Early August Playtest Q&A
Added 2024-08-06 19:40:43 +0000 UTCIt's time for another Live Q&A with me (James) and Dael Kingsmill! The stream will start at 4pm Pacific US Time on Thursday, August 8th! We'll post the link here on Patreon when we go live. It is for MDCM Plus Patrons only.
This Q&A is going to be focused on the packet that you all got at the end of July! If you got questions about how things came to be, why certain decisions were made, or what's to come, James has answers. As a heads up, we don't want this to turn into rules clarifications hour, if you looking for that kind of thing, come hang out in the Discord.
(Don't forget to fill out the survey to give us your feedback on the game!)
Post your burning questions about the packet below. Dael is going to go through them and summarize for me. We'll also take questions live!
See you Thursday (or on the VOD after)!
-James
Comments
Check the 1s-level domain features! Those are all out-of-combat, I think, or can be used that way.
Simzak
2024-08-11 23:12:39 +0000 UTCYou've said you have a plan to have at least 9 classes in the core rules, and you've mentioned working on the Talent, Troubadour, Censor, and Null, in addition to the five we already have. If you manage to include more than 9 classes, what classes would you want to include?
WaywardWasp
2024-08-08 20:07:21 +0000 UTCSome classes can do stuff out of combat. What about the Conduit? It seems like he can‘t do anything outside of combat or am I missing something?
Gustavo
2024-08-08 19:35:24 +0000 UTCHow important do you consider interesting terrain (elevation, difficult terrain, stuff that deals damage when shoved into) to be to combat in Draw Steel?
Tamwin
2024-08-08 19:34:30 +0000 UTCHow do you think you will come out with additional classes after you send out the complete books?
Ben Mortensen
2024-08-08 15:58:51 +0000 UTCI love the writing in the Ancestries section. It really does give a good feel for what each ancestry is like, be they Memonek or Human or whatever. Do you plan on keeping them that long, or are they going to be cut down? I also love having distinct members of each ancestry and seeing them interact. Are we going to see Sir John and his party popping up in more places in the rulebooks?
Michael LaRowe
2024-08-08 15:25:26 +0000 UTCSorry that sounded condescending, I mean that you probably think through the whole fantasy first before you start making your character :-))
Jake Walsh
2024-08-08 14:54:17 +0000 UTCDon’t forget step 1! Think!
Jake Walsh
2024-08-08 14:51:55 +0000 UTCIf the Talent will be one of the classes in the core rules, do you still plan to use the void mage as one of the core elements? They seem to have a lot of overlap and maybe something like rot or water would be more distinct?
Inge
2024-08-08 14:09:28 +0000 UTCWill there be subclasses that cross class boundaries a bit? I.e a spellcasting Tactician that uses supernatural abilities to move their team, or an Elementalist of Steel or something that gets Martial kits with casting bonuses or the like? Kits seem to be a way of differentiating, but having a bit of specialization into some combinations would help, especially without a melding or multiclassing system (which is good). -Gwyn
Hayden Kelley
2024-08-08 14:03:03 +0000 UTCIn character creation, it seems most of the time when talking with a player about their character, they'll start by telling me what combat fantasy they want to fulfill, which often leads to us starting with their class pick. Similarly, the rules state "Your class provides you with most of your abilities." What was the rationale for putting the most impactful selection (class) fifth? Is the recommendation to follow through character creation sections chronologically? Will you James, personally, come to our houses to take our books if we don't?? If yes, can I get an autograph???
Ari Begbie
2024-08-08 13:49:25 +0000 UTCRelatedly, will the game ship with a DM screen / other tokens? Or will those be produced later for purchase?
Dylan Bederman
2024-08-08 13:49:05 +0000 UTCAre you planning on shipping the game with 20 sided d10s? If no, do you think you'll produce / sell them?
Dylan Bederman
2024-08-08 13:45:59 +0000 UTCIs the vision for future packets more akin to how it was done with Daggerheart (i.e. "Here's the whole new rules with a change log") or Flee Mortals (i.e. "we've finished what may be not-the-final-draft of this content - here ya go") or is it some 3rd thing or no thing at all?
