mcdm
patreon
MCDM Update
🕑 Added 2019-10-14 03:52:57 +0000 UTCHey folks, just wanted to take a minute on a Sunday night and let everyone know what we're working on.
Kingdoms & Warfare
We're working hard to get the Kingdoms & Warfare kickstarter launched. Mostly this means doing a ton of art. We're going to include three new Courts in K&W which means 18 new monsters and for reasons that will become clear, I had to sit down and actually figure out what all these monsters were, what even the courts were. Like, we knew they were a Court of Devils, of Demons, and Undead, but since these books use my setting as the fictional wrapper, that meant I had to sit down and figure out "what is Hell, exactly, in my setting?" Same thing for the Abyss, and also where a Court of extraplanar Undead might come from.
I could have just assumed these creatures come from the same Hell and Abyss that 5th Edition uses, but I thought that would be a cop-out. Part of what folks are paying for is my take on these things. And I take that seriously.
Then once I knew where these things came from, I had to figure out what they were! Not, like, their stats, that won't happen until we're in production, but their lore and some of their design. Like, which one of these is the Leader, which is the Brute, which is the Priest, etc....
That's done, the art is done, and I'm pretty happy with it. It will feature heavily in the K&W Kickstarter.
I'm basically done with everything I need to do, everything else is just art which means Jason is burning the midnight oil even as we speak. I think we're down to one last illustration and a bunch of graphics. Mr. Schmuck is helping with those.
The minis were a big hit from S&F so we're doubling down on that and planning on doing a lot of new minis depending on how well crowdfunding goes. That requires a lot of art and 3D modeling and discussions with our partners at Trenchworx to figure out how to produce these things and what they'll cost. All that is basically done now.
The Player's Guide To Capital
Capital is the city my Chain of Acheron game takes place in and I've spent I-dunno-how-many-hours developing it. A lot. We did several hours of worldbuilding before the campaign began, and then almost every session since then (27 sessions? 28? I don't remember) I did some more worldbuilding (citybuilding?) to flesh the city out.
The campaign is popular, the city seems popular, I did a ton of work on it and I felt like hey...maybe we should make this a product? No Kickstarter, just...spend the money and pay some writers and artists to develop it. I think folks will like it and also it'll make my campaign a lot easier to run! :D
This won't be a definitive campaign setting, it's just enough to get a GM started and help a player roleplay a character in and from the city. But if it does well, certainly we could expand it into something much larger.
This process requires freelance writers and we put out the call months ago. Early on I decided I would go through every application and, if there was any examples included, read some of everything. I figured, even if you've never worked as a freelancer, you might still have what it takes.
Well, that was probably a mistake as it took me about 3 weeks to go through all the applications, we got over 500! And I really did read a little bit from everything attached. Looking back, I probably should have been a lot pickier about the application process because that three weeks was the time I had set aside to get the outline done and pick the writers!
Now the Chain of Acheron is on hold, my work on the K&W Kickstarter is done, so I'm focusing on the Player's Guide to Capital. I'm working on the outline right now, I expect to have it done next week. Then I go through the 20 or so writers who made it to the final round and begin figuring out who's going to help write this thing.
Once that's done, once the writing is all assigned, I think it'll only take about 3 weeks to write the whole thing, and I'll be acting as editor, keeping everything consistent and make sure it has the MCDM tone.
This is much less work than writing it all myself and it's my hope we end up with a stable of writers we can use regularly on everything moving forward, and make a lot more stuff! It'll be a huge leap forward for MCDM as a company, and something I'm really really looking forward to.
The Chain of Acheron
The Chain is on break right now and the bad news is; when it comes back it'll only be for like 3-6 weeks? Then we'll have another break, but the good news is; neither of these breaks are permanent. :D
Prepping the Chain is more time intensive than any campaign I've run before. My last two campaigns I just used old adventures I'd already run before, but a LOT of the Chain is boutique content; both adventure content and setting content and it requires several days a week to get ready sometimes.
The Kickstarter was so much work there was no way I could do that and prep and run the Chain so my current plan is; finish the outline for the Player's Guide to Capital, assign it to writers, then begin prepping both the Heist and the Battle of Ringwell which is the end of Book One. I say "begin prepping" but I already have some work done.
Then when that's all prepped, we can play for weeks without me needing to spend any time during the week getting ready.
Once Book One is done, I put the Chain down for a while and work on the design for K&W while I prep Book Two. We're going to see the Chain fight Ajax and Mortum, and we're going to learn the secrets of Ringwell, why humans have so many gods, and where Ajax gets his power from before this campaign ends. :D
Running The Game
We're still making RTG videos! I don't think it will ever stop. We got ideas for lots more videos, and videos outside the scope of roleplaying. But Running the Game will continue as long as I keep learning and have anything interesting to say!
That's it folks, thanks for sticking with us, thanks for supporting us, I look forward to putting tons of new content in front of you soon!
Peace, Out.
Comments
Deacon Mike Welker
Question: I don't see a digital management note, so I wanted to check: this is a thing I'll load to my Lulu account to print for personal use... probably a nice hardcover. Just checking to be sure I can do it, or if you would grant explicit permission (in case Lulu kicks my project out).
Cameron Brigham
A bit late to this post, but I echo the others in saying all your efforts are appreciated. For myself, I'm glad to support the creative work that you're helming; it's really heartwarming to see you have the resources to do things the way you want, and doubly so to be even just on the edge of the wonderful community that you've fostered along the way.
I appreciate your dedication to us, the hobby, and yourself matt! If theres anything we can do to help let us know! And please, take a break for yourself somewhere in all that too, your mental and physical health are more important than all of this other stuff and it sounds like your going into crunch mode!
Bryan Korth
I thoroughly enjoy getting to peek behind the curtain in these updates. Communication is so critical in this day and I truly feel you and your co-workers at MCDM have been fantastic about not only keeping the lines open but also being honest about all the aspects. I am excited to see what comes next and feel like the small amount I can contribute to the cause is well received and in good hands. Keep up the good work all!
Matthias Havrez
I have a feeling Tom Schmuck could very much be working full time at MCDM if the Kickstarter goes well. If he chooses to apply for the job, of course.
John Champion
These behind-the-scenes updates are really awesome, thanks for taking time to write one up for us :)
Thanks for the update Matt. Though it sucks to have to wait for all the good stuff in the pipeline, keeping us apprised and knowing that you're committed to delivering the quality content you believe in is reassuring 😁
