December Patreon "State of the Union"/QA video
This one ended up long, but in the first half I discuss the current state of the CAD Patreon campaign, and some changes I'm considering making. So if you want to know what sort of things I might be changing/doing differently, check it out! Feedback always welcome!
Comments (27)
I am a patron BECAUSE I love starcaster, while I could not give less about chef Brian. As far as I'm concerned, putting more time into starcaster and less on chef Brian is clealry the better option. I think I remember Tim that you promised that we would see more of Starcaster before 2018 would end - I'm a bit disappointed that that did not happen...
Love the RPG idea. I've also always loved Chef Brian from waaaay back. The random comic here and there when he popped up was always great. I'm sad that I don't get to see Chef Brian anymore since I can't really afford to back at that high of a level (I support too many great content creators). So I guess it wouldn't affect me if you stopped the current Ask Chef Brian, but I do wonder if there's some other way to interject him occasionally in a way that all patrons can enjoy.
First off I love the "game" feel that you would be creating with the $100 patron level. There are multiple tiers of more involvement from us without requiring a massive amount of time. I specifically want to hit on your Chef Brian topic. I am at the higher tier because I love the wallpaper each month. I do enjoy Chef for the complete randomness but I would not be hurt if he disappeared from regular monthly updates. I would love if you would be able to find some way to keep Chef Brian on a quarterly basis or even like once every 6 months. I don't want to see him completely disappear but the thought of seeing more Starcaster does sound like a great idea.
I'm limited on my monthly spending money which I use to buy whatever fun stuff I want. Which is mostly comics and video games. But I can better afford one time costs. I would love to buy the past 6 months or last years Chef Brian comics with a one time charge. He's easily my favorite character. As evidenced by my avatar on Discord. And if there was an option to buy all those 132(?) $100 tier patron comics as a group, I'd be interested in that too. And I will buy the Chef Brian t-shirt.
I wouldn't mind losing the Chef too much. Regarding the RPG thingy: it's a cool idea, I'd love to see that one pan out
I would love more Starcaster
the RPG idea sounds cool, also sounds like alot of work. Sounds cool though.
You know, I think most of the work is in the prep. Designing the system an getting it rolling. Otherwise it's just taking some information and turning it into something fun and silly, which is what I already do anyway XD
I'm not a fan of videos due to my condition - is there a transcript?
I kind of make it a rule not to pledge above $5 for a comic (I'm not rich and I want to be able to support a few different artist). I did enjoy an occasional Chef Brian comic back when they were free but I'd definitely prefer more Star Caster. As for the monthly comic I like what you are doing now but I'm also open to change. I always considered those a bonus with the main comics being what I really pay for. Admittedly I used to just read for free with an ad-blocker, I'm not opposed to ads themselves but they slowed down my connection to much and posed a security threat. Not paying never sat well with me so when I started making enough money to become a Patron I jumped at the opportunity. If I ever become a billionaire I'll probably give at the top tier for all my favorite artist.
So many not fan statements about Chef Brian, yet for me, it is one of my most commented on shirts from CAD. While my monthly contribution level does not directly fund for that character, I would be sadden by the loss of, what I think, is one of CAD’s most outrageous pieces of mind candy. As others have mentioned, I began supporting you on Patreon for the historically consumed free content. While the proposed changes will not modify my support for your artistry, I do think the modifications you mention do make a level of sense, and look forward to your work in 2019.
He has never been everyone's cup of tea. And there's never been much middle ground when it came to Chef Brian; people either loved the silliness/randomness, or they didn't. If I can keep him around, I will. But if I try and do something else, and I can't manage it, he may have to get axed, or at least downsized.
I've always been a fan of Chef Brian in the small doses we've seen him, there's something about his absolute absurdity that tickles a hard-to-reach spot in my think-meat. I understand he's not a favorite among the majority, but I feel he probably has more of a small cult following of dedicated supporters. Personally, he could drop down to every other month, or maybe quarterly, and I'd still support at that tier. I can only imagine that having an outlet for such nonsense is therapeutic to you as well - and if the top tier goes more serious than the current arc (which I completely approve of), Chef Brian would be the last bastion of insanity.
I do like Chef Brian, in small doses. I enjoy the format we have here, where people ask him a question and I get to try and interpret/answer it in the most bizarre way possible. I would love to be able to simply do all I do, AND do more on top of it, but obviously that's not realistic.
I am not a big fan of the more weird stuff like chef Brian or the current patreon comics. The RPG idea sounds fun. What you might do is run a few sessions before starting it and take notes. Use the sessions to influence what goes into the comic...have a bit of story fodder so you don't have the long battle or accidental character death set you up for slow/low content. Also might consider QAGS rules for the sessions. I love the idea and think the comics would be fun to read. I doubt I will have the money in the budget to support it, but if it means a few hours gaming with you and a group of super fans I might have to treat myself with birthday money or something for a single month.
