This look at the million-dollar Dungeons & Dragons 5e Kickstarters was written as part of the history of “Hit Point Press”, which will appear in Designers & Dragons: The ’10s.
Prior to the COVID pandemic, there were just two pure RPG Kickstarters that broke a million dollars: 7th Sea in 2016 and Humblewood in 2019. Matt Coville’s two Kickstarters from the era are a little harder to classify. They both focused on a D&D 5e sourcebook, but they both also included miniatures, and the first also included support for Colville’s streaming work. However, no matter whether you count the ’10s total as two, three, or four million-dollar pure RPG Kickstarters, one thing is obvious: D&D 5e was popular, since it was the system for all the million-dollar Kickstarters except John Wick’s 7th Sea.
Following the COVID pandemic, the number of RPG Kickstarters topping a million dollars every year jumped from one or two to five or ten. More than half of them continued to be for D&D 5e supplements, not even including stand-alone 5e-based RPGs such as Adventure Time: The Roleplaying Game (2025?), Tales of the Valiant (2024), and Tanares (2024).
A number of companies have been particularly successful at D&D 5e publication. Though some of that was interwoven with the celebrity of streaming success, the million-dollar D&D 5e Kickstarters more generally showed just how powerful the industry’s original game was in the 21st century.
| Date | Product | Raised | Backers | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2/9/18 | Strongholds & Streaming | $2,121,465 | 28,918 | MCDM |
| 3/12/19 | Humblewood | $1,001,085 | 14,604 | Hit Point Press |
| 10/21/19 | Kingdoms, Warfare & More Minis | $1,372,685 | 19,033 | MCDM |
| 5/12/20 | The Deck of Many Animated Spells, Tarot & More | $1,310,509 | 9,871 | Hit Point Press |
| 2/1/21 | The Seeker’s Guide to Twisted Taverns | $1,650,431 | 17,924 | Eldermancy |
| 4/19/21 | Grim Hollow: The Monster Grimoire | $1,348,160 | 15,530 | Ghostfire Gaming |
| 4/20/21 | Auroboros: Coils of the Serpent | $1,260,863 | 10,218 | Warchief Gaming |
| 6/1/21 | Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting | $1,845,422 | 18,082 | Loot Tavern |
| 6/28/21 | Dungeons of Drakkenheim | $1,279,240 | 13,376 | Dungeon Dudes |
| 10/12/21 | Fool’s Gold | $2,479,888 | 16,929 | Hit Point Press |
| 3/17/22 | The Griffon’s Saddlebag Book Two | $1,237,197 | 11,710 | Griffon’s Saddlebag |
| 4/12/22 | Flee, Mortals!: The MCDM Monster Book | $2,084,117 | 27,009 | MCDM |
| 7/19/22 | Steinhardt’s Guide to the Eldritch Hunt | $2,692,698 | 19,723 | Monkey DM |
| 8/15/22 | Sebastian Crowe’s Guide to Drakkenheim | $1,025,330 | 8,963 | Dungeon Dudes |
| 8/1/23 | Obojima: Tales from the Tall Grass | $2,610,869 | 23,416 | 1985 Games |
| 8/30/23 | Moria (The One Ring) | SEK 13,398937 | 13,009 | Fria Ligan |
| 9/12/23 | Ryoko’s Guide to the Yokai Realms | $3,327,234 | 26,377 | DnD Shorts |
| 10/3/23 | The Crooked Moon | $4,020,234 | 21,793 | Legends of Avantris |
| 3/26/24 | Monsters of Drakkenheim | $1,065,710 | 8,078 | Dungeon Dudes |
| 4/2/24 | The Field Guide to Floral Dragons | $1,163,164 | 13,210 | Hit Point Press |
| 5/21/24 | Erevan’s Guide to Death & Beyond | €1,177,240 | 7,237 | Archvillain Games |
Among the biggest success stories were:
Dungeon Dudes. The Dungeon Dudes were an example of how livestreaming games could lead to Kickstarter success. The Dudes’ Drakkenheim Youtube games were the foundation of their first Kickstarter, Dungeons of Drakkenheim (2022). Teaming up with Ghostfire Gaming, who already had a million-dollar Kickstarter under their belt, likely didn’t hurt.
Ghostfire Gaming. The Australian-based Ghostfire Gaming conversely showed that strong designs could bring a 5e supplement company success in the ’20s. Their dark fantasy Grim Hollow (2020), combining an evocative setting with a unique mechanism to transform player characters into monsters, brought them immediate success. They later shared their Kickstarter momentum with other publishers such as Dungeon Dudes and Eldermancy.
Hit Point Press. The Canadian-based Hit Point Press also demonstrated that unique characters could sell, as their Humblewood (2019) supported a variety of animalistic PCs. But more generally, it might have been their attention to art that brought them success—a characteristic Humblewood shared with their Field Guide to Floral Dragons (2025) release. Hit Point Press also shared in the bounty of Youtube when they Kickstarted Fool’s Gold: Into the Bellowing Wilds (2024) and has partnered with other million-dollar Kickstarters such as Griffin Macauley of The Griffon’s Saddlebag and Loot Tavern.
Loot Tavern. Loot Tavern, a French studio that continuing the million-dollar international trend, got its start producing illustrated magic items and adventures on Patreon. By the time they ran their first Kickstarter, for Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting (2022), they were already bringing in $10,000 a month from Patreon, making them one of the bigger D&D 5e Patreon successes (alongside Griffin Macauley and his Saddlebag). A partnership with Hit Point Press helped ensure that Loot Tavern’s initial Kickstarter was a success. They’ve since paid that on with support for Monkey DM and DnD Shorts in their own million-dollar Kickstarters.
MCDM. Matt Colville’s company may be the most iconic of Youtube-adjacent 5e Kickstarters, as it led the way with a two-million-dollar campaign in 2018 that supported both Colville’s livestreaming and the Strongholds & Followers (2018) book for D&D 5e. That success has continued on BackerKit, where Colville’s Draw Steel RPG (2025?) brought in $4.6M even though the game was in a very early stage of design at that point.
Together, these publishers help to answer the question: how do you make a D&D 5e Kickstarter a million-dollar success?
Have a strong artistic sensibility (like Hit Point Press or Loot Tavern or Macaulay). Support unique characters (like Humblewood or Drakkenheim). Build it up with a Youtube channel (like the Dungeon Dudes or MCDM or the Fool’s Gold campaign). Oh, and the word “Guide” in your product title doesn’t hurt.
Million Dollar Published Sources
Morrissey, Russ. 2021+. “Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club.” En World. https://www.enworld.org/threads/million-dollar-ttrpg-kickstarter-club.678540/.