An indie tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) from veteran designer Matt Colville has raised $4.6 million with BackerKitand plans to provide an experience “unencumbered” by the legacy of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). The crowdfunding effort significantly exceeded its original goal of $800,000.
Led by Colville, the developer's project is currently called MCDM Productions The MCDM RPG and promises a “heroic fantasy RPG” experience. Omitting the usual twenty-sided dice for what D&D is famous, The MCDM RPG promises modern innovations. Although still very much in development, Colville has revealed that the game will eliminate attacks that can miss outdated initiative rules. Instead, each attack strikes and players determine the order in which their characters act in battle. This is intended to promote a sense of teamwork and drama, without 'wasted turns'.
Colville is known for his work on the Dune (2000), Star Trek (2002), The Lord of the Rings (2005) tabletop games, as well as are popular D&D Current Play series, The chain of Acheron.
TTRPG giant Dungeons and Dragons has become a household name in recent years D&D is often used interchangeably with TTRPG to describe pen and paper based role-playing games. For better or worse, Wizards of the Coast's TTRPG titan has a huge amount of cultural influence and has inspired titles ranging from old-school Japanese RPGs to modern blockbusters like Baldur's Gate 3.
In a 50-minute video, Colville explained the thinking behind the project. It's a long watch, but definitely worth checking out if you're interested.
The MCDM RPG is positioned as a direct competitor of Dungeons and Dragons. The latter was developed by Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, which has fallen on hard times recently, with layoffs late last year (via Forbes). This follows the worrying trend of layoffs in the games industry that we saw in 2023, with companies from Ubisoft to Bungie cutting jobs.
In what has been a tumultuous time for game development, it's pleasing to see an independent project raising significant funding in this way. Personally, I can't wait to see the finished product, and I'm curious to see if Colville's attempt to breathe fresh air into the fantasy TRPG space proves fruitful.
Looking for new adventures that live on screens? Our lists of the best RPGs And best story games got you covered.