Owen Stephens Continues 'Real Game Industry' Posts

I've been collecting together the Real Game Industry posts that game designer Owen KC Stephens has been posting on social media. You can see Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.

• Full-time writing, developing, or producing in the TTRPG field means regularly having to create great, creative ideas, that fit specific pre-determined parameters, on command, whether you feel like it or not. This can be awesome and fulfilling... or awful.
• The board of GAMA, the Game Manufacturers Association, (the big non-profit trade organization for the hobby games industry) are unpaid volunteers with what time they can spare from trying to survive the harsh industry itself.
• Most TTrpg professionals get a lot more hate mail than praise or notes that their work is appreciated. BUT Those few notes hold a LOT more weight, per-word, than the ranting and whining. One person letting me they enjoyed a thing gets through 2-3 weeks of bile.
• No one, not any analyst, not any company, knows how many total copies of ttRPGs are actually selling in a given week, month, or year. Some big companies don't know the numbers for their OWN ttRPGs. Popular "rankings" are a compilation of unverified impressions.
• Even when I just had a couple of Dragon credits and no one knew me; at game pro gatherings I was NEVER asked if my girlfriend got me into gaming. Or if I was just there with a date. Which has repeatedly happened to women colleagues with decades of experience.
• When ttRPG professionals get to play RPGs together entirely for fun, the level of Ghostbusters and LotR quotes, bad puns, digressions to discuss recent movies and look at pet pictures, and fart jokes... is EXACTLY the same as when it's just fans playing.
• When a ttRPG professional makes a statement that is unpopular with a segment of fans there is always a group who, with no evidence, begin discussions to claim A: The pro is incompetent, B: the pro is lying to gain attention or sympathy, or C: all of the above.
• It is not unusual for ttRPG professional who like each other, and enjoy hanging out together, and live no more than 20 miles apart, to only see each other 1-2 times a year and only at after-hours gatherings during major conventions.
• The most common retirement plan among full-time ttRPG professionals, freelance and on-staff both, is "Work until you die."
• People who constantly struggle to have enough money to cover basic needs, with no job security, while being bombarded with community demands to do more, be better, and make games just for love and not money... are generally too stressed to make their best games.
• In ttRPG industry, you will find both employees who think the very games that cover their paycheck are "dumb," and CEOs who will move a meeting out of the executive boardroom so you can play a game there. But I've met many more of the latter than the former.
• Amazon sometimes sells ttRPG items cheaper than retailers can get from distributors. No one admits to selling them to Amazon at this price. Either Amazon is taking a loss (perfectly possible), or there's a hole in a distribution tier. This pisses off retailers.
• When a ttRPG pro makes a change or comment regarding the real-world impact of game themes or ideas, people come out of the woodwork to strongly present their view (in the real world) that real-world concerns (presumably like theirs) should not impact the game.
• Some ttRPG storylines, setting, themes, & even rules concepts are so tainted by racism, bigotry, and sexism that they cannot be redeemed. Even revised versions serve as a dogwhistle to toxic fans. There's no broad agreement about for which concepts this is true.
• Much less professional material from the big and well-known ttRPG companies is playtested than you thought, and playtesting takes more time and effort than you thought. Much more material from tiny 3pp- and Indy ttRPG companies is playtested than you thought.
• One advantage of being an established ttRPG freelancer is you can get as much work as you want. Of course most of it doesn't pay enough, so you now have the option of working 60-70-80 hour weeks to make ends meet. But unlike some folks, you DO have that option.
• You don't HAVE to have a spouse with good benefits and insurance to be a full-time freelancer in the ttRPG industry. But it's the most common answer on how to survive doing so.
• If you write work-for-hire on a ttRPG in the US, you can expected your work to be edited. Usually with no consultation or warning. You'll find out when the book is published. That's normal. For everyone.
• The more mainstream a ttRPG is, the more competition there is for jobs to design for it. For staff jobs, you're often one of several hundred applicants. Sometimes one of thousands. Of course, this also means you seem easily replaceable, even if it's not true.
• While doing contract work for a ttRPG company occasionally leads to a staff position, this is very much the exception rather than the norm. Especially if you don't already have many years of experience. It's normally a stepping stone, not a quick route in.

 

[Pleroma]

And when I think there are streamings earning money only playing videogames....

Huh? No skills?!?!

