Head out into the world. Do good deeds. Spend those good deeds like currency to buy copies of my games.
The Early Tally
I kept track of this program from its conception until March 30th, 2012. By that point, this program had raised $435 for charities and charitable causes.
In addition, it had inspired people to:
- Spend several hours helping an elderly neighbor harvest gardens.
- Begin offering free jazz lessons to university students.
- Pick up litter on a half-mile stretch of road.
- Clean the dog poop out of a neighbor’s yard.
- Bak 100 muffins and distributed them to strangers.
- Help an elderly lady who’d fallen, and driving her home.
- Treat two strangers to a warm meal.
- Donate a stack of CDs to a local library.
- Give a gift to a relative stranger who was having a bad day.
- Make good on a promise to call a recently widowed grandfather twice a month.
- Spend several hours telling random people they are beautiful.
- Help a friend recover from a bad breakup and meet new people.
After that point I stopped keeping track of the program’s success. In June 2013, I decided to start keeping track again, as the program had grown significantly in terms of the people using it and talking about it. In the interim year that wasn’t recorded, the program raised well over a thousand dollars for charity and inspired many, many good deeds.
Since June 2013
Since June 2013 I’ve been keeping better track of the Good Deeds program. You can see a record of what’s been earned and exchanged here.
Supporting This Project
This program costs me money to operate. While printed books cost money, the bigger expense tends to be shipping costs. Sometimes folks help me with shipping costs, but often not. I spend between $10-100 per month on this program.
I’m really excited about the Paying With Good Deeds model, and hope I can keep offering it indefinitely! I like the human interaction, the ability to create and reward an economy of kindness, all of it! It’s also something that I could use financial support in maintaining.
If you’re interested in helping me continue with projects like this, check out the Patrons page!
Each game lists a cost in good deeds. For example, the Ribbon Drive PDF is worth 1 good deed, while the Monsterhearts book is worth 4-5 good deeds. If you want to use good deeds to pay for a game, then:
- Go out into the world and complete the required amount of good deeds,
only counting the good deeds directly inspired by the program,- Then write an email to me at [mcdaldno] at the [gmail], wherein you
- Tell me about the good deeds that you completed, and
- Tell me what game you’d like as a reward.
For your good deeds to count towards a Buried Without Ceremony game, they need to be things that you were directly inspired to do as a result of this offer. If you did a good deed a few years ago, or as part of your regular routine, that’s fantastic… but it won’t count toward one of these games. This offer is meant to generate more good deeds in the world, not to recount existing good deeds.
“Good deeds” are ultimately an arbitrary and subjective currency. To get everybody on the same page and provide some inspiration, here are a couple things that count as 1 good deed:
- Donating $10 to a charity (I like Doctors Without Borders, PEN Canada, and Egale Canada).
- Spend one hour volunteering with a soup kitchen or local nonprofit.
- Spend one hour picking up garbage at a local park.
- Bake a dozen muffins and give them to a family who lives on your block.
- Drop off a dozen pairs of socks to a local homeless shelter.
- Give a ride to a hitch-hiker, and go out of your way to deliver them to their destination.
- Do something subversive that provokes thoughtful discussion about the world we live in.
Here are some things that count as 2-3 good deeds:
- When someone in your neighbourhood announce that they’re moving, set aside a day and help them move.
- When someone’s house burns down, organizing a clothing drive to help them rebuild their wardrobes.
- Commit to a weekly volunteer position and complete the first few weeks.
Those are just some ideas! You can use your imagination and special skills to get even more inventive. If a product is available in exchange for 4 good deeds, you can choose to do four smaller things or 1-2 larger things. You get to judge what counts, though I reserve the right to deny an exchange if it is clearly outside the spirit of this offer.
With print products, I will offer you the opportunity to cover shipping costs at the time that you email me with your list of good deeds. This is totally optional, but it will help make this good deeds program more sustainable and affordable for me.
Current Good Deed Rates
The Grotesque (a limited edition Apocalypse World playbook): 1 good deed
Perfect Unrevised PDF: 2 good deeds
Perfect Unrevised print & PDF: 4 good deeds
Monsterhearts PDF: 2 good deeds
Monsterhearts print & PDF: 5 good deeds
The Quiet Year PDF: 1 good deed
The Quiet Year print & PDF: 5 good deeds
The Quiet Year Bag Set: 7 good deeds
To exchange good deeds for games, write to me at mcdaldno@gmail.com