MCDM officially announces their RPG
- Thread starter Haplo781
- Start date
Not officially.
Random Task
Explorer
There have been multiple fresh takes since the late 1970s. People seem less and less interested. The most diversity people seem to be shooting for nowadays is what edition of D&D is you fantasy game looking to emulate or pay tribute to.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
We can't get perfect market penetration figures for then or now, but I would bet a higher percentage of fantasy gamers are playing not-D&D now than when, say, RuneQuest was in its heyday.
There are a crap ton of choices out there and many of them, like Exalted, have enjoyed periods of being quite popular.
Dungeonosophy
Legend
Hey, I'd barely followed Matt Colville over the years. But this is a great video. His passion about the emerging details (armor/movement/cinematic/tactical) is effervescent!
Here's my unusual suggestion when I hear of a new RPG coming out...a suggestion which nearly everyone rolls their eyes at...
Whichever "post-5E" game converts the entire Open Game Content of all of the d20 fantasy-themed SRDS and archived 3P content at the Open Gaming Network...especially the vast amount of PF1 3PP content hosted there...whichever "post-5E" company converts all of that content FROM THE START...and posts it as a gigantic SRD from the start...that will be the new Paizo.
opengamingnetwork.com
This is why: This is not 1979 or 1989 or 2000. A "RPG" nowadays is not a "PHB+DMG+MM"...nowadays an "RPG" is an entire ecosystem with a gazillion homebrew oddball races/lineages/ancestries and a gazillion classes/backgrounds/subclasses/archetypes. A gazillion feats and spells. A gazillion monsters. Most people's campaigns have a bunch of this kind of stuff.
For example, as a D&D Refugee who is in the midst of switching to a new system (we're trying out A5E and PF2)...I was pretty disappointed to find out that, even tapping all of the 3PP material, there are many "gaps" in the PF2 array of ancestries and classes. (we have a PC leprechaun, half-leprechaun, banshee, awakened snake, werebear, cowperson, friendly skeleton and ghoul sidekicks, etc.) And likewise in the A5E array; though this gap is somewhat helped by the 3PP oddball heritage point-buy system PDF I found.
So, if, as "blue sky" exercise, we accept my "prophesy" is true, then how would one small company manage to convert that massive amount of OGN stuff in the span of, say, a year. Well, once the rules are pretty firmed up, do some sort of massive, unprecedented crowd-sourced conversion effort. In a similar way that Paizo introduced an unprecededed approach to crowd-sourced playtesting for PF1 (which has since become an industry-wide "best practice"), MCDM would do for crowd-sourced Open Game Content conversion. (Or whichever company believes in my "prophesy".)
Just make some clear conversion guidelines, and let people run with it, and upload it to the MCDM SRD website, with some sort of basic curation; and incentivize people with some sort of design credit and lucrative discount and/or MCDM honorary title or something.
With the endgoal: a vast and complete MCDM RPG SRD available from Day One, right when the MCDM <Core Book> comes out--with this SRD not just being the <Core Book> content, but literally including (the MCDM version of) every character option (race/ancestry/heritage, background, class/subclass/archetype, skill/feat, spell, magic item, rules module (e.g. weather rules, underwater rules), monster)...every character option found in the 3.5E SRD, 5.1 SRD, PF1 SRD, OGN PF1 3PP Open Content, 13A SRD, PF2 SRD, A5E SRD, and possibly others (Dungeon World SRD, etc.) Could consider the D&D Homebrew wiki content too (of all editions), if the Open Content is clearly labeled.
This would be an advertiseable feature from the start: "The MCDM SRD encompasses all of the Open Game Content from the Open Gaming Network."
I realize it sounds totally impossible. But Paizo's PF1 playtest sounded impossible too.
Here's my unusual suggestion when I hear of a new RPG coming out...a suggestion which nearly everyone rolls their eyes at...
