- Weekly Update - 23 September 2026
New Features & Content Line of Effect & Elevation: Now, when you target a creature who is at a differing elevation to you we calculate whether elevation inhibits or blocks line of effect. If it blocks half or more of the token we'll treat it as having cover, and if the entire token is blocked we'll adjudicate No Line of Effect. We measure from the top of the viewing token to be generous toward offering Line of Effect. You will get a nice cross-section diagram showing the Codex's perspective on exactly why Line of Effect was blocked so you can decide for yourself -- and of course, as always, you can override it if you want to play it differently in your game. In testing we feel that this makes elevation-based combat feel that much more tactical! Fishing: Added sounds for cast, catch, and no catch. API: The roll dialog now accepts an optional sound prompt. The default is dice shaking. Enh…
- Version 0.0.831 - 16 September 2026
New Features & Content Beastheart: Implemented the Shared Maneuvers feature. Beastheart: Treasure implementation completed. Complications: Complications that grant a treasure -- Amnesia, Betrothed, Secret Twin -- are now automated. Item | Thunderhead Bident: Implementation completed. Monsters | Lightbender: Implemented the malice ability Everything The Light Touches. Stolen Abilities: You can now switch between area types on a stolen ability -- e.g. swap a Cube for a Line or a Burst. Character Sheet: Perks, Traits, and Inciting Incident are now included in character sheet exports. Enhancements Beastheart: Companions now gain the benefits and drawbacks of the Beastheart's Perks, Titles, and Complications. Beastheart: Now receives the kit range/reach bonus on abilities with the weapon keyword. Conduit: Improved automation level on Sanctuary Ward. Brawler: The Duck! title feature is now go…
- The Body Banks! - 2 September 2026
Version 0.0.825 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available! New This Week Respite Redux! Respite got a major facelift. 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 convert…
- UI, Tokens, and Crows! - 29 August 2026
Version 0.0.821 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available!User Interface ImprovementsNew UI is now the default option for everyone!Ability to create and share your own buttons and toolkits within the interface. See this video for details: In Windows, the Codex now has its own custom titlebar instead of using the Windows titlebar.New easy Codex -> Fullscreen option to switch between fullscreen and windowed mode. Fullscreen switch is much fasterNew this weekAdd mp4 and webm files to Map Alternative UploadMake it so the Hide maneuver detects if you have concealment or cover and suggests you can't hide if you don't.Map Markup: You can set the default player visibility for zone types by editing the zone type. Set the default player visibility for the default zone types included with the game to invisible. This will be forward only; it will not affect zones already on your maps.Added support f…
- Popout UI, DTOs, and CROWS: Fortune or Death! - 19 August 2026
Draw Steel Codex 0.0.813 is now available Popout all the things!Dual monitor users rejoice! From character sheets to journal documents to the chat panel, most major dialogs in the app can now be popped out into their own windows. You may have popped PDF documents out before, and if you weren't entirely happy with the performance, we weren't either -- we have completely re-engineered our pop out system and made it MUCH more efficient and performant and applied it everywhere we felt it makes sense. Lava, Quicksand, and moreSome aspects of it snuck out in previous updates, but now we are ready to start talking about our environmental zones system. Using the map markup panel you can set areas of your map to offer concealment, to be difficult terrain or water, or to be DTO's like Lava or Quicksand. Stawl ImporterYou can now download encounters from the third-party app Stawl ( https://stawl.a…
- Version 0.0.807 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available - 13 August 2026
Some quality of life fixes: Add a Party Member Controls setting which allows the Director to control whether players can see/edit each other's character stats. If turned on, players will get a button on their comrades' tokens allowing them to open their character panel just like they can for their own.Add a new "Roofs" vision mode that only hides areas covered by roofs. Other areas of the map are simply visible.Made it so in the "Dim" vision mode, roofs are still seen.Made it so alerts clear properly and don't show up improperly in the new UI.Added "Teleporter" prop type to the map markup panel.Added "Lava" to the map markup panel.Fix to a bug causing journal documents to become scrambled / lose their data.Some iteration on the way the new experimental UI works.Added controls to the title bar to allow you to control the Map Overlay choosing to see the rules for different features on the…
- Experimental UI, Map Markup, Patreon, and Retainers! - 11 August 2026
Version 0.0.805 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available! Lots of exciting news this week! Patreon, Email, and Adventure ContentLet's start with the lead: Dark Heart of the Wood and The Red Road are now available in the Codex to MCDM Patrons. When you start the Codex after this update you will see a popup asking if you would like to link your Patreon account and your email to your Codex account. Doing so has a number of benefits we hope you will be excited about: Just as being a member of the MCDM Patreon gives you early access to content MCDM is working on, it will now give you access to content being worked on in the Codex. As of right now, you will get access to The Red Road and The Dark Heart of the Wood adventures. These are both well polished adventures at this point, but we would love Patreon feedback on them before we put them on sale.By sharing your email, we'll send you occasi…
