056: Editing TTRPGs and developing your content strategy with Amber, TheSpaceJamber

Courtney: 1:54

Today, we are chatting with the Amber, The Space Jamber, a TTRPG editor and streamer. Hello, Amber, how are you today?

Amber: 2:02

I’m doing great. How are you? Thank you so much for having me.

Courtney: 2:06

I am excited. We are recording on a Monday, which is always a weird one. Cause it’s like, Ooh, the week started. And I’m tired. And you had an incredibly long day yesterday. So thank you for coming on.

Amber: 2:19

Oh yeah. No, absolutely. It just, it just, you know, might as well keep on going while I have like the second wind, you know, so hell Yeah, Thank you so much for having me.

Courtney: 2:28

of course. Well, to kick things off, can you tell us a bit about yourself and where you’re from?

Amber: 2:34

Yeah, absolutely. Hi everybody. I’m Amber, I’m also known as The Space Jamber and yes, that is my name mashed up with the nineties beloved film, starring Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan. I am a TTRPG editor and streamer. I call myself the TTRPG Swiss army knife because I do everything. I write. I edit, I obviously I stream, obviously I podcast. I write games. I do content management and content strategy for other stream teams. And I’m also a professional content strategist, like in real life. So, you know, I just take all the skills that I put in my day job and I’m like, Hey, how can I make this marketable for the stuff I do for fun? So, yeah. I’m currently based in Washington, DC. I say currently, but I’ve been here for six years, so I think it’s pretty permanent for the time being. But yeah, I love the TTRPG space and I’m glad to be here. Question mark.

Courtney: 3:30

I mean, I hope you’re glad to be here.

Amber: 3:34

You know what I mean? I, just don’t know how to answer these questions.

Courtney: 3:40

I, yeah. I spent a summer living outside DC in Alexandria,

Amber: 3:47

Oh, wow. Amazing. Yes. I don’t go to Alexandria often because honestly crossing the river to get into Virginia is a pain in the ass. Even though it’s just a Metro right away, I’d rather just like, no offense. I just rather would not spend 30 minutes on the Metro if I don’t have to.

Courtney: 4:05

I mean, that’s fair. My parents lived there for a short time and it was just one of those summers in college that I wasn’t going to rent an apartment for three months. And so I went home, which wasn’t actually home. It was just where my parents were.

Amber: 4:22

Yeah, amazing. Well, I hope the area treated you well and that it wasn’t particularly humid that summer, but knowing the area, probably not likely.

Courtney: 4:34

You know,, no, I can actually get into that, but I’m not gonna, cause that was not exactly an easy summer. There were injuries involved.

Amber: 4:42

Okay. I will backpedal then. All right, we’re going to backpedal. Oh

Courtney: 4:47

Other than that, though, it was a great time. And I actually learned how to make chocolate truffles while I was there. So I count that as a win. it totally balanced out.

Amber: 4:54

wait. That’s actually really cool. Wait. Huh? How?

Courtney: 4:59

Yeah. So I befriended like one of the guys that worked for my dad in his office, and I don’t know, it was like babysit the boss’s daughter. Whatever. We actually became really good friends. And so one of the things that we did was I think it was an Alexandra and like at the little old town area, but there was a chocolate shop that would offer classes. And so we learned how to make chocolate truffles in class. And it was really fun.

Amber: 5:24

That’s so cool. Oh, my God. That’s so cool. I’m now, you know, now that I’m like laid off and like trying to find fun stuff to do in between, like in between like applying for jobs, maybe I’ll like sign up for a chocolate baking class. Holy shit. That sounds so– sorry. You blew my mind

Courtney: 5:43

I mean, Hey, that’s a reason to go to Alexandria. I don’t know.

Amber: 5:48

It do be like that.

Courtney: 5:50

Okay, well, we are here to talk about gaming and stuff. So

Amber: 5:54

Yeah.

Courtney: 5:54

Amber, tell me,

Amber: 5:55

Yeah.

Courtney: 5:57

how did you get into gaming?

