Draw Steel: Fake variety helps no one

[Neonchameleon]

I've recently had a long flight and read the release candidate offered on Matt Colville's Patreon. And something jumped out at me about the "each class has a special resource.

Class: Censor
Resource: Wrath
Starting value: Victories
Gain each turn: 2
Additional gain: 1/combat you damage your judged target or they damage you (max 2)
Lose all when combat wnds

Class: Conduit
Resource: Piety
Starting value: Victories
Gain each turn: 1d3
Additional gain: Praying (each turn)
Lose all when combat wnds

Class: Elementalist
Resource: Essence
Starting value: Victories
Gain each turn: 2
Additional gain: damaging a foe 1/combat (1 max)
Lose all when combat wnds

Class: Fury
Resource: Ferocity
Starting value: Victories
Gain each turn: 1d3
Additional gain: 1/encounter gain 1d3 for hitting half or 0 hp
Lose all when combat wnds

Class: Null
Resource: Discipline
Starting value: Victories
Gain each turn: 2
Additional gain: 1/combat someone acts too near you or GM spends resource (max 2)
Lose all when combat wnds

Class: Shadow
Resource: Insight
Starting value: Victories
Gain each turn: d3
Additional gain: 1/combat gain one for doing enough damage
Lose all when combat wnds

Class: Tactician
Resource: Focus
Starting value: Victories
Gain each turn: 2
Additional gain: 1/round someone hurts your marked target, 1/round an ally uses an ability
Lose all when combat wnds

Class: Talent
Resource: Clarity
Starting value: Victories
Gain each turn: d3
Additional gain: 1/round when someone is force moved
Lose all when combat wnds

Class: Troubador
Resource: Wrath
Starting value: Drama
Gain each turn: 2
Additional gain: four separate triggers
Lose all when combat wnds

These aren't different resources (you spend them in the same way too). And the difference between 2/round and 1d3/round is the sort of irritating difference that means that learning how to play to the point of being fluid will take far longer.

Just call your metacurrency something like hero points, focus, or even Fate Points or Hope

Does this mean there's nothing good? No. For all most of the "gain metacurrency 1/scene" is just another annoying thing to track some of them (notably the prayer one and the troubador) are genuinely good.

On paper Draw Steel should be my jam. Tactical, 4e inspired, Colville-backed, and with classes that are different enough to have different resources. But that has put me off considering running this

 

[mamba]

Yeah, have everyone gain 2 rather than a mix of 1d3 and 2, I see no benefit to the latter. I also would not mind the resource being the same for all classes, the real difference is / should be what it can be spent on anyway, not what it is called.

 

[gnarlygninja]

In my experience with the playtest info, the fact that some classes get 1d3 and some get 2 had 0 impact on how long it took players to learn, and half of my group is so bad at learning rules that despite having played 5th edition for about 7 years they still don't know what their hit dice are.

 

[DEFCON 1]

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.

 

[Neonchameleon]

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.

No one has made this complaint about Daggerheart that I am aware of.

 

[Vael]

Between the different resources and the different class names ... Draw Steel is giving me tryhard vibes. We're changing the names to make them different. I dunno, MTG designers always talk about resonance, using names that work with what you're trying to do, and this feels purposefully against that.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I have not been following Draw Steel very carefully....I get MCDM updates and some of them are interesting...so my opinion is not fully informed. Still, I agree with the sentiment about "variety where it matters". These resources should all have the same name, and regenerate at the same rate, but have unique uses for each class.

Since 2014 I've thought that each D&D class should have a unique, iconic way to spend Inspiration.

 

[SteveC]

Back in the early days on the campaign, they talked about this. Different classes had differently named resources that they acquired at different rates and by doing different things to make them unique. Now that the game is coming out, it looks like the design ended up with very similar amounts, so I think the question ends up being valid. But at least they did address it back in the early days: they wanted each class to be unique.

 

[JonDeNor]

Just call your metacurrency something like hero points, focus, or even Fate Points or Hope

The generic name is Heroic Resource. Not very inventive, but it's descriptive. Each class has their own name for flavor. Colville are particular about names in the game, and want the name for each class' heroic resource to be in line with the fantasy of the class. (See also: ability names).

2/round and 1d3/round

There haven't been problems with this in the groups I play with. People mostly get used to how their class does it, and don't think about it. The problem has been getting used to adding resources at the start of your turn. Regardless of how it's generated.

The reason it differs is, once again, flavor. In the setting there are two primordial forces in constant combat/flux that influences everything: Law (order) and Chaos. Some classes derive their power from Law, some from Chaos. Law-powered classes get a constant, predictable resource generation of 2 per turn (at first level), while Chaos-powered classes get a more unpredictable 1d3 per turn (at first level).

Different classes had differently named resources that they acquired at different rates and by doing different things to make them unique

Yes. They especially wanted each class to earn resources when they did something archetypical to the class. When the tactician is tacticiioning, they should gain their resource. One of the problems is that some classes ended up being useless with certain monster configurations, because their trigger condition never emerged. If I remember somewhat correctly, the balancing became a nightmare, especially on GMs having to balance and build encounters, so they dropped it.

Also, testers reported having a very varied resource gain was death when trying to plan your turn (I think there's a game where that would be fine, or even wanted, but that's not the game MCDM's making). I think they landed on 1d3 being about as far as they could stretch that variability.

The compromise they ended on is a steady drip of resources on your turn, and a little extra when something that aligns with your class happens in combat.

 

[Tonguez]

Yeah designers like Mr Colville do seem to over design, especially when they latch on to a 'cool' idea like 'every class uses a different resource'. Its the old Gygax Thesaurus problem of too many synonyms, but all doing the same thing.

Then again maybe they do different things despite mechanical similarity