I'm refitting the Sinister Benefactor Patron Tier!

Hey everyone! I'm making an exciting change to the Patreon today. I'm excited, anyway! Are you excited? Let's FIND OUT

Before today, the Quinns Quest Patreon had tiers like this:

• You could be a Benefactor at $3.99. This gets you access to basically everything because if I'm running a paywall, I want it to be affordable!

• You could also be a Mysterious Benefactor at $4.99, for folks who like the option of supporting my work with an extra dollar a month. Over the years I've learned that my fans are just super passionate, and this tier proved it- 17% of folks who could have signed up as Benefactors signed up as Mysterious Benefactors instead. 🥰

• Finally, you could be a Sinister Benefactor at $11.99. This gave you access to livestreams where I'd hang out and talk to everyone there. It was a tier for people who wanted to get to know the real me, and/or had the money to support Quinns Quest wholeheartedly.

Today, I'm announcing that the streamed hangouts are NO MORE 🪦💐

Instead, for the new, lower price of $9.99, you now get access to a new feature: Quinns' Campaign Diary, which will be published on the 22nd of each month. In fact, the first instalment will be published today!

Let me explain what this is, then I'll explain why I'm changing stuff up.

The Campaign Diary will be me getting very real about the successes and struggles of a campaign I'm GMing right now. This will be a game I'm taking very seriously, because I've already made the decision to review it in the distant, glittering future of Quinns Quest.

So yes, Sinister Benefactors will know the unthinkable- you'll know a game I'm gearing up to review 6-12 months before the video is published. This is a bit of a trust exercise for me, which is why I'm putting this behind the more expensive paywall. I'm hoping Sinister Benefactors will join me in keeping this game secret. (There is, however, a special Sinister Benefactor chatroom on the Quinns Quest discord so folks can discuss the game in question.)

Still, while I'm aware leaks are a possibility, I just can't resist the thought of actually making content out of all of these evenings of play that until now I've had to keep private! It's just too tempting.

What NPCs have I made that the players latched onto? Which mechanics am I stressing out over? How am I bringing the setting to life? What am I doing for music, or twists, or snacks, or the overarching plot? Which friends am I having to adapt to because of the weird choices they're making (or how can I instead stiffly force their play style to adapt to the game)?

From month to month, the Campaign Diary will have all of this and tons more. In fact, I'm going to end each diary post with a request for advice and ideas that I can take to my home game, and then I can update you folks on how that went! I could get you guys to build NPCs for me, like a narrative build-a-bear workshop!

All of it is a pitch that - honestly - I find thrilling. Never mind me teaching you folks how to GM. I want you lot to teach me. Maybe you'll even run your own game of the campaign alongside me and we can compare notes! I'm expecting to be super active in the comments and on the Discord.

The Campaign Diary will run for as long as the campaign does (so expect a nice big post about the finale), and then when the campaign's over I'll begin a brand-new volume of Campaign Diaries about a different game.

Honestly you guys, I get this sense of elation in the pit of my stomach when I'm about to start work on something and I know it's gonna be fun for everyone, myself included, and I feel that elation right now. This is so clearly the perfect next step for the Quinns Quest Patreon.

I hope my existing, amazing Sinister Benefactors will stay with me, and some more of you folks will sign on for the ride.

Finally, let me talk about why I felt inclined to stop doing the video hangouts. (And to be clear, I'm not taking them down or anything. Sinister Benefactors will always find the VoDs right here.)

One small reason is that having to do the streams in the evenings for the benefit of my American audience messes with the structure of my day. But one big reason is that I'm just not a streamer.

I work best when you give me time to condense my thoughts on a specific subject into a silly script. Streaming was fun for a while, but I just don't have the motormouth gene that allows streamers to contentedly gab away about whatever's on their mind. It's a totally different skillset! After doing about ten of these streams, I just started running out of things to say. And I'm not used to not liking the sound of my own voice. 😅

Also? One more reason is that the truth is, I'm just more comfortable running a Patreon where the rewards are more affordable. I'm so happy for the Patrons who were willing to pay me $11.99. But I'll be even happier offering a $9.99 feature that has, imho, an even cooler reward.

Thanks for listening, everyone. And if you made it to the end of this post, as a special gift, for this week only you can get 50% off your first month at the Sinister Benefactor tier with the code 2BD02 okay it turns out this code is for new patrons only so HERE'S HOW THIS IS GONNA WORK. If you upgrade to the Sinister Benefactor tier and shoot me a DM on Patreon's messaging system, I can refund you for a previous month's pledge. Voila! 50% off your first month.

You're the best. Thanks so much for giving me the best job in the world.

-- Quinns