It’s… going.

I’m happy to announce I will be producing my first five videos soon. It’s not going to be anything terribly fancy to start with. I’m still very leery of showing my face on camera. I’m diligently working on scripts for the first five videos.

I have some goals I’m currently working with. I have some challenges I’m working to overcome. If everything goes well, I might have my first videos out sometime in October.

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.

My Goals:

  • Consistently produce two videos per week, with more as time and family permits.
  • Build my community to 1,000 followers in 2025. Sooner is preferable.
  • Keep my content short to drive engagement. It’s easier to watch a ten minute video all the way through.
  • Promote positivity and show off the awesomeness of Dragonbane, Shadowdark, ICONS, Monster of the Week, and the wide assortment of Free League Games products that I enjoy.
  • Eventual monetization. I’m on a fixed income. Anything/everything I make goes back into equipment, review product, and everyday operating expenses. I’m not expecting to make a ton of money at first. Being a YouTuber is a lot like being a writer in the early stages. Lots of work and lots of patience.
  • Support Game Masters, because we need all the love we can get.
  • Bring new players into the hobby whether it’s Dragonbane or something else.
  • Stay positive, promote friendship, peace, and fellowship through gaming. We’re all one big #ttrpgfamily. We’re all going to grow and learn together.
  • Eventually collaborate with my friend The OG GM Adventures. Who knows? We might even do a live play or a livestream together. I’m trying to help him reach 2,001 followers before 2025.
  • Prove the Law of Attraction can work for all of us. This sounds a little woo-woo. Trust me, it’s a part of everything I do. Everything is Energy, Frequency, and Vibration. My intentions are out there. We’re going to make Jeff’s Game Box a success on YouTube.
  • Long Term- Get products up on DriveThruRPG and promote them through my channel. I’m not going bonkers on releases over the holiday season, but I do want to get some consistent product offerings out there.
  • Create a series of shorts where I talk about things going on in the TTRPG hobby and in gaming news. Social media is usually all a-buzz with juicy news and controversies. My full opinion can usually be found here on the blog.
  • This blog will continue daily if it’s the last thing I do.

My Challenges:

  • On any given day, I have an 18 year old in the house who is randomly incredibly loud and has no sense of boundaries. I’m hoping and praying this child finds a job soon and increases their class schedule in January.

    My solution to this challenge would be to try to film from my car or outside. That opens another can of worms with the audio quality. I’m also not 100% sure how to edit in the product footage and graphics under the audio.

  • Someone once told me I have a face that’s perfect for radio and a voice that’s perfect for print. I kinda fear being on camera. My prior YouTube experiences on camera yielded in my being called a “bearded egg” among other things. If it gets to the point where my content is being ripped as badly as a couple of other YouTubers I know, we’ll be done with the YouTube project.

    My short term solution is to use an avatar much like the various VTubers and YouTubers and just talk over it interspersed with some screen graphics and live footage when talking about books. I might take some B Reel shots around the lake that I enjoy walking around and use them, too.

    My long term solution is to get comfortable being on camera. Truthfully, the talking head video style works very well for most people. I watch a ton of YouTube videos both inside the TTRPG hobby and out. One person talking to the camera seems to work pretty well.

  • Dungeons & Dragons. It is something that has become synonymous with TableTop RolePlaying Games. It’s not all there is, though. Most of the thumbnails I see from small channels that have grown fast are talking about it. It’s a good clickbait topic. The problem is with Wizards of the Coast and their shenanigans in 2023 and 2024, I want nothing to do with their version of D&D.

    The problem is that the game itself is so embedded in the hobby. I’m going to talk about Dragonbane and I’m probably going to hear a resounding, “Huh?” at first. My intention is to focus on that game heavily for a while. I’m not trying to convert anyone, but I want to welcome everyone who wants to see Dragonbane regardless of whatever other games they play.

  • Lastly, YouTube can be an incredibly negative space. It’s been widely proven in the TTRPG community that negativity tends to sell better than positivity. I feel like if I give into the negativity too much I’ll never get out of that rut.

    My solution is to try to inject as much positivity and fun into my videos as I can without things getting utterly silly. I won’t do toxic positivity like I know some of the D&DTubers do. My plan is to focus on the parts of various games that I do enjoy. I also want to bring in some discussions of stat blocks, NPC builds, and a lot of what goes on behind the screen that tends to get glossed over by other channels.

Will any of this work as intended? I have no idea, honestly. I might end up throwing out my first scripts and starting over. I might drop my first four or five videos and wait a little bit to see what, if anything, worked.

I figure by the first dozen or so we’ll have some sort of idea what we’re in for. I say “we” meaning you, me, and the rest of the world. I mean, you are all my on here. I feel like we’re all taking this ride together. I guess if YouTube flops, we’re still all here together, right?

Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.