Tag Archive for: Patreon

Patreon TTRPG Halloween Collaboration “All Treats, No Tricks” – Free TTRPG Downloads!

/in /by

Hello fiends!

It’s only the 11th day of Halloween, and we’ve really amplified the creepy for you! As many of you know, we are coordinating two Patreons, the Twilight Accord and Mutants & Masterminds!  This spooky collaboration comes as a result of my role as a Captain of the Patreon TTRPG Creators A. Club (The A stands for Accountability). Originally intended as a short-term gathering  of TTRPG creators on Patreon, the idea was to gather fresh perspectives from fellow creators, our group hit it off so well that we expanded our meeting time to 90 minutes and we’re still at it 6 months later.
Now, it’s a lot like a weekly gathering of friends, each offering their expertise, coaching, counseling, and creative problem-solving! So you can imagine, when I mentioned the high-level concept of a terrifying  TTRPG Creators A. Club collaboration, this crew of RPG enthusiasts were next-level excited!

No Tricks, Only Treats TTRPG Creator’s Ring!

Here’s how it works: Every creator in this group has a free digital treat, and all you need to do is visit, and click! It’s a great way to catch up with some incredible TTRPG talent, some who have been doing this for some time, and some who are just beginning to focus on showcasing their work through Patreon — well, you will see for yourself!
Patreon Collaboration No Tricks, Only Treats!
I really wanted to show off each individual contributor to our collaboration – so as you click through to each Patreon for your free treat, take a moment to say hello, check out their work – and did you know you could follow their Patreon content for free?
You should do it! Oh look, here they all are now!

Conflux Creatures
Terror Unto Madness: The Book of Aberrations
Over 100 pages of improved monsters and new spells for 5e D&D

Everhearth Inn
A spooky fantasy-inspired recipe to cook for your next DnD session!

Worlds of Parodia
The Mischief Festival of Yielding

LeRoiDeCarreau
DnD 5e Spooky Compendium

Oixxo Art
Autumn Queen

ARTventuring Guild
Spooky PC/NPC portrait

Nerdsmith
“Welcome to the Estate” adventure module

The Twilight Accord:
THE NIGHT ROAD PROCESSION

Angela Maps
5 Animated Battle Maps & Foundry VTT mod

Epic Levels
Mad Dungeon 20: Song of the Shriekfrapp w/Erol Otus

Deep Breadth RPG
Miser Hag, the Literal Wolf on Wall Street

Dizzy The Bard
Song: Warlord What if Spinal from Killer Instinct… was a rapper?

BonusActionRainbow
Rotten Roots – a Space Fantasy oneshot

Domille’s Wondrous Works
Changing Maze Phased Battle Map
It is a maze that changes!

Mutants & Masterminds
The Nightmare Rider Stablock!

Beyond the Screen
To Mistheart: a 5E one-shot adventure

More Treats, still no Tricks

Author’s Note: I pilfered this part from my weekly agenda email to the 72 person of the group

 

I volunteered to be an Accountability Club captain because I desperately needed to connect with people who understood what a unique proposition it was to operate a Patreon supporting a TTRPG project. More than just “another meeting”, the TTRPG Creators A. Club has quickly become the highlight of my week. The group consists of people from all experience levels across multiple disciplines – and the conversations always lead to interesting insights, as well as practical, material things people can do to take their respective Patreons to the next level.

So a huge shout-out to my A. Club Comrades. You are incredibly talented, wise beyond your years, joyful collaborators, with top tier spoopy content!

Straight Talk About Twilight Accord

/in /by

So, you may have heard or read about the new Twilight Accord Patreon launched last month to develop a queer-focused 5e fantasy setting and campaign. Given that the majority of the tabletop RPG audience is likely straight (although I’d like to see some proper demographic research, myself) I figured it was a good idea to highlight the “What Is Twilight Accord?” post and its FAQ, particularly the question, “Is this for me, if I’m straight?”

Twilight Accord for 5E "straight" to the patreon!

The answer is yes … and no. Okay, it’s complicated, but not that much. Let me explain.

