Oct 4, 2025 12:12 pm
The Delian Tomb
A Draw Steel adventure for three to five daring heroes
You are a newly-formed band of heroes who have come to Broadhurst, a quiet farming village in the barony of Dalrath, seeking adventure. Whispers of bandits on the road and monsters lurking in the Silver Wood suggest that someone, somewhere, must be in need of help.
Yet when you arrive, the townsfolk offer little more than polite nods and mumbled greetings. Broadhurst's inhabitants are hesitant to speak with strangers.
Now, you find yourselves in the common room of the Feather Bed Inn—the only inn in town. The smell of stew and ale drifts through the air as you settle at a wooden table. Across the room, a young man in gleaming plate armor, his expression locked in a permanent scowl, converses quietly with an older woman in mage’s robes, her silver-streaked hair hinting at decades of experience.
Suddenly...
✅ The Meta
In Draw Steel, combat is tactical, heroic, and cinematic. You are adventurers making your own mark on the world, fighting monsters, seizing treasure, and shaping your story through action. Battles are fought on OtFBM grids where positioning, teamwork, and resource management matter as much or even more than the blessing of the dice gods.
This is not a hexcrawl or sandbox. Instead, we’re focusing on one short published adventure: the Delian Tomb. It’s the perfect way to learn the rules, test out character options, and get a feel for Draw Steel’s advantages and disadvantages in a play-by-post medium. The adventure is divided into 3 parts. We will play the first part and see if we want to continue.
✅ Our goal
To play through one tutorial-style adventure, learning Draw Steel together while keeping things fun, fast, and cinematic. Depending on pacing and how many parts we play, this could take 3–12 months of PbP.
✅ Expectations
Heroes can die: We’ll start gently, but combat ramps up quickly. Tactical mistakes, poor positioning, or sloppy resource management can end badly. I’m rooting for your heroes, but I won’t pull punches or fudge dice rolls. On the other hand, I won't purposefully aim for a TPK either. Combat will follow the rules.
Combat is tactical and thrilling: In Draw Steel, everybody always hit—the Power Roll (2d10+Modifiers) just determines how hard. The battlefield is a puzzle, and clever abilities, positioning, and teamwork make the difference between victory and defeat.
Roleplay matters: I love interesting characters and roleplay, and I want to see your heroes shine through their personalities and choices. But be aware—this adventure leans heavily on combat and tactics, with story and character development woven into that action.
All of this means that when a hero is struck down by a goblin and reaches 0 Stamina, we won’t just mark the loss mechanically and hand you a new sheet—we’ll play through the moment. Their allies rally to hold the line while the hero bleeds, then drive the enemies back and reposition to open a safe path for the Conduit to reach the fallen hero and heal them without triggering a storm of opportunity attacks. Whether the rescue succeeds or fails, the scene becomes part of the story—highlighting the threat of the monsters, the value of teamwork, and the heroism of those who fight side by side.
✅ The Game System and Rules Version
We’ll be playing with the Draw Steel Core Rules by MCDM Productions (2025). The SRD is available for free at this site, but you don’t need to read them beforehand. This is a tutorial game: you will use predefined abilities, and I’ll introduce the rules step by step through OOC posts as they become relevant.
✅ House Rule: Accumulated Director Turns
In Draw Steel, turns normally "zipper" between sides—one hero, one monster group, one hero, one monster group, and so on—until everyone has acted. On the heroes’ side, the players decide which hero acts next, planning turn order together, or simply letting whoever posts first go first.
In PbP, pacing slows if players must wait for the Director after each individual post. To keep things moving, when a PC finishes their turn, all players may still take theirs (one each) even while Director turns are pending. As soon as possible, the Director resolves all accumulated monster turns together in a single post. Occasionally, the Director may even play a few monster turns in advance to help balance things out and maintain flow.
✅ No Adult Content or Controversial Themes
The Delian Tomb is classic fantasy: monsters, treasure, blood, violence. Expect depictions of peril, wounds, and grim foes. Lower levels of the Delian Tomb also includes body horror, spiders, and starvation.
We’ll use lines and veils as a group. No sexual content, no violence against children, and no real-world racism/sexism. PG-13 in all of our posts. The X-Card is in play: anyone can stop a scene if uncomfortable.
✅ Public forum
This will be a public PbP game. People can read along, though private notes may be used by players or GM if they want to.
✅ Specialized Software and Resources
None. Players are free to setup a Discord server for table talk and to discuss tactics but results/decisions/actions must be posted in Gamersplane's threads, so Discord is optional.