- Dramatic Reversal and Ceilings! - 5 August 2026
Version 0.0.801 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available. Re-worked the Troubadour's Dramatic Reversal ability based on community feedback. This reflects the direction we are going to generally make abilities easier to use.Made a concept of "hostile triggers", with bleeding being the first example. A hostile trigger shows up in an angry red color and remains on your token until you activate it or dismiss it. It's our new way of communicating you took bleeding damage.Maps can now have Ceilings. Configure a floor's properties to decide if a floor has a ceiling or is open to the sky. (By default we derive this from if the floor is below or above ground). When a floor has a ceiling we enforce that when climbing and flying and you can also force move creatures into the ceiling and they take damage from the collision!Using the Disengage move action now uses up your movement for the turn.The G…
- Walls and Floors! - 29 July 2026
Version 0.0.795 now available! Check out this Wallmaster video: General ImprovementsImproved automation for There Is No Space Between.Caster & allies can step into a portal and select their destination adjacent to any other portal.Force moving an enemy into a portal grants the force mover the option to select a destination for that enemy adjacent to a different portal. Stop the force move ON the portal for this to work.Yes, if you put your portal at the edge of a cliff or pit and choose the wrong (or right?) destination square, a fall will occur.Fixed range calculation - now honors range extension with void keyword.Adding "Climbing Always Available" setting to allow climbing to occur at any time in a game.Double click the top of the journal to minimize itCorrect Summoner's Fanged Musilex free strike rangeCorrect Summoner's Fanged Musilex Mawful strike adjacent targets optionsCorrect Nul…
- Beastheart and Summoner Class Beta: Level 10 - 21 July 2026
Version 0.0.786 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available!Premium ModulesWhen creating a module, you can now set it as being premium. This means that you control who gets access to it. You can do this by generating keys which you might sell to customers, or distribute to backers. Each key can be used once to add the module to the user's inventory. Once a module is owned by you you can install it in any games you're in. This is aimed at allowing creators to use the Codex to distribute their sold content on. ImplementationThe Summoner & Beastheart are now implemented through to Level 10 and ready for testing! Huge shoutout to the team for their hard work.The Shambling Mound Level 5 Solo monster first pass implementation has been completedThe Time Raider monsters first pass implementation has been completed.Other new featuresExport Character sheet to PDF added. Click the cloud icon in the t…
- Introducing the Shop with Dice! - 14 July 2026
Version 0.776 of the Draw Steel Codex is now availableShopWe've launched our in-game shop with some dice that we think are pretty cool! We have an initial batch of themed dice:Llianar - The Sunmetal, a metallic alloy created by the solar celestials, the sun elves in the youth of the world before the coming of war. Weapons made from Llianar gain powerful elemental properties. Sunmetal armor enhances wards.Sea of Stars - Also known as the Sea Between Worlds, the Sea of Stars is the interplanetary medium used by ships to travel between worlds. In the Lower Worlds, it is literally a liquid sea with constellations visible beneath the surface.Soulkiller Dice - A secret society of incorporeal revenants based in Capital who hunt and destroy powerful intelligent undead. Their motto, Mitte Umbram Quae Umbram Occidat is Caelian for "Set a ghost to kill a ghost."Terran Steel - The ancestral metal o…
- Walls and Audio - 8 July 2026
Version 0.0.766 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available!There are some hot new features this week so put on a hat, sunglasses and sun lotion! New FeaturesWalls with Heights & Solid WallsWalls can now have heights set on them. You can fly over walls, or even climb over them if they are set as climbable.Solid walls have been added. That is, a wall with a floor on top of it. These will be used as building blocks for wall abilities in the future.Cross-Section Altitude DiagramsWhenever you plan a movement and there is anything "interesting" regarding verticality -- you fly over someone or walk under someone who is flying, you climb a wall, or get pushed off one. Anything at all, you get a cross-section diagram helping you to understand what is going on precisely.Audio Panel Re-designWe have reworked the Audio Panel and added a bunch of new features which we hope will make a significant diff…
- Respites and Journals! - 1 July 2026
Version 0.0.758 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available!This weeks update is primarily focused on bug fixes. We have rapidly implemented a lot of new features since entering Early Access and been working hard at implementing more content. The stability, performance and robustness of the rules are very important to us and MCDM so we have taken the opportunity to briefly pause to consolidate the Codex and spend time resolving bugs. We'd like to give a big thank you to the community for reporting bugs and helping to make the Codex the best VTT it can be. New this weekRival Monsters echelons 1 - 4 first pass has been implemented in the bestiary. And the Black Iron Pact from Draw Steel Monsters (page 239) is now a party available in the character tab.Added a section in the main Settings dialog for Map-specific settings. Also made it so you can use this to change the default for any map-spec…
