The One Shot Network shows how collectives can help APs grow

While actual play has been reaching new heights in the last few years, selling out shows at Madison Square Garden and getting (re)discovered by legacy media brands, the industry’s infrastructure isn’t all Critical Role’s and Dimension 20’s. Instead, it’s usually just a handful of people making a show with little to no production knowledge, releasing it, and screaming out into the void amidst thousands of other people each doing that exact same thing in isolation. Others, like the folks at the One Shot actual play network, have taken another approach — one that offers a bit more support, even if sustainability isn’t quite yet on the horizon.

What started with the One Shot anthology series — where D’Amato (and his successor Dillin Apelyan) play lesser-known tabletop games with a rotating cast of tabletop professionals — has since grown into a stable of over thirty shows on a shared network. In addition to its flagship show, the network hosts a diverse range of series from longform actual plays like Skyjacks and Mystery Country Monster Hunters Club, talk shows that cover aspects of TTRPG culture and design like System Mastery, and worldbuilding shows like The Ultimate RPG Podcast (which, for disclosure, I have appeared on as a guest).

Earlier this year during their Oneshottoberfest pledge drive, the One Shot Network announced it would be bringing four new shows into the fold: Gamewoven, Roleplay Retcon, Herald’s Horn, and What Am I Rolling?Rascal talked with Tracy Barnett, the network’s project manager, to learn about these new additions, what collectives like One Shot can offer creatives, and what the future looks like for the network.

What pushed the One Shot Network to bring new shows under its banner?

Tracy Barnett: The short answer is that we knew bringing on new shows would cause a stir, help people to take a second look at what we're doing. Plus, it aligns with our philosophy as a network: we've always wanted to be a platform to amplify voices which don't get heard as much. The shows we brought need that platform, too.

The longer answer is that it was part of a strategy James and I came up with to build towards our recent Patreon drive, Oneshotoberfest. We had internal projects launching (The Ultimate RPG Podcast and the public release of Starwhal) and Courier's Call Season 3 kicking off. We decided to use those as promotional ramps. As we approached Oneshotoberfest, we brought on the new shows. Publicly, we all got to boost and promote them. Internally, we all got to know each other and use the excitement of new faces and new ideas to help make the drive happen. We all do better when we push together. 

Why have you chosen to bring on these shows specificially? What about their concepts pushes the type of actual play One Shot wants to produce and contribute to the medium at large?

Barnett: Actual play is a hugely diverse category of artistic expression. The shows we brought on which focus on AP (Gamewoven and Roleplay Retcon) do so in very different ways to each other and to the existing shows on One Shot. We focus on emotions, story, and worldbuilding. The new shows do that as well but in ways that really differentiate themselves from anything else we had going.

In addition, What Am I Rolling? focuses on a broader spectrum of what games offer, beyond just AP. Fiona combines actual play, interview, designer notes, and more together into a unique and excellent alchemy. Fiona also does streamed read-throughs of TTRPG books. Depending on your definitions, that's a form of actual play as well.

Lastly, we're also continuing to expand into other tabletop and adjacent spaces with Herald's Horn. It's an excellent take on Magic: The Gathering, the news and moves of the industry, and interviews with excellent guests from the Magic space. It's very far from actual play but there's an amazing cross-over between indie RPG folks and people who play Magic. Potentially exposing both crowds to new shows helps everyone.

What do these types of partnerships/acquisitions look like in the largely underdeveloped industry of actual play?

Barnett: They're structured to be as mutually beneficial as possible. In previous responses, I'd mentioned pushing together and boosting the platform people have access to. Those things are two core things for us. There's not a lot of money in tabletop games podcasting, aside from some very specific outliers. To that end, One Shot provides hosting for the shows, technical support for them and their setups, and access to all of the services the network pays for (like a licensed music service) so all member shows can benefit. We'll also assist in anything the network shows have going: promotions, crowdfunding, Patreon setup, etc. As well, being on the network just means more community and more access to people. A lot of us have been in the industry for a long time. We've met other podcasters, writers, editors, musicians, creatives of every stripe. If someone on a network show needs to meet a person who does a particular thing, we try to facilitate that. 

In exchange, the network keeps [20% of the] ad revenue from the member shows, [with the other 80% distributed to member shows based on impressions generated]. That means, as member shows continue to publish episodes, the network gains a larger potential stream of revenue. 

How do these types of collaborations benefit creators, how does it benefit the network, and how does it benefit the medium?

