Draw Steel vs Mythic Bastionland
Compare Draw Steel and Mythic Bastionland side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Draw Steel | Mythic Bastionland | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Play Style | Tactical, Heroic, Cinematic, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Attacks Always Hit, Lore-Heavy | Rules-Light, Hexcrawl, Exploration, Attacks Always Hit, Domain Management, Sandbox, Atmospheric |
| 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. | Attacks always hit: roll weapon damage directly with simultaneous combat. Guard absorbs damage before Virtues (Vigour, Clarity, Spirit). Gambits trigger on 4+ damage rolls for special maneuvers. Omen tables guide myth discovery across hexcrawl exploration. |
| Dice | 2d10 | d6–d10 |
| Complexity | High | Low |
| Accessibility | High | Very High |
| Runnability | High | High |
| License | Draw Steel Creator License | Proprietary |
| Cost | $$$ | $$ |
| Publisher | MCDM Productions | Bastionland Press |
| Year | 2025 | 2025 |
| 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. | Arthurian-style campaigns of knights seeking glory, ruling domains, and hunting strange mythological creatures across a wild realm. Great for groups who want structured hexcrawl play with emergent storytelling. |
| 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. | Simultaneous combat system, detailed hexcrawl and myth-hunting framework, award-winning layout and art (2025 Ennie Gold), domain management adds campaign depth |
| 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. | Combat has more procedural steps than it first appears, omen system can feel prescriptive, Arthurian tone limits flexibility, setting context buried deep in the book |