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Draw Steel: Art and Gods Q&A

🕑 Added 2024-12-02 21:16:33 +0000 UTC

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Joe Auerbach

It's a fork!

Joe G

I appreciated Jason's response on the stream! Thanks!

atomicsorcery

When it comes to antagonistic religions that can be used as monsters I was thinking cults but also things like enemy illriggers. I was really happy with Jason’s answer during the stream. Basically just excited to see what uniforms the enemy teams will be wearing.

MCDM Productions

We don't know! We'll find out next year! -MC

MCDM Productions

Yeah I think that's the Court of the Deep. -MC

MCDM Productions

Depends on how many Draw Steel products we get to make! -MC

MCDM Productions

There are two kinds of dragons. The Elder Dragons who are demi-gods and you do not fight them in the core rules, and the younger dragons who are powerful but otherwise just magical animals. That way players can fight them! :D -MC

MCDM Productions

Vasloria is our Fantasy Medieval Europe analog, so they look like European priests from the middle-ages mostly. -MC

MCDM Productions

I don't think there are any other factions in the Monster Book. The War Gods are unique in that they are a species and an army. Radenwights, Dwarves, Elves, these are species that can organize in lots of different ways. So you don't meet the Bloodskull Hobgoblins in here, just Hobgoblins. In an adventure, or a setting book, you'll probably meet *specific* Hobgoblin tribes and Elf Courts and Dwarven Thanedoms etc.... -MC

MCDM Productions

We want to give players a broad selection of gods and saints for character creation. That's how we decide what to include. Once we feel like "that's enough options for the first release" we stop. -MC

MCDM Productions

As far as I know there's no relationship between Cyn and Censor. Although the word sin is derived from Cyn, this is not something the people of Orden know. -MC

MCDM Productions

The Elder Gods decided to allow humans to continue to live in Orden on the condition that they never know their creator. So when humans discover they have their own creator deity just like the Elves and Dwarves and Orcs, and start worshipping him, the Inexorables show up and obliterate your civilization. -MC

MCDM Productions

The reason the chapter is so long is that wanted to give players a few choices of Saint/God regardless of the ancestry of their character. So if you play a devil from the Seven Cities? You got some choices. But if you want a LOT of choices for Devil Saints you'd have to wait for a supplement. That's the "baseline expectation." Choose from this list. But if you have an idea for a character, and that character would worship/serve/venerate some saint or hero or herald not on the list, you also have a bunch of examples you can use as a template to invent your own. -MC

MCDM Productions

There's no tradition in Vasloria of heads of state also being the heads of a church, but there's also nothing stopping it from happening and it may be that if we had perfect knowledge of the history of Vasloria we'd find it has happened in the past. -MC

MCDM Productions

I doubt it! My novels aren't set in the same world as Draw Steel, just a copy of it. -MC

MCDM Productions

I think one or both of them are responsible for the Heliox, the native ancestry of Quintessence. -MC

MCDM Productions

There's nothing like that in the Monsters book, but the Monsters book is not explicitly Vaslorian so maybe in a Vaslorian Monsters product, which I expect we'll find inside the Vasloria Boxed Set. -MC

MCDM Productions

These are questions we may find answers to if we ever go to those places in a Draw Steel product. But even then, maybe not! A Seven Cities of Hell boxed set could have a whole lot of cool content in it without answering the question "where did Devils come from?" -MC

MCDM Productions

Maybe! You can be canonized in life, and your pupils could also attain sainthood in life, so the only upper limit would be how many human generations are there in this culture? But there's no notion of hereditary sainthood, I think the most you'd ever see is like 3. Like Socrates -> Plato -> Aristotle. -MC

MCDM Productions

I'm not sure what "monster art around dark saints" means. Some of the saints will get arted, but I don't know if they all will. As far as I know, none of the monsters in the Monsters book are related to any saints. -MC

MCDM Productions

Ajax is a saint of Cyn, the elder god who created humanity. -MC

MCDM Productions

There's a lot more! But we only needed enough so Memonek and Time Raider characters who want to be from the Timescape can pick a god/herald. -MC

MCDM Productions

I think what you're detecting is the fact that some saints become saints upon their death, some after they die, and some become saints during their life and live as saints for many years after. A mortal who attains sainthood in life and hangs around for a while after, still dies in the normal course of events. Only then do the rules about how long saints can manifest on the mundane world kick in. It may be that Dark Saints tend to stick around after attaining sainthood in life more than the other saints? But we won't know that until we have a full catalog of the saints which I suspect we never will, as that would be a whole book all on it's own just for the Gods and Saints of Vasloria. -MC

MCDM Productions

I think a lot of folks looking forward to switching to Draw Steel already have their own long-running campaign worlds. It's not really our place to tell them their world was always a part of our campaign setting. -MC

holidayPictures4You

Can't wait to let my players fight a Thorn Dragon and in general show of the art of the final book

Ernge

Expect another Patreon post about 24 minutes from now with the YouTube link. That's what they've been doing.

Joe Garvey

Where is the steam happening?

Delport Breckland

This is a good question! 'Evil' saints do seem to be much more pro-active, including some of which are only mentioned in the sections about the good saints that slew them. I wonder if there's any further thought on exactly who enforces the rules around gods & saints?

Ernge

Isn't that up to the people at the table playing pretend?

Vitruvian Link

Are all games of "draw steel" taking place in a single multiverse like old school DND? If so, will community events take advantage of this narratively?

Jonathan Rowan

We have examples of saints (Morath, Caswyn, Ajax) who seem to be exerting much more direct influence than is typical. More than allowed, if I understand correctly. Are they just that audacious? Exploiting a cosmic loophole? Or do I have another fun gap to fill if my players ask?