I should clarify- I would not actually be running an RPG campaign. A more appropriate way to look at it would be a glorified "Choose Your Own Adventure" comic for the super patrons, with some basic stats attached to their characters; numbers for them to roll against to determine if they succeed or fail at an action. I'm not envisioning sessions being required, but rather I present them with situations via the comics, and they tell me what they want to do next, and then I draw how that plays out for them, with a healthy dose of GM fuckery. :) In that regard, I would imagine the events would keep moving forward because they'd be moving them forward via their choices; we'd be reacting off eachother's choices and I'd craft an adventure out of it as we went along.
Several thoughts on your ideas, one being the chief Brian as a comic; I for one never liked those types of comics and so have not supported it at all. Though I am torn between the idea of the top tear changing like that. I love the idea of creating an RPG style of dragon clearing being done; but at the same time I feel that if the comic was to come out with only 2 a month that it would take to long to tell the story. If it were to become more consistent or more created I could see it working out very well. I feel that a lot of us would love to see more consistent star-caster chronicles happening due to the fact that there is this entire universe where our protagonist is currently in trouble over what happened last. It would be very interesting to see it develop more as well. I know that the console wars is something that a lot of us are interested in, so I would support a bit more to see one that needs to come out each month. As for my question, I got the feeling that you were on the right track with how I meant the question to be asked. Having felt that in particular times of the year that you have to create a wintereenmas story. That I feel has gone so far beyond the simple comic as a gag joke that Ethan did 15 years ago to a following in society as is. That was why I had excluded it from a choice that you could make. Though there are times that I feel that you bring up the other heroes in Analog and D-pad or villains that does sometimes feel out of place. I am curious if you felt that they most be included because they were before? As well as other choices that have been made during seasons and what is happening with weather and how oyu decided planets should be in Star-caster?
*edited my 1st comment*
As far as your super patron idea: I've never been super invested in the beard storyline, but i came into it pretty late and never really "got it" as a result i think. I might make the super patron spots be a set of bad guys who antagonize a more rotating cast of characters from a lower tier in your dnd game comic idea. I really like your concept here. Never been a fan of Chef Brian personally, the humor just never really landed with me. I'd love to see more Starcaster, although I'd much prefer the art be drawn by you. All that said I'm not sure I'd be able to contribute much more monetarily than my (admittedly small) current level of donation, so maybe I'm not the best person to make business decisions around. Honestly I contribute to the Patreon to support your free CaD comics on your website more than anything. I do enjoy these chances to see you being candid in video however and am happy to provide feedback when you solicit it
Personally I only back the Patreon to support all the great free work I've consumed over the years. I have no interest in Chef Brian and I don't read the Super Patreon comics. So personally I'd be in favor of the changes. I really enjoy Star Caster. It's my second favorite thing you do behind the Ethan and Lucas stuff. Also the RPG idea for the top tier comics sound more interesting than the random stuff we get now. Whatever you decide to do, thanks again for all your great stuff!
Or, now that I think of it, mix in some prose to keep things moving along and a good clip.
Ha. You read my mind.
Yes, there are some logistics to work out. I would likely need to steamline/simplify the art style for this particular series to put out more page coverage in the same period of time.
One more thing - Not sure how much other people liked it, but the Wintereenmas short story you did is still one of my favorite things of your work. If there is ever a chance where you could do some writing again, I would support that in a heartbeat.
Love the RPG idea. Not a huge fan of the current super patreon stories. The CYA/RPG one sounds awesome. I say wrap the current one up now and start new series immediately. Also, never been a huge chef brian fan (as you can tell by me not supporting at that level), but would definitely be in favor for dropping that for more content. There is also a third option that you could do, which "store up" patreon support for Starcaster until you have a "whole issue's worth" and then do the issue. This would mean that patrons do not get something for a while for their support, but at least if the support drops off you would still have the resources for the whole issue. Like I said, I wouldn't mind dropping chef brian, but if you have a lot of people that want to keep him, might offer a different solution. And my bow!
I like the "store up" idea... (the following is all hypothetical, all values pulled from where the sun doesn't shine) say it's $1000 to cover the artist, if you get 100 supporters at the "$10 to support starcaster" tier, bam, new issue monthly... only get 25? Then it's a new issue every 4 months.
personally I love how all over the place chef Brian is; in a small way I can relate even (my thoughts make sense to me but don't always come out coherently for others). however if I had to pick something to give up for something new, chef Brian would be it. maybe due a tribute wallpaper for him if you do decide to axe him. could include him as a cameo in the new patron comic format or be the dungeon master through him as if he is the one pulling the strings the whole time. my thoughts on your patron comic idea; it would be great idea, but that kind of story would be slow going I feel at times. fights against creatures would have to progress fast in a page or two so they don't last months without progress on the story or maybe increase to a page each week versus two a month, though I get that is a lot of extra work (might be a good project for your hired help?). I don't see myself not wanting to support any of your proposed changes. if I make it into your new patron comic; you will have my sword!!