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.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

There has been a lot of videos & blogposts about various facets of building the rpg since it started, admittedly I'm not sure that a lot of it would fit in the usual KS/backerkit updates

Sure, but that has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm saying, does it?

I have no objection to the Patrons getting the playtest material sooner, nor more of it.

I do object to them getting the books potentially cheaper than they're charging actual backers. That's senseless favouritism of a very unhelpful and I suspect thoughtless and ill-considered kind. Making it 5 months is insulting and weird.

I also feel like it's pretty dodgy that they told Patrons this, but didn't also put that information on the Backerkit so people could make up their minds accordingly. I haven't decided how I feel about this because it strikes me more as "Matt Colville is a thoughtless oaf who has forgotten he is running a Backerkit not just trying to win kudos from his Patrons" than evil plan, but it's certainly gross.

 

[tetrasodium]

Sure, but that has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm saying, does it?

I have no objection to the Patrons getting the playtest material sooner, nor more of it.

I do object to them getting the books potentially cheaper than they're charging actual backers. That's senseless favouritism of a very unhelpful and I suspect thoughtless and ill-considered kind.

You are making some very incorrect assumptions about what the patreon folks are getting right now

 

[Distracted DM]

I do object to them getting the books potentially cheaper than they're charging actual backers. That's senseless favouritism of a very unhelpful and I suspect thoughtless and ill-considered kind. Making it 5 months is insulting and weird.

To guarantee getting the PDFs cheaper than actual backers, you'd have to know the actual date that they're going to be releasing the game- which not even MCDM knows since development is still in early days. You get the PDFs if you've been a backer for at least 5 consecutive months when the game releases.

It's likely that we're not going to see the game shipped until the end of 2024, or possibly 2025. No patrons are getting it cheaper than backers unless they happen to hear about the game in ~~half a year, sign up, and get really lucky with release.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You are making some very incorrect assumptions about what the patreon folks are getting right now

What are those, exactly?

It's likely that we're not going to see the game shipped until the end of this 2024, or possibly 2025. No patrons are getting it cheaper than backers unless they happen to hear about the game in ~~half a year, sign up, and get really lucky with release.

Longer than that - they say they believe the PDFs will be out "June of 2025" - it's on the Backerkit page. And I disagree re: hearing about it - there will be people who intentionally don't sign up until Dec. 2024 or whatever and thus get it cheaper. I mean, the 5 months thing is the senseless element here - if they'd made it 8 or 9 it'd have been largely a non-issue.

 

[Waller]

To guarantee getting the PDFs cheaper than actual backers, you'd have to know the actual date that they're going to be releasing the game- which not even MCDM knows since development is still in early days. You get the PDFs if you've been a backer for at least 5 consecutive months when the game releases.

It's likely that we're not going to see the game shipped until the end of 2024, or possibly 2025. No patrons are getting it cheaper than backers unless they happen to hear about the game in ~~half a year, sign up, and get really lucky with release.

Wait, so as a backer I end up ahead I may they’re late? So I’m in the this weird position where I’m not undercut only if the Kickstarter is delayed for some reason?

And we’re talking a 2 year wait anyway.

 

[Waller]

You get the play test packets, just a month or so later than they do. They are getting very rough drafts.

But I’m a backer. I want the early drafts. But people who aren’t backers are getting them instead.

 

[mamba]

I also feel like it's pretty dodgy that they told Patrons this, but didn't also put that information on the Backerkit so people could make up their minds accordingly.

at a minimum it was in videos I believe, pretty sure I knew this without ever having visited their patreon.

Doesn’t mean they could not say so on the KS as well, but maybe then we get complaints that they drive you towards that instead.

Not sure there is a great solution here, short of making it 8 prior months or so (I always considered 5 prior months to mean at least 6 months total). On the other hand if you wait until then to save some bucks, you lose out on playtest packages anyway, so not sure it really is needed either

 

[Velderan]

Sure, but that has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm saying, does it?

I have no objection to the Patrons getting the playtest material sooner, nor more of it.

I do object to them getting the books potentially cheaper than they're charging actual backers. That's senseless favouritism of a very unhelpful and I suspect thoughtless and ill-considered kind. Making it 5 months is insulting and weird.

You're making a lot of assumptions here. If you back the game and only want the Heroes PDF, that's $40. 5 months of patreon is $40, so assuming you timed it absolutely perfectly you'd break even and get whatever patreon perks there were during that 5 month period. More likely you end up being a member longer and paying more or worse, guessing wrong and being a member 3 or 4 months before a PDF is released and getting nothing but whatever is released to the patrons in that time period.

Following this further along, it's $65 to back and get both Heroes and Monster book PDFs. Since the books likely won't be released together (since MCDM made it a point of mentioning 5 months prior to each release that seems reasonable to assume) they'd only have to be released 4 months apart for it to no longer be cheaper to go through the patreon. It's a huge gamble if you're trying to save money and the reality is you're more likely to spend far more going through the patreon. I jumped on the patreon this month to get the playtest packet to take a look before the campaign closes and see if I like the packet enough to bump my pledge up to the physical books. If I stick with it until mid-2025 when the game releases, I'll have spent $144 or so to get the PDFs.

 

[mamba]

Wait, so as a backer I end up ahead I may they’re late? So I’m in the this weird position where I’m not undercut only if the Kickstarter is delayed for some reason?

you are also not undercut if they release it in e.g. March 2025, because then everyone who signed on for a June release is missing out on it, or the two books get released three months apart whenever. Personally I do not worry about these details.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

at a minimum it was in videos I believe, pretty sure I knew this without ever having visited their patreon.

I know I watched him say it explicitly in a video.