Crowdfunding Odysseus: What It Means and How It Works
It’s a new year and as we are approaching the beginning of our ticket sales, we want to share openly how our upcoming crowdfunding campaign works and why we chose this path. Even though tickets will be sold through a crowdfunding platform, this is still in practice a regular ticket purchase to a blockbuster larp.
There are a lot of different ways to use crowdfunding platforms, and while some projects backed through crowdfunding are mere donations in support of the project, this is not the case with Odysseus – First Light. We are based in Finland, which has pretty strict laws regarding donations; essentially meaning we can not accept them. Everything sold through crowdfunding needs to be transactional, meaning that the backer needs to receive equal value to their purchase.
In this blog post we will do our best to cover our reasonings to choose this option, as well as all the practicalities around crowdfunding.
Picture: Tuomas Puikkonen
Why we have chosen crowdfunding
Odysseus is a massive project that involves building a physical spaceship and employing a rather large team for close to two years. The financial commitment required at the start is enormous. Crowdfunding allows us to approach this responsibly: we only move forward if the community also believes the project should exist.
One of the biggest advantages of crowdfunding is peace of mind for everyone involved. If the funding goal isn’t met, no one is charged at all. It’s easier to sign up to a larp through a pre-registration or sign-up period than it is to actually commit to paying the game fee. Even if we would get a thousand or more preregisters, it would not directly convert into a thousand paying participants. If we started collecting money and then realized we don’t have enough interested people after all, we would potentially have collected hundreds of thousands of euros and have to return them, resulting in a huge hassle with refunds, international money transfers and possibly issues with bank and tax officials. Through crowdfunding we can reliably determine if we have enough interest before any money is transferred anywhere.
The best part is that the platform we have chosen also allows payment in installments, making the process more flexible for participants across the world. This means that when you back us, the entire amount is calculated towards reaching our goal, but you are not charged anything until the goal is reached. If and when the goal is reached you will be charged the first installment, if you have chosen that option, and the next installment automatically in the next month. You can choose to pay your purchase in up to four installments.
Crowdfunding also provides transparency from the very beginning. Everyone sees the goal, the timeline, the plan, and where the money goes. And lastly, while we cannot accept donations, through crowdfunding we can offer optional support tiers with additional perks for those who wish to support the project beyond the ticket price. These support tiers can help us reach our goal faster and give us additional budget to make the ship as awesome as it can be. However, none of the support tiers are mandatory, and it is very much possible to consider the crowdfunding just as a regular ticket purchase to an awesome larp.
The funding goal and where the money goes
Our goal for the crowdfunding is 850,000 €, as that is the minimum amount we have to collect for it to be reasonable for us to give this a chance, but it is not enough to keep us going for long. While the ticket price of 850 € is a lot of money and certainly more than the recent average ticket prices of large scale blockbuster larps, it is barely enough to cover all the necessary costs.
There will be quite a bit of administration and tax costs involved. The tax for ticket purchases in Finland is 13,5%, general tax for any other products is 25,5%, and the administrative costs of the crowdfunding platform and money handling will be 8%. So, roughly 25% of the money goes directly to taxes and administrative costs. And while that goes down a bit after the initial crowdfunding, there will still be significant administration costs involved going forward.
For the remaining 75%, the current budget is calculated so that about 50% of the money goes towards covering the costs of each particular run and shared part of ongoing expenses and about 25% goes towards covering the initial costs of building the spaceship.
If we are fortunate enough to continue running Odysseus beyond the crowdfunding and the first ten runs, the ticket price will remain at the same level. As evident from the percentages, this price is not an initial build cost that disappears once the ship is completed. While a significant portion of the early budget goes toward constructing the spaceship, the same share of each future ticket continues to support the project in meaningful ways.
After the initial build costs have been covered, this portion will be directed towards maintaining and upgrading the ship, ensuring it remains safe, immersive, and technically reliable. It hopefully also allows us to build a modest buffer for quieter periods and gives us the ability to keep developing new stories, writing new larps, and hopefully bringing more people onto the team in the future. Over time we also hope to create more affordable larps, especially for young people and newcomers to the hobby.
