January's poll : You vote ! (+promo codes)

Would love a “monstrous npc” theme too. With hobgoblins, orcs, yuan-ti, etc.

Tyler Hurst

I don’t know if you guys take theme proposals. But I just thought of three I’d love to see and that might be fun for you guys to design. (1) Heroes of the Realm: basically would give you guys free reign to design a series of adventurer of various classes and races. Could even do them as they level up, so a series of “heroes of the realm” from level 1 -> 7 -> 14 -> 20 becoming more epic in the process and receiving better gear. 2 - Villains of the Realm: Same as above but with villains 3 - Mage’s College: Themed wizards from various schools of magic and levels of learning. Professors, apprentices, etc. or even evocation wizards, necromancers, etc designed to give off the “tone” of their school. Just some thoughts, love your work :-)

Tyler Hurst

Classic scenario I run is market square where an opportunist thief steals from the players but is noticed. NPC's break a lot of line of sight so the PC's can't use weapons and the chase is on! Especially if the object stolen is central to completing a quest...

Sean

Happy to hear :D Thanks a lot for your support!!!

I'm not saying it's a lot, but it's still $120 a year. If all my patreons were $10 I would be paying $600 a month (I am paying $600 a month, but thanks to the sub $10 ones, I can afford a few higher priced ones for the added merchant benefits. Mostly terrain, not figures) But this is a business, sort of, for me. I have some ideas for the terrain that started with model trains. So I have a totally nonRPG view of this. Pittsburgh is a strange town. They would rather let real estate sit, than rent at a reasonable price, til it falls down and is carted away. I tried to understand that mindset, and figure out the costs. I realized that holding out for "fair" (or excess) value was often a losing proposition, LITERALLY. so the way I look at it is that 200 people paying $5 is better than 100 people paying $10, because if I lose one, it's only $5. And, if I can get 300 people to pay $5 Im ahead. But it all depends on how you value your work, and efforts, (eg; NEW stuf vs the older stuff) and the demographic curve you are under. What is YOUR price point. You might find that at $8 you would gain a lot of people back, as well as new ones. At $10 you are starting to be on the "high end" and that means you need to offer something special to keep people... I'm just saying. I have these arguments with "collectors" all the time. The ones scraping by don't understand it's turning over the money fast. The ones doing better know when to sell, and when to hold. No one knows how this is really going to shake out. But the money is finite, because the 1-2% keep hoarding it, and near as I can tell, they aren't buying .stl files.

PUGDOG Enterprises, Inc.

I follow several patreons where the individuals give their models away FREE. I found them via a kickstarter or free models. They release the models on thingiverse 2 months after patreon, and 6 months after a kickstarter. Yet, they have 2000 patrons and their last kickstarter generated $6000 Another guy gives his stuff away, and his $9 kick starter generated $11,000. FREE can make money. Lots of it. Did you ask the people who left why they left, and if the price was lower or models would it have made a difference? What would bring them back? Might be surprising.

PUGDOG Enterprises, Inc.

I found you guys on the Black Friday sale. For me, the terrain options were quite the selling point. Back in my day (pre-covid) we had maps that filled the table with painted terrain pieces... I absolutely love adding the scatter on the maps. It's small enough to not block anyone's view of the overall picture and not the new 2d trend that is not as appreciated as painted terrain. This variety and the ability to make your maps come to life was an easy sell for me. Best wishes for continued success!

Dennis Moore

It's like anything, sure you can find miniatures that I sell at another store, but it is the quality, care, and detail I strive to be better at then my competitors. Lowering my prices to match or beat others but still offer the same level of detail at higher prices is a hard ask. I don't think ten bucks a month for miniatures, sceneries, and bases is a lot.

Michael Warren

The creators aren't unlimited, many are dropping, and many are joining hoping it'll work, we are not a merchandise :) You have the right to choose who you wish to support, 100%, and absolutely no grudges. But we can't just all reduce our prices in hope of people staying with us. If we reduce by 50%, we can't live from it anymore. What if it doesn't go up? We're screwed. As it happened to a few. Price won't change for sure, and I appreciate the people who support us for the community (discord), and the models, rather than the best bang for the buck. It's a rough market, evolving terribly fast, I'm sure in a year or two many things will have changed.

