Draw Steel: Packet 4 (Pretty Much the Whole Game)

UPDATE: The surveys for this playtest packet is now closed, but you can still get the packet attached to this post.

Alright folks, here you go. 

Attached to this post are the files for Draw Steel. You’re the patrons, so this is the entire game. Heroes and Monsters. You now have all the classes, ancestries, all the careers, six inciting incidents for each career, 100 optional complications, all the titles, treasures, rules for negotiation, montage tests, research, respites, something like 400+ monster statblocks, animals, rivals, the whole shebang so to speak. Whatever a shebang is. 

These are the core rules, from here on out we just polish and balance things. Fix ambiguities, fix balance issues, more editing. But apart from whatever products might come after the core rules…this is it. Any other content we might all yearn for will have to wait for some future Draw Steel product.

Actually…I tell a lie, there are some missing bits. Stuff like…example names for all the ancestries. I’m sure there are other little bits and bobs we haven’t gotten to, but it’s basically the whole game. Very little is left to do.

All of this stuff has been through some testing, some of it has been through a LOT of testing, but this packet also represents a phase of testing. At some point next week we’ll send out the survey to get your feedback. You are absolutely encouraged to run whatever adventures or campaigns you feel like, it’s your game after all, but we also encourage you to run encounters at levels 4+ if you can. 

The surveys for this packet are now closed. We’ll revise the text based on that feedback, do some spot testing of things with our contract testers, and that will be the end of testing the core rules. 

I mean, in a sense, we’ll be testing Draw Steel for years, we plan on actively revising the game as we learn how people use it but for the first printing of the core rules, this marks the beginning of the last phase of testing. Whatever you folks discover about the game at higher levels in the next weeks and months will be the last opportunity for us to fix things before the book goes to print.

For context, this is already an incredibly well-tested game. We could always do MORE testing but it’s also sort of miraculous that we’ve manage to get to the end of 2024 and we’re still…basically…on schedule?? I’m sure there’ll be new challenges in the new year: layout, printing, shipping. There’s still a ton of art being assigned. So we’re far from “done.” But as far as the first edition of the core rules is concerned, this represents the beginning of the last phase of testing.

I think you’re going to get a blank sample character sheet with this packet? But apart from that, that’s it. There’s no adventure, no pregens, no maps, no art. It was an ENORMOUS amount of work just getting this stuff done in time.

Everyone at MCDM worked hard for many weeks and months to get the rules into this state but I want to personally add: as I was reviewing the text and seeing everything in the manuscript for the first time…I was amazed. I think this is an extraordinary game. I am enormously proud of the work everyone’s done, including our testers, our mods, and all of you, everyone who’s played Draw Steel and given feedback.

None of us know the future, lots of games come out to great fanfare but little lasting impact. But if people come to Draw Steel for the first time impressed with the level of polish they find, it will be in large part a result of the work you put into testing this game.

At the same time you folks are getting ALL the rules, the backers are getting almost all the rules. Everything except levels 4-10 of the classes. They’re also getting an updated license, so everything in the backer packet is fair game to use in your own original works. But the level 4-10 stuff appears only in the patreon packet which is not covered by the license.

There are a couple of reasons for that but the main one is obviously…this is the first chance the patrons have had to try out levels 4-10, and we want to revise the rules based on your future feedback before we deploy it to the backers. 

So you are ALSO free to make and share, even sell, your own Draw Steel content, as long as it conforms the to Creator License and doesn’t reference or include any of the class features from levels 4-10.

Final note: I specifically and personally want to thank our Lead Designer, James. Everyone at MCDM worked really hard to hit this deadline, there are many moving parts including the obvious work of a lead, but also working with the art team, working with the testers, managing the freelancers, reviewing their work. There are many tedious tasks in this process for which there is no solution except: James has to read and edit the whole thing. 

I think we have produced something special and your testing and feedback will make it even better, but the fact that we’ve hit all our deadlines thusfar (as far as I know??) is principally the result of James’ hard work. And I should also call out Gertz! Our executive producer! It’s sort of impossible to overstate how much he’s helped us stay organized so we can hit these deadlines. So on behalf of everyone, thanks James and Gertz!

That’s it folks! We can’t wait to see what you think of this. It’s a whole GAME everybody! It’s DRAW STEEL!! 

Thanks for coming on this journey folks. Thanks for being the best community in gaming.

—Matt