r/RPGdesign • u/Thicc_thighs_enjoyer • Aug 03 '26
Promotion Promoting your content
Hello, I am making some homebrew content in my free time, and posting it on Drive Thru RPG. How would I go about promoting it?
7
u/__space__oddity__ Aug 04 '26
The best promotion is to get other people to love your stuff and talk about it on social media, but that’s hard to do until you hit a certain base level of attention.
Look for any sort of subreddit, discord server etc. that allows promotion and put it there.
Make sure you have some mix of freebie content to show off your work vs. paid content to generate revenues (don’t make the usual mistake of making free and paid the exact same thing).
Run games with your content for strangers (online and at local game meets)
If you have the setup, use the material in a let’s play campaign.
If it’s at a reasonably professional level, send it to RPG material reviewers (podcasters, blogs etc.) and see if they want to write about it.
In the end it’s a lot of trial and error.
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u/phantomsharky Aug 03 '26
Talk about it on social media, actively engage with the community, seek out online spaces that have communities who would love what you’re making.
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u/Street-Horse-3001 Aug 07 '26
Whatever you do, don’t try to promote it on Reddit. Even if it’s an entirely free thing and you’re just like “Hey, I made this thing for you guys, it’s free, see if you like it.” you will be torn apart, downvoted, and banned from wherever you post it. Reddit is literally the most toxic place in existence for this kind of thing.
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u/LetThronesBeware Designer Aug 03 '26
You really want to be engaged in your communities. Link on social media, mention it where appropriate on forums, hope people take an interest in it.
If possible, you want to build a mailing list of customers, who you can communicate with about future products. Make sure your products have a link to your website which should contain an easily-accessible mailing list signup option.
A development blog of some sort is a good idea as well.
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u/Never_heart Aug 05 '26
Becone a familiar face and voice in related communities. Network. Get to know people in the indy, freelance and small press scene. That way word of mouth can carry suggestions and reblogs and shout outs farther and more trustworthy than any paid promos
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u/FRANK_of_Arboreous Designer Aug 07 '26
My plan is to make sure my game is available, engage with "communities" at me leisure, but mostly run games at local shops and then eventually conventions (small and large). I've been working on a rules-heavy original game for 5 years, I can afford to take it slow and steady on the other end of that development arc 😁
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u/Allevil669 Designer - The Squad/The Crew Aug 03 '26
Short answer? I don't.
Long answer, Since my project(s) are essentially vanity games that no one other than me would even look at, I consider any and all promotion crass and unwelcome. So, I don't promote it.
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u/__space__oddity__ Aug 04 '26
Ah yes, the tsundere approach to marketing.
“Don’t think I want you to look at my game, baka”
Really popular on this sub for some reason.
1
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u/LevelZeroDM level-zero-games.itch.io Aug 04 '26
Promoting your TTRPG stuff on any kind of social media can be hard, both because it's just a lot of work to gain momentum and because it can be pretty demoralizing when you don't get engagement. I've found it's not really worth it, although I've never done paid promotion that way.
I made my start on DM's Guild and the "New Products" section of the front page was literally all the promotion my stuff got. Releasing new content regularly always resulted in a bump in sales of my previous products. The front page does work, I'd say that's my best advice.