Steel_Wind
Legend
As the end of the year approaches and as I look forward to a relaxing 2 week vacation where I end up puttering about my computer working on RPG campaigns et al, I often use the resources of various Patreons to help my games.
That got me to thinking: am I missing out on some highly valuable Patreon? Are you missing out on a few gems? Let’s find out. Here are my top 5 patreons for RPG use – with a specific focus on D&D. Please add your own Top 5 below so we can discover what we are all missing out on. Please don’t shill for your own Patreon though, if you have one. Let’s make this an informational thread and not a stealth self-advertising thread, ok?
Heroic Maps
Joe and Sara Bilton who operate on Drive-Thru RPG as “Heroic Maps” are, in my opinion, the best fantasy battlemap cartographers in RPG gaming. That includes any of WotC’s or Paizo’s regular map artists, too.
The Patreon is monthly and is at 3 price levels: $5 (Fantasy only) $8 (Fantasy & Sci-Fi) and $12 (Both+ Foundry VTT versions, pre-configured).
Number of maps per month for Fantasy is at least 3 (most with variants for lighting and season) plus a multi-map series – usually a 5 level dungeon, castle or other linked structure. Map quality is both for print (300 dpi) and there are VTT version at 72 dpi for Roll20. The Foundry versions are 140 dpi I believe. Maps are delivered thru Drive-Thru RPG and once you have it flagged as you own it on Drive Thru, you can always download it later.
The Sci-Fi maps are excellent and also offer a multi-storey installation, starship or other thematic series of interlinking maps over a 5 month period.
For those who subscribe, past maps released by Heroic Maps on Patreon at VTT resolution are available at no additional cost (you get ‘em all!). The value for money for both Fantasy and Sci-Fi maps at $8 per month is very high if battlemaps are something you enjoy both at the table – or on VTT.
Devin Night – RPG Token Artist
Devin Night is probably the best known “top-down” token artist in the business. His work is a mainstay at Roll 20, FG, D20Pro and Foundry VTT. Devin also sells his vast library of tokens on his own website (hint: they are cheaper there than at Roll20). Devin bundles both low and high res PNG images for his tokens and now also bundles .webp versions for use in Foundry VTT, too.
Basic Token Supporter cost is $5/month, and you get access to previous Patreon releases. Building up a large “top-down” library of tokens is quite an undertaking for any DM to contemplate. They look better than “pog” style tokens, but it takes time to amass a collection to get you to that point where you generally have a top-down token for every "mini" you might need. Devin Night’s tokens are the best in the business, so this Patreon provides very good value. Higher membership values also provide a 30% discount off of his website, which is a savings that quickly adds up for wannabe token collectors.
Forgotten Adventures – Textures, Object images, Map Assets, Tokens, Battlemaps
Forgotten Adventures (“FA” hereafter”) has become the standard add-on for purchasers of DungeonDraft, now the most popular RPG mapping program by far. DungeonDraft comes with several thousand images, but the stock art style of DDraft is “cartoony” and is not to everyone’s taste.
Enter FA. Over the past few years FA has released more than 20,000+ textures, brushes, map assets and top-down tokens. They bundle all of their asset packs separately for download, and within a few days, update their DungeonDraft asset packs to include them, complete with pre-generated thumbnails. All for the low price of $3 per month.
The quality of FA’s monthly content is quite outstanding. The cost at only $3 per month is not a reflection of their quality, rather, of the sheer size of their total membership. That hovers currently north of 20,000+. There are an entire team of 5-6 artists who work under the FA banner and the team enforces an art style so that all assets they release work well together and share the same art style.
If you are an owner of DungeonDraft – or are thinking of becoming one, this Patreon is a “must have”. In addition, the very large number of top-down tokens and color variants provided by FA is exceptionally useful, too.
Mr. Primate’s D&D Beyond Importer
Aimed at Foundry VTT users who run 5e, Mr. Primate’s DDB Importer has become the standard utility on most Foundry DM’s weapon belts. Using this utility at $3 per month, you can import any content from D&D Beyond (that you own on DDB) into Foundry VTT, be it a PC, item, monster, or adventure. The importer covers all aspects of 5e in every sourcebook or adventure, not just those things in the SRD. All 5e content is available on DDB is available in Foundry VTT through use of the DDB Importer. The formulas work without adjustment.