Michael Skelly
2024-08-08 12:30:57 +0000 UTCWould the layout team consider moving all of the Timescape, Orden and Vasloria Lore content into a Campaign Setting Appendix? Sifting through the pages to find the benefits of each ancestry is off putting. The Culture and Career section were well done in this regard. The design of the Devil ancestry is awesome. Would the design team consider doing a similar glow up for other ancestries? Options! We need options!
Kenneth Michael
2024-08-08 11:47:21 +0000 UTCCharacter creation has already proved to be very fun with the various elements creating already much more fleshed-out characters than I've seen from the Seattle game. However, it feels like transcribing your character to a character sheet is very difficult, let alone having to change your kit bonuses or swap out abilities at higher levels. Basically, right now it seems like the game will be very convenient to play digitally on the codex but potentially quite tedious on paper. What are the current plans or suspicions as to how the team will address this problem?
Ari Begbie
2024-08-08 11:30:58 +0000 UTCHow Orden / Vasloria focused will the monster book be? Some of the VP abilities in the packet are focused around Ajax. How will certain monsters / stat blocks work in a world that doesn’t have Ajax?
Jake Walsh
2024-08-08 11:18:54 +0000 UTCWell, there are 10 ancestries other than humans - do time raider buildings also conform to a grid? ;) Thank you for the answer, that's reasonable.
Seraphim_MTG
2024-08-08 08:59:04 +0000 UTCHumans don't tend to build structures with 72⁰ internal angles. So if you want your battlemat to conform with normal buildings, that's a grid. -M
MCDM Productions
2024-08-08 08:03:18 +0000 UTCOur current plan is to release a license along with the backer packet. At that point folks will be free to do whatever they want with the rules and setting. -M
MCDM Productions
2024-08-08 08:01:12 +0000 UTCNot for the sake of doing it, but if we feel like something we're working on would benefit from using those rules, absolutely. For instance once we start working on the Vasloria box set, I think warfare is going to be a big part of that. I think intrigue will find its way into the Capital box. That kind of stuff. -M
MCDM Productions
2024-08-08 08:00:18 +0000 UTCWe spent a long time trying to crack that problem and we couldn't do it. The reality is our fantasy setting was not designed for this game. The game was designed with a four pillars we talked about from the beginning, none of which were "be faithful to Orden." So in the end something had to give, and it was the lore. But we did think about it a lot! And it would be great to get more different kinds of spellcasters in the game eventually. So who knows? Maybe we'll crack it later. -M
MCDM Productions
2024-08-08 07:58:00 +0000 UTCI adore that kits are available to any class, and while the playtest includes a huge variety, it also clarifies that there are plenty to come. My question is twofold, a) can you give a preview of what other play styles you wish to represent, and b) do you think presenting a rough outline for making our own kits is a possibility or do you believe that the kits currently present serve as enough example to make our own? At what point do you as a team say “they don’t need any more it’s fairly straight forward”
Ben Milne
2024-08-08 04:46:07 +0000 UTCI loved how Dael renamed her powers in Dusk, and find myself wanting to do the same thing. e.g. as a Fate Conduit instead of using Punishing Smite I’d rather use Weight of Destiny. Is this something you’re seeing more broadly? And if so, do you think it needs an explicit callout in the rules, or not so much?
Jonathan Rowan
2024-08-07 23:16:10 +0000 UTCIn the playtest, will we have monster creation rules? I intend to run a campaign with the playtest material, and that would be super useful for us Directors.
Diego Herval
2024-08-07 16:33:35 +0000 UTCHow does/will VP work for solo monsters, especially not of a faction? Will they just have more VP abilities?
Katze
2024-08-07 14:29:03 +0000 UTCUnfortunately haven't gotten my game started yet. So I'll be sitting this one out.
DiscipleWanderer
2024-08-07 14:27:33 +0000 UTCI have a question about the Elementalist. In The Chain, y'all established that in your setting, speaking the true name of a wizard removes their ability to use magic. Do you have plans to replicate this for The Elementalist or the Shadow?
Caleb Fasnacht
2024-08-07 11:42:53 +0000 UTCI see. Thank you.
