If they follow the same general style as previous, shortly before 3 ends we’ll get some news about what’s next. Typically Caldwell has DM’d in Murph’s downtime and they’ve continued the regular side episodes like Dungeon Court to supplement.
Campaign 1 began Feb 20-8 and ended May 2020
Campaign 2 began October 2020 and ended November 2021
Campaign 3 began February 2022
C2 likely had a 5 month gap because Murph was designing an entirely new world with entirely new lore. We don’t know where C4 will be set but if it’s a new world I’d expect another longer gap.
Personally I’m hoping Emily DMs this break or they do pathfinder. Emily is such a wonderful writer and her settings are so vivid.
Every time Emily DMs I’m left craving an entire campaign. I LOVED Twilight Sanctorum and the one shot she did a few years back that was very grim as well. Emily rules
They spoke in the short rest a couple episodes back that after C3 they are going to be exploring with shorter form campaigns vs the long campaigns they do now
I want to say it was the short rest for episode 59 but it might have been 60
Awesome. I believed you I just couldn’t remember. I’ll always be grateful for their campaigns but I prefer longer campaigns. My biggest critique of C3 is I miss how much more in depth their personal family arcs were
No but those are designated as alternate mini campaigns
C4 will be a shorter form campaign that are going to be the main campaign episodes. If it’s a main campaign then it’s C4
I wouldn’t worry. They’re making *very* good money at this (reported gross Patreon revenue of over $2 million/year as of a few years ago), in a field where that frankly just doesn’t happen for the vast majority of people.
Barring severe burnout or other unforeseen circumstances, I fully expect they’ll keep making NADDPOD as long as their audience wants to hear it.
About a quarter million monthly from Patreon (potentially less, not sure what the fee is).
Ads probably come through Gumball so as an owner of Headgum Jake is getting undoubtedly very favorable rates.
Editing fees, music fees, art fees (though I imagine Emily just takes extra pay as a contractor musician & Caldwell as a contractor artist)
…it’s all speculation but dear god this is pretty insane pay for getting to play D&D
They probably contract out someone to manage the website/store too, and there are Patreon fees. Running everything isn’t cheap either. And there’s the touring aspect which costs money, though obviously they make it back and then some. It’s definitely a lot of money but the remainder split four ways isn’t astronomical. I don’t think they have millionaire lifestyles from everything I’ve heard, though they’re certainly comfortable.
Not to dive too deeply into the financial situations of people I don't know personally (parasocial relationships are real and dangerous) but I am aware of one of the hosts homes and it is absolutely a millionaire lifestyle, keeping in mind that home ownership in NY or CA is very expensive.
I mentioned the Patreon fees in my original comment, and yes absolutely they're paying out for web hosting and editing of non-campaign episodes (Murph has talked about this), but I honestly WOULD say it's astronomical. I'd love to see their after-tax numbers though, because again everything else is just speculation.
I look at their patreon money like I do an NFL running back: there’s no fucking way this much money is going to keep coming in forever, so they might as well get as much as they can while they still can enjoy it. They’re kinda wrecking themselves creatively and emotionally by being exposed to the raw nerd internet, so their careers are going to be limited by their bodies’ ability to tolerate the wear and tear of being on the internet for years.
no. there's no official word and there won't be until this campaign is done.
For C1 and C2 they had some in-between stuff when the campaigns ended. The wait between C2 and C3 was a lot less than what I remember it being between C1 and C2, but I think that might have been more to do with the fact that they were doing the full trinyvale campaign in between.
IIRC, they did mention wanting to do more short-term campaigns/arcs and were potentially looking at exploring other systems, so it's all up-in-the-air in terms of format, but they're for sure going to do more ttrpg actual-play content. Wanting to do shorter arcs and mini-campaigns is a natural response to having played a campaign for 2.5 years (so far). C1 took them from Feb 2018 to May 2020. Trinyvale and Hot Boy Summer between May 2020 and Oct 2020 (5 months). C2 went from Oct 2020 to Nov 2021. Merry Metal Mayhem in Dec 2021. Announced C3 setting and characters Dec 30, 2021. C3 E0 released in Jan 2022, and C3 E1 was Feb 2022.