That is a pretty absurd claim. Game design requires writing and design skills, which can be performed poorly or well. If the job required no skills, then there would be no quality difference between products.

There are actually a few programs on game design at various universities, although they don't focus on tabletop RPGs specifically. At nearly 50 years in, the hobby itself is still relatively "new" and there aren't standard qualifications to get a job at one of the few companies that hire designers full time.

But the idea that game design is essentially unskilled labor that any bloke off the street could do equally well . . .

Not unskilled labor, just very low-skilled white collar labor. Moderate writing ability. Organizational ability sufficient to plan, execute, and complete a medium-sized to large (usually only largish) project, including enough skill to use some common electronic publishing tools. Familiarity with genre, something bright 15-year-olds are often already overqualified in. Basic arithmetic for most games, plus stats knowledge at a "Fun With Stats and Probability!" middle-school level. A lot of this can be ripped off and "repainted" from the material you used to get genre familiarity.

And much of this work is handled for you if you work for WOTC: you create content to pre-defined specs, much as you would for any corporation. At most media firms, this job is largely handled by young, junior folks with occasional older/senior supervision. That gets improved upwards a little bit at WOTC, since job demand is higher and market several orders of magnitude smaller, but not too much. Basically, WOTC can get a little more bang for their buck--but not too much, because the real talent won't do something as crazy as work on pretend elf games. Play 'em, sure, but Goldman's a better place to work. Or Spotify.

'Cause here's the thing. "Quality" doesn't matter. It's a complete cliche to complain that 5e books are a tsunami of flaming hot garbage. Of course they are! That the extended modules/adventure paths/whatever are overcomplex, difficult and ungainly to run, and railroad-y. Of course they are! They're not designed to run, but to read and think about running if you could ever get a group together/have friends to do this. Sure, if that ever happens, yeah, you could run it, sure, knock yourself out. But if we published these things optimizing them to be played, we'd go broke. You'd probably be all like, "Well, I'm in the middle of this thing that will take a year to resolve, so I'm not going to buy any year-long things for a while." Can't have that! Oh and here, have another dog's breakfast of game-breaking crap. We know you'll lap it right up, you gun-toting warlock artificer tiefling-draconid-tortoiseperson you. We Make Lonely Fun(tm).

I'll put it this way. If you read Brandon Sanderson, who after writing several million words has heroically clawed himself up to the standard of a prep-school ninth-grader's command of written English, you don't know what quality is. (Anyone reading this read "Sharks in the Time of Saviors?" Go read it. It even has magic shapeshifters in it. That's quality fiction, folks.) The audience for RPGs doesn't know what quality is, not in any way that matters and that is economically sustainable. It's possible things would change if that were so, but probably not. The market's too small.

 

[Marc Radle]

Not unskilled labor, just very low-skilled white collar labor. Moderate writing ability. Organizational ability sufficient to plan, execute, and complete a medium-sized to large (usually only largish) project, including enough skill to use some common electronic publishing tools. Familiarity with genre, something bright 15-year-olds are often already overqualified in. Basic arithmetic for most games, plus stats knowledge at a "Fun With Stats and Probability!" middle-school level. A lot of this can be ripped off and "repainted" from the material you used to get genre familiarity.

And much of this work is handled for you if you work for WOTC: you create content to pre-defined specs, much as you would for any corporation. At most media firms, this job is largely handled by young, junior folks with occasional older/senior supervision. That gets improved upwards a little bit at WOTC, since job demand is higher and market several orders of magnitude smaller, but not too much. Basically, WOTC can get a little more bang for their buck--but not too much, because the real talent won't do something as crazy as work on pretend elf games. Play 'em, sure, but Goldman's a better place to work. Or Spotify.

'Cause here's the thing. "Quality" doesn't matter. It's a complete cliche to complain that 5e books are a tsunami of flaming hot garbage. Of course they are! That the extended modules/adventure paths/whatever are overcomplex, difficult and ungainly to run, and railroad-y. Of course they are! They're not designed to run, but to read and think about running if you could ever get a group together/have friends to do this. Sure, if that ever happens, yeah, you could run it, sure, knock yourself out. But if we published these things optimizing them to be played, we'd go broke. You'd probably be all like, "Well, I'm in the middle of this thing that will take a year to resolve, so I'm not going to buy any year-long things for a while." Can't have that! Oh and here, have another dog's breakfast of game-breaking crap. We know you'll lap it right up, you gun-toting warlock artificer tiefling-draconid-tortoiseperson you. We Make Lonely Fun(tm).

