Update on Patreon Billing

Important Billing Changes — Please Read

Hey everyone—I wanted to reach out to make you aware of an important upcoming change I’m having to make to comply with Patreon’s new policies. I will be switching from “per creation” to “monthly” billing in the near future. This means that every month you will have a consistent price for all of the benefits that I provide, and it won’t fluctuate based on the number of paid posts that month.

TL;DR:

Patreon is removing the "per creation" model, so we are switching to monthly billing starting April 2nd. Your tier and benefits stay the same, but you’ll now be charged a fixed amount each month instead of per post. After the switch you will be charged the equivalent of me releasing 4 maps packs a month. f you have a monthly max set, it will still apply.

After the switch I’ll be locking current tiers for existing patrons and creating new tiers for future patrons at slightly adjusted prices. Current patrons will not be affected.

While overall this represents a loss in revenue for me I plan to keep releasing content the same ways and to the same quantity as i did previously. We are still working hard behind the scenes keeping everything moving forward and are looking forward to expanding the library and doing more with FVTT and animated maps!

Thanks for your support—let me know if you have any questions!

WHY THIS IS HAPPENING?

This change is not something that I initiated, but is a mandatory change that Patreon is forcing as they remove the “per creation” model from the platform. I am working very hard to ensure that this causes minimal disruption on your side of things.

If you want to learn more about Patreon’s changes and the “Why?” you can read about it directly from Patreon here.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOU?

• You will remain in your current tier and receive the same benefits

• You will be charged monthly

• You will be charged the fixed amount respective of your tier, it will not vary from month to month

• If you currently have a monthly maximum set, it will be honored, you will not pay more than your set maximum.

• These locked prices and maximums only apply if you stay pledged. The system does not allow me to do anything for returning patrons.

• The migration will occur on April 2nd

HOW THIS WILL WORK?

For transparency, this is a massive change for me and I am working to find a balance of delivering you the same level of content at a fair price without tanking my own business. As such there are going to be a few rounds of changes during the migration to the new billing model. However, from the work I have been able to do I actually don't expect the changes to be all that noticeable for you all in the end. Here is the plan:

Step 1: Migration — Work with Patreon to set up your new monthly tier pricing and migrate you over to the new model at a set date. Patreon provided a recommended price adjustment for my tiers and I have reviewed them. Going forward you should be charged each month as if I were to release 4 map packs under the per creation model. Again, if you have maximum limits set, they will be applied and you will not be charged more than your max. 

Step 2: Tier Adjustment — After my current patrons have been migrated over, I will be locking the current tiers and creating new tiers. THIS WILL ONLY IMPACT NEW PATRONS. CURRENT PATRONS WILL NOT BE AFFECTED. Current patron tiers will be hidden, meaning no new patrons can join those tiers but again it will not impact patrons already pledged to those. However, if you leave your current tier you will be unable to rejoin at your locked in price. A set of new tiers will be created with the same benefits but new prices to better match what I believe the value of the tier to be. Patreon limits how I can adjust my current tiers, so creating these new tiers is necessary for the fine tune adjustments I want to apply.

Pricing Model for the New Patron Tiers 

Billed each month based on when a patron pledges

Wanderer - 5.00USD per month

Pathfinder - 10.00USD per month

Trailblazer - 13.00USD per month

Wayfarer - 15.00USD per month

Note: These are the prices for the new tiers that will be created post migration to monthly billing.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BEARWORKS?

In the spirit of transparency I want to explain how this will impact me:

• Same Content, Same Quality: These changes have taken me some time to adjust to but now that I have set everything into motion I can get back to work on what I enjoy, making maps. Going forward you can expect the same quality content you have hopefully come to expect from me. I am looking forward to the year and hope to have the opportunity to keep growing and finding new things to create for you and your tables!

• Reduction but Consistency in Revenue: While the previous system allowed people to customize what they were able to contribute to my work by setting pledge maximums it also created a situation where how much money I had coming in each month was a bit all over the place. Some months were better and some not so much. With these changes I will likely be seeing less revenue come in as I opted to meet patrons in the middle with regards to pricing. I wanted to make sure that you all are getting the best value from my work and I adjusted everything to meet my current needs.

• Dine & Dash: Many may not be aware of this but per creation creators suffer from a pretty glaring issue with the Patreon system that Patreon has refused to fix. Each month many people were able to access and download my content without me seeing any compensation. Monthly subscription billing model will stop this from happening in the future, which is a benefit of the change. This isn’t always malicious as I have run across a few folks that honestly had no idea what had happened. Up till now this is just something that I just had to tolerate.

• Flexibility with Posting: Due to how the per creation model cycled I was forced to release posts on certain dates. With this new system being decoupled from Patreon’s calendar I will be able to focus on building out my own timeline in conjunction with my collaborators.

I really hope that these changes do not impact any of your experiences being part of our community. I have been talking with Patreon as well as a bunch of other TTRPG creators in the space working to make the switch and I'm confident that it should be pretty seamless.

Thank you again for all your amazing support these last few years. Bringing Bearworks from an idea to reality has been an amazing journey and extremely rewarding. There is so much more to come and I hope you all can come along with me.

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to reach out to me. Thank you so much for your support!

Cheers,

- Nate | Bearworks