Recent content by dchart

Just to be clear: Definitive Edition is a compilation of the core material from the whole of the Fifth Edition line, with vastly improved production values. If you already own all 40+ Fifth Edition books and download the errata, you have virtually all the text in the Definitive Edition book. (I...

What Morrus said. You need to make products, and keep making products, and then advertise them on your website, and mention each new product on social media, and in appropriate forums. (Probably best to mention each new product once.) You should be aiming to get one product out every month, at...

First, asking the question "How do you know luck was not the critical factor?" does not mean that I think it is. It means that I would like to know why he thinks it isn't. Those are very different. (It does mean that I think luck could be the critical factor, but I don't think we disagree about...

No, I'm not. I'm saying luck is one of the important factors. As dragoner said later, people hate to acknowledge luck when they have succeeded, because it robs them of agency. (When you fail, however, it's great.) That's why the comparison is useful. "Well, I worked hard, but so did he. I'm a...

Actually, I'd like to address this directly, especially post-edit. If you have a product that a number of people who are not your friends have bought, then you shouldn't have imposter syndrome. A Copper bestseller on DTRPG is certainly enough. That proves that you have created something that...

That's fair. But in that case, what are your grounds for thinking that luck is not the critical factor in your success? Just to be clear, again, I'm not disputing the hard work, talent, and time that have gone into your success. I'm just arguing that there is good evidence that those are a very...

OK, let me give you a contrast case. Owen K. C. Stephens. I know you know who he is, so the link is for people who don't. His talent is undeniable. It's obvious when you read his work, or his resume. The level of work that he has put in is also undeniable. I mean, he put out huge amounts for...

It's difficult to ask this question without it sounding rude, but: How do you know? I mean, I know you put a lot of work in, and time, and talent. But so did a lot of other people who weren't successful. How do you know that the difference between them and you wasn't just blind luck? (I'll...

Do I need to link to xkcd's Survivorship Bias comic? If you want to answer the question of whether this is a realistic path, rather than one in which you could strike it lucky, you need to look at people other than the big success stories, and see how much time they put into it, how good they...

Marketing is a real skill. I know this because I don't have it. While I understand the instinct that says that someone who is 70/30 marketing/creation is "inferior" to someone who is 30/70, because the first person's creations are inferior, and that it therefore seems wrong that the first person...

I've been thinking about this general point some more. The point that I originally wanted to make was that most of the factors that keep people in jobs they do not like are not present in the TTRPG business. Thus, if someone is creating TTRPGs professionally, the probability that they enjoy it...

I think we're actually a lot closer together than we initially appeared, but this may be the point of difference. It's not just about the money. Very, very few of the things that keep people in other jobs despite not liking the job apply to writing TTRPGs. Pay? No. Stability? No. Medical...

Let me put it slightly differently. If you see someone who is producing TTRPG material professionally, then they are putting a lot of active effort into continuing to do that, and they are successfully doing something that simply cannot be done mechanically. Further, they are doing something...

I completely agree with that. We shouldn't, per impossibile, go back to the way things were; we should develop a new structure that retains the benefits of low barriers to entry and access to creators, while fixing creator payment and, as far as possible, harassment. As you say, we still have...

Yes, that's obvious. That said, I was oversimplifying for rhetorical effect. Most people have bad days, and most, probably all, people have parts of the job that they don't like, or even hate. Indeed, there might even be people who, overall and on balance, do not like their jobs in the...