Welcomes and Warnings

If there are better ways to do this, they're beyond me at the moment.

Welcome

I am not doing all that well.

See, I have a particular set of skills - all of which revolve around storytelling. I’ve got nine years of theater work under my belt, and about six years of running tabletop roleplaying games. I’m a writer - of stories, of games, and of criticism. The craft of how stories are told is something I am obsessed with, and I’ve put a lot of work into figuring out the best ways to tell them. I’m good at what I do - and I have a lot of plans for how to get better.

However, it’s hard to put a plan in place when your finances are what some may call dire. I make my living as a freelancer - meaning every week is me making shots in the dark, and hoping some of them land me something that can pay the bills for the week after.

Lately, there have been a lot of misses.

One of the skills I don’t have is marketing myself. Making myself a decent portfolio, a useful resume. Writing out professional sounding cover letters, and creating a website for myself to show off the work I can do. I’m not saying it’s unreasonable to expect someone to be good at those skills - people who hire other people have a lot of people to sort through! I’m just saying I don’t have those skills. Developing that kind of thing is also harder to do when you’re stressed about where your next meal is coming from, or too afraid to step out your front door because there’s nothing in the city you can do that doesn’t cost money you don’t have.

Without developing those skills, however…you’re a lot less likely to have new work coming in. It’s a horrible cycle. I just want some lunch. Or a coffee.

Which brings me tooo….my new, fancy, updated Ko-Fi page!

https://ko-fi.com/armaanbabu

You can check it out, drop me a dollar or two, and will have my eternal gratefulness. However, if you’re seeing this, there’s a good possibility that you like the same kinds of things that I do - stories, and games. Browse through my page - my shop has a few things you may be interested in.

First, a few one-time purchase options for services. You can request a short story that I will write, just for you, based on a prompt you give me.

For TTRPG players, you have two options. The first is for people who have a game system they’ve always wanted to learn how to play, but didn’t have the time to read through about 300 pages of rules first. I will read those pages for you. What’s more, I will guide you through the most relevant stuff, and even run a mini-game for you so you can test your footing with the new rules. For an extra $5, I will help you figure out what you need to run the game.

If you’re already comfortable with a game system and have one in mind, however - I will draft a one-shot just for you to run. A module of your very own, with stats, maps, sidequests, NPCs and even some notes on how to expand elements of the story into a longer campaign.

I also review things - and would be happy to review something for you if you feel it’s been undercovered, or would just like my deep-dive thoughts on a subject.

I’m also opening up some tiers for monthly subscription!

Depending on what you pick, you get access to the Discord server, which as of this moment is…not much.

However, you do get to vote on what part of the city gets explored in my City23/24 project. I have plans for what the Discord channel can be in the days to come, but I’m gauging interest before setting those in motion.

You also have the option of getting free access to any story I write and publish on the site, and of getting a free seat at a discounted price in any game I run at StartPlayingGames.

There is a separate tier just for GMs - if GM-prep is proving to be a lot for you, let me step in and help. Ideation, writing, organizing stat blocks and maps and the like - just give me your notes and I’ll work with you to take some of the pressure off. I know how exhausting it can be. This is expected to be a temporary tier - drop off or downgrade whenever you like, but while you’re there, you also get the benefits of the previous tiers!

With that done…what can subscribers to my Substack expect?

Meandering. A lot of meandering. I have a lot of thoughts about a lot of things I want to share. Games I’ve been playing. Thoughts about shows I’m just catching up on. One particular mechanic of one particular TTRPG you may or may not have heard about before. There’s a lot that’s excited me about the world…and I’d like to share it with you.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for joining me on the start of this journey - even if this is as far as you get.

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Armaan.

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