The Post-Kickstarter Discussion Thread: Bask in the Afterglow

[OneMadOgre]

Let me start by apologizing if I am asking this in the wrong place.

As a backer, I have access to the "Monster for Every Season". I know I have permission to print them for personal use. Am I allowed to use them on roll20.net as tokens? That would involve me cut/pasting them as png files which I imagine is frowned upon.

[JCarter426]

Guess what came in the mail today.

Woo! Woo! Woo!

Thanks.

(Shirt with patch pending delivery of the shirt.)

[Great Dane]

Guess what came in the mail today.

Woo! Woo! Woo!

Thanks.

(Shirt with patch pending delivery of the shirt.)

Join the club! Patience for the Whole Story means seven new books will adorn my bookshelf!

[Sharoth]

~Cheers~ My Patience Package arrived today! Thanks for all the signed goodies, Giant! I do appreciate them. ~frowns~ Now that means I will have to get the next few books signed. GIANT!!! We will need another Kickstarter drive to get all the other books signed! ~grins and runs~

[Dr. Gamera]

A curious question: the Giant's Kickstarter campaign was obviously very successful. In contrast, the Knights of the Dinner Table Kickstarter campaign is struggling to even meet its initial funding goal (possibly spoiling my perfect record of never having backed a Kickstarter campaign that failed). Why such a different result in superficially similar campaigns?

It is certainly the case that the publicity push for the KoDT campaign is mediocre, at best. But it's not as if the Giant was particularly aggressive about publicizing the OOTS Kickstarter campaign either (at least not early on in the campaign; later, of course, the campaign was widely publicized by others, but only after it had accrued quite a lot of pledges already.)

Was it just the pent-up demand from all of us who had been receiving so much from the Giant for free for years? I certainly felt as if I had received much more from the Giant than I had paid for, even though I'd already purchased every single book and the board game.

[factotum]

Seems pretty obvious to me--the Giant's Kickstarter was offering more of the same, in a way; stuff his fans knew would be good from past experience. That other one appears to be trying to produce something which is completely different from its source material (live action video as opposed to webcomic), and it's entirely probable that the fans of one don't want the other. I doubt I'd be interested in backing a Kickstarter that tried to produce a live-action OotS, for example.

[Jay R]

I can only speak for myself. I contributed to the OotS Kickstarter campaign because I really wanted those books, and I won't contribute to this one because I don't particularly want a Knights of the Dinner Table live-action series.

Also, on the subject of the publicity of the OotS campaign: The publicity was perfect. It was an ad on this site, which therefore reached every single person who reads the Order of the Stick. It was an absolutely perfect targeted campaign.

[ChristianSt]

I think there is a fundamental difference in what the Giant did and what KoDT does.

I for example did this for a large part because I simply needed to complete my collection (I started rather late to buy the books, so I missed NCftPB and OtOoPCs), so I grabbed the change to get them. And then I throw some more money at the Giant to get an awesome Avatar ! [Certainly one of the best decisions I did on Kickstarter! (And I was lucky enough to get one in the first place )]

The KoDT is something new: if someone likes the comic, but isn't into Life Action shows, than he might support it, but maybe not. [And I personally have no prior experience with KoDT, it is also possible that Rich has more followers than KoDT has]. But nearly everyone in the OotS KS new pretty much exactly what they will receive - sure, some new stuff is/will be made, but it isn't really something completely different.

If Rich would do a KS for an OotS animated series I'm not sure whether I would back, either. It is possible, but it also depend on other factors (for example how it will be distributed, because I loath DRM). While I know for sure that I would buy a new OotS-book from Rich. Should he do that through KS, I would go to KS. Or preordering it from Ook, like I did with SSaDT. Barring ridiculous international shipping shenanigans: in that case I would wait for my FLGS if possible.



But on more relevant news: It is great to hear that more patience rewards arrive!

[Dr. Gamera]

It was an ad on this site, which therefore reached every single person who reads the Order of the Stick.

I seem to recall that it was only a News post on this site, and it therefore missed all of the people who read the comic without going through the main giantitp.com page first.

