Of the original 8 adventures, the patrons who have signed up so far have whittled the field down to just four. They are, in rough order of patron interest:

1) The Black Forest: A godling thought dead is revived, a forest's borders shift, and ancient magic seeps out of the old growth. The Wild Hunt calls, and the forces of nature turn against you in the forest depths. A wide-open wilderness adventure that includes some very nasty kobolds.
2) Steam & Brass: A mystery and city adventure, in which a clockwork mage and an infernal gentleman dispute a contract -- and the PCs are caught in the middle. Lots of investigation and some puzzle elements.
3) The Lost City: A city hidden by sorcery, with rich treasures and the ruins of a lost civilization. The secret of the city's fall into ruin is there to be discovered, but it is well guarded by a sinister naga and a many great aberrations, including a beast that can only be described as fully Cthulhoid.
4) The Flying Fortress: An aerial adventure, playable anywhere. The flying castle is wide open for you to decide what flavor it might take on.

If you'd like to support one of these fine adventures, please become a patron today. More details are at the Publishing Strategy announcement and Patrons and Pricing posts, or just click the button below.

I'm removing "Tomb of the Dragon Kings" from the title/concept list, as patron support for it was lukewarm at best.

That leaves the current contenders as, in order of popularity with the patrons:

• The Black Forest


• Steam & Brass


• The Lost City (fallen to third, as a major patron shifted his support to "Forest")


• Flying Fortress

That's the cut for this week. I'm impressed that a single patron's shift has changed the standings so sharply.

Clearly, as patrons are making their opinions known, the project is already taking a sort of shape. Perhaps a half-pony, half-monstrous shape, but perhaps not. It turns out the patrons have shown outstandingly good taste. Seriously. I'm delighted.

Naturally, this means is that the list of topics and levels is narrowing. The top two adventure titles are clearly ahead (and may be combined in some way), and some titles have a single vote or even a half-vote.

The remaining contenders, in order of most patrons to fewest, are:

1. The Lost City: A lost civilization and its rich treasures.
   
2. Steam and Brass: A clockwork city-based adventure.
   
3. The Black Forest: Old growth and ancient magic.
   
4. The Flying Fortress: Aerial adventure suitable for any location.
   
5. Tomb of the Dragon King: A classic dungeon crawl, with dragon.

If you want to see a particular one of those, round up some friends and please sign up today.

And then we have those titles that haven't made the cut. Barring a last-minute surge of support, they're gone. To be honest, I'm rather sad to see that the Underdark adventure "Empire of the Ghouls" has no votes. But then again, it'll be good to strike out into new territory. I'm removing these three options for lack of patronage:

• Empire of the Ghouls: Deep underground delving, an extrapolation from Dungeon #70.
  
• The Tenth Hell: A visit to Hell and back.
  
• None of the Above: Details will be worked out among the patrons.

Ok, that last one was perhaps a foolish notion on my part. Join us again next week, on American Idol the Open Design experiment.

I'm returning to an old, old model for writers with the next adventure I write: patronage. In the medieval age and in the Renaissance, patrons were the ones who commissioned artists and writers. There was no such thing as a "publisher". People who wanted books paid someone directly to write them.

The OpenDesign blog is about applying that strategy to RPG adventures. It's a both a publishing experiment and a design experiment.

What's good about this approach?
Patrons have significant say about the content: the people who commission the text will also choose the adventure style, title, level, monsters and so forth. They become, effectively, patrons of the arts. I feel all feudal just proposing it.

And who are you, exactly?
My name is Wolfgang Baur. I've been professionally involved in the RPG field for 15 years, starting at TSR and later at WotC. Here's an partial list of my credits, but I'm best known for things like Frostburn, Planes of Law, the Book of Roguish Luck, Assassin Mountain, "Kingdom of the Ghouls", and many more. I've written about 12 adventures for Dungeon magazine, and used to be its editor.

How many members do you need to get started?
I'm optimistic because I need just 100 or 200 patrons to commission the work. Since there's no retailer, no publisher, no distributor, and no print costs, even a tiny audience makes it worthwhile to design exclusively for patrons.

Note that if it project isn't commissioned successfully by reaching a "greenlight" level in a couple months, your money will be refunded. There's no risk to signing up.

What would I get out of this?
You'd get the complete adventure written to your instructions regarding level, monsters, etc. For instance, the first adventure title and concept will be chosen by the people who sign up, as will many other adventure details. It will have one of the following titles:

1. The Black Forest: Old growth and ancient magic.
   
2. Empire of the Ghouls: Deep underground delving, an extrapolation from Dungeon #70.
   
3. The Flying Fortress: Aerial adventure suitable for any location.
   
4. Steam and Brass: A clockwork city-based adventure.
   
5. The Lost City: A lost civilization and its rich treasures.
   
6. The Tenth Hell: A visit to Hell and back.
   
7. Tomb of the Dragon King: A classic dungeon crawl, with dragon.
   
8. None of the Above: Details will be worked out among the patrons.

I'll have more details on the OpenDesign style soon. Details posted in the "First Patrons and Pricing" area. The struck-out titles above have been removed for lack of patron support.

What does it cost?
Between $5 and $20 gets you the opportunity to tell a widely-published, respected game designer what to do. I'll post full details here shortly below. This donation button is for the Standard $20 donation; for other donation levels and details, please read the First Patrons and Pricing post below.