Patreon: Year's End of Micro-Adventures

I'm not sure if I've done a year end report for my Patreon to check on the growth (or decline) of my Micro-Adventures. This year I thought it would be good to take a look at the past three years just to get some perspective.

Why don't I start off with my production through these years.

Stats for 2016

• 16 Micro-Adventures
•   7 Micro Locations

Patrons
Start: 68
End: 63
Highest: 73
Lowest: 63

Pledges
Start: 165.75
End: 158.75
Highest: 176.25 (Aug)
Lowest: 149.75 (Feb)

• Loss of 5 patrons
• Loss of $7 of pledges
• My production was 1.92 releases a month. 
• I had six months of growth and six months of decline.
• The largest losses were $16 in pledges in February and $10.50 in October. 
• The largest gains were $10.50 in May and $8.50 in October. 

Notes

Since this was a couple years back my memory about what happened is fuzzy. I do remember struggling with the lack of progress with my Patreon. It seemed to have 'topped out'. I decided to try a few things to increase patrons such as being better with sharing my content. I was lax on spreading the word about what I was doing. If I wanted to get my Micro-Adventures in the right direction I needed to try new things. Even if they were out of my comfort zone. 

Some of My Favorites from 2016

The Hoblin Goblin Run

First off, I love the title. My wife, The Happy Whisk, is the one who came up with it after mishearing me say hobgoblin. It is also the first micro-adventure with a isometric map. Not the best in the world, but suited the adventure. I also created a Potion of Treasure Finding that was specific toward one item and with a horrible side effect that would kill the imbiber if the item was not found in time.

The Charcoaler's Ransom

I did a lot of research for this adventure. I love grabbing a piece of minutiae and digging in to find an adventure. Taking a simple charcoaler out of the economy can cripple the area.  And to top it off, those that kidnapped the charcoaler, treat him like a king. While the kidnappers wanted to extort money from the nobles, they had no intention of harming the charcoaler. Providing another small twist.

The Weeping Witch

I've run this adventure a few times. It's a ton of fun. It has a lot of elements squeezed into a situation. A boy goes missing. There are some questions about his caretaker. The identity of the Weeping Witch. And why are all of them connected? It is a cool little mystery that can have very different endings. I feel good about all the elements and possibilities I managed to get in this one. It is my go to adventure for cons right now. 

Stats for 2017

• 15 Micro-Adventures
•   4 Micro-Locations
•   4 NPC Cards
•   1 The Manor #9

Patrons

Start: 68
End: 74
Highest: 84 (April & June)
Lowest: 68 (Jan)

Pledges
Start: $147.25
End: $227.75
Highest: $227.75 (Dec)
Lowest: $147.25 (Jan)

• A gain of 6 patrons
• A gain of $80.50 of pledges
• My production was 2.0 releases per month.
• I did not have a release in November.
• I had seven months of growth and five months of decline.
• The largest losses were $11.50 in January and $7.50 in May and July.
• The largest gains were $32.50 in March, $20.50 in December*, $18.50 in June and $13.50 in April.

Notes

It was in December of 2017 that Patreon announced they were no longer going to charge creators fees, but rather transfer the cost to the patrons. I was pissed because it asked more from people who were already being generous. This caused an exodus of patrons, but the strange thing is while I lost eight patrons that month, my existing patrons actually increased their pledges! Amazing. Patreon did reverse their decision before the month was out. It just goes to show how fantastic my patrons are. 

My growth was fantastic in 2017. After a decline in 2016 I thought about winding the my Patreon down. That I had peaked. Or I needed to promote a little more, do some giveaways. Get some interest. I kept creating content I enjoyed, and one by one my following increased.  

Some of my Favorites from 2017

 

Mr. Cruddy's Grave

Again, I go back to simple situations that have gone wrong. When Cross-Eyed Willie gets himself in a spot, the party may have to lend a hand. This is clumsy cross-section map, but I still like it. Kinda illustrated that you don't need a grand setting to have an adventure. This one lends itself to humor, with the incompetency of Cross-Eyed Willie coupled with the still angry in death Mr. Cruddy. Plus, I like what's in the chest. 

Brax

My NPC cards started hitting their stride and became a favorite of my patrons. Brax is an NPC I've used a lot. He cracks me up. He seems to crack up the players. While I had some very cool, earlier NPC cards, I think Brax hits that balance of being interesting, simple, and humorous. Those anti-spider ties would sell on QVC like hotcakes. Or Potions of Healing to stay in game.

The Manor #9

It had been a couple years since I released an issue of The Manor. Because I geared my Patreon to populate my campaign using the Swords & Wizardry Continual Light system, this issue became easy to write. It's funny how daunting it can becoming to release an issue even with several under my belt. I was glad to get this one released. And I thought the content was useful.

Stats for 2018

• 8 Micro-Adventures
• 4 Micro-Locations
• 6 NPC Cards
• Adventure Time Cards

Patrons

Start: 76
End: 86
Highest: 89 (Oct)
Lowest: 76 (Jan)

Pledges
Start: $229.75
End: $254.75
Highest: $256.25 (Oct)
Lowest: $224.75 (Feb)

• A gain of 10 patrons
• A gain of $25 of pledges
• My production was 1.4 releases per month.
• I did not have a release in May.
• I had nine months of growth and three months of decline.
• The largest losses were $5 in February and $3 November.
• The largest gains were $9.50 in April, $6.50 in May, and $6 in October.

Notes

It was an interesting year. My lowest output compared to the previous two years, but I still managed to gain traction. There were no real big swings in loss or gain from month to month. I enjoyed a steady growth for the most part. I was hoping to crack a 100 patrons in 2018, but couldn't quite do it. So guess what my goal for 2019 is? 100 patrons! 

Some of My Favorites from 2018

The Broken Girl

I love the vibrate colors and simplicity of the map. The mysterious giant dock tells of an age long past. But the true meat to this adventure is the weird little creature that murdered the little girl. The creature goes from a raging murder without thought of its consequences to become overcome by a flood of emotions and regret. I use children often as a factor in my adventures, for good or bad, they play an important role. 

Ansel's Secret Workshop

I absolutely love this location. A place the group can find and take it with no combat. And if nothing else how can you not like a spider named Clyde who likes long walks and playing chess. An example of how all locations or adventures don't need to end in a bloodbath. 

Thurber Village

Another piece created to fill out a section of my campaign. I've found this entry and the format for other villages very useful. I provide given the GM lots of opportunities to to breath life into Thurber Village in a small space.

Final Thoughts

I'm planning of moving my Gothrdige Manor blog to a new home, set up an honest to goodness eCommerce site. Getting help with edits. And finally getting around to compiling these adventures into a book. As of this time I have a total of 78 Micro-Adventures, 26 Micro-Locations, 11 NPC Cards, and 3 miscellaneous for a total of 118 items I've created for my Patreon since July 2014. 

As always, I can't thank my patrons enough for their support, past and present. They provide me the inspiration to create and to share. And while we hear a lot of negative things about the OSR, I think in part it is because of its success, as a group. But the foundation is built upon sharing ideas, creating content, and if nothing else, drawing a map.

Thanks for reading.