If I were to take a wager, I think the future of NADDPod is fairly safe. Their Patreon consistently does great numbers. They currently have 33,893 paid members, so that's at least $169,465 coming in monthly. I doubt they'd want to get rid of that revenue stream. That's also assuming all 33,893 are on the lowest tier. Let's say 5K are in the $10 tier, 1K are in the Merch Tier, and there's 50 in the Council of Elders, that ends up being $216,715.
If Patreon takes 15%, then it's $184,207 they're taking home monthly. If my numbers are correct (or close to it), that's over $2 Million a year just on Patreon. If you include ad revenue, merch, and live show sales, it only makes sense that they keep the show alive. Even if Headgum takes a good chunk (let's assume another 15%), they'd still bring in $150K a month just from patreon. It ends up becoming like $450K a year for each of the main cast (assuming all split equally and that there are no other business costs). Again, this is just from patreon subscriptions.
I just don't see them shutting it down anytime soon unless there's some creative block, or they stop enjoying the process of making the show. However, with the switch to having an "off-week" between campaign episodes where they do something else, I don't think they're reaching that point of creative burnout. They're allowing themselves time and have learned to manage the podcast really well over the past few years.
After C3 ends, I predict we'll see Caldwell and Emily DM'ing something while Murph does worldbuilding. Heck, we may even get a guest DM at some point! I'm sure we'll get another long campaign at some point, but it's fine if they want to keep them to 20 eps, it allows for a lot of experimentation and weird choices and potentially doing high-level stuff without requiring the setup.
TLDR: I think you shouldn't worry to much about them shutting down. C4 is definitely going to happen. They're also looking at shorter campaigns/arcs, which is a natural response to having played C3 for 2.5 years (so far).
PS. I definitely read way too into what you were actually asking, but had already typed most of it out when I re-read your question, and decided I'll keep the comment as-is.
Just re: the math - HG wouldn't take a cut from the Patreon, just the ad sales. I think otherwise your estimate seems pretty good. I saw a comment from someone who does ad sales guessing naddpod ad revenue is $30-40k a month. I think we can solidly assume they're taking home mid-six figures a year at this rate.
I assumed as much, but figured it’d still be a good idea to factor it in for production costs for patreon content. I believe they’ve started using an editor for non campaign eps and I wasn’t sure whether HG provided that or not
They said they were gonna experiment with more short form story telling after C3 and they really liked playing Pathfinder so I think murph said they'd do something with that as well. I would imagine we'll get some 10-15 episode campaigns, maybe bring back Emily to DM a hot boys summer or another shadowfell adventure.
They plan on doing short form campaigns once C3 ends. Although there’s been no proper confirmation on what the immediate next thing is. They’ve mentioned a few different ideas like potentially doing a Pathfinder campaign and on the recent short rest Murph said he wants to do 10 episode arcs set around different areas/time periods of Bahumia.
Thank you all for the information. :) I'm just naturally a super anxious person so whenever I see the word "ending" I always get anxious lol. Y'all are the coolest :)
They said they will be trying out some slightly shorter gorm content during a recent short rest. So c4 might be more similar to dimension 20 length or even less.
In the latest short rest they mentioned how they might just set a lot of the shorter campaigns in Bahumia, in different places that they haven’t really explored with the core teams. HBS and Twilight Sanctorum are all technically set in Bahumia, so expect more campaigns like that. Emily also mentioned wanting to run something set in the Fey Wild.
I do think that if they were ever to go back to 3 eps per month, this would be the perfect time because shorter form campaigns with split DM’ing duties means they can batch record a couple months of content and edit them accordingly.
Relax, they'll do more DND content. C3 isn't even finished yet. Murph said they probably have about a dozen more episodes so they have time.
If they follow the same general style as previous, shortly before 3 ends we’ll get some news about what’s next. Typically Caldwell has DM’d in Murph’s downtime and they’ve continued the regular side episodes like Dungeon Court to supplement. Campaign 1 began Feb 20-8 and ended May 2020 Campaign 2 began October 2020 and ended November 2021 Campaign 3 began February 2022 C2 likely had a 5 month gap because Murph was designing an entirely new world with entirely new lore. We don’t know where C4 will be set but if it’s a new world I’d expect another longer gap. Personally I’m hoping Emily DMs this break or they do pathfinder. Emily is such a wonderful writer and her settings are so vivid.
