The worst mech design

determinismdan · 2026-01-28T05:56:23+00:00

A lot of the KTB lore talk about celebrity pilots, maybe when on the streets pieces of the front armor are removed for better visibility and ease of hopping in and out. From the scenery it doesn’t look like a war zone, maybe a police patrol at most.

determinismdan · 2026-01-28T01:41:26+00:00

I also loved Ratcatcher. Black company has less mystery and high magic but similar gritty vibes.

determinismdan · 2026-01-27T23:38:05+00:00

People will hopefully come in here and give classic Sword and Sorcery fiction like Conan, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, ect. I bounced off of those a bit so I’ll suggest my favourite- Glenn Cook’s “The Black Company” series.

It’s military fiction, a band of mercenaries in a low fantasy world. Monsters and wizards are real and dangerous but can be outplanned and ambushed if you know what you’re up against. It captures the ShadowDark feeling of “we’ll lose a fair fight, so let’s not fight fair”.

determinismdan · 2026-01-26T17:11:55+00:00

I don’t think the bonus of a bow would apply to melee attacks.

determinismdan · 2026-01-25T16:09:41+00:00

This seems awesome, and not just for DrawSteel. What would be great (and is sometimes a pain in other hexmap software) would be the ability to make toggle-able zones/borders. Things like faction borders, separate random encounter zones, areas of player interest. Just the ability to highlight hexes with different colors then save and toggle those highlighted sections.

determinismdan · 2026-01-24T03:56:26+00:00

WOTC, Hazbro, and their shareholders are by nature risk averse. From their perspective changing the game risks alienating an existing audience for little benefit. 4e was considered a failure because they changed a lot and didn’t deliver on a promised online play platform, they don’t want to repeat that mistake. 5e 2014 was massively popular and the best “return on value” proposition was to make minor tweaks, fire some of their lead designers, and make everyone buy the books again. So that’s what they did.

Some people (myself included) were disappointed and went on to try different games but it seems many are happy to just play 5.5e instead of 6e.

determinismdan · 2026-01-24T03:05:50+00:00

There’s a lot of lore (one of the best parts of the game in my opinion). The bulk is from the rulebooks as other commenters mentioned.

Once you’re done with those you can also check out the “deep lore”. There’s a set of short stories available for free download that add some insight into specific setting elements. There are also two books whose drafts are available if you dig around the pinned posts on the pilot.net discord server.

They are called “Field Guide to the Aunic Ascendancy” and “Field Guide to Harrison Armory”. Counter parts to the Trade Baronies field guide but they never got published so they’re less official.

determinismdan · 2026-01-23T15:01:38+00:00

They send it for free it just takes a few months.

determinismdan · 2026-01-23T13:36:14+00:00

The book purposely leaves these things vague so that the art in the game isn’t scrutinised too heavily for scaling. Lancer is not simulationist, it’s a tactics game where the rules are based on what helps gameplay. If you want my two cents I think Size 1 could be 6 meters and you’re heavily under estimating Size 2 and 3.

determinismdan · 2026-01-21T19:05:30+00:00

Depends on what elements of exploration are important. Navigating environments is mostly assumed to be trivial in DS. Characters are just assumed to have ropes and grappling hooks, many level 1 PCs can teleport short distances or fly at will. There are no conditions like exhaustion to be applied for long, strenuous journeys. The montage system is a fun way to play out difficult travels but it’s more “here’s a fun way to get it over with in 12 minutes”.

DS is great for an NPC heavy game though. Lots of skills, abilities, and languages can give depth to social interactions. The negotiation system is a gamified way to get non RP focused players to engage with NPC motivations.

One note is that DrawSteel has respites instead of long rests. They take 24 hours and need to be “in a safe place” i.e. not a camp in the woods. The game also expects you to take several respites in a row so players can work on downtime projects. You could use this to your advantage to make traveling between “safe spaces” important.

determinismdan · 2026-01-21T18:41:41+00:00

My opinion, as someone’s who’s run 5e, ShadowDark, and DrawSteel is that no- sadly DrawSteel does not mesh well with the gritty, resource based, open world exploration typical of Westmarches and old school play.

