Episode 2025.19 Published on 5 October 2025

News: Draw Steel Books Start Shipping, MCDM December Crowdfunder, and the Frog People Crowdfunder | September Roundup

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Intro

This episode I talk about the Draw Steel books shipping, details about the December MCDM crowdfunder and where Omund's Land went, and the Boggits crowdfunder by Triglav Games.

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

JotT #1: Treasure Sets of the Timescape

I'm going to be a bit self-indulgent and start out with a project I'm doing with The Dice Society. As this episode goes live, there's only a few hours left of voting for the judges in Jams of the Timescape #1: Sets of the Timescape.

We've received 39 submissions of leveled treasure sets for Draw Steel. Some of the submissions are the first time some of the participants have published any homebrew publicly. I love that we get to encourage people to give it a go.

We even had someone say in the Jams of the Timescape Discord server they thought they wouldn't be able to submit their work in time for the deadline. Others immediately showed up and helped, and they managed to get a submission in. How fantastic is that?! That's a benefit of inheriting the community from Draw Steel and MCDM.

I have, right behind me, two stacks of Draw Steel dice boxes that are going to two deserving winners of the jam. These are the five sets of dice for five of the iconic heroes from the core rules. A very big thank you to MCDM for sponsoring the prizes.

If you didn't have time to participate this time, you'll get more opportunities. Treasure Sets of the Timescape was just the first volume. If The Dice Society and I get our way, there will be more!

Draw Steel Books Are Shipping

And now, to some official Draw Steel news.

MCDM has notified people to make sure their adresses are correct in BackerKit, because the books are starting to ship. Some people are already reporting that they've received them, or that they've received shipping confirmation.

It's important to remember in this exciting time that there's 30.000 books that need to be shipped. That's going to take while. It might be weeks before you get your shipping notification. And then the books might spend weeks in transit. You'll just have to be patient.

For those of us who ordered the Ajax edition, we'll have to wait a bit longer. The boxes are still expected to start shipping in November. If everything goes to plan. All of Ajax editions are being shipped from the U.S., so that'll impact how long it'll take to reach you once you receive your shipping confirmation.

December Crowdfunder

MCDM is still planning a crowdfunder in December, but what's going to be featured in it has changed a bit. And until it actually launches, we won't really know for sure what they'll put in there, but here's the latest.

Omund's Land is not going to be in it. While there have been interest in a setting guide, the great majority of directors are running campaigns in their own settings. While they may borrow elements from published settings, they're not using the complete settings. What could've gone into the setting guide is now slated to be published in chunks on Patreon instead. That way directors can still get information about Orden and Vasloria to steal from, and MCDM can spend time developing products that more people want.

It looks like the crowdfunder will instead focus on Crack the Sun, the big five level adventure. It'll be a box set with the adventure and a bunch of extra items. What those items will be, we don't know yet.

Crack the Sun is split into five acts, one for each of the levels from three to eight, and will take the heroes to Equinox to metl shadow elves and gnomes, god-like beings, and then ultimately to the sun. Unlike our sun, the sun in Orden is not a big burning ball. It's a glowing orb, and the home to the heliox. And the ultimate goal is to stop the bad guys from cracking it open, letting what's inside, out.

Also in the crowdfunder, you'll be able to preorder the third core rule book Encounters, which features resources for directors to drop into a session: A bunch of small three-room dungeons; montage tests for different situations; a bunch of NPCs with stats, including motivations and ptifalls, and art; and skill test templates. All these are meant to be used without having to do much or any prep. They're supposed to be the anser to "what's a good way to do this?"

You'll also be able to order the four adventures currently being worked on: The Red Road, The Fall of Blackbottom, The Dark Heart of the Wood, and The Condemned. By the time we get to the crowdfunder, The Fall of Blackbottom will most likely already be out.

And last, there'll also be the ancestries. Eight new playable ancestries: goblins; rat folk, called radenwights; shadow elves; gnomes, small folk, the size of mice; dragonfly people, called skarjj; fairies, another small folk with butterfly wings; gol, a human-like ancestry; and heliox, the inhabitants of the sun.

