4 Tips For The Business Side of RPGs

Most of the time when I talk about making changes or additions to games on this blog, I'm talking about doing it around your table with your fellow players. However, this week I wanted to take a moment to talk to my fellow creators out there. Whatever it is you're working on, whether you've been in the game for a while or you're just sticking your toe into the market, please, keep these tips in mind. I have found that they prevent a lot of problems and frustrations that can occur when you just don't think about certain parts of the process.

Because getting stuff made is hard enough.

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But First, A Brief Announcement!

As of about fifteen minutes before I sat down to write this blog entry, my first Kickstarter for "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" just got funded! Hitting that minimum goal of 6k means the game is going to exist, and folks will be able to play it... but there's still 2 weeks left in the Kickstarter campaign, and 2 stretch goals we haven't hit yet. The first is a set of army green dice at 10k, and at 15k we unlock an ammo can that will carry your book, your dice, and a boat load of minis all in a single, easy-to-haul package.

We're taking aim at our next goal!

So if that sounds like something you definitely want to get in on, please help us reach those stretch goals today, and boost the signal if you've already backed, so we can get in front of as many eyes as possible!

Tip #1: Understand What Your Content is Meant To Do

This isn't as obvious as some might think.

Before you put a single word on to paper, you need to know what the purpose your particular game, supplements, etc., is meant to do. What need does it fulfill at a game table? What does it do that will get people (players, Game Masters, or both) to buy a copy of it?

Sometimes the answer to this is easy. For example, when I wrote 10 Fantasy Villages, the purpose of the supplement was to offer Game Masters some smaller villages, NPCs, plot hooks, maps, etc., so they had ready-made locations to put into the empty places in their worlds between big cities. The Curse of Sapphire Lake is a low-level module that combines DND with Friday the 13th, giving players a unique horror experience that's a little tropey, but also fun. Even something like 100 Merchants to Encounter was meant to expand the NPC list for Game Masters so that when players want to go shopping the GM doesn't have to make up entirely new merchants, and the types of wares they sell, right on the spot every time.

When you make content for RPGs, you're essentially creating tools. And for a tool to be functional, you need to understand the job it's meant to do.

Tip #2: Understand The Demand

You need this? Ah, I thought not.

You could invent the most brilliant, perfect tool for solving a particular need... but if that need isn't common, then there isn't going to be a lot of demand for that tool. Or, put in plainer English, your RPG content has to solve a problem, or provide enough value, that players or Game Masters are going to buy it.

Now, there's a lot of variability in this tip, so I'll try to cover as much ground as I can. Things that might affect your demand can include:

- What RPG system is this meant for? Game line specific content like 50 Geists for Geist: The Sin Eaters is going to have a narrow market of buyers, whereas something more generic like 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master could be used by any GM for any system, hugely increasing your potential audience.

- How expensive is this content? Getting someone to read a free article like the character concept for The Savage Monk is extremely easy, though difficult to make money off of. However, low-cost pieces like 100 Encounters in a Fey Forest (which is only $1.99) are often easy to get customers to buy as an impulse, even if they aren't certain they need/will use it. A full RPG game book ranging from $30 to $70, though, is a purchase that's a lot heftier, and which will be a harder sell overall.

- Does this do anything differently than existing content? This is often a question folks need to ask when they're making a game setting, but it applies to other types of content as well. If all your setting offers is a different map with different country names, for example, but it's got the same aesthetic, monsters, quests, etc., that your competitors have, then why should people use your setting instead of one from a different company? Or one they made themselves?

- Is this actually something people buy? The best example I have of this is adventure modules. While they're a product customers often request, and they're something every company seems to put out there, the numbers suggest they're actually one of the worst-selling products you can create. This is not to say you can't be successful with adventure modules (or any other product) but that the market is stacked against you for certain types of products.

Everything from what form your product takes, to what genre it's geared toward, to what games it can be used for, to how expensive it is, and even if it's digital-only or print-on-demand, factors into whether an audience will buy it or not. And while there is no possible way to be absolutely certain when something will or won't make a lot of sales, it's a good idea to try to test the wind to see if the thing you're going to make checks the right boxes.

