November 19, 2024 • 15 mins
Are you designing a new TTRPG or supplement and feeling overwhelmed? You've got the idea down; you feel confident in writing it, but you don't know what to do next. Start here! In today's episode, your host, Courtney, describes the very first steps you should take to get your project ready. We're going over high level categories like art, layout, and marketing, and helping you get a grasp on how to get started with your new TTRPG project.
Want to work with Courtney one-on-one? Start here.
Find Roll Play Grow:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Courtney (00:11):
Hello, and welcome to Roll Play Grow, the podcast for
tabletop entrepreneurs,creators, and fans.
In this show, we dig intoprocesses, challenges, tips, and
really look at how to grow abusiness in the tabletop role
play gaming space.
Sit back and join in as we learnfrom the creators behind your
favorite brands, about who theyare, and how they are turning
their passion for gaming into acareer.
(00:32):
Welcome back friends.
If you listened to the episode acouple of weeks ago about follow
along with me on variousbusiness ventures, I talked
about how I am going to startdoing some shorter episodes in
between my interviews where wedive into specific topics in a
little bit more detail than whatwe're able to do in those
(00:54):
interviews.
And I wanted to start thisseries off with something that I
feel like a lot of my listenersare trying to get into, and that
is designing your own tabletopRPG games or supplements.
Now, I'm not going to sit hereand tell you how to design a
game.
(01:14):
That's not my expertise where myexpertise comes in and what
we're going to dig into isgetting organized.
And how to make this a reality.
So you may or may not know thatI am a career project manager.
I've been doing this for over adecade.
And in the last couple of years,I've started working
specifically with TTRPG.
And with very small gamedesigners that might be just
(01:38):
themselves or we work togetherto create a team.
And so these are some of thehigh level steps that I like to
take with my clients or advisethem to do right at the very
beginning of a project.
So presumably.
You already have an idea.
Maybe you are already writingit.
Maybe you have written it.
What you are struggling with ismaking the product into a
(02:01):
reality.
So the very first thing thatwe're going to do, and that
we're going to talk about rightnow is just brainstorming.
I don't mean about your content.
I mean about what are the stepsthat we need to take.
So grab a piece of paper or worddocument.
Or what's even better is if youalready have an account on a
project management software,like Trello, Asana, Wrike,
(02:22):
anything like that, that's agreat place to start.
I don't care where you do this,though.
Just start brainstorming.
What we're going to do is we'regoing to create big sections.
Like art.
Layout.
Editing.
Marketing.
Publishing.
Fulfillment.
If you're planning oncrowdfunding this, then you
definitely need a crowd fundingsection.
(02:44):
Once you have those largeheaders, large categories.
I want you to sit and thinkabout each of them and what are
the things that would need tohappen.
And we're not thinking about ifyou personally are able to do
it.
It's just, okay.
I know that I'm going to needsome artwork.
Or I'm going to need somecartography.
(03:05):
So let's write that down.
You can go ahead and startthinking about am I an artist,
if not, no.
One of the steps we're going tohave to take is find artists.
So you'll just write that downthen that will eventually become
a task and your projectmanagement plan.
Fine artists, or if you'replanning on using stock art,
it's look at stock art, samething with cartography.
(03:29):
Do you have the ability tocreate your own maps?
Do you want to hire acartographer?
Are you going to use somethinglike Inkarnate?
Whatever it is.
Go ahead and jot down thatthat's the step that you plan on
taking.
Now with layout again, samething.
Do you need to find a layoutartist or are you capable of
doing your own layout.
What about graphic design?
(03:49):
Because if your crowdfunding,you're going to want to have
header images for all of thedifferent sections on your
Kickstarter or your backer kitpage.
Are you capable of doing thatwith something like Canva or
illustrator, Photoshop, anythinglike that?
Or do you need to find a graphicartist?
Now, if you're planning onfinding a layout artist,
(04:09):
typically you can also have themmake graphic art as well.
And I like to do that becausethey're already going to be
working on the same style.
