The Lord of the Crowdfunding: Tolkien-inspired campaigns with Kickstarter, Gamefound, and more
Even though I have never managed to get “Lord of the X” into the snowclone database I am still happy to use it for any silly title I can come up with, like this one above.
As a formerly avid boardgamer I have always been interested in the development of games in general and how the business has been changing. Given the fact that it has become one of the biggest in the world – only surpassed by videogames, I will have to assume – the continuing consolidation aka move towards monopolies does not make me happy. Unfortunately, that is what we have to expect given brute force capitalism.
A lot of explanations have been given for the rise in the popularity of table top gaming (which I would probably call board and card gaming but anyway). When even NPR starts writing about the topic you can be sure it has reached a wider public.The podcast Nerdlab did an episode on Success Factors in the modern Board Games Industry. It comes as no surprise to me that a lot of these posts were from about 2019 and the fact that you even have research articles talking about this – published in 2021, following up on these successes – will give you an idea that at the end of the 2010s table top gaming became massively huge.
Our findings demonstrate that the innovative potential of crowdfunding goes beyond individual products to entire industries, as new ideas spill over to traditionally funded products.
Does crowdfunding really foster innovation? Evidence from the board game industry.
[At the time of writing the Prelaunched Crowdfunding Board Game Projects page with Boardgaming Geeks has more than 600 upcoming projects. The Liege of Games has been asking the question, though: Board Game Crowdfunding Crash: Is This the End of the Boom?]
Having said this, there seems to be space for a (niche way of) financing for smaller companies and I will be giving a (non-exhaustive) list of projects with a Middle-earthian twist, going backwards chronologically.
Background info and research on Kickstarter
How to Spot a Bad Kickstarter (and Why We Don’t Cover Crowdfunding) [New York Times – Wirecutter; möglicherweise Paywall]
Common Practices I Hate on Kickstarter [Opinion piece with Board Game Geek]
Everything Wrong With Kickstarter [Youtube]
Persuasive Reasons in Crowdfunding Campaigns: Comparing Argumentative Strategies in Successful and Unsuccessful Projects on Kickstarter [Taylor & Francis]
Top 17 Biggest Abandoned Kickstarter Campaigns [Tech Frontier AU]
Measuring project success: the fulfillment rate of crowdfunded projects on Kickstarter. [ResearchGate]
The results show that approximately 30 percent of projects are fulfilled or delivered on time or with less than six month delay. 40 percent of projects fail to delivery anything.
Official merchandise
Coming up
The Lord of the Rings™ Stained Glass: Rivendell
The Lord of the Rings™ | National Park Jigsaw Puzzle & Deck
Creator: Jackson Robinson. 1122% funded. Goal: $5,000. 1,295 backers pledged $56,085. Ended: September 6, 2025.
Middle-earth Adventures – The Brandywine Festival
Creator: Burgschneider. 673% funded. Goal: $80,000. 1,112 backers pledged $538,232. Ended: April 30, 2025.
The Lord of the Rings Fountain Pen & Ink Collection [Kickstarter]
Creator: Ferris Wheel Press. 10807% founded. Goal: CA$ 8,888. 3,001 backers pledged CA$ 960,517. Ended: April 30, 25.
The Lord of the Rings Fountain Pen & Ink Set [Indiegogo]
The Lord of the Rings Fountain Pen & Ink Set. $710,077 total funded by 3060 backers. May 1, 2025.
Officially licensed The Lord of the Rings™ stained glass art
Creator: Geek Orthodox. 1065% funded. Goal: $10,000. 569 backers pledged $106,521. Ended: October 12, 2024.
The Lord of the Rings Playing Cards Vol. 3
Creator: Jackson Robinson. 2156% funded. Goal: $20,000. 4,255 backers pledged $538,877. Ended: July 4, 2024.
Moria™ – Through the Doors of Durin for The One Ring™ RPG
Creator: Free League Publishing. 5360% funded. Goal: SEK 250,000. 3,009 backers pledged SEK 13,398,937. Ended: September 14, 2023.
The Lord of the Rings Playing Cards Vol. 2
Creator: Jackson Robinson. 1723% funded. Goal: $25,000. 4,613 backers pledged $430,828. Ended: April 21, 2023.
The Lord of the Rings Playing Cards Vol. 1
Creator: Jackson Robinson. 3288% funded. Goal: $20,000. 8,259 backers pledged $657,609. Ended: May 20, 2022
THE ONE RING™ Roleplaying Game, Second Edition
Creator: Free League Publishing. 17071% funded. Goal: SEK 100,000. 16,596 backers pledged SEK 17,070,638. Ended: March 4, 2021.
The Lord of The Rings™ Coins
Creator: Shire Post Mint. 528% funded. Goal: $5,000. 350 backers pledged $26,386. Ended: March 2, 2017.
Licensed Coins from The Lord of the Rings ™ & The Hobbit ™
Creator: Shire Post Mint. 1085% funded. Goal: $8,000. 658 backers pledged $86,817. Ended: December 1, 2015.
Other Media
Joseph Purdue did A Tale Of Fellowship – Musical Concert and Unfolding Tales – Stockwell Playhouse as well as Unfolding Tales – LONDON PERFORMANCE.
Dimitra Fimi did Echoes of Ancient Greek Literature in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Work.
Jan Kögler did Horn of Gondor – Tolkien Fan Film.
James A. Owen did The Inklings Art Print Set.
Pins etc. are a dime a dozen, here is an example: Tolkien: Valar Heraldic Devices Enamel Pin Collection Pt. 1.
Hobbit Holes #3 – Around the World are 12620% funded.
The Self-Made Hobbit hole had to be redone as “our previous hole was infected by fungi and now we need new and better materials to make it safe and fungi free.”
And there are many, many projects that never made it… Go through these Hobbit-inspired projects.
Indiegogo
The New York Tolkien Conference (2015) was funded.
Gamefound
The Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation Ultimate Edition
5,620 backers funded $1,309,756.64. Goal: 2619.51%. Ended: June 6, 2025.
Rings & Realms:The Lord of the Rings-The War of the Rohirrim
Creator: Signum University. 115% funded. Goal: $15,000. 169 backers pledged $17,187. Ended: January 14, 2025.
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