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Interview with Sword and Source founder Cover Image

024 – Diving into entrepreneurship full time & Making random generators with Adam of Sword & Source

 

Adam Waselnuk is the founder of Sword & Source and co-founder of Legendkeeper. Sword & Source is a collection of random generators, most notably, Here be Taverns, which was just nominated for an Ennie award. Adam was actually one of my first listeners of this podcast and reached out to me to say hello a while back, so it’s been super cool watching him grow over the last several months. Brenton actually is a contributing writer for some of his generators, so I’ve also gotten a glimpse of some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into these creations. Adam tells us all about these generators today, but we also discuss the strategy he used to grow a following before he even had a website, the importance of email marketing, and dig into all sorts of analysis and processes. This conversation definitely made my little project manager heart happy, so I know those of you who are more analytical will definitely enjoy this episode. 

As usual, I’ve got a few items of business to go over before we jump into the interview. It’s been a few episodes since I mentioned this, but we have a whole bunch of map packs over on DM’s Guild. Our most recent publication is a Copper best-seller of an all-color map pack for Candlekeep Mysteries that highlights sections of the book that didn’t come with their own maps. We are pretty close to hitting Silver on that pack, so I’d love for you to check it out if you plan on playing through Candlekeep soon. We also have a Silver best-seller black and white map pack for Rime of the Frostmaiden, specifically for Ythryn. You can find all of our map packs by either going to DMsguild.com and searching for Lightheart Adventures as the author, or you can go to lightheartadventures.com/shop to find all our DM’s Guild and DrivethruRPG publications in one spot.

Some other ways you can support the show are via our Patreon page, which has a few different tracks depending on whether you’d like maps and adventures or tailored content for this podcast, including contributing questions for upcoming guests, a spotlight on our website and even a shoutout on this podcast. You can also check out our affiliates, like Friday Afternoon Tea! Friday just released her fall teas and I am 100% channeling my basic white girl self and buying alllll of them. Seriously, listen to these names: Pumpkin Chai, Caramel Apple, Harvest Spice, Maple Houjicha, Punkin Pie Rooibos, and Warm Heart. I cannot wait to try thiem all. If you also want these delicious sounding teas or want to try her very large assortment of nerdy teas, go to fridaytea.com and enter in code LightheartADV to receive 10% off your order and help support this show.

Thanks for sticking around, and I hope you enjoy this conversation with Adam.

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Time Stamps & Screenshots

  • 00:00:00 Introduction & Updates
  • 00:03:41 Adam Introduction
  • 00:12:08 What is Sword & Source?
  • 00:15:55 First steps in launching Sword & Source
  • 00:20:54 Strategy for scoping projects
  • 00:27:06 Leaving your job & going full time into entrepreneurship
  • 00:32:37 Here be Taverns – developing random generators
  • 00:48:50 What has been the most challenging part?
  • 00:50:43 Legend Keeper
  • 00:52:30 What has been the most rewarding part?
  • 00:54:59 Where can people find you?
  • 00:55:40 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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