A brief update just to mention that I have moved from substack to WordPress. I’ll be posting the podcasts to Patreon and link to them from here, but fear not: the podcasts will remain free. If you’d like to support my podcast, my novel writing, or TTRPG design work you can always subscribe to me on Patreon.

https://patreon.com/isfriday

Spaceships, pirates, imperials & queers

Readers of TTRPG game design or writing and listeners of my podcast, I have a new obsession: writing fiction. Well, it’s not really new. I’m picking it back up and starting to share again after a couple of decades of keeping it to myself. Lately I’m writing a sci fi novel with series potential but wanted to build a readership organically rather than attempting to throw darts at the traditional publishing pipeline. I’d like to retain as much control over my creative works as possible, just as I have in TTRPG.

The pitch of the first story I’m sharing:

Captain Bho's foreign aid vessel escapes a hostile takeover by space pirates only to witness a targeted United Earth cosmic assault on civilians. Captain Bho leads her crew in a bid to escape the black hole, relying on her gutsy crew of ragtag rebels to pull together against the most powerful entity in the universe. Meanwhile in the dying light of the star Chief Zuri and the Captain reignite an old romance, but is it doomed just like this star system?

Read the first chapter of Black Hole Guns here!

I expect to be sharing regular drafts for the first novel and pursue a series via crowdfunding the production. My hope is that I am able to go full-time with writing between this and game design one day. I appreciate everyone’s support, even if you can just share it with your friends, it means a lot to me.

(https://www.patreon.com/posts/147943919?collection=1936189)

Tough to keep your business running on the same ol’ same ol’.

I left behind pro GMing last year to work at a regular job for a while (for healthcare) and returned this year. I had to completely rebuild! But Friday: Didn’t you have old customers returning? A few here and there, but nothing to write home about. Most folks had found another GM that served them just as well as I had. This further reinforces my opinion that a GM has to be “just good enough” rather than perfect for most players.

Complicating this: a lot of the GMs I talk to get stuck in granular details as though they need to solve some archaic formula to successfully run the biz. It’s easier if you use a holistic approach instead of a scientific one. Just do what you love and improve at the skills needed to do that: ad copy, customer service, technical skill, being a kind host.

Write an impressionable ad, run a good game, treat your players well, and be passionate about what you do.

Some signs that your ad is good

• A player has never played this game before but your ad looked interesting.

• A player expresses excitement about future play.

• You receive a message asking if you’re running a particular game in a different time slot.

Run Anything Besides D&D

Games that aren’t D&D are more popular than they have ever been. If you are having trouble lately getting players who stick and you’re just running D&D, I would give this advice:

• Run anything besides D&D. Why? We have an influx of new GMs running D&D every time the economy hits a slump. You’re competing with a thousand sub-100 game GMs.

• The market for non-D&D has exploded in the past 3 years. Right now you have Daggerheart, Draw Steel, Pathfinder 2e, and so many more competing for that sword and magic fantasy game.

• Games outside of the fantasy genre are a huge draw right now and you’re missing out on big things happening when you don’t follow your passion projects.

• Pay attention to games that have linked media with releases. You get the best types of players who are really invested in that type of story. Cyberpunk, Witcher, Cosmere etc.

Preventing Burnout

• Schedule a weekly day off where you are not at the computer.

• Remove “bad vibe” players before they contribute to your burnout. It’ll creep up on you.

• Establish a boundary between you and a needy player. My default response to most players talking to me about their character backstory or anything else game-related is: “Message me about this the day of the game.”

• Run games that are exciting to you.

• Express your appreciation for your players and they’ll share it back.

Here’s a budget template to help you

Fuck.

Due to the disastrous decision for establishment Senate Democrats to cave on the government shutdown, affording healthcare just became even more difficult. Money is going to be very tight moving forward, especially for freelancers who are beholden to a gluttonous insurance marketplace.

Net worth of caving Senate Dems:

• 4M Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada

• 3M Dick Durbin of Illinois

• 1.6M John Fetterman of Pennsylvania

• 3M Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire

• 2M+ Tim Kaine of Virginia

• 5M+ Jacky Rosen of Nevada

• 3M+ Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire

Here’s How To Track Your Budget

Utilizing a Google Sheets document I’ve put together to help you track your budget. It’s fairly simple. Create the columns with info you need and with the seat cost on the far right of each table. Then add the total together using the formula shown above, multiplying it by .85 to account for the cut that SPG takes. You can add an additional line to account for taxes, as well.

The bottom of the worksheet hosts a board for tracked current amounts of each table and compared to static goals that you can detail. These formulae are simple – they add together all the tables of any given day by tracking the cells and producing a sum (post-SPG cut). These combine to create a weekly and monthly stat with easy math. You may want to adjust this per month if tracking 5 week months separately from 4 week months is important to you.

Make a copy in order to edit your own.

Here is a link to the document. I hope it’s helpful!

