PUBLISHING AND SUCCESS IN TTRPGS AT THE MICRO-SCALE OF TTRPGS

I've received more than a few "but how does Arc Dream publishing actually work!?" emails over the years. There was a time when the short answer to that question was: not very well, unfortunately. We faced our fair share of challenges and struggled to find our footing in table-top role-playing. But I'm happy to report that the short answer has evolved to: very, very well, thank you.

What changed? Well, first, we never gave up on creating high-quality game books. Even when we were losing money chasing "market" in the old three-tier publishing model, we never went light on the quality of the game book. We focused on refining our processes and making the most of our small (actually TINY) team. This quality ultimately led to our series of successful Kickstarter campaigns and the release of books that exceeded audience expectations in both size and quality (as well as not increasing the price on books that doubled or even tripled in size!)

As such, the greatest key to our success is an absolute unwavering commitment to quality over schedule. Instead of rushing to release products just to meet deadlines, we decided to take our time and ensure that each book we produced was polished and thoroughly playtested. We are obsessive about it. We like to think this has been noticed by the audience and that that reputation is growing over time. When we took on Delta Green at Arc Dream, we knew we had an absolute monster reputation to live up to and exceed, and no one here entered into it lightly. I mean, if we were going to follow that act, what we made should at least try to be better than it. 

Second, the largest transformations in the industry: the death of the three-tier distributor model (I mean, it's still there, but it's after-the-fact as opposed to life or death) and the growth of Kickstarter and Patreon has made the funding of such projects something that occurs BEFORE the project is underway. This makes ALL THE DIFFERENCE. 

When Pagan Publishing (John Tynes, Scott Glancy and myself) created Delta Green in the 1990s, it went something like this: spend the money to create a huge sourcebook over a series of years, spend the money to print it putting us all in debt, and then pray some distributor buys it. Then, when the distributor orders a bunch, and we don't get paid for MONTHS, and sometimes never get paid at all. In the end, I believe we *LOST* money on Delta Green at Pagan publishing. 

Today, of course, we would Kickstart it, have the money on hand to create the books without going into monstrous debt, and the book would have done well. 

Third, we don't try to "EXPAND OUR MARKET!" through ad spends or printing far too many copies of our game books. This is often the cry of people on the outside looking in: lower your prices and eat the shipping costs to match the big boys! Publish three times the amount of copies you know you'll sell so it's cheaper to print! Then charge less! This is a sure-fire recipe for ruin on the small scale we exist in. None of this would work, anyway (we've tried it in the past!) This, more than anything else, is likely responsible for small and mid-tier TTRPG crashes and burns. Let the product sell itself. Let the game expand to where it wants to be. Don't force it.  

Last, our "company" is a team of three: Shane Ivey, Caleb Stokes, and myself. This is VITAL. The default of people leaping into TTRPGs appears to be to try and staff it like a video game company ("this is our director of marketing!") Holy hell...NO. Always keep the team to the absolute minimum. This is both so there's enough money so that the team members make a fair, living wage and to reduce the complexity of creating a game book (as well as increasing its focus and coherence). The more chefs in the kitchen, the more the soup has no distinctive taste at all... 

Here are some of the more common questions I get about TTRPG publishing (and feel free to ping me below in the comments if you have any others).

Can you make a living making TTRPGS?

Hell yes you can. It is the single easiest "creative industry" with the highest potential to move up in at the lowest cost that exists, and I've been in a lot of them. Comics, video games, fiction. TTRPGs remain a place where you, alone, can write and produce a game that becomes "game of the year". It's all upside. 

But I Hear So Many Pros Complain About Not Being Able To Make A Living At It!

This is usually due to two things: first, they haven't really discovered that Kickstarter and Patreon are real, powerful tools that can change their situation dramatically and base their assumptions on the previous state of the industry. And second, they freelance for other people and don't own their own work. BOTH are vitally important to make a go of it in TTRPGs professionally. 

If You Were Beginning Now, How Would You Go About Launching A Successful TTRPG Company?

This is a big question with a lot of facets, but here's a summary of my answer:

• Create TTRPG PDFs for Free and Gather an Audience: These can be small, and can vary in focus or type. But I'd make them your own (I wouldn't, for example, chase a busy market like D&D or anyone else's property). Drop them regularly and see what sticks. When people start responding or pinging you, that's a great indication you might be on to something. 
• Find A TTRPG Property That You Own And That People Seem Drawn To, And Start A Patreon: Take the above work that survived the "fans like it" test, and expand it to a Patreon. Develop it into a full TTRPG, if you can. Gather like minded individuals on the Patreon and openly trade ideas with them. Offer $1 access to your Patreon — ignore the tiers, trust me — so that the barrier of entry is low. Be generous, overshare content you might be tempted to charge for. Gain goodwill. 
• Publish Small Digest-Sized TTRPG Books using Print on Demand at DriveThru RPG: Use some of the work created on the Patreon and bring it to realization in a publishable booklet with art and design. Set it up in the Print on Demand shop at DriveThru RPG (this is easier than it sounds). DriveThru will sell, print and ship your product for you, and you'll make some money when copies sell. If you get something on there that begins selling — that's a great indication people are looking for more. 
• Build Interest in a Vision for a Larger TTRPG Product on Your Patreon and DriveThruRPG, then Kickstart It: On your Patreon, begin outlining your thoughts on a full-blown TTRPG of your own design. Get people involved in talking about it (or hell, even DESIGNING it — we did that with WILD TALENTS and it was a blast). If you get enough goodwill on the Patreon, and you have some converts there that are willing to sound the horn on a Kickstarter, get them involved too. Work up to launching a Kickstarter to support the development of your own TTRPG. 
• Do Not Be Afraid To Promote and be Proud of Your Work: This is a common mistake I see. Self-deprecation will get you nowhere. Be confident in your work; after all, if you made it this far, you must have something to offer!

For those hoping to throw their hat in the TTRPG ring, good luck! There is always more room here, and don't let anyone else tell you any different. 

Finally, I'd like to say a big, hearty THANK YOU to the fans of Delta Green who make this all possible on a daily, weekly, yearly basis. I'm not going to lie; I'd do it even if you weren't there, but I am sure glad you are.