The high concept of Twilight Accord is that the Twilight Advocate, the spirit of the Fallen City in the Gloom, calls out to kindred spirits, namely queer (LGBTQ+) people, who are the ones who have found and followed the Night Road to the city and founded the Twilight Accord. So the default assumption of the setting is that the vast majority of the Accord, and therefore its Champions, the player characters, are queer folk. Our stories are the focus of this campaign.

That doesn’t mean straight (cisgender and heterosexual or “cishet”) people are excluded. As the FAQ points out: “No doubt there are some cishet-folk among the Accord: family members or other loved-ones who accompanied them into the Gloom or otherwise found their way there, but they’re very much among the minority.” So you can use the Twilight Accord as-planned with some straight characters, if you prefer, it’s just not the focus of the setting. (We could talk a lot about how that is essentially the same kind of inclusion queer people experience with most tabletop RPG products that bother to include us, but that would be a whole other article.)

If you’re not looking for a queer-focused narrative, will you get anything out of Twilight Accord or supporting the Patreon? Yes. We already have planned a lot of 5e content for the book, including new subclasses, ancestries, backgrounds, spells, magic items, and creatures, along, of course, with an entire ruined city filled with monsters and challenges to explore. You can use all of this in a Twilight Accord game or in your own campaign setting, as you see fit. We’re playtesting this content at the Counselor and Champion tiers of the Patreon, and encouraging feedback about the design to ensure it’s the best it can be.

If you’re straight, will you be welcome in the Twilight Accord Patreon community? Also yes. We welcome everyone who wants to support and participate in this exploration of new territory. Again, turning to the FAQ: “We welcome everyone’s support and love our allies! There is a place for everyone, even if the focus isn’t necessarily on you. That said, we are not going to tolerate any homophobia, transphobia, sex-shaming, or misogyny on the Patreon (or racism, ablism, or agism for that matter). The reality and personhood of queer people is not ‘up for debate’ in any way, shape, or form, and we will gladly remove anyone who signs up just to stir up trouble.”

Folks who get in on the ground-floor of the Patreon will get access to all of its content, as some older posts may be moved “out of circulation” over time. So if you’re interested in what we’re doing, don’t miss out! Visit the Twilight Accord Patreon, check out the public posts, and sign up if you want to see more. You’ll be most welcome.

The Twilight Accord

/in /by

Twilight Accord for 5th EditionThe guards shifted nervously, coughing a bit, breath fogging in the chill night air. They were all a bit uneasy, and with good reason. One glanced again at the wood piled and arranged in the courtyard, and thought about the hours until dawn.

“Some of them are little more than children,” he announced aloud to no one in particular.

“Then they can repent their ways,” the other guard replied, “and perhaps His Holiness will see fit to spare them, although if you ask me there’s no hope for their sort. Perverts. Unnatural. We’re well rid of them before they corrupt anyone else.” He spat in the dirt in disgust. The first man sighed and shook his head.

“I don’t expect there will be any mercy for any of them,” he said, “repentant or not…unless.”

“Unless what…?”

“Well…” the guard hesitated to go on. “You know. You’ve heard the stories.” That earned him a dismissive snort.

“Just stories. You don’t believe them, do you?”

“I don’t…” he began.

Then there was a deafening sound like thunder and the heavy wooden gates of the keep exploded inward, fragments raining down over the courtyard. The guards who were not knocked down by the blast stood in shock, mouths agape.

Figures appeared in the clearing smoke, wreathed in flames of seven colors that glimmered from their armor and weapons and in the hard glare of their eyes. They were not “just stories.”

“We are of the Accord and we have come for our people,” one of them announced. “Let none who hope to see the dawn stand in our way.”

The battle, if it can be called that, was brief, and so we were freed, and walked the Night Road to Gloamingate, to the promise of hope, freedom, and a home to call our own, if we can claim it—and we will.Twilight Accord On Patreon!

TWILIGHT ACCORD: THE FALLEN CITY: A Queer-focused #5e #TTRPG Fantasy Setting and Campaign, now on Patreon for Development.

