Draw Steel skill
Dress
Dress is a skill in Draw Steel: Assembling clothing, disguises, and grooming that make you look like the person you claim to be.
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Key facts
- Characteristic
- Presence
Overview
Dress covers appearance as a tool: dressing as a courtier for a gala, aging your face with soot and powder, wearing a rival guild's colors correctly, arriving at a funeral in a way that says respect. It is a Presence skill because the look must be carried with confidence to work. It comes up in infiltration, at formal events with a dress code, and when a hero needs to shed a description that the watch is circulating.
How it works
Characteristic: Presence. Skill group: Presence skills. Test: 2d10 + Presence; 11 or lower is tier 1, 12 to 16 tier 2, 17 or higher tier 3. Training grants a benefit and unlocks attempts untrained heroes cannot make. How it is used: A disguise test usually sets the number observers must beat with Alertness or Read Person. Tier 3 holds up to close inspection. Tier 2 passes at a distance or in a crowd. Tier 1 looks wrong to anyone paying attention. Edges and banes: Proper materials, a reference to copy, or time to prepare grants an edge (+2). Impersonating a specific known person, or an ancestry very different from your own, imposes a bane (-2).
Tips and playstyle
Best for: Infiltrators, social climbers, and any hero with a bounty on their head. Character concepts: Performer career costumer, Aristocrat who knows what every hem means, Agent with a trunk of identities. Synergies: Deceive to act the part, Culture to know what the outfit should say, Craft for sewing the pieces.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a disguise last?
Until someone tests it. Heat, rain, and a fight degrade it, and the Director may call for a fresh test after a rough scene.
Can Dress disguise an ally instead of me?
Yes. You make the test, but the ally still has to carry the look, so their own Deceive matters when questioned.