Kickstarter musings

[Lord Mhoram]

I've backed 43 - 1 micro video game console, 2 kitchen things the wife wanted, and the rest are RPG or Board Games.

• Biggest thing - I need to know who the creator is - they have to be someone I've got stuff from before (even as a contributor do a different game system), a company I trust, or person that industry people say does good stuff.
• High quality product - if it's a book it needs to look nice, look sturdy, have good art and layout.
• I look at stretch goals, and part of my decision is based on them (the only reason that I look at "funded in 20 minutes" at all, is that implies momentum and likely lots of stretch goals to meet. I prefer stuff that is either in the main book (although I don't mind extra PDFs), I'm generally not into "bling". Just give me more of what I am paying for.
• Communication - I like daily or every other day emails while the kickstarter is going, and at least once a month after that.
• Price is a big factor too... or value maybe. Every RPG kickstart I've back comes with free PDF with physical book, and if you have to pay separate for them (unless the difference is like 5 bucks) I will not back it.

 

[Morrus]

I like daily or every other day emails while the kickstarter is going, and at least once a month after that.

Yikes, daily emails would drive me nuts! Only email me if you have something really important to say!

(goes to show there’s no way to make everybody happy)

 

[Marc Radle]

Wow, I thought I was doing well having supported 19 projects! Compared to some of you, that's a drop in the bucket.

• All of mine have been TTRPG products save for 3 - a back massager, an endangered species enamel pin that my daughter wanted to back, and a couple $ for the Critical Role animated series. Most of the TTRPG ones are 5E supplements.
• If it is a game or physical product (minis), will I use it? If I don't think so, then I'll pass
• I've never chipped in for an add-on
• trinkets (pins, plushies, 'collectibles') don't interest me
• Stretch goals aren't a make-or-break decision for me, but once I've committed, I like to see those get unlocked.
• I would be happy to see more stretch goals that add more art or adventures. I don't need more dice or dice bags.
• I'm mostly interested in PDFs because of the quicker delivery and the usually horrendous shipping fees to Canada.
• I'm a sucker for the ReaperMini Bones Kickstarters - we'll see what happens with Bones 6 now that I have a 3d printer
• I've only been disappointed with one - a 'cinematic sci-fi' for 5E book, that introduced new rules, used cards and was far enough removed from 5E that they may as well have said it was a new game.

Apologies for the thread derail …

I’m also a big Reaper fan and I’m anxious for Bones 6 … but I think there is zero chance of them selling STL files. Reaper is too closely tied to their specific Bones material(s) to ‘let’ people print their own Reaper Bones.

Just my opinion, but I would be shocked if Bones 6 offered anything but physical minis.

End thread derail!

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Yikes, daily emails would drive me nuts! Only email me if you have something really important to say!

(goes to show there’s no way to make everybody happy)

Most of the kickstarters I've back have hit at least 1 stretch goal a day, so letting me know which goals are being met in my inbox is a convience. And I normally only get 1 or 2 non spam emails a day, so it doesn't bother me. I could handle every few days, or weekly.

 

[akr71]

Apologies for the thread derail …

I’m also a big Reaper fan and I’m anxious for Bones 6 … but I think there is zero chance of them selling STL files. Reaper is too closely tied to their specific Bones material(s) to ‘let’ people print their own Reaper Bones.

Just my opinion, but I would be shocked if Bones 6 offered anything but physical minis.

End thread derail!

No, I don't expect them to offer STL files either. I meant I wonder if I can justify spending the $ when I can print my own now. I still haven't pulled the trigger on subscribing to a 3d sculpting service and the free ones I find are 'good enough for now.' I don't like paying for models I will likely never use, but as unlocked items to a KS, like the Reaper ones, I'm more than fine with.

 

[TheSword]

I think my experience of Kickstarter hasn’t been good. There has been some positives but on the whole pretty negative. Soured by a couple of bad actors.

I successfully backed reaper bones 3 and got everything I pledged. It was a pretty huge amount of money, but most of it was speculative and to be honest a lot is still unpainted and boxed even four years on. Was it worth the £400. Maybe when calculated but not practically on a cost benefit analysis for my hobbying over the last four years. That’s on me, but it’s not a great feeling after.