Dollars & Dragons Podcast

We had on the podcast the accomplished and energized game designer Cody Pondsmith (he/him) of R. Talsorian Games! Beginning his journey at 11 years old, Cody has long been in the designer seat and has the portfolio to prove it. Having worked on Cyberpunk Red and Witcher, he is now spearheading an anime-inspired ninja TTRPG called Shadow Scar.

Check out Shadow Scar on Kickstarter!

LINKS:

https://www.wargamer.com/shadow-scar/kickstarter-launch

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/792383008/shadow-scar-ttrpg-core-rulebook

https://rtalsoriangames.com/downloadable-content/

Dollars & Dragons Podcast

This episode we have on a repeat guest Josh Simons who has worked for D&D, DMs Guild, Magpie Games, Kobold Press, Mage Hand Press, and even AMC Networks. We chat about his indie superhero game called Paragons, marketing for TTRPGs and how he’s made his way in the industry.

“Paragons: The Roleplaying Game is a dynamic TTRPG with heavy influences from animated superhero shows like Teen Titans and Batman: The Animated Series. The mechanics draw inspiration from a variety of sources, including the Year Zero Engine, Shadowrun, the World of Darkness games, the Powered by the Apocalypse system, and Pathfinder 2e. Paragons is easy to pick up and understand, taking only a few minutes to make a character and start playing. The game is designed so the mechanics don’t get in the way of the story or the fun happening around the table.

Behind the mask of superhero fun, Paragons is about overcoming obstacles, the weight of responsibility that comes with being in the public eye, and the ever-raging battle between good and evil in the world and in our hearts.”

Click the image below to support an indie publisher!

Links:

https://brokendoor.shop/pages/paragons

https://www.joshuamsimons.com/

https://bsky.app/profile/joshuamsimons.com

https://www.dakotacurry.com/

A free adventure you say?

Hey there! I’ve been really digging Cyberpunk RED lately. I slammed together this short adventure as my first foray into CPR design. I hope to whip together more in the future. It is available to you for free with respect to R Talsorian Games’ Homebrew Content Policy since they do not have a community publishing license like OGL or ORC.

Let me know what you think! And more importantly: Would you like to see more? Shoot me feedback via Discord (isfriday) or email (isfriday at gmail).

One Last Job

If you’d like to play Cyberpunk RED with me, head over to StartPlaying Games and find a game that works for your schedule.

Trick question. Why do you care?

Devon, the COO at StartPlaying Games, has announced that they have been testing a “Top GM Badge” and panic has ensued in SPG Discord chat. It’ll get worse once it has rolled out for all users. GMs are feeling unfairly judged by a system that cares not for them or their players, but instead about raw stats. That’s just business, baby! The good news is that the badge helps everyone book more – the bad news is that it creates a heavier sense of crushing capitalism in our increasingly unstable economy.

In order to understand the concept of why this badge is not only a moving goal post, but also a toxic metric that is more akin to a status symbol, I’ll need to set the ground work with the marketplace itself. SPG is a matching market, much akin to dating apps. While the UX visually suggests that it is similar to an Amazon storefront, that is an incomplete view of the user experience and does not help us understand user behavior.

Reasons why SPG is a matching market, not a storefront:

• GMs have a limited quantity of available seats and playtimes.

• Players have a limited quantity of available playtimes.

• Players often consider time, service (game), and professional reputation (profile/reviews) before booking.

When players discover that one of these factors does not match they leave the game. If someone joins your game and stays, it is the game for them – believe me, they have plenty of other options! Therefore: it stands to reason that while a GM’s game might be equivalent in time and price to another game, it is not the game for everyone.

In sales terms: The GM is resolving multiple problems the player has with a continuous service, rather than a product to resolve one problem without regard to schedule. Therefore: SPG is not a marketplace akin to buying a product, it is a service. I encountered this type of dichotomy when I was a recruiter for the Imperial Empire (US military). What is good for one branch of service is not the same for the others!

What Does a Top GM Badge Do?

Some important factors: This test was done with new users on SPG with a sample of 3000+ users A/B testing. GMs were not included in the test data because GM user behavior is vastly different than new user behavior on the website. This set of criteria for the Top GM Badge made up 20-25% of the GMs on the website.

Clarification on what the badge is and does:

• It is measured by 40 different metrics.

• One of the most important factors is whether or not a brand new player to SPG will continue to play with that GM and/or continue to use the website after their first game on the website.

• The history of the user is considered. If a player has less user data, it is not as impactful to this metric. If the player is inherently flaky with bookings, then having them leave your game is less impactful.

• Session count, transaction count, dollar count, request count, session cut off time, player free count, player skip count, number of games hosted on SPG were considered for awarding a Top GM Badge.

• Currently the test is not dynamic and if you had less than 90 days of data when they began the test, you were not considered for a Top GM Badge.

The most shocking thing that Devon learned about it is: The Top GM Badge changes new user behavior!