Jacob Montague
2024-08-07 10:05:07 +0000 UTCAre there plans to recreate all the MCDM 5e design in DS? I mean things like companion animals, retainers, warfare, strongholds
Ben Irvin
2024-08-07 08:49:40 +0000 UTCIs Draw Steel designed around a specific tone or mood within the broader heroic fantasy genre? For example, The Lord of the Rings can be quite earnest and sombre in its storytelling, while The Avengers often make quippy jokes. I can see this being important because Draw Steel abilities are named in an evocative way, rather than just for their function.
Brandon
2024-08-07 07:02:32 +0000 UTCI assume you have an idea for when you want to encourage people (in the Discord, etc) to share their own creations, is that something you can share?
Jon de Nor
2024-08-07 06:49:08 +0000 UTCWhy a grid instead of hexes? And can we ask for hex support for the VTT / the game in general? (this is probably a repeat since I'm new but I couldn't find an answer, might be on me)
Seraphim_MTG
2024-08-07 06:29:05 +0000 UTCThere may be Lesser Elements, but those are the foundational seven. Other elements would probably be combinations of those seven. Rot + Void for instance. -M
MCDM Productions
2024-08-07 04:14:33 +0000 UTCProbably not. We only need "about three" subclasses per class right now. We didn't invent seven elements because we thought we could fit seven subclasses in the book, we just thought "these seven seem like the right seven" and then from there we pick which three or four get subclasses in the core book. -M
MCDM Productions
2024-08-07 04:13:51 +0000 UTCThanks Matt, love the teams commitment to the weird (and the blue oyster cult 😉)
Mariamow
2024-08-07 04:10:27 +0000 UTCAmazing! Appreciate the answer.
Chad Desrosiers
2024-08-07 04:09:24 +0000 UTCCharacters already have lots of non-combat abilities! Like the Stormwight Fury can talk to animals and in bear-form gains bonus renown when negotiating with bears! They're the King of the Bears! :D -M
MCDM Productions
2024-08-07 04:09:24 +0000 UTCYeah we think there will be a two-page spread with general Ancestry info like lifespan and stuff like that. That's where the Example Names will live and maybe some advice on how to concoct new ones. -M
MCDM Productions
2024-08-07 04:08:26 +0000 UTCThe Operator did not make the cut, alas. We don't have any weird timescape classes (though personally I think Talents are the common caster in the Timescape and Elementalists are rare, and this situation is reversed on Orden) but we have a couple of weird Timescape ancestries! We're already looking forward to working on the Operator once the core rules are in layout, and we'll post it here once it's gone through some internal testing, presuming nothing weird happens. So you'll still get it! It just won't be in the core book. -M
MCDM Productions
2024-08-07 04:04:07 +0000 UTCHas the Operator been axed from the core book? Will there be another Timescape teaser class included instead?
Mariamow
2024-08-07 02:39:35 +0000 UTCCan you give any sneak peeks on additional kits that will be available?
Orion Delwaterman
2024-08-07 02:21:24 +0000 UTCAre there any plans to include naming convention advice for characters from specific Ancestries or anything of the like? In a lore supplement? Everything I’ve seen of that so far is awesome. I love high elf names.
Chad Desrosiers
2024-08-07 02:00:31 +0000 UTCHow do you playtest research?
McKenzie Byrne
2024-08-07 00:39:42 +0000 UTCAre you foreseeing more non combat special abilities or even powers other than skills in the future? Are you planning on some classes/subclasses to be more focused on non combat utility than others or for it to be more balanced?
Sylvie Smith
2024-08-07 00:30:46 +0000 UTCHow do you think the power roll’s tier cutoffs (set at 12 and 17) will affect potential stat increases as PCs level up? Do you intend higher tier results to be more common at higher levels?
Ryan Parsons
2024-08-06 23:48:43 +0000 UTCI'm most excited to learn more about the Troubadour class as that is a favorite archetype of mine and I'm eager to see how MCDM will realize it for this game. What are some of the difficulties in developing classes like the Troubadour and Censor that can be somewhat martial as well as magical, as opposed to the existing classes which lean more in one direction or the other?
Anarchist Entertainment
2024-08-06 23:34:54 +0000 UTCDo you plan to publish more monsters and other game elements on patron by themselves, or will they be avalible only in the next packet?
Inge
2024-08-06 23:10:35 +0000 UTCThe fantasy for the ancestries seems to outstrip the mechanics in some cases. Will the final ancestries specify more about the capabilities of the ancestries? For example, it is implied that time raiders can survive in space with just a rebreather, but not codified anywhere.