Matt also mentioned that you'll be able to buy Heroes and Monsters as part of the crowdfunder too. Apparently, a lot of people like to buy from the back catalog when they back future products.

Crows

Moving on to other MCDM topics. Matt has been very clear that he intends MCDM to not by a one game company. Quite the opposite. He wants MCDM to have a portfolio of games and products to prevent putting all the eggs in a single basket.

James is working on a dungeon crawler RPG called Crows. This game is in many ways the polar opposite of Draw Steel. The characters are squishy people, and easy to kill. They have no powers of their own, but need equipment to hold their own. They dive into dangerous dungeons in search of gold and other loot.

James has been tinkering on Crows on and off for a year (yes, it's been a year I checked my notes), but he's only been able to put focus on it recently. After the release of Draw Steel. He's currently testing two versions of the game with different dice mechanics. One where you're rolling a pool of d6s, and one that uses the power roll, but where each weapon has a power roll, instead of the characters having abilities.

The game is still very early in development, and there's no timeline if or when it'll release.

Draw Steel Minis by TitanCraft

Titancraft is currently running a crowdfunder on Kickstarter for MCDM monsters. They've partnered with MCDM to license the monster design. Titancraft lets you create 3D figures for both heroes and monsters, and then either download an STL file for 3D printing, or make 2D tokens for use in VTTs. You can also order a 3D print of your figure.

By backing you'll get access to the Draw Steel asset pack, which gives you unlimited downloads of tokens and STL files when using the asset packs you own.

The crowdfunder is going until the 16th of October, and pledges start at $45.

Codex

Codex received a massive update for directors this month. It's now possible to create documents. You can use them to organize notes for dungeons or scenes. The documents also lets you refer to Codex settings if you want easy access to volume controls, for example, while reading the document. It's also possible to share the document with the players, and designate parts of the document as private to director.

Then it allows you to set up encounters directly in the document, with scaling support. You can specify which monsters should be included based on the number of heroes. Codex will show a control to let the director specify the number of heroes, and the encounters will be adjusted accordingly.

It also lets you deploy all the monsters in the encounter onto the map in one go. It will also remember the positions if you remove them again. That means you can deploy the monsters, position them as you want, remove them from the map, and then deploy them in those desired positions once the heroes arrive.

This is some truly powerful stuff.

The Dice Society

According to his most recent episode, The Dice Society have been busy lately. Still hasn't stopped him from putting together Jams of the Timescape with me, making episode two of his How to Draw Steel series, which covers combat abilities, releasing a new episode of the The Dice Society podcast where he talks about Daggerheart and how it feels comapred to Draw Steel, and, oh, he's a panel judge in the jam.

Fanzines

Tabletop Nonsenseverse just published their third issue of The Blacksmith's Guild. This issue features

  • A Psi-Borg ancestry by Jacob Taylor. You've been implanted with psionic implants to enhance your body. Like the revenant ancestry, you choose the ancestry you were before becoming enhanced.
  • The Elf King by Caio "The Dice Society" Lente. An elf king has a tyrannical hold over the village of Oatley, and the heroes are asked to help the townsfolk. It's designed for four to six first level heroes, and grants between five and seven victories.
  • Charge Forth! Understanding and Improving Mounted Combat by Max Falcon. An article that collects all the rules for mounted combat in a single place, with expanded explanations. There's also hints for designing mounted encounters, four new kits designed for mounted heroes, and four new mounts.
  • Soul Snatchers by Paul Ligorski. A new monster band of creatures that roam the Sea of Stars and the Timescape in search of lost souls. The monster band includes malice features, five level five monsters, two new treasures and an encounter.
  • Tanzen, Lord of the Dance by Harmonic Hewell. Tanzen is a level 6 solo monster, with some wonderful mechanics around dancing and performing a dance. He's truly a Dancelord.

You can get the issue from their web store for $7.

