Draw Steel vs SAKE

Compare Draw Steel and SAKE side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Draw Steel	SAKE
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Play Style	Tactical, Heroic, Cinematic, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Attacks Always Hit, Lore-Heavy	Crunchy, Modular, Domain Management, Sandbox, Ship-Based, Faction Play, Roll to Cast, Skill-Based
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.	Roll d20 + Skill Ranks + attribute modifier against a Difficulty Level. Characters are built with a point-buy system using Experience Points to purchase Skill Ranks, abilities, Health Points, and spells. In combat, the attacker rolls d20 + Attack against the defender's d20 + Parrying, with weapon damage reduced by armour's Damage Reduction. Sorcery uses Spellpoints and is divided into six schools, each with its own risks: failed casting rolls can trigger consequences from exhaustion to madness to summoning hostile spirits.
Dice	2d10	d20
Complexity	High	Very High
Accessibility	High	High
Runnability	High	Very High
License	Draw Steel Creator License	All rights reserved
Cost	$$$	$$
Publisher	MCDM Productions	Seventh Son Publishing
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.	Groups who want a comprehensive sandbox toolkit that seamlessly blends traditional adventuring with domain-level strategy: managing kingdoms, trading across oceans, waging wars, and navigating a detailed early-modern caste society.
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.	Four modular systems (Adventuring, Sorcery/Otherworld, Domain/Warfare, and Trade/Seafaring) each function independently and integrate with the others. Domain management operates through quarterly Domain Turns with taxes, construction, random events, espionage, and faction politics. Overseas trade system models supply, demand, and piracy across a mapped world with named trade regions and goods. Magic carries real consequences: learning spells risks madness, and failed castings can summon hostile spirits or damage the caster's soul.
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.	590-page rulebook requires significant reading investment before play, even with modular adoption. Character creation can take several hours for first-time players. The default setting (Asteanic World) is deeply integrated into many rules: the caste system, trade routes, and political factions assume that setting.