Owen KC Stephens' Tabletop RPG Truths

Multi-award winning game designer Owen Stephens (Starfinder, Pathfinder, Star Wars) has been posting a series he calls #RealGameIndustry on social media.

• Most TTRPG game company's art archives are not well indexed... Or indexed.
• Yes, the RPG book could have had ONE more editing pass. There would still be errors, you'd still complain, it would cost more and take longer, and not sell any better. And people would download it for free illegally because "it's too expensive."
• Tabletop RPG books are not overpriced. They are specialty technical creative writing social interaction manuals. At double the current prices, they would not be overpriced. This is why most TTRPG creators leave the industry. Along with constant fan harassment.
• Quality, effort, marketing, and fan fervor cannot change this. Ever. That's not to knock, or praise, D&D. It's just a fact.
• Impostor syndrome is hugely common in the TTRPG industry for two reasons. One: Studying and modifying RPGs often appeals to socially awkward shut ins who become broken professionals. Two: There's a sense that if you were a REAL professional you could afford a house, and insurance, and a retirement account, but that's not true for 99.9% of TTRPG professionals.
• People who are passionate about making games for other people, people who are good at making games, and people who are good at the business of game sales and marketing don't overlap much in a Venn diagram. Most game company failures can be attributed to this.
• A TTRPG professional with enough experience and credibility to criticize the industry as a whole is normally tied to one company so closely that the criticism is seen as biased, or unwilling to do it for free, or too naughty word tired to care anymore. Many are all 3.
• If you are a TTRPG creative, you aren't paid enough. Thus, if you find people listening to you and apparently valuing your words you owe it to yourself to make sure they know there is an option to pay you for them. Also, I have a Patreon. https://patreon.com/OwenKCStephens
• There are beloved, award-winning, renowned, well-known TTRPG books with total print runs of 2000 or fewer copies. That did not sell out.
• Most RPG creators cannot afford the upper-tier of RPG accessories. Colossal dragons, scale sailing ships, and custom-built gaming tables are not for those of us who create the hobby. We are too poor to enjoy even a fraction of the things our creativity sparks.
• The ability to master a game's rules has no correlation to the ability to write clear or interesting rules or adventures. Neither has any correlation to being able to produce 22,000 words of focused, usable content about a specific topic on a set deadline.
• There are 65 people in the Origins Hall of Fame. Most fans can't name 5 of them. Most creators can't name 10. They are overwhelmingly (though not quite entirely) white men.
• TTRPG companies generally have no interest in your ideas for products. They went to all the trouble of starting, or staying at, an RPG company to publish their ideas, even if they need you to write them. They certainly didn't stay for the money or respect.
• Asking RPG freelancers to publicly call out a publisher is asking them to reduce their tiny chance of making enough money in RPGs to survive. Sometimes it's a moral imperative. But it's always painful and dangerous. It's more dangerous for women and minorities.
• Occasionally, male game designers who do streams or vlogs or podcasts find themselves disconcerted receiving unsolicited commentary about their appearance. It happened to me. Or, in other words, they get a tiny taste of what women in every field face every day.
• Freelancers aren't paid enough by game company employees and managers, who themselves aren't paid enough by their companies, which don't make enough from distributors and stores, that don't make enough from customers. This never improves. It can get worse.
• Fantasy and scifi art has sexualized women for decades, so many pro artists assume that's what you want. Explaining otherwise takes more words that describing the art piece. I had to go with "No skin should be exposed except on the face." It was 75% effective.
• Most RPG work is "work-for-hire," This includes most work I commission from freelancers myself. This means that, legally, the writer isn't the author. They have no rights to it. No royalties. No say in how (or if) it is used. It never reverts to them.
• I have received 3 death threats in my 21+ RPG career. One for not listing the fans preferred length for the Executor SSD. One of having a male succubus (not an incubus, with that game system) drawn in a seductive pose. And one for being fat and on video streams.
• Once, at Gen Con, a fan interrupted [Amanda Hamon] at the Paizo booth to ask her to point me out. She kindly did so. They came and asked me if I was the Starfinder boss. I pointed them back to Amanda, and noted she was my Managing Developer, and direct superior. I followed that by pointing out Lisa Stevens was an owner of Paizo but that I also worked for Nicole Lindroos and Miranda Russell at other companies, and that Lj Stephens was my project manager for my own company who kept me on schedule, The fan seemed upset.
• I have been extraordinary lucky and well-treated in my RPG career. I love most of the companies and people I have worked with. It's just a harsh industry. This hashtag isn't intended as complaints. They're facts and alerts I wish I had gotten 20 years ago.

