December 10, 2024 • 11 mins
In today's episode, we continue the discussion on starting with your own TTRPG project. Once you've figured out what roles you need to fill on your project, how do you go about finding your team?
Make sure you listen to today's episode to find out the exact steps you need to take to pick out your project team.
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Find Roll Play Grow:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Courtney (00:32):
Welcome back friends.
We are continuing ourconversation on getting started
with a new gaming project.
So whether that is creating anew game altogether or writing
supplements for an existinggame, we are digging in into
getting this product actuallymade.
(00:54):
So two weeks ago, we talkedabout high level, just
brainstorming, getting yourideas together on what are all
of the steps that you need totake.
And today we're going to talkabout finding a team if your
project is large enough, thatyou are wanting to recruit some
members.
So hopefully you've alreadyfigured out who it is that you
(01:14):
need to find, what skills it isthat you need help with, because
that is some stuff that wetalked about two weeks ago.
So now we're going to go abouthow do we actually find those
team members?
And a lot of that is going tostart with the preparation that
you have done.
What I mean, is.
If you are looking for artists,hopefully, you took my advice
(01:36):
two weeks ago and you created aidea, board of images that are
the vibe that you're going forwith your game.
And if you haven't already donethat, that's all right.
You want to make sure that youdo it before you start looking
for your artists.
Cause you maybe in this searchof looking at images and looking
at vibes, you actually found anartist that you really like.
(01:58):
They should have some form ofcontact.
So you can go ahead and contactthem directly.
If that's not the case, becausemaybe you are basing your game's
vibe off of a movie or an animeor TV show, then you've at least
gathered inspiring images fromthose sources that you can use
(02:20):
as your design board.
The same is going to go withlayout.
If there are specific games thathave inspired you, that you
really like the layout in them.
Not that you want to copy thelayout.
We're not going to do that, butthat are inspiring to you, then
grab some images of that layoutthat you like.
You're also going to think aboutif you are publishing this book,
(02:43):
or if it is going to be a PDFonly, and if you do want to
publish this book, what size doyou want the book to be?
Do you want it to be eight and ahalf by 11.
Do you want it to be a smallerbook, a larger book.
It's going to be squarerectangle, hardcover, softcover
these are all, some things thatyou'll want to think about as
(03:04):
you're starting to look for yourlayout designer.
For writers, hopefully you'vegathered some inspiration on the
style of writing that you'relooking for.
Again, these are all creativepeople and it's going to help if
you have narrowed down what itis you want in your product, for
them to help you create thiscome to life.
So once you've done all of thathomework.
(03:26):
That's when we're going to startlooking.
And there's a couple ofdifferent methods in which you
can do this.
Social media is a big one,especially if you've managed to
gather at least a couple hundredfollowers, but even if not, then
if you use the hashtags andstart really promoting it, then
you should be able to have somefolks reply to your posts.
So you're going to writesomething along the lines of I
(03:49):
am designing a futuristic TTRPGset 500 years from now, and I'm
looking for artists that have astyle similar to this.
And that is where you will sharethose photos of inspiration.
You'll want to make sure thatyou're tagging or hashtagging
TTRPG.
If it's a supplement forspecific game like D&D or Mork
(04:11):
Borg, make sure that you haveused a hashtag for that as well,
and just start putting thoseposts out there.
You're also going to want to dothe same thing on discord
servers.
So there are a lot of differentdiscord servers out there.
Again, if you are working forspecific games, Then find those
games, find Mork Borg, find D&D.
Usually for D&D, you're going towant to look at the DMS Guild,
(04:34):
discord server or thedrive-through RPG discord
server.
And you'll find a lot of folksthere.
But those are going to be somebig places where as well, you
will just post, and especiallyin discord, you can make posts
about I'm looking for writers,artists, layout editors.
You could put that all in onebig post and just start having
folks contacting you.
It's really helpful if you havemore than one contact method.
(04:57):
So perhaps they could DM you ondiscord.
Or if you want them to emailyou.
Same thing with the socialmedia.
Can they DM you or would youprefer email?
You'll put that as part of yourmessage.
That's going to be a big one,and especially for some of the
roles like art, And writing,you're probably going to get way
(05:18):
more interest then what you areactually going to be able to
accommodate and.