[Sunken Valley]

How to make a Kickstarter hit a million: the Rich Burlew Method

1. Give people something they want. Rich had numerous complaints about books being out of print. He had an audience and a product which the audience would buy.

2. Don't exclude the rest of your audience. Rich also said he would produce new stories for pledgers. This drew in the people who had all the books.

3. Encourage people to pledge more. Rich always had new stretch goals just waiting for pledgers to try and reach them.

4. Dynamic Advertising. Rich used the OOTS characters interacting with the graph to encourage people to pledge and find out what the story was.

5. Be successful first. Rich had a large fanbase and 8.25 years of experience under his belt. He could assure that he'd have some success.

Unfortunately, Rich made one of the biggest mistakes of a kickstarter.

1. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Rich gave himself far too much work to do and even now just under half the rewards are unfinished, largely because Rich is focusing on new projects like the Calender.

[Rogar Demonblud]

There was also the small item of his thumb, which is Rich's fault only in that no one ever taught him to hold glass in his off hand.

[Smolder]

Unfortunately, Rich made one of the biggest mistakes of a kickstarter.

1. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Rich gave himself far too much work to do and even now just under half the rewards are unfinished, largely because Rich is focusing on new projects like the Calender.

True, but he's mitigating that by a) communicating with the backers regularly and b) fulfilling as many requests as possible as he goes along.

I ordered the books and a crayon drawing. I got the books, so I'm more than willing to be patient for the drawing. I know Rich will eventually deliver (unlike some other kickstarter projects that I contributed to before OOTS that still haven't delivered and have gone silent).

[Sunken Valley]

True, but he's mitigating that by a) communicating with the backers regularly and b) fulfilling as many requests as possible as he goes along.

I ordered the books and a crayon drawing. I got the books, so I'm more than willing to be patient for the drawing. I know Rich will eventually deliver (unlike some other kickstarter projects that I contributed to before OOTS that still haven't delivered and have gone silent).

That is also true, communication with pledgers is another sign of a good kickstarter, although mathematically speaking we will likely have finished the kickstarter by 2016 at the earliest.

[MoonCat]

@RogerDemonblud: I don't think the thumb is as big a problem as everyone says it is. It stopped him working for 3 months but he recovered quickly after that and had enough strength in him to make an entire calender in secret.

How is anything that stops someone from working their main job for a quarter of a year not severe? Hell, the Giant himself described it as permanently damaged in some way, IIRC. Saying it wasn't a big problem because he made the undoubtably huge effort to continue working and fulfilling pledges as soon as he possibly could is pretty rude.

[Jay R]

I seem to recall that it was only a News post on this site, and it therefore missed all of the people who read the comic without going through the main giantitp.com page first.

Didn't miss me.

I don't remember exactly how I heard about it, but it was here, and I go straight to the comic.

[Shale]

IIRC there was a banner ad at the bottom of every comic page.

[Dr. Gamera]

IIRC there was a banner ad at the bottom of every comic page.

The web archive confirms that you are correct -- but I'm not sure I've ever seen that ad before today. I must have always stopped scrolling before I got close enough to the bottom of the page. For anyone else who missed it, here it is:

[Bird]

Count me among those without a strong interest in a live-action KoDT adaptation. To me, much of what makes KoDT work is reliant on the comic medium -- having the players sit in a certain order to help establish the character dynamics, for example. (DM B.A. is first, then impulsive Bob, with his follower Dave next, then Sara who often objects to Bob and Dave, and finally Brian, who reveals his scheming in the last moment.) A lot of the energy of the comic comes from everyone talking at once, which is easier to represent in a panel than in live action.

Also, the cartoony personalities of some of the characters are well suited by the comic medium, and I'm not sure how much I'd like them if they were live action. My worst fear is that live action Bob would seem like something out of the Big Bang Theory.

Maybe I'm all wrong and the movie would be wonderful. Those are just my first thoughts.

A "20 years of covers" book also seems to be a big part of their campaign. I have little interest in this, too -- many/most of the KoDT covers have been fine for what they are, but not the sort of thing I'd want to gaze at in a book format.

