The Kickstarter Question: Should You Back Board Games?

Kickstarter board games are the most exciting purchase in the hobby and the one most likely to arrive a year late to a shelf that has moved on without them. Crowdfunding has produced some of the best games of the past decade. It has also produced a great many boxes of miniatures that were opened once, admired, and never played.

This article is part of our Smart Buying series, which starts with how to buy used board games. The question here is narrower: when a campaign page is open in front of you and the timer is ticking, how do you decide? Two tests do most of the work, and one group rule keeps the damage contained.

Why back board games on Kickstarter at all?

Crowdfunding has real advantages, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise.

Games that would not exist otherwise. Many designs are too odd, too big, or too niche for a traditional publisher. Crowdfunding lets a designer go straight to the people who want the game. Some of the most distinctive titles on hobby shelves started this way.

Extras you cannot get later. Campaign-exclusive content, upgraded components, and stretch goals are often only available to backers. If you know you want the game, backing is sometimes the only way to get the complete version.

Early access and a sense of involvement. Backers often see the game first, shape it through feedback, and feel like part of the project. For some people that is worth a lot. It is also, as we will see, the thing that makes the decision harder than it should be.

Sometimes a lower price. Early-bird pledges can beat eventual retail, especially for big games with lots of components. Sometimes. Not always, once you add shipping.

The risks of crowdfunding board games

Now the other side, stated plainly.

Delays. Campaigns routinely deliver months or years after the estimated date. Manufacturing, freight, and fulfillment all take longer than the page suggests. By the time the box arrives, your group’s tastes may have changed, your shelf may be full, and the excitement that made you pledge may be gone.

No reviews yet. You are paying for a game nobody outside the design team has played in its final form. Preview coverage is based on prototypes and is often paid for by the publisher. The game you back and the game you receive can differ in ways that matter.

The deluxe upsell. Campaign pages are built to move you from the base pledge to the deluxe pledge. Metal coins, miniatures instead of standees, premium inserts, playmats. Each one is a small step, and together they can double the price of a game you were not sure about in the first place.

Shipping and tariffs. Shipping is often charged separately and after the campaign, and it can be a large fraction of the pledge for a heavy box. On top of that, US tariffs on goods from China, where most game components and especially plastics are made, have raised costs since 2025, and publishers have said those effects would keep showing up through 2026. Some campaigns have passed those costs to backers after the fact. Budget for the pledge, the shipping, and a possible surprise.

The money is gone either way. A pledge is not a purchase from a store. If the project fails or the publisher folds, you may get nothing. It is rare, but it happens.

Your group cannot play it yet. This one is easy to forget. A game you back today cannot hit the table for a year or more. The cost per play clock starts the day you pay, and for a crowdfunded game the plays start much later.

Test one: would I buy this at retail?

Here is the first test, and it cuts through most of the noise. Imagine the campaign is over. The game is sitting on a shelf at your local store at its eventual retail price, with reviews published and your friends’ opinions in hand. Would you buy it?

If the answer is yes, backing is a reasonable way to get it early and possibly cheaper. You are buying a game you want and accepting some delay and uncertainty in exchange for extras.

If the answer is no, or “I’m not sure,” you are not backing a game. You are backing a feeling: the countdown, the stretch goals, the comments section, the fear that the exclusive content will be gone forever. That feeling is worth exactly nothing at the table.

A useful follow-up: would you buy this at retail if the box were plain? Strip away the miniatures and the metal coins and ask whether the game underneath is one your group would choose on a Tuesday night over what is already on the shelf. If the answer depends on the components, the components are doing the selling, and the game may not hold up without them.

Most campaigns fail this test for most people, and that is fine. The best possible outcome of a campaign page is often closing it. The game will almost always reach retail, and you can play before you pay like you would with anything else.

Test two: do I need the deluxe version?

If the game passes test one, the next question is which pledge level. Campaign pages are designed to make the deluxe tier look like the obvious choice. It usually is not.