I'll put it this way. If you read Brandon Sanderson, who after writing several million words has heroically clawed himself up to the standard of a prep-school ninth-grader's command of written English, you don't know what quality is. (Anyone reading this read "Sharks in the Time of Saviors?" Go read it. It even has magic shapeshifters in it. That's quality fiction, folks.) The audience for RPGs doesn't know what quality is, not in any way that matters and that is economically sustainable. It's possible things would change if that were so, but probably not. The market's too small.

... wow

 

[Dire Bare]

Not unskilled labor, just very low-skilled white collar labor. Moderate writing ability. Organizational ability sufficient to plan, execute, and complete a medium-sized to large (usually only largish) project, including enough skill to use some common electronic publishing tools. Familiarity with genre, something bright 15-year-olds are often already overqualified in. Basic arithmetic for most games, plus stats knowledge at a "Fun With Stats and Probability!" middle-school level. A lot of this can be ripped off and "repainted" from the material you used to get genre familiarity.

And much of this work is handled for you if you work for WOTC: you create content to pre-defined specs, much as you would for any corporation. At most media firms, this job is largely handled by young, junior folks with occasional older/senior supervision. That gets improved upwards a little bit at WOTC, since job demand is higher and market several orders of magnitude smaller, but not too much. Basically, WOTC can get a little more bang for their buck--but not too much, because the real talent won't do something as crazy as work on pretend elf games. Play 'em, sure, but Goldman's a better place to work. Or Spotify.

'Cause here's the thing. "Quality" doesn't matter. It's a complete cliche to complain that 5e books are a tsunami of flaming hot garbage. Of course they are! That the extended modules/adventure paths/whatever are overcomplex, difficult and ungainly to run, and railroad-y. Of course they are! They're not designed to run, but to read and think about running if you could ever get a group together/have friends to do this. Sure, if that ever happens, yeah, you could run it, sure, knock yourself out. But if we published these things optimizing them to be played, we'd go broke. You'd probably be all like, "Well, I'm in the middle of this thing that will take a year to resolve, so I'm not going to buy any year-long things for a while." Can't have that! Oh and here, have another dog's breakfast of game-breaking crap. We know you'll lap it right up, you gun-toting warlock artificer tiefling-draconid-tortoiseperson you. We Make Lonely Fun(tm).

I'll put it this way. If you read Brandon Sanderson, who after writing several million words has heroically clawed himself up to the standard of a prep-school ninth-grader's command of written English, you don't know what quality is. (Anyone reading this read "Sharks in the Time of Saviors?" Go read it. It even has magic shapeshifters in it. That's quality fiction, folks.) The audience for RPGs doesn't know what quality is, not in any way that matters and that is economically sustainable. It's possible things would change if that were so, but probably not. The market's too small.

How . . . . snobbish and elitist.

Fantasy fans and RPG fans simply don't know quality work . . . . okay.

Thank goodness we've got upstanding folks like you to show us how we can't recognize quality art in writing or game design, or perhaps anywhere.

EDIT: Ah, first post. Welcome to the boards, I suppose? Way to make an entrance!

 

[dragoner]

Yes, we are the peasants and workers of gaming, and we like it that way. So?

 

[Morrus]

Not unskilled labor, just very low-skilled white collar labor. Moderate writing ability. Organizational ability sufficient to plan, execute, and complete a medium-sized to large (usually only largish) project, including enough skill to use some common electronic publishing tools. Familiarity with genre, something bright 15-year-olds are often already overqualified in. Basic arithmetic for most games, plus stats knowledge at a "Fun With Stats and Probability!" middle-school level. A lot of this can be ripped off and "repainted" from the material you used to get genre familiarity.

And much of this work is handled for you if you work for WOTC: you create content to pre-defined specs, much as you would for any corporation. At most media firms, this job is largely handled by young, junior folks with occasional older/senior supervision. That gets improved upwards a little bit at WOTC, since job demand is higher and market several orders of magnitude smaller, but not too much. Basically, WOTC can get a little more bang for their buck--but not too much, because the real talent won't do something as crazy as work on pretend elf games. Play 'em, sure, but Goldman's a better place to work. Or Spotify.