Not “gay as in happy” but “queer as in ‘roll for initiative.’”

Do You Hear the Call…?

Green Ronin Publishing in 2021

/in , /by

 

Green Ronin in 2021

It seemed like 2020 lasted for a decade but at last we are here in 2021. As is traditional, I’m going to tell you about some of our plans for the coming year. What is not traditional is that a global pandemic still rages and even with the vaccines rolling out things won’t be back to any kind of normal this year. We still face many challenges. Some game stores closed their doors permanently during this crisis, while others are operating at reduced capacity. Simply put, we aren’t selling as many print books through distribution as we did pre-Covid and it’s unclear when that trend might reverse. We’ve been adjusting to this in various ways, but it has impacted our schedule. Some planned projects were put on hold, others will be delivered in different formats or though different methods. It’s a juggling act and so far, we are getting by. If you’ve supported us this past year, thank you so much! Now let’s talk about what we’ve got planned for 2021. Rather than break this down by game line, I’m going to talk about the different approaches we’ll be taking to bring you games and fiction.

Ships of the ExpanseTraditional

Some titles we will still release in our standard way, which means a PDF release followed by a traditional print job. These books then go to game stores, the book trade, and our online store. We’ve just recently released the Time Traveler’s Codex for Mutants & Masterminds. The next book to go to print will be Ships of the Expanse, along with a reprint of game’s rulebook. Later in the year you can expect to see Modern AGE Mastery, the Fantasy AGE Core Rulebook, Book of Fiends, and Envoys to the Mount, an epic campaign for the Blue Rose RPG. We also have our continuing line of fiction through Nisaba Press. Tales from the Mount is a fiction anthology that ties into Envoys to the Mount. Our latest novel is Sacred Band by Joseph D. Carriker.

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is nothing new for us and it’s a method we’ll continue to use in the future. Our next campaign will be for the Fifth Season RPG, based on N.K. Jemisin’s terrific novel trilogy. We also have several previous crowdfunding campaigns that are nearing completion. Q Workshop has manufactured The Expanse Dice Sets for us and they should be shipping over from Europe soon so we can begin fulfilment (Pre-order now for an Exclusive set of Protogen Dice before they’re gone!). The Book of Fiends—our gorgeous 5E monster books of demons, devils, and daemons—is in layout with art pouring in. Then Sentinels of Earth-Prime, a card game that combines the Sentinels of the Multiverse rules with our Mutants & Masterminds setting, is art complete and we’re sending it to print. All of these titles will be available through normal channels after the fact if you missed the crowdfunding campaigns.

Virtual Tabletops

I don’t know about you, but I’ve done a lot of online roleplaying during quarantine. While we have had Mutants & Masterminds available on Fantasy Grounds for years, we now have a team that’s working to bring more Green Ronin titles to various virtual tabletops, including Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, and Foundry. We’re now working on getting some of our AGE games, including The Expanse, up for play. We’ll also be doing things like token and map packs.

Sword Chronicle

Now available in Print On Demand at DrivethruRPG!

Print on Demand

Previously, we haven’t done much with print on demand books. In the early days I just didn’t think the quality was there, but this has improved vastly over where it was 10 years ago. We’re thus going to be offering more titles on DriveThruRPG with a print on demand option. Just last week we launched the Blue Rose Adventurer’s Guide, which brings our world of Aldea to the 5E rules, with both POD and PDF options. The Sword Chronicle RPG that we launched last year also now has a POD option.

Electronic

We continue to release new fiction anthologies in epub/mobi/PDF. Recent titles include For Hart and Queen (Blue Rose), Powered Up! (Mutants & Masterminds), and Under a Black Flag (Freeport). Then we have RPG titles that are PDF only. These tend to be shorter releases like the Astonishing Adventures for Mutants & Masterminds. We have similar adventures in the works for Modern AGE and The Expanse. We also have our continuing series Danger Zones for Mutants & Masterminds.

