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+...

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!

tav.jpg


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.


tor.jpg


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?
 
Click to expand...

log in or register to remove this ad

Morrus

Morrus is the owner of EN World and EN Publishing, creator of the ENnies, creator of the What's OLD is NEW (WOIN), Simply6, and Awfully Cheerful Engine game systems, publisher of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and co-host of the weekly Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast. He has been a game publisher and RPG community administrator for over 20 years, and has been reporting on TTRPG and D&D news for over two decades. He is also on the socials.

Dire Bare

Dire Bare

Legend
Ath-kethin said:
And they say there's no money to be made in RPGs!
Click to expand...
Well, it's not just over a million in profit . . . a lot of that million will get eaten by paying the team a fair wage, by paying for the production of the books . . .

But yeah, it's nice to see some successful RPG crowdfunding campaigns! I'm sure the publishers behind both projects are very happy right now!
 



Jaeger

Jaeger

That someone better
A Kickstarter called: The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns

Is basically doing just as well as a long time and revered RPG IP: The One Ring RPG based on Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Could this be a signal about the current preferences of the RPG hobby at large?

Reasons? I will throw these pieces of spaghetti at the wall:

1: In spite of a longstanding love for the IP - Actually Roleplaying in Tolkien's Middle Earth has just not been that popular among the general RPG hobby. (Especially now if it is not 5e based...)

2: 5e is just that big now.

I vote for a combination of both.

Or maybe it's just the facebook ads...
 

Mistwell

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
Morrus said:
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.
Click to expand...
It is impressive though. Even if it just breaks even, as long as it's a decent product people are happy enough with, their next project can use the database of contacts from the first one and the reputation built from that venture, without as much advertising expense, to make the second one very profitable. It's a good strategy, if you can afford the up-front cost of that advertising. Which is a big if.
 

Morrus

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Mistwell said:
It is impressive though. Even if it just breaks even, as long as it's a decent product people are happy enough with, their next project can use the database of contacts from the first one and the reputation built from that venture, without as much advertising expense, to make the second one very profitable.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. Building backers is the important strategy. That’s what’s behind my (now 8) mini-quickstarter strategy, stolen blatantly from Phil Reed, who is the absolute master of this technique and killing it on Kickstarter now (and was killing it back when he was selling $1 PDFs every day on RPGNow in the early 2000s).

if you can afford the up-front cost of that advertising. Which is a big if.
Click to expand...

They‘re using Backerkit, which fronts the Facebook ad costs in advance and takes them - plus a 15% commission on the KS pledges - out of the final earnings.

I wrote an article about it last year:

www.enworld.org

How To Promote Your RPG Kickstarter

I've run over twenty Kickstarters, some big, some small, over a period of several years, and along the way I learned a few things about the process. I thought I'd share what I'd found out so far about the promotional side of running a Kickstarter campaign. There are companies which are absolute...
www.enworld.org www.enworld.org
 



Similar Threads

Morrus
2021 Was A Massive Year For TTRPG Crowdfunders
Replies
7
Views
5K
SteveC
SteveC
Morrus
MCDM's New Tactical TTRPG Hits $1M Crowdfunding On First Day!
61 62 63 64 65
Replies
646
Views
67K
mamba
mamba
Abstruse
Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork from Modiphius Coming to Kickstarter This Year
2 3
Replies
21
Views
7K
cbwjm
cbwjm
Abstruse
News Digest for March 3, 2024
Replies
0
Views
4K
Abstruse
Abstruse
Abstruse
Podcast #273: The Lostigistics of Organizing an RPG Game
Replies
0
Views
4K
Abstruse
Abstruse

Related Articles

Remove ads

Remove ads

Top