ARCADIA 3!
Added 2021-03-24 18:00:04 +0000 UTCHey all! It’s James Introcaso, coming at you with ARCADIA 3! Look at that angel cover art by Justin Gerard! The four articles in this issue:
The Dream Kin by Justice Arman with art from Ilse Gort. Introducing three new player ancestries that are literally the stuff of dreams:
- Lucidlings: Aberrations dream these beings into existence! The telepathic lucidling can assume otherworldly forms.
- Sand Speakers: Born from radiant fire and astral sands, sand speakers can enter your dreams, Inception-style, and turn into a sentient pile of sand.
- Somnians: The creators of dreams, somnians can assume terrifying nightmare forms and give their lives to raise the dead.
Ten Spells You Need in 5e from Celeste Conowitch with art by Grace Cheung and Conceptopolis. This article presents ten spells from previous editions of the game updated for fifth edition, including glitterdust, nature’s ladder, and permanency.
Aces High by Sam Mannell with art from David Su and Jason Hasenauer. Prepare for dramatic highs and crash-and-burn lows as we bring you new rules for dogfighting aerial combat. Plus an encounter on the back of a dragon!
A Diamond in the Rough from Alison Huang with art by Nick De Spain, Miska Fredman, and Conceptopolis. This roleplay-heavy adventure for 3rd-level characters asks the heroes to find a jewel thief in a family manor. You can drop it into any game.
Now that ARCADIA 3 is out, we’re going to take some time and talk about what we can do to improve and streamline production of future issues. Look for a survey about it soon! Your feedback is going to help us shape this plan, so please let us know what you think about ARCADIA on Discord and Reddit. If you missed ARCADIA 1 and 2 on Patreon, you can find them in the MCDM Shop.
Next month, instead of a new issue of ARCADIA, we have something extra special for our Patrons. MCDM has been working on a new class called the Illrigger for two years. Illriggers are warriors who wield Hell’s fiendish power. We’re finally ready to release the class after a long testing and development process. The Illrigger includes three hellish subclasses, five new infernal spells, an NPC, and three retainers for your game. If you get ARCADIA through the Patreon, you’ll get The Illrigger for free in April (or you can buy it the same day on the MCDM store for $6.66).
The ARCADIA 3 PDF attached to this post will be removed when The Illrigger is posted. Each issue of Arcadia is also available in the MCDM Shop as they are published.
—James and the ARCADIA crew
FAQs
Q: How long will I be able to download the ARCADIA PDF attached to this post?
A: You'll be able to download ARCADIA #3 until ARCADIA #4 lands (we're taking a little break, so this'll be longer than a month). If you use a cloud storage tool like Google Drive or Dropbox we recommend you save it there for recovering it easily—especially if you need to access it from another device or if something terrible and unfortunate befalls your computer! Just please make sure if you save it to the cloud it's only you who can access its location.
Q: I didn't download the PDF on the post in time, even though I was an active Patron during the 4-week period! How else can I get a copy of my issue?
A: A few days after we remove the PDF from this post, we'll be compiling the list of Patrons who had active subscriptions while the Issue was available. Once we have that list, we'll email you a special, Patron-only discount code that works on the MCDM Shop; this way you can pick up your copy of ARCADIA #3 for free and it'll get added to your account's order history which makes relocating it a breeze :) We'll be sending that message to the email associated with your Patreon account, so make sure to keep an eye out for it!
Q: I just joined but it looks like the previous issues have been removed from their posts before I became a Patron. Do new Patrons get back-issues? How else can I get a copy of ARCADIA?
A: First off, welcome and thanks for supporting us! Currently, you'll always be able to download the current issue of ARCADIA when you become a Patron until the next issue is published. When a new issue comes out, we remove the previous one and it becomes available exclusively through the MCDM Shop (that's where we plan to keep all the back-issues). As far as other content goes, you should now have access to all of our Patron-locked posts! There's quite a few of them and we hope you find some interesting stuff inside :)
Q: There's a lightning bolt icon that says a special offer is currently running for the MCDM Patreon—what's that about? Do I need to do anything if I want to get the special offer?
A: If you're already an active Patron in the $5 or $10 tier, then you're all set, you don't need to change anything!
The "special offer" is a new Patreon feature that helps us communicate to non-Patrons that this sign-up period includes something special: ARCADIA #3!
Q: I know someone who wants to get a copy of ARCADIA, but they don't want to use Patreon. Is there somewhere else they can get it?
A: Definitely, and we understand! That's why, when we post the current issue of ARCADIA to Patreon, we add it to the MCDM Shop at the same time :D. On the MCDM Shop an issue of ARCADIA is $7.