Mr. Primate’s DDB importer provides a monthly access code. If you want to keep using it to import things from DDB into Foundry VTT, you need to keep paying (so that your code is updated monthly). Mr. Primate has about 10,000 subscribers (and counting). Subscribers are extremely happy (and dependent) on running Foundry VTT using it.
For 5e DMs who use Foundry VTT, and particularly those who are running an adventure available on DDB, Mr. Primate’s DDB Importer is an essential tool you cannot do without. Once you use it, you will not go back to not using it.
Updates to the software are weekly, often multiple times weekly. The backlog in “adventure munching” as Primate’s Importer calls it is now fully caught up on all released adventure products. Adventures are now ready for release usually before the general release date of the book on DDB. By way of example, Shadow of the Dragon Queen was ready for download and importing into Foundry VTT before the book was even released to the general public on December 6, 2022.
JB2A – Jules and Ben’s Animated Assets
Two French animators (who are brothers) have developed quite a following in both the Foundry VTT community and with some other VTT software users. Primarily, they create animated assets for use in Foundry VTT to depict a variety of Fantasy and Sci-fi weapons, natural attacks and spells attacks in that VTT. Using JB2A and Automated Animations, (another free module for Foundry) you can quickly implements a variety of animated attacks and spells for 5e, PF2, Star Wars 5e, and other RPG game systems in Foundry VTT, together with sound effects. Your Foundry VTT play experience will never the same afterwards!
Check them out in your web browser in this spiffy asset viewer, here
The quality of the animations is quite high and there are variants for each (often MANY variations to each animation in terms of color, etc.. click the tab at the bottom of the view pane in the viewer to view each variation). Jules and Ben have created a slick viewer for their animations so you can browse what is available. Once you buy it, you have it all. The artists updated their animations monthly and add several new animations to it, expanding the reach of their assets to cover more weapons, more variants, and more spells each month. Cost of the Patreon is modest at only $1 a month. One of the primary benefits of paying more than that is a greater weight being accorded to your monthly vote on what animations Jules and Ben should do next.
That got me to thinking: am I missing out on some highly valuable Patreon? Are you missing out on a few gems? Let’s find out. Here are my top 5 patreons for RPG use – with a specific focus on D&D. Please add your own Top 5 below so we can discover what we are all missing out on. Please don’t shill for your own Patreon though, if you have one. Let’s make this an informational thread and not a stealth self-advertising thread, ok?
Heroic Maps
Joe and Sara Bilton who operate on Drive-Thru RPG as “Heroic Maps” are, in my opinion, the best fantasy battlemap cartographers in RPG gaming. That includes any of WotC’s or Paizo’s regular map artists, too.
The Patreon is monthly and is at 3 price levels: $5 (Fantasy only) $8 (Fantasy & Sci-Fi) and $12 (Both+ Foundry VTT versions, pre-configured).
Number of maps per month for Fantasy is at least 3 (most with variants for lighting and season) plus a multi-map series – usually a 5 level dungeon, castle or other linked structure. Map quality is both for print (300 dpi) and there are VTT version at 72 dpi for Roll20. The Foundry versions are 140 dpi I believe. Maps are delivered thru Drive-Thru RPG and once you have it flagged as you own it on Drive Thru, you can always download it later.
The Sci-Fi maps are excellent and also offer a multi-storey installation, starship or other thematic series of interlinking maps over a 5 month period.
For those who subscribe, past maps released by Heroic Maps on Patreon at VTT resolution are available at no additional cost (you get ‘em all!). The value for money for both Fantasy and Sci-Fi maps at $8 per month is very high if battlemaps are something you enjoy both at the table – or on VTT.
Devin Night – RPG Token Artist
Devin Night is probably the best known “top-down” token artist in the business. His work is a mainstay at Roll 20, FG, D20Pro and Foundry VTT. Devin also sells his vast library of tokens on his own website (hint: they are cheaper there than at Roll20). Devin bundles both low and high res PNG images for his tokens and now also bundles .webp versions for use in Foundry VTT, too.
