Feedback Wanted (Updates and Possible Changes)

Hello patrons,

We’re getting into the end stretches on a few projects here, and that has us looking forward and thinking about plans for the future. So I wanted to give all of you an update on how things are going and ask you for feedback.

Our fourth Dungeon World monster manual, Great Monsters of Crime, should be done and ready for print proofs later this month. After that, we’ll be putting the finishing touches on our first Labyrinth Lord book, Dungeon Full of Monsters. This is a substantially larger book than our others, and includes all the dungeons we’ve posted so far (and a few more). I don’t know how much interest there is amongst patrons or the general public for our monsters being presented in an old school modular megadungeon format, however, so whether we do another, or something similar, depends partly on you. So please chime in here (and again later when that book is done) if you find those versions useful (or also if you don’t).

Once that’s done, we’re looking at making some larger changes. So far, we’ve been focused quite heavily on providing monsters for GMs and DMs to use. This does tend to limit our audience, however. So I’m thinking of writing a full game focused on making our monsters the players’ characters, instead of just NPCs. It would be a Powered by the Apocalypse game, and similar enough to Dungeon World that you could use material written for that game with a minimum of hassle, but different enough to be specifically tailored to monster PCs. The above image is a draft of what the first page of the character sheet would look like.

That means the workflow is going to be somewhat different, and releasing 2 monsters (or groups of monsters) every month isn’t going to work all the time. Right now, I think we might end up looking something like this:

 ● The monthly monster will continue being a public release of one new monster (or group of monsters) every month.

 ● Basic playtest materials, such as character sheets and quick-start rules, will also be released publicly.

 ● All patrons will get regular updates about the progress of the game, see drafts of the text, and receive new playable material as it gets finished, before any of it makes it into the basic playtest materials.

 ● Higher-tier patrons will get a mix of different material. Sometimes there will be bonus monsters, sometimes new versions of old monsters now playable as PCs, or perhaps earlier access to stuff from the rulebook. If you have other ideas, please let me know.

I’m also considering lowering the cost of patronage by a dollar. I tend to save secret stuff for the higher-tier patrons, so I don’t see why people shouldn’t be able to get in on this project for 1 dollar a month. Also, if the secret stuff varies every month, depending on what parts of the game get done, I realize it can seem like less value for money.

So, all that said: Many of you have supported this patreon project for a long time, a few since the very beginning. Others are new but still interested in seeing monsters you can use in your games. I would value your feedback, opinions, and advice. Is this a direction you feel would be exciting? Is this something you want to play at your tables? Do you have questions about the game, or the other books we are finishing? Of the stuff we’ve released so far, what has been the most useful to you? What do you want to see more of in the future?

Thank you, and I hope you’ll stick around for ride.

-Johnstone