Episode 2025.17 Published on 5 September 2025

Core Rules Errata, More Djordice, and Vampire Pre-Orders | August Roundup

Jump to links ↓

Intro

Draw Steel has been out for a month. It's been well received and new people are picking up the game and entering the community all the time. There's also been an update to the released adventures, errata for the core rules, more Djordice are coming, 50 leveled treasure has been released, the kobold ancestry is happening, the vampire class in on pre-order, and more!

I'm Jon de Nor and this is Goblin Points.

Jams of the Timescape

I have to start with some exciting news. The Dice Society and I are running a Draw Steel jam over on Itch.io. Starting September 8th through the following two weeks you'll be able to submit a set of three leveled treasures, that are intended to be worn together. If they're worn together, they become stronger than their parts and grant an extra bonus.

We have a great panel of judges, and two winners will receive a prize, graciously provided by MCDM: a complete set of Draw Steel dice boxes.

Head on over to Itch.io for all the details and to participate. We've also set up a Discord server for participants to chat and possibly collaborate.

Draw Steel

I'm not going to sit here and philosophize on sales numbers for Draw Steel, but since it has been a hangup for some in the community (and elsewhere on the web), I'm just going to make a small comment on this.

Some people think that Draw Steel has not been advertised well enough for it's launch, and that's a mistake. To that I have three points, some of which overlap with points Matt has made:

They did advertise when they launched the crowdfunding campaign, and they got over 30,000 people to buy in then. That's a huge number in this hobby.
Are we really going to complain that there's not enough advertising in our daily lives?
The post-release sales have gone up week-over-week. They're selling more and more games for each week that passes. According to Matt, it's MCDM's best selling product, ever.

And speaking of sales. The Delian Tomb has sold so well that it paid for itself in three days. It's a steal with all that value you get for $10. A 30+ hour adventure, a tutorial to the game, and basic set of the rules.

Errata and Fixes

There's already been errata and fixes released for the core rules, The Road to Broadhurst and The Delian Tomb. The adventures have had new versions of their PDFs released merely two weeks after release, with fixes and corrections for issues that had been reported.

Additionally, MCDM also released an errata document for Heroes and Monsters. It's three pages of jam packed correction and clarifications. There are no rule changes in the errata.

There's a planned update to the PDFs of Heroes, Monsters, The Delian Tomb and The Road to Broadhurst by the end of September. The printed version of Heroes and Monsters have already been sent to the printer and can't be changed, but at least the PDFs will be up-to-date.

Future Draw Steel Products

There was initially a plan to release a bunch of products this year, before the crowdfunder in December. This has now been scaled back. The amount of work it took to get Heroes and Monsters out the door means the team have been crunching for a while and they don't want to do that again. Some of the projects have now been moved to next year instead, to keep everything at a better level.

That means they're planning to release The Fall of Blackbottom this year. The adventure is hopefully done testing, with editing beginning soon. In the adventure the heroes are in Blackbottom trying to relax, when Ajax' forces suddenly attack, and the heroes need to get out of Blackbottom as quickly as possible.

The summoner has been released in an open beta test. Anyone with an internet connection can head the MCDM Patreon and download the full summoner and give it a test run. They do warn that it's a master class, meaning it's quite complex and recommended to more experienced Draw Steel players. They plan to have the summoner out this year.

These next products are expected to release in 2026.

The beastheart, the pet companion class. You build up ferocity while you fight alongside your pet companion. Your special bond makes you act in unison, in a way that regular allies don't.

The Dark Heart of the Wood is a quest adventure, only granting 6 victories. So it's meant a smaller side quest, on the way to something greater. The heroes happen on a town where the local mage has fallen sick, because something is choking the source of their power in the local woods. The heroes need to stop the thorn dragon that has taken root there.

The Red Road is a second level adventure. The heroes find a village razed, with a blood trail leading to the next town over. A larger town. The heroes need to try to catch up with band of gnolls before they reach the town.

The condemned starts at level three and has the heroes condemned to death. Right before their execution they get the offer to escape their punishment in exchange for going on a suicide mission. House Verona needs their alchemist back, or he'll tell Ajax how to make gunpowder.

Encounters, the third book of the core rules. It'll include dungeon delves, small three-room dungeons to easily drop in to a session; NPCs with negotiation stats to use as reference; example montage tests; and examples of how to adjudicate outcomes for skill tests.

And the Ancestries book, which includes six new ancestries: gnomes, tiny people who use squirrels for mounts; goblins; radenwights, the fancily dressed rat folk; shadow elves, the elves of equinox who are lit by a different sun and have half their features in shadow; fairies; and the skarrj, the dragonfly people.

December Crowdfunder

As we know, MCDM is planning to do another crowdfunder in December. This is to fund the Vasloria box set, called Omund's Land. Omund's Land will include setting material for the lands that was once governed by Good King Omund.

Also in the crowdfunder, is the big adventure called Crack the Sun. This is a big box adventure that covers level three through eight. During the adventure the heroes will meet the shadow elves, travel to equinox and finally end up on the sun, trying to stop the creature imprisoned inside the sun from being freed.

It also sounds like MCDM wants to offer people the chance to pre-order some of the products planned for 2026 in the crowdfunder.

Djordice

MCDM has about 200 boxes of the Omund's Box dice boxes left. They plan to put them in their shop for Black Friday. So you'll get an oppertunity to get them then.

They also want to sell more of the small dice boxes. They're currently talking about offering more of them in March or April of next year.