Worse was a hardback book of maps product I backed which wasn’t cheap. About £85 for two copies of the book sold on the principle you could lay them side by side. I realized after the production images started to come through that realistically it wasn’t going to be as useful as I thought and I got pretty big buyers remorse. The project was delayed by about 8 months as well and I moved house over that time and massive books became impractical. I tried to get out before fulfillment and the creator said no.

Then the big one that I’ve mentioned before was Throne of Night by Gary McBride. That started promisingly and went bad fast, with 80% of rewards unfulfilled and a total ghosting. The investment was £180 so not insignificant, however the feel of being defrauded or tricked was far worse than any financial loss, the frustration, the total inability to get closure, and the anger to see the person still highly active on Kickstarter was quite affecting. I can’t really compare it to any other feeling. The platform themselves have no ethical standards and there is zero accountability. They happily allowed a user to defraud 300+ people and then continued taking their cut of the 400 future kickstarters he went to fun (a pretty unbelievable figure in the circumstances). To be clear, I understand that kickstarters fail, I would understand that. All I wanted was an explanation and proper ownership of that.

If it had been just the first two issues I probably would have taken it on the chin and kept my optimism. There are probably a lot of products that seem exciting in principle but don’t quite live up to the hype. Caveat Emptor and all that. The third example though has pretty much killed my enthusiasm for the platform and the principle. I’ll now wait for products, the excitement in the build up just isn’t worth the frustration if it goes bad.

If I want to support creatives to build a financial base, I’d rather do it through Patreon, which seems like a far more respectable relationship. The value to my hobby of what I’ve got from the five or six Patreon’s I support is about 500-1000% of what I have paid. Whereas the value to my hobby of what I’ve got back from kickstart is about 5% of what I paid.

 

[Marc Radle]

I just backed Kobold's Tome of Heroes, but the stretch goals annoyed the crap out of me. I normally don't pay much attention to them, but when I saw the list of existing titles listed as stretch goals . . . I own the entire list already! As I'm sure many Kobold super-fans do! It's an easy freebie to throw a small, already completed product as a stretch goal, but . . . hella annoying!

Just wanted to make a quick comment here ... the Tome of Heroes Kickstarter offers 1 single stretch goal of an existing PDF (Beyond Damage Dice). That's it! There is also a brand new PDF stretch goal (Beyond Damage Dice Part 2) but that is an as of yet unreleased sequel to the first Beyond Damage Dice PDF, so backers will get that new PDF for free

 

[Dire Bare]

Just wanted to make a quick comment here ... the Tome of Heroes Kickstarter offers 1 single stretch goal of an existing PDF (Beyond Damage Dice). That's it! There is also a brand new PDF stretch goal (Beyond Damage Dice Part 2) but that is an as of yet unreleased sequel to the first Beyond Damage Dice PDF, so backers will get that new PDF for free

Thanks for the clarification!

I already own Beyond Damage Dice, and had assumed that Beyond Damage Dice 2 was released and in my digital library. My mistake there!

What about Deep Magic: Battle Magic and Warlock: War & Battle? Both are existing titles listed under bonus PDFs, followed by . . . and more!

It's not a deal killer that Kobold is offering existing works as bonus PDFs . . . it's just not a very exciting stretch goal idea, and one that moves the needle down for me, if slightly. Well, at least I will look forward to Beyond Damage Dice 2, as I'm sure the campaign will easily pass 200K!

 

[Thomas Shey]

I've backed, well, a lot; most were RPGs or support for RPGs, a small number were computer games. Some ran really late (more among the latter than the former, but a few among the former too), but so far all of them have come out. I've backed some projects that in retrospect I should have looked into more before getting caught up in the heat of the moment, but I can't say I've seen a project that was really bad among those I've backed. Some were just bad choices for me (RPGs that really, really want random generation to make them work right are a nonstarter, for example).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I've heard so many horror stories about videogame Kickstarters. For every Hollow Knight it seems like there's a dozen Goduses or Star Citizens.

I've only backed a couple dozen or so kickstarters, entirely ttrpgs and video games. About half of the video games have delivered, the other half are in limbo.

Trust is a huge part of it, absolutely. I'm willing to spend money on a Goodman Games or Kobold Press Kickstarter because I know they will deliver. I am willing to take a chance on a newcomer with a brilliant idea, but the buy-in has to be low enough to balance the risk.

• Biggest thing - I need to know who the creator is - they have to be someone I've got stuff from before (even as a contributor do a different game system), a company I trust, or person that industry people say does good stuff.