Whichever "post-5E" game converts the entire Open Game Content of all of the d20 fantasy-themed SRDS and archived 3P content at the Open Gaming Network...especially the vast amount of PF1 3PP content hosted there...whichever "post-5E" company converts all of that content FROM THE START...and posts it as a gigantic SRD from the start...that will be the new Paizo.
Open Gaming Network | The Home of Open Gaming
opengamingnetwork.com
This is why: This is not 1979 or 1989 or 2000. A "RPG" nowadays is not a "PHB+DMG+MM"...nowadays an "RPG" is an entire ecosystem with a gazillion homebrew oddball races/lineages/ancestries and a gazillion classes/backgrounds/subclasses/archetypes. A gazillion feats and spells. A gazillion monsters. Most people's campaigns have a bunch of this kind of stuff.
For example, as a D&D Refugee who is in the midst of switching to a new system (we're trying out A5E and PF2)...I was pretty disappointed to find out that, even tapping all of the 3PP material, there are many "gaps" in the PF2 array of ancestries and classes. (we have a PC leprechaun, half-leprechaun, banshee, awakened snake, werebear, cowperson, friendly skeleton and ghoul sidekicks, etc.) And likewise in the A5E array; though this gap is somewhat helped by the 3PP oddball heritage point-buy system PDF I found.
So, if, as "blue sky" exercise, we accept my "prophesy" is true, then how would one small company manage to convert that massive amount of OGN stuff in the span of, say, a year. Well, once the rules are pretty firmed up, do some sort of massive, unprecedented crowd-sourced conversion effort. In a similar way that Paizo introduced an unprecededed approach to crowd-sourced playtesting for PF1 (which has since become an industry-wide "best practice"), MCDM would do for crowd-sourced Open Game Content conversion. (Or whichever company believes in my "prophesy".)
Just make some clear conversion guidelines, and let people run with it, and upload it to the MCDM SRD website, with some sort of basic curation; and incentivize people with some sort of design credit and lucrative discount and/or MCDM honorary title or something.
With the endgoal: a vast and complete MCDM RPG SRD available from Day One, right when the MCDM <Core Book> comes out--with this SRD not just being the <Core Book> content, but literally including (the MCDM version of) every character option (race/ancestry/heritage, background, class/subclass/archetype, skill/feat, spell, magic item, rules module (e.g. weather rules, underwater rules), monster)...every character option found in the 3.5E SRD, 5.1 SRD, PF1 SRD, OGN PF1 3PP Open Content, 13A SRD, PF2 SRD, A5E SRD, and possibly others (Dungeon World SRD, etc.) Could consider the D&D Homebrew wiki content too (of all editions), if the Open Content is clearly labeled.
This would be an advertiseable feature from the start: "The MCDM SRD encompasses all of the Open Game Content from the Open Gaming Network."
I realize it sounds totally impossible. But Paizo's PF1 playtest sounded impossible too.
Last edited:
overgeeked
Open-World Sandbox
Next time. Castle Amber.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
I own zero MCDM stuff (sorry, Matt!), but his DM advice videos are fantastic. I binged them all earlier in the pandemic and it was an excellent use of my time.
Hexmage-EN
Legend
Can't be a coincidence that he ran a 4E campaign last year and that his newest 5E monster book is heavily 4E-influenced.
Man, how wild would it be if a spiritual successor to 4E took off fifteen years later and succeeded while the original 4E was extremely divisive and treated as the black sheep of D&D...
Random Task
Explorer
I think it depends heavily on what not D&D is defined as. The OSR and Pathfinder are D&D so I'm not so sure about that.
Similar Threads
Recent & Upcoming Releases
-
June 16 2026 -
June 16 2026 -
September 16 2026 
Arcana Unleashed(Dungeons & Dragons)
Rulebook featuring "high magic" options, including a host of new spells.
Replies (181) -
September 16 2026 -
October 1 2026 -
October 6 2026 -
January 1 2027
