Does anyone have Kickstarter regrets?

[Velderan]

Several.

I backed a few 5e campaigns for physical rewards and had stopped running 5e by the time they arrived because of delays. Recently I received the books I pledged for a PF2e campaign and I'm probably going to be moving on to another system this year and likely won't ever use the books. There's another PF2e books I'm supposed to receive in March as well..

These experiences have led to me backing less system specific products and looking for more things that I can use for whatever I'm running. The other lesson for me to learn is to probably stop backing campaigns for physical items, but since I hate reading PDFs that's a lesson I've yet to learn.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

There are a couple of OSR Kickstarters I backed that are so minimal in mechanics or creativity that they have very little value. They contain nothing I couldn't have come up with, or the mechanics are so vague that I have to pretty much stat them up anyway.

 

[ShinHakkaider]

Nothing too serious, but I maybe shouldn’t have backed as many Reaper Bones Kickstarters as I did. I don’t think I’ll ever get all those mini’s painted!

I was JUST coming into say this. I think I backed two of them back in the day and I have a MASSIVE amount of them sitting in a closet. I DO want to eventually assemble and paint the skeletal dragon that part of one of those kickstarters and another diorama but I KNOW I'll never get to the rest...

 

[el-remmen]

I was really disappointed with the first Next Level Minis kickstarter. The minis were mostly nice sculpts but the scale was a lot smaller than standard for the size advertised and smaller than they looked in how they were rendered in the campaign materials.

Ultimately I was able to salvage a lot more of the minis than I originally thought upon opening the suspiciously small box and have even ordered a couple of individual minis from the company later on when I knew exactly what I was getting, but nevertheless I was disappointed, even if I got over it and I know a lot of other backers were too.

 

[TheHand]

I was JUST coming into say this. I think I backed two of them back in the day and I have a MASSIVE amount of them sitting in a closet. I DO want to eventually assemble and paint the skeletal dragon that part of one of those kickstarters and another diorama but I KNOW I'll never get to the rest...

Oh that Skeletal Dragon... it sits there on a shelf, judging me all the time. A friend used their airbrush to put on a primer coat, and that was... um... more years ago than I care to think about.

 

[timbannock]

Here's my list of 'shame':

Break!! - I love the aesthetics, and there's a lot to love about the game design, but it just doesn't quite match my expectations coming from my OSR games of choice (a combo of Shadowdark and Errant). It doesn't stand on its own among my collection, and so there's no chance I'll end up using it unless someone runs it for me.

The Session Zero System - The KS had its own drama, but that didn't bother me. Ultimately, I got the game and while I like it and I wholeheartedly support what it's trying to do, I no longer game at a public space with an open table, so I have no need for this among my existing friend groups.

Trophy RPG - I love the setting book but the game itself is too light and PbtA-style for my tastes. My players and I aren't really the "build the setting as you go" type; my players want to explore and poke out stuff that already exists in some form and level of detail, and not collaboratively build it as we go. Plus they are more into the power fantasy style of gaming, and I can't seem to break them of that.

Humblewood and basically everything 5E that I backed early on - While some of it can be torn apart and repurposed for my OSR gaming, there are more than a few bits that just don't fit my current tastes. Maybe if they shift again I'll rediscover these as gems, but a lot of them saw some use and faltered, or didn't see any use and don't seem like they ever will. This by far, is the biggest regret I had in my crowdfunding purchases, but after a handful of 5e KSes I did realize my tastes were shifting, and so in the end it's only a couple of releases.

All in all, none of these were "bad games" or anything like that, and I don't regret having contributed to them being released into the world. I just personally didn't get nearly as much use out of them as I had hoped, and have reached a stage in my life where I don't think I'll devote any time to them when compared to other things I've got or since purchased. So the regret is entirely one of "I won't get around to this," and so in all cases I've sold them off (sometimes even making my money back!) so they've hopefully found loving homes.

 

[crazy_cat]

Oh that Skeletal Dragon... it sits there on a shelf, judging me all the time. A friend used their airbrush to put on a primer coat, and that was... um... more years ago than I care to think about.

I ended up selling mine, after it had sat in the box for a while judging me, when I finally realised I hadn't got the time (or inclination) to actually paint it, or the space to store it or display it once fully assembled

 

[haileris23]

The only Kickstarters that I've regretted backing have been a couple where the people turned into really snotty and dismissive jerks to the backers after the campaign ended. Sure I've had some that didn't deliver what I was expecting and that was disappointing, but I just shrugged and moved on. The ones where the folks act like they're doing backers a favor by communicating or are rude and condescending when they do are the ones where I wish I'd saved my money. I also put the creators in the "never buy another product from you" list.

 

[Hygge Halfling]

I’ve mostly stopped backing TTRPG books at this point. In many cases it is a cost savings to just buy at retail, and the delivery timeframe is barely different.