Appreciate the support Michael!

More and more artists and more and more people should equalize, no? :D I get your point, totally. I absolutely never said the price should go up, 10usd is nice. But then we have huge teams doing 4 time the amount that should be ''reasonable'', and small guys who feel crushed by that and just lower the price. I've seen some quitting, some halving their prices, and just sinking. It's nice and all on paper, but people have to eat, so working for 200usd a month isn't worth it. Monopoly is already happening.

that's what happens. People start dropping. Some will stay with you, others will stay with other companies. But it can't keep expanding. I'm at my limit. I'll have to make hard choices if I find another patreon I like. The artists and miniatures are unlimited. The money is not.

PUGDOG Enterprises, Inc.

You are still missing the point of the limited amount of money out there. What's "killing" the field is that there are more and more artists and more and more people 3d printing. But the *MONEY* isn't going up. So if a person has $100 a month, that is 10 $10 patreons. But if the prices go up just $1, then the person has to drop 1 patreon to stay within the $100 they have. If the prices go up to $12 then they have to drop 2 patreons. So it's not a larger pie, it's just dividing up the same pie into smaller pieces. And I've heard these same complaints in photography for the past 40 years. Photography is still here, but its changed many times.

PUGDOG Enterprises, Inc.

I would love to see more more abstract races like Firbolgs, War Forge, maybe Changelings and they can use the various NPCs you offer as disguises, or even a set of different races as Half-Dragons. I love that you guys make unique miniatures and they always have a theme around them. I have had to drop a number of my merchant patreons, but I'm def staying with you!

Michael Warren

Personally I'm fond of NPC figurines to make some dioramas on my shelves but also to use them in game as characters to protect, a crowd of people to sneak in ... And for the a little sadistic side, I like from time to time bring out an innocuous trade decor with the figurines. my players are convinced that it will end in a fight when in fact not at all 😄

Jrm PELARD

Filling table , NPC, villages etc I guess! REally classic and basic themes have always more tractions than niche stuff, unfortunately I guess :/ But we'll push them to be nice!

And yes it's not covid, it's huge companies with an army of artists who have nothing to do on Patreon or Kickstarter, platforms that were here for the small creators.

Good read! Though I've seen some killing their prices, and still not working...10USD is steal, every hobby as a cost. Clearly we won't lower, as it will just hurt the market in the long run. Imagine putting it a 8USD. That's roughly 600*2 or loss. We also have taxes, on your 10usd we aren't getting a lot at all. 10USD isn't what we are worth, it's what the market is :D It's the ONLY market where artists are killing their own prices, I have no ideas what the hell they are thinking.

I'm curious what kind of gameplay people find for NPC miniatures that would cause so many votes for Townsfolk. I use miniatures mostly for tactical scenarios so I was quite excited when you started talking about encounter releases. I'm not sure I see the value to gameplay of NPC miniatures other than tabletop asthetics. Having said that, your characters are so fun to paint, I can get behind anything.

