Welcome to our first ever fundraiser and membership drive for your favorite genre podcast! If you’re here, that’s probably because you’re awesome.
Why are we doing this? Well, running a podcast and blog like this isn’t free even if we’re doing it as a volunteer effort. Hosting costs money. Software costs money. All sorts of things we need to do this well cost money. A couple of years ago, the amount we brought in to the show via our Patreon kept us solvent (it doesn’t take much), and then we got hit with a malware attack that cost us quite a bit to clean up and an increase in our annual hosting costs. Now, we’re a little bit behind the curve, and we need your help to get us back into the black.
That’s what this fundraiser is all about. It’s securing our show for the foreseeable future. Not with millions but with a very reasonable amount of money to cover all the things we need to keep things running.
That’s where YOU come in!
Our Goals
We have two goals for October:
Goal 1: Raise $500 to cover immediate costs.
You can donate any amount to the show via our PayPal account or using @skiffyandfanty. You can donate now or donate during our TTRPG events or liveshows (see below).
Goal 2: Increase our Patreon support to $120/mo via new members and membership increases.
All members get access to our Discord, every episode of The Speculative Dispatch released to date, access to our Torture Cinema polls, and updates about what we’re up to! Also, any supporters at $5/mo or higher will get access to our new Torture Cinema Redux releases and giveaways (see below). If you’re not already a member, you can join right here.
If we hit both and keep the second, we won’t need to run another fundraiser! That’s the real goal.
But what if we exceed these numbers? That’s where stretch goals come into play (see below).
So how are we going to do this beyond needing your help? Entertainment!
The Podcast and TTRPG Events
Throughout October, we’ll maintain our regular Friday night (7 PM Central) shows, including discussions, Torture Cinema, and so on. The real exciting change will be our special events!
We will host THREE TTRPG actual play events for this fundraiser spread across four days (two one shot adventures and one two-day adventure). Each will take place at 7 PM Central on our Twitch channel.
- 10/15 (Thursday): Starlight Kingdom Awaits (Public Access w/ Brandon O’Brien as GM)
- 10/20 (Tuesday: Snake Me Out To The Ball Game (B.O.A. w/ Stephen Geigen-Miller as GM)
- 10/22 (Thursday): The Watering Hole Hounds (D&D 5e w/ Paul Weimer as GM)
- 10/29 (Thursday): The Watering Hole Hounds Day 2 (D&D 5e w/ Paul Weimer as GM)
During each show, we’ll encourage folks to donate to our PayPal to have an impact on what happens in these adventures! Here’s what it will look like:
- $2 — Inspire (give advantage on a roll)
- $5 — Throw a Banana Peel (cause a minor problem for the players)
- $5 — Throw a Bone (something good for the players)
- $10 — Plot Twist (something wild happens)
Come watch some of our number and friends of the show get into some shenanigans!
Special $5/mo + Above Patreon Supporter Perks
For these, all you need to do is join at $5/mo or upgrade. It’s that simple!
Giveaways
For this Patreon Supporter drive, we will have giveaways of various geeky things, including books, blu rays, and so on. For every three supporters at $5/mo and up, we’ll have one item for the giveaway. The more people join, the more giveaways we’ll have!
The following will be available to win once the fundraiser is over. This list will be updated as we get more details:
- Roy in Space (Roy del Espacio)(1983; dir. Héctor López Carmona). This is a special slip case edition blu ray from Deaf Crocodile!
- A second Deaf Crocodile selection (TBD)
- A Severin selection (TBD)
- Books (TBD)
In addition, we’ll offer periodic giveaways to supporters at the $5/mo or more level in the future. Giveaways will be US/Canada only unless you’re willing to help cover shipping.
Torture Cinema Redux
Torture Cinema Redux will be our new periodic Patreon exclusive show in which we go back through the entire Torture Cinema catalogue to reassess the nearly 200 films we’ve covered up to this point. Are they as bad or good as we remember them? How might we grade them today versus 10 years ago? We currently have 5 episodes ready to drop, starting after this drive!
TC Redux isn’t just about us, though. We’ll also implore you to watch and grade the film in the comments, and we’ll take all of those grades to update our popular Weimermeter!
What About Those Stretch Goals?
While our main goal is to raise some funds and increase our monthly Patreon amount so we break even with a tiny buffer going forward, it’s possible y’all will be extra nice to us and give us more than we need. And you deserve rewards for such things. Thus, we need some stretch goals!
Raw Funding Stretch Goals:
- $750: Shaun will host a live watch of Cats (2019; dir. Tom Hooper) in which he’ll stream him commenting on the film live as it slowly consumes him from the inside out. You can watch along, too, if you want, but it’s not recommended…
- $1000: We’ll release a Special Torture Cinema episode on the famously banned movie Cats (2019; dir. Tom Hooper). That means OTHER PEOPLE will have to watch it, too.
- $1250: AUDIENCE CHOICE special episode. Y’all pitch ideas for shows, we put together a poll, and then y’all vote on which one we’ll do. This can be a topic/film/book discussion, Torture Cinema, a TTRPG thing, or something else. Terms and conditions apply (i.e., it has to be something we would reasonably do or actually *can* do – i.e., interviewing the Pope is probably out). These will be additional shows on top of our normal schedule.
- $1500: MORE AUDIENCE CHOICE special episodes. We’ll do two more special episodes selected by the audience. The same conditions apply. We’ll run another poll for folks to vote in!
Patreon Stretch Goals (for patrons only):
- $150/mo: We’ll add a new monthly mini-show where we’ll answer all of YOUR questions about all things genre with the intelligence, humor, and love that you’ve come to expect from us!
- $200/mo: We’ll add up to two of our popular blog features to our Patreon rotation as exclusives, including Mining the Genre Asteroid, indie film reviews, and more.
- $250/mo: We’ll hire a transcriptionist to professionally transcribe all new episodes of the show going forward. So long as we maintain this level, we will offer transcriptions for our Patreon supporters at all levels.
There you have it! Please spread the word. Let’s make this a success!
