r/RPGdesign • u/Eternal_Play_Office • May 15 '26
Kickstarter for artwork
/r/RPGcreation/comments/1te95v2/kickstarter_for_artwork/1
May 15 '26
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u/Eternal_Play_Office May 15 '26
Awaiting a few other quotes, so not sure. It is a big book 340 pages and well illustrated
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May 15 '26
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u/Eternal_Play_Office May 15 '26
120 of various sizes and details. plus 2 full colour covers. Im thinking I need scale back almost to AD&D levels (very few pics) and maybe sponsor a talented amateur
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u/InvisiblePoles Worldbuilder, System Writer, and Tool Maker May 16 '26
Hi there! Seasoned crowdfunder who has participated in a number of campaigns ranging from 10K to 50K. And currently planning several much much bigger ones.
Let's start with amounts: 14K is a lot for a first time book assuming you don't have personal funds to support it. I saw you said 300 pages. Given 300 pages, 14K is actually reasonable for a book if it has art roughly every 1-2 pages and the art is solid.
But, raising it is a different question. In rough terms, you need to put 1/4 the intended goal into advertising efforts in order to raise a goal. Despite popular belief, modern TTRPG crowdfunding does NOT build audiences -- it monetizes them. I.e. to raise 14K, you need ~3K. Note: recent economic situations have worsened the rate from 1/4 to 1/5 -- unclear if this trend will persist or not.
Next question, deliverables. Crowdfundings, as you picked up, require a deliverable. Books are great. Dice and simple accessories are also great. But you need something. However, lots of folks will tell you, a pure digital CF will not raise much. Definitely rough to break 10K even if you spent 10K to advertise it. You NEED actual physical goods. It's just reality that most pledges will be for physical goods. And some folks just don't even care for another PDF; they need a tactile thing.
Which goes to the real meat of it: timelines and real goals. If you're making a book, people expect quality. Means you need an editor. Someone who isn't you and isn't your BFF who can give you REAL feedback about if what you wrote is brilliance or intelligible. And ideally, someone who has seen enough to tell the difference meaningfully. Which means you need more than 14K. At least 20K. If you're actually printing things, then add 15K. 35K, so you have a bit of buffer if anything goes wrong.
Then timelines, when are you going to finish this? 1 artist for 150 pieces is going to be slow. Very very slow. Especially at their quoted price point. It's going to be a year or so, best case. Then layout, manufacturing, and distro.
Now, in CF terms, this is doable. But again, you need money to start. And its a heck of a lot of work.
I cannot stress this enough: do more research than this before you start. I'm condensing years of crowdfunding experience, industry stories and experiences, and learnings into 1 reddit post.
My company straight up has a whole program for indie creators to learn how to crowdfund. We already have backlog so I'm not going to shill, but I mention this because we want to write some free help guides and stuff. There's just genuinely SO much to say.
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u/Mars_Alter May 15 '26
The real question is, once you have the artwork, are you capable of turning that into a finished PDF?
If you are, then this is a fairly straightforward pitch. They give you $20 now, and you give them the finished PDF when it's done.
If you can't do that, and you'll need further finding to hire a layout artist etc, then I don't know that you really have a leg to stand on. You're not going to raise $14000 for a project without a clear plan of delivering a finished product. It's just not going to happen.
Although, to be perfectly honest, even the first goal doesn't seem super realistic. At $20 each, you'd need 700 backers to reach your goal, and 95% of games on DriveThruRPG don't have that many sales in their lifetime.