Baby Got Backer

Last week marked the end of the first Kickstarter campaign that I backed.  I missed out on the last campaign from this company, due to unsureness of the process involved, and I have been second-guessing myself ever since.  I really didn't have that much money to get involved, but after finally receiving confirmation of my rejection, I decided to fund this new campaign.  Sure, I could have gone the basic route, and pledge on a level that would just give me access to the early draft of the work, but I decided to go with a tier where I could get the finished product once it comes out, in a PDF format, after editing and artwork were added.  It will be sometime next year before everything will be finished.  In the meantime, I will get some benefits from the stretch goals that got included.  There will be a second, companion book to go with the first one, which I also will be receiving as a PDF.  I will also get four novellas written in the gaming universe.  Not sure how connected they will be or what effect they will have on the overarching metaplot.  I will get three older books, again as PDFs, as further bonuses:  a short story anthology, an art book, and a cookbook.  Yeah, that last one confused me too, but the company produced it for some reason.  It connects a recipe, or two, with many of the groups in the game.  I also get digital wallpaper for my computer.  This will probably be one of the first things I'll get to receive.  Most of the PDFs might not come out until after the backer kit process starts in the next month or so.  Finally, I will get a coupon for the t-shirt.  Yep, a special shirt to commemorate the project.  This bonus I will probably skip, but it will depend on how much more it would cost me to have it shipped.  All of these bonuses come for my backer level.  If I had pledged at a higher tier, I could have gotten other freebies, such as extra copies of the final PDF or physical copies of the book. I couldn't go that high at this time.  I did pledge extra, though.  One of the goals included PDFs of nine older books, many of which I missed out on when they first came out.  Actually, there are twelve books, as two are compilations.  I will be getting them all for about the same cost as getting two or three of them.  This was about as far as I was planning to go, until another goal opened up to get a newer book that I wanted, again at a fairly good discount.  I was waffling about whether or not to add it, when I had a visit last week from someone I hadn't seen in a long time.  [By the way, thanks again ABH.  That brief talk cheered me up.  I just hope that we will get to actually do something once again, besides talking from across a room for a few minutes.]  That visit helped me make up my mind and add to my pledge just as the campaign was winding down.  There was some controversy, as Kickstarter had connection issues during the last hour.  Fortunately, my pledge addition was accepted.  Unfortunately, the final stretch goal wasn't reached.  While the art staff will get a pay bonus, the rest of the creative team will not.  At least they will get paid for all of the extra material they will have to write.  One of the reasons I got into this was so I could a feel for the process, and maybe start my own campaign.  One of my many daydreams is to actually work in the gaming universe.  It feels like a great fit for me; I'm just not sure how to get involved.  This could be a first step.  I just have to wait until my rewards come in.