TDS 013: Draw Steel Complications & Consumables

TDS 013: Draw Steel Complications & Consumables

· 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 thirteenth 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.

While the MCDM devs are hard at work getting playtest packets ready for us, we got a couple of cool previews on Patreon. Today’s main topics are exactly that: the preview of the complications section of the game and the preview of consumable treasures for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th echelons.

Before all of that, though, I’ll be going through some creations from the community and a handful of news items that might be of interest to you, the main one being those playtest packets that I’ve just mentioned.

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

As we get closer to the end of the year, we’re seeing fewer creations from the community. I expect this will drastically change once the next backer packet comes out, along with an updated creator license, but we’ll have to see.

In no particular order, today’s featured creations are:

Speaking of celebrations, The Dice Society podcast is also turning 1 year old in January! If you have any questions about the show, the Draw Steel development process, or anything else that’s evergreen, make sure to post it in the comments of this episode. My goal is to have a Q&A section in the next episode to celebrate the occasion!

News

Now let’s move on to the news. This time, this section of the podcast is a little thin; the devs are hard at work finishing the rules before it’s pencils down. What we do have is:

  1. New terminology. The team has decided to change the ‘attack’ keyword to ‘strike’, making it easier to differentiate what is an area ability from what is a single-target damaging ability. What was formerly called ‘movement’ has also been renamed to ‘move action’.

  2. The playtest packets are coming. According to the team, they hope to release the next Patreon packet and the next backer packet in the near future! Patreons should be getting basically the whole game, while backers will get everything from levels one to three.

  3. Codex is getting tested. DMHub, the team behind the Draw Steel VTT, was looking for people on their Discord interested in testing early versions of Codex. They even created a new channel to showcase the VTT in use!

  4. The lightning round! MCDM already got the first production samples of the Draw Steel dice crowdfunder, apparently there will be statblocks for traps in the book, and monsters are being further simplified before the next packets are released.

And that’s it for our news today. Let’s move right along to our main topic of this episode: the previews that the patreons got over the last few weeks. See you on the other side!

Complications preview

Recently, James posted on Patreon a preview of the full complications section of the Heroes book. According to the post, most of it was designed by Paul Hughes, the author of the Blog of Holding! If you like reading about TTRPGs and the math behind monsters, I highly recommend checking it out, by the way.

If you need a quick reminder of what complications do in Draw Steel, the PDF itself contains the answer: “A complication is an optional feature you can take to enrich your hero’s backstory, with any complication providing you both a positive benefit and a negative drawback.” If you have played Baldur’s Gate 3, these are similar to Karlach’s infernal engine or Gale’s Netherese Orb, for example.

The full preview contains 100 complications, which would take, according to my estimate, over an hour for me to read aloud… That being the case, I have compiled a few of my favorites for us to discuss here.

Each complication starts with a paragraph of flavor text followed by its benefit and drawback. Probably the most quintessential in my opinion is the Infernal Contract complication, so I’m going to read its full text for you get a better sense of what they look like. Ahem…

“You made a deal (perhaps unknowingly) with an archdevil that has tied you to that fiend’s service. When you first learned of this deal, you were taken to the Seven Cities of Hell, where some of the timescape’s best minds taught you the ways of battle or magic. The archdevil allows you to use these gifts as you will… until they require a favor from you.

Benefit: Whenever you are present for a battle in which all the creatures on one side are not surprised, your side goes first on a result of 4 or greater on the d10 roll […].

Drawback: The archdevil occasionally asks you to defeat enemies on their behalf. If you refuse, your fiendish patron sends devils after you and those you care about.”

As you can probably tell, the benefit in this case is mechanical; it would be the rough equivalent of getting a better initiative bonus in D&D. The drawback, on the other hand, is pretty narrative; it’s up to the Director to determine how your infernal patron is going to become part of the campaign.

This pattern of mixing mechanical features with narrative hooks for the Director repeats itself in most complications. This is why it makes sense that this section is optional and explicitly asks the player to talk to their Director before picking or rolling for a complication.

There’s even a more evil version of this complication called Infernal Contract… But, Like, Bad. In this case, the benefits are even cooler (allowing you to choose between more Renown, more Wealth, or more Stamina), but the drawbacks are proportionally worse (you bear a fiendish mark and, when you die, you can’t be restored to life ‘cause, you know, you soul is forfeit).