Due to this cost structure, the ship won’t be “finished” in a single step. Instead, we are building a strong, fully functional foundation, one that already delivers a powerful experience but also gives us room to keep improving and expanding it over time.
Lastly, we want to be fully transparent that this won’t be a volunteer-driven production going forward. We feel that our community is ready to have projects with different levels of ambition. It is simply not possible to keep running something like Odysseus as volunteer work, as it’s not sustainable in any way. And while we understand and mostly share all the concerns related to transforming the medium which has largely been volunteer-driven to something else, we truly feel it is worth it to pursue more ambitious projects as well. We are by no means the first large blockbuster production to not rely on volunteer work. In many cases, it’s a combination of paid and volunteer work, but we want to make a shift towards everyone involved being compensated. While wages will be very modest, comparable to small film studio extras, escape room companies, and similar industries, we believe strongly in compensating people fairly for their work. For a production on the scale of Odysseus, this means a run-time crew of approximately 20–30 people, supported by nearly 20 full- or part-time employees.
What are you buying when you back the project?
Backing the campaign is essentially buying a ticket in advance. If the goal is reached, you will receive a voucher that allows you to book one of the upcoming runs. The sign-up link to choose your run will be sent out in several waves, based on the order in which backers joined the crowdfunding. The earlier you back the project, the earlier your wave is to secure a spot in your preferred run. If the project doesn’t reach its goal, you’re simply not charged.
We are initially committing to 10 runs, starting from October 2026 and continuing until summer 2027. The planned dates will be available before the start of the crowdfunding but might be subject to change until the time comes to choose your run shortly after the crowdfunding is completed. If the campaign exceeds its goal, we will add stretch goal runs from summer 2027 onward. Everyone who buys a ticket during the campaign is guaranteed a spot, either within the first 10 runs or, if preferred, in later stretch goal runs once those open.
Among the first 10 runs, we aim to have one Finnish run and one Swedish run, and the remaining eight runs will be in English. Additional runs introduced through stretch goals will be in English unless stated otherwise. For the two local runs at least some of the materials, signs, instructions and announcements onboard will still be in English but the spoken language will be either Finnish or Swedish and there will be player support available in corresponding language for these runs. If there is not enough interest for localized runs, these runs will be converted to English runs.
Everyone who buys a ticket through crowdfunding will also receive a small thank-you gift containing memorabilia items you will receive once arriving at your run. This gift includes some small merch items like stickers, pin, badge etc. with at least one crowdfunding exclusive item that is not available through other means. We are also planning to include few early-bird benefits to kickstart the campaign.
In addition to tickets, we will have some support tiers available that don’t include a ticket to the event but some (mostly digital) items or special rewards that can either be bought in addition to a ticket or separately if you want to support us but are unable to attend the larp itself.
Picture: Christina Elgert
How and when everything happens
We have chosen to run the crowdfunding through Indiegogo and our prelaunch page will open later in January, giving everyone a chance to follow the project, get familiar with all the information provided, look through our available tiers and share any thoughts or comments with us, giving us time to make any adjustments we deem necessary before the launch of the campaign.
We are aiming to launch the campaign on Friday March 6th and it will run for 4 weeks until April 3rd.
Once the campaign is over, if we reach our goal, everyone who purchased a ticket will receive an email that allows them to book a spot in one of the upcoming runs. These emails will be sent in waves a couple of days apart, giving those who backed us early a chance to choose their preferred run earlier. The casting process will take place after you have chosen your run and will be handled through a short questionnaire, designed to be as automated as possible in order to keep the process fair and efficient.
To make casting more manageable at this scale, we will make some adjustments to the character profiles. As part of this approach, any romantic storylines written into the characters will be optional going forward. While we will do our best to create satisfying character fits, we are unfortunately not able to accommodate gender-based casting preferences involving romantic connections. Our aim is to preserve the richness, complexity, and interwoven relationships of each character while increasing player agency over the direction their character takes.
