RPG Crowdfunding News – Blood for the Khan, Daughter of Frankenstein, Dungeon Denizens, and more

smerwin29 · Mar 12, 2023

Olaf the Stout said:
Nah, I heard they’re pretty full of themselves!

Seriously though, what do you think it is you’ve been able to do that so many other RPG publishers haven’t?

That first statement is definitely true!

OK, let me try to answer your question honestly.

Kickstarter is its own animal, and there is so much that needs to go right to have a Kickstarter that simply funds, much less one that explodes. Just one thing going wrong with the Kickstarter can make it not fund, or fund at a lower level than expected or desired. I don't have the best head for business, so I can't point to any one thing (or five things) that lead to successful Kickstarters. But I can say this:

When I agreed to join Ghostfire, they'd already completed and fulfilled their first successful Kickstarter with the Grim Hollow Campaign Guide, and they were just wrapping up their second with the Grim Hollow Players Guide. I was a full-time freelancer at the time, and I didn't want to give up the flexibility that offered. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to join any company full time. After talking to the folks in charge at Ghostfire, hearing their pitches, seeing their expertise in different fields, and seeing what they had in mind for the future, I couldn't get on board fast enough. The Players Guide had over 9,000 backers--created by a company very few had heard of, and not with an IP already loved by millions, but with one they'd created themselves. One thing was clear: someone there knew what they were doing--or most likely several someones.

Turns out it was several someones. From marketing to production to customer support to game design to art to layout, Ghostfire was hitting all the right notes. It was also a perfect time to be doing RPG Kickstarters, which is clear when you look at the number of million-dollar projects that funded in that time span. Then partnering with some incredibly creative folks like Runesmith, the Dungeon Dudes, XP to Level 3, and others who had a lot of offer players, and who just needed the right partner to turn their visions into actual game products. I got to work on my dream project in Arora, and we are currently in the last few days of our first Grim Hollow supplement: Valikan Clans.

Here's the irony of Kickstarter. This Valikan Clans project is, game-design-wise, I feel easily the best thing Ghostfire itself has done. The freelancers we had on this are some of the best in the business at their areas of expertise. James Haeck, who's worked for Wizards on several projects, and who leads the design on Matt Mercer's Critical Role RPG books, has created some brilliant and fun-to-play mechanics for raiding and mass combat. The adventure attached to this project is one I cannot wait to run for my own players. The maps, minis, and other peripherals created by Simon Sherry and his team are astounding. Yet it won't reach a million dollars. That's just the nature of Kickstarter: the market and the paradigms shift. We're still happy with the results, and we'll still deliver some great content and products to the backers.

And then the people on the business side will check the markets, look at the logistics, recalibrate their plans, and we'll do it all again. Because one of the other things I've learned at Ghostfire: all the folks here, myself included, love making games and love playing games. And customers can generally see that love of the game in the products they buy.

I know that was a long-winded answer, and I (despite my joking post above) don't want to sound self-congratulatory or full of myself. It's just my honest answer to the question that was asked. I was at a convention recently and three different people with clout and success in the RPG industry, with job titles and positions and credentials way more voluminous and celebrated than mine, pulled me aside and said something to the effect of, "I got a product I'd order/backed from Ghostfire, and I was blown away by how good it was." These were people who I'm not close friends with, and who I wasn't even sure knew who I was. And they were talking about three different products. So now that I think it, that should have been my simple answer to the question.

Olaf the Stout · Mar 13, 2023

smerwin29 said:
That first statement is definitely true!

OK, let me try to answer your question honestly.

Kickstarter is its own animal, and there is so much that needs to go right to have a Kickstarter that simply funds, much less one that explodes. Just one thing going wrong with the Kickstarter can make it not fund, or fund at a lower level than expected or desired. I don't have the best head for business, so I can't point to any one thing (or five things) that lead to successful Kickstarters. But I can say this:

When I agreed to join Ghostfire, they'd already completed and fulfilled their first successful Kickstarter with the Grim Hollow Campaign Guide, and they were just wrapping up their second with the Grim Hollow Players Guide. I was a full-time freelancer at the time, and I didn't want to give up the flexibility that offered. I just wasn't sure if I wanted to join any company full time. After talking to the folks in charge at Ghostfire, hearing their pitches, seeing their expertise in different fields, and seeing what they had in mind for the future, I couldn't get on board fast enough. The Players Guide had over 9,000 backers--created by a company very few had heard of, and not with an IP already loved by millions, but with one they'd created themselves. One thing was clear: someone there knew what they were doing--or most likely several someones.

Turns out it was several someones. From marketing to production to customer support to game design to art to layout, Ghostfire was hitting all the right notes. It was also a perfect time to be doing RPG Kickstarters, which is clear when you look at the number of million-dollar projects that funded in that time span. Then partnering with some incredibly creative folks like Runesmith, the Dungeon Dudes, XP to Level 3, and others who had a lot of offer players, and who just needed the right partner to turn their visions into actual game products. I got to work on my dream project in Arora, and we are currently in the last few days of our first Grim Hollow supplement: Valikan Clans.

Here's the irony of Kickstarter. This Valikan Clans project is, game-design-wise, I feel easily the best thing Ghostfire itself has done. The freelancers we had on this are some of the best in the business at their areas of expertise. James Haeck, who's worked for Wizards on several projects, and who leads the design on Matt Mercer's Critical Role RPG books, has created some brilliant and fun-to-play mechanics for raiding and mass combat. The adventure attached to this project is one I cannot wait to run for my own players. The maps, minis, and other peripherals created by Simon Sherry and his team are astounding. Yet it won't reach a million dollars. That's just the nature of Kickstarter: the market and the paradigms shift. We're still happy with the results, and we'll still deliver some great content and products to the backers.

And then the people on the business side will check the markets, look at the logistics, recalibrate their plans, and we'll do it all again. Because one of the other things I've learned at Ghostfire: all the folks here, myself included, love making games and love playing games. And customers can generally see that love of the game in the products they buy.

I know that was a long-winded answer, and I (despite my joking post above) don't want to sound self-congratulatory or full of myself. It's just my honest answer to the question that was asked. I was at a convention recently and three different people with clout and success in the RPG industry, with job titles and positions and credentials way more voluminous and celebrated than mine, pulled me aside and said something to the effect of, "I got a product I'd order/backed from Ghostfire, and I was blown away by how good it was." These were people who I'm not close friends with, and who I wasn't even sure knew who I was. And they were talking about three different products. So now that I think it, that should have been my simple answer to the question.

Cheers for the answer and the insight. It definitely doesn’t come across as self-congratulatory at all.

RPG Crowdfunding News – Blood for the Khan, Daughter of Frankenstein, Dungeon Denizens, and more

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