[Important Poll] What happens after the 365th item?
Hey heroes! This takes just over 5 minutes to read. If you're short on time, there's a very brief tl;dr at the bottom, followed by the poll. Thank you for your feedback!
A year in (early) review
In one month, the Saddlebag will turn 1 year old. Whew! The first official daily item was posted to Instagram on November 9th last year, the Patreon launched on December 10th, and it's all become the most incredible journey I could have ever dreamed of. What started as a passing suggestion has turned into my dream career, and I have you to thank for it.
So here's me saying it, again: thank you.
There are very few people who can say that they have the best job in the world, and I count myself among them. I am so happy to provide you with interesting treasures for your games. Your stories of conquest and reward involving them are the highlights of my day whenever I read them. The community around the Saddlebag has been nothing short of incredible, and I consider you all my friends. Because of you, I never feel like I'm working alone.
So, you've all been waiting for it: the book. I'm hoping to be able to launch it on Kickstarter (or other platform) at the start of December. There's so much to do, so please bear with me if anything happens to delay it a little longer!
More immediately, though, what happens after the 365th item? Well, let me tell you.
The 366th.
What's happening in year 2?
An item every weekday, a new public poll, and a new patron-wide exclusive weekly reward.
That's my current plan, but I want to hear from you about it! This would start after the 365th item—not immediately!
The shift from 7 items a week to 5 will prevent creative burn-out, as well as let me spend time on other (really cool!) projects. At the start, I'll be spending my weekends working extensively on the book. But future projects can be the collaborative releases I've been doing with other creators, additional patron-only rewards like settings or adventures, as well as other more divergent D&D ideas. More on that later!
First things first: you will always have my promise that my dedication is to you, your games, and this career that you've given me. This schedule change guarantees my ability to do this for you for many more years to come!
I want to make sure that you and players everywhere still receive some form of content every day. As a result, here 2 new features that would release every Saturday and Sunday, respectively:
1. Favorite item polls, free fan favorites
To account for the missing item content on Saturdays, I'll be releasing a new weekly poll. This poll asks everyone: what was your favorite item from the past week? Crowd favorites become free starting the following week. This means that at the end of year 2, there will be 52 items' art and cards that are free for everyone to access. There are about that many free items now from year 1, too.
Your support guarantees that regardless of what does and does not become free, you always have access to that content. Further, it encourages other adventurers like you to become a patron if their favorite item goes unpicked.
My utmost hope is that this doesn't feel like a devaluation of your support, heroes. I want these polls to be a way to showcase the value you already receive as patrons to new people: people who haven't decided to become a supporter like you yet.
Let me know in the comments how you feel about this. Your opinion matters!
2. Saddlebag NPCs: a patron-exclusive perk
All patrons will receive a new reward every Sunday: an NPC. This NPC comes with characteristics, quirks, a short backstory, and a table of potential Saddlebag items they might be carrying. The list will offer items in a range of rarities to let the NPC fit in as many games as possible based on the party's level.
These exclusive NPCs will be available as character cards with a portrait illustration. If they're probably good, they're considered a Saddlebuddy. If they're probably bad, they're a Saddlebaddie. Regardless of their alignment, they should be a neat addition to your games and make for some hopefully memorable characters.
The goal of this new patron-exclusive reward is to help you integrate these items into your existing worlds. And, seeing as there will be 52 NPCs made over the year, you could expect to see an eventual physical pack of cards released to compile them all.
Please share your thoughts!
These 2 additions to the weekly release schedule are new ways to reward you for your support as well as provide content and interaction with the larger community. With the revised schedule, I'll be able to prevent creative burn-out and work on related new and exciting projects for you.
I want to hear from you. As with any shift to the schedule or range of rewards I offer, I want to make sure that I'm not misguided in the decision before moving forward. You matter to me, and I don't want to ever betray your trust.
There are 6 options below. Please select up to 2. How do you feel about these changes? Would they influence your support? Please answer honestly! If you all feel that these changes need revision given your perspective, I'll make a new proposal next week following this poll's end!
Regardless of what your opinion is, thank you for taking the time to be here, for reading, and for being a part of the community. You're my hero!
tl;dr
I'm making 5 items a week (weekdays), a new "favorite item of the week" poll on Saturdays that makes 1 item a week free, and all patrons get a new Saddlebag-NPC on Sundays with details and loot table for you to drop into you game. This will prevent artist burnout, as well as give me chances to work on new projects for you on weekends, including the book! Let me know how you feel about this change by selecting at least 1 of the options below.
Comments (35)
The PNG idea is marvellous, I feel like there is a cap to the amount of magic items one can read... but changing topic? great!
Quality over quantity I say.
Where is the poll option for "My pledge would INCREASE?" I think expanding the content that you create is absolutely fantastic! It's been great seeing you develop over this past year, and if I start getting NPCs too, I'm definitely kicking it up to the next tier! I'm really looking forward to this next year and the final release of The Book!
You're a great creator, Griff. I think that you absolutely deserve to throttle back on the items to better diversify your creative efforts.
Lol, there’s one grumpy patron so far. But I think that this is a great idea! One item a day is already too much, generally speaking. It’s good that you will get the chance to slow down and let those creative juices refresh. Plus, I’m really looking forward to the NPC’s. Can you make them in level increments of 5? Say, level 1, 5, 10, and 15? That way, they can be put into pretty much any campaign without hassle. Maybe make the same NPC, but with 4 different downloadable profiles?
