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June Q&A

It's time for another Live Q&A with Djordi and me (James), hosted by Dael Kingsmill! The stream will start at 4pm Pacific US Time on Thursday, June 27th! We'll post the link here on Patreon when we go live. It is for MDCM Plus Patrons only.

This Q&A is going to be focused on monsters! We've finally locked down some monster rules we feel really confident about and we've already made a few different monsters in this system for play at levels 1 to 3. You can also still ask us about classes! The first five classes we've created for levels 1 to 3. The conduit, the elementalist, the fury, the shadow, and the tactician! We're wrapping up our first revision of those. 

Post your burning questions about monsters and classes below. Dael is going to go through them and summarize for us. We'll also take questions live!

See you Thursday (or on the VOD after)!

-James

Comments

"Early July" is what I read in the Discord today.

Morden

Conduit subclasses as such don't exist as the class is currently conceived. Instead, you pick a deity, then you pick two of the domains (and corresponding spell lists) associated with that deity--that, then, becomes your subclass equivalent. Pretty cool, if you ask me. :)

Morden

I'm pretty sure it has been stated that the playtest packet likely coming in July will be sent to both backers and Patreons alike.

Morden

According to James, they won't.

Morden

How do taunt abilities interact with monster power rolls?

Morden

I'm also curious about this. It seemed like the college of the harlequin mask may give the shadow some illusion magic, which is neat.

Wilzard

Will there be any opportunities to gain heroic resources outside of combat? A Conduit healing the sick and getting more Piety makes a lot of sense flavor wise.

tubaman

How much are you guys thinking about the flavour for monsters in this RPG? In what ways does this heroic, cinematic flavour of ROG digger from more D20 or classical fantasy? Or are those just mechanical key words that aren't as relevant for flavour?

Mendelll

Yes, I am aware. I'm just wondering how that had fared now that the classes are actually written

Gogo M

How much complexity will a monster statblock contain in the end, meaning: how many data points will the directior need to keep in mind per monster/per squad?

XamosElardas

This sounds kind of like the Villain Points talked about in the Monster Energy post.

Ernge

What are these Recharge tokens and Fate tokens that Djordi's talking about in that Troubadour draft he did as a test? Sounds exciting :D

Ernge

I am curious if that list of elements has changed!

Ernge

Matt listed Earth among the element options here a few months ago, though this was the early WIP stage https://www.patreon.com/posts/elementalist-100207607

Ernge

Hi Djordi and James! I'm curious about your thoughts on the fantasy of an Illusionist and how it would or could fit in your game. Thanks!

Ernge

I forget what post I saw that maybe hinted at the existence of special rules for this, but how would you handle hostages or bystanders in peril within a combat encounter?

Ernge

Normally in an RPG, you either get a boss with minions or a squad. How do you think we could handle party-like threats (like the black order) in an organic and not-crazy way?

MShin

How am I a unique hero if I attended the college of black ash (or any other class specific school) aren't there other alumni that can do what I do? In this same thought, do races need defined origins too and what creative power does that take from the players and director?

Austin Williams

Will there be stat blocks for the Warbreed (half-orcs) in the MCDM rpg monster book

Darth yub nub

How are demons going to work because they in flee mortals have a soul count and kinda works as a villainous Resource already

Darth yub nub

Based on James' stream this week, it sounds like certain types of Monsters will have stat blocks relevant to all levels of play. Is that going to be true for lots of monster types or just for a few like Demons?

Chappy Hall

With the talk of subclasses in recent patreon posts, how impactful do you think certain subclasses should be towards the customization of a class? Should the class be totally altered based on what you pick as a subclass or should the subclass be sort of the flavor of the class? What classes should have more impactful subclasses?

Realgirl

In what way is the page count tyranny hindering or improving the game? would it be better if it lived in digital format and devices mainly? maybe with an easy print on demand thing?

LUZ-TAK

Do you have a philosophy for what levels certain things should be introduced (ex: triggered actions come online at level 2, everyone gets a damage reduction ability at level 4)?