But either way, just think aboutwhat it is that you're looking
for.
Editing.
Absolutely.
You want to do find at least aproofreader.
It's great if you can also finda content editor, but at least a
(04:30):
proofreader, I don't care howgood you are at writing.
Everyone needs another set ofeyes so make sure that you put
find an editor as a task.
When we get to marketing, that'sgoing to be a really large
bucket, but at this point we'renot getting into minutia.
We're just going to talk aboutsocial media accounts.
So.
If you need to set up some, thatwould be a step like set up.
(04:52):
Social media sccounts on bluesky threads, whatever, if you
already have it great, you don'tneed to jot that down.
Just think about all right.
Social media podcasts, actualplays.
If those are things that youmight be interested in pursuing,
just jot those down at thispoint at this stage.
Are you doing a campaign onKickstarter or backer kit or
something similar.
Some of the big ticket items aregoing to be the prelaunch page
(05:15):
and the actual campaign pageitself.
So are you going to have avideo?
Again, you're going to needartwork.
You'll meet graphic design forthose headers that I already
mentioned.
Think about what your risks andchallenges are going to be your
tiers.
You don't have to decide whatyour tiers are.
We are way too early for that,but just, those are things that,
(05:35):
you know, you'll have to come upwith eventually.
So once you have all of thosejotted down, Then the big one
that we're going to write downis develop team.
And what I want you to do atthis point is, think about.
What of all of these differentcategories?
Are you either capable of doingright now or are wanting and
(05:57):
willing to learn how to do.
A lot of beginning gamedesigners.
Are confident in what they'vewritten.
And they don't think that theycan afford to hire all of these
people, which is a totally validconcern.
And so the look into thedifferent tools that are out
there.
(06:18):
So, for example, I havementioned Inkarnate earlier.
There's also dungeon scrawlerfor making dungeon maps.
Those do exist and you can learnhow to use them without being an
artist.
There is also ways that you canlearn.
You can watch YouTube videos andlearn how to do your own layout.
Now the trade off of this isthat it is of course going to
take a lot more of your timebecause you're going to have to
(06:40):
learn how to do it.
And it may not look asprofessional as if you hired
someone because everybody has tostart somewhere.
But either way, it's worththinking about what it is that
you're capable of doing whatyou're willing to do and where
you need to find help for therest of it.
So once, you know what it isthat you don't feel comfortable
(07:02):
doing, or just don't have theskills to do.
That is where you're going towrite the different types of
team members that you need tofind.
So you're looking for artists,you're looking for cartographers
sensitivity consulting, which Ihighly recommend, regardless of
what your project is.
Editing, proofreading.
(07:23):
If you need a marketingcoordinator, because you just do
not want to be in charge ofcoming up with that plan or
posting your social mediacontent constantly.
If you want to find someone likeme that is able to help you get
a plan together and stayorganized.
Regardless of what it is.
You're going to jot downeverything that you need to find
(07:45):
for your team.
However, we are not actuallygoing to start recruiting a team
yet.
Because remember at this stage,we are just the very beginning.
We're brainstorming.
We're trying to figure out whatit is that we need to do to get
started on this project.
So this next part is going todepend on whether you've already
started writing.
(08:05):
Or if you are just at thebeginning of all of this.
So earlier we weren't gettinginto the minutia of these tasks.
But now I want you to sit with,okay.
What do you still have to dobefore you would feel like
you're ready to start bringingin team members?
So if that is you've only havean outline of your idea.
(08:29):
Then great.
Let's create some to do items ortasks around writing the game,
writing the adventure.
What is the time commitment thatyou can make each week to work
on this project?
Set deadlines for yourself.
Find an accountability partner,even if it's just a friend.
(08:50):
To say, Hey, I would love if wecould check in every week, every
two weeks, and I can just updateyou on my process.
We don't have to get intodetail, but just, I had this
goal of writing.
500 words.
And one week, did I do it?
Because I find that that havingan accountability partner.
At least for me is a lot moremotivating.
(09:10):
Some other things that you canbe doing at this point are
gathering your inspiration forartwork.
