The Basics¶

The flow of playing Draw Steel is like playing any other tabletop roleplaying game with a Director (also called a Game Master or GM in other games). Play is a conversation between the Director and the heroes that describes the story. The Director sets the scene, describing the important elements of the environment that the heroes would notice.

Director (Willy): You stand in the doorway of the top level of the ruined necromancer's tower. The air is stale and reeks of death. A pale full moon shines through a broken ceiling, illuminating six sarcophagi upon a raised dais, each with a lid carved in the likeness of a devil. Broken flasks, beakers, and other laboratory glass covers the floor.

After the Director sets the scene, each player describes how their character interacts with the area. The Director then describes how the environment and any creatures in it respond to the heroes' actions.

Alyssa (playing Jorn, a tactician): I'm going to hang out at the back of the group with my warhammer drawn. I want to be ready in case any of those skeletons we snuck by on the lower levels make their way up the stairs.

Matt (playing Linn, a talent): Linn uses her Minor Telekinesis ability to sweep up the glass on the floor and form a path free of glass that goes from the door to the dais.

James (playing Korvo, a shadow): I'll light a torch as I step into the room. Is there anything new we can see now?

Director: With the glass cleared away and brighter light glowing in the room, you can see that the floor is covered in faded sigils.

At some point, a player will have their hero attempt a task that has a risk of failing in a way that is narratively interesting. In such cases, the Director calls for some dice to be rolled! Don't worry—the rules outline when and how to do this.

Grace (playing Val, a conduit): Before anyone steps on them, I want to examine the symbols and figure out what they mean.

Director: Okay, well for that, I need you to make an easy Reason test.

Grace: I got a 12! What do I know?

Director: You can tell these old sigils are part of a necromancy spell that has been woven into the stone floor. Also, Jorn can hear something coming up the steps. It's the clicking and clacking of bone on stone.

Alyssa: Uh, let's make a decision here, folks. We got boneheads incoming!

Matt: Linn has had enough of this dillydallying. She moves to the dais and ushers everyone inside the room so we can shut and barricade the door.

Grace: Uh-oh.

Director: Before anyone else can move, Linn's foot connects with one of the sigils. A burst of red lightning cracks from the place where her foot touched the floor, running to the walls and up to the ceiling.

Matt: Oh, right. Necromancy.

Grace: Yeah. Should have warned you.

Director: The whole tower starts to sway as the sarcophagus lids crash to the floor and clawed undead hands emerge from within. Six decaying devils, each tattooed with glowing green runes, rise. They're eager for violence.

James: I think we found the Rotting Lords of Hell.

Director: Draw steel!

When combat starts, it's time to use a square-gridded map and miniatures to represent the position of the heroes relative to their enemies and the environment. The rules become a little more granular during combat to keep things interesting and fair, but the idea that the game is a conversation between the Director and the other players remains the same.

Characteristics¶

Each creature in the game has five characteristics that represent their physical and mental prowess.

Might¶

Might (represented by M in abilities and other features) represents strength and brawn. A creature's capability to break down doors, swing an axe, stand up during an earthquake, or hurl an ally across a chasm is determined by Might.

Agility¶

Agility (A) represents coordination and nimbleness. A creature's capacity to backflip out of danger, shoot a crossbow, dodge an explosion, or pluck keys from a guard's belt is determined by Agility.

Reason¶

Reason (R) represents a logical mind and education. A creature's capacity to solve a puzzle that unlocks a door, recall lore about necromancy, decipher a coded message, or blast a foe with psionic power is determined by Reason.

Intuition¶

Intuition (I) represents instincts and experience. A creature's capability to recognize a faint sound as the approach of a distant rider, quickly read the tell of a bluffing gambler, calm a rearing horse, or track a monster across the tundra is determined by Intuition.

Presence¶

Presence (P) represents force of personality. A creature's capacity to lie to a judge, convince a crowd to join a revolution, impress a queen at a royal banquet, or cast a magic spell by singing a song is determined by Presence.

Characteristic Scores¶

Each characteristic has a score that runs from −5 to +5. The higher a score, the more impact a creature has with that characteristic. A baby bunny rabbit would have a Might score of −5, while an ancient dragon would have a Might score of 5. The average human has a score of 0 in all their characteristics. Characteristic scores are added to power rolls—the dice rolls you make whenever your character attempts a task with an uncertain outcome (see Power Rolls below).

Dice¶

This game uses ten-sided dice (also called d10s). Each player (including the Director) should have two of these. Some ten-sided dice are numbered 0 to 9 while others are numbered 1 to 10. In the case of the former, a 0 counts as 10.

The game also makes occasional use of six-sided dice (called d6s), so it's helpful if each player has one or two of those as well.

D3s¶

On rare occasions, the rules ask a player to roll one or more three-sided dice (also called d3s). If you don't have a d3, you can roll a six-sided die instead, treating a roll of 1–2 as a 1, a roll of 3–4 as a 2, and a roll of 5–6 as a 3.

D100s¶

Some tables in the game call for a d100 roll. To roll a d100, grab two ten-sided dice. Decide which die represents the tens digit, with the other die representing the ones digit. For instance, if you roll a 5 for the tens digit and a 3 for the ones digit, the number rolled is 53.