- Level Up Your Monsters! - 23 June 2026
Version 0.0.753 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available!Adjusting Monster LevelsWe have implemented support to easily adjust monster levels. To do this, place a monster creature on the map and open their character sheet. To the right of their Level there will be an Adjust Levels button. Clicking this button will pop a modal that allows you to: Adjust the level of the monster up and down. This will automatically scale potency, characteristics, stamina, EV, general tier damage and strike tier damage based on the monster math MCDM use when creating monsters.These changes are displayed to you in a table that is easy to read and understand the impact of adjusting levels.You can click Reset to return the monster to its original level.Minions have an additional control where you can apply the scaling to the entire squad (default) or to an individual minion in that squad should you so choose,L…
- Global Search! Community Game Modes! And More! - 16 June 2026
Version 0.0.744 of the Draw Steel Codex is available!Global SearchWe have implemented global search from the search bar in the menu. This search bar previously searched uploaded PDF's and game settings but we have extended this to search throughout the app. There's a lot to cover here and our attempts of a short video kept exceeding 10 mins so we trimmed it down to 5 minutes and let's just say there is more to discover!In brief: Search is expanded to include the compendium, the bestiary, tokens on map, tokens not on the map, journal documents, map pins, maps in your campaign and can be used as a quick navigation point to search results in all of these areas.You can use Ctrl + F to search and the arrow keys to navigate results, Enter will open the resultSeveral performance increases to improve responsiveness of search, the most notable of which are Classes which previously took a while t…
- Encounter System - 10 June 2026
Version 0.0.740 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available.This week we have: Expanded Encounter SystemEncounters can now have multiple "waves" specified when building them, including which round the waves arrive.When a new wave is available, a button on the combat tracker is available to the Director to spawn the new wave.Encounters now allow you to choose the victory condition for the encounter from several possible options as well as the number of Victories the encounter is worth.The Director gets some "Objective Text" on the combat tracker telling them about the victory condition and how close the players are to achieving it. There is a control to share this text with the players.VictoriesOnce victory is achieved the Director can press a button to show a victory screen and award the players victories.Other new featuresNew abilities display! Modifiers to abilities now populate in the a…
- Villains Take Action! - 2 June 2026
Version 0.0.733 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available.Please see this video which highlights some of the top new features:This week we have:Villain Action PanelAdded a Villain Action panel which will show below the Combat Tracker when there is a Leader or Solo present. This UI shows you the Villain Actions for your Leader or Solo regardless of which monster is selected and will flash at the end of another creature's turn to highlight that they can be used. This panel will enforce the rules of Villain Actions (each can only be used once and only one per round). Please note that should you need to re-use a Villain Action ability, these can still be used from the Trigger drawer in the Action Bar.If you have more than one Leader or Solo in the encounter (won't someone think of the players!), you can click the portrait image next to the Villain Action buttons to cycle between the availabl…
- Version 0.0.730 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available. - 31 May 2026
This update aims to resolve some issues some users have been experiencing. Fixed a bug where players would lose vision from their characters.Fixed some cases where clicking to use a trigger such as an opportunity attack wouldn't do anything.Resolved a number of "desync" issues.
- Content Update - 26 May 2026
Version 0.0.728 of the Draw Steel Codex is now available.Power Roll Diagnostics Added to the Ability EditorThe Ability Editor now shows some diagnostics underneath the preview panel to help with authoring abilities that have an Ability Power Roll behavior. This is to supplement the existing grey text when unrecognised and white text when recognised. When everything is configured correctly, there will be a small chip saying No Issues. If there are issues detected with the rules text being parsed, the chip will expand and flag what tier the issue is on and what the issue is. When an ability is set to the Unimplemented status, it will flag a number of issues such as:Incorrect spelling on damage types Conditions missing a duration where one is expected. E.g. will flag for Weakened but not for Prone Will flag when something is not being interpreted as a rule (such as flavour text) When an ab…
- Version 0.0.723 is now available - 22 May 2026
The following fixes were made:An issue where declining a trigger could still cause resources to be spent was fixed.An issue where going up stairs to the next floor wasn't working was fixed.Some styling fixes.Switching color schemes now looks cooler.