If you are planning on hiringartists or cartographers, I want
you to start doing some Googleimage searches.
That are the genres that youfind inspiring.
(09:30):
So, if you are basing your gameoff of a specific movie or
anime, then look that up, findthe right vibes, find colors,
find the art styles that inspireyou and just start.
Putting them all together on adocument or presentation.
Even just a list of links ishelpful for when you eventually
(09:52):
start trying to find artists.
And then I want you to go backto that marketing section and
think more deeply about.
What social media platformsyou're already involved in.
Are you in discord servers?
That are there for collaborationthat are specific to the game
(10:12):
that you're writing a supplementfor or indie games in general.
If you're not go ahead and findthose servers.
Get involved.
Start talking.
Start offering feedback causeyou really need to start making
connections.
Marketing is not just aboutHocking your product.
It's about helping people findwhy it is that your game fits
(10:35):
something that they.
Didn't even know that they werewanting.
And they're not going to be ableto trust you if they don't know
who you are.
You're not going to be able tosay, Hey, I've got this game
coming out in a week.
Back at for me.
If they don't know who you areand you haven't been talking
about the game for at leastseveral months, you're going to
have a very hard time gettingyour crowdfunding campaign to
(10:57):
launch.
So start making thoseconnections.
Start Think about where youdon't already have a presence
and thinking of ways of how youcan build up that presence.
And the big thing that I'velearned with social media is
that it's not just about theposts that you make.
It's about the interaction thatyou have with other people.
So if people do comment on yourposts, reply back, But making
sure that you're going outthere, you're sharing other
creators.
(11:18):
You're commenting on otherpeople's posts The more you do
it, the more you get your nameout there, the more followers
you get, the easier it will bewhen you do eventually launch
your game.
Think about.
Where you are and where you canbe building up your presence a
bit more.
Do you have an email list?
And I do think that that's goingto be a topic that we could dig
into more deeply in a laterepisode, but it's also quite
(11:43):
important to set up an emaillist because as we've seen with
Twitter over the last.
Year.
And with the big old questionmark, about how long ticktock is
going to be around.
Since it's supposedly gettingbanned very soon in the us.
Social media is not a reliableplace to build up your
(12:05):
following.
The only area where you cancontrol your own audience is an
email list.
Now I'll be the first to admitthat I'm not great.
I keeping up with mine.
But it does exist.
It is out there.
And so at any point I can whipup an email and contact 2000
people.
(12:25):
And let them know what's goingon or what updates are there,
give them links to my products.
It is incredibly important thatyou build up an email list.
There are free platforms.
Like MailChimp is a very popularone that you can use to just get
started.
But again, we'll go into this ina much more detail in a later
(12:46):
episode.
So.
I feel like this has been a lotto think about.
At this point.
So I am gonna go ahead and wrapup this episode.
But we're going to keep talkingabout this in future episodes
and just, you know, how do yougo about finding a team?
We'll talk about that.
We will talk about what are somethings that you should be
(13:08):
thinking about when you'reactually setting up your
crowdfunding page?
But at this point, I just wantyou to do these high level tasks
and really think about what arethe steps that you need to take.
What are you needing to findhelp with?
And.
What are you willing to learn todo yourself?
(13:28):
If you're trying to keep yourbudget low.
Regardless of how far along youare in your project.
Everybody always needs someorganization.
And I hope that these beginningtips are helpful for you.
Let me know if you have anyquestions and if you ever want
to chat with me, one-on-one.
(13:49):
You can go to my website.
Lightheart Adventures dot com.
And click on the projectmanagement button on the main
menu and you'll be able to findsome different offerings that I
have, whether that's just, oh,hour long one-on-one session to
talk about a specific topic.
If you want to have help withgetting things started at the
(14:10):
very beginning of your projects.
Or if you want to hire me to beyour project manager.
You can find out informationabout all of that on my website,
but either way going to keepgiving you guys these tips.
I hope that helpful.
And let me know what y'all thinkin the comments.
