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.

 

[overgeeked]

Ugh...I really hope they don't implement the "pick a magic item or a juicy backstory incident" thing. That would suck. Story vs mechanics is always a failed design. You can have both.

 

[mamba]

Sorry if this is off topic, but I'm playing Baldur's Gate 3 now and it feels like... tactical heroic cinematic fantasy. I get what crunchier games are trying to do, but if you take a step back it does seem like the core conceit of the mcdm rpg is already covered by 5.5e + variants, pathfinder, and other games.

Let's take these one at a time, heroic fantasy is definitely covered by 5e, Pathfinder, and others, so no need to discuss those.

Tactical is covered to varying degrees, theatre of the mind is less tactical than battlemaps. How tactical the latter are depends on a lot on the class / game as well. A 5e Battlemaster will be more tactical than a 5e Champion. I expect MCDM to lean more towards tactical than 5e does.

Cinematic is the hardest to grasp for me. I'd say it can be done in 5e, I'd also say it has no rules support for it at all. Finally, I am not sure what rules for that would look like, it seems to be more defined by what it deemphasizes than by what it adds, and there I can certainly see a different focus from 5e being an option.

 

[overgeeked]

Let's take these one at a time, heroic fantasy is definitely covered by 5e, Pathfinder, and others, so no need to discuss those.

I'll push back against that. I don't think heroic fantasy is all that well covered by 5E or Pathfinder. This is a point repeatedly pushed by Matt, James, and the mechanics of the MCDM RPG (as we're aware of them so far). 5E is an attrition-based monster fighting game. You are explicitly rewarded for doing non-heroic things like stopping the push forward to take a long rest. That's the literal opposite of heroic. Yes, you're a beefy badass with a bastard sword...but you're also better off playing hyper-cautiously (i.e. a coward) and engaging with the least heroic thing possible: the five-minute workday. 5E isn't heroic in that sense. Glaringly so.

 

[darjr]

New project update, Human.

The MCDM RPG Project Update: Human Update

Hey folks! We hope you’re enjoying the holidays! We are MOSTLY trying to take it easy over the break but we actually love working on this stuff and sharing it with you. It’s exc...

www.backerkit.com

 

[Malmuria]

I'll push back against that. I don't think heroic fantasy is all that well covered by 5E or Pathfinder. This is a point repeatedly pushed by Matt, James, and the mechanics of the MCDM RPG (as we're aware of them so far). 5E is an attrition-based monster fighting game. You are explicitly rewarded for doing non-heroic things like stopping the push forward to take a long rest. That's the literal opposite of heroic. Yes, you're a beefy badass with a bastard sword...but you're also better off playing hyper-cautiously (i.e. a coward) and engaging with the least heroic thing possible: the five-minute workday. 5E isn't heroic in that sense. Glaringly so.

Though I’d wager many dms dont push resources too much and just make set piece battles after which it makes narrative sense to rest. And I get that if you play a lot of 5e you can see how that is not necessarily super tactical. But again bg3 is showing how 5e can be plenty tactical if set up in that way. (This is not a defense of 5e, just a reflection on the design space of the mcdm rpg)

 

[mamba]

I'll push back against that. I don't think heroic fantasy is all that well covered by 5E or Pathfinder. This is a point repeatedly pushed by Matt, James, and the mechanics of the MCDM RPG (as we're aware of them so far). 5E is an attrition-based monster fighting game. You are explicitly rewarded for doing non-heroic things like stopping the push forward to take a long rest. That's the literal opposite of heroic.

let me push back on that, attrition is pretty negligible in 5e, and as long as you have hit points (which MCDM has as well) there will always be some.

As with tactical, there are degrees, 5e falls squarely into heroic fantasy however.

If for you heroic requires that the chars are at the same capacity after a fight as before, then I disagree with that logic. That is pretty much the opposite of heroic, because you cannot be heroic if there are no stakes for you. Then there are less consequences for the chars in the fight than I have eating a burger, and that does not at all feel heroic to me

 

[tetrasodium]

Though I’d wager many dms dont push resources too much and just make set piece battles after which it makes narrative sense to rest. And I get that if you play a lot of 5e you can see how that is not necessarily super tactical. But again bg3 is showing how 5e can be plenty tactical if set up in that way. (This is not a defense of 5e, just a reflection on the design space of the mcdm rpg)

Resources in 5e quickly grow to being such a large pool that the gm can't be blamed for choosing to abide by the limits of the human attention span and doing the d&d equivalent of continuing a game of Risk to the last unit.

 

[Velderan]

let me push back on that, attrition is pretty negligible in 5e, and as long as you have hit points (which MCDM has as well) there will always be some.

As with tactical, there are degrees, 5e falls squarely into heroic fantasy however.

So 5e and PF2e are certainly more heroic than say AD&D 1e. 5e has short rests, PF2e has treat wounds so there are ways to recover HP beyond having a cleric or sleeping, but I think what @overgeeked is saying is they still involve stopping to recover. Recovery in MCDM RPG, at least in the playtest packet, gives each character a certain number of self-heals per days called recoveries. As an example the fury in the playtest packet has 12 of them for 16 health recovered each use out of their max health of 49, so that's quite a bit of recovery to allow you to just keep pushing on without needing to stop to rest. In combat, you're limited to 1 recovery per action and you have 1 action per round. Outside of combat, you can spend as many as you want at once and it doesn't seem to specify that as taking any time beyond declaring it.

 

[mamba]

Recovery in MCDM RPG, at least in the playtest packet, gives each character a certain number of self-heals per days called recoveries.

so their short rests are shorter (and possibly stronger / more numerous) than the ones in 5e. As I said, heroic is on a scale, so they can both be covered by it - or MCDM crosses into superhero territory

 

[tetrasodium]

so their short rests are shorter (and possibly stronger / more numerous) than the ones in 5e. As I said, heroic is on a scale, so they can both be covered by it - or MCDM crosses into superhero territory

No totally different, there is no such thing. As the party progresses through the adventuring day they accrued victories, those victories serve two big functions. The first and easy function is converting them to experience by taking a Rest. The second function is class specific I. How each class starts combat with class specific resources, some classes start with a pool equal to current victories while others have abilities that are gated or have modified power by current victories. Resting will reset your victories to zero by converting them to experience.


"Recoveries" are their own resource, everyone has a set number that are restored by Resting. Some classes can gain more through various means involving their class specific resource pool and their abilities while adventuring (I think), but most classes only reset them by Resting. Because Resting is such a hit to how much cool stuff you can do or how cool it is when you do it a statement like "let's Rest" is not an easy pill for everyone at the table to swallow, imagine losing and needing to rebuild through actions all spell slots superiority dice and ki points after s rest where you recover hp and some healing potions.

To use an analogy, look at a simple moment of ultimate badassery like Superman's world of cardboard scene. In d&d he takes a rest and is immediately able tob do that by going nova. In the mcdm style he takes a rest and needs to accrue enough victories and resources building back up to the point where he can casually slap darkseid around like that. The first style doesn't feel heroic because it's just a baseline nova. The second style very much does because it takes some work planning and coordination to get there with enough Recoveries and hp to not be risking a tpk or something.