Hey folks! Welcome to…DRAW STEEL! All backers should already have received an email with a link to the first Backer Packet! (Or you can just click here) It includes everything you need to make characters, build encounters, and play the MCDM RPG, officially known as Draw Steel. This is really exciting for all of us, everyone on the team is dying to see what you folks do with this.

Now, spoilers, there’s only 5 classes, and all you get is 1st level. We have a lot more built out and in testing, but you folks only get the polished, tested stuff and right now that’s 5 classes, only first level but AS YOU WILL SEE! That’s still a lot! 😀It’s certainly enough to make characters and play for weeks before you level up. And it won’t be another 8 months before Packet 2!

You should all read the Draw Steel Backer Playtest Letter before you jump in. Among other things; it tells you what kind of feedback we’re looking for. I know it’s a lot. “Hey read this post that says read this PDF so you can read the….” But IF you read all this before you get stuck in, you will have slightly fewer questions. 

As you read through the rules, be aware that things can still change. It’ll all be based on playtest feedback, and we are generally happy with the rules as they are so nothing big will change, but the numbers, which abilities are which kind of action? That stuff can and will absolutely change. Especially now than all y’all are pounding on it! Also, a lot of the names of abilities are temp. Some are more temp than others, but expect some names of some things to change between now and release. The class names? High level stuff like that? That’s all locked in. But the names of abilities and traits are in flux.

This is also the debut of the Draw Steel Creator License, which lets you use, make, share, sell your own content using anything in the packet, including the rules, language, and lore. Holy crap!

Frankly, it’s a huge risk, sharing this with you folks at this stage. Because this is literally just raw text. No layout, no graphics, no illustrations (well, SOME illustrations, stay tuned). I don’t know if you’re ever tried to learn how to play an RPG from literally just a word doc, but it is brutal. Presentation is part of design, and there is basically NO presentation here.

This means there are some of you, maybe even literally you the person reading this right now, who WOULD love this game if you were reading the finished PDF or hardcover book with all the graphic design and illustrations and diagrams, but who will bounce off this text version.

That’s going to happen. It’s natural. And it sucks because that’s someone who might have fallen in love, and now thinks the game is not for them. But even though we know that’s going to happen, we think getting everyone’s feedback is worth that cost. 

I guess this is our way of saying: if you think you’re one of those people? If you start reading the rules and your eyes start to water? We give you permission to hold off, and wait for the finished PDF or hardcover book. There’s no moral imperative to play THIS version of the game. 

But also, if the experience of reading these rules right now is a pain? Well, just wait a few days and probably someone, probably many people, will make videos describing everything, walking you through making characters or building encounters. There’s already lots of videos online of people actually playing Draw Steel! 

Sure, we could make those videos (I plan on livestreaming making a character on YouTube this Saturday the 31st of August, 11am PST) but I don’t think the folks who make the game are the best folks to make those videos. Think about your favorite board game or card game, war game or video game. Who are your go-to creators? I bet there’s not the manufacturer of the game!

Also! You can come by the Discord and just…ask how things work. We, the DevTeam, are probably going to just sit and watch because part of the test of these rules is “can folks figure it out on their own?” It’s fine if there’s some rule that isn’t clear. No rulebook this complex is perfectly clear to everyone on their first read. But we need to see: can people figure it out together?

And we’ve seen that work! We did the same thing with the Patreon packet, and the patrons did a great job of self-assembling and figuring out most of their questions on their own with no input from us.

So, check out the Draw Steel Backer Playtest Letter. It explains a lot of stuff not covered in this post. But one thing it doesn’t cover is…the license!

The License

This is the debut of the Draw Steel Creator license. It grants you the right, if you follow the rules, to use the text in this packet to make your own products according to the constraints of the license. 

You may have a lot of questions, and there is a FAQ; but you will see it is very short.

This is because the license is a legal agreement. We wrote it in plain language (for the most part!) to make it as clear as possible. If you are not confident you understand, if you’re not willing to take the risk that maybe you don’t understand, then you need to talk to a lawyer. Here’s why.