Hello, and welcome to Roll Play Grow, the podcast for
tabletop entrepreneurs,creators, and fans.
In this show, we dig intoprocesses, challenges, tips, and
really look at how to grow abusiness in the tabletop role
play gaming space.
Sit back and join in as we learnfrom the creators behind your
favorite brands, about who theyare, and how they are turning
their passion for gaming into acareer.
(00:32):
Welcome back friends.
If you listened to the episode acouple of weeks ago about follow
along with me on variousbusiness ventures, I talked
about how I am going to startdoing some shorter episodes in
between my interviews where wedive into specific topics in a
little bit more detail than whatwe're able to do in those
(00:54):
interviews.
And I wanted to start thisseries off with something that I
feel like a lot of my listenersare trying to get into, and that
is designing your own tabletopRPG games or supplements.
Now, I'm not going to sit hereand tell you how to design a
game.
(01:14):
That's not my expertise where myexpertise comes in and what
we're going to dig into isgetting organized.
And how to make this a reality.
So you may or may not know thatI am a career project manager.
I've been doing this for over adecade.
And in the last couple of years,I've started working
specifically with TTRPG.
And with very small gamedesigners that might be just
(01:38):
themselves or we work togetherto create a team.
And so these are some of thehigh level steps that I like to
take with my clients or advisethem to do right at the very
beginning of a project.
So presumably.
You already have an idea.
Maybe you are already writingit.
Maybe you have written it.
What you are struggling with ismaking the product into a
(02:01):
reality.
So the very first thing thatwe're going to do, and that
we're going to talk about rightnow is just brainstorming.
I don't mean about your content.
I mean about what are the stepsthat we need to take.
So grab a piece of paper or worddocument.
Or what's even better is if youalready have an account on a
project management software,like Trello, Asana, Wrike,
(02:22):
anything like that, that's agreat place to start.
I don't care where you do this,though.
Just start brainstorming.
What we're going to do is we'regoing to create big sections.
Like art.
Layout.
Editing.
Marketing.
Publishing.
Fulfillment.
If you're planning oncrowdfunding this, then you
definitely need a crowd fundingsection.
(02:44):
Once you have those largeheaders, large categories.
I want you to sit and thinkabout each of them and what are
the things that would need tohappen.
And we're not thinking about ifyou personally are able to do
it.
It's just, okay.
I know that I'm going to needsome artwork.
Or I'm going to need somecartography.
(03:05):
So let's write that down.
You can go ahead and startthinking about am I an artist,
if not, no.
One of the steps we're going tohave to take is find artists.
So you'll just write that downthen that will eventually become
a task and your projectmanagement plan.
Fine artists, or if you'replanning on using stock art,
it's look at stock art, samething with cartography.
(03:29):
Do you have the ability tocreate your own maps?
Do you want to hire acartographer?
Are you going to use somethinglike Inkarnate?
Whatever it is.
Go ahead and jot down thatthat's the step that you plan on
taking.
Now with layout again, samething.
Do you need to find a layoutartist or are you capable of
doing your own layout.
What about graphic design?
(03:49):
Because if your crowdfunding,you're going to want to have
header images for all of thedifferent sections on your
Kickstarter or your backer kitpage.
Are you capable of doing thatwith something like Canva or
illustrator, Photoshop, anythinglike that?
Or do you need to find a graphicartist?
Now, if you're planning onfinding a layout artist,
(04:09):
typically you can also have themmake graphic art as well.
And I like to do that becausethey're already going to be
working on the same style.
But either way, just think aboutwhat it is that you're looking
for.
Editing.
Absolutely.
You want to do find at least aproofreader.
It's great if you can also finda content editor, but at least a
(04:30):
proofreader, I don't care howgood you are at writing.
Everyone needs another set ofeyes so make sure that you put
find an editor as a task.
When we get to marketing, that'sgoing to be a really large
bucket, but at this point we'renot getting into minutia.
We're just going to talk aboutsocial media accounts.
So.
If you need to set up some, thatwould be a step like set up.