✅ Character Creation
For this introductory game, players will use pre-generated characters. You are free to choose your hero’s name, background and personality but all mechanical elements—attributes and features—won't be picked as usual and will be a consequence of your chosen pre-generated character class + ancestry.
That's because "Part 1" of the adventure consists of four combat encounters, with roleplay woven in between. Each encounter introduces new rules step by step, so players can learn Draw Steel gradually. Even if you're a Draw Steel veteran, heroes must begin simple and gain more features and abilities after each encounter. Only by the end of part one, every player will have a complete 1st-level hero, ready for the rest of the adventure.
✅ Post Frequency
Daily posts are ideal, but at least 5/week posts are required to keep combat flowing. If absent, please let the group know—otherwise, after 3 days since your last post, I will run your character until you get back.
Real Life happens, but ideally you’ll check the thread regularly, post to keep scenes moving, communicate any absences, and adapt to the PbP medium.
For this game, some of your posts can be quick and tactical one liners—moving your hero, using abilities, or responding to combat—while others should be longer and reflective, exploring your character’s thoughts, reactions, and choices, or even describing the scene again, from their perspective, and doing some worldbuilding. Either way, players with prior PbP experience know that consistent participation is essential for keeping the game and the story alive.
✅ Player Experience
No prior knowledge of Draw Steel or Gamersplane.com needed. I’m more than happy to help.
✅ Application
If you’d like to join, please post your previous experience with Draw Steel (if any) and a short character concept along with the role in combat you’d like to play. In your concept, you should include a class, either from Draw Steel or other fantasy RPG like DnD and Pathfinder. Nothing detailed or fixed yet —we’ll refine things together in the game's forums —but give me a sense of who your hero is, their general vibe, etc.
✅ Selection Criteria (if necessary)
I’m looking for a group of 3–5 players total. I have already invited Drgwen and PhoenixScientist for this game, as they already expressed interest.
So, my preference will be to invite 1–2 extra users I’ve played with before and 1–2 users I haven’t played with yet. Most importantly, players must commit to the posting frequency outlined earlier—at least 5/week, specially during combat. Draw Steel’s tactical battles rely on timely decisions, and PbP momentum is easy to lose if players go silent.
✅ Welcome All
This game is explicitly inclusive. LGBT+ players, marginalized folks, and all backgrounds are welcome. Let’s be fans of each other and cheer for cool characters, daring moves, and epic battles.
A Draw Steel adventure for three to five daring heroes
You are a newly-formed band of heroes who have come to Broadhurst, a quiet farming village in the barony of Dalrath, seeking adventure. Whispers of bandits on the road and monsters lurking in the Silver Wood suggest that someone, somewhere, must be in need of help.
Yet when you arrive, the townsfolk offer little more than polite nods and mumbled greetings. Broadhurst's inhabitants are hesitant to speak with strangers.
Now, you find yourselves in the common room of the Feather Bed Inn—the only inn in town. The smell of stew and ale drifts through the air as you settle at a wooden table. Across the room, a young man in gleaming plate armor, his expression locked in a permanent scowl, converses quietly with an older woman in mage’s robes, her silver-streaked hair hinting at decades of experience.
Suddenly...
✅ The Meta
In Draw Steel, combat is tactical, heroic, and cinematic. You are adventurers making your own mark on the world, fighting monsters, seizing treasure, and shaping your story through action. Battles are fought on OtFBM grids where positioning, teamwork, and resource management matter as much or even more than the blessing of the dice gods.
This is not a hexcrawl or sandbox. Instead, we’re focusing on one short published adventure: the Delian Tomb. It’s the perfect way to learn the rules, test out character options, and get a feel for Draw Steel’s advantages and disadvantages in a play-by-post medium. The adventure is divided into 3 parts. We will play the first part and see if we want to continue.
✅ Our goal
To play through one tutorial-style adventure, learning Draw Steel together while keeping things fun, fast, and cinematic. Depending on pacing and how many parts we play, this could take 3–12 months of PbP.
✅ Expectations
Heroes can die: We’ll start gently, but combat ramps up quickly. Tactical mistakes, poor positioning, or sloppy resource management can end badly. I’m rooting for your heroes, but I won’t pull punches or fudge dice rolls. On the other hand, I won't purposefully aim for a TPK either. Combat will follow the rules.
Combat is tactical and thrilling: In Draw Steel, everybody always hit—the Power Roll (2d10+Modifiers) just determines how hard. The battlefield is a puzzle, and clever abilities, positioning, and teamwork make the difference between victory and defeat.
Roleplay matters: I love interesting characters and roleplay, and I want to see your heroes shine through their personalities and choices. But be aware—this adventure leans heavily on combat and tactics, with story and character development woven into that action.
