Hey Backers!

James here! Thanks to all of you for supporting Draw Steel. 

I wanted to give you a chance to fill out a survey to give us your feedback on the latest playtest packet that we sent on 12/20. There are the same surveys that are going to our Patrons, who have a larger packet. Take them here:

Monsters Survey: https://forms.gle/6bTWppRoAKbJ66kJ8

Heroes Survey: https://forms.gle/tVCFDrYVuTiCEYng6

You have until Monday January 13th at 6AM Pacific US time to get this survey back to us! Please only fill out the survey once.

Thanks so much and have a happy new year full of games!

—James

Hey folks! Want to play some Draw Steel?!

Click Here to Download Backer Packet 2

Thanks to your patience and support, we are happy to present to you…a huge chunk of the final game. It’s all the ancestries and classes but only the first three levels. It’s most of rest of the game, all the careers, six inciting incidents for each career, 100 optional complications, some titles, treasures, rules for negotiation, montage tests, research, respites, loads of monster statblocks, animals, rivals, the whole shebang so to speak. Whatever a shebang is.

The only part missing is levels 4-10 of the nine core classes and that’s because they’re not finished testing, plus some titles, treasures, and monsters! That’s what the patrons are going to spend the next couple of months pounding on. Everything else has been tested several times, or in the case of stuff like Complications and Treasures, several groups have read them and given feedback which is really all the testing stuff like that CAN get. You know, in many cases the whole point of a magic item is to temporarily and locally break the rules!

There are some other missing bits. Stuff like…example names for all the ancestries and we figure there’ll be a chart with like…average height, weight, lifespan. I’m sure there are other little bits and bobs we haven’t gotten to, but those things will get done early next year.

But these first three class levels have gone through internal testing, the contract testers pounded on it, the patrons got them in the last packet and now they’re ready for you folks. It’s a lot. It’s at least a couple months of play if you run once a week.

We’ll send out the survey and you’ll get the chance to log your feedback on this build. When you get your survey, you’ll have until 6AM Pacific US time on January 13th to fill it out.

There may be one more Backer Packet for you sometime next year? Or it may be the next packet you get…is the finished PDF! That depends on a lot of factors including the schedule and what kind of feedback we get from the Patrons. Basically, if they think levels 4-10 are a mess, we’ll revise based on their feedback and then send it to you folks. If they think levels 4–10 are basically working? Then we’ll polish based on feedback and the text will go into layout and the next thing you’ll see is the finished PDF.
Speaking of which, this is Yet Another Text Dump meaning you’re getting the raw text in a two-column format, no layout, no graphic design, no art. It is not easy reading and making characters but we have included an official form-fillable PDF! So that’s something. 😀

But yeah reading hundreds of pages of unformatted text is pretty brutal, if you want to wait for the finished PDF or the Hardcovers? We understand. But! The more of you pound on the game, the better the finished product will be!

You folks also get the updated license! Which means you are free to do…basically…whatever you want? With the text, the rules, the setting. As long as you abide by the terms of the license which are pretty straightforward. Folks sometimes email us and ask “Is it legal for me to….?” But, we’re not lawyers and you should not go to non-lawyers for real legal advice.

We actually spent a lot of time and money going back and forth with our lawyers to make sure the license was clear and easy to understand and based on the reaction to the previous packet and license…it worked! I suspect you’ll start seeing character generators/editors pretty soon from various community members. I hope!

Everyone at MCDM worked hard for many weeks and months to get the rules into this state but I want to personally add: as I was reviewing the text and seeing everything in the manuscript for the first time…I was amazed. I think this is an extraordinary game. I am enormously proud of the work everyone’s done, including our testers, our mods, and all of you, everyone who’s played Draw Steel and given feedback.

I specifically and personally want to thank our Lead Designer, James. Everyone at MCDM worked really hard to hit this deadline, there are many moving parts including the obvious work of a lead, but also working with the art team, working with the testers, managing the freelancers, reviewing their work. There are many tedious tasks in this process for which there is no solution except: James has to read and edit the whole thing.

I think we have produced something special and your testing and feedback will make it even better, but the fact that we’ve hit all our deadlines thusfar (as far as I know??) is principally the result of James’ hard work. And I should also call out Gertz! Our executive producer! It’s sort of impossible to overstate how much he’s helped us stay organized so we can hit these deadlines. So on behalf of everyone, thanks James and Gertz!

That’s it folks! We can’t wait to see what you think of this. DRAW STEEL!! 

Thanks for coming on this journey folks. Thanks for being the best community in gaming.
-Matt