I love the confidence to say "this game's not that." It tells me the game will he unique, itself, and not bend over backwards to kinda please almost everyone instead of really exciting a whole bunch.
I’d like to bring in the quote “A game for everyone is a game for no one,” which I believe is or was Arrowhead’s official motto at one point(the folks who made Magica and Helldivers)
@@JD-wu5pfThey only got defensive when they had to say for the 10th time "We are a Heroic fantasy game, if you don't want heroic fantasy then our game is not for you" if I had to keep answering the same question Id be annoyed as well
@JD-wu5pf It didn't really come off as defensive to me. It was more like general frustration. Like if you are teaching a math class, but the kids keep asking about history because they think that's what they should be asking. And if that was 80% of the comments, it's possible he needed to shut it down so that they could get the relevant questions. I think he was just a little frustrated, and decided to be direct about it. And given the context and the potential need for quick action, I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out the issue with his response.
I love the idea of the Necromancer summoning armor/weapons. I once described my necromancy wizard (5e) as bringing an Ethereal skeleton out of the ground, and then walking into it and it surrounding his body. When someone asked "How are you doing that?" Immediately after I said it, I said "I cast Mage Armor."
Savage worlds has the built in concept that you build spells by taking a generic "power" and adding a "trapping" (the flavor) to it along with some modifiers and limitations. Makes for a simple way to make your magic really feel your own. Just one of the things that system dose so well. 😊
I think Divinity Original Sin 2 would be a good comparison to how much health the characters have in the MCDM RPG. In BG3, you miss 1/3rd of the time, representing 5e, but in DOS2, you have more health and always hit almost all the time. DOS2 focuses more on tactical choices and is more cinematic, with crazy cool stuff happening all the time and great feeling abilities, but it is still a turn based RPG and very similar to D&D and beloved.
I think I liked Div2 more than BG3 purely because it felt more like dnd to me in it's vibe and fantasy. I loved the skill acquisition and build freedom too.
Div 2 is a better game but is a game not a combat simulation (with fantasy elements) which a TTRPG mechanic should be. Hitting almost all the time (especially for ranged weapons) - is ridiculous and take away all tension - are we saying every arrow has a keese eyeball stuck at the end of it? This is an AI based himars battle armour simulator, not fantasy medieval combat.
@@fedupguy2004If you want a TTRPG with more believable combat, _please_ look into Mythras (and it's D&D clone cousin Classic Fantasy). It's combat system is brilliant. Everyone gets two or three AP. When an attack happens, the defender can spend an AP to roll as well. If the defender succeeds, they _parried_ the strike. For each "degree of success" one has over the other (a defender with a Success and an attacker with a Failure for instance) that person gets to use a Special Effect. Special Effects are numerous and some are weapon-specific. If you parried, maybe you make the enemy overstep to give yourself an advantage, or use the opportunity to close range (range is a thing in melee) or, with a crit, disarm them or something. As the attacker, maybe you dent their armor and impede their movement, or make them bleed (which is pretty much a fight-ender), or stab them through a gap in their armor, or all sorts of other things. The upshot of this is that people have made blog posts about recreating movie duels pretty accurately, like, blow by blow, with Mythras combat mechanics. Shields let you passively protect part of your body or function as a really huge weapon that can't be bashed away for parrying, so they're _extremely_ useful. Ranged combat is pretty believable too. As a single archer your chances of landing shots _sucks,_ particularly once a fight has started, and shooting into a melee is just a bad idea. But if you all hop in some bushes and ambush someone... the fight's just over, unless their armor saves them. It walks a perfect line between people not being damage sponges, combat having serious consequences, and not having the "well, I took 1 damage, I'm dead" problem and having armor that actually works. Like, armor just reduces damage taken and the armor / damage values do a fairly good job of simulating how useful armor is (and how big-ass heavy weapons _will_ punch through it anyways). And SOMEHOW it manages to do all of this without being incredibly cumbersome. Of course it's a lot to keep in your head at first, but it's built in a way that keeps things moving quicker than you'd expect, and fights are often quicker IRL than they would be in D&D.
Designing subclasses is great for homebrewers and 3rd party devs, so I think it makes a lot of sense for the core design to be focused on classes first. When I was playing D&D I loved coming up with really niche concepts for subclasses, sometimes just to fit one singular character, the kind of thing that wouldn't make any sense to put in a core book but is really fun to design and play.
In regards to the always hitting people in combat and a narrative, the way I would describe it at least is that don't consider an attack a "stab" but rather a "combat move"/sequence meaning in this "attack" several slashes and stabs have misses but one hits (hard or merely nicks) the person in question. Making the narrative completely logical and however one wants it. As for shapeshifter, make the resource transformation points. So you can turn into a animal (for free, what animals depends on level (perhaps size /type is level based) Then have different abilities require different point cost. Blindsight, Tremor sense, horns, Swallow whole and so on. Then lock some of these abilities behind a level. So by spending enough points you can have a bear with wings and blindsight for example.
I'm super interested in this game and think it's going to explore such an important design space for players. The thing is, I'm absolutely a torch tracking, ration checkboxing "coins as weight" "elf as class" type player and referee. I think of myself as a ref, not a dm! But I know for a fact that there are people out there wanting to play an entirely different kind of game, scratch a different itch, and the game I've poured my heart into? it's not that game for them! I know this, and the interesting thing is that I feel like most games are some kind of 60/40 split, where neither side is entirely happy. The good news for me is that B/X and OD&D have been filed down to their sharp fangs, lean and mean (check out Wolves Upon The Coast! 3 stats! No classes! Most characters starve on boats!), and the *GREAT* news for players who cannot fathom why or how I"m having any fun at all? I want them to have a game that feeds that heroic high crunch tactical play, where every swing explodes. I think it's sincerely cool, the thing you're making, and while it's definitely not for me, I'm happy I can point to a game and say "there! soon, there will be the thing you keep bugging me for. Go bug them!"
@@nerzenjaeger I mean, I solidly disagree with the okay he's pushing as far as my fun goes, so this game will make for an amazing shorthand for when someone isn't playing in my wheelhouse. And you're welcome! Luke Gearing's brutal world deserves all the attention we can give it.
I’ve wanted to get into D&D for the longest time, but found it kind of dull where games would fizzle out naturally, in hindsight my issues where to do with game design and not having an alternative beyond adhoc house rules. I believe in this new TTRPG, super excited!
The main thing I'm curious about, with respect to the MCDM RPG (and I did back it) is -- what role will treasure and magic items play in it? I was very impressed with and affected by Matt's old video (I think it was "What is a dungeon for?"), where he pointed out that 4th and 5th editions of D&D did not at all emphasize treasure as a way of customizing characters. (Whereas 1st & 2nd editions were all about magic items as rewards and cool powers.) So where, on that scale, will the MCDM RPG's relationship with magic items be?
While I detest the idea of material goods defining one's character, people being defined by stuff just never sat well with me, I definitely would like more magic items and equipment support. Especially if they can make the magic items seem *special* rather than 'oh, just another ho-hum +1 magic longsword.' Something between the Christmas Tree effect of 3.5 and the barren wastes of 4th edition, and the swingy spotty version of 5th edition.
The said you’d likely get a plus to whatever the item does normally (damage, hit points, etc) plus something extra. Also you’ll have a crafting system. They sound all about magic item support.
I also recall that they said the magic items would be part of the player book as a way of giving the characters ideas for loot they could pursue in the adventure. I think in that way, a player has the freedom to customize their character based on loot they can look for in-game, or not.
The CHIMERA: shapeshifter class. Its not just a fantasy lion, its a fantasy lion with wings and a scorpions tail. Its a wolf with a sharks mouth and a frog tongue that moves quickly and pulls in its prey. It is the snake with an owls head and a squirts ink for escaping. It is the jack of all trades melee combatant, and it does it by customizing its body with X parts. A torso, a head, and a twist (tail, wings, tongues, webs, acid spit...etc) nature is crazy. A shapeshifter is a fantasy mad scientist focused on genetic engineering.
That fits very well into something you could unlock after a certain point. Chimera is limited to normal animals for a certain amount of levels, then unlocks knowledge of things like monstrosities (like how technically druids shouldn’t be able to be owlbears, but by this point it’s pretty much accepted). Then they gain the skill to cobble together different features from different animals and monsters at an even higher level. Maybe with a menu of traits.
I very much liked the *tone* in the dwarf sample in particular. It felt a lot less like an encyclopedia entry and a lot more like a dwarf trying to sell you on why dwarves are cool :D
The shifter character has always come into it's own for me when it starts branching out and modifying itself. So like a low level shifter would be, like you said, just a bear, but then over time as they gain access to other forms they can start to chimera themselves. Think Suneater from My Hero or Alex Mercer from Prototype as some examples. I think there's room in that fantasy especially if they gain some level of access to the magical abilities of monsters they fight and then shift into like the lightning abilities of a small kraken or breath attacks or poison that they can spend their heroic resource to gain temporary access to. That way shapeshifting feels more like an action that can be used any time and then their heroic resource is what gives them their chimeric or magical abilities, leaving the opportunity open to have the shifting feel more like, "My character is a shapeshifter." as opposed to, "My character has shapeshifting spells."
This honestly is the best take on the shifter I’ve seen. Classes like the Druid get kind of bogged down by having to either print and have stat blocks for 10’s of forms when in reality it turns into my Druid is a bear from 3-5 a velociraptor from 6-9 and then a giant ape/ mammoth for the rest of the game. I think a classes that has beastial powers fixes that a lot and actually offers a lot more variety than the tradition shifter/Druid classes
This! This is a class I've always wanted to play. Pathfinder had a concept similar to this in the Synthesist archetype of the Summoner. Essentially instead of summoning an eidolon you fused with one and could build up what characteristics your eidolon had over the course of time. Sounded super cool to me but I was discouraged from pursuing it because apparently the design was super OP according to the community.
