Roll Play Grow: A TTRPG Business Podcast

You won't want to miss this jam-packed episode as we're rolling the dice again with Russell E Welch III, the mastermind DM and CEO behind D20 Tales. Russell returns to chat about how D20 Tales has grown and changed over the last year, including the added complexities of going on tour. As we pull back the curtain on the world of live touring, we candidly discuss the unique challenges it e...

How many of you have thought about starting a friendly local gaming store? Well, I have a special treat for you today, because I got to chat with Andrew Youngchild, the co-founder of Lost Star Tabletop Gaming Outfitter in Gig Harbor, Washington. He and his sister, Charlie, opened up this very cool store in the heart of Gig Harbor’s shopping district, a year into Covid. We dig into how the store ca...

Jay & Grub from Possum Creek Games are back! I’m super stoked to have my first repeat guests on the show from all the way back in episode 13. If you are not familiar with Possum Creek Games, then you might have heard of a little game called Wanderhome that Kickstarted during the height of Covid. I interviewed Jay & Grub both on my blog and on this show about Wanderhome, and now, today, we...

Jonah and Tristan Fishel are two brothers writing a book together. Tristan started publishing on DM’s Guild and as a freelancer about a year ago, and they decided to write a book about proactive roleplaying. The book is called The Game Master’s Handbook of Proactive Roleplaying , and we talk about what proactive roleplaying means, their journey of writing this book and finding a publisher, and wha...

Matt Joro, also known as DungeonGlitch is one of those cool creators who does so many things. Matt is a DnD Influencer, Professional DM, Artist, Author, and Composer, and I wish I’d had several more hours to talk to him. We dive into how Matt has grown in the ttrpg space over the last 3 years, how he became connected with Wizards of the Coast, marketing tips, getting into Lo-Fi music composition,...

Beth the Bard is a writer, designer, streamer, and professional dungeon master. I first learned about Beth when she published She is the Ancient, an amazing genderbent version of Curse of Strahd, and it’s been a joy to follow her work ever since. Beth currently has a Kickstarter going for Daughters of Frankenstein, a super spooky 5e supplement that is inspired by all your favorite classic horror s...

Cassi Mothwin shot into the ttrpg scene a couple years ago when she created her first project, What Crooked Roots, a D&D 5e folk horror supplement. Since then, she’s created two very unique games and is currently crowdfunding for a 3rd game, Tangled Blessings. Cassi didn’t plan to get into game design–it just kind of happened because of her Curse of Strahd campaign. Cassi’s had a really intere...

Today is the day my friends! It is the Kickstarter launch day for the game that I have been project managing for a year now: Burnaway. I will spare you the explanation of the game right now because you are going to hear all about in this episode. We are talking with Geordie Morse aka Nagi, the game designer behind it all. Make sure you go to Kickstarter and look for Burnaway, all one word, or chec...

Today’s episode is the second in our short series of interviews with my project team members on the upcoming indie ttrpg called Burnaway. The game is launching on Kickstarter on February 7th, and I wanted to introduce you all to some of the awesome people behind the scenes! Be sure to check out the show notes for a link to the pre-launch page on Kickstarter, and the Arnamantle website, where you c...

Chris Hopper is the layout and graphic designer for Burnaway, as well as for several other ttrpgs in the indie scene. We talk about working as a freelance layout designer, working within this community, tips for working with your designers, and making your games and layouts more accessible. I learned so much from Chris, and I know y’all will too! This episode is actually going to be the first in a...

If you hang around the D&D scene, you likely have heard of Dragon Talk, the D&D podcast hosted by Greg Tito and Shelly Mazzanoble. Greg is the Senior Communications Manager of Dungeons & Dragons, and Shelly is the Senior Brand Manager of Dungeons & Dragons. We talk about what they’re up to in D&D. We talk about their show, and we talk about their upcoming book, Welcome to Drago...

Joshua Simons is our guest today! Josh is a streamer, game designer, and the Community and Content Manager at Demiplane RPG. We dive into the intricacies of networking and how Josh was able to land a fulltime job in the industry. We also get a peek at his process for creating characters. Josh has appeared on so many actual play shows and always has some really in-depth characters. I gotta say that...

