The Role of Influencers in TTRPG Kickstarter Success

Let’s talk about something that might not be pleasant to hear, especially if you’re hoping for an easy win. Influencers can be incredibly effective when it comes to marketing. In fact, video game publishers routinely spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on influencer campaigns even before their games launch. But here’s the key difference: they have resources far beyond what most tabletop RPG publishers can access.

So, the real question is: do influencers help boost your actual Kickstarter revenue in the TTRPG space? In my experience, if you’re a mid-scale publisher, the answer is mostly no.

To be clear, I’m not talking about organic collaborations or long-form playthroughs. I’m talking specifically about those “Today’s sponsor is XYZ Publishing and their ABCD project” style shout-outs that pop up in influencer videos. In this post, I’ll explain why I believe those don’t really work, and how influencer marketing can still be valuable if approached differently.

The Core Problem: Visibility ≠ Trust

There’s a common narrative in marketing: Influencers = Visibility = Success.

And I get why it’s tempting to believe that. On paper, it makes sense. But the TTRPG scene has evolved rapidly. A wave of successful publishers has emerged in a very short time, and this growth wasn’t mirrored by an equivalent increase in audience size. Just like with influencers themselves, demand quickly outpaced organic growth.

Many big publishers started making serious money, well-deserved, in most cases, and agencies entered the space, pouring more and more cash into influencer marketing. As influencers became more in demand, prices shot up. These days, if you want a mid- to high-tier influencer to promote your project, you’re often looking at $2,000 or more for a single piece of sponsored content.

Now, is the problem just the price? No, not at all.

The real issue is that Kickstarter is built on trust. Visibility is great, but expecting someone to pledge based on a 90-second sponsorship spot from someone they don’t know, about a product they’ve never heard of? That’s not how trust works, especially not in our niche.

Most influencers’ videos don’t hit millions of views. And even if they did, only about 0.5% to 1.5% of viewers click the campaign link. And only a portion of those become backers. To improve your odds, you’d need to sponsor multiple influencers across several platforms, repeatedly.

That’s a scale of investment that mid-scale publishers simply can’t sustain. From both personal experience and what I’ve heard from friends in the industry, most influencer campaigns on Kickstarter see a ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) of 1 to 1.5 at best. That means you spend $10,000 and maybe make $10,000 back, which isn’t a return at all, it’s break-even (or worse, considering time, logistics, and coordination costs).

To put it bluntly:

You’re too big for a sympathy signal boost, and too small for guaranteed ROI.

So… Are Influencers Useless?

Actually no, definitely not.

Influencers can offer serious advantages in building brand awareness, rather than driving direct sales, especially in niche and community-driven sectors like TTRPG and crowdfunding.

If you’re a mid-scale publisher with a limited advertising budget and your target audience still doesn’t know you well, influencer collaborations should be part of a “remember me tomorrow” strategy, not a “sell today” one. People support brands they trust in crowdfunding, and visibility is the first step in establishing that trust.

In this context, even if you don’t see immediate conversions, smart collaborations with influencers can result in a moment a year from now where a potential backer says, “Oh, I’ve seen this before!” Those moments of recognition can increase the effectiveness of your future ads, emails, and even your campaign page.

So here’s my recommendation: if you’re going to invest in an influencer, don’t plan it as a “sales campaign” plan it as a brand awareness campaign. That approach will be much more realistic and, in the long run, far more effective for mid-scale publishers like you.

In the end, influencer marketing isn’t a magic bullet, it’s a tool, and like any tool, its effectiveness depends entirely on how, when, and why you use it. For mid-scale TTRPG publishers, the goal shouldn’t be to chase viral moments or quick conversions, but to invest in long-term visibility and trust. Focus your limited resources on building a strong community, refining your messaging, and nurturing repeat backers who truly believe in your brand. Influencers can still play a role, but only if they fit into a broader, sustainable strategy that puts your audience, not the algorithm, at the center.