While we're on the topic of alternative ways to get your hands on ARCADIA… Piracy sucks extra hard for very, very small teams like us. We're only a handful of people, and most of us jumped from something familiar and stable into the wild world of tabletop game development and media! We've been so fortunate to be able to make dope shit like ARCADIA and we wanna keep making dope shit for the foreseeable future, and pay people we work with well enough that they can keep making dope shit, too! Products like ARCADIA are what keep the lights on and families fed, and this year that's extra important to everyone we think. Thanks to those who have shared their warmth by supporting our team, and we hope others who have gone down the path of darkness enjoy our work enough to reconsider.
Q: What is this... an FAQ for ANTS? I have a question and it's not one of the ones listed here!
A: Oh no! D: If you need help with anything MCDM-related, email our support inbox and we'll respond as soon as we can. We're looking forward to reaching the point where we can bring on a dedicated support team member to help everyone lickety-split, but until we get there we try to check for new messages every week or two. We've got many tools at our disposal, so rest assured that when you hear back from us we will do everything we can to make sure you're taken care of! :)
💌 hello@mcdmproductions.com
Comments
Will definitely make use of the more abstract aerial combat. Well done.
Evil GM
2021-09-07 06:07:39 +0000 UTCAlright, straight up... what a freakin' awesome cover. I have just been writing up Celestial and FIend Talent Trees for my own game and what a great image.
Evil GM
2021-09-07 05:01:10 +0000 UTCI apologize if I am ignorant on this, but I believe the maps are hyperlinked in the bottom of the book to like actual high def pictures. But if you are talking about those, I apologize
Samuel Aston
2021-04-14 18:17:14 +0000 UTC100% best Issue yet for me. Aerial Combat getting instantly absorbed into my homebrew! Love the actionable content. Thanks everyone.
Kelby B
2021-04-06 09:46:11 +0000 UTCIs there any way we could have the maps from Arcadia issues without the numbers? I would like to use the maps in Roll20 but the numbers are a bit distracting.
Genevieve Hardin
2021-04-04 20:28:53 +0000 UTCEDIT: lol.. just read it again and it just says at the end the spell is equivalent to the Conjure elemental with some modifications. so ignore question below :P O, one more thing: If I wanted to take the book that Diana used to summon the Xorn and turn it into a spellbook that would actually contain that spell... so that a wizard might covet it to learn the spell... any idea what level spell that would be? I have this interesting dynamic in mind where my monk player is basically a librarian scouring the world for books that escaped the interdimensional monastary's library and are now causing mayhem in the material plane. His mission is to find them, contain them and return them without anyone learning the spells. But I also have a wizard in the party and she thirsts for spellbooks...
Hans Krill (Althwen)
2021-03-30 09:30:10 +0000 UTCI LOVE the Diamond in the Rough piece! It's short enough to master in a short reading session and ambiguous enough to plug into any universe. I straight-up plugged it into my campaign and can't wait for my players to walk into a town and find this butler in the inn asking around for intelligent adventurers.
Hans Krill (Althwen)
2021-03-30 09:25:25 +0000 UTCIt IS answered there! :D It's because the Somnian's abilities are more powerful than other ancestries, so they have one fewer stat mod. -Matt
MCDM Productions
2021-03-28 20:01:16 +0000 UTCLove this issue, but I had a question about the Somnian; why does it only get a +1 wisdom, +1 to any stat? Shouldn't it be a +1, +2? (I haven't watched the live stream yet but I suspect this might be answered there)
Mr. G
2021-03-28 19:46:23 +0000 UTCLove the new issue and the cover is fantastic. One could write a whole adventure just based on that image alone. I haven't gone through everything yet, but I really dig the spells and Celeste really sold them with her energetic presentation in the live stream.
Axel Tojo
2021-03-28 09:22:31 +0000 UTCIn reading Diamond in the Rough, with how well the background is laid out, I was expecting a section on "how to learn about Diana." That would be my main quibble with the adventure, we have these excellent sections on Lord Reuben and Micah, and how they and others react when asked about Diana, but very little to show she exists, much less still lives at the house. It just feels like a section got cut. It will definitely be fun to run. Knowing my group, they will turn her in as a job well done. Unless I sprinkle in something to make her seem more empathetic, they will just see her as a teenager acting out. Or what if the family's neglect had caused Diana's death and now she haunts them... possibilities!
Adam Bishop
2021-03-28 04:02:47 +0000 UTCThanks, I've added these to the bug tracker.
