I may have something to contribute here both as the partner of a professional game designer who runs a Patreon and as someone who has run a 3 year campaign in the world of Zyan.
First of all, very wise to keep your last KS simple. I'd do that as much as possible - could you perhaps handle back issues by keeping them in print and fulfilled by someone else such as EF, and just providing a discount coupon as part of the KS?
I wouldn't necessarily look at it as either/or. Patreon patrons and physical customers are two different markets and you can cater to both. Patrons want to get material early, they don't care if it's janky or incomplete, and they like to have a peek behind the curtain. They're also a good source of feedback from people with a real investment in the work.
Honestly I think paying for editing and layout at that stage would be a waste, even counterproductive - if you've paid for a peek backstage, you want to see the rigging!
1/3
@Ben_L
So a Patreon can just be a place to post material as you work on it - rough drafts, concept sketches, notes. It's a place to do the things you were doing anyway on the way to a commercial release.
I must be blunt: You are an exceptional talent and it is the writing and the ideas that sells the work, not the art or the editing or the nice paper stock.
The zines were great but I got more out of Mazirian's Garden than I ever did from anything you published in print.
And as a DM I can say I will happily pay for both Patreon and zines, and that the question of context may not be worth worrying about too much.
Running in Zyan and Pale Echo, I never had enough context, I always had more questions, and while I'm terribly grateful for the answers you shared with me when I brought them to you, the fact is that having to fill in the remaining gaps myself didn't do me or my campaign any harm.
2/3
So my advice is: Get thee to Patreon and post everything as you create it, in its raw, unpolished, undercontextualised form; periodically collect it into more zines when you're good and ready to do so. Make those zines physical objects of beauty but don't let logistics drain the energy you could be using to create.
Then your audience will self-organise based on their priorities - the people who are drawn in by the feel of the paper will wait - the only difference to them is that the Zines might come out earlier thanks to Patreon funding.
And people like me who just want to get to the Catacombs of the North Wind so Gallows can murder Sparrow and end up haunted and cursed for a year will join you on Patreon.
I suspect many will do both.
3/3
Ben L
Valinard