Expanding Runehammer

#1

Sup Shield-Wall!

I’m Sterling and I’m running a cool new branch called OPS!

I’m looking to expand Runehammer to new frontiers!

Anyone got cool leads?

Drop suggestions for people, places and pages!

#2

Yep! I’m experimenting with an idea we’re calling OPS. This is a sort of offshoot handle for a new initiative to expand the shield wall into new spaces. Our man Sterling is at the helm, so help him out! Is there something cool out in the shrubs for us to explore as a community? Places to expand? New peeps to reach? Holler!

#3

I think a good place for people to start suggesting things is to know what has already been treaded. If that were to be put clearly, we’d (I certainly would) prolly have a better notion of where to look for these spaces!

Little by little me and a few others have been putting on the good word about ICRPG on a FB group called “I’m begging you to play another RPG”, which has a big focus on indie/non-mainstream RPGs being put forth as options to player that tire of the ol’ Dragon Game TM.

#4

Twitter RPGverse has days like “Self-Promo Saturdays” and “WIP Wednesdays” in which big accounts retweet creators that reply to their threads to expand their reach. I’ve grabbed many a product from those days from people I didn’t even know existed.

#5

I posted over on Reddit but what if you can get known people besides @Runehammer to play a session of ICRPG or VDS?

Like it or not, people love actual plays. Is the One Shot Podcast still a thing?

Otherwise, I think it would be awesome to see other creators make something small for ICRPG/VDS; a piece of loot, a character class, etc. Maybe reciprocate by making something for THAT persons game in turn and do a little cross promotion.

#6

Am I missing something? What does OPS stand for? Need more of an explanation please so we can set expectations.

#7

@Arc I’m looking at getting some community run live games going! in fact this weekend I’m planning on running one for RollvsEvil! It’s a charity event aimed to raise funds for the people of Ukraine. When i have the final details from my group I’ll post here so people can chime in if they want. It’d be awesome to get more people doing it though too.

@CrowGoblin, Ops as is OPERATIONS! The goal is to create community outreach to draw more folks into the fold. Hoping to possibly get Hank in some interviews, podcasts, collabs, all that fun stuff as well as take some of the load of promotion off his shoulders!

#8

So my 13 year old son told me me a few months ago that some kids play DnD at lunch and just 2 weeks ago he started hanging out and playing with those kids at lunch.

they had 0 character sheets

they all shared a single d20 and no other dice

They had no idea what the “rules” were and were having a blast playing as my son would come home telling the crazy stuff they did in their short sessions.

brought a tear to my eye how pure that was.

Of course my kid tells them his dad is into DnD and their GM begs for character sheets.

I printed out 10 ICRPG character sheets, a single double sided sheet of the core rules, and gave them 5 full sets of dice.

The young GM hugged my kid lol

So guess back to the topic, maybe OPS can reach out to school dnd clubs and maybe send whatever teacher is leading that a pdf of the ICRPG quickstart rules or something as its waaay less complicated then trying to teach kids dnd 5E.

Hopefully exposing clusters of young GMs to ICRPG before they fall into the mindset of 5e is the only way to play.

#9

Just spitballing here but…

How about doing something the D&D Adventure League where Runehammer games can be run at a FLGS for folks who have not experienced playing them yet? This will make more sense I when the books start rolling in the FLGS, probably a good promotion tool.

I know this may be tricky with Covid still going but what about game convention presence?

How about an on-line character generator like D&D Beyond? Players could then use that on computers and mobile devices.

Produce an ICRPG “Junior” edition for kids, something for like 8-10 year olds. Super simple and compact. Get em started young!

#10

something that goodman games does for DCC that i think it really cool and a good way of introducing people to the game is hosting new player focused one-shots. Also itch.io jams could be a good way to get more creators thinking about ICRPG. also what others have said about podcasts/actual plays focused on ICRPG, they really are the best way.

#11

I think @Runehammer, who is awesome at drawrin’ and making videos, should make a killer ad video that we can link and leave all over the internet like wild monkey boomerangs. Something high energy with an electric guitar that really showcases the best pieces of ICRPG: quick character creation; fast, fun, flexible rules; familiar D20 system; a brodesode!; amazing DM advice; tons of loot and weapons (a bazillion pieces); four killer settings; free, yes FREE, QuickStart; and a blue-eyed chicken named Bimbles.

