Draw Steel the MCDM RPG!

[mamba]

Tactical combat is its primary focus.

I’d still expect magic though, not just sword fighting

 

[g00se99994]

as a name, or the game? DC20 is not a great name, but I guess it brings the core across, Draw Steel could be anything from a core game design perspective

As a name. As a system I'm not sure.

 

[darjr]

I think it's great.

It's a movie title. Just like "Flee, Mortals!"

And like that title it's refreshing and different.

 

[TiQuinn]

I think it's great.

It's a movie title. Just like "Flee, Mortals!"

And like that title it's refreshing and different.

It’s very Matt Colville and I think from that perspective, it makes total sense. He’s got a brand and a particular voice and the name suits it well.

 

[Helena Real]

Well, we did our character creation session with my friends last night and, I have to say, it was really fun!

You have 4 major steps: ancestry, culture, career, and class. The most notable is culture which, in my opinion, is already the best implementation of the idea, as it allows each player to basically build a culture by choosing three aspects of it in different categories. Career is also very noteworthy in that it incorporates an inciting incident that gives you a solid foundation for how and why you became a hero.

The ancestry selection feels pretty varied and, what's best, it incorporates new options and/or reflavored ones that usually don't make the cut in a fantasy "core rulebook".

Classes are solid, with plenty of options to start with already.

If you have any specific questions or doubts, I'm willing to answer them. Also, we'll be uploading the character creation video in a couple of days and I'll share it here then in case people are interested to see how it works in practice.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

ones that usually don't make the cut in a fantasy "core rulebook"

Interesting - which are these? Like what sort of archetypes/concepts do they have?

Skills look pretty well developed with five groups (crafting, exploration, interpersonal, intrigue, and lore) each broken down into about a dozenish discrete skills rather than just being an afterthought. It unapologetically declares that it's not a dungeon crawler & one of the earlier packets outright suggested shadowdark if you are seeking one.

Please to hear it's not just a dungeon crawler, because initially it seemed like that was what Matt was going for - a game very much primarily focused on dungeons and tactical combat (which would have been fine, but it's nice to hear it's more), but 60 skills? Really? 60? What is this, Call of Cthulhu? When you have that many discrete skills, you cannot have heroic gameplay, in my experience. I've never seen an RPG successfully combine "gigantic number of skills" with any kind of real heroism (and yeah I'm looking at you, Exalted).

It feels like 30 skills would be pushing it hard, let alone 60. How on earth do you have 12 interpersonal skills without stepping on your own toes constantly for example? Especially as Intrigue is a whole other category! Did you mean like, a half-dozen-ish?

 

[TiQuinn]

but 60 skills? Really? 60? What is this, Call of Cthulhu? When you have that many discrete skills, you cannot have heroic gameplay, in my experience. I've never seen an RPG successfully combine "gigantic number of skills" with any kind of real heroism (and yeah I'm looking at you, Exalted).

As a GM, I can’t possibly remember all those skills. They always get boiled down to a core dozen or so. Maybe once in a while, I’ll remember something esoteric and have a roll for it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

As a GM, I can’t possibly remember all those skills. They always get boiled down to a core dozen or so. Maybe once in a while, I’ll remember something esoteric and have a roll for it.

Yeah exactly. 60 sounds clinically insane in a way that it seems like Matt Colville... just isn't. I'm really hoping that a typo or misstatement or something.

Even 30 is wild, and you've started getting down to pretty fine distinctions between skills. 60 is more than Call of Cthulhu! CoC is like 50-something and has ultra-nuanced and ultra-precise skills which frequently get in the way of gameplay in my experience. And that's where all the combat stuff is also skills, which I presume is not the case in Draw Steel!

EDIT - Particularly bizarre given early packets had like 12 skills total, if I understand correctly.

 

[TiQuinn]

Yeah exactly. 60 sounds clinically insane in a way that it seems like Matt Colville... just isn't. I'm really hoping that a typo or misstatement or something

The only way I can see that working is if not every character has the same set of skills available and it’s on the player to say what skill they want to use instead of the GM calling for a skill to be used.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The only way I can see that working is if not every character has the same set of skills available and it’s on the player to say what skill they want to use instead of the GM calling for a skill to be used.

That's gotta be it, because otherwise... woof.