The Body Banks!

Version 0.0.825 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available!

New This Week

Respite Redux!

Respite got a major facelift.

Watch on YouTube

We tried to make this super cool and automated everything we thought we could. We're looking forward to your feedback!

• Directors can start a Respite via Game -> Respite or by changing the game mode to Respite in the title bar. Directors can then set # of days elapsed, # of downtime activities (formerly rolls) to grant to each hero, whether non-participants can do downtime activities, which downtime activities are available, and details about them (like water name & type for fishing).
• Then the Director offers the Respite to players and the game pops up a window for them.
• For each hero they control, each player can decide whether to participate. Participating means the game's Respite mechanics, like conditions ending on respite and resetting stamina & recoveries and converting victories to XP, will be applied to that hero.
• Once the players complete their selections, the Director can start the Respite. This immediately executes start-of-respite actions like terminating conditions that last until next Respite.
• While the Respite is running, players can use their Respite window to take actions like fishing and rolling on downtime projects (if the Director enabled them). The Director can watch progress.
• Players can also launch their hero sheet with the click of a button to do things like change Kit, or dismiss the window (get back to it with Game -> Respite) to cast Respite abilities.
• While the Respite is in progress, the Director can choose to extend it, adding days, downtime activities, or both.
• When the Director is ready to end the Respite, they can choose whether to revoke all remaining Downtime Activities (zero out available "rolls" for everyone) and whether to write a Journal entry summarizing the Respite.
• Journal entries write into Shared Documents / Respites.

Respite Activities provide a registration API so community developers can create mods that participate in Respites.

Downtime Projects

With the Respite enhancement, we've also modified Downtime Project functionality:

• Changed the project roll dialog to the game's roll dialog. This means that conditions on your hero that can affect project rolls, should. Detail in the roll audit has decreased a little bit as a result.
• Directors no longer need to (and cannot) control rolling status or grant rolls from the Downtime Projects panel, though you can still review and open your players' downtime projects there.
• Directors can manage a hero's (and their followers') currently available downtime activities (formerly rolls) in the hero sheet's Downtime tab.
• Added a button for Directors on the Downtime character sheet tab to set the next milestone value to the next one calculated according to the game's guidelines.
• Added roll tables for all the event types in the heroes book.
• Directors can roll or request a roll on the event table for projects in milestone status - new button to the right of the status field, Director only.
• Renamed the Players Edit Project Rolls setting to Players Manage Downtime Projects. When that setting is ticked, players can do everything a Director can do in their downtime project editor, including manage the number of rolls they and their followers have, roll on projects, activate projects, roll for project events, and set milestone stops.

Fishing!

• There is a new Fishing Records panel available to all that shows everyone's biggest catch.
• There is a new entry in Compendium under Rules / Fish Species where you can manage catchable fish species by water type and size.
• Your followers can fish. Should they be able to fish under RAW? Dunno. It seems fun though, so why not? Send them fishing and watch them beat your friends' biggest fish records! (The token doing the fishing gets the benefits of any breakthroughs and tackle buys, so consider yourselves informed.)

Body Banks - Monster Builder

Watch on YouTube

Body Banks is a new tool for building your own Draw Steel monsters. You write the monster the way you would in a stat block, push it to your Codex game and it will take care of the automation for you*. Launch it from within the Codex, or use it in your browser - you don't need Codex access to build monsters and export official-looking stat blocks.
*Please note this is for straightforward abilities that follow the core rules. For custom or complex abilities you may still need to add additional implementation in the ability or feature in the Codex to fully automate it.

Building a Monster

• The stat block is the editor. Click any value or placeholder to change it - name, keywords, stats, and every line of an ability.
• Pick a level, organization, and role and the stats fill themselves in based on the MCDM monster math. Change the level later and everything rescales; if you've made hand-edits, these will be kept.
• Abilities are written as plain text using the same power roll parser the Codex uses, so you get live feedback as you type on what will be automated in play.
• Triggered actions go through a short wizard - answer its questions and the Codex runs the trigger for you.

Stealing from the Bestiary

• You can frankenstein your monster by stealing abilities and traits from other monsters!
• The Bestiary drawer opens the official monsters. You can filter by echelon, organization or role, or search by ability/monster name or even by what an ability does - try "push", "fire damage", or "grabbed".
• Drag any ability or trait onto your monster (or use its Steal button). It is rescaled to your monster's level, and a mark on the ability tells you exactly what changed. You can keep the original numbers instead.
• A stolen ability copies its automation from the monster it came from, so if it works in the Codex on the original, it works on yours.
• The bestiary currently shows fully automated monsters only. This keeps stolen abilities working as expected, and the list will grow as we implement more monsters.

Sending and Exporting

• If you launch Body Banks from the Codex, you can push the monster directly into your game, straight into the Bestiary and ready to place. If you use the browser, you can click Send to Codex and pick a list from your online (not local) games to push to, and it will put it straight into your Bestiary. You can make changes and send it again and this will update the existing monster!
• Export the stat block as a PNG image, or Print/Save as PDF to run it straight off paper - no Codex needed. We've included a "book page" option which formats it like an official Draw Steel stat block.
• Export/Import JSON lets you back up your monsters and move them between devices. Monsters are saved in your browser, so export anything you want to keep.

Not in the Codex? Body Banks runs in any browser at draw-steel-codex.com/bodybanks, with the full builder, bestiary, and PNG/PDF export - a free way to author official-looking stat blocks for your table.

Other New Features

• Added Strong Potency Bonus, Average Potency Bonus and Weak Potency Bonus as Custom Attributes.
• Added a scroll bar to the trigger list so you never lose the dismiss button and you can scroll through all options.