We All Won – The OGL Three Years Later

[mamba]

For the 5e clones, the only one I followed was Kobold Press's ToV, and it seems to me that its success lived and died with the OGL fiasco. I mean full disclosure, I have zero insight into the inner workings of Kobold Press, so I do recognize I could be way off base. It just seems to me that Kobold Press's crowd funding campaigns suggest after the initial surge, they've dwindled down to about even to under what their pre-OGL campaigns were pulling. With costs going up, externally and I'm sure internally with producing two versions of each release. The versions are very similar but it's still additional work.

I am not sure how you arrived at that, to me they look pretty constant, which actually is not that bad given that the overall TTRPG crowdfunding market is shrinking from my understanding. Here are their latest KS

Night Hunters, 01/2026, 220k, ToV
Northlands, 09/2025, 240k, D&D and ToV
ToV PHB2, 05/2025, 250k, ToV
ToV MM2, 01/2025, 265k, ToV
Labyrinth, 09/2024, 355k, ToV
CB Dungeons & Ruins, 04/2024, 285k
ToV DMG, 01/2024, 460k, ToV
CB Castles & Crowns, 09/2023, 260k
ToV PHB and MM, 05/2023, 1150k, ToV
Wastes of Chaos, 09/2022, 210k, D&D
CB Cities & Towns, 05/2022, 235k
Tome of Beasts 3, 01/2022, 765k, D&D
Book of Ebon Tides, 10/2021, 180k, D&D
Tome of Heroes, 09/2021, 375k, D&D
Vault of Magic, 02/2021, 475k, D&D
Southlands, 11/2020, 265k, D&D

Northlands and Southlands are not that far apart, and Southlands had two and a half books to Northlands 2 books
Night Hunters and Ebon Tides are thematically similar and are both two books, with the newer Night Hunters making more money
The Campaign Builders (CB) books are growing slightly over time

As you can see they also do not release a D&D and ToV version of everything, in fact they did that only once.

So all in all I consider this pretty constant, certainly no pre/post OGL trend, maybe some post Covid bubble adjustments

Just from my perspective, it seems like the additional support gained from the hype of a new system and the backlash against Wizards has fully dwindled.

things have certainly normalized, WotC lost goodwill and has not fully regained it, and they have lost some customers but not so many that it hurt them much - of course that amount is large enough to making a living off if you are any other TTRPG publisher

 

[saviirkad]

I am not sure how you arrived at that, to me they look pretty constant, which actually is not that bad given that the overall TTRPG crowdfunding market is shrinking from my understanding. Here are their latest KS

I don't have any insight beyond those KS numbers and no expertise in interpreting it beyond basic comparisons, so I definitely don't want to present this as anything more than my own probably flawed perception. It's just that those funding totals coupled with dipping backer count makes it seem to me like I'm looking at rising costs but fading customer base.

Like you mention Ebon Tides is comparable to Night Hunters but did less numbers, but it had about half again as many backers.

As for releasing both 5e and ToV, I did think Night Hunters was doing that too. Not sure now if that was an assumption or a forgotten mention of them doing that.

But pointing out that the overall crowd funding scene is shrinking is fair, I haven't been as involved in them myself so hadn't noticed.

 

[mamba]

I don't have any insight beyond those KS numbers and no expertise in interpreting it beyond basic comparisons, so I definitely don't want to present this as anything more than my own probably flawed perception. It's just that those funding totals coupled with dipping backer count makes it seem to me like I'm looking at rising costs but fading customer base.

ah, yes, the backer numbers are trending down somewhat even if the $ aren't

The Campaign Builder books went from 4150 to 3743 and then 3674 backers, so there is some shrinkage there

Like you mention Ebon Tides is comparable to Night Hunters but did less numbers, but it had about half again as many backers.

1939 vs 2708, you are rounding pretty generously

As for releasing both 5e and ToV, I did think Night Hunters was doing that too. Not sure now if that was an assumption or a forgotten mention of them doing that.

It says 'Gothic Horror for TOV and 5E D&D' in the title, but there are no separate books for 5e and ToV, only Northlands had one book in either ToV or 5e flavor (the other was a shared book).

ToV and 5e are similar enough that Kobold Press is using the same book for both, so your 'the cost of creating two versions' does not apply in that case. I am sure there is some cost involved in creating two versions and in part that probably is why they only did this once so far. For that KS, the 5e 2024 vs ToV backers were about evenly split with 2/3s of the printed books going to ToV while 5e won on the digital side by having a D&D Beyond offering. To me that is a pretty good result for ToV.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

ah, yes, the backer numbers are trending down somewhat even if the $ aren't

The Campaign Builder books went from 4150 to 3743 and then 3674 backers, so there is some shrinkage there

The Campaign Builder books are pretty intense. I got the cities and towns one and parts of it felt like a college textbook. It's much more of a hardcore workbook than, say, WotC's 3E setting book equivalents were, which were much more about plugging premade content into your game.

I didn't back the later books, so it's entirely possible that series' drop-off is just people deciding the direction isn't quite what they wanted (although most people did stick around).

 

[saviirkad]

1939 vs 2708, you are rounding pretty generously

Perhaps, was really just eyeballing one as roughly 150% of the other.