We were lucky to catch up with Rick Heinz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rick, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

I have multiple lives as a creative, and adding business owner to this list is certainly different. When it came to creating Storytellers Forge Studios, I noticed several Tabletop Gaming Industry trends and the treatment of freelancers… and I’ve also been on the receiving end of them.

We build a creator focused studio, while still preserving a bottom line focused business so nobody is running into debt. Our biggest challenge to the space is looking at how freelancers are often given zero incentive to be proud of their work. In the literary industry, us authors get royalties, or significantly hired ghost writing fees – but in TTRPG it’s all flat fee and work-for-hire at abysmal rates.

Meanwhile wholesale distributors, book stores, and game stores all get to purchase books at heavy discount. The writers and artists get typically…a single copy? Given the rise of conventions, cosplay, and multimedia tie in… we shifted our model entirely. Allowing for creatives to own the rights to their work and get royalties, or when working as a contributor, be incentivized to go out and sign the books they worked on!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi! I’m Rick Heinz. Electrician by day, writer by night… often revolving around writing sarcastic fiction about the end of the world. Primarily, I write the Seventh Age series (Seventh Age: Dawn, Seventh Age: Dystopia… and more coming soon). A modern take on what happens when magic comes flooding back into the world — for better or worse.

Yet… This has quickly transformed into something far more wickedly awesome. I’ve been in the tabletop gaming space for a while as a content creator. I’d go command the forces of electricity in my day job, then spend my nights behind the keys crafting (and destroying) worlds. I’d been storytelling for small groups all the way up to 600-person live action games, and before I knew it: I was a contributor to Geek & Sundry and Nerdist. Writing the very GM Tips series.

Eventually, I co-authored the project The Red Opera: Last Days of the Warlock. A massive campaign book where we mixed metal music, warlocks, and player agency into one massive tome that won awards for Best Campaign.

All industries are fraught with peril, however, and once I crossed a certain threshold, I ran headfirst into the dark side of the publishing industry – and that is another story. Rather than get defeated…

We opened our own studio. Storytellers Forge Studios. An indie roleplaying game design studio that focuses on crafting compelling narratives—with a creator focused spotlight. We create full campaigns, storylines, and words adaptable for any storyteller’s home world in evocative and immersive ways.

Currently (and keeping to my personal theme) we are working on The Black Ballad. A full campaign that focuses entirely on the implications of resurrection magic; after a party has been slain.

To enhance these ideas of a small business further and establish us in the marketplace, we are also providing pathways to literary publishing through our partners 4 Horsemen Publications. Fiction, art, gaming… from a place where the creators own their rights. I couldn’t be more excited about our future.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Making game books is expensive. Currently on crowdfunding sites (Kickstarter, Backerkit, etc), there is a trend from studios to lean into the marketing trick of setting their funding goal insanely low…and then white knuckling through the 30-day fundraising period hoping they make their goal.

Average writer pay has increased in the past years to around .08 to .12 cents a word for freelancers. Art ranges anywhere from $400-$1500 a piece, and you need art every three pages. A 175,000 word campaign book with 110 images quickly scales up. Then add in soundtracks, printing, shipping, and studio back-end costs… it can seem rather daunting.

It would be a lie to say I didn’t subsidize this with my day job, which is entirely non-creative. I do math and listen to metal music all day. Yet in order for the second part of my life to be sustainable, that can’t continue. So I attended the convention scene around the country with novels and art prints. Smaller elements that I could work with and were officially published.

That took about 18 months to become self-sustaining and beneficial enough I could roll that income into the larger projects. I like to ensure that people are paid for their talent and time, and I respect the hustle, so I build projects quietly in the background. Tackling one invoice at a time by working conventions. It takes longer to produce content this way, but ensures that nobody is left hanging with an unpaid invoice.

This method allowed me to get my first mega-project off the ground (The Red Opera), and then reinvest it.

So ultimately, I did the small snowball method: start with something small, work out the kinks, and continue moving forward. I’ve heard the basic business advice say it takes 3-4 years before an enterprise begins to make sense and so far that seems to track even for me.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Without a doubt: maintaining integrity. There are stories out there over my first and second major projects: The Red Opera and Sirens: Battle of the Bards. For those curious souls interested in TTRPG drama, a google search will lead you down a rabbit hole.

What mattered to me, and why we began Storytellers Forge studio though: was the response of the other creatives. Throughout the past projects, I always fought to ensure everyone who worked on the projects was paid and treated with respect. As the writing director for each, sometimes that required hours of intense conversations with the people who held the finances.

Dozens of authors and artists came out against the former publisher for a variety of reasons… but in doing so, nearly everyone was kind enough to point out how much I fought for them. Honestly, it was inspiring.

The tragedy of a failed enterprise brought many of us together and collectively, we realized we had more than one story to tell. Our studio still has a long way to go, but we get to put action behind the words and beliefs we held of empowering people to create badass content and slay some monsters.

Perhaps that union electrician mindset had some payoff when brought to the creative world after all!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rickheinzwrites.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rick.heinz.writes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RickHeinzWrites
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rick-heinz-3b666796/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/crankybolt
• Other: Tiktok: @CrankyBolt www.StorytellersForge.com Website will be officially launched on Jan 1st, 2023!

Image Credits
The Seventh Age Series (By Rick Heinz) The Red Opera: Last Days of the Warlock art by David Granjo Ashley Witter (Artist) Boszmitze (Artist) The Black Ballad Artwork: Elizabeth Meffesta, upcoming Storytellers Forge Project.