Raging Swan Press in 2017 (Patreon)

2016 was an epic year for Raging Swan Press, and I couldn’t be happier with how we stand now that 2017 is upon us. 

A few highlights of 2016 include:

• You, our Heroic Patreons,  enabled us to pay our designers nine cents a word—almost an industry leading figure. 
• We’ve had our best year’s sales ever by a wide margin.
• We’ve started releasing 5e compatible products.
• We’ve started releasing System Neutral Edition products.
• Our website has had its busiest year (according to Google Analytics).
• I've managed to write much more than in 2015.

With such a stellar year behind us, I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store for Raging Swan Press. 

Of course, we’ve got plans.

Gloamhold

I started “live designing” Gloamhold on my blog  in 2015. Annoyingly, running Raging Swan Press got in the way of prolonged progress and effort. Victory is now mine, however, as I've now completed the first draft of the _Gloamhold Campaign Guide_. It should be available in February in both print and PDF formats. Obviously, we’ll be releasing more Gloamhold-focused content throughout the year. In fact, we’ve already started! 

As part of our drive to release 5e-compatible and System Neutral Edition products, we’ve converted many of the villages of Ashlar to these formats and they are available now. John Bennett is also slaving away over a series of Town Backdrops. The first, Dulwich, also releases in February. (And, if it’s adventure you seek, the collector’s edition of _Fane of the Undying Sleeper_—an adventure for 3rd-level characters—will be available from late January in both print and PDF).

5e and System Neutral Edition 

We’ll be continuing our release schedule of [5e-compatible] and [System Neutral Edition] products. As well as Village Backdrops for both systems we’ll be expanding our offering to include Places of Power and select Town Backdrops. We’ll also be releasing our first print 5e-compatible and System Neutral Edition products in 2017. 

20 Things Articles

I've had tremendous fun writing (along with our heroic freelancers) and posting up a huge range of [free 20 Things articles]. This trend is set to continue in 2016, but with a more focused approach. Over the last few years, I’ve basically been writing on whatever subject I fancied, but I’ve found this strategy increasingly dissatisfying. This year, in any given month roughly half of the free articles will focus on a single theme—for example, an Abandoned Dwarven Hold. These focused articles will be collated into a paid-for product that people can buy (or not) as they choose.  

Patreon Campaign

Our [Patreon campaign] has to date been tremendously successful, but I think we can make it even more awesome. Because patreon provides a long-term guaranteed reoccurring income I've been able to focus on long-term goals. For me, the support our patrons  is epic because we’ve been able to:

• Invest in new equipment and software.
• Increase our freelancer rate of pay from 1 to 9 cents a word (or $50 per half-page illustration).

In 2017, I'd like to raise enough funds to enable us to:

• Pay 11 cents a word (because this equalise our pay rate with Paizo, WoTC and the like—that would be beyond amazing). 
• Increase the size of our Village Backdrop and Places of Power lines from five to seven pages. This would enable us to add extra art and provide details (and a map) of the surrounding area, which would be rather cool.

Pathfinder

And we aren’t neglecting Pathfinder, in 2017. Along with the continuation of the Village Backdrop and Places of Power lines we’ll be releasing at least two Collector’s Edition modules. We’ll also be continuing out normal range of print compilations. This year we’ll add the first _GM’s Miscellany: Places of Power_ to the roster. I’m also considering a hardback release—I’ve got a hankering to collate a massive 300+ page book of all the Pathfinder compatible Village Backdrops to date. 

What Do You Want?

As with any decent plan, I've built some slack into our release schedule. To do otherwise would be madness. Is there anything you are desperately keen to see from us in 2017? Let us know, in the comments below.

Thank You

Thank you for supporting Raging Swan Press. I hope you stick with us in 2017 and that our books help make your campaign easier to plot, easier to run and more awesome.