Welcome to Episode 11 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 role play gaming space about who they are and how they are turning their passion for gaming into a career.
Our next guest is Charles Barger of NPC Creations. He creates intricate scenes with tabletop terrain and miniatures and then takes gorgeous photos. We’re talking battle scenes, campfires, towns, hellscapes, underwater terrain–he has an eye for design and his images are captivating. He now works with companies to do product photos and still enjoys sharing his own creations. Charles’ story is really cool and an example of someone who’s really stumbled into this industry just doing something he loved. Check out some examples of Charles’ work below!
Underwater Arena
Hellscape
Before we jump into today’s episode, it’s business time. First up, we do have a Patreon for Lightheart Adventures and Roll Play Grow. It’s a pretty cool place, and you have options on whether you’d like to follow the adventurer track, which will get you maps and adventures, or the merchant track, which gets you some fun bonuses around this podcast. If Patreon isn’t your jam, you can also support the show by subscribing, sharing with your friends and leaving a review! Reviews are super important for this show to be able to grow, so if you’ve been hanging out and you like what you’re hearing, please drop me a review on your podcast platform of choice.
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Links Mentioned
Time Stamps
- 00:00:00 Introduction
- 00:02:42 Charles Introduction
- 00:06:24 What is NPC Creations?
- 00:09:52 What’s your photography background?
- 00:10:50 What is your photoshoot process?
- 00:12:32 What type of commission requests do you get?
- 00:14:14 How do your source all your materials?
- 00:16:56 How have you turned this into a revenue stream?
- 00:18:32 How much time are you spending on a weekly basis?
- 00:19:55 Deciding what to charge
- 00:21:16 Editing
- 00:23:29 What was your favorite shoot so far?
- 00:24:07 Which shoot was the hardest?
- 00:25:10 How large are your builds?
- 00:26:01 What are some challenges you’ve faced in turning this into a business?
- 00:28:30 At what point did you realize you should establish yourself as a LLC?
- 00:31:58 Current goals
- 00:36:07 What would be your dream scene to set up?
- 00:37:39 What has been the most rewarding part?
- 00:39:42 Where can people find you?
- 00:40:14 Wrap-up
Thanks for dropping by! We would love to know who would like us to interview, so please drop a comment here on the blog, on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Discord to let us know who your favorite creators are! If you’d like access to more maps and content, including downloadable PDFs of our adventures, check out our Patreon. We’re able to do what we do because of all our amazing Patrons!
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