Draw Steel News

[Ruin Explorer]

I've been a patron since Arcadia days, and active enough in the Discord. Mostly they've been communicating about what they've been working on, but they've been communicating to backers and patrons. Which seems fair before release.

I mean, I think you're illustrating my point perfectly.

You're long-time Patron. MCDM communicates with Patrons, first, second, third, and fourth, and then maybe with KS backers, and only so far distance after that with the general public, and that's never been more evident than with Draw Steel!

It works for them okay because the Patron list is large, and they have a history of making solid products, but it's also a very self-limiting strategy which I think is going to prevent growth for them.

And Draw Steel is still on day 1 of release. I think it's a bit early.

That's a schoolboy error imho. If you're not even hyping or discussing your game until it fully releases in this kind of environment, perhaps you don't understand communications terribly well and I'd say that's definitely the case with MCDM. Matt is very good at making certain kinds of video but his overall media strategy is not great and is very insular. A good example of this for me is how Matt didn't even make "How to play Draw Steel!" videos ready for release, despite that being precisely the kind of video he's good at! He instead referred people to a RPG drama youtuber who happened to make some videos on Draw Steel!, who is a fun guy but not like, a great RPG educator (which ironically, Matt kind of is). Hell, it's not entirely clear he's going to make those kind of videos now it is out!

From recent communications he almost doesn't seem like he's really noticed that the game has launched (I guess because for him the core was basically "finished" months ago), and seems to be more excited by their specialized VTT (and also upcoming splatbook classes, at least one of which was originally implied to be in the core, but I'll let that go lol), than the fact that the game is out. And the VTT which is nearly guaranteed to be a flop, because people in general do not like switching to a new VTT, especially not for one new game! There is a chance sheer quality/usability could save but the nice things he quotes people as saying about it are very similar to things people said re: 5E's Sigil VTT, which was a massive flop despite probably millions to tens of millions being poured into it.

I do agree to some extent that it's more of a test of endurance than a sprint here, but at some point, the fact that you're still at the starting line eating your delightful picnic with your Patrons rather than jogging along may bite you in the ass!

As far as the power rolls and outcome tiers... I mean the power roll design is similar to PbtA with 2d10 instead of 2d6. What does PbtA call theirs? Oh, yeah. It's called a "roll," and the outcomes are called... Failure, 7-9 and 10+. They tend not to use a more specific name for it because depending on the move it might be "partial success" and "success," or sometimes "success" and "success plus". Pathfinder 2e does it too. They call their core resolution mechanic a "check," and the outcome tiers are "degrees of success" and the tiers are... Critical Failure, Failure, Success, and... Critical Success.

So... I guess I'm not seeing a whole lot of creativity from anybody else here? Like this complaint doesn't feel like it has teeth. Like it needs a name, and they use "tier" for how double edge and double bane interact.

This feels a bit "whataboutery"-ish to me honestly.

Even then, for my money, the names you give as examples are obviously more evocative and immediate than "Tier I, Tier II and Tier III", and they're from games that in many cases aren't as deeply considered or carefully designed as this. That's the particular issue here. You've got this extremely thoroughly considered and designed game with a lot of oddly-specific names which are, in fact, pretty evocative of the specific things that are going on, but then you have these totally generic and anti-evocative names which players are going to be using constantly for the rest of the life of the game. It's a weird place to fall down. But somehow unsurprising.

I guess I'm coming at this very much from the perspective of how would I feel saying this hundreds and hundreds of times, and I feel like it's a bit energy sapping. But I haven't played so maybe it'll be fine? Little skeptical though.

 

[Staffan]

This is pretty funny though:

 

[Neonchameleon]

Even then, for my money, the names you give as examples are obviously more evocative and immediate than "Tier I, Tier II and Tier III", and they're from games that in many cases aren't as deeply considered or carefully designed as this. That's the particular issue here. You've got this extremely thoroughly considered and designed game with a lot of oddly-specific names which are, in fact, pretty evocative of the specific things that are going on, but then you have these totally generic and anti-evocative names which players are going to be using constantly for the rest of the life of the game. It's a weird place to fall down. But somehow unsurprising.

