Role are after $60,000 from a Kickstarter campaign. That’s a tough ask to make of the RPG community these days, as many software projects have fallen short but there’s something about Role that’s caught people’s attention.
As it stands at the time of writing, there are two weeks left on the Kickstarter, and they’ve raised just shy of $30,000. You can check the progress at the campaign page.
I think Role would have had more money in its coffers if it had promised people lifetime deals in the pledges. That might have been a trap, though. Role doesn’t just need to Kickstart. It needs a financially stable future.
Geek Native podcast listeners will have heard me talk about how virtual tabletops and marketplaces are closely linked. It’s savvy business and what Role are doing is that and more. The extra element is a community.
Role are offering up their new platform as a matchmaking service as well as a virtual tabletop solution and marketplace. That will appeal to the new generation of gamers who don’t have established groups and will appreciate the introductions.
At the same time, Role are not being shy about how important diversity is to them. Not only is that the language the new generation of gamers (most of them, anyway) want to hear, but it’ll help with the community too. Inclusion is always better than toxic exclusion.
How much does Role cost?
These are the Kickstarter prices, and it takes only $5 to get into the ROle Early Access program later this year. You’ll also get 3 exclusive Premium SKins for the interface and your name on the thank you page. This may be enough to forever mark you as someone who found Role before it launched.
$20 gets you a Role Master Edition 1 year subscription at launch as well as the Early Access program, you get those 3 skins but also 1 exclusive digital game supplement. That’s a chance to see what Role content will look like.
$60, which half as many people have gone for, gets you the same as $20 but 6 exclusive digital game supplements. That’s a cheap way to buy those game supplements if they’d usually cost the same as a Roll20 extension or DriveThruRPG PDF.
When does Role launch?
It’s fiendishly hard predicting software releases, but the Early Access program is slated for December 2020. The primary platform is a year away; May 2021.
In other words, either Role is being suitably conservative with its time estimates to safely manage our expectations or there is a lot still to do.
It may be the latter because we’re not told very much about the virtual tabletop functionality. It may just be a dice roller over a video interlay.
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