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 about what we’re planning.

TL;DR; I hope you like MCDM art, writing, design and worldbuilding, because you’re about to get a lot more of it! 😀

The OGL

Unfortunately there’s no real way to explain what we’re doing without explaining What’s Happening In The TTRPG Industry right now and I realize this is pretty tedious but there’s nothing for it. For those of us directly affected by this news, it seems like everyone is talking about it when in fact I suspect most folks in the larger roleplaying community really have no idea that there’s even anything to talk about. So! A brief primer on how we got here, and where “here” is.

For the last 5 (!) years, MCDM has made content for your 5E game. We are able to legally do that because of a license Wizards of the Coast published about 20 years ago called the Open Gaming License (OGL).

OGL 1.0 makes it possible for everyone to make their own content for WotC’s fantasy RPG. I was working at Wizards of the Coast (in a satellite office in LA) when this all started, so I was pretty close to ground zero for what they called the D20 Boom. And then the D20 Glut and, eventually, the D20 Bust. That’s ancient history now, but the point is, lots of companies in the last 20+ years have used the OGL to make their own content for WotC’s game.

Well, Wizards is changing the terms of that license and the new terms are very…challenging. There’s a lot of “advice” floating around online surrounding all of this, but we have our own lawyers who specialize in exactly this stuff and they’re not incredibly enthusiastic about the new terms, and neither are we!

But frankly…we never really thought of ourselves as making DLC for the Seattle Company anyway. We always thought we were making dope stuff for your table. And we still think that way!

We’re really proud of the community we’ve all built here. Getting three high-quality, crunchy articles done every month is not easy! And we intend to continue using this Patreon to supply you with high-quality fantasy (and High Fantasy and maybe Space Fantasy depending on how much of a genre snob you are) content.

But moving forward, we’re going to start rotating in more worldbuilding stuff for Orden and the Timescape. There will not, at first, be any mechanics for these articles: they’ll just be like an ongoing Gazetteer of our multiverse. If you’ve read our books, or watched The Chain of Acheron, or Dusk, we’re gonna give you a LOT more info on all that. Maps! NPCs! More Time Raider lore! Wode Elves, The City of Capital, The Greatest City in This or Any Age!

But that’s later. In the very short term, nothing much is gonna change.

This Patreon, The Short Term

For now, and for at least a few months, nothing’s changing! We got tons of cool 5E articles and art in the pike and we’re excited about all of it. We have content already in development all the way out to July.

But you may notice there’s a new tier, the $8 MCDM+ tier. Moving forward, we’re going to start developing more setting-based content that can be used in any fantasy game, or just be fun to read and inspire ideas.

This Patreon, The Long Term

Aka The Inevitable MCDM RPG…

The flip side of this is; July will be the last batch of 5E-specific articles. The new license just doesn’t make sense for us. So, starting…pretty soon you’re going to see new articles in the MCDM+ tier that are specifically focused on the lore and worldbuilding of Orden and the Timescape. This is an incredibly broad subject and we’re looking forward to developing NPCs, Organizations, Maps, Fiction, Culture, Ecologies, tons of dope stuff, all developed at exactly the same bar of quality as you’re used to.

Eventually, later this year, you’ll start seeing actual prototype design for the As Yet Untitled, Inevitable MCDM RPG in the MCDM+ Tier. We don’t know exactly what the schedule will be, but if you’ve preordered Flee, Mortals! you have some idea how we plan on doing this. Once we feel good about the design, probably around the same time something new would go to playtesting, we’ll share it here with you!

Now, that’s not how we normally do things when we crowdfund something. Because in my experience, if you share very early, speculative ideas, some folks fall in love with them and they get very frisky if you cut it later because it didn’t work or make sense. Which is common.

So normally our backers on Kickstarter only see the design once it’s been through testing. But patrons aren’t the same as backers. We think the patrons (you!) are here for the long haul. Whereas some backers don’t even really know who we are—they just saw an ad, and liked the idea. Fair enough! And of course, some backers are VERY SERIOUS about MCDM! 😀

But I think you folks, or at least some and maybe even most of you, are less likely to freak out if we talk about a prototype…class or ancestry and it gets changed or cut. So I think it makes sense to bring you in closer to the process.

We have been talking internally now (and publicly in my Twitch streams) for over a year about developing our own RPG. Still a monster-fighting game. Heroic fantasy. With all the lore and characters and monsters you’ve been reading about in our books, just with (what we think will be) better design. Our own design. The brand statement is “Tactical & Cinematic.” The DUSK campaign I ran is a pretty good example of that, but we have no desire to fork another game’s design. DUSK is just a good example of the vibe we want.

Of course, given the climate, a narrative will crop up around this. But the reality is; we were probably going to do this anyway, and probably this year.

When I first interviewed James Introcaso for the Lead Design position, I asked him what his ambitions were long-term and he said “Well, I don’t want to work on 5E the rest of my life!”  “Me neither!” I said.

We flew James out to California almost exactly a year ago and spent some time kicking ideas around for how The Inevitable MCDM RPG might work. And we’ve got a channel in our private discord where we just talk about what kind of design we like for various things.

Now we’ve added Hannah Rose to the design team and we’re flying her AND James out to Irvine next week just to start working on The Inevitable MCDM RPG.