Codex

The Codex is coming along nicely. From week to week there are visible progress being made. The current plan is still to release a beta version to patrons in December.

The initial goal was for the December beta to include all of echelon 1, but it looks like that has been changed recently. The new goal is to have all of The Delian Tomb implemented for the beta. That limits the scope a little bit, and it gives the testers some specific material to test.

The Kobold Ancestry - Powered by Draw Steel

The crowdfunder for the kobold ancestry made by Pesto Publications, Pesto Enthusiast's outfit, was a success, raising seven times their goal. If you didn't get the chance to back the original campaign, they've opened for pre-orders. You can get the ancestry for $10.

Pre-Order Vampire Class for Draw Steel

Speaking of successful crowdfunders. The vampire class, being developed by Triglav Games, is also now open for pre-orders. The price has increased since the original campaign, but you can still get it for a reduced price compared to the final price when it releases.

For the $18 is now costs, you'll get the vampire class, a vampire ancestry, four varmpire kits, ten vampire perks, two vampire careers, and more, when it releases. They estimate delivery in December this year.

Weapons of Legend - Powered by Draw Steel

Jeff Stevens Games also had a successful crowdfunder for their Weapons of Legend. Once the campaign was done, they had the products ready, and released it to backers. So if you backed the crowdfunder you should already have the code to download the finished PDF.

Weapons of Legend is a collection of 50 leveled treasures with full color art for each of the weapons.

If you missed out on the crowdfunder, the PDF is now on sale on DriveThruRPG for $10, and it's still possible to get printed versions of the book and the individual weapon cards.

MacGraw Hideaway

Look Out Behind You Studios has released a quest adventure called MacGraw Hideaway. It's set close to Ivywatch, the location of Look Out Behind You Studios' crowdfunded adventure, Raiders of Ivywatch. In MacGraw Hideaway a tribe of goblins is making trouble and you're tasked with taking care of them.

The quest is estimated to run for 4-6 hours and the heroes can earn up to six victories.

You can pick it up on Itch.io for $5.

Essentians - A Draw Steel Ancestry

007GoldFish is running a crowdfunder for their elemental ancestry called Essentians. The products includes two signature traits for essentians, and branches for each of the seven elements: earth, air, fire, water, green, rot and void; each branch with five traits of their own.

If you're listening to this on release, there's still a few hours left of the crowdfunder. It's $5 to get the ancestry.

The Dice Society

The Dice Society is expanding his empire and in addition to making podcast episodes and writing adventures, he's now also making a video series on how to play Draw Steel.

In August he published a new episode of the podcast, covering the launch of Draw Steel, and he's released the two first videos in his series called How to Draw Steel. Episode zero is an introduction to what the game is, while episode one covers the basics.

Steel Compendium

Xentis has put in an impressive amount of work to make Steel Compendium. With the permissive license of Draw Steel, it's possible to post the entire rules text openly, and Xentis has you covered.

Steel Compendium has the entire Heores and Monsters books available for you to read online. The art of the books is not covered by the license, so it's not included, but everything else is.

Invading Force

patraxe has released a fifth level adventure called Invading Force. In the adventure, the heroes must escape the prison they're in and stop an invading force of allied demons and devils from invading Orden. As the adventure says in the abstract: it's a DOOM-inspired adventure.

The heroes can collect at least 10 victories.

You can get the adventure for $2.50 on Itch.io.

Community Highlights

The Release of the final rules has prompted an explosion of creations from both the existing Draw Steel community and other parts of the internet. Here are some of the highlights from the community.

A weather system for Draw Steel by Aeastus
A water specialization for the elementalist by Sam McGurran
The awakened plants or harpy monster bands by Valued Dragon
The fury 2.1 by Zetesofos
The Codex tutorials being released by the developers, DMHub
The actual plays from Average Roll, Rise Heroes Rise!, and SciFriTV
How to prep a Draw Steel session in 20 minutes by sterling2063
Monster initiative cards by EZKL22
Draw Steel essentials cheat sheet by JesterOC
The new release of the FoundryVTT system for Draw Steel by Metamorphic Digital
The online resource trackers for players by TheStarRaider

From Around the Web

Outside our regular community, there was also some great creations. Power Word Spill did an excellent video on Draw Steel. And Teos Abadia did a video on why he loves complications. Crispy's Academy has continued their series on the different parts of Draw Steel. And Deficient Master did a great video comparing how combat runs between Daggerhart and Draw Steel.

Outro

What a month! The link section this month is insane. Never have there been so many links in any of the categories. Draw Steel is popping off!

I want to remind you once again about the Draw Steel jam The Dice Society and I are running. Lots of people have already joined, there's a lot of activity on the Discord server and the prizes are really nice. Like, more than I'd ever expect, nice. So, a huge thanks to MCDM for providing them.

If you want to be featured on Goblin Points, or know of someone else who should be, leave a comment on YouTube or Spotify, or send me an e-mail on tips@goblinpoints.com.

Links to the MCDM Discord server, the subreddits for MCDM and Draw Steel, the YouTube channels of Matt and MCDM, the complete link section, and this script is in the show notes. It's also on goblinpoints.com.

Next episode is on the 20th. That'll be my interview with Tom Bloom. Probably most known in our community for being lead designer and artist for the Lancer RPG, but he's also a 4th edition sicko, lover of tactical combat, and strong proponent for playtesting. Paying patrons can submit questions. Sign up to get the chance to submit questions for my next guest. Link is in the show notes.

See you next time. Snakkes.