Draw Steel skill
Engineering
Engineering is a skill in Draw Steel: Designing and understanding machines, siege engines, and mechanisms, from a drawbridge to a trap.
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Key facts
- Characteristic
- Reason
Overview
Engineering covers how mechanisms work: reading a trap's trigger, rigging a counterweight to lift a gate, aiming a catapult, designing a pulley to raise a wagon from a ravine. It is a Reason skill because it applies principles to a problem. It comes up in dungeons full of devices, in sieges, when the party must improvise a bridge or a lift, and when a machine has to be understood before it can be sabotaged or repaired.
How it works
Characteristic: Reason. Skill group: Reason skills. Test: 2d10 + Reason; 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: Tier 3 gives a working design or a full read of a device. Tier 2 works with limits, such as one use or a slower build. Tier 1 misjudges the load or the trigger, with predictable consequences. Edges and banes: Schematics, proper tools, or a familiar type of machine grants an edge (+2). Alien technology, missing parts, or working in darkness imposes a bane (-2).
Tips and playstyle
Best for: Problem-solvers who want to change the battlefield rather than fight on it as given. Character concepts: Soldier career siege engineer, Artisan clockmaker, memonek raised among machines. Synergies: Mechanics for hands-on operation and sabotage, Architecture for the building around the machine, Tactics for using siege engines in a plan.
Frequently asked questions
What is the split between Engineering and Mechanics?
Engineering is the design and analysis. Mechanics is operating, fixing, and breaking an existing device with your hands.
Can I disarm traps with Engineering?
You can understand how one works, which often reveals a safe path. Disarming it is usually Mechanics or Pick Lock depending on the trigger.