Ryan Williams

With the full understanding of “it’ll be ready when it’s ready,” do you see patrons getting another playtest packet soon? I’m incedibly eager to jump into character creation with my friends, theyre undoubtedly sick of me recapping every new post that comes out haha

Ben Milne

In the last post concerning monsters, you mention a potential director villain resource coming into play. Do you see this idea as a good alternative to legendary actions in d20 fantasy? Additionally, how do you imagine this resource being made unique between more common enemies and grandiose boss type enemies?

Ben Milne

Love how Squinions are shaping up! Captains imbuing squads with abilities inspires lots of cool terrain/encounter ideas! QUESTION: What is the functional difference between minion squads with pooled stamina vs. minions with individual stamina? What is the benefit of abstracting the stamina if ultimately the Director has to do the math to figure out how many minions go down anyway?

Andrew Straight

Enjoying the recent posts about Monsters! Can't wait to see how the Monster presentation ends up. QUESTION: Will every monster type have every type of organizational unit (Horde, Band, Platoon, Troop, etc.), or will the different organizational units be specific to each monster type based on the fantasy of the specific monster (or other criteria)?

Andrew Straight

Is there a day in July already locked where we can test these monsters an "other" stuff? :)

Valentino Konjik

I think the real question here is - have you been designing "boss monsters" already?"

BasCB

With such a soon release date, how do you go about testing longer-form campaigns with the new system, especially if it's constantly evolving mid campaign? Put another way, is testing each level of a party enough or is there some kind of continuous throughline of running a campaign in this system that also needs testing?

Ari Begbie

Who are Ajax's new soldiers? You will be missed, ground commander Vordokov.

Robert Lane

In Strongholds and Followers there was the mechanic to create potions and items of monster slaying with your stronghold alchemist or scribe and such. I imagine since this is badass that it will be in MCDM RPG, I was wondering if this is something that would be in the monster book or something in the player handbook to inspire them? This could also be dovetailing into the research mechanic so I understand if this is a touch off the focus. Thanks for everything! My loved (hated) the flee mortals frost giant hurler.

McKenzie Byrne

Dael, look forward to a pun filled episode of Q&A. For class progression, are we looking more at adding new features/options with progression, adding flexibility/enhancement to existing features/options, or some mix of the two?

Pedroig

Do you think there will be monsters in the MCDM RPG that wouldn’t fit in the D20 game and/or are their monsters in the D20 game that you don’t really see fitting in the MCDM RPG?

Joshua Heisler

Do you have a feel for which “elements” will make it into the core rules for the Elementalist subclasses yet?

ReformedGnoll

I know there has been some back and forth on the usefulness of 'categories' of monsters, particularly as it is seeming that the Flee Mortal's approach doesn't necessarily work in the new game. How do you plan on maintaining variety whilst balancing the cognitive load for running the creatures?

Mitch De Zylva

Do we expect there to be tools or guidelines to easily "level up" or "de-level" monster stat blocks to make them mote appropriste to a particular party

Ben-Fisher

Could we see some level 3 titles?

atomicsorcery

Do you think it's possible to design monsters that are both specific enough that fighting them is unique and interesting, but also broad enough that they can be reskinned/reflavoured by Directors to use in different contexts? Is this something you're aiming for or are you aiming for more one side than the other?

Josh Rodell

In your design do you ever consider how multiple encounters would feel against the same monster or group of monsters? If so is this for every monster or just mainstay groups of monsters?

Jacob Parkulo

What has been the most unexpectedly challenging part of the design so far? Something you thought would be straightforward and wound up being noodly.

Jake Diebolt

With the team expanding, what roles does each person have? Can you walk us through how every person contributes to the design of the current game or monster design of you want to keep focused on that topic.?

songbird24601

Not to get too personal, but since it came up in the discord, how do you all take your bagels?

Michael Skelly

Regarding monsters: As both a director and player, one thing I do like about d20 fantasy is the ability to strategically target weak saves. Matt has mentioned giving monsters stats like Mind, Body, and Soul defenses for the heroes to target. Is that still on the table, or have the monster revisions rendered the need obsolete?

