Two $1M+ Tabletop RPG Kickstarters At The Same Time!

Up until now, there have been three tabletop roleplaying Kickstarters which have broken the $1M barrier. Now there are TWO about to do so at the same time! The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns has 7 days to go and is at about $1.1M at the time of writing. The One Ring 2nd Edition has 5 days to go and is at about $1.4M at the time of writing. So who are the three previous $1M+...

Up until now, there have been three tabletop roleplaying Kickstarters which have broken the $1M barrier. Now there are TWO about to do so at the same time!

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The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns has 7 days to go and is at about $1.1M at the time of writing.

The One Ring 2nd Edition has 5 days to go and is at about $1.4M at the time of writing.


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So who are the three previous $1M+ Kickstarters? Counting only tabletop RPG Kickstarters (so not video games, or Critical Role's $10M+ for its animated show) the leading contenders were Matt Colville (twice one with $2.1M and one with $1.4M!) and John Wick's 7th Sea (with $1.3M).

The One Ring is currently now in 2nd place. The question is whether Twisted Taverns can pull into 3rd place?
 

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Dire Bare

Legend
And they say there's no money to be made in RPGs!
Well, it's not just over a million in profit . . . a lot of that million will get eaten by paying the team a fair wage, by paying for the production of the books . . .

But yeah, it's nice to see some successful RPG crowdfunding campaigns! I'm sure the publishers behind both projects are very happy right now!
 



Jaeger

That someone better
A Kickstarter called: The Seeker's Guide to Twisted Taverns

Is basically doing just as well as a long time and revered RPG IP: The One Ring RPG based on Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Could this be a signal about the current preferences of the RPG hobby at large?

Reasons? I will throw these pieces of spaghetti at the wall:

1: In spite of a longstanding love for the IP - Actually Roleplaying in Tolkien's Middle Earth has just not been that popular among the general RPG hobby. (Especially now if it is not 5e based...)

2: 5e is just that big now.

I vote for a combination of both.

Or maybe it's just the facebook ads...
 

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
Facebook ads. It looks impressive, but the margins are slim. You spend a lot of that money on the ads. Also they have a big online following already.
It is impressive though. Even if it just breaks even, as long as it's a decent product people are happy enough with, their next project can use the database of contacts from the first one and the reputation built from that venture, without as much advertising expense, to make the second one very profitable. It's a good strategy, if you can afford the up-front cost of that advertising. Which is a big if.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
It is impressive though. Even if it just breaks even, as long as it's a decent product people are happy enough with, their next project can use the database of contacts from the first one and the reputation built from that venture, without as much advertising expense, to make the second one very profitable.
Absolutely. Building backers is the important strategy. That’s what’s behind my (now 8) mini-quickstarter strategy, stolen blatantly from Phil Reed, who is the absolute master of this technique and killing it on Kickstarter now (and was killing it back when he was selling $1 PDFs every day on RPGNow in the early 2000s).

if you can afford the up-front cost of that advertising. Which is a big if.

They‘re using Backerkit, which fronts the Facebook ad costs in advance and takes them - plus a 15% commission on the KS pledges - out of the final earnings.

I wrote an article about it last year:

 



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