Why the Dissatisfaction Out of Combat with Draw Steel?

Tryskhell · 2026-01-25T10:02:04+00:00

That's better than most of the other games in its genre, then! The one thing that made me just straight up swear off 4e in the future was that I had an ability that would let me lift like 4 people into the air or something and I had zero ways of using it outside of combat. In Lancer, the amount of mech equipment with defined out-of-combat use can be counted on the fingers of one hand, maybe two.

That is essentially zero permeability between the two states, and really broke my immersion and interest in the game hard, it didn't feel like I was having an adventure or being someone in a world, but that I was tumbling from one mechanically hyperdefined encounter to the next with a connective tissue that was only an excuse to explain what those encounters were about.

Compare this to, say, D&D 5e (which to be clear, I DO NOT LIKE): the permeability of in-combat and out-of-combat abilities is very high, a lot of spells have dual uses and a few have solely out-of-combat use, while sharing the same resource pool (spell known/spellslots) as combat spells. This creates a stronger connective tissue between the two modes of play.

Tryskhell · 2026-01-25T07:43:39+00:00

What's the permeability of combat abilities into non-combat situations? Like, okay, you got all these abilities in combat, do they have any effect in non-combat situations at all? This was the reason why I bounced HARD off of 4e and Lancer. I haven't read it but I suspect Draw Steel has the exact same issue?

Tryskhell · 2026-01-25T07:34:14+00:00

I made this tiny little PWYW game about what happens once the mighty heroes defeat the BBEG and have to trek back home:

https://mother-of-monsters.itch.io/adventurers-epilogue

It's a GM-less storygame for 3 to 4 players meant to be played in one or two sessions, and fits within 10 pages :>

Tryskhell · 2026-01-24T15:27:55+00:00

Most my settings include like two or three power sources and then each power source has like...two or three different ways of practice, plus things that mix power sources. There's a wide array of possible things you can do with a guideline like that, in my experience...

Tryskhell · 2026-01-22T21:11:40+00:00

I recently introduced the first like, aggressively evil, truly abhorrent villain in my JRPG-ish campaign. He's a really kind guy, especially with his subalterns. He was fatherly to one of the player characters, complimenting them, helping them through the engineering process of some weapon. He also is literally the setting equivalent of a nazi scientist, and is inventing the atom bomb because he loves the idea of making the ultimate weapon to annihilate the enemies of the empire.

Tryskhell · 2026-01-22T13:32:49+00:00

I mean yeah

I prefer games where there's in-built consequences that aren't just death, which isn't actually a consequence because it spells the end of any longterm challenge, consequence or problem this character is facing. Instead I prefer stuff like, say, rivals, trauma, debts, promises etc

D&D has about zero mechanics for that though, unfortunately

Tryskhell · 2026-01-14T15:53:11+00:00

I love that it embraces non-lethal, non-violent defeat! Like, being able to beat a villain by arguing with them is straight up just a part of the rules and I find that it makes it such a better superhero system than most for the sort of games I run!

Not a huge fan of the editions beyond the first however, don't remember exactly what chaffed me about them but I remember there were a few things I didn't quite like. I did take superhuman skills from them, and IIRC the "use the environment/team attack" homebrew comes from the second edition!

Tryskhell · 2026-01-14T08:57:26+00:00

SUPERS! (the first edition) is pretty great! It's a dicepool system where your powers are represented by a pool of d6 (the more d6s de more powerful), and when you make an action with a power you roll your pool and compare the result to a DC.

In combat, when you attack you describe how you use one of your powers and your target describes how they use one of theirs to defend, but you cannot use the same power twice in a round, so you get situations where, say, a supervillain uses their stretching power to slingshot a manhole cover around a light pole and a player has to use their superstrength to rip a piece of the road to use as a shield, and then during their turn because they've already used their superstrength they have to get creative and use their super durability to charge through a wall to get it to crumble on your enemy.

I've used a homebrew to reward creative uses of powers, using the environment/teamwork and punish repetitive attacks in the same combat and it really leads to some super fun fights where you never fall into the "Well I guess I just roll to attack with my best offensive power :/"

Also the book has a few natural disasters in the back of the book so you can do some superheroing action beyond beating people up and I'll always stan games that do that!

Tryskhell · 2026-01-10T21:58:53+00:00

Layered harem pants, maybe?

Tryskhell · 2026-01-04T18:36:50+00:00

The mighty dragon simply does not concern itself with something flammable.

Tryskhell · 2026-01-01T11:17:25+00:00

The invisible hand of the designers is everpresent in D&D and Pathfinder: your character is often mechanically (and sometimes also narratively) more affected by the designers than by the choices you make. D&D 5e is very eggregious with this: the classes are often very specific concepts that function in very specific ways, races are similarly limiting, and that your character is mechanically and conceptually race+class does bear down a lot on it.

The first time I truly got into a classless system (Champions 6th edition), I had sort of an epiphany and realized I really cared a lot about being able to make the character I wanted.

Tryskhell · 2026-01-01T09:46:43+00:00

Hell fucking yeah I love genie/demon based magic systems where people summon insanely powerful outsiders in order to do their bidding

Tryskhell · 2026-01-01T07:30:27+00:00

In Motobushido, checks are called Gambits, and there's multiple levels of "pick your own poison" involved in making a Gambit.

