Money Master's Guide: Game Mastering For Fun And Profit
We all hope to someday turn our hobby into a full-time job. Most of us don’t hope to get rich, but enough to pay the bills by doing what we love is a great start. Arjade Productions presents Raymond Hick’s Money Master’s Guide - Game Mastering for Fun and Profit gives you all the tools and details you need to help get you started if you’re in the tabletop gaming industry.
Since we are a D&D 5e show, the most obvious focus for our topic today would be the chapters that cover closely related topics. Of the 12 total, they ALL apply. So, instead, we are going to focus on a few that really stand out, and those, that we believe to be the best starting point.
Chapter 2: Building a Community
Ray talks greatly about the importance of building a community. Without a strong community, then your sales are going to tank. It doesn’t matter if you have more than 10,000 followers, if you’re not getting at least 100 are buying your product. Raymond pushes on the need for 100 good consistent buyers to ensure your products don’t tank entirely. There is a lot of truth to this. If you focus on building your community, they become a reliable support group for your entire business. Whether you’re running tabletop games, creating supplements, or even designing your own game, this is much harder when you have no audience to share your concept, brainstorm sessions, and more importantly potential customers. Consistent and authentic engagement is key to any product's success.
Chapter 5: Streaming/Podcasting Games
One of the simplest ways to get started trying to earn money is streaming and podcasting your games. Whether it’s video or tabletop, there is always an audience, if you can find it. According to Raymond, leaked data from twitch indicated that even mid-tier streamers were getting payouts of up to $20,000 just from donations. That is well above USA minimum wage. It’s no surprise that so many aren’t joining the workforce. But, that’s another discussion.
A few key points and one, in particular, most don’t think about is that your friends are likely NOT performers. This comes across quite a bit during streams and especially so during podcasts. The chapter talks in detail about speech patterns, words that drag on, the rustling of paper and snacks as well as large gaps of dead air. All these impact the quality of the listener experience and need to be considered. All that, in addition to audio and video quality.
One of the critical points of a stream or podcast is the value added. Why is it the audience chooses to spend their precious time listening/watching you over the other thousands of competitors? You need a big push on value added. This becomes a big balancing act between the work your putting in, vs the return on investment, which could take months or even years. The value added can be more than just sound effects and music. It can be homebrew creations, an interesting theme that doesn’t get coverage as much, such as Mystery or Political Intrigue, both of which need to also be entertaining and hold the audience's attention. Research the competition, see what they are doing right, and wrong, and then run with it. Digging into a niche is all a part of finding those 100 dedicated followers to get that money rolling in.
Money Master’s Guide: Game Mastering for Fun and Profit goes into great detail on each of these topics and more. Join us live on 11/13/22 with Raymond Hicks, the creator himself as he shares his font of knowledge and answers our goofy questions to “how can we make our hobby profitable?”
Is there a better feeling than getting paid for something you already enjoy doing for fun?
In Money Master's Guide we will show you several ways to pivot your already creative skills as a game master into a profitable side-hustle. In today's world, everyone needs a little side money to help make ends meet. Why not find ways to use your gaming hobby to help pay those bills?
In this guide we will look at several different pathways for using skills you already possess to find financial freedom. The Money Master's Guide will explore:
Writing Adventures
Selling Fiction
Streaming and Podcasting
Running Paid Games
Hobby Blogging
Running Kickstarters
And many more methods from outside the box
Every chapter contains actionable activities to get you started on your path to becoming a Money Master.
Unearthed Tips and Tricks
Monster: Glacrius
Origin: Giant Scorpion
Lost features. Claw, Sting, Intelligence becomes 7
Immunity: cold
Vulnerability: psychic
Multiattack. The scorpion makes three attacks: two with its slam and one with its frigid sickle.
Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) bludgeoning damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 12). The glacrius has two hands, each of which can grapple only one target.
Frigid Sickle. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 6 (2d4 + 2) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, a target begins to turn to solid ice and is restrained. The restrained target must repeat the saving throw at the end of its next turn. On a success, the effect ends on the target. On a failure, the target is petrified until freed by the greater restoration spell or other magic.
Encounter: Kingdom in Crisis
After a recent spate of bad rulership, the kingdom of Cinfair is in dire straits. The newly crowned King Remus the Inheritor has enacted new laws that prevent certain races from owning businesses, walking the streets of major cities at night, and learning magic. Those persecuted by these laws have begun to rebel against King Remus, and the clashes between the rebels and the crown have escalated almost to the point of civil war. In addition, the instability in Cinfair has caused some of its more ruthless neighbors to plan invasions to annex parts of the kingdom.
The Society of Benevolent Brewers is looking for agents to help broker a meeting between the rebels and the king, but any attempt at forging peace will have to overcome both sides’ mutual mistrust. Upon speaking to both sides, the agents may learn that Remus was pressured into passing the new laws to legitimize his claim to the throne by several powerful nobles, while the rebels are torn between revolution and reconciliation.
-Remarkable Guilds & Their Heroes-
Magic Item: Boots of the Vigilant
Wondrous Item, uncommon
While you wear these boots, you can sense impending danger. After you roll initiative, you can choose to roll 1d8 and add it to your initiative roll.
Once this ability is used, it cannot be used again until the next dawn.
Dungeon Master Tip: Add damaging terrain to help speed up combat!
Fantastic Terrain that inflicts damage is a great way to keep a battle running fast and still keep the threat on the players high. Large sections of an encounter map that do damage, such as 5 damage per tier to any who enter or begin in the area, will put out significant extra damage to both sides of a fight. If you choose this option, be sure to include creatures or encounter effects that can move PCs into the damaging areas or else it will only hit your monsters.
These tips will help you to keep your battles running fast and furious.
Player Tip: Don’t be a Dick Add Flavor to your Saves
Submitted by Patron: Zambo
This player tip is brought to you by a little bit of beer and a late-night shower... (also a tip I'm not going to follow because I'm not a heavy RP guy): RP your saving throws. What does your character actually feel when they make a charisma save, wisdom save, or int save? For charisma, is your character momentarily wooed by a compliment? For intelligence, do they almost have an instinctive reaction but then hesitate because it's not logical? For Wisdom, do they start to impulsively react but then stop?
Some saves are easier, like Constitution or Dexterity. You see that bolt of lightning and you dive out of the way. You smell something terrible and almost throw up. But those mental saves… What is it that makes your character succeed on those? Gut instinct? Logic? Seeing that someone is trying to butter you up? If you succeed on a charisma save, are you then maybe a little more likely to succeed in another?
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Keep your blades sharp and spells prepared heroes!
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