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Some of you are wondering when the Kickstarter for Book 6 will happen. But I still have the dilemma of needing to raise funds for the reprint of Book 1.

But I have an idea. See, there's something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but have been waiting for a certain plot point to finally show up in the comic. You just barely got a taste of it. Yay! And, incidentally, I think that plot point is going to show up just about when NAV turns 10 this year. Awesome timing, I must say.

Now, since I know some of you really don't like spoilers, I'm being very vague about this, but suffice to say, something is going to happen in the story that will cause another event to happen and I think I could turn that event into a fundraiser for Book 1.

Below, I'm running a survey to get some feedback. The first two questions are about Book 6's upcoming Kickstarter (that will most likely happen next year if I do the fundraiser idea). Then, I'll ask if you're okay with spoilers. If you're not, that's the end of the survey and I appreciate all your input. If you ARE okay with spoilers, then I'll reveal more details and ask for feedback. Sound good? Good!

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Thanks so much!

5 Comments

Great idea! Looking forward to some new NAV merchandise

Without treading into spoiler territory, let’s suppose you use a deathmatch simulation to help raise money in the Kickstarter. How would that work?

Seems like a basic character form with sketch, character stats (e.g. strength, health), self-introduction, catchphrase, etc would be a good starting point. Backers can pay more for extra points to spend on stats. A system that can calculate the winner in each bracket based on stats and some random factor shouldn’t be too difficult to set up. The winner of a given bracket might have the option to make a personal appeal to the fans to gather votes— or this could be purely based on the backer level, so even the loser gets to make their plea if they paid for that perk.

It could be fun to follow, and the winning character could be rewarded with a spot in the short story, or one of the other high level backer rewards. The method of deciding the winner just needs to be consistent and clear.

XKCD had a voting bracket for emoji last year, I believe. The author might be willing to share that code with you for the voting. There are plenty of lightweight RPG systems that could be used to resolve the fights in each bracket. By getting each participant to submit a character sheet at the beginning of the contest, you could keep the administrative effort under control, and still have amusing user-generated content, updated daily, even. You might be able to run this game again any time you need to raise money for reprints (or just need to take a break). 🙂

XKCD emojidome: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2131:_Emojidome

This’ll be lots of fun

I’ve worked out an extremely simple mechanic to run a deathmatch for kickstarter backers. It’s based on “rock, paper, scissors” (Renamed “block, trap, strike”) and works like this:

Each backer submits the following:
* character name
* optional: one or more sketches — can include dialogue balloon- stick figures are fine.
* sequence of moves, e.g. “block, block, strike, trap, strike”

Optional Character sketches:
* intro
* block
* trap
* strike
* victory
* defeat

Each match is resolved using rock-paper-scissors rules, best of 3 moves. A tie adds another move to the match.

Watch match is presented to readers as a series of pairs of images (one of each character), moves (at least 3) and victory/defeat conclusion. If there is no sketch for that character, a box of text giving the character’s move is displayed instead (or it could be a blob, I guess!)

Then, readers get to vote for the character they liked best in that match, based on sketches, dialogue, sequence of moves, or whatever they like.

Only the winner of each match continues to the next round, so the more successful characters are likely to get more votes, but we won’t know the winner until the end!

This would be pretty simple to set up in a fully automated way. It could bee run again later as a Patreon incentive, for example.

Winners get Kickstarter benefits, etc.

Not A Villain Webcomic

Webcomic of a semi- reformed hacker trying to redeem herself in a post- apocalyptic world she may have created.

Let’s Talk Shop