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]

Its not a zero sum,

no, not that clean, but the more time you spend on ‘logistics’ the less you spend on ‘heroism’ in a given amount of time, so your game that was meant to focus on the heroic, big setpieces is bogged down in all this minutiae that are mundane rather than heroic

and this speaks to why innovation in these kinds of areas is important,

I am not opposed to innovation

The logic that these mechanics merely existing is problematic doesn't follow from any seeming criteria other than not liking all those other creatively bankrupt games that mindlessly copy/pasted the same mechanics that got stale decades ago.

if you have a good approach to them, that might be interesting, but MCDM has decided that they simply are not the focus of the game, and that they are detrimental to the experience they are looking for.

Whether that falls under the heroic or cinematic keyword (or both) is ultimately irrelevant

What we intuitively call Heroic or Heroism has a lot more variety than their definition gives, and my intent in calling this out was just to highlight that, and thats where the only real criticism was; against the idea of Heroic being an absolute thing, which is being perpetuated by this game regardless of whether or not you like it (and i do like it, as I keep having to repeat).

maybe, but saying that it is about doing what is right, rather than being driven by greed or what is best for the char, ethics be damned, does have a pretty big overlap with heroic as far as I am concerned

 

[Aldarc]

The MCDM RPG has made it over $3 million.

 

[Retreater]

Concerning the "heroic" part - Matt Colville did mention in a stream that it would be possible to play more mercenary-leaning characters (like his own Chain of Acheron). I don't think he means the game will require players to be goody-two-shoes.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Concerning the "heroic" part - Matt Colville did mention in a stream that it would be possible to play more mercenary-leaning characters (like his own Chain of Acheron). I don't think he means the game will require players to be goody-two-shoes.

Right. He said it was designed with that expectation, but room for exceptions.

 

[Emberashh]

no, not that clean, but the more time you spend on ‘logistics’ the less you spend on ‘heroism’ in a given amount of time, so your game that was meant to focus on the heroic, big setpieces is bogged down in all this minutiae that are mundane rather than heroic

At this point though we have to move past vague assumptions and be more concrete; in the LOTR example, for instance, I'm not suggesting that Smithing needs to be a core part of the gameplay loop, or necessitated for progression, or anything like that.

It should be integrated, meaning if you do engage with it it will enhance other loops, with them enhancing it in turn, but being integrated doesn't mean it has to be required to be done nor that it needs to take up disproportionate playtime.

Yes, tons of games have done exactly the opposite of that. That doesn't mean those games are the only one way to do these mechanics.

if you have a good approach to them, that might be interesting, but MCDM has decided that they simply are not the focus of the game, and that they are detrimental to the experience they are looking for.

Whether that falls under the heroic or cinematic keyword (or both) is ultimately irrelevant

Sure, thats why I keep noting I don't have an issue with the game; I'm not lamenting the loss of those mechanics.

As said, its a petty concern over a label, an interesting aside I felt like speaking on.

maybe, but saying that it is about doing what is right, rather than being driven by greed or what is best for the char, ethics be damned, does have a pretty big overlap with heroic as far as I am concerned

Sure, but thats not whats in dispute.

 

[Distracted DM]

Concerning the "heroic" part - Matt Colville did mention in a stream that it would be possible to play more mercenary-leaning characters (like his own Chain of Acheron). I don't think he means the game will require players to be goody-two-shoes.

I believe it's heroic in terms of action, not morality.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Never really felt that Encounters drag, and having thought about it because they are exploring this...being able to miss makes hitting feel better, in my mind.

I think you'd probably find that the exact same feeling would occur with high "damage" rolls compared to low damage rolls, combined with how successful the attack is otherwise (if the opponent has/uses some damage mitigating effect or not) and whatever crit mechanic they've got.

In other words, there'd still be LANDING a solid hit compared to not. Just no feeling of utterly whiffing.

 

[MNblockhead]

I'm starting to feel heroic for making it this far in the thread. ;-)

 

[Parmandur]

I think you'd probably find that the exact same feeling would occur with high "damage" rolls compared to low damage rolls, combined with how successful the attack is otherwise (if the opponent has/uses some damage mitigating effect or not) and whatever crit mechanic they've got.

In other words, there'd still be LANDING a solid hit compared to not. Just no feeling of utterly whiffing.

Maaaybe.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Maaaybe.

Yeah, I mean, we'd have to see. I'm not sure how anyone can think that they can judge this game without trying it. I have no problem with anyone who doesn't WANT to try it - that's fine. But you can't really think that you know much about it. Heck, no one knows much about it yet.