Some ten-sided dice are numbered 0 to 9, while others are numbered 1 to 10. For the latter type of dice, a 10 counts as a 0 for the purpose of rolling a d100. For instance, if a 10 is rolled for the tens digit and a 9 is rolled for the ones digit, the number rolled is 09, or 9.

If both dice rolled show a 0 or 10, then the number rolled is 100!

Power Rolls¶

Whenever a hero or other creature in the game attempts a task with an uncertain outcome, such as attacking a foe, sneaking by a guard patrol without being seen, or persuading a queen to provide military aid, the creature makes a power roll to determine the outcome of their actions.

Types of Power Rolls¶

The game uses two types of power rolls. An ability roll is used when you use certain abilities to determine their impact. For instance, if a fury uses their Brutal Slam ability to strike an enemy, their ability roll determines how much damage the enemy takes and how far back the enemy is pushed. See Abilities for more information.

A test is a power roll you make outside of using your abilities to affect or interact with the world around you. A tactician might not have an ability that lets them climb up the face of a cliff, so climbing is an activity they can attempt with a test. An elementalist doesn't have an ability that lets them automatically intimidate a cultist into backing down from a fight, but they can make a test if they want to try. See Tests for more information.

Sapient Creatures

All creatures in the game are sentient, capable of sensing and reacting to the world around them. But only some creatures are sapient, possessed of advanced intellect and consciousness. Being sapient has nothing to do with a creature's Reason score, but is determined solely by whether a creature is capable of human-like levels of thought and emotion. The Director decides whether creatures are sapient for the purpose of being affected by abilities and features that affect only sapient or nonsapient creatures.

Making a Power Roll¶

When you make a power roll, you roll two ten-sided dice (usually noted as 2d10 in the rules) and add one of your characteristics. The characteristic you add depends on the kind of roll you're making, as outlined in Abilities and Tests.

Power Roll Outcomes¶

The total of a power roll determines your outcome tier—three levels that determine how successful your power roll is.

Tier 1: If your power roll total is 11 or lower, it is a tier 1 outcome. This is the worst outcome a power roll can have. If you're using an ability, a tier 1 outcome means you still do something, but the impact of what you do is minimal. With this outcome, a strike ability might deal a little bit of damage and not do much else. For a test, a tier 1 outcome might mean you fail at what you set out to do, and you might also incur a negative consequence.
Tier 2: If your power roll total is 12 to 16, it is a tier 2 outcome. This is the average outcome of many power rolls, especially for heroes who are 1st level. When using an ability, a tier 2 outcome means that what you do has a moderate impact. With this outcome, a strike ability deals a decent amount of damage and has an effect that briefly helps allies or hinders enemies. For a test, a tier 2 outcome means you might succeed at what you set out to do—though depending on the difficulty, success might have a cost.
Tier 3: If your power roll total is 17 or higher, it is a tier 3 outcome. This is the best outcome a power roll can have. When using an ability, a tier 3 outcome means you deliver the maximum impact possible. With this outcome, a strike ability deals a lot of damage and has a powerful or lasting effect on enemies or allies. For a test, a tier 3 outcome means you succeed at what you set out to do. If the test has an easy difficulty, you also get a little something extra in addition to your success.

The specific outcome of any power roll is determined by the effect or ability that requires the roll (see Abilities) or the rules for tests (see Tests).

Downgrade a Power Roll¶

Whenever you make a power roll, you can downgrade it to select the outcome of a lower tier. For instance, if an ability has a tier 3 outcome that lets you impose the restrained condition on a creature, but the tier 2 outcome for that ability lets you impose the slowed condition, you can use the tier 2 outcome if you would rather have the creature slowed than restrained.

If you downgrade a critical hit, you still get the extra action benefit of the critical hit (see Critical Hit in Classes).

Natural Roll¶

The total of your power roll before your characteristic or any other modifiers are added is called the natural roll. The rules often refer to this as "rolling a natural X," where X is the total of the roll. For example, if you get a 20 on a power roll before adding your characteristic, this is called rolling a natural 20.

When you roll a natural 19 or 20 on certain types of power rolls, this is a critical hit (see Critical Hit in Classes).

Edges and Banes¶

An archer standing on a castle wall fires down into a throng of enemies, hitting the mark each time thanks to their high ground. A drunken bandit struggles to land blows on sober opponents as alcohol clouds their senses. Under certain circumstances, you need more than just a characteristic to represent the advantages and disadvantages that heroes, their enemies, and their allies might have.

Edge¶

An edge represents a situational advantage a hero or an enemy has when making a power roll. For example, a standing hero who makes a melee strike against a prone creature gains an edge on the power roll for their strike. A pair of magic gloves that makes your hands sticky might grant you an edge when making a power roll to climb walls!

When you make a power roll with an edge, you gain a +2 bonus to the roll. If you make a power roll with two or more edges, you have a double edge. With a double edge, you don't add anything to the power roll, but the outcome of the roll automatically improves one tier (to a maximum of tier 3).

Bane¶

A bane represents a situational disadvantage a hero or an enemy has when making a power roll. For example, if you make a strike while prone, the power roll for the strike takes a bane. A rainstorm might give you a bane on a power roll made to climb an outdoor wall because the weather makes the stone surface extra slick.

When you make a power roll with a bane, you take a −2 penalty to the roll. If you make a power roll with two or more banes, you have a double bane. With a double bane, you don't subtract anything from the power roll, but the outcome of the roll automatically decreases one tier (to a minimum of tier 1).