Dillon

For the space gods: are there many more of them than we read? Are there more named and thought out that didn’t fit or is it more of a “fill this in for the box set”

laughing giraffe

What God is Ajax a saint of? Is the reason Ajax wants everyone to worship him simply he wants control or does he actually get power from their worship?

atomicsorcery

Is there any monster art around Dark Saints and Cult bands of monsters?

Jake Walsh

Some saints were the conduits of other saints who were the conduits of a God. Is there a saint who has undergone the most saint-ception? i.e. a saint who’s the saint of a saint of a saint etc.

Josh Rodell

Unless I've missed it, we don't know anything about the origins of Devils, or the other "conceptual" races of the Timescape like Memonek or Proteans. Did they emerge from the areas of the Timescape reflecting their nature or was there someone going around making speaking peoples later on in the game than we've seen so far?

dragonscry7

All the art looks amazing! But on the subjects of Saints, just as the heroic ones carve a legacy to look up to, leaving behind treasures for heroes, do the villainous Saints leave behind monsters that they have created, and will any show up in the monster book? For example a pestilent beast of Saint Casyn, or a boiling blood cyclops of Saint Eseld.

Jonathan Rowan

If Aan or Eth were inclined to try their hand at children, what kind of ancestry would they be responsible for?

JusticeCoffee

Do Arrogates exist in the Draw Steel version of Vasloria, and if so, will we get any information about them?

John Brocklehurst

The structure of organised religion for the humans of Vasloria appears analogous of Christianity. In terms of hierarchy does the Vaslorian church system lean towards the Catholic or the Anglican structure? Basically does the monarch of an area feature in the structure or is it purely ordained church members?

KingGurke

In the art drop we got recently, the war dogs that aren't completely stitched together look so young. Gleefully cruel, like a kid burning ants with a magnifying glass. Is that an intentional direction, or am I interpreting that into the pictures?

simbini2004

Can one component of any upcoming Timescape content releases be a curated playlist of glam metal, please? Also maybe a custom double-neck electric guitar (for all four timeraider arms, of course)!

alon yairi

Art (well, production really) question: How do you decide what needs visual representation in both books? Meaning, monsters and heros need art to give the players an idea of how they work, but do negotiations need art? Does the montage section? Why one and not the other? What sections will suffer in quality with no art?

Chris

For a player new to the setting, is the baseline expectation they will work with the Director to create new human saints for censors/conduits, or the baseline assumption is they stick to the provided list?

Quinn Choffin

Is the reason human civilizations which begin to worship Cyn get wiped out because worship of Cyn will somehow free him/bring him back, or just because humans who worship Cyn have generally been pretty bad for Orden and the elder gods want to nip it in the bud? If it's the former, is there a reason for why worshiping Cyn will bring him back or is that left ambiguous as an exercise for the Director?

MCDM Productions

That is a GOOD QUESTION and I look forward to Jason's answer. :D -MC

Vitruvian Link

If "Val" is the origin of the word Valiant, is "Cyn" the origin of Sin, and Censor? Is the process the gods went through to censor Cyn connected to the Censor powers in orden?

Tom Johnson

How much art are we gonna get for gods and saints?

Rise Heroes Rise!

For Jason: We've heard a lot about changing the perception of classic creatures from typical d20 fantasy. What was the most surprising change you've seen for MCDM's take on these designs?

Benjamin Ford

With multiple cultures and the innumerable younger gods the tyranny of the page count demands a cut off point for the Gods document. Many gods are left out, including creatures that might be worshipped as gods such as Elder Dragons and Old Father Tree. How do you decide what stays on the page and what lies on the cutting room floor?

John Brocklehurst

The War Dogs all have the Ram motiff of Ajax's on their armour. Do any other factions have a repeated design motiff?

Benjamin Ford

Lots of TTRPG's have a distinct artistic style, even between editions. Art from 5e looks distinct from 4e, both are different from 3e, etc. How does that process work when multiple artists with their own styles and experiences are all involved? What does art direction look like when finding and applying a distinct Draw Steel! style?

Christopher S.

Art question for Jason: any recommendations for designing armour for monsters with weird anatomy that doesn't hide the interesting anatomy of the monster but also looks like it functions as protection and still enables mobility.

SaintGwyn

What do yall visualize the Vaslorian religion's general aesthetic to be analogous to? Do priests of St Gaed look like medieval catholic deacons or something altogether different?

Schoopdoop McGoop

How did you make the War Dogs have such punchable faces? And will they get a big splash page in the Monsters book like the Goblins and Hobgoblins and Radenwights?

Caleb Plehn

How do you decide what takes priority when arting various parts of the book, and what will not receive art or needs to wait for another product? For instance, in most monster manuals (including Flee, Mortals!), not every statblock receives art, even if the statblock represents a monster just as weird as the one next to it that did.

Eli Feliciano

I've noticed that even across different artists, Draw Steel has a consistent art style. How did you find your art style and how do you maintain it across pages/products?

Daniel Dias

We saw a dragon of thorns can we have a peek at what other cool dragons we'll have? Also for Matt what is the role of dragons in Orden?

lone-rev

How likely is it that you stat out evil saints other than Ajax (if he is even a saint) in another supplement? It would be sick to fight some of the saints we saw featured in the religion post as a final boss.

Patrick Joel Hansen

Since the idea of being a demon player character came up. If that happened will there be "Gods" of the demon relm or is that the Court of the Deep from Kingdoms and Warfare?

Stuart Cook

I LOVE the Radenwights. Maybe it’s because of my love for Redwall, but they don’t look very villainous/monsterous to me, I would feel guilty fighting one of those! I would love to hear more about their visual design process

Joe G

Are we going to see art of the gods of Orden and the Timescape, or will we mostly see representations of heroes and saints while the gods are represented by symbols, icons, etc.? Love the art we've seen so far!