Tip #3: Ask What It Will Cost To Make

You're not working for free, after all.

A mistake that a lot of people make when it comes to designing RPG content is that they don't view their own efforts, time, and energy as expenditures. Someone might say, "Well, it's a digital release, so there's no printing costs. And I wrote everything, so I don't have to pay an author. I did the layout using free software, and I used free stock art/art I made, so I essentially paid nothing for this, and everything I make is pure profit!"

In one sense, that's true. However, if you're designing game content as a business (or at the very least a side hustle that you want to grow), then you need to look at your bills, and what you need to earn. For instance, did it take you a month to make that supplement? Or 6 months to write that adventure? How about 2 years to write a full RPG? How much is your labor worth? What costs did you incur just to live over that time period?

This can get even more complicated once you start doing bigger, more involved projects where you do have to buy art, where you want to source unique miniatures, where you're getting books printed, and so on. All of those costs add up, and you need to be honest with yourself about what your game needs to earn back to be worthwhile. This number may look different for different people, but it's important to go through the numbers and to look at your margins.

As a good example, my Kickstarter for Army Men had a minimum goal of $6k. That was just to get the bills paid and the expenses covered so the game could exist, and be shipped out to all the backers. That initial funding level doesn't actually pay me for the 2 years it took me to write the game; my earnings come from pledges beyond that base amount. Same for the other contributors who receive a cut of the proceeds beyond that basic, out-of-the-red zone.

This is not a fun aspect of designing RPGs, but it is a necessary one. If you can't eat, or pay your electricity bill, it's going to be really hard to keep making stuff for your audience.

Tip #4: Ask How You Plan To Market It

There are so, SO many dice to roll on this...

I've said this before over on The Literary Mercenary, but most people who like writing books don't actually want to market them. I've found the same is largely true for RPGs and RPG supplements. Chances are that if you like writing these things, then you just want to be left alone to write them, and if money just magically appeared in your account you'd probably vanish off of social media entirely.

Sadly if you want to move copies you have to climb up on the soap box, and get people's attention.

The good thing is there are a lot of options for getting attention onto your game even if you don't have a budget. The bad thing is that basically all of these options are the equivalent of pulling the handle on a slot machine; it might work, it might fail, and just because you got one result last time it's no guarantee that's the result you'll get this time. But some of the things you can do include:

- Social Media Posts: Facebook, Reddit, MeWe, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram... whatever platforms you can get on, you should use them. However, it's not really a matter of asking which platform is best for you. You're basically going to have to use ALL of them to get your message out.

- Content Creation: Whether you're writing blogs about gaming, making YouTube videos of real plays or demos of your game, or doing something else entirely, this is a great way to drum up interest in your products. If nothing else you can sprinkle in links where they'll get in front of people's eyes (like I did for most of the article up to this point) treating them like land mines for readers to trigger.

- Interviews: Whether you get on podcasts or YouTube channels, anytime you can get a slot where you can talk directly to someone else's audience, that really helps you get your stuff in front of fresh faces. It might be tough, but if you build up a network of people to interview you then you'll become a regular guest in no time!

- In-Person Sales: Attending conventions takes time, energy, and money, but you can often get your badge paid for if you run games for an event. And if you run modules you wrote, or a game you created, that's a great way to give people a try-before-you-buy experience.

- Make More Games: There's a saying that the best ad for your current book is actually your next book. The same thing applies to RPGs and supplements. The more stuff you can make, the bigger the pile becomes, and the more likely people are to check out your older stuff when your new releases catch their eyes. Of course it also helps that your new releases can include a list of links to your other projects and products, much like how novels used to have an intro page that listed all of an author's previous works so readers who liked one book could more easily find others by the same writer.

- Buying Advertising: There's a lot of ways you can save on this early on to see if it works for you. Large social media sites like Facebook and Reddit will often give you credits to try out certain services, and if you're running a Kickstarter, or trying to get fresh eyes on a tough-to-market product, this is often a good time to grab those coupons, and put them to good use.

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That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

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