Kickstarter musings

[FitzTheRuke]

As a comic and game retailer, I only care about two things (both of which come down to: Can I make money while helping the kickstarted game make money and find fans?)

1) Does the Kickstarter have a Retailer pledge level? Is it a reasonable amount of product for its cost?
2) I need physical product. Can I get it in Canada with reasonable shipping? (Or at all?)

 

[CleverNickName]

It must be frustrating for a Kickstarter creator: shipping is the most common complaint and the most common deal-breaker, and also the thing that creators have the least amount of control over.

 

[CleverNickName]

Unrelated (mostly): I just got a notification that my "Legend of Vox Machina" backer rewards have shipped. It might not be big news for most of ENWorld, but it's one of the most highly-anticipated Kickstarter shipments in my social media circle. We've been waiting forever to get those rewards, and both my wife and I are really excited.

Related (mostly): Some lessons to be learned from Critical Role's wildly-successful Kickstarter.

• Backer rewards are great incentives...especially for something like a cartoon, video game, or movie that might not have a purely "physical" format (like a book). But too many of them can really hurt your delivery.
• Later in the campaign, when they were hitting the multi-million dollar mark, CR stopped adding trinkets and baubles and switched to adding content (produce more episodes, hire more animators, etc.) This was the right call. Lots of backers complained because they wanted to get MOAR STUFFS for their backing dollar, but CR was already overcommitted on rewards and were at risk of not being able to deliver at all.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It must be frustrating for a Kickstarter creator: shipping is the most common complaint and the most common deal-breaker, and also the thing that creators have the least amount of control over.

Yeah, it's tough. It's gonna be terrible going forward, too. But I've got to consider it, because there's only so much shipping that I can "eat" and a customer off the street coming into my store is not going to want to pay a jacked-up retail to pay for shipping, sadly. (But understandably).

 

[Malmuria]

Initially, kickstarter projects played on my fomo. Because of the scale and realities of indie production, there are some products that you probably need to get on kickstarter or not get them at all, at least in physical format. But in general I don't like paying for something and then receiving it like over a year later (of course, covid has slowed things down), so I'll probably lay off the kickstarters in the future.

The other issue is that I have more rpg products than I have time to use and I need to stop

Ugh, just backed the Mausritter kickstarter at the highest level. I'm incorrigible!

Mausritter: Box Set & Adventure Collection

Sword-and-whiskers roleplaying, in a box set and brand new adventure collection.

www.kickstarter.com

 

[amethal]

Ugh, just backed the Mausritter kickstarter at the highest level. I'm incorrigible!

Mausritter: Box Set & Adventure Collection

Sword-and-whiskers roleplaying, in a box set and brand new adventure collection.

www.kickstarter.com

Me too!

Perhaps I should have included "I'm a sucker for boxed sets" in my original list of reasons for backing a kickstarter.

I'll almost certainly never get to use it in a game, but I'd hate to be in the position where my gaming group were demanding some mouse-based RPGing and I didn't have anything to offer them.

(Well, apart from Mouseguard, and probably a few obscure PDFs I can't even remember, and this assumes they weren't tempted by the various cat-based RPGs in my collection as an alternative, or that weird ferret game that I have no idea why I bought, and I'm pretty sure I have some Bunnies and Burrows stuff floating around somewhere …)

 

[BrokenTwin]

I've only backed a couple dozen or so kickstarters, entirely ttrpgs and video games. About half of the video games have delivered, the other half are in limbo. The ttrpgs have a much better track record, although I regret backing Exalted 3E, as they're still sending me emails even though I'm long past the point of caring about it.

Stretch goals can make or break a project for me, as they can be a good indication of how well the creator can manage themselves. Stretch goals full of time consuming or expensive sounding content? Red flag.

Proof of concept is another big one for me. Kevin Crawford's kickstarters are a fantastic example of this, every one of his that I've seen and backed have been along the lines of "the product's mostly done, kickstarter's just for production value and maybe some extra stuff." Makes it a lot more likely that I'll see the finished product, and worst comes to worst, I'll still have the playtest document.

I'm also sick of kickstarters that make "5E Compatible" their main selling point. I mean, I get it, but I want a product that will sell me on the strength of their own merits. I don't need another generic 5E fantasy setting with a different coat of paint. Something that uses Fate or another toolkit system gets more leeway here, as they usually at least have a unique implementation of the mechanics-at-the-table.

 

[Ath-kethin]

5. I don't care about trinkets. Don't give me stickers or pins unless they can be used as props or something.

Ugh. This. I feel every other project these days has enamel pins and stickers and what it, and what exactly are they supposed to be for?

I don't really care; they can gather dust on a shelf or in a drawer until eventually they get thrown out. But I seriously don't understand the appeal.

 

[Morrus]

Proof of concept is another big one for me. Kevin Crawford's kickstarters are a fantastic example of this, every one of his that I've seen and backed have been along the lines of "the product's mostly done, kickstarter's just for production value and maybe some extra stuff." Makes it a lot more likely that I'll see the finished product, and worst comes to worst, I'll still have the playtest document.

Yeah, we do that too. Final PDFs within seconds of the KS ending, physical books within weeks (basically physical printing/shipping time only).

 

[akr71]

Wow, I thought I was doing well having supported 19 projects! Compared to some of you, that's a drop in the bucket.

• All of mine have been TTRPG products save for 3 - a back massager, an endangered species enamel pin that my daughter wanted to back, and a couple $ for the Critical Role animated series. Most of the TTRPG ones are 5E supplements.
• If it is a game or physical product (minis), will I use it? If I don't think so, then I'll pass
• I've never chipped in for an add-on
• trinkets (pins, plushies, 'collectibles') don't interest me
• Stretch goals aren't a make-or-break decision for me, but once I've committed, I like to see those get unlocked.
• I would be happy to see more stretch goals that add more art or adventures. I don't need more dice or dice bags.
• I'm mostly interested in PDFs because of the quicker delivery and the usually horrendous shipping fees to Canada.
• I'm a sucker for the ReaperMini Bones Kickstarters - we'll see what happens with Bones 6 now that I have a 3d printer
• I've only been disappointed with one - a 'cinematic sci-fi' for 5E book, that introduced new rules, used cards and was far enough removed from 5E that they may as well have said it was a new game.