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March Q&A! (Patreon)

Published:
2024-03-13 21:31:09
Edited:
2024-03-13 21:46:10
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hey folks! You're gonna get another Live Q&A tomorrow me with me and James, hosted by Dael Kingsmill! I believe the stream will start at 4pm Pacific Time.

Dael goes through and curates your questions, looks for common threads, and of course we answer questions LIVE!

We can talk about whatever's on your mind, but probably a lot of discussion will revolve around the new Power Roll and the Elementalist. Certainly lots to talk about there. But maybe some ancestries! 

Come by and we'll show off the MEMONEK! Which MIGHT be in the book! :D

See you folks tomorrow!

Comments

Skye McLaren Walton

QUESTION: which is likely to get more priority design focus in the coming months, Character Progression or Research/Downtime subsystems?

JBR

With the Elementalist seemingly cracked, is the next step the crafting system? Has anyone started prototyping other possible classes like the Acolyte or Troubadour or Censor?

mcdm

Character Creation is the priority now. Well, we have lots of priorities, we work on everything here and there, but Character Creation is the next big hurdle. That may mean we need to know more about Research & Crafting, but the priority is making heroes. -Matt

GubDM

What kind of monsters might we see in the next playtest packet? Kobolds again but with power rolls? Something new? Has there been much work on monsters beyond converting to the power roll system?

mcdm

We have prototypes for the Troubadour and Censor that we've already tested, though they're now WAY out of date. But the ideas presented therein are still useful. The next step is Character Creation. Ancestries, Upbringing, Career, etc.... -Matt

GroovyTrain

How will magic item balance work in the game? Will players be restricted to how many items they can use? I.e Attunment slots in 5e

Ricardo

With the Power Roll, have you considered the idea of multiple attributes being affected in a single ability? For example, range and damage, or is the complexity not worth it?

GubDM

Do yall anticipate the game to have "tiers" of play, like 1-3 you do dungeon quests, 4-7 you negotiate in politics or fight wars with your stronghold, 8-10 ...? Or is that kind of stuff going to be different campaign styles (supported by future supplements like Vasloria box set) that span the entirety of 1-10? Along a similar line -- if the combat system splits content (i.e. monsters) into tiers (e.g. goblins at 1-3, giants at 4-7, dragons at 8-10), will the Crafting System split content into tiers (e.g. craft weapons 1-3, castles 4-7, world ending rituals 8-10)?

Grimm Letters

You've spoken about the fantasy driving class design a lot. Where do you draw the line between fantasies that come from popular culture or other sources, and the fantasies that have been grandfathered into D20 fantasy? I can see how newish players who have a little knowledge of d20 might have heard about these, and want to play them in MCDM RPG

Haezan

Would love to know if there is a piety system you’re thinking of developing? What will characters relations (if any) to the gods etc be outside of the typical “cleric”/“paladin” class?

mcdm

There will absolutely be restrictions. You won't, for instance, be able to wield 37 swords in one hand. How much farther than that we go? We don't know. We expect players to have a very small handful of Signature Items, a la Elric with Stormbringer, and then a potentially unlimited number of miscellaneous items like scrolls and potions. But these are just expectations, there's no design here yet and won't be for a while. -Matt

Michael Skelly

Once upon a time James or Matt said that by the time the game came out, people would have been playing it for a while. Then they alluded to the packets from FM being so popular. Is there a plan to "packet" the game? If so, how will the content of those packets be determined? Or should we expect that the playtests are the packets? (or... Idk.)

Micah Peltier

Some time ago, we'd heard that a full level 1 to 10 Tactician was in the works, with the goal of figuring out how class progression might start to look. The Power Roll / dice rework tabled that for the time being, as far as I recall. Is that back in the works? Is there anything else you've "cracked" or can tell us about character advancement?

mcdm

Possibly. There may be Big Decisions you make at certain levels? Like, if we implement Prestige Classes or something similar, it may be you pick one at level 4 and one at level 7 and those become two tiers? There may be major new power-milestones at certain levels? But otherwise we don't have any idea that the game SHOULD be broken into tiers the way 4E was. -Matt

Adam Rosalky

The fun of seeing a new RPG develop is how the new game treats 'sacred cows' of the dominant system (in this case DND 5e). Can you talk about which sacred cows (if any) did you intentionally set out to keep (e.g. the fantasy setting, turn-based combat, ability scores, class-based PCs) and which did you set out to change (attack roll, resource depletion)? Keep up the great work, game is shaping up nicely and great to see how the sausage gets made!

