Patron Feedback Results 2023 (Patreon)

Hello all! As in years past, I am sharing the data and feedback of last month's annual patron survey back out to you. Major talking points and new directions based on this feedback is directly below, but you are more than welcome to read through each of the individual questions and my own thoughts on them for more information and explanation. 

Please note: all "thank you" rewards have now been sent out to participants in the survey through the email address you provided when doing so. If you think you've been missed please send me an email at: info@venatusmaps.com

Major Talking Points

• Across multiple questions there was a clear theme of growing interest in sci-fi or post-apocalyptic content. I will keep this in mind when designing upcoming releases and exploring adventure opportunities. 
• Through both data and individual written suggestions, there is a clear, growing interest in Pathfinder as a directive of adventure-specific content (as opposed to the exclusively 5e stuff I've done historically). This makes a lot of sense and I plan to follow up on that feedback.
• A general sense of approval/desire for continued adventure-specific content. I plan to continue finishing our Candlekeep series, but will reevaluate once that set is complete in regards to where we'll go next (see pathfinder note above)
• Themes for expanding the asset library fairly split between nature/urban/dungeon, but with more of a bent towards unexplored biomes and dungeons performed better than I anticipated. Will follow up with a poll regarding preferred new biomes. 
• A surprising level of enthusiasm for "adventure asset packs" with assets made for specific 5E adventures. Will seriously explore this idea and likely put out a followup poll for more specific guidance here.
• Token users are largely happy with token quality, but want a little more push in variety. A clear desire and enthusiasm for more NPC Tokens! (coming soon)
• In general, a clear voice of placing value on maps especially for their ability to create unique scenarios, provide story-telling opportunities, or otherwise distinguish themselves from more generic "random encounter" maps.
• In order of preference, users indicated environmental art, enemy art/tokens, and encounter/narrative suggestions as their favorite content accompaniment to the map releases

Suggestions and Ideas I'd love thoughts on (please comment!):

• Want to explore more sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, space-themed content
• Want to explore more content that is Pathfinder-specific
• When adding to the asset library, want to push towards new biomes
• In an attempt to make the asset library more manageable: would re-releasing the same library with an alternative organizational structure be helpful here? E.G. if I released a "master library" where we ignore the individual asset pack releases and instead all "rocks" are in the same folder, all "trees" are in the same folder, etc. 

Data + Details

Below I will share data from the survey that I find relevant; if I've omitted a question you're curious about, let me know and I'll share that too!

How long have you been a supporter?

A very diverse pool I'd say! And over 50% of you have been with me for over a year! You're amazing!

How satisfied are you with content overall?

97% of you very or somewhat satisfied! Super encouraging. I'm gonna get you on board yet though you 3%

Currently, do you typically play in-person or online?

Nearly 70% of you play exclusively or mostly online, so definitely going to continue to make sure the digital components of things gets love. 

What kind of content do you seek out most often in preparation for a session?

In hindsight, I guess maps probably shouldn't have been included given the target audience, ha. I however find this interesting and seemingly contradictory with the preferred "map accompaniment" data at the bottom? Most of you look for "fully prepped adventure content" after maps, but in the last data point at the bottom twice as many people opted for "encounter/narrative suggestion" vs. "fully prepped adventure content". What am I missing?

We make a fairly balanced share of both standalone maps and asset packs. How do you use these in your game?

93% of you all use assets in one form or another! Otherwise a pretty classic bell curve from either "exclusively assets" to "exclusively maps".

How would you "rate" the overall scope and availability of assets?

This is great! Love that the blue slice is as big as it is, but appreciate the enthusiasm of the red slice too. For anyone who fell into that green slice, I'm curious which asset theme(s) their continually finding lacking?

Broadly speaking, what area of the asset library would you most like to see expanded?

In hindsight, I kinda chopped up the "nature assets" and the "urban assets" camps into two choices while leaving the adventuring assets as a single option. If you combine those two chopped up paths then it becomes a bit more of an even split, but with nature taking a heavy leaning towards new biomes. Adventuring assets definitely performing better than I expected however!

Which programs/services do you use to help make maps or otherwise use assets?

41% of you use dungeondraft! That's great considering I often take into account DD functionality when making some assets now. Wouldn't have guessed so many of you would fall into that blue slice either. 

How would you rate the "ease of access" or organization of the asset library? i.e. How easy is it to find what you need?

Roughly 30% of you have a hard time finding stuff and/or find the size of the library intimidating. I want to fix that! Since DD is already using the tags system I have to imagine that 30% is coming primarily from users not using DD. Therefore my initial idea for working on this can be found in the last bullet of the "suggestions + ideas" section at the top. Let me know what you think please!

How satisfied are you with the tokens' quality?

89% very or somewhat satisfied with quality! That's great, I work hard on these. Want to keep pushing to convert more from that orange slice!

In future token releases, which would you like to see a greater emphasis on?

Definitely a clear indicator between this and a couple of other questions that there's a desire for more NPC tokens. I have already begun sketches!

Ever since the last survey in the Summer of 2021, I have been strident to  release a minimum of one map each month visualizing a specific location  from a WotC module. What are your thoughts?

While ~55% of you are good with or want more WotC content, that red slice is pretty chunky as well. Though I imagine some of those indicating the red choice may also be opting for other adventure specific content, but not stuff for WotC. Regardless, I still plan to continue working on adventure-specific stuff, but will try better to emphasize more agnostic functionality as well as a bent towards the Pathfinder element I mention up top.

Almost every month's releases are dedicated exclusively to encounter-like  scenarios (battle, dungeons, assets, etc.). 2-3 times a year we release a  more "lore-focused" map like a region or city map. What are your preferences?

This is great and definitely more lore-enthusiastic than I was expecting. I don't necessarily have plans to increase the lore production, but with this level of positive reception I certainly won't be decreasing it either.

Please select the quality that you value the MOST in a map:

This one surprised me! A lot more of you fell into the camp of size/scope the last time around we asked this. Perhaps my greater emphasis on that element has made the others feel more important by contrast? Regardless, happy to start brainstorming some more unique, storytelling maps for the near future.

Please select what kind of accompanying content you would value the MOST alongside a map:

Environment and enemy art is great! A little difficult to figure out how I will work that into the release schedule with any degree of consistency, but we'll see. I can definitely imagine me integrating some 1-page encounter/narrative suggestions into future maps as well. As mentioned above, I'm a little confused that "plug and play", fully prepped adventure content ended up so low on the ranks. Let me know if you have thoughts on that!