'Cause here's the thing. "Quality" doesn't matter. It's a complete cliche to complain that 5e books are a tsunami of flaming hot garbage. Of course they are! That the extended modules/adventure paths/whatever are overcomplex, difficult and ungainly to run, and railroad-y. Of course they are! They're not designed to run, but to read and think about running if you could ever get a group together/have friends to do this. Sure, if that ever happens, yeah, you could run it, sure, knock yourself out. But if we published these things optimizing them to be played, we'd go broke. You'd probably be all like, "Well, I'm in the middle of this thing that will take a year to resolve, so I'm not going to buy any year-long things for a while." Can't have that! Oh and here, have another dog's breakfast of game-breaking crap. We know you'll lap it right up, you gun-toting warlock artificer tiefling-draconid-tortoiseperson you. We Make Lonely Fun(tm).

I'll put it this way. If you read Brandon Sanderson, who after writing several million words has heroically clawed himself up to the standard of a prep-school ninth-grader's command of written English, you don't know what quality is. (Anyone reading this read "Sharks in the Time of Saviors?" Go read it. It even has magic shapeshifters in it. That's quality fiction, folks.) The audience for RPGs doesn't know what quality is, not in any way that matters and that is economically sustainable. It's possible things would change if that were so, but probably not. The market's too small.

You sound nice.

 

[whimsychris123]

Not unskilled labor, just very low-skilled white collar labor. Moderate writing ability. Organizational ability sufficient to plan, execute, and complete a medium-sized to large (usually only largish) project, including enough skill to use some common electronic publishing tools. Familiarity with genre, something bright 15-year-olds are often already overqualified in. Basic arithmetic for most games, plus stats knowledge at a "Fun With Stats and Probability!" middle-school level. A lot of this can be ripped off and "repainted" from the material you used to get genre familiarity.

And much of this work is handled for you if you work for WOTC: you create content to pre-defined specs, much as you would for any corporation. At most media firms, this job is largely handled by young, junior folks with occasional older/senior supervision. That gets improved upwards a little bit at WOTC, since job demand is higher and market several orders of magnitude smaller, but not too much. Basically, WOTC can get a little more bang for their buck--but not too much, because the real talent won't do something as crazy as work on pretend elf games. Play 'em, sure, but Goldman's a better place to work. Or Spotify.

'Cause here's the thing. "Quality" doesn't matter. It's a complete cliche to complain that 5e books are a tsunami of flaming hot garbage. Of course they are! That the extended modules/adventure paths/whatever are overcomplex, difficult and ungainly to run, and railroad-y. Of course they are! They're not designed to run, but to read and think about running if you could ever get a group together/have friends to do this. Sure, if that ever happens, yeah, you could run it, sure, knock yourself out. But if we published these things optimizing them to be played, we'd go broke. You'd probably be all like, "Well, I'm in the middle of this thing that will take a year to resolve, so I'm not going to buy any year-long things for a while." Can't have that! Oh and here, have another dog's breakfast of game-breaking crap. We know you'll lap it right up, you gun-toting warlock artificer tiefling-draconid-tortoiseperson you. We Make Lonely Fun(tm).

I'll put it this way. If you read Brandon Sanderson, who after writing several million words has heroically clawed himself up to the standard of a prep-school ninth-grader's command of written English, you don't know what quality is. (Anyone reading this read "Sharks in the Time of Saviors?" Go read it. It even has magic shapeshifters in it. That's quality fiction, folks.) The audience for RPGs doesn't know what quality is, not in any way that matters and that is economically sustainable. It's possible things would change if that were so, but probably not. The market's too small.

I bet you’re fun at parties.

 

[Marc_C]

Not unskilled labor, just very low-skilled white collar labor. Moderate writing ability. Organizational ability sufficient to plan, execute, and complete a medium-sized to large (usually only largish) project, including enough skill to use some common electronic publishing tools. Familiarity with genre, something bright 15-year-olds are often already overqualified in. Basic arithmetic for most games, plus stats knowledge at a "Fun With Stats and Probability!" middle-school level. A lot of this can be ripped off and "repainted" from the material you used to get genre familiarity.

