# How To Promote Your RPG Kickstarter



## M.T. Black (Sep 13, 2020)

This has been extremely useful - thank you very much, Russ.


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## Zaukrie (Sep 14, 2020)

Great stuff. I've got two drafts I'm considering doing KS for, but with little following, not sure if I should, or just publish on drive thru.....


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## schneeland (Sep 14, 2020)

This is some solid advice (I don't plan to run a Kickstarter soon, but it's still an interesting read - especially the part on advertising). Thanks for taking the time to compile this!


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## Morrus (Sep 14, 2020)

Zaukrie said:


> Great stuff. I've got two drafts I'm considering doing KS for, but with little following, not sure if I should, or just publish on drive thru.....



You can do both.


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## MNblockhead (Sep 14, 2020)

Very insightful.

I'd be interested in a learning your thoughts about backer engagement after a Kickstarter is successfully funded.  I'm at the point where I (as a superbacker) generally ignore the comments as they can be as vitriolic as Twitter. Too many people get too emotionally invested over too little money and either don't understand that Kickstarter is not a pre-order service or feel exceptionally entitled to the creator's time and attention. 

That can be greatly mitigated, of course, with frequent and open communications, having a product that is mostly complete before your start, and good project-management. But there are still going to be people screaming in the comments and doxxing you if miss an estimated delivery date (e.g. "who care's about COVID's effect on supply lines, I ordered this expecting it to be a X-Mas gift! You fraud! I'm contacting [some government authority] I've contacted a lawyer" yada yada).  

Maybe I'm overly forgiving as a backer, but I've never seen it worth my time to do more than check no the progress every few months.  I'll get it when its done, whenever that is, and if it turns out to be a dud, well, I won't back that backer again, but I don't see the lost money being worth my time and emotional well being to get all worked up about it. Especially at the price points for most gaming-related Kickstarters. 

If I were to do a Kickstarter, I think I would need to partner or hire someone to deal with the backers as I would personally find it emotionally draining and time wasting.  And I'm saying that as someone who deals with lawyers all day.


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## InkwellIdeas (Sep 14, 2020)

Regarding your point of shooting for a 2:1 return on facebook ads... does that actually earn you anything?  Say you put in $500 during the campaign for FB ads, and you earn $1000 of pledges from that, after you subtract the cost of the ads, the KS fee, the CC fee and printing costs and shipping... I could easily see that eating up 70-80% of the rest...?  

We did do FB ads for our last KS, and returned something in line with your numbers: a bit more than $10 of pledges for every $6 spent. But after thinking of the costs to print & fulfill those, I'm not sure it was worthwhile.


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## MatthewJHanson (Sep 14, 2020)

I'm curious if you can say more about your perspective as a news site, and what makes you excited to feature a campaign when creators reach out to you. Do you feature most or all of the campaigns that contact you in advanced and offer previews or do you have to pick and choose?


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## dragoner (Sep 14, 2020)

Very nice! Thank you for this @Morrus


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## Dire Bare (Sep 14, 2020)

As a backer, I get annoyed when I get project updates EVERY DAY . . . or worse, MULTIPLE TIMES PER DAY.

Not sure how the rest of the Kickstarter backer universe feels about this sort of thing, but less frequent, more meaningful updates are far preferred over super-frequent, minor updates for me. YMMV.

_EDIT: Oh, and when I get the same update, not just from the current Kickstarter, but from every Kickstarter project I've backed from the publisher in the past . . . . plus the same update AGAIN from the publisher mailing list I signed up for . . . . YEESH!_

I would also be curious about publishers who can compare Backerkit to other post-Kickstarter services like GameOn and others.


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## polyhedral man (Sep 14, 2020)

Thank you for sharing all this valuable advice.


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## Ulfgeir (Sep 14, 2020)

Nice article. Thank you.

You also need to find a good balance in the updates. Sure you want to update often when the project is live, to show off new things that has happened. But as Dire Bare said, too much can also be a problem. Make sure the updates are meaningful, and related to the project.

The flipside, is  of course when the project has funded and you are in the sometimes very long delivery-phase, then it is absolutely vital that you do updates, and or answer questions in the comments field, to show that things are happening behind the scenes. Especially, if there are delays. I have found that on those projects I have backed, that when the creator is transparent with what happens, and if there are delays, why they happen, and gives an estimate of the new expected delivery-time then people will be much more forgiving. Wait too long, then people are going to want their money back..  Have backed a couple of such projects. Worst offender is one I backed in 2013, expected delivery was august 2014, and they have no yet delivered, and the creator hasn't even logged in to kickstarter for over a year.