Amber: 5:59

I’ve always been like a huge dork, like just a huge nerd. I mean, my growing up my next door neighbor introduced me to video games through your like Final Fantasy 7 and Legend of Zelda, both Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. I would just watch him play for hours. And then, you know, it was around the time like Pokemon got popular. So like that, that was like my first game that I owned was like the entire Pokemon series. I never let go of that growing up. And so what got me into tabletop gaming was I. It actually comes full circle because my very first tabletop game was my junior year in college, so, oh my God. What was that? 2012, late 2011, early 2012. We played the Pokemon tabletop game. That’s based like very loosely on D&D 3.5. And so we were running this like Poke- this like grim dark Pokemon setting where Silph Co had taken over all of Canto and the players were like reviving Team Rocket. Honestly, I might look into that and see if I can revive that. Cause that particular table like exploded in the worst way. And maybe now that I have a little bit more like, do I have DM-ing experience under my belt? Like maybe I could run that. Yeah. So yeah, that was my first TTRPG. And then like I took a break for like eight years and then got back into it after a coworker at a old job pegged me as like the only other like openly nerdy person on staff and asked me if I wanted to join like a D&D one-shot that ended up being like a D&D one shot. And we would like say at his house and that overnight, and then it ended up being like three days of gaming because he just was like that long-winded GM. And here we are. I never stopped after that. That was like 2018. Yeah. 2018. Yeah.

Courtney: 8:03

Okay. I fully agree that you should definitely try to resurrect a grim dark Pokemon because what,

Amber: 8:11

yeah. I, I don’t talk to any of the people at that table anymore. Just again, that table ended for spectacularly, terrible reasons. But now that I think about it, people would eat that shit up, right? Yeah, Yeah.

Courtney: 8:27

You got into, I mean, you’ve been around games all your life, which is amazing. I love it. And then you eventually played Pokemon as a tabletop and then got into D&D. So talk to me about the transition from being a player to getting into more of the content creation

Amber: 8:47

Well so part of it was like born from pandemic where I was still playing. I mean, like, I was like casually playing D&D like through like Adventurer’s League or whatever at my local comic book store. But I hadn’t really like found an ongoing game until six, seven months before pandemic. And then, you know, of course, like once we went into lockdown, I really super heavily got into games. And I started my own like, one shot discord, actually, that’s still going to this day. I was having like a different, like one-shot game that, you know, various people in the discord would run, or I would run like, you know, every, like one, every like two or three days a new game. Once I got to the point where I was just playing so many games and I like attended my first GenCon online in 2020, and I like talked to more and more game creators and I was like, I could do this. And then I made my first game, which is like a really, really simplified version of this uh, Episode of table pop, which is like– it was like a show where they just had an idea for a tabletop game and then just made one up on the fly. And so they did one for Great British Bake Off, and I was like, I’m going to do that. So I made that game around the end of 2020 and 2021. I was like, yeah, I’m going to be a game designer on top of all of my day job shit. Yeah. And then I realized, no, I’m I, it’s hard out here. I’m not going to do that. So, and then. I had a friend actually reached out to me and she was like, Hey, I’m writing this game, but I might, I’m really bad at like editing and, you know, checking for grammar and all of that. And I don’t trust like Microsoft word to do it right. Can you like look at my game book and like, make sure that it’s all right before we go to publish it. And I was like, hell yeah, I can absolutely do that. It’s called The Demon Files. It’s like a Powered by the Apocalypse, like ghost hunting game that my friend Alexandra kickstarted last year. After I finished editing it, like the light bulb went off and I was like, oh shit, this is what I can do in this space. You know, you see so many people. I mean, it’s amazing to see how many people, like, you know, from pandemic realized like, oh, they can become a game designer too. And it’s beautiful. But like also there is this niche where like, just because you can design a game, you know, like maybe you’re like my friend, Alex, who like didn’t trust that Microsoft word would do its thing Or you just want an extra set of eyes or like, you know, God forbid typos abound. Being like a professional, literally being a content strategist and like, you know, a professional copywriter, I was like, yeah, okay. Yeah, this is, this is like the market I can corner. And you know, it’s been really great so far. I’ve edited now for Penny for a Tale. I edited up Necrobiotic for them last year. I’m currently in the middle of editing Flabbergasted for Wanders Tome. Now I’ve worked with DragnaCarta who is the he’s the DM for the official curse of Strahd subreddit campaign, you know what I’m trying to say there, like, so I’ve edited like his session notes for his Patreon. Like, you know, it’s opened up so many doors, like just realizing this is something that it seems so commonplace to me because it’s something I do day in and day out for like my day jobs, but like, oh my God. I can feel like my news editing professor from college, like smiling down on me and being like, yes, you, the only one that got an A in this class, you’re using the skills I taught you.

Courtney: 12:30

really cool that, I mean, all of those games and everything, but the one that I’m like, Ooh, interesting. I am DMing and Curse of Strahd right now. And so I like religiously obsessed over everything from DragnaCarta.

Amber: 12:42

Yes. Yeah, no, he like reached out to me and I was like, huh, you want to work with me? Huh? I mean, he’s amazing. You know, he’ll just like DM me, like on discord and be like, Hey, you free? And I’m like, hell yeah. Send it on up. It’s yeah. I am very lucky and I don’t want to say like very blessed, but you know, same sentiment.