I agree and love the idea but it is possible that they make that a beastheart subclass, and despite my feeling that the shapeshifter fantasy has more weight behind it that they are giving it credit for, for my table at least, that would be roughly enough
The game of Ur, the oldest recorded board game, uses a 2d4 system. Rolling a couple of dice to determine a result is literally thousands of years old, so f### the haters. Game design is old, but your take is fresh.
"Shapeshifter probably isn't robust enough to support the fantasy" Spoken like a man who's never loved a Beast Boy, or leaned hard into what shapeshifting means in a world with Chimeras running around. I ABSOLUTELY would love to play a class that goes from turning into a variety of animals with unique niches at level 1, to turning into dire forms with crazy natural weapons at level 5, to freely mix and matching nightmare amalgamations with supernatural capabilities at level 10. Absolutely. Heroic resource could be Wildness to represent how becoming a beast warps your perspective of self so you can't go TOO wild without losing control, or it could be something like Stability, where you start with a high value, and the more you shift over a combat, the more readily your body morphs into other forms, allowing you access to wilder and more drastic transformations. I want that real bad, actually.
If I want to narrate that an attack with a weapon physically does not connect with the vital flesh of the target, when the system dictates the target took 4 damage...I'll just narrate that. " Crawlman, you take 4 damage as the goatman jabs at you with a rusty spear; putting you on the back foot as you desperately suck your gut in to barely avoid being skewered." I do this now; it's established that HP does not equal ONLY physical bodily harm, but is an abstract measurement of the character's capacity to endure and withstand the harmful conditions they find themselves in. Psychic Damage in dnd5e doesn't touch the body. Vicious Mockery doesn't open cuts on the skin of the victim. It harms their willingness to continue in the circumstance. Saving throw against Fireball results in damage on a success: it doesn't mean the fighter was just "burned less" than those who failed: it means that the scrambled and tripped over themselves dodging the blast by a dramaticly small margin that depletes their ability to exert themselves going forward. (Meanwhile, the rogue is so alert, lucky or nimble that on a failure, he achieved that same narrow escape while on a success, she instead danced away with such alacrity that it was as if she was moving before the spell was even cast; she probably recognized the incantation or hand gestures of the casting before it was completed.) Sleep knocks people out based on HP value. The HP is determining the target's innate ability to resist the sensation that leads to one person paying attention in class and the other falling asleep at their desk. A person who is over-exerted, wounded, or mentally drained will be more susceptable to falling asleep involuntarily than one who is hale and hearty or possessed of higher innate ability to resist the compulsions of their own physiology/psychology. 3 examples is enough, I think. The default of each hit = bodily harm is not cinematic in the slightest, unless the character is Terminator. A mage damaged by a club attack might be described as a runic energy shield interposing against the strike, and shattering like glass, the mage stumbling under the impact. In reality, a single attack from any weapon has the capacity for a 1-hit kill. Cinematic story telling encourages creative interpretation of mechanical outcomes, both to heighten the drama and minimize the absurdity of the game-ified storytelling. I often see people narrate a miss against a heavy-armored target as the weapon harmlessly rebounding or glancing off....so the attack missed, but the weapon hit. It's simply described in the more "realistic" and dramatic fashion for the sake of enjoyment. It's the same thing when the weapon makes no contact, but the Attack hits: the character has to react unfavorably to avoid the weapon in the fiction, which explains the HP loss in the game, which lends itself to dramatic highlights (high damage, Bloodied, 0 HP, tension climaxes) where that sword stopped hitting the shield and instead drew blood. See the 70's (?) MacBeth film; final duel; for a good example of two platemail warriors bouncing swords off armor, staggering, making desperate choices and futile efforts until, in the only attack that deals any actual "wound," the fight is ended in only one occasion of blade-meets-flesh. MCDM RPG is shaping up to emulate that: a missed attack, in reality and fiction, still makes progress in any fight. So eliminating attack rolls need not remove swords swinging and duelist's ducking low to avoid losing their head: instead, the one who dodged had to have agency in avoiding their own demise, and expended resources: energy; stance; equipment; lung capacity; concentration; balance; willpower; confidence; to avoid a worse outcome. "Every single Attack that hits = a weapon harming a target's body" is absurd if you were to see it in living action. Think about video game shooters: a human takes 36 gunshots to the chest, totally unphased. Only the meter going down matters, not the physics. Video games lack the hardware to allow for versimilitude to such a small degree. Hellish Quart is an exception: one contact of the weapon on flesh is often a deathblow. In abstract, the constant parries, blows and dodges that prevent the duelists from simply attacking 100% of the time are the HP number going down. TTRPG's are burdened with no such limitations; only limited imagination. Try it out. Don't let game mechanics determine how you describe the story - let the story determine how you describe the mechanics. Can't wait to see how MCDM turns out; backed today. I've already heard some game system details that evoke Schwalb's Shadow of the Demon Lord (d6 dmg system; Boons & Banes, streamlined initiative) but MCDM seems to be taking another step forward from the classic D20 system into a new generation of ideas. A fully integrated system for Madness & Insanity (mental stress) would make me giddy, it is one thing SotDL implemented very well, as a thematic blend of D20 and Warhammer Fantasy. Steal from it! I am very excited. Also - the Shadow's "Doom" sounds odd in a vacuum, maybe "Grit", "Ploys", "Exploit" or such, something evoking skill and cunning rather than Death Dealer or Bran mac Mourn. Also....looking for a Warlock. 5e and 4e has the most flavorful warlocks. Get warlock Patrons in there!!!!! (Illrigger might already fit this mold). Peace.........Out
A shapeshifter absolutely could be an entire class. If you limit the scale to a bear, then yes, eventually they will get outscaled, but you just need to scale their capabilities.
I mean, when i think about cinematic action shapeshifters, i think about a character that keeps changing shapes for different advantages. Basically Beast Boy. Turn into a bird to fly into the castle, then turn into a rhino to clear a hall. Then turn into an ape to swing from a rope. Land on someone as a porcupine. Then turn into a lion and maul them. To me, that is cinematic action shapeshifting.
If a human fighter doesn't fall off, why would a bear? Think of playing Beorn and turning into a big bear: would fighting a dragon with that really be less believable than a guy with a sword doing the same?
Regarding print campaigns: an alternative to hardcover anthology could release soft cover anthology in a hardcover folio sleeve. Has the same benefits of on the shelf appearance but keeps each campaign its own little book and also lets you do print orders once there are more published pdfs to give you that 300 page threshold
The balance between the victory and recovery resources is really cool. I like how you are trying to balance use vs consuming of resources. I also like the wealth mechanism. A couple new video games have this. (I know that’s not where you got it from). Lotting as much as you can carry and then trying to find a merchant that will buy it isn’t all that fun.
I think that a shapeshifter class would be interesting. Like a doppelganger type character that can morph into other sentient beings, animals, and more. Maybe they could also do Venom type things where they can morph their body into tentacle or other weapon-like things. Maybe they could also do other amorphous things like squeeze through cracks and such.
Oh yes Matt, I did read that Dwarf entry! That may just have been the most exciting part of it all! To my own surprise. Putting aside everything it says about your own version of dwarves (which is fascinating in its own right), it's HOW you chose to present it that is so much more engaging than any lore entry I've ever read! And that's coming from someone who's spent the last two decades devouring -boring- traditional lore entries down to every single footnote, I live on that kind of stuff... But if _that's_ what we can expect for everything in these books? Do bring it on! 🔥 It looks like even people who usually can't read that stuff past the second sentence might enjoy it, even find it inspiring!
1:12:00 I'm not sure if I'm a minority, but I'd love a shapeshifting "martial" class. I loved the fantasy that I envisioned reading 1990's Werewolf the Apocalypse but in a game like the one you're working on where - to quote Matt - I get to do dope shit. Totally would be fine if such a class ends up as a supplement, but it's certainly something I'd buy as quickly as I did the Talent. Sure you can do a lot with just flavouring other classes/systems, but it's a lot better if the class you're playing already encapsulates the fantasy you're trying to create, rather than fighting against the words on the page to add you're own flavour that runs counter to every ability name. I'm leaning more at a gripe at D&D towards the end here, where some classes are bland with no flavour by default, and others are so specific in exactly one flavour and it seems "tradition" is their only reason for doing that, and its irritated me more with each passing decade.
I hadn't heard anything until this video about how death and titles work but I love the idea of getting a title due to dying. "Is that Uther the undying?" "That is I. Drop your weapons you cannot win this battle."
@@nerzenjaeger If the enemie's low damage attacks are also worded that way it is consistent. Whats weirder, narrating that the attacks were barely parried and tht the blows rained heavily on your shiedl sapping your strength to keep them at bay, or that you took 4 sword thrusts leaving open wounds and somehow aren't bleeding out from all these hits.
@@Illianor123the characters are action heroes in my campaigns, they’re John Wick, this is Die Hard, they get shot in the thigh, stabbed a half-inch deep in the gut, nicked in the face, bruised and beaten within an inch of their life, but until their health hits zero, they push through it, be it adrenaline or supernatural strength. When a hit takes them to zero, the enemy hit an artery, got a head shot, caved their skull in, the types of injuries you CANT walk away from. This is how literally every DM I’ve ever played or even watched stream has run it as well, and I’m honestly baffled at how many people online act like it just can’t work like this, like it requires an unreasonable amount of suspension of disbelief.
