MCDM's New Tactical TTRPG Hits $1M Crowdfunding On First Day!

Matt Colville's MCDM is no stranger to crowdfunding, with three million dollar Kickstarters already under its belt. With the launch of The MCDM RPG, that makes four!

This new game is not a D&D variant or a supplement for D&D, which is what MCDM has focussed on so far. This is an all-new game which concentrates on tactical play, with a fulfilment goal of July 2025. It comes in two books--a 400-page 'Heroes' book and a 'Monsters' book which is an adaption of the existing Flee, Mortals!

The MCDM RPG

Whether you’re a group of local heroes sent to investigate mysterious goings-on in the nearby haunted wood, or famous mercenaries plotting and scheming in the big city, the MCDM RPG makes building adventures and fighting monsters fun.

www.backerkit.com

The game takes aim at traditional d20 fantasy gaming, referring to the burden of 'sacred cows from the 1970s', but point out that it's not a dungeon crawling or exploration game--its core activity is fighting monsters. The system is geared towards tactical combat--you roll 2d6, add an attribute, and do that damage; there's no separate attack roll.

At $40 for the base Heroes PDF and $70 for the hardcover (though there are discounts for both books if you buy them together), it's not a cheap buy-in, but with over 4,000 backers already that's not deterring anybody!

Even more ambitiously, one of the stretch goals is a Virtual Tabletop (VTT). There's already a working prototype of it.

 

[EthanSental]

I backed it for the 2 pdfs….but man ive been hooked on the A5E process of having the goods asap when they close! Waiting for an estimated june 2025 for the physical books feels so far away and went pdf.

 

[darjr]

I backed it for the 2 pdfs….but man ive been hooked on the A5E process of having the goods asap when they close! Waiting for an estimated june 2025 for the physical books feels so far away and went pdf.

Yea.

I will say the patreon has been a cool product in and of itself.

 

[deganawida]

I expect a curve similar in shape to Flee! Mortals: dedicated fan spike at the outset, gentle slope up, and the waffler spike at the end. The waffler spike might be even bigger since it comes after Christmas and some folks will get cash gifts, bonuses or even money from returns.

Who gets bonuses? In 29 years of working full-time, and 20 years with large organizations, I’ve never received a Christmas bonus

 

[Spectral Anomaly]

I backed it for the 2 pdfs….but man ive been hooked on the A5E process of having the goods asap when they close! Waiting for an estimated june 2025 for the physical books feels so far away and went pdf.

People keep talking about physical delivery in June 2025. Unless MCDM had said that in one of their streams or Discord or somewhere, all I've seen mentioned for a June 2025 delivery is the PDFs (and even then they say 'we think we can' on the Backerkit page). If they're only locking down the PDFs in May/June, then the physical books are at least 4-6 months later than that, and quite likely 6-8 months. I will be genuinely surprised if people have their physical books in hand before Q2 2026.

 

[overgeeked]

People keep talking about physical delivery in June 2025. Unless MCDM had said that in one of their streams or Discord or somewhere, all I've seen mentioned for a June 2025 delivery is the PDFs (and even then they say 'we think we can' on the Backerkit page). If they're only locking down the PDFs in May/June, then the physical books are at least 4-6 months later than that, and quite likely 6-8 months. I will be genuinely surprised if people have their physical books in hand before Q2 2026.

One thing Matt's repeatedly said is that the more this funds, i.e. north of $1 million (which it did on day one), the more it would allow them to hire more people to get things done faster. I think they developed the timeline based on just barely funding the project. They're north of $2.64 million already, so this is almost certainly going to go faster than their stated timeline. No promises and no updated timeline...because this is day three of the Kickstarter...but it would be surprising if it didn't come in under deadline.

 

[SteveC]

I always wonder what the marketing budget looks like. Did MCDM spend $10K to make those $2M? $50K? More?

It seems as though Matt thinks they are pretty important. It's become sort of a joke with my group that their Facebook feeds have been taken over by MCDM. And (this is purely anecdotal) it has driven sales in our case. I was the only one who had heard of Matt but there are a couple of Gen Xers in our group and they were motivated to check his feed out and have purchased product based on it. It did help that. Now maybe that was the only case where that happened, but I kind of doubt it.

 

[Reynard]

People keep talking about physical delivery in June 2025. Unless MCDM had said that in one of their streams or Discord or somewhere, all I've seen mentioned for a June 2025 delivery is the PDFs (and even then they say 'we think we can' on the Backerkit page). If they're only locking down the PDFs in May/June, then the physical books are at least 4-6 months later than that, and quite likely 6-8 months. I will be genuinely surprised if people have their physical books in hand before Q2 2026.

If I recall, there was a 2 month gap between Flee Mortals pdf and hardcover releases.

 

[brodahisou]

I love the idea of a cinematic dramatically exciting and fun RPG. If it can deliver that then it'll definitely be worth it. Having said that I've only gone with the PDF pledge, as I just don't have the funds for the physical books, especially as I live in the UK and I dread to think what the shipping would be for them.

 

[darjr]

Just an aside for Avatar they host games at the publishers discord. They’ve been pretty good about announcing days and when there are open seats. Though like today they’ll say so about an hour before the game at times.

Discord - A New Way to Chat with Friends & Communities

Discord is the easiest way to communicate over voice, video, and text. Chat, hang out, and stay close with your friends and communities.

discord.com

 

[darjr]

FYI I have confirmation from several patron members that mcdm means to give patreon members who are patron supporters at the MCDM+ level or higher the final same pdf that pdf backer kit pledges get. Note not from an official at MCDM but I’ve gotten many responses from comments at Patreon to the discord.