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.

 

[Velderan]

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

He definitely said it in the video, because that's how I knew to check out their patreon.

There may be rules on backerkit about directing people to alternate ways of paying? I've never run a crowdfunding campaign, but seems like a way of circumventing backerkit getting their cut. Just guessing.

 

[Waller]

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

What, the hour long kickstart video? Or a different one? If it’s not right there in the image how much research am I expected to do to understand the desl I’m being offered? Because I’m finding all this out right here.

 

[Distracted DM]

Can't please all of the folks all of the time.
Go complain to the source or pull your support if you're so incensed by how MCDM handles things.

 

[Waller]

Can't please all of the folks all of the time.
Go complain to the source or pull your support if you're so incensed by how MCDM handles things.

I’ll talk about it where I want, thanks. Such as this thread about it on this discussion forum I’m a member of. You’re not telling all the other 500 people in this thread to take their posts elsewhere, are you?

And yea, I’ve cancelled my pledge. Partly due to stanning like this. Which isn’t even rheir fault, but hey.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

What, the hour long kickstart video? Or a different one? If it’s not right there in the image how much research am I expected to do to understand the desl I’m being offered? Because I’m finding all this out right here.

looks like it. In the “How We Test“ chapter, around the 33:40 mark.

 

[Velderan]

So it does actually say in the Backerkit Project FAQ for the project how the Patreon subscribers will be treated. I thought I had seen it somewhere else.

 

[SteveC]

The impression I get is that Matt is expecting his Patreon subscribers to get the final PDF as a reward for following the whole project, which would cost a lot more than backing the project. I think he just didn't foresee that people would consider subscribing for the minimum just to get a PDF. Classic min-max approach that I would expect Matt to have thought of. I don't see any nefarious attempt here and I hope it doesn't ruin things for people excited about the game.

I don't back the Patreon, so I'm just going in with the PDF goal in mind. It's a lot easier for me to back it to make sure I get the game that way.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I think he just didn't foresee that people would consider subscribing for the minimum just to get a PDF. Classic min-max approach that I would expect Matt to have thought of.

Matt’s Patreon has been a vehicle for paying for the Arcadia magazine. He has been very well aware of the practice of people to sign up for something for a month just to download everything then cancel. That those .pdfs then end up on pirating websites.

He’s also of the strong opinion that most countermeasures against that jackassery causes increased pain for the rule-abiding members and frankly works against pleasing the the greater number of people paying money.

 

[Distracted DM]

The impression I get is that Matt is expecting his Patreon subscribers to get the final PDF as a reward for following the whole project, which would cost a lot more than backing the project. I think he just didn't foresee that people would consider subscribing for the minimum just to get a PDF. Classic min-max approach that I would expect Matt to have thought of. I don't see any nefarious attempt here and I hope it doesn't ruin things for people excited about the game.

I don't back the Patreon, so I'm just going in with the PDF goal in mind. It's a lot easier for me to back it to make sure I get the game that way.

Considering when the game releases you need to have been subbed to an $8/mo patreon for at least 5 consecutive months, and you don't know exactly when the game will release, it's hardly min-maxing- more like gambling

 

[EthanSental]

I’m not a patreon nor follow Matt much on YouTube so I didn’t know about the Arcadia magazine until the posts in this thread. Granted it strike a different best for my 80s Duran Duran self but looking up Arcadia magazine, there’s the MCDM, then another lifestyle magazine and another from an online university for Arcadia university. I didn’t see that many uses of Arcadia for online reading but surprised none the less.