Listen to the best in the biz

For this convo with B. Dave Walters we’re talking Vampire, pro GMing via Patreon, how to develop your business, and running great horror games!

If you’d like to learn more about B. Dave and his projects, check out: Undisputed Academy and Into The Motherlands!

Here’s how you fill tables

You can be the best GM in the world, but if no one looks at your ad – well, it doesn’t matter. Ads can be tough and I encourage everyone to develop their skills. Copy + Paste on an advertisement is going to be ineffective at best and harmful for your business at worst. Most of my advertisements go through 10+ revisions before I find them to be effective. You have to keep experimenting intentionally until you settle on what works for your unique GM style and this particular game.

Keep in mind you’ll need to work on your customer service skills to do well in this biz. Check back for an article on that in February.

The customer experience:

1. Brought to StartPlaying Games by an advertisement or word of mouth.

2. Browse games until they see a thumbnail/title that makes them curious.

3. They click on the ad, skim, and then decide if they want to join that game.

4. Sometimes players, especially those who are marginalized, will “vibe check” the GM profile.

5. Player follows your instructions to join and setup a PC, then play in your game.

If there is a hiccup along the way and the player does not make it to Session 0 or their first session, then you’ve most likely lost that customer. I’ll be writing an FAQ about streamlining your onboarding, soon.

You are solving a problem as a GM. What is the problem?

Listed in order of importance are the factors you need to consider when writing your advertisement.

1. Time Slot

• US evenings are the most “popular” times with the most attention, however, these may not work for you. Remember that you’re just trying to capture 4-6 players, not hundreds of folx.

• The weekends are the most popular booking days.

• Instant Book is a must.

  

2. Thumbnail

Marketplaces like YouTube and Amazon have folx trained a particular way. You need to be able to catch someone’s eye while they’re scrolling, get them interested, and then close the sale. That’s asking a lot! I recommend hiring a graphic designer (support human artists) if you can afford it via Fiverr or the SPG community. It will pay for itself in the first game.

• Landscapes are easy to scroll past and ignore. AVOID THEM!

• Use 1-2 points of focus, no more. Too much will clutter the thumbnail.

• Text that is small will not be read by someone scrolling or possibly not at all.

• Do not use an image with anything important in the top right or bottom right portions of the image, as they will be cut off by the various tags. Your points of focus ought to be in the center or left.

• Avoid cluttering your thumbnail as you want to be able to tell a story with it, when possible. An action sequence with two points of interest is far better than a vast countryside.

• If you decide to use text in the thumbnail, then make certain it is clear and not washed out by the background colors.

There’s a few styles you can look to leverage! You’ll see that images like these pop out of the sea of ads because they are leveraging storytelling without clutter.

3. Title

This works in tandem with the thumbnail. Along with the thumbnail, you need to tell a complete story. Prompts to help you develop a title:

• Does the average person / new player understand this word? If not, nix it. (Name Brand might be an exception here, as it has recognition going for it.)

• Do they want to know more after reading it?

• Is my game unique and fun according to this?

Recommended Guidelines:

• 2 or 3 complete thoughts in 4-8 words.

• Features of the game.

• Evokes curiosity!

• Helpful info: level, theme or tone, atmosphere of the game, or other identifier tags about you as a GM.

• Use a name brand such as “Menace Under Otari” if you’re running an official campaign.

4. About The Game

How do you get someone to make a buying decision in your description? Include relevant info at the bottom (such as game “features”, “theme”, “tone”, etc.) Do not lore or info dump here. Make it snappy.

Pricing?

I’ll be writing a full article on how pricing and value add will work for most pro GM businesses. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime if I’ve helped you out, consider joining my Patreon! I use the funds to pay my podcast editor.

That reformed TikToker you know

We chat with Catie this week about going full-time with content creation, TTRPG shows, how to pitch someone, and challenges as a freelancer!

Patreon, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Twitch, and 18+ OnlyFans 

Dollars & Dragons Podcast | Ep 15 – Noxweiler Ignatius Berf (he/they/it)

Noxweiler Ignatius Berf (he/they/it) has a long history with performance in tabletop from Geek & Sundry! We chat about his start: Dungeon Master (theater show), Scabby Rooster, becoming the Creative Director of Hunters Entertainment, the importance of indie games in TTRPG, 

Arcane Arts: The Dungeoneer’s Guide to Miniature Painting and Tabletop Mayhem 

Hunters Ent YouTube 

Mentioned: Sloan, Alex T., SarahIsCoffee 

Come and get your streaming advice here

Joined for this ep by the host and creator of D20 Deathmatch Mudcat! We talk about production work, streaming, and biz!

