Kickstarter What if Kickstarter were used to start the ultimate fan campaign setting?

[dm4hire]

I’ve been thinking over all the Kickstarter projects that have been going on lately and realized, that while some have been creative with their packages and stretch goals, I think there is a lot more that could be done with it. Why not use Kickstarter to create and fund a completely fan driven campaign. Here are some ideas on how it could work.

Pledges: Every pledge gets to contribute to the design. I would have each level have a different aspect assigned to it such as:
Pledge $1 or more and you get to name a town or village.
Pledge $5 or more and you get to name a city or river.
Pledge $50 or more and you get to name a NPC.
Pledge $100 or more and you get to name one of the gods.

You could have special pledge area such as:
Pledge $50 or more (Limit 100) Same as regular $50 but you sponsor guest writer “insert big name” who will write the section on NPCs using all the names submitted from both levels.

Stretch goals could be done for even more content or publishing or to offer really amazing deals.
Unlocked at $10,000 – Full color map designed by (insert big name map designer).
Unlocked at $100,000 – Not only will publisher X print the book, but publisher Z will create a copy for game B.
Unlocked at $200,000 – Another publisher will jump in and do the same as goal $100,000.
Unlocked at $1,000,000 – Everyone who contributes, no matter what level you contributed, gets a free copy of the book for your desired game system from those listed above, assuming people contribute more than a $1.

Add-ons could be used for even more stuff or more specific stuff.

As you can see there is some great potential to what Kickstarter could be used to do to create the ultimate fan created campaign setting. It is a bit out there, but it would be interesting to see if it could be done. So any thoughts or suggestions on what could be done?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I am not convinced that the product would be something that fans would want to pay money to produce/participate in.

How much enthusiasm is there in the open source settings created at ENWorld and RPG.net (and presumably other sites) other than among the core group of participants?

Now, if you wanted to do a Kickstarter for a setting created by a big name creator (with old school creators probably the most in-demand that way), reminiscent of what made them famous, I could see that being extremely successful. But that's not at all what you're asking about.

 

[Dice4Hire]

The big question in my mind is; Who is the genius who would take all this ragtag input and put it together into something usable and worthy of being used?

I've seen a lot of pwople try fan-made worlds, and while hte basics get done, mostly it is not much more, Why would this be different.

Now if it were like some of Wolfgang Bauer's projects, that would be more doable, and more like a traditional kickstarter with different levels of awards.

You have a strong base, and people pledge and add frills to it.

But having the kickstarter being the base does not fill me with confidence.

 

[Morrus]

Well, the limited "pledge and name something" thing is very common already. That's not exactly communal worldbuilding, though. It sounds like you're describing a fairly traditional campaign setting Kickstarter - the rewards and stretch goals are all fairly typical of that type of thing.

 

[dm4hire]

True, I guess I was trying to expand upon the common uses a little more and show how more creative the project backing could be. Thinking more on it, I would have to agree it would be more suited for "big name writer has a project let's expand upon it" campaign design with more input from fans than normal.