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## Morrus (Sep 14, 2020)

Dire Bare said:


> I would also be curious about publishers who can compare Backerkit to other post-Kickstarter services like GameOn and others.



Do you mean GameOnTabletop? It's a fundraising platform like Kickstarter, but it has better tools including inbuilt post-campaign tools. At the moment, Kickstarter has the traffic, though, which is why I'm still choosing Kickstarter.


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## DarthPanic (Sep 14, 2020)

thank you so much for this insight and advice!


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## Morrus (Sep 14, 2020)

MatthewJHanson said:


> I'm curious if you can say more about your perspective as a news site, and what makes you excited to feature a campaign when creators reach out to you. Do you feature most or all of the campaigns that contact you in advanced and offer previews or do you have to pick and choose?



Egg covers all of them in his weekly Kickstarter roundup column.

For me personally, if I highlight one separately in its own news post, it's because the project grabbed me in some way, or the creator gave me something interesting to write or share either than me just copy/pasting blurb off their Kickstarter page.


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## pogre (Sep 14, 2020)

I know it is not practical for every product and every company, but I love how fast your KS turnaround is. I am to the point I will not pledge unless it is a (1) very well known company (Dwarven Forge, Reaper, etc.) or (2) they can show me the product is pretty much ready to go out the door. It is a shame, but I'm done waiting for two years for a game.


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## Nylanfs (Sep 14, 2020)

This article makes me miss Steve Russell.


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## Dire Bare (Sep 14, 2020)

Morrus said:


> Do you mean GameOnTabletop? It's a fundraising platform like Kickstarter, but it has better tools including inbuilt post-campaign tools. At the moment, Kickstarter has the traffic, though, which is why I'm still choosing Kickstarter.



Yes, that's what I was thinking. GameOn Tabletop is an alternate to Kickstarter, not to Backerkit.

Still, overall, curious how GameOn, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and other crowdfunding sites compare. And then how Backerkit and other post-crowdfunding sites compare. All the compare!


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## Morrus (Sep 14, 2020)

Dire Bare said:


> Yes, that's what I was thinking. GameOn Tabletop is an alternate to Kickstarter, not to Backerkit.
> 
> Still, overall, curious how GameOn, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and other crowdfunding sites compare.




Most have better tools than Kickstarter; none of them have the traffic that Kickstarter has. Right now, for me, KS is still the only game in town. But I'd love GameOnTabletop to gain ground!


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## Eyes of Nine (Sep 14, 2020)

I have been invited a few times to "beta" versions of Kickstarters to provide feedback on the KS. Things as mundane as typos to things as major as "are these pledge levels priced right?".

I wonder if you have used that and if you have any further advice on previewing a campaign to a trusted circle? It feels like a good idea to me, especially when I see campaigns with typos, and bad pledge levels.


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## Morrus (Sep 14, 2020)

Eyes of Nine said:


> I have been invited a few times to "beta" versions of Kickstarters to provide feedback on the KS. Things as mundane as typos to things as major as "are these pledge levels priced right?".
> 
> I wonder if you have used that and if you have any further advice on previewing a campaign to a trusted circle? It feels like a good idea to me, especially when I see campaigns with typos, and bad pledge levels.



Yeah I do it every time. It’s good for catching typos and stuff. Not for the bigger scale stuff; I know by then what I’m selling and how it’s priced.


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## shawnellsworth (Sep 14, 2020)

Awesome article.
In my experience, the final predictions that are shown on Kicktraq, etc start to get pretty reliable towards the last third of the campaign.


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## shawnellsworth (Sep 14, 2020)

I ran a successful KS and then I ran an Indiegogo post-campaign. It was like a ghost town. I'm not sure if anyone else had had success with a post Kickstarter campaign on Indiegogo, but I'll be skipping that platform for my next KS.


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## gweinel (Sep 14, 2020)

Great article for all of us who plan to crowdfund our projects!


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## Eyes of Nine (Sep 14, 2020)

shawnellsworth said:


> I ran a successful KS and then I ran an Indiegogo post-campaign. It was like a ghost town. I'm not sure if anyone else had had success with a post Kickstarter campaign on Indiegogo, but I'll be skipping that platform for my next KS.



