[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Tom H.

I've been wanting to post that I appreciate the candor and the behind-the-scenes peek in Kromm's post linked above.

Thank you! I've made a point of being accessible and – within the bounds of decency and respecting others' privacy – truthful. I've never hidden my weaknesses, be they innate (e.g., being biased toward fantasy, or not being as good with board, card, dice, and war games as with RPGs) or the result of circumstances (notably my lack of money and free time). I'm happy that you noticed and even happier that you appreciated it.

Originally Posted by Tom H.

Also, sometimes I get the feeling that with the proliferation of material and work coming from some of the designers and writers of RPG products that they don't live under the same constraints as the rest of us. So I found it very insightful that Kromm's time to experiment with other game forms would require the normal human trade-offs in focus.

Many designers are almost cloistered. They work long days and through the weekend, rarely go out at night, and take few or no vacations. What downtime they do take is devoted to playing games, recording gaming vlogs, attending games conventions, and pursuing "related interests" like anime, comics, cosplay, historical reenactment, superhero movies, or science-fiction conventions. Their time is no less constrained than yours or mine, but they live entirely within the geekosphere by choice, which makes cranking out gaming material as much a pastime as it is a job.

I do work long days because the only economical way to create quality RPG materials "on the clock" is to invoice eight hours while quietly working nine or more. I don't take as many vacations as my therapist insists I should because I don't get paid time off and I have a modest income (nobody gets rich, or even comfortably middle class, working on games); vacations mean having no cash for the rest of my downtime. I do take downtime, though: I insist on having evenings and weekends free, and I don't read email or enter my home office during those times. I'm also the kind of person who needs variety to thrive, so I use that downtime for things that fall outside the geekosphere: going out with my girlfriend (to grab a bite, dance, have a drink, just walk in the park, whatever), studying and dancing Argentine tango, making cocktails, or cooking.

So . . . where some designers wake up and do geeky stuff for 16 hours a day, every day, and devote on the order of 100 hours/week to creating game supplements, I see working on games as a 40 hours/week job. In reality I'm often putting in 50 or 60 hours/week, but that's deceiving because I'm a full-time line developer, which means at least 25% of my billable hours are tied up in dreary administrative tasks that are a long way from gaming. Some months that's more like 50%.

Originally Posted by Tom H.

Posts like these expose a lot, but I gain a lot of perspective from them as well.

Then I hope you find the additional details I just shared informative!