The first issue of Ratcatchers has also been released. The issue features

  • Living Traps by Spencer Hibnik. A collection of traps to spring on your heroes: two level one festival frog themed traps, two level three animated object traps and two level four demonic eye traps, for a total of six traps.
  • Mimic by Sam McGurran. If you've been missing a mimic in the Monsters book, Sam's got you covered. Also included in the article is a research project to create a mimic, and a mimic retainer.
  • Creatures of the Wode by Chris Hopper. A monster band of creatures to find in those mystical and weird forests, called wodes. Complete with malice features and one level one, two level two and one level five monsters.
  • The Grounds of Battle by Félix Gauthier-Mamaril. A fantastic article on how to create good battle maps for Draw Steel, making sure to include proper cover from line of effect, remember to calculate for actual effective ranges, and include variatians in height.
  • Dryads by Joel Russ. Dryad as a playable ancestry. There's two signature traits, and eight(!) purchasable traits.
  • Anthousai (flowerfolk) by Joel Russ. Humanoids that also look like impressive flowers. They come with two signature traits and six purchasable traits.
  • The Elemental Dancers of Avahndi by Aaron Flavius West. Two level two monster stat blocks for the dancers. They dance their way through combat, rotating through three elemental flows: cold, fire and lightning. An Avahandi treasure is also included in the article.

You can get the digital version of Ratcatchers for $10, and the physical version for $15.

On The Edge, A Variant Kits Supplement for Draw Steel

Legendlore Games has put together a kit supplement which extends the options for the kits included in the core rules. These are not new kits, but instead variants of the existing ones.

Each kit grants the same bonuses, but this supplement adds more abilities to choose from. So instead of getting the designated ability with the kit you choose, you can select one of the abilities listed for the kit instead.

Some of the abilities offered aren't even signature abilities, but triggered actions. For example for the Cloak & Dagger kit, how about the free triggered action Cutback, which lets you do a bit of retaliatory damage if someone adjacent attacks you?

This is a really cool addition for those who want a few more options when doing character creation.

You can pick up On the Edge on Itch for a suggested price of $2.

MrMattDollar

MrMattDollar has released two products in September.

Alchemical Consumables is a collection of 33 consumable treasures with an alchemical twist. There are treasures for all four echelons, including an artifact and a trinket. There's also a new title, a new perk, and four alchemist followers and an alchemist retainer included.

Practical Mechanicals is a collection of 24 new treasures, vehicles to use as mounts, a new title, a new perk, a construct assistant, four new artisan followers and a new retainer.

You can get them on MrMattDollar's itch for $5 each.

Paul Ligorski

Paul Ligorski, aka HeartOfArcana, has released a seventh level quest called To Defy the Stars. It's still in playtesting, but you can get access to the materials and give it a go. Paul warns that the adventure expects all players to be familiar with Draw Steel, as the combats are designed to be hard.

To Defy the Stars is currently free, but I expect it'll become a paid product once the material has been tested and completed.

Paul Ligorski also announced a crowdfunder that launches in November, called The Cave of Amber Tears. It's designed for five first level heroes and if you're the adventurous sort, you can get the playtest materials for free.

Crowdfunded Adventures Available

This month saw the release of two adventures that was successfully crowdfunded earlier this year.

Raiders of Ivywatch, in which you try to save the titular town of Ivywatch. First they were attacked by Ajax' hawk lords and then by lizardfolk. Now they need some heroes. You can pick up the adventure on itch for $18.

The Great Thaw of Gryzmithrak Spire, was the first successfully funded adventure written for Draw Steel. There's a great thawing of an icy prison, that holds an ancient danger. Can the heroes stop the creature? You can pick it up on DriveThruRPG for $4.99.

The Tangleblight

Schaab has released Tangleblight a 38 page adventure for three to five heroes. The town of Oren has a "rat problem". A local leader of radenwights needs to be dealt with. But there's also a thorn dragon that has awakened and started spreading a blight across the land. The heroes can earn between eight to ten victories.

You can get the adventure for free on Itch.

