Draw Steel: Art and Gods Q&A
Added 2024-12-02 21:16:33 +0000 UTCHey folks! James here to give you some stellar news. Dael is coming back to your screens this week with our own Matt Colville and Jason Hasenauer to take your burning questions about Draw Steel!
The crew will be live at 4pm Pacific, this Thursday December 5th. This time around Matt is taking questions about the gods, saints, heroes, and heralds of the timescape (discussed in this Patreon post) and Jason is going to be taking questions about the art of Draw Steel. So ask your art and Orden religion questions on this post, and Dael will ask away on Thursday. See ya there!
Comments
It's a fork!
Joe Auerbach
2024-12-08 01:50:56 +0000 UTCI appreciated Jason's response on the stream! Thanks!
Joe G
2024-12-07 02:15:16 +0000 UTCWhen 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.
atomicsorcery
2024-12-06 23:48:01 +0000 UTCWe don't know! We'll find out next year! -MC
MCDM Productions
2024-12-06 23:43:51 +0000 UTCYeah I think that's the Court of the Deep. -MC
MCDM Productions
2024-12-06 23:43:28 +0000 UTCDepends on how many Draw Steel products we get to make! -MC
MCDM Productions
2024-12-06 23:43:10 +0000 UTCThere 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
2024-12-06 23:42:45 +0000 UTCVasloria is our Fantasy Medieval Europe analog, so they look like European priests from the middle-ages mostly. -MC
MCDM Productions
2024-12-06 23:41:09 +0000 UTCI 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
2024-12-06 23:40:19 +0000 UTCWe 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
2024-12-06 23:38:24 +0000 UTCAs 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
2024-12-06 23:37:02 +0000 UTCThe 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
2024-12-06 23:36:21 +0000 UTCThe 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
2024-12-06 23:34:13 +0000 UTCThere'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
2024-12-06 23:28:15 +0000 UTCI doubt it! My novels aren't set in the same world as Draw Steel, just a copy of it. -MC
MCDM Productions
2024-12-06 23:27:24 +0000 UTCI think one or both of them are responsible for the Heliox, the native ancestry of Quintessence. -MC
MCDM Productions
2024-12-06 23:27:00 +0000 UTCThere'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
2024-12-06 23:26:20 +0000 UTCThese 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
2024-12-06 23:25:20 +0000 UTCMaybe! 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
2024-12-06 23:24:12 +0000 UTCI'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
2024-12-06 23:21:04 +0000 UTCAjax is a saint of Cyn, the elder god who created humanity. -MC
MCDM Productions
2024-12-06 23:19:41 +0000 UTCThere'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
2024-12-06 23:19:24 +0000 UTCI 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
2024-12-06 23:18:44 +0000 UTCI 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
MCDM Productions
2024-12-06 23:14:46 +0000 UTCCan't wait to let my players fight a Thorn Dragon and in general show of the art of the final book
holidayPictures4You
2024-12-06 18:45:58 +0000 UTCExpect another Patreon post about 24 minutes from now with the YouTube link. That's what they've been doing.
Ernge
2024-12-05 23:36:24 +0000 UTCWhere is the steam happening?
Joe Garvey
2024-12-05 21:09:18 +0000 UTCThis 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?
Delport Breckland
2024-12-05 19:45:13 +0000 UTCIsn't that up to the people at the table playing pretend?
Ernge
2024-12-05 18:30:29 +0000 UTCAre 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?
Vitruvian Link
2024-12-05 04:58:26 +0000 UTCWe 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?
Jonathan Rowan
2024-12-05 04:14:06 +0000 UTCFor 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”
Dillon
2024-12-05 02:28:21 +0000 UTCWhat 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?
laughing giraffe
2024-12-04 17:29:33 +0000 UTCIs there any monster art around Dark Saints and Cult bands of monsters?
atomicsorcery
2024-12-04 16:55:39 +0000 UTCSome 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.
Jake Walsh
2024-12-04 16:47:01 +0000 UTCUnless 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?
Josh Rodell
2024-12-04 08:43:57 +0000 UTCAll 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.
dragonscry7
2024-12-03 23:39:52 +0000 UTCIf Aan or Eth were inclined to try their hand at children, what kind of ancestry would they be responsible for?
Jonathan Rowan
2024-12-03 20:35:53 +0000 UTCDo Arrogates exist in the Draw Steel version of Vasloria, and if so, will we get any information about them?
JusticeCoffee
2024-12-03 16:19:54 +0000 UTCThe 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?
John Brocklehurst
2024-12-03 14:45:08 +0000 UTCIn 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?
KingGurke
2024-12-03 11:16:11 +0000 UTCCan 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)!
simbini2004
2024-12-03 08:52:22 +0000 UTCArt (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?
alon yairi
2024-12-03 07:34:18 +0000 UTCFor 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?
Chris
2024-12-03 03:47:02 +0000 UTCIs 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?
Quinn Choffin
2024-12-03 02:41:22 +0000 UTCThat is a GOOD QUESTION and I look forward to Jason's answer. :D -MC
MCDM Productions
2024-12-03 01:07:07 +0000 UTCIf "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?
Vitruvian Link
2024-12-03 00:54:57 +0000 UTCHow much art are we gonna get for gods and saints?
Tom Johnson
2024-12-03 00:30:02 +0000 UTCFor 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?
Rise Heroes Rise!
2024-12-02 23:59:01 +0000 UTCWith 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?
Benjamin Ford
2024-12-02 23:48:43 +0000 UTCThe War Dogs all have the Ram motiff of Ajax's on their armour. Do any other factions have a repeated design motiff?
John Brocklehurst
2024-12-02 23:36:02 +0000 UTCLots 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?
Benjamin Ford
2024-12-02 23:33:54 +0000 UTCArt 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.
Christopher S.
2024-12-02 22:54:27 +0000 UTCWhat 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?
SaintGwyn
2024-12-02 22:52:10 +0000 UTCHow 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?
Schoopdoop McGoop
2024-12-02 22:47:42 +0000 UTCHow 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.
Caleb Plehn
2024-12-02 22:09:57 +0000 UTCI'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?
Eli Feliciano
2024-12-02 22:04:55 +0000 UTCWe 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?
Daniel Dias
2024-12-02 21:55:55 +0000 UTCHow 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.
lone-rev
2024-12-02 21:39:42 +0000 UTCSince 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?
Patrick Joel Hansen
2024-12-02 21:30:35 +0000 UTCI 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
Stuart Cook
2024-12-02 21:29:52 +0000 UTCAre 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!
Joe G
2024-12-02 21:21:39 +0000 UTCLooking forward to seeing some new art!
GGSigmar
2024-12-02 21:20:27 +0000 UTC
