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: Draw Steel

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.

 

[Zaukrie]

when I listen to James talk, I begin to wonder why I'd pay for the monster book?

edit: well, I guess they'll have to be different statblocks.....so, I guess I need it to run the game....

listening to James, looks like we'll get adventures...wonder why they aren't part of the backerkit stretch goals (well, money is why, but whatever). Maybe we'll get some as part of the playtest....

 

[Reynard]

I just realized something that has been bugging me subconsciously. An ad for the KSer came across my feed and it says "The MCDM RPG: Tactical Heroic Cinematic Fantasy."

It was making my brain Itch and I couldn't figure out why until I realized I was trying to fit "THCF" into "MCDM."

Too damn many comic books I guess!

 

[The Soloist]

If your looking for super reliable Kickstarters to back, why not go with EnPublishing, brought to you by the same people who run this forum! Get PDFs the minute the campaign closes!

Sorry, my go-to is Free League! Nice try!

 

[The Soloist]

edit: apparently, I misunderstood.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ever backed something on Kickstarter before? I have projects that are years overdue.

Hey, Hit Point Press just fulfilled Heckna! Two years late.

It looks like their Hexbound will merely be 18 months late.

2-3 months is "margin of error" territory.

And, in Shadowdark's case, because she had been expecting to sell a few thousand books at most, not 13,000. That necessitated a different printer, longer production times, and bigger shipping containers.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The best thing about the MCDM RPG KIckstarter, IMO, is that it's giving players who are not interested in the lighter RPG trends of recent years a well-supported and likely to be fairly popular choice. I'm not one of those people, but I think it's awesome that there will be a game for folks who like that playstyle and who have been feeling abandoned of late.

 

[darjr]

Hey, Hit Point Press just fulfilled Heckna! Two years late.

It looks like their Hexbound will merely be 18 months late.

And, in Shadowdark's case, because she had been expecting to sell a few thousand books at most, not 13,000. That necessitated a different printer, longer production times, and bigger shipping containers.

The Barge of Doom has landed however!!

 

[ART!]

I have fully dug into the details of this system, but it looks like characters start out with an array of class-based features, and then those core features get improved as the character levels up, rather than getting new features. Do I have that right?

 

[Zaukrie]

After watching the video, seems to me that they should have decided to present this as a Superhero game, not a fantasy game. No dungeons, no exploration, no mystery, etc. I'm not backing this.

I don't think you read that right....there will be dungeons and likely mysteries.....there will be exploration, but not a bunch of rules for it.....But yes, it goes the opposite direction of Shadowdark and Level Up.

 

[Zaukrie]

I have fully dug into the details of this system, but it looks like characters start out with an array of class-based features, and then those core features get improved as the character levels up, rather than getting new features. Do I have that right?

I can't imagine that is correct, given their design work up until now. I might ask for an example from teh discord.....