Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive TTRPG Makes $1M In Under An Hour

The highly anticipated Stormlight Archives TTRPG Kickstarter--now renamed the Cosmere RPG--broke the million dollar barrier in under an hour, joining the million dollar Kickstarter club.

Published by Brotherwise Games, the game encompasses Brandon Sanderson's entire universe of novels. It includes a world guide, a rulebook, and an adventure called Stormlight Stonewalkers. It's a new game system, based on a d20 mechanic with talent trees and skill-based magic.

The question now is whether it can beat the Avatar Legends TTRPG's almost $10M record? Avatar hit the million dollar mark after the first few hours, so--at least at this point--the Cosmere RPG is tracking ahead of it. Brandon Sanderson already holds the Kickstarter record for the most funded project ever--his novel series made over $40M on Kickstarter in 2023!

 

[mamba]

Where are all the crabs I was promised?

 

[Parmandur]

Where are all the crabs I was promised?

They are there.

Crab-deer:

Crab-whales:

Domestic farm-crabs and crab beasts of burden (and normal pigs, because Humans, Horses, Pigs, and Minks at least are mammals):

Tiny flying crabs:

And of course, one of the two playable ancestries, the crab-people (literally, the Singers are homind-equivilant crustaceans):

 

[Zaukrie]

Wait, people weren't kidding about the crabs?

 

[Meech17]

Wait, people weren't kidding about the crabs?

If anything.. I think people have been underselling the crab situation.

 

[Parmandur]

Wait, people weren't kidding about the crabs?

Having fun with it, but not that 100% for serious, except for humans and a select few animals, Roshar is full of crabs or at least cruateacen-esque fauna...and it is not an incidental detail, it is a key part of the world-building and history.

Horses are a pain in the butt luxury and rare military resource, because they are hard to feed: there is no grass on Roshar (flora is more like corals and anemones on land), so they cannot graze and need to have special processed feed made for them.

It is actually a pretty old school sci-fi Setting in some key ways.

 

[Parmandur]

If anything.. I think people have been underselling the crab situation.

Well, again, it's hard to talk about stuff without being scared of spoilers, but simply noting that "everything is a crab" feels safe.

 

[Parmandur]

Tonight's Update to the campaign got interesting, delved into how the Skill-based nature of both combat and magic in this system has meant in practice that "multiclassing" by switching around careers has not proven suboptimal in play, and goes a bit into the math of how the career and leveling system works. Shared some cool art of

Spoiler: A book character

one of the book main characters, Kaladin Stormblessed

, at different Levels:

Also, all backers will be getting a book of mini-Adventures:

"This stretch goal applies to every pledge and will be delivered along with Stormlight PDF content in the first half of 2025. Each two-page spread will feature an adventure hook, a new map or illustration, and guidance for developing the scenario into a full adventure. The scenarios will range from cozy to combative, with options for every type of playgroup. Whether you play these as one-shots or drop them into an existing campaign, they’re a great way to showcase the diversity of storytelling opportunities in the Stormlight campaign setting!"

 

[Parmandur]

Today's update talked a little bit about combat, even though they were at pains to note that advancement is plot-based instead of using combat or treasure accumulation, many of the "Monster stat blocks" are even desigaround social conflicts rather than combat. Got some cool art, including more crab people:

 

[agrayday]

I know it's high, I said so. I wan't a comparison with other high pledge funds with retailer pledges, if anyone has it at hand.

It is interesting to compare number of backers to money generated across the $M projects. Morris is right its all high.... comparing to past projects in this "club".

 

[The Soloist]

At 30,000 backers printing costs are becoming more advantageous. Gets better with every additional 10,000 copies.