The Paragon of Crowdfunding
How Triangle Agency Blew Us Away
The Kickstarter That Got Us - Triangle Agency
Brian and I have a habit of texting each other when a new TTRPG launches. It goes something like this:
“Have you seen this? (link)”
“No, looking”
“Oh this looks sick”
Day 1 of the Triangle Agency campaign, we were both instant backers before the other could text.
Triangle Agency is a masterclass of a kickstarter page designed by Michael Shillingburg. With our recent February crowdfunding of Project ECCO, we both felt compelled to dig into what we and other creators can learn from what Haunted Table Games has done here. Here’s what got each of us:
What Elliot Noticed:
Art
It is immediately apparent that art was a major investment for this project. When I first caught wind of the game on twitter, it was the stark black, white, and red illustrations from Nathan Rhodes that piqued my interest for this game.
Diving into the Kickstarter page, it was clear that these initial images were only the beginning. Under the direction of Ryan Kingdom, five illustrators* have brought a breadth of killer imagery to this project into a cohesive whole. You can see a window into all of the elements that will be found in this book: characters, anomalies, items, icons, and full spread splashes that beckon you to step into the imaginative world within.
*This isn’t including the five additional artists hired to illustrate The Vault, a book of missions that features so many amazing designers and artists (and featuring Twenty Sided Newsletter contributor Will Jobst as editor!)
Key Takeaway: Art is worth the investment. If you can, investing in Art before you launch a crowdfunding effort will pay dividends.
Layout
The first thing you see on this page? A little red rotating pyramid GIF. What more do I need to say?
I may be over-excited about the GIFs, but it’s notable to me that there are GIFs! From the simple pyramid to the more product-focused tier images, the motion is additive at each use.
Triangle Agency’s page—expertly designed by Michael Shillingburg— made me realize just how much was possible with a kickstarter’s layout. I can’t say that I have ever seen such a stylized page. You’ll notice if you try to copy the text of much of this page, it’s not natively typed within kickstarter. They’ve made the choice to use image files to give variation to text placement, to lean on the fonts and iconography that you’re likely to see in the game, and to absolutely cram this page full of cool art. It’s a brilliant choice that accomplishes the primary goal of any kickstarter page: to give you a taste of the game you’re supporting.
Key Takeaway: Your crowdfunding page should be as interesting as your game will be. Find as many ways as you can to imbue it with the flavor and vibe of the final product you hope to deliver.
What Brian Noticed:
Teaser Trailer
This is one of the best trailers for a TTRPG I’ve ever seen. Full stop.
Let me start by noting the length of the video: it’s 6 minutes 46 seconds. That is extremely long for a trailer. In the world of Tik Tok and easy swiping, it is usually wisest to keep your trailer as short as possible. A video needs extremely good storytelling and great performances to hold anyone’s attention for that long. So it’s no accident that Haunted Table tapped Shannon Strucci, an extremely effective storyteller, and Carly Monardo, an excellent performer, to tackle this trailer.
This trailer accomplishes two important things. First, it communicates the premise as well as the overall vibe of the game. It immediately told me the kind of game it was and the types of stories it was interested in telling. Personally, I knew instantly that Triangle Agency was right up my alley and that I would be backing it at some level.
Second, this trailer is really fucking fun. This might seem trivial, but it is important to note that my first interaction with this game was watching this trailer and that experience was incredibly positive. By the end of the trailer I decided to increase my support of this project from the $60 tier to the $90 tier. In just 6 minutes 46 seconds this trailer gave me all the information I needed to make my decision and made me extremely excited to play this game.
Key Takeaway: Your campaign’s trailer is likely a potential backer’s first exposure to your game. Regardless of how “professional” you can make it, be sure that initial experience is a positive one.
Media & Upcoming Events
The media campaign for this kickstarter was so good that before the campaign was even live I genuinely thought this was just a really cool TTRPG that I had somehow never heard of before. That’s because Haunted Table coordinated a critical mass of actual plays and interviews from people I like and trust: Party of One, The Weekly Scroll, The Department of Variance of Somewhere, Ohio, and a whole lot more. This organized rollout of media means that potential backers have plenty of ways to experience the game–likely from a source they are already familiar with.
But the team at Haunted Table didn’t just front-load all their media offerings, they also have a slew of actual plays and interviews scheduled throughout the entirety of the campaign which means there are even more opportunities for the game to reach potential backers.
Key Takeaway: Offer as many on-ramps as possible to your Kickstarter and spread those entry points throughout the length of the campaign.