Gogo M
2024-08-06 23:08:30 +0000 UTCI’d be curious to hear about the design evolution of the caster kits. Martial kits are easy enough to conceptualize / come up with archetypes for, but caster seems like it must’ve been tougher. How did you come up with dancer, missile, ward weaver, etc., and how do you determine what archetypes are more “kit” and what’s more “class”. EX ice=Frigid kit vs water=elementalist subclass
Alex Nelli
2024-08-06 23:05:02 +0000 UTCWhat is your approach to ancestry development? How do you approach making each ancestry feel unique, flavorful and balanced?
Christian Keegan
2024-08-06 22:53:35 +0000 UTCAs confirmed (well, as confirmed as anything can be at this stage) on the Discord that the Talent will be in, instead of the Summoner, can you talk to us about the Talent's resource? You'd mentioned some issues with having a negative resource, and how it's so much different from the other classes. Is Strain still on the table as a negative resource, or have you moved away from that design? Or do you not know yet?
Micah Peltier
2024-08-06 22:04:04 +0000 UTCWould you be able to explain the design philosophy behind healing in the demo? It’s very different to most d20 fantasy
Jake Walsh
2024-08-06 21:48:34 +0000 UTCIs there gonna be more explicit support for mixing martial classes/kits with caster classes/kits, or Gishes in general? It kind of already works, especially with Tactician, but still feels slightly unintended. Its my favorite archetype!
Colorful
2024-08-06 21:30:30 +0000 UTCOur table is loving the Packet! My players, specifically our Tactician, loves the Kits. I was wondering about how kits will grow from here and scale throughout leveling up, and if there is a possibility of rebalancing Kits slightly so it's somewhat viable for a martial class to have a caster kit, and vice versa. I know the Discord loves the idea of having that, and my players wanted me to ask. Thank you again so much for all the hard work!!
Mitchell Stevenson
2024-08-06 21:16:29 +0000 UTCFor the feedback survey, what should we do if something didn't come up in our game, but is required on the survey? Mark it 3?
Jacob Montague
2024-08-06 21:12:23 +0000 UTCMy group and I are really enjoying the packet so far. This is probably the most fun they've had creating characters and they haven't complained about combat slog once, they're very engaged. One of my players messaged me after the first session saying this should be our go-to system. Anyway, I have a question about the human enemies. Are the human villain powers specific to the Fall of Blackbottom adventure/ the Hawklords faction, or can we expect many human enemies to be calling for giant hawks? Will we see multiple human factions in the final game?
Kuroshi
2024-08-06 20:24:46 +0000 UTCIs there any concern with Player Characters of classes that are able to generate/utilize Heroic Resources outside of combat being heavily leaned on to address non-combat scenes/tests in the mid/late adventure stage for the benefit of the party? I recognize the scope of this type of scenario is quite limited in the playtest, but I could imagine in the larger design, some player groups that could get into the habit of seeing every noncombat encounter as a nail for which to apply the "burn essence" hammer without much consequence because of the short recovery time.
Scott Davis
2024-08-06 20:22:44 +0000 UTCSome Rules clarifications that we weren't able to work out on Discord: How do damage bonuses (such as from Goblin Underboss, Goblin Cursespitter, or Death Cultist) work with minion Free strike values? If someone falls from 5 squares up, and lands on top of a 1 square creature, do they take 4 or 5 squares of falling damage? Can you move diagonally across a corner? Diagonally between two squares of difficult terrain, without being effected?
Tamwin
2024-08-06 20:17:53 +0000 UTCHi! I’m super interested in how the Conduit has changed and evolved since the first playtest a few months ago. It looks like a lot got changed. Also - curious about future content changes to that class specifically? I.E. More deities, portfolios and most importantly, Organizational tools to help keep things straight for character creation? Feels really easy to get bogged down with in-the-moment decision making.
Josh Goodwin
2024-08-06 20:15:24 +0000 UTCWill we get all of the Elementalist elements in the base game?
Jacob Montague
2024-08-06 20:15:09 +0000 UTCObviously the 7 elements are core to the elementalist and the last 3 are coming. Is there any plan for more elements in the future?
