TDS 012: Draw Steel Reaches Level 10

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

Intro

Hello everyone and welcome to the twelfth 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.

• Little experiment, no script this time

• Main topics: 3rd Patreon packet and the new rules that were announced, changes they’re making as a result of feedback

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!

Community and news

Community

• The Kobold Ancestry, by Pesto

• Xentis’ Steel Compendium, by @Xentis

• Emblazoned Character Sheets, by @DarinLammers1992

• Mobile friendly rules reference PDF, by @Ghost.of.Ezekiel

• Owlbear Rodeo: DS Conditions & Tooltips, by @TerriblyAngryFennec

• Interview with Djordi discussing class design, by @Aestus_RPG

• “Introductions”, #0 | Into the Wode, by RobinBaggett (@exxodis)

• Myths of Hecenae Episode 1, by @Lavender_Gardens

• Green Fog at Morning, by @TheDiceSociety featuring @Aestus_RPG, Jon de Nor (@jonstodle) and @Tamwin5

News

• “Full” game with contractors

• Content complete by end of december

• Hopes to release starter adventures with/soon after the game is released

• Half the hexes in the vasloria box filled by them. The other half is up to the director

• Easier self healing to make it more viable without conduit

• “We will have an updated license when the Backer Packet #2 releases.”

• “We are planning to release a beta version [of Codex] to MCDM patrons initially. Couldn’t give you a date, I don’t expect this to be this calendar year.”

New rules

Third Patreon packet

• “Players who like building melee-focused heroes is that they had a hard time locking down their foes and protecting their counterparts. Similarly, Directors had a hard time protecting their squishy artillery, hexers, and controllers! So we made it a little harder to shift. Instead of being able to shift half your speed with a move action, you now can take the Disengage move action to shift 1 square (with some character options allowing to shift 2 squares). You also can’t shift into difficult terrain.”

• “Damage has been reduced to make the game more challenging. Many areas of effect have had their size reduced. Many effects have changed to accommodate new rules or address balance changes.”

• “Added the following careers: Agent, Aristocrat, Beggar, Disciple, Explorer, Farmer, Politician, Sailor, Warden, Watch Officer. Careers no longer provide a title. Now they provide a perk. Many careers now provide a starting wealth bonus in addition to the other available bonuses”

• “There are new rules for using heroic resources outside of combat for each class”

• “You can no longer jump out of difficult or damaging terrain”

• Resources working in different ways, but generated at the same pace. Prayer more of a gamble; tactician can pump focus into marks; edges reduce the cost of abilities for shadows.

• EoE gone

• Tiers -> Echelons of Play

• VP -> Malice

• A perk every even level

Level 10

• Conduit level 10: Avatar

• Shadow level 10: Umbral Knight, Shadow Clone

Intermission

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

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…

Green Fog at Morning

Mouthfeel

• Works really well, mouthfeel was great

• A bit too many conditions

• Test consequences/benefits are hard to make up on the spot (for me)

• After action report, by @Aestus_RPG

Feedback

• Feedback about surges: working ok, but too many ways to gain/apply. Try to implement a universal way of how they work (like only applying to the next attack). Surge can be tracked and you choose when to spend (on any target); spend at most 3 surges, but keep as many as you want; they go away at the end of combat.

• No shields! Less stuff triggering off Magic, Psionic, Weapon.

• If you impose a condition, it only lasts until EoT for the most part. Potency numbers have been adjusted.

• Censors and tacticians changed resource generation. No longer banks focus/judgement; you mark/judge and then have triggers to fuck the target that spends focus.

• “No matter what we do, we’ll be rebalancing the math to avoid some stuff like that and give heroes opportunities to increase their potency temporarily to overcome boss defenses”

• Feeling A Bit Dejected, by u/MrAxelotl

Outro

And that’s all, 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:

• Matt’s and James’ Twitch channels,
• MCDM’s and Matt’s YouTube channels,
• Draw Steel’s, MCDM’s and Matt’s subreddits,
• MCDM’s Patreon,
• MCDM’s Discord,
• All of my socials,
• The Dice Society’s mailing list,
• And the show notes this episode.

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!