Companions and Beastmaster Open Playtest

Who is ready to rampage?

James Introcaso here, and I am roaring some big news! It’s time to pounce on the Companions and the Beastmaster open playtest. To get involved and grab your copy of over 40 pages of playtest goodness, head on over to the MCDM Discord server, look for the MCDM Playtesting category, and go to the #playtest-info channel for instructions, or follow this handy guide put together by our great Senior Tester, Spencer Hibnick.

What’s inside this wild packet?

• Companions. Any character can use these rules to adventure alongside a wild creature. Does your wizard want to ride an owlbear? Is your rogue eager to high-five a dragon wyrmling? Do your players beg you for a pet bulette? These creatures and twelve others have been reimagined as player character companions. During combat, companions build a resource called ferocity, which can be spent to perform incredible actions, like breathing fire, turning foes to stone, and the owlbear’s high-flying Owlie-Oop! The more ferocity you bank, the better the action you can perform, but beware! If its ferocity gets too high, your companion will enter a rampage and possibly deliver wanton destruction upon your friends! (Don’t worry. The gooey rewards of your gelatinous cube companion outweigh the risks … we think! We are playtesting after all.)
• Beastmaster. A brand new CLASS with twenty levels and five subclasses, the beastmaster uses the companion rules to deliver a hero who works hand-in-paw (or mandible, talon, or pseudopod) with a wild creature. Beastmasters have extra ways to spend their companion’s ferocity and better control over their animal friend during a rampage. Plus they gain some of their companion’s natural instincts and can communicate with other animals they meet! If you want to play a feral hero raised by basilisks, a hunter from Hell who stalks the wild with a hell hound loping at their side, a defender of the forest with a mushroom pal, or a worg-riding battle rager, then this is the class for you.

The playtest packet contains a link to a survey we’ll use to collect your thoughts about the beastmaster. If you want to give us feedback, please fill out the survey by Monday, November 1st at 11AM Pacific time. And if you want to try the beastmaster with other members of the MCDM community, head on over to the MCDM Discord server and join the playtest_pool channel.

Thanks so much for checking out the Companions and the Beastmaster playtest. Now I need to get back to the finishing touches of ARCADIA 9.

—James Introcaso

MCDM Lead Designer