I want to see a stronger Ranger archetype. Emphasis on being good at ranged and melee weapons, hit and run tactics, exploiting enemy weaknesses, etc. If you're allowed to you could call it The Strider, The Outrider, or The Warden. Or make it less of a Ranger and more of an exploitative dirty fighter. The Drifter, The Outcast, or The Vagrant
Both the tactician (controlling the battlefield) and the shadow (exploiting weekends) seem to have this covered already, maybe the ranger "flavour" will be more of a kit choice, so you could be tactician-ranger, shadow-ranger, and maybe even fury-ranger, being primarily mechanically another class, but carrying the ranger vibe along
Witches are the one fantasy I feel like is very difficult to reskin into existing dnd classes. It encompasses a lot of distinct ideas, like the dnd wizard, but I don’t think you need to serve all of them, like they say, as they become increasingly niche. I’d just like a robust official build in my fantasy game.
@@VeronicaWarlock It's not official but the Worlds Beyond Number folks have a Witch Class that they commissioned to use on their 5e podcast. I haven't played it but I believe the 5 second pitch was "Crafting & Consequences". They have many subclasses to represent the different kinds of witches, from the old granny giving out herbal remedies in a small town to the hag in a travelling hut that people tell stories about.
@nerzenjaeger yes, I'm sure you feel so mature with your lack of flavorful expletives. I hope the superiority you feel makes up for the involuntary disgust you have to endure
To the point of people being unsure of the narrative value of "never missing"...understand that losing HP doesn't have to equate to being wounded. In table top you don't have stamina bars so if you hit a character with 25 hp for 4 damage maybe your character just hit their shield hard af and you winded them in the midfle of a fight or forced a character to do a strenuous dodge putting them off balance these things aren't deadly but they are pushing them towards exhaustion and that leafs to mistakes and opening that allow your PCs to make those killing blows.... these dont have to be game mechanics just narrative points for dramstic effect If you knick and slash a characters arms and legs a dozen times for 3 damage eventually they just aren't gonna have quads or biceps anymore tk slash and your just saying the same shit over and over haha. Where as a gnarly critical hit could be a proper knife to the side or a sword to the belly. Think outside thr box for what is bringing your characters closer to defeat.
I know you said ActualPlays had no real value, but "How is this game that's so different from anything I've ever known even supposed to work in practice?" is absolutely answered by ActualPlay. "Show, Don't Tell" as they say in showbiz. It's one thing to let people see how the sausage is made, but ground carcass stuffed in intestines doesn't sound appetizing if you're used to eating raw tree bark and pond scum. It's another to cook a piece in front of them, let them watch it brown and smell the delicious meaty aroma of real, filling, nutritious food.
Super excited for this game! 1:21:26 I would love to play an Elric type of character, that's my favorite fantasy archetype. Especially as a Fury subclass like James suggested; I used to love Rage Mage and Bloodrager back in my D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder 1E days and the storm magic barbarians in D&D 4e and 5e.
It will take time for people to disconnect "health" with progress. I like how some systems treat it more like luck, where reasonably speaking any single *hit* could / should be lethal but that killing blow doesn't come until their luck runs out.
I'm gonna make my own RPG system and then pay people to play-test it, but in reality it was all a ruse to play without scheduling problems. In all seriousness, great work you're doing here. I'm really looking forward to this game.
1:38:00 Mike Shea talking about a hope for a universal VTT format (.json layout etc) between systems. Obviously, that's not something that the Seattle company would sheppard, but maybe whoever you are going to pay to make yours could at least reach out to the Foundy/Fantasy Grounds/Roll20/Owlbear teams and see if there is any will to make new rpg systems easier to integrate. I'm sure your own VTT will work the best for your game, but I can see a lot of players that would rather stick with a VTT they know/paid for even if its sub optimal, then invest in and have to learn something new.
The other thing I'll add about the VTT. I've been a patreon at the £7 tier since you announced your RPG, and I'm often not in the right frame of mind to even read all of the stuff that's given my access to, but I don't mind paying it. Yet, as soon as you said that your VTT would likely be sub based, my initial reaction was negative. For the same reason - like you talked about with Adobe - the idea that everything I've worked on in that VTT, the very campaign I'm playing, could be taken away from me if for whatever reason I need to cancel that sub. I already know atrists that talk about their Photoshop subscription like Adobe is holding all the work they've ever created hostage in exchange for that subscription. I hope you find some middle ground that gives more people access to your product, while still allowing those that are able and wish to show more support the option to do so, for some premium features or just their own good will. I believe Foundry is a buy to use model, and they also have a patreon to support future developments and improvements.
@@XanothAvaeth You have to differentiate between software that's a finished release and software that's actually a service. The problem people have with Photoshop and other Adobe products being a subscription is (besides the bad implementation and the borderline illegal forcing of a new EULA to access previous work) is that (most of it) has no ongoing cost for Adobe and was previously a one-time fee for a perpetual license (there are ongoing costs for AI features maybe if they're in the cloud, but that could be addressed with credits). A VTT that's hosted somewhere is a service and has non-trivial, ongoing costs. Foundry is able to offer a one-time fee because their VTT is self-hosted. This is not for everyone. There's also the additional consideration of ongoing support and development. If you're Adobe, the volume will allow you to produce new versions and keep supporting old ones. VTTs are a much more niche product and despite this can't charge much for licenses to make up for low volume. In practice, this means that ensuring ongoing support and development does not fit with a one-time fee licensing model. This may be OK: you've paid once, you have the binaries and will be able to run them in future, possibly in a VM. For technically proficient people who are happy with the extant feature set this is fine. MCDM's VTT wouldn't just be a VTT product, it would be a game-specific VTT + content and, presumably, people would want additional content to be added and would want to incentivise that in the same way as they do with Patreon. I could see that being a reasonable case for a subscription, provided you could pause your subscription and export your data. I would trust MCDM not to engage in predatory subscription practices (unlike, say, WotC). There are additional considerations of who they work with for the base VTT: those folks will want to get paid not just for the up-front work, but for ongoing work as well, and it would have to be enough for that base VTT not to fold (iirc it's not one of the leading VTT companies so there's a lot of risk there). Somehow the revenue stream would have to cover the VTT devs *and* the time of an MCDM employee dealing with it. It's hard enough to make money selling a TTRPG to sustain its development; harder still if you need that revenue to subsidise a VTT. If industry trends are anything to go by, it would make more sense for it to be the other way around: MCDM has to pay Matt, James and the artists on an ongoing basis, it's a recurring cost. If they had to fund it solely through one-time rulebook sales, they're going to have to churn editions or ancillary content to keep afloat and that's.. not ideal. If they give full VTT access for Patreon subs, I'd say that's excellent value for existing patrons.
SHAPESHIFTER IDEA FEEDBACK: While I believe that the shapeshifter idea is feasible as both a class and as subclasses, right now I think the latter option is the best. The Beastheart could have a subclass similar to what we know as the moon druid i 5e; shapeshifting into animals. The Shadiw could perhaps have a subclass with doppelganger capabilities, that shapeshifts into other people. The idea is a tactician that is somehow able to turn into monsters and use their abilities, such as a noxious aura, to change the battlefield.
Regarding levels, I run lots of open tables where different players show up each week and bring their characters along, and they are different levels (D&D 5e). I have a rule that if the level difference is greater than 2 then someone has to craft a new character that reduces the level range. OTOH everyone tends to be running a stable of three characters now, all at different levels so they can choose the character to adventure with to fit the current table group.
I like the idea of weapons advancing as you level up. it avoids the video game thing where you save a town and the lord is so grateful he gives you his family's heirloom, a fabled sword that has been in their posession for generations! But it does 3 dps less than what you currently have and it doesn't quite have the right bonus for your build so you just sell it to a trader.
Very much this. Or you have a weapon that you are attached to (for roleplay/sentimental/narrative reasons) and have to choose to either deal with its progressive relative weakening or give up on it for purely mechanical reasons, which breaks immersion something fierce. Absolutely loathe that.
Could the solution to a shapeshifter be to make it a beastmaster subclass? You don't just have a beast with you, you become the beast with some interesting bonuses instead. Don't actually know how that class works, so maybe this idea make no sense. Excited for it all the same. Can't wait for the next update!
I think narrating miss vs hit VS low and high damage isn't really that different. If pc hits low, "you are off your game from the spider's poison. You miss her abdomen and clip on her limbs." Missing could be described the same.
HP is an abstraction anyway. Is your character really getting "hit" every time an enemy does damage? Imagine how many scars everyone would be running around with if that were the case.
Following your example, the language of the hit roll would contradict the language of the fiction. Not a big deal if you get used to it, but it can be confusing, especially for players who want to know if they *actually* hit. And if you're making your own game from scratch, might as well try to make the language of the rules match the fiction
Attacking is several positioning, stance, feints, striking and parrying or dodging over time and the dmg nbr rolled is the total outcome, narrate as you see fit, whether that be one destructive blow or several smaller blows
Regardless of how much damage an attack does, no attack roll means one less dice you have to roll whenever you attack something, which means combat is faster.
I love the wealth mechanic idea. I really dislike having to deal with gold pieces and prices, I have to deal with that every day irl. And wealth levels are really intuitive (basically economic classes)
reading the dwarves page finally made me want to play a dwarf. im fed up of dwarves in decline!! worlds in decline!! got enough of that, give me people who think "im the fucking best, and im gunna make the best stuff you've ever seen and that has ever existed, my peak is ahead of me always"
spelljammer is the last published by wizards product i'm picking up because i love to jam the spells and science fantasy/space fantasy is my favorite kind of fantasy. so glad this game out of the gate supports that kind of stuff and can't wait to dig my teeth into the system and get a gaming group together.
