Master the blade, carry an arsenal, or turn anything into a weapon as The Menace. Make villains tremble with this third-party martial class for Draw Steel!
"Do you know what you have just unleashed? Who you have disturbed? This is no mere mercenary paid by villagers! Will somebody rid me of this..."
TheMenace brings a fighter and martial adept class into Draw Steel. They possess a mind with a single drive, a body willing to bear the burden, and a soul already ablaze. Their relentless dedication pushes them to the absolute mortal peak.
Leaning on a variety of inspirations from One Piece to John Wick, The Menace lets you push your character to the limit and make villains tremble at your sight. You become an unavoidable obstacle to any Villain's plans. Let your enemies run; wherever they go, they're already dead.
He could have just killed me that day. Instead, he said “Thanks to you, I grow stronger ever still” and just... walked off.
I once saw her kill three men in a tavern with a @!#% quill!
– Goblin patron on The Improviser of Capital
Playing the Menace is turning drive into action. You are powered by purpose, and when that fails, desperation. This is a careful balancing act. Desperation gives you access to powerful additional effects, Forbidden Techniques, but they all come with Backlash. The question is, how much can your body take?
On the battlefield, a Menace can comfortably take the role of artillery, a harrier, or a hexer. They can be built as a jack of all trades carrying abilities for every situation, or as specialists excelling at dealing with specific types of foes, like solos, leaders, or minions.
We have taken care to not step on any of the core classes' niches. Rather, we aim to complement them by providing a flexible fighter that can fit into any existing composition.
Beyond purpose, playing a Menace is playing a class that has a special connection with the tools they use. All Menaces interact with kits, adding a unique twist to them depending on your chosen subclass.
At higher levels, a Menace becomes a symbol. Defiant in the face of tyranny, their ideals and purpose transcend their life. You can kill the flesh, but not the idea. Another will pick up the mantle and continue the good fight.
A century ago, an elf, going by this very name, turned the white tower to ash. Fifty years ago, a wormwight took up the mantle, and kicked our operation out of Capital. Twenty years ago, an orc adopted the same nom de guerre, rallied a band and almost killed me. What the Grasp doesn’t know, it should not touch!
– Xorannox on The Arsenal of Vaseloria
You adopt one of three Monikers, the name the world gives you once they've seen what you can do: The Ace embodies grace. They take a kit and elevate it to perfection. They are efficient, effortlessly so. Their senses pick up on details others miss, and they can read people with ease. Their abilities turn them into a sharp instrument on the battlefield. The Ace understands their allies, bringing out their full potential. The Arsenal embodies abundance. They compliment their kit with a variety of extra armaments and a vast knowledge of crafting. They share their bounty: Blades towards enemies, extra pommels to friends. Every group with an arsenal is armed to the teeth and ready.
The Improviser embodies creativity. Their kit is found on the battlefield itself. They are unpredictable, wild and free. They turn the enemies' strengths into their weakness. Blessed with unusual luck, teams with an Improviser always find what they need.
The Menace class preview contains levels 1-3. These aren't the final lay-out or content, but the style of the art and the design language is similar to what you can expect in the final product. If the Menace generates a lot of interest, we will investigate alternative styles and even hiring a graphic designer to touch it up.
We plan on releasing the Menace PDF in December 2026.
We have a version of most levels ready already. The main things we still need to do are finish the design and playtest it more, add additional art, and create the final lay-out. We also still need some time to create the extra goodies, like the titles and kits. We are confident that the main PDF will be ready for our December 2026 release.
For shipping the physical products, we are aiming for Q1 2027. A bit later than the main PDF, because we want to make sure the class design and art are finished before we print anything. Additional shipping information can be found in the FAQ.
Finally, there is the Codex implementation. The Codex is still ever-changing, and some abilities are easier to implement than others. We are confident we will be able to get an implementation of the Menace into the Codex eventually. In fact, we already have versions of levels 1-6 largely implemented in there. We will release a version of levels 1-10 around the time we release the PDF, but there may still be updates and patches later.
Genre Games is an independent tabletop role-playing game studio creating theme-rich, immersive stand-alone TTRPGs and supplements, based in Delft and Berlin.
Designers: George Hellouin de Menibus, Ricardo Vogel, Sytze Max Illustrations: Alexandra M. Bamberger
This work was made by humans. No AI- or machine-generated works are included in this project.
