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!

 

[Parmandur]

I get the impression he despises the Wheel of Time series, sometimes on minor things.

I mean, yeah, it's terrible. He ahs been very generous to the show, honestly.

 

[Meech17]

I mean, yeah, it's terrible. He ahs been very generous to the show, honestly.

He really doesn't seem like the kind of guy to bad mouth something.. Even if he wants to.. If he's anything like the Mormons I know in real life.. They're all super polite, to a fault.

 

[agrayday]

It’s always so funny to me that people get surprised at how popular Brandon Sanderson and his works are.

Not surprised, Curious.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

He really doesn't seem like the kind of guy to bad mouth something.. Even if he wants to.. If he's anything like the Mormons I know in real life.. They're all super polite, to a fault.

I've met two who weren't like that, and it was shocking both times.

 

[Reynard]

While I am generally ambivalent about Sanderson's actual books, his stuff definitely feels like the foundation for cool RPGs.

Also, I really liked most of the 2.5 Stormlight Archives books I listened to (about 125 hours) but in the end couldn't take the "romance" element and character any longer.

 

[Cergorach]

Every time I try to research it, I get the same kind of answers you're giving.

There's no real way in for newbies at this point, since the fans and the brand are just talking to themselves at this point.

At a certain point you could take some initiative and read some blurbs on GoodReads for example:

Brandon Sanderson

Author of The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages

www.goodreads.com

I'm not a fan, I think I tried reading one of his books once and that didn't stick at the time (no clue which one to be honest). Sometimes that changes years later, sometimes it does not. I have a 1000+ titles on the to-read list, so no lack of stuff to read... I have periods of extreme reading, sometimes hitting one novel per day (and certainly not small ones), other periods I don't touch any novel for months...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

At a certain point you could take some initiative and read some blurbs on GoodReads for example:

I have literally spent hours on this in the past, but I appreciate the assumption to the contrary.

I came in hot on this thread because I was pretty frustrated the last time I tried to figure out what the heck his books were about. A lot of the descriptions of the books are either complete word salad, including on Amazon and Goodreads.

I'm happy for folks who loves these books, but the folks upthread who were "lol" about people not knowing about these books should remember that they presumably got on board pretty early on. At this point, Sanderson and his folks aren't worrying about the need to on-board new readers.

 

[KYRON45]

Well, OK then.

Wait, then spiritually isn't this like if Taylor Swift put her face on some brand of perfume formulated by some chemist in New Jersey? Like OK sure, they have a track record so it'll probably be competently built, nothing wrong with that NJ chemist either, but like how Swift's fans just want her swag, my understanding is these folks are throwing their money at Brandon Sanderson.

Swift didn't create the chemistry needed to make the fragrance.
Sanderson is responsible for the worldbuilding and a 3rd party turned it into a game.

 

[Belen]

I have literally spent hours on this in the past, but I appreciate the assumption to the contrary.

I came in hot on this thread because I was pretty frustrated the last time I tried to figure out what the heck his books were about. A lot of the descriptions of the books are either complete word salad, including on Amazon and Goodreads.

I'm happy for folks who loves these books, but the folks upthread who were "lol" about people not knowing about these books should remember that they presumably got on board pretty early on. At this point, Sanderson and his folks aren't worrying about the need to on-board new readers.

I fear I am on ignore.

Stormlight is set on a world that has seen a cyclical era of rebirth and destruction. The world is broken up into humans and another race that gets more detailed over time. The other race gets blamed for murdering a king and starts a war that seems quite lucrative to the human nobles. The first novel takes place during the war and follows a slave bridge team.

Mistborn trilogy follows a poor orphan girl who finds she has strong magic powers as they try to topple an ancient god king.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I fear I am on ignore.

No, but this isn't really a pitch for a novel, it's a pitch for a campaign setting:

"Stormlight is set on a world that has seen a cyclical era of rebirth and destruction. The world is broken up into humans and another race that gets more detailed over time. The other race gets blamed for murdering a king and starts a war that seems quite lucrative to the human nobles. The first novel takes place during the war and follows a slave bridge team."

I mean, it sounds like a really cool campaign setting, but that's not my criterion when picking out novels. Maybe that's the disconnect -- maybe Sanderson's fans are folks who are in it for the campaign-level stuff.