Kickstarter Deal-Breakers (Poll)

[Malmuria]

An example of a good kickstarter for me is the recent one for Mythic Bastionland. Creator I trust, 74 page preview, and no stretch goals or limited editions, just the book and pdf.

Aside from that, I stop and ask myself if a) I'm interested in the product because I'll actually use it, or if it's just FOMO and b) if I want it only in digital format, in which case can I wait until it's out for good. It leads me to buying a lot less stuff.

 

[numtini]

I checked off too many stretch goals, but it's more about what kind of stretch goals. I've seen plenty of KSes where the stretch goals are "Two Additional Monsters!" or "PDF of an additional adventure" and those are fine because they're low impact and not going to cost anything additional. What I'm really skeptical of are when they start to add non-core things like tee shirts or dice or dice bags or things like that which are going to have a significant cost and may require different shipping type, etc.

 

[el-remmen]

I chose a bunch, no preview, slapdash page, astronomical shipping, history of not fulfilling or fulfillment delayed significantly, no print option. But want to add a niche one that I see advertised on instagram a lot: crowdfunding for something that looks on the surface like minis and/or terrain that turns out, once you dig in, to be not for actual products but for stl files for you to 3D print them yourself. It feels like a bait and switch.

 

[Gradine]

My choices:

Slapdash or poorly-written. Your Kickstarter page is your introduction to you and your product. If you're not bothering to put in the work to putting your best foot forward. Note that for me this is not the same thing as "obviously not professional quality"; I've got no issues helping to crowdfund amateur works. But the effort you put into your page is indicative of the effort you've put into your work.

The creator's own personal reputation. I make it a habit at this point to heavily Google any creator; not just from crowdfunding but for any TTRPG purchases. There's a lot of extremely terrible people out there, and I am not at all interested in supporting those types of people.

The use of AI "artwork"/"writing". Absolutely nope to that. Again, this is an effort thing. I'd much rather see poor quality art than high quality AI-generated imagery. I'm simply not interested in someone who uses that garbage.

Edit: I will say, I often find a lot of co-morbidity between these three aspects

 

[CleverNickName]

There's a lot of extremely terrible people out there, and I am not at all interested in supporting those types of people.

I'd much rather see poor quality art than high quality AI-generated imagery.

Whole-heartedly agree, especially on these last two points.

 

[dbm]

Two main red flags for me.

The first is poor track record. If a creator has done previous Kickstarter etc I will look at those campaigns, see if they delivered, see when they delivered against promised timescales, and look at the backers comments (though I take them either a pinch of salt given the adage that people are ten times as likely to complain as to praise). This gives a reasonable insight into how future campaigns might turn out.

The second is a failure to demonstrate understanding of the project side of delivery, and the risks that entails. I really like that Kickstarter added a section on project risks, and the creators statements here are very interesting to me. Good creators will acknowledge risks and explain how they will handle them in principle. Creators who are dismissive of risks are a definite red flag to me.

 

[CleverNickName]

So far, the Top Five Crowdfunding Turnoffs are:

#5: AI-generated images (23 votes)
#4: AI-generated text (24 votes)
#3: The creator's reputation (27 votes)
#2: The creator's fulfillment history (30 votes)
#1: The crowdfunding page itself (34 votes)

And the Top Five Crowdfunding Non-Issues are:

#5 thru #3: Lack of accessories (2 votes), Funding goal already met (2 votes), Not exclusively for 5E D&D (2 votes)
#2 and #1: Lack of stretch goals (0 votes), I don't do crowdfunding (0 votes)

 

[Lanefan]

My vote is "I don't do crowdfunding" because...I just don't.

Produce your product and put it in a store where I can physically look at it before I decide whether or not to buy it. That, and when I hand money over I expect to get handed a product back in return, right there on the spot, rather than having to wait for it (which is the same reason I don't shop online).

 

[TwoSix]

The perfect Kickstarters, to me, are Kevin Crawford's Sine Nomine books.

"I have written a book. The book is done. If I get enough money, I will have the book printed and delivered to you. There are no add-ons. There is no merch. There are no bundles. If you want another one of my books, check my store."

I don't want add-ons. I don't want your custom dice, or a dice bag, or a fancy cloth tag with your logo on it. I don't want 10 PDFs of your previous work. I don't want you to add 5 all new subclasses because you hit 500,000 in backing. I just want the book, and I want to know exactly what's in it upfront. I want to know you've already done the work, and are looking for money for art and printing and shipping costs.

 

[dbm]

While I agree that Kevin’s campaigns are gold-standard he doesn’t have a full manuscript before starting the campaign. He regularly posts updates on the writing process throughout, however.