On the shapeshifter class I would love to see something that allows for hybrid forms. Something like turn your arms into tentacles and feet into bird claws. Something like Suneater from my hero
Re: anthologies. I like them. Saltmarsh, for example, was themed so I could combine several adventures. I used five of the seven(?) adventures. Granted it was also a mini setting book
What if shapechanging isn't a class-specific feature, but something akin to a Feat? The 5E Druid is already one of the classes that can solo the game, as it can melee fight, it can cast damaging, healing, buffing & debuffing spells, etc. The Bearbarian would be a shapechanging Fury; the pre-5E Druid would be a shapechanging Priest; there is room for an infiltrator shapechanging Shadow; etc.
Matt and James, we got faith in you guys. Of course the Ajax Edition would have been sold out as soon as y'all pressed the Kickstarter's START button 😂 *Edit* dang, just got to the second push on Ajax anouncement part. Wish I didnt get busy and wait 9 days to watch this video 😅
I adore the dwarf writeup. Thank you Matt. Optimism being so prominent resonated strangely and wonderfully with me yesterday and I just greatly appreciate it.
Since I'm currently playing Owlcat's Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader I'd really like to express how similar the ideas are that your character is made up of your upbringing, career, etc. (Although it does have many feats ala D&D 3rd edition too) and the wealth system idea too of not spending money but just having a wealth level. This isnt a critique. Just a happy coincidence since I'm enjoying Rogue Trader quite a bit.
52:35 interesting you consider languages. You could also play around with registers (colloquial vs literary-words, phrases, expressions) and sound/word correspondences between related languages. In a practical sense, you could also incorporate heritage languages (acquiring a language incompletely through childhood exposure.
The future of fantasy TTRPG looks bright. I'm looking forward to playing with this system after the design is validated and available. I feel like they could squeeze in a 30-60 page intro adventure if they split the rule / monster books to 500 / 300 pages respectively. With regards to how to create your own monsters for this system, I imagine it could be similar to Forge of Foes by Abidia, Gray, and Shea, which would be an additional book. Finally, after release, I would love to see MCDM collaborate with Roll For Combat on an adventure.
I'm just gonna say. Many years down the line from here probably while you do other things, there is no team I would trust more to tackle a nuts and bolts dungeon crawler system too. Don't worry I'm *very* aware that this is not that game AT ALL. But one day, maybe, if it's something y'all are into, I really think you guys would be able to thread the needle on how many nuts and bolts are the right amount. Real "managing light, opening doors carefully, managing rations" type gameplay.
For a shape shifter I have the image more of akin to DC Titans; Beast Boy, as in a myriad of creature forms, which could be a good path for a class to go. The more Druid style of limited or singular forms could work nicely with the beast master too.
Great Q&A! Very much looking forward to trying out the patron prototype. Down the road I'd love to see a periodical come back. Arcadia is fantastic inspiration material even if I don't use the specific rules in my games.
I like how PF2e system handles "multiclasses" with archetypes. It just flavors the class with some aspects of another class or other completely different ideas.
The question and answer about it was a bit oblique, but knowing how much I love the work y'all put out, I do hope we get a proper Gish. Such a hard concept to design really well, and I'd love to see MCDM's take on it.
Indeed. It's my favourite archetype and it's rarely done well in TTRPGs or CRPGs, sadly. Sure, you can get there, but very often you have to take on baggage that you just don't want for the character (no, I don't want to be a bard or have an oath, just a gish, thanks). I'd really like it to be a separate class that addresses the fantasy specifically; what's more, I think it would be a good move commercially since building a gish in system/game X seems to be one of the most popular topics whenever anything new comes out.
The interesting part I like narrating combat is that the missing is happening when the spotlight is not on the character or monster whose turn it is. The battle continues during other characters turn of back and forth. The attack roll to me is when the camera pans the show the dramatic moment of a hit before going back to the back and forth until the camera comes back.
I'm hoping to find something to replace D&D, full on replace, be it a 5e variant like FateForge or Level Up, or something else entirely, and I'm not sure if this is the one, but MCDM RPG is giving me more hope than Tales of the Valiant, and sounds like it would be fun for running the more action oriented games.
@@OnlineSarcasmFails Maybe, I'm getting strong Heartbreaker vibes from that one though, however I'm just a dude on the internet. I wish it all the luck either way.
@@OnlineSarcasmFails Anyone I should look at who's doing reviews of what's been made so far? I've not seen anything that struck me as terribly impressive but I've also not been looking at DC20 all that much.
@@OnlineSarcasmFails (Sorry, in rambling mode) For me, I'm suspecting FateForge will be my go-to for an 'Advanced 5e' focused on more RP heavy campaigns. MCDM is looking like what I might run for more action oriented campaigns. At least for those of my group that can't stand Savage Worlds. :-P
The channel of the creator has some actual play content of what's been made so far and a lot of explainations. I can't say I love all the ideas but many are pretty cool. And I do think the end product will be superior to base 5e if things continue this way. @@twistedturns65
Damn it, you keep coming up with the niche classes I was going to write. Weapon/armour summoner was one. Still have the dragon warrior, for now. Though it wouldn't surprise me if you make one that fits that.
Just rolling damage is fine, I don't understand people's issues with this concept. "HP" or "Hit Points", I think, is just bad wording because they already have lots of assumptions baked in. When you attack an enemy you are effecting his ability to fight; physically AND MENTALLY! Physically, not only are you damaging him, but you are causing him to expend energy, depleting his physical resources. Your skill, the position you put your opponent in, or a well placed hit (even if not terribly damaging) can lessen an opponents ability to stay in a fight. All of these things call be summed up in this stat. I experimented with this for years, but ultimately went another direction to lessen the math (which I love, but people seem to hate).
Dunno if MCDM read these comments after the fact, but I really really would encourage them to give at least 1 choice every time you level up. I bounced of 5e hard after it set in that really once you pick your subclass, there is very little choice left during level up for most classes.
As you guys develop magic, please take a look at the way that gigantic Mystic Unearthed Arcana created kits of spell archetypes. You pick up the Ice kit and you're good on Ice. You pick up teleportation, and you get more teleportation powers as you level up. Feels really good on the player end and let's you make fun choices rather than just reinforcing the same theme.
Sure... but then even a single die is a step towards the normal distribution. I feel like 3D6 (or 3D4) is the beginning of where the normal distribution starts.
One thing I've always wanted to see in a game is a combo system. Combat where pcs or enemies can either access special group attacks or build on top of each others attacks is something I've always wanted in a game. Will there be anything like that in this?
I’ve thought about this after playing Persona 5. If I had the chance to DM 5th edition I’d consider the party being able to trade in everybody’s inspiration to give the party an action surge
What if the illusionist was actually subtly changing reality rather than making illusions, so their* effects would have relevant cost and consequences and they’re not tricking anybody. So maybe rather than rolling to deceive anyone the illusionist rolls to succeed in their reality warp (like creating a shrub) for a cost, and a failure has consequences of some sort. These effects could scale with level and have diverse opportunities for utility combat or role playing. Idk easy to say and definitely not simple, I could just be reflavoring illusions to no real impact.
Other ways to run a VTT without a virtual machine, such as running the 'server' locally on someones machine. Running VTT instances on dedicated servers would prolly be prohibitively expensive. Virtual machines are cheap to rent or own.
I love the confidence to say "this game's not that." It tells me the game will he unique, itself, and not bend over backwards to kinda please almost everyone instead of really exciting a whole bunch.
I’d like to bring in the quote “A game for everyone is a game for no one,” which I believe is or was Arrowhead’s official motto at one point(the folks who made Magica and Helldivers)
@@JD-wu5pfThey only got defensive when they had to say for the 10th time "We are a Heroic fantasy game, if you don't want heroic fantasy then our game is not for you" if I had to keep answering the same question Id be annoyed as well
@@JD-wu5pf then don't back it and move along.
@JD-wu5pf
It didn't really come off as defensive to me. It was more like general frustration. Like if you are teaching a math class, but the kids keep asking about history because they think that's what they should be asking. And if that was 80% of the comments, it's possible he needed to shut it down so that they could get the relevant questions.
I think he was just a little frustrated, and decided to be direct about it. And given the context and the potential need for quick action, I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out the issue with his response.
I love the idea of the Necromancer summoning armor/weapons. I once described my necromancy wizard (5e) as bringing an Ethereal skeleton out of the ground, and then walking into it and it surrounding his body. When someone asked "How are you doing that?" Immediately after I said it, I said "I cast Mage Armor."
This is the way to Flavor/Roleplay in DnD
That's sounds like "Imagination" 🤣
Savage worlds has the built in concept that you build spells by taking a generic "power" and adding a "trapping" (the flavor) to it along with some modifiers and limitations.
Makes for a simple way to make your magic really feel your own.
Just one of the things that system dose so well. 😊
@@endorsedbryce I love that. I am about to look into Savage worlds now. 😂
The comments are liars, the actual start time is 9:30
You are a liar the real start time is 9:35
Bless you
Thanks babe
Lmao, the chapter is at 8:50 and I thought "thank goodness" then it still didn't start.. x.x thank you mate
Hearing Matt talk about niche protection around 18-19ish minutes in made me super happy.
I think Divinity Original Sin 2 would be a good comparison to how much health the characters have in the MCDM RPG. In BG3, you miss 1/3rd of the time, representing 5e, but in DOS2, you have more health and always hit almost all the time. DOS2 focuses more on tactical choices and is more cinematic, with crazy cool stuff happening all the time and great feeling abilities, but it is still a turn based RPG and very similar to D&D and beloved.
Ohhhh sounds like less RNJesus then
I think I liked Div2 more than BG3 purely because it felt more like dnd to me in it's vibe and fantasy. I loved the skill acquisition and build freedom too.
