Draw Steel vs Spire: The City Must Fall

Compare Draw Steel and Spire: The City Must Fall side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.

	Draw Steel	Spire: The City Must Fall
Genre	Fantasy	Fantasy
Play Style	Tactical, Heroic, Combat-Heavy, Cinematic, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Grid-Based, Attacks Always Hit, Lore-Heavy	Dark Fantasy, Narrative, Character-Driven, Espionage, Social Intrigue, Fiction-First, Gritty, Deadly, Mission-Based, Roleplay-Heavy
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 — there are 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 a pool of d10s — one base die, plus an additional die each for having the relevant skill, domain, and mastery — and take the highest result. Results run from 1 (critical failure, double stress) through 2–5 (failure), 6–7 (success at a cost), 8–9 (success), to 10 (critical success). Difficulty reduces the pool by 1–2 dice.
Dice	2d10	d10 dice pool
Complexity	High	Medium
Accessibility	Medium	High
Runnability	High	Medium
License	Draw Steel Creator License	All Rights Reserved
Cost	$$$	$$
Publisher	MCDM Productions	Rowan, Rook and Decard
Year	2025	2018
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 long-form campaigns as operatives in a revolutionary resistance movement, where faction politics and moral compromise shape each session as much as the missions themselves.
Highlights	Every turn offers multiple meaningful choices with no wasted turns thanks to tiered outcomes, nine classes each with a unique heroic resource and distinct tactical identity, forced movement and positioning are central to combat tactics, full negotiation subsystem with NPC interest and patience tracking for structured social encounters	Five separate resistance tracks (Blood, Mind, Shadow, Reputation, Silver) let different types of harm accumulate independently, each with its own fallout table. Fallout mechanics convert accumulated stress into concrete narrative consequences — broken limbs, criminal records, vendetta NPCs, or being burned by the Ministry — rather than flat stat penalties. NPC Bonds maintain their own stress tracks; calling in favors puts allies at risk, and bond fallout can cost safe houses, informants, or key relationships. Character advancement is tied to changing the city itself: small changes earn Low advances, moderate changes Medium, and huge or irreversible changes High — and the change does not have to be for the better.
Considerations	Heroes start with many abilities and options even at level 1, creating a steeper initial learning curve. Significant tracking overhead during combat with heroic resources, victories, conditions, edges, and banes. Explicitly designed for heroic tactical fantasy — the rules do not support dungeon crawling, hex exploration, or survival gameplay	The drow revolution premise is deeply embedded in the fiction; the game is built around this specific setting and repurposing it for other campaigns requires significant adaptation. Combat has no rounds, turns, or initiative system; engagements are resolved as a narrative conversation with the GM choosing the order of action. Fallout can permanently remove or severely restrict character capabilities, including arrest, lost limbs, or exile from the Ministry.