We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful John Murry. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with John below.

Alright, John thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

The entire story of BiscuitTinRPG is one of risk. I never started out thinking i would make anything of real value, I was just creating things that made me smile and hoping it helped other people smile too. After a ton of trial and error (and listening to feedback which is something you ABSOLUTELY must do), i found myself learning how to turn simple ideas into fun pieces of lore, interesting concepts and lovely add-ons to stories being told by others. I learned from friends and others in the business that if you want to make something great you have to be willing to make some sacrifices to get there. I began by creating small little releases for the the table top gaming community under a pseudonym (Jeff, Patron of Biscuits a little homage to Eddie Izzard) and started finding that people really seemed to enjoy what i was making.

The problem with getting that attention was that I overestimated my reach in the community and it lead to a failed Kickstarter for the companies first book (The First Gate: A Menagerie of Madness) and i ended up having to decide if I even wanted to stay in the business of making roleplaying game content. I took the time i needed and decided out of pure obstinance that i was going to make this book happen, even if the funds for art had to come out of my own pocket. That right there was the risk, I work a fulltime job and this is a side gig for me so money wasn’t exactly flowing in as all the stuff i had released so far was completely free. With no influx of cash i had to slowly budget for artwork, learn how to do layout myself as well as make purchases for my book that would hopefully help it be successful.

I taught myself how to do a book layout, i thankfully had friends and loved ones that helped with the editing process, and i pushed forward starting out in quite a bit of debt to make the book happen. I did my research and found the most cost effective way to get both digital and physical copies of the book made and went trough with the whole process.

Today i have 2 third party books published for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, one in the works, and i have helped with layout and writing on other small and big projects such as “Beyond the Haunted Grove” by Pat Edwards and “The Black Ballad.” by Storytellers Forge

While my book isn’t exactly flying off the digital shelves it does seem to be doing great at conventions, which is fantastic as i love seeing the light in peoples eyes as the things i brought to life give them ideas right in front of me. So while i may have taken a risk, i would do it all over again because just meeting people in the industry and watching the joy on the everyday players faces has made it all worth it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have been playing various roleplaying games for years including VTM, Rifts, Paranoia, Dungeons and Dragons, Death in Space, and I have even done some LARPing because its fun to have fun in a world of imagination. I eventually took the plunge and began Storytelling with 5E and found that this system was many things but it could be so much more with the right incentive to make it so. To that effect I began creating fun little bits here and there to add to my games and help make other peoples games more enjoyable as well. My motivation is and always will be to create fun at the table not crunch. I love a good Story more than I like power gaming and to that end I began working on small little releases that would be good supplements to the various game tables out there. Slowly that began to evolve into a desire to incentivize roleplaying at the tables as well and to this end i began toying with the concept of “curses.”

Curses in Dungeons and Dragons have always been pretty simple, giving you disadvantage under certain circumstances or making you attack your friends with a loss of control. I always found that to be too simplistic and wanted to make it not such an obvious bane to have a curse, instead of the simple i wanted to add a complexity to it that created character depth. Instead of the simple disadvantage, you could instead gain the ability to read people really well but your personality becomes somewhat unbearable and you get to roleplay what that looks like. It creates something is dual edged that gives and takes. Ultimately you get to decide whether this curse is something you are willing to live with once it presents itself or if maybe this isn’t for you.

My brand in general follows the concept of creating fun for the table and interesting story hooks. I am unapologetically geared towards the interesting and the absurd and i see no reason to change that. Others may pander their wares to what is currently the trend but I find i work best in lane i create for myself.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Adam Ray, the wonderful human being they are was the blog writer at a company that we were both associated with and have since distanced ourselves from. I watched the stories and creatures that Adam created and spun into life on the blog for a few months prior to approaching them about a potential collaboration, They enthusiastically signed on to help with a compendium of sorts that i was working on (we didn’t know it at the time but this would eventually become The First Gate: A Menagerie of Madness). While Adam and i are not actual business partners under the BiscuitTinRPG banner we learned a lot working together under the banner for the book itself and that experience has been invaluable in setting up the banner and business itself and one i would not trade in for anything in the world. Adam is the brain behind some of the more detailed portions of The First Gate world itself and will always have a special place in my heart because it, and who knows, maybe in the future they will be under the banner as well if I manage to take this venture to the next level.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

When it comes to building a customer base, online marketing can only get you so far and if you are like me , money is not something you can just toss ad the old ad machine on the various social platforms. I have found that my best and most loyal customers/clients have com from conventions and in person meetings. Conventions have been a boon on multiple fronts due to the fact that you get to not only interact with the consumer directly but they can ask you questions about your product and since its YOUR product you will will have the answers and even if you don’t have said answers, maybe just maybe their question inspires you to create the answer in a future publication.

The direct consumer connection has helped me build my content into something i know that the people will love while still staying true to my self and my content. Trends are just that, trends, and very little has ever come my direction in terms of real connection or even sales from participating in the trends that run through the market and social media. Maybe I am doing them wrong and even if that is so, I at least have the piece of mind that the people that do find me do so because they truly enjoy what i create. That is how you build a list of people worth keeping around.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://biscuittinrpg.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biscuittinrpg
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BiscuitTinRPG
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-murry-89428281/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BiscuitTinRPG
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@biscuittinrpg
• Other: https://www.twitch.tv/biscuittinrpg
  

  @biscuittinrpg

  
  https://www.storytellersforge.com/

Image Credits

Storytellers Forge
Drake Mefestta
Andy Lever