Are We Looking At A New RPG Kickstarter Record?

The current record for an RPG Kickstarter is John Wick's 7th Sea 2nd Edition, which made just over $1.3 million in about a month. Matt Colville looks like he might leave that in the dust with Strongholds & Streaming, however, having raised nearly half a million dollars in about 5 hours at the time of posting this, with a month to go!

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Strongholds & Streaming is a dual Kickstarter - first to produce a 128-page hardcover book about building strongholds and attracting followers for D&D 5th Edition; and then with stretch goals related to Colville's streaming channel.

You can build four stronghold types - keeps, towers, temples, and establishments; these roughly correlate to warriors, arcane casters, divine casters, and rogue-types. The stronghold improves your class abilities, and attracts followers.

Stretch goals include miniatures, more pages, an an adventure (so far - he's blown through all those on there right now already).

You can see this epic Kickstarter here. I've never seen an RPG Kickstarter blow up quite so fast in so short a time!

Matt Colville writes the Critical Role comic, and has worked on various tabletop gaming projects, including the recent Star Trek RPG. He has worked on various mass-combat and starship combat rulesets. In addition, he runs a big YouTube channel about tabletop RPGs (D&D especially).

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[mattcolville]

Nobody, but nobody wants to charge shipping. Shipping costs are imposed by the postal services, not by creators on Kickstarter. Every Kickstarter creator hates the shipping issue.

One thing I'm noticing is that most people don't know how shipping works. Which shouldn't surprise me, there's no reason they SHOULD know!

Most people have some idea how much it costs to mail something somewhere. They go to the Post Office or UPS or whatever and they get an amount, ok.

Well, we also have that amount. But we're also paying to warehouse the product, and paying the people who are boxing it all up and printing 8,000 labels and then managing everyone's customer service. And all that costs money. But it also means it gets done in a timely and organized manner.

 

[Morrus]

One thing I'm noticing is that most people don't know how shipping works. Which shouldn't surprise me, there's no reason they SHOULD know!

Most people have some idea how much it costs to mail something somewhere. They go to the Post Office or UPS or whatever and they get an amount, ok.

Well, we also have that amount. But we're also paying to warehouse the product, and paying the people who are boxing it all up and printing 8,000 labels and then managing everyone's customer service. And all that costs money. But it also means it gets done in a timely and organized manner.

A tiny part of me feels sorry for you having your first ever Kickstarter being the industry changing record breaker which clearly announces the transition from new media to new new media.

Only a tiny part though.

 

[Ancalagon]

It just goes to show that there is a massive market for D&D supplements.

The one supplement a year model WOTC puts out is just wasted opportunity.

If a 3rd party product like Strongholds is raising over 1 million. Imagine how much WoTC could of made.

Just maybe, MAYBE, allot of gamers out there want a Birthright style of game. Hint hint.


In any case. Congrats to Matt Colville for this. What an incredible and inspiring achievement.

I'm pretty sure that the supplement is *specifically not* a Birthright type supplement.

And as Morrus said, it's more of an indication that there is a market for Matt Colville supplements...

Like I too have an idea for a 5e supplement (the "your office job is a dungeon!" adventure!). Buuuut if I was to put that on kick-starter, I would be astounded if I raised 1000$....

 

[Uller]

Also, this is a D&D rules compatible Kickstarter.

Also this is a sorely needed product for 5e. You know all those "what to do with gold" threads? This seems to fill that niche.

Tome of Foes doesn't really interest me. My party is 13th level and more than ready to start being power players in the campaign world.

Sent from my [device_name] using EN World mobile app

 

[Ancalagon]

One thing I'm noticing is that most people don't know how shipping works. Which shouldn't surprise me, there's no reason they SHOULD know!

Most people have some idea how much it costs to mail something somewhere. They go to the Post Office or UPS or whatever and they get an amount, ok.

Well, we also have that amount. But we're also paying to warehouse the product, and paying the people who are boxing it all up and printing 8,000 labels and then managing everyone's customer service. And all that costs money. But it also means it gets done in a timely and organized manner.

I think it's the "and handling" part they don't realize - if you emphasize that it's shipping *and* handling...

 

[mach1.9pants]

One thing I'm noticing is that most people don't know how shipping works. Which shouldn't surprise me, there's no reason they SHOULD know!

Most people have some idea how much it costs to mail something somewhere. They go to the Post Office or UPS or whatever and they get an amount, ok.

Well, we also have that amount. But we're also paying to warehouse the product, and paying the people who are boxing it all up and printing 8,000 labels and then managing everyone's customer service. And all that costs money. But it also means it gets done in a timely and organized manner.

Just if you didn't quite get what European Friendly means, it means either:

printing and despatching from within the EU, as most rpg books are basically PoD this is easily done. Much smaller shipping charges for EU customers and no import fees. Not so easy for minis I guess.

Or bulk shipping to an EU for despatch from there. Generally the cost of a one off import fee is much lower than every backer paying it, as is the cost of shipping. Whether this is balanced out by increased handling fees depends on lots of factors. This obviously works for minis and other physical objects.

There is also Australia Friendly, which covers us in NZ too

But shipping from the USA has the worst costs in the world, it's cheaper to come all the way around the world from Europe to NZ than across the pacific from the USA. Apart from Amazon who must have some great leverage. Really sad for us down here and you indie creators up there.

 

[Oakfist]

It's disappointing to see so many people outside the US grumble and complain about the cost of shipping. Instead simply deciding to support or not support, people go to KS or forums like this and complain about shipping costs as if it's the first time the fees, taxes, tariffs, etc have been a factor in buying something from outside their country. Move on with life, please.

 

[Morrus]

It's disappointing to see so many people outside the US grumble and complain about the cost of shipping. Instead simply deciding to support or not support, people go to KS or forums like this and complain about shipping costs as if it's the first time the fees, taxes, tariffs, etc have been a factor in buying something from outside their country. Move on with life, please.

Wait, out of the sets of people involved in that equation, you're the disappointed one? I'm sure we're all gutted to have disappointed you with our hardship. We promise to never mention it again.

Jeez.

 

[Iry]

It's disappointing to see so many people outside the US grumble and complain about the cost of shipping. Instead simply deciding to support or not support, people go to KS or forums like this and complain about shipping costs as if it's the first time the fees, taxes, tariffs, etc have been a factor in buying something from outside their country. Move on with life, please.

It's quite reasonable for them to voice the EU shipping issues, because it has a solution. He may be able to arrange a bulk shipment to the EU (like France) which can then be distributed to EU residents. That solution may or may not be cost effective for Colville to execute at this point, but only he knows if he can arrange such a thing. Or at least, he is now armed with knowledge about EU shipping and can make informed decisions on future kickstarter projects.

So, this information is quite valuable to everyone involved.

 

[Oakfist]

Wait, out of the sets of people involved in that equation, you're the disappointed one? I'm sure we're all gutted to have disappointed you with our hardship. We promise to never mention it again.

Jeez.

AAaaaand this is the reason I log on once every six months to this place....