• The conversion rate is 10% higher when you have the badge in the A Test.

• Only 10% of the entire list of bookings across the website were done with those Top GMs.

• The conversion rate is only 5% higher in the B test.

• Over the 3 day period of the test 20% more customers booked total. This is true for all GMs.

• An increase of 34% “player onboarding”. This means that more players who joined a game made it to being charged (playing in the game) than without the test. This is true whether or not the GM has a Top GM Badge.

Meaning that of those conversions, 18% of the new bookings went to GMs without the Top GM Badge, who make up 75% of the GMs on the website. Additionally, more players made it to being charged. (Less join/leave yo-yo’ing.) Site wide under the test, the number of bookings increased, which I infer that there is higher trust in the marketplace because of the appearance of QA.

It should be noted that Devon has not officially declared what the prevailing theory is as to why, but the SPG team has some guesses.

Click this link or the video below to listen to Devon speak about their test for the Top GM badge.

Why The Top GM Badge Doesn’t Matter To Your Business

You cannot control whether or not you are assigned a Top GM Badge. It is a moving goal post with current word from Devon suggesting that it will be a rolling 90-day window of data. This will mean that most GMs will fall off the list and get back on at various periods of vacation, inactivity, in between campaigns, or if they choose to run less popular systems.

With the vast majority of SPG’s traffic still belonging to D&D (70% last we were told in the wake of the OGL scandal, but I am eager to see how the marketplace has shifted since Daggerheart’s release), it can falsely incentivize some GMs to run D&D when their business model is more successful without it. D&D games have a higher price band and can support more players than every other game on the market; this can negatively impact your chances of being awarded the Badge if you do not run it.

And yet plenty of GMs on the website run non-D&D games successfully to meet their goals. You face more frustration toward achieving your goals if you focus on the moving goal post of the Badge, especially if you do not want to run the big dragon game. The minor increase in booking % matters not if you are recruiting players who stick around for years and follow you from game to game.

What’s more? This badge will be more difficult for part-time GMs to achieve on the website. That’s not necessarily a bad thing as part-timers likely will want to have less pressure by players to “perform at a top level”. Whether or not the full roll out of the Top GM Badge will change user entitlement to a premium experience from those with the badge is yet to be seen.

Even if the test is underselling the Badge’s usefulness to who has it, 10% is negligible when taken over a test period of a year. Let’s say I have a total of 40 players, or even 70! That’s 4-7 more bookings a year. If you’re already at your cap as a full-time GM, you cannot scale infinitely in this direction. You instead must scale in cost and improve the quality of your service to match the price increase.

The bottom line: A Top GM Badge does not change your relationship with your players. You can ruin your relationship with your players by burning yourself out, paying more attention to metrics than people, and by growing frustrated by your competition.

Don’t believe me? Read up on Blue Ocean Strategy. We are not a Red Ocean market, we are a matching market. Another GM’s success is not your failure. Hell – they might just have more free time than you because you have kids and hobbies. (Which are good things!)

The Recruiting Conundrum of non-D&D:

• The majority of the games booked on SPG are for D&D, creating a sense of missing easy money.

• D&D’s floor seems to be closer to $20 and tops out at around $40, although those games are few and far between.

• Non-D&D’s floor is often $15 and tops out around $35, with very few games running at that price. (The current most expensive Vampire The Masquerade 5e & Pathfinder 2e games are mine at $35.)

• D&D campaigns tend to run longer than other systems which might incentivize GMs to stick with it rather than risk branching out into other systems or recruit for new campaigns/games every few months.

• Non-D&D takes longer to fill at first if you do not have a dedicated fanbase for it.

• You have to design your business model to support recruiting forever-players who love you rather than “just looking for this D&D module to play”.

I think Daggerheart is a non-D&D exception currently. Daggerheart has a massive following behind it and currently supports some GMs at $40 but I have kept my own price at $35 while I am still rebuilding my business into a full-time endeavor. Whether or not Daggerheart will support $40 in the coming months/years is to be seen. I suspect most of the GMs who can support that price point are the same as they were before Daggerheart – those who recruit lifestyle players rather than casuals.

What To Focus On Instead Of The Badge

• Run fantastic games.

• Build rapport with your players.

• Be inclusive and friendly.

• Avoid burnout by running the games that you are excited to run instead of chasing metrics.

• Improve your ads to help your games stand out and shine with the magic that you personally bring.

Dollars & Dragons Podcast

On the pod we had on DragnaCarta (he/him) whose work has helped redefine Curse of Strahd adventures for tens of thousands of players across the hobby. His work includes Curse of Strahd: Reloaded and Twice Bitten. He’s now launching Eidolon Publishing with the announcement of his upcoming Kickstarter Lost Mine of Phandelver: Reloaded!

If you’d like to play a Curse of Strahd game with me (or Rime or Daggerheart or – or – or) sign up for one of my games on Start Playing!