Kickstarters by YouTube influencers

[Morrus]

but I can see after-the-fact that his youtube fame may have helped the game off the ground. I really do like the game.

He’s the poster child for it! Built an amazing following on YouTube then used that reach to run a record breaking Kickstarter and build a company. I can think of no more perfect an example of how it’s done. His success is admirable.

 

[Dustin Cooper]

All the design is basically being handled by the community playtests. Dungeon Coach basically has no idea or plan for the project. When asked about the action economy being similar to Pathfinder, he essentially admitted he knows no systems beyond 5e D&D.
Playtests can be fine. But they should be to test the design - not create it. It's as if Doritos wanted to try to create a new flavor, asked consumers for a list of ingredients, made all the varieties, and asked people to try them.

Oof. I also looked at the Kickstarter updates, and apparently it's only a couple days before Christmas, 6 months after they estimated that the core pdf would be complete, that they have up to level 4 fully playable. Maybe I misinterpreted the videos I was seeing on it, but it sure seemed to me like they were claiming it was a mostly complete game at the time. I figured with all those D&D alternatives being announced around the same time, at least one of them would be a flop, and I guess I know which one now.

 

[Retreater]

I figured with all those D&D alternatives being announced around the same time, at least one of them would be a flop, and I guess I know which one now.

Not a flop as far as the funding goes since it made $2.2 million on Kickstarter.
But yeah, will be "at least a year" before any physical books will be done. And what we're gonna get likely won't touch the quality of systems like Nimble.
Oh well. That's a $145 pledge of disappointment from me.

 

[mamba]

There’s nothing stopping you backing Rob Schwalb rather than Bob Worldbuilder. One doesn’t remove the other.

I know, and I did. My point was that the YTers with no track record of anything manage to reach KS funding levels that established designers can only dream of.

I wish experience would be valued more than it is, and that is not limited to TTRPG products

 

[mamba]

I ended up cancelling my pledge for 13th Age and moved it to DC20 because of the exposure of the DC system.

I backed 13A and decided against DC20, he seemed to have very little design knowledge, basically a few years of playing 5e and nothing else

DC20 raised a lot more money though, with him being a YTer…

 

[mamba]

I'm impressed with Matt Colville and what he brought with Draw Steel. Before finding the game, I had not heard of him being a youtube influencer, but I can see after-the-fact that his youtube fame may have helped the game off the ground. I really do like the game.

I see him more as a game designer who is also popular on YT rather than a YTer who dabbles in game design (see DC20)

 

[Retreater]

I backed 13A and decided against DC20, he seemed to have very little design knowledge, basically a few years of playing 5e and nothing else

DC20 raised a lot more money though, with him being a YTer…

Looks like you made the better decision.
Still don't know if I "needed" 13A 2e either. Probably should've skipped many of my Kickstarters. These days, I'm avoiding most crowdfunding products.

 

[mamba]

Looks like you made the better decision.
Still don't know if I "needed" 13A 2e either.

I don’t think I needed it, doubt I will ever play it, but I wanted it for ‘inspiration’’

Probably should've skipped many of my Kickstarters. These days, I'm avoiding most crowdfunding products.

same, pretty sure I could easily have skipped a lot of them, the goal is to be more discerning this year

 

[aco175]

The 1960 Presidential debate between Nixon and Kennedy was the first to be on TV. After the debate, the people that listened on the radio thought Nixon won and the people who watched on TV thought Kennedy won. There was all this feeling stuff like someone was sweating, looked taller, or wore a better color that was commented on. Same for YouTubers with people feeling like they know them or like them on the video means that they trust them more than just someone they read some stuff on.

 

[SlyFlourish]

I’m interested in the rise in recent years of large TRRPG Kickstarters launched by popular YouTube influencers. It seems that many influencers aspire to become creators and often do so very successfully; the reverse isn’t often true, though, with even successful TTRPG companies struggling to gain significant followings on YouTube.

The most successful example is, of course, Matt Colville and MCDM, with a whole bunch of million dollar crowdfunders under his belt and no signs of slowing down. Others, like the Dungeon Dudes, are also very successful.

The most anticipated TTRPG of 2026 in our poll here on EN World is Deathbringer, a project run by Professor DM, another popular YouTube influencer in the TTRPG space. This will apparently be coming to Kickstarter in May 2026.

So… which YouTube influencers have launched crowdfunders, with how much success? (links would be appreciated!) And how have the games turned out?

I sort of came from the different dirction. I've been writing RPG products for about fifteen years now and only really started doing YouTube videos in ernest in the middle of 2021. That helped a lot with my largest Kickstarter for the Lazy DM's Companion and offset printed versions of my other books – 11,000 backers. I've never reached that since but YouTube accounts for a good deal of patrons, newsletter subscribers, crowdfunding campaigns, and book sales ever since.

I'd argue my Kickstarters all did well (we've been happy with their results) and I'd argue the products are very good but what else am I going to say?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/slyflourish/sly-flourishs-fantastic-adventures/creator