Codex Delian Tomb Playtest

You are going to play the Delian Tomb tonight, with up to five of your friends, in our custom VTT called The Codex! Here are your TL;DR steps to get started:

1. Make sure you are a paid subscriber to the MCDM Patreon

2. Link your Patreon account to your Discord account

3. Use the MCDM Codex Keybot bot command in our Discord to request playtest keys for the Codex Playtest

4. Redeem your keys via Steam

5. Wishlist the Codex on Steam, so you’ll be updated when it is fully released in 2026

6. Play Draw Steel in the Codex, RIGHT NOW!

1. Make sure you are a paid subscriber to the MCDM Patreon

The Codex Delian Tomb Playtest is available to paid subscribers to the MCDM Patreon. Make sure you are at the paid subscriber tier to access keys.

2. Link your Patreon account to the MCDM Discord

Management of the playtest and keys are done via Discord. Make sure you join the MCDM Discord.  Make sure your Patreon account is linked to your Discord account.

https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/212052266-Getting-Discord-access

It will also be useful to join the DMHub Discord, where regular communication about the development of the Codex will happen, and also where you can report bugs.

The DMHub community is super friendly and active, so don’t be afraid to join!

3. Use the MCDM Codex Keybot Slash Command to Get Keys

In the MCDM Discord, if you are a paid Patreon member, you can use the following slash command anywhere in the server to access a key for yourself and a party pack of five keys for your players, giving you a total of six keys:

Start typing /requestmykey and a UI should appear with an option for you to click

The MCDM Codex Keybot will DM you with your keys that you can redeem and distribute to your players. If you have already received your keys the bot will inform you of that and list them again for you. If there are additional problems with receiving keys you can email hello@mcdmproductions.com.

4. Redeem your keys via Steam

The Codex playtest and the final software are both distributed via Steam. Keep one key for yourself and distribute the rest to your players. Everyone should redeem their keys through Steam:

Once activated, you download and install as you would any other game from Steam. Pro tip, Steam has a powerful Recordings & Screenshots mode that works well with the Codex, if you want to share clips of your games and experiences.

5. Wishlist the Codex on Steam!

You can wishlist the Codex at this link: https://mcdm.gg/draw-steel-codex

Wishlisting will give you updates through Steam about when the Codex will go into early access and release in 2026. Wishlisting helps us understand interest in the Codex and better prepare for launch.

6. Play Draw Steel in the Codex, RIGHT NOW!

Load up the Codex and follow the instructions in this video by Ricky, one of devs on the Codex:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb6cZ-FNbH0

Good Luck, Have Fun!

More Details

Hey everyone! It’s Djordi, Senior Designer here on MCDM and the Design Lead on the Codex, MCDM’s custom virtual table top for Draw Steel. Now that we’ve gotten the TL;DR out of the way, I’m going to jump into some more details about the Codex Delian Tomb Playtest and our plans to release the retail version in 2026.

The Codex is MCDM’s custom VTT, developed in partnership with DMHub and built on their existing technology. The Codex is a PC application, with both a Windows and Mac version. We don’t officially support Linux at the moment, but there are brave people on the DMHub Discord who have worked out how to emulate using Proton.

The Draw Steel Codex Playtest is focused on delivering the Delian Tomb and iterating on it until we feel it’s in a shippable state. All Echelon 1 player options are in and working. All monsters that appear in the Delian Tomb are in and working, along with a few other monster bands. 

And even though we aren’t focused on the rest of the Codex at the moment, which means feature iteration and bug fixing will be a lower priority, there are a whole host of features to let you import maps, build maps, and stitch together adventures.

As we continue this playtest process more and more of these features will become supported and polished. Many users, however, are already using the rest of the Codex features to great effect.

Playtest Details

As instructed above, paid Patreon members and their players will get Draw Steel Codex Playtest keys. Your playtest keys will work until we officially go into Steam Early Access, which is targeted for the second half of 2026. While we are testing you will continue to get updates as we implement more echelons of play, build out the bestiary of monsters, and continue to improve and refine the feature set and experience of the Codex. You’ll also get previews of new adventures, player options, and classes as we implement them.

