On the Shoulders of Giants -- Some new (higher level) Menace features
Heya all,
I just wanted to introduce a couple of cool class features we've been working on! Some of these we've already shown a preview of in a previous post, some are brand new.
On the Shoulders of Giants One of the themes of the Menace is legacy. Your moniker isn't just what you're known as, but also a tribute to great fighters that came before, and a way to set the bar for those who come after. As an extension of this theme, we wanted another way to show this cycle of inspiration. At level one, all menaces get our new On the Shoulders of Giants class feature: We're still working out what bonuses to give for this, but here are some examples:
Tale of the Last Stand. You are inspired by a hero who held off a siege on the city against all odds.
Tale of the Titan Slayer. Your inspiration is a hero who made it their personal quest to kill a giant creature like a dragon, who came back with its head.
Tale of the Challenger's Glove. A real hero stands up for what's right. You're inspired by a legend of a simple squire challenging an evil baron to a duel, and won.
The Moniker Lives On As you go on adventures and level up, you become more and more like the famous fighters that came before you. At some point, others start noticing, and start looking at you for inspiration.
At level 7, all menaces gain the The Moniker Lives On feature. If you die and there are no plans to return you to life, one of your retainers takes on the moniker and continues your quests. They have studied everything you've done, and have attentively listend to your tales. You make a new character sheet, with a new ancestry and career, but you keep your menace level, titles, and chosen abilities. The new menace also chooses a On the Shoulders of Giants tale feature that best matches a great deed of late original menace.
You can choose how you want to play this. Does the outside world know there's been a passing of the mantle, or will you try to keep this change a secret? (though it doesn't take an overmind to figure out that a polder arsenal suddenly being hakaan-sized is suspicious...)
At level 10, your deeds are so inspiring, your moniker will never die. You can kill the flesh, but you can't kill the idea. At this point, even if you don't have a retainer, it is revealed that someone you have saved or inspired at some point during your adventures has been studying your actions, your battles, your techniques attentively, and has been dedicating their life to training the same way you have trained. When hearing of your death, they take up your mantle.
We thought this feature would help with the "coolness" gap at high level between martial and magical/psionic classes a lot of TTRPGs suffer from. Sure, we can just up the damage and come up with wild status effects to impose, but we wanted to add a bit of an extra wow-factor, and we thought this is one way of "ascending" in a non-magical way.
UltimateTechniques One of the core fantasies of the menace is the idea that your strongest techniques come with a cost. An Ace can extend the distance of their perfect slash in The Lance that Pierces the Heaven, but will be slowed for a while. The Arsenal can use a super specific weapon they brought to disable an enemies signature ability in Special Ammunition, but will need to spend a respite crafting a new one. And the Improviser can dance around the battlefield with Go With the Flow without triggering attacks of opportunity, but the effects end if this flow is broken.
At higher levels, these forbidden techniques and backlashes become even more dangerous. An 8th-level menace can immediately kill an enemy (as long as they're not a solo or leader) with Destroyer of Worlds, but this technique costs them a limb, permanently, and a whole lot of stamina.
But going beyond and paying the price is only one of the fantasies of playing a world-class martial character. Someone who has fought hundreds of battles and has trained for thousands of hours should also be able to slice through foes like butter, and be back home in time for dinner.
That's why at level 6 we introduce the Ultimate Technique. An alternative to forbidden techniques you can use when desperate, but that don't come with a backlash. You chose one of these when you reach level 6: Additional ultimate techniques unlock at level 8, one for each moniker. We're still working those out and playtesting them:
I hope you enjoyed this (quite long) update post. If you haven't backed the Menace yet: only 4 days remain! The base tier is only €10 (aprox. US$11.31, £8.54), which comes with the whole class and the rivals and kits we talked about in earlier posts. At higher tiers you can also get cool Armament and Field Adventage cards, and even high quality prints of an art piece of your choice we will ship to you!
