Roll Play Grow: A TTRPG Business Podcast

Today’s guest is Karee, the owner of Critical Hit Cookies and a cast member of the Starfinder actual Play podcast: Horizons Unknown. We talk about how Karee fell into playing Pathfinder and joining this cast, and then we move into how her cookie shop came to be. Critical Hit Cookies makes and ships some absolutely delicious cookies with a Pathfinder theme, and y’all are going to be drooling by the...

Today’s guest is Andrea Canerossi, the Managing Partner and Mini Painter for Wolfwood Gaming. She co-owns the company with her business partner, Deacon Wolfwood, who is their woodworker and resin artist. Wolfwood Gaming is still a pretty new company, but it was really interesting to hear about the their journey. Andrea and I talk about playing D&D with their kids and the foster community, pain...

Today we get the pleasure of hearing from Jay, the owner and designer behind 88Riddles. You may have seen Jay for his painted dice boxes, as part of an add-on to several Kickstarters, or maybe for his t-shirt and hoodie designs. Jay is a super talented artist who has a lot of great wisdom to share on running a plethora of online shops.  If this is your first time tuning in to Roll Play Grow, hello...

Our guest today is DeAngelo Murillo, a writer, streamer, game designer, and activist. He founded a really cool blog and website that puts a spotlight on cosplayers and other creators called The Geek Lyfe and has continued that theme in his streamed games on Twitch. We talk about the site, his journey into content creation, his Actual Play and Charity streams, and then we pivot to talking about his...

Spoiler Warning: I forgot to say this in the intro, but there are some mild spoilers about Yazeba's backstory, starting at about the 25-minute mark until the 34-minute mark. I am very happy to bring you Lillie J. Harris and Mercedes Acosta, two of the writers from the upcoming, so close to launch, game Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast. I am VERY excited about this game, and it was an absolute del...

Today we get the pleasure of hearing from the Dungeon Master of a still new yet increasingly popular D&D Actual Play podcast, Reckless Attack. Nathan Lurz joins me today to chat about this podcast, which was years in the making and then we pivot to chatting about social media marketing. This episode is longer than usual, but to be honest that’s partly because Nathan and I are friends in real l...

Today’s guest is Imani, the founder of Margaret Catter Development. Imani is an indie game developer making some truly fun and pretty niche games. I really loved diving into the stories behind a lot of these games, learning about her processes and some upcoming projects they are working on this year. Imani is a lot of fun, so I hope you enjoy listening to them! I’ve got a couple of business update...

If you are planning a crowd-funding campaign, thinking of planning a crowd-funding campaign, or just in search of some amazing advice about marketing your products, then you NEED to listen to this episode. Daniel Nimitz is an absolute wizard at helping Kickstarter campaigns get funded. Some examples of previous projects they were the marketing manager of are Fuel Priest, Magic School Mystery, and...

Hello & Welcome to Episode 40 of Roll Play Grow, the podcast for tabletop entrepreneurs, creators, and fans. I am Courtney Stover of Lightheart Adventures, and in this podcast, we talk to the creators behind the brands in the tabletop roleplay gaming space about who they are and how they are turning their passion for gaming into a career.  Today’s guest is probably going to make you crave swee...

Today’s guest is Aster, an incredibly talented game and comic artist from Mexico City. I found Aster by looking for an artist to draw my dog, Bowser as a Ranger in a few pieces. As you may or may not know, I am working towards opening an Etsy shop soon for D&D-themed pet merch like bandanas, bowties, and collars. I decided I wanted Bowser to be my mascot, and I needed someone who could draw hi...

Today’s guest is M Veselak, a ttrpg designer and the author of Wickedness, published by Possum Creek Games. We talk about how she became a gamer at the age of 5, writing games for a LARP summer camp, how she creates zer games, what it’s like to work with Jay and Ruby at Possum Creek Games, and we get a pretty cool preview of the behind the scenes of the upcoming game Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast. M...

For today’s guest: have you ever considered writing a series of novels about your D&D campaign? Because that is exactly what the lovely couple over at Tal and Ru Travels are doing. Scott Roepel shares the inspiring story of how he and Ashley are turning their D&D campaign into an 8 book series, and it’s based entirely on how things go in their campaign. We talk about the logistics of an ev...

