How I Built My TTRPG “Brand” and Got Kickstarter Followers
I was recently asked, “how can I get Kickstarter followers?” The person asking had around a hundred and fifty pre-launch followers on their ttrpg Kickstarter. That’s not that bad, but they want/need a lot more.
I’m not an “expert”, but I did have about five hundred followers going into Street Wolves: Turbo Edition and I got to 695 by the time it was over. Now that might not seem like a lot, but for a tiny “one person” operation launching their first big Kickstarter, it was a lot. Indie TTRPGs are a tiny niche!
Just keep in mind while reading the following is what I’ve done isn’t the only true path to getting followers. I’ve run two successful kickstarters, so my knowledge is limited. Maybe I did a bunch of things wrong and I could have had a lot more! In the end though, I raised over 17k, which put Street Wolves into a high end for Savage Worlds third Party Kickstarters, so I think I have some good advice.
Please also note: The thing you are trying to crowdfund must be interesting and appealing to people. If you it’s not, the rest of this advice won’t work as well.
Establish a Social Media Presence
If you’re about to launch a crowdfunding campaign the most critical thing (in my opinion) is to get followers before you launch. And to get followers, it’ll be a real grind.
Having a strong social media presence was critical to my success and getting pre-launch followers. I know people hate being a shill or having to learn how to market, but that’s what you have to do unless you have a huge budget and can hire someone to do it or if you just don’t care about sales and want to make something. And if you want a succesful Kickstarter, Backerkit, or other crowdfunding endeavor, people have to discover you somehow.
I may write a post digging a bit more into developing a social media presence, but here’s some high level tips:
Get to Know People
Sorry about the stock photo, I’m trying to get this post done quickly.
My social media presense is pretty modest. I don’t have a billion followers. But I do have a great group of folks who I like interacting with and reading their posts. Who is out there that likes table top role playing games? Find them and engage in their conversations. Over time you will find folks that you’ll gel with who like games and you’ll be a part of an online community of role playing game fans.
Once you’ve built some connections with the community, those people may follow your crowdfunding. And they may also help get the word out about it. So not only will you get to know a lot of cool people, you will likely get support from a good chunk of them.
Be Real
I hate phony people. I can usually tell when someone is phony on social media. They just have a vibe about them. After a bit I can tell if someone is only making comments to gain favor or a follow back. See my lists of don’ts for this, but when you’re online be genuine when talking to others.
Support other TTRPG Creators
As you get to know folks, a lot of them will likely be creatives as well. Boost, comment and share their posts. Help creators play test if you can. Or if they are requesting advice, give some. Watch their YouTube videos or Twitch Streams. Remember, to always be real about it!
This also goes for Actual Play groups. If there’s an actual play group you like, support them! They may eventually even do an AP of your game, but if they don’t that’s cool. help promote their stuff. They’ll appreciate it.
People notice that you’re helping them and may return the favor. Just don’t expect that they will or demand that they do.
Show off What You’ve Made
As you’re making stuff, you have to show it off. A cover reveal or some art piece. Layout updates. Art work in progress. You’ll need at least some of these types of things before you launch your crowdfunding project, so you might as well show them off and build up interest in the project as you’re working on it. When you’re showing your work, share a link to the Kickstarter follow page.
Plug Yourself
There’s a type of social media post that’s just straight up plugs. It’s more like an advertisement that you’re not paying for. Here’s an example:
I try not to do too many of these things. They’re mostly occasional and during some sort of big push. You don’t want to alienate the people that follow you. Still, those that support you won’t mind seeing something like this once in awhile, especially if you’ve invested any time in being a real and supportive person who isn’t just a shill.
When it comes to plugging your crowdfunding project for followers, these posts tend to get more traction when you’re close to some sort of milestone follower goals, like 50, 100, 200, etc. They also work with iterations of funny or interesting numbers like 13, 42, 69*, 420, and so forth.
*Every iteration of 69 is nice too. 169, 269, and so on.
Get a Website
This is another topic of it’s own post. For now I’ll just say that if you can afford to make a website, do it. Having a site is a great place to direct people to find out more about your game or project and to direct people to the Kickstarter or other crowdfunder. And it’s controlled by you, not some site that will bury you in the algorithm, be shut down by corporate overlords, or be ruined by a billionaire. Your site is all yours.
Get Out There
My first con I had some Street Wolves starter books, Forever King, and lots of literature talking about the upcoming Kickstarter.
Now this is one that I didn’t do as well. I wasn’t as good about spreading the word face to face. I did one convention pre-launch as a vendor and attended a few others as a regular attendee. I feel like if I had been to more conventions and talked to more folks or even run Street Wolves at cons (I really have a fear of running games for strangers), I would have had a bigger impact on my Kickstarter follower counts.
There’s a massive amount of people that aren’t in the online spheres that I’ve talked about previously. I’m positive that getting out where those people are and having them take notice of your upcoming project is a critical piece on getting more crowdfunder followers.
Establish a Mail List
I’ve seen a lot of advice of setting up your own mailing list and how critical it is, but my results have been pretty mixed. It’s still good to have one though and I recommend getting started on it if you haven’t already.
