Session 9: My Strange Addition - TTRPG Kickstarters

I have something to admit: I have a serious addiction to TTRPG Kickstarters.

It started innocently enough, I think. When I started up my real dive into TTRPGs I had taken a pass through several "how to" videos and noticed in the backgrounds, people had bookshelves full of all variety of books that I couldn't find just with Wizard of the Coast. It got me thinking and wondering "where did they get those?" I don't live near a proper boardgame store and really hadn't been in a position to even start hunting around for them. My DM, at the time, though had been the first to show me the possibilities as he pulled out new maps, terrain, and the like that he'd "supported on Kickstarter."

Now, I knew what Kickstarter was before all of this, but I'd thought of it mostly as a place where hyper-specific ideas went to die. That being said, it seemed like the TTRPG space was a bit more consistent in their turnover from concept, to Kickstarter, to physical product. So, I took the dive and had not realized just how deep I was going to go.

Here's what I've been finding to be consistent trends that "feed" my addiction:

1. I tend to want EVERYTHING that a Kickstarter is offering and will frequently select the "all-in" options for $500+. The issue being that I forget about said $500 until it gets drawn from my account 2+ months later. Ouch. Of course, the "girl math" at the time of purchase gets to me as a "well, It doesn't need $500 now. I'll have it later."

2. The physical media tends to take so long to be made and shipped that I forget about it entirely. So, when it does finally arrive at my door, I forgot I'd even funded a Kickstarter that ended years ago. But who doesn't like getting surprise gifts from your past self?

I have also found with all of these new things, I got into a bad habit of just shoving them away. Currently, I've been spending months reorganizing rooms, purchasing display cabinets, and the like in an effort to organize all of my goodies so they aren't just shoved into a closet. I've also built an entire Sandbox campaign that I'm running with my friends in a desperate attempt to make some sort of dent into this mountain of one-shots and settings and "random NPCs".

It drives my wife crazy and I definitely have started to feel the weight of all of my past decisions. For example, after I thought I'd organized the last of my goodies a mysterious box arrived on my doorstep. The box was full of minis, two copies of monster books, maps, monster cards, tokens, etc. It was a lot of stuff that I was not prepared to find display or even had storage space for. Looking back through my updates, I came to find this was a Kickstarter I had funded almost 2 years ago and had completely forgotten about.

Fortunately for me, the materials align with the campaigns I'm running so they will be able to be used really quickly but it was that very moment where I realized...I needed to stop.

But, how about I let you in on some of the Kickstarters I've supported and what I've gotten / thought about each of them? (This is not a flex...it is truly to show my problem)

1. Ryoko's Guide to the Yokai Realms

   1. This is a Kickstarter that provides a new setting, NPCs, items, and the like as well as a collection of 2 - 4 shot campaigns. The main reason I went for this was it creates a "Kaiju" system (or at least clearly breaks it out). The idea of having massive bosses really intrigued me both in this new setting and applying it to my other campaigns. Multiphased battles that involve on-the-go puzzle solving are my favorite type of combats to run.

   2. I have not gotten the physical components of this Kickstarter yet, but the digital portions are fully out. I do think some of the modified mechanics over-complicate things more than I need but I've been enjoying everything else I've read.

2. One-Shot Wonders 2

   1. I have the first version of this book and I love it. It is an excellent book where every page is a one-shot that gives you just enough to run a successful session without bogging you down with too much homework. I'm using the first version of this book predominantly in my Sandbox campaign.

   2. I actually was able to meet the creators of this book at Gen Con this year and was excited to see that they were coming out with a sequel. It was nice to be able to show them my appreciation as I find RollPlayPress as a whole makes very high-quality products and well-written books. I'm still waiting on this physical book but I'm excited to see what new things I can add to my campaign with it.

3. City of the Black Rose

   1. This was the very first Kickstarter that was recommended that involved Daggerheart gameplay. A lot of the hesitancy I've felt towards running Daggerheart is the fact that premade campaigns don't exist, just premade frames. At the moment, I don't have the bandwidth to build on any of the premade frames or make a new one. I also find I do best learning new rules when I don't have to put as much work into the setting + overall story.

   2. It's an dark and gritty investigatory setting that is supposed to have tape recordings and clues to help players feel like real detectives. Still waiting on the physical components of this but I probably won't be ready to start ingesting the information for a while anyway.

