Roll Play Grow: A TTRPG Business Podcast - 039 - Animating Video Games & Drawing All the Things with Aster

039 - Animating Video Games & Drawing All the Things with Aster

12/17/21 • 48 min

Roll Play Grow: A TTRPG Business Podcast

Today’s guest is Aster, an incredibly talented game and comic artist from Mexico City. I found Aster by looking for an artist to draw my dog, Bowser as a Ranger in a few pieces. As you may or may not know, I am working towards opening an Etsy shop soon for D&D-themed pet merch like bandanas, bowties, and collars. I decided I wanted Bowser to be my mascot, and I needed someone who could draw him as a D&D character. Ruby from Possum Creek Games recommended Aster to me, and I fell in love with his art style. Three AMAZINGLY adorable pieces later, I am a fan of Aster for life.
Aster tells the wild journey he’s gone through: everything from an abusive boss at 17 to working on Cartoon Network game animation to comics and commission work. Aster is one of the artists working with Possum Creek Games, and you can see his work in the upcoming Yazeba’s Bed & Breakfast, which we heard about in last week’s episode. We discuss balancing full-time work with freelance commissions, finding clients, finding what art mediums make you happy, and so much more. I am in such awe of Aster, and I cannot wait for you to hear about his journey.
If this is your first time tuning in to Roll Play Grow, welcome. This podcast is a part of Lightheart Adventures, which is a small company I co-founded with my husband. We offer a weekly blog on our website where you’ll find tips for running games, free monthly one-shot adventures, product reviews, and more. You’ll find that blog at lightheartadventures.com. Brenton also creates beautiful dungeon maps, both on DM’s Guild and on a commission basis. He is currently working on the third in a series of map packs for Wild Beyond the Witchlight. There will be 5 packs total, one for every chapter, and they offer a look at some additional locations in the adventure. You can find all of those by going to DM’s Guild and searching for Lightheart Adventures as the author, or by going to lightheartadventures.com/shop to find all of our DM’s Guild and DriveThruRPG publications in one spot.
Some other ways you can support us and this show are by subscribing to the show and leaving a review. Reviews help me reach more people, and if you leave it on Apple Podcasts, your review might even get featured on an upcoming episode!
That is all for now, so please sit back and enjoy this conversation with Aster.
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Dice Envy
Dice Envy creates beautiful dice in a variety of materials, including resin, metal, wood, and more
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Previous Episode

038 - Designing Indie Games & Publishing Wickedness with M Veselak

Today’s guest is M Veselak, a ttrpg designer and the author of Wickedness, published by Possum Creek Games. We talk about how she became a gamer at the age of 5, writing games for a LARP summer camp, how she creates zer games, what it’s like to work with Jay and Ruby at Possum Creek Games, and we get a pretty cool preview of the behind the scenes of the upcoming game Yazeba’s Bed and Breakfast. M is a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed getting to know zer more.
If this is your first time tuning in to Roll Play Grow, welcome. This podcast is a part of Lightheart Adventures, which is a small company I co-founded with my husband. If you are also a Possum Creek Games fan and want to check out a few other interviews I’ve done with the team, then I’ve got two more for you. Episode 13 is with the stars themselves, Jay and Ruby. I also had the privilege of speaking with Jamila R Nedjadi in episode 35 about a lot of his games, though we spent a lot of time on Our Haunt, which is another game Possum Creek recently Kickstarted. And then next week, we’ll get to hear from Aster, an artist that has illustrated some games for them as well.
If you’d like to support the show, you can find us on both Patreon and Ko-fi as Lightheart Adventures. I am also a huge sucker for a kind review on Apple Podcasts, and if you do leave me a review, it may even be featured on an upcoming episode. Another way you can support the show is by checking out our affiliate links, like Found Familiar Coffee: the most delicious and nerdy coffee you’ll ever taste, and you’ll get to collect some pretty cool D&D themed art on every package. Go to foundfamiliar.com and enter code LightheartADV to get 10% off your order, enjoy delicious coffee, and help me keep this show running.
That is all for now, so please sit back and enjoy this conversation with M.
Find M and Wickedness at:

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Found Familiar
Delicious coffee meets Dungeons & Dragons artwork. Use code lightheartadv for 10% off your order.
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Next Episode

040 - Making Edible Dice with Hannah of Cacao CH3

Hello & Welcome to Episode 40 of Roll Play Grow, the podcast for tabletop entrepreneurs, creators, and fans. I am Courtney Stover of Lightheart Adventures, and in this podcast, we talk to the creators behind the brands in the tabletop roleplay gaming space about who they are and how they are turning their passion for gaming into a career.
Today’s guest is probably going to make you crave sweets like nothing else. I had the honor of speaking with Hannah Smith, the owner of Cacao CH3, a chocolate shop that sells delicious confections, including chocolate dice. I can confirm that they are very realistic looking and quite delicious. I gave everyone in my D&D party a tin of chocolate dice for Christmas, and they legitimately thought they were dice, and were really confused when I ate one in front of them. It was pretty great. In this interview, I learned just how ignorant I am about the food business, and Hannah went into great detail about all of the steps she had to take just to be able to launch an online food store, how she keeps up with orders that are all made-to-order, and her goals for the future. A small disclaimer/update: as I mentioned, this was recorded in October of last year. Some of her priorities have had to shift since then, so if you’re wanting to go grab yourself some chocolate, which you absolutely should, the stock is a bit more limited these days. So just make sure you order early to give her time to make your chocolate.
The last thing I’ll bring up is that as always, I would love to hear from you! If you are excited to have the show come back, then please tell me in a review. Spotify now has a review function, so that is another great place for you to post your review, as is Apple Podcasts. Reviews help more folks find this show, and they help keep me motivated, so I’d love it if you can take a moment to leave one.
That is all for now, so please sit back and enjoy this conversation with Hannah.

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