Pesto Enthusiast
2021-03-26 22:06:37 +0000 UTCI really liked the diamonds in the rough module. I'll definitely be using it in my campaign very soon! Two small notes, pg 29, under section 10: Emerson's Bedroom, it says "If Lord Emerson is brought here from the guest bedroom (area 6), ..." I think it's meant to be area 9 as area 9 is the guest bedroom and makes sense more than area 6 which is Diana's bedroom. it also appears later that on pg 30 under section 12. Master Bedroom, the parlor is mentioned as area 8 even though it appears as area 11 if you go by the numbering of the headings. Other than those tiny edits I'm really enjoying it!
Nick Karlovich
2021-03-26 18:30:35 +0000 UTCAnother killer issue. This adventure is getting seeded into my game TONIGHT!
Brian Diehl
2021-03-26 15:51:28 +0000 UTCThe great thing about Arcadia is there’s nothing I DON’T like! Every single article is all 3 issues has been engaging, stellar, and instantly has my mind ablaze with ideas of how to tweak them and apply them to my own game. Whatever your process was to get these made, the end product is TOTALLY worth it to me.
Jonathan Bean
2021-03-26 15:06:44 +0000 UTCYou know I would really love to have all the covers as prints for my office one day, they're just all so well done and I love them so much. They'd look amazing next to the old D&D 3.5 book covers. New and Old. ;-;<3
Ely
2021-03-26 02:57:41 +0000 UTCCheck the last pages of the issue for links to the map files!
James Introcaso
2021-03-25 16:24:30 +0000 UTCLikewise, an "Arcadia Omnibus" Kickstarter would be a fantastic project, an annual tome of Arcadia issues collected and either placed sequentially or reorganized for convenience.
Jason Lee
2021-03-25 15:28:53 +0000 UTCMy brain is absolutely firing up after reading the new Ancestries! Having something a little more niche gives me a better scaffolding to build off of than generic human, elf, etc. I think it'd be interesting to have a muse-artist dynamic between a Somnian and a Hibernation Wizard from Arcadia #2
Kammer
2021-03-25 14:54:28 +0000 UTCPlease tell me that we can purchase these as prints someday. I would love to have small bound versions of these. There is just something so enjoyable about beautiful covers like these and they should be able to be hung on walls/display. Would need some major editing on the first 3, but if they were resized for 7-1/8" X 10-1/2" they could fit in the hard protectors and mounted/displayed like comic books.
John Danaher
2021-03-25 10:42:36 +0000 UTCLove it, keep them coming! Minor thing for the editors, warlock comes before wizard in the spell lists (page 9).
Michael O'Meara
2021-03-25 06:14:50 +0000 UTCI love Arcadia and I look forward to future releases. The content is amazing and I get excited each month when it comes out. I liked all the content, but my favorite content was the different subclasses. Can't wait to see what the next issue contains.
Drew Frazee
2021-03-25 03:42:32 +0000 UTCWe got a couple of comments about how the spells are presented and how to make it easier for people to see which classes can use which. Hopefully we remember this if we ever do another spell article! :D -Matt
MCDM Productions
2021-03-25 03:37:55 +0000 UTCI cant wait to use a dragon next session!
JakeF
2021-03-25 01:50:34 +0000 UTCThis is the best cover yet IMO. Really excited about this issue.
Steven Phillips
2021-03-24 23:45:57 +0000 UTCThanks for releasing Hell! :D
Aidan Kruse
2021-03-24 23:00:30 +0000 UTCOh wow I misread Permanency and thought it would have been super specific (I switched up duration and casting time) but that is super good. Dang. I'm gonna make a wizard BBEG now.
Aaron Ratigan
2021-03-24 21:37:57 +0000 UTCExcited to try the investigation one shot! It would be helpful for the map images to be available as image files for use in a Virtual Tabletop, instead of having to use snipping tool.
Apprentice of Adventure
2021-03-24 21:03:00 +0000 UTCI dunno, there's already a lot of low level content out there. Personally I see a lot of people complaining it's hard to run high level games because there's just not much content out there for it, so there's definetly demand for it.
Cruye
2021-03-24 20:31:52 +0000 UTCHell yeah for the Illrigger class super hype! also, this issue is super rad!