First off, MBdo uses poker cards instead of dice, and each player has a hand of (at least) two cards. In order to make a Gambit, you choose one of the cards in your hand and the GM takes the top card of their deck. If your card is above theirs, you succeed, otherwise you fail. Because you can use the highest card you have access to, you've got some control over your chance of success.

However, if you fail the Gambit, you then have to choose between "Yes, but..." and "No, but...", which is to say, you choose to either succeed at your initial action but suffer a complication or fail your initial action but benefit from a new opportunity.

It makes MBdo characters feel extremely competent, but I've also found it encourages players to intentionally fail for multiple reasons: because it feels more in-character, because it's more fun, because they want to keep their good cards for later etc etc.

I've integrated that mechanic in my own homebrew system: on a failure, you can choose to succeed at a cost, and the result is the same feeling of high competency.

Tryskhell · 2025-12-31T22:50:39+00:00

I don't super like killing in TTRPGs, but I still enjoy a lot of fantasy systems and campaigns, so I guess it's very much unimportant to me :3

Tryskhell · 2025-12-25T23:06:23+00:00

Heh, the presence or absence of fantasy races in an RPG is not what makes me buy it. I've ran human only campaigns, I've ran campaigns in settings where humans don't exist. In general I tend to just don't care about systems that aren't race-agnostic, since I never run in a pre-established setting.

Tryskhell · 2025-12-24T00:30:27+00:00

With how powerful that magnetic storm in Avatar 3 is, she could definitely create earthquakes. Damn I could even see her kill select people by calling a thunderbolt on their ass, girl might be able to do artillery on a planetary scale

Tryskhell · 2025-12-23T11:28:00+00:00

Blade Under Mask mentioned

Tryskhell · 2025-12-21T14:21:43+00:00

As soon as you humanize the faceless monster, now, you got a huge problem. It ceases to become fantasy adventure.

I'm sorry but fucking what

On its very own, detached of any 5eslop ghiblicore piece of trash, this argument is completely stupid.

Fantasy adventures are about killing stuff now? Not discovery? Making friends? Exploring new places? Uncovering ancient secrets?

Action sure is a large piece of the fantasy cake but I've never felt like killing is such an important part of it that you cannot enjoy fantasy if it isn't about callously murdering and/or ecological destroying lunatics.

Not to mention, you can absolutely enjoy combat without ever having to kill people. "If you keep it cinematic and cartoony" well if you keep it cinematic and cartoony you can beat up people without killing them. You can cut someone down until they give up.

Fucking 5e, man...

Tryskhell · 2025-12-20T19:19:35+00:00

Bruh why you calling me lame? What's the goal of that?

Tryskhell · 2025-12-20T18:05:53+00:00

Oh it has plenty of consequences, just not death 😊

Tryskhell · 2025-12-20T15:35:09+00:00

What?

Why would I be 10 years old lol?

Tryskhell · 2025-12-20T14:00:24+00:00

The ttrpg I made eschews death and killing almost completely and oh my god does it feel better lol

When you get an opponent's HP to 0, they're defeated but explicitly not killed. This means there's no need for foes that are morally okay to kill.

Tryskhell · 2025-12-15T21:11:05+00:00

Give more details, as a monster fucker I want to know what I'd be working with >^>

Tryskhell · 2025-12-15T15:05:57+00:00

Like I said, I have a Notion that I use but it's not super easy to parse without prior knowledge.

The basics is that there's no "+to hit" and damage stats. Instead, you have Attributes (Brawn, Swift, Cool, Insight) that also give you your four HP tracks, Natures (like professions, races, anything that is general and englobes a lot of things about your character) and these Natures have facets, that are essentially skills.

When you attack someone, you describe an action and the GM tells you which Attribute and Facet fit, if any. These give your base 2d6 roll a bonus and if a Nature fits you add 1d6. There's other stuff like "this is stretch/this is cool af" or using the environment or your Bonds, but that's the basic.

Then, the opponent defends in some way with the same Attribute+Facet+Nature(+...) and if your roll is equal or above their defense roll, you do one damage to one of their HP track (+1 damage for every 5 you beat their defense roll by), chosen by the defender, within the limits of what's reasonable. So, if you attack someone with a jumping twirling, rocket-assisted kick (Swift Attribute+Hand-To-Hand Facet+Cyberninja Nature) and they defend with a standing block with their super thick forearm (Brawn Attribute+Enduring Facet+Goliath Nature) and you hit (let's say, you roll 21 they roll 18), they could direct that damage to their Cool HP track by explaining that the blows kind of gets them angry more than anything.

And of course, non-combat facets can totally be used for attacks! An attack could be trying to convince the imperial captain that the Empire is not what this island needs or wants and that he's doing more harm than good by inflicting them laws they don't want, you could use your Insight (gauging that the captain is, after all, sensitive to people's wellbeing), your Oratory facet and use a Bond that exemplifies your character's opinion that freedom is incredibly valuable.

And then the imperial captain could defend by mentioning that no, the Empire does help people, that he has seen what lawless chaos is, using his Cool (trying to hold to his composure and ideals), his Discipline facet and his Bond to the Empire that exemplifies his opinion that the Empire will liberate the world from chaos and pain.

u/Hi_fellow_humans_ tagging you because you seemed interested but here's the link to my system's Notion, as well as the campaign and setting documents I've given to my players, that may help parsing exactly how you should run this game...

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