This showcases one of the design principles behind complications: their benefits are balanced by their own drawbacks. As the text puts it, “If you have a powerful positive side to your complication, be prepared to have an equally influential bit of negative backstory as well.” This means that a hero without any complications will still be balanced with heroes who opted to pick one.

In a few rare occasions, the benefit and the drawback are part of the same feature. For example, in the Feytouched complication, where your birth was attended by faeries, the benefit and drawback section simply says “At the start of a combat encounter, you can gain 1 additional heroic resource. If you do so, the Director gains 3 Malice.”

Some complications can give you new abilities, some can be mostly mechanical, some can be mostly narrative, but what stays consistent is their character-defining nature. The Elemental Inside complication describes a hero who has been infused with an elemental; its benefit is a bunch of additional Stamina at certain levels, but its drawback is the real star of the show. It reads as follows:

“Drawback: When you are dying, your possessing elemental takes control of your body. The elemental yearns for destruction, causing you to attack the closest creature they notice without regard for your desires or your body’s safety. The Director or you can control the hero, but whoever does must do their best to kill any creature they notice until you are no longer dying.”

My favorite example of a complication that can completely change how you see and play your character is called Lost Your Head. I’m going to read its full text, but bear with me ‘cause it’s worth it…

“A bredbeddle stole your head! Normally, being beheaded by one of these giants is fatal, but due to your latent psionic ability you’re able to survive despite your decapitation.

Benefit: You gain the following ability.

Share Head […] Target: One willing creature […] You can see, hear, and smell as if you were in the creature’s space. Additionally, you can borrow their mouth to speak when you wish to do so. You speak in a different voice than theirs. This effect ends when you use Share Head on a different target, when the creature moves more than 10 [squares] away from you, or when the creature is no longer willing to share their head with you.

Drawback: Having no head, you can’t see, hear, smell, or taste except by using the Share Head ability. Additionally, you can’t wear gear that requires a head, such as helmets or hats.”

Like, imagine going through the whole character creation process, then deciding to roll on the complications table and getting something like this! At least to me, this would be one of the funniest and most interesting complications to get for a one-shot or a comedy campaign, but I wouldn’t want it on a more serious adventure.

And the very fact that this system is completely optional is what makes it so powerful. This optionality means that you don’t have to het rid of these crazy complications that wouldn’t work for every table out there.

So, what did you think about these complications? I’m a big fan of this design, but I would wait a least one or two campaigns before letting my players add this kind of complexity to their heroes. I feel that being familiar with the Draw Steel system would have a big impact on how they perceive and use complications.

And before we move on to the next Patreon preview we got, let me talk just a little bit about The Dice Society’s mailing list.

Intermission

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

Consumables preview

The other cool preview we got since the last episode of the podcast were consumables. James posted a short PDF on Patreon with the draft of consumable treasures for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th echelons, showcasing the kinds of items we can expect heroes to gain in Draw Steel.

I’ve already explained how treasures work all the way back in episode nine, but here’s a short refresher in case you need one: treasures are Draw Steel’s magic and psionic items; they come in four flavors, namely consumables, trinkets, leveled treasures, and artifacts; each item has a recommended echelon, which is the tier of play they work best in; and they all come with some crafting requirements.

Now, before we explore some of my favorite consumables, a quick reminder: as with everything else we talk about here, names will likely change, there will probably be some balancing, the usual stuff. The overall look and feel, though, shouldn’t change that much from now on, so this is why I’m super excited to talk about them.

Let’s start with the Scroll of Resurrection, which sounds similar to something you’d find when playing Baldur’s Gate 3, but actually has an interesting twist to it. This is a 2nd echelon consumable and reads as follows:

“You repeatedly chant the contents of this scroll over the remains of a creature who has been dead for less than 1 year as a respite activity. The creature’s soul must be willing to return to life […].

A creature with a willing soul returns to life at the end of the respite with full Stamina and half their Recoveries. You regain only half your Recoveries at the end of the respite, and the scroll is consumed.”

