Roll Play Grow: A TTRPG Business Podcast

If you hang around the D&D scene, you likely have heard of Dragon Talk, the D&D podcast hosted by Greg Tito and Shelly Mazzanoble. Greg is the Senior Communications Manager of Dungeons & Dragons, and Shelly is the Senior Brand Manager of Dungeons & Dragons. We talk about what they’re up to in D&D. We talk about their show, and we talk about their upcoming book, Welcome to Dragon Talk. So yes, this is a podcast episode where we talk to two podcasters about their book about their podcast. Welcome to Dragon Talk is published by the University of Iowa press and is releasing December 5th. You can preorder it from your favorite bookstore and I think even your friendly local game store? If you do preorder it, you might receive it a little bit early. It truly was a honor to talk to these legends of the D&D podcasting realm, and I know y’all are going to have fun listening to this.


For a last bit of business before we jump into the interview: I have a new Patreon gift for my amazing Patrons. In addition to the ability to ask questions for upcoming interviews, shout outs on the site and show, I am now starting a new segment exclusively for Patrons. Greg & Shelly were my first participants. I’m still workshopping on the name, but it is a Quick Question Blitz: I have 10 silly questions for my guests that are unrelated to the rest of the interview, and they can answer with as little as 1 word or give a longer explanation. It’s meant to be short & sweet, though I must admit this first one went like 20 minutes, but a good third of that is just pure laughter and fart jokes, and we did have 2 people to answer. Let’s just say, it was a good time. You’ll find me on Patreon at Roll Play Grow. And I hope that y’all enjoy the new segment!

Find Welcome to Dragon Talk

Find Shelly:

• Twitter
• Instagram

Find Greg:

• Twitter
• Instagram

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

If you hang around the D&D scene, you likely have heard of Dragon Talk, the D&D podcast hosted by Greg Tito and Shelly Mazzanoble. Greg is the Senior Communications Manager of Dungeons & Dragons, and Shelly is the Senior Brand Manager of Dungeons & Dragons. We talk about what they’re up to in D&D. We talk about their show, and we talk about their upcoming book, Welcome to Dragon Talk. So yes, this is a podcast episode where we talk to two podcasters about their book about their podcast. Welcome to Dragon Talk is published by the University of Iowa press and is releasing December 5th. You can preorder it from your favorite bookstore and I think even your friendly local game store? If you do preorder it, you might receive it a little bit early. It truly was a honor to talk to these legends of the D&D podcasting realm, and I know y’all are going to have fun listening to this.


For a last bit of business before we jump into the interview: I have a new Patreon gift for my amazing Patrons. In addition to the ability to ask questions for upcoming interviews, shout outs on the site and show, I am now starting a new segment exclusively for Patrons. Greg & Shelly were my first participants. I’m still workshopping on the name, but it is a Quick Question Blitz: I have 10 silly questions for my guests that are unrelated to the rest of the interview, and they can answer with as little as 1 word or give a longer explanation. It’s meant to be short & sweet, though I must admit this first one went like 20 minutes, but a good third of that is just pure laughter and fart jokes, and we did have 2 people to answer. Let’s just say, it was a good time. You’ll find me on Patreon at Roll Play Grow. And I hope that y’all enjoy the new segment!

Find Welcome to Dragon Talk

Find Shelly:

• Twitter
• Instagram

Find Greg:

• Twitter
• Instagram

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

Joshua Simons is our guest today! Josh is a streamer, game designer, and the Community and Content Manager at Demiplane RPG. We dive into the intricacies of networking and how Josh was able to land a fulltime job in the industry. We also get a peek at his process for creating characters. Josh has appeared on so many actual play shows and always has some really in-depth characters. I gotta say that this conversation is super juicy for those of you who are wanting to make more in-depth characters and who are looking for advice on breaking into the actual play scene.

I do have an update for those of you who keep up with this show on a regular basis. After today’s episode, I am actually going on a short hiatus! I’ve had a lot of things coming up both personally and professionally, and I needed to stop booking interviews for a little while. Don’t worry, the show will be back! It’s just been a tumultuous year, and I need to give myself a little breathing room. I’m also considering some ways to potentially switch up the format of this show and my Patreon, so if you’ve got any ideas or feedback, I would totally love to hear it! You can find me on Twitter at KetraRPG or you can email me at [email protected]. I’m planning to be back in October, so don’t worry! This will be a short break, and we’ll continue on with some lovely guests this fall!

Find Joshua:

• Twitter
• Twitch

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

Joshua Simons is our guest today! Josh is a streamer, game designer, and the Community and Content Manager at Demiplane RPG. We dive into the intricacies of networking and how Josh was able to land a fulltime job in the industry. We also get a peek at his process for creating characters. Josh has appeared on so many actual play shows and always has some really in-depth characters. I gotta say that this conversation is super juicy for those of you who are wanting to make more in-depth characters and who are looking for advice on breaking into the actual play scene.