And to our backers: thank you for your support ❤️ Without you, the Menace would not be as cool as it is now (in my humble opinion)
I was very excited to see our backers are interested in kits, and expanding what the base game has to offer. Kits in Draw Steel have been a great flavor building block. You no longer have to "worry" about the difference between specific equipment and compromise the effectiveness of your character because you imagine a fighter wielding a whip instead of a great sword. The MCDM team did a wonderful job with the broad net they cast with kits. Most typical fantasy archetypes are present.
However, it is clear to me that some compromises had to be made (likely due to page count). There are "types" of Menaces we want to let you make that the existing kits need to be bent to accommodate. Take, for instance, your traditional "ninja" weaponry:
Nunchucks
Tonfa
Kamas
Sai
These are typically associated with martial arts but are not an unarmed fighters. Kit-wise, they could be represented with Pugilist, Martial Artist or maybe cloak and dagger. To me though, none of them quite cover the "feel" of a Ninja.
Rather than give you a list of the archetypes we want to cover, as that is subject to change, I wish to share the approach we will take in our design. We do not want to overshadow the kits in the book. They should still have a niche and a purpose. We will focus on perceived gaps. While these are Menace adjecent kits, they will remain broad enough to be applicable to the other martial classes. For inspiration, we draw on historical martial archetypes (Lancer, hoplite, skirmishers) and contemporary action fiction (trickshot, chained weapons). We are particularly interested in bringing archetypes beyond the Western canon of fantasy/history.
Looking forward to coming back to you with some kits!
We have been hard at work behind the scenes. Thanks to the latest poll, we see that you are interested in Kits and Rivals!
While we are stilll drafting up kits, we have a clear vision of what Menace rivals look like! Inspired by the Dastards in the latest encounter book, we wanted to give you rivals with personality that are easy to "drag&drop" into your adventures. We want to hit the right level of cool, letting you easily reflavor them for your games.
I present to you our Rival Monikers:
The Vulture The Vulture scours battlefields, collecting trophies and weapons, adding them to an ever-growing pile. Purpose has morphed into a twisted devotion to avarice. A scaveger, the Vulture is an excellent rival for any story involving precious items, weapons or other artifacts.
The Vulture is the dark mirror of the Arsenal. A melee hexer that robs your items of their power. A higher-level Vulture will have more equipment, more tricks and a bottomless pit of disposable equipment.
The Pariah The Pariah has left all responsibility behind, searching for perfection. Shaking off society's "shackles" has allowed this Menace to reach unparalleled power. What use is power, without application, the hero might ask. "More power" the pariah answers. Purpose feeds the wicked ouroboros of ego. The Pariah is an excellent rival to spring with little context. Why do we fight? Because we need to find out who is stronger.
The Pariah is the dark mirror of the Ace. An artillerist, the name is a reflection of their belief and fighting style. A higher level Pariah will have progressed further in their climb to power: Deadlier techniques, and sharper senses.
The Cataclysm Facing The Cataclysm follows a simple rule: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. This Menace is an ill omen, the embodiment of might makes right. Purpose has overpowered reason. The Cataclysm does because they can. And whatever they do, they do with impunity.
The Cataclysm is the dark mirror of the Improviser. A harasser in combat whose presence will make you roll worse and want to keep way. A higher level Cataclysm will impose more banes, sliping between defences.
Sneak peak of the art WIP:
Preview of the art our lovely artist is working on
Within 5 days, we have reached our funding goal! Thank you to all 45 of you who bought into the vision, it is a pleasure to see others are interested in our class.
As a thank you, we wanted to preview some of the ideas we have for higher levels, as well as a poll for what we should focus on apart from the main class.
We also want to give alternatives to the current Forbidden Techniques, to represent your growing mastery and understanding of your limits: Lastly, we wanted to give you a way to transcend, despite being a non-magical class.
After multiple months of development, we are finally ready to debut the Menace BackerKit campaign!
Even before crowdfunding, this has already been a wonderful creative project.
We now turn to you to help us transform our design into a finished product, worthy of standing side by side with the base game and the incredible add-ons that you can find on this and other sites.
The Menace is our take on the Fighter/Warrior/Weapons Master, adapted to the cinematic pacing of Draw Steel. It combines our love for action movies, comic books, pulpy novels, and anime.