With game rules, we feel an obligation to make sure if folks misunderstand something that we correct it, give feedback, provide errata, etc… But game rules are not a legal document.

Any answers we give about the license could be construed as legal advice, and we are not your lawyers. If we inadvertently give a wrong or bad answer, or our answer is misinterpreted, we could be responsible for that. We made the license clear to avoid these kinds of issues.

Frankly, a lot of the questions we already get, and have always gotten, about our books are covered under normal copyright law and fair use. If you do not know the law, if you are not familiar with copyright and fair use, you should read about it before you worry about the license. 

It’s natural to think “well why won’t they answer this question?” But that’s because the license IS the answer. Any questions you have are not questions for us; our answers are already in the license. They are questions for your lawyer. 

You may notice, the license only covers this packet. That’s because this is our first go round with something like this, and we are using the Backer Packet as a test case. If it turns out we left something out of the license, or didn’t put something in we should have, we will revise the license for when we publish the next packet or the final game, depending.

There is one clause in the license that might seem alarming—the fact that we can amend the license. That will freak some folks out because they naturally start wondering “well, what happens to my quite-lucrative Draw Steel product if MCDM changes the license, and I hate the new terms?” Good question!

There is language in the license that explicitly states any changes we make to our license only cover new content we make under the new license. Our old content will still be covered under the old license, so IF we make changes to the license, you can keep using the old license and the old content that it covered. You only need to agree to the amended license if you want to use the new content we publish under it.

But in reality, and this is important so I hope folks made it this far, there is no such thing as an agreement that cannot be amended. Someday, everyone at MCDM will be dead, and other people will own Draw Steel and they will have the rights to do whatever they want with it and the license. 

So, use it at your own risk! But…you know, we WANT people to use this text and this game. We want folks to be able to make their own stuff, share it, sell it, whatever. So our real advice is just: use common sense. Tons of people make and share stuff online based on other games with open licenses, and they don’t talk to lawyers and nothing happens because most of what people make and share is fine. 

But if you’re worried then you should talk to a lawyer. We are not your lawyers! Anyway, on to some fun stuff.

Layout Example

Hey you want to see what the book’s gonna look like? 😀

This is a “near final” example of the layout for the Heroes book. This is what we think it’ll look like. It’s just  one ancestry but you get to see some lore, some game text, some actual rules. It’s a good example. We hope you like it! 

Click here for a higher resolution version

Go Forth, and DRAW STEEL!

That’s it folks! You’ve been incredibly patient, and we’ve busted our ass to get you this packet by the end of August and…we did it! We might actually get this game done by the backerkit deadline. Maybe not but…maybe! Let me put it this way; I will not be surprised if our dates slip, that’s not unusual in any game dev environment, but it’s especially common with crowdfunders. But so far…it’s gone basically according to plan? Which is frankly a minor miracle but we’ve taken everything we learned from the last 6 years and that includes scheduling and project management, and speaking as someone on the inside? It seems to be working. Of course now that I’ve said this, I’ve probably whammied us. 

The whole team has worked incredibly hard to get this packet to you. That includes not only everyone at MCDM, but all our testers, everyone in the testing community, our patrons. The mod team has had to do a ton of working making sure folks can find what they need in the Discord. This packet is only the beginning. It is already at what we believe is a high level of polish, but it still needs more work! That’s where you folks come in!

With this many backers, there’s no way everyone loves it. But we hope it’s clear how much work we’ve done. How seriously we have taken this challenge. We’ve put our best work into this. 

Oh! And we included a folder of ancestry art because, yeah, it’s still just a playtest and that means no illustrations and no layout, but trying to figure out what a Time Raider or a Memonek or a Hakaan are just from the text? Is pretty abusive. 😀So check out the art folder to see what’s what. There’s some COOOOL new ancestries in there!

Thanks for your support everyone. It’s been a lot of work getting here, but we think the result is worth it. We hope you agree. 

Peace! Out!

-MC