Communication about updates will happen primarily through the DMHub Discord, so we highly recommend you join there as well.

Once released to Steam Early Access you’ll need a digital tier copy of the Draw Steel rules to access the Codex (see below).

Why Did We Make the Codex?

Draw Steel has an open license, which means anyone can play for free using community tools, including online with various existing VTT options. For much of Draw Steel’s early development we used Owlbear Rodeo to test, as an example.

Given that ecosystem we felt like the best use of our time and resources was to build a custom VTT that can offer a premium experience and the best way to play Draw Steel online. We want a VTT that understands the rules and can do the heroic fantasy gameplay of Draw Steel better than anything else out there. Forced movement is currently a dream in the Codex that we are only going to make better!

Given that there are open license options for the community and also given that we want to make a premium experience, the Codex will not be free. We want to make a complete experience and do not want to be in a world where free access is subsidized by gacha style mechanics.

But good news everyone!

Pricing

Many, if not most of you, have already purchased a key to the Codex. Every PDF purchase of the Draw Steel rules, which is every purchase of the Draw Steel rules, will allow you to redeem a key for the Codex once it is released. Our PDF tier is now our digital tier, giving you all the digital options in one convenient package!

Our normal Patreon membership rules apply as well. So any PDF copies you are given based on your length of membership in the Patreon will also give you the Codex key for that product, once the Codex version is complete. As the core rules are completed we are targeting closing the window between PDF and Codex releases of our products, with the eventual goal being day-and-date release of everything.

This will also include an additional digital tier copy of the core rules once the Codex goes into early access in 2026.

I know I personally have been frustrated with companies that make your double or triple dip to get your books and pdfs and VTT access. This is why it’s been important to me, and to MCDM and DMHub in general, to make sure that you only have to buy the rules once.

What About My Players?

Your players will need their own Codex keys in addition to you. Again, as a premium product we feel like the experience will justify the price and that price will help cover development and allow us to continue creating new content and experiences for everyone.

Also, philosophically, we don’t want to do a separate product for players vs Directors. One of our mantras for MCDM is MAKE MORE DIRECTORS to help mitigate the challenge of The Forever DM.

But to mitigate the cost of kitting out your party with keys, we will offer The Party Pack.

The Party Pack

You’ll be able to purchase a Codex Party pack either directly from MCDM or through Steam. This will give you a five pack of keys for you and/or your players to distribute to each other. We are currently targeting around $100 for a five pack of keys that will also give your players a full copy of the core rules, but that price is subject to change.

As part of the Codex Playtest, Patreon members will get a test version of the Party Pack to allow them to play with up to five players, so you’ll have a total of 6 keys between yourself and your players.

What is Available in the Playtest

As mentioned earlier, the playtest is focused on the Delian Tomb, but the Codex supports a broad set of experiences beyond that. We are currently focusing on polishing general usability and gameplay with the Delian Tomb as a testbed. Once we are happy with the Delian Tomb being shippable, we will move on to other content and features, but the Delian Tomb will always be a testbed for new elements to the Codex.

The Delian Tomb

The Delian Tomb is largely feature complete, with varying levels of polish and bug fixing still required. The earlier parts of the adventure are the most polished with later parts continuing to be refined. We have bug forums on the DMHub Discord to help track active bugs. Please give them a look and follow the instructions in the Discord to add new bugs if you find them.

Character Creation

We’ve updated our character creation system to allow you to create characters in the front end. All the core classes are implemented for Echelon 1 of play (Levels 1 - 3). You can also import characters in the Forge Steel format without using an external plug-in.

