Episode 2026.19 Published on 5 July 2026

News: Crows Playtest Is Over, Red Road Released, New Draw Steel Zine | June Roundup

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Intro

Crows have been sacrificed at the Blood Library, if they even got that far. The Glass Spark adventure path has started, The Red Road released, the summoner is in the creator license, and The Mythical Press published their first issue.

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

Crows

The feedback survey for the Crows playtest has closed. I hope you remembered to submit it.

I've gotten the chance to run Crows five times during the playtest period and I've been having a lot of fun because of the game and despite the game.

Crows really shines once you get inside a dungeon, but it became clear pretty quickly that the travel rules were a bit rough and needed a bit longer in the oven. James recognized this early on in the playtest and has already made a new set of rules that he's testing.

The new travel rules gives the players more options and chocies when they're traveling. Each of the roles have multiple activities they can pick from when they travel, each with their own skills attached. The crow taking the role of guide can choose to attempt to go faster and farther, or go slower and more carefully, for example. And because each of the activities for a role have different skills attached, who's the better crow to take on a role might change.

Travel is now done by hexes, always. In the playtest version, hexes was optional, but they've become the default. What's not default about them though is that one hex is five miles. I guess that's just going to be one of those quirks with this game.

Another thing that's also been changed in the new travel rules is how weather and encounters are handled. Each time you travel, you roll for an event and weather is now one of those events, instead of being a separate roll. Also, the events include more encounters that don't necessarily end in combat.

The miasma effects have also become more forgiving. Crows are less likely to get boned, it's easier to clear the effects of the miasma and it's easier to avoid being hit by miasma effects in the first place.

If Crows' development follows a similar path to that of Draw Steel, we can expect the rules to be changed, drastically if need be, to make the game fun. So while I do have reservations about specific parts, I have complete faith in James & co that they will make the game fun to play.

There will be a new playtest not too long into the future. James mentioned he hoped that would be alongside the crowdfunder when it launches. And that launches in August. Maybe?

Oh. James also mentioned that he hoped that the final game would release about a year after the crowdfunder. So maybe late summer next year.

The Red Road

The Red Road was released by MCDM this month. Backers of Crack the Sun should find the download in the digital rewards for the campaign. Patrons that have been MCDM+ members since before March 9 should have gotten an email with a discount code for the MCDM shop to get the adventure for free.

The Red Road is a quest for second level heroes that have them investigate the ruins of a razed town, only to pick up the trail of an army of gnolls that are marching on an elven haven. The heroes have to find a way to stop the marching menace.

You can pick up The Red Road for $19.99 on the MCDM shop.

Summoner

I also want to include a short notice that MCDM posted alongside the release of The Red Road. They've also put the summoner under the creator license. That means that alongside Heroes, Monsters, and the beastheart, the text and rules of the summoner is now free to use for anyone.

The Blacksmith's Guild #7

Tabletop Nonsenseverse published the seventh issue of The Blacksmith's Guild. The issue dropped on the one year anniversary of the first issue of the zine. It also kinda is the start of a new era, as they are doing an adventure path in this and the following five issues.

The adventure path, called The Glass Spark, will feature a new installment in each issue in year two of The Blacksmith's guild and will take a party of heroes all the way through second echelon.

Also in this issue is

  • A level one quest: War Dogs in the Woods by L.E. "Chip" Grabowski
  • New Perks by Ben "Zetesofos" Cornforth
  • A second level quest: Legions's Fall by Robyn Hemlocke
  • A continuation of the Spice Up Your Adventures with Delicious Food article from issue five called Help the Innkeepers by RogueSigyn

You can pick up The Blacksmith's Guild Issue #7 on Tabletop Nonsenseverse's shop for $11.

Hearth & Steel

Arcane Press has released Hearth & Steel, a booklet for adding strongholds to Draw Steel. The supplement aims to support the heroes' progression, rather than adding an extra layer of management to the game.

If your campaign features a location the heroes regularly returns to, Hearth & Steel aims to give your heroes a way to get some extra bonuses by building a stronghold. It's a shared stronghold, but each hero have the opportunity to customize parts of it for their wants. As they reach higher levels, they can improve the stronghold and gain better benefits.

You can pick up Hearth & Steel on Itch for pay-what-you-want.