Rolling With Edges and Banes¶

Under certain circumstances, you might have one or more edges and banes on the same roll. For instance, you might take a bane when weakened by poison, even as you gain an edge for striking a prone creature. In general, edges and banes cancel each other out, resolving as follows:

If you have an edge and a bane, or if you have a double edge and a double bane, the roll is made as usual without any edges or banes.
If you have a double edge and just one bane, the roll is made with one edge, regardless of how many individual edges contribute to the double edge.
If you have a double bane and just one edge, the roll is made with one bane, regardless of how many individual banes contribute to the double bane.

When to Use Edges and Banes¶

The rules tell you when to modify a roll with an edge or a bane. The Director can also modify rolls with edges and banes as a response to narrative or environmental circumstances. For instance, no rule

specifically says that rain imposes a bane on power rolls made to climb a stone wall. But it makes sense that rainy conditions should make climbing that wall harder, so a Director should absolutely do so!

Why Cap?

We capped edges and banes at a maximum of two each for several reasons, including thinking about the narrative of those penalties. Every little advantage or disadvantage in a heroic story has diminishing returns, acknowledging that a creature can benefit or be hindered by short-term circumstances only so much. For example, a character who is prone and weakened by poison already finds it difficult to attack—so that becoming restrained by a net can't really make it harder.

We also liked capping edges and banes at two because it keeps play quick. It's nice to not need to count beyond two positive or negative circumstances in a battle with a lot of effects flying around.

Bonuses and Penalties¶

While edges and banes cover most circumstantial effects that can have an impact on a power roll, a few rules add numeric bonuses or penalties to power rolls. Bonus and penalty values are specified in the rules that impose them, and are calculated independently of edges and banes, and before edges and banes are factored into a power roll. There is no limit to the number of bonuses or penalties that can apply to a power roll, and bonuses and penalties always add together.

Though it might sound as if the math with bonuses and penalties can get confusing, fear not! Bonuses and penalties are rare except in the case of skills, which appear on your character sheet (see Skills for more information).

Automatic Tier Outcomes¶

Effects in the game sometimes allow a creature to obtain an automatic tier 1, 2, or 3 outcome on a power roll. Such effects supersede any edges, banes, bonuses, or penalties that might affect the roll. If you obtain an automatic tier outcome and the power roll would have an additional effect if you get a specific roll, such as scoring a critical hit in combat, you can still make the roll to determine if you obtain the additional effect in addition to the automatic outcome.

If you are under multiple effects that each grant you a different automatic outcome, those effects cancel each other out and all automatic outcomes are ignored. If multiple effects grant you the same automatic outcome, you obtain that outcome.

Hero Tokens¶

In all great heroic stories, luck favors the protagonists, giving them that little bit of extra fortune they need to win the day. In these stories, fate is often on the side of the righteous. To represent that tiny bit of karma, players have access to hero tokens, a special resource that they can rely on when all else fails.

Hero tokens are a group resource that is tracked by the players and kept in a pool accessible to all their characters. Hero tokens can be tracked using poker chips, stones, or other markers, or can be tallied numerically on a piece of paper or written off to the side in a virtual tabletop.

Earning Hero Tokens¶

At the start of a new game session, the heroes have a number of hero tokens equal to the number of heroes in the party.

Heroes can earn more tokens through play by taking big risks to save others. A hero who leaps off a cliff to reach the bottom and aid a friend, who crosses a burning bridge to save a stray cat, or who wagers their most prized treasure as part of a negotiation to get shelter for a group of refugees might earn a hero token for the group. The Director has the final say regarding which heroic acts earn hero tokens.

Players can also be awarded hero tokens as part of a test's outcome when they succeed on the test with a reward (see Tests).

Spending Hero Tokens¶

Whenever hero tokens are available, you can spend them in the following ways:

You can spend a hero token to gain 2 surges, allowing you to increase the damage or potency of an ability. (See Surges in Classes.)
You can spend a hero token when you fail a saving throw, letting you succeed on the save instead.
You can spend a hero token to reroll a test. You must use the new roll.
You can spend 2 hero tokens on your turn or when you take damage (no action required) to regain Stamina equal to your Recovery value before taking the damage.

You can use only one hero token benefit per turn or per test. Unless the Director decides otherwise, unused hero tokens disappear at the end of a session.

Optional Rule: Hero Tokens Don't Reset

A Director can decide that hero tokens don't refresh at the start of each session and don't disappear at the end of one. This style of play serves many groups who play short sessions consisting of only 2 or 3 hours of play, since it makes hero tokens less abundant and reliable. To use this option, one of the players must note the number of hero tokens available at the end of each session so everyone remembers how many are available the next time you play. The Director should take particular care to remember to award hero tokens for heroic behavior, since the heroes won't get any automatically.

Game of Exceptions¶

This game has a fair number of rules. But it also has plenty of character options, specialized equipment, and other game elements that let you break those rules. This is on purpose! Breaking the rules allows heroes to feel special and makes their foes feel extra dangerous.

If you're not sure what to do when two rules come into conflict with each other, remember that a specific exception always beats a more general rule. The Director has the final say in how rules are adjudicated.

Always Round Down¶

Sometimes the rules tell you to divide a number in half. Whenever you divide an odd number in half and it results in a decimal, round the result down to the nearest whole number. For instance, if a tactician takes 7 damage and uses the Parry ability in response—a triggered action that halves the damage—then the damage is reduced to 3.

