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.

First I have heard of it.

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.