Caleb Fasnacht

How has the power die affected player Stamina?

Caleb Fasnacht

What is the biggest difficulty with the power die?

Cody Rapai

If a Fury and a Tactician both have the opprotunity to make the same Might based skill test is there anything differentiating them? I fear that instead of doing a test of doing a test as a Tactician or a Fury you'll be doing it as someone that has +x might.

Katze

You've said that an advantage of power rolls having consistent bounds is that other players can immediately know roughly how good a result is. How experimental will you get the possible results? Will some lower-end rolls have negative side effects to make some actions more risky, etc?

Atlas Burr

Do you see the power dice result system spreading to other aspects of the game like resistance/saving throws? Looking forward to the stream!

Final Pixel

I'm curious as to what mechanics during character creation would lead to deeper characters/relationships, outside of the more standard things in other TTRPGs?

statelyraven

The Tactician has been described more as a 'Leader' that a 'Fighter' and has drawn comparisons to the 4e Warlord. Are 'roles' like this something you expect will be an explicit part of the rules (aka a class or specialization may have 1 or more 'Role' to showcase playstyle (with or without shared mechanics))? Or are they more like design concepts/useful analogies?

ZealousNemesis

When designing the Elementalist (and magic users more generally) are there any goals or aspirations to create a system for magical duels? Dumbledore vs Voldemort, style?

Mendelll

I've always pictured Vasloria as a place with relatively low magic, one important aspect of this being that travel is can be hard, being far away from civilisation (order) is dangerous, and the choices you make while traversing the lands are hence relevant. In so far as this depiction of Vasloria is correct, could this clash with the more cinematic action-hero feel of the MCDM rpg?

mcdm

It's POSSIBLE we could see a Power Roll with negative consequences but right now the only way I can see that happening is if it's part of the class fantasy. But generally the point of the system as it stands is; there are no bad results. Just Less Good results. And while I CAN imagine a class that would have negative results on their abilities, like the Defiler from Dark Sun, I would be surprised if that made it into this game since the fantasy is so different. You know, maybe there are Operator Modules (i.e. heroic abilities) with negative consequences representing your frame's unreliability? That's not impossible. But I don't think we need that to make the Operator cool. I can imagine a magic item with negative results, if we wanted to model a cursed item. But cursed items really are part of the core gameplay from 1974 back when D20 Fantasy was a dungeon crawler and more adversarial. Our game really, really isn't like that. So, how experimental will we get? No idea. But we're pretty open to new ideas, it's sort of the whole reason we're doing this. If we have a cool idea for a negative result on the power roll, we'll try it and see if it makes sense. -Matt

mcdm

I think we're gonna use it everywhere that makes sense. We're already trying it out with skills and whatnot. -Matt

gm_naahz

that's interesting because all the clockwork in the playtest made me think Vasloria was more like the WoW setting than something like Conan's Hyboria.

mcdm

Well check out the Career post from a while ago. We haven't done any work on your character's background recently, but the Incident notion in there is something we like a lot and hope will find its way into the final game. SYSTEMS that force characters into relationships seems unlikely to me. I can imagine a game that worked that way and would be cool, I don't think that's this game. But opportunities to connect your backstory to someone else's would be nice but they'd have to be opt-in. -Matt

mcdm

None of the stuff you're seeing in the playtest right now is particularly canonical. -Matt

Jason Beckendorf

Are there any plans for spellsword-type character options? Either by subclasses, kits, or future classes?

Tamara

How are power rolls going to interact with the bane/boon dice? Also, is there any fear that the power roll as a fix for diverse damage does not serve the same gratification that rolling different types of dice does for certain players? I like the fix but I also enjoy rolling weird dice, and I wonder if part of the desire for diverse damage was moreso a desire for fun dice

Kyle Fukui

With the iteration of the power roll, have you had any brainwaves or new ideas about the classes you've already talked about? Has the power roll made you go back and reconsider how certain abilities function with the Tactician, Fury, or Shadow, or maybe given ideas on new abilities for the same? And if so, was it a significant change, or something less dramatic?