Creatures and Objects¶

Draw Steel uses the terms "creature" and "object" when referring to the targets of abilities and other effects. Creatures are living or unliving beings such as animals, elves, humans, dragons, giants, zombies, and valok. Objects are inanimate matter such as walls, carriages, cups, swords, ropes, coins, paintings, columns, and buildings.

When a creature dies, their body becomes an object, and is affected by abilities and other effects as an object, not a creature. For example, an elementalist can't use their Return to Formlessness ability to set an enemy cult leader on fire. But if that leader dies, the elementalist can immolate their body to prevent them from being raised as a powerful undead by the temple's magic.

Unattended Objects¶

The game sometimes refers to "unattended objects," which are objects that aren't held, worn, or controlled by a creature. Whenever an ability or other effect targets objects, it affects only unattended objects unless the Director determines otherwise. Among other things, this prevents abilities from being used to damage a foe's armor, weapons, clothing, treasures, and so forth while those objects are worn or held.

Supernatural or Mundane¶

The word supernatural is used to describe abilities, creatures, objects, and effects that are magic or psionic in nature. The word mundane is used to describe abilities, creatures, objects, and effects that aren't magic or psionic.

PCs and NPCs¶

Two types of characters inhabit the world of the game—the player characters (also called PCs or heroes) who are created and controlled by the players, and nonplayer characters (NPCs) created and controlled by the Director. NPCs can include any of the game's monsters, but when the rules refer to NPCs, they generally do so in the context of interacting with them outside of combat.

Bags of Rats Ain't Heroic

Some players might think that quickly starting a fight with some bar patrons or carrying around a bag of rats is a good way to gather up those sweet, sweet Victories and Heroic Resources. Those strategies don't work! The rules of the game exist to help you tell a cool heroic fantasy story, not so you can try to be clever and exploit them by harming innocent rats to "win." In order to generate Victories and Heroic Resources, you must face and overcome challenges worthy of a hero!

Building a Heroic Narrative¶

The game takes place in a series of scenes with the heroes as the main characters. An adventure is a collection of scenes that make up a story, with a beginning, middle, and end, and a campaign is a collection of adventures that tell the entire epic tale of a group of heroes. You can think of each adventure as a movie in a saga of films, a book in a series of novels, or a season of a television show. While many heroes have their stories told over the course of a campaign, some wrap up their careers in a single adventure that takes place in one game session, called a one-shot. You can think of a one-shot as a great stand-alone novella or movie.

This game is built so that each adventure you play and each battle you fight gets more exciting as it goes on. In fantastic tales, the heroes and their foes both grow in power over the course of an adventure. But it isn't time alone that grows a hero's capabilities. Rather, it's the adrenaline that comes from battle, the danger of the hero's profession, and the pressure to save the world—or at least some small part of it that pushes a character to do the impossible. Each small act of heroism gives a hero the confidence and bravery to perform legendary feats against all odds.

The things a hero can achieve at the end of the story are far more daring and impactful than what they do at the start, and the final showdown against a villain's forces is more deadly and desperate than the first. The rules of the game help build a heroic narrative in this same fashion, making use of the four most important mechanics for building heroic narratives: Victories, Experience, Heroic Resources, and Recoveries.

Victories¶

Victories measure your hero's increasing power over the course of an adventure, as they overcome battles and other challenges. At the start of an adventure, your hero has 0 Victories.

Victories For Combat¶

Each time your hero survives a combat encounter in which the party's objectives are achieved, you earn 1 Victory. The Director can decide that a trivially easy encounter doesn't earn the heroes a Victory, and can award additional Victories for particularly challenging encounters.

Victories For Noncombat Challenges¶

When your hero successfully overcomes a big challenge that doesn't involve combat, the Director can award you 1 Victory. Such challenges can include things such as a particularly complicated and deadly trap, a negotiation, a montage test, a complicated puzzle, or the execution of a clever idea that avoids a battle. Especially difficult challenges might earn you more than 1 Victory.

Victories Reset¶

Whenever you finish a respite (see Respite below), your Victories are converted into Experience.

Experience¶

Victories temporarily increase a hero's power during an adventure, but Experience (abbreviated "XP") permanently improves their capabilities. Each time you finish a respite (see below), you gain XP equal to your Victories, then your Victories reset to 0. In other words, your Victories are converted to XP when you finish a respite.

For more information on how XP increases your hero's power, see Heroic Advancement in Making a Hero.

Heroic Resources¶

Your hero has a Heroic Resource determined by your class, and which you manage during play. Earning your Heroic Resources can increase your hero's power, and you spend your Heroic Resources to activate your most powerful abilities.

Your hero's class description has more information about how to use your Heroic Resource.

Recoveries¶

Recoveries represent the number of times your hero can take a breather and keep fighting. Spending Recoveries lets you regain Stamina—the measure of any creature's physical vitality and capacity to shrug off or avoid damage (see Stamina in Combat). Running out of Recoveries means your hero has reached their uttermost limit.

When you spend a Recovery, you regain Stamina equal to your recovery value, which is one-third your Stamina maximum. You can spend your Recoveries with a special maneuver (see below), or you might do so with a little supernatural help from a conduit, a boost of adrenaline from an allied tactician, or inspiration from your party's troubadour.