Home

LET’S GO REVIEW TRAIN

Reviews seem like a herculean task to accomplish when you’re new. You probably don’t have friends who follow through, too.

Even though it’s super easy to sign up for an account on SPG and then review your friend. Like c’mon, they ran a game for you for free for months and you can’t even be bothered to spend 5 minutes doing them a favor like this? This is exactly why you got into pro GMing – you’re under-appreciated.

Phew.

How to get more reviews:

• Ask politely after every game. e.g. “It really helps my business out if you review me.”

• Thank people who review you publicly on Discord. (So others see it and are reminded that they too, need to leave you a review.)

• Provide a mini incentive. e.g. Inspiration

Devon has confirmed that verified reviews matter a lot more than unverified reviews. Players like to see that checkmark to know that other people have spent money for your services, just like on Amazon or any other marketplace. Verified reviews are key!

However, reviews do not scale exponentially. The longer you’re GMing, the more likely you are to be playing with the same loyal players, who can only review you once. So ultimately while reviews are cool as a metric, after a certain point it becomes meaningless to your bottom line.

The ultimate goal isn’t more reviews, it’s more (or better paying) customers. Once you have enough people who rave about you and leave you a review, you stop getting reviews – because your tables are mostly full.

Some notable examples outside the norm is Dev who used to run One Shots every week. I’m sure we’d all love to be slaying it like Dev but I don’t recommend their proposed workload (20+ games a week right now.) Pray for Dev. Pray hard.

Thanks y’all, seeya soon!

Save 10% on your dScryb subscription by using my coupon code: FRIDAY

a fantasy novelist, award-winning Editor and Art Director

This week we’re talking to Lou Anders: a fantasy novelist, award-winning Editor and Art Director. We kick it off with getting into writing in the 1990s, Babylon 5 & Star Trek Monthly, as well as being on the set at Paramount.

Other topics:

Frostborn, (of the Thrones & Bones series) based on turning a Conan story on its head

Star Wars: Pirate’s Price

Beginning to write for tabletop games as a freelancer, writing for Tails of Equestria: The Curious Case of the Malfunctioning P.R.A.N.C.E.R with his 9 year old daughter

Freelancing for Kobold Press

Thrones & Bones the 5e setting and latest Kickstarter

Thrones & Bones: Norrøngard Roleplaying Game

Thrones & Bones the board game, based on hnefatafl, a Viking board game

Future sourcebooks and adventures in the Thrones & Bones setting

If you’d like to support the podcast, please consider joining the Patreon.

Rein in the table talk at your table and keep them engaged!

I received some feedback from some of my players (in more than one game) that they’d like for the sessions to kick off a bit sooner than they had been. No problem! But how did this happen?

I think it’s a fine line between getting everyone comfortable, friendly, and enjoying each others’ company. That thin line is one you’re going to have to walk as a pro GM, because people are paying you for the game – but they also want to enjoy the camaraderie of the table.

Anyway, I came up with what I believe is an elegant solution: I’m offloading this onto my players. (lol)

I’m appointing a Master of Gossip who has these responsibilities:

• Determine the length of the pre-game gossip period (through polling the table.)

• Make calls on whether or not we’ll continue with gossip if we run over time.

• Hold me accountable as the GM to run the game.

Let me know what you think, as always.

Save 10% on your dScryb subscription by using my coupon code: FRIDAY

Talking with Head of Operations and Customer at StartPlaying Games

This was released early to my patrons. If you enjoy the podcast please consider supporting me!

Siyarin is the Head of Customer and Operations at StartPlaying.Games. We talk about the platform in this ep; Safety Tools, GM trends, customer satisfaction, and tips for success.

DM’s Guild, StartPlaying Games, streaming, and more!

For this ep we got to chat with V.J. Harris of DM’s Guild bestselling fame! He also performs on Total Party Kiss, Starlight Tales, and you can check out their work on DMs Guild here.

Or check out Arcadia or Flee! Mortals 

V.J. Harris is working with us on the Vineyard to produce some incredible statblocks for our villains.