For you, that is honestly a goodthing.
You want to make sure that theyare sending you samples.
If they have rates, then havethem send you what their rates
are.
And I'm not saying that youshould only pay what their rate
is if you're going to have thebudget to be able to pay more,
(05:39):
offer that, but don't try tonegotiate for less than what
they say their rate is.
Because honestly, In thisindustry, folks tend to
undervalue themselves.
So at minimum, be prepared topay what they're asking for.
And it's always nice to offermore if you're able to.
But either way, we're not atnegotiating stage right now.
We're just trying to find thepeople that would be interested
(06:01):
in working with you.
Let's say you've got 10 peoplethat all sent you a writing
sample.
You are going to schedule timefor yourself to read the
samples.
And then, as unpleasant as itmight sound, you need to rank
them.
Because you might wind up likinga lot of them and wanting to
work with a lot of them.
(06:21):
But you are going to have tocome up with a ranking system of
how concise is their writing,how close to the vibe that
you're looking for.
Come up with a metric so thatyou can go through and really
evaluate.
Like how much of a good fitthese people are going to be for
your product.
Secondly, as icky as it mightsound, you are going to want to
(06:45):
investigate folks a little bit.
So hopefully they've got aportfolio.
You can find their social media.
Just take a glance through your,their profiles to make sure that
not just their writing or artstyle fits, but also they
themselves fit with the vibethat you're going for.
Because unfortunately there area lot of bad actors in the TTRPG
(07:07):
space.
And you want to make sure thatas far as you are able to tell,
their values, align with yours.
And that there hasn't beenscandals on previous sites, that
maybe haven't quite followedthem to the newer social media
sites.
It doesn't sound fun, but it isgoing to be important for you in
the long run to make sure thatyou're not accidentally working
(07:29):
with any bad actors.
So once you have narrowed downwho it is that you want to work
with, you can decide on, let'ssay maybe you can only afford to
add two artists or two writersto your team.
But there's a few more that youactually would love to work
with.
Maybe you could have somestretch goals that if you are
(07:53):
doing a crowdfunding campaignand you hit a certain amount,
then you can hire an additionalwriter.
Maybe they're doing an extraadventure or able to contribute
to your monster manual or yoursetting.
Folks are honestly, always happyto be added in a project in any
way they can, even if that is asa stretch goal.
Same with the artists.
(08:14):
You know, maybe you want to addsome more and a stretch goal can
be that you get to add 25% moreart or something like that.
You can find ways to try andinvolve more people, and the
fact that they know that it's astrategical, honestly, help
motivate them to promote yourcrowdfunding page because not
(08:35):
only does your game need to yourfund at the base level, it also
needs to find even higher, sothat they can get to participate
and be able to work with you.
So once you've decided on who itis that you're going to work
with, I always, always, alwaysadvise having a written
agreement of exactly what it isthat you've discussed.
So what is it that they aregoing to provide for you?
(08:59):
And what is it that you aregoing to pay them?
If they are committing to aspecific time frame, go ahead
and jot that down.
If it's a certain number ofreviews with the art.
Anything it is that y'all havediscussed you want to make sure
that you have that in a writtendocuments and agreement.
There are some templates outthere online that you can find
(09:21):
for free to help you getstarted, because I know that
that is always something that Istruggled with at the beginning,
because I am not a lawyer by anymeans.
But just having some sort ofagreement written down at that
both parties sign is going tohelp you in the future.
So once you found everybody onyour team, it is helpful to
gather them all into one place.
(09:43):
I recommend discord.
You can have just a privatediscord server and it's just
full of your team members.
And then that way you'll be ableto chat with them and have
things be coordinated as you getstarted on your project and get
further along.
So that is it for what we'regoing to talk about for today's.
I hope that that helps you havesome ideas on where it is that
(10:04):
you can look for your teammembers.
As always, if you have anyquestions, let me know.
And if you would like to workone on one, with any projects
you can go to my website.
LightheartAdventures.Com.
Click on the project managementtab in the main header.
And you'll find some options onhow we can work together from
(10:24):
just a one hour consultation,all the way up to hiring me to
be your full PM.