4. Worlds at a Glance: Towns + Villages

   1. This was more than I expected when I initially supported it. It was just to be a book that helped build some concepts of towns and cities quickly and on the fly but once I received the box I found the book alone did much more. They have provided every different kind of store you could possibly need, given guides on how to describe each store, store NPCs and item lists for each store. Within seconds I could provide an in depth shopping experience for my players even if I wasn't prepared for it.

   2. I've received everything for this Kickstarter and while I don't really use a lot of the other items (wet erase maps, cards, etc.) I really like the packaging and the overall quality of the products.

5. Encounters at a Glance

   1. This is from the same company that provided "Worlds at a Glance" and after having such a positive experience with that, supporting another Kickstarter was easy. In this Kickstarter it is to provide a book of better encounters and more details that could be applied to traveling and hex-crawl-type campaigns. Given the amount of information they provided on the first book I'm super excited for this.

   2. The Kickstarter is closed and funded so now it's all just waiting for the product. There was some growing pains with shipping on the first book but I'm hoping they will be beyond those with this new one.

6. Zamanora: Ballad of the Witch

   1. I got this predominantly for the horror-esque and Slavic-like folk-horror concept. I honestly don't remember much about it other than I liked the theme. That being said, they've already come out with a full music album to use while playing (and they're very good).

   2. I'm still waiting on the book for this and some new minis but I'm hoping this can just build the most ultimate horror setting of all time.

7. Level Up: Advanced

   1. Monstrous Menagerie II: More monsters are never a bad thing, right?

   2. High Level Adventures: It's always tough to run high level campaigns without it just feeling like boss fight, after boss fight. These are fun single-page one shots that can be braided into other campaigns.

   3. Vault of Splintered Souls: This is a level 6 - 9 campaign where the characters are sent into the depths of mines looking for a vault. It's not a full "campaign" so to speak, more like 5 - 8 sessions.

   4. Puzzling Encounters: Puzzles, every players greatest weakness. You can never have too many options for puzzling!

8. DC20 - Deluxe Level

   1. This is one of those Kickstarters that popped up right after the big ole drama at WoC with the Open Source, when everyone started to realize the market had gotten a bit TOO saturated with just D&D. So, this one is intended to be more combat focused type of ttrpg. I say "intended" because it is very much in its infancy. From the last update I got (after being over a year in production), they've finished the classes and have been working one new spells.. I expect this one is going to take a good, long while to come around.

9. Quest Journals for GMs + Players

   1. This is a RollPlayPress item that comes with some nice campaign journals and binders. I like that they have card sleeves within the binders to use for most forms of cards. I think the one part I'm not the biggest fan of is how they organize the main attributes-to-skills in the binder where they're on two different pages. It's not the biggest problem to just turn a page, but I find players that struggle to remember things about their characters fumble a bit more between all of the pages.

10. Monsters of Drakkenheim

    1. More horror monsters! This one also came with a few high quality minis of the monsters in the book, tokens of all of the monsters in the book, and a huge deck of quick-reference monster cards. There are a few other fun minor things that they threw in as part of the "all-in" pack I got but they're of little use.

11. Tales of the Valiant Game Master's Guide

    1. I almost never use this one. It's a large book I remember getting when I had just started GMing, thinking the more GM books I had the better I would be. Unfortunately, by the time it had shown up, I realized it didn't really provide much more "feedback" than I'd already picked up while running games. That being said, the package I got also came with high quality, physical maps which I do use a lot.

12. The Crooked Moon

    1. This is the big one that I've talked about several times on previous posts. So far I have been loving it. Slamming big minis on the tables to startle my players has been so much fun. Using their music to help inspire other playlists has ruined my Spotify in the best, spookiest way. And the campaign itself has been a whole bunch of fun. The world of Druskenvald is an excellent place for me to fold in all of the other horror Kickstarters I've gotten as we go along. It's all coming up spooky.

Phew, that was a lot. Honestly, I've been doing everything I can to slow down, if not fully stop funding Kickstarters for a good bit. The major reason...financial responsibility, the minor reason...I'm running out of space in my house.

But I would always recommend you support individual creators or small companies as part of your journey into TTRPGs over tossing more money towards Hasboro.

What are your thoughts on Kickstarters? Do you have a favorite one? Is there one you're particularly waiting on?

Looking forward to your sentiments.

I'll see you next session.

Julia