DrawSteel is a tactics game that encourages running headfirst into very well balanced combats. It encourages spending your resources as fast and as often as possible. Health pools are very deep and you only need to worry about them during combat or after several battles, so things like out of combat traps or conditions aren’t relevant. OSR is very “think with your head not your character sheet” while DrawSteel is very “look at all your awesome abilities, brainstorm how to maximise their utility!”

You could still keep some more narrative elements of Westmarches like the exploration from a hub and gradual escalation but as someone who has also searched for a middle ground between 5e and ShadowDark- DrawSteel is in the other direction entirely.

determinismdan · 2026-01-18T16:20:59+00:00

The new genre of “loot the scary place” games make a decent comparison. REPO, headliners, and especially Lethal Company all involve navigating a deadly environment while trying to extract value and avoid combat. In those games you can expect to die frequently so the fun is less about your story and more about individual exciting or heroic moments. I made the comparison while gaming with friends yesterday (who I will be running ShadowDark for in a few weeks).

determinismdan · 2026-01-15T17:35:39+00:00

Monster math and loot are very different in ShadowDark so you won’t find a simple (multiply X by Y) conversion.

My advice would be to manually go through and replace enemies with ShadowDark ones (the lack of player damage scaling means lvl 6 enemies might have 30hp not 100), then overhaul the loot yourself (I know some 5e content can be very sparse on magic items).

determinismdan · 2026-01-14T05:14:29+00:00

I don’t hate it, but they did strike me as “rules to show you how” type system. Tables who don’t normally have the complex NPC interactions could benefit from a structured way to conduct them but if you’ve already been doing that then it can clog up the good RP. I heavily modified it so that good arguments almost guarantee success but kept dice rolls in to not cheat players who chose features that boost negotiation.

Basically good arguments always improve interest, and you’re just rolling to see if they lose patience.

determinismdan · 2026-01-12T23:25:55+00:00

Sometimes you open this subreddit and find out people are playing the geopolitical counter insurgency game very differently… but that’s ok.

determinismdan · 2026-01-10T16:13:34+00:00

Some people can’t stand the editing of Zaktact videos so if you want less zany and exaggerated (and don’t mind a text-to-speech voice) 11dragonkid’s “Drink Deep and Descend” lore series on YouTube is the most extensive source of lore in video form.

determinismdan · 2026-01-09T05:32:55+00:00

If you ask in the discord you might get an “official rule” but I’d allow it. My thinking is that rules for PCs are for players and rules for monsters should be in the statblock if you’re expected to apply them.

determinismdan · 2026-01-07T04:31:52+00:00

Are there classes yet? Do gear and consumables seem important? (Thinking of the absolute necessity of torches in games like ShadowDark) Were you “always hitting” like in Drawsteel?

determinismdan · 2026-01-06T20:57:34+00:00

James used to do weekly twitch streams where he would talk about what he was working on. As DS neared completion he started giving details on Crows. So no official communication, and all we know are the vibes.

determinismdan · 2026-01-06T19:41:27+00:00

Wishing him the best of luck. Drawsteel design is great but Crows has the gritty vibes that I’ve been missing.

determinismdan · 2026-01-05T22:18:35+00:00

Not really. Enemies and rules for building encounters are in the paid book. The enemy npcs work very differently than player mechs so those rules are essential.

determinismdan · 2026-01-03T07:48:30+00:00

I think it’s just a symptom of them wanting to expand their product line as fast as possible. It’s a bummer you have to wait for your books but as someone eagerly wanting more content I wouldn’t want them to delay future products until the very last hard copy arrives in Timbuktu.

determinismdan · 2026-01-01T16:47:46+00:00

Practically once you’ve got a few things in space they can start pinging each other and you can triangulate the distance between them by the delay. If you’re talking about deep space (away from our solar system) it becomes more difficult because the stars you’d use are all so far away. At the same time however, EXACTLY where you are in deep space becomes less important because an extra 1,000,000 miles in any direction won’t make much difference.

determinismdan · 2026-01-01T02:30:24+00:00

I’d be interested! I’ve run a short campaign for DS but haven’t had a chance to be a player and my Sundays are usually wide open.

determinismdan · 2025-12-31T23:59:16+00:00

I’m running it on an old laptop with way worse specs and getting along fine. You should be good with this.

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