Another Shout Out For Owen K.C. Stephens (And Some Supplements Designers Should Grab)

There are several, unfortunate truths that we are all dealing with these days. First and foremost, the American healthcare system is absolutely terrible. Secondly, creative professionals as a whole don't get paid well, and TTRPG designers are a tiny subset of the publishing world that get paid especially poorly. Third, cancer sucks, and the very concept of it can die in a fire.

Folks who read my post Help Owen K.C. Stephens Roll His Save Against Cancer (And The Healthcare System) last April know that one of our own has been stuck at the intersection of all three of these unfortunate circles in this Venn Diagram of Suck, and he's doing his best to stay one step ahead of the bills as they pile up. While he's got a lot of stuff out on the market at present, and there's been quite a few charity bundles for folks who have been looking to buy some TTRPG supplements to help him keep fighting, there are two in particular that I wanted to shine a light on this week. Mostly because there's a lot of content out there for players and Game Masters, but not as much for designers.

And if there's one thing Owen knows a lot about, it's designing games as a professional.

Even if they were both the face of the initial two charity bundles.

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Seriously, If You're Getting Into The Trenches, Get These

The two supplements in question are Essays on Freelance Tabletop Writing and Publishing (which at time of writing has hit Platinum status), and Essays on Surviving an Independent Tabletop RPG Career (currently at Gold status).

If these two supplements look familiar, it's because they were each the cover of Owen's initial charity bundles on Drive Thru RPG back in April. And while lots of folks have focused on many of Owen's other projects such as Like a Boss: The Book of Boss Encounters, or The Genius Guide To Loot 4 Less: Things That Make You Go Boom, those essay collections are something that I think more folks really need to check out.

Because there are a lot of folks out there who know how to create game mechanics. They know how to tell good stories, build atmosphere, and their tables really enjoy the games they run. But while those are all good skills to have, and make a solid foundation to build on, those aren't going to be nearly enough for you to be successful if you want to be a professional game designer.

A lot of folks can handle the "game" part of the job. But the business side... well, it can sneak up and slap you right upside the head if you don't know what to expect. So it's best to go into things with your eyes open, because forewarned really is forearmed in this case.

Because it's a lot more complicated than a lot of folks think.

Lastly, I wanted to remind folks that every little bit helps. So if you've already grabbed what you can of Owen's work, but you still want to pitch in to help in this uphill battle, then I wanted to remind you to do the following things, as well:

- Becoming one of Owen's Patreon patrons.

- Bookmark and follow his blog.

- Follow Owen on Twitter (yeah, it's falling apart, but a replacement has yet to take its place)

It might not seem like much, but as someone who's been in this profession a few years myself, it does make a difference. Even if you can only afford to give a little tip every now and again on Patreon, or you just act as a regular participant and commenter on social media, if a lot of people all do that, it really does add up when all is said and done.

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