The rapidly successful crowd-funding campaign will develop adventures and campaign settings for use with the Fate tabletop RPG system.
Evil Hat Productions is responding to fan interest in more campaign ideas and ready-to-run adventures for the Fate tabletop RPG system with a Patreon campaign. Patreon, launched in May 2013, acts like a virtual tip jar for creators who want to make regular content. As of writing, the campaign has 211 backers (called “patrons”) pledging a total of $1,423 per adventure or campaign setting created. The campaign, launched December 7, has now reached its third funding milestone, which Evil Hat describes as “the real, first goal of this campaign – a full, if modest budget for the creation of a 10,000 word adventure-world with a few black and white illustrations.” Patrons will receive early access to the edited text of the adventures, and patrons pledging $12 or more per adventure will vote on genres and concepts for upcoming publications. Once the adventures are published, they will be made available to everyone on a pay-what-you-like system.
Evil Hat says that fans have shown interest in ready-made adventures and campaign settings. However, Evil Hat explains on its Patreon page, “The challenge for us there is that we haven’t seen a lot of drive for folks to buy adventure content when we’ve made it available in the past. We want to pay our writers, editors, and artists a fair wage on their work, so we’ve got to make sure that when we publish adventures, we’ve got the budget to do that.”
Evil Hat gives some details on possible settings on its Patreon page. Evil Hat writes, “We already have a leg up here as of the launch of this campaign: writing and editing is already complete on Venture City Stories, an adventure and setting by Brian Engard with a cyberpunk feel where the “cyber” is swapped out for superpowers (call it superpunk if you like!).” Other possible adventures include clearing vampires out of the Wild West, a murder set in ancient Rome, and a post-apocalyptic setting where martial arts masters shape the world. Evil Hat hopes to produce these adventures once every month or once every two months.
Patreon is a crowd-funding platform created to allow fans to support their favorite content creators by becoming patrons. Patreon is similar to Kickstarter, but instead of raising money to meet a single funding goal for a single project, patrons commit to a pay a “tip” for each piece of content created. At the end of each month, Patreon bills you only for the content created that month by the artist you support, and you can set maximum amounts per month. For example, if you become a patron of a musician you might pledge $5 per song, to maximum of $15 per month. If that musician produces four songs that month, you still only tip them $15. The intent of the Patreon system is to support artists by regularly paying for their work, and to reduce dependence on ad revenue. Many content creators set a minimum threshold (called milestones) before they begin producing, which reduces financial risks for the creator. Patrons usually receive extra perks for being contributors.
The Fate system provides a framework for cooperative storytelling that can support any setting. The games’ core rulebook, simply titled Fate Core, provides a framework for resolving challenges and creating whatever universe necessary to support the gun-slinging, trash-talking, giant squirrel woman you want to play. The Fate rulebooks are available directly from Evil Hat on a pay-what-you-like system.
Source: Evil Hat Productions
