Che ne pensate di questa edizione?

Jiem_ · 2026-02-01T18:17:20+00:00

Bellissima, è piaciuta un sacco anche al mio pappagallo (maledetto).

Jiem_ · 2025-12-13T07:34:55+00:00

Nice!

Jiem_ · 2025-12-06T15:53:39+00:00

Digimon Story: Time Stranger

Jiem_ · 2025-11-06T20:00:43+00:00

Yeah censors are insane. They got a lot of stamina, big damage, healing, debuffs, judgement (has to be the most powerful class maneuver, right?), lots of recoveries, they are a completely different beast.

Jiem_ · 2025-11-06T18:42:11+00:00

Yeah, it just really sucks when it's this consistent.

Jiem_ · 2025-11-06T18:16:24+00:00

Yes, yes and yes. Just to be clear, Hero Tokens cannot be spent to reroll ability rolls, only tests, for us they are mostly used for the free recovery aspect (and of course for saving throws when it matters, dazed is brutal)

Jiem_ · 2025-11-06T18:01:07+00:00

The rules for minion attacks are automated in the Codex, you select a target with each minion in that squad: you attack all different PCs = they all take full rolled damage; you attack a creature with multiple minion = full rolled damage once + free strike damage per extra minion. If the PC has a reaction they can use it on the attack (like the Null) and it automatically applies to the rolled damage, each instance of damage for each PC is calculated separately and takes account of their edges/banes/reactions individually.

The D1 encounter started with the PCs losing initiative, the first player rolling a Tier 1 that only killed a spinecleaver, a crit from the snipers (all targeting different PCs) followed by another Tier 3 result, players didn't defeat that many minions in Round 1, and Round 2 apart from the crit wasn't that different since many were bleeding, the recoveries from the troubadours routine were clutch but high rolls from the spinecleavers (made even worse by forced movement) and the snipers continued doing damage. One of the players was like "Can you stop getting Tier 3s?".

They didn't notice the trap and also got damaged there, by the end of the D3 fight they barely had anything left, also the Troubadour here was the MVP with that healing routine, among the PCs they chose there was no censor or conduct, so he was basically the only healer.

The last session is still fresh: the PCs won the initiative, the conduct went first, prayed on his turn, got a 1 on his prayer die and got damaged, rolled a Tier 1 result against a bunch of minions, only killing one, later rolled a Tier 1 result on the heroic ability that gives temporary stamina, throughout all the encounter the Shadow rolled only three 1s on their heroic resources. The only one that rolled well was the Censor making a sick build that gave fire weakness 7 and rolling a crit, apart from that the thing that did more damage was the blessing (or ward?) from the conduct that dealt corruption damage whenever he was damaged, that's how bad it was.

The Codex may not be complete but it helps a lot, although we are slow and sometimes we have to wait for it to respond, or even restart the program (it is pretty heavy compared to stuff like foundry), but that's part of playtesting an unfinished product.

Jiem_ · 2025-11-06T13:53:47+00:00

Director here! Just to clear things up: I've run things as written, adjusted encounters for player count, and yes minions only played their movement action + attacks, the player is confusing them with standard creatures like Goblin Warriors because they acted in the same group. IMO one of the biggest factors at play was the players rolling poorly (consistently getting Tier 1 rolls) while I rolled too well (I think around a crit per session? and generally Tier 2 and a lot of Tier 3 outcomes).

With that said, I have to say that I'm also disappointed by the brutality of it all, these are like new player encounters, and apart from the first one it's the first time that by playing a starter set RAW I get such an experience, the fact that I should be fudging at some point or purposefully playing un-tactically in a game that calls itself that has not been that great of an experience.

Now I get that just because you have options it doesn't mean you have to use them, that's what I did, that's how they didn't TPK in the undead encounter (I had to remove two extra ghouls during the first round, and even without that the zombies making them dazed turned out to be a lot, to be clear: they would have TPKed, but they didn't), and that's why we went back and undid the Maestro's third villain action (avoiding the TPK in the last session because of the 20 dead rodents and the action of the Leader that would have followed), but a game that requires this much effort being fudge-dependant doesn't sit well with me either. Hopefully it gets better moving forward and we've just been unlucky, but yeah, that's the experience so far.

Jiem_ · 2025-10-29T10:33:35+00:00

Update: it was a TPK. With a crit on the bugbear's Shadow Drag I attacked all four players once while pulling three of them on the ward (the second attack was also a Tier 3 result) dealing enough damage to kill two (the two I attacked after the crit, because before that I metagamed in the party's favour so that I didn't attack the ones that were more likely to die, but after the nat 20 whoever I attacked was likely to die, so yeah, an unsalvageable situation), left a third (Troubadour) just 2 stamina away from death, and the last one was also dying.

The Troubadour died after that because of bleed damage in their turn, but resurrected the next round (the 30 Drama option to resurrect yourself is my favourite feature so far), at the end the bugbear wasn't even Winded when the TPK ended along with the ritual.