So, what’s interesting here is that resurrecting a dead hero seems to be quite an ordeal in this game. Sure, it works with characters who’ve been dead for a long time, but the ritual takes at least 24 hours and stops the caster from getting all their recoveries back.

Even if you have a Conduit in your party, their Minor Miracle ability still can’t revive a hero in the middle of combat. First of all, it only works with someone who’s been dead for less than a day, but it takes the same 24 hours as the scroll and also stops the Conduit from fully recovering.

Anyway, let’s move on to the next 2nd echelon consumable: the Scroll of Shadow Friendship. It reads as follows:

“As a maneuver, you can target a creature of your size or smaller and recite the incantation from this scroll. A doppelganger made of shadow of the creature pulls itself out of the target’s mouth. It retains the same statistics and abilities as the target, but has half the target’s remaining Stamina, can’t regain Stamina, and only fights the target. The shadow creature lasts until it is defeated or the end of the encounter, when it disappears into a hazy mist.”

Is this broken? Given the fact that you can clone the boss and have it fight itself… I think so, yeah! I don’t know, it might get adjusted or this might be intended, I can’t be sure.

The truly cool thing about this treasure, though, is its crafting prerequisite: ‘your own shadow, captured during a full moon.’ If we were to believe the haters, a tactical game simply can’t have interesting narrative moments, open-ended rules, or evocative descriptions. But, and this probably won’t surprise you, there are no instructions here on how to capture someone’s freaking shadow!

If you party wants to craft a Scroll of Shadow Friendship, it’s completely up to the Director how to adjudicate this. It can be a cool side quest, it might require an NPC’s help, or it can even be straight up impossible! I honestly love this kind of thing, and my mind is already racing with interesting ways to make an item like this a central feature of a future campaign.

Now moving on to my favorite consumable, a 3rd echelon item called ‘Better Summon G’Allios’ Business Card. Its effect is:

“This card permits the bearer to employ a devil to avoid the damage and effects of any single ability targeting them. You can tear the card as a triggered action to make a devil momentarily appear when you take damage. The devil redirects the ability to a target anywhere on the same world of the devil’s choosing. You are treated to a clear vision of whoever suffers the damage. The devil then disappears.”

This is, to me at least, peak design. Give this treasure to a player, wait for the right situation to arise, and watch them come to grips with the trolley problem in real time!

Will they behave in the tactically optimal way and use the business card to avoid Ajax’s rage, or will they be scared of the potentially devastating narrative consequences that this might incur? What if the devil chooses one of the hero’s loved ones to be the target? What if they choose another hero that is in the same battle? Is the hero willing to risk loosing someone near and dear to their heart in order to protect themselves? *Chef’s kiss* Absolutely perfect!

Next up, another item from the 3rd echelon. This one is called Bottled Paradox and works like this:

“This potion may be drunk or thrown up to 10 squares as a maneuver. When drunk, you select a test you made in the last minute, the outcome of that test is rerolled until the outcome changes. Alternatively, the potion can be thrown, creating a 3 cube area of effect. An event that took place […] in the last minute within that area changes at the discretion of the Director. Literally anything can happen.”

Anything can happen!? Did I just read that!? Again, another amazing treasure that lets the Director go absolutely nuts! Its prerequisites, by the way, are ground sapphire and 1 month of lifespan. How does one collect that, you ask? Good luck with your new side quest, I guess.

To finish off, an example of what a 4th echelon consumable looks like. It’s a little more conventional than the other ones I’ve shown up until now, but it’s very powerful. It’s called Page from the Infinite Library: Solaris and it says:

“As a maneuver, you may spend 1 Heroic Resource [to] destroy the page and create a 4 cube area within 20 squares that contains a tiny sun at its center until the end of the encounter. A creature who starts their turn in the area takes 20 fire damage and is dazed (EoT).”

I like that it costs 1 Heroic Resource independently of your class, which means the dev team is confident that they are all worth basically the same. I’m interested to see how many other treasures spend Heroic Resources when used.

So, what did you think of these items? I personally love this kind of design, with clear combat applications, but very vague and narrative secondary mechanics. I might be in the minority, though? Let me know in the comments, I love reading y’all’s replies.

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… Happy holidays, thank you very much and goodbye!