I do have an update for those of you who keep up with this show on a regular basis. After today’s episode, I am actually going on a short hiatus! I’ve had a lot of things coming up both personally and professionally, and I needed to stop booking interviews for a little while. Don’t worry, the show will be back! It’s just been a tumultuous year, and I need to give myself a little breathing room. I’m also considering some ways to potentially switch up the format of this show and my Patreon, so if you’ve got any ideas or feedback, I would totally love to hear it! You can find me on Twitter at KetraRPG or you can email me at [email protected]. I’m planning to be back in October, so don’t worry! This will be a short break, and we’ll continue on with some lovely guests this fall!

Find Joshua:

• Twitter
• Twitch

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

 Lysa is the Marketing Manager at OneBookShelf, which is the company behind sites like DM’s Guild and DriveThruRPG. And we definitely talk about what that means, what faer journey has been like throughout multiple roles in the TTRPG space. We also talk about Design Dash, a Twitch show that Lysa co-hosts and Lysa’s love for crafty endeavors and bees! Lysa is just an incredibly kind and supportive person, and I had such a wonderful time recording this episode.

Find Lysa:

• Lysa's Website
• Lysa's Twitter
• DriveThruRPG
• DMsGuild
• Extinction at Camp Summersaurus

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

 Lysa is the Marketing Manager at OneBookShelf, which is the company behind sites like DM’s Guild and DriveThruRPG. And we definitely talk about what that means, what faer journey has been like throughout multiple roles in the TTRPG space. We also talk about Design Dash, a Twitch show that Lysa co-hosts and Lysa’s love for crafty endeavors and bees! Lysa is just an incredibly kind and supportive person, and I had such a wonderful time recording this episode.

Find Lysa:

• Lysa's Website
• Lysa's Twitter
• DriveThruRPG
• DMsGuild
• Extinction at Camp Summersaurus

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

How would you like to be a full-time, professional game master? It sounds like a dream a lot of us have in this industry, and so I am thrilled to introduce you to Donathin Frye who does just that. Donathin supports himself as a full-time Dungeon master with some additional freelance game design work, through Patreon subscriptions. He tends to run 6-8 full-length campaigns at any given time, and truly does spend 40 hours a week working on those campaigns. It was absolutely fascinating to learn about how Don does this and what a typical week looks like for a full-time GM. There’s a lot of good advice, even if you’re just looking to improve your DMing skills for your home games!

Find Don:

• Patreon
• Twitter
• Portfolio

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

How would you like to be a full-time, professional game master? It sounds like a dream a lot of us have in this industry, and so I am thrilled to introduce you to Donathin Frye who does just that. Donathin supports himself as a full-time Dungeon master with some additional freelance game design work, through Patreon subscriptions. He tends to run 6-8 full-length campaigns at any given time, and truly does spend 40 hours a week working on those campaigns. It was absolutely fascinating to learn about how Don does this and what a typical week looks like for a full-time GM. There’s a lot of good advice, even if you’re just looking to improve your DMing skills for your home games!

Find Don:

• Patreon
• Twitter
• Portfolio

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

Today, I have the absolute pleasure to introduce you to Sara Thompson. Sara is most widely known for the Combat Wheelchair they created for D&D, but she is also a freelance game designer working with companies like Paizo and R Talsorian Games. We definitely talk about Sara’s game design processes, but this episode is extra special to me because we spend time talking about disability and working as a freelancer with your disabilities. Those of you who’ve listened to episodes of this show in past will know that I’m disabled and went through a lot of unpleasant things last year while trying to figure out entrepreneurship, so it was really meaningful to chat with Sara and learn how she manages her day to day schedule and how they balance varying energy levels and flare-ups with deadlines as a freelancer. I really hope you enjoy this very special conversation.

Find Sara: 

• LinkTree
• Twitter

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

Today, I have the absolute pleasure to introduce you to Sara Thompson. Sara is most widely known for the Combat Wheelchair they created for D&D, but she is also a freelance game designer working with companies like Paizo and R Talsorian Games. We definitely talk about Sara’s game design processes, but this episode is extra special to me because we spend time talking about disability and working as a freelancer with your disabilities. Those of you who’ve listened to episodes of this show in past will know that I’m disabled and went through a lot of unpleasant things last year while trying to figure out entrepreneurship, so it was really meaningful to chat with Sara and learn how she manages her day to day schedule and how they balance varying energy levels and flare-ups with deadlines as a freelancer. I really hope you enjoy this very special conversation.

Find Sara: 

• LinkTree
• Twitter

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram

Find Roll Play Grow:

• Show Page
• Patreon
• Discord
• Lightheart Adventures Website
• Lightheart Twitter
• Lightheart Instagram