 

[TheSword]

I do think Patreon is a very smart way of making sure creatives get properly rewarded in some fields. I support a couple of map designing artists for $2 - $8 dollars a month and these guys have thousands of followers. They must be taking $10k a month as a minimum and I’m happy to see the rewarded because they are doing something original and in demand. They also take it extremely seriously and have put the effort in and extra materials to make this a full time living. It is by no means easy.

It seems a shame that good writers don’t seem to be getting anywhere near this. Perhaps we just value the skill of writing less than the skill of drawing because it’s seen as more accessible. I’m constantly blown away by the work done by neutral party, two minute tabletop and heroic maps.

 

[LordEntrails]

Its the whole problem with doing job you love. That said, that post feels kinda hypocritical if you buy any rpg products since you can't really expect rpg developers and writers do great quality as sidejob :/

Affordability is a virtue of RPGs. The books shouldn't be more expensive.

There are many reasons to do a job, other than money. Why be a teacher or a nurse? Why be a writer? Why be an artist?

Regardless, the real point is that things need to change for the health of the industry and the people working in it.

All of these make me strongly believe that the RPG community does not deserve Quality RPG products. In short, we as a community do not value (as exhibited by the price we are willing to pay, the way we treat the creators, and our willingness to pirate) what the industry creates. The reason we have the quality products we do have is because of creators who love what they create more than they demand a fair wage.

One might think this could easily be solved by the creators simply refusing to create for less anymore. And that might help. But from a consumer point of view, their are already more quality RPG products available today than most consumers will use in their lifetime.

This is not a new issue. Artists and those who chose to make a living off the entertainment and good will of others have always struggled. And they always will in any non-socialist (or similar) system. 2000 years ago their were very few artists (using the term as a catch-all for a loosely defined demographic) because it took somewhere near 90% of the population to create the food for a population to live on. With a need for governance and force or arms, that left little for any time of artist, academic, etc.

Now in most societies it takes what, less than 5% of the population to feed the rest? That is where our advances in science, medicine, technology, and the growth of the arts comes from. And, the intangibles or Art are still much less designed by society than science, medicine, and technology. Maybe they shouldn't be, but they are. And given the thousands of years of human experience showing that in general (yes I'm sure their are exceptions) they always will be.

Artists, and RPG creators, should be well aware that if they chose that career to provide for themselves they will always be on the edge. (Sure, they may hit it big, but that is the very rare exception, not the norm.)

 

[Morrus]

I do think Patreon is a very smart way of making sure creatives get properly rewarded in some fields. I support a couple of map designing artists for $2 - $8 dollars a month and these guys have thousands of followers. They must be taking $10k a month as a minimum and I’m happy to see the rewarded because they are doing something original and in demand. They also take it extremely seriously and have put the effort in and extra materials to make this a full time living. It is by no means easy.

Thats very hard to do though. There are a few making bank of Patreon, but 99% of RPG Patreon makes very little.

 

[MGibster]

I call into question the idea that the RPG community is cheap, uh, consciously frugal. Where does this idea come from?

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

There are many reasons to do a job, other than money. Why be a teacher or a nurse? Why be a writer? Why be an artist?

No doubt.

And, if you do that, then you don't complain about the lack of financial rewards. (That said, being a teacher or a nurse, using your two examples, can be financially rewarding in many countries. They offer solid career paths which is something quite rare in most industries.)

 

[Umbran]

This is simply saying that there is no logical reason...

When did you come by the misapprehension that humans are a species driven (or eaven heaviliy influenced) by logic?

 

[Morrus]

No doubt.

And, if you do that, then you don't complain about the lack of financial rewards.

Wow.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

The main thrust of that song is that George stuck with doing what he loved and ended up more successful than his big brother Bob who "has a haircut and has a real job."

Yes, but how often does that happen? As with the acting game, those who succeed in music are few and far between.

Life is about making choices and those choices have consequences. If you make bad choices, correct those bad choices, and one of the bad choices you can make is your vocation and its related industry.

 

[Umbran]

And, if you do that, then you don't complain about the lack of financial rewards.

If you are taking your dream job... and it isnt' clear there's a market for it? Maybe.

But if you are doing a job we all recognize is desperately needed, needs significant training, and our society depends on getting done? Then you get to complain. So, teachers totally get to complain that they get paid dirt.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

If you're full time RPG writer, those skills only lead to other writing type jobs afternoon much better.

But most freelancers are part time with day jobs anyway, and most of them burn out and quit anyway.

Regardless, the real point is that things need to change for the health of the industry and the people working in it.

It simply has to be accepted that the "industry" is neither large enough nor profitable enough to support a large number of properly-paid employees. That's not going to change unless, overnight, the size of the industry suddenly explodes.

That said, there seems to be money being made in turning RPGs into other forms of content, as we see with the success of Critical Role and Acquisitions Inc, to name but two. But writing for RPGs? That seems to be a poor choice of career for the overwhelming majority of people who want to monetise their hobby.