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THE STORYTELLER’S TAVERN

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  • Entertainment/Gaming
  • Early Stage Finalist

    • Founders

    Pedro Stockler, Katya Hvostova, Woodrow Skikavich, Louay Attia, and Ashleigh Wallace. 

    Website URL: https://thestorytellerstavern.com

    Linktree to Social Media accounts:

    https://linktr.ee/thestorytellerstavern 

     

    Advisors

    Leslie Wu

    Dwania Peele

     

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

    The Storyteller’s Tavern is a Tabletop Roleplaying Game (TTRPG) content website and podcast which focuses on creating inclusive resources and supplements that reflect a shared community and experience for both newcomers and TTRPGs enthusiasts. We believe that through collaborative storytelling, found exclusively in the medium of TTRPGs, we can encourage creativity, shared learning, positive representation, subvert harmful archetypes and tropes, and combat gatekeeping within the TTRPG community. Through the timeless art of storytelling, we can inspire a more colourful and inclusive world that sees value in the lived experiences of others. Lastly, we want to use TTRPGs to illustrate the infinite canvas of storytelling and how it can be used as entertainment and education. 

     

    Our team at The Storyteller’s Tavern (TST) is quite diverse in their skillset and lived experiences. First, we have Pedro Stockler, who is our Head of Operations, he has the most experience with running TTRPGs, as well as a background in film, film editing and podcasting. Next, we have Katya Hvostova, who is the Lead Editor. She is a fourth year at Sheridan College and brings her editing skills, creative problem-solving skills, and design knowledge. Katya also handles the management elements of the company, such as scheduling meetings, managing the bank account, and the website management. Our Lead Content Writer is Woodrow Skikavich, another fourth year at Sheridan in the Creative Writing and Publishing program. They bring their writing, photography, design and editing (substantive and film editing) skills to the table. Our Social Media Manager, Ash Wallace (another student of CW&P), is the face of our company, who manages our social media channels, schedules weekly posts, and connects with our partners. Lastly, Louay Attia is our Content Writer and Channel Manager, he oversees the management of our channels, sound design and editing for the podcast, and writes for the website’s content. 

     

    Next, for TST’s market research we found that the best way to connect with the community is reach out to them directly at Fan Expo through a market research survey. The purpose of the survey was to better define our customer needs and what will attract an audience to our content and podcast. Ultimately, we found out that people do see a need for our service as they highlight some problems within the community like gatekeeping, rule lawyers, and some discrimination. Likewise, the market research also helped us decide if a visual element was worthwhile to include in the podcast. The majority of people in the survey agreed that they wanted to see a visual element. Our target audience are adults (appealing to all gender expressions), within North America (with online access to anyone who speaks English), who have an interest in Geek/Nerd culture, and/or people interested in tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs). Secondly, we see our applied in customer behaviour through customers implementing resources into their own games. 

     

    Additionally, TST plans to acquire customers in a multitude of different avenues, both online and in-person, through building community. Currently, we are a not-for-profit as usage of intellectual property has specific guidelines on what we can profit from. We plan to use third-party sponsorships, partner programs (YouTube and Twitch), Patreon, and crowdfunding to monetize once we have built a strong foundation in the community. TST plans to acquire a customer base through online marketing on our social media, having promotional material on our YouTube and Twitch accounts, and building a website as a platform for our publishing. As for in-person connections, we hope to attend conventions in the future, hosting live events, panels, and possibly having a booth of our own. Lastly, we will also reach out to customers through partnering with different members of the community who already have a strong audience base. 

     

    As for our operations, The Storyteller’s Tavern (TST) is located at a temporary location in Mississauga, Ontario. However, our business operates online through a website host and podcasting host. We need to get our website off the ground as well as begin our first podcast to begin operations. This will include resources like character art, a podcast theme, website stock photos and backdrop layout art, domain registration, domain hosting, podcast hosting fees and promotional material. As for the assets we already have, TST has the starting equipment for our podcast, such as microphones, laptops, and a filming location for the podcast. It is important for us to acknowledge the copyright of the IP that we are using fairly under the Copyright Code, as well as outline and sign our Code of Conduct for operations to be successful.

