Draw Steel General Thread [+]

[ffanxii4ever]

and cooking/fishing which is just adorable.

Agreed - I love a good cooking or fishing mechanic. Cozy, slice-of-life games aren't really my cup of tea, or my group's, but we all like having something interesting to decompress with.

Yeah. After the very thorough (but perhaps not entirely balanced) rules for downtime in Pathfinder 1's Ultimate Campaigns, I was rather excited when I heard that PF2 was designed from the start to have delineated modes for both combat, exploration, and downtime. When I got the PDF, I was quite disappointed to see that the downtime rules were one (1) page long, and mostly covered retraining.

OK, there are also some more stuff in the skills chapter: about 2 pages on earning income, about 1 page of crafting (which is basically earning income with extra steps), and maybe another page or so spread between the Subsist activity (which can be either Society or Survival, depending on whether you're in town or the wilderness), Create a Forgery, and Treat Disease.

Draw Steel, by comparison, has a much more interesting system for downtime, both with built-in respite activities like switching kits and other class features as well as all the various projects.

Yeah... I'm running a Pathfinder 2e Kingmaker game right now, and outside of the one character who is a crafter, any downtime that they have (other than the required Kingdom Turn), it's just a lot of "I guess Earn Income?"

 

[gnarlygninja]

I think Draw Steel is actually stronger than most other games for Downtime Activities, because it gives examples that aren't just crafting, and maybe some generalized way of making money, which is a difficulty (I feel) that exists in many other games, if they even have longer-term downtime mechanics at all.

I agree! The system was not the problem in my game.

 

[CSMcFarland]

Has anyone tried making or using power cards for Draw Steel? The group I have mentioned running Draw Steel for started out on D&D 4e. And they really liked having cards with their abilities on them. I was wondering if the game lends itself to this approach in actual play.

I know this exists (Draw Steel Ability Cards), but having not played DS yet, I don't know if the cards idea works.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

One of my players has been printing out the abilities as cards and because his work has a laminator he has laminated every one. He has them all laid out, lined up, right in front of him at the table. It’s a really nice way to play, imo.

I think he found he could print out as cards using it with Forged Steel? Could be wrong how he does it. Forge Steel

 

[Enrahim]

Has anyone tried making or using power cards for Draw Steel? The group I have mentioned running Draw Steel for started out on D&D 4e. And they really liked having cards with their abilities on them. I was wondering if the game lends itself to this approach in actual play.

I know this exists (Draw Steel Ability Cards), but having not played DS yet, I don't know if the cards idea works.

The official character sheet has the abilities laid out as cards, clearly intended to be cut out. So, yes, the system definitely supports (and encourages) cards. I think cards are less essential than in 4ed though, as there are no "state" to keep track of with regard to them (whether they are used or not). Indeed I prefer to have a one line list item per power with summary in front of me during play as the main play aid, rather than shuffle trough cards (though cards are nice when needing to look up details)