Speculating wildly Draw Steel feels to me as if there has been some behind the scenes drama and someone had their suggestions just automatically rejected because they came from that person in specific - who was something like an editor or social media manager. Things like "drop the occasional two line update to the backers" or "call your levels of success something evocative" or "you made your name explaining how to run an RPG. WTF are you doing not explaining this one?" All to do with presentation and communication.

It also feels as if Colville's done with the project somehow. We know he can do the "nerd who can barely shut up what he loves" for the camera (and Spencer Starke is doing an excellent one of those for Daggerheart right now). And ... he just isn't. If we look at Matt's YouTube plus the MCDM YouTube we've the launch party and the first episode of an actual play in the past day or so and that's it for the past six months.

I'm also wondering whether to read anything about the absence of Dael Kingsmill from the launch party when I'm pretty sure she has the missing skillset.

 

[Nikosandros]

Speculating wildly Draw Steel feels to me as if there has been some behind the scenes drama and someone had their suggestions just automatically rejected because they came from that person in specific - who was something like an editor or social media manager. Things like "drop the occasional two line update to the backers" or "call your levels of success something evocative" or "you made your name explaining how to run an RPG. WTF are you doing not explaining this one?" All to do with presentation and communication.

It also feels as if Colville's done with the project somehow. We know he can do the "nerd who can barely shut up what he loves" for the camera (and Spencer Starke is doing an excellent one of those for Daggerheart right now). And ... he just isn't. If we look at Matt's YouTube plus the MCDM YouTube we've the launch party and the first episode of an actual play in the past day or so and that's it for the past six months.

I'm also wondering whether to read anything about the absence of Dael Kingsmill from the launch party when I'm pretty sure she has the missing skillset.

This seems a whole lot of speculation. The email from Matt about the release of the game and all the future products that are in the pipeline was absolutely gushing with enthusiasm.

 

[Epizarwin]

Speculating wildly Draw Steel feels to me as if there has been some behind the scenes drama and someone had their suggestions just automatically rejected because they came from that person in specific - who was something like an editor or social media manager. Things like "drop the occasional two line update to the backers" or "call your levels of success something evocative" or "you made your name explaining how to run an RPG. WTF are you doing not explaining this one?" All to do with presentation and communication.

It also feels as if Colville's done with the project somehow. We know he can do the "nerd who can barely shut up what he loves" for the camera (and Spencer Starke is doing an excellent one of those for Daggerheart right now). And ... he just isn't. If we look at Matt's YouTube plus the MCDM YouTube we've the launch party and the first episode of an actual play in the past day or so and that's it for the past six months.

I'm also wondering whether to read anything about the absence of Dael Kingsmill from the launch party when I'm pretty sure she has the missing skillset.

That is a wild post my dude.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I am not finding that on the page, where did it say that?

Go to the backerkit campaign and read the "what we're funding". Two books, Heroes and Monsters.

Now scroll down to the schedule. It says: playtest packet by Q2 2024, full release June 2025.

That's it. That's what you would have known when you put your money up.

Backer packet #1 was August 2024, so it was the middle of Q3 2024. Full release was just barely July 2025. Backer packet #2 was December 2024.

For reference, Patreon had their packet #1 December 2023, #2 July 2024, #3 I think was October 2024, and #4 was December 2024. #2 and #4 essentially matched Backerkit. Then the RCs were like 3 weeks ago. The stuff on Patreon since January for playtest has been adventures mostly.

 

[TiQuinn]

Speculating wildly Draw Steel feels to me as if there has been some behind the scenes drama and someone had their suggestions just automatically rejected because they came from that person in specific - who was something like an editor or social media manager. Things like "drop the occasional two line update to the backers" or "call your levels of success something evocative" or "you made your name explaining how to run an RPG. WTF are you doing not explaining this one?" All to do with presentation and communication.