Guillaume Chaine
2021-03-24 20:20:40 +0000 UTCHello, MCDM Productions. (this message is a repost of what I wrote on Arcadia 2's post, but I'm not sure where you're more likely to read it) I would just like you guys to know something in regards to Arcadia 2. I remeber Matt saying that each Arcadia issue would only be available for the month they're released on, and if someone became a patron later and wanted that issue they would have to buy it on the store. I just became a patron now, as of the release of Arcadia 3, and managed to download the second issue of Arcadia. I'm not sure if this is the intended behaviour, but I just wanted to let you guys know, since I know you put a ton of work into this, and want it to work within certain specifications. (I also was a patron when Arcadia 1 was released, but when the second one came out, the payement didn't go through and I wasn't for that period, in case you want more details regarding my specific case)
F
2021-03-24 20:16:21 +0000 UTCThis is just perfect I love it just got finished designing airborne vehicles so I will be using the Aces high material in the next two weeks and my campaign involves trying to communicate with a sleeping ancient gemstone dragon without waking her so the Sand speaker and the Somnians almost introduce themselves. It sometimes feels as though this is being pitched just to me but then I realise it’s just the brilliant designers filling gaps in the gamescape.
Thomas Sloan
2021-03-24 20:11:08 +0000 UTCMan, you have me already hooked with Arcadia. Not having my monthly magazine from you will be thought, but I trust you use this time to find the problems that might exist and fix them. I will also miss the vids where Mat talks about the new issue, and if you stop doing the Friday post release talk, that will be mist too. But that's the thing, we trust you. So do what you think is best, we will support you
2021-03-24 20:08:22 +0000 UTCThat is how I'd run it at my table. I'll add this to my questions/bugs tracker.
Pesto Enthusiast
2021-03-24 19:49:51 +0000 UTCI love Arcadia, it's great to get reliable, useable content for my games. I also wanna say that I really appreciate that we get consistent imagery for the monsters and ancestries. It's important for me to get a good visual stimulus with such things so please continue providing wonderful art!
Lewis Dillingham
2021-03-24 19:42:14 +0000 UTCOne thing I noticed while reading the first three issues was that I think the images without transparent backgrounds could use some sort of border. Aside from that, yet another great issue!
Cameron Wallace
2021-03-24 19:23:39 +0000 UTCAbsolutely amazing work again guys. I've taken something from each issue and put it directly into my game. I'm thinking of running this adventure for my party this weekend since we're in between arcs in the main campaign. Love the work, can't wait to tell my players about the new spells ;)
Abroad American
2021-03-24 19:13:20 +0000 UTCAmazing art this month, wow does that ever speak to what I’m going through. What a lot of us are, I get. Meanwhile, this fucking rag, man. As an old school 2nd edition fan, this is exactly what Dragon Magazine felt like back in the day, every issue just made your fingers tingle. Thanks so much guys!
Jeremy Owen
2021-03-24 19:08:57 +0000 UTCSo many ideas already! Everyone knocked it out of the park as always!
Rakbel316
2021-03-24 19:07:21 +0000 UTCI really appreciate the high quality low level content like A Diamond in The Rough. This adventure is going to hit gaming table or VTT. The more likely the content is going to see use - the more I think I have gotten for money. The high level content of your earlier issues will probably never see use.
Jonas Mustonen
2021-03-24 18:59:34 +0000 UTCSo the Lucidling supernatural secretions reaction portion would deal 0 damage at 1st level? (half level, default is to always round down). Was it intended to have "(minimum of 1)" added in?
Landon Jamieson
2021-03-24 18:52:55 +0000 UTCI'm imagining Permanence on Greater Invisibility.... I have a new BBEG idea.
Cruye
2021-03-24 18:42:40 +0000 UTCHeyo, I love these books. I would like to give some feedback on the new spells. While I appreciate the table at the start of the section, having the associated classes as a feild in the spell block would be really helpful for me. Kind of like how the spell template in 5e.tools are listed.
David Gordon
2021-03-24 18:35:13 +0000 UTCI have an important meeting in 5 minutes, but I'm not prepping for it because you just dropped this and I don't have the willpower to not immediately start flipping through it and geeking out. That cover is amazing (AGAIN) and I very much look forward to the day when we don't have to wait TWO YEARS (or even more in the case of K&W) between when you start telling us about these dope ideas that we immediately want to play with, and when we actually get the final rules. :-D
Christopher
2021-03-24 18:29:25 +0000 UTCGlitterdust is exactly what I need! I think I'll be using it on a homebrew monster this Sunday.
Cruye
2021-03-24 18:25:34 +0000 UTCI'm very f happy about the HELL announcement
Giancarlo Giorgio Croce
2021-03-24 18:14:42 +0000 UTCWhat? The Illrigger is free for patrons? Y'all are too kind.
Cameron Wallace
2021-03-24 18:02:20 +0000 UTC
