News Roundup: Kickstarter Restricts NSFW Content: Impact on TTRPG Creators

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This week, we’re taking a look at updates to the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, where the owners are restricting what sorts of adult content are allowed.

Kickstarter Restricts Adult Content on Crowdfunding Platform

The crowdfunding platform Kickstarter announced new guidelines restricting adult content on its platform, much to the dismay of NSFW-oriented creators in the TTRPG space.

A new “Mature Content Creator Guide” was published earlier this week, which elaborated on the types of adult content that would be allowed to be crowdfunded on Kickstarter. It specifically added criteria stating that any art with “implied nudity where the subject is wearing lingerie, fetish wear, or clothing that is see-through or very tight and shows human genitalia, the anus, or the nipple/areola of female breasts” will not be allowed to fund.

A lot of this is driven by the fact that the payment processor Stripe (which Kickstarter relies on quite a bit) has been adopting guidelines that place additional restrictions on adult content. Comic creators like Mike Wolfer noted that they have been receiving messages from Kickstarter stating that projects containing NSFW content would be reviewed to determine whether they comply with Stripe’s guidelines.

At least one adult comic project has been taken down since the new guidelines were implemented, according to Bleeding Cool.

This has notable implications for creators like Phoenix Grey, a TTRPG creator best known for writing Lewd Dungeon Adventures. Grey said they were working to negotiate a contract with Stripe to allow them to sell adult content, but that effort went up in smoke with the most recent change in the rules.

Ludic Lemur, the team behind the video game adaptation of the Monsterhearts TTRPG, announced that they are postponing their crowdfunding campaign and exploring new options.

Plus One Exp also announced that it moved its upcoming Soothwardens crowdfunding campaign from Kickstarter to Backerkit due to the content restrictions.

The new content policy will limit the crowdfunding platforms available to adult-themed TTRPG creators, although its competitor, BackerKit, continues to allow adult content in various forms. The NSFW restrictions will likely have a significant impact on adult comic creators, who regularly use Kickstarter to fund smaller issues of adult comics that might struggle to get approval from mainstream publishers like Image Comics or Dark Horse Comics.

The changes to Kickstarter are the latest evidence of growing pressure on payment processors to crack down on adult content. Itch.io faced notable scrutiny last summer over how it restricted adult content after credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard forced them to put additional restrictions on NSFW content.

“TTRPG Historical Archive” 4 Pillar Games Earns Ire of TTRPG Community Over AI Usage, Ownership

One of the big stories that gained traction online this week was around 4 Pillar Games, a website that attracted some attention within the TTRPG community. It got TTRPG Insider’s attention after it decided to embed our RSS feed on its homepage (both flattering and worrying, if I’m honest.)

The website describes itself as a resource for TTRPGs and the creators, including an archive of TTRPG designers and creators. Unfortunately, the content in those archives is AI-generated, relies on AI-generated images of the designers (many of which are out of date, inaccurate, or nonexistent), and is filled with false information.

Designers were made aware of this website by David Thompson on BlueSky, and immediately protested. Some reached out to the creators, only to have their requests to have their bios pulled down ignored. Others saw bios go up immediately after protest arose.

The project originally had gaming veterans like Dragonlance author Don Perrin and former GAMA chairman Reece Wardrip involved. Investigators quickly linked the project to a fourth owner, a man named Ken Whitman. Whitman is a TTRPG creator known for scamming through crowdfunding and selling himself as a bigger deal than he actually is.

The entire website is a mess of nonsense. The TTRPG community does need resources and documentation to track its ephemeral shifting of creators and media, but websites like this do little good.

Anyway, I recommend checking out EN World and Rascal News’ deep dives into how ridiculous this website is, since they actually did the work to investigate it.

Dungeon Crawler Carl Raises $13M, Making it the Largest Amount Raised by TTRPGs in 2026

Renegade Game Studios’ Dungeon Crawler Carl RPG and Unstoppable board game raised over $13 million, making it the most successful campaign of 2026 to date. It was unable to beat out Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere TTRPG, which raised $14 million in 2024. It’s also, arguably, the most funding raised by a Backerkit TTRPG campaign to date. While the game’s pitch was a bit lackluster when it came to rules, the appeal of the popular LitRPG game shows how strong the appeal of a popular IP can be in crowdfunding…again.

This isn’t really a TTRPG item, but it is something that I am extremely excited about. Glitch Productions, the folks behind The Amazing Digital Circus and Knights of Guinevere, released the pilot for GAMEOVERSE, a new project from animator RubberRoss and Game Grump aka Arin Hanson. It’s a distinct spin on video game/isekai storytelling where the game’s end is not’t as happy as we want.

As a big fan of indie animation, I hope more people give this a look, and really recommend it.

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