Draw Steel: Fake variety helps no one

[Zetesofos]

Regarding the 2 vs 1d3 - the choices also influence playstyle deliberely. Classes with a flat 2 HR can plan multiple turns out ahead of time more reliabily as they can usually expect to know how and when they'll get their resource.

Conversly, 1d3 classes might unlock enough points in a round to use more powerful abilities sooner, or get burned and be underpowered for a round, which could be very tactically meaningful.

The choice of 2 vs 1d3 serves to reinforce the intended playstyle and feeling of those classes, and is intentional.

 

[wizard71]

It’s a slight bump that is balanced out by classes gaining extra resources differently. Furies gain additional resources by being damaged, winded or dying. Elementalists by witnessing our using non holy magic. Conduits by their domains. It’s really neat and encourages group play.

 

[Campbell]

So after kind of getting stuck in and playing around with Draw Steel for a bit I actually think this is a significant difference. Every point of your heroic resource is pretty precious.

The difference between a Conduit getting 1 or 3 Piety can be I heal you for 1/3 of your Stamina to I bring you from dying all the way up to full.

For a Fury it might mean getting Blood For Blood (a high damage attack that leaves a target bleeding and weakened) going against a dangerous opponent on a round earlier.

I'll have to see how feels when we get it to the table, but my fears actually go in the opposite direction. Of it being potentially too significant.

 

[zakael19]

So after kind of getting stuck in and playing around with Draw Steel for a bit I actually think this is a significant difference. Every point of your heroic resource is pretty precious.

The difference between a Conduit getting 1 or 3 Piety can be I heal you for 1/3 of your Stamina to I bring you from dying all the way up to full.

For a Fury it might mean getting Blood For Blood (a high damage attack that leaves a target bleeding and weakened) going against a dangerous opponent on a round earlier.

I'll have to see how feels when we get it to the table, but my fears actually go in the opposite direction. Of it being potentially too significant.

Don’t forget that each class has secondary triggers for resource gain though and also everybody gets more = victories. Like, a Null gets 2 discipline per round; but also gets 1 if an enemy in your null field uses a MA; and 1 if the director uses a Malice.

So there’s some “when do I want to go” choices here around “do I want to hope the director picks something in field early so I can get enough resource to tick me up” etc.

Not that it negates your core point, especially on the first couple of encounters or even the first couple of turns.

 

[Zaukrie]

I had a similar thought when I read the rules. Every class has this resource, and they named them all something different. It seemed overly complex to me. Now, if you are a player, it likely doesn't really matter, you aren't looking at 8 classes at a time......

 

[ffanxii4ever]

It's also worth noting that by having different flavors of heroic resource, it arguably opens up additional design space. For example, Werewolves draw power from a similar source as a Fury, as such, the first time Ferocity is spent in an encounter, the Director gains a bit of Malice, but they cannot inflict Rage upon a Stormwright Fury, because they are too similar already.

Similarly, the Summoner (still in Beta, via the MCDM Patreon) uses Essence just like the Elementalist, and there have been comments that there are similarities between channeling for both of them.

Will this really materialize to be a hugely meaningful difference constantly? Probably not, but it doesn't hurt to put potential hooks for mechanics into the system.

 

[Senior_WotC_Janitor]

Wictionary offers this:

Which puts hit points into it, as well as XP. Fate points, D&D 5e Inspiration.
It also puts many class mechanics into being metacurrencies. If it's X per Y, but has no material, somatic, or verbal component in fiction, it's a metacurrency.

Many ignore 1/scene or 1/round type stuff, because it links tightly to a describable action, but if the action can't always do so, the metacurrency of the number of times invocable is an enabler.

Word definitions, especially from a Wiki source, are generally not considered good evidence in formal arguments.

 

[James Gasik]

I would imagine that if every class had the same metacurrency that refreshed in the same exact way for the exact same amount, it would put off an equal amount of people than it is doing right now currently. There's no way for any company to win this design battle. Either method will irritate the same number of folks.

Seems to me the best solution is to just used the dreaded "House Rule" and make them all refresh the same amount at the same time. Thankfully... that is a painfully simple house rule to implement for those that want it.

I'm reminded of complaints about another system "all the classes are basically the same"...

 

[dbm]

My initial feeling was that the resource names were just useless chrome, but having read through the characters a couple of times, I think it serves a useful function of differentiation. Every class has specific ways of generating resources, and I think it will help people get the difference of why character A can generate resources from a specific event when characters B, C, and D can’t.

 

[zakael19]

My initial feeling was that the resource names were just useless chrome, but having read through the characters a couple of times, I think it serves a useful function of differentiation. Every class has specific ways of generating resources, and I think it will help people get the difference of why character A can generate resources from a specific event when characters B, C, and D can’t.

Drama is the absolute standout IMO. Yes, everything that generates Drama off start of turn is dramatic.