Steel TTRPG, where I talk about its development, my playtest experience, and, once the time is right, first- and third-party content being made for the finished game.

Our main topic for today is the new BackerKit playtest packet, which came out a couple of weeks ago! And, if you’re interested in creating content for the game, we’re also going to talk a little bit about the Draw Steel creator license that came out with the packet.

As usual, however, everything we’re going to talk about is subject to and probably will change, so don’t get your hopes up if you really like any of the stuff I describe here, cool? Cool. Now let’s draw steel and get started!

News

Before we jump into our main topics, let’s get some of the news out of the way, starting with:

  1. A dice crowdfunder! On September 24th, MCDM will launch a BackerKit campaign to create some custom dice for Draw Steel. According to the preview page, it will be made by Chessex and will feature two twenty-sided d10s for optimal platonic Power Rolling and one six-sided d3 for the Furies out there. As you can probably imagine, you could just use your regular D&D dice instead of spending 20 bucks on one of these custom sets, but it’s going to be a pretty cool souvenir for fans. If you’re at all interested, you can follow the campaign at mcdm.gg/dice.

  2. Levels one through ten. The devs are currently hard at work finishing the full prototypes of the classes; they already have levels one through three of every single class, and levels four through ten of the Fury, Conduit and Shadow. They expect that heroes will have around ten abilities at level ten, but we’ll have to wait and see.

  3. Patreon feedback. James has gone through all of the feedback of the Patreon playtest packet, and is already implementing some changes. I’ll talk more about this later in this very episode, but the devs are listening to what we have to say.

  4. The lightning round! They are considering new ways to make Heroic Resources feel more distinct from one another, caster kits might be changing once more to solve some balancing and flavor issues that were raised by playtesters, Victories might also be changing a little for balancing reasons, and, lastly, creature sizes are getting standardized as X-by-X, so no more long or wide creatures.

And that’s it for the news segment. Now let’s get to the backer packet!

BackerKit packet

If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the nascent Draw Steel community, you probably already know about this, but here it goes anyway: the first playtest packet for backers is out!

If you have backed the Draw Steel BackerKit campaign and didn’t know about this, go check your email right now, ‘cause you’re in for a treat. It actually came out almost three weeks ago, but I’ve been super busy and wasn’t able to make a podcast episode sooner, sorry…

Anyway, what’s in the packet? Actually, almost the same stuff that was in the Patreon packet that I’ve talked about in episode 8. You get the basic rules of the game (with character creation, combat, negotiation, and so on), a bestiary with 31 monster-filled pages, a cheat sheet for use at the table, a big introductory adventure called The Fall of Blackbottom with all the necessary maps and tokens, and five pregen characters for you to play.

But wait, there’s more! This packet also came with some new stuff, namely ancestry art, a second adventure called The Bay of Blackbottom, and some rule changes.

Starting with the ancestry art, they are (pardon my Portuguese) f*ing gorgeous. Every piece is tall and narrow and features both a male and a female member of that ancestry. They are really evocative, so much so that I want to describe them in case someone listening doesn’t have access to the backer packet. And if you’re watching this episode on YouTube, I’ll be able to see the art right now.

The first ones are the Dragon Knights, wielding weapons in combat position on an open field with ruins, wings outstretched and imposing. Next are the Dwarves, holding mining equipment inside a dungeon, beardless and stone-skinned. Then come the High Elves, beautiful with wisps of gold on their faces and arms, walking down the stairs, one holding a wand, the other holding a harp. Fourth are the Wode Elves, picking fruits in a forest, with their huge furry ears and big round eyes.

The Hakaan art isn’t finished yet, but we got the draft of these half-giants made of stone wearing some colorful attire and awesome jewelry. Next are the Humans, standing on some stone steps, one holding a curious-looking flask, the other holding a bow and a pink falcon. Second to last are the Memonek, wearing futuristic clothing that reveals their part ceramic, part metallic bodies while they stand confidently on a sailing ship. And lastly are the Orcs, just like the ones from Flee Mortals with their very angular faces, one playing something that looks like a fantasy bass, and the other holding blacksmithing equipment.

We still have no art for Devils, Polder, Revenants, and Time Raiders, though! Those might be coming on a future packet, we’ll have to wait and see.

Besides the beautiful art, I also said that the packet came with a second adventure: The Bay of Blackbottom. This one, written by Leon Barillaro, is actually a prequel to The Fall of Blackbottom that onboards players into the system a little more gently than the (much meatier) Fall of Blackbottom.

