Nope, there is no safeguard for preventing the author to take you money and run away, and yes, the author can buy coke & hookers with the money if he wants. So you have to consider each kickstarter project separately, and it comes down to individual reputation and trust.
If you would have followed the grimdawn project since its inception, you would know that the donation/preorder options were all fan driven. In the beginning, several fans asked Crate Entertainment how they could support the project/give donation. This resulted in the preorder option on their webpage. Now recently (just search their forums), some fans pushed the idea of kickstarter to Crate Entertainment in order to speed up the development, and they complied. Now, the cynical person would think they already had the ideas beforehand and used the fans as excuse. Well, they have actually done stuff the last couple of years (just check out the videos), so it is not totally fake.
It is perceived as one of the more legit projects out there, since they are not unknowns and they have something to show. Nothing is for sure in this world, and you can never trust people you don't know 100%. TQ-fans like me want this project to succeed because we care about their previous effort and cannot wait to get our hands on their next one. We have already weighed the positives against the negatives, and in our minds the positives far outweighs the negatives. If this project does not even remotely tickle your buy-finger, then this game is not for you. If you like the premises of the game, but are unsure if you can trust the company then only you can decide if its worth the risk. The facts are there, it depends if it is enough for you.