I appreciate y'all listening tothese episodes and I know that
next week we've got a super funinterview, so be sure to follow
and subscribe so that you canlearn from a very enlightening
guest.
Welcome back friends.
We are continuing ourconversation on getting started
with a new gaming project.
So whether that is creating anew game altogether or writing
supplements for an existinggame, we are digging in into
getting this product actuallymade.
(00:54):
So two weeks ago, we talkedabout high level, just
brainstorming, getting yourideas together on what are all
of the steps that you need totake.
And today we're going to talkabout finding a team if your
project is large enough, thatyou are wanting to recruit some
members.
So hopefully you've alreadyfigured out who it is that you
(01:14):
need to find, what skills it isthat you need help with, because
that is some stuff that wetalked about two weeks ago.
So now we're going to go abouthow do we actually find those
team members?
And a lot of that is going tostart with the preparation that
you have done.
What I mean, is.
If you are looking for artists,hopefully, you took my advice
(01:36):
two weeks ago and you created aidea, board of images that are
the vibe that you're going forwith your game.
And if you haven't already donethat, that's all right.
You want to make sure that youdo it before you start looking
for your artists.
Cause you maybe in this searchof looking at images and looking
at vibes, you actually found anartist that you really like.
(01:58):
They should have some form ofcontact.
So you can go ahead and contactthem directly.
If that's not the case, becausemaybe you are basing your game's
vibe off of a movie or an animeor TV show, then you've at least
gathered inspiring images fromthose sources that you can use
(02:20):
as your design board.
The same is going to go withlayout.
If there are specific games thathave inspired you, that you
really like the layout in them.
Not that you want to copy thelayout.
We're not going to do that, butthat are inspiring to you, then
grab some images of that layoutthat you like.
You're also going to think aboutif you are publishing this book,
(02:43):
or if it is going to be a PDFonly, and if you do want to
publish this book, what size doyou want the book to be?
Do you want it to be eight and ahalf by 11.
Do you want it to be a smallerbook, a larger book.
It's going to be squarerectangle, hardcover, softcover
these are all, some things thatyou'll want to think about as
(03:04):
you're starting to look for yourlayout designer.
For writers, hopefully you'vegathered some inspiration on the
style of writing that you'relooking for.
Again, these are all creativepeople and it's going to help if
you have narrowed down what itis you want in your product, for
them to help you create thiscome to life.
So once you've done all of thathomework.
(03:26):
That's when we're going to startlooking.
And there's a couple ofdifferent methods in which you
can do this.
Social media is a big one,especially if you've managed to
gather at least a couple hundredfollowers, but even if not, then
if you use the hashtags andstart really promoting it, then
you should be able to have somefolks reply to your posts.
So you're going to writesomething along the lines of I
(03:49):
am designing a futuristic TTRPGset 500 years from now, and I'm
looking for artists that have astyle similar to this.
And that is where you will sharethose photos of inspiration.
You'll want to make sure thatyou're tagging or hashtagging
TTRPG.
If it's a supplement forspecific game like D&D or Mork
(04:11):
Borg, make sure that you haveused a hashtag for that as well,
and just start putting thoseposts out there.
You're also going to want to dothe same thing on discord
servers.
So there are a lot of differentdiscord servers out there.
Again, if you are working forspecific games, Then find those
games, find Mork Borg, find D&D.
Usually for D&D, you're going towant to look at the DMS Guild,
(04:34):
discord server or thedrive-through RPG discord
server.
And you'll find a lot of folksthere.
But those are going to be somebig places where as well, you
will just post, and especiallyin discord, you can make posts
about I'm looking for writers,artists, layout editors.
You could put that all in onebig post and just start having
folks contacting you.
It's really helpful if you havemore than one contact method.
(04:57):
So perhaps they could DM you ondiscord.
Or if you want them to emailyou.
Same thing with the socialmedia.
Can they DM you or would youprefer email?
You'll put that as part of yourmessage.
That's going to be a big one,and especially for some of the
roles like art, And writing,you're probably going to get way
(05:18):
more interest then what you areactually going to be able to
accommodate and.
For you, that is honestly a goodthing.
You want to make sure that theyare sending you samples.
