Two $1M+ Tabletop RPG Kickstarters At The Same Time!

Up until now, there have been three tabletop roleplaying Kickstarters which have broken the $1M barrier. Now there are TWO about to do so at the same time!

The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns has 7 days to go and is at about $1.1M at the time of writing.

The One Ring 2nd Edition has 5 days to go and is at about $1.4M at the time of writing.

So who are the three previous $1M+ Kickstarters? Counting only tabletop RPG Kickstarters (so not video games, or Critical Role's $10M+ for its animated show) the leading contenders were Matt Colville (twice one with $2.1M and one with $1.4M!) and John Wick's 7th Sea (with $1.3M).

The One Ring is currently now in 2nd place. The question is whether Twisted Taverns can pull into 3rd place?

 

[Henry]

He and Colville have Youtube channels. Runesmith has over 300k subscribers plus Patreon. Colville has 371k. Both love RPGs and offer directly what thousands of gamers want. They also get to know other writers, artists, designers, and creators which both helps them offer attractive kickstarter products and gives them free word of mouth from other RPG creators.

The One Ring is a combo of Free League and Lord of the Rings. Although Free League uses Youtube as well they only have 4700+ subscribers. But they are also a well known company with a great kickstarter track record. And there is LotR combined with a 2nd edition of a popular RPG for LotR.

I feel like track record is the lesson; in Runesmith’s case, they already kickstarted a previous product (Stibble’s Codex of Companions) which they fulfilled on schedule and was apparently a pretty well-received product with promised reward accessories. Once you have not only a fan base, but a good rep, it’s MUCH more likely you‘lol have successful kickstarters.

what blows me away is that Runesmith hit $1 million with 11,000 backers; that means that the majority of their backers hit around the $100 pledge level - that’s pretty fantastic.

 

[darjr]

All three also have an enthusiastic fan base that spread the word like wildfire.

 

[imagineGod]

Also a rising tide DOES lift other boats. Next time someone argues against it point to these Kickstarters.

Firstly, I will pay due respect to two successful Kickstarters of Twisted Taverns and The One Ring 2nd Ed. Not for my long depressing rant.

I am not sure the rising tide is really lifting enough niche boats. The oxygen for truly innovative games is being sucked out by either D&D 5th or in this case, Tolkein fans.

Case in point: The Everway Silver Anniversary Kickstarter.
It is Jonathan Tweet's masterpiece of innovation and creative art, and Jonathan Tweet has that Wizards of the Coast heritage, and yes, that probably helped fund Everway in four hours.

Not to detract from "Twisted Taverns" but creatively, it is not way out there. On the other hand, Everyway is, and yet, it seems thousands of gamers rather sit round yet another fantasy tavern than engage with something truly creative like Everway's Tarot and Fortunes.

Not being cynical, but role playing games are collaborative social spaces, and if we look just about 600 people worldwide interested in Everway, the picture is pretty depressing for finding new players. Obviously, there will still be retail sales outside Kickstarter, but then you get that announcement of Magic the Gathering also adding Lords of the Rings to its menu, and many a hobby shop offering public play space is already swamped with MtG fans. Of those, many are not bothered with RPGs, not even D&D's Ravnica could drag enough from card play into the RPG space.

And creative cards are not the key either, look at Everway's cards. No, they have to be Magic the Gathering cards, so obviously LoTR cards will outsell niche card games.

So yes, watching Everway 's creative design being dwarfed by yet even more fantasy tavern tropes for 5e is not a win for creativity. Everway's $80,000,no matter how successful, has nothing on $1M for that tired trope of fantasy taverns or more LoTR.

 

[imagineGod]

This one is almost there.....

Dungeon Alchemist™

AI-powered mapmaking software for Tabletop RPGs. Make awesome-looking maps, really fast!

www.kickstarter.com

At least this one offers something new, with smart artificially intelligence building dynamic maps. So welcome to the millionaires club. Though$30 for lifetime A.I. licensing is so cheap, I wonder if sustainable, talking of server costs, etc.

 

[imagineGod]

Also, if we consider the nearly, 20,000 people (mostly GMs) backing Dungeon Alchemist, most likely that is for more fantasy room exploration crawlers, so again, D&D and Pathfinder and not
something radical like Everway.

The figures leaning towards D&D style play as just so high. Only the right sort of board get lifted high.

 

[Morrus]

So yes, watching Everway 's creative design being dwarfed by yet even more fantasy tavern tropes for 5e is not a win for creativity. Everway's $80,000,no matter how successful, has nothing on $1M for that tired trope of fantasy taverns or more LoTR.

It's not a zero-sum game though. The awesome success of these two massive Kickstarters in no way diminishes the awesome success of Everway. I think the existence of these giant Kickstarters can distort perspective a little; those are outliers. Everway has done great!

 

[Roll & Play Press]

Facebook ads. It looks impressive, but the margins are slim. You spend a lot of that money on the ads. Also they have a big online following already.

This is so true. We were very fortunate to have our first Kickstarter make over £200,000 last year – quite a lot more than our initial £1,000 goal. But there’s also a downside of having revenue so visible, as it doesn’t paint the full picture. Taxes, shipping, advertising, costs of products all take a hefty slice of the pie.

Facebook ads are another interesting one. They had a big impact on our last campaign (we started using them about halfway through, with the help of BackerKit, who are a really great team). But with the recent iOS 14 update and the feud between Facebook and Apple, we’ve found that Facebook ads are less effective, and we’ve had to think outside the box a bit more for getting the word out on our current Kickstarter. Working with people in the community through collaborations and sponsorships is something we want to do more of, as it also means we’re supporting other creators. Also seems like it's potentially more sustainable!

 

[Rowan]

It's not a zero-sum game though. The awesome success of these two massive Kickstarters in no way diminishes the awesome success of Everway. I think the existence of these giant Kickstarters can distort perspective a little; those are outliers. Everway has done great!

As one of the principals of The Everway Company, I will chime in that I also think we've done great. We limited our ad spend to ~$2k over the last 6 months, including during the campaign. We probably could have reached higher total with more ad spend, but we would have been losing money on it overall. It is easy to get distracted by the big numbers raked in by 5e and Pathfinder projects, but consider that our average pledge is $138 and we should break into the top 10% funded of all tabletop games of ALL TIME on Kickstarter, and I'm pretty pleased with our success. Would it be great to be more? Sure, but I'm just delighted we have enough to print it and get started on the next products, especially for a product as expensive to produce as Everway is. We still have a decent shot of cracking $100k, which historically has been mostly unthinkable for an indie game like Everway.

 

[OldGeezer69]

Perhaps Colville can spend a little of that money on a hair cut

 

[Marc_C]

The One Ring is a combo of Free League and Lord of the Rings. Although Free League uses Youtube as well they only have 4700+ subscribers. But they are also a well known company with a great kickstarter track record. And there is LotR combined with a 2nd edition of a popular RPG for LotR.

LOTR and Free League was the winning combination. I haven't backed a KS in years. Got burned baldly by a half-assed war-game rules campaign.