is the ttrpg market swamped now? could you write a winner?
- Thread starter bennet
- Start date
There are a LOT of products out there and a lot of them are amazing. It's not easy to get noticed. I wouldn't say it is swamped, but I would say there are a LOT of people in the pool. At the same time, the reason there are a lot of products is that more than ever we have the tools to make amazing stuff and a market where we can sell it. So yeah - pretty full market, but that is a good sign for creative folks IMO.
Boy - I sure hope so.
I've bet a lot of money and time on the belief that you can. 
Joking aside, I always think it's possible. You can never tell what will hit or when, and if you love what you're doing, it's worth trying. Plus, I'd very much like to create a way for all the amazing creative folks I know to make a living doing what they love. I absolutely believe it's possible. In the end, I truly believe that if you've made something engaging and of high quality it's just a matter of getting eyes on a thing and hitting at the right moment. Ya just keep working!
gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
Coming from a small, TTRPG publisher I don't view the industry as swamped by any means. I was publishing for Pathfinder 1.0 as third party, and now I'm publishing for Starfinder. At this point, I may never create for PF 2.0 nor D&D 5e, but you never know, I might. There's plenty more for me to publish for Starfinder. There are plenty of "heartbreakers" and smaller games that can be supported - and you never have to touch 5e or the other big gun games to have gainful participation. Is the market saturated? Not be any means at all, by my judgement. I've been a part of winnig publications in the past...
Sacrosanct
Legend
Man, I so feel this lol. it seems like the key to success is to go viral, which seems to be a crapshoot as to who forwards your project when, and hoping to get lucky it gets shared by the right person. (robust advertising helps, but it seems the tipping point is if you get someone with a lot of followers share your project).Boy - I sure hope so.
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gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
I don't even care about going viral. I have a fanbase, that as long as I continue to please, so they continue to purchase, and overtime I gain more fans. That's always been enough for me. Would I be disappointed if something I made went viral - of course not, but am no way counting on such and not doing anything to help make that happen, other than continuing to create the best I can.
Sacrosanct
Legend
Well, true. I think it's a poor business plan to place your bets on going viral lol.
This is totally fair, although I don't think going viral is really anyone's "goal" (God, I hope it isn't
). There is, however, a level of adoption and support that is necessary to sustain the business long term. I need to hit a certain level of sales to keep producing my products commercially and at the level of quality I have so far. I always think of it as "achieving orbit". Getting there is tough in a crowded market, but I totally believe it can happen in today's market.
gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
I've had kind of a staying power for quite a while, and I've grown as a publisher. Really in the beginning I was just a pro game cartographer, but a couple years into that, I decided to release stand-alone map products - castles, taverns, that kind of thing as generic sites for random games, and I've created map objects sets for people to use in populating their games. Of course, I'm a lifetime tabletop gamer, and had a setting I wanted to build all my life, which I finally published as an imprint under Rite Publishing, my Kaidan setting of Japanese Horror (PFRPG), kind of life's work project. But that gave me lots of experience working with publishers, artists, editors, author/game designers over 7 years of development and publishing, even authoring a one-shot for it myself (I was the project manager/lead developer/art director and technical advisor). But I did that under a differernt publisher. So about 5 years ago, one of the author/game designers whom I had made maps for as a commission, saw that I was creating starship deck plans, and he wanted to write a sci-fi adventure, and with Starfinder coming out soon, would I be willing to publish it? Which I did. Now I have 3 author/game designers, besides myself - and I do all the rest of the work: art, maps, page layout, graphic design and publishing. Gamer Printshop (my publishing company) has been around for 12 years - and I'm still doing it.This is totally fair, although I don't think going viral is really anyone's "goal" (God, I hope it isn't
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gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
Another thing to consider, something I've learned in my years doing this, is called the long tail of marketing.
While every publisher might like that viral opportunity to explode their business (that never happens usually). The real secret of the small TTRPG publishing business is to have a lot of products - ideally, at least a 100. In reality, you'll sell a couple/maybe a dozen of any one product in any given month, which doesn't amount to a lot money, but it's income stream. So if you have 100 or more products, and only sell a couple or dozen of each - now that is a reliable, honest income.
You might get lucky with a given product. I released Starships, Stations and Salvage Guide for Starfinder - really kind of an expanded version of Paizo's Starship Operations Manual, 3 years before they released there's. And it was the #1 third party Starfinder product on DrivethruRPG for 6 months straight - I was pretty stoked with that one. But you never know what's going to sell, you can only hope. So the only thing you can count on for a steady flow of sales, is with as many products as you can offer. I've only got 50, so far - I need to get to work!
While every publisher might like that viral opportunity to explode their business (that never happens usually). The real secret of the small TTRPG publishing business is to have a lot of products - ideally, at least a 100. In reality, you'll sell a couple/maybe a dozen of any one product in any given month, which doesn't amount to a lot money, but it's income stream. So if you have 100 or more products, and only sell a couple or dozen of each - now that is a reliable, honest income.
You might get lucky with a given product. I released Starships, Stations and Salvage Guide for Starfinder - really kind of an expanded version of Paizo's Starship Operations Manual, 3 years before they released there's. And it was the #1 third party Starfinder product on DrivethruRPG for 6 months straight - I was pretty stoked with that one. But you never know what's going to sell, you can only hope. So the only thing you can count on for a steady flow of sales, is with as many products as you can offer. I've only got 50, so far - I need to get to work!
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Greggy C
Hero
Whats the advantage of using a publishing company like yourself versus LuLu or is that two different things.
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