By comparison, the Giant's Kickstarter offered all sorts of stuff I really wanted at a great value. I did relish the opportunity to buy things from the Giant when I had been enjoying his material for free for years. The Kickstarter may have also been helped by the fact that most folks read OotS on the web, so the Kickstarter was just a click away. Also, I think the runaway train phenomenon had a lot to do with the success of the project. There was a lot of enthusiasm to start, which bred more publicity and success, which bred more enthusiasm, etc.

[ti'esar]

I'm not even sure why people are making this comparison. Lots of Kickstarters have been less successful than OOTS's, and while I guess they're both technically "gaming comics", KoDT is otherwise very different from OOTS.

[Nimrod's Son]

Knights of the Dinner Table is known only to D&D players. OotS is practically mainstream by comparison.

[madslaust]

Just curious, but as someone who is a long-time reader but missed the KS, is there any way I can get the 'Monster for every season' pdf's? Or am I just out of luck?

[Forbiddenwar]

Just curious, but as someone who is a long-time reader but missed the KS, is there any way I can get the 'Monster for every season' pdf's? Or am I just out of luck?

I believe the current speculation (correct me if it's been confirmed) is that this as well as some of the other rewards maybe released at a date down the road, once all the work is completed.


On another topic, has anyone gotten a crayon drawing yet? Or rather has anyone posted their crayon drawings yet?

[cheesecake]

Is Knights of the dinner table the same people who made the fuzzy knights?

I LOVED THE FUZZY KNIGHTS PHOTO COMIC!

[Rogar Demonblud]

The very short answer is no. Very different people entirely.

[Dr. Gamera]

Is Knights of the dinner table the same people who made the fuzzy knights?

I LOVED THE FUZZY KNIGHTS PHOTO COMIC!

Wildly off-topic, but Fuzzy Knights, which started as a tribute to KoDT, ran in print in the KoDT magazine for quite some time, as well as being hosted on the website of the publishers of KoDT.

[nogall]

On another topic, has anyone gotten a crayon drawing yet? Or rather has anyone posted their crayon drawings yet?

no and no, as far as I know, unfortunately.

[ForzaFiori]

My family pledged for a Stick It To Your Family portrait, and got an email maybe three weeks ago saying that the rewards were shipping. We got the box full of swag, but no portrait. We checked the email address we use for Kickstarter, including the spam folder, and it wasn't there. Any suggestions for what we should do about that? We tried contacting Rich through Kickstarter, but that was a couple of weeks ago and we haven't gotten a reply.

Also, does anyone know why, if the portrait wasn't included in the package with all the swag, the swag didn't ship until the portrait was ready? I've been waiting over a year for those Sticky Shtick cards.

[cheesecake]

Wildly off-topic, but Fuzzy Knights, which started as a tribute to KoDT, ran in print in the KoDT magazine for quite some time, as well as being hosted on the website of the publishers of KoDT.

I was just wondering. I stumped upon that comic a long time ago. I loved it!

[ChristianSt]

My family pledged for a Stick It To Your Family portrait, and got an email maybe three weeks ago saying that the rewards were shipping. We got the box full of swag, but no portrait. We checked the email address we use for Kickstarter, including the spam folder, and it wasn't there. Any suggestions for what we should do about that? We tried contacting Rich through Kickstarter, but that was a couple of weeks ago and we haven't gotten a reply.

Also, does anyone know why, if the portrait wasn't included in the package with all the swag, the swag didn't ship until the portrait was ready? I've been waiting over a year for those Sticky Shtick cards.

The portrait is digital. At least I haven't received a print version of my Stick it to You with my package (and I don't think others received one). I don't know why Rich decided when to ship the physical stuff, though.

Rich said earlier in this thread that he doesn't check KS messages often, but mostly when he does an update. So I assume he just haven't seen your message yet.

Since the digital portrait rewards aren't completely checked off in the last work-o-meter, I think you are just at the end of the line.

PS: When you finally receive your portrait I would love to showcase it off / share it along with other rewards in this thread: The Order of the Stick
Kickstarter Reward Collection

[Zar Peter]

Well, I'll fetch my swag pack tomorrow and haven't heard about the family picture, either.

Anyway, the moment I got it I will PM a sample to Christian for the Reward Collection for sure.