mcdm posts
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Making a Monster
Hey Awesome Patrons!It is I, your Lead Game Designer James Introcaso, here to discuss monsters in the MCDM RPG. Monsters have been on all our minds, since we just delivered the PDF of Flee, Mortals! The MCDM Monster Book to folks on Monday and on Tuesday we started our BackerKit campaign to make the hardcover of Where Evil Lives: The MCDM Book of Boss Battles. With Flee, Mortals! delivered, I’ve...
Flee, Mortals! PDF Now Available
Here at MCDM, we’ve been working super hard to bring you the best monster book we can. We hope it becomes THE monster book you reach for when planning and running your games. Our rigorously playtested creatures are fun to run and fun to fight. The wait is over. Right now the PDF of Flee, Mortals! The MCDM Monster Book is now available at mcdm.gg/FleeMortals.This book contains 339 stat blocks, pl...
Attacks and Stamina
It is I, your James Introcaso! A few weeks ago, Matt showed off the tactician pregen we used in testing. If you don’t remember, here it is again:If you looked over that image closely, you probably noticed two things. Well, you probably noticed a lot, but there are two things on this sheet that we have already changed, and I want to talk about what they are and why.AttacksIf you’re familiar wit...
Flow & The Null Result
Fresh Designing the Game video up on the MCDM Channel.
Tactical Heroic Cinematic Fantasy
You probably already saw it in YouTube, but we are putting it here for future generations.
Illrigger Playtest Revised Open Beta Round 2
Hey MCDM Fans,Forgive us for sending two updates in the same day, but it’s time to raise Hell … again! The second round of the open beta playtest for The Illrigger Revised starts now.You may remember that in April 2021, we put out The Illrigger on our shop and Patreon. Several weeks ago we ran the first open beta for the revised version of the 5e class and based on our surveys, more than 70% o...
ARCADIA 30
Hello Patrons,It is I, your James Introcaso, with the final (for now) ARCADIA. The moment is bittersweet, but this issue is pure candy! ARCADIA 30 is the magazine going out on a high note!Cover Art by Zachary MadereThis is one cover we’ve wanted to make from the beginning. Behold STARCADIA! It’s time to explore the universe in style. Pick your ship and get in, loser. We’re going to the times...
Patreon Update
Hey folks! James and I are getting properly stuck in to the new RPG dev, there’s still Flee Mortals, and Where Evil Lives (aka the Lairs book) work to do, but RPG time is steadily increasing. We’re about to have a meeting the subject of which is “what is the difference between the Talent and the Mage?” After which, if we have a good answer, I’ll work some more on the Mage class prototype...
ARCADIA 30 Table of Contents
Hello Patrons,It is I, your James Introcaso, with the final (for now) ARCADIA table of contents. Behold what lies in store at the month’s end. ARCADIA 30 is the magazine going out on a high note!Magic for the People by Erin RobertsYeah, fireballs are great, but have you ever used magic to create a stick that points toward the nearest source of freshwater? This article presents rules for learning...
MCDM Patreon Q&A is Live!
Hey everyone! James Introcaso here to let you know that Matt and I are live with an MCDM+ Patrons-only Q&A on YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDsc9DaH0tcLet's talk about the upcoming MCDM RPG and answer your questions. Cinematic. Tactical. It's an RPG in 70mm.Really excited to talk with you all!Ex Animo,James
First Patreon Livestream!
Hey Folks! James and I are going to be live, here on Patreon, this Friday at 11am Pacific time to talk with you all about the new RPG and the current design. Just for an hour or so, but we think it will be fun.Now, we have not done this before, stream on this platform, so I expect there will be some technical difficulties. But in principle we have done streams like this before.What we'll do is...
The Tactician (Prototype)
Hey folks! It's been a few weeks since we last spoke, and that means it's been a few weeks since we did any work on the RPG! We've been heads-down on Flee, Mortals! and also Where Evil Lives which is the book the Lairs section turned into. And Arcadia still, and The Talent. And The Illrigger Revised!But Flee, Mortals! is...done? The PDF is off to the printer for proofing, which will st...
ARCADIA 29
Hello Patrons,It is I, your James Introcaso, with a brand-spanking-new ARCADIA table of contents. This issue has been cooked up by some of the industry’s best authors, editors, consultants, artists, and testers, so let’s dive into the buffet of gaming goodness.Cover Art by Patrik HellWe got your adventure right here. This incredible image has so much epic detail that I could stare at it for ho...
ARCADIA 29 Table of Contents
Hello Amazing Patrons,It is I, your James Introcaso, with a brand-spanking-new ARCADIA table of contents. This issue has been cooked up by some of the industry’s best authors, editors, consultants, artists, and testers, so let’s dive into the amuse-bouche that the team has prepared for you.What Lies Beneath by Indrani GangulyGo deep below the waves and behold three new sea creatures inspired b...
Weapons
So how will weapons work in this game?Well I don’t know how it will work, I only know how it works right now, so let’s talk about that! But I encourage you to keep in mind than this is just our current thinking; we’ve been testing it, it seems to be working, but much larger systems have been changing underneath it and that makes it hard to tell if the weapon design is good and robust and doi...
Simplify
Hey folks! Matt C. here with a big update. Proper game design nonsense, this post is.We ran a couple of playtests, one in person three weeks ago and one just this last Friday and a LOT changed between them. A couple of seemingly-unrelated problems turned out to be related and I think we have good solutions for them that we tested on Friday. It went ok. 😀 So let’s talk about these changes and ...