Friend & Fairy: Games by T. Ashley Jenkins

I'm interested to know more about your approach to character customization! Kits are an incredibly powerful tool for defining your character's flavor, and the idea of "subclasses" has already been thrown around a lot as a given, for example. I understand that the new RPG's focus might be more on delivering well on strong, specific fantasies, rather than allowing the widest possible range of character concepts, but what avenues for personal expression through character building have you explored?

J Finch

Reading about development of the Elementalist class got me wondering: Have you envisioned a way for a character to access more than just ONE elemental essence, so I could perhaps play a Master of Three Elements or eventually advance to become a Sorcerer of the Seven Quintessences?

Val

Since the power roll has the same target numbers for all powers, if the bonus to roll increases with level, characters will tend to get better results more often. That means that the bonus can't increase too much, so characters still have a chance to "fail." At the same time, that could be a problem for ability checks, e.g. a character trying to jump a chasm at 1st level could succeed, while at 10th level they may fail to jump the same chasm. Any ideas on how to balance progression to avoid those problems?

Dillon

I love the Paladin, it seems like the way to fulfill that fantasy right now is the censor. What was the reason to go with that name given the historic source of Paladin and how will that class fulfill the fantasy?

Dillon

Do you see concordance rules being in the game? If so will they bake into “divine” classes?

atomicsorcery

Which element do you think will be the most challenging to design for?

Mentalic

Will the Power Roll/Table be used for skill tests as well?

Richard McGain

Is there a tension between creating a game that will work for "general fantasy" verses specifically for Orden and the Timescape?

Wilzard

1. What (if any) is your current thinking on implementing Power Rolls as part of the skills system? Will we be getting multiple fail/success states? Opportunities to fail forward? Seems dramatic to me. 2. What is the design philosophy for balancing monsters and heroes? I remember Matt had a video on 5e suffering from the problem of PCs having all these cool abilities, while the monsters weren't commensurately cool (possibly because they were developed by different departments, iirc). How will you make sure that doesn't happen in this game?

Wilzard

3. Is the Beastheart going to get a prototype? I absolutely love the class and hope that it will be core to the game!

Kuroshi

Are there any examples of non-combat class abilities that you've developed and can share with us?

FoxTrick

Any chance the books get split up? Players, Directors, Monsters, Lairs, World and how we made the game?

mcdm

That's a good question! I'm sure the answer is yes, but I don't keep track of that stuff and so do not remember. The time I wasted on trying to make Game-Orden wizards work the way Lore-Orden wizards work was certainly a tension. Be a lot easier if we'd thrown that out at the beginning and just went straight to Essence and the Elementalist. Generally speaking, having world-specific examples for everything is very helpful. Sometimes we think some Orden-specific design would be better in a setting book, but that's a luxury we have. Anything that's too weird for the core books? Put it in a supplement.

Luca Mita

Regarding the power roll, as I understand it we will have a different power roll table for every ability. -Isn't there the risk to have too much clutter on the character sheet as PCs advance? What are your thoughts on this matter? -What do you think about using props (like cards) to reduce the amount of things written down on the character sheet?

Alex

Upvoting for question 1!

Alex

I would LOVE a complete and whole spellsword/gish class. I’m so tired of having to multiclass one level of Hexblade.

Alex

Hi Dael! Thanks for doing this! I think you’re awesome and I’m really happy you’ve joined the streams. My question is: are they still considering the cast and then wait X turns model for spells? And: can we have some more morsels about kits?? And maybe how they work with the new power roll.

Rowan

Do you think other spell casting classes, like a warlock or witch class, might utilize any of the 7 elements? Or will there be other avenues to access magic?

Alex

I just think it’s dope to witness creation at this scale firsthand

Joshua Heisler

One of the big changes that occurred with 5E was the development of bounded accuracy with the idea that you could have lower CR enemies remain relevant later on. I'm not sure in praxis how well this actually worked but I'm curious if you see all enemies being relevant at all levels, or if your higher level heroes will find things like goblins or kobolds trivial after a few levels?

Dave the Effable

Oh dope, I rarely ever get to catch these because of my weirdass schedule but I may actually get to sit in on this one!

p1aying_mantis

James mentioned focus tokens in his last stream. How will players be able to use fortune tokens?

