Button Shy
patreon
Status & Schism!
🕑 Added 2017-04-25 01:37:55 +0000 UTC Hey everyone! It’s been a little quiet here and I’m finally in a position to change that. :)Here’s where we are with the Kickstarters:
- All 2016 Kickstarters are shipped out
- January 2017 Kickstarter is shipping
- April 2017 Kickstarter is over (and did very well!)
So on the Kickstarter side, almost everything is behind us. We can start to prep the April 2017 Campaign for ordering over the next few weeks, and wrap up the art for the July Campaign.
But while we caught up on all of the Wallets, the monthly packages here became a bit backed up.
Here’s where we are with the Board Game of the Month Packages:
- February shipped out a few weeks back
- March, April and May are wrapping up pre-production and will all arrive in a few weeks.
Assuming I can knock out a LOT of things this week, all three will arrive here around the second week of May. And since we’ll be due to send May out by then, all three will probably go out at once. This is the second time we became this backed up and had to send a few at a time, and it’s not something that I like to do. So as soon as these are ordered, we’re starting on the June packages. The cycle is pretty harsh and months fly by. But like I said, we’re getting past the Kickstarter grinds, and May is looking to be on time, so things are looking promising.
If you haven’t seen it, the $10+ May Package will include an Avignon expansion called Schism (see the above image). It’s a small expansion that allows players to combine their Avignon: A Clash of Popes and Pilgrimage sets for a more complex, customized game. It’s definitely next level Avignon for those who have played the game a lot. Also included is Mass, a one card expansion that adds a new action to the game.
Note for $5 patrons
The Avignon expansion will be in the $10+ levels, so if you would like it, there are a few ways to get it. 1) If you up your pledge to $10 before 5/1, you will receive it. 2) If you don’t want to up your pledge, we can do a single $5 transaction on the site, to help pay the difference, or 3) you can opt for the Nano package instead of the $5 postcard/promo package. Just let me know. I would love to be able to give these away at the lowest level but anything more than 2-3 cards becomes a loss at that level.
Speaking of expansions, we are considering doing more at the $10 level. Not every month, but maybe every other month or so. We have three 6 card Universal Rule expansions in the works, that when they are finished, it becomes a full 18 card expansion. One of the things we’d like to do here is make those available over a 5-6 month period. We have a chipboard Mint Julep expansion that could work here as well. There is a lot of bonus content for our existing games that we could get out through the club. I hope that everyone is into that, and please let me know if you aren’t so I can work on our balance.
Other than that, I mentioned that I’m in a position to change things, and it’s just that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m starting to line up some help, get games into retail stores and we can get back to some fun things here. It’s been a long time since we’ve podcasted, or board game road tripped, or anything like that. I’m not going to get ahead of myself with filling my tiny bit of time right back up, but I can say that it’s all part of my hopes and dreams, if that helps. :)
Thanks again everyone!
Comments
Button Shy
Hey, yes that would be a part of it all. March's $5 promo is Nat Levan's Accumulus, a Nanodaption based on Ahead In The Clouds. April is SuperPLEX character Eye Karumba and his special move. May is Twin Stars: Steal The Plans. When I say Nano, I mean the extra cards that come in the $10 set.
Hann Boe
As ButtonShy increases it communication on Patreon, will you also message about what promo cards would send out in the postcards? I am curious what might be the promos in the March, April and May $5 packs. Not sure if I will increase my May pledge at this point since I might just switch to the Avignon option. And by nano you mean the 8 cards instead of the postcard?
Button Shy
You got it! I'm trying to communicate more overall here and that should be part of it.
Jose Garcia
Expansions would be good, but some advance notice of what games the expansions pertain to would be good, to switch between the $5 and $10 pledges, if we don't have those games. I bought the Avignon games, knowing the expansion was coming for it.
James M.
That's good to know, because I'll have to keep an eye out for that. As long as we have sufficient advanced notice to modify our Patreon pledge level, as we do here, that's probably the way I would go to get occasional $10 packages. It is a little extra work and remembering to change pledges back and forth, but since it takes care of everything at once, it may be more convenient overall.
Button Shy
We still have some Pentaquark items in the works and this is exactly where they would end up. And one thing I got got to mention is that you can switch to $10 and then switch back the day after it takes the money. It's a lot of maintenance, I know.
James M.
Thanks for the clarification. Because of the Enter = post thing, I didn't finish my message. Here's the rest of what I was going to write. As for expansions at the $10 level, I suppose that's OK. I don't own many of your games, so I suspect a lot of your possible bonus content won't interest me, but it seems reasonable to offer extras for existing games through the club. That's partly why I joined: for the Pentaquark material that was rumored to be coming here. If you do start adding/changing bonuses at the $10 level, I would suggest continuing to offer $5 patrons a way to get the extra material at the $10 level though, as you're doing here. For me, the $5 level is generally good and I don't think I want to move up to $10, at least not right now. But if the $10 level some month does have something I want to have, I would like a way to get it. Basically, as long as I won't miss out on something I want, I'm good. :)
Button Shy
Yeah, the quarterly campaigns are great,2 but since we went from monthly to January being the first of the quarters, we are just finally starting to feel the results of the quarterly campaigns. It's less jumping around more than anything. As for the option 3, you are correct. You could get the Avignon expansion instead of the normal $5 package, if you would like.
James M.
Thanks for the update. Hopefully once the club mailings are caught up, they won't slip quite this much now that the Kickstarters are bring run quarterly. Since I don't own Avignon, the $5 patron note doesn't really affect me, but I'd like to clarify option 3 anyway. This choice is to receive the Avignon expansion, but not receive the usual chipboard game with its promo material. Correct?
Button Shy
Thanks Richard! Expansions are nice for us because we are working within systems that have already been created instead of starting from scratch each time. It's also a way to get it this small expansion content that maybe couldn't support itself as a full kickstarter. We're always testing the waters and trying to find out groove, and happy to hear that works for you.
Richard Hudspeth
I would like more expansions at the $10 level, since I moved up from the $5 to the $10 level for the Avignon expansion, and I plan on staying there.