We hope to you will find the Menace an exciting thematic addition to your table. We've poured out heart out to allow brand-new stories to be told through this class. We've done our best to not prescribe any specific attribute to your Menace, but to provide rich hooks for you to expand your story.
If this campaign goes well, we would like to provide a "full package" of the class:
Retainers, (Who doesn't want a poetic samurai at their side?)
Rivals, (Who doesn't want a poetic samurai on the other side?)
I just wanted to introduce a couple of cool class features we've been working on! Some of these we've already shown a preview of in a previous post, some are brand new.
On the Shoulders of Giants One of the themes of the Menace is legacy. Your moniker isn't just what you're known as, but also a tribute to great fighters that came before, and a way to set the bar for those who come after. As an extension of this theme, we wanted another way to show this cycle of inspiration. At level one, all menaces get our new On the Shoulders of Giants class feature: We're still working out what bonuses to give for this, but here are some examples:
Tale of the Last Stand. You are inspired by a hero who held off a siege on the city against all odds.
Tale of the Titan Slayer. Your inspiration is a hero who made it their personal quest to kill a giant creature like a dragon, who came back with its head.
Tale of the Challenger's Glove. A real hero stands up for what's right. You're inspired by a legend of a simple squire challenging an evil baron to a duel, and won.
The Moniker Lives On As you go on adventures and level up, you become more and more like the famous fighters that came before you. At some point, others start noticing, and start looking at you for inspiration.
At level 7, all menaces gain the The Moniker Lives On feature. If you die and there are no plans to return you to life, one of your retainers takes on the moniker and continues your quests. They have studied everything you've done, and have attentively listend to your tales. You make a new character sheet, with a new ancestry and career, but you keep your menace level, titles, and chosen abilities. The new menace also chooses a On the Shoulders of Giants tale feature that best matches a great deed of late original menace.
You can choose how you want to play this. Does the outside world know there's been a passing of the mantle, or will you try to keep this change a secret? (though it doesn't take an overmind to figure out that a polder arsenal suddenly being hakaan-sized is suspicious...)
At level 10, your deeds are so inspiring, your moniker will never die. You can kill the flesh, but you can't kill the idea. At this point, even if you don't have a retainer, it is revealed that someone you have saved or inspired at some point during your adventures has been studying your actions, your battles, your techniques attentively, and has been dedicating their life to training the same way you have trained. When hearing of your death, they take up your mantle.
We thought this feature would help with the "coolness" gap at high level between martial and magical/psionic classes a lot of TTRPGs suffer from. Sure, we can just up the damage and come up with wild status effects to impose, but we wanted to add a bit of an extra wow-factor, and we thought this is one way of "ascending" in a non-magical way.
UltimateTechniques One of the core fantasies of the menace is the idea that your strongest techniques come with a cost. An Ace can extend the distance of their perfect slash in The Lance that Pierces the Heaven, but will be slowed for a while. The Arsenal can use a super specific weapon they brought to disable an enemies signature ability in Special Ammunition, but will need to spend a respite crafting a new one. And the Improviser can dance around the battlefield with Go With the Flow without triggering attacks of opportunity, but the effects end if this flow is broken.
At higher levels, these forbidden techniques and backlashes become even more dangerous. An 8th-level menace can immediately kill an enemy (as long as they're not a solo or leader) with Destroyer of Worlds, but this technique costs them a limb, permanently, and a whole lot of stamina.
But going beyond and paying the price is only one of the fantasies of playing a world-class martial character. Someone who has fought hundreds of battles and has trained for thousands of hours should also be able to slice through foes like butter, and be back home in time for dinner.
That's why at level 6 we introduce the Ultimate Technique. An alternative to forbidden techniques you can use when desperate, but that don't come with a backlash. You chose one of these when you reach level 6: Additional ultimate techniques unlock at level 8, one for each moniker. We're still working those out and playtesting them:
I hope you enjoyed this (quite long) update post. If you haven't backed the Menace yet: only 4 days remain! The base tier is only €10 (aprox. US$11.31, £8.54), which comes with the whole class and the rivals and kits we talked about in earlier posts. At higher tiers you can also get cool Armament and Field Adventage cards, and even high quality prints of an art piece of your choice we will ship to you!