All of this means that when a hero is struck down by a goblin and reaches 0 Stamina, we won’t just mark the loss mechanically and hand you a new sheet—we’ll play through the moment. Their allies rally to hold the line while the hero bleeds, then drive the enemies back and reposition to open a safe path for the Conduit to reach the fallen hero and heal them without triggering a storm of opportunity attacks. Whether the rescue succeeds or fails, the scene becomes part of the story—highlighting the threat of the monsters, the value of teamwork, and the heroism of those who fight side by side.
✅ The Game System and Rules Version
We’ll be playing with the Draw Steel Core Rules by MCDM Productions (2025). The SRD is available for free at this site, but you don’t need to read them beforehand. This is a tutorial game: you will use predefined abilities, and I’ll introduce the rules step by step through OOC posts as they become relevant.
✅ House Rule: Accumulated Director Turns
In Draw Steel, turns normally "zipper" between sides—one hero, one monster group, one hero, one monster group, and so on—until everyone has acted. On the heroes’ side, the players decide which hero acts next, planning turn order together, or simply letting whoever posts first go first.
In PbP, pacing slows if players must wait for the Director after each individual post. To keep things moving, when a PC finishes their turn, all players may still take theirs (one each) even while Director turns are pending. As soon as possible, the Director resolves all accumulated monster turns together in a single post. Occasionally, the Director may even play a few monster turns in advance to help balance things out and maintain flow.
✅ No Adult Content or Controversial Themes
The Delian Tomb is classic fantasy: monsters, treasure, blood, violence. Expect depictions of peril, wounds, and grim foes. Lower levels of the Delian Tomb also includes body horror, spiders, and starvation.
We’ll use lines and veils as a group. No sexual content, no violence against children, and no real-world racism/sexism. PG-13 in all of our posts. The X-Card is in play: anyone can stop a scene if uncomfortable.
✅ Public forum
This will be a public PbP game. People can read along, though private notes may be used by players or GM if they want to.
✅ Specialized Software and Resources
None. Players are free to setup a Discord server for table talk and to discuss tactics but results/decisions/actions must be posted in Gamersplane's threads, so Discord is optional.
✅ Character Creation
For this introductory game, players will use pre-generated characters. You are free to choose your hero’s name, background and personality but all mechanical elements—attributes and features—won't be picked as usual and will be a consequence of your chosen pre-generated character class + ancestry.
That's because "Part 1" of the adventure consists of four combat encounters, with roleplay woven in between. Each encounter introduces new rules step by step, so players can learn Draw Steel gradually. Even if you're a Draw Steel veteran, heroes must begin simple and gain more features and abilities after each encounter. Only by the end of part one, every player will have a complete 1st-level hero, ready for the rest of the adventure.
✅ Post Frequency
Daily posts are ideal, but at least 5/week posts are required to keep combat flowing. If absent, please let the group know—otherwise, after 3 days since your last post, I will run your character until you get back.
Real Life happens, but ideally you’ll check the thread regularly, post to keep scenes moving, communicate any absences, and adapt to the PbP medium.
For this game, some of your posts can be quick and tactical one liners—moving your hero, using abilities, or responding to combat—while others should be longer and reflective, exploring your character’s thoughts, reactions, and choices, or even describing the scene again, from their perspective, and doing some worldbuilding. Either way, players with prior PbP experience know that consistent participation is essential for keeping the game and the story alive.
✅ Player Experience
No prior knowledge of Draw Steel or Gamersplane.com needed. I’m more than happy to help.
✅ Application
If you’d like to join, please post your previous experience with Draw Steel (if any) and a short character concept along with the role in combat you’d like to play. In your concept, you should include a class, either from Draw Steel or other fantasy RPG like DnD and Pathfinder. Nothing detailed or fixed yet —we’ll refine things together in the game's forums —but give me a sense of who your hero is, their general vibe, etc.
✅ Selection Criteria (if necessary)
I’m looking for a group of 3–5 players total. I have already invited Drgwen and PhoenixScientist for this game, as they already expressed interest.
So, my preference will be to invite 1–2 extra users I’ve played with before and 1–2 users I haven’t played with yet. Most importantly, players must commit to the posting frequency outlined earlier—at least 5/week, specially during combat. Draw Steel’s tactical battles rely on timely decisions, and PbP momentum is easy to lose if players go silent.
✅ Welcome All
This game is explicitly inclusive. LGBT+ players, marginalized folks, and all backgrounds are welcome. Let’s be fans of each other and cheer for cool characters, daring moves, and epic battles.
Last edited October 6, 2025 8:31 pm