Courtney: 13:08

Yeah. So I would love to dig in a little deeper to: your friend, asks you for that very first one. And you’re like, cool. I could keep doing this. So what did you do? Like how did you get yourself set up? How did you start finding clients? Tell me a little about that freelance.

Amber: 13:25

Yeah. Well, honestly, I mean, I don’t want to be like, I hacked the system cause I mean, like one That’s stupid but because I do work in content strategy and I do work in like, the marketing side of the house, I kinda knew just how to position myself and like that’s when, like, I feel very, very lucky that I kind of got in when I did, because that’s when, like, before self promo, Saturday, like really became overwhelming for a lot of people. And before, the hashtag days became very, very stressful for a lot of people. I feel so weird saying this and like, I don’t want to sound pompous and be like, I did it. But being so entrenched in like corporate spaces, like networking is something that I am very proud of being able to do. Know, just being able to like, kind of flex those skills and know how to like directly talk to people or even, checking on those Self Promo Saturday threads and be like, Hey, I’m writing this thing and I need help editing it, but I don’t know who to reach out to. I’d be like, hello, that’s me. I can do that. You know, it’s just, just stuff like, like I just really was not afraid to like really just put myself out there, and like as an introvert, oh my God. That was so hard. But I think also, I’ll be real last year. I’ve talked about this a little bit on main and not even a little bit, a lot on main. The time last year where I really started putting a lot of effort into marketing myself as an editor– I had just gone through a severe mental health crisis, and I was like, just trying to do everything possible to like distract myself from what I had just went through and trying not to go back to where I was. And so really, I also just kind of threw myself into like the, the TTRPG, Twitter scene. Really connecting with a bunch of different creators, just, just so that I could keep that distraction going. So really it was also just me realizing that I needed something positive to look forward to and something where I could continually go to myself, like after I closed my laptop for the day or whatever, and say, I, I am good at something. I do have talents in something. And, you know, I think obviously like the response that I’ve gotten speaks for that. And has really honestly been like a catalyst for me pulling out of that space too. So yeah,

Courtney: 16:05

Yeah, that’s amazing. And

Amber: 16:06

yeah,

Courtney: 16:07

as somebody that also deals with mental health issues and physical health issues, and those definitely go hand in hand a lot,

Amber: 16:15

Oh, yes.

Courtney: 16:17

like, it takes a lot of effort and a lot of strength and a lot of willpower to force yourself into finding those things that can distract you for long enough that it does bring you out. That’s exceptionally hard. And I’m like, I am so happy for you that like, you were able to find something to help you out of that. Because like, I, I just, I understand, like, it’s, it’s so difficult.

Amber: 16:43

Yeah. I mean, thank you. And I’m proud of you for being able to, to, you know, work on yourself too. I mean, the path isn’t easy and healing certainly is not linear. And, and that’s not to say that in the, oh my God, 10 months since, you know, last summer when this was all going down, like, you know, there haven’t been ups and downs because there definitely have been like I’m coming out of one literally right now. I think it’s also it speaks to how important this space is for folks to really help themselves feel seen and help foster positive, you know, relationships among other players and like really help people like foster positive relationships with themselves too. I know I threw myself into gaming, you know, during the pandemic, because I just suddenly felt very lonely with like all of my, my social life being moved from going to concerts every couple of weeks or so, and seeing all my friends at shows and then not seeing them at all.

Courtney: 17:48

I do want to follow up on something that you’ve mentioned a couple of times, and I know this isn’t the like, oh, this is the fun thing I do within tabletop, but I think it is a very important skill that doesn’t get talked about a whole lot. So you have mentioned being a content strategist, so we’ll wait for the sake of our listeners. Can you please explain what that means and what it is that you do within that?

Amber: 18:14

Yeah, absolutely. So the specific realm in which I work is really, really niche. I work in what’s called employer branding. And that is exactly what it sounds like. It’s how your company brands yourself as like an employer of choice. And so to be a content strategist within that realm, you’re really looking at like literally every single thing can be turned into content. And really, an Instagram post from an associate, you know, for example, can be turned into a blog post, to highlight your company culture. It can be turned into, a series of like recruitment marketing materials for your recruitment team you know, stuff like that. So it’s like really taking like the content that you as like a corporation or, you know, even just as like a stream team or, a podcast or whatever, how are you taking, like, whatever content that you make. So like this particular podcast, how can you turn it into a series of blog posts that people can like, you know, go to and give you regular clicks? And like, you can get evergreen return on like the literal time investment that you made, or how can you like turn a Twitter posts into, a jumping off point for like a world-building stream, you know, stuff like that. So it’s really again, looking at what makes sense for the platform? What makes sense for the Audience you’re trying to reach? What really, resonates for your personal voice, like as a creator. And so it’s, it takes a lot of thought and it is something that I’ve been working on, honing my skills out over the past, like five, six years. Oh my God. Have I really been doing this for six years? Sorry. I was like, shit. It’s 2022. Yeah. It’s a lot of hard work and it takes a lot of like analysis and like testing and like looking at numbers or whatever, but like really at the end of the day, like it’s also like really fun just to like poke around and see, like it really gives you like the ability when you’re testing to see like what, you know, what graphic works best or whatever. It is really fun to see like what works and what doesn’t and be like, okay. All right. I thought so.