 Lysa is the Marketing Manager at OneBookShelf, which is the company behind sites like DM’s Guild and DriveThruRPG. And we definitely talk about what that means, what faer journey has been like throughout multiple roles in the TTRPG space. We also talk about Design Dash, a Twitch show that Lysa co-hosts and Lysa’s love for crafty endeavors and bees! Lysa is just an incredibly kind and supportive p...

How would you like to be a full-time, professional game master? It sounds like a dream a lot of us have in this industry, and so I am thrilled to introduce you to Donathin Frye who does just that. Donathin supports himself as a full-time Dungeon master with some additional freelance game design work, through Patreon subscriptions. He tends to run 6-8 full-length campaigns at any given time, and tr...

Today, I have the absolute pleasure to introduce you to Sara Thompson. Sara is most widely known for the Combat Wheelchair they created for D&D, but she is also a freelance game designer working with companies like Paizo and R Talsorian Games. We definitely talk about Sara’s game design processes, but this episode is extra special to me because we spend time talking about disability and workin...

Kienna Shaw is our guest today. Kienna is known for doing more things than we were able to discuss in an hour, like the TTRPG Safety Toolkit, safety consulting, game design for a bunch of games on Itch.io, DM’s Guild, and a Candlekeep Mysteries adventures, and a whole lot of actual play streaming. We focus mostly on game design and safety tools in this conversation, but I could have spent hours ch...

Our guest today is David, the player behind Kascorin and one of the podcast editors of Reckless Attack. If you are not familiar with Reckless Attack, it is one of my absolute favorite D&D Actual Play podcasts, and you should definitely go check it out. They are a really good and funny group, and their episodes are typically about an hour long. David is the one who dedicated a lot of time to fi...

Today’s guest is Amber TheSpaceJamber, a TTRPG editor and streamer. Amber tells us what your editor is actually thinking and looking for in your writing. We also go into depth on content strategies while building your online presence, and all about streaming. Amber has some great advice, and I know you’ll enjoy the episode as much as I did! Find Amber:  Website Twitch Twitter Find Roll Play Grow:...

Today features Indrani, an absolutely amazing and kind creator from India. She is the co-founder of Desis & Dragons, India’s largest TTRPG community. Indrani is also the creator behind Nonagon Dice, which they started because handmade dice weren’t easily accessible in India. Indrani has been doing some truly incredible work over the last year, and it was a privilege to get to speak to them. Fi...

What happens when you interview an interviewer? You tend to compare notes. And that is what we do today. Our guest is Derrick, the host of the How Not to DM Podcast. If you aren’t familiar with his show, I highly recommend you go check it out. If you like my show, you’ll like his too. Derrick also interviews folks in the TTRPG space. His focus tends to be on DMing, and he always makes a point to a...

Today’s guest is Russell E Welch the III, the DM and CEO of D20Tales, a company putting on some very high quality D&D Actual Plays. They were formerly known as Spawn of Chaos and just rebranded very recently. Russell and I get really into the weeds on casting the shows, their production process, the impact of acting philosophies, rebranding, and a whole lot more. Rossell has some great stories...

Today’s guest is Devin Nelson, a very talented composer, musician, and game designer. We talk about how Devin quit their full-time job to pursue a career in music, composing podcasts for Actual Plays and other podcasts, game design, and about Devin’s band, Gloomy June which just went on tour. Devin is super cool, so I know y’all will love this episode. Find Devin at: Twitter Portfolio Music for pu...

Our guest today is Orion D. Black, the Creative Director for Dimension 20 and a game designer with publications on itch.io. Orion has had a huge impact on the TTRPG scene, and it was an absolute honor to have them on the show. We talked about how Orion went from playing D&D to designing their own indie games, to working with the incredible crew of Dimension 20. Find Orion D. Black at: Twitter...

It’s episode 50! It took a long time to get here, longer than it technically should for a weekly show, but we’re here. We made it, and it’s amazing. I am in a little shock about what this signifies. I’ve talked to so many amazing people in this space, and I am just so grateful to everyone who’s been a guest and to all of you for listening, tuning in every week, giving me feedback, and leaving thos...

Today we get the pleasure of hearing from Emil, one of the hosts of the DoubleDM podcast, which is a discussion show between two Dungeon Masters and the occasional guest. This show has been around for just over a year now; about the same amount of time as mine, and it was pretty cool getting to chat with another podcaster about how their show has grown and their processes have evolved over the cou...