Div 2 is a better game but is a game not a combat simulation (with fantasy elements) which a TTRPG mechanic should be. Hitting almost all the time (especially for ranged weapons) - is ridiculous and take away all tension - are we saying every arrow has a keese eyeball stuck at the end of it? This is an AI based himars battle armour simulator, not fantasy medieval combat.
@@fedupguy2004If you want a TTRPG with more believable combat, _please_ look into Mythras (and it's D&D clone cousin Classic Fantasy). It's combat system is brilliant.
Everyone gets two or three AP. When an attack happens, the defender can spend an AP to roll as well. If the defender succeeds, they _parried_ the strike. For each "degree of success" one has over the other (a defender with a Success and an attacker with a Failure for instance) that person gets to use a Special Effect. Special Effects are numerous and some are weapon-specific. If you parried, maybe you make the enemy overstep to give yourself an advantage, or use the opportunity to close range (range is a thing in melee) or, with a crit, disarm them or something. As the attacker, maybe you dent their armor and impede their movement, or make them bleed (which is pretty much a fight-ender), or stab them through a gap in their armor, or all sorts of other things.
The upshot of this is that people have made blog posts about recreating movie duels pretty accurately, like, blow by blow, with Mythras combat mechanics.
Shields let you passively protect part of your body or function as a really huge weapon that can't be bashed away for parrying, so they're _extremely_ useful.
Ranged combat is pretty believable too. As a single archer your chances of landing shots _sucks,_ particularly once a fight has started, and shooting into a melee is just a bad idea. But if you all hop in some bushes and ambush someone... the fight's just over, unless their armor saves them.
It walks a perfect line between people not being damage sponges, combat having serious consequences, and not having the "well, I took 1 damage, I'm dead" problem and having armor that actually works. Like, armor just reduces damage taken and the armor / damage values do a fairly good job of simulating how useful armor is (and how big-ass heavy weapons _will_ punch through it anyways).
And SOMEHOW it manages to do all of this without being incredibly cumbersome. Of course it's a lot to keep in your head at first, but it's built in a way that keeps things moving quicker than you'd expect, and fights are often quicker IRL than they would be in D&D.
@@fedupguy2004 Good
Designing subclasses is great for homebrewers and 3rd party devs, so I think it makes a lot of sense for the core design to be focused on classes first. When I was playing D&D I loved coming up with really niche concepts for subclasses, sometimes just to fit one singular character, the kind of thing that wouldn't make any sense to put in a core book but is really fun to design and play.
In regards to the always hitting people in combat and a narrative, the way I would describe it at least is that don't consider an attack a "stab" but rather a "combat move"/sequence meaning in this "attack" several slashes and stabs have misses but one hits (hard or merely nicks) the person in question. Making the narrative completely logical and however one wants it.
As for shapeshifter, make the resource transformation points. So you can turn into a animal (for free, what animals depends on level (perhaps size /type is level based) Then have different abilities require different point cost. Blindsight, Tremor sense, horns, Swallow whole and so on. Then lock some of these abilities behind a level. So by spending enough points you can have a bear with wings and blindsight for example.
I'm super interested in this game and think it's going to explore such an important design space for players. The thing is, I'm absolutely a torch tracking, ration checkboxing "coins as weight" "elf as class" type player and referee. I think of myself as a ref, not a dm! But I know for a fact that there are people out there wanting to play an entirely different kind of game, scratch a different itch, and the game I've poured my heart into? it's not that game for them! I know this, and the interesting thing is that I feel like most games are some kind of 60/40 split, where neither side is entirely happy. The good news for me is that B/X and OD&D have been filed down to their sharp fangs, lean and mean (check out Wolves Upon The Coast! 3 stats! No classes! Most characters starve on boats!), and the *GREAT* news for players who cannot fathom why or how I"m having any fun at all? I want them to have a game that feeds that heroic high crunch tactical play, where every swing explodes. I think it's sincerely cool, the thing you're making, and while it's definitely not for me, I'm happy I can point to a game and say "there! soon, there will be the thing you keep bugging me for. Go bug them!"
@@nerzenjaeger I mean, I solidly disagree with the okay he's pushing as far as my fun goes, so this game will make for an amazing shorthand for when someone isn't playing in my wheelhouse. And you're welcome! Luke Gearing's brutal world deserves all the attention we can give it.
I’ve wanted to get into D&D for the longest time, but found it kind of dull where games would fizzle out naturally, in hindsight my issues where to do with game design and not having an alternative beyond adhoc house rules. I believe in this new TTRPG, super excited!
The main thing I'm curious about, with respect to the MCDM RPG (and I did back it) is -- what role will treasure and magic items play in it? I was very impressed with and affected by Matt's old video (I think it was "What is a dungeon for?"), where he pointed out that 4th and 5th editions of D&D did not at all emphasize treasure as a way of customizing characters. (Whereas 1st & 2nd editions were all about magic items as rewards and cool powers.)
So where, on that scale, will the MCDM RPG's relationship with magic items be?
While I detest the idea of material goods defining one's character, people being defined by stuff just never sat well with me, I definitely would like more magic items and equipment support. Especially if they can make the magic items seem *special* rather than 'oh, just another ho-hum +1 magic longsword.' Something between the Christmas Tree effect of 3.5 and the barren wastes of 4th edition, and the swingy spotty version of 5th edition.
The said you’d likely get a plus to whatever the item does normally (damage, hit points, etc) plus something extra. Also you’ll have a crafting system. They sound all about magic item support.
Also it seems the items level up with the character.
Magic items leveling with you means that they can be fundamentally more integrated and core to your character.
The Throngler will be real.
I also recall that they said the magic items would be part of the player book as a way of giving the characters ideas for loot they could pursue in the adventure. I think in that way, a player has the freedom to customize their character based on loot they can look for in-game, or not.
The CHIMERA: shapeshifter class. Its not just a fantasy lion, its a fantasy lion with wings and a scorpions tail. Its a wolf with a sharks mouth and a frog tongue that moves quickly and pulls in its prey. It is the snake with an owls head and a squirts ink for escaping. It is the jack of all trades melee combatant, and it does it by customizing its body with X parts. A torso, a head, and a twist (tail, wings, tongues, webs, acid spit...etc) nature is crazy. A shapeshifter is a fantasy mad scientist focused on genetic engineering.
That fits very well into something you could unlock after a certain point. Chimera is limited to normal animals for a certain amount of levels, then unlocks knowledge of things like monstrosities (like how technically druids shouldn’t be able to be owlbears, but by this point it’s pretty much accepted). Then they gain the skill to cobble together different features from different animals and monsters at an even higher level. Maybe with a menu of traits.
I very much liked the *tone* in the dwarf sample in particular. It felt a lot less like an encyclopedia entry and a lot more like a dwarf trying to sell you on why dwarves are cool :D
The shifter character has always come into it's own for me when it starts branching out and modifying itself. So like a low level shifter would be, like you said, just a bear, but then over time as they gain access to other forms they can start to chimera themselves. Think Suneater from My Hero or Alex Mercer from Prototype as some examples. I think there's room in that fantasy especially if they gain some level of access to the magical abilities of monsters they fight and then shift into like the lightning abilities of a small kraken or breath attacks or poison that they can spend their heroic resource to gain temporary access to. That way shapeshifting feels more like an action that can be used any time and then their heroic resource is what gives them their chimeric or magical abilities, leaving the opportunity open to have the shifting feel more like, "My character is a shapeshifter." as opposed to, "My character has shapeshifting spells."
Matt needs to see this comment.
This honestly is the best take on the shifter I’ve seen. Classes like the Druid get kind of bogged down by having to either print and have stat blocks for 10’s of forms when in reality it turns into my Druid is a bear from 3-5 a velociraptor from 6-9 and then a giant ape/ mammoth for the rest of the game. I think a classes that has beastial powers fixes that a lot and actually offers a lot more variety than the tradition shifter/Druid classes
This! This is a class I've always wanted to play. Pathfinder had a concept similar to this in the Synthesist archetype of the Summoner. Essentially instead of summoning an eidolon you fused with one and could build up what characteristics your eidolon had over the course of time. Sounded super cool to me but I was discouraged from pursuing it because apparently the design was super OP according to the community.
I agree and love the idea but it is possible that they make that a beastheart subclass, and despite my feeling that the shapeshifter fantasy has more weight behind it that they are giving it credit for, for my table at least, that would be roughly enough
The game of Ur, the oldest recorded board game, uses a 2d4 system. Rolling a couple of dice to determine a result is literally thousands of years old, so f### the haters. Game design is old, but your take is fresh.
"Shapeshifter probably isn't robust enough to support the fantasy" Spoken like a man who's never loved a Beast Boy, or leaned hard into what shapeshifting means in a world with Chimeras running around. I ABSOLUTELY would love to play a class that goes from turning into a variety of animals with unique niches at level 1, to turning into dire forms with crazy natural weapons at level 5, to freely mix and matching nightmare amalgamations with supernatural capabilities at level 10. Absolutely. Heroic resource could be Wildness to represent how becoming a beast warps your perspective of self so you can't go TOO wild without losing control, or it could be something like Stability, where you start with a high value, and the more you shift over a combat, the more readily your body morphs into other forms, allowing you access to wilder and more drastic transformations.
I want that real bad, actually.
The Operator seems crazy amazing. And the Time Scape setting. Looking foward to the MCDM RPG future!
Matt gets exponentially more powerful the longer the stream continues
If I want to narrate that an attack with a weapon physically does not connect with the vital flesh of the target, when the system dictates the target took 4 damage...I'll just narrate that. " Crawlman, you take 4 damage as the goatman jabs at you with a rusty spear; putting you on the back foot as you desperately suck your gut in to barely avoid being skewered."