Robert Lane

Have do you some of the Conduit subclasses finished and If so can we here some. Also when next packet? Thank you

Darth yub nub

Follow up on this will Goblin points be the only Director/monster resource or will there be director victories, defeats if you will.

The Yaki

will the monster types in the book span across the potential official campaign settings’ ‘flavors’? (vasloria, timescape, capital?)

Carlos Lerma

How do you prevent or mitigate future classes from creating a power creep over the core classes?

Josh Kerrigan

Do monsters have the flexibility to be played at different party tiers/levels? i.e, will players always being fighting goblins, kobolds, minor undead at tier 1?

Josh Kerrigan

How much room is there for original monsters in the Monsters book? The classes, besides maybe the Talent, feel like everything fantasy audiences expect just taken seriously and without any surprises. Is that the same for the monsters?

Nathan Lee

Will there still be humanoid monsters in the book even if you don't dedicate a section for villain parties, so maybe still evil mages and thieves, but not a Black Iron Pact per se.

JBR

I think it's been mentioned that some terrain features may be worth encounter points, like monsters: might different encounter objectives (kill the boss, get the mcguffin, etc) also be accounted for in the encounter building rules, such as by affecting the point budget?

Joshua Baker

Do you have a good idea of how easy creating homebrew monsters will be? What's the ratio of vibes to math when it comes to making monsters?

Micah Peltier

Are monsters going to be built the same way characters are like how DnD 3.5 did it? Are they built ad-hoc with thier own informal guidelines? OR will monsters have thier own "system" of creation? Finnaly, are guidelines for powering up or down any monster something that has been talked about?

big bill

The “dog soldiers” Matt described recently sounded cool and unique, so definitely a contender if they end up in the book

Jon de Nor

Can you tell us about how you plan to present the monsters in the book? Will there be example or pre-built encounters to try out?

Patrick Colvin

How much effort will go into a monster's non-combat capabilities? Will you guys be clearly defining their negotiation capabilites, their lairs, their desires, etc.? Curious as a player who enjoys combat as one of a few options.

Xander Piskulic

How important is verisimilitude in monster design? What about Ecology? Will MCDM monsters be drop-in mobs or part of a coherent environment? Is that up to the director, and what can you do to help them?

NoSmallParts

Can monsters offer a Risk/Reward tradeoff outside of the combat encounter? Either before or after? Is such a design desirable?

NoSmallParts

I hope this wasn’t unclear; my question wasn’t about the novelty of the monsters, but rather the layout and presentation of the mechanics of the animate opposition. I am not accusing mcdm of merely converting 5E designs.

NoSmallParts

There's clearly some explicitly Timescape/Space Fantasy stuff in the Hero book, and Vasloria is sort of the default western medeival fantasy analogue, but will there be any explicitly CAPITAL (The Greatest City in This Or Any Age) stuff in the Hero book? Stuff that you'd think "ah this wouldn't make sense in my LOTR-ish game, and it's not space-y. Wow it definitely feels Only Capitalian"?

GubDM

I've gotten a bit lost in the weeds between goblin points, reversals, and villain actions and would like clarification on how these systems currently work and interact. How are encounters built to have surprising twists? What can monsters do to shake up the battlefield?

Wilzard

long time ago there were ideas floated about getting titles that were exclusively unlocked by dying - I wonder if there's been any design of those

GubDM

recently-ish discussed in the discord was an ancestry list for the Hero book - sounded pretty final but who knows: Human, Wode Elf, High Elf, Dwarf, Devil, Polder, Dragonborn, Time Raider, Hakkan, Revenant, Ork, Memonek

GubDM

They just chose 5 classes to start with, but afaik currently the thought is that about 9 classes will make the Heroes Book (would love to hear how the Censor & Null also generate their resources, and the Talent if Strain is being cut after all)

GubDM

Matt's on record (on a recent stream, though idk which) saying that you can't design a signature monster - you just design a lot of monsters you believe in the coolness of and the *community* latches on to one. Basically luck of the draw

GubDM

I think both are pretty much confirmed, although the Patreon packet will probably be less polished

Caspar Rahm

Now that atomic monsters are out, what is the vision of the DM's UX, if not an Encounter Sheet? Is it back to the default "screenshot these from the monster pdf and put them in your own word doc"? For at-the-table play rather than VTT of course

GubDM

Bob's "rewrite" is just cutting stuff he specifically doesn't use and abbreviating other parts. They already do abbreviation (EoT = End of Turn, EoE = End of Encounter), but the monsters are not 5e conversions, they're totally different design

GubDM

Where are you getting inspiration for the monster fictions? Do you have a favored mythology or culture creature?

