Draw Steel General Thread [+]

[zakael19]

Let me ask a followup to that. If I was curious, how much could I glean by buying the Heroes book only. How vital would the Monsters book be? I wouldn't expect to be GMing this as my interest is more towards lighter non-tactical games. I'm open to playing tactical games but have worn out my interest in PF2E (what I was both playing and running until the middle of last year) for various reasons.

So as a player - I assume my minimum ideal buy in is the Heroes book. That seems to be the 'official party line', but is it accurate. Is the Monster book full of interesting tidbits, or just monster manual stats and lore?

Monster book is entirely for a GM.

As a player only you don’t even really need the book tbh. There’s a full online compendium with all the options and rules, character builders, etc.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Let me ask a followup to that. If I was curious, how much could I glean by buying the Heroes book only. How vital would the Monsters book be? I wouldn't expect to be GMing this as my interest is more towards lighter non-tactical games. I'm open to playing tactical games but have worn out my interest in PF2E (what I was both playing and running until the middle of last year) for various reasons.

So as a player - I assume my minimum ideal buy in is the Heroes book. That seems to be the 'official party line', but is it accurate. Is the Monster book full of interesting tidbits, or just monster manual stats and lore?

There’s not all that much lore for the monsters in the monster book. You would be more than fine with just the Heroes book.

These websites are like AoN for PF2, the text of the rules is free to reproduce under the Draw Steel license:

Steel Compendium: Draw Steel Rules

steelcompendium.io

Home - Stawl

 

[Teemu]

I was really curious to get this on Foundry but after checking the Foundry monster sheet for the system I’m kind of hesitant to go forward with it. I didn’t see a way to look at the entire sheet in a single page format so you have to go through tabs to check features and abilities. Considering the complexity of the monsters, that seems like an enormous hassle.

 

[ffanxii4ever]

Let me ask a followup to that. If I was curious, how much could I glean by buying the Heroes book only. How vital would the Monsters book be? I wouldn't expect to be GMing this as my interest is more towards lighter non-tactical games. I'm open to playing tactical games but have worn out my interest in PF2E (what I was both playing and running until the middle of last year) for various reasons.

So as a player - I assume my minimum ideal buy in is the Heroes book. That seems to be the 'official party line', but is it accurate. Is the Monster book full of interesting tidbits, or just monster manual stats and lore?

I agree with CommodoreKong - Heroes is all a player needs, if they want a book. But Steel Compendium, Forge Steel, or other resources are also out there if you just want to take a peak.

 

[Kichwas]

I was really curious to get this on Foundry but after checking the Foundry monster sheet for the system I’m kind of hesitant to go forward with it. I didn’t see a way to look at the entire sheet in a single page format so you have to go through tabs to check features and abilities. Considering the complexity of the monsters, that seems like an enormous hassle.

I haven't seen a mod to do that, but the mod 'Draw Steel Plus' does at least make the 'Characteristics' always visible so you can click them while looking at any other tab.

Maybe this is better, maybe it's worse. This mod author has a similar mod for Daggerheart - that also cleans up their UI a lot in ways that some will like (myself), and others won't.

It does the same thing for Hero sheets.

From just a quick look last night, it seems like mod support for Draw Steel is still ramping up, though there are some good features already.

 

[zakael19]

Big Patreon post about their Codex VTT.

TLDR: going into EA on Steam, will be $30 full price single buy eventually, book & PDF purchasers / patrons / etc will get coupon codes. Does a ton of rules validation & assistance while playing, but will not prevent you from breaking the rules (or following DM rulings etc).

 

[Hermes_Alexandria]

I know from Discord conversations that the Codex devs are confident about their pricing numbers, but I still think you need a free tier for introducing new players.

The counter argument is that DS GMs can run games for free on any other platform, but then they need to be running the system on multiple VTTs to sustain a newbie pipeline.

Maybe the intention is to massively drop the price during the Steam sales that come up a few times a year on that platform...

 

[zakael19]

Maybe the intention is to massively drop the price during the Steam sales that come up a few times a year on that platform...

They mention having some sort of code bundle in the post which lets you do a "me and my 5 friends are all going to play DS! together."

It also looks like it comes loaded with the full Delian Tomb adventure, and all the monster book stuff? For $15 or 20 per person that's a solid amount of fun together, and you don't have a recurring subscription fee.

They also frequently point out that Owlbear Rodeo is a great solution for "play together online for free/the GM's subscription" in that post.

 

[Hermes_Alexandria]

They mention having some sort of code bundle in the post which lets you do a "me and my 5 friends are all going to play DS! together."

The cost per party is still estimated to be around US$100 or so though. It doesn't cater for the curious person that wants to try the full game in a one-shot for a few bucks or free. Additionally this doesn't address the newbie funnel since the GM would have to continually be subsidising keys for new people.

They also frequently point out that Owlbear Rodeo is a great solution for "play together online for free/the GM's subscription" in that post.

I already addressed this point above. The GM then has to run multiple VTTs to bring new people into the game and give the "full" experience.