Kickstarter.com - etc.

[Morrus]

Yeah, it's just a case of getting the amounts and rewards right without compromising the actual adventure path's integrity.

I did come up with this a while back, but it was only some rough thoughts and I'm not convinced by it; it's just some musings really:

Project Description

ZEITGEIST Adventure Path Kickstarter Booster Project!

ZEITGEIST, an adventure path for D&D 4th Edition and Pathfinder RPG, is going to be awesome anyway. But we'd like to make it even more awesome! With this Kickstarter Project, we hope to increase funding for the project to the point where we can break the Critical Awesomeness Barrier. So here's what we're doing:

We are going to try to raise an additional $10,000 (that's about a 25% budget increase) on top of the ludicrous amounts of money we've already budgeted for this adventure path. We'll be using that extra money for extra stuff, adding more color art, more player handouts, more words, more everything!

So, kick in some money and let's see what we can do!

Project Rewards

Here's what you get!

For $25 we will name a minor (non-statted) NPC after you. The NPC could pop up anywhere throughout the adventure path.
For $100 we will name a statted NPC after you. You will also gain access to the private "development" forum where you can see how things are going.
For $500 we will name, stat, and illustrate (in full-color) an NPC after you!
For $1000 or more we will name an important, permanent landmark or location after you. We don't expect many - if any - of these, but how cool will it be when your PCs visit a town named after you, or a monument dedicated to you?

For all of the above, we will discuss the inclusion with you, and reserve the right to ensure that we work out an appropriate addition to our adventure path; this means that we will ensure that there are no silly or immersion-breaking inclusions. By donating, you accept that this process is a to-and-fro between you and us, and that the result must be appropriate to our adventure path.

Links

[URL]http://www.enworld.org/ap/zeitgeist.html[/URL]

Don't get me wrong, I can see that it's a great way to increase the budget. But I just can't see enough people doing it to make a difference. We really would need to increase the budget by a good 25% or so to make the differences significantly noticeable (I mean, $1000 would get us a few pieces of colour art spread over an entire adventure path - you probably wouldn't even notice). It's the fact that it needs to be so much to make it worth doing that's the issue.

And, of course, not then turning rond and spending the money simply sending out hardback copies of stuff to people - if we're just physically giving the money back again in the form of material product or discounts, it's just a loan. If I wanted a loan, I could get one easily enough without all the hassle.

 

[Siberys]

Looking at that, I may even be willing to drop a c-note to make sure I have a psuedo-important npc.

 

[Morrus]

Looking at that, I may even be willing to drop a c-note to make sure I have a psuedo-important npc.

A "c-note"? Wassat, then?

 

[twilsemail]

A "c-note"? Wassat, then?

A $100 bill.

For the record. I'd also be willing. At this point I'm eying up my accounts figuring how much I could actually toss your way.

 

[Morrus]

Well, if another 98 people like you express an interest in that, we may be able to do this!

 

[InkwellIdeas]

Well, if another 98 people like you express an interest in that, we may be able to do this!

I've been having a good experience with my project on Kickstarter. And while Kickstarter encourages the special, unique sorts of rewards that you listed I think letting people essentially pre-order/pre-subscribe would result in a higher number of pledges. You could mix them in with your special rewards so I could get a full set of pdfs at $x or get the full set + something special at $x+y. Get physical copies at $z but get that and something special at $z+y. Etc.

And all it costs you is 8-10%. (3-5% for Amazon's charging of cards and 5% to Kickstarter.) That's very good considering what drivethrurpgnow will charge or what it costs to put it in stores, although the on-line cut doesn't matter if you're running your own on-line store. In any case, you will get some extra buzz about it, you also get some idea of the likely level of success and you get an extra time window to market your product. (Instead of waiting until it is nearly complete.)

But you probably know the business better than I do, so if I'm missing something please comment.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Well, if another 98 people like you express an interest in that, we may be able to do this!

Make that 97!

 

[Morrus]

Would people expect to receive the AP itself as part of the reward? Because obviously if we're simply shifting the purchase venue from here to there, it's not actually raising additional funds; it's just generating revenue in a different place.

The only way I could see it working is if the actual AP wasn't included as a reward - so you'd still have to subscribe/purchase it separately.

 

[OnlineDM]

Personally, I plan to keep on subscribing to EN World as a silver subscriber (once my copper runs out any day now) indefinitely. In addition, I would sign up to kick in $100 to ZEITGEIST (though I would quite possibly do that even without the NPC benefit, just because I want to support the project). That's just me, though - I have disposable income, and I'm willing to put it toward hobbies that I care about.

 

[twilsemail]

I don't really think it's reasonable to think the AP is included as a reward. This was an offer to contribute above and beyond what we might otherwise to improve the overall quality of the product, neh?

In the least, for my money, I'd be expecting an NPC named after me and that's about it. Later on, for more money I'd expect books and the like.