Curious if anyone has tried using rewards a bit like stretch goals. My idea is to have a reward tier which—if there are at least 20 (or whatever) patrons who have chosen that reward tier—unlocks something that I make available to everybody.
Specifically, I make adventures for fantasy RPGs. I could have a ‘5e stats’ reward tier, where if there are at least 20 people choosing that reward, I’ll adapt the adventure to 5e and write up stats for that game.
Has anyone seen a campaign doing this?
I haven’t but it’s a really cool idea. What happens if people drop off the tier right after the reward is unlocked though?
Well, ‘by the book’ I wouldn’t do 5e stats for my next release, or any future release until the number of patrons choosing the ‘5e’ reward climbed back up past the minimum. If that state persisted for a while, probably the folks ponying up the extra cash would get antsy and drop their pledges to the baseline.
This is such a cool idea!
I use goals in this way since I have community-based goals as opposed to monetary goals, but I haven’t thought of using the reward tiers in that way. Let us know if you decide to go that way and how it works for you.
@Lochy Yes, I think goals are a good and sensible way to do this kind of thing. What using rewards does is allow some uncertainty as to which the patrons will pick, basically. You could offer two separate rewards at the same pledge level.
Actually, I’m not sure if you can stop people from taking all the rewards at their pledge level… Do you know that, @carla? If I have two separate $5 rewards, ‘A’ and ‘B’, can someone who pledges $5 choose both of them, or just one?
You wouldn’t be able to do two $5 tiers though. You’d have to pick one.
Yeah, there is no way for a patron to choose more than one reward so if you have two separate tiers that cost the same, they have to pick one.
For example, i have, in the past, had two $25 tiers. (maybe at one point even 3.) Each was for a specific type of content. One tier would get a small custom sketch, one tier would get a telegram sticker, etc. They have to specifically select which reward they want though as you can only pick one reward tier when pledging to someone and viola! content chosen 
I am doing ‘milestone’ rewards where if people have been pledging for al ong period they get an extra goodie (an original mini painting depending on the milestone) at either $50, $100, $250, $500 etc. I’m slightly regretting starting at $50 as the $30 dollar patrons get to that pretty fast! Hopefully it will balance out in the end. It’s ideally meant to be a reward for people who don’t get a physical reward every month (which the $30 tier do).
I also use my goals as stretch goals of sorts - so when I reach m y next one I will begin to do monthly Q&A demo hangouts of me painting and chatting to whoever wants to join in.