FERAL

Patraxe has released Feral a quest for second level hereos. The village of Gyles is occupied by Ajax' war dogs, but the war dogs are growing impatient with the lack of action. The heroes arrive and are tasked with freeing the town, either by negotiation or by the blade.

You can pick up Feral for a suggested price of $2 on Itch.

Valued Dragon Design

Valued Dragon Design is releasing new monsters every week. and at the time of writing has six collections available on their store: eleven stat blocks for merfolk; ten stat blocks for beastfolk; eleven stat blocks for fey creatures; ten stat blocks for oozes; twelve stat blocks for awakened plants; and a first level solo Phase Spider.

You can pick them all up for pay-what-you-want on their ko-fi page.

Get Ready for Boggits of Kingsmire - A Swampy Supplement for Draw Steel

Triglav Games, perhaps best known for their massive Vampire class crowdfunder earlier this year, has a announced their second crowdfunder, Boggits of Kingsmire. According to the subtitle, it's a "swampy supplement for Draw Steel".

The supplement's focus is the region of Kingsmire. It features a new ancestry, the boggits, which are frog people; new kits; a swamp domain for conduits and censors; new stormwight kits for the fury; new perks, titles, and treasure; new downtime activities; new monsters; setting details; and multiple quests set in Kingsmire to get you started in the regian.

No word on price tiers yet, but the art on the crowdfunder landing page looks fantastic. It launches on October 15th.

Community Highlights

All of this is just the top of the iceberg of creations being released for Draw Steel. Some highlights from the community this past month are

  • Faction rules by 6ftninja
  • Treasures to reward when beating the solo monsters in the core rules by designerclub
  • A prisoner's escort by Felhoof
  • Drawn Armory by Kerpow
  • Compact Steel Sample Characters by Paul Strack
  • Draw Steel Actual Plays on YouTube by Rise Heroes Rise!
  • Draw Steel Templates - Affinity, InDesign, Google Docs by Taylor
  • Draw Steel Retainer Cards by Xochilex

From Around the Web

Elsewhere on the web, people are talking a lot about Draw Steel as more and more people are checking it out. There are a bunch of live plays and d20play especially has done a lot of streams where they play with different groups of people. James also did an interview with The Character Sheet at the beginning of September.

Stawl Updates

I released two updates two Stawl in September. New features inlcude

  • The core rules, Heroes and Monsters, are now available to read and link to.
  • Importing heroes from Forge Steel.
  • Items from the core rules have been added, and the ability to create your own.
  • The abiility to organize monsters into monster bands.

I also gave Disdiar, the Discord bot, a real brush up. It now uses the correct rules for tests, it can look up more information from the core rules, and it looks up the correct monster information.

Outro

Holy crap there's a lot of stuff being released for Draw Steel. I remember when I could cover everything, no problem, but this month, literally half the script is just links to everything that's happening. If you're playing, there's so many great creations: small, simple, or complex.

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 everything, including this script can be found in the show notes, and on goblinpoints.com.

If you want to support my work, you can become a Patreon supporter. As a paying member you can submit questions for upcoming guests. You also get access to premium features on Stawl. Stawl is digital tool set for playing and running Draw Steel: digital hero sheets, looking up monsters, or read the core rules. Go to Stawl.app. S-T-A-W-L-dot-app.

Next episode is on the 20th. That will be an interview with Matteusz, aka Ananam, of Triglav Games. As I mentioned, they're gearing up for a new large crowdfunding campaign; it'll be interesting to hear what they've learned from their previous outing.

See you next time. Snakkes.

Links

JotT #1: Treasure Sets of the Timescape

From MCDM

Draw Steel Minis by TitanCraft

Codex

The Dice Society

Fanzine Releases

On The Edge, A Variant Kits Supplement for Draw Steel

MrMattDollar

Paul Ligorski

Crowdfunded Adventures Available

The Tangleblight

FERAL - Powered by DRAW STEEL by patraxe

Valued Dragon Design

Get Ready for Boggits of Kingsmire - A Swampy Supplement for Draw Steel

Community Highlights

Draw Steel Homebrew

Draw Steel Media

Draw Steel Tools

From the Web