Barnett: Creating is lonely work, especially on today's internet. We all know the feeling of shouting into the void. As part of a network, we're building community. It's been my major focus of this shift: we want people to be as supported as they can be so they can make the art they want to. Almost all of us do this work on top of day jobs and the other concerns of daily life. So knowing that you're (virtually) surrounded by other people who've got you? That's huge.

For the network, I look at things through a very practical lens. To continue operating, we need to continue to bring in revenue. Having more shows on the network, serving more ads, potentially means more revenue. It also helps boost the profile of the network. The pandemic really shifted how we had to do things. Going from a physical studio in Chicago to a largely remote recording setup, keeping up with how to actually get notice on which social platforms, etc. By bringing on new shows, we got to say "Hey, look at us! We're doing cool shit!", and it worked. 

The benefit for the medium is that we're trying to make it easier for our creators to make their shows. At a base level, the new high-quality, thoughtful productions there are, the more the medium suffers. If we can continue to support creators making the shows and series they love, that's a huge good, I think.

With big studios in traditional media, creatives that join a larger network often have to adjust their creative vision to producers and executives. What type of creative freedom (or conversely restrictions) comes with joining a network like One Shot? 

Barnett: In terms of shows joining the network, One Shot has no creative oversight of any kind. All of the member shows, including the ones around before the new additions, is its own, independent entity. They make their shows and we try to help them reach the goals they've set for those shows. Any restrictions boil down to: don't be a Nazi and don't work with any known ones. 

What have you learned from these new shows and your  Oneshottoberfest drive that you're going to be bringing with you into your plans for 2025?

Barnett: There are a few things which come to mind.

The first is that we all learned how to work together. With all of the new shows, we had another 11 or people join our Discord server and want to contribute to everything we were doing. We now have a leadership council made up of me and a bunch of show runners who want to contribute to how the network is run. I check with them on major decisions and we do a whole bunch of stuff as a group so James doesn't have to. Prior to the Patreon Drive planning, I was mostly doing project-based stuff. We made a big shift in responsibility so I (and the folks from network shows) could take on a bunch of things which James had been solely responsible for. It's a whole new structure and I think it's working well.

Another is platforms. We ran almost all of Oneshotoberfest through events on Twitch. We're primarily an audio-focused network. We've had Twitch shows in the past, but they stopped once the studio was gone. Now we have the opportunity to expand what we do on Twitch, including making our channel available to other, smaller creators. We can start to become almost a broadcast network: taking our shows and finding ways to package them for streaming and YouTube (use every part of the animal, etc.) and making space for smaller creators to access our audience.

Those two are the biggest takeaways. Along with that learning, we're also looking at bringing on additional shows. Some may be ongoing, while others will be limited series. Onboarding a new show is a process we learned this past Fall. It costs us not much more than time to bring on a new production. So if a show or series seems a good fit and we can be mutually beneficial, then that's awesome. We have a chance to learn how to showcase not just our own shows, but to also continue to elevate productions which might otherwise struggle to find an audience. And, by the same token, some creators bring their audience with them, meaning our current productions serve to benefit as well.

All of this is me, James, and all of the members learning as we go. One Shot has been around for over 10 years now. To continue to be around, we're all learning new ways to make the art we think should be in the world.

Financially, how has this impacted the One Shot Network and the individual shows? Is this a sustainable move long term? Do you believe other creators should shift towards a network structure?

Barnett: James handles the day-to-day finances, so I can't speak to the financial impact directly. I do know that we're planning for another Patreon drive this summer, using what we learned in the recent one to help us get a leg up. Long-term sustainability has more to do with major economic factors, I think. When prices for essentials go up, spending on luxuries goes down. TTRPGs and tabletop games at large are luxuries. We don't need to spend money on them; we do so because we want to. So when money is tight, Patreon subs drop. To counteract that, we're always looking at different revenue streams—the Book Club Anthology, Skyjacks zines, different media platforms like Twitch and YouTube, etc.

That's one of the big benefits of being in a communal network sort of setup: we're still small enough that we can pivot quickly, but we're composed of amazingly talented people which means we also have a lot of skills to bring to any given task which needs doing. I've worked as a solo creator for most of my career. It's been a big shift for me to work to build this kind of community. A big shift, but a good one. Is it for everyone? I don't know, but I keep coming back to the ideas of rising tides lifting all ships and pushing together. We're all better and more capable together.