I do this now; it's established that HP does not equal ONLY physical bodily harm, but is an abstract measurement of the character's capacity to endure and withstand the harmful conditions they find themselves in.
Psychic Damage in dnd5e doesn't touch the body. Vicious Mockery doesn't open cuts on the skin of the victim. It harms their willingness to continue in the circumstance.
Saving throw against Fireball results in damage on a success: it doesn't mean the fighter was just "burned less" than those who failed: it means that the scrambled and tripped over themselves dodging the blast by a dramaticly small margin that depletes their ability to exert themselves going forward.
(Meanwhile, the rogue is so alert, lucky or nimble that on a failure, he achieved that same narrow escape while on a success, she instead danced away with such alacrity that it was as if she was moving before the spell was even cast; she probably recognized the incantation or hand gestures of the casting before it was completed.)
Sleep knocks people out based on HP value. The HP is determining the target's innate ability to resist the sensation that leads to one person paying attention in class and the other falling asleep at their desk. A person who is over-exerted, wounded, or mentally drained will be more susceptable to falling asleep involuntarily than one who is hale and hearty or possessed of higher innate ability to resist the compulsions of their own physiology/psychology.
3 examples is enough, I think.
The default of each hit = bodily harm is not cinematic in the slightest, unless the character is Terminator. A mage damaged by a club attack might be described as a runic energy shield interposing against the strike, and shattering like glass, the mage stumbling under the impact.
In reality, a single attack from any weapon has the capacity for a 1-hit kill. Cinematic story telling encourages creative interpretation of mechanical outcomes, both to heighten the drama and minimize the absurdity of the game-ified storytelling.
I often see people narrate a miss against a heavy-armored target as the weapon harmlessly rebounding or glancing off....so the attack missed, but the weapon hit. It's simply described in the more "realistic" and dramatic fashion for the sake of enjoyment.
It's the same thing when the weapon makes no contact, but the Attack hits: the character has to react unfavorably to avoid the weapon in the fiction, which explains the HP loss in the game, which lends itself to dramatic highlights (high damage, Bloodied, 0 HP, tension climaxes) where that sword stopped hitting the shield and instead drew blood.
See the 70's (?) MacBeth film; final duel; for a good example of two platemail warriors bouncing swords off armor, staggering, making desperate choices and futile efforts until, in the only attack that deals any actual "wound," the fight is ended in only one occasion of blade-meets-flesh.
MCDM RPG is shaping up to emulate that: a missed attack, in reality and fiction, still makes progress in any fight. So eliminating attack rolls need not remove swords swinging and duelist's ducking low to avoid losing their head: instead, the one who dodged had to have agency in avoiding their own demise, and expended resources: energy; stance; equipment; lung capacity; concentration; balance; willpower; confidence; to avoid a worse outcome.
"Every single Attack that hits = a weapon harming a target's body" is absurd if you were to see it in living action.
Think about video game shooters: a human takes 36 gunshots to the chest, totally unphased. Only the meter going down matters, not the physics. Video games lack the hardware to allow for versimilitude to such a small degree. Hellish Quart is an exception: one contact of the weapon on flesh is often a deathblow. In abstract, the constant parries, blows and dodges that prevent the duelists from simply attacking 100% of the time are the HP number going down. TTRPG's are burdened with no such limitations; only limited imagination.
Try it out. Don't let game mechanics determine how you describe the story - let the story determine how you describe the mechanics.
Can't wait to see how MCDM turns out; backed today. I've already heard some game system details that evoke Schwalb's Shadow of the Demon Lord (d6 dmg system; Boons & Banes, streamlined initiative) but MCDM seems to be taking another step forward from the classic D20 system into a new generation of ideas. A fully integrated system for Madness & Insanity (mental stress) would make me giddy, it is one thing SotDL implemented very well, as a thematic blend of D20 and Warhammer Fantasy. Steal from it!
I am very excited.
Also - the Shadow's "Doom" sounds odd in a vacuum, maybe "Grit", "Ploys", "Exploit" or such, something evoking skill and cunning rather than Death Dealer or Bran mac Mourn.
Also....looking for a Warlock. 5e and 4e has the most flavorful warlocks. Get warlock Patrons in there!!!!! (Illrigger might already fit this mold).
Peace.........Out
Gratz on the crowd fund. Looking forward, you’ll do great.
A shapeshifter absolutely could be an entire class. If you limit the scale to a bear, then yes, eventually they will get outscaled, but you just need to scale their capabilities.
Seriously! Imagine turning into a Basilisk or a giant worm at higher levels. So much potential.
Turning into objects and other people could be amazing. The master of the flesh
Animorphs campaign.
I mean, when i think about cinematic action shapeshifters, i think about a character that keeps changing shapes for different advantages.
Basically Beast Boy.
Turn into a bird to fly into the castle, then turn into a rhino to clear a hall. Then turn into an ape to swing from a rope. Land on someone as a porcupine. Then turn into a lion and maul them.
To me, that is cinematic action shapeshifting.
If a human fighter doesn't fall off, why would a bear?
Think of playing Beorn and turning into a big bear: would fighting a dragon with that really be less believable than a guy with a sword doing the same?
Regarding print campaigns: an alternative to hardcover anthology could release soft cover anthology in a hardcover folio sleeve. Has the same benefits of on the shelf appearance but keeps each campaign its own little book and also lets you do print orders once there are more published pdfs to give you that 300 page threshold
The balance between the victory and recovery resources is really cool. I like how you are trying to balance use vs consuming of resources.
I also like the wealth mechanism. A couple new video games have this. (I know that’s not where you got it from). Lotting as much as you can carry and then trying to find a merchant that will buy it isn’t all that fun.
I think that a shapeshifter class would be interesting. Like a doppelganger type character that can morph into other sentient beings, animals, and more. Maybe they could also do Venom type things where they can morph their body into tentacle or other weapon-like things. Maybe they could also do other amorphous things like squeeze through cracks and such.
22 minutes in, and the level of telling trolls to go elsewhere is exactly what I didn't know I needed in my life
Oh yes Matt, I did read that Dwarf entry! That may just have been the most exciting part of it all! To my own surprise.
Putting aside everything it says about your own version of dwarves (which is fascinating in its own right), it's HOW you chose to present it that is so much more engaging than any lore entry I've ever read! And that's coming from someone who's spent the last two decades devouring -boring- traditional lore entries down to every single footnote, I live on that kind of stuff... But if _that's_ what we can expect for everything in these books? Do bring it on! 🔥 It looks like even people who usually can't read that stuff past the second sentence might enjoy it, even find it inspiring!
1:12:00 I'm not sure if I'm a minority, but I'd love a shapeshifting "martial" class. I loved the fantasy that I envisioned reading 1990's Werewolf the Apocalypse but in a game like the one you're working on where - to quote Matt - I get to do dope shit. Totally would be fine if such a class ends up as a supplement, but it's certainly something I'd buy as quickly as I did the Talent.
Sure you can do a lot with just flavouring other classes/systems, but it's a lot better if the class you're playing already encapsulates the fantasy you're trying to create, rather than fighting against the words on the page to add you're own flavour that runs counter to every ability name.
I'm leaning more at a gripe at D&D towards the end here, where some classes are bland with no flavour by default, and others are so specific in exactly one flavour and it seems "tradition" is their only reason for doing that, and its irritated me more with each passing decade.
I hadn't heard anything until this video about how death and titles work but I love the idea of getting a title due to dying.
"Is that Uther the undying?"
"That is I. Drop your weapons you cannot win this battle."
Low damage attacks are misses, sapping people’s stamina as they dodge out of the way. Blocks and parries too, draining energy.
That’s what actual combat feels like, at least between sword work and MMA training it feels that way.
@@nerzenjaegerdo you extreme simulationist focused people even like games? Or do you just like poking holes in suspension of disbelief.
@@nerzenjaeger If the enemie's low damage attacks are also worded that way it is consistent.
Whats weirder, narrating that the attacks were barely parried and tht the blows rained heavily on your shiedl sapping your strength to keep them at bay, or that you took 4 sword thrusts leaving open wounds and somehow aren't bleeding out from all these hits.
@@Illianor123the characters are action heroes in my campaigns, they’re John Wick, this is Die Hard, they get shot in the thigh, stabbed a half-inch deep in the gut, nicked in the face, bruised and beaten within an inch of their life, but until their health hits zero, they push through it, be it adrenaline or supernatural strength.
When a hit takes them to zero, the enemy hit an artery, got a head shot, caved their skull in, the types of injuries you CANT walk away from. This is how literally every DM I’ve ever played or even watched stream has run it as well, and I’m honestly baffled at how many people online act like it just can’t work like this, like it requires an unreasonable amount of suspension of disbelief.
@@CrazyLikeUhFox Yeah, so if the crazier (more heroic endurance?) one is reasonable. The other must also be reasonable.
I want to see a stronger Ranger archetype. Emphasis on being good at ranged and melee weapons, hit and run tactics, exploiting enemy weaknesses, etc. If you're allowed to you could call it The Strider, The Outrider, or The Warden.
Or make it less of a Ranger and more of an exploitative dirty fighter. The Drifter, The Outcast, or The Vagrant
Agreed! Though maybe they feel like the Shadow covers this (I hope they don't)
Both the tactician (controlling the battlefield) and the shadow (exploiting weekends) seem to have this covered already, maybe the ranger "flavour" will be more of a kit choice, so you could be tactician-ranger, shadow-ranger, and maybe even fury-ranger, being primarily mechanically another class, but carrying the ranger vibe along
What about a dirty fighter? Gotta hit em with the pocket sand. @@advogadododiabo6940
"hit and run tactics, exploiting enemy weaknesses"
That's the Shadow.