Well, most folks on IGG are also on KS. But I'm not sure if it goes the other way. What if you ran an IGG, and then ran a KS? I wonder if the outcome would be the same or different?


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## LightStriker (Sep 15, 2020)

I'm doing my best with all your advice! Hope it helps  Thanks for sharing!









						Light Strikers
					

A multi-platform, scifi & high fantasy TRPG campaign setting & system inspired by comics, anime, and retro cartoons.




					www.kickstarter.com


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## philreed (Sep 15, 2020)

This has been my first time working with BackerKit and I can safely say that they've been a positive for the campaign. After deciding to work with BackerKit this time around, I completely overhauled my project to make it primarily PDF and print codes rather than printing/shipping the new book on my own. If I had stuck to "I'll print and mail these books!" then BackerKit would have ended up costing me more than it generated in support.

I'll know a lot more once the campaign comes to a close. At the moment, I would use BackerKit again in the right situation.


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## philreed (Sep 15, 2020)

MNblockhead said:


> If I were to do a Kickstarter, I think I would need to partner or hire someone to deal with the backers as I would personally find it emotionally draining and time wasting.  And I'm saying that as someone who deals with lawyers all day.




This is a lot of the reason why I personally prefer shorter campaigns. Not so much that the backers are challenging to deal with -- I've been mostly very lucky and have had positive, friendly supporters -- but because of the mental drain on managing the campaign. Running a Kickstarter project sucks some mental energy and running one for too long becomes far, far more stressful.

In my opinion, shorter projects are the way to go.


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## MNblockhead (Sep 18, 2020)

Dire Bare said:


> As a backer, I get annoyed when I get project updates EVERY DAY . . . or worse, MULTIPLE TIMES PER DAY.
> 
> Not sure how the rest of the Kickstarter backer universe feels about this sort of thing, but less frequent, more meaningful updates are far preferred over super-frequent, minor updates for me. YMMV.
> 
> ...




Unfortunately, it seems there are a number of people who expect a higher level of engagement and they tend to be louder than the more laid-back backers. I get it, part of the fun of backing a kickstarter project is getting a look at the creative and manufacturing processes and interacting with the creators. But some backers feel entitled to an unreasonable amount of the creators' time and attention.


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## Dire Bare (Sep 18, 2020)

MNblockhead said:


> Unfortunately, it seems there are a number of people who expect a higher level of engagement and they tend to be louder than the more laid-back backers. I get it, part of the fun of backing a kickstarter project is getting a look at the creative and manufacturing processes and interacting with the creators. But some backers feel entitled to an unreasonable amount of the creators' time and attention.



But . . . multiple updates per day? On the regular? Drives me nuts!

I'm sure there are folks who don't mind, and folks who actually like super-frequent updates like that . . . . but balance must be found . . .


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## Morrus (Sep 18, 2020)

Dire Bare said:


> But . . . multiple updates per day? On the regular? Drives me nuts!



This happens to you frequently? I gotta say, I've never had that happen to me!


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## Dire Bare (Sep 18, 2020)

Morrus said:


> This happens to you frequently? I gotta say, I've never had that happen to me!



Enough that it's become a pet peeve of mine, yes!

I don't think Kickstarter is set up for this, but . . . it would be nice if, as a backer, I could choose to "opt out" of all but critical updates.


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## Morrus (Sep 18, 2020)

Dire Bare said:


> Enough that it's become a pet peeve of mine, yes!
> 
> I don't think Kickstarter is set up for this, but . . . it would be nice if, as a backer, I could choose to "opt out" of all but critical updates.



How would Kickstarter know which updates are critical?


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## Dire Bare (Sep 18, 2020)

Morrus said:


> How would Kickstarter know which updates are critical?



Dude, you seem to be upset with me for some reason.

In the post you quote, I clearly state that I didn't think Kickstarter is set up for that sort of thing.

But it's not a hard concept to imagine. How would Kickstarter (or any crowdfunding platform) know which updates were critical? They could not, of course. But if their software allowed companies to tag their updates as critical, why then, it would suddenly become easy to filter.

So, Kobold Press launches a new Kickstarter, and when you back the project, you select a checkbox for "critical updates only". Each time KP posts an update, they tag it as "critical" or "not-critical" . . . . folks who love the barrage of updates get them all, cranky curmudgeons like me only get the important ones.

Like I said, I doubt it's set up that way currently . . . but it would be nice.


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## Morrus (Sep 18, 2020)

Dire Bare said:


> Dude, you seem to be upset with me for some reason.