After the campaign has ended we unfortunately won't be able to make refunds. However, you will be able to change your booked run up to one month before it takes place. A detailed guide covering everything you need to know on the practical side, will be released in a separate blog post and published in an info page on our website before the start of the crowdfunding.
Picture: Lenne Eeronketo
Beyond Odysseus – First Light
Although Odysseus – First Light will be our flagship project, the ship will not sit silent between runs. In order to make this plan sustainable in the long run we can not rely solely on running Odysseus. There is a limited number of larpers and an even more limited number who are able to participate in this price range. The goal of this crowdfunding is to give us a chance to build our ship and to provide the opportunity to everyone who missed the previous runs to experience this larp. Early on, Odysseus will very much be a larp for larpers and it is our community who will determine if we are able to move forward or not.
But, we have grand plans to expand our narrative universe to all kinds of immersive experiences, ranging from small scenario-like adventures and newcomer-friendly space-exploration events, to children’s larps and company events. However, our next big thing if we get this ship off the ground, will be the continuation of Odysseus’ storyline in our next big larp for larpers: Odysseus – Way Home.
Our goal is to create a vibrant, living hub for interactive storytelling; something that supports both seasoned larpers and people curious to try the genre for the first time. Additionally, we are looking forward to cooperating with other larp organizers through joint productions as well as renting out our brand new spaceship to other projects as well.
In order to make all this a reality, we need to know that the interest is there. We need to know that our community supports us and wants to see this happen. If this is something you want to support, now is the time to act! Please help us reach everyone who might be interested in backing us once the crowdfunding starts.
Picture: Tuomas Puikkonen
Our values and vision
Since we are doing something new, something bold and also a bit divisive in our community, we want to share a few words about our values. We believe in transparency, community, and being able to do things professionally and sustainably. Larp as a medium is rather young and built around communities and volunteer work. Every one of us working towards making this dream possible have been part of that. We have all worked for decades as volunteers giving everything we can to create these amazing experiences to players both locally and internationally. Odysseus 2019 and 2024 were phenomenal feats of strength. It was insane that we were able to create them in the first place. They were truly a testament to the skill and dedication in this community we all are part of. But that was by no means a sustainable way of working.
There are already commercial applications of larp surfacing. Immersive experiences are taking steps towards more larp-like events and big larp groups around the world already operate at least partly professionally by paying their employees. The line has been blurring for years but there is very little transparency around the matter.
We do not want to go forward with vague statements and not disclose the “what and how” of what we are doing. We could have moved forward with just announcing that we will make another set of runs of Odysseus in 2026 and keep adding more runs when previous ones would fill up. I don’t think anyone would have had any concerns about it being commercial or it not being essentially the same larp. But that’s not how we want to operate. We want to lay everything out and be transparent about our plans and the fact that for this to be possible, it needs to be a paying job for us. Larp-creators, especially those who have already been working decades with the medium, are skilled professionals and should be compensated for their work. We all agree that other artists should be paid but somehow our community still believes that larps should remain volunteer only. We do think there is and always will be a part of the scene that is volunteer-based, but at the same time we do believe that there can also be a part of the scene that is not. And these two can co-exist.
Choosing crowdfunding is part of this philosophy: it ensures that the project only moves forward if our community believes in it with us.
Picture: Viima Strengell
In summary
This is still the same larp you fell in love with in 2019 and 2024, or you regret missing back then. We are determined to make it sustainable for us to keep running it and expanding the world we have created. The only difference to a traditional ticket sale is that it will be done through crowdfunding instead of a direct bank transfer to the organizer.
Crowdfunding won’t be a donation. It is a pre-purchase of the ticket to an upcoming run. While there are some risks involved, they are similar to any large scale larp production. We are determined to manage the budget in a way that makes it possible for us to host all promised runs, and what comes after depends on whether we can make Ellarion Tales sustainable in the long term.
We hope you will join us, follow the prelaunch page when it opens, share the project with your friends, and help us build the future of Odysseus together.
Header picture: Christina Elgert