An Explanation of How Pledging Works

I have friends on Facebook asking about how pledging works, how they can hook me up with a referral bonus, and what the difference is between Benefactor and Founder, etc… So, here is my explanation. I hope it can help some of you!

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More clarification for you people interested in buying Shroud of the Avatar:

Pledges work like this -- (STATUS/TIER).

There are 2 STATUSES: FOUNDER and BENEFACTOR.

• FOUNDERS are people who pledged during the Kickstarter (like me) last year before the cutoff date. (May 20, 2013)
• BENEFACTORS are all those who pledged after the cutoff date.

There are 22 TIERS which are the pledge levels of how much money you are willing to spend, each with their own level-exclusive BENEFACTOR rewards AND their own level-exclusive FOUNDER rewards.

Let's consider the first 3 pledge TIERS named "$45 Adventurer", $55 Immortal Adventurer", and "$65 Founder" for example.
The Rewards for "$45 Adventurer" are as follows --

(BENEFACTOR/ADVENTURER) Rewards:

• In-game avatar will receive the honorific title of "Benefactor" to be proudly displayed for all to see (title visibility controlled by player).
• The Replenishing Snowball Box. This is a magical box of 50 snowballs that regenerates annually during the holiday season.
• DRM-free, digital download of the game
• Exclusive Early Bird Alpha + Beta Access (estimated Alpha delivery in December 2013)

(FOUNDER/ADVENTURER) Rewards:

• Your in-game avatar will receive the honorific title of "Pioneer" to be proudly displayed in gold colored font for all to see (title visibility controlled by player).
• One (1) starter shield, uniquely identifiable as a Founder shield
• Get ready to show off (and teach) your special emote! Each tier will include its own unique, teachable emote!
• Digital download, serialized, Shroud of the Avatar novel by Tracy Hickman

------Scenario 1------
You are brand new to Shroud and you don't have an account and have not pledged anything-- If you simply want the BENEFACTOR rewards, simply go to http://shroudoftheavatar.com/ and pledge $45 (and nicely add me as your referral ID# 1600 or email isolte(at)wow(.)com) .
Your pledge would be referred to as (BENEFACTOR/ADVENTURER).

BUT if you want the exclusive FOUNDER rewards as well, you will have to receive it as a gift from ME! i.e. PayPal me $40 (I get a discount) so that I may gift it to you.
Your pledge would be referred to as (FOUNDER/ADVENTURER).

------Scenario 2-------
You already HAVE a BENEFACTOR account, and have made your pledge, but you want to upgrade to FOUNDER. We can do this! -- Paypal me $40 so I may gift you the $40 FOUNDER/ADVENTURER pledge that you may apply to your existing pledge! This is a win-win if you're willing to spend $40 more because not only will you grant me the $25 bonus to my pledge for friendly goodness, but YOU get the full $40 bonus to bring your pledge up toward the next TIER.
So your (BENEFACTOR/ADVENTURER) would be bumped up to (FOUNDER/FOUNDER) including all the BENEFACTOR and FOUNDER rewards from TIERS: Adventurer, Immortal Adventurer, and Founder.

SO!!

It's so confusing that they have a TIER called "Founder", but I hope all of this explanation has made sense!!! You have until April 7th, 2014 to decide if you want a FOUNDER pledge or upgrade, so please don't hesitate to let me know!!!


To see all pledge levels and rewards go here:
Koldar's thorough Pledge Spreadsheet: https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/pledge-reward-spreadsheet.2536/

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F.A.Q.

• I got my first couple referral credits today. Is there a way to use them for purchase of addons or is the credit only good for upgrading towards the next tier?

The credit is only good for upgrading to the next tier.​

 

Awesome work Ember! Looks like someone's popular

Hope ya get hundreds/thousands of people in here!

 

I've recently updated the definitions of Founder and Benefactor on the wiki to include the Early Founder status. I may link to this forum post to help users understand their options.

http://wiki.ultimacodex.com/sota/Digital_Reward

 

Great job, Ember! The only things I would note is the cutoff for Founder status was extended to May 20, 2013 and that Koldar's spreadsheet gives a detailed breakdown of the various Founder and Benefactor rewards (for those Benefactors debating whether to upgrade to Founder status)

 

That was an excellent explanation, Ember!

If they're willing, you should tell them that the absolute best deal really is the Explorer tiers which you can get at a $15 discount. This gets them all 5 games in this series which is insane.

 

I'll update my friends with the extension to May 20! Thanks!

 

I was just looking for a place to ask a question and this thread works perfectly...

I got my first couple referral credits today. Is there a way to use them for purchase of addons or is the credit only good for upgrading towards the next tier?

 

I changed my original post back to "April 7th" because the cutoff date I am referring to is the last day my friends will have to decide if they want to upgrade from Benefactor to Founder!

 

OK, I was just referring to the original Founder cutoff date (which you stated at the top of your post was at the conclusion of the Kickstarter campaign last March, but was extended by the developers until last May). The new cutoff date for upgrading to Founder status is indeed April 7th

 

Only good towards upgrading to next tier

 

Ohp, I gotcha. I misread that! I only said March because at this point, it's beyond both dates. Thank you for clarifying!

 

That's a good question. It appears that we may only apply credits toward the next tier and nothing else. Ading this Q&A to an F.A.Q. section in my original post. Thanks!

 

Can you actually get into the beta? I did the immortal and expected to be able to tool around a bit... I have seen two dates, one past and one coming up.
But so many people online on utube so I took it for granted that I would be able to download V1 as the description stated... kind of misleading

Thanks,
David Young

 

Anyone who pledges Adventurer ($45) or above has access to the game during the testing schedule the devs have set up.

However, due to the game being extremely incomplete at the moment, the testing phases are rather short and only occur once a month. That will probably change in the future as the game become more complete.

The current schedule over here : https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/f...rly-access-schedule-update-releases-4-7.8124/

Welcome to the fun.

 

Welcome to the forums!

You can download the client currently, but the servers are only live during testing periods right now. The next one starts May 22nd. There are download links in my FAQ.