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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 3h

14) Vraxis is a Dragon Knight. The Dragon Knight Phalanx was created by Good King Omund, so surely Vraxis served Omund, right? Nope. Vraxis was in Higara during the majority of Omund's rule. Vraxis is immortal & has been around even longer than the Age of Heroes in #DrawSteel

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

13) Vraxis hasn't acquired a non-leveled weapon yet, however due to having the Curse of Immortality I think a good deserved death would be being consumed & added to the collective within the Blade of a Thousand Years. Seems cool to end an immortal life by dying for the future against all the odds.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

12) We've not had Orcs attack in our #DrawSteel but we have had Wode Elves attack! Wode Elves had a political agreement with our Troubadour Noble, but they were replaced by a doppelganger & renegged on the deal. We were walking through their woodlands only to be ambushed for this betrayal.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

11. In our #DrawSteel group we have a Void Elementalist & WOW do they change how a combat can go. They can simply open 2 portals on their 1st turn & the amount of extra mobility that gives the entire team is crazy! Palisades & Portcullis are a problem no more!

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

10) Negotiations haven't been Vraxis's strong suit so far in #DrawSteel but when I next get to take a respite I will be level 4 & will be able to use my Might for Intimidation, Brag & Flirt checks which will definitely increase my ability to contribute. Haha. The Power Player perk.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

9. #DrawSteel Cinematic? Vraxis just last session flew a Fossil Cryptic into a waterfall & smashed it into a wall behind, destroying it; continuing to wail on it as the water poured down onto my still flapping dragon wings. I suplexed a Gloom Dragon 2 sessions earlier! Cinematic moments never stop!

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 08/10/2026

8) The Law of Time is not something we've really even discussed in our sessions. My character has the complication "Curse of Immortality" & they're really old, but they're not THAT old.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

7) Not been exposed to Psionics a lot in #DrawSteel but there was 1 game where we had a Tactician & a Talent in a 4 person team. The Tactician used Hammer & Anvil to get 3 of us to do about 60ish damage, then the Talent used their Psionic ability Flashback that got us to do it again. Won THAT fight!

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

6) In a recent #DrawSteel session, our group went to an ancient forge in Quintessence. It had fallen centuries ago & was the lair to a Gloom Dragon. After dealing with the Dragon the entire party & their artisans teamed up to reforge Vraxis's armor from his backstory with Damage Immunity.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

5) I LOVE my Dragon Knight in Shining Armor, Vraxis. Flying into the combat to tank with Draconian Guard, Wyrmplate & Steelbreaker. For literal decades I thought my favourite PC FireCore would remain my favourite but #DrawSteel brought to life this ice dragon-man capable of tremendous feats!

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Reposted by Steven Garstone

sunnyinlogan @sunnyinlogan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

How I know I've made it as a Dungeon Master. #dnd

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I'm not. I'm going to be eating whatever is available at the #PAXAus stalls. Haha.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

4) The 1st time I played #DrawSteel using the Codex was the Delian Tomb & the Bandit camp. I opened up with a Tier 3 attack against a guy I didn't know was a minion, pumped a Surge in, smashed him into a wall & suddenly 8 tokens lit up red on the screen. I killed the entire squad! I felt SO awesome.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

3) I love Hero Tokens in #DrawSteel especially on my Fury. Taking advantage of the additional Ferocity I get when I'm first winded to do a tonne of damage! Then, the first time I take damage after becoming Winded I will spend 2 Hero Tokens to gain a free recoveries worth of Stamina. So powerful!

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

2) My Fury, Vraxis's first Trinket is the Hellcharger Helm. As a Dragon Knight I can fly & with my Troubadour friend's song this trinket allows me to charge in a straight line 12 squares, do a Brutal Slam AND a Knockback Maneuver for free just as an Action. I still have my actual Speed and Maneuver!

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

1) #DrawSteel character creation's "Inciting Incident" has been my favourite thing to see people coming to the hobby from #dnd experience. They're not just a Noble background working out the details later or not at all. They're generating their backstory as part of their character coming to life.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I'm not a homebrewer, but I do love me some #DrawSteel & sharing my memories, experiences and opinions so I'm gonna jump on this prompt, but with less of a 'homebrew' take & more just 'stuff about that prompt'. We'll see how I go.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I find the biggest determination of dice variance in Draw Steel is more who crits & when. A Gloom Dragon used Malice to gain two actions, then crit on one of those actions, dealing 60+ damage to my level 3 Fury in one turn. Another combat I crit twice & nearly took out half the encounter's troops.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

It essentially recreates a 3D6 distribution with all the likely results pulling to the middle, while eliminating the extremes of the 1, 1, 1 and 6, 6, 6 outcomes, while also maintaining the variance offered by less focused results in the middle range.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I think the 2DX system combined with the Tier system of the #DrawSteel power rolls line up with player psychology even more. Taking the pyramid of the dice probability curve & give you 3 outcomes. Good, Better, Best. With player action & choices having a significant impact on the outcome with edges.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I've definitely ranted to anyone who'll listen about this many times over the years.

