The record for the biggest tabletop roleplaying game on Kickstarter has a new holder, and it is a gloriously neon one. Neon Odyssey, a science-fantasy space opera from Avantris Entertainment, the studio behind actual-play series Legends of Avantris, pulled in more than £11.2m (over $15.2m) from upwards of 46,000 backers, making it the most-funded TTRPG campaign Kickstarter has ever seen.
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Find events near youThe pitch is a 1,400-page space-opera trilogy set in the neon-lit galaxy of Stardust Rhapsody, built for the 2024 revision of Dungeons & Dragons 5E (the one a lot of people now call 5.5E). You get starship rules, space combat, factions and missions bolted onto the 5E chassis your group probably already knows, so there is no whole new system to learn before you can fly. The campaign asked for a modest $60,000 and sailed past it by more than 25,000 per cent.
For a sense of scale, the previous Kickstarter record holder was the Cosmere RPG, which raised $15.15m from over 55,000 backers in 2024. Neon Odyssey nudged ahead of it with fewer backers spending more each. For a team that grew out of the actual-play scene rather than a major publisher, that is some statement.
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Start organising for freeBackers will be waiting a while to actually play it, mind. The trilogy is slated for 2027, with a wider retail release to follow. If a chrome-and-neon spin on 5E sounds like your table's next big campaign, it could be worth finding a group to share the cockpit with.
Sources: Tabletop Gaming | Avantris
