As a patron, you can choose from the following options.
Angels of Our Better Nature
Angels arrive and impose celestial law; no one is sure why they are here, but things quickly go downhill. The angels claim they are protecting the citizens and improving their morals directly, and they say they were invited by the prayers of a secret priesthood. But something else seems to be going on as well, some task that the angels do not discuss with mere mortals.
About 25,000 words, commission $1250 (total from all patrons). It will take three months to write.
Castle Shadowcrag
This large castle sourcebook includes a shadow plane adventure. While set in the world of “Steam & Brass”, it is only loosely related to that adventure.
The dark story of the castle and its king involves both a legacy of family madness and entanglements with a plane of shifting shadows. The adventurers help the sole surviving heir (who could be one of the PCs), and the castle is layered with dark secrets and an ancient curse that is almost impossible to lift.
This adventure is heavy on the tragic prince, castle exploration, Gothic tone, bardic knowledge, historic legacy weapons and items, and it also includes a dungeon crawl, partly based on real castle dungeons. Also includes new shadow spells, a Star & Shadow mage, and all the sordid tale of entangled bloodlines.
Weighing in at a minimum of 45,000 words, this is by far the largest of the proposed projects. The required commission to start design is $2,250 (total from all patrons). It will take at least 4 months to write.
The City-State of Zobeck
A regional and magic sourcebook for the Free City of Zobeck first described in “Steam & Brass”. Include complete rules for the star & shadow school and clockwork magic, the society of steam-powered mercantilism it enables, new clockwork and S&S monsters and spells, major NPCs of the city, and hooks and handouts for adventuring. In addition, two or four pages of expansion rules for kobold PCs and gearcraft.
A regional gazetteer section briefly describes surrounding nations such as the giant-dominated cities of Nordheimand the magocracy of Bemmea. Comes with a large city map and a regional map showing trade routes, cities, and kingdoms.
Minimum length 28,000 words, the minimum commission total is $1,400 (total from all patrons). It will take three months to write.
Become a Patron
You can become a patron by donating from $10 to $85+ using the buttons in the entry below. Your patronage makes these projects possible, and it includes not just the project itself but also design essays, project errata, and much more.
Profile
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open_design- Wolfgang Baur
- the Free City
Page Summary
- theshiningfool : Where is everyone? [+1]
- brainstormfront : (no subject) [+3]
- elorebaen : Challenging [+1]
- (Anonymous) : Choices, choices, choices?!!! [+1]
- bulette : Is her really going there? Unfortunately, yes. [+2]
- (Anonymous) : Mutiple doantions? [+4]
- sadrx : (no subject) [+1]
- jstenberg : (no subject) [+4]
Comments
SES
Oh, and tell Ed that Goblin Courts made the list, would you?
Say, if he kicks in $25 and I kick in $25, can we be a gestalt patron? :)
If you and Ed want to split your votes, that's definitely an option.
Looking forward to the next project!
I really like a couple of your options, will the ones that don't get made now make it to the 3rd design call?
Harker Wade
Well, the first time around, the runner-up became a Dungeon query and might see publication in 2007 or 2008. None of the items on the current list are repeated from the first project.
However, if a patron wanted a particular item to return to the list of candidates for the third round, yes, I think that's a fine idea. I just don't want to use the same list each time out.
There are only two options there that I am interested in seeing to completion and helping to create with my input. If I become a patron, and one of the other choices are selected, is there any kind of refund plan? The first answer that springs to mind is "Donate more money, get more votes", but I would like to ask anyway, so I know just what the terms are of patronship.
Thank you for youe time.
Short answer: No, as a patron, you fund the work, watch the process, and offer input. But patronage is fundamentally unlike a purchase of an existing project. I already do work like that for WotC, Dungeon, and others, so there's no point in replicating that here.
Long answer: My hope, of course, is that the list reflects a lot of choices everyone will like, and that it is fun to watch the creation of any of these unfold.
I've been tempted to offer a direct, project-by-project commission rather than patronage model, but I fear it would not work. It means that patrons would have to donate a lot more money per person (starting at $50 minimum) or that projects would take a lot longer to fund (the first one might still be waiting for funding). I don't think anyone will donate to a project that might take a year to turn into a tangible result.
The first project didn't do that well financially, so splitting up the patrons into separate groups and separate funding pools makes no sense. From my perspective, patrons are funding creative experiments in design. Of course, I fully understand if you see it more like a traditional purchase.
In any case, the selection process for this project included a lot of adventures and also some other materials. As it turns out, those other projects (sourcebooks and bestiary) were at least as possible as another adventure.
If it helps, the winners of a straw poll of 45 patrons were Morgau (Kingdom of Nightmares) and City-State of Zobeck, both regional books with some crunchy bits. There's no guarantee that early poll reflects what people actually put money down to support, though.
That might be good to know as well.
But 2 or 3 payments is totally reasonable; just note that is what you are doing in the PayPal comments field.
Harker Wade
What about staying at the level I'm at, then if the voting goes my way >:), paying more money to move to a higher level of patronage? Is that ethical, in your opinion? Would you allow that?
Thanks
-Bulette
It's not unethical, it's more like a test run or sample donations. And I have allowed it in the past.
Naturally, people who know what they want sometimes just dive right in, and that's fine too. :)
Though the Bestiary is listed as a "How to Design a Monster" book, shouldn't being involved in the patronage of an adventure or sourcebook also result in learning "How to Design an Adventure or Sourcebook" appropriately?
I am most interested in the "How to" aspect, and so I am wondering how much of that would be in each of the projects and how much extra focus would be put on that in the Bestiary option.
I think there's more emphasis on "How to" with the monsters because the task is smaller, and easier to explain. I can certainly write a "How to ..." guide for adventure design, but its a much more complicated task to explain because there are questions of length, play style, and level.
The most "How to" is probably in Beastiary, and the least in the regional books. The adventures are somewhere in between. If you are just interested in "How to Write for Dungeon Magazine", I can certainly write that book, but it might not be a patron project.
Beastiary looks interesting too, but I own Expeditious Retreat's Beast Builder and I would be disappointed if there were a lot of overlap. If it was a Mike Mearls' style reworking of various staple monsters, though... that I could get into!
I would be very pleased if Castle Shadowcrag got the commission, but the patronage hurdle is pretty intimidating.
As a weighted combination of what I would like to see and what I figure has the best chances, those are my three top picks.
Not sure I can live up to Mike Mearls' style of reworking staples; my approach on that is more to discuss the formal and informal WotC suggestions on monster design. So far, that project hasn't attracted a patron's first pick yet, but that can certainly change in a hurry.
However, as I said in the straw poll, my feeling on the "patron publishing" project is that we should be producing adventures.
It doesn't sound like the Beastiary would attract as many patrons, so I'll cast my vote for Angels of our Better Nature, and a medium (7-10) level range. It would be interesting to see low (4-6), but that might unfairly limit the type of encounters the PCs would encounter.
It's very, very early to say what will attract the most attention, but yes, Beastiary is lagging at the moment. I'll note it's about day 2 in the commission phase; last time, this phase took about 80 days.
I may write some essays in that direction, if patrons ask for it.
Anyway, your wishes for Angels and Medium level are duly noted and added to the tally!
If one can excuse a little pride in one's work, I just think I can do better. :)
Actually, now that I think of my creatures from 2E that were picked up in FF, MM2, and Fiendish Codex, I think I might actually be justified in saying I've done ok with monsters over the years.