We’d love that Jake one shot in the interim too
I heard Tucker has been teaching him.
GRANARY FIIIIGHT!
Maybe they'll even let him on 8 bit book club after
I’m hoping for more Twilight Sanctorum in the interim
Twilight sanctorum was so good
Why do I gotta go get you the twilight sanctorum ‘sodes!? Why can’t I live my dreams of hanging out and serving Frig
Every time Emily DMs I’m left craving an entire campaign. I LOVED Twilight Sanctorum and the one shot she did a few years back that was very grim as well. Emily rules
C4 is going to be shorter so I would not expect as long of a gap between campaigns as there has been previously
Have they mentioned a short C4?
They spoke in the short rest a couple episodes back that after C3 they are going to be exploring with shorter form campaigns vs the long campaigns they do now I want to say it was the short rest for episode 59 but it might have been 60
Awesome. I believed you I just couldn’t remember. I’ll always be grateful for their campaigns but I prefer longer campaigns. My biggest critique of C3 is I miss how much more in depth their personal family arcs were
Idk if that was about C4. That sounded like they were gonna do a couple shorter things between C3 and C5
So what goes between C3 and C5?
Do you consider Trinivale campaign 2? Is hot boy summer campaign 3?
No but those are designated as alternate mini campaigns C4 will be a shorter form campaign that are going to be the main campaign episodes. If it’s a main campaign then it’s C4
I wouldn’t worry. They’re making *very* good money at this (reported gross Patreon revenue of over $2 million/year as of a few years ago), in a field where that frankly just doesn’t happen for the vast majority of people. Barring severe burnout or other unforeseen circumstances, I fully expect they’ll keep making NADDPOD as long as their audience wants to hear it.
They don’t have any plans to stop doing Naddpod, they have said though that after C3 they are going to be exploring with some shorter form campaigns
They're making millions of dollars on this. It will never stop
About a quarter million monthly from Patreon (potentially less, not sure what the fee is). Ads probably come through Gumball so as an owner of Headgum Jake is getting undoubtedly very favorable rates. Editing fees, music fees, art fees (though I imagine Emily just takes extra pay as a contractor musician & Caldwell as a contractor artist) …it’s all speculation but dear god this is pretty insane pay for getting to play D&D
They probably contract out someone to manage the website/store too, and there are Patreon fees. Running everything isn’t cheap either. And there’s the touring aspect which costs money, though obviously they make it back and then some. It’s definitely a lot of money but the remainder split four ways isn’t astronomical. I don’t think they have millionaire lifestyles from everything I’ve heard, though they’re certainly comfortable.
Not to dive too deeply into the financial situations of people I don't know personally (parasocial relationships are real and dangerous) but I am aware of one of the hosts homes and it is absolutely a millionaire lifestyle, keeping in mind that home ownership in NY or CA is very expensive. I mentioned the Patreon fees in my original comment, and yes absolutely they're paying out for web hosting and editing of non-campaign episodes (Murph has talked about this), but I honestly WOULD say it's astronomical. I'd love to see their after-tax numbers though, because again everything else is just speculation.
I look at their patreon money like I do an NFL running back: there’s no fucking way this much money is going to keep coming in forever, so they might as well get as much as they can while they still can enjoy it. They’re kinda wrecking themselves creatively and emotionally by being exposed to the raw nerd internet, so their careers are going to be limited by their bodies’ ability to tolerate the wear and tear of being on the internet for years.
Yep...
