Happy New Year! (Patreon)

Over the past few days I've been soft-launching and testing some of our pledge goals, but this is the official launch of all the Alexandrian's Patreon features. (Although I would not be shocked to discover some speed bumps as we move forward.) First, thank you. A very heartfelt thank you. I honestly thought it would be a struggle to reach my $10 milestone and instead you have blown us past that goal and blown me away. Second, milestone goals. As I mentioned a couple of days ago on the Alexandrian, our first piece of paid content will be landing on the 5th. And it's something that literally would not have been written without this Patreon campaign. Re: No More Ads. We've also annhilated the $25 milestone goal. To clarify this goal, we're talking about elimating all the graphical ads from the site. The links to my books in the left sidebar will remain, the new Patreon button will also stick around, and I'll still use affiliate links to books and movies I talk about in my posts. But at the end of our first month with this milestone goal, the Google and Amazon ads in the sidebars will be going away. I think this will have a subtle-yet-significant impact on the utility of the site and I'm really looking forward to it. Re: So You Want to Be a Dungeon Master? I was not expecting us to reach this goal for many months (or possibly ever). But now we're startlingly close to it. So I'm just going to take a moment and make it clear that this series will not miraculously appear the moment we hit that milestone goal: Achieving the milestone goal is the point in time where I can start prioritizing my work on it. Third, pledge goals. Patron Page: I'll be sending out a message shortly asking for your permission to list you on a new Patron Page at the Alexandrian. Early Access: $1+ patrons have already started receiving early access content in easy-to-download PDF files. Curious Item Club: I'll be delivering January's curious item to $2+ patrons later today. Hangout Club: I'll be messaging $3+ patrons some time next week to arrange a good time for this. Please note that I cannot guarantee finding a time that will work for everyone, but I'll do my best. Article & Review Requests: At the end of your first full pledge month (so, the end of January if you've pledged on or before January 1st) you'll be able to message me or e-mail me and make your request. I'm really looking forward to seeing what you're all interested in seeing! Beyond that, I'll be honest in saying that the exact mechanics of this reward are a little hazy in my head right now and the actual execution will probably depend on how the first few requests go. What I can say right now is that you shouldn't expect that I will automatically drop everything else to immediately crank out your article. And I'm really serious about that "subject to approval" thing: It's not just a matter of appropriate subject matter; I may just not have any interest in certain subjects or I may just not have anything interesting to say about them. Although the pledge reward only says that you'll get to pitch a single article or review, my current intention is for your "request cred" to reset. I'm not going to nail that down until I see how things actually go, but I suspect it'll end up being something like "once a year". The "renewal period" might also be customized depending on whether your request ends up being a 1000-word review or a 12-part mega-series. For a pre-Patreon example of what a requested article could end up looking like, check out Numenera - Calibrating Your Expectations: http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/35363/roleplaying-games/numenera-calibrating-your-expectations Hangout Games: If there aren't enough patrons at these reward levels, I'll be filling the games out with other players I know. (I'm also looking at the possibility of raffling off a seat to a random patron.) While I reserve the right to cancel or delay your reward if a mutually agreeable time can't be arranged, I will go to great lengths to make this work. The support you're giving me makes me giddy whenever I think about it.