Patreon

Another new avenue we are exploring is Patreon. We just launched a Mutants & Masterminds Patreon so check that out if you are a fan. It’s proving a convenient way to bring some older characters back in the Third Edition rules. Right now, we are just a few patrons away from unlock even more exclusive content. Once we reach that milestone, we will be adding location write-ups, with the top-tier patrons being included as shop owners or NPC characters in new monthly releases. That would be in addition to the weekly character stat blocks we release every Monday. If M&M goes well, we may explore Patreons for other games as well.

Streaming!Streaming

You may have noticed that we’ve been ramping up our online presence thanks to Troy, with things like Mutants & Masterminds Monday with Crystal Frasier and Steve Kenson and the new ThursdAGE with Owen Stephens. Expect to see more of that in the future. We’re also interested in hearing from you if you are streaming our games. Do you host a stream or podcast that uses a Green Ronin title? Do you have a favorite streamer/podcaster we should know about? Send those cast social details and a short explainer to letsplay@greenronin.com.

Onward

That’s the story for 2021. Hopefully, we can get through this year without rains of frogs or plagues of locusts or the like! If you enjoy what we do, please consider supporting any or all of what I’ve talked about today. We’d love to see more of you on the M&M Patreon, for example, or reading our Nisaba Press fiction. Right now, we also have two offers going on the Bundle of Holding, one for Dragon Age/Fantasy AGE and one for The Expanse/Modern AGE. Those are great deals on the PDFs if you want to check those games out.

Thanks for all your support! We sincerely appreciate it. Stay safe out there and we hope to see you at cons again in 2022.

Green Ronin Patreon Roundup!

/in , , /by

Patreon is an online platform that creators can use to run subscription services for all kinds of content. As a creative bunch of people, a number of the Green Ronin Publishing staff have their own Patreons, where they provide more of the kind of amazing game-related material and expert writing that Green Ronin fans have come to love. As gamers look for more ways to connect with favored game lines and game creators, we thought this was a good time to do a roundup of the various Patreons run by Green Ronin and its staff.

Mutants & Masterminds on Patreon!So, let’s start with the big news: Green Ronin has launched a company-supported Mutants & Masterminds Patreon! With amazing content by Crystal Frasier and Steve Kenson, this is the place to get a regular fix of official M&M material. Currently the Patreon focuses on projects that are too small or too niche for a full-sized book on them to make sense, but that fans are still clamoring for, such as updating 1st– and 2nd-edition characters. This Patreon is brand-new, so if you like being on the ground floor of new projects, the time to join is now!

One of the questions we’ve been asked quite a lot since the M&M Patreon was launched is if Green Ronin is going to do similar subscription services for other game systems, such as Fantasy AGE, Modern AGE, Blue Rose, Sword Chronicle, and so on. While we don’t have any announcements to make on that front yet it’s safe to say all options are being considered, and the more successful the M&M Patreon is, the more excited we’re going to get to expand this experiment.

That said, if you want more Patreon options now, many of the Ronins have ongoing subscriptions available already.

Our Publisher, Chris Pramas, has a Patreon of his own, where he gives us a tour of his (vast) gaming collection. The Curated Quarantine Patreon is a series of multiple posts per week, each looking at one game from Chris’s shelves. Each post talks about the history of the featured game, how and when Chris first interacted with it, and often gives some crucial context of the product’s place in the history of tabletop games. These are rare behind-the-curtain looks at the games one of the icons of the industry has in his own collection, and his thoughts on what makes them interesting.

On the other hand, if you want even more superheroic RPG content you should absolutely look at Steve Kenson’s Icons Roleplaying Game Patreon. Launched at the beginning of January 2021, this is a way for the award-winning designer of Mutants & Masterminds and Icons to produce and share short articles and other content (character write-ups, adventure ideas, and so forth) about Icons, the game he publishes through his own company, Ad Infinitum Adventures. It’s obviously a must-join for fans of Icons, but it’s also a great opportunity to see designer notes from one of the sharpest game creators in the industry.