Simoom

I've been wondering if the summoner or illusionist concepts might get subsumed under the green/black and void elements. Summoning minions seems like a short hop from summoning a wall, and I can imagine there's some design and testing economy that comes from having these different themes under a single class.

XamosElardas

And if you split the books, what does a backer get?

Micah Peltier

I'm sure we would've heard by now if we were allowed to know, but I feel the need to ask anyway: do we have an official name for the RPG?

Dillon

I believe you’ve said that part of the mindset of the design is that there will be very few people for whom this is their first game, but perhaps many it is their “first second game” has that influenced the complexity that you afford yourselves? Like avoiding a 5e fighter class with training wheels

Dillon

Do you have a few examples of ways to get edges? Also have you studied the math to see how similarly edges affect outcomes compared to advantage in d20 systems?

Wayne Cook

Would love rolling different dice instead of charts to give diverse damage ranges and crit chances.

D.R.

I believe the current situation with the Beastheart is that they did indeed create a prototype for earlier versions of the game and would really love to publish a fully designed Beastheart for the MCDM RPG but can't say yet if dear Page Count von Glauer will allow for it to be in the core Heroes book. Other, more common heroic fantasy tropes might have to be prioritized first for that. If the game is successful enough I think it's very, very likely, though, that the Beastheart will, at the very least, be published in some form or another after the release of the game. Maybe within an expasion or in an Arcadia article, should that return?

D.R.

I'd also love to hear some examples for how kits might look now with the power roll mechanic.

D.R.

And regarding your first question: If I remember correctly, I think the concept of spells that are cast across several turns has been dropped because it turned out to be slightly too complicated/hard to keep track of. The example for all the different Elementalist's spells from the last Patreon post also don't seem to suggest that any such mechanic is present, at least for this class and at this time.

Sean Smith

What are your thoughts on expected magic weapons and armor for progression (ie 3e/PF) vs magic items for breaking out of curve (ie 5e)? Thanks!

Matt Miller

Can you speak to your approach to scaling encounters for smaller (3-4 ppl) tables? Will there be tools in the core game and/or adventures to help Directors in this regard? If so, are there any plans to include these tools in future Patreon playtest packets?

Blake Dragos

With the new power roll system, could you give an example on how it would work with martial classes? Like an example of what a new kit action looks like or how a class feature has changed.

Nick Reyes

Do you see any space in this game for mechanized Roleplaying, i.e., making choices in that line up with beliefs or ambitions your character has, not "here's inspiration for doing the voice/speaking in character"? I definitely agree with previously expressed sentiments that FORCING players to speak in character is gross, but it's nice to be able to give players some reward for making tough choices and accepting downsides for good complex character-based decision-making.

Jared

Will the "Power Roll!!!" Ranges rise as you get higher level powers. So that when you get a plus 5 at level ten and you are using a high level spell like (making this up) Obliterate. The range would be 10 or less: 20 damage 11 - 13: 30 damage to 14 and up: 50 damage

Wilzard

Unrelated question, since I'm new to the patreon - where will the Q&A happen? Discord? Twitch? If so, whose channel?

Micah Peltier

Someone did a really good breakdown/graph in the #mcdm_rpg-patrons channel in the discord. It was a bit ago, so it might take some scrolling to find, but it was quite informative on how the current modifiers affect the roll

lone-rev

Do you think the power roll charts will also work for monsters as well? It seems like it could increase the size of a stat block very quickly, which is a bigger problem for a book of stat blocks.

Eugene Cheney

Does the power roll remove the need for resistance rolls? 🙏

Jake Connorton

In the past there's been talk of some heroic resources having uses outside of combat and some being combat only. Do you guys feel that may contribute to the game having a similar Martial/Caster gap that many D&D 5e players feel? Will there be an attempt to make each class get both combat and non combat abilities / features to avoid that kind of disparity?

Pedroig

For Elementalist, is there the possibility of "cross training" through the level-up process? To use the MtG reference, could one build a Fire-Void Elementalist, or is the current idea "straight source" only?

JACK

They typically post a link to a private YouTube stream from the MCDM channel here on Patreon!

p1aying_mantis

What do chance hits look like using the power roll?