Intro

More details about Crows, The Codex pricing has been finalized, Draw Steel has officially landed on FoundryVTT, and supplements containing space battles, beastfolk, sewer monsters, warforged, and 31 small supplements for Draw Steel.

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

Crows

Kra! Kra! Crows!

Lot's of fun stuff about Crows this month. We got to Patreon posts and a video introducing Crows.

Let's start at the beginning. In the land of Cornath the benevolent wizards wielded magic to create a paradise. But, unbeknownst to the wizards, the magic was sentient and disliked being forced to the wizards' will. Over time magic became hostile and revolted against the wizards, driving them mad. In their effort to regain control of magic they started wars with each other, creating unspeakable horrors, and bringing desolation.

It's been ten years since wizards, now called necromancers, died. The horrors they created still roam the land, especially in dark dungeons. But humanity clings to life and civilization. A few of those humans brave the dangers outside their village, seeking fortune in the face of death. They go to dangerous places and pick at anything shiny to bring back. These brave, or foolhardy, individuals are called crows.

Crows is classless system where you start off with a background that tells what the player character did before becoming a crow. It also determines starting bonuses to your characteristics, starting stamina, starting skill bonuses and a unique trait.

There are three characteristics in crows: Strength, Agility, and Mind. They all start at 0, but the background you choose increase one of them to one. Some backgrounds increase a specific one, while other might let you choose one between two of them. When you make rolls, your characteristic is added to the roll.

Your background also grants you some stamina start off with. This represents how much vitality and energy your crow has left to go on. When you take damage, you reduce your stamina, and when you're at zero, you start taking wounds. You have a backpack with ten slots to store equipment in, but when you take a wound, one of those slots is occupied by that wound. Any equipment in that backpack slot is dropped. If all ten slots are occupied by a wound, your crow dies.

Skills determine the things the crow is good at doing. This can be anything from doing damage with different weapons, or casting different kinds of magic.

The trait from your background is unique to the background, but can be picked up by crows of a different background by spending XP. All the traits are related to equipment in some way. It might be you're more effective using a specific kind of equipment, or that you're able to produce them more quickly.

While Crows inherits the power roll from Draw Steel, it uses it differently. It's still 2d10 with the same three tiers, but they're tied to equipment now, not character abilities. Crows is a game about equipment, what equipment you bring with you, how you organize it, how you use it and how well you use it.

You can store two items in your belt for easy access during stressful situations like combat, and you can store equipment in the ten slots in your backpack. Most equipment use one slot, while some smaller things can be stacked multiple in one slot, while bigger equipment might use two slots.

While doing overland travel, the crows has to navigate dangerous lands. There are dangerous creatures living in the wilderness, and there's the miasma. The miasma is a remnant of the wizard war and it affects humans traveling in it. If they're not careful or stay to long in it, it drives to madness and they lose themselves to it.

To keep that from happening, crows traveling need to be methodical and strategic in their movement. They can take on four roles during travel: guide, scout, forager, and leader:

The guide plans the route and makes sure the crows are moving in the right direction, and that they don't get lost.
The scout keeps an eye out for dangers, be they creatures or something else. It's their job to prevent the crows from having to draw steel.
The forager hunts and gathers for food. With their effort, the crows can stay out in the wilderness for longer.
The leader has to keep morale up and ensure the crows don't fall under the spell of the miasma.

While traveling, the crows might also come across interesting locations, be caught off guard by sudden weather changes, or be stuck in difficult terrain like mountains or a bog.

Crows is in active development, but you can sign up to be notified when the crowdfunder goes live later this year.

Codex

The Codex is officially coming to early access on Steam. That means you'll be able to buy it on Steam as any other game, and with that purchase you'll also get access to the complete Heroes book inside the Codex. Both the rules as implemented in the Codex, but also via the built-in PDF viewer with comprehensive searching capability.

The Codex is going into early access on April 6. And when that happens there are a few things to consider for existing users of the Codex.

