My Life As A Gamer: The RPG Pundit Talks Making A Living As A RPG Designer

It's the Pundit back again talking about how to get paid writing tabletop RPGs.

Yes, I said "get paid" because that's the real measure of success here: if you can pay your bills, in whole or in part, by doing this then you're making a living doing it.

Long before we get into Network Effects, disparities in costs of living in This Place vs. That Place, etc. that you can finesse to your advantage there's some very basic stuff that newbs have to master.

I've pointed out Chris Gonnerman's Basic Fantasy before. I'm bringing him, and it, up again because he's got the right way to enter this business: as a hobbyist with the aim of paying for itself. The Pundit's path is viable, but until you can make the connections he has then Gonnerman's path is what I recommend. Take a look at the website. You can download all you need to play there, free of charge. Print products are produced at-cost and are available at the largest online outlets. This is doable while working a day job full-time, as it all leverages Print On Demand and other publishing changes to his benefit.

You don't need to throw up crowdfund campaigns. Those are really for putting together premium versions of core product offerings; remember what Gonnerman did- actual product, for free, online and for-cost POD print products. Do that, and then put effort into promoting it. You won't make bank overnight, but you can and will produce a steady stream of revenue over time if you actually bring together a product worth playing.