Nathan Carmen has been acting, directing, or writing for as long as he can remember. Now as the owner of newly-formed Tricky Troll Games the young husband and father uses all three skills as a character creator and settings writer for the tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) industry.
Carmen is a writer/licensee for Pinnacle Entertainment Group’s Savage Worlds game system. Founded in 1994, Pinnacle specializes in roleplaying games and is best-known for its Deadlands RPG, first published in 1996. The Savage Worlds system is actually a set of rules forming the basis for all its RPG’s. Independent game writers like Carmen must first be recognized within the industry and then licensed by the publisher in order to write for the system.
Carmen seems wired at birth for the creative environment of RPG design. He climbed on the stage for the first time at age six and participated in drama groups and school and community theater through high school. He was scripting his own home videos at 10 and at 15 wrote his first 10,000-word short story. And like many young aspiring actors, he was a Star Wars follower, avid comic and graphic novel fan, and fantasy reader. Some of his favorite authors included Lloyd Alexander (The Chronicles of Prydain), Brian Jacques (Redwall), and of course J.R.R. Tolkien.
Prior to graduating high school in May of 2008, he studied drama through the theater certificate program at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. But uncertain about his future plans, Nathan waited several months before enrolling at Cincinnati Christian University in January of 2009 to study communications. There he acted and directed in his alma mater’s theater productions while also giving acting lessons to earn extra money for school. In the fall of 2010, he met Carmen Henson and the two married on January 1st, 2011 (and yes, her married name is Carmen Carmen). It was during the early years of his college experience that a friend invited him to play Dungeons & Dragons. That invitation planted the seed for what would become his chosen profession.
First published in 1974 by TSR (Tactical Studies Rules) and since 1997 by Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) was the world’s first fantasy roleplaying game. But although widely popular, the game was panned by conservative family and religious circles. Aware of the game’s controversial history, Carmen hesitated. But ultimately he saw D&D, and RPG’s in general, as a form of group storytelling.
“Anything new that rocks the norm is viewed with suspicion,” acknowledges Carmen. “But with roleplaying, there’s no real winner or loser. You’re telling a story together,”
Carmen accepted the invitation and didn’t look back. He began reading up on the tabletop RPG industry while working on his degree program. He received his B.S. in Biblical Studies in May of 2014 and at the age of 26 started Tricky Troll Games early in 2016. His first pieces were Character Generators (written guidelines for creating and naming characters) for an open-license ruleset by Gold Piece Publications called The Black Hack. His first published Black Hack work, The Beast Hack, was a success and garnered recommendations on game industry distribution sites. Character Generators were followed by Adventure Seeds (ideas for creating a storyline) and later by Bestiaries, encyclopedias of beast-characters common to a gaming system or ruleset. Success in open-license products opened the door to Savage Worlds licensing from Pinnacle.
Knowing what to write wasn’t as hard to figure out as knowing how to design the finished document. By their very nature, RPG’s are text driven and depend heavily on clear description and fantastic, well-drawn illustrations. Art and photography can be expensive. And depending upon the output (print or download) and the user/buyer, finished pieces might need to conform to North American standards, European standards, or both. All of these contribute to driving up the cost of making products that sell in a comparatively low-price industry.
Basically figuring things out as he went along, Carmen kept cost down by securing some of the art he needed in package deals from freelance illustrators. Others were obtained through the public domain or as open-license pieces. He taught himself publication layout using an open-source program called Scribus. And he hired a friend with a background in writing to proofread.
His self-taught efforts have been paying off. In less than 2 years Nathan Carmen’s Tricky Troll has released 27 products (including bundles products) through RPGNow.com and DriveThruRPG.com. They’re currently available as digital downloads only, though Carmen is planning to include future releases as print-on-demand books. A recent and popular piece is his completely original and systemless Astonishing Worlds. A systemless setting can be adapted for both licensed and open-license game systems. Unlike his other works, Astonishing took a month to complete. But the unrestricted format increases Carmen’s potential audience and sales.
“I’m not making a lot,” he laughs. “But it does help pay for groceries.”
In a world apparently dominated by electronic game systems, it’s a bit surprising to learn that interest in role-driven games* continues to grow and thrive. Perhaps that’s due to the movie industry’s enormous success in bringing accepted literary fantasy characters (i.e. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings) and DC and Marvel’s superheroes to the big screen and video. Also, once viewed as a guys-and-geeks only thing, RPG’s -- along with comics, video games, and sci-fi fantasy in general -- have seen huge increases over the last decade in female and family participation.
“The industry is absolutely booming right now because you can unplug and still be with your friends,” Carmen affirms. “There’s also been a rise in the number of female gamers and female game designers.”
However, there’s probably another secondary reason for the increased interest. Where board games have been around for a long time, tabletop RPG’s have been around only since the early 70’s. They’re still relatively new and they differ from typical games. They have their own lingo and use multi-sided die. They can be played with (or without) boards, cards, or miniature figurines. And according to Carmen, the goal of the game itself is different.
“Board games focus on winning the game,” he says. “Roleplaying games are more about roles and character development.”
Telling the story together. Roles. Winning isn’t everything.
There’s definitely something to be said about all that.
Carmen is a freelance writer and has contributed to Pinnacle’s ezine. The publisher is spotlighting Tricky Troll in the month of November via social media channels. Check out their Nov. 7th post here.
For more information about Tricky Troll products, visit RPGNow.com and DriveThruRPG.com.
Nathan Carmen & Tricky Troll Games at Google+
Nathan Carmen & Tricky Troll Games at Google+
* NOTE: Although this article focuses strictly on Carmen’s contribution to tabletop roleplay gaming, the writer also acknowledges that there are numerous well-known video games within the RPG industry.
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