Running a TTRPG Kickstarter

So after finishing my first successful ttrpg Kickstarter for The Wicked Forever King Hungers, I thought I’d share a few thoughts about it for those who want to know more or or are thinking about doing their own.

First, some background: I had the idea for Wicked King, and I was going to do it as a game, but the idea to bring it to Kickstarter was out of a desire to simply get Kickstarter experience. I wanted something very small to just get used to how it all worked, before I went big.

I feel like this was a critical for the way I learn things. I’ll be far less anxious running a bigger crowdfunding campaign. Plus, I can show people that I have had a least one under my belt.

Getting Pre-Launch Sign Ups is Critical

All the advice I saw prior to doing the Kickstarter was to get the pre-launch page up and start getting people to sign up to be notified. And it’s all true! The standard assumption is that 20 to 30% of those that sign up are going to actually contribute to the campaign. And in my case, this held true. 30% of those that signed up to be notified for Forever King contributed.

This then helps gauge how many pre-launch sign ups you should get before you launch your Kickstarter. I’d much rather have a statistical average number of backers in my pocket that will get my to my initial goal than rolling the dice and just hoping people discover my project.

Kickstarter’s Internal Traffic Is Great

I had backers show up based on Kickstarter’s recommendations on the site. That’s awesome. It makes me feel like I have at least one more avenue for finding people who are interested in my stuff after feeling like I’ve tapped out on social media.

Updates and Ad Sharing

If you’ve been in the table top role playing creation community at all, you likely know some other creators. One thing that I got into was ad sharing. During the course of my campaign, a fellow creator would drop in a message about my campaign in their update. Later, I would do the same for them.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a solid numbers of how much this actually helped, but I any extra promotion is good.

But basically, get to know other creators. And work together to raise each other up.

Dropped Backers

You have to figure some folks will get lost along the way. Their payment simply doesn’t go through and they don’t fix it in time. You just have to figure it will happen.

The Last 48

The final 48 of a Kickstarter are pretty nuts. Everyone gets FOMO. And Kickstarter sends out an update to everyone watching. This is another reason why to get people signing up to that pre-launch page, they’ll get notices when it launches and when it’s closing. A bunch will jump off the fence in the final hours.