Bring the badlands to your table with 2+ new player ancestries, 20+ new monsters, 3+ digital battlemaps, 5+ dynamic terrain objects & arenas, and original art by Kian Reglos. A third-party digital supplement for MCDM's Draw Steel.
Xeric Badlands is a third-party digital supplement for MCDM's Draw Steel, made to invoke feelings of exploring a stark, arid frontier. Inspired by the Badlands National Park and Warcraft's Barrens, this supplement provides Directors and players with more options for adventuring in harsh mesas and scrubland.
The Ko'Shun Centaur - an extremely mobile, quadrupedal inhabitant of the badlands
The Razak - a porcupine-like dweller of the badlands, known for their protective quills
Preview of the Razak Ancestry
22 New Monsters
Ko'Shun Centaurs - levels 4-6
Outrider - Platoon Brute
Warbow - Platoon Artillery
Windcaller - Platoon Controller
Hunter - Platoon Hexer
Totemguard - Platoon Defender
Scout - Platoon Harrier
Dukun - Leader
Razak - levels 2-4
Grunt - Minion Brute
Darter -Minion Artillery
Scrapper - Minion Harrier
Quillreader - Horde Hexer
Spineshot - Horde Artillery
Mudrunner - Horde Harrier
Tusker - Horde Brute
Matron - Leader
Thudhorns -level 4 - a massive, horned beast of the badlands
Bastion - Elite Mount
Bull - Elite Brute
Thornfeet -level 5 - a swift, ostrich-like predator of the badlands, known for their razor-sharp talons
Warstrider - Elite Mount
Menace - Horde Harrier
Solos
Siltweaver - level 5 - a huge trapdoor spider that drags prey into its lair
Bonesinger Wyrm - level 6 - a serpentine terror that uses its bones to conduct a chorus of sonic "music"
Preview of Ko'Shun Statblocks
3 Badlands Battlemaps
Thematic digital battlemaps in JPEG format, featuring director encounter advice. Gridded & gridless, day & night versions included.
Preview of the Razak Outpost Battlemap
5 Dynamic Terrain Objects & Arenas Q: What's a dynamic arena? A: Dynamic arenas let the environment itself have terrain actions, just like villain actions, letting the battlefield itself influence combat. Credit to Jonas Tintenseher for the idea.
Hot Spring - a caustic dynamic arena that showers the map with a hot geyser of acid
Duststorm - a dynamic arena of gusting silt and debris
Shardgrass - robust grass so sharp it cuts like a blade
Sinkscar - a pseudo-living sinkhole that gnaws whatever falls in
Thirstvine - vines that reach out in search of prey, grasping and draining precious fluids
If we reach this goal, all backers will receive the Harpy band: aerial predators who scour the badlands and swoop from above, which includes one commissioned illustration. Also added is the Harpy Cliffs battlemap, with a new dynamic arena.
$2,000 - Talus Awaken
If we reach this goal, all backers will receive the Talus band: living sandstone humanoids with flux crystal mechanics, plus the Talus player ancestry so you can play as a stone construct, which includes one commissioned illustration. Also added is the Talus Quarry battlemap, with a new dynamic arena.
$2,500 - Regional Map + New Solo & It's Battlemap
If we reach this goal, all backers will receive:
Regional map commissioned of the Xeric Badlands by a fantasy map cartographer
New solo monster with commissioned illustration (backers vote on which!)
Art, playtesting, and layout constitute the vast majority of the development time for this product. If you backed at the Badlands Survivor tier or higher, you will receive early playtest material as a perk once the funding period ends. Since this is a digital-only product, we expect it to be complete by late Q3 2026, hopefully sooner.
I'm known as Royal Highness Games,but you may know me as Bee King on Discord, or Shane Richardson. My first foray into Draw Steel design was the Jams of the Timescape 2, where my Underborn Ancestry got 7th place overall out of 114 entries, with a top 5 ranking in both presentation and writing! My second project was Sewer Denizens, a fun sewer-themed bestiary, which gave me loads of experience that I'm bringing to this project.
The talented artist on this project is fantasy illustrator Kian Reglos. His art really brings the project to life.
Finally, those who help playtest and give feedback are the driving force behind making it special.
Because this project is fully digital, the risks involved are fairly small. The biggest threat to the project is a lack of funding. This would result in project to lack high-quality artwork, which is where the vast majority of the money goes. This is Royal Highness Games' first BackerKit campaign. This is not, however, our first Draw Steel project! We released the Underborn Ancestry and Sewer Denizens on itch.io with no prior funding, and we are prepared to release this on itch if it does not fund, albeit with less artwork.
