Matt Sanders is here

And I think friends you haven't seen for 2 years would be happy with the honesty too. I would.

Years ago I had been in a new job about 3 months and a colleague who had just finished her master's she disappeared into for 18 months came up to me and said basically that.

"I've just finished my master's and half the folks I knew well have left, can we go out for a beer?"

It was cool and good.

This is incredible.

Yeah agreed. I have made a deliberate decision not to quibble with any of the specifics here because the macro message is pretty good.

It is *still* the case that 5k copies is a sold print run for a core book and plenty of stuff is 1-2k at indie scale.

There are plenty of sharks and exploitative folks in there, don't get me wrong, but pretty much none of them are getting actually rich. Many are making a barely functional business workable by exploiting creatives. Many people trying to do better are barely making ends to achieve small changes.

Recently I've seen a few 'successful' TTRPG folks framed as if their success means they are now drenched in cash / running big businesses.

On any kind of scale except comparing to the DIY and hobbyist folks, this just isn't true. RPGs are a tiny field in terms of headcount and money.

Any metric here has its complexities. So we (RRD) are definitely a lot smaller than Modiphius, but it also the case their headcount includes actual manufacturing staff who produce their miniatures line, so you're enumerating the size of a very different business.

I mean, if you really put some force into sharpening the dice wobble a bit.

Are you familiar with pencils and the act of keeping them sharp?

In this house we don't use the G word.

The ultimate RPG accessory.

Graphic with a pink background, the rrd logo and the following text. Just in case it needs saying, we are against fascism in general, and this bullshit specifically We stand in solidarity with the people of Minnesota against the ongoing state violence there. Here’s a way to support mutual aid efforts: standwithminnesota.com We are a British TTRPG company, and we have colleagues, customers, contemporaries, staff and friends in the USA. We stand with them, against summary executions and against the growing authoritarianism from ICE and the US administration. We would really like this to be a one-off post.

Just in case it needs saying, we are against fascism in general, and this bullshit specifically.

standwithminnesota.com

Think over the next few weeks I'll do some threads to cover each thing I've released and what I was seeking to achieve when I made it, and how I feel about it now.

Made loads of my games PWYW today. I've kept a couple of titles as paid and set them to 10 bucks.

Will be funding finishing a long overdue crowdfunder and some reprints from my sales in the next month or two.

There's some cool stuff here I've not looked at in forever.

sealedlibrary.itch.io

So I am pondering what is in the middle where you play characters who are making media, and that is supported by rules that drive play, but doesn't involve you actually making the thing.

Ribbon Drive would be another example where the output is diegetic because the player actually makes the thing.

Whereas if you play a journalist in Call of Cthulhu there is nothing in the game about your *character* writing newspaper articles. There are no rules for that, it doesn't matter.

But that thought was not fully formed until I asked this.

Me too! But I am looking for a middle ground between the abstraction of 'you're a journalist, that's boiled down to skills and roleplay' and 'in this game you will record a journal' and I think there might be a reverse bell curve of how many there are.

Ooh, so this makes me need to refine what I said which is good. So these are diegetic games where the player does what the character does, and that is media creation. I don't necessarily want this to be diegetic, where a real media artefact comes to exist, I want the game to be *about* making media.

Yeah, this is awesome. I hadn't thought about it because I'm looking for stuff to run with my group but actually this is still excellent inspiration fodder.

Funny that these are both Mothership related. I guess it's a very hackable system and the genre is right to act as a basis. This looks hella cool though. Very strong competitor to be the next thing I run.

So I know about ARKYVR. What other RPGs are there where recording/media creation are explicitly part of the game?

Like, I get you can play a journalist in Call of Cthulhu and make up that part of your job, but it isn't part of the game. It doesn't have its own mechanics and it isn't centred.

"right now, I have a job and a life where I can cope, but that hasn't always been true and might not always be, and I want this for that eventuality where I need to adapt and access to diagnosis and support becomes essential."

Also, this sucks, sorry dude.

I'm in the middle of the very slow process of autism diagnosis (and I sort of had to pick between that and ADHD, despite both seeming likely) and one of the things I have said to the folks I've spoke to so far was about why I want a diagnosis, and that isn't about support needs now.

Lots of new followers today. Is something happening?

@alfredvalley.bsky.social I wanna get another Dark Arts coffee game box off you. I can't see it on your website. How do give money?

I want this.

I love all of these advent calendar posts and wish I owned this nonsense.

I am playing Call of Cthulhu again, how did that happen?

I think my DragonMeet purchases may well be focused on overcoming ever needing it.

And looking at a 'good' one means knowing what it sought to achieve and whether that worked and why. It's a complex thing and like so much stuff many people are copying without truly understanding.