Set Sail in a Race Against Time ⬥ Draw Steel ⬥ Open to Beginners

Creating your character

We’ll handle character creation together during Session 0 to ensure everyone is on the same page. If you prefer to create your character beforehand, just send it to me for review and I'll take a look. All character start at level 1. For building your character, I recommend using Forge Steel. It’s a great tool that makes the whole process straightforward and accessible. If you need pre-generated characters, I can give you some options to pick from! Complications are entirely optional. Unless you have a specific concept in mind, it’s perfectly fine to play without one. If you’d like to explore a unique complication or have something special in mind, just let me know. I’m more than happy to suggest options and help you bring your vision to life. During Session 0, I’ll start with a brief overview of my GM style, introduce the setting, and walk everyone through how Draw Steel works. After that, we’ll move into character creation together. If there's still time, I’ll guide each of you through a short roleplay scene to help bring your character to life and set the stage for our campaign.

Preparing for the session

All you need is a Discord account. We'll use Discord for pre-session communication and voice chat during the game itself. Once you sign up, I'll send you a welcome email with an invite link to our Discord server. The server includes channels with helpful information and resources that you're welcome to browse, but most won't be required reading. Only the campaign quick-start primer is required to keep things easy and accessible. For our virtual tabletop, I use Google Slides to provide a simple and flexible experience. This lets me to make custom slides and graphics tailored to the visuals and needs of the campaign.

What Milo Lofranco brings to the table

✒️ A storyline tailored to your character’s goals and background ✒️ You start with a ship! You're all free to explore the wider continent of Daescalus from the get-go ✒️ Immersive storytelling, complete with character voices and ambient music ✒️ Strategic and challenging tactical combat ✒️ Opportunities for calm, roleplay-focused scenes ✒️ Optional third-party content if it better suits our table

Homebrew rules

This adventure takes place in a homebrew world I created, where magic and early machines are starting to mix. It's a world where people are just beginning to use technology like guns and industrial machines, but the old traditions — like swords, armor, and ancient magic — still remain relevant. The world is changing quickly, and nobody is quite sure what will happen next as magical inventions pop up everywhere. You’ll get to explore a setting where new ideas and old ways meet, giving you lots of options for the kind of character you want to play. No need for any special knowledge or experience about this time period. I'll explain everything as we go!

How Milo Lofranco creates a safe table

My main safety tool is what I call the Comfort Quadrant rather than Lines and Veils. It delineates players' content interests on two axes. One axis represents comfort and discomfort, and the other axis represents exploration and avoidance. The comfort quadrant or palette grid is a great way to further break down content preferences as it slices up a person's interest into four pieces. Feeling discomfort can be something a player wants, and there are some who enjoy discomfort through angst, failure, suspense even when it hurts. It's because it hurts good! I'll send a form to players so they can anonymously fill their comfort quadrants out. This form also provides a briefing on X-cards, the Open Door policy, and my other safety tools that we can easily pause the game for any breaks, especially after tense or emotionally heavy scenes.