The Biggest TTRPG Kickstarter Creators: Free League Is King!

They say you can't make a million in tabletop RPGs. With 26 successful campaigns totaling nearly $8,000,000, Swedish company Free League is one of the big heavyweights of tabletop roleplaying Kickstarters. Their latest offering, Ruins of Symbaroum, has already joined that streak of killer Kickstarter campaigns with over three weeks still to go.

Free League currently tops the chart (boosted by its recent $2M The One Ring campaign), but Monte Cook Games is right behind them.

As of November 2022.

Everybody has heard of the giant $1M+ Kickstarter successes (Matt Colville, John Wick's 7th Sea, The One Ring, Coyote & Crow, Twisted Taverns, and Humblewood). I've already compiled that list. This list, on the other hand, is a look at the totals raised by various Kickstarter creators over all their projects which add up to $1M or more. These totals were correct at the time of posting. If you're reading this in the future, they're probably outdated!

Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club

Moved to thread:

www.enworld.org

It's a work in progress, so if I've missed any obvious contenders, let me know. I only included creators who were primarily doing tabletop RPGs on the platform, but I didn't audit every project, so the totals will include any other things they've done. I also stuck to Kickstarter for the sake of my own sanity; several other crowdfunding platforms are available!

	Company/Creator​	Projects​	Known For​	Biggest Campaign	Total Funded​
1	Free League	27​	Tales from the Loop, The One Ring	THE ONE RING Roleplaying Game, Second Edition	$7,839,651*
2	Richard Thomas (Onyx Path)	46​	World/Chronicles of Darkness	Deluxe Exalted 3rd Edition	$7,264,672
3	Monte Cook Games	22​	Numenera, Cypher System	Numenera 2: Discovery and Destiny	$6,671,520
4	Hit Point Press	9​	Humblewood	The Deck of Many Animated Spells, Tarot, and More for 5E	$3,865,801
5	Shane Hensley (PEG)	27​	Savage Worlds	Deadlands: the Weird West	$3,569,108
6	Matt Colville	2​	Strongholds & Streaming	Strongholds & Streaming	$3,494,150
7	Kobold Press	22​	Midgard, 5E hardcovers	Vault of Magic for 5th Edition	$2,867,580
8	Jim Searcy (Studio Agate)	11​	Esteren	Encyclopedia: Lore Books & Toolbox for your 5E Campaign	$2,254,420
9	Morrus (EN Publishing)	28​	Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition	Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition	$2,092,648*
10	Eldermancy	2​	The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns	The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns	$1,990,428
11	Evil Hat Productions	16​	Fate	The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game	$1,969,348
12	Frog God Games	29​	Swords & Wizardy, Tome of Horrors	Rappan Athuk	$1,906,713
13	Ghostfire Gaming	3​	Grim Hollow (5E setting)	Grim Hollow: The Monster Grimoire	$2,373,990*
14	Loot Tavern	3​	Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting	Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting	$1,874.061
15	Goodman Games	33​	Dungeon Crawl Classics	DCC RPG 4th Printing	$1,756,612
16	John Wick	10​	7th Sea	7th Sea: 2nd Edition	$1,640,153
17	Ulisses Spiel	15​	Fading Suns, Dark Eye	Torg Eternity	$1,621,113
18	Modiphius Entertainment	7​	Conan, Star Trek, many other licensed 2d20 games	Robert E. Howard's Conan Roleplaying Game	$1,618,550*
19	RiotMinds	13​	Trudvang	Trudvang Chronicles	$1,461,447*
20	Russ Charles	4​	Animal Adventures (5E setting)	Animal Adventures: Tales of Dungeons and Doggies	$1,413,286
21	Warchief Gaming	1​	Auroborous (5E setting)	Auroborous: Coils of the Serpent	$1,260,863
22	Connor Alexander	1​	Coyote & Crow	Coyote & Crow the Role Playing Game	$1,073,453

*converted to USD​

 

[eyeheartawk]

Sorry Mr. Wick, but the people who actually liked the new 2e rules were the real minority... Everyone else was there for the 1e pdf's and any new lore they could mine from the setting updates.

Even that was disappointing. Look at what they did to my boy Eisen. Instead of being a ruined country after a 30 years war equivalent with a cool set of armor instead of a national magic it got turned into Ravenloft with crap, usless magic. I still mourn.

Also, the 2E combat engine is the most boring thing in the world. I spend a raise, okay I do one wound. Repeat. What joyous fun!

 

[CapnZapp]

Kicktraq’s predictions are nonsense, and early in a campaign frequently predict totals 3-4 times the actual end result.

You would think they'd update their algorithm to improve accuracy.

To not assume the first or last couple of days is a good indicator of the average day, for instance.

 

[Fenris-77]

Yes, lets kvetch about 7th Sea 2E. What that has do with the OP I'm not sure. That said, I didn't buy in. I love 1E, I own a lot of stuff for it, and I haven't run it in years. I think I'm ok. As much as I LOVE most of Wick's stuff. Houses of the Blooded is bloody genius.

 

[aramis erak]

Yes, lets kvetch about 7th Sea 2E. What that has do with the OP I'm not sure. That said, I didn't buy in. I love 1E, I own a lot of stuff for it, and I haven't run it in years. I think I'm ok. As much as I LOVE most of Wick's stuff. Houses of the Blooded is bloody genius.

It was (AFAIK) John's biggest KS, and John is on the list in the OP.

Understanding why people bought it, and why they bought, is of potential use to other creators, and to those looking at the figures trying to figure out why they worked.

 

[evilhat]

May also want to look at backer counts. For example, while the Dresden Files card game is our most successful campaign by dollars, its buy-in for the core product was higher than Fate Core's or Thirsty Sword Lesbians, so that might be expected. TSL had 8152 backers, which DFCO exceeded by only a few hundred at 8616; but Fate Core over 10k backers. Dollars don't paint the whole picture, just like page count doesn't paint the whole picture of whether an RPG book is good or complete or whatever your qualitative metric of preference is.

 

[evilhat]

[duplicate]

 

[Morrus]

Keeping an eye on Free League and Richard Thomas as both of those have current Kickstarters which means the list will need updating. And Warchief's Auroboros is almost certain to join the list in a couple of weeks (or days....)!

 

[Morrus]

May also want to look at backer counts. For example, while the Dresden Files card game is our most successful campaign by dollars, its buy-in for the core product was higher than Fate Core's or Thirsty Sword Lesbians, so that might be expected. TSL had 8152 backers, which DFCO exceeded by only a few hundred at 8616; but Fate Core over 10k backers. Dollars don't paint the whole picture, just like page count doesn't paint the whole picture of whether an RPG book is good or complete or whatever your qualitative metric of preference is.

Yeah, I might do that at some point -- it takes bloody ages though! I'll need a rest before doing this again.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Yeah, I might do that at some point -- it takes bloody ages though! I'll need a rest before doing this again.

Sounds like you need some automated tools to gather all the data and dump in a conveniant file.
Of course given how f****d up some of the laws are in some places, you would risk getting labeled a hacker, and sentenced accordingly.

 

[Egg Embry]

I don't believe this has been lifted up yet, but Ghostfire Gaming has a million plus on its own. That said, they appear to be a part of Eldermancy (possibly) which is listed above.