Nothing. Nothing gets your attention faster than a killer, well-done ad that generates excitement, especially when we can easily paste a link to it everywhere.

#12

I think more consistent community content would help a lot. I follow the Roll For Effort YouTube page, but don’t remember the last time a new video came across my feed.

It’d be cool to feature other creators and GMs in one-shots on that channel. And not just game creators, but people like Michael Ghelfi (who makes music for ttrpgs) and whose audience isn’t necessarily the same as Runehammers, but would share interest.

I discovered ICRPG because of all the videos Hank used to do on Room Design and GMing. Those were pretty consistent back in the day and would constantly be recommended to me before I started following Hank’s channel.

Another idea to build brand awareness would be to team up with other creators to make an adventure compendium in the same way the folks who did Perilous Wilds (Dungeon World) did when they invited other creators to collaborate on Perilous Deeps (6 dungeons using the DW and PW guidelines).

Last idea is to reach out to some podcasts, the one that comes to mind is the CritShow, who sometimes features other systems in one shots away from their main campaigns.

Really most of my ideas revolve around Hank being a cool dude and most other creators in this industry being cool folk and why the hell wouldn’t they all want to be cool together?

(EDIT - ADDITION)

I want to stress again how I came to ICRPG. It was in wanting to be a better GM. Hank’s videos would appear in my feed right along side Matt Colville, WebGM, and the Professor (you know which one).

It was the consistent content from Hank that led me to end my 5e campaign and switch to ICRPG. My players loved the system so much they bought me the ME Collector’s edition and have all run at least one one-shot. One of my players bought VDS and (I imagine) will be running a game soon. Hell, I bought Dungeon World because of Hank’s two reviews and that led to me buying a whole bunch of PbtA games.

My point is, my group would all still be playing 5e if it hadn’t been for the consistent content posts by Hank, specifically those geared toward GMs. (Let’s face it, player’s are watching Critical Role and listening to actual plays of whatever system their GM uses.) Convert the GM and you’ve converted 3 to 5 additional players.

#13

Three thoughts:

  1. What if a Quickstart pdf was created specifically for teachers who are leading D&D clubs?

As a teacher, I can speak to the fact that a D&D club is at every middle and high school in the country, and that there are many students who are interested in playing D&D but 5e is a little heavy on the wonk n’ crunch.
Many clubs are started with PHB and DM guide that a student or teacher brings from home. Even the the one sheet for the ICRPG hack rules would bring attention toward the game

  1. What if Hank reached out to other content creators on YouTube (Professor DM, Seth, Questing Beast, Colville, etc) and invited them to play a one-shot of ICRPG GM’d by himself? Their viewers would be drawn to ICRPG.

  2. How about a contest on Instagram or whichever platform makes the most sense? Who can create the best five-room dungeon, Hosted by Runehammer Games? Winner gets ICRPG ME, VDS, some sweet Hank art, and a kiss on the cheek.

#14

All the ideas I like so far and a bit more!

Adventure guild

Frankly, this is my favorite idea: I want this to be a thing. I would love for the success of our players to influence the direction of a universe and to participate in a community narrative! You’ll have to find a way to tally success and defeat or perhaps some other score though!

The ad

I vote for this! :raised_hand:

Perhaps you could do an ad for the student products as well, so the kids can show it to one another and get pumped for ICRPG!

Consistent content

I know you’re hard at work with your graphic novel and I am impatient to read it! But after a few big projects I’m beginning to miss the super active Hankerin. Maybe it’s not to your personal preference but I do feel pumped to prep & play after a Runehammer video! :muscle:

Contest

You don’t really need anything from us but who isn’t pumped for a friendly competition and some Runehammer loot? Opportunities to get awesome art or to play in one-shots with ya!

French

With the translation of ICRPG in French I expect a lot of French folks will want to find a forum to call home. It would make sense to make a French Runehammer forum because people might be intimidated by the all-English writing population of the current forum.