First of all: you'll have to migrate off of the version of the Codex you're currently using. That version of the Codex will be removed from Steam, and your Steam library on April 30. You'll have to move over to the early access version by then.

None of your stored data will disappear! Everything you've put into the Codex will still be there when you move over to the early access version of Codex.

Now, let's talk pricing. With the launch to early access on Steam, MCDM has also announced their pricing. While the Codex is in early access it will cost $20. That price will increase to $30 when it moves out of early access. They're planning for Codex to be in early access for three months. Those purchases will include access to the full Heroes book, and the Delian Tomb adventure fully implemented, including the pre-gen characters with tutorialized progression.

If you've been playtesting the Codex since before September 1st 2025, you have received the full version of the Codex for free. If you look in your Steam library, the Codex should've changed name to just Draw Steel. If that's the case, you already have the early access version of the Codex and won't have to do anything else. This is a token of appreciation from the DMHub team for your participation in testing the Codex since the early days.

If you've bought a hardcover of the Heroes book, you will receive an email from MCDM with a $20 coupon to the MCDM Shop, their online store. You can buy access to the Codex on the shop and use the $20 coupon to get it for free. An important note is that the $20 coupon is for anything on the shop. So if you want to use those $20 for something else on there, you are free to do so.

If you've bought a PDF version of the Heroes book, you'll receive a $10 coupon to the MCDM Shop. This will get you half-way to an access code for the Codex. Only if you've bought the hardcover, will you get the Codex for free. PDF buyers get half off. You're also free to use those $10 on anything else in the shop too.

If you've been a paying patron since before January 6th 2026, you'll receive a Steam key via email. The Steam key can be used inside the Steam client to unlock access to the Codex. The Steam key will only be eligible for accessing the Codex. Another thing to note about the Steam key is that it's only valid for three months. After that it will expire, and you'll no longer be able to use it to get access to the Codex.

Remember that every player needs to buy access to the Codex to be able to play: players as well as directors. Part of the goal is to make everyone run the same version of the Codex, making it easier for one of the players to step into the director role, without any extra investment.

MCDM is still talking about a "party pack" of five access codes for $100, but they haven't made that official yet, so we don't know if that's going to happen. In addition. MCDM's general manager has mentioned that they're going to put the Codex on sale from time to time, giving people a cheaper way to get the Codex.

Now. This pricing structure is a bit different to what has been floated before. There had been talk about everyone who bought Heroes would get free access to the Codex when it launched. I feel they always made sure to point out that it was subject to change, but I'm sure some will be disappointed they didn't do that in the end. I can only imagine that they crunched the numbers and couldn't make it work.

From what Matt has said, and what I've been told by people in the know, Codex is incredibly expensive to build. The fact that they're offering it this cheaply is quite impressive. We can only hope that it manages to be sustainable in the long run.

One last thing to mention is that the Codex has changed name on Steam. It's now called Draw Steel, just Draw Steel. According to an update made by the developers, DMHub, it's to make it clearer that you're buying the game, and it makes work better in sentences like "I'm playing Draw Steel on Steam" and "do you have Draw Steel on Steam". They're still going to use Codex when referring to the software elsewhere though, to differentiate it from the game itself.

Draw Steel on FoundryVTT

While there have been, and still is, a community system for Draw Steel on FoundryVTT, Metamorphic Studios released officially licensed modules for Draw Steel on Foundry. While MCDM won't implement Draw Steel outside the Codex, others are free to negotiate a licensing deal with MCDM to do so.

The Draw Steel Creator License do allow you to use all the text from the core rules as you wish, but if you want the art, you'll need an agreement with MCDM. And that is part of what this system brings to Foundry. With these official modules you'll get monster tokens for all the monsters that have art in the Monsters book. And while that only includes a sub section, Metamorphic has promised to backfill the Monsters module once more art becomes available in new products from MCDM.