Great thoughts. I trust there's some time baked in the schedule for you to take a break too - whether it's a well deserved holiday or getting unwell.
My thoughts are much an echo of the above, a slight reduction from 7 to 5 items makes sense, as if you think about there is less then half the number you have already done in the dms guide! Also, the idea of providing us with NPC's sounds fantastic
I already thought the 5 item a week was "over the top", in the sense that burn-out was a real possibility. I'm glad to hear you're thinking about yourself and doing other things - and if that's creating a book and making some NPC's instead, I'm all up for it. Keep up the good work. To answer your questions: My pledge will stay the same (or increase?) and they are more than fair.
These are all fair and reasonable changes. I'm pretty sure you've talked about going to a 5 day release for a little while now as well for the exact reasons you've listed here, so this comes as no surprise and I thinks is well deserved after 365 days of hard work and VERY consistent content releases.
I live what you're doing. I dont get to really appreciate it because of my job, but i think the changes are good. Getting burnt out is hard to recover from, and since i work all the time, i can definitely agree some time off is a necessity.
All for this!
This is dope, I'm glad you maybe a get a weekly break. We already get more value from your labor than is fair tbh.
this all looks great, griff! i can't wait for the future, and like most folks here, i'm thrilled you'll finally be getting some free(r) weekends in the coming months!
All of this sounds good to me, especially the NPCs. It was your collaboration on Cavern of the Venom Queen that brought you to my attention. Honestly, I wavered on becoming a patron for a while because my thought was, "Well, I already do a lot of custom items so it's not like a 'need' more." I kept coming back to your page and your work, however, and it was finally the little quips and quotes that go with the cards that sold me on subscribing. Even if I never use a particular item as presented, I know they're an invaluable source of inspiration for my games. Maybe after you're comfortable with the changes for Year 2 you could consider adding Locations to go with the Items and NPCs? Could be individual buildings, rooms, or general info for a town, city, castle, etc. I know, I'm greedy. Sorry, not sorry. I love your work. :-)
Changes sound great, looking forward to the NPCs.
Love the changes moving forward. Excited for NPCs!
After seeing this, I wish I could increase my pledge amount, but unfortunately I'm unable to do so unless I get a significant increase in income
Saddlebuddies/baddies is a great idea! I love it!
I'm a fairly new Patron, and couldn't be more excited about the future to come! Your work is amazing, Griff, and you definitely should avoid any sort of burnout. Anyways, the new additions seem great!
7 item per week is madness, you should adjust it to fit your schedule and not burn yourself. Anyway, i'm gonna support you
5 a week is fine, I won't change my pledge. Seriously, expecting you to work 7 days a week is crazy and your engagement level has been awesome. I also welcome more cross-artist collaborations, those have been awesome!!! i want more!
The weekend break would have nothing but a positive effect on my sub. Frankly, I don't have enough spare time on weekends to participate in the Saddlebag as much as a weekday, and I would venture to say that this is similar for a lot of other patrons. The NPC addition is fantastic, and seems like something that wouldn't necessarily require a lot of community input (regarding balancing, etc.) so that has the added bonus of pure Griff creative freedom. All considered, this feels like a great change and I support every initiative that in turn supports the sustainability of the Saddlebag. As always, thank you, Griff!
New Saddlebuddies/Saddlebaddies are really exciting, can't wait to see them! Always excited for new content and understand the issue of burnout, 7 days a week for a whole year is a steal anyway for what I'm paying, 5 and an NPC imo is even better! Can't wait to see the additions in the future
Just wanted to say I not only totally understand the changes and think the NPC would be very cool, but I also REALLY appreciate that you put this to us to get our feedback instead of just announcing changes. Keep up the great work!
I like the changes, keep up the good work bud!
honestly yeah it just makes sense to tone things down a bit, an item a day seven items a week always seemed exhausting. But yeah, I'm psyched or the Saddlebuddies/Saddlebaddies!!!
I think it's only fair to say that we supporters receive or money worth in amazing content, probably even more than that and I want to thank you a ton for that! I think the diversification sounds exciting, I am totally on board with you preventing burnout and reducing to 5 items a week and I'm very much looking forward to the things to come!
Love the NPC idea! Don’t worry about change from 7 to 5.
I wish there were an option for 'My Pledge would INCREASE' because I'm not currently a patron, but I'm gonna be, those NPCs sound dope!
Honestly, you have been constantly delivering with such quality that I have nothing but utmost respect for you and think you deserve any time off you seem fit. My pledge ain't going nowhere, except maybe up 👏
I think these ideas are great, and I certainly appreciate the desire to not burn out. Seven days a week is A LOT.
Honestly, an item a day has been unbelievable, especially with the art. 5 items a week will still be an amazing accomplishment and a great value. Keep up the amazing work!
Posting here instead of the discord because I guess you're more likely to read it here. I have absolutely no issue with you scheduling back from 7 to 5 items a week. As is, 7 items a week is an insane task, you have made more magic items than WotC has in their entire run of 5th edition. This really is a feat. I wouldn't want the quality of both the artwork and the items to suffer. As for the idea of NPCs, I find that really cool. Especially with the Deep Lore™ we've been getting with the Couatl Herald items, the Festerwood stuff, Dendalen, and the things yet to come, that seems like a perfect fit. Oh, and of course, I'm looking forward to the book. Putting some money aside for the Kickstarter already!
I'm new and have been absolutely amazed at the quality and quantity of items! I will definitely continue to support and may end up increasing my level. Thanks!
Keep kicking ass, you do you.