This adventure is meant to be played in a single session and starts with basic tests, then graduates into a fight, and ends with a negotiation or a fight depending on the heroes’ actions. I won’t spoil it here ‘cause I’m sure many people are still going to play it, but I thought it was a much better introduction to the system than its sequel.

And speaking of the system, what has changed since the previous playtest? Well, not that much. There are some minor tweaks here and there, but the main thing that changed is that combat is now easier for Directors to run.

As I said in episode 8, there were lots of things for the Director to remember during combat and apparently I was not alone in thinking that. James explained in a recent Patreon post that the feedback they got from the Patreon packet was loud and clear: “running combat with the old rules was too much of a mental burden on Directors”.

So now, monster factions don’t each have their special way of generating Villain Power anymore, there are fewer options where to spend VP, and the value of VP went up so that you can track it in smaller numbers. They also removed captain traits, printed ancestral traits directly onto the stat blocks, and generally revised monsters to make them a little simpler.

Honestly, I love these changes; I didn’t get the chance to playtest these new monsters and VP mechanics yet, but they are already a win in my book. And this also serves as a reminder that MCDM is taking our feedback into account and is trying to make this game as fun as possible for everyone to play.

So, if you do end up playtesting the backer rules, make sure to answer the survey they sent you! It really helps as we can all clearly see.

And I think that’s basically it for the backer packet. New art, a new adventure, and some refined rules for us to test… Oh, and there’s this one file here that I haven’t mentioned: a creator license! Strap yourselves in, folks, ‘cause after the break we’re going to talk about how you (yes, you!) can create content for Draw Steel right now!

Intermission

Hey there! Before we move on to the next segment of the podcast, let me just quickly plug The Dice Society’s brand new mailing list.

We all know how messed up social media algorithms are and how they have a weird tendency of not showing your stuff to your followers. If you want to avoid the algorithms altogether, how about subscribing to my mailing list?

I won’t flood your inbox, I swear! I just wanna send you a ping once a new piece of content is out, that’s all. You can subscribe at the link in this episode’s description and you can always unsubscribe if you feel like it’s not worth the space in your inbox.

Thanks for your time! Now back to the show…

Creator License

Alongside the backer packet, the MCDM team released a Creator License for those who want to create content for Draw Steel, and you can already access it at mcdm.gg/ds-license. For now, it only applies to the first backer packet, but it can be amended to apply to further publications; more on that in a second.

Before I walk you through the basics, though, an important point: I’m not a lawyer, ok? You should read the Creator License for yourself before creating a product, so don’t sue me if you mess up, that’s on you. If someone notices something wrong with my summary, I’ll post a correction in the description of this episode.

Now, about the license… First, what you cannot do according to the document: it doesn’t let you use their art without explicit permission, you can’t use the MCDM logo or the Draw Steel logo in your product, and can’t give the impression that MCDM endorses or sponsors your product in any way.

And what you can do: you can use their visual designs as inspiration for your own, you can use all of the game’s mechanics and text (including proper names and characters), and can and are encouraged to use a Powered by Draw Steel logo that they have made available.

In order to actually use the license, you need to include a short snippet of text on the outside of the product and on the website where you promote it. If you do this and respect the terms of the license, you can publish your Draw Steel compatible products without permission from MCDM.

Besides these basic rules, they also have a little bit of legalese to protect themselves from misuse of the license. They say that they take no responsibility for claims against your product, that you should not violate the IP of any third party, and that any legal disputes will be governed by the laws of California. If you fail to comply with these terms, your rights under the license will be automatically terminated.

The last important point of the license has caused some stir in the RPG community: the text says that the license can be revised or modified at any time, which, after the OGL debacle might sound a little scary. However, it also states that these changes are not retroactive and that products being sold and in development at the time of a license amendment can continue using the previous version of the license.

All in all, I think the document is pretty solid and this license modification thing will not harm creators. And I know I’m not the only one who thinks this, because after the license was released, there has been a flood of Draw Steel compatible products made by the community!

MCDM has even created a homebrew channel on their Discord where people can share their creations, and in less than three weeks there are already dozens of products for you to check out. My personal highlights are, in no particular order:

Links to all of these are in this episode’s description. If people like this kind of stuff, I might keep doing this spotlight on every episode, we’ll see. Maybe a deep dive into a single product? Let me know what you prefer in the comments.

Outro

And that’s it for today, folks. I hope you guys enjoyed the episode and the topics I chose this time.

Make sure to check out this episode’s description for links to:

Before you leave, make sure to rate the podcast in your platform of choice and leave a comment on YouTube or Spotify if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes.

See you all next time… Thank you very much and goodbye!