The Gauntlet of Champions

Graeme published The Gauntlet of Champions, a delve for first level heroes. The delve features a traveling carnival that has a gauntlet visitors can attempt to make it through.

Delves are typically short affairs, requiring little prep for the director. They are usually intended to be thrown in front of the players when the director needs something to slow them down until next session.

The titular gauntlet is supposed to be a fun obstacle course themed as a dungeon full of traps, with a treasure at the end. But after someone had a clever idea, the gauntlet has been invaded by goblins, and the heroes need to clear it out.

You can pick up The Gauntlet of Champions on RPG Trader for $5.

The Mythical Press

The Mythical Press has announced their existance and has already launched when you're listening to this. The Mythical Press aims to deliver a monthly zine featuring new and reimagined monsters, and the tools to run them.

This will be the third zine for Draw Steel being published and the first to go for a monthly cadence. If this succeeds, I think it's a solid sign of a proper community growing around Draw Steel.

You can pick up a subscription to The Mythical Press for $7.50 on Patreon.

Community Highlights

And now some rapid fire updates from the community:

  • DMHub have been posting both tutorials on how to use new features in the Codex, and videos showing off some of the updates they've made..
  • Frederica Teather is busy as always, posting an insane amount of videos. (Does she ever sleep, one asks). I especially like the video where she draws the first level of the Delian Tomb in one minute, ten minutes and an hour..
  • Genre Games has announced they're launching a crowdfunder for their The Menace class, taglined "the fighter you've been waiting for".
  • Heart of Arcana, aka, Paul Ligorski has announced their crowdfunder for The Court of Dawn and Flame, a setting guide to the blazing fey demiplane of endless dawn.
  • Crispy's Tavern has announced they're working on Yumi and the Horrors Untold. It's a full expansion with it's own setting, new classes and over 150 monsters.
  • PixieDM has updated their Magnifics ancestry that they originally submitted to Jams of the Timescape back in January. The abilities and rules have been refined, and there's a new huge table of downtime events.
  • Power Word Spill have been releasing sponsored shorts about the Codex. They're solid sales pitches.
  • Riley Routh has made cards for all the background in Crows. Nice to use if you're playing in person.
  • Rise Heroes Rise! did a deep dive into Dark Heart of the Wood, reflecting on how it was to run as a director.
  • The Owlbear Rodeo tools by Seamus have been updated with support for dynamic terrain.
  • Shadowhand Gaming is getting close to releasing their second booklet for monsters. They released drafts of the booklet to paying patrons.
  • The Dice Society published the final video in his series How to Draw Steel. The final video covers montages and negotiations.
  • Tidal Wave Games successfully funded the third issue of Ratcatcher Magazine. It's estimated to start shipping already in August.
  • Triglav Games released some new beastheart companions to their patrons this month. The release includes the barghest and the gnelpie.

Blast From the Past

And now, a blast from the past as I dive back into old notes and scripts to see what was covered on Goblin Points in years past.

Last year Matt predicted that they would release the Codex in June this year. I'd say that both has and hasn't happened. The Codex is available for purchase, but it's still in Early Access. Also, the Release Candidate of Heroes dropped, a near final version of Draw Steel.

Back in 2024 the game was starting to take shape. The design team had been working on player options for a while and started work in earnest on the director side. In June they talked about encounter values, they introduced dynamic terrain, and they brough back villain power, what would come to be called malice. What's even wilder though, is that June is also the month they first mentioned that the VTT was called Codex. It's wild to think that they were working on implementing stuff in the Codex way before the game was ready. Even before the classes had been decided on.

Outro

I've really been enjoying running Crows. I will say — I enjoyed it the most when running it in a dungeon from a mega dungeon called The Ruins of Castle Gygar, and not the adventure included in the playtest. I'm really looking forward to the next iteration.

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 an interview with the lead at Slightly Reckless Games, the developers of Night Shift: Devil Division. The game being built using Draw Steel rules and that recenlty closed a wildly successful crowdfunder.

See you next time. Snakkes.

Links

From MCDM

The Blacksmith's Guild Issue #7

Hearth & Steel by ArcanePress

The Gauntlet of Champions

The Mythical Press

Community Highlights

Draw Steel Homebrew

Draw Steel Media

Draw Steel Tools