mcdm posts
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ARCADIA 26
Hello folks! It is I, Hannah Rose. I have once again liberated my office chair from the cat (for now, anyway) and I’m here to present this month’s fantastic issue of ARCADIA. Here’s what’s inside:Cover Art by Zuzanna WuzykWow. Just wow. I love everything about this gorgeous cover, from the c...
ARCADIA 26 Table of Contents
Hello folks! It is I, Hannah Rose, here on a beautiful spring day with a beautiful table of contents for your perusal. Here’s what’s coming in ARCADIA 26:The Nocturne Market by Kat Kruger with art from Clara Daly and Nikki DawesWhen the sun dips below the horizon and the stars appear in the sky,...
Classes
Hey folks! As I said in the last update, there’s not a lot to talk about right now, everyone’s working on Flee, Mortals! and ARCADIA, but I thought it would be fun to pitch you on the class ideas we’ve been talking about internally. A lot of these classes have already been mentioned either in ...
Decisions and Revisions Which a Minute Will Reverse
Another playtest and a whole new set of problems and ideas! But first, a story…I was working on a video game years ago and the artist I was sitting next to suggested we should implement a very complicated new feature.We’d been working on this game for years at this point and I pointed out, we ha...
Playtest Report: Against All Kobolds!
We ran another playtest last Friday. I don’t think every playtest will automatically cause an after-action report like this, at some point we’ll be testing too often for that, and sometimes we won't be testing anything new, just “what do new players think?”But this one was interesting! W...
Welcome New Patrons!
We just released the announcement video for our new RPG, really just announcing that we’re working on it, so we thought it’d be a good idea to write something up welcoming folks and sort of setting expectations.First of all, hello! My name’s Matt Colville, and on behalf of the MCDM crew, welco...
ARCADIA 25
Hello folks! It is I, Hannah Rose, here with the TWENTY-FIFTH issue of ARCADIA! And it is, if I may say so myself, a total banger. Here’s what’s inside:Cover Art by Ernanda SouzaOne of my favorite things about ARCADIA covers is the chance to let artists come up with their own cool fantasy creati...
ARCADIA 25 Table of Contents
Hello folks! It is I, Hannah Rose, here with the table of contents for a very cool issue of ARCADIA. This month is all about leaning into things that are epic, weird, and delightfully extra.Legendary Inspiration by Steve Fidler with art from Marcel BuddeSo you know that optional inspiration rule? Ma...
"I felt like a real hero."
Hello Incredible Patrons,It’s me, your James Introcaso. We had another playtest of the new MCDM RPG on Friday last week. This time I was the GM, and we had two players new to the RPG, Nick and Grace from our art team. It was my first time running anything longer than a single encounter in our syst...
Grayboxing
We’re doing a weekly test on Fridays (alas, not every Friday, Flee, Mortals! and ARCADIA still come first) and tinkering with the rules for our new game and I want to make sure folks understand exactly what we’re doing and why.You’re gonna see us talking about actual play. This isn’t paper-d...
The Delian Test
Matt ran the Delian Tomb for a few of us in the office last week. But we weren’t playing fifth edition. We were playing our new RPG.James Introcaso, MCDM’s Lead Game Designer, here. I know you’ve been following our updates for a bit about the creation of the MCDM RPG. We’ve got a few things ...
Valok
There's not a lot of fun mechanical stuff to talk about right now, and probably won't be for a little while as we iterate on the core die mechanic and dial in something fun that we like.So in the meantime, we thought you folks might enjoy some LORE! This was written for Flee, Mortals! the MC...
ARCADIA 24
Hello folks! It is I, Hannah Rose, here with the year’s first issue of ARCADIA—and a little something extra! Here’s what’s inside:Cover Art by Grace CheungWhen I told the team that we’d ended up with a dragon theme for January, Grace delivered on an EPIC cover! It’s such a gorgeous, unex...
ARCADIA 24 Releasing Friday
Hello, all! It is I, Hannah Rose, here soaking up some SoCal sun before I return to my beloved but damp Pacific Northwest tower.tl;dr ARCADIA 24 is coming out this Friday instead of Wednesday.Long(er) version: It’s been quite a week (month, year…) here at MCDM, with some amazing stuff happening ...
Armor
This is a real design doc written by the design director and shared with the team. This was not originally intended to be a patreon post. It has been lightly edited to reflect this.What’s the purpose of Armor in a fantasy RPG?ImagePlayers arrive at the table with archetypes already in mind, and th...
