The risks-and-challenges section, in plain words.
Every crowdfunding platform that runs tabletop campaigns asks for a section on risks and challenges, and it is the section most designers write last, shortest and vaguest. “As with any project there may be unforeseen delays” says nothing a backer can check. The section is read by exactly the backers you most want: the ones who have been burned before and are deciding whether you are the kind of creator who tells them things.
The shape that works is four plain paragraphs, each answering one question a cautious backer is already asking.
1. What is done
List the finished things as facts with numbers on them: the rules are final after however many playtests you actually logged; the factory quote is in hand (say from whom if you can); the shipping route is costed; the art is this far along. A number you logged beats an adjective every time. Do not round the playtest count up; the people who ran them read these pages.
2. What is not done
Name the unfinished things as plainly as the finished ones. Forty percent of the art. The pledge-manager shipping rates for one region. The rulebook layout. A backer who sees the list believes the rest of the page more, not less, because now they know you can count.
3. Which line could move the date
Pick the one unfinished thing that sits on the schedule’s longest path and say so: “The remaining art is the one thing that could move the date.” One is credible. A list of six things that could all go wrong reads as a creator who has not worked out which one matters.
4. How backers will hear
Say where the news goes and when: an update before the date moves, not after; the comments answered within a day; a pledge manager that shows the real rate. This is the paragraph that turns a delay from a betrayal into a schedule change, and it costs one sentence now.
The worked example
The invented Tidewrack sample’s section, exactly as it appears on the sample page:
Four paragraphs, one hundred and twenty words, three numbers, one named risk, one promise about updates. Nothing in it the designer did not supply; nothing in it a backer cannot hold the designer to.
What not to put in it
- A funding promise or a “we will definitely deliver” line: you cannot know, and the section is for what you do know.
- Another game’s name, as a reassurance or a comparison.
- A list of generic risks copied from another page (“global shipping conditions may vary”) — backers recognise them.
- Stretch goals you have not costed, presented as if they were part of the plan.
The risks section earns the trust; the tiers spend it — pledge tiers in the designer’s words covers the offer itself.
Three questions.
Does a frank risks section lower pledges?
Not in our reading of the pages designers share afterwards. The section is required, so every backer who scrolls that far sees one; a vague one reads as a first-timer hiding something, a specific one reads as a creator who has done the sums. The backers who close the tab at a frank risks section were going to ask for a refund at the first delay anyway.
What if I genuinely do not know a risk yet?
Say that, in one sentence, and say when you will know: “The shipping quote for Australia is due in March; until then the pledge manager shows an estimate.” An unknown with a date beside it is a plan. An unknown left out is a surprise later.
Should I mention that this is my first campaign?
Yes, in the first line, and then say what you have already done about it: the playtests you logged, the quote you hold, the person you asked. First-timers fund every month; first-timers who pretend otherwise get found out in the comments.
Get the sample page first
The invented Tidewrack campaign page text as a PDF, and the eight things a backer reads before pledging and the three that make them close the tab.
Download the backer’s eight-things list now (PDF, one page, 189 KB) — no email needed.
The whole page text from your own facts, within two days, $59 / £47 / A$89 / C$79. We write the risks section the way this page describes it, from what you send; we promise nothing for you.