July Announcements

Patrons! It's time for another month of announcements! Happy summer, if it is summer for you in your part of the world. We have a very long announcements post today, so bear with me.

Schedule:
Edge of Midnight: July 4th, 17th, 24th @ 7:30pm ET
Saltmarsh: July 15th, 22nd, 29th @ 7:30pm ET
Icebound: July 5th @ 7:30pm ET
Beneath Dark Wings: July 20th @ 2pm ET

Moving forward Saltmarsh will be at 7:30pm ET on Mondays. ALL our streams will be at 7:30pm ET unless it's a Saturday, or otherwise stated.

For next weeks content, Derek will be doing some gaming on Monday the 8th, in place of Shroud Over Saltmarsh! There will be a poll for what game he plays going up later today! Then Wednesday the 10th will be some sort of hangout stream with the gang.

Lastly, we'll be at Gen Con from August 1st to the 4th! We're doing a Live Show on August 3rd from 11pm to 2am! AVANTRIS AFTER DARK, BABY! Get your tickets now!

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Patreon Events:
Scarab+ Studio Hangout: July 18th at 7:30pm ET
Movie Night: July 25th at 7:30pm ET

So... looking at the poll results... Black Beauty took 3rd with 10% of the vote. Hidalgo took 2nd with 32% and Free Willy took first with a massive 45% of the vote! Upon closer inspection, it became apparent we needed a special investigative committee. After review, it turns out... Free Willy is NOT a horse movie and has been disqualified. That means this months actual, true horse movie will be Hidalgo! We apologize for this fraudulent entry and will work harder in the future to prevent whales from masquerading as other animals, horse or otherwise. Thank you.

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Also, moving forward we are eliminating the Monday Monkeys Talk Show. This perk has a long and storied history. The problems with it are three fold.

I always wanted to do a segment where I interview people and talk about interesting things, with interesting people. We tried Neon Nights last year, and I actually think it went (and was received) really well. It was a way for us to try to stream on YouTube, and do something remote before we were all full-time. Problem 1. became apparent when we realized there were far too many pain points on our end to continue with it in that form factor. We discontinued Neon Nights and decided to try to do it as a Patreon Perk.

2. It was immediately clear that the new show did not have the same feel, or vibe, and after 7 months of it (and 20-ish episodes of Neon Nights), it became difficult to have an interesting, bespoke topic each month. We are incredibly proud that the community we've built is comprised of wonderful, new people just getting in our awesome hobby. But when almost all of our topics are about DM-ing, that ends up making the perk only applicable to an incredibly small portion of our fan base. Not only do you have to be a DM in a community of people that are mostly brand new to D&D or table top in general, but you ALSO have to be a Patron. Which brings me to the last point...

3. Basically, no one is watching it, and that's OK! Once we started looking at how many people we're actually engaging with the content, it became clear that nearly 95% of our patrons just don't care about the perk. So once we had that data, we decided we'd rather take that time and use it to continue to create other great content, instead of putting mediocre content out that no one is watching.

I understand there is a small, and fiercely loyal fan base of both Neon Nights and Monday Monkeys, and to you all, I deeply apologize. The format and idea, on paper, is SO CLOSE to being a really great segment. I can promise you in the future, when we have a dedicated set for an interview type show, we'll bring this back in SOME form. It might not be for a few years, but we (especially me) have not given up on this idea forever. Our time is limited and our Patreon is ever growing and evolving. We want to make sure the things we're presenting you all are top tier quality. So we're going back to the drawing board on this one. This was not an easy decision for us to make. We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Thanks again for all your support. We appreciate you all.

-Andy