Jake Walsh
2024-08-06 20:14:17 +0000 UTCWhy didn't we see magical weapons (treasure) included in this packet and what sorta design experiments or thoughts do you have around them with this new core dice system?
Gus Galarnyk
2024-08-06 20:14:02 +0000 UTCI'd like to dive into the inciting incidents , namely why not allow a list of them that are potentially universal? Like there's a criminal who got Robbed or a Soldier who wants to Live the Dream of their dead ally or a Mage apprentice who was betrayed? I ask because while I understand there's a lot that can be personal or only applicable to one or two backgrounds, it feels like a those I listed and more can make a more potentially unique heroes from any background
That black guy
2024-08-06 20:09:39 +0000 UTCFor character creation: first I loved the process of creating characters with my players, it really helped to immerse them, to prompt me to answers questions about my unique campaign setting that helped build out the world and allows players to feel invested in that world and feel like there were stakes, and then a lot of the prompts already provided were so evocative that a lot of players almost immediately had an option that they gravitated towards, so big congrats on all of that hard work! The ONE thing that came up as a bit of an edge case is with a player that didn't like the idea of an inciting incident being based around "loss". To me, the rather generalized use of having something "lost" that must be "found" or "searched for" is the foundational struggle of all Hero stories and epics (The Call to Adventure), so it makes total sense to me, but it was an interesting point of friction for one player when generating a PC. I think it had to do with their play-style, not wanting to jump in after a character development beat like an inciting incident, and wanting to experience that at the table instead. After that contextual preamble (sorry Dael if you're reading all that), are there plans for expanding that inciting incident, or perhaps working on how that's presented to players? Loss is a great motivator, but sometimes for heroic fantasy it can feel a downbeat rather than a launch-off. I personally love it (drama!), just wondering if some players (like my edge-case) might feel like losing something from the get-go isn't the tone they want with their play experience. But gaining something might be (finding magic (or sentient) weapon, a patron's favor, being gifted a puppy that absolutely will not be killed by mobsters when robbing your character on a highway that will absolutely not involve the dismantling, eradication, and thorough bloody and destructive path of ruin that said player character carves through to get to the few thugs that caused their misfortune... and maybe involves a wooden writing instrument of some sort...) Just saying... love the work, players having a blast, I'm having a blast, this game is a blast. Rock on!
Montage
2024-08-06 20:09:15 +0000 UTCAs I looked at the powers in the packet I noticed that among current powers there were none that I noticed that had a chance of friendly fire in the AoE powers. Was that a conscious decision and if so what inspired it? I noticed when I considered using the marauder furies triggered action to get a little extra movement by using allied aoe's and couldn't find a power currently available to enable it.
Devan Boone
2024-08-06 20:01:19 +0000 UTCWith 4 more classes, 9 more levels of play, and presumably a (figurative) ton of monsters coming down the pike, can we expect to see a greater quantity of playtest packets at a greater cadence?
Stephen
2024-08-06 20:01:11 +0000 UTCIm curious how size changing mechanics like the stormright turning into a bear interact with the map. If the fury has adjacent tokens to them, are those enemies displaced or do they occupy the fury's space?
Beltux
2024-08-06 19:55:26 +0000 UTCWhat was the thought process for only Level 1 for this packet, with up to 3 being prototyped, was there something specific that held the other levels back for this packet? Or will further packets be level based as opposed to tier based?
JBR
2024-08-06 19:53:36 +0000 UTCHello, I'm deeply enjoying the packet, and cannot wait until my group playtests in a little bit. As an artist working on a piece of art (This Game), what was the section you had the most fun working on?
Caleb Fasnacht
2024-08-06 19:50:29 +0000 UTCThank you Dael for hosting these streams! I love that we have such an amazing patron saint of the community!
Robin Baggett
2024-08-06 19:49:48 +0000 UTCIn the previous packet we saw boss monsters with a trait that gave them multiple turns per round. I didn't see anything like that in this packet. Has this mechanic been abandoned, and if so can you say anything about why it didn't work?
Gerald Duncan
2024-08-06 19:49:26 +0000 UTCMan I am SUPER interested in what kind of Qs we get now that y'all have THE PACKET. -M
MCDM Productions
2024-08-06 19:42:41 +0000 UTC
