I’m surprised my comment even stayed up, to be honest.

In response to the video, “How to Become a Pro RPG Designer,” I said:

The core of this advice has not changed in the 40+ years I’ve been around the TTRPG scene. “Work for a tiny zine and hope to maybe get picked up by someone larger and then maybe Dragon or Dungeon” has been around since the early 1980’s. I think you could have ended the video on “Make a bunch of friends in the industry,” along with “Or go it alone on the Internet and get used to making chump change.” I think a very tiny percentage of “TTRPG Pros” make enough money to actually call it a career, unfortunately. You’ve been one of the lucky ones.

That’s the other piece of advice I’m totally burned out on because we hear it time and time again, “If you work really, really, really hard and get extremely LUCKY, somebody in the Big TTRPG Industry might give you a shot someday.” It’s never just who you know or who you, uh… do favors for which is pretty much how I’ve seen it run for decades now. As I really disagree with much of the video and have my own platform, I’ll see myself out.

For what it’s worth, I really like your content normally. You’ve got a good channel here. Your gaming industry career is impressive. But even you admitted it has more to do with WHO YOU KNOW than any actual writing props. Sorry this video just really didn’t work for me.

To which James wrote what I think is a very good response.

I’m pretty impressed.

I’ll try and curb my innate cynicism here for a moment. I’m already unemployed, so quitting my day job isn’t really an option. (LOL!) I should have also mentioned the ridiculous number of times some industry veteran has said, “Don’t quit your day job.”

Nobody really gets into writing TTRPG stuff to get rich. We do it because we love the hobby and, oh yeah, a small paycheck is nice at the end of the day. Given the number of people who report they are miserable at their job every year, (I haven’t seen 2022 or 2023 numbers, but I know it’s probably still horrendous.) I’d say doing something you like is a rare honor.

I’m still on my own quirky path.

I’m so sorely tempted to ask James how one exactly does get to work with him. I still might ask just to see what he says. At least he hasn’t blocked me on social media yet. 😅More on that if I find out anything.

I’m not getting any younger. Whatever I do and wherever I do it will have to be soon. Otherwise I might not be around long enough to enjoy whatever fruit comes of my labor. The main thing is just to keep chopping away at it, I suppose.

Thanks for stopping by today. Please go check out https://www.youtube.com/@JamesJHaeck if you get a chance. It’s a good start of a channel. I appreciate all of you. Tomorrow we figure out November’s plan.