Ask three questions:

1. Does the upgrade change how the game plays? A better insert saves setup time. Metal coins feel nice. Miniatures instead of cardboard standees change nothing about the decisions at the table. Only the first one has a claim on being functional.
2. Would anyone at my table notice? Be honest. Most players care about whether the game is fun, not whether the tokens are wood or plastic. If the upgrade is for you alone, price it as a gift to yourself, not as part of the game.
3. What is the cost per play of the upgrade alone? As an illustration, say the deluxe tier is $60 more than the base. If your group plays the game twenty times, that is $3 per play for prettier pieces, before dividing by players. That is not nothing, but it is not a catastrophe either. If you play it five times, it is $12 per play for prettier pieces. Think about which number is more likely.

The honest answer for most backers, most of the time, is the base pledge. The game is the game. If you later find you love it enough to want the upgrade, deluxe components often appear on the secondary market from backers who did not.

The group rule: one backer per campaign

Now the part that matters most if you play with the same people regularly.

The One Copy Rule says a play group needs one copy of a game, not one copy per person. Nowhere does that rule pay off faster than with crowdfunding, because crowdfunded games are expensive, slow to arrive, and often unproven. A group in which three people each back the same $120 campaign has spent $360 on a game that will arrive in a year and may get played five times, total. Run the second-copy test: do the extra copies create plays that would not otherwise happen? With a campaign, almost never.

So the rule is simple: one backer per campaign. When a campaign catches the group’s interest, decide together who backs it. That person owns the group’s copy, it lives on the shared shelf, and everyone plays it when it arrives.

A few ways to make the rule work in practice:

• Let the lane decide. If your group uses Claim a Lane, the person whose lane the game fits is the natural backer. A big co-op campaign goes to the co-op person.
• Rotate the burden. If the group backs a few campaigns a year, take turns so no one person carries all the risk.
• Split the pledge when it is large. For a very expensive campaign that the whole group wants, nothing stops you from chipping in on one pledge. One copy still arrives; the cost is shared. Agree in advance on who keeps it if the group ever drifts.
• Decide before the campaign ends. Pick the backer early so nobody pledges in a late-night panic on the final day.
• Apply the two tests as a group. “Would we buy this at retail?” is an easier question to answer with four people than with one.

The group rule also solves the deluxe question. If only one person is backing, the group can decide together whether the upgrade is worth it, and the person backing is not tempted to go deluxe just because a friend did.

A short pre-pledge checklist

Before you click, answer these:

1. Would I buy this at retail, with the reviews in, at the eventual price?
2. Would I buy it with plain components?
3. Which pledge level changes how the game plays, and which just changes how it looks?
4. What will shipping cost, and have I budgeted for a tariff surprise?
5. Does anyone else in my group plan to back it? If so, who is the one backer?
6. Will my group still want this game in a year, when it arrives?

If you cannot answer all six with confidence, close the page. The game will almost certainly be available later, and by then you will know whether it is any good.

FAQ

Is it worth backing board games on Kickstarter?

Sometimes. Backing is worth it when you would buy the game at retail anyway, you want the exclusive extras, and you can wait a year or more for delivery. It is not worth it when you are unsure about the game, when the deluxe components are doing the selling, or when the pledge plus shipping costs more than you would pay for a proven game.

What are the risks of backing a board game?

Delays of months or years, no independent reviews of the final game, deluxe upsells that can double the price, shipping charged after the campaign, and tariff-related cost increases passed to backers. There is also a small chance the project never delivers. Budget for the pledge, the shipping, and the possibility that your group’s tastes change before the box arrives.

Should I get the deluxe edition of a Kickstarter board game?

Usually not. Ask whether the upgrade changes how the game plays or only how it looks, whether anyone else at your table would notice, and what the upgrade alone costs per play. Functional upgrades like a good insert can be worth it. Miniatures and metal coins are nice to own but rarely change the decision to play.

Should everyone in a game group back the same Kickstarter?

No. A play group needs one copy of a game, and crowdfunded games are the most expensive, slowest, and least proven copies you can buy. Pick one backer per campaign, let that copy live on the group’s shared shelf, and split the pledge if the game is very expensive. Extra copies almost never create extra plays.

More from Smart Buying

• How to Buy Used Board Games Without Getting Burned
• The One Copy Rule: Why Your Play Group Only Needs One Catan
• Play Before You Pay: The $0 Start to a Board Game Collection
• Why Board Games Cost More Now (And What to Do About It)
• Convention Buying Without Regret

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