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TTRPGs are growing in popularity and there are countless people worldwide who want to create work in this field. However, it remains a relatively small industry. Only a handful of companies are large enough to employ teams of professional writers, artists, and designers in-house. For small to mid-sized indie publishers and creators, drawing on a diverse pool of skilled freelancers has lead to an incredible array of creative projects. Finding this community and taking part in it, was my first step towards writing for RPGs.

Through Ashley Warren’s RPG Writer Workshop, I joined a course to learn about writing RPG adventures. This was a brilliant experience, I quickly understood the important differences in writing for an RPG format and other writing crafts I have worked in. I finished the course feeling inspired by the possibilities in RPG writing and informed enough to see a path to find work in this field. One of the most important outcomes from taking part in the RPG Writer Workshop, was that I found the RPG writing community. I use Discord and Twitter over other platforms, through these I was able to engage with a thriving online community of welcoming, supportive, creative and open-minded people.

Jamie Rhodes, Writer and Lecturer

On the RPG Writer Workshop Discord, and by following lots of creators on Twitter, I was able to find new opportunities to get involved in RPG projects. I optimised my personal website to best showcase my work in comics, screen, and prose, then put my name forward for any gigs that seemed a good fit with my writing style. I received many polite rejections or sometimes no reply at all (there is a lot of competition for TTRPG writing gigs!). I saw Heavyarms’ post on Twitter when he was seeking a writer and replied with a link to my website. Thankfully, he liked my work and invited me to write on The Gunslinger.

The RPG Writer Workshop has since become part of Ashley Warren’s wider creative writing project, The Storytelling Collective. I have completed two of their RPG writing courses and highly recommend checking out what The Storytelling Collective have to offer.

The 5 steps to a paid TTRPG writing job:

1. Find your TTRPG community and introduce yourself.
2. Research and read the great work that other creators are putting out.
3. Practice writing in this way to learn the nuances of the craft.
4. Optimise your website and digital footprint to showcase your work.
5. Put your name forward for TTRPG projects that need writers.

What is the process of writing for a D&D character class project?

The Gunslinger is my first and, so far, only published work in the TTRPG form. This in mind, my thoughts here should not be taken as a definitive guide.

1. Heavyarms and I had a project kick-off chat via a Discord call. We discussed the classic western gunslinger tropes and the tone this work would take to capture the feeling of that world, while remaining as setting-neutral as possible. This was particularly important for us because it allows the player to insert a gunslinger character into their own world, irrespective of setting.
2. Heavyarms provided a detailed page-by-page breakdown brief. This included approximate word counts and suggestions for a desired approach in each creative writing section. Having such a clearly defined brief was extremely helpful for me as a writer and for the whole collaborative process