![]() This is the easiest way to build an audience. Put some small free creations on DriveThruRPG.Take the Write Your First Encounter course from the Storytelling Collective - it’s worth the cost. Get involved in an online community like /r/UnearthedArcana/. Each game system requires certain standard syntax. Publishing a supplement is more detailed than creating an adventure or homebrew for your home game. Here’s how to get started without Twitter: I met some cool people there before I moved to Mastodon, but the return on the time investment would have been better spent elsewhere. When I started, I thought I needed Twitter to build my audience. Path through Goukhill Plantation by Lairich Rig is licensed under CC-BY-SA 2.0 Photo by William Fortunato on Start Your Quest Over time, each of you will help each other, you’ll expose your audience to new products, and your audience will grow at the same time. Or just promote their stuff without expectation of reciprocation. At the same time, by making friends whose lives and interests are different, you’ll expand your awareness, empathy, and creativity.Īs you expand your social circle, start talking to your friends about cross-promotion. Gamers often have eclectic tastes, so don’t limit your social circles. Find people who share your passions and your niche. “A rising tide raises all ships.” Consequently, the most effective form of marketing in the TTRPG industry is cross-promotion. Thanks to recent events, my belief about this industry has been solidly confirmed that, just as TTRPGs are cooperative games, not competitive, the same is true of the TTRPG publishing industry. Photo by Evgenia Basyrova on Find Your Allies And you need passion, or it’ll get boring fast, and you don’t want to turn your hobby into a business only to get bored. You need an audience that wants what you’re creating, even if they don’t know it yet, but it’s definitely easier if they know and are looking for it already. You need the skill to make something valuable, or you won’t get compensated for your work. Now find where all three of those overlap. Where’s your proficiency? When you get to work, what are you good at? What do you have a knack for? Are you a wordsmith, an artist, a crafter, a speaker…what rolls do you have bonuses on? Maybe people want jellyfish-themed subclasses or feather dusters that look like phoenixes or cockatrices.Ĭombat. What niche is underserved? What are people requesting that isn’t available? It could be a topic, a unique combination of topics, or a new product. What are your passions? What is your niche? What do you love creating? What mark do you want to leave on the hobby? What niche would you love to spend the next few years learning about, exploring, and working on? In TTRPG publishing, the tiers follow a similar pattern.Įxploration. The three pillars of any RPGs are exploration, social, and combat. ![]() But publishing requires a lot of work that’s not just creating. If you start as a freelancer and don’t start building an audience right away, you’ll have some makeup work to do if you decide you want more control over your work. It’s important that you decide which you want to be as you start out. ![]() Note: I’m presenting these observations and tips as a publisher, not a freelancer. I stepped into uncharted territory with a plan to launch a Kickstarter to get the business off the ground, but as an Enneagram Type 3 personality, I’m terrified of failure, so I was plagued by the question, “Will I succeed?” And not only do I consider myself already successful, but I believe I’ve learned how to do that, and in an industry where every challenge seems to be mythic, where the monster, once slain, rises again stronger than ever, it might be helpful to share my insights, as my road has been unlike most in this field. I didn’t have much to lose, since my day job wasn’t paying enough to sustain my family, but it was still a risk - something is better than nothing. I picked up a temporary day job to pay the bills and provide health insurance, but in July 2021, I left that job to focus on roleplaying game development full-time. ![]() In September 2020, I left my 22-year career with no prospects. ![]()
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