Patron Feedback 2019 (Patreon)

Hello all!

Last month I sent out what will likely now be an annual practice of a patron-wide 'survey' of sorts that asked a variety of questions to help me better understand how to cater my efforts towards what you all actually want. I'm happy to say that nearly 350 of you were kind enough to participate in that survey and in the interest of transparency I now share the broader points of that data in the spread above as well as how your feedback will impact how I will continue and/or change things moving forward.

POINT #1: Do you use assets or maps?

Notes: About 42% of you use mostly the standalone maps, while about 25% of you use mostly the assets, with a surprising 32% of you using both. To me, this reflects a higher usage of the assets than is currently reflected in the 1/5 of monthly posts that are dedicated to them. 

Action: To try and cater more assets to you all more frequently I will be moving the larger Public Asset Packs to paid posts for the time being so that they can be made more quickly and will try and more intentionally design posts that can feature both assets and a standalone map with those assets (I have an example coming down the queue for that this month). This increase will likely result in about 1.5-2 'asset-based' posts per month.

POINT #2: What type of maps do you actually use?

Notes: While this data isn't necessarily shocking, it does help confirm for me that battle maps are certainly the most commonly useful type of map I make (with assets likely playing a role in that). Dungeons also come in a close 2nd place there with lore or 'setting-based' maps like buildings, towns, and cities still being used, but not quite as frequently.

Action: I will be making battle maps and dungeons a higher priority and a more frequent appearance in the monthly queue; I will absolutely not be stopping making towns, cities, or buildings, but they will take a little more of a backseat. Probably won't do this perfectly depending on what I'm working on month-to-month, but I'll try to be more intentional on balancing that ratio.

Point #3: In what ways do you use the assets?

Notes: The most interesting parts of this data for me are how many of you actually drop in assets to existing standalone maps to further customize them for your needs as well as how many of you are making entire dungeons with the assets. 

Action: This speaks to me for a need for more assets that enable dungeon-building. While that certainly could mean props and other smaller-scale items, I'm thinking more broadly in terms of rooms, tunnels, connecting chambers, etc. similar in design to the cave tiles from the Cave Assets. Additionally, I will be more intentional in creating alternatively 'normal' or 'blank' variations to battle maps to further champion those of you dropping in assets to existing maps.

Point #4: How satisfied are you with my content?

Notes: Not a lot of specific feedback to be gleaned here obviously, but overall seems quite good! Obviously I'd love to be moving more of you into that 'very satisfied' column, of which I hope the adjustments made here will play a part.

Point #5: How important is [x quality] in the maps you choose?

Notes: Unsurprisingly many of you value a map that is visually appealing or interesting to put in front of your players. What is maybe a little more interesting is that (broadly speaking) you all seem to prefer a map style that favors universality (or the ability to easily/seamlessly use it in your game) than you do a map that is very specific that you might like, but have to wait to use or specifically design an instance to use it.

Action: No tangible action to point towards here, but more of an ideological shift for me in terms of map-making that I'll be taking into account here. Probably nothing so stark that you would notice it immediately in the maps coming out this month, but certainly a preference has been heard that I'll be aware of.

Point #6: What additional content might you like to see me produce?

Notes: This one was pretty evenly split between all of the options (including 'no additional content please, just maps), aside from the paper miniatures. My one point of confusion here now in hindsight is that VTT tokens are the most selected option while the paper minis are the least selected option, while I thought the two went kind of hand-in-hand. When I released a set of miniatures in May I included versions for printing as well as circular tokens to be used in VTT. Is my understanding of that incorrect or when you all expressed interest in VTT tokens were you thinking stuff more in line with tokens like these? Any clarity any of you could offer there would be great.

Action: No decisions made here yet! While I certainly have an interest in making any/all of the options offered there, I certainly want to make some videos on using the assets if I can find time to during the summer months. With us moving the Public Asset Packs to the paid post rotation I will be putting up another poll soon to decide between these options as our next goal reward.

That's it folks! Certainly more information than many of you may need or want, but since you all took the time to share your thoughts with me I thought it only fair to do the same. If you have any questions or further thoughts to share (or want to help solve my token question) please feel free to comment below.

Thank you for participating!