After a relatively brief development period, Draw Steel, the MCDM Studios high-octane fantasy RPG, is officially out!
Gen Con is going strong. And so are the releases during Gen Con week. Case in point, MCDM Studios’ Draw Steel, a fantasy RPG of heroic action and tactical combat, is out now. You might be familiar with MCDM from Matt Colville’s “Running the Game” YouTube series, or from the alternate 5E classes, like The Talent or The Illrigger. Draw Steel is the studio’s bespoke fantasy RPG system, and alongside its launch, a new official version of a starter adventure and more.
Draw Steel A New Fantasy RPG From MCDM Studios
First things first, Draw Steel is for people who love the miniatures based combat of D&D. It is very much designed from the map + grid + miniatures tactical fantasy combat perspective. And little wonder. Matt Colville is a DM of the “D&D as wargame” variety and that’s the vibe here. Though Draw Steel is a little more cinematic.
The stated goal is that your character gets more powerful over the course of a lengthy battle, not less. The more you do, the cooler you are, in other words. And that seems like an exciting way to play for many people. If you want something to scratch that tactical itch in a way that something like Daggerheart, with its abstract ranges, doesn’t, Draw Steel may well have your back.
Of course, it’s not just tactical fantasy battles. There’s a ton of stuff for action-y high heroic roleplaying. You’ll find rules for montages, which are kind of like extended skill challenges that represent anything from traversing a deadly swamp to escaping a collapsing ruin. And that’s just to start.
“A new game for a new age! Draw steel is the breathtaking new, action-oriented, fantasy RPG from MCDM that’s both fun to play and fun to run! Designed for vfive players, eant to be played using maps with a grid, Draw Steel is the result of thousands of hours of testing and polish.”
There are two core rulebooks. You can get them separately or as a bundle, and you can get them physically (with accompanying PDF) or digitally (PDF only). Either way, you’ll want Draw Steel Heroes, which has all the rules for heroes and combat in Draw Steel. With more than 400 pages of character options and rules for running the game, this is the main core rulebook.
And then at least one of you (the Director), will want Draw Steel Monsters, which is the monster book. Full of hundreds of statblocks and guidelines for running dynamic encounters, this book has all the rules you need to make sure your fights stay fresh and ferocious throughout your campaign.
But it’s not just the two core rulebooks. Alongside them, a brand new official starter adventure. Draw Steel: Delian Tomb. This is an adventure designed to teach you the rules as you play – so you can just snag it and decide who wants to run the game and who wants to be a player character. And then you just go. This is an expanded version of the Delian Tomb adventure that helped kick off Matt Colville’s YouTube channel.
And for those of you who have been playtesting from the start and who know the rules already, there’s Road to Broadhurst, a free adventure designed for experienced directors who want to run Draw Steel for new players, meant to be run at cons or local stores or just among friends who are curious but not yet fully convinced.
You can find all of this at MCDM’s webstore below!
Draw steel sounds like exactly the kind of title that will get you Amelia Bedelia’d!
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