     

    Finally, currently our starting costs are all accounted for (total estimated to be around $2000).  This is simply the base cost to begin our first podcast miniseries and get our website running. The money will be used to get everything started with most of the money going to hiring commission artists to create our promotional art, logo, character art, and website art. Secondly, another big cost is running and upkeeping the website and podcast host. Our first year is going to be spent building our audience and we do not anticipate sales, as we must monetize in a very specific way that relies on having a large audience base (third-party, sponsorships, Patreon, and donations). As for expenses in our first year, it will mostly go towards promotional material, fine tuning the website, marketing, and outreach events (conventions), and art/music commissions as we continue our podcast.

     

    MANAGEMENT

    The Storyteller’s Tavern is run through the general partnership of our Founders, Pedro Stockler, Katya Hvostova, Woodrow Skikavich, Louay Attia, and Ashleigh Wallace.

     

    CUSTOMER PROBLEM

    1. Outdated stereotypes in fantasy and sci-fi as a genre, which rely on colonial mentality, heteronormative gender roles, and Hays Code conventions. 
      • Inadequate representation and tokenism. 
    2. Gatekeeping within the TTRPG community:
      • Excluding marginalized groups or voices. 
      • Discouraging stories that focus on disability, gender expression, etc. 
      • Intolerance towards new or different experiences. 

    WHY: Collaborative stories found in TTRPGs are meant to encourage teamwork, creativity, and explores the lived experiences of another. By nature, it is a progressive and adaptable medium. We dare ask the question: why limit the creative bounds of collaborative storytelling?

     

    PRODUCT/SERVICE SOLUTION

    Content Website:

    • A platform to create resources and gaming supplements to educate players (newcomers and game veterans) and game masters to make their TTRPG games more inclusive and welcoming to everyone, no matter their lived experience. 
    • Guest contributors: we will spotlight guest contributors who are educated about certain topics we might not have the authority to speak about. 

    Podcast:

    • Pre-recorded 30-to-40-minute episodes of our TTRPGs games, where we showcase our published resources and how they seamlessly fit into each gaming system, to best illustrate to our customer how our resources can be used in their games.
    • Popular successful TTRPG podcasts: Critical Role and Adventure Zone. 
    • Visual element: tavern backdrop, character profiles, art of characters, costumes, etc.

     

    TARGET MARKET

    The beautiful thing about TTRPGs is that they are not specific to any one demographic. These gaming systems have existed for decades and have been enjoyed by people from all walks of life, which expands our potential audience by a lot

    That being said, according to preliminary market research our team has conducted, the majority of people who engage with TTRPGs are within the age range of 18-34 which is a comfortable margin for marketing 

    Our main target market would initially focus on people familiar with TTRPGs, as we are tackling specific issues within the community, but the entertainment aspect of our podcast could certainly introduce the hobby to new consumers. 

     

    CURRENT CUSTOMERS

    Currently, our customer base is those who are following and interacting with us on our various social media accounts. Due to us not having released our content yet, our following is currently small, however it is growing. We are primarily active on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, gaining followers organically and promoting our business accounts through our personal accounts as well. It is through our social media followers that we have gained more insight into the things that they enjoy interacting with when it comes to talking about their time playing TTRPGs. 

    Furthermore, on the 19 December, we will be doing a live event at Storm Crow Manor in Toronto, ON where we will officially be launching our podcast with Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition game “The Haunting”. At this event, we will be playing the game dressed as the characters we have created for an audience who has purchased tickets to watch us play. The event is also in co-ordination with our partners at Vibrant Games. This event is sure to gain us more traction on social media and in the scene of TTRPGs, especially on a local scale as we will have access to Storm Crow’s platform, space, and their social media followers as well.