Size of the OSR market: Since D&D's high water mark was during the TSR era, arguably the largest customer base is for the kinds of OSR products that embrace the virtues of that era. However, this market is fragmented and generally not playing any more or posting online. Anecdotally, in New York if I meet someone who plays old-school games we usually have someone in common, but if I meet a Pathfinder player the chances are good that I don't know anyone else in their extended play circles; there are just too many active PF groups.

Dwimmermount crossover: I think the benefit of the link to Myth & Magic and Adventures Dark & Deep beyond a mention on Grognardia was that the bonus goals specifically reached people who were already in the Kickstarter system. It's like the difference between a candy advertisement and the racks of candy next to the checkout register at the store.

No question that TSR was the high water mark but of those many left the game, some continue to play with their favourite edition and some changed with the times. Of the active gamers I think 3E et all are the biggest slice.

Quote from: Tavis;537016Anecdotally, in New York if I meet someone who plays old-school games we usually have someone in common

I have yet to meet any particular old school rpg game player, where we have someone in common whom we both known personally offline.  So far, such individuals had absolutely zero acquaintances in common with me (so far).

Quote from: ggroy;536877One possibility for WotC and/or Paizo using kickstarter, would be in regard to who is calling the shots on a particular splatbook.

Whoever pays some ridiculous high fee (such as a $10,000 minimum), can call the shots on how such a spatbook is designed, written, etc ...   At an even higher fee (such as  $15,000 or $20,000 fee), they can have an absolute veto over the design and certain other aspects in the production of a particular splatbook.

Essentially a "pay to design" type of model.

I could easily see a lawncrapper fan with more money than sense paying for this kind of creative control just to satisfy his penis envy.

Quote from: jeff37923;537024I could easily see a lawncrapper fan with more money than sense paying for this kind of creative control just to satisfy his penis envy.

Definitely.

In such a scenario, it basically amounts to the highest bidder is essentially paying for the rights to use the D&D trademark and other WotC IP related to D&D for "their" book.  If "their" book was written and published without the D&D trademark/logo on the front cover, it would just be another book in the market glut of rpg books compatible with a particular edition/variant of D&D.

Quote from: Teazia;536722Back To the dwimmermount/ad&d/Myth&Magic crossover. It was a success  as stated above, how much is attributable to the grognardia mention and how much to the crossover?  Tough to say, but grognardia gave the rub to barrowmaze ii a few days ago and while it has gone up a few hundred dollars, it has not moved in levels similar with the crossover. A small sample to be sure, but having a wider i involved audience seems to be effective.

Hi, this is Joe (aka Greyhawk Grognard) from the Adventures Dark and Deep project.

James M. had actually mentioned my kickstarter a couple of weeks before the crossover, and while it was nice to get noticed, I didn't see any sort of significant bump to the Kickstarter.

However, when we started the cross-pollination on kickstarter itself, I saw an enormous bump. Naturally, I can't speak for either M&M or Dwimmermount.

I attribute this to a few things.

1. A mention on a blog, even a very widely read one like Grognardia, is like radio advertising. You're going to get a very big imprint, but relatively few sales per listener.

2.When the mentions are done on kickstarter as part of a supporter's update, you're hitting an audience that is more inclined to actually open their wallets. When it's sent out to supporters, you're by definition getting a targeted audience of people who have already demonstrated their willingness to support projects.

3. The three projects were very much targeting the same audience. Especially in the case of M&M, which might otherwise have been seen as a competitor to ADD, the modern market is much more of a cooperative venture. Because the OSR is such a niche market, we gain much more by getting the word out to other potentially interested buyers than we do by trying to jealously hoard the customers we have. I can't imagine anyone looked at M&M and said "Boy, that looks a hundred times better than ADD. I'm going to switch my support from the one to the other." (Or vice versa.) It's much more about community building, and given the scale at which we're looking, that has much more of a positive impact than any sort of competitive disadvantage.

3a. I think the mutual benefits between ADD and Dwimmermount were due much more to the fact that people who knew about the one were hearing about the other for the first time, rather than saying "Hey! I'm getting a treasure map location module because I'm supporting ADD; I'd better end up supporting Dwimmermount so I can get the level that has the map in it!" (and, again, vice versa). Again, community building. At the scale we're working on, that has many more advantages than disadvantages.

Joe / Greyhawk Grognard
http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com

Thanks for sharing that!

RPGPundit

The final piece in the RPG Crowdfunding Report is now in place with the release of the raw data used to generate the report.* It took awhile to collect it together from different files, clean it up and then wrestle with the Creative Commons license, but it's done.* People have been asking for this information, and I found it a bit serendipitous when I watched just the other day Tim Berners-Lee on TED exclaim, "Demand raw data now."* Well, here it is, fly and be free!

Enjoy!

Quote from: harpy;537486The final piece in the RPG Crowdfunding Report is now in place with the release of the raw data used to generate the report.* It took awhile to collect it together from different files, clean it up and then wrestle with the Creative Commons license, but it's done.* People have been asking for this information, and I found it a bit serendipitous when I watched just the other day Tim Berners-Lee on TED exclaim, "Demand raw data now."* Well, here it is, fly and be free!

Enjoy!

Excellent work! Do you work in the field of LEAN/Six Sigma? I recognise some of the tools of the trade:-)

BTW, I've posted a somewhat lengthier analysis of my own kickstarter experience on my blog:

http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-kickstarter-experience.html

Enjoy!

Joe / Greyhawk Grognard

Quote from: Fiasco;537488Excellent work! Do you work in the field of LEAN/Six Sigma? I recognise some of the tools of the trade:-)

I just had to wikipedia that and I still don't know what it means

Whatever it is I'm doing, I'm glad I'm getting it right!

Quote from: Thulcondar;537494BTW, I've posted a somewhat lengthier analysis of my own kickstarter experience on my blog:

http://greyhawkgrognard.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-kickstarter-experience.html

Enjoy!

Joe / Greyhawk Grognard

Thanks!  I'll check it out!

This kickstarter has passed $191,000 with six days to go.  Insane.  Its running neck and neck with the Traveller one which is on approx $187,000.

Interestingly, Traveller has double the backers but is behind on funds raised.  This is because Rappan Athuk has some crazy insane fanboys including one who sprung $10,000 for two day long sessions run by Bill Webb himself.

15 backers have tipped in $48,000 between them into Rappan.  Are these two projects going to be the high water mark of the whole fundy experience or just harbingers of what is to come?

I find it astonishing that people can tip that kind of money into a kickstarter for such little return.  For $10,000 you could pretty much fund any module you want by any writer, yet here it just gets you multiple copies of the module, some shout outs and a bit of one on one time with the creator.  Amazing.

It just goes to show that love of the product is far more powerful than just the incentives on offer.

Yeah I finally pitched in on the Rappan Athuk kickstarter myself. The rewards added up really nicely and I couldn't really see why I shouldn't get the new book in a nice S&W version to run at home.

I'm currently dealing waiting on my artist and Amazon Payments, so I can finish up assembling the Kickstarter page for Hulks and Horrors.

If I'm lucky, I'll have it up by the end of this week. If I'm not, hopefully it'll be ready by next week.