Spending Recoveries¶

During combat encounters and similarly dangerous situations when time is tracked in rounds (see Combat), you can use the Catch Breath maneuver to regain Stamina. (See Catch Breath in Maneuvers for more information.) Some heroes have abilities that allow them or their allies to spend more Recoveries without using the Catch Breath maneuver.

Outside of combat and other dangerous situations, you can spend Recoveries freely.

Regaining Recoveries¶

You regain all lost Recoveries when you finish a respite (see below).

Respite¶

A respite is a focused period of rest and recuperation that allows heroes to regain Stamina and Recoveries. During a respite, you must spend 24 hours uninterrupted and doing nothing but sleeping, eating, dressing your wounds, and recuperating. You can also undertake one respite activity, such as making a project roll (see Downtime Projects) or changing your kit (see Kits).

After 24 hours, your respite ends. When you finish a respite, you regain all your Recoveries and Stamina, and your Victories convert to Experience. You can take as many respites as you like in a row to keep accomplishing respite activities. Just keep in mind that while you're resting, your enemies are still scheming and carrying out their dastardly plans.

It is best to take a respite in a safe place where you aren't in a hostile environment or at risk of being attacked. If your respite is interrupted by enemies attacking, an earth tremor, swarms of biting insects, and similar serious distractions, the respite ends early and you don't gain the benefits for finishing it.

The standard 8-or-so hours of sleep one gets at night doesn't count as a respite. The rules assume that all heroes take the time to sleep, eat, and take care of all the other functions necessary for life even if they aren't engaged in a respite.

Echelons of Play¶

The core gameplay experience of Draw Steel takes place over ten levels of play. At 1st level, player characters are already known as heroes and have the power to save their local village. By the time the characters are 10th level, people all over the world—maybe even across all worlds know the names of their saviors!

Since this game encompasses power levels from hometown to demigods, the core experience has been divided into four different echelons. Each echelon determines the types of threats the heroes can take on, the stakes of their stories, and the rewards they receive at the various levels of play.

1st Echelon (1st to 3rd Level)¶

The 1st echelon of play details the stories of characters of 1st to 3rd level. At this echelon, the characters are local heroes. They save lost caravans, besieged villages, and overlooked neighborhoods within cities. Characters battle bands of mortal humanoids—dwarves, elves, goblins, humans, kobolds, orcs, and more. They can also face off against the occasional larger monstrous threat, such as a bredbeddle, ogre, or chimera. Such creatures can threaten a small community but rarely have plans for world domination or the destruction of the timescape. However, any of these adversaries might work for or be manipulated by stronger threats as a foreshadowing of what awaits the heroes at higher echelons.

2nd Echelon (4th to 6th Level)¶

The 2nd echelon of play covers 4th to 6th level. At this echelon, the heroes are now known throughout the wider region they serve. In Vasloria, this means the characters might save and be celebrated by an entire country. In Capital, their reputation and work could encompass several different neighborhoods of the enormous city. Heroes of the timescape might be known for saving a planet!

Heroes in this echelon battle humanoids of great supernatural power, such as draconians, devils, and hobgoblins. They face bosses possessed of cunning and ambition as great as their terrible influence, such as medusas and overminds. Heroes at this level also face the humanoid threats of earlier levels, but those foes are villainous counterparts of equal power rather than bands of ruffians or marauding armies.

3rd Echelon (7th to 9th Level)¶

The 3rd echelon of play covers 7th to 9th level. At this echelon, the heroes are saving and are known throughout the setting where they serve. Most folks in Vasloria, Capital, or across the larger timescape know of the heroes and are grateful for their efforts saving the continent, the entire city, or multiple worlds, respectively. Foes at this echelon include beings of great power such as giants, vampires, and valok.

4th Echelon (10th Level)¶

The 4th echelon of play explores the stories of characters of 10th level (and might even go beyond in future products). At this echelon, heroes are saving the entire timescape from threats such as liches, powerful dragons, and overlords like Ajax the Invincible.

Orden and the Timescape¶

A new game demands new worlds! Welcome to the timescape—a collection of worlds spanning high fantasy, dark fantasy, even space fantasy!

Our tour begins on the world of Orden, the prime manifold, where humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs share a world with dragons, goblins, kobolds, and dozens of other speaking peoples. But human civilization and politics dominate here.

Orden contains eight major regions, the largest of which is Vasloria.

Vasloria¶

A forested, medieval, feudal land, Vasloria is peppered with few cities, mostly just towns and villages. While there will someday be nations here with proper borders, as of now in the Age of Chaos those nations are merely geographic areas with names people use to distinguish lands that share similar terrain and subcultures.

Aendrim, the land of hills and farms. Corwell with its knights and castles. The marshlands of Tull where witches and wise women battle hags and swamp monsters. The thick forests of Farrow with its bands of archers, and the horselands of Graid home to the best cavalry in Orden.

Mountainous northeastern Vasloria is home to the small earldoms of Sednia, Olvaria, and Sărda, and the earldom of Rhöl containing the land of Glauer once ruled by a deathless count.

Scattered across it all, Vasloria boasts the densest collection of elf-haunted wodes in Orden. All regions have wodes, but Vasloria's northern border is the Great Wode where the world still works as it did before humans arrived.