Press & Early Reviews:
In any crowdfunding campaign there is a group of people who will immediately back your project at a high level and a group of people who are simply not interested in your work. The key demographic your campaign is targeting is “The Undecideds.” These are the people who are either choosing between low and premium tiers or deciding whether to back the project at all. Often, the best way to convert these potential backers is through the power of a good recommendation.
The Triangle Agency campaign page makes great use of blurbs and pull quotes from notable members of the TTRPG community. By leveraging the audience’s trust in these peers, the crew at Haunted Table made it incredibly easy for anyone on the fence to say yes. A positive word from a trusted source is the single most powerful tool in your arsenal, so use it well and often.
Key Takeaway: Assemble a compelling press kit to send to relevant news outlets and collaborate with friends and peers who are trusted members of the community you’re trying to reach. (For tips on making a press kit, check out our recent issue: Self-Promotion Isn’t a Dirty Word.
It’s an oft quoted adage that to be a good writer you must be a voracious reader. That message extends to any art form, as well. Study what works, study what doesn’t, and take special note of anyone who is a master of their craft. The crew at Haunted Table are such masters and Triangle Agency is a perfectly-crafted crowdfunding campaign.
The Jobst Style Guide
An excerpt on terminology from Will’s upcoming zine
First, a little introduction. I’m Will Jobst, a tabletop game designer, publisher, and editor, working at Good Luck Press. I’ve edited dozens of roleplaying games and books, and I’m in the process of collecting the lessons I’ve learned, distilling my process and thoughts into a forthcoming zine called the Jobst Style Guide: a guide for writers, editors, and publishers of tabletop games. In this excerpt, it’s all about definitions and terms!
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Writing a game isn’t as simple as defining all your terms and then getting into the game. This is a luxury that happens after the design is done. Game readers and writers are used to a certain topology in their rules sentences. The topographical sentence is a sentence with lots of peaks and valleys in the form of over-capitalization: Games that are set in Places, with special People who deal with Problems. With Abilities and Health and Armor.
The effect here is to jar the reader into appreciating the importance of these terms, and to throw up a flag for the player that this sentence has keywords that will direct their eye and answer their question.
The Concept
Simplify the language needed to understand a game’s specific terms, define these terms early and regularly, be consistent and cautious with abbreviations, and use classic book elements to side-step the need for a topographical sentence (a sentence with lots of peaks and valleys in the form of over-capitalization).
Method 1
Introduce new terms in italics, and then define them. Always define terms near their first use.
Example
In this game, you play as Rumble Knights, protectors of this realm with chainmail and boxing gloves.
When creating your Rumble Knight, choose a background and a specialty. A background tells us who you were before donning the glove and the title belt. Your specialty reveals how you handle yourself in the squared circle.
The Four Perspectives
Reader
Each term has its own dedicated sentence that shows us what it means, explained as soon as it appears. There’s no gulf between learning about the existence of a concept, and what that concept is.
This method has the mystical element of “readability”. It’s the most like a sentence, without any aberrant capitalizations or abbreviations.
Player
As a player, I can read this out loud to my group during game night. No asides or parenthetical statements are needed from me to provide any additional context, it’s all there. Each sentence has the term at the beginning, and the sentences are short and sweet.
Editor
This rules text from Rumble Knights is a clean example of what comes after editing your game. Do whatever you can to beat the blank page, and then worry about these lofty goals. When your principal design is done and you’re ready for this sort of polish, this term-definition concept can serve as a blueprint for the structure of your manuscript. Introduce major concepts, drill into terminology, and then use the combination of the two to express your rules.
Layout Artist
Callouts, textboxes, and pull quotes are great ways to highlight this sort of information, or just simply and sublimely present the text as set.
Preview Method: Using a Glossary
If a game is divided into several major sections, across more than 20-30 pages, define that term in two places, whether it’s in another relevant section later, or in a key terms or glossary section. If you’re creating a glossary or key terms section, make it an inclusive list. If the glossary is big, group like objects together, like item tags or lore concepts.
When making a glossary, include the word, an abbreviation (if used), and a full sentence or two describing the concept. The glossary is a destination that holds the answers, so make sure you’re ready for when the reader flips to it.
Note: Tell your readers that there’s a glossary in this game, if you’ve got one. That sort of disclaimer works best if your text includes a “How To Use This Book” section.
Stay Tuned for More …
For more on setting terms, and the nitty gritty of writing and styling rules and text in RPGs, stay tuned here for more previews, and sign-up to the Good Luck Press newsletter for more updates!
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