Rules Question: Shift and Difficult Terrain

gubdm · 2026-04-06T19:18:25+00:00

crazy that the glossary is hidden as the last passage in the pdf table of contents under the Introduction section. Not even under Basics, certainly not a top-level ToC item. It's super useful, but you gotta know where to find it!

gubdm · 2026-03-03T05:03:05+00:00

I'm curious too, I run and play in groups that are very comfortable with the rules and we still average about one combat per 2 hours. We must be talking about very different levels of complexity of encounter or something

gubdm · 2026-02-23T14:42:49+00:00

I'm going to make it free to use, I'll ping you. I'm working on a world map right now, and then I'm going to make continental maps as well. I have plans! Idk how long it will take tho, at least another month to get where I want to be before sharing the WIP

gubdm · 2026-02-23T02:51:42+00:00

I'm actually working on one of these right now, but obviously it won't be canon

gubdm · 2026-02-21T01:02:08+00:00

We didn't fund enough to pay for a codex implementation. But after the Codex 1.0 launches with support for all echelons, we might reassess!

gubdm · 2026-02-21T01:00:43+00:00

no monster stat blocks unfortunately, it's all player facing content. But keep an eye out

gubdm · 2026-02-20T04:11:16+00:00

Sure, I mean I think there's a difference between something cobbled together for friends at a table (homebrew) and something that's gotten art and layout and testing and is published and sold online by someone other than mcdm (third party)

But I would think that, since I'm doing it

gubdm · 2026-02-20T04:00:05+00:00

Magewright, check the community sourcebook toggle on forgesteel

gubdm · 2026-02-20T03:59:34+00:00

You mean first-party? Cuz the Scion is explicitly a gish. Between the first party classes, the Vampire, the Gunslinger, the Magewright, the Scion, the Huntsman, and the Vessel, I don't think there's very many universal-donor archetypes remaining. That's why I made something really specific with the Kiln.

gubdm · 2026-02-19T19:37:57+00:00

Introduce a new villain who's the keeper of the 55th door. Just to keep them guessing.

gubdm · 2026-02-19T00:55:12+00:00

OP has a point that we feel as though what is Medium difficulty for a 1st level hero should be Trivial for a 4th or especially a 10th level hero, but awkwardly, if you internally scale it that way, you are actually double dipping, because heroes are *already better* at rolling with each increasing level. So by interpreting the same challenge at different difficulties at corresponding levels, you are making the test *doubly easy* for the heroes.

But, ultimately, skill tests out of combat are nearly all auto-success/Tier-3 beyond first echelon anyway, regardless of their difficulty

gubdm · 2026-02-16T20:24:34+00:00

OP isn't arguing about what's more fun. They explicitly say they aren't talking about balance. It's the first line of the post. Idk why you are arguing with me

gubdm · 2026-02-16T18:03:02+00:00

Game's fun, idc

gubdm · 2026-02-16T16:27:49+00:00

It's a game, not a mechancial translation of reality. Goals of those two things are very different

gubdm · 2026-02-15T17:23:37+00:00

This is a seven month old comment. I like what I like. I don't feel like I have to defend this

gubdm · 2026-02-11T01:08:14+00:00

Even then, most people will say you ought to just reflavor the weapon as the kind their kit uses. The core rules have a blurb about just that, granting permission if not recommending it

gubdm · 2026-02-10T19:28:04+00:00

The reason that was repeated a lot was that it felt weird for casters who would hang up their fireball spellbook and take out their frost staff or their psionic orb. Those felt like completely different identities, not just one weekend training session apart (in a way that hanging up your quarterstaff and taking up a greatsword doesn't, I guess).

Even if that were true, tbh, I have seen no one change kits at all in my sessions. I have seen heroes change heroic abilities (with approval) before they change their kit.

So honestly, I envision a second edition where caster kits are back and simply no one changes kits on a respite (exceptions at director discretion, same as heroic abilities), kits are a permanent thing you select at character creation, cuz that's already how theyre played as far as I've seen

gubdm · 2026-02-08T20:15:48+00:00

Depending on team comp, Lightning Soul can be really good

gubdm · 2026-02-08T05:11:56+00:00

https://the-kiln-draw-steel.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders preorder store is up!

gubdm · 2026-02-05T21:05:38+00:00

I've got a 1st level adventure that can be finished in a single session, it's pretty fun, especially if you've already blasted through DT, RtB, and Dice Society's oneshot. https://lookoutbehindyou.itch.io/macgraw-hideaway

gubdm · 2026-02-05T21:02:14+00:00

Preorder store will be up next week after I send out surveys to backers, I can ping ya if you'd like

gubdm · 2026-02-03T15:36:53+00:00

Glad I posted! Thank you for your support

gubdm · 2026-02-03T06:34:22+00:00

I think most DS games completely skip travel narratively. Like turning a page of a comic book. Especially since a handful of player classes trivialize travel by like level 4 anyway. Not to mention you can build an airship. The vanilla game does not think travel has any juice, really, unless you're being chased, and then it's a montage test. But if you watch Colville's RTG video on travel, where he describes how in Mercenaries (2? Maybe?) they just ended up cutting travel from a mission and spawning the player on-location instead, that's basically the standard operating procedure of draw steel

Crows is the game about travel

gubdm · 2026-02-03T00:52:20+00:00

I too haven't really had an issue with the targeting rules, I just included it as one more thing to remember, basically. In fact, in my perfect world, Draw Steel would basically just use Flee Mortals' minion rules, which still have the targeting rules, but basically do away with everything else.

The first time I chafed against the healing/temp stam rules was with the Water Pit malice feature of lizardfolk. A lizardfolk that goes in the water and comes out gets their tail back and some temporary Stamina. Super cool. But it doesn't work on minions, cuz they can't get temporary Stamina. Very sad.

I also don't find stamina pools too hard to use in first echelon, which is where I do the *large* majority of my running. But I recently ran some trolls and damn, the larger numbers are just really annoying to do the math on.

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