Let’s Look Back at the Lore of the Clans Kickstarter [Monday Meeting Notes]

Monday Meeting

First off and fair warning: Fast Eddy Webb will be filling in for me next week here at the MMN blog with what will, no doubt, be a funnier, pithier, and muuuuch better written post than I usually can fumble through. I will be at Disney World forcing people to be photographed wearing World of Darkness T-shirts (see Kickstarter Achievement notes below).

Today, we talked a lot about the just finished this weekend Deluxe V20 Lore of the Clans Kickstarter. Proposed cover of the book pictured above. I’ve often said that each Kickstarter is different, and that each, for us, is an experiment. So it is standard procedure for the Onyx Path team to get together and share our thoughts on what worked and what didn’t. Some might call this process a post-mortem, but for me that implies a finished process. And I don’t think of our Kickstarters as being finished in any way just because we hit the funding date. But it is definitely a snapshot review of what we know, what we experienced during, and what we can improve on for the next one.

Naturally, because it is sort of the point as to why we use Kickstarter, we first talked over both the amount we were funded and the number of backers. We were pretty happy about both. Impish Ian had let us know during the KS that Lore of the Clans had become our top-funded V20 Kickstarter besides Deluxe V20 Dark Ages, which is pretty impressive for a Deluxe version of a supplement. Right now, I look at the Deluxe W20 Changing Breeds Kickstarter as the benchmark for supplement KS’s; for number of backers, amount raised, and the amount of community excitement (more on that part in a second). Lore of the Clans did very well in those areas.

We used only the tools provided for us by Kickstarter as well as our social media and some banner ads, even though I was bombarded by no doubt well-meaning representatives of companies interested in helping us with their marketing connections. Maybe next time we’ll explore their offerings, but this time we needed to see how well V20‘s look at the Clans would do compared to Deluxe V20 Companion, Deluxe V20 Children of the Revolution, Deluxe Hunters Hunted II, and Deluxe V20 Anarchs Unbound. It did very well, as stated above, and a lot of that we chalk up to the more universally usable and desired subject matter.

Other areas we reviewed:

Overall activity/posts: Steady, with the expected busiest times in the first and last few days. Nowhere near as energized as the posting during W20 Changing Breeds, though. Some folks mentioned that they felt the Clans were not as interesting as the Bloodlines as there were already a good number of books about the Clans. So the V20 philosophy of polishing up the favorites might not provide many surprises? Also, Eddy had previewed a fair amount of the writing, so perhaps the discussions occurred during the Open Dev Process and most folks had had their say? Or, as we discussed, it might just be that Eddy’s team had written such awesome text that folks were just happy with the material and had no need to argue, etc. 🙂

Developer Updates: We try to use our Developer Updates in all of our Kickstarters as a regular ongoing core of information that we get out to backers – and those just checking out the Updates. This was one of our most successfully regular series of updates, but again, not much commented on. In this case, though, we feel more like our audio delivery method for the info was more the issue. We thought it would be a fun new way for folks to enjoy the updates. Actually, we think that it was a harder way to get them than just text, and not as compelling as video would have been. So, unless we hear a huge chorus to the contrary from the backers, we’ll be going back to written until we can try out video in one of our upcoming KSs.

Posting attitudes: The above being said, the general tone of comments was really positive. Brand new backers were assisted by the comments community really well. Maybe not a big deal to most of you, but not only does how folks are posting make a huge difference for us in how we enjoy the Kickstarter, but it also indicates to me that we have an experienced core group of Kickstarter patrons that know and generally like what we do. Thanks, if you are one of them!

Rewards: We pretty much offered our standard set of Reward Tiers, with a couple of tweaks like the signed picture of Eddy’s Pug. Here we noticed a lot of interesting info, so this part might get long. There was little interest in the “upper level” Reward Tiers, although enough to be glad we included them. At this point after four previous V20 KSs, we figure folks might just not need to be an artist’s model again, as one example. Also, after a couple of other chances to get what is essentially the same Storyteller’s info on the Screens, we saw a huge drop in the pledges for them. We do always change the art side, but I can totally see why folks might not be as into the Screens yet another time around. We’re looking at other options with the Screens.

But the most interesting positive change for me was the large number of Retailer Reward Tiers that were pledged for. That’s fantastic and I hope a sign of good things for our community that wants to support their Friendly Local Game Store. We’re very glad that more retailers pledged this time. Thanks!

Stretchgoals: Like most of our Kickstarters for Deluxe supplement books, this one stayed focused on two areas: adding a bit to the book itself that it did not previously have the budget for, and creating a new project that we probably would not have gotten to for years, if at all. In this case, that was a V20 Lore of the Bloodlines companion volume for V20 Lore of the Clans. Not a deluxe, but a book we probably would not have done at all. Although, the sheer enthusiasm for this Bloodlines project has made us think more about them as a viable subject for further books. Both the required amounts for each Stretch Goal as well as the time it took to hit them seemed to hit the sweet spot of appearing worth striving for, but not taking weeks to achieve.

