Legends of Avantris Announces Neon Odyssey, a 5E Space Opera Project

Avantris Entertainment, the publishing arm of Legends of Avantris and the makers of The Crooked Moon, has announced a new space opera-themed D&D project that will launch on Kickstarter later this year. Neon Odyssey is described as a "a neon-soaked science fantasy space opera trilogy for D&D 5E," drawing inspiration from sources like Star Wars and Cowboy Bebop. The Neon Odyssey project includes three books, an Outrunner's Handbook containing player rules and character-building guides, a Cosmic Codex detailing the Stardust Rhapsody campaign setting, and the Overdrive Expansion that contains optional rules for professions, racing and more. All the "classic" D&D character classes are reimagined in the books under new names and containing mechanical upgrades, with 40 subclasses, 30 species, and 300+ alien monsters and enemy vehicles to battle against.

The Kickstarter for Neon Odyssey will launch in May, with Avantris running weekly Neon Odyssey-focused content on their channels from March to June. Avantris's last Kickstarter to fund the Crooked Moon, raised over $4M in 2023.

 

[Morrus]

...behold the power of dungeontube...

There have been 12 million-dollar Kickstarters from D&D YouTubers since Matt Colville did it in 2018... this ain't news any more! Being a big YouTube influencer has been the most common way to do it for years now, second only to using a popular book/TV license. Being a legacy publisher is surprisingly low on the list--the Monte Cook Games's and Free Leagues's are a minority in the million dollar crowdfunder chart.

 

[...m...]

...there have been plenty indeed, and the contrast between popular visibility and legacy publishers is more stark than ever...

 

[Morrus]

...there have been plenty indeed, and the contrast between popular visibility and legacy publishers is more stark than ever...

I don’t think it’s even that. There have been popular visible people forever. Celebrities have always made bank on business ventures. It’s that there’s so many of them now, that it has become the normal route into publishing at that scale.

 

[Von Ether]

I don’t think it’s even that. There have been popular visible people forever. Celebrities have always made bank on business ventures. It’s that there’s so many of them now, that it has become the normal route into publishing at that scale.

I am probably making an overly broad statement but I feel like it's Hollywood repeating itself - especially for established actual play productions. As in the people in front of the camera get the glory and bankroll while the writer (game designers) are very much in their shadow.

Mind you for most everyone involved in this industry "bankroll" is not that much unless you strike lighting.

I don't have the time or passion to watch full on actual play episodes but the clips I see of Legends of Avantris focuses mostly on them being super silly and having more a great time joking around the table than actual play. If that's their bit, more power to them.

 

[...m...]

...i don't begrudge the market reality of the largest (newest) audiences evolving evolving over time; it's inevitable that established audiences diminish into the margins without commensurate evolution...

...that said, it's striking to see this sophomore campaign pull an order of magnitude greater support in one day than four quarter-century veteran publishers managed across the entirety of megadungeon month in what was broadly considered a milestone success...

 

[Morrus]

Well bear in mind they’re selling a lot of stuff. It’s basically an entire storefront. It’s not like it’s just a book. The average pledge level is $300 (which means a large percentage of them are bigger than that).

It would be fun to know the actual profit margins on a campaign like this. There’s a lot of people involved, and a lot of ‘things’ which have to be manufactured and shipped. That’s not information we’re ever likely to get though.

 

[...m...]

...yeah, i suspect that the cost of establishing a social-media presence and promoting a commensurate tie-in campaign at that scale are substantially more formidable than a lot of folks realise...

(not to mention the development + production costs: that's a loooooong list of people)

 

[Von Ether]

I guess no matter how big you get, the maxim holds true, the best way to make a bit of money in ttrpgs, is to start with a lot of money. (Well, that's true for a lot of businesses, actually.)

 

[...m...]

It would be fun to know the actual profit margins on a campaign like this. There’s a lot of people involved, and a lot of ‘things’ which have to be manufactured and shipped. That’s not information we’re ever likely to get though.

...mrrhexx posted a detailed breakdown of his sands of doom project recently; it's a tough model even for high-profile `tubers without a separate promotional campaign, and he's just a one-man shop...

 

[Morrus]

...mrrhexx posted a detailed breakdown of his sands of doom project recently; it's a tough model even for high-profile `tubers without a separate promotional campaign, and he's just a one-man shop...

That’s not really what I was talking about. It was the massive selection of add-ons that some of these campaigns offer that I was curious about. Dice, minis, bags, hats, plushies, pins, badges, all that stuff. That’s the one thing I’ve always avoided because while it means high revenue, the logistics are challenging.