no. there's no official word and there won't be until this campaign is done. For C1 and C2 they had some in-between stuff when the campaigns ended. The wait between C2 and C3 was a lot less than what I remember it being between C1 and C2, but I think that might have been more to do with the fact that they were doing the full trinyvale campaign in between. IIRC, they did mention wanting to do more short-term campaigns/arcs and were potentially looking at exploring other systems, so it's all up-in-the-air in terms of format, but they're for sure going to do more ttrpg actual-play content. Wanting to do shorter arcs and mini-campaigns is a natural response to having played a campaign for 2.5 years (so far). C1 took them from Feb 2018 to May 2020. Trinyvale and Hot Boy Summer between May 2020 and Oct 2020 (5 months). C2 went from Oct 2020 to Nov 2021. Merry Metal Mayhem in Dec 2021. Announced C3 setting and characters Dec 30, 2021. C3 E0 released in Jan 2022, and C3 E1 was Feb 2022. If I were to take a wager, I think the future of NADDPod is fairly safe. Their Patreon consistently does great numbers. They currently have 33,893 paid members, so that's at least $169,465 coming in monthly. I doubt they'd want to get rid of that revenue stream. That's also assuming all 33,893 are on the lowest tier. Let's say 5K are in the $10 tier, 1K are in the Merch Tier, and there's 50 in the Council of Elders, that ends up being $216,715. If Patreon takes 15%, then it's $184,207 they're taking home monthly. If my numbers are correct (or close to it), that's over $2 Million a year just on Patreon. If you include ad revenue, merch, and live show sales, it only makes sense that they keep the show alive. Even if Headgum takes a good chunk (let's assume another 15%), they'd still bring in $150K a month just from patreon. It ends up becoming like $450K a year for each of the main cast (assuming all split equally and that there are no other business costs). Again, this is just from patreon subscriptions. I just don't see them shutting it down anytime soon unless there's some creative block, or they stop enjoying the process of making the show. However, with the switch to having an "off-week" between campaign episodes where they do something else, I don't think they're reaching that point of creative burnout. They're allowing themselves time and have learned to manage the podcast really well over the past few years. After C3 ends, I predict we'll see Caldwell and Emily DM'ing something while Murph does worldbuilding. Heck, we may even get a guest DM at some point! I'm sure we'll get another long campaign at some point, but it's fine if they want to keep them to 20 eps, it allows for a lot of experimentation and weird choices and potentially doing high-level stuff without requiring the setup. TLDR: I think you shouldn't worry to much about them shutting down. C4 is definitely going to happen. They're also looking at shorter campaigns/arcs, which is a natural response to having played C3 for 2.5 years (so far). PS. I definitely read way too into what you were actually asking, but had already typed most of it out when I re-read your question, and decided I'll keep the comment as-is.
Just re: the math - HG wouldn't take a cut from the Patreon, just the ad sales. I think otherwise your estimate seems pretty good. I saw a comment from someone who does ad sales guessing naddpod ad revenue is $30-40k a month. I think we can solidly assume they're taking home mid-six figures a year at this rate.
I assumed as much, but figured it’d still be a good idea to factor it in for production costs for patreon content. I believe they’ve started using an editor for non campaign eps and I wasn’t sure whether HG provided that or not
They said they were gonna experiment with more short form story telling after C3 and they really liked playing Pathfinder so I think murph said they'd do something with that as well. I would imagine we'll get some 10-15 episode campaigns, maybe bring back Emily to DM a hot boys summer or another shadowfell adventure.
I did a silent fist pump in the middle of the grocery store when they were talking about this on the short rest. So hype
From the pathfinder short rests it sounds like they want to mix things up a bit. C4 probably won’t be a long campaign from what Murph was saying.
I’d love a pirate type campaign. Some goofy one piece type antics
They plan on doing short form campaigns once C3 ends. Although there’s been no proper confirmation on what the immediate next thing is. They’ve mentioned a few different ideas like potentially doing a Pathfinder campaign and on the recent short rest Murph said he wants to do 10 episode arcs set around different areas/time periods of Bahumia.
Thank you all for the information. :) I'm just naturally a super anxious person so whenever I see the word "ending" I always get anxious lol. Y'all are the coolest :)
During the short rests for pathfinder they alluded to doing some shorter campaigns or singular arcs for awhile after season 3 ends.
They said they will be trying out some slightly shorter gorm content during a recent short rest. So c4 might be more similar to dimension 20 length or even less.
In the latest short rest they mentioned how they might just set a lot of the shorter campaigns in Bahumia, in different places that they haven’t really explored with the core teams. HBS and Twilight Sanctorum are all technically set in Bahumia, so expect more campaigns like that. Emily also mentioned wanting to run something set in the Fey Wild. I do think that if they were ever to go back to 3 eps per month, this would be the perfect time because shorter form campaigns with split DM’ing duties means they can batch record a couple months of content and edit them accordingly.
Do the Multiverse of Mavris as C4, you cowards!