A cinematic tactical combat RPG, Powered by Draw Steel. Set in 90s Tokyo. You play sharp Operatives of a deployable response unit tasked with hunting devils born from human fear. Dripping with style and unapologetic pop culture references.
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It's a game that will make you feel like a badass shonen anime character kicking the piss out of grotesque Devils and Monsters in 199X Tokyo.
Why 1990s Tokyo? The bubble burst in 1991. A generation that organised its entire identity around institutional loyalty discovered the institution had lied. Tokyo compresses human spirit at a scale nothing else matches: millions of lives stacked in towers, packed into carriages, threaded through narrow schedules. The city teaches people to keep moving. The stronger the fear, the stronger the Devil. This is why Tokyo has a problem.
Night Shift: Devil Division is a standalone* TTRPG that uses the Draw Steel engine to deliver fast, punchy, grid-based combat built around combos, teamwork, positioning, and big signature techniques. Triumphs build momentum across operations, so pushing deeper makes you stronger and risks more, exactly like the best shonen arcs: the longer the night runs, the more dangerous everyone becomes. Momentum is each Operative's individual resource -- earned through the pressure of a fight and spent on their most powerful techniques. Adrenaline is the Squad's shared pool, fuelling clutch saves, last-second tactics, and cinematic reversals when things get desperate.
*You do not need a copy of Draw Steel to play this game.
Five Operative classes. An arsenal of techniques to match.
Endogenics (NDO’s) Imprint Kegare into the body itself through Breath Styles: Water, Fire, Thunder, Wind, Stone, REDACTED, and the forms that branch from each; Serpent, Smoke, Sound, Mist and Metal to name a few.
Exokinetics (XO’s) Project Kegare into external forms: Blood Arts, Shikigami summoning, Exchange Rhythm, Frame-Step manipulation and REDACTED.
Baselines carry no Kegare, no pact, no Devil pattern. Zero spiritual noise. Division gear, human conditioning, and the tactical advantage of being invisible to anything that hunts by Signature.
Hybrids carry a Devil pattern threaded through a human nervous system. Weapon forms, animal aspects, abstract manifestations of contained power and a contested claim on their own identity.
Contractors build a roster of detained Devils through The Vault, trading payment in blood, labour, secrets, or worse for fragments of their pattern. Devil pact abilities embodying a range of phobias, fears, and bad juju.
Every operation follows the same escalating structure: Detect, Detain, Destroy.
You find the devil first; surveillance, informants, Devil Radar readings, field investigation. Then you make the call: detain it for the Vault, or put it down. Detainment is harder, more dangerous, and pays off in Vault Abilities, pact relationships, and Clearance. Destruction is clean but final.
Cinematic Mode covers the operational texture of the job; extractions, cordons, crowd management, cover maintenance, and investigation under pressure. Engagements are the tactical grid fights: alternating turns, positioning, forced movement, and techniques that build toward Momentum. Chase Sequences handle pursuit through Tokyo's streets, rooftops, train platforms, and the UT ZONE.
At the end of a successful operation, the squad converts Triumphs into XP and chooses to keep pushing or go On Leave. Triumphs make you stronger each Engagement, so delaying On Leave means more power and more risk. When the squad finally stands down, the 24-hour window opens: Stamina and Restorations fully restore, and each Operative picks a Leave Activity. Training Arcs advance techniques. Vault Visits open pact negotiations with detained Devils. Persona Style life sim activities: Ryokan trips, batting cages, konbini nights, karaoke, amusement parks whatever keeps an Operative functional.
Then the next call comes in.
The Operative Starter Set drops a brand new squad into 199X Tokyo on their first night in the Division.
The Shinjuku Operation. Pressure readings have been spiking across Kabukicho for three weeks. The Division's first response team didn't come back. Now it's your squad's problem. A self-contained campaign that takes Operatives from Level 0 (their first deployment, simplified mechanics, pre-generated characters) through to Level 3, by which point the full system is open and the squad knows exactly what they're doing. Level 0 exists for new players. Experienced players skip straight to Level 1 and hit the ground running.
Inside the box: large-format fold-out tactical maps, pre-generated Level 0 Operatives with individual reference guides, custom tokens, dice and resource trackers. Everything a squad needs to sit down and play the same night
Every Devil is born from a fear, a negative emotion, or a piece of bad juju that Tokyo has been swallowing for decades.
Common fears produce Mooks, disposable, pack-hunting threats that overwhelm through numbers. Cultural and primal fears produce Grade B and above: city-level disasters with their own agendas, sapience, and factional affiliations. Some Devils talk, bargain, and lie. Some have been waiting in the UT ZONE for decades, watching the city above them get worse.
Detainment turns an enemy into an ongoing relationship, with demands, loopholes, and consequences. A devil in The Vault is worth more than a dead one. The Division expects it’s pets.
Draw Steel is built for tactical, heroic, cinematic fantasy, and we are aiming that same tactical-cinematic core at a modern anime urban horror response unit. Expect clear combat roles, decisive movement on a grid, and abilities designed to create hard choices every round. No boring turns. No sloggy combat. You'll feel like a badass anime protagonist bashing devils through buildings, into ceilings and through the floor (leave them like Yamcha after the Saibamen).
We love Draw Steel and did extensive research on what people love about the system and books. We also looked hard at the sticking points (literally read every Reddit post and comment) and built something that addresses them.
Devils as recurring characters and assets, including Buddies -- detained Devils that fight alongside the squad