Within the wodes, time misbehaves. Cause and effect are only distant cousins, as all lands were before Ord placed the dwarves in the world,

imposing the Law of Time on Orden. Children's tales of villagers wandering into a wode and emerging unchanged 100 years later are based on real events. When pressed on how this "works," the elves look baffled. "How does what work?"

Omund's Land¶

Western Vasloria, including most of Aendrim and Corwell and parts of Graid, was until recently ruled by Good King Omund. His draconian knights, the Dragon Phalanx, protected the weak from the strong, dispensing justice. Omund's rule lasted 35 years and in his life this area was known as Omund's Land.

Under Omund's rule, order thrived. Roads were safe. People could even walk into the woods unafraid of meeting anything more threatening than a nymph or conversational manticore.

Omund died 15 years ago and so died the rule of law. Now the forest claims the towns and roads once held safe. The woods are dangerous. Their only law … tooth and claw.

Omund was betrayed and his castle fell to Ajax the Invincible, now called the Iron Saint. His wizard Mortum unlocked the secret of the ancient sky elf flying cities, and raised the Chrysopolis, Ajax's city-fortress in the sky.

It was Mortum who used the secrets of the synliroi body banks, granting immortality to those nobles who voluntarily submit to Ajax. Those same body banks produce Ajax's war dogs, his brutal, patchwork-soldiers who owe their new lives to the Iron Saint and fight for him fanatically.

Ajax abolished all faiths and temples. He executed the dukes who organized and united the barons, leaving the far-flung baronies to try and hold human civilization together. Once, these people were loose allies. There was trade between humans, elves, dwarves and orcs.

Now there is only suspicion.

The high elves of the fallen city pay tribute with ancient artifacts they plunder from the fallen celestial city of Irranys. The wode elves of the Orchid Court, lacking any centralized government or cities, refuse to bow to Ajax.

The dwarves of Kal Kalavar pay tribute in prisoners they abduct from those foolish enough to travel the roads unescorted. These prisoners serve Ajax as forced labor or are fed into the body banks. Brooding under the mountains in their fabled Hanging City, the stone dwarves do not like this deal with the Overlord but lack the power—or the will—to rebel.

The Hawklords of the High Aeries, once remote and proud, almost mythical to the people below, made their own pact with Ajax to avoid extermination. They now serve as his elite counterinsurgent force. Mounted on their giant hawks, they project Ajax's power, enforce his law and extend his influence into every corner of the wilderness. Their mastery of the air means any revolt or rebellion is quickly seen and crushed.

The Dragon Phalanx is broken. Ajax placed a high bounty on its warriors' heads. Some folk still see Omund's knights as symbols of justice, heroes of a lost age before might made right. But in every town, every village, there are always desperate people willing to collect the bounty, summoning the Hawklords to pluck any dragon knight foolish enough to travel without a disguise away to the Chrysopolis.

Isolated and outnumbered, the human baronies desperately fight a losing battle against the encroaching wilderness. Order dies. Chaos thrives.

Capital¶

The Greatest City in This or Any Age! City of the Great Game! Located west across the Bale Sea from Vasloria, on the eastern coast of Rioja, Capital is not only the largest city in Orden—it's the largest city there has ever been. Larger than the fabled steel dwarf capital of Kalas Valiar, larger even than Alloy, the City at the Center of the Timescape. Capital is the exception to many rules.

It is a city of playwrights and opera, of spies and sorcery. Famed throughout the world as a city of high magic where flying tapestries act as taxis, the reality of living in Capital is somewhat more mundane. Only the very wealthy can afford such luxuries.

The great houses, ancient noble families, reluctantly share power with the upstart guilds who think vast wealth entitles them to rule. The great houses are very proud of their city. They believe anyone, from anywhere, should be able to come to Capital and earn a living, own property, expect justice. They just don't think anyone else should be able to rule.

The guilds, by contrast, are more egalitarian, more democratic, and largely obsessed with accruing wealth, city be damned. Three of them recently used their obscene wealth to buy great house status and now play the great game with the best of them.

The "great game" is espionage, and House Alvaro are the best players in the world. Led by Duke Prospero, House Alvaro sponsor the Imperial University, the greatest center of learning in the world. Nobles from across Orden, including Vanigar, send their children to learn diplomacy and statecraft at the university. While the greatest spies in the world are all graduates of the Actian School, one of the colleges in the university, which has historically doubled as the prince's intelligence agency.

House Vorona run the city's navy, the largest military organization of any kind in Orden. Their engineers perfected the secret of blackpowder and guard it jealously. The Imperial Navy's cannons protect trade across Orden, placing Capital at the center of international affairs. Vorona's Far Mariners, aka the marines, are the closest thing Capital has to a city-wide law enforcement organization. Each great house is expected to police its own district.

Duke Marco Vorona sponsors the Imperial War College, also known as the Academy. A prestigious institution rivaling any college of the Imperial University, the Academy boasts graduates among all the noble families in Orden. This widespread allegiance creates a vast informal network in the city referred to cynically as the Old Class Ring that gives Vorona access to intelligence other factions can only dream of.

House Navarr, oldest of the great houses, enforces the church's law, which they call justice. Led by His Grace Orsino, Duke Navarr, archbishop of the most powerful church in the city—the Church of Saint Ysabella the Pitiless—House Navarr consolidates a vast network of different churches and orders of knights across the region under one elaborate system of patronage.