(04:52):
Social media sccounts on bluesky threads, whatever, if you
already have it great, you don'tneed to jot that down.
Just think about all right.
Social media podcasts, actualplays.
If those are things that youmight be interested in pursuing,
just jot those down at thispoint at this stage.
Are you doing a campaign onKickstarter or backer kit or
something similar.
Some of the big ticket items aregoing to be the prelaunch page
(05:15):
and the actual campaign pageitself.
So are you going to have avideo?
Again, you're going to needartwork.
You'll meet graphic design forthose headers that I already
mentioned.
Think about what your risks andchallenges are going to be your
tiers.
You don't have to decide whatyour tiers are.
We are way too early for that,but just, those are things that,
(05:35):
you know, you'll have to come upwith eventually.
So once you have all of thosejotted down, Then the big one
that we're going to write downis develop team.
And what I want you to do atthis point is, think about.
What of all of these differentcategories?
Are you either capable of doingright now or are wanting and
(05:57):
willing to learn how to do.
A lot of beginning gamedesigners.
Are confident in what they'vewritten.
And they don't think that theycan afford to hire all of these
people, which is a totally validconcern.
And so the look into thedifferent tools that are out
there.
(06:18):
So, for example, I havementioned Inkarnate earlier.
There's also dungeon scrawlerfor making dungeon maps.
Those do exist and you can learnhow to use them without being an
artist.
There is also ways that you canlearn.
You can watch YouTube videos andlearn how to do your own layout.
Now the trade off of this isthat it is of course going to
take a lot more of your timebecause you're going to have to
(06:40):
learn how to do it.
And it may not look asprofessional as if you hired
someone because everybody has tostart somewhere.
But either way, it's worththinking about what it is that
you're capable of doing whatyou're willing to do and where
you need to find help for therest of it.
So once, you know what it isthat you don't feel comfortable
(07:02):
doing, or just don't have theskills to do.
That is where you're going towrite the different types of
team members that you need tofind.
So you're looking for artists,you're looking for cartographers
sensitivity consulting, which Ihighly recommend, regardless of
what your project is.
Editing, proofreading.
(07:23):
If you need a marketingcoordinator, because you just do
not want to be in charge ofcoming up with that plan or
posting your social mediacontent constantly.
If you want to find someone likeme that is able to help you get
a plan together and stayorganized.
Regardless of what it is.
You're going to jot downeverything that you need to find
(07:45):
for your team.
However, we are not actuallygoing to start recruiting a team
yet.
Because remember at this stage,we are just the very beginning.
We're brainstorming.
We're trying to figure out whatit is that we need to do to get
started on this project.
So this next part is going todepend on whether you've already
started writing.
(08:05):
Or if you are just at thebeginning of all of this.
So earlier we weren't gettinginto the minutia of these tasks.
But now I want you to sit with,okay.
What do you still have to dobefore you would feel like
you're ready to start bringingin team members?
So if that is you've only havean outline of your idea.
(08:29):
Then great.
Let's create some to do items ortasks around writing the game,
writing the adventure.
What is the time commitment thatyou can make each week to work
on this project?
Set deadlines for yourself.
Find an accountability partner,even if it's just a friend.
(08:50):
To say, Hey, I would love if wecould check in every week, every
two weeks, and I can just updateyou on my process.
We don't have to get intodetail, but just, I had this
goal of writing.
500 words.
And one week, did I do it?
Because I find that that havingan accountability partner.
At least for me is a lot moremotivating.
(09:10):
Some other things that you canbe doing at this point are
gathering your inspiration forartwork.
If you are planning on hiringartists or cartographers, I want
you to start doing some Googleimage searches.
That are the genres that youfind inspiring.
(09:30):
So, if you are basing your gameoff of a specific movie or
anime, then look that up, findthe right vibes, find colors,
find the art styles that inspireyou and just start.
Putting them all together on adocument or presentation.
Even just a list of links ishelpful for when you eventually
(09:52):
start trying to find artists.