The Journal

The Delian Tomb adventure is fully imported using our journal technology:

This is one of our favorite pieces of technology we built out for the Codex. It allows anyone (MCDM and DMHub developers as well as you the user) to create journal objects in our custom markdown language to help run an adventure, allowing you to display images, play sounds, place and remove monsters (scaled to your player party size), reveal secret doors, etc. It’s effectively your Director control console which makes running adventures a breeze and delivers on our goals of making the Director's job easier.

The journal also allows you to run and track montages and negotiations. We have plans for a more cinematic presentation of those mechanics that will be developed and integrated into the Codex after the New Year.

We think this will be transformative for the adventures we create and the ones the community creates for themselves. It’s straightforward to use, just slightly technical in using markdown markup, but way less of a technical hurdle than doing full lua scripting. But you can still do full lua scripting in the Codex if you want to take that on!

Tactical Combat

The Codex does an excellent job of helping you run tactical combat. You’ll see a demo of this during the livestream this week. The software handles tracking rounds, turns, movement, attacks of opportunity, and the joy of forced movement. It deals with height really well and maps that have verticality show off parallax effects that make the table experience immersive.

The final UX and UI for tactical combat is still being refined, and you’ll see a lot of changes as we finalize things over the next few months.

And the Rest

And while not our primary focus for iteration right now, there are a whole host of features in the Codex that work pretty well right now, if not polished. You can use the in game map and object editor to build your own maps. You can import maps, both gridded and gridless, with what we think is the best grid alignment tool available out there.

And even though we are focused on the Delian Tomb you might see occasional drops of other content as development continues. Also there are a ton of community mods out there. We look forward to what you can build in the experience!

What Isn’t In or Is Incomplete

The playtest is focused on the Delian Tomb, that is largely complete:

• The final user experience for triggers isn’t complete, which means the Director and players can sometimes advance through actions too quickly, before a user has a chance to use their trigger. For now please take a little extra care to communicate with your players to make sure they have time to react with their triggers.

• Earlier parts of the adventure are more polished, with later parts having more bugs and placeholder elements

• Players can select any complication for their hero, but they are yet to be mechanically implemented if they have a mechanical impact

• Hero options for Echelon 2 and above have not been implemented yet

• Only some monsters for Echelon 1 have been implemented, beyond the ones required for the Delian Tomb

• DTO’s are not fully implemented and need to be manually applied to targets, with some exceptions

• Treasures and Titles for the Delian Tomb are implemented, but other Echelon 1 Treasures and Titles are only partially implemented

• Victory conditions for combat encounters are not implemented and need to be tracked manually

• Progression is not automated yet and will need to be tracked manually

Bugs!

Please report bugs using the bugs forum in the DMHub Discord. Best practices for reporting bugs are detailed there and the community may have already reported your bug and can help guide you through the process.

Road Map

Beyond some general bug fixes and performance improvements we have the following things on our road map.

First, UX Updates

As mentioned before, we are working on some UX improvements. There will be some general fixes as we continue development, but there are two key aspects we’re going to focus on starting in December.

Updated Character Builder

A look and feel and usability update is in progress for the character builder. Here’s a preview of the in progress design. The current character builder is completely functional, but we think it’s important to make the experience better for new users.

Updated Power Roll and Tactical Combat Flow

This is one of the largest user experience features we are going to work on. The current power roll screen is very functional, but is a full screen popup visible only to the player making the roll, which prevents other users from seeing what’s going on. We’re working on a design that keeps the panel smaller and can be even minimized so everyone at the table can see what’s going on and react 

With the panel smaller we can build more communication into the tokens and lines between the tokens at the table and also improve communication about triggers. We think this will help a lot, but will be a bit of work to get going.

Next, More Echelons

We’re going to continue to develop the rest of the echelons of play, working towards our 2026 release.

Finally, Release and the Marketplace

And also when we release in 2026 we want to have a marketplace up and running, so both MCDM and the community can put up items for sale. As Matt showed in his latest video there are a lot of people doing cool things and we want to reduce the friction of getting their stuff into the Codex.

Good Luck, Have Fun!

Enjoy the Codex! Look forward to seeing y’all play!