Arguably the most powerful great house, House Valetta controls the Arbitros Fiat, the tax collectors. Valetta is led by the Duchess Lenore who, in mourning for her assassinated husband Maximo, opened the Codex Mortis and spoke the ritual which should have returned her love to life. Instead, she brought about the Lilac Night, which transformed every mortal in her district, including herself, into deathless revenants. Now, the Duchess Lenore is an immortal vampire queen. A dead lady, ruling over a dead city.

After the Lilac Night, when the prince was no longer able to rely on House Valetta to deliver the taxes they collected, Lady Shirome

coordinated with two other guilds to buy Great House status for themselves.

Lady Shirome runs the city's assayers guild, the Fulcrum. The guild controls the Trade Integrity Board, which sets lending rates and leads trade negotiations between Capital and other governments in Orden. It was the Fulcrum that convinced the prince to switch the city to paper money. As a result, Capital is the first and only city in Orden to have a robust monetary policy.

The Broadsheets, formally known as the Font, publish the thrice-daily news sheets everyone in the city reads. Guildmaster Inān al-Adwiyya uses a vast network of young people called the Paperfeathers to deliver and sell the broadsheets throughout the city. Lady al-Adwiyya knows almost everything happening anywhere in the city.

The Farrier's Guild, popularly known as the Rasp, control transport throughout the city. Led by Lord Kashimir, a heliox from Alloy who introduced the flying tapestries that metaphorically shrank Capital, allowing the rich and powerful to cross the 13-mile-wide city in just a few minutes. He created the Kites, couriers famous for getting a message anywhere in Capital in only a few hours. Kashimir's monopoly on importing flying tapestries from Alloy gives him enormous power, and he is not shy about seeking more.

Three years ago, the prince of Capital died leaving no heir or even a likely candidate. He was a young man, only forty-one, but the events surrounding his death are shrouded in mystery and inaccurate accounts. Was he murdered like a commoner, or assassinated by a political rival? Evidence is scant, rumor substitutes as fact.

Now the great game takes on a new meaning as the four great houses and three newly ascendant guilds jockey for position, each wanting to step into the power vacuum left by the dead prince. Everyone knows a war is coming, a war of succession that means fighting on the street. But each player in the game would much prefer it if someone else made the first move.

The Myriad Worlds of the Timescape¶

Orden is only one world in the timescape! Each star in the night sky is another, though this fact is not known to most people living on Orden. Old fashioned people still use the archaic term "plane" to describe these worlds, while sages use geometric formulae, describing these worlds they call "manifolds," but they all mean the same thing.

Higher worlds are more energetic, affording access to alien technologies. Great starfreighters ply the space-lanes, and knights wield psionically powered hard-light blades dueling against star pirates with hard-light blasters.

The lower worlds lack the energy necessary for such extraordinary technology to function, and so rely on magic to break the rules.

On Axiom, the Plane of Uttermost Law, the memonek live on a world teeming with complex, inorganic life. UNISOL, the Universal Solar League, ensures and protects trade across the upper worlds, defending the starfreighters from the time raiders and the infamous pirate band the Starslayers on their legendary ship the K.R.A.D.1 Fearless.

Meanwhile, on Proteus, the Sea of Eternal Change, the formless proteans rebelled against the synliroi who once ruled the Plane of Uttermost Chaos, exiling the voiceless talkers to the World Below. Now masters of their world, the proteans take to the stars in their living changeships, hurling their small fleet against the tyrannical unquestioned might of UNISOL.

On Quintessence, the lowest of the upper worlds, proteans and memonek alike rub shoulders with devils, fire dwarves, even humans in Quintessence's capital city of Alloy, the City at the Center of the Timescape. The Free City of Alloy, also known as the City of Brass, is the gateway to the timescape. People travelling to or from the upper and lower worlds meet here to trade goods and information, free from the inflexible law of UNISOL.

Traveling downward from Quintessence one arrives on Orden, the Plane of Gods and Sorcery, highest of the lower worlds where magic rules. The gods, forbidden from interfering directly in a world with such a low energy state, rely on saints to enact their will. Technology from the upper worlds does not function down here, unless powered by a strong psionic mind or the miracle mineral iridoss, also known as prismacore.

Almost coterminal with Orden is its sister-manifold, the World Below, the Dark Under All, a plane of exiles ruled by A Lie Cloaked In Star's Silver, the Queen of Night, first of the Three Sisters Below. The World Below is a land of vast caves, and sunless seas. There are no stars here, no sky, only endless caverns and warrens, some vast enough to hold entire cities, like Or-Mazaar City of the Black Star from which the Queen of Night rules.

The power of the World Below wanes, while the power of Equinox waxes. A smaller, parasitic manifold home to the twilight celestials and their servants the shadow elves, Equinox is ruled by Every Strike of Lightning a Lover Betrayed, the Queen of Shadows, third of the Three Sisters Below who plots to bridge the sea between worlds and colonize Orden making a new home for her people before their old world dies. A fierce, fairy-tale, weird magic, jungle world of permanent twilight also known as Dusk.

The last plane of law, the Seven Cities of Hell is among the lowest of the lower planes. A land of devils proud of their civilization, each of the seven cities is ruled by an archduke who schemes to ascend to the Throne of Hell. A world of bureaucratic law, the devil denizens of Hell have little interest in the other planes. Life is so much more interesting down here.

