In this episode, we’re talking about Money and Marketing in TTRPGs. We ask whether charging less for a TTRPG makes it less desirable and explore how community copies, charity bundles, demos, and game jams impact how we buy TTRPGs.

But first:

Marley chats about actually playing TTRPGs again after spending a good while simply reading them (00:03:35) and it turns out they’re really, really fun to play. 

Marley and Cole then talk about the WGA and SAG-AFRA strikes happening (00:08:00). After years of weird corporate nonsense, it's really refreshing seeing people do stuff about it and speak openly about the unfairness and fight for a better world.

We also talk about how it is also indicative of a larger movement of striking workers, including with airline workers, Starbucks, UPF (which has now settled). We also talk about how the TTRPG industry, particularly streaming services, is tied up in all this.

Cole’s also been playing a lot of video games, including Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Coffee Talk, Generation Zero, Crusader Kings 3, Tears of the Kingdom… (00:19:03)

The big thing they want to chat about, however, is Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II (00:22:06), which he has started to play  to satisfy his scifi kick. We also chat about the weird sexism in that game and how early BioWare approached sexuality (in good and bad ways).

Cole has also been getting into TTRPGs that have faction game mechanics (00:28:30) after seeing how things have gone during the Beam Saber CalazCon actual play recordings (which you can also support on Patreon) and listening to Friends at the Table play Armor Astir. 

Then, onto TTRPGs we’ve been checking out!

Marley starts off with Blades in ‘68 by Tim from Old Dog Games (00:31:34), which is an in-progress setting book for Blades in the Dark which explores Duskvol in its own version of the swinging sixties. Currently, it exists only as a Twitter thread (and a Substack), containing some playbooks, faction details, maps, and really solid art.

Cole has been reading Hunt by Spencer Campbell (00:51:11), in which you play as a knight going out to fulfill oaths and slay a terrible beast. Much like Campbell's previous game, Rune (which we played on our Youtube channel), Hunt is narrative-based with combat like a tactics game, only this time it has no dice rolls, so players decide what their move is going to be themselves.

Then, we begin our main topic, which is What is the best way to price a TTRPG? (01:06:19) We discuss Jess Levine’s recent twitter thread about increasing the price of her TTRPGs. The thread has a number of interesting takeaways, including the common wisdom that the charging less for a TTRPG makes it less desirable for the consumer.

We discuss that idea, along with the role that charity bundles, community copies, demos, free games, game jams, and discounts influence which TTRPGs we actually spend money on.

We close with a shout out to Oathsworn (01:44:50), a new actual play podcast for Band of Blades, which looks to be a great introduction to a FitD system we've really wanted to check out for a while now!

Featuring Cole (⁠@IceColeBrew⁠) and Marley (⁠@Mynar_Lenahan⁠).

Produced by Marley, as well.

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