Wes Cargill

I've been noticing the same thing. I support over 60 patreons. Most are charging about $10 a month. A few are more, and a few are less. Many dropped their prices to $9 as a marketing ploy, I guess. But you are so very right. The market is getting flooded. You need to find a niche, and stick with it. More is not "better" quality and interesting counts. There are some companies churning out dozens of things a month, but the complaints are starting to come in about variety. There are individuals churning out 1-2 models a day (yeah) And they have a following, but they are sure to burn out at some point no matter how much "fun: it is for them. The most important thing to realize is that there is a FINITE amount of money out there. A person has NN amount to spend every month, or so. And patreon is EVERY MONTH. I've talked with a lot of artists about this, and the problem is perspective. Everyone wants 1000 patrons at $10 a month. That's the "good life". But it starts to take a toll on the patron. Would $4 or $6 a month be better? It might. A patron can keep spending on you, but still have money left for that interesting kickstarter, or another patreon. And that's another issue. Kickstarters have been getting out of hand!! One guy put out a kickstarter, beautiful stuff, but the prices were just out of line a little, and while he had stretch goals up to $70,000 he barely made $10, and was all butt hurt. So he "released" the stretch goals as add ons ---- and 5x the price of the core set!! If he had released them for maybe double, he would probably have gotten everyone signed up to double their pledge to get all the stretch goals which were awesome. He actually got me to DROP my pledge before complettion, something I had NEVER done before :( Sales is a tricky thing, and you are selling yourself, more than you are selling miniatures. People follow you because they like you, your ideas, your miniatures, your attitude, ect. And the price needs to be affordable. *YOU* may feel that by increasing your price $1 you'll be better off, but all the supporters may just not have it, and have to drop off. You lose more than you gain. Sometimes LOWERING prices, and offering more in terms of variety or service is better -- painting contests are on the rise for that reason. Getting people hooked. You gain more people, but at a lower price. Maybe evaluate what you are really getting out of your miniautres. Are they selling after the fact, or is the initial release the really big thing. Maybe offering a looser policy on selling printed minis. People would be more inclined to join if they could sell a few to their friends or their group. No mass product or molds, just something like 25 miniatures a month, or such. Would you really lose anything? Or would you gain? The big criminals are just going to mass produce things any way. The idea is to create a _FRIENDLY_ environment, where you shake off the bad, but focus on the positive and try to keep people involved. I see the changes in the past couple of months.... It's not just covid. Remember, $10 a month is $120 a year. Doesn't matter what they "get" for that, it's still $120 a year. And those $25 merchant tiers are $300 a year -- how many small sellers will make that back? I've changed my own outlook over the decades from charging "what I'm worth" to simply trying to get a piece of the money that is out there ;) Some people have more of it, most, not so much. I wish you luck in the new year.

PUGDOG Enterprises, Inc.

If the Town folk are selected, wouldnt there possibly be a few children there? ;)

Jason Silver

Considering the combo love for the townsfolk and tavern brawl, I wish there was a Tavern Patrons option filled with all of the usual bards, barmaids, bartenders, brawlers and bizarre dwellers (along with that one shady hooded guy in the back) you might find in someplace like the Yawning Portal.

yoodies

Also hype for goblins! One of my D&D partymembers is a Goblin Paladin and a heavy armor goblin model is difficult to find!! I hope this year hasnt bee too rough on you guys!

Oscar Neimar

We won't do loyalty based bonus, don't want to create pressure for people to stay, I'm very much against FOMO. Adding stuff for everyone though, yes!

Maybe sneak in a mini every few months as a loyalty bonus;)

Sebastian Dzik

We need more Goblins!! (hype) :D

Caspar Olsen

And yet they doesn't seem to win haha! We try to have unique enough idea, but it doesn't appeal to the masses? Really tricky to balance being close to the community , doing stuff that is unique , and being appealing to be able to grow!

A Few months back someone mentioned that there is a lack of children minis, so I've been voting Orphans ever since. Love the work you've been putting in!

Gabriel Graves

Mmm ok. Thanks for your answer.

François Dumont

Most likely DnD-esque if you look at the one we did last month!

What kind of goblins would that be? Pathfinder style goblins, Dnd style goblins, Lord of the ring style goblins?

François Dumont

Only as part of a tavern brawl! XD

Danil

Covid obviously had some impact, lot of new companies too, creating Patrons with an extreme amount of files that a two person team can't compete with ,for the most part I think! The market is really really flooded! It's great for the buyers, but the artists are more or less tearing at each others throats by reducing prices or creating more demands :/

Can I beg you all to choose goblins

TheTabletopSmithy

I want all of those! This is the hardest poll yet.

What are the special circumstances you mentioned causing patrons to leave? You don’t have to share if they’re private, obviously. However, I’ve been here since January and couldn’t be happier with what I receive monthly! Keep up the great work?

Tyler Hurst