An Experiment in Patronage

Last night I had a really nifty and really evil idea for a weapons system in Traveller that I could potentially loose upon my players.  So I investigated it, statted it up, and then realized it might be too evil, even for me.

Of course, this left me with a distressing dilemma that I think all Game Masters will understand: If I don't use it, then no one will appreciate my evil brilliance and tell me what a creative and disturbed individual I am. And if no one appreciates it and I don't use it, then it's a wasted idea. And since I still might tell my players about it, I don't want to just give the idea away because then the element of surprise is lost.

That's when it occurred to me:  Patreon is all about rewarding my Patrons.

I had initially resisted the idea of Patreon because 1) I wasn't sure how I could create patron-only content when my time was already limited, and 2) the idea of holding my ideas for ransom, after doing it for free for so long, seemed distasteful.

But I think that this is a solution I can be happy with. I've already done the work, and I can let people see it without just giving it away to my players -- and if they truly want to know what it is, they can become a patron as well. It is visible to any level patron of mine, and hopefully this will attract more patronage.

And so if you are a patron of mine (and if you're not, I encourage you to become one!), you can head over to Patreon and look at the weapon system for Traveller (Mongoose Edition) that was too evil for even my own use.

Probably.