Guests

A variety of TTRPG guests like @Cooksadventures said sounds like a superb idea! You could make them play through your themed modules and/or play their own content!

Homework

I think that a quick start PDF along with a few educational adventures (introductions to the rules and/or school subjects) is a great idea! Perhaps find a couple of teachers who would be interested with working with you about this!

Magazine

I think a monthly magazine might be a good way to flex and get more content in the hands of your fans. Or better yet, get your fans to write for you! Submitting text, getting illustrated, or paying to submit so the article gets a picture (what if the article is not published though?)…

I don’t know! How would you do this?

Themed modules

I think an approach like Magic: the Gathering might be useful here: yes ICRPG is setting agnostic but as I understand it some people look for a direction when they come into the hobby. So, you could offer them an ancient egyptian-themed expansion, an old norse-themed one, etc. with the intent to let them pick in which world they want to play.

I did not just mention MtG for no reason: I think that another cool idea for themed modules might be to make content from franchises for ICRPG? You could team up with Transformers, Stargate, Bionicle, Firefly, or many others! Get your favorites!

#15

Many great ideas for expanding, so I will be the downer and add - most important part of growing is don’t do it too fast. Think about that last marginal person who decides not to buy your product. Why didn’t they? could be:

  1. Too expensive
  2. Low quality
  3. Not available
  4. …

You want it to be #1, because then they might buy when they save up enough. What you have in that case is something people want enough to save their pennies for. But growing too fast is a great way to make it one of the other reasons.

You have more buffer for quality and availability than many other industries - selling a well-produced pdf is an option obviously because you do it. But reach too many people who will only buy the book faster than you can ship books (with quality standards, reliability, service, etc) you lose them. And the quality limit extends to the infrastructure like web site, customer service and more.

Don’t let my advice to go deliberately keep you from going, though. Be punk rock in a very staid and mature manner.

#16

Hey all, Greybeard here.

As an ICRPG advocate from the early days (I’m more of a lurker on the forums here), here’s my take on expanding the Runehammer brand…

  • Physical Product - Save for prior limited printing or print-on-demand, our tomes have resided chiefly in the digital sphere. A few years ago, as my FLGS made plans for Free RPG day, I asked if there might be interest in a table for ICRPG. They were intrigued as I explained ICRPG and its core philosophies, but the absence of a physical product (i.e., a book) available through normal distribution channels caused them to politely refuse. They understandably wanted to reserve precious game tables for product that could be easily purchased through the store. And you have to admit anyone can publish a PDF, but a physical product gives ICRPG a sense of permanence.

Granted, the ship appears to be on the right course now with physical ICRPG and VDS product from Modiphius, but I think this has historically been a leash on the brand for years.

  • An informative and easy to access website - We all know to come to this wonderful forum for advice, feedback, and sharing generally cool stuff, but where does a complete newbie go to easily learn about ICRPG or other Runehammer products? Compare with other RPGs… Search for Pathfinder RPG, and you’ll see a link for Paizo. Search for GURPS, and you’ll see the link to SJ Games. Search D&D, well, you know. A Fate Core search will bring up a link to Evil Hat’s site etc., etc. Search ICRPG and you get Modiphius’s page (only within the last year+) and Drive Thru RPG–but these are basically shopping pages/sites. Where does one go for INFO, WISDOM, and HYPE?

A well designed site can help here, serving as a central hub from which all of the Runehammer goodness can flow–for current and future products and CONTENT. I stress content, because with a website, one can more easily curate all of Hank’s wisdom and amazing content on Youtube along with product info. Now, aside from Modiphius and Drive Thru, here are the Runehammer / ICRPG pages I recall:

  • http://www.icrpg.com/ - A domain connected to Wix.com, but no website is connected to the domain yet. From what I recall, there was some history/drama preventing its use. Of course, if the desire is to expand the Runehammer brand, this may not be needed anymore.

  • https://www.runehammer.online/ - The parent site for this forum! Granted, it has some killer background art, but, let’s face it… this landing page is just a bunch of links away from the page.

