Thoughts on Draw Steel's "never miss" attack mechanic

Thoughts on Draw Steel's “Never Miss” Design

Looking over a number of Reddit posts, I keep seeing a recurring theme: people want uncertainty in their games, and they assume that when attacks "never miss," it means characters always achieve their desired results.

This idea shows up in various forms, like:

• “While missing sucks, it only makes getting a hit feel even better.”

• “If a monster can automatically hit you when you’re near death, then you know you’re doomed—there’s no tension.”

• “If the heroes can’t lose, what’s the point of the game?”

After playing six sessions of Draw Steel as both a Director and a player, I can safely say: these folks haven’t played the game they’re criticizing. They’re constructing straw man arguments. Trust me, there’s plenty of tension in Draw Steel.

No Null Turns ≠ No Failure

As the folks at MCDM Productions have said repeatedly, the design philosophy of Draw Steel is to avoid null results—that doesn’t mean no failures. Tests (roughly equivalent to skill checks in 5e) often fail. In fact, hard checks usually fail and often come with negative consequences—even when you succeed.

This creates more than enough uncertainty in the game. Just ask my nephew, who got hit by the same trap three times: once by walking into it, once while trying to find it, and once while trying to disarm it.

This philosophy extends into combat as well.

A Quick Overview of Combat

In Draw Steel, you get:

• One Major Action – Your primary damage-dealing ability, typically your class’s signature move or a powerful action that costs Heroic Resources.

• One Maneuver – A powerful non-damaging action, like regaining stamina (think HP), grappling, or knocking enemies around. You’ll see these used way more often than in other d20 fantasy games.

• One Move Action – Just movement, often in ways that don’t provoke attacks of opportunity.

Now, let’s talk about that “uncertainty.”

“Missing makes hits feel better.”

This line of thinking assumes that removing the possibility of a complete whiff removes the drama. But that’s not what Draw Steel does.

Take this example from our game last night:

My wife, playing a Troubadour, used a powerful ability with the following features:

1. Costs 3 Drama (her class resource), so she can’t spam it every turn.

2. Affects up to 9 enemies within a decent range.

3. Creates an area of difficult terrain for enemies.

4. Scales up in damage depending on her roll.

5. Applies stronger and more impactful conditions (like Slowed or Restrained) based on success tiers.

So yes, something always happens: enemies take damage, and the terrain is altered. But the uncertainty is in how effective it is. Will enemies be slowed, restrained, or unaffected?

In our game, it worked well on the lesser foes, but the toughest enemy completely resisted the effects, even on a 17+ roll. The terrain effect still applied, but it was a disappointing outcome since we were counting on locking that monster down. That was 3 Drama points that could have gone elsewhere.

Later in the same fight, we had the opposite experience: our shapeshifting Fury landed a critical hit on a squad of minions with Thunder Roar, killing four goblins and their captain in one Major Action, then leaping to finish off another foe. That moment felt incredible, it was a real turning point in the fight.

So no, I don’t buy that “missing is necessary to make hits feel good.” We felt both ends of the spectrum.

“If a monster can always hit, there's no tension.”

Let’s go back to that same fight. Our Fury became the center of attention and dropped to 0 stamina under a barrage of attacks.

Game over, right?

Not even close. Draw Steel is full of options for recovery and teamwork. And most importantly, drama.

In this system, hitting 0 stamina doesn’t knock you unconscious. You’re still up, gutting through it, bleeding, defiant. (At least, that’s how we described it.) While Dying, you can still act, but any strenuous action causes 1d6 + level stamina loss. If you reach negative half your maximum stamina, then yes, you die.

When the next round began, we did what all good Draw Steel groups do, we planned. Should the Fury go first and drink a healing potion? Should he strike a marked foe so our Tactician could use a resource to let him recover? Should the Troubadour switch her routine to heal him at the end of her turn?

I honestly forget which choice we landed on, but it worked, he lived. The captive was saved. And we all felt like heroes.

“If heroes can’t lose, what’s the point?”

They can lose. We just haven’t yet.

But now we’re faced with a choice: take a 24-hour respite (the Draw Steel equivalent of a long rest), or press on. We’re hurting:

• The Fury had zero recoveries.

• The Tactician had three.

• The Troubadour had four.

• The Shadow? Still has about eight, but hey, her motto is “Taking hits is for suckers.”

If we get into another fight without resting, someone (probably the Fury, definitely not the Shadow) is heading to the boneyard.

Draw Steel uses recoveries to limit how often you can heal. If you rest, you recover them—but you lose momentum. The game rewards pushing on with escalating Heroic Resources for each victory. So resting is a trade-off.

Final Thoughts

If you’ve read this far and were on the fence about Draw Steel because of the "never miss" system, I hope this gives you a better picture.

There’s plenty of uncertainty, strategy, risk, drama, and yes—even failure.

To learn more, check out MCDM Productions a or this excellent resource:Draw Steel Crash Course