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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gamerprinter" data-source="post: 6089131" data-attributes="member: 50895">Of course I was involved in the successful Kickstarter for the Kaidan campaign setting of Japanese horror for PFRPG, and that was for a softcover print book, not a digital only product, such as what you're considering.1. Regarding it's "legs" in the RPG industry. I see it as little more than a networkable means of funding creative projects. It seems to work as a combination of pre-ordering and general funding with an active community participation. I see it as a paradigm shift for funding many types of creative projects - within and without the RPG industry involvement. It's definitely not a fad. I plan on using Kickstarter this year (in the next few months) for a non-RPG product - an illustrated map guide of state parks and trails in my hometown area.2. Although we did run a banner ad campaign through Gamerati, I don't really know how successful that was, compared to other means of letting people know we had a Kickstarter running. New patrons did not seem to suddenly increase during the time the banner ad campaign was run. I believe the running forum threads here, on the Paizo boards, which Rite Publishing and it's supporters (like myself) maintained and updated on a regular basis provided the most active promotion. Of course the many blogs and forums with Kickstarter threads (many of which I didn't participate) seemed to help spread the word as well. I don't know if it will be a continuing process, but there seems to be many such threads and the content of those threads are posted by the original poster, not requiring the publishers to contact them to tell them they even had a Kickstarter going. The thread starters found the available Kickstarters themselves and posted to their threads.3. Not knowing what your specific digital only product might be, it's hard to determine the best supplemental products that might be provided as stretch goals and incentives to join. Looking at our Kickstarter, the base product provided was a PDF only version of what the main product (GM's setting guide) would be. The next of course, was the softcover print book. Unlike many of the Kickstarter projects Kaidan already exists as multiple adventure modules and supplements, as the Kickstarter was intended to fund a campaign guide book which wasn't created yet. To those patrons who paid a higher amount, we provided all existing Kaidan PDFs (10 PDFs) as bonus content. Above that was books signed by the author, followed by hard back versions of the campaign guides.For my next proposed Kickstarter for a non-RPG product, I plan to offer a PDF version on the low end, a softcover printed book as the next level, a signed copy over that. Since my product is a map book, I intend to offer large format printed versions of the major maps within the guide as bonus material, perhaps with a single map and all the maps as 2 different tiers for this bonus material (I run a graphic design/digital print studio, so I'll be provided these bonus products directly myself and shipped to participants.) I'm thinking of providing an oversized coffee table book version of my product at the highest end.For RPG products, I'd think PDF only pawns of PC/NPC/monsters, PDF only card designs for a makeshift deck for random acquisitions (draw a card from the deck) and PDF only printable maps - all fall into excellent bonus material that could be provided as incentives beyond the intended product.4. Our Kickstarter ran from July 15th - September 16th 2012, which in hindsight I think was too long of time period. We might have been better off running a 30 day or 60 day campaign. Thinking that the longer it was up, the more we'd collect. At this point I think keeping the interest high over such a long period was not very efficient. Through much of the time between the first two weeks and the last week, patron signups were fairly slow - perhaps only 10% of the total signups occurred between the start and finish of the Kickstarter campaign. I plan to run my next one at only 60 days.5. My only advice is "do it". Take in all the advice and suggestions you can find, but don't hesitate. It's possible that you won't collect your intended amount and have a failed Kickstarter, however, it shouldn't cost you any money, just time to run the campaign and time to maintain it. If it fails it will be a learning experience. If it succeeds, well then you got what you intended. Get your ducks in a row and pursue it.</blockquote>

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