Making a buck: TTRPG mode

Suppose you've got a unique game in the works, and you think it good enough to earn some cash with. What the best way to go about that, assuming that you know shit about shit besides game design? I'm guessing kickstarter is a solid option but one might need walking through that as well.

Sell it as a PDF first, don't even consider print right off the bat.

THIS THIS THIS

Offer a limited print run as a high-end stretch goal. You can make it fancy - hardcover, full-colour illustrations, etc. - but for goodness' sake make sure you can afford it.

And if you're doing illustrations you better fucking pay your artist up front. I will actually stab the next mongoloid in the neck that asks for my hours of work otherwise.

Oh god yes. My girlfriend is a graphic artist and it's given me appreciation for all the type of work she does.

OP have you gotten feedback from friends and the public?

Wasn't planning on it, but it would work really well with some books and props so I was hoping on it. I have zero idea what those costs would look like though.

Wouldn't have it any other way.

Playtested an early version a year ago with a pal. Not sure if I posted about it here, if I did it wasn't anything past barebones. Haven't picked it up much since then but I've found myself with more time on my hands and an itch to scratch. If I can make this hobby pay part of the bills a little while I think I'll go far with it.

So assuming it takes a couple months between writing out a core game and hammering out a pdf, whats a fair amount to ask for that first tier?

Unique how?

Enough to stand out, mechanically and concept wise. I wasn't looking to promote my work in this thread, though.

What is your time worth and what is kikestealer doing to help you? Are you losing work over it? What is your guaranteed install base? Unless you're doing it anyway for fun, I can almost guarantee the money is less than minimum wage for hours worked and not worth it in other ways on top of that.

If you can gague reaction, you have a number to work with. Then you can figure that they will probably pay twice what your selling it for on average and go from there.

What are you offering? There's like a million questions to ask and things to look at but I'm not a business type so this is all I have. Go on libgen and pirate some books so you at least know the gist of what you're getting into. My money friends have minds that eat this shit up and spit out shit that leaves you reeling. Consult with Veeky Forums, not that I've ever been there, but being around that kind of expert, I know they can at least point you in the right directions even if they are retards like everyone else here.

My time is not particularly valuable, I have a job that's shorting me on hours and is only marginally better than the minimum wage around here. I could put more hours into it if it's worthwhile, but I should have enough time and energy to get it done regardless.

Reaction... really have no idea. It might catch on in a good way or it might be middling. I know it's good and has potential to grow but getting it out there is a shot in the dark for me.

As for what I'm offering, there is a core system that has a few different modes to it. From there it can expand into specialized versions of the game modes, and adventure stages for one or more players. I fancy the idea of making a few specialized game boards and token pieces but I'd need to be well established before venturing into that kind of stuff.

I have little idea what to do beyond that as far as numbers go, obviously if I can get completely funded that's priority one, but making more makes things easier to advance the next steps.

What I wonder is how you advertise before you have a product or get your game out there. Buying tons of ad space, well most of us are hobbyists and don't have money to blow a couple grand on ad space.
I've heard making a blog can be good to get your game out there but then, how do you get hits on a blog and are blogs even relevant anymore?

I wonder if Patreon would be a better avenue for a small name rpg dev instead of Kickstarter, especially now that we live in a period of burnout from various bad or underwhelming Kickstarters.

I'm no expert, but normally you make a blog and post modules and navelgazing bullshit while sucking dicks with other yokels in the grassroots shitshow we call an industry. Then you make a game and kickstart it to gauge interest so you can get it hosted on the jokes selling PDFs we call publishers.

In this case, you make a website for the game and shill it on forums with 'exclusive' play tests you nda to hell and back because nothing sells something like other people investing time into it for free. Then you kikeshart it.

I'm probably looking more to make an ongoing project that I keep belting out new modules for, would patreon work better for that than kickstarter and it's stretch goals? It's not like I need to hit a specific level of capital for A B and C projects.

Is there any tabletop games funded on patreon? Can't seem to find anything similar to that, just a few related things.

One last bump, in case anyone has something to add.

I don't know if it was mentioned but you should have something to actually show off before you start. You don't have to show them everything but it better at least feel substantial if you want people to feel confident about throwing money at you.

So in this case, come out with some of the core mechanics and describe the basics such? I can do that. Making it presentable is a little more of a prep time sink though, but I suppose it's worth it.

Think of it as packaging. If you're looking for funding, you need to sell people on why they should invest.

Bit of that, bit of free samples