Yikes! No! OK, I'll drop it. Sorry.


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## Dire Bare (Sep 19, 2020)

Morrus said:


> Yikes! No! OK, I'll drop it. Sorry.



No, it's fine . . . I'm probably over-sensitive right now. I'm a school teacher dealing with covid-denying community members, and it's got me all ratcheted up.


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## Jd Smith1 (Sep 19, 2020)

I wish more people would read this article. I'm following two KS projects at the moment (didn't buy in, thankfully); one is two years past their promise date, and two months since there was a update that had any meaningful info. The other is three months late, and the last update was a month ago, indicating a imminent release.


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## Plane Sailing (Sep 19, 2020)

Solid article - some things I recognise from my previous Kickstarters and some new stuff that I’ll bear in mind for my next one!

To date I haven’t tried Backerkit because my games are smaller fry - getting up to 200 backers or so typically. 

A question about your After Effects ad - was the ‘page flip’ effect one of the prebuilt things you could use? Did it depend upon having the PDF already laid out etc, or some other mechanism to prepare the pages?

Cheers


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## Morrus (Sep 19, 2020)

Plane Sailing said:


> A question about your After Effects ad - was the ‘page flip’ effect one of the prebuilt things you could use? Did it depend upon having the PDF already laid out etc, or some other mechanism to prepare the pages?




Yep, prebuilt. I had screenshots of the fully laid out pages as jpegs though.


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## MNblockhead (Sep 20, 2020)

Dire Bare said:


> So, Kobold Press launches a new Kickstarter, and when you back the project, you select a checkbox for "critical updates only". Each time KP posts an update, they tag it as "critical" or "not-critical" . . . . folks who love the barrage of updates get them all, cranky curmudgeons like me only get the important ones.




This would be nice. Personally, I would only like updates when the campaign closes, when my card is charged, when I need to do something in Backerkit (or other fulfillment services used), when something is available for download, and when something is delivered.


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## Dire Bare (Sep 20, 2020)

MNblockhead said:


> This would be nice. Personally, I would only like updates when the campaign closes, when my card is charged, when I need to do something in Backerkit (or other fulfillment services used), when something is available for download, and when something is delivered.



We are kindred souls!


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## Goliath Coins (Sep 20, 2020)

This was the best and most up to date info on the current state of promoting your Kickstarter.  Great job and thank you!  One question - you said poor results on Twitter, but have you heard anything about Reddit?  The DnD groups are huge on Reddit but I hardly see any ads.


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## Morrus (Sep 20, 2020)

JM Ward said:


> This was the best and most up to date info on the current state of promoting your Kickstarter.  Great job and thank you!  One question - you said poor results on Twitter, but have you heard anything about Reddit?  The DnD groups are huge on Reddit but I hardly see any ads.



I wasn’t aware that Reddit sold ads. If they do, I’ve never tried it.


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## Ulfgeir (Sep 20, 2020)

Morrus said:


> I wasn’t aware that Reddit sold ads. If they do, I’ve never tried it.




Wel, ads do show up  on reddit, but not as frequent as other places.


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## LegendaryGames (Jan 6, 2021)

In addition to the specific things to do in promoting a Kickstarter, I've been following Morrus' model of short, focused "Quickstarters" and after some prep and moving some things around schedule-wise, we've just launched one as well (link for anyone who wants to check it out).

I think sometimes we out-think ourselves in terms of the scope and scale of what is or should be a Kickstarter project, like it needs to have a certain magnitude to be worthy of crowdfunding. There's _some _truth to that, and especially so if you're dropping big money into advertising. That said, I think Morrus' success with this method has shown that there's also room for smaller and more focused projects that can be quickly set up and quickly fulfilled, allowing you to move on to the next thing. The idea of "Kickstarter fatigue" might have more to do with the often long, drawn-out ramp-up and prolonged fulfillment cycle where people are waiting for months (or sometimes years) to get a project done.

I'll be interested to see how a Quickstarter plays out for an independent company like Legendary Games vs. ENWorld Publishing that has a visibility boost due to its connection with the boards and site here. So far (less than an hour in), the early returns are certainly promising, but it is providing me with food for thought in how we structure and sequence future crowdfunding projects and which projects that we might have done another way we might do as a Quickstarter instead. 

Thanks to Russ for leading the way and we'll see how it goes! Imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery!


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## philreed (Jan 6, 2021)

Having just finished a 24-hour campaign, I can say that shorter projects can work well. I will definitely do that again.