And then I want you to go backto that marketing section and
think more deeply about.
What social media platformsyou're already involved in.
Are you in discord servers?
That are there for collaborationthat are specific to the game
(10:12):
that you're writing a supplementfor or indie games in general.
If you're not go ahead and findthose servers.
Get involved.
Start talking.
Start offering feedback causeyou really need to start making
connections.
Marketing is not just aboutHocking your product.
It's about helping people findwhy it is that your game fits
(10:35):
something that they.
Didn't even know that they werewanting.
And they're not going to be ableto trust you if they don't know
who you are.
You're not going to be able tosay, Hey, I've got this game
coming out in a week.
Back at for me.
If they don't know who you areand you haven't been talking
about the game for at leastseveral months, you're going to
have a very hard time gettingyour crowdfunding campaign to
(10:57):
launch.
So start making thoseconnections.
Start Think about where youdon't already have a presence
and thinking of ways of how youcan build up that presence.
And the big thing that I'velearned with social media is
that it's not just about theposts that you make.
It's about the interaction thatyou have with other people.
So if people do comment on yourposts, reply back, But making
sure that you're going outthere, you're sharing other
creators.
(11:18):
You're commenting on otherpeople's posts The more you do
it, the more you get your nameout there, the more followers
you get, the easier it will bewhen you do eventually launch
your game.
Think about.
Where you are and where you canbe building up your presence a
bit more.
Do you have an email list?
And I do think that that's goingto be a topic that we could dig
into more deeply in a laterepisode, but it's also quite
(11:43):
important to set up an emaillist because as we've seen with
Twitter over the last.
Year.
And with the big old questionmark, about how long ticktock is
going to be around.
Since it's supposedly gettingbanned very soon in the us.
Social media is not a reliableplace to build up your
(12:05):
following.
The only area where you cancontrol your own audience is an
email list.
Now I'll be the first to admitthat I'm not great.
I keeping up with mine.
But it does exist.
It is out there.
And so at any point I can whipup an email and contact 2000
people.
(12:25):
And let them know what's goingon or what updates are there,
give them links to my products.
It is incredibly important thatyou build up an email list.
There are free platforms.
Like MailChimp is a very popularone that you can use to just get
started.
But again, we'll go into this ina much more detail in a later
(12:46):
episode.
So.
I feel like this has been a lotto think about.
At this point.
So I am gonna go ahead and wrapup this episode.
But we're going to keep talkingabout this in future episodes
and just, you know, how do yougo about finding a team?
We'll talk about that.
We will talk about what are somethings that you should be
(13:08):
thinking about when you'reactually setting up your
crowdfunding page?
But at this point, I just wantyou to do these high level tasks
and really think about what arethe steps that you need to take.
What are you needing to findhelp with?
And.
What are you willing to learn todo yourself?
(13:28):
If you're trying to keep yourbudget low.
Regardless of how far along youare in your project.
Everybody always needs someorganization.
And I hope that these beginningtips are helpful for you.
Let me know if you have anyquestions and if you ever want
to chat with me, one-on-one.
(13:49):
You can go to my website.
Lightheart Adventures dot com.
And click on the projectmanagement button on the main
menu and you'll be able to findsome different offerings that I
have, whether that's just, oh,hour long one-on-one session to
talk about a specific topic.
If you want to have help withgetting things started at the
(14:10):
very beginning of your projects.
Or if you want to hire me to beyour project manager.
You can find out informationabout all of that on my website,
but either way going to keepgiving you guys these tips.
I hope that helpful.
And let me know what y'all thinkin the comments.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Intentionally Disturbing
Join me on this podcast as I navigate the murky waters of human behavior, current events, and personal anecdotes through in-depth interviews with incredible people—all served with a generous helping of sarcasm and satire. After years as a forensic and clinical psychologist, I offer a unique interview style and a low tolerance for bullshit, quickly steering conversations toward depth and darkness. I honor the seriousness while also appreciating wit. I’m your guide through the twisted labyrinth of the human psyche, armed with dark humor and biting wit.