And to our backers: thank you for your support ❤️ Without you, the Menace would not be as cool as it is now (in my humble opinion)
I was very excited to see our backers are interested in kits, and expanding what the base game has to offer. Kits in Draw Steel have been a great flavor building block. You no longer have to "worry" about the difference between specific equipment and compromise the effectiveness of your character because you imagine a fighter wielding a whip instead of a great sword. The MCDM team did a wonderful job with the broad net they cast with kits. Most typical fantasy archetypes are present.
However, it is clear to me that some compromises had to be made (likely due to page count). There are "types" of Menaces we want to let you make that the existing kits need to be bent to accommodate. Take, for instance, your traditional "ninja" weaponry:
Nunchucks
Tonfa
Kamas
Sai
These are typically associated with martial arts but are not an unarmed fighters. Kit-wise, they could be represented with Pugilist, Martial Artist or maybe cloak and dagger. To me though, none of them quite cover the "feel" of a Ninja.
Rather than give you a list of the archetypes we want to cover, as that is subject to change, I wish to share the approach we will take in our design. We do not want to overshadow the kits in the book. They should still have a niche and a purpose. We will focus on perceived gaps. While these are Menace adjecent kits, they will remain broad enough to be applicable to the other martial classes. For inspiration, we draw on historical martial archetypes (Lancer, hoplite, skirmishers) and contemporary action fiction (trickshot, chained weapons). We are particularly interested in bringing archetypes beyond the Western canon of fantasy/history.
Looking forward to coming back to you with some kits!
We have been hard at work behind the scenes. Thanks to the latest poll, we see that you are interested in Kits and Rivals!
While we are stilll drafting up kits, we have a clear vision of what Menace rivals look like! Inspired by the Dastards in the latest encounter book, we wanted to give you rivals with personality that are easy to "drag&drop" into your adventures. We want to hit the right level of cool, letting you easily reflavor them for your games.
I present to you our Rival Monikers:
The Vulture The Vulture scours battlefields, collecting trophies and weapons, adding them to an ever-growing pile. Purpose has morphed into a twisted devotion to avarice. A scaveger, the Vulture is an excellent rival for any story involving precious items, weapons or other artifacts.
The Vulture is the dark mirror of the Arsenal. A melee hexer that robs your items of their power. A higher-level Vulture will have more equipment, more tricks and a bottomless pit of disposable equipment.
The Pariah The Pariah has left all responsibility behind, searching for perfection. Shaking off society's "shackles" has allowed this Menace to reach unparalleled power. What use is power, without application, the hero might ask. "More power" the pariah answers. Purpose feeds the wicked ouroboros of ego. The Pariah is an excellent rival to spring with little context. Why do we fight? Because we need to find out who is stronger.
The Pariah is the dark mirror of the Ace. An artillerist, the name is a reflection of their belief and fighting style. A higher level Pariah will have progressed further in their climb to power: Deadlier techniques, and sharper senses.
The Cataclysm Facing The Cataclysm follows a simple rule: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. This Menace is an ill omen, the embodiment of might makes right. Purpose has overpowered reason. The Cataclysm does because they can. And whatever they do, they do with impunity.
The Cataclysm is the dark mirror of the Improviser. A harasser in combat whose presence will make you roll worse and want to keep way. A higher level Cataclysm will impose more banes, sliping between defences.
Sneak peak of the art WIP:
Preview of the art our lovely artist is working on
As we have now funded, we are interested in hearing from our backers what they want to see in the Menace. This is a wishlist from you to us to help us prioritize our schedule.
Within 5 days, we have reached our funding goal! Thank you to all 45 of you who bought into the vision, it is a pleasure to see others are interested in our class.
As a thank you, we wanted to preview some of the ideas we have for higher levels, as well as a poll for what we should focus on apart from the main class.
We also want to give alternatives to the current Forbidden Techniques, to represent your growing mastery and understanding of your limits: Lastly, we wanted to give you a way to transcend, despite being a non-magical class.
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