Introducing: The Storytelling Collective
As we turn the page to a new year, it’s time to unveil the RPG Writer Workshop’s new identity as the Storytelling Collective. I could not be more excited to share the Storytelling Collective with you; although it’s technically been about a year in the making, I feel in my heart that I’ve been working toward this for many years. Here are all of the details on the program and the launch, as well as responses to your frequently asked questions!
What is the Storytelling Collective?
Storytelling Collective is an online learning program designed for creatives like you. We believe the future of storytelling is immersive, interactive, interdisciplinary, and inclusive. Our courses and programs are engaging, actionable, and affordable, tailored to creatives just starting out or venturing into something new.
What’s happening to the RPG Writer Workshop?!
Don’t worry, the Workshop isn’t going anywhere! Consider this the Workshop’s “leveling up.” Moving forward, the RPG Writer Workshop will remain its own program within the Storytelling Collective. We’ll continue to offer courses on narrative and game design, including our flagship Write Your First Adventure program that we host every July and November. In 2021, we’re adding new courses to this program, including our Write Your First Encounter course/creative challenge, and also developing follow-up “level 2” programs for our existing courses.
So… why the change?
When I started the first Workshop in 2018, thinking it’d be a small writers’ group with a handful of people, I had no idea it’d grow to become such a big, wonderful, global community. I’ve spent much of my time since then shifting my creative focus back to education, finding better ways to provide support and resources to my fellow writers.
Through my company, Scribemind, I’ve been facilitating writing challenges and mentorship, and my Scribemind mission to focus on creative process and support for writers aligns closely with what we do through the Workshop. It seemed logical to me to combine the two for MAXIMUM IMPACT.
The same questions arise in every Workshop, and 90% of the time, the questions aren’t specific to tabletop roleplaying game creation. We end up talking a lot about process; project management; motivation; marketing; collaboration; etc. So, we felt it was time to expand.
That’s why we are calling ourselves the Storytelling Collective (and sometimes StoCo for funsies) because we want to focus on storytelling in its many mediums and also encourage collaboration and community! (Hence our ampersand logo, which is also a nod to the D&D ampersand… and the fact that it looks a bit like an S and a sideways C.) BUT, rest assured that we have every intention of offering more ttRPG programming as well!
Who’s involved in the Storytelling Collective?
For most of the Workshop’s life, the program has been facilitated by yours truly, and I’ve recruited amazing creators to serve as instructors. As the Workshop continued to grow, though, I eventually had to ask for help (something that does not come easily to me…) I am very fortunate that two terrific people, Jack Kiser and Hannah Renea Bumgarner, both reached out to offer their help, and we now have an official administrative team! Jack has been on board since fall 2019, and Hannah Renea joined us for the fall 2020 Workshop (and was also instrumental in choosing the name for our rebrand!).
Additionally, we’re working with new and returning instructors to create new courses and an updated version of the Write Your First Adventure workshop (which we update once a year already). Seriously… we have a lot of awesome courses in the works. HYPED!!!
Supporting Our Community
We believe strongly in giving back to the creative community! Thanks to you, we donated $4,500 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in support of Black Lives Matter, and maintain a subscription to one of our favorite creative endeavors, FIYAH Magazine. Additionally, we awarded more than 400 scholarships to our courses in 2020, thanks to your generous donations and the support of our sponsors and collaborators, including Dungeon Masters Guild.
We’ll continue to have a scholarship program, which will be adapted slightly to apply to all of our programs. We’ve also launched a new program for 2021 called the Creative Laureate program, where we are highlighting 3 amazing, interdisciplinary creators and providing them each with a $200 stipend to apply toward the 2021 project of their choice. We’ll be sharing more about our Creative Laureates soon on launch day!
Speaking of… when is launch day?
The Storytelling Collective officially launches on January 11th, 2021!
Here’s what you can expect on that date:
Our brand new homepage at StorytellingCollective.com (note: RPGWriterWorkshop.com will take you to the same spot, so you can still use that URL!)
Two brand new courses that kick off our new Creative Productivity series
Open registration for our first creative challenge of 2021, Flash Fiction February (which kicks off in — you guessed it — February)
Open registration for our current courses: Marketing 101 for ttRPG Creators; Creating Your Campaign Setting: A Primer; and Dungeon Design Essentials: Treasure
A new Discord server specifically for StoCo (and some updates to the existing RPG Writer Workshop server)
The introduction of our 2021 Creative Laureates
… and probably more fun things that are still in the works. ;)