End of the First Week
This is probably the last update for a little while. We all got other stuff to do. But actually, we’re so enthusiastic about the current direction, I suspect we’ll be noodling on it and tinkering with it and testing it in our spare time. Matt said, in our Discord, “I'm sort of fizzing with...
End of the Fourth Day
What If It Just Worked?Armed with a dice mechanic and some newly minted Goblins, a Tactician and a Beastheart with their pet Fungus Dude (Mot!) we played a combat.It went ok. We learned a lot. Basically, we learned we didn’t like it. 😀 Well we liked some of it! Every test, we keep some things f...
End of Day Three
Folks Need To See ItMCDM is almost 5 years old (!) and so far, we have been an explicitly design-driven company. Matt’s a game designer, so that makes sense, but also the company’s projects focus on new optional rules for 5E, and new custom classes for 5E. So the art team tends to end up illustr...
For members of our Discord server
The other day we discovered Patreon may randomly get unlinked from users Discord accounts, and users may not properly have their roles updated when swapping patreon tiers. This resulted in a sizable number of users retaining access to channels that are reserved for active patrons, and vice versa.We ...
ARCADIA 24 Table of Contents
Hello folks! It is I, Hannah Rose—and I’m writing this in the airport because I’m on my way to the MCDM offices for a week of design jams, brainstorming, and rolling some dice with the team! As Matt covered in last week’s post, things are—inevitably—shifting over here. But for the next s...
End of the Second Day
So What’s It All About?We don’t necessarily want to make a generic fantasy game. We sorta got one of those already, don’t we?Well what’s the alternative? Probably the alternative is; it’s about something. Pendragon is about Chivalry and the Arthurian Romances and your character is defined ...
End of the First Day
It is the end of the first day of design on the MCDM RPG and I’m thinking about two things. Flow, and the Null Result.FlowThere was a point in our prototype combat between James’ Goblins and Hannah’s Tactician where James asked Hannah what one of her stats was. I think at this point we were im...
The Future of the MCDM Patreon
Hello Patrons! It is I, the Baron Vladimir Harko…wait, no. It is I, Matt Colville! Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all….Anyway enough with the literary allusions, there’s a ton of stuff happening right now, including Big Changes to this Patreon, and we want to talk to you folks abo...
ARCADIA 23
Hello folks! It is I, Hannah Rose, closing out the year by brining you the most excellent ARCADIA 23!Cover Art by Patrik HellA strange creature, their intricate weapon, and mysterious architecture amid smoke and flying embers—this cover is perfectly ARCADIA! I can’t get enough of the textures, f...
ARCADIA 23 Table of Contents
Hello folks! It is I, Hannah Rose, here with a snoozing voidcat, a big pile of dice, and the table of contents for ARCADIA 23!Gemstone Arcana by Mario Ortegón with art from Elisa SerioThese spells and feats turn gemstones into much more than currency. Properties of gemstones from agate to zircon pr...
Best of ARCADIA Survey
Hello Folks,It is I, your James Introcaso! We are currently exploring the possibility of making a Best of ARCADIA compilation that compiles beloved articles from the magazine's first two years—in print! At the moment, we’re not sure if this is an idea we’re going to make a reality. To make...
ARCADIA 22
Hello folks! It is I, Hannah Rose, here with the newest awesome-stuffed issue of ARCADIA.Cover Art by Martin SobrThis cover evokes a classic dungeon crawl with adventurers beset by the forces of evil, delving deeper one level (L-E-V-E-L) at a time! Can you spot the hidden rogue?Heroic Champions by W...
ARCADIA 22 Table of Contents
Hello folks! It is I, Hannah Rose (as well as the cat squeezed between me and my laptop), here with the table of contents for ARCADIA 22.Heroic Champions by Will Doyle with art from Patrik HellScheduling is the worst final boss—but one that’s easier with a smaller party! If you’re interested i...
ARCADIA 6 Now on Roll20
Hey Snazzy Patrons,James Introcaso here with just a quick update. ARCADIA 6 is now available on Roll20! You can pick it up on the Roll20 marketplace along with the first five issues.We are working on getting more issues of ARCADIA up on Fantasy Grounds, Roll20, and other digital platforms. The proce...
ARCADIA 21
Hello, folks! It is I, Hannah Rose, here with the latest issue of ARCADIA just in time for All Hallows’ Eve. Here’s what’s inside:Cover Art by Nick De SpainWe showed this cover off early, but I just can’t get enough of it. Are the pumpkin minions literally coming out of the lich’s ribcage?...
