Hello all!
This post is intended only to share the actionable results of this year's Annual Patron Survey that concluded last month. If that's not something of interest to you, feel free to skip!
Additionally, participants in this year's survey will have received their "thank you map" from me a short while ago. These were sent to the email address used to submit the survey with--if anyone feels as though they had participated and did not receive this thank you map download link please reach out to me.
That map (previewed above) is a remake of what was originally my 9th battle map released in 2017 (get it? 9th anniversary? 9th battle map?): Marketplace Skirmish. Remaking a map that old was a fun exercise and I hope you'll get some amount of the appreciation I did in seeing the comparison between 9 years of experience and learning.
Out of respect for everyone's time, I'm trying to narrow-focus this list to actionable changes born from this year's survey feedback. Anything that seems to have been omitted was only done so because participant feedback was too widespread among the options to take in any singular direction or change.
1. Sci-fi Themes
When asked about interest in non-medieval fantasy themes, sci-fi and technology were far and away the most opted for themes ahead of options like post-apocalyptic, horror, or modern day. Expect to see another release in the Technology Assets series later this year.
2. Magical Item Themes
Similarly, when polled on interest in asset themes that have not yet seen any attention (or in Magic Item's case, not in a long time), Magic Items Assets were head and shoulders the favorite beyond themes like horror or western. Doesn't mean I'm not going to continue to ruminate on those other options, but you can expect to see a new addition to the Magic Items Assets series later this year
3. Updated Asset Series
Lastly, when asked about asset series that had not seen any new additions in a bit, Urban Assets was the primary winner of that bout (which is why I opted to prioritize it immediately last month!). However asset themes like Farming, Festival, River, and Dungeon Tiles were all also competitive second place options, so expect to see some love sent their way in the months ahead.
4. New 5E Module Choice
Of the many options listed, Descent into Avernus, Keys from the Golden Vault, and Planescape: Turn of Fortune's Wheel were the primary trio of victors. Since then I have already put out a follow up poll here on the Patreon stream to further narrow that down to a single option. As of the release of this post that poll is still open for voting for one more day if you'd like to weigh.
5. Token Theme Awareness
While I can't make any promises of immediate change in this regard, I wanted to make sure I paid some recognition to those of you asking about possible attention being given to tokens for creatures outside of 5E D&D (namely: pathfinder). I absolutely intend to give Pathfinder some love, but intend to round out the rest of the 5E SRD first and both of those also contend with mixed in custom releases made with our other adventure partners
6. What's -Not- Changing
Less exciting, but still worth noting were instances where you all were given the opportunity to express support for changing something up and instead voiced a desire to stay the path:
The current release ratio of 2 asset packs per month will remain the same
The current release structure of 5 posts of comparable size will remain the same
The current release ratio of 1 map post per month corresponding to an adventure module will remain the same
Built-in drop shadow options for Assets, "Example Maps" in asset packs, and map PSD files will all continue to be included in future releases
For the forseeable future, I will continue to keep the patreon on its "per thing" structure as opposed to a "per month" structure. There are greater forces at work (see: Apple) that may make this an inevitability, but I can promise there will be a long runway of communication ahead of time if it were to become clear that such a change was in store for us
Thank you!