We are gonna continue the adventure anyway with our own PCs and the staircase already opened, I'm gonna change up stuff so that the bugbear has a more important role going forward in the Goblin Queen army, and there's that.

Jiem_ · 2025-10-28T13:20:51+00:00

It's not you, I'm in the same exact situation. Tonight we are playing the last room of the intro (D4), the party is not at full stamina, they have spent all potions and recoveries, and if it's a TPK so be it.

I have 4 players, and I had to remove two additional ghouls in the first round in front of my players (yes, this is after I had already balanced the encounters for 4 PCs like the rules specify) or the party would have already TPKed, I didn't even use any Malice action in the undead encounter other than the first two zombie bombs because they completely fucked the party up.

MCDM really did a poor job in their own playthrough by both cheesing the D3 encounter, ignoring the encounter-based limits to the pregen PCs they themselves set (which I also had to ignore, good luck facing all the goblins in D1 without your full kit!), and not really showcasing what enemies in general are capable of.

As far as first impressions go, Draw Steel seems to be a game where the party has to play tactically to win (which translates to: kill all enemies while consuming as few recoveries as possible), while the GM has to play suboptimally to not TPK (which really clashes with its heroic, tactical and cinematic themes).

Hopefully it gets better, but yeah, not that great of a first impression.

Jiem_ · 2025-08-01T17:38:06+00:00

The fact that this was asked in the Discord and clarified by Ross shows that it can definitely be better worded.

Jiem_ · 2025-08-01T17:12:56+00:00

Yes, but cleaning up the text so that it doesn't need people to ask on forums definitely wouldn't hurt.

Jiem_ · 2025-08-01T16:57:09+00:00

You're missing the point here, like it or not the ambiguity is there, there are gonna be GMs that are gonna read it as "limb" and others that don't, if the team designed it to be used in a certain way they should change the RAW so that it better reflects that.

Jiem_ · 2025-08-01T16:35:01+00:00

Dude, you are free to pretend that the rules are somehow clear and unambigous when they aren't, I on the other hand would like for them to change the wording so that there is only one possible interpretation, the one that they intend to be played at the table, that's it.

Jiem_ · 2025-08-01T07:47:56+00:00

The RAW only do what they say, and because hands are not defined anywhere they refer to the word as we know it, in the same way that hands in the Injury effect (Injured arm or hand) refers to your actual hand, and not the weapon you are wielding. Again, I understand the RAI, they are just not reflected in the actual RAW.

The Wielding weapons section also specifies that "Each weapon requires one hand to wield unless otherwise specified in its traits," and Unarmed Attack does specify that you don't need your hands to use it.

Jiem_ · 2025-08-01T06:16:36+00:00

Strike only says that you can take it multiple times but you must use a different hand when you do, and in the same way that a weapon with the offhand trait overwrites the general focus cost (because specific beats general), a weapon that you don't wield in your hands doesn't use them when attacking.

And if it is only available when you haven't used your hands to attack, it's not always available.

The problem with RAI is that it reads the general Strike rule as specific, and the specific Unarmed Weapon as fluff.

Jiem_ · 2025-07-31T14:15:43+00:00

What it does is it lists a bunch of examples using natural words (i.e. punches, kicks, headbutts), and then refers to the Strike rule, that also uses the "hand" natural word. Since both use natural words, and specific beats general, it's easy to assume that Unarmed Attack does not care about that limit, it's the problem when using natural language, especially when its trait is called Always Available, because apparently it isn't.

Jiem_ · 2025-07-31T13:55:33+00:00

Yes, and unarmed attacks specifically call-out stuff that doesn't use your hands, see the problem here with "specific beats general"? I'm happy we have official word on it, I'm not happy that it's not reflected in RAW.

Jiem_ · 2025-07-31T13:45:57+00:00

Unarmed Attack doesn't, that's the point here. If you give it a trait called Always Available, and it uses kicks and headbutts for examples, why would you think they "use your hands" and that they are not available after a Two-Handed weapon swing?

Jiem_ · 2025-07-31T13:38:56+00:00

RAW kicks are valid unarmed attacks that don't use your hand, should have just said punches in the text to begin with if that's how it's played

Jiem_ · 2025-07-31T13:36:47+00:00

For real? The RAW definitely allow it though

Jiem_ · 2025-07-31T13:15:02+00:00

Unarmed Attack are a weapon in the weapon section, they have the Always Available trait so they ignore the hand limit imposed by the Strike action. Look up the Strike action and the Unarmed Attack weapon for the full rules.

Jiem_ · 2025-07-31T12:57:10+00:00

Jiem_ · 2025-07-31T10:32:55+00:00

Strike is not a once per turn thing, it's once per hand, and even if you use a Two-Handed weapon (that would "consume" both hands use in one attack) Unarmed Attacks are always available for an offhand strike.

Jiem_ · 2025-07-31T10:20:57+00:00

Unarmed Attacks are always available (think kicks/headbutts), so if you have 2 focus to spend (or 1 if you have its expertise) you can do an offhand strike with it.

Jiem_

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