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.

 

[darjr]

I think there is a bit of a difference in that Shadowdark basically came out of nowhere. Arcane Library and Kelsey Dionne weren't necessarily completely unknown quantities, but they certainly didn't possess Matt Coville/MCDM recognition.

Absolutely.

There were many people had that “who? Oh yea!” reaction. She def earned her good notoriety.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

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

Man, I give my Comic Store employees Christmas Bonuses! Your bosses suck!

 

[Nightfly]

I think there is a bit of a difference in that Shadowdark basically came out of nowhere. Arcane Library and Kelsey Dionne weren't necessarily completely unknown quantities, but they certainly didn't possess Matt Coville/MCDM recognition.

No, although she wasn't a nobody either. She had the highest-rated adventure of all time on DMs Guild and a solid cult following for her adventure writing.

But more importantly, Shadowdark benefited from a wave of great reviews and buzz. Backers steadily came on board as they encountered rave reviews on websites and YouTube. This game hasn't had any of that yet, and has already doubled the haul. Not too shabby.

 

[EthanSental]

No, although she wasn't a nobody either. She had the highest-rated adventure of all time on DMs Guild and a solid cult following for her adventure writing.

But more importantly, Shadowdark benefited from a wave of great reviews and buzz. Backers steadily came on board as they encountered rave reviews on websites and YouTube. This game hasn't had any of that yet, and has already doubled the haul. Not too shabby.

Which one of Kelsey’s are you referencing? The free lighthouse one or the follow-up as that’s all I can find by her on dmsguild.

 

[mamba]

Which one of Kelsey’s are you referencing? The free lighthouse one or the follow-up as that’s all I can find by her on dmsguild.

she has her own store too

The Arcane Library Products

Bestselling 5E products for the world's greatest roleplaying game. Run your game effortlessly!

www.thearcanelibrary.com

and much of it on DTRPG rather than DMsG

DriveThruRPG

preview.drivethrurpg.com

DriveThruRPG

preview.drivethrurpg.com

 

[Aldarc]

FYI, this is not yet another Shadowdark thread.

Livestream Q&A.

I finally got around to watching this. It was a good stream, though you could tell that Matt was a bit frustrated by some of the comments and questions, which were either (a) fairly dismissive of the game* or (b) made by people who didn't seem to grasp or were upset with fantasy adventure game design outside of D&D's design model.** And there are similar echos of those dismissive Q&A comments/questions in this thread as well. It's a frustration I share at times when discussing tabletop games, where it's as if people refuse to engage a tabletop game on its own terms and design goals, but, rather, based on their OneTrueVision of another roleplaying game (i.e., D&D).

* Variations of "it's just D&D 4e" or "it's not D&D/d20" or "it's unoriginal because it comes from X game" or even that class resource mechanics meant everyone casts magic.
** For example, comments regarding characters not missing, using 2d6 rather than a d20, attrition-based resource management, the game not being primarily about dungeoneering/hexcrawling/exploration/etc., etc.

After this Q&A I'm even more excited about this game than before. I do think that there is a genuine niche in this market for the sort of tactical fantasy game that MCDM promises. @Ruin Explorer has touched on some games that exist in a similar design space, and, uncoincidentally, many of these tactical roleplaying games were likewise inspired by D&D 4e.

 

[Morrus]

"it's unoriginal because it comes from X game"

Absolutely. This is one of the most dismissive criticisms of game design out there, and especially in this age of open gaming and iterative work, it's just not an interesting one. Yes, lots of things have been done before. When a car company makes a new car, it has wheels and an engine; the fact that those are not original concepts is irrelevant. All that matters is whether that car is good. Every TTRPG borrows from previous ones. Heck, no edition of D&D since the first is original; that doesn't mean that one can't really like editions that aren't the first one.

Something doesn't have to be completely original to be good. To be good, all it has to be good. Knowing when you don't need to reinvent the wheel is as important as knowing when you do.

 

[mamba]

For example, comments regarding characters not missing, using 2d6 rather than a d20

with so many games out there, having something that is genuinely not a variation of something found in another one is hard. It also isn’t really the goal. The goal is to create a good game, not a string of novel ideas.

And even when you end up with a 2d6 system, that does not mean you simply took it from somewhere and ran with it.

They had several videos talking about the different dice mechanics they tried, and in one of the recent ones James Introcaso said they spent three months on just those, and when he then looked at the bell curve of the one they had arrived at (2d12, but one had numbers from 1 to 9 and the other 1 to 3 only), it was almost identical to the 2d6 curve.

When he told Matt that, he said something along the lines of ‘oh well, at least we got there organically’, so even though they now use 2d6 that does in no way mean that they just took it from somewhere.

The same is true for the auto-hit, and probably lots of other stuff too. Even when you do not start with ‘we take X from game Y’, but test things on a wide open field until you get to a mechanic you like and produces results that fit your vision, chances are you did end up with something that was done somewhere already.

 

[Reynard]

No, although she wasn't a nobody either. She had the highest-rated adventure of all time on DMs Guild and a solid cult following for her adventure writing.

But more importantly, Shadowdark benefited from a wave of great reviews and buzz. Backers steadily came on board as they encountered rave reviews on websites and YouTube. This game hasn't had any of that yet, and has already doubled the haul. Not too shabby.

Shadowdark did something else: it provided a free, complete, fully playable quick start that blew users away. You didn't have to trust Arcane Library's promises or a review of something you had no seen. You could get it, read it and play it yourself.

I really had wanted MCDM to do the same thing here. That is, start their crowdfunding campaign when they had a playable quickstart.

 

[MNblockhead]

Shadowdark did something else: it provided a free, complete, fully playable quick start that blew users away. You didn't have to trust Arcane Library's promises or a review of something you had no seen. You could get it, read it and play it yourself.

I really had wanted MCDM to do the same thing here. That is, start their crowdfunding campaign when they had a playable quickstart.

I understand that, but as successful as MCDM has been the design team has to put a lot of work into designing, testing, writing the system. Kickstarter, at its best, is meant to help entrepreneurs by giving them the funding to turn their ideas into reality. I've backed 99 Kickstarters to date. The most satisfying projects have been those where I was helping to support something new and being taken along for the journey of invention and creation. Its more risky than buying a product that is all but done, but such risky projects can lead to things that might not have otherwise been created.

With MCDM, it is the best of both worlds. The company has a proven track record, yet it is taking a risk coming out with yet another fantasy TTRPG in a crowded field and possibility a bespoke VTT for that system as well. I'm not worried about MCDM not fulfilling the Kickstarter, but there is a risk that the final product won't be for me. Yet, even if it ends up not being to my taste as a game system, having a successful system tied to a VTT supports a trend that I would like to see more of.

If I just want a product that is done, with no risk of buyers remorse, I'll just wait until it is on the market, and likely has been on the market for some time. Kickstarter has never been about buying a product for me. Its taking a risk to support a creator who is taking an interesting risk. I've had a few disappointments, a few total failures, and a lot of "meh"; but I have also gotten some of my favorite gaming products that may have never otherwise existed.