Caleb Fasnacht

Do y'all have any ideas for a "signature monster?" Like, something that nobody can think of without thinking about your game. Your owlbear or beholder, if you will

Caleb Fasnacht

Can we expect roughly the same set of creatures as in flee mortals in the monster book or will it be a very different list?

Chappy Hall

What are your goals for monster functionality in the VTT? Past MCDM comments have me dreaming of a marketplace of monsters to pull into an adventure. Some paid, some free, some from MCDM, some from community devs: all ready to almost run themselves.

Zachary Yoder

Can you talk about the project points system? I'm a director who usually hates crafting systems but has players who love it so I'm really curious.

Joe G

It's been mentioned on Stream about internal terms such as Squad, Band, etc. Will there be customer facing terms, tags, etc. to make it easier for Directors to organize monsters? In the same vein, will there be tags or descriptors that clearly sum what role the monster is intended to play in combat (brute, healer, etc.)

TheMartyr781

- Have you been designing monsters (especially boss monsters) with weaknesses in mind? Either in their tactics or some kind of physical vulnerabilities the players can find and exploit. - I was very intrigued by the Tactician post's idea of the Mastermind being able to spend resources to see the Director's Encounter Sheet. What is the current shape of the Encounter Sheet? Do you have more ideas that play with the players getting to "sneak peeks" at the Director's materials? - Will you include Director advice on building interesting combat arenas?

Michael Kling

Matt's Treasure Golem story about a VTT that can scale a monster to a significantly different level than what the level for which it was designed seems to run counter to the idea of monster types (e.g. goblins) being largely only within a single level - each level its own tier of play. Has the Treasure Golem experience become not-a-goal anymore, or how has that goal changed? What is the latest vision for monster flexibility in the VTT?

GubDM

Now that it's been tested longer, does it seem like movement as its own action category will be sticking around? Also, being a director requires balancing lots of things at once. Have you made any progress on simplifying the monster presentation? Stuff like the encounter sheet, atomised monsters, etc. Also also, how do you guys decide on points for monster encounter values?

Brandon

What do you think of Bob Worldbuilder’s rewrite of Flee Mortals’ statblocks, and how will you improve upon 5E-style statblocks for a better at-the-table experience?

NoSmallParts

How well do you (or more importantly, how well do players who aren't designers) find the "engine" of the game to be working to help them generate ambition in the game? How easy does the game make it to *want* your *character* to achieve specific things that require decisions and play and not just showing up and fighting monsters? I know the game is designed (research crafting, magic items in the hero book, titles acquisition etc) to combat the "it's game night, why else would we play" feeling, I'm just wondering how testing has felt that's going. Towards Better Rewards and all that.

GubDM

Have you given much thought to the 'levers' monster have to make them nastier? What are the challenges in making a monster scary to level 8 party without making it just a big bag of stamina or giving it a million things to do? How does that differ (if at all) to your 5e design philosophy?

James Archbold

Can you show us anything of the iconic characters? Names, sketches, ancestries?

Daniel Friedman

Are we likely to see a Patron packet before the next Backer packet, and will either have provision for playetesting a multi-level adventure?

Sam McGurran

Do you have an idea of how many monster groups you'd like to include in the monster book? and if so are there any monster groups you'd have liked to add that you don't think will fit?

Devan Boone

I heard Matt mention that the time raiders will be a core ancestry in the book which got me super excited. My question is has there been any further talk on how much content designed explicitly for the time scape will be in the final books?