In total, Metamorphic Studios released four modules:

Draw Steel - Heroes: The complete heroes book implemented into the journal system, allowing you to look up anything inside Foundry.
Draw Steel - Monsters: The complete monster book implemented into the journal system.
The Delian Tomb: The complete starter adventure, with all the maps preconfigured with wall and lighting, the monsters ready to go for each encounter and even traps and area effects set up. It also includes the tutorialized characters form the adventure, with automatic "upgrades" when they pass each encounter.
The Road to Broadhurst: The conventure intended for an experienced director to show off Draw Steel to new players. Implemented with maps and encounter setups.

You can pick up the core rule modules for $40 each, and The Delian Tomb for $14.99 on the FoundryVTT store. The Road to Broadhurst module is free.

Ratcatcher Magazine Issue 2

The second issue of Ratcatcher Magazine was released by Tidal Wave Games. The issue was crowdfunded back in January and has now been released to backers, and been made available for anyone to buy.

Additionally! If you decide to buy issue two, you'll get the first issue released last year for free.

Issue two has five articles written by names that should be familiar to people in the community:

Necromancer Tyrant by Anna/Nathan Lee: A level 10 solo that summons undead minions. For four malice, you can summon four fourth echelon undead from the monster book.
Untying Stamina From Health - Making Every Hit Make Sense by Doug Robinson: This is an article that explores the choice of calling it stamina in Draw Steel, and how that can be contextualized in the game.
Saints and Heroes Of Orden by Joshua Browne (+1 To Fun): This article features two new saints for your conduit or censor to follow. They cover some of the domain combinations not present in the Heroes book.
Ghost Ancestry By Thomas “TDAWS” Dawson: Play as a ghost! You are incorporeal, when you die you leave behind a haunted object which you rise from. How about possessing others or pull tricks like a poltergeist.
Wraith Elf Ancestry by Mateusz "Ananam" Malarski: They keep to their mists and as one your constantly surrounded by threads of mist. Then there's eleven purchasable traits you get to choose between.

If you want to be in Ratcatcher Magazine, they do take submissions, including from people who are looking for their first place to be published.

You can pick up Ratcatcher Magazine Issue 2 for $10, and get the first issue included in the purchase.

Ancestries of Oakhame

tootallferne released Ancestries of Oakhame a collection of nothing less than twelve anthropomorphic ancestries.

In this collection you find

Avians (birdfolk)
Badgers
Foxes
Hares
Hedgehogs
Moles
Mice
Mustelids (ferrets, stoats, and weasels)
Otters
Rats
Shrews
Squirrels

I really applaud being able to fit each of the ancestries on a single page. Having heard many a gripe about it in the Jams of the Timescape, I know very well how difficult that can be. But it also keeps this supplement to thirteen pages! Makes it not feel overwhelming despite having so much in here.

And it's got a cute mouse in a hooded cloak on the cover.

You can pick up Ancestries of Oakhame for pay-what-you-want on Itch.

Space Battles

Jenny [REDACTED] published Space Battles, a supplement containing all you need to start running Draw Steel in space!

This massive 68 page supplement contains

Four new ancestries: android, bajon, lizora and qua'ri, each of which have art to help you imagine what a bajon is. And you get to see a chameleon in space armor.
Three new subclasses: College of the Hired Gun for the shadow, flavored as a bounty hunter; slayer for the fury, flavored as a ~~demon slayer~~, uhm, I mean a monster hunter; and the space domain for conduits and censors, featuring meteor showers and black holes.
Three "uniuqe" treasures: These are much like leveled treasures, but they have a unique story behind them, and they gain new features every other level, starting at first.
Rules for doing combat in space: the rules lean on the combat rules in core rules, but adjust them for fighitng with ships instead. We'll get back to these rules.
There's a bunch of new monsters, enemy ships which are reflavored from monster stat blocks in the Monsters book, and a brand new fourth level monster band called cthulhon, and two fourth level solos.