Basic Token Supporter cost is $5/month, and you get access to previous Patreon releases. Building up a large “top-down” library of tokens is quite an undertaking for any DM to contemplate. They look better than “pog” style tokens, but it takes time to amass a collection to get you to that point where you generally have a top-down token for every "mini" you might need. Devin Night’s tokens are the best in the business, so this Patreon provides very good value. Higher membership values also provide a 30% discount off of his website, which is a savings that quickly adds up for wannabe token collectors.
Forgotten Adventures – Textures, Object images, Map Assets, Tokens, Battlemaps
Forgotten Adventures (“FA” hereafter”) has become the standard add-on for purchasers of DungeonDraft, now the most popular RPG mapping program by far. DungeonDraft comes with several thousand images, but the stock art style of DDraft is “cartoony” and is not to everyone’s taste.
Enter FA. Over the past few years FA has released more than 20,000+ textures, brushes, map assets and top-down tokens. They bundle all of their asset packs separately for download, and within a few days, update their DungeonDraft asset packs to include them, complete with pre-generated thumbnails. All for the low price of $3 per month.
The quality of FA’s monthly content is quite outstanding. The cost at only $3 per month is not a reflection of their quality, rather, of the sheer size of their total membership. That hovers currently north of 20,000+. There are an entire team of 5-6 artists who work under the FA banner and the team enforces an art style so that all assets they release work well together and share the same art style.
If you are an owner of DungeonDraft – or are thinking of becoming one, this Patreon is a “must have”. In addition, the very large number of top-down tokens and color variants provided by FA is exceptionally useful, too.
Mr. Primate’s D&D Beyond Importer
Aimed at Foundry VTT users who run 5e, Mr. Primate’s DDB Importer has become the standard utility on most Foundry DM’s weapon belts. Using this utility at $3 per month, you can import any content from D&D Beyond (that you own on DDB) into Foundry VTT, be it a PC, item, monster, or adventure. The importer covers all aspects of 5e in every sourcebook or adventure, not just those things in the SRD. All 5e content is available on DDB is available in Foundry VTT through use of the DDB Importer. The formulas work without adjustment.
Mr. Primate’s DDB importer provides a monthly access code. If you want to keep using it to import things from DDB into Foundry VTT, you need to keep paying (so that your code is updated monthly). Mr. Primate has about 10,000 subscribers (and counting). Subscribers are extremely happy (and dependent) on running Foundry VTT using it.
For 5e DMs who use Foundry VTT, and particularly those who are running an adventure available on DDB, Mr. Primate’s DDB Importer is an essential tool you cannot do without. Once you use it, you will not go back to not using it.
Updates to the software are weekly, often multiple times weekly. The backlog in “adventure munching” as Primate’s Importer calls it is now fully caught up on all released adventure products. Adventures are now ready for release usually before the general release date of the book on DDB. By way of example, Shadow of the Dragon Queen was ready for download and importing into Foundry VTT before the book was even released to the general public on December 6, 2022.
JB2A – Jules and Ben’s Animated Assets
Two French animators (who are brothers) have developed quite a following in both the Foundry VTT community and with some other VTT software users. Primarily, they create animated assets for use in Foundry VTT to depict a variety of Fantasy and Sci-fi weapons, natural attacks and spells attacks in that VTT. Using JB2A and Automated Animations, (another free module for Foundry) you can quickly implements a variety of animated attacks and spells for 5e, PF2, Star Wars 5e, and other RPG game systems in Foundry VTT, together with sound effects. Your Foundry VTT play experience will never the same afterwards!
Check them out in your web browser in this spiffy asset viewer, here
The quality of the animations is quite high and there are variants for each (often MANY variations to each animation in terms of color, etc.. click the tab at the bottom of the view pane in the viewer to view each variation). Jules and Ben have created a slick viewer for their animations so you can browse what is available. Once you buy it, you have it all. The artists updated their animations monthly and add several new animations to it, expanding the reach of their assets to cover more weapons, more variants, and more spells each month. Cost of the Patreon is modest at only $1 a month. One of the primary benefits of paying more than that is a greater weight being accorded to your monthly vote on what animations Jules and Ben should do next.
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