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Reposted by Steven Garstone

JesterOC @jesteroc.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Aftermath of today’s fight. Full frontal assault up the stairs. The front line shattered with a charge by the fury. The leader did manage to toss most of the PCs down the stairs. The line of undead arms placed on the stairs really did impede the PCs but in the end that tactician put her down

Yellow stair stands indicate where the line of grasping arms infested the battlefield. The elementalist never needed to move as her long range attacks rained up upon the enemy

High end view of the fight, the yellow markers indicate that the three heroes mid stairs are all prone. The pink, slowed.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Since switching to #DrawSteel that's not really a possibility anymore, but I let the dice fall where they may. Players will ALWAYS surprise you with things you could not have suspected. Revivify in a Ring of Spell Storing, a Push into a Force Field power, 10 points of luck into a headshot, etc.

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Daniel Kwan @danielhkwan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Putting a call out for TTRPG artists! Doing an initial discovery for an artist to work on a new cyberpunk, body horror action game I'm designing. Please link your portfolio! NO AI.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

They made a Golden Axe TV show? Haha. How did this go completely under my radar?

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Daniel O'Brien @danielobrien.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Business/product idea: A thing that works and that people want.

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Emi (they/them) @queeringsmite.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

today in Draw Steel the party 1) flirted with the BBEG's wife some more, and 2) interrogated the local priest about municipal tax policy, but most importantly 3) kicked vampire ass. I did not get to kick anybody off a roof but I *did* get to throw a hero out a window

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Stefan Pietraszak @up-pity.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

One of Draw Steel's biggest (in a field of) strengths is how it makes running the game fun for the game master / director. Now they've made prepping easier while simultaneously demonstrating how encounters of all types can be designed. Can't wait to test my players with these!

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Draw Steel Encounters - PDF

This product contains the rules forDraw Steel Encounters in a digital PDF format ONLY. The third core rulebook! ~350 pages, in hardcover with dozens of new, pre-made encounters ready to use in your ga...

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

THIS! I'd been playing roleplaying games for 10 years before I ever played a game regularly that required we go into a dungeon. Even a bunch of the D&D games that I see people playing in don't spend as much time as the game design intended in dungeons.

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Tab Creations @tabcreations.com · 15/09/2026

GM Tip: Good foreshadowing comes in threes. Mention the detail once, players ignore it. Twice, they might notice. Three times, they'll start theorizing. By the time it pays off, it should feel earned, not random. #ttrpg #rpg #dnd #gaming

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Whyyyyyyy would they do this? lol. Lean IN to the premise, not AWAY from it, my guy!

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

lol. Now I feel old. I played three of these games back in the day.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Off, being the pre-funk warning signs.

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mewelke @mewelke.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

One of the things I love about playing Draw Steel via the Codex VTT is this victory screen. I love that it tracks this information for the players.

The draw steel victory screen listing things like who did the most damage, overkill, and such.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

But then everyone would turn it off and the usage of AI on their website would go down and then they couldn't keep lying to their CEO about the uptake rate of AI use to say they made their targets that were arbitrarily invented for the shareholder meeting!

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

First, I don't do 2 of those things at all. Secondly, Initiative essentially runs itself. Thirdly multiple stat blocks I'd have bookmarks or the page open. Notes & HP tracking just go on the same page of my notebook at that stage.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Hopefully the dreams were nicer than the dreams our characters have experienced!

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Just a repost for @emily-jack.bsky.social on their new account. bsky.app/profile/stev...

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I've considered doing screenshots of some of my reddit posts for the same reason. Well, not hilarious bean/soup jokes, but post character limitations.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I'm a big fan of the lore being introduced as it becomes relevant to the story, so that the stakes & emotions of the players will drive their need for context. Last night's session was a great example. They met a Nautiloid/Pirate Ship Captain & friend of the Blackstaff & they could not know enough!

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Emily @emily-jack.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Hello everyone! Some of you may not know me yet. I’m Emily, a freelance artist. My old Bluesky account @emily-jackson.bsky.social was suspended, and I haven’t received any response from Bluesky for the past 3 days. I’ve created this new account and I’m starting over. 👇

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JesterOC @jesteroc.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Hey folks, 11 days until the crow, flies the coup (out of the backerkit). I post this out of a sense of selfishness, I will likely be running crows online.... so I need more folks to buy into it to unlock official Crows support for Codex the Draw steel official VTT. 🤞

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

If everyone just works on their own project, nobody finishes it on this Respite. However if everyone chips in one of the group can have that item now, then they're free to help on another's project next Respite.

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Yeah, me neither. They were showing earlier? Might be I wasn't allowed to post direct screenshots from the book & someone flagged it. My bad! I shouldn't post before my coffee. Lol. The downtime mechanics essentially make it so the team work on one thing at a time, so balancing takes care of itself

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Steven Garstone @stevengarstone.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Once you have the source & materials required, your Sages & Artisans can work towards building it while you're off adventuring, in addition to your own contributions. My character now has that Armor on thanks to our Preacher & the rest of my helpful team.

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