Drive Thru and Itch Mailings
If you sell anything on Drive Thru RPG or Itch.io before your launch your crowdfunding platform, you’ll be given the ability to email your customers about the upcoming crowdfunding. Drive Thru only allows two of these emails, so I elected to do it during the launch and near the end of the campaign. If you’re hungry for followers you could do one during the pre-launch phase.
Pay For Advertising?
Another stock photo? Shame on me!
I didn’t pay for any advertising during the pre-launch phase of the Street Wolves: Turbo Edition Kickstarter. Now that I have used Facebook ads a bit more, I think I would have and likely will for my next crowdfunding project. They do get clicks and I should have drummed up at least a few follows that way. And no, I haven’t done any other paid advertising elsewhere. I’ve only ever heard of Facebook ads getting results.
Don’ts!
While you’re trying to establish your brand and building your Kickstarter/Crowdfunder followers, there’s a few things I’d recommend not doing:
Don’t Blind DM Creators and Ask Them For Favors
Sliding into DMs can be a serious breach of etiquette for some folks. And even worse is sliding in and asking them to support you in some way if you haven’t already established a relationship with them. My current policy is to not slide into DMs unexpectedly, even if I’m well meaning. It’s weird. It’s especially weird if you’re asking them to do something for you. If a creator doesn’t know you or barely knows you and you’re giving them a task like “please talk about my Kickstarter”, it’s not a great look for you and can leave a bad impression.
Try Not to be Too Negative
It’s okay and expected to be real sometimes. You get down and you feel bad and want to vent. Sometimes you might need the support if things didn’t go your way or aren’t shaping up like you planned. The problem is if you’re overwhelmingly negative people won’t respond to you or be as active and engage with you. You’ll bum other people out.
If you’re trying to establish a “brand”, it’s better to try to focus on the positive as much as you can. Or turn your set backs into challenges to overcome:
Instead of: “GameX only has 7 followers. I can’t launch next week. My life is over.”
Try: “GameX is only 3 follows away from 10! We might not be able to launch soon, but when we do it’s going to be amazing!”
Instead of: “Why haven’t any of you JERKS followed GameX on Kickstarter? WHY don’t you support me?! What’s wrong with YOU?!!”
Try: “GameX is a cult hit in the making. You really don’t want to miss out on the launch!”
You may want to have an alt account that’s not representative of your brand/game company if you would like to be more free about complaining and being negative, but remember that can be connected back to your “brand”.
Don’t Just Talk About Your Stuff
One thing that just absolutely drives me up a wall is I see creators only talking about their own stuff. And when they support other people it’s only when they’re working on something of theirs. Everything they repost or talk about is their stuff or a backdoor plug.
If you’re someone like this, genuinely support other people. Even if you find some success and become “bigger” in the indie ttrpg field. There are a lot of folks that could use the help like you did when you started. Your socials feed will actually be more interesting and look less like you’re a car dealership just trying to move your product.
Don’t Be a Jerk
Being rude to other people is not a good look for a business, unless that’s you’re whole thing. I get it that people can be super annoying. Or you may get an unfair bad review. Don’t give into the temptation to lash out at a person. Just try to be matter of fact and move on.
I used to be a huge jerk, but I’ve tempered myself in the last few years. Sometimes I still can be snotty, but honestly taking the high road is better for my mental and physical health. Also it’s also kind of fun to kill someone with kindness when they’re straight up being rude to you.
And sorry, I gotta get on a “woke” soapbox for a second as a part of the don’t be a jerk advice. I see a specific type of creators who is misogynist, anti trans, and/or the like hating on people in the ttrpg sphere. First of all, being hateful is sad and wrong and if you’re that type of person you should heal your soul. If you’re in the jerk mindset, you surround yourself with negative and hateful jerks. Why would you want that? Get out of there and expand your horizons a bit.
If you’re anti-LGBTQ+, you’re missing out on a ton of wonderful and talented people out there. Very cool folks who are fantastic humans. I’ve managed to meet and become friends with a lot of LGBTQ+ since starting Table Cat Games. They play games with me and collaborate with me on projects (and some even buy my books!). You’re really missing out on a lot of cool people if you’re hateful towards them.
Don’t Only Post Plugs on a Discord
I’m guilty of this far more than I should be, but I’d advice you to not just post your plugs in a Discord’s plugs channel and that’s it. It’s a bit annoying to only see plugs and no engagement in the overall community in other channels. If you’re dropping a plug, at least try to leave a comment elsewhere in the Discord. It shows that you’re at least interested in something other than what you’re trying to sell.
In Conclusion…
The road to getting Kickstarter and other crowdfunding followers for me was building up the Table Cat Games “brand.” It was a lot of hard work making connections and putting plugs out there. I’m just hoping what I learned can help you if you’re a ttrpg creator looking to get into the world of crowdfunding.
And thanks for checking out this article. I hope you were able to get some advice that you can use out of my ranting. I plan to have more advice and interesting posts here, so come back in the future.
And speaking of plugs, don’t forget that you can pre-order Street Wolves: Turbo Edition right here.
