Have fun, make money, in that order
Karen, Richard, and Matt are professional relations: business partners who are also family members. This issue, Karen edits her husband Richard’s interview with their son Matt about a new Foggy Outline service for podcasters.
“What is something that people might pay for that also would be fun for me?”
Richard
Foggy Outline has just done a soft launch on a new offer for podcasters. Can you tell me about it?
Matt
Basically, if you’ve got a podcast that’s not one where you play roleplaying games, then I will come on your podcast and run one for you. There’s various packages in terms of how much editing and sound design I can do for you. But the basic package is – I’ll listen to your show, I’ll pick some roleplaying games that I think fit; talk you through them; help you pick; run the session and then you can take the editing on at that point.
Richard
It sounds interesting. How do you think this new offer will contribute to the field of podcasting?
Matt
It’s mainly about bonus content. There’s various different ways for podcasts to make money. The most common one is to sell some ads. But then, one that’s becoming more attractive to a lot of people is get subscribers instead. And when you make that the way your podcast funds, you generally want to give the people who are giving you money a bit more than the people who aren’t paying you. A problem a lot of people have is they’re sort of brainstorming and scratching around trying to think of what valuable, interesting, fun, bonus episodes they could make. And so, this is just a kind of ready-made in a can one, where I do a bunch of the work for you.
Richard
Did you just come up with the idea on the basis of what you’ve just said, or had somebody mentioned to you the idea of doing this?
Matt
It basically came from, asking myself “what is something that people might pay for that also would be fun for me?”
Richard
You already suggested that if somebody approaches you to do this, you’ll find a game that the podcast audience will love. I’m just intrigued about how you can do that. I mean, for example, if Annie McManus and Nick Grimshaw approached you to do an episode of their Sidetracked podcast, how would you go about finding something that resonated with an audience of music buffs?
Matt
I really love this example, and I hope that they do reach out after this, if it somehow makes its way to them.
I don’t claim to have an encyclopaedic knowledge, but I keep my ear to the ground and try to keep track of what’s coming out.
The two that come immediately to mind for Grimmie and Annie McManus would be, Damn the Man Save the Music, which is a game about being punks who work in a record shop that is under threat – by a duo called Turtlebun. Or the other one would be The Infinite Dancefloor by Kayla Dice of Rat Wave Game House. It’s a time loop game about having an extremely bad night out at the club when you lose one of your friends and have to try and find them and get them out, but, something, possibly supernatural is going on on the dance floor.
“Is there a roleplaying game out there where you can play a waiter genie and then James Acaster can just play his existing character?”
Richard
Your premium offer includes immersive sound design to complement the recording. Is this something you use in your own podcast?
Matt
I don’t think we’ve ever got as far in our own shows. One of the reasons that this is a paid-for service is that if somebody takes it up, Foggy Outline can afford to subscribe to at least one of the major sound libraries out there.
The other thing to talk about is the specifics of editing roleplaying game actual play. The techniques or specifics of editing roleplaying game play are a bit different and take some picking up. So, you get the benefit of somebody who’s done hundreds of hours of that.
Richard
So, you must have some dream podcasters who you’d like to play a roleplaying game with. Are you willing to share your dreams?
Matt
Yeah! Let’s put it out there into the universe and see if it comes back.
The people that I really had in mind when I was imagining this are Ed Gamble and James Acaster on the Off Menu podcast. I need to put some thinking into, is there a roleplaying game out there where you can play a waiter genie and then James Acaster can just play his existing character from the show?
Another one that I think would be fun is the team from Who Shat on the Floor at My Wedding?, a very low-stakes true crime podcast. There’s lots of games out there about being a detective that I think that crew would enjoy playing.
Richard
You clearly believe you’ve got the skills and the experience to run this type of session. What are your credentials? Why should a podcaster trust you with their format and their audience?
Matt
I’ve got a lot of experience from Merely Roleplayers specifically running roleplaying games for people for whom that isn’t necessarily their comfort zone. So, I would love to be doing this for people who think, “I could never play a roleplaying game because it seems too hard”. Maybe I want to sort of break that barrier down. I’ve done it for lots of people, and they’ve had a good time and that’s why they can trust me to do that for you as well.
There’s more to this interview. Buy us a cuppa on Ko-fi to support our work, and you can read the unabridged versions of this and every Professional Relations interview.
08:00, 4 & 18 February, Skipton: Find Richard at Skipton Business Breakfast.
12 February, Skipton: Find Richard at the first meeting of Skipton’s new People, Planet, Pint event.
09:30, 17 February, Skipton: Richard will be working on the business with his Artery peer support group.
13-14 March, Harrogate: Matt and some others from the Merely Roleplayers ensemble will be hanging out playing games at Airecon. We’re not working or on duty at all, but if you’re cool then maybe you can hang out with us.
Bonus episodes for your podcast
If you make a podcast and you’re interested in what we talked about in the interview, the first three customers can get the basic package (where Matt does all the game stuff and you pick up the editing and production) for free. Snap that offer up and let’s play some games.
Doing business on a sick planet
Our new course (formerly known by variations on X reasons why you should consider the environment when making business decisions) is fully complete, and we’re just checking design and functionality before releasing it to all of you! We’re hosting this one ourselves on foggyoutline.com, not on Udemy, so we’ve got lots more control over how it looks and works. Stay subscribed for the launch announcement.
I Need A Miracle
The series picked up a nice endorsement from Evo Terra at The End, the directory of audio drama podcasts where you don’t have to wait for the next episode.
And Matt’s been laying more groundwork for season 2 – lining up a raft of brilliant guest writers, and hashing out budgets with Wireless Theatre Company so we know how much we need to raise through crowdfunding this year to make the new episodes.
Merely Roleplayers
The Bibliocalypse is here in Act I of Use Your Words, starring Matt, Natalie Winter, Alexander Pankhurst, Ellie Pitkin and Strat as Rogue Linguists reclaiming sense and meaning from the depredations of the False Librarian.
Camera Obscura
Apologies to the mods. Matt published chapter 10: No way to know.
Matt highlights Yacouba Sawadogo:
There’s a featurette that sometimes plays before films at my local indie cinema. It’s about farmers in Burkina Faso who are reversing desertification by digging crescent-shaped holes, which collect just enough rainwater and provide just enough shade for plants to take root. Yacouba Sawadogo was a Burkinabé farmer who popularised this technique. There’s a documentary about him, if you’re interested: it’s called The Man Who Stopped The Desert.