The Stretch Goals were being rolled through with great momentum until we were hit by a scam artist that Kickstarter flagged, losing us $10,000.00 in one fell, but ultimately necessary, swoop. That seemed to pull the wind from everybody’s sails for a couple of days, but momentum kicked up again and we ended strong. Lesson learned? We’re going to ask Kickstarter if they could implement pledge caps that creators could set. Also, our backer community is great and can get re-energized even after that sort of downturn.

Achievements: Last but not least, our newest addition to our Kickstarter bag of tricks was adding in Achievements. I “adopted” this idea from a couple of other KSs because I really liked that it provides an additional way to enjoy and engage with the Kickstarter activities. Some backers are into the Kickstarter Rewards themselves, some into the Stretch Goals and the excitement of unlocking more stuff, and there is another kind of backer that wants to participate. Which is where the Achievements come in. Plus, from my point of view, I like adding a reward or two that isn’t tied to the pledge amount going up.

Well, we had around 250 pics sent in, with a fair number of them coming in during the last couple of days. Every Clan-based Achievement attained at least the first level, and a couple hit the second. We got an upsurge in Likes on FB and followers on Twitter, and even though we didn’t get many, if at all, shots of folks wearing WoD shirts at Disney World, most of the other categories had entries. Great work! We adjusted the number of entries needed during the KS, because even then we realized we had way overestimated the number of entries, and will plan to reduce our expectations further come the next KS with Achievements.

As for what worked, the postings added a level of conversation to the KS comments, and we really liked that. We plan on getting those pics out on our social media A LOT mroe than this time, as we think more folks would have posted if they’d seen what other backers were accomplishing. Some of those pics were very well shot and moody. So a successful experiment that we can revise and evolve and use again.

And that’s the look back from us.

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And now, the BLURBS!

I’ll be posting a Pugmire blog later this week on how we put together the first piece of character art and turned it into a poster you can get at DTRPG. Be a GOOD dog!

Werewolf: the Forsaken 2nd Edition is now available at DriveThruRPG.com in both PDF and physical PoD editions! Thanks for everyone’s input, we already have 22 reviews at around 4.5 stars out of 5! It’s a new look at a fantastic game: now let’s let the world hear us howl! http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/145541/Werewolf-the-Forsaken-2nd-Edition

If you missed the announcement: Huge congratulations to C.A. Sulieman and his fantastic writing team on Mummy: the Curse‘s Book of the Deceived which has been nominated for an Origins Award! Mummy has been blessed, not cursed, with some great writing as this second nomination for the line in two years certainly proves!

Speaking of Mummy, we expect to have Sothis Ascends on sale in both PDF and physical book PoD versions, as well as the Gothic Icons nWoD character book PoD, on sale this Wednesday! Check them out!

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And now, new project status updates!:

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM ROLLICKING ROSE (Projects in bold have changed listings)

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Book of Secrets (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Exalted 3rd Novel by Matt Forbeck (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Anthology (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Pugmire Gen Con Materials (Be a Good Dog.)

CtL anthology (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)

WoD nWoD 2e core (World of Darkness 2nd Edition)

The Realm (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Dragon-Blooded (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scarred Lands Player’s Guide: Ghelspad

Dark Eras Expansions (nWod Dark Eras)

Redlines

Mummy Fiction Anthology (Mummy: the Curse)

Wraith: the Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition

W20 Changing Ways (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Cursed Necropolis: Rio (Mummy: the Curse)

Beckett’s Jyhad Diary (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition, featuring the Huntsmen Chronicle (Changeling: the Lost 2nd Edition)- In Open Development

nWoD Hurt Locker (World of Darkness 2nd Edition)- In Open Development

W20 Pentex Employee Indoctrination Handbook (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Second Draft

Arms of the Chosen (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mage: the Awakening 2nd Edition, featuring the Fallen World Chronicle (Mage: the Awakening) – In Open Development

Secrets of the Covenants (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Development

Promethean: the Created 2nd Edition, featuring the Firestorm Chronicle (Promethean: the Created) Being playtested.

“Sardonyx” System Rules (Base rules set for Scion and the Trinity Continuum)

V20 Black Hand: Guide to the Tal’Mahe’Ra (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

Demon Storytellers’ Guide (Demon: the Descent)

W20 Shattered Dreams (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Demon Translation Guide (Demon: the Fallen and Demon: the Descent)

Editing

M20 How do you DO that? (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

V20 Ghouls (Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition)

W20 Novel by Mike Lee (Werewolf: the Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition)

Development (post-editing)

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE

In Art Direction