I want to circle back to the space combat rules. They're pretty clever. With a few adjustments Jenny [REDACTED]'s managed to reuse the combat rules from Heroes, but make them feel like space battles.

Each hero pilots their own ship during these battles, and there are different classes of ships to choose from - each with it's own playstyle. And the ships get more powerful as the heroes riches higher echelons of play. They're like a cross between a retainer and a second class for your hero.

And each of the hero classes get a bespoke maneuver they can use while piloting their ship. There are also maneuvers for third party classes like the scion, the kiln, the mageweright, the gunslinger and the vessel.

There are also guidance on how to create new ship enemies from existing monsters. As a director you'll be able to lean on all the monster resources that are already available and then convert them to suitable ship enemies.

Oh. The art in this is phenomenal! It's all black and white art that really nails the tone. Some of the pieces are just stellar. PUN IN-TEN-DED!

You can pick up Space Battles for $15 on Itch.

Síabhra

Andy Aiken has released Síabhra a shapeshifting ancestry inspired by "half-remembered irish folk tales".

Your signature trait is in large part an maeuver ability called echo which lets you take on a trait of another creature. All Síabhra can take on another's visage, but you can then select other traits to echo when you purchase traits. Such as Siphon Vitality, which lets you effectively "steal" a recovery from someone else.

The supplement also includes a complication in which you act as another ancestry, but you're a síabhra underneath, sometimes forcing you to change your ancestry. And a fitting consumable treasure: Transformation Potion, letting you take on another's visage.

And there are three síabhra monsters for heroes to fight.

You can pick up the síabhra supplement as a member of Andy Aiken's Patreon, or for free on Forge Steel.

Perfect Pitch

AM Games released Perfect Pitch, a short adventure for first level heroes, where they're tasked with fixing the disharmony currently afflicting the world. The heroes must travel into a crystal tuning for called The Pure Tone.

Once inside the heroes have to overcome obstacles and combat what's infecting the pure tone to cure the world of the dissonance.

The whole adventure fits on two pages.

You can pick up Perfect Pitch DriveThruRPG for pay-what-you-want.

Sewer Dwellers

Royal Highness Games actually released Sewer Dwellers back in February, but it somehow slipped through the cracks. But it's here now.

This is a 22 page supplement featuring monster that live in sewers. And to help you build out your sewer, Sewer Dwellers comes with some general info about sewers, ideas for your specific sewer, including prompts to help you get some basics done quickly. And a list of plot hooks to inspire you on how to get the heroes into the sewer.

The monsters include sludges, oozes, humanoids corrupted by the sewers, gators, scat scarabs, putrivores and maybe my favorite: a cesspit kraken. Some of the monsters are also accompanied by some lovely art - especially the sludgespawn and cesspit kraken.

You can pick up Sewer Dwellers on Itch for $7.99.

Ironbound

Also from Andy Aiken is the ironbound ancestry. To quote Andy himself, this is warforged getting the Draw Steel treatment.

Ironbound have an adaptive chassis that lets you gain different buff based on which mode the chassis is in. When in assault mode, you gain extra speed and damage, while in bulwark mode you get extra stability and better balance. You can change your mode as a respite activity.

There's also a neat purchasable trait that lets you go into overdrive. While it does let you take an extra main action, you do take damage, and become dazed, and after clearing the dezed condtion you become weakened. I'm might play one the next time I get the chance.

There are also two first echelon treasures, ironbound monsters and an ironbound retainer included.

You can pick up the ironbound ancestry as a member of Andy Aiken's Patreon, or for free on Forge Steel.

31 Flavors of Steel to Draw

Jonas Tintenseher has published 31 Flavors of Steel to Draw. This is a collection of 31 small supplements for Draw Steel made for promptober last year. Promptober is a challenge for any who wants to participate and while it exists in many branches of creative expression, this one was related to TTRPGs.

