August 2025 TTRPG Crowdfunding Retrospective

 A bit of bad news before I get to the meat of the retrospective: the search function for successful Kickstarter campaigns simply...stopped working this month.

All three of the campaigns picture funded in the last week of May 2024

As such, I have been forced to switch my methods from the more reliable "looking through successful campaigns from the past day or so" to the far less reliable "looking at campaigns about to end and hoping that I don't take too long between checking so I don't miss anything." I've potentially missed a few campaigns here and there this month, but I definitely got most of them. That said, it's deeply frustrating to have to be so "on" (even more so than usual for this project) so if you get anything out of this series I have a small favor to ask of you: go to Kickstarter Support and report a bug about this search function. I've already done so and they've told me that they're working on it, but if more people do so then perhaps they'll make it a bit higher priority. It's certainly not the biggest problem in the world (hell, it's not even the biggest problem with Kickstarter), but I would greatly appreciate the minute or two it would take for you to help get this tool back up and running properly.

That said, here's the raw data for August 2025! Let's get into it:

• 143 campaigns
• 17 Backerkit
• 0 Crowdfundr
• 4 Gamefound
• 122 Kickstarter
• $3,153,588.22 raised
• $1,351,822.34 on Backerkit
• $0.00 on Crowdfundr
• $98,847.93 on Gamefound
• $1,702,917.95 on Kickstarter
• Types of campaigns
• 15 accessories
• 41 adventures
• 1 advice
• 5 campaign settings
• 2 fundraising
• 48 supplements
• 30 systems
• 1 translation
• 54 distinct systems used (16 original)
• 59 campaigns (41.26%) used D&D 5E and raised $875,395.60 (27.76% of all money raised in August)
• 42 campaigns used AI in some form (29.37% of total) and raised $167,835.73 (5.32% of all money raised in August)
• 28 of these were D&D 5E campaigns, accounting for 47.46% of all 5E crowdfunding campaigns
• Campaigns were based in 16 different countries
• Top 3: 69 in USA, 25 in UK, 9 in Australia
• Singleton countries: Belgium, Hong Kong, Norway, Vietnam

Backerkit's August

The top 5 campaigns on Backerkit in August were:

1. Drakonym - A Narrative-First Dragonbonding TTRPG by Crossed Paths Press ($446,418.93 from 2,487 backers)
2. Vaults of Vaarn Second Edition by Vaults of Vaarn ($271,815.81 from 3,371 backers)
3. Monsters of Murka Trilogy: Ratified & Radified by Action Fiction ($269,058 from 1,382 backers)
4. Memento Mori: The Old City by Two Little Mice ($147,390.39 from 1,189 backers)
5. SHIVER Corporate: A Corporate Horror Comedy TTRPG by Parable Games ($86,921.15 from 646 backers)

It's fairly unusual to have new systems be really successful on any of the platforms I look at, so it's nice that in August the most successful campaign was (seemingly) original. Additionally, it's quite heartening to see something like Vaults of Vaarn 2e be so successful on Backerkit. None of the three of these games are exactly 'for' me, but it's nice to know there are thriving subcultures out there that are supporting games that aren't just from WotC, Paizo, or the couple most successful indie publishers. Granted, Crossed Paths Press, Two Little Mice, and Parable Games run some of the most consistently successful Backerkit TTRPG campaigns so it's not like they're exactly scrappy underdogs, but it remains a sign of a healthy (consumer) ecosystem that it's not only people like Exalted Funeral or Brandon Sanderson who can consistently bring out backers.

Gamefound's August

The 4 campaigns on Gamefound in August were:

1. Pendragon - Das Artus-Rollenspiel by Ulisses Spiele ($87,579.50 from 427 backers)
2. Dragons! Dragons! Dragons! for 5e by Deimos Infinitum Publishing ($5,622.35 from 68 backers)
3. The Ronin's Daughter by Brick By Brick Games ($4,994.42 from 117 backers)
4. After the Fall: 700 Post-Apocalyptic Battle Maps by Agnesagraphic ($651.66 from 15 backers)

There's not much to say here other than I have a personal beef with Agnesagraphic (or Agnieszka Polanowska on Kickstarter) for forcing me to log so many AI slop map projects. I really thought I was safe on a new platform but here she is...

Kickstarter's August

The top 5 campaigns on Kickstarter in August were:

1. Dragonbane RPG Miniatures — Northern Beasts by TitanforgeGames ($357,301 from 2,154 backers)
2. Three New Battlezoo Secret Tomes for Shadowdark! by Roll For Combat ($282,772 from 1,953 backers)
3. Pets & Sidekicks: Companions for D&D, Level Up A5E, and ToV by Morrus ($111,744.36 from 1,571 backers)
4. The Ultimate Customizable Adventure Notebook for TTRPGs! by Oddities Chest ($108,574 from 1,007 backers)
5. UNDERISLES: Roleplaying with Sign Language by Hatchlings ($77,800 from 1,015 backers)

Kickstarter money seems to have rebounded from last month's unexpected lull, but it's all looking quite same-y. D&D 5E, Dragonbane, Shadowdark, Tales of the Valiant - it's all just variations on the same theme. Very happy to see UNDERISLES in the top 5 as both a successful game for a small team and just something other than the standard fantasy adventure stuff (even if it's still a fantasy adventure game).

August 2024 vs 2025

• Number of campaigns
• Backerkit: 20 (2024) => 17 (2025)
• Kickstarter: 121 (2024) => 122 (2025)
• Money
• Backerkit: $1,580,419.62 (2024) => $1,351,822.34 (2025)
• Average campaign: $79,020.98 (2024) => $79,518.96 (2025)
• Median campaign: $15,903.00 (2024) => $10,588.00 (2025)
• Kickstarter: $18,711,813.48 (2024) =>  $1,702,917.95 (2025)
• Average campaign: $154,643.09 (2024) => $4,054.74 (2025)
• Median campaign: $4,239.00 (2024) => $2,893.91 (2025)
• AI
• Count: 29 (2024) => 42 (2025)
• Money: $215,538.99 (2024) => $167,835.73 (2025)
• D&D 5E
• Count: 49 (2024) => 59 (2025)
• Money: $1,956,290.32 (2024) => $875,395.60 (2025)

Things look better for the state of crowdfunding now than they did last month: still a drop in money raised but not the 50-66% reduction across the board. It might look really bad for Kickstarter, but you have to remember that August 2025 saw the Cosmere RPG campaign raise $15M, so that money is an outlier among outliers. If you take that one campaign out, you're left with Kickstarter raising ~$3.6M in August 2024. It still represents slightly more than a 50% drop year-to-year, though.

I said last month that July was an outlier for TTRPG crowdfunding, but with this month adding another data point it's looking increasingly like this might be a new normal. Money is simply down across the board for these crowdfunders, even (or perhaps especially) for the previously quite reliable 5E campaigns. We're not cratering out by any means. (The one real benefit of the Kickstarter search function breaking is that I'm getting a much better sense for how many campaigns fail to fund, and it's not all that many.) But the constantly precarious state of crowdfunding feels like it's getting more precarious.

It takes three data points to set a pattern, so who's to say: maybe September will exceed our wildest expectations (and to be perfectly honest there are already a couple very successful campaigns that have either finished or are close to finishing as I'm writing this), but this month and the last have really shown me how unreliable this environment is.