Fluf Hoftis

Will monsters have default loot or probability for dropping certain loot in the statblock (or nearby) - think monster parts for consumption/crafting?

Gus Galarnyk

As former video game designers, how is designing RPG monsters different from video game design? Where is it more constrained and where is it more free?

NoSmallParts

Do you expect to have any monster content within a Statblock that points elsewhere in the player's book - i.e. like a spell list?

Gus Galarnyk

Does the elementalist have equally distributed options for the elements? Could I make an earth focused elementalist? Many games are often missing cool earth options, because they mess with terrain. But MCDM is well suited to environmental changes, it seems.

Gogo M

How will MCDM monsters make random encounters fun in a cinematic tactical heroic fantasy?

NoSmallParts

Monster question: Will we be seeing more monsters only native to Orden and the Timescale this time around? I loved the voiceless talkers, time raiders, and great old ones but would love to see more crazy aberrations that were MCDM Originals(TM)

Ormus Erebus

How has the previous design of openers, reversals, and closers informed what you are doing with goblin points now? How, if at all, will this new design resemble the ORCs?

Kuroshi

What do the different Elementalist subclasses look like? Especially the Earth and Green, which we haven't many abilities about.

Tom Flynn

Classes Questions: How did you settle on these five core classes? And how do they currently generate their class resources? (I love how those different methods strengthen the different fantasies each class represents.)

Robert Kipp

Now that Willy’s on board, what are the odds we see a clown-based Troubadour subclass at some point?

ReformedGnoll

Will monster encounters have heroic resources that DM’s have to manage just like players do? Or will the individual roles of monsters be sufficient to add complexity and challenge to encounters?

NoSmallParts

Will there be many just standard human “monsters”, like bandits etc?

Haezan

Should monster encounters be balanced? Or should the players always win? Can MCDMRPG make death fun?

NoSmallParts

The recent post regarding monsters left me quite worried around the complexity of running them. In an attempt to make every monster a possible NPC, D&D made stat blocks big confusing piles of text. What's the current plan to make monsters easy to read and understand for directors who see them for the first time?

Ori Klein

Are goblin points going to progress in a session and adventure simular to Victories?

aiden davenport

I know the game won't have alignment, but did the team at some point consider having it, or some version of it? What were the arguments for amd against it?

Antonio Padilha

What will it be like as a director to prepare an encounter from scratch? Will there be a lot of math/strategy involved?

Jacob Montague

What changes and insights did you learn for class design while you were focusing on monster design?

aiden davenport

As you have a list of classes that are core and some that are cool but for later, i assume that you do the same for monsters. Are there any monsters you think will not make the cut for this book and in reverse what are monsters thag absolutely need to happen. I would also specify that i mean original or reinterpretations of monsters, not necessarily goblins dragons and vampires :) Also, any creature that has the sentiment of 'tiamat flies down eats everyone and goodbye' Thanks and looking forward to the stream!

Evermore

How are villain points going to be shared in a combat with monsters of varying power or from different bands? Is there still a director interface (like the encounter sheet) planned to help run combat encounters?

Bestest Fin

Are there any revisions you've made to those five classes that you're particularly excited or happy about?

Micah Peltier

Hi MCDM team, here is a monster question: as the design stands today, how well does it look like a formula, akin to Flee Mortals! encounter rules, is likely to deliver consistent challenge and fun? Or, alternativy, to what extent is monster design and encounter building likely to remain more art than science with extensive testing always necessary?

ZooSKP

Does moving away from atomized monsters mean that the encounter sheet is scrapped?

Daniel Dias

The focus in monster testing so far seems to have been groups of lesser enemies or a larger monster supported by minions. Has there been any progress on solo monsters (dragons, legendary swordsmen, etc), and if so, what form are those rules looking to take?

Jonathan Knaggs

Having different types of monsters when each of them have multiple abilities tend to slow down tactical combat (the director needs to stop and think and choose) and dilute the tension. Also, passive abilities are easy to forget. Is this something you are trying to address? Will encounter sheets be a viable solution?

Subharup Roy

About how far away are we from having an official list of ancestries and classes that will be in they book?

Parker


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