During the month of October, a new challenge is set for each day of the month. It's a somewhat succinct prompt or seed of inspiration. Any one taking up the challenge is free to interpret the prompt in the way they want.

Jonas did one feature for Draw Steel for every prompt in October 2025 and ended up with a collection of

Two standalone ancestry traits
Two standalone heroic abilities for Elementalist and Talent
Three complications
One (partial) domain
One downtime project
Three titles
Four consumables
Four leveled treasures
Two montage challenges, and they include how they differ from montage tests
Four monsters: a minion, a horde, and two solos
Three dynamic arenas, and the rules for what that means
Two dynamic terrain objects

All this is now laid out in a nice-looking PDF with nicely organized features, and the prompts for each day and what it produced.

You can pick up 31 Flavors of Steel to Draw for $3 on Itch.

Rats Attack!

Nate Summers has announced a crowdfunder on Backerkit named Rats Attack!.

Not many details yet, but it does feature a neat cover image with a bunch of different rats and a list of the stuff included in the crowdfunder:

14 rat monsters
1 rat retainer
2 short adventures featuring
- 3 custom treasures
- 2 new titles
- 9 fully-colored monster art images
- Digital battlemaps and files!

The crowdfunder launches on April 10.

Huntsman Class

Chuckling Chest Games has announced, and by the time you're listening to this, launched, a crowdfunder for The Huntsman class. The huntsman specializes in hunting monsters.

It's not going for the pet fantasy, like the beastheart, but instead for the trained hunter that's able to take down the most dangerous of monsters. And over time become more like them. The huntsman can take on traits from the monsters they kill, becoming more like them.

More details about the huntsman will be available in the interview I'm doing with the designer of the class. So tune in on April 15 when that episode drops.

And, as mentioned, you can back the huntsman crowdfunder on BackerKit right now.

Community Highlights

And now, some rapid fire highlights from the community:

DMHub published two videos featuring the Codex. The last one showing off destructable wall was especially impressive.
Triglav Games have been very active. Ananam did a flip-through of Space Battles by Jenny [REDACTED] and they published the second part of their serpentfolk monster band.
Aestus_RPG published an incredibly in-depth tactical guide for the conduit. It's got all the nitty-gritty details you could ever want.

Outro

If you're listening to this on release day, the Codex is entering early access in a day! Crows is looking very good so far. It feels beefier than other dungeon crawlers I've played, and I think I might like that. We'll see. And Space Battles by Jenny [REDACTED] looks amazing, you've gotta check that out.

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.

You can support my work by becoming a Patreon member. Paying members get to submit questions to my upcoming guests here on Goblin Points. You also get access to premium features on Stawl. Stawl is a digital toolset for playing and running Draw Steel: digital hero sheets, encounter builder, monster look up, the complete rules text, and more. Such as the Stawl Supplement Index, a comprehensive list of supplements being published for Draw Steel, in one convenient place! Visit Stawl.app. S-T-A-W-L-dot-app.

Next episode is on the 15th. That's going to be the interview with Spyger about his crowdfunder for his class Huntsman. A ranger class, but it's not leaning into the pet thing.

See you next time. Snakkes.

News: Crows Details, Codex VTT Pricing Announced, Draw Steel on Foundry | March Roundup

Or listen here:

Intro

Crows

Codex

Draw Steel on FoundryVTT

Ratcatcher Magazine Issue 2

Ancestries of Oakhame

Space Battles

Síabhra

Perfect Pitch

Sewer Dwellers

Ironbound

31 Flavors of Steel to Draw

Rats Attack!

Huntsman Class

Community Highlights

Outro

Links

From MCDM

Draw Steel on FoundryVTT

Ratcatcher Magazine Issue 2

Ancestries of Oakhame

Space Battles

Síabhra

Perfect pitch

Sewer Denizens

Ironbound

31 Flavors of Steel to Draw

Rats Attack!

The Huntsman Class

Community Highlights

Draw Steel Homebrew

Draw Steel Media

Draw Steel Tools