I love the idea of reversing the incentives for pacing. Giving players a reason to keep pushing instead of struggling to rest feels a bit more organic and less focused on adapting to what is ultimately a very gamey way of handling rest. I'm sure it has its own issues, and it does seem very combat focused, but I really like the idea of how it affects the cost benefit analysis of pushing forward versus resting.

I play it and enjoy it for its departure from standard D&D. It basically just codifies the way I wanted to play anyway, which is to say with a more narrative focus.

I have also found it to be combat heavy based on how the adventures are written out, and the system is clearly balanced for its board-game style combat rules. It's not terribly cumbersome to keep track of all of the moving pieces even if it does seem a bit complex at first, and the hero skills can make for some cool heroic moments.

I think it would be harder to do theater of the mind for combat but not impossible. All of the forced movement abilities might make things difficult to track unless a lot of things are handwaved, but I think they're all surmountable problems.

I also like the character creation well enough that even if you don't use the system you should absolutely steal the character ideas.

Our online group has been beta testing the Draw Steel official VTT, the Codex, and it's been a really great way to experience the game thus far. MCDM's whole operation is far better than D&D for my money, and I haven't seen any signs of them even slowing down.

I like it a hell of a lot more than D&D 5.5e and Pathfinder 2e in their niche of heroic combat sims. Ultimately I'd like a more robust and versatile system if I'm gonna dish out what was it, 50 or 60 bucks? But ultimately i'm pleased with what it set out to do, and the artwork was pretty and evocative.

Also, HOLY SHIT the aueter is one of my favorite subclasses ive ever seen. Fuck you, I'm the referee now.

You should check out their next game Crows.

https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/a8aff93a-c845-4024-87ec-06f167c79c1a/landing

First I have heard of it.

I played it during one of the later playtests, as a player (homebrew adventure) and GM (Bay of Blackbottom oneshot). Note this was level 1, but level 1 in DS is higher powered than in other games in its cohort.

If you're looking for a game for "crunchy combat-focused fantasy superhero adventure", a la mid/high-level D&D5e, I thought it was an improvement in that combat is actually fun albeit long (whereas combat in 5e tends toward just being "long", without an unreasonable amount of effort, system mastery, and planning from the GM). Out of combat abilities felt a bit weird to me, but I'll chalk that up to my genre preference for lower-powered more grounded fantasy.

For me, as this was during a "what do I actually want out of a TTRPG" phase, it helped solidify that the answer is: none of that! I'll take my XCOM and my improv roleplay separately, please. Unfortunately this means my fancy $200 backerkit books now sit unopened on my shelf :x