No-Nonsense Crowdfunding.
Cutting through the nonsense.
Crowdfunding can be an extremely useful tool. It not only can fund your indie TTRPG project, but also generate sustainable marketing buzz while uniting your community. I’ve built four (quite successful) Perils & Princesses campaigns in as many years, and they’ve made it possible for me to create the kind of games I love and make illustration and TTRPG creation my livelihood.
Unfortunately, crowdfunding can be an opaque, complicated process, with plenty of potential pitfalls and confusing advice. There are also major differences in how a million-dollar, 5e compatible project will operate, compared to a small creator with a limited following making their first book.
In February 2026, I made a post on bluesky offering one no-nonsense crowdfunding take for every like I got (cheap tactic—I’m sorry). The post blew up and I ended up offering forty different nuggets of advice. Here, I’ve taken those disparate thoughts and re-organized them for easy reference.
Disclaimer: This is how I personally operate my crowdfunding campaigns. There are certainly other ways to be successful. Your mileage will vary.
Before you even think about funding.
1: Marketing is so much bigger than just posting. The most important thing is to put in the work on branding up front. That means knowing the what main cool thing is about your game, and figuring out how to quickly talk about how it FEELS to play your game.
2: Feelings and vibes will sell games in the short term, while mechanics sell games in the long term. Crowdfunding is short term.
3: Know WHO your game is for. Be able to describe everything about your one ideal fan and target your marketing to that singular persona. Media touch points can help (e.g. ”for fans of…”).
4: You need a TITLE and COVER ART that completely sell the game on their own. Two options: Your cover/title are so evocative that I know exactly what this game feels like to play (Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Pirate Borg) or are so cool and mysterious I absolutely NEED to know what this game is (His Majesty the Worm, Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast).
The long lead-up.
5: The bulk of your marketing should happen BEFORE the crowdfund launch. Network in person and online to find like-minded podcasters, actual players, writers, fellow designers, content creators, and hell, just new friends that will help champion your stuff in tangible and intangible ways.
6: Your core fans and community are how you get a good day one which sets up your whole campaign. You need at least a month or more of gathering folks who will hit that "Notify Me On Launch" button. I use my itch.io mailing list, Backerkit launch, my discord server and my personal email list.
7: Playtesting is important. But your pre-launch testing will pale in comparison to the scale of feedback you get once it's published. At a certain point, you just have to call the thing finished and launch it into the world and see how it goes. This takes courage, but is worth it.
8: If you don’t have an established community or social followers, you may be better-off doing a small digital-only crowdfund as your first. Then, use that to build on, rather than make one that doesn’t fund.
9: The lifecycle of your marketing campaign isn’t a daily push while the campaign is live. Think of it as building hype for two big events. Before the launch you are building buzz for launch day. Once the campaign is live, you’re building buzz for the final 48 hours of the campaign. Most of your funding will come from those two days.
Setting up your campaign.
10: I set my funding goal as low as I can while assuring that I can pay my contributors, and fulfill all the rewards to the backers. My goal is to hit that mark on day one. After that, the rest of the campaign is about funding a larger print run and paying myself for the 100s of hours of work.
11: To make campaign projections, I assume 25% of my prelaunch followers will give a median pledge amount on day one. If this is bigger than my funding goal, I know I’m ready to launch. From there, I make an estimate that with proper marketing efforts, an additional 50% of my day one number will happen over the course of the campaign plus another 50% during the last 48 hours. These are super conservative benchmarks to set a baseline. Hopefully you beat these!
12: I once saw a panel where big creators talked about how their 20k goal was just for show and they knew they needed way more to actually fund. That kind of stuff has eroded trust in crowdfunding and is really upsetting since it’s such a boon for small creators. Don’t do that shit.
13: Just because you can write a game, doesn't mean you know how to write about it and that's ok. Hire a freelance copywriter to help craft your kickstarter story and the different language you use to talk about it. It'll keep you focused and improve how your stuff is received.
14: The main purpose of a campaign video is to give users a little taste of what’s going on, and entice them to click through when they hover over your thumbnail. Thirty seconds of different images of your game with some stock music and a little voiceover will do the trick!
15: When designing the layout of your page, don't put every single bit of text in an image. I know you want it to look cool and professional, but it's less accessible, harder to read on different devices, and helps you be findable online.
16: Charge shipping later. And charge enough for postage, postage materials, and the time it takes to pack orders. People will complain about the cost of it. Let them. Cutting into your funds to cover a lack of shipping budget is disastrous.
17: Stretch goals are a trap. You're either killing your margins once you're successful, or you're straight-up lying to your backers about your real plans. You're also really likely to overextend yourself. Keep it simple.