Witches are certainly a distinct fantasy that could deserve its whole own class in a splat book
Witches are the one fantasy I feel like is very difficult to reskin into existing dnd classes. It encompasses a lot of distinct ideas, like the dnd wizard, but I don’t think you need to serve all of them, like they say, as they become increasingly niche. I’d just like a robust official build in my fantasy game.
@@VeronicaWarlock It's not official but the Worlds Beyond Number folks have a Witch Class that they commissioned to use on their 5e podcast. I haven't played it but I believe the 5 second pitch was "Crafting & Consequences". They have many subclasses to represent the different kinds of witches, from the old granny giving out herbal remedies in a small town to the hag in a travelling hut that people tell stories about.
commenting 4 hrs after stream
the second wave of Ajax kit is already sold out!
HOT DAMN
Be as excited about life as Matt energizes the word "motherfucker".
@nerzenjaeger yes, I'm sure you feel so mature with your lack of flavorful expletives. I hope the superiority you feel makes up for the involuntary disgust you have to endure
What?
To the point of people being unsure of the narrative value of "never missing"...understand that losing HP doesn't have to equate to being wounded. In table top you don't have stamina bars so if you hit a character with 25 hp for 4 damage maybe your character just hit their shield hard af and you winded them in the midfle of a fight or forced a character to do a strenuous dodge putting them off balance these things aren't deadly but they are pushing them towards exhaustion and that leafs to mistakes and opening that allow your PCs to make those killing blows.... these dont have to be game mechanics just narrative points for dramstic effect If you knick and slash a characters arms and legs a dozen times for 3 damage eventually they just aren't gonna have quads or biceps anymore tk slash and your just saying the same shit over and over haha. Where as a gnarly critical hit could be a proper knife to the side or a sword to the belly. Think outside thr box for what is bringing your characters closer to defeat.
No multiclassing? Thank god.
I know you said ActualPlays had no real value, but "How is this game that's so different from anything I've ever known even supposed to work in practice?" is absolutely answered by ActualPlay.
"Show, Don't Tell" as they say in showbiz. It's one thing to let people see how the sausage is made, but ground carcass stuffed in intestines doesn't sound appetizing if you're used to eating raw tree bark and pond scum. It's another to cook a piece in front of them, let them watch it brown and smell the delicious meaty aroma of real, filling, nutritious food.
Super excited for this game!
1:21:26 I would love to play an Elric type of character, that's my favorite fantasy archetype. Especially as a Fury subclass like James suggested; I used to love Rage Mage and Bloodrager back in my D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder 1E days and the storm magic barbarians in D&D 4e and 5e.
It will take time for people to disconnect "health" with progress. I like how some systems treat it more like luck, where reasonably speaking any single *hit* could / should be lethal but that killing blow doesn't come until their luck runs out.
I'm gonna make my own RPG system and then pay people to play-test it, but in reality it was all a ruse to play without scheduling problems.
In all seriousness, great work you're doing here. I'm really looking forward to this game.
1:38:00 Mike Shea talking about a hope for a universal VTT format (.json layout etc) between systems. Obviously, that's not something that the Seattle company would sheppard, but maybe whoever you are going to pay to make yours could at least reach out to the Foundy/Fantasy Grounds/Roll20/Owlbear teams and see if there is any will to make new rpg systems easier to integrate.
I'm sure your own VTT will work the best for your game, but I can see a lot of players that would rather stick with a VTT they know/paid for even if its sub optimal, then invest in and have to learn something new.
The other thing I'll add about the VTT.
I've been a patreon at the £7 tier since you announced your RPG, and I'm often not in the right frame of mind to even read all of the stuff that's given my access to, but I don't mind paying it.
Yet, as soon as you said that your VTT would likely be sub based, my initial reaction was negative.
For the same reason - like you talked about with Adobe - the idea that everything I've worked on in that VTT, the very campaign I'm playing, could be taken away from me if for whatever reason I need to cancel that sub.
I already know atrists that talk about their Photoshop subscription like Adobe is holding all the work they've ever created hostage in exchange for that subscription.
I hope you find some middle ground that gives more people access to your product, while still allowing those that are able and wish to show more support the option to do so, for some premium features or just their own good will. I believe Foundry is a buy to use model, and they also have a patreon to support future developments and improvements.
@@XanothAvaeth You have to differentiate between software that's a finished release and software that's actually a service. The problem people have with Photoshop and other Adobe products being a subscription is (besides the bad implementation and the borderline illegal forcing of a new EULA to access previous work) is that (most of it) has no ongoing cost for Adobe and was previously a one-time fee for a perpetual license (there are ongoing costs for AI features maybe if they're in the cloud, but that could be addressed with credits).
A VTT that's hosted somewhere is a service and has non-trivial, ongoing costs. Foundry is able to offer a one-time fee because their VTT is self-hosted. This is not for everyone.
There's also the additional consideration of ongoing support and development. If you're Adobe, the volume will allow you to produce new versions and keep supporting old ones. VTTs are a much more niche product and despite this can't charge much for licenses to make up for low volume. In practice, this means that ensuring ongoing support and development does not fit with a one-time fee licensing model. This may be OK: you've paid once, you have the binaries and will be able to run them in future, possibly in a VM. For technically proficient people who are happy with the extant feature set this is fine.
MCDM's VTT wouldn't just be a VTT product, it would be a game-specific VTT + content and, presumably, people would want additional content to be added and would want to incentivise that in the same way as they do with Patreon. I could see that being a reasonable case for a subscription, provided you could pause your subscription and export your data. I would trust MCDM not to engage in predatory subscription practices (unlike, say, WotC).
There are additional considerations of who they work with for the base VTT: those folks will want to get paid not just for the up-front work, but for ongoing work as well, and it would have to be enough for that base VTT not to fold (iirc it's not one of the leading VTT companies so there's a lot of risk there). Somehow the revenue stream would have to cover the VTT devs *and* the time of an MCDM employee dealing with it. It's hard enough to make money selling a TTRPG to sustain its development; harder still if you need that revenue to subsidise a VTT. If industry trends are anything to go by, it would make more sense for it to be the other way around: MCDM has to pay Matt, James and the artists on an ongoing basis, it's a recurring cost. If they had to fund it solely through one-time rulebook sales, they're going to have to churn editions or ancillary content to keep afloat and that's.. not ideal.
If they give full VTT access for Patreon subs, I'd say that's excellent value for existing patrons.
SHAPESHIFTER IDEA FEEDBACK:
While I believe that the shapeshifter idea is feasible as both a class and as subclasses, right now I think the latter option is the best.
The Beastheart could have a subclass similar to what we know as the moon druid i 5e; shapeshifting into animals.
The Shadiw could perhaps have a subclass with doppelganger capabilities, that shapeshifts into other people.
The idea is a tactician that is somehow able to turn into monsters and use their abilities, such as a noxious aura, to change the battlefield.
Gosh this thing sounds so freakin' cool. I'm pumped!
Regarding levels, I run lots of open tables where different players show up each week and bring their characters along, and they are different levels (D&D 5e). I have a rule that if the level difference is greater than 2 then someone has to craft a new character that reduces the level range. OTOH everyone tends to be running a stable of three characters now, all at different levels so they can choose the character to adventure with to fit the current table group.
I managed to put my pledge into the second wave of the Ajax pledge. Hail Saint Ajax and Mcdm! i love your stuff so much
I did too, now to make sure I have a spare $500 kicking about by Jan 5th.
Can't believe I missed the SECOND wave. Curse my 12 hour shift.
@@DoomMishima Gone already? I mean, not surprising, I think there were only 20 left when I jumped on it. Maybe 30.
Duuuude i missed them both T.T I was checking once a day. Unlucky man
The testing and art alone is worth the cost of entry.
I like the idea of weapons advancing as you level up. it avoids the video game thing where you save a town and the lord is so grateful he gives you his family's heirloom, a fabled sword that has been in their posession for generations! But it does 3 dps less than what you currently have and it doesn't quite have the right bonus for your build so you just sell it to a trader.
Very much this. Or you have a weapon that you are attached to (for roleplay/sentimental/narrative reasons) and have to choose to either deal with its progressive relative weakening or give up on it for purely mechanical reasons, which breaks immersion something fierce. Absolutely loathe that.
Could the solution to a shapeshifter be to make it a beastmaster subclass? You don't just have a beast with you, you become the beast with some interesting bonuses instead.
Don't actually know how that class works, so maybe this idea make no sense. Excited for it all the same. Can't wait for the next update!
I think narrating miss vs hit VS low and high damage isn't really that different. If pc hits low, "you are off your game from the spider's poison. You miss her abdomen and clip on her limbs." Missing could be described the same.
HP is an abstraction anyway. Is your character really getting "hit" every time an enemy does damage? Imagine how many scars everyone would be running around with if that were the case.
Following your example, the language of the hit roll would contradict the language of the fiction. Not a big deal if you get used to it, but it can be confusing, especially for players who want to know if they *actually* hit. And if you're making your own game from scratch, might as well try to make the language of the rules match the fiction
Attacking is several positioning, stance, feints, striking and parrying or dodging over time and the dmg nbr rolled is the total outcome, narrate as you see fit, whether that be one destructive blow or several smaller blows
Regardless of how much damage an attack does, no attack roll means one less dice you have to roll whenever you attack something, which means combat is faster.
the negotation explanition can just be applied to all rpg and its so simple.