ARCADIA 28
Hail, mortals! ’Tis I, Hannah Rose, returning from a design jam to tell you just how freaking excited I am for this month’s ARCADIA. We have f̵i̵v̵e̵ six amazing authors (and several consultants and editors and artists—and, as always, many testers) who collaborated to make this issue extraordinary.Cover Art by Anna GrinenkoIs there anything more ARCADIA than a hero rushing into battle ag...
Test the Illrigger Revised
Hey MCDM Fans,It’s time to raise Hell … again! Today begins our beta playtest of a new product, The Illrigger Revised.You may remember that in April 2021, we put out The Illrigger on our shop and Patreon. Since that time, many players have had a devil of a good time bringing a little more fire and brimstone into their games.But, our fearless archdevil, Colvillus, Lord of the Hidden Eighth City...
ARCADIA 28 Table of Contents
Hail, mortals! ’Tis I, Hannah Rose, returning from a design jam to tell you just how freaking excited I am for this month’s ARCADIA. We have f̵i̵v̵e̵ six amazing authors (and several consultants and editors and artists—and, as always, many testers) who collaborated to make this issue extraordinary.Planar Backgrounds by Soraya Een Hajji and Mario OrtegónThese six character origins are pa...
Starting Ancestries
Another big meeting! Actually two big meetings but I can’t spend six hours a day writing updates. 😀We talked about “what ancestries are going to ship with this book?” Well, there’s no real way to decide that right now because we may discover we have more or fewer pages to devote to this, depending on exactly how many “books” the core product ends up being. But we need some baseline ...
Character Options: Ancestry
Hey Folks, Matt reporting in. It’s been a little while since we’ve had an update, mostly because we’ve been focusing on dialing in the round-to-round experience of Fighting Monsters and that (so far) hasn’t changed that much from week to week.But this week we have the entire design team in-house here at MCDM and so this is the time when we talk about really high-level design nonsense. Incl...
Tales from Arcadia
Hey nerds! Matt and Hannah here with an exciting update!As you know, after July ARCADIA will go on hiatus for a while. All the old issues will still be here, but the whole MCDM team will be focused on our new RPG after that.But we want to keep making cool stuff for you folks! So starting in August, we hope, you’ll get the first Tales from Arcadia article. It’s basically a single ARCADIA-style ...
Free Membership Alpha Test
Hello, folks! Hannah here, with news about a new Patreon thingamajig.Starting today, Patreon is testing out a "join for free" option and MCDM is participating in the alpha test. This is similar to the existing "follow" feature, but will offer more options for us to offer content to folks on a free tier and involve them in our Patreon community. If you are already following us, you ...
SHARKADIA Art: Beneath the Waves
Hail, salty dogs and landlubbers alike! Hannah here, as Captain Ralazar is back upon the high seas, searching for the mighty Shipsnapper.We had a lot of fun with the art for SHARKADIA, so I wanted to share a couple behind-the-scenes peeks at the art process, directed by our lead artist Jason Hasenauer.Cover Art by Veronica O'NeillWe had a bunch of ideas for the SHARKADIA cover, so Veronica wor...
Playtest Report 4/21
We played another session of the in-development RPG and while I think this after-action report will be short, it’s cool. :D(Warning: description of necromantic body horror below.)James was our GM, we picked up basically where we left off from one of the previous adventures, tracking a Necromancer who was collecting artifacts to perform some fell ritual at a nearby graveyard.This involved some in...
SHARKADIA
’Tis release day at last! Batten the hatches, trim the sails, and weigh anchor, for SHARKADIA has arrived!Cover Art by Veronica O’NeillOut of the many ideas for a SHARKADIA cover, Veronica created a masterpiece! My favorite little detail is the little teeny tiny fish on the end of the line … with the gargantuan shark-monster lunging up to devour it (and probably the whole boat) from below. C...
Sharkadia Table of Contents
Ahoy! Hannah Rose here, aboard the HMS ARCADIA, and I am thrilled to share the table of contents for this special issue of SHARKADIA.Cover Art by Veronica O’NeillYou’ve already seen this glorious cover, so it’s only right to talk about it now! My favorite little detail is the little teeny tiny fish on the end of the line … with the gargantuan shark-monster lunging up to devour it (and prob...
MCDM RPG Fan Art
Look at this! From fellow Patron Guillaume Bonnet! Holy moley!Seeing folks being inspired by this stuff is hugely inspiring for us! I love these characters, I want to play them all! Eeeeeee!EDIT: Here's the original tweet!Check out Guillaume on deviantart!
Dice and Skills!
Hello! New playtest with new dice and a brand-new skill system! So we get a new Designing The Game post! It’s been a few weeks since the last MCDM RPG update, but only because everyone’s hard at work on Flee, Mortals! and ARCADIA, so let’s get stuck in.When last we left our heroes…The DiceIf you read the last development update, you may remember we were considering a new way of handling di...
April Has No Fools
Ahoy! 'Tis I, Captain Talon Ralazar, making landfall to bring you the news of SHARKADIA. Now, I've heard tell of some adventuring sorts who peruse a periodical known as ARRRCADIA, but let me tell you, what's coming this month is no ordinary publication. It's chock full of swashbuckling adventure, advice for traversing the ocean depths, and an extensive encyclopedia of creatures you...
