#AprilTTRPGmaker Top tips and advice?

I’m going to assume this is advice for people who want to make their own games, rather than advice for players or games masters.

The best advice I can give is ‘don’t’. There’s a reason so many games get dubbed ‘fantasy heartbreakers’. Also I don’t want the competition!

The market IS flooded with a lot of material from a lot of very small companies.

More seriously though…

• Do it for you, not with the expectation of making money.
• Have a new idea that you love.
• Keep in mind that people will second guess everything that you do.
• Remember that once you release a game, it’s no longer yours. People will do things to it and with it. Unspeakable things.
• You’re almost bound to be criticised for some sort of *ism, whatever your motivation or intent.
• The future is digital and online.
• Get good advice (hint, I consult for a reasonable fee and you can get a lot of good advice in a relatively short period of time).
• A lot of what makes success in any industry is networking.
• You are your brand.
• Social Media is all important.
• Video > Text

#My30dayWorld #RPG – What Prominent Fantastical Bodies of Water are there?

For the most part particular seas and oceans are not fantastical per se, but rather locations within them are. Given some of my inspiration is going to be taken from pre-christian European mythology, wells, ponds and lakes are more likely to be individually magical and to be the dwelling places of fantastical creatures. Locations in seas or things that live within them may be fantastical, but as to magical bodies of water themselves? Not so much…

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#AprilTTRPGmaker Your community?

What constitutes my community? Is it my audience? The people I talk to most regularly? My usual gaming group? My patrons on Patreon?

I don’t really even know what would constitute ‘my community’! I have pages for my company and for me on Facebook. I’ve got communities on G+ but nothing is hugely active. So I guess to talk about my community I have to talk about who my audience is.

• My community has a sense of humour, frequently a dark sense of humour.
• My community cares more about fun than about politics, even though my material is frequently political (just it tends to be implicitly so, rather than explicitly so).
• My community is neither wedded to the ‘new school’ Indie style, nor traditional roleplaying.
• My community likes trying new and different things.
• My community is less squeamish about sex and violence than most.
• My community is interested in transgression and controversial topics.
• My community appreciates that my work has ‘layers’.
• My community cares passionately about the hobby, protecting and improving it.

#RPG – #My30dayWorld – Are there Many Underground Locations in Your World?

In terms of things like The Underdark, no. I don’t think such things make particular sense in the world I have thus far described. Having a whole, separate underground world makes it become somewhat mundane and the unique and strange nature of such a place becomes diluted over time through familiarity. So rather than a single, connected, unified underground realm I think each underground location will be unique…

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#RPG – Roll Up! Roll Up! Welcome to The Carnival of Grimness!

Genties, Ladymen and children of all genders!

Cast your functioning sensory organs in something approximating this direction and gaze in awe and wonder at the cavalcade of entertainment and dysfunction on show!

Step this way, and for the low, low fee of your attention you will find diversions most deviant, entertainments most exciting and writings most wicked. We practically (but not actually) guarantee your satisfaction and amusement!

Behold, the hall of Social Media! What distractions and horrors may lie inside these darkened halls?

Perhaps you seek the cheap thrill of voyeurism to be found in the unblinking gaze of Madam Narcissist!

Will you test your mettle and your patience in the Blue Bird Arena?

Perhaps one of our fabulous freaks, Bookface will entertain you with his mind reading tricks, targeted advertising and most diverting groups?

There are new attractions too, wild and untamed creatures from the furthest reaches of the internet, untouched by Amazon or Google. Dare you risk the Tent of Bulbs, it’s burlesque titillations or its house of games?

Try your luck against the Honest Interlocutor to see if you have the gift of the Gab, win yourself a stuffed frog.

Away from the hoi polloi are the caravans, offering delectations to our more discerning visitors.

If you are of a more cerebral nature, our players will entertain you with dice-based diversions or play out stories for your entertainment. There are books too, but the odds are you already Reddit…

Perhaps marvellous mechanisms will better meet your motivation, in which case sign up for a ride on our Steem-powered rollercoaster? It rises and falls with the speed and terror of a cryptocurrency’s value!

Finally, at the centre of our little circus, you will find the Astounding Arena of Audiovisual Announcement, where your eyes and ears will be tickled by recordings from The Great Beardini!

Don’t forget to visit our concession stands on your way out.

Here you can buy your own versions of our games and books.

Apparel to clad your fragile bodies and protect them from the elements.

Boards, cards, dice and devices to distract you from your imminent mortality.

Not to mention other, miscellaneous junk and tat we’re trying to get shot of.

Finally, can I perhaps tempt you with a season ticket?

For as little as a single of your Earth dollars, you can gain access to the carnival and the ringmaster as much as you may care to spend your time here, not to mention getting plenty of discounts on our other diversions.

We accept Many, Forms of Currency.

Failing that, please leave a tip in the jar on your way out.

And failing that… well… the trolls always need to be fed.

#AprilTTRPGmaker Favourite interview?

Probably this one. Years back, but it’s showing what I’ve consistently tried to do ever since. To reach across this ‘SJW’ divide and create understanding. No progress has, however, been made. The divisions remain, there’s nobody on the other side really willing to listen – whether it’s in tabletop, video games, fiction writing or anything else.

#My30dayWorld – #RPG – Are There Evil Races in Your Realm, Such as the Drow?

I’m torn in two directions on this. On the one hand the absolute, black-and-white morality found in – for example – the D&D alignment system is something I find incredibly dull. On the other hand there is a demand from some quarters to a return to that simplicity and to examples of pure good and unremitting evil. I am not a fan of the idea that, say, orcs are all born evil, with no hope whatsoever of ever being anything else. This leads to things like Paladins slaughtering goblin babies in their cribs…

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Why I Hate Unicorns

#AprilTTRPGmaker Feature a TTRPG designer

I admire, and am envious of, the success of James Raggi. His Lamentations of the Flame Princess is ‘just’ a D&D retro-clone, but he has made it phenomenally successful, purely on the basis of presentation, creativity, thematics, mood, marketing and investing in the art.

The fixation on a single game is also something I find amazing. I always flit from one idea and one game to another. To devote so much time and effort to a single game, and support for it, is an ‘outside context problem’.

Raggi also has the same ‘fuck you’ attitude to people who have issues with what he does, seemingly giving even less of a shit than I do that anyone’s offended or upset. He’s also unafraid to work with people who feel the same. The criticism at least seems to affect him less as well.

All of this, at least to me, is admirable. Even if I’ve never been a particular D&D fan.

#RPG #My30dayWorld – How are Taxes and Tributes Collected in Your World?

How tax and tribute is collected will differ from land to land, but most systems will collect their tithes after the harvest season, monetary and other tribute being a substitute for earlier tribute in the form of grain, rice or other foodstuffs. In the monarchies this will take the form of wandering tax collectors under heavily armed guard – but still a favoured target of bandits, robbers, rebels and other ne’er do wells. Within the cities such efforts aren’t needed, and a tax collector can make their rounds with only a bodyguard or two…

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