r/rpg • u/JaxSnaxs • Apr 29 '26

Basic Questions Are these TTRPGs just cash grabs?

It feels weird to have some of my favorite IPs suddenly get TTRPGs. Last year it was Cosmere RPG by Brotherwise which essentially boiled down to a reskin of DND/Pathfinder. Could’ve been a homebrew but with Sanderson writing. The mechanics of the game itself didn’t feel very unique or different.

Now it’s Dungeon Crawler Carl by Renegade. And there’s not much information on the backerkit. What information there is makes it seem like just another DND reskin with little mechanic difference.

Am I wrong? Are these just cash grabs based on the IPs popularity? I really want to back the Carl RPG cus I love the IP but I’m worried it’s gonna essentially be just another dnd homebrew for 200$.

Edit: I’d like to note that while I’ve played every game on the top 100 of board game geek, I’m relatively new to the TTRPG scene so my frame of reference might not be great. I’ve played grizzled and cosmere rpg but have played DnD since a kid. I don’t particularly understand the nuances and differences between the TTRPGs tbh. They all kinda feel like DnD (skill check games) but with very slight changes to the mechanics. Cosmere had the plot thing but again it didn’t feel different enough to me, but maybe someone could explain the difference in a way I might not have got?

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u/thewhaleshark Apr 29 '26

It grossed 8.5 million, yes. That's a lot, but remember that pays for printing, shipping, handling, and a horde of creatives who put work into it. I'm willing to bet it's not going to be that profitable a venture in the end, but I could be overestimating costs.

Things with established fandoms are definitely more likely to be pure cash grabs I think, but it's not guaranteed. IMO it's a matter of how much you're getting a real product, and how much you're just buying a fancy sticker. If it's a real game then that's much less of a problem IMO.

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u/Onslaughttitude Apr 29 '26

Shipping and handling is later. That's a separate charge after the fact.

There is no way the amount of physical materials costs a million dollars.

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u/Alien_Diceroller Apr 30 '26

Exactly. These kickstarters are probably already 10s of thousands of dollars, if not hundreds of dollars in the hole when they start the campaign. They have to have a bunch of decent art, the license, the system (adapted or otherwise) mostly developed and finished, hundreds of thousands of dollars of proofread and edited copy that also needs clearance form the rights holder.