Cosmere Overtakes Avatar Legends To Become Biggest TTRPG Kickstarter Ever!

With a full five days left to go, Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere RPG has passed Avatar Legends' record of $9.5M to become the highest funding tabletop roleplaying game podcast ever! Just its first-day total of $4.3M put it at #4 in the official Million Dollar Kickstarter Club, and it looks set to comfortably set a lead of at least $2M. Backer Tracker currently projects a total of just under $12M, while Kicktraq predicts $12.3M.

Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club

Avatar Legends leads the pack in an exclusive club -- Kickstarters for tabletop roleplaying game products which have broken the $1M barrier! It is currently the most successful TTRPG Kickstarter in history with a funding total of nearly $10M, and over 80,000 backers. [UPDATE--Backerkit started...

www.enworld.org

While the backer count is under half that of Avatar, the Cosmere dollar total is currently sitting at nearly $9.8M. Brandon Sanderson already holds the Kickstarter record for the most funded project ever--his novel series made over $40M on Kickstarter in 2023!

Published by Brotherwise Games, the game encompasses Brandon Sanderson's entire universe of novels. It includes a world guide, a rulebook, and an adventure called Stormlight Stonewalkers. It's a new game system, based on a d20 mechanic with talent trees and skill-based magic.

It only remains to be seen how far it can go--but one thing is for sure: Brandon Sanderson has yet another world record to his name!

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[Parmandur]

On his Instagram, Sanderson said that they are genuinely shocked, as they were internally projecting that this would be a couple million, maybe, similar to the Cosmere miniatures Kickstarter Brotherwise ran a few years ago.

 

[Nikosandros]

On his Instagram, Sanderson said that they are genuinely shocked, as they were internally projecting that this would be a couple million, maybe, similar to the Cosmere miniatures Kickstarter Brotherwise ran a few years ago.

Really? I admit that I don't follow Sanderson, but I thought that there was a general consensus that it would be a huge, multi-million, success. Anyway, it must be pleasant to be shocked this way...

 

[Parmandur]

Really? I admit that I don't follow Sanderson, but I thought that there was a general consensus that it would be a huge, multi-million, success. Anyway, it must be pleasant to be shocked this way...

I mean, they were expecting success: the Stormlight minis did $4.1 million on Kickstarter, one of Brotherwise Games' biggest projects. But not #1 of all time success..


Sanderson & Co. actually tend to be pretty sober and down to Earth with business projections, as a rule. They expected to get maybe 25k backers for the 4 Secret Novels project, and had to go to the book binders with an order of 185,000 books after getting a top estimate for 30k....

 

[Nikosandros]

So, all this talk has made me curious. If I wanted to read something, would the the first Misborn trilogy (assuming I'm reading the Wikipedia page correctly) be a good "entry" point?

 

[sevenbastard]

Brandon Sanderson already holds the Kickstarter record for the most funded project ever--his novel series made over $40M on Kickstarter in 2023!

He made $40 million in a previous Kickstarter? No hate, like good for him as an artist, it's cool when something creative also makes people rich. Never read his books but still bravo.

That's real rich. A million isn't what it used to be but 40? He can do what he wants without being tied to a publisher. Freedom the real prize.

 

[Parmandur]

So, all this talk has made me curious. If I wanted to read something, would the the first Misborn trilogy (assuming I'm reading the Wikipedia page correctly) be a good "entry" point?

Mistborn is a good place to start, though the Cosmere is pretty self-contained and there are multiple places to start. My recommendation would be the 2013 Hugo award winning novella The Emperor's Soul: it is nice and short without any immediate ties to a longer work, and showcases all of Sanderson's strengths as a writer.

Sanderson has his own current recommended reading order guide thst he talks through in a few minutes:

 

[Parmandur]

He made $40 million in a previous Kickstarter? No hate, like good for him as an artist, it's cool when something creative also makes people rich. Never read his books but still bravo.

That's real rich. A million isn't what it used to be but 40? He can do what he wants without being tied to a publisher. Freedom the real prize.

Honestly, most of that money went into the product and warehouse staffing, lol.

Also crazily...after that huge Kickstarter, those books went on to be New York Times bestsellers when Tor published the standard versions.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So, all this talk has made me curious. If I wanted to read something, would the the first Misborn trilogy (assuming I'm reading the Wikipedia page correctly) be a good "entry" point?

It would be. I started with the Stormlight Archive. So long as you start with the first book in one of the series or a stand-alone novels you should be fine. My sister enjoyed Tress of the Emerald Sea but hasn’t read any of the other Cosmere books.

 

[Spectral Anomaly]

With a full five days left to go, Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere RPG has passed Avatar Legends' record of $9.5M to become the highest funding tabletop roleplaying game podcast ever!

Woah, when did I miss that this was going to be a podcast???

So, all this talk has made me curious. If I wanted to read something, would the the first Misborn trilogy (assuming I'm reading the Wikipedia page correctly) be a good "entry" point?

It's a great entry point. I blew through those 3 books maybe 12 or 13 years ago and loved them. Finally got around to the Wax and Wayne books this summer and am wondering why I'd put them off for so long. The only thing holding me back from the Stormlight Archives are the sheer length of each one, but I think I'm finally ready to dive in.