A conversation about the release of the Magus

Hmm, you stumbled into a rather interesting dilemma there didn't you? I will go with Other Michael on this one: I don't think you yourself necessarily did anything wrong. I think you just inadvertently stepped on a community landmine. I also likewise don't touch anything on DMsGuild unless its PWYW for the same reasons. DMsGuild has no quality control to speak of and a good portion of the site is garbage with little in the way of help in terms of filtering or curating the really good stuff. So I use PWYW first then come back and throw money in the tip jar later after I've had a chance to see if the content is actually any good. I also see no problem with soliciting feedback in the process of developing game content. I mean, its the same with developing game software. Open betas and early access are tools used to help shape and develop the final product. As for stretch goals: Again, think you stepped into a trap inadvertently. Trying to figure out some way to gauge product interest and offer support/more development is completely fine. The problem, again, was that you got judged not on your own merits but on the merits of the existing quality level of DMsGuild. So I would not take it personally ( and fark the people that tried to make it personal on you ). You completely deserve to make money off of your work. *Especially* as a writer adjacent. A realm where a lot of the internet seems to think because the words exist on the internet they are entitled to them free of charge and content thievery is wholesale. As for homebrew; I for one don't think I could play 5e without it. Sometimes you have character concepts that just don't fit into the basics and sometimes the basics just aren't fleshed out enough yet ( I'm looking at you, Sorcerer archtypes ). This is especially true in the missing gap that is the half-martial arcane caster. EK just doesn't fill it and it's a popular character concept from earlier editions that just hasn't been officially covered by 5e.

Michael Doyle

Thanks for your thoughts, Matt. I was hoping stretch goals would be a source of excitement for fans!

Benjamin Huffman

Chipped in 5 bucks specifically because of the stretch goals and how much time and attention you've put into this product. I think the stretch goals are an excellent idea.

Matthew Gesus

Hi Michael, Thanks so much for your thoughts. While I feel like one of the moderators on r/unearthedarcana made it his personal mission to vilify me over the last couple days, and I don't appreciate that, I did appreciate the moderators who stepped in to just talk to me about the rules and how to work within them. You also make an excellent point - "homebrew" is a dirty word for many D&D players and anything that's not official is derided as "homebrew". In the interest of getting the content into a lot of hands and growing the interest in all Sterling Vermin efforts it does make sense to move forward with a fully PWYW product line. To that end, after thinking through this weekend and the comments from you here and Ross on r/sterlingvermin, I have changed all SV products back to PWYW permanently. As for stretch goals, I'm glad they don't rub you the wrong way. I honestly was hoping they would capture some of the excitement of a Kickstarter without all the drama a Kickstarter entails. I also thought it was a bit of a fun way to drive paid sales. All the money I make from this Patreon goes directly to the art budget and I don't touch it apart from that so the DM's Guild is where I make all my own compensation. Finally, I don't want to make a promise about any particular ES but we are definitely going to unlock at least 1 additional ES by January and I anticipate another one to be unlocked a few months after that. Another possible side effect of the stretch goal system is that if I'm adding new content to a PWYW product I think most places will be fine with me advertising it again and that could create a positive cycle of stretch goals getting unlocked and driving more people to the class meaning the next stretch goal is unlocked faster. It's an experiment so we'll have to just wait and see! Thanks for joining the conversation, Benjamin

Benjamin Huffman

Ok so, I'm The-Magic-Sword on Reddit, I frequent r/unearthedarcana, and i love the material you put out- and I actually do have some feedback about this: On a basic level I don't really think you did anything wrong, you deserve to be compensated for your work and in my opinion can charge a specific amount for DMsGuild material in the vein of the magus. The caveat, is that r/unearthedarcana does have a paywall rule- which is also ok, DMsGuild put them in a weird position, so if you were to seriously start charging with no free option you may basically have to not have your works be r/unearthedarcana posted- at least not the final version. I also don't think you did anything wrong in removing prior versions, DMsguild seems to require it- although you could leave them up and only paywall the final draft (which, was never posted to the subreddit in the first place) because it's technically not the material on DMsGuild. But from everything I can see about the response to the magus, and in your own post: I think PWYW is actually kind of important- as a homebrewer people are always going to be wary about buying your material without seeing it, I think ultimately, you'll make more money via PWYW than charging and having the community ignore it- you basically need your material in as many hands as possible- you need DM's to be able to look at it and approve it before their player spends money on it, you need it to spread by word of mouth, and to have a good rapport with the community so that they stay hyped- the more prolific your material becomes the more people want it, the more people will actually go back and spend money on it. If you're worried, you could consider upping actual compensation by advertising with a small ending page on each homebrew (or a sidebar or whatever works) about Sterling Vermin, it's goals, and methods of contributing to it "Wanna see more content like this? Here's what you can do!" I also want you to know one other thing: Please take the DNDNEXT sub with a grain of salt, that community is kind of lowest denominator and many of them have a generally negative attitude toward homebrew, the one person shitting on you "because who pays for this" is crazy- your work is honestly the same or higher quality to WOTC's official designers. A good idea might be to see if you can get featured at all on ENworld- you were featured by Wizards, and the Pugilist was huge, so you might be able to give them an exclusive preview of future material, helps get the word out. The stretch goal model isn't sleazy, it's not like you made all these eldritch societies and then held them back, you're basically setting goals for them to convince you to make the next ES, dunno if it's effective, but there it is- admittedly my main thought about that is "Oh no, we might not get the divine and shadow ES is he doesn't sell enough!"