Speaking of M&M designers, veteran creator Crystal Frasier also has a Patreon, where she focuses on presenting new gaming material and essays. Her creativity is boundless, as seen even in just the titles of her backer levels (Crystal glitter, Crystal shard, Crystal stone, and Crystal jewel). In addition to making blogs and game articles available to backers, Crystal does polls to give her backers a chance to help guide the direction of the Patreon’s offerings.

You can also find our Expanse RPG developer on the platform. The Ian Lemke Patreon features his posts on RPG content and designing a new game. At various levels of support, you’ll get exclusive updates on what he’s currently working on as well as news, notes, map sketches, and links to his stuff and previews of his blog postings to Grand Pooka’s Grimoire. At higher tiers you can also get sneak peeks at characters, setting material, and adventures, a look behind the curtain at design documents, rules, and pages of projects as they progress and access to his personal Discord channel where you can ask questions about his projects, offer your own input, and ask him anything about the RPG industry. At the highest level, you even get free copies of his self-published pdfs.

Finally, I have my own Owen K.C. Stephens Patreon. It focuses on my essays about game design, writing, and the game industry in general, and offers new game content. Right now, that game content is mostly focused on 5e, Pathfinder 1st and 2nd edition, and Starfinder, but a few bits of Fantasy AGE material find their way into my writings as well. I also occasionally post videos, and backers at higher tiers get  a pdf each month with all my free content from social media, including every Tweet and FB post with game- or genre-related content.

If Green Ronin Publishing or any of our staff launch more Patreons in the future, we’ll be sure to update our Roundup.

Join the Mickey Mastermind Club! with our Official Patreon

/in , , /by
Green Ronin on Patreon!

Art by Jeff Carlisle.

Green Ronin have launched our first official Patreon, providing new game material for Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition! You told us you wanted even more villains for Mutants & Masterminds and we listened, reaching back into the archives to revitalize a ton of fan-favorite villains from previous editions who haven’t yet appeared in the current version of the world’s #1 superhero roleplaying game. Our first series of updates are everyone’s favorite band of sanctimonious kid psychics, the Psi Family!

Professor Psi has been a longtime rival of Dr. Atom and the Atom Family, and his children were a constant thorn in the side of the Silver Age team. Now that a new generation has been born, he’s become more determined than ever to prove the superiority of psionic humans and pave the way for a world where he and his progeny stand over mankind! And to give you a taste of what you can expect, we’re sharing a preview of the first release, the telekinetic powerhouse Argent, right here!

Patreon Preview!

Check out this FREE PDF preview of Argent!

Every single week, you’ll get a brand new villain updated and ready to play in your 3rd edition M&M game, with villainous teams released as series so you won’t miss your favorite members. While we’re starting with the Psi Family, a classic from Freedom City 2nd edition, we’re not limiting ourselves to that single book, and we’re eager to hear what you want! Need the two-fisted Contenders updated for your heroes’ next bout in the Circuit Maximus? Want to see the Golden Age Crime league for your historic campaign? Let us know! Every month we’ll release a poll asking you what we should convert next, and we’ll look at the comments to decide what to put up for vote!

But M&M is more than just villains, and the more people contribute to the Patreon, the more time we can justify dedicating to it every month. We’re already halfway to our next Power Level, where Steve Kenson and I will begin releasing monthly articles zooming in on fun elements of Earth-Prime you can use in your campaigns, like individual stores and businesses, colorful personalities, urban legends, and criminal groups. The next goal after that DOUBLES our weekly releases—that’s two villains every week at no extra cost!

And of course the Patreon is a chance for our fans to make their own mark on Earth-Prime itself! If you donate enough, you can join in on monthly developer chats to ask questions and get advice. And if you pledge at our top patron tier, you become a part of Earth Prime as we name-drop you somewhere in an official Mutants & Masterminds release as a bystander, business owner, sidekick, scientist, hench-person, or other colorful figure within our world! If you’ve ever wanted to own that comicbook store in Freedom City or run a mercenary league in Emerald City, now’s your chance!

The Patreon is just beginning, but it marks a new era in providing hyper-focused material to gamers that zooms in on your interests and needs without needing to pick up a full book! We hope you’ll join us and enjoy!