If they have rates, then havethem send you what their rates
are.
And I'm not saying that youshould only pay what their rate
is if you're going to have thebudget to be able to pay more,
(05:39):
offer that, but don't try tonegotiate for less than what
they say their rate is.
Because honestly, In thisindustry, folks tend to
undervalue themselves.
So at minimum, be prepared topay what they're asking for.
And it's always nice to offermore if you're able to.
But either way, we're not atnegotiating stage right now.
We're just trying to find thepeople that would be interested
(06:01):
in working with you.
Let's say you've got 10 peoplethat all sent you a writing
sample.
You are going to schedule timefor yourself to read the
samples.
And then, as unpleasant as itmight sound, you need to rank
them.
Because you might wind up likinga lot of them and wanting to
work with a lot of them.
(06:21):
But you are going to have tocome up with a ranking system of
how concise is their writing,how close to the vibe that
you're looking for.
Come up with a metric so thatyou can go through and really
evaluate.
Like how much of a good fitthese people are going to be for
your product.
Secondly, as icky as it mightsound, you are going to want to
(06:45):
investigate folks a little bit.
So hopefully they've got aportfolio.
You can find their social media.
Just take a glance through your,their profiles to make sure that
not just their writing or artstyle fits, but also they
themselves fit with the vibethat you're going for.
Because unfortunately there area lot of bad actors in the TTRPG
(07:07):
space.
And you want to make sure thatas far as you are able to tell,
their values, align with yours.
And that there hasn't beenscandals on previous sites, that
maybe haven't quite followedthem to the newer social media
sites.
It doesn't sound fun, but it isgoing to be important for you in
the long run to make sure thatyou're not accidentally working
(07:29):
with any bad actors.
So once you have narrowed downwho it is that you want to work
with, you can decide on, let'ssay maybe you can only afford to
add two artists or two writersto your team.
But there's a few more that youactually would love to work
with.
Maybe you could have somestretch goals that if you are
(07:53):
doing a crowdfunding campaignand you hit a certain amount,
then you can hire an additionalwriter.
Maybe they're doing an extraadventure or able to contribute
to your monster manual or yoursetting.
Folks are honestly, always happyto be added in a project in any
way they can, even if that is asa stretch goal.
Same with the artists.
(08:14):
You know, maybe you want to addsome more and a stretch goal can
be that you get to add 25% moreart or something like that.
You can find ways to try andinvolve more people, and the
fact that they know that it's astrategical, honestly, help
motivate them to promote yourcrowdfunding page because not
(08:35):
only does your game need to yourfund at the base level, it also
needs to find even higher, sothat they can get to participate
and be able to work with you.
So once you've decided on who itis that you're going to work
with, I always, always, alwaysadvise having a written
agreement of exactly what it isthat you've discussed.
So what is it that they aregoing to provide for you?
(08:59):
And what is it that you aregoing to pay them?
If they are committing to aspecific time frame, go ahead
and jot that down.
If it's a certain number ofreviews with the art.
Anything it is that y'all havediscussed you want to make sure
that you have that in a writtendocuments and agreement.
There are some templates outthere online that you can find
(09:21):
for free to help you getstarted, because I know that
that is always something that Istruggled with at the beginning,
because I am not a lawyer by anymeans.
But just having some sort ofagreement written down at that
both parties sign is going tohelp you in the future.
So once you found everybody onyour team, it is helpful to
gather them all into one place.
(09:43):
I recommend discord.
You can have just a privatediscord server and it's just
full of your team members.
And then that way you'll be ableto chat with them and have
things be coordinated as you getstarted on your project and get
further along.
So that is it for what we'regoing to talk about for today's.
I hope that that helps you havesome ideas on where it is that
(10:04):
you can look for your teammembers.
As always, if you have anyquestions, let me know.
And if you would like to workone on one, with any projects
you can go to my website.
LightheartAdventures.Com.
Click on the project managementtab in the main header.
And you'll find some options onhow we can work together from
(10:24):
just a one hour consultation,all the way up to hiring me to
be your full PM.
I appreciate y'all listening tothese episodes and I know that
next week we've got a super funinterview, so be sure to follow
and subscribe so that you canlearn from a very enlightening
guest.
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