Ratcatcher Magazine is a community content zine for MCDM's Draw Steel. It's designed to give up-and-coming third party DS developers a place to show off new creations, give advice, or even worldbuild or write fiction.
While some heroes are chasing glory, fighting tyrants and accomplishing epic deeds, others prefer to stay down to earth, in the muck, helping those in need. The common people have a name for one of these heroes: Ratcatcher.
Art by Emily Betts
Art by Inge
Ratcatcher Magazine is a community content zine for MCDM's Draw Steel. It's designed to give up-and-coming third party DS developers a place to show off new creations, give advice, or even worldbuild or write fiction. But that's not all: Ratcatcher is designed to help you as the Director and creator.
All text in Ratcatcher Magazine is licensed under a license similar to the Draw Steel Creator License, meaning you can re-use it and republish it in your own creations. It's a community zine, with the emphasis on community. We want this to be a gift to you, to help support the community, while also drawing on its wealth of creative talent and skill to also uplift new creators and give them a voice.
The zine is currently in final writing and editing mode, with layout templates already set up and most content already partially implemented. We are hoping to have PDFs in your hand by August 2026 with physical fulfillment starting soon after.
In Draw Steel, your choices don’t end when the battle is over. Class Perks are flavorful, out-of-combat abilities that let every class influence the world in meaningful ways by unlocking exploration, social leverage, and clever problem-solving without drawing a blade. Who you are matters just as much as how you fight!
The Aviators of Kal-Aedrov by Miguel Corona Mas
While most dwarves dig deep into the mountains, some dwarves climbed to their peaks. These dwarves mastered the art of flying, and Kal-Aedrov remains independent thanks to the elite warriors known as the Aviators!
Rogues' Gallery by Sam Mannell
Every hero needs a villain. Or three. Rogues' Gallery provides the Director with a cast of colourful antagonists to challenge the heroes, designed to be recurring threats that the party can face multiple times during their heroic career!
Carousing with the High Elves by Leo Hojnowski
Experience the ethereal splendor of High Elf Courts with content to enrich Respites spent there including unique events, a downtime project, and a list of High Elf names.
But Who Lived to Tell the Tale? by Adam Hunt
An article on sharing authorship of the heroes' legend between director and players; how the heroes themselves can claim agency over how their adventures are remembered.
Ratcatcher Magazine is an 8.5x5.5" (US digest size) 28 to 32-page zine, printed in black and white by Mixam in the USA or Canada and shipped from the United States. All copies will be shipped from the United States. Unless there is enormous demand, physical copies of this first print run will be limited to 200 copies. (Future crowdfunders will include reprints of previous issues. We plan to keep Ratcatcher Magazine in print as long as is feasible.)
Aside from our printing costs and recouping some initial costs, all proceeds from this and future Ratcatcher Magazine crowdfunders go toward the collaborators. We at Tidal Wave Games believe in paying creators fairly, so when the crowdfunder is successful, the creators are successful. It's because of them (and you!) that we get to make this, so it's only fair that they be paid well for their efforts. We want to be a place where people can get eyes on their work and be compensated fairly for it, without having to strike out on their own first. To do that, we need to build the network, and we can only do it with your help.
We've got some simple pledge tiers set up for you:
PDF Tier: You'll get the PDF delivered to you via DriveThruRPG.
Print Tier: You'll receive the printed zine in the mail (28 to 32 pages, 8.5x5.5" b&w staplebound) plus the PDF.
Patron of the Arts Tier: You'll receive the printed zine and PDF, and know that you're helping make Ratcatcher happen.
There are no stretch goals, incentives, day-one buy in special trinkets or other complicated crowdfunding tricks. We want to make a book and send it to you. If we make more money, we all get to have pizza and buy Nintendo Switch 2s.
We'll be charging for shipping separately after the campaign is finished. All packages come shipped via USPS through PirateShip. These are the estimated shipping rates we'll be using:
Tidal Wave Games is headed by Onslaught Six, a 30-something TTRPG developer and failed industrial musician. Tidal Wave Games has successfully ran and fulfilled nine TTRPG zine Kickstarters since 2021 (with two more currently in production) including Ratcatcher Issue 01. We've got plenty of experience handling printing and shipping for small-press TTRPG zines, so we expect this to go as quickly and smoothly as any of our previous ventures.
Contributors for Issue 03 include:
Brian Schaab is a TTRPG designer and fantasy writer based in Austin. A devoted fan of fantasy and sci-fi, he spends his time creating monsters, crafting villains, and recommending books to anyone willing to listen. Outside of gaming and writing, he can usually be found throwing a ball for his never-tiring corgi. He is an active supporter of the Draw Steel and MCDM community and enjoys helping the hobby grow however he can.
Adam Hunt is an England-based high school Biology teacher by day and TTRPG jack-of-all-trades by night, having ran games since college and designed graphics for a handful of Draw Steel third-party products while preparing his own third-party class for its grand debut. Adam lives in the shadow of a great number of impressive game masters and designers, but that's fine: he's got sneak attack.
Leo Hojnowski (he/him) is a born-and-raised Baltimoron and a writer with a lifelong love of TTRPGs. While obtaining his Politics MPhil from University of Cambridge, he fell in love with the city and decided to remain in England. Check out his debut Draw Steel adventure 'Keep on the Road to War' and find him on Discord @PatrollinTheMojave or Bluesky @leohojo.
Sam Mannell is a tabletop game designer originally from New Zealand, currently based in London, UK. His work appears in Draw Steel: Heroes, Draw Steel: Monsters, Flee, Mortals!, Kingdoms & Warfare, Arcadia Magazine, and he was the lead designer on The Dark Heart of the Wood. He also loves to produce music, write books, and play chess!
Miguel (they/them) has been a MCDM Discord lurker for some time, and a Draw Steel fan since its conception (not without their doubts along the way). They studied screenwriting, and have published adventures for 5e in Spain. They think that Rioja being both a region in Orden and Spain is hilarious.
Artists include:
Laura Verdin (she/her) is a merchandise designer and production coordinator in Tucson, Arizona. She enjoys hiking in the desert, reading, and traveling. Laura’s favorite TTRPG class to play is a cleric, because her power fantasy is being very, very helpful.
Emily Betts (they/she) comes from somewhere in the fens of England and was given a stack of fantasy novels at an impressionable age. Currently, they edit the Cambridge-based speculative fiction zine TTBA, and are working on producing 'Keep On The Road To War', an adventure powered by Draw Steel.
With your help, we were able to make Ratcatcher Issue 02 a reality. And with your help now, we can make Issue 03 a reality. We want this project, and future issues, to be everything they can be, and by supporting financially and spreading the word, we'll be able to do that. Thanks for checking it out.