Courtney: 20:30

What are some ways that you brought that into marketing yourself as you’ve been trying to build up your presence within this little niche that we have?

Amber: 20:41

Oh my God. You have such a great question. No one’s asked me these questions before. Okay. Let’s, let’s take this past week, for instance. You know, and seeing you know, seeing everything that’s been going on with the Supreme court, you know, the draft opinion coming out that saying that they are poised and ready to overturn Roe V. Wade. I, one, in a past life. I actually also was a student organizer for Planned Parenthood and also NARAL pro-choice Virginia. And so like, this is something that like, this is a momentous event in, in Like my activist life, you know? So, combining that part of myself, that’s very, very vocally about protecting reproductive freedom and all that, but also like, okay, how can I take this thing that’s happening in real life? And like, make it relevant to my audience that I’ve built up, right. Like what can I, how can I bring TTRPGs into this, but also like, make it, you know, not make it seem hokey or like forced, you know? And I, I, I think I’ve done pretty well at like cultivating a space that is very very progressive, very leftist, very Marxist, very like, you know, very openly LGBTQ plus supporting very like you know, BIPOC supporting. So I kind of was like, ah, fuck, I gotta do something. You know, the activists within me that was like, oh God. And then like the content, you know, the content strategists and me, it was like, oh fuck, I gotta do something. You know? So that’s when I, you know, on Tuesday, like the morning after like the draft opinion leak, I was like, all right, fuck it. Fuck it. We gotta do a charity stream. So like, you know, it’s, it’s things like that where I considered actually for a second, like putting together like a bundle, you know, like a, a TTRPG bundle. But then literally, as I was like putting together like notes for itchio, I saw my friend, Emily wrote for romance had started it. And I was like, nah, I am not going to steal her thunder. But, what I can do is like join forces with her and look at the content that she’s building and almost use it as a springboard for, the content I planned on building with the charity stream. So you know, I blended all of that. Also. It took, I took a lot of like the old chants that I used to do. I used to use like, as a protester and like really kind of weave them in with like TTRPG language as well. Like, when reproductive rights are under attack, what does the TTRPG community do? Yeah. And then that’s like, when I introduced, like, yeah, we do a charity stream mmkay, we’re going to do this. And then, you know, and then stand up, fight back. So that’s like a very recent example of like how I, you know, was able to like look at my personal brand voice, like both as an activist and also as a TTRPG content creator and like make it happen. And like yesterday was the charity stream and I’m still coming down from the high, so yeah.

Courtney: 23:43

Yeah, I, I think that’s really cool and it’s a really good way to be able to combine the skills that you’ve learned, the things that you’re passionate about and the things that you’re like trying to do to build yourself up and like build your own community. It’s a really cool mesh of all of those things.

Amber: 24:00

Honestly I would not have, I was like talking to my husband last week and. You know, I was like, ah, man, you know, maybe being laid off really was a blessing because it gave me all this time to plan this charity stream and be able to like quickly respond. So, you know, as much as that sucks, you know, at the same time, has been nice being able to have the, like, I it’s like something to the scale was something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. Since I started streaming and like, yeah, I’ve done like one charity stream before in February, but it was like, I was streaming the Sims for 12 hours. So juggling tech and talent and like keeping on time and everything was like, not an issue, but this yes yesterday was like… Actually it was like the. The elite four of like TTRPG streaming, to bring it back to Pokemon, it all comes back to Pokemon.

Courtney: 24:57

I am going towant to dive into the streaming a bit more, but I’ve got a couple more questions that I want to ask around editing.

Amber: 25:04

Yeah. Sorry. I went off on a tangent there.

Courtney: 25:07

Oh, believe me. That’s what I love about doing this show is I’m like, okay, I’ve got some things I have to ask and I’ll ask them at some point. But like, I have no idea where conversations are going to go and it’s, it’s fun.

Amber: 25:19

Well, I’m glad to deliver.