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## LegendaryGames (Jan 6, 2021)

philreed said:


> Having just finished a 24-hour campaign, I can say that shorter projects can work well. I will definitely do that again.



Wow, 24 hours, how did that go? I didn't know you could do them that short, though I never saw a lower limit. I guess I just kind of assumed. 

Another point in favor of the idea that a *KICKSTARTER!!!* doesn't have to be this giant all-caps month-plus mega-grind to be a useful sales and marketing tool.


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## philreed (Jan 6, 2021)

LegendaryGames said:


> Wow, 24 hours, how did that go? I didn't know you could do them that short, though I never saw a lower limit. I guess I just kind of assumed.
> 
> Another point in favor of the idea that a *KICKSTARTER!!!* doesn't have to be this giant all-caps month-plus mega-grind to be a useful sales and marketing tool.



Went better than I expected. I will run another 24-hour campaign.









						A Trio of Twisted Decks, a Third-Party Mörk Borg Campaign
					

Created under the third-party license for the Mörk Borg roleplaying game, these three decks expand your game in new ways.




					www.kickstarter.com


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## Morrus (Jan 6, 2021)

philreed said:


> Went better than I expected. I will run another 24-hour campaign.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Wow! $8K in 24 hours! Man, you're still killing it. 

I'm considering dropping my next mini-quickstarter to one week and see how that goes.


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## philreed (Jan 6, 2021)

Morrus said:


> Wow! $8K in 24 hours! Man, you're still killing it.
> 
> I'm considering dropping my next mini-quickstarter to one week and see how that goes.



Thanks! And yeah, totally try a shorter campaign. I suspect you'll be happy with the results.


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## amethal (Jan 6, 2021)

Jd Smith1 said:


> I wish more people would read this article. I'm following two KS projects at the moment (didn't buy in, thankfully); one is two years past their promise date, and two months since there was a update that had any meaningful info. The other is three months late, and the last update was a month ago, indicating a imminent release.



Last November was the 10th anniversary of the due date of the second Kickstarter I ever backed. The last update was in 2014. I'm starting to lose faith in the project 

Having said that, the last item I was waiting for from the Kaiden kickstarter (due date October 2013) did finally arrive in 2019, so you never know!


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## dragoner (Jan 6, 2021)

It's funny to mention 2013, because that's the year of my business degree, and one of my final projects was a power point on creative financing using kickstarter as an example.


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## LegendaryGames (Jan 6, 2021)

philreed said:


> Thanks! And yeah, totally try a shorter campaign. I suspect you'll be happy with the results.



We're currently at 22 hours after launch and over $6,000. I'd have been content if this particular project had reached that number at the end of the campaign, so to get there in less than a day I'm excited. We'll see what the growth pattern is for the remainder of the campaign. 

Morrus, I'll be interested to see how a one-week Quickstarter goes for you. 









						Mythos Monsters: 40+ Lovecraftian horrors for DnD 5E
					

Add a touch of horror to your DnD 5E game with this beautiful bestiary of over 40 eldritch beasts, mythos minions, and Great Old Ones!




					www.kickstarter.com


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## LegendaryGames (Jan 21, 2021)

Final tally on the Quickstarter was a rousing success - over 1200 backers and $31K in 15 days. PDFs sent out within seconds of ending the campaign. The response was strong enough on the print side that we'll be doing a full print run rather than POD. Thanks for the inspiration; we'll definitely be planning more Quickstarters. 









						Mythos Monsters: 40+ Lovecraftian horrors for DnD 5E
					

Add a touch of horror to your DnD 5E game with this beautiful bestiary of over 40 eldritch beasts, mythos minions, and Great Old Ones!




					www.kickstarter.com


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## Morgan Caraway (Feb 16, 2021)

Thanks for all of the excellent info!


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## Dungeonosophy (Jun 17, 2021)

Hi, what's the URLs for the "Bamf" and "Plot Points" resources which Morris features in the OP? I haven't been able to pinpoint them through a web search.

Great info!


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## thirdkingdom (Jun 20, 2021)

Does anyone have any advice for marketing your product _after_ the Kickstarter? I came across a thread asking just that on another board, and realized I don't have a good answer for it.


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## Sprattoo (Aug 17, 2021)

Yeah, I'm bookmarking this and going over it a few times. Thanks for this, it's been a struggle for me. I've done over 20 KS projects and this is very helpful. Hoping to get some better traction.


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