18: More stretch goal hate: I pay my contributors their full rate and then, in addition, add a one-time revenue share based on a percentage of the crowdfunding gross. This seems way more fair and sensible than using "Our artists get more money" as a stretch goal that might not get met.
19: Even if it’s not 100% done, get physical samples with placeholder art as soon as you can. It’s great to share a physical thing on social or your story page. It’s also easier to catch alignment and other errors in print.
20: Once you get a physical sample, it’s not hard to get good photos. Turn off every light in your house and set up close to your biggest brightest window. Use a big white thing as a bounce to fill in shadows. Find some cool props, set your phone to highest quality and have fun.
21: Keep it simple, keep it simple, keep it simple. Having too many variant editions, alt covers, deluxe editions, box sets and that kind of thing messes up fulfillment even at bigger levels. If you’re just a guy, be really careful with that stuff.
22: A few thoughtful extras can go a long way to increasing your average pledge amount. Think about stuff that is visually appealing, but also helps with the play experience. I'm always shocked at how many backers opt for the extras beyond the core book. But DON'T OVERDO IT.
23: Packaging, shipping materials and production should be major concerns when it comes to extras. I keep it simple by only doing printed matter like cards, prints, maps, stickers. They're flat, manufactured domestically, have great margins, and don't break in the mail like minis and toys.
24: Set your fulfillment timeline WAYYYY longer than you think. Underpromising and overdelivering is critical to keep your crowdfunding reputation. You NEED repeat backers if you want to do this more than once. Their trust in you is paramount.
During the campaign.
25: I will not launch a campaign unless I'm 100% confident it will fund in 24 hours. I estimate an average pledge and figure about 25-30% of the campaign followers will back day 1. This encourages the KS algorithm to recommend your project and helps your mental health big time.
26: Don’t plan to get anything done on launch day. You’ll be pushing out all your announcements, fielding comments on your platform and social, making posts and updates, compulsively checking the backer count and trying to regulate your nervous system.
27: Paid ads on meta are not necessary to have success. You're already paying Kickstarter or Backerkit for platform access. Their email marketing to other backers and visibility on discovery pages, etc is the main paid driver. I also pay for Backerkit launch to be able to access that email list.
28: Don't ONLY post sales messages on social media during your campaign. Intersperse your social content with engaging stuff that has historically does well for you. Having more engagement on your page during your campaign is going to help lift any sales posts.
29: Stop with the self-deprecating schtick like saying "shameless self promotion" or "I guess I gotta talk about my thing." Instead, just talk about something that inspired you, something you struggled with, something new you learned while making your game, or ANYTHING ELSE INTERESTING ABOUT YOUR GAME!
30: Don't post about numbers or how you're “on day 12” or how many backers or whatever. YOU care about that, but no one else does. Keep posting different things ABOUT YOUR GAME and what makes it cool. Not about the stuff you're fixated on.
31: If your campaign starts doing well, you'll get a bunch of sales-y messages about ad managers, other creators looking for cross promotion and production houses. Ignore them. If you've already done your homework, feel confident that a last minute wild card isn't gonna make a difference.
Fulfillment.
32: Be ready for shit to be expensive at every step. Crowdfunding platforms take fees but so do credit card processors. That’s like 8% before you even get your funds.
33: Funding in your bank account is a monkey’s paw. I try to get my project as complete as I can before crowdfunding so I can pay contributors, pay production, collect shipping and fulfill within the same calendar year. Helps keep you tax burden in check as well to know what money is profit.
34: Even if all things go well, there will be a handful of lost packages, disappointed folks, or stuff that doesn't go right. Be prepared to immediately offer full refunds and replacements and get on with your day.
35: Coated paper is not more premium. It feels like an advertising pamphlet or catalog. Uncoated paper feels like a real book and is easier to read.
36: Freight shipping is worth the premium even if it’s just 500 books. The postal service, UPS, etc will fuck up a good number of your books. If freight isn’t an option, always double-box your books and use an unreasonable amount of tape.
37: Another expensive thing: packing materials and shipping costs FOR packing materials. Also taking off work to pack all your rewards. It’s worth it to outsource fulfillment to someone who is set up for it.
38: Do EVERYTHING you can to ensure that your backers get their rewards before it's available in retail or at a con or anywhere else. They are paying you in advance with no recompense if everything falls through. You owe them first dibs, and they will repay you in loyalty in future campaigns.
39: To use crowdfunding as an ongoing business model, you need to protect your crowdfunding reputation at all costs. That means doing everything with integrity, reliability, and open communication. That also means making sure you fund, and above all, fulfill. Ideally within your established timeline.
40: You don’t HAVE to do a crowdfund. I like doing them, and they can be insanely effective as a marketing and sales sprint. But the strain on time, effort and risk is high. Preorders, print on demand and other avenues might be a better fit for you.