I love the wealth mechanic idea. I really dislike having to deal with gold pieces and prices, I have to deal with that every day irl. And wealth levels are really intuitive (basically economic classes)
I would love to see an archer class that is not explicitly magical the way the ranger is in d&d
I loved Earthdawn’s take onn magic, how even martial arts heroes abilities grew to be fantastical
reading the dwarves page finally made me want to play a dwarf. im fed up of dwarves in decline!! worlds in decline!! got enough of that, give me people who think "im the fucking best, and im gunna make the best stuff you've ever seen and that has ever existed, my peak is ahead of me always"
spelljammer is the last published by wizards product i'm picking up because i love to jam the spells and science fantasy/space fantasy is my favorite kind of fantasy. so glad this game out of the gate supports that kind of stuff and can't wait to dig my teeth into the system and get a gaming group together.
On the shapeshifter class I would love to see something that allows for hybrid forms. Something like turn your arms into tentacles and feet into bird claws. Something like Suneater from my hero
Re: anthologies. I like them. Saltmarsh, for example, was themed so I could combine several adventures. I used five of the seven(?) adventures.
Granted it was also a mini setting book
Congrats on hitting your goals! Good luck with the rest of development.
What if shapechanging isn't a class-specific feature, but something akin to a Feat? The 5E Druid is already one of the classes that can solo the game, as it can melee fight, it can cast damaging, healing, buffing & debuffing spells, etc.
The Bearbarian would be a shapechanging Fury; the pre-5E Druid would be a shapechanging Priest; there is room for an infiltrator shapechanging Shadow; etc.
Matt and James, we got faith in you guys. Of course the Ajax Edition would have been sold out as soon as y'all pressed the Kickstarter's START button 😂
*Edit* dang, just got to the second push on Ajax anouncement part. Wish I didnt get busy and wait 9 days to watch this video 😅
When they where talking about multi round casting totally thought of goku charging up spirit bomb and everyone around him taking on the boss
I adore the dwarf writeup. Thank you Matt. Optimism being so prominent resonated strangely and wonderfully with me yesterday and I just greatly appreciate it.
Since I'm currently playing Owlcat's Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader I'd really like to express how similar the ideas are that your character is made up of your upbringing, career, etc. (Although it does have many feats ala D&D 3rd edition too) and the wealth system idea too of not spending money but just having a wealth level. This isnt a critique. Just a happy coincidence since I'm enjoying Rogue Trader quite a bit.
Manticores are just as sentient as kobolds, Matt!
52:35 interesting you consider languages. You could also play around with registers (colloquial vs literary-words, phrases, expressions) and sound/word correspondences between related languages. In a practical sense, you could also incorporate heritage languages (acquiring a language incompletely through childhood exposure.
The future of fantasy TTRPG looks bright. I'm looking forward to playing with this system after the design is validated and available. I feel like they could squeeze in a 30-60 page intro adventure if they split the rule / monster books to 500 / 300 pages respectively. With regards to how to create your own monsters for this system, I imagine it could be similar to Forge of Foes by Abidia, Gray, and Shea, which would be an additional book. Finally, after release, I would love to see MCDM collaborate with Roll For Combat on an adventure.
I'm just gonna say. Many years down the line from here probably while you do other things, there is no team I would trust more to tackle a nuts and bolts dungeon crawler system too. Don't worry I'm *very* aware that this is not that game AT ALL. But one day, maybe, if it's something y'all are into, I really think you guys would be able to thread the needle on how many nuts and bolts are the right amount. Real "managing light, opening doors carefully, managing rations" type gameplay.
For a shape shifter I have the image more of akin to DC Titans; Beast Boy, as in a myriad of creature forms, which could be a good path for a class to go.
The more Druid style of limited or singular forms could work nicely with the beast master too.
Great Q&A! Very much looking forward to trying out the patron prototype. Down the road I'd love to see a periodical come back. Arcadia is fantastic inspiration material even if I don't use the specific rules in my games.
I like how PF2e system handles "multiclasses" with archetypes. It just flavors the class with some aspects of another class or other completely different ideas.
The question and answer about it was a bit oblique, but knowing how much I love the work y'all put out, I do hope we get a proper Gish. Such a hard concept to design really well, and I'd love to see MCDM's take on it.
Indeed. It's my favourite archetype and it's rarely done well in TTRPGs or CRPGs, sadly. Sure, you can get there, but very often you have to take on baggage that you just don't want for the character (no, I don't want to be a bard or have an oath, just a gish, thanks). I'd really like it to be a separate class that addresses the fantasy specifically; what's more, I think it would be a good move commercially since building a gish in system/game X seems to be one of the most popular topics whenever anything new comes out.
The interesting part I like narrating combat is that the missing is happening when the spotlight is not on the character or monster whose turn it is. The battle continues during other characters turn of back and forth. The attack roll to me is when the camera pans the show the dramatic moment of a hit before going back to the back and forth until the camera comes back.
I really want a ranger class. I feel like that fantast is only slightly captured in the tactician, shadow and beastheart
"Motherf*ckers, I am stealing from 30 year old games!" is some peak Colville that I am here for.
I'm hoping to find something to replace D&D, full on replace, be it a 5e variant like FateForge or Level Up, or something else entirely, and I'm not sure if this is the one, but MCDM RPG is giving me more hope than Tales of the Valiant, and sounds like it would be fun for running the more action oriented games.
I think DC20 RPG is a more direct 5e successor. I think MCDM RPG will feel substantially different on multiple fronts from dnd as a whole.
@@OnlineSarcasmFails Maybe, I'm getting strong Heartbreaker vibes from that one though, however I'm just a dude on the internet. I wish it all the luck either way.
@@OnlineSarcasmFails Anyone I should look at who's doing reviews of what's been made so far? I've not seen anything that struck me as terribly impressive but I've also not been looking at DC20 all that much.
@@OnlineSarcasmFails (Sorry, in rambling mode) For me, I'm suspecting FateForge will be my go-to for an 'Advanced 5e' focused on more RP heavy campaigns. MCDM is looking like what I might run for more action oriented campaigns. At least for those of my group that can't stand Savage Worlds. :-P
The channel of the creator has some actual play content of what's been made so far and a lot of explainations. I can't say I love all the ideas but many are pretty cool. And I do think the end product will be superior to base 5e if things continue this way. @@twistedturns65
With the Strongholds and Followers group fortress, I ran my campaign with a combined castle and each player had their own section. It worked great!
James + Sleep Deprivation = Max Payne
Ok. Take a break, then go forth and type! Be blessed.
Can we get a stretch goal to make Matt complete the "The History of D&D, One Fighter at a Time!" playlist?
I feel like beast heart could easily have a druid subclass
Appreciate the info, good luck with the game.
They hit $2.5 million!!! So exciting!
I’m so psyched about this game.
Damn it, you keep coming up with the niche classes I was going to write. Weapon/armour summoner was one. Still have the dragon warrior, for now. Though it wouldn't surprise me if you make one that fits that.
Currently into Sci-fi (Starfinder), but this is getting me excited to eventually go back to Fantasy.
Just rolling damage is fine, I don't understand people's issues with this concept. "HP" or "Hit Points", I think, is just bad wording because they already have lots of assumptions baked in.
When you attack an enemy you are effecting his ability to fight; physically AND MENTALLY!
Physically, not only are you damaging him, but you are causing him to expend energy, depleting his physical resources.
Your skill, the position you put your opponent in, or a well placed hit (even if not terribly damaging) can lessen an opponents ability to stay in a fight.
All of these things call be summed up in this stat.
I experimented with this for years, but ultimately went another direction to lessen the math (which I love, but people seem to hate).
Can’t wait to support this and PLAY THIS GAME!!!!!
You've seen "Where evil lives" now see "where evil goes to college"
Dunno if MCDM read these comments after the fact, but I really really would encourage them to give at least 1 choice every time you level up. I bounced of 5e hard after it set in that really once you pick your subclass, there is very little choice left during level up for most classes.
As you guys develop magic, please take a look at the way that gigantic Mystic Unearthed Arcana created kits of spell archetypes. You pick up the Ice kit and you're good on Ice. You pick up teleportation, and you get more teleportation powers as you level up. Feels really good on the player end and let's you make fun choices rather than just reinforcing the same theme.
Tomorrow I get to play the talent, I'm so cited! :D
Definitely looking forward to this rpg!
add a MUSCLE WIZARD
punch with spells
Most wholesome thumbnail ever
Double Fine's PsychOdyssey seems ever-relevant. I supported the backerkit & am looking forward to the first backer packet! :)
I would SO love to see a Capitol Box-Set.
I Still have my DSA Havena Box from 1985 and love it.
The triangle is just one of the steps towards the bell curve. So in that sense you might view it as one
Sure... but then even a single die is a step towards the normal distribution. I feel like 3D6 (or 3D4) is the beginning of where the normal distribution starts.
One thing I've always wanted to see in a game is a combo system. Combat where pcs or enemies can either access special group attacks or build on top of each others attacks is something I've always wanted in a game. Will there be anything like that in this?
I’ve thought about this after playing Persona 5. If I had the chance to DM 5th edition I’d consider the party being able to trade in everybody’s inspiration to give the party an action surge
1:25:48 "Will the RPG come with designing your own RPG rules?"
Ah yes, GURPS.
What if the illusionist was actually subtly changing reality rather than making illusions, so their* effects would have relevant cost and consequences and they’re not tricking anybody. So maybe rather than rolling to deceive anyone the illusionist rolls to succeed in their reality warp (like creating a shrub) for a cost, and a failure has consequences of some sort. These effects could scale with level and have diverse opportunities for utility combat or role playing. Idk easy to say and definitely not simple, I could just be reflavoring illusions to no real impact.
What you are describing is, in D&D terms, transmutation
On the topic of why the VTT would cost a monthly fee, AWS or whatever hoster isn't free, so it kind of has to 😄
Other ways to run a VTT without a virtual machine, such as running the 'server' locally on someones machine.
Running VTT instances on dedicated servers would prolly be prohibitively expensive. Virtual machines are cheap to rent or own.
Start talking at 9:40