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.

 

[mamba]

This is a bit goal-post-moving.

We were discussing pre-ordering, not ordering existing product. And that's precisely what a lot of KSes and the like give the impression of being - pre-orders, which is absolutely not the same as "sitting in a warehouse". That's a nonsense.

remember what I replied to ? It was ‘When I order any product and I'm told a ship date…’ that is about stuff sitting in a warehouse.

Your ‘and you can order a ton of already-created stuff from the same company as "add-ons".’ is stuff sitting in a warehouse.

That is what I am drawing the distinction to. That is stuff the kickstarter is not about

Pre-orders are very often of stuff that is yet to be manufactured or finished.

A preorder still is not a kickstarter, a preorder to me is for 1) something that will get made, whether I preorder or not, and 2) has a firm timeline, in part because they know their manufacturer already, how many units they will make, and how long that takes

With a KS this is all much more variable. I understand that the one doing the KS wants to assure backers that it will get made and be on time, but you should not mistake that urge for the KS being the equivalent of a preorder.

 

[mamba]

Does anyone on here follow the development on the MCDM Patreon? I'm curious if I should subscribe?

not me

(However, I do think that backers should get some design notes. I don't know if that's entitlement on my part.)

you will get playtest packaged, not sure how far they go into the design there, they probably will not ignore it altogether, Matt is making public videos about that after all

 

[Staffan]

Note they have said they want classes to work differently. Specifically pointing out the differences between initial 4e PHB and 4e Essentials.

To me, this particular bit seems more like Iron Heroes (Mearls' precursor to 4e released by Monte Cook) than 4e proper. In Iron Heroes, most classes have some kind of resource they gain for doing class-appropriate things and then spend that on various class abilities. Although in Iron Heroes, for most classes it boiled down to spending action economy to power up, whereas MCDM seems more varied.

It also reminds me somewhat of World of Warcraft where most classes have at least two resources to keep track of (three if you count hit points). For example, Rogues have Energy which starts out at 100, deplete as you make relatively basic attacks, and regenerate pretty quickly. Rogues also have Combo Points, which they get for doing those basic attacks, and can be spent on attacks having pretty strong effects including strong debuffs on the target and/or buffs on the rogue themselves – stronger effects for more combo points.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Shadowdark license is very fuzzy. It is specifically a "compatibility license" tho, not an Open license. I think the part MCDM is looking to emulate is that: they will want people to support the game with new adventures, mosnters, settings, etc. I am not a lawyer and also don't understand legalese so I have no idea how problematic or safe the Shadowdark license is, but I have not seen anything that suggests Kelsey Dionne or Arcane Library are making life difficult for those that publish under it. The opposite, really. They often promote 3PP Shadowdark stuff on their Discord and FB pages.

Doesn't Mork Borg use a basic compatibility license? And there are countless wriggling mutants that license has spawned as a result, as publishers clearly feel very comfortable with it.

 

[SteveC]

I am not sure if other people are in this situation, but I have gotten about a dozen ads for the MCDM RPG on social media. Matt is definitely advertising the game, and it totally got through to me and all of the other members of my gaming group. We talked about it last night at our 5E session. So if you're wondering if it's being marketed, yes it definitely is.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am not sure if other people are in this situation, but I have gotten about a dozen ads for the MCDM RPG on social media. Matt is definitely advertising the game, and it totally got through to me and all of the other members of my gaming group. We talked about it last night at our 5E session. So if you're wondering if it's being marketed, yes it definitely is.

My Facebook wall is 95% MCDM RPG ads, which is cool, but a bit jarring.

 

[SteveC]

My Facebook wall is 95% MCDM RPG ads, which is cool, but a bit jarring.

I've commented about this with respect to Kickstarters in the past, but it can be a real issue for publishers as we get into election season. All of the fake accounts can get your ads instead of real people and you just lose out on the money. It looks like this hasn't happened yet, but it's something to keep in mind if you're crowdfunding this year.

 

[Reynard]

Doesn't Mork Borg use a basic compatibility license? And there are countless wriggling mutants that license has spawned as a result, as publishers clearly feel very comfortable with it.

I don't know anything about Mork Borg other than that it is illegible.

 

[Morrus]

I've commented about this with respect to Kickstarters in the past, but it can be a real issue for publishers as we get into election season. All of the fake accounts can get your ads instead of real people and you just lose out on the money. It looks like this hasn't happened yet, but it's something to keep in mind if you're crowdfunding this year.

Facebook is, and has been for a long time, the single best online advertising platform on the planet. Its reach and targeting tools are unparalleled.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I'm not a patron. But I am following this game's design as a fan of Matt and MCDM. The design notes on the patreon are months ahead of where they are publicly, include some real nitty gritty game design noodling, and are filled with dead ends, as Matt calls them. Providing those to backers who might not also be patrons would cause a lot more confusion than anyone wants to deal with. Matt drops videos on YouTube explaining where they are with the design going forward.

Yeah, that's what I've been seeing, too, although I know I'm several posts behind for want of time and having my home computer get fried.

The last post I recall is about them deciding the AD&D style generic universal Wizard that kind of de facto gets to do every kind of magic all the time is an inherently bad design and is part of the problem. That's where the distinct spellslinging classes like Elementalist came from.

It's kind of a convincing argument. It is weird that martials have to pick between Fighter, Barbarian, Rogue, Ranger, Monk, and Paladin and that locks you in pretty significantly to the way you're going to play for the whole campaign, but Wizard can learn Fireball, Polymorph, Summon, Invisibility, Fly, Animate Dead, Counterspell, Shield, Scrying, and Teleport all by themselves with basically no limit at all. No wonder it feels like Wizards can do everything. The game lets them! I've also now had the luxury of playing 5e D&D campaign with no primary spellcasters (Ranger, Artificer, Rogue, Monk, Paladin) and nearly all of my complaints about 5e kind of fall away. Spellcasters suck the air out of the room!

The patreon has been a fascinating read for me when I've had the time, but there is a lot there, and sometimes it's more noise than signal.