  • https://hankerinferinale.wixsite.com/icrpg - This is an excellent page for ICRPG, but it looks to be connected to Hank’s personal Wix site (or at least the URL refers to Hank and not the ICRPG or Runehammer brands). If the goal is to expand the Runehammer brand, perhaps bring pages of this caliber to the runehammer.online domain?

4/12/22 UPDATE - Well, either there was an update scheduled for https://www.runehammer.online or the comments above regarding the websites resonated with the right people. I’ve noticed that the page has indeed been updated. Looks good! However, the page’s title block refers to Viking Death Squad:

<title>HOME | Vikingdeathsquad</title>

Conclusion - The above is likely going to come off as harsh, but please understand that these observations are shared out of love for the Runehammer brand, products, and content. It drives me crazy to hear the hype concerning a certain RPG system’s “5.5” edition (coming out in 2024) and how it will provide so much more customization and personalization. This drives me crazy because I know that system already exists under the Runehammer banner, but the masses just aren’t aware of it!

At any rate, I hope this is helpful. Glad to know sights have been set on bigger things and broader horizons!

Strength and Honor to all the Shield Brethren.

#17

Honestly, keep the guest spots going with other indie rpg channels, creators, and podcasts.

I think a good option is to expand into the OSR (I know Hank hates that term, but it is what it is!) and grab some guest speakers. Rules Light and OSR are often-times used interchangeably and I think that crowd might be easier to bring into the fold than hardcore 5e or pathfinder crowds. After all, one of the core philosophies of ICRPG is diy, and BX grognards are constantly house ruling, and pulling from wherever.

My two cents.

#18

Oh, and a zine! Community driven, or just Hank and peeps he really trusts, either way, get a zine going. Cool art, alternative rules, new types, small loot tables, 2 page adventures, and maybe some broad stroke goings ons in one of the Worlds every so often would be super cool.

#19

Questions: what does expanding Runehammer to new frontiers mean? Does it mean interesting more people to buy and play ICRPG? Does it mean creating new ways to engage new and existing players?
What kind of players do you want to adress? Kids and Teenagers? Adults? People who like 5E but want to play something else? People who hate 5E and want to play something else?
OSR-people? Non-OSR-people?

There have already been some good suggestions. I’ll just add to that.

  1. Get well known TTRPG web shows to feature the game. I don’t know hor far-fetched it would be to get the Glass Cannon Network to play ICRPG in their New Game, Who Dis?-category.
  2. Get more VTT-support. I know that there is a Runehammer VTT and it’s absolutely phenomenal, but I also know that people who already use other VTTs would want to have all their games in one place. Get official Roll20, Foundry or Fantasy Grounds-support through Modiphius if that’s possible.
  3. Have a dedicated Discord-server or parts of the already existing Discord-server for new players and people who want to check out the community that’s not behind a paywall.
  4. Itch.io for publishing content or organising Game Jams has already been mentioned, but I want to second that. Get people to create content for the game for new people to simply use.
  5. Get ICRPG translated into other languages. As for the German translation: get someone else than Kazé to do it. Ask Ulisses-Spiele or Uhrwerk-Verlag (Clockwork Publishing) if they are interested.
#20

Tons of cool idea’s here!

As far as thing’s you’ll be likely to see in the future

1.) Podcasts, Collabs, Interviews, this is something a lot of people are excited for!

2.) Con Appearances, Hank hosted-games, Panels, fun in person stuff!

3.) Banner Ads! Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit!? Wherever we can get them out!

4.) Community live games either hosted on the Runehammer_Ops channel, or uploaded to YT (or both!). I’ll probably start reaching out to DM’s who are interested in running at some point in the coming weeks. New to ICRPGers and groups that can ensure dedicated long-plays are going to be preferred. These games have to bring the ENERGY!!

More of these suggestions may come in the future, but these focal points will be the first priority right now.

Please be sure to leave ANY suggestions for con’s for Hank to attend or cool-cats for Hank to collab or chat with here, (or send a message to me on the forum, or by discord @Sterling Bronze#8246 )

as per @kagozaiku’s question; your first question pretty much hit the nail on the head, the goal is for more people to hear about it and get involved. :slight_smile:

Sterling