The seven archdevils conspired together once; agreeing to create the Order of Desolation—also known as the Illriggers—to extend their power into the timescape, and defend Hell from the horde of demons below.

The demons of the Abyssal Waste, the lowest plane, claw and scramble over each other, competing for souls in this heat-blasted desert under a baleful, giant orange sun. Mindless collections of organs, claws, and teeth, demons collect souls until they reach sentience and gain identity and the blessing of memory. These demons will do anything to escape upwards, out of the wasteland, lest they lose their collected souls, lose their identity, and fall into that mindless state called lethe.

At the center of the Abyssal Waste lies the Necropolitan Ruin, the Last City, a city of the dead, ruled by Khorsekef, once the Infinite Pharaoh of Khemhara, now the Ultralich. Khorsekef intends to return to Orden and sit once again on his throne in the Heliopolis.

Setting Design¶

Orden and the timescape were both designed over the last 25 years to be an explicitly commercial setting. A product where you could find all the things everyone expects to find in a classic fantasy setting, with new takes on classic tropes and a little more "Why are things like this?" work done to ground everything and make things feel plausible. None of this makes Orden "better" than other settings, it just gives it character.

Orden is not explicitly a high fantasy world, even though there are some pretty high fantasy things going on in it, because the average person has very little access to magic. The typical village might have a priest who knows some real prayers that close wounds or cure minor ailments, or an alchemist or hedge wizard who can brew some potions or conjure minor spells, but that's the extent of it. The result is, though Orden is a pre-industrial world with technology and societies akin to 13th-century Europe, the quality of life of the people who live there is a lot closer to ours. They live about as long as we do, die from disease about as often as we do, and generally have diets similar to ours, though with vastly more basic and constricted options on their menus.

In Capital, for instance, people use flying tapestries to get around the city quickly, but these are a luxury available only to the rich. The vast majority of Capital's citizens live a life basically the same as your average Londoner in Shakespeare's time. Less plague and fire, though.

It's not clear to us, looking in, but it doesn't seem as though Orden operates according to the real-world laws of physics, chemistry, and biology. People in the middle ages here on Earth didn't know about quarks or DNA, but they still knew everything was made of "stuff" and everyone expected a child to more or less resemble their parents. Essentially, Orden works the way people living in any culture's medieval era believed the real world actually worked. Because of the presence of magic, prayer, and psionics in the world, it's unlikely anything like science or an industrial age will ever come to Orden.

Ultimately, while there are 10th-level characters out there, these are exceedingly rare. Most people in Orden do not have class levels. Only a few are 1st level anything! No one has ever tried to take a census of all the censors, conduits, furies, and so forth, but if they did, they'd probably end up with a chart that looks a lot like Zipf's Law.

Finally, most information about Orden and the timescape is presented from the point of view of someone living in Orden. They can tell you what they think they know, but even learned historians do not agree, and new information constantly comes to light challenging the accepted academic wisdom. Just like … you get it.

This lack of objective certainty not only makes it more fun for us to work on Orden, it makes it easier for you to make Orden yours. This comes at the price of certainty. (Are the Dragon Phalanx really "incorruptible?" Well, a lot of people still say that! In spite of concrete evidence to the contrary!) But we think it helps relieve some of the anxiety Directors have when they want to run a game in Orden but are afraid they don't know "enough" or "everything." Not to worry. No one knows everything!

P.S. We use the phrase "Orden and the timescape" because Orden is, as it were, the star of the show. But Orden is very clearly only one world in the timescape. It's like those astronomy maps hanging on the wall in your grade school science class that said, "Earth and the solar system." Like that map, any map of the timescape will be an artist's interpretation, not drawn to scale, and never wholly accurate depending on what information you're looking for.

The Timescape in Your Game

We use the timescape and its medieval fantasyland Orden as the default setting presented in these books. Doing so makes it easier for us as designers to marry our design with real examples from a real (imaginary) fantasy world. We also think it's easier for you to take the names for places, languages, and gods, and replace them with your own. We might reference some hero or villain, saint or god, whose name makes you think, "Well, I don't have that in my setting." If we do a good job, though, you might be inspired to say, "But that makes me think …" And being inspired is part of the fun!

If you're the Director, you can use as many or as few of the details of the timescape as you like. You might wish to create your own world within the timescape, or use a setting you've created that exists outside of the official MCDM manifolds. You can use details from settings published by other companies. There are no rules when it comes to worldbuilding. Feel free to take what you like from this book and change the rest. For example, you might not care for our dwarves having literal stone skin. That's fine. You can make them fleshy, stout, bearded folk, or mohawked, barrel-chested punk rockers, or anything else you wish. As long as you're running a heroic fantasy campaign about fighting monsters, then the game's rules are still likely to serve your narrative even if that narrative deviates from ours.

If you're a player, ask your Director about the setting where the game takes place and discuss with them the sort of hero you want to create. Maybe you want to play a more traditional gruff and bearded dwarf rather than go all short and stony. An open dialogue and honest discussion with your Director can lead to everyone getting what they want out of the game.

What's Next? Find Out on Patreon

While this book and Draw Steel: Monsters are both chock-full of character options and adventure ideas that could keep you playing Draw Steel for years, some folks want even more classes, ancestries, monsters, treasures, and encounters. You can find out what we're developing next, get a preview of that content, and read blog posts about the development of the game by joining the MCDM Patreon at mcdm.gg/Patreon.