Draw Steel vs Into the Odd Remastered
Compare Draw Steel and Into the Odd Remastered side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Draw Steel | Into the Odd Remastered | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Tactical, Heroic, Cinematic, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Attacks Always Hit, Lore-Heavy | Rules-Light, Dungeon Crawl, Weird, Low-Prep, Attacks Always Hit, Open Source |
| Core Mechanic | Power Roll: roll 2d10 + characteristic and check which tier the result falls into: Tier 1 (11 or less), Tier 2 (12–16), or Tier 3 (17+). Every ability describes three outcomes by tier, so rolls always produce an effect, with no whiffed turns. Edges and banes (+2/−2, or tier shift at double) modify rolls situationally. Each class builds a unique heroic resource during combat, unlocking increasingly powerful abilities as momentum builds. Victories earned from combat and noncombat challenges accumulate across encounters and convert to XP during respites. | Three ability scores (STR, DEX, WIL) rolled on 3d6. No to-hit rolls: attacks always deal damage directly. Saves are d20 roll-under the relevant ability. Damage reduces HP first, then STR; at 0 STR you die. Arcana are unique magical objects that grant strange powers. |
| Dice | 2d10 | d20, d4–d12 |
| Complexity | High | Very Low |
| Accessibility | High | Medium |
| Runnability | High | Medium |
| License | Draw Steel Creator License | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
| Cost | $$$ | $ |
| Publisher | MCDM Productions | Bastionland Press / Free League Workshop |
| Year | 2025 | 2022 |
| Best For | Groups who want deeply tactical, cinematic combat where every ability matters and no turn is wasted. Ideal for players who love build variety and dramatic, heroic battles. | Groups who want an ultra-streamlined OSR game where character creation takes minutes, combat is fast and deadly, and strange Arcana replace traditional spell lists. |
| Highlights | Power Rolls resolve to one of three tiers, so every roll produces an effect and a turn is never wasted. Each of the nine classes builds a unique heroic resource during a fight, unlocking stronger abilities as momentum grows. A negotiation subsystem tracks an NPC's interest and patience, giving social scenes a structured back-and-forth like combat. | Character creation in under five minutes, no wasted turns thanks to auto-hit combat, Arcana system offers wide creative options, fits in about 50 pages, spawned an entire design movement (Cairn, Liminal Horror, etc.) |
| Considerations | Heroes start with many abilities and options even at level 1, creating a steeper initial learning curve. Each combat turn juggles heroic resources, conditions, and edges and banes at once, so play carries real tracking overhead. The system targets heroic tactical fantasy specifically, so it provides no rules for dungeon crawling, hexcrawl exploration, or survival play. | Very swingy random ability scores at creation, tightly coupled to its Bastion/Underground setting, no structured advancement beyond finding Arcana, auto-hit combat removes tactical decisions around accuracy |