It also feels as if Colville's done with the project somehow. We know he can do the "nerd who can barely shut up what he loves" for the camera (and Spencer Starke is doing an excellent one of those for Daggerheart right now). And ... he just isn't. If we look at Matt's YouTube plus the MCDM YouTube we've the launch party and the first episode of an actual play in the past day or so and that's it for the past six months.

I'm also wondering whether to read anything about the absence of Dael Kingsmill from the launch party when I'm pretty sure she has the missing skillset.

James Introcaso seems to be the person running point for the project based on what I’ve seen. I wouldn’t assume that means anything negative about Colville or Kingsmill.

 

[Neonchameleon]

This seems a whole lot of speculation.

Speculation based on undeniable facts

• Some of the presentation of Draw Steel (Tier 1-3 successes being the most obvious) is off
• Some of the communication (particularly to the backers) is off.
• Matt's YouTube has been remarkably quiet including on the MCDM channel

The email from Matt about the release of the game and all the future products that are in the pipeline was absolutely gushing with enthusiasm.

"The email". Singular. That may or may not have been (a) actually written by Matt and (b) written recently.

 

[TiQuinn]

Speculation based on undeniable facts

• Some of the presentation of Draw Steel (Tier 1-3 successes being the most obvious) is off
• Some of the communication (particularly to the backers) is off.
• Matt's YouTube has been remarkably quiet including on the MCDM channel

"The email". Singular. That may or may not have been (a) actually written by Matt and (b) written recently.

They’re also a very small company that could just be making some mistakes amidst their biggest release ever.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It also feels as if Colville's done with the project somehow. We know he can do the "nerd who can barely shut up what he loves" for the camera (and Spencer Starke is doing an excellent one of those for Daggerheart right now). And ... he just isn't.

I mean, I don't know re: internal drama, but re: Colville that's 100% definitely the vibe I get, but I'm kind of wondering if Colville is just always excited about things that are new/unfinished and never as excited by things that are complete? Because it feels to me (following him on Bluesky and looking back through the Patreon) that his enthusiasm for Draw Steel! diminished extremely rapidly as it got locked down/finalized rules-wise. And he seems, genuinely, to be still excited about the splatbook classes and the VTT, which are unfinished. Also he seemed more excited about The Delian Tomb than Draw Steel! itself, which is... interesting. I mean, this is what, his first RPG he's created? Maybe it's just not a process that thrills him and he's more into making content for RPGs?

My personal speculation wouldn't be so much internal drama as that a lot of the ideas he had initially really seemed to like got quite a lot of pushback ("weird dice", for example) and almost no-one seemed particularly enthusiastic about the setting (including on the Patreon, I see), when I think he was expecting a lot of "Wow cool setting" instead of "Huh I guess I can ignore the setting". Like, I kind of get his position (if that is his position, again, speculation lol), the setting is high-effort, and has some cool, quite developed ideas, I'd be a little sad if I created that and people were unmoved by it too. It reminds me a bit of how Swen Vincke loves his absolutely terrible grimdark generic fantasy rubbish setting - Rivellon - and doesn't get why more people aren't keen on it - and Orden/Timescape is a lot less rubbish, I mean, it's not rubbish it's just extremely more niche than it should be a for a game like this (imho).

They’re also a very small company that could just be making some mistakes amidst their biggest release ever.

That's entirely possible but some of them are weird mistakes to make given Colville's experience and the company's previous success. But equally maybe that is to some extent the cause? It worked before so why change anything or make more effort? If that's what happened then I think it's a bit of a mistake because launching an entire new RPG is different to launching RPG products for 5E.

Matt's YouTube has been remarkably quiet including on the MCDM channel

This is the weirdest thing to me. At the outset and early on, especially before it was "Draw Steel!", it was not the case.

(Also kinda funny noticed on the Backerkit people were suggesting names before it had a name and Draw Steel was one of them, and it was hugely downvoted, but I obviously don't know if the downvotes were "after the fact".)