I bring all this up, not just because I hope this idea excites you, but also because I know there’s going to be a narrative online about why we’re doing this. I don’t mind that. Whatever.

But honestly I have no idea what the next big project was going to be after Flee, Mortals! and I suspect this year was going to be the year we started working full-time on our own game anyway. The Seattle Company just made that decision a lot easier. We went from “we should fly Hannah and James out in January,” to “Oh. OH. Yep! Time to get them out here!”

So, More About Orden & The Timescape

I really, really wanted to wait to announce this until we had at least one MCDM+ article done to show you. But many of the artists and designers we work with started…expressing…concern that future MCDM work might be drying up (quite the opposite). We pay our creative partners well. I think we have literally the highest rates in the industry. Certainly we pay better than The Seattle Company. And we work hard to support everyone who’s working with us. Give them clear direction, timely feedback. Pay on time, pay for revisions which it seems like almost no one does.

Some of those folks were worried this might all change, so we wrote a memo communicating our plans to the writers and designers and testers we work with, and at that point it didn’t make sense to tell them without telling you!

I’m not sure when the first MCDM+ article will be done? But it shouldn’t take long. And then there should be a flow of new articles that will only increase for a while.

These articles won’t come bundled in issues—we’ll just drop them when they’re ready. Each one will be professionally written (starting from an outline written by me), illustrated, and laid out just like you’re used to.

This is going to be a new process for us: me writing the outlines and then us finding freelancers to write them, so there may be some growing pains here, but I suspect we’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly. Eventually our setting and style will be well-known enough that I won’t even have to write the outline! Then the flow of articles will really ramp up, I think.

And Eventually An Original RPG

Yeah! We’re gonna make our own game. This year! I don’t think it’ll be d20 based, but it’ll definitely be a Heroic Monster Fighting Game, probably with a couple of other neglected pillars thrown in.

When I was younger, I really wanted to have my own Big Ego Project. You know, a hardcover RPG written and designed by MOI. But having sorta done that at a very small scale with Strongholds & Followers, I quite prefer working in a collaborative environment. I’m still the Design Director, but like being a Game Master, I don’t WANT to start this adventure with the plot already laid out. I have broad ideas about what kind of game this should be (see above, Monsters, the Fighting Thereof. Cinematic and Tactical) and I really look forward to brainstorming ways to make that kind of game feel modern, with an experienced team of designers.

To that end, we’re flying James and Hannah out to SoCal next week and we’re going to spend the week developing the core rules for our own game. I believe very strongly in rapid prototyping, so we’ll be focusing on low-level nuts and bolts design, so that we can fight a battle with a 1st level PC and some goblins and see how it feels. Then iterate on that until it’s REALLY fun.

So, I dunno when you’ll start seeing the first drops of design? But when it does, when we’ve tested it (even on a very tiny scale) we’ll share it with everyone in the MCDM+ tier which I think we’ll probably rename to something more evocative once we’re done brainstorming. Get a logo, that kind of thing. 😀

The Patreon Tiers

Right now, we have two tiers, one of which you can’t see unless you backed it a while ago. And we’re adding one tier for MCDM+. So here’s the PLN.

The $5 Tier

This is the classic tier we created a million years ago for folks who just wanted to support the videos or MCDM. This tier has been getting ARCADIA and will continue to do so! But only up to July at which point ARCADIA is going away and the tier will revert back to its original function which was “I just want to support you folks, here’s $5.”

The $8 MCDM+ Tier

This is a new tier we’re creating for everyone who wants to follow the ongoing development of the MCDM RPG, as well as get all the MCDM Setting Articles. Like the Player’s Guide To Capital, which we’ll start releasing content for pretty soon. But also everything about the Timescape and Orden. Do you like the MCDM Orcs in Flee, Mortals!? Well, MCDM+ is where you can find out more about them and everything else we’ve created so far.

The $10 Tier

This has been the ARCADIA tier for the last two years, but July is the last 5E ARCADIA issue. After that this is just the “MCDM+ But It Costs $10 Tier.” There’s always a few folks who want to show more support, and this is the tier for them.

Everything Else

Running the Game isn’t going anywhere. It’s never really had anything to do with any specific rules system. I ran 4E for a while last year and we got a BUNCH of RTG videos out of it! And I just started prepping DUSK Book II, which I’m sure will generate even more videos. Just finished recording a RTG video today!

Flee, Mortals! and The Talent will release this year, that’s certain. We are still moving forward with the revision to the Illrigger. The Player’s Guide To Capital is still gonna happen, already got 60,000 words written and SOME of that might come out this year with some 5E mechanics (like Titles).

That’s it! I think that’s the update. More ARCADIA through ‘til July, and by then you’ll have already gotten new content in the MCDM+ tier.

I want to tell you folks; I’ve worked on big teams, and small teams. I started at a tiny (but powerful) company called Last Unicorn Games, then Wizards of the Coast, Decipher, Pandemic Studios, Turtle Rock Studios and I honestly believe, pound-for-pound, MCDM is the best team I’ve worked with. I have zero doubt we’re gonna make something you folks will be excited by.

And I’ve never worked anywhere that has a community like MCDM. There are folks out there who really believe in us. We do not want to let them down.