And much of this work is handled for you if you work for WOTC: you create content to pre-defined specs, much as you would for any corporation. At most media firms, this job is largely handled by young, junior folks with occasional older/senior supervision. That gets improved upwards a little bit at WOTC, since job demand is higher and market several orders of magnitude smaller, but not too much. Basically, WOTC can get a little more bang for their buck--but not too much, because the real talent won't do something as crazy as work on pretend elf games. Play 'em, sure, but Goldman's a better place to work. Or Spotify.

'Cause here's the thing. "Quality" doesn't matter. It's a complete cliche to complain that 5e books are a tsunami of flaming hot garbage. Of course they are! That the extended modules/adventure paths/whatever are overcomplex, difficult and ungainly to run, and railroad-y. Of course they are! They're not designed to run, but to read and think about running if you could ever get a group together/have friends to do this. Sure, if that ever happens, yeah, you could run it, sure, knock yourself out. But if we published these things optimizing them to be played, we'd go broke. You'd probably be all like, "Well, I'm in the middle of this thing that will take a year to resolve, so I'm not going to buy any year-long things for a while." Can't have that! Oh and here, have another dog's breakfast of game-breaking crap. We know you'll lap it right up, you gun-toting warlock artificer tiefling-draconid-tortoiseperson you. We Make Lonely Fun(tm).

I'll put it this way. If you read Brandon Sanderson, who after writing several million words has heroically clawed himself up to the standard of a prep-school ninth-grader's command of written English, you don't know what quality is. (Anyone reading this read "Sharks in the Time of Saviors?" Go read it. It even has magic shapeshifters in it. That's quality fiction, folks.) The audience for RPGs doesn't know what quality is, not in any way that matters and that is economically sustainable. It's possible things would change if that were so, but probably not. The market's too small.

We would like to read a short story, a novel or a rpg ruleset written by you. Don't be shy.

 

[Haffrung]

People are giving Plemora a hard time, but is s(he) wrong? Take one industry luminary and four experienced GMs who have a modicum of the skills he cites. Send them each away to a cabin for 60 days to develop and write a game system. Publish them all online under pseudonyms with exactly the same production values and publicity. How easy do you think it would be to identify which was written by the professional?

The quality that matters most in selling RPG books (besides the obvious one of marketing) - and not coincidentally the only part that's handled by genuine professionals who don't have trouble finding work in other industries - is the art design. Just look at the number of kludgey, half-baked systems (-cough cubicle 7-) that fans gush over because they have great production values and read well. Or the very fact that people will go bananas for a kickstarted game or setting before they've spent one minute playing it.

 

[Morrus]

People are giving Plemora a hard time, but is s(he) wrong? Take one industry luminary and four experienced GMs who have a modicum of the skills he cites. Send them each away to a cabin for 60 days to develop and write a game system. Publish them all online under pseudonyms with exactly the same production values and publicity. How easy do you think it would be to identify which was written by the professional?

I mean I’d be able to tell the difference between something by Greg Stafford or Robin Laws, compared to something by me. I can tell the difference between setting material written by Ryan Nock and the same by me. I’ve edited enough manuscripts over the years to see a wide range of quality, both in prose and in mechanical innovation.

So... yes. There is little doubt in my mind that there are skill sets and experience involved. No, maybe it’s not rocket science, but other than brain surgery, what is? Writing is skilled work. It always has been.

 

[Marc_C]

People are giving Plemora a hard time, but is s(he) wrong? Take one industry luminary and four experienced GMs who have a modicum of the skills he cites. Send them each away to a cabin for 60 days to develop and write a game system. Publish them all online under pseudonyms with exactly the same production values and publicity. How easy do you think it would be to identify which was written by the professional?

The quality that matters most in selling RPG books (besides the obvious one of marketing) - and not coincidentally the only part that's handled by genuine professionals who don't have trouble finding work in other industries - is the art design. Just look at the number of kludgey, half-baked systems (-cough cubicle 7-) that fans gush over because they have great production values and read well. Or the very fact that people will go bananas for a kickstarted game or setting before they've spent one minute playing it.

I had an ex-brother in law who held the same discourse. He downloaded the InDesign suite and declared he was a graphic designer, just like me who had years of experience and actually studied art. Well let's just say it didn't go well with his first (and last) contract. He discovered it was much harder than he thought it was.

Expertise is expertise. You can't fake it. It shows.