Anna Holden is the founder of D&D Disability, a company she began to help bring disability awareness to D&D. She works with a team of consultants to create supplements to allow players to bring disabilities into the world of D&D. I actually had the privilege of working with her on a supplement for POTS, which stands for Postural Orthostatic Tacychardia Syndrome, and it was honestly a r...

Today’s guest is Cassi, the dungeon master for the visual novel style D&D podcast, Chosen Ones. They are also a very talented artist and animator. We chat about what it’s like to DM an actual play podcast, how they unintentionally wound up with a year’s worth of recordings due to Covid, how they add the visual elements for YouTube onto the show, and all about their art journey that led them to...

It’s been a while since we had a maker on the show, and I’m very excited about today’s guest, Katlyn Sol, ½ of the Arcane Spectacles team. If you aren’t familiar with Arcane Spectacles, they make spell trackers, potion bottles that include d4s, dice vaults, and more cool D&D and Pathfinder accessories. I actually have a spell tracker and potion bottle myself, and I love them both. That potion...

Chris Valentine is a best-selling TTRPG author who published on both DM’s Guild and DriveThruRPG. One of the things I find most impressive about Chris is the wildly efficient process he’s developed for producing new supplements and adventures on a super-fast timeline: we’re talking a new publication every week and a half, while he also works full time and has a newborn baby. Now, I will absolutely...

Christian Zeuch is a Brazilian cartographer and author who has published a large number of supplements, adventures, and map packs on both DM’s Guild and DriveThruRPG. He has some absolutely amazing advice that he shares as he describes his journey to becoming a best-selling cartographer involving marketing strategies, strategies for planning future publications, collaborations, and more. He also h...

Our guest today is a very talented indie ttrpg designer with over 40 titles on itch.io: Jamila R. Nedjadi. He also has a Kickstarter for the second edition of Our Haunt that just launched a few days ago through a partnership they have with Possum Creek Games. Our conversation covered everything from all of the lessons they’ve learned and how they’ve refined processes over the last few years, to di...

Today’s guest is Marigold: an indie game designer and artist. They have games available on itch.io such as Wagon Wheel, Feather Down, and Habits of the Common House Ghost and an Etsy shop where they sell washi tape, game accessories, and artwork. This conversation was a really special one, as not only did we dive into the unique processes of developing games during Game Jams and the other interest...

T. Julian Bell is the Creative Director and Owner of Dark Veil Studio which currently has a Kickstarter running for the Dark Veil TTRPG. I’ll be honest, y’all. I really want this game, and I think you should absolutely go check out their Kickstarter , which is running until October 15th. I’m not being paid to say this; I just think the lore and universe-building potentials sound really cool, and I...

Content Warning: Suicidal Attempt (Timestamp 39:20 - 40:30 ) Brandon Dingess is the co-founder and content manager of Goblins and Growlers, a Richmond, Virginia-based TTRPG events and content company. He also plays a triple-multiclassed over-the-hill pro wrestler in the actual-play podcast "Quid Pro Roll" and co-hosts "The Goblins and Growlers Podcast," a bi-weekly show that mu...

How many fans of Grimms' Fairy Tales are listening to this right now? Krista Martocci is an author and game designer publishing D&D adventures set in her own homebrew, Grimm-themed world. She currently has two adventures based on Snow White and Bremen Town-Musicians, as well as several sub-class supplements out on DriveThruRPG and available in a couple of local bookstores. We talk about h...

A few weeks ago, I put out a call on Twitter asking for artists, makers, and cartographers to reach out if they’d be interested in coming on the podcast, and whew. The response was honestly overwhelming. I’m really excited about it, because before this, I really only ever had 2-3 interviews scheduled at a time, so it was a constant juggling act of essentially cold calling people within the industr...

If you’ve spent any amount of time on ttrpg Twitter, you’ve probably seen the gorgeous round dice boxes with colorful and magical epoxy patterns created by Staff and Branch. I am delighted to introduce you to today’s guest, Tim Carlson, the owner of Staff & Branch and maker of these dice boxes. Snagging a box for yourself is an elusive goal, as he’s usually sold out within minutes of his bi-we...

Adam Waselnuk is the founder of Sword & Source and co-founder of Legendkeeper. Sword & Source is a collection of random generators, most notably, Here be Taverns, which was just nominated for an Ennie award. Adam was actually one of my first listeners of this podcast and reached out to me to say hello a while back, so it’s been super cool watching him grow over the last several months. Bre...