2024: The Copper Compendium Roundup
What have I been up to in 2024? That's a good question.
GENERICYEAR ROUNDUP
Daniel Copper
1/4/20259 min read
As we enter the new year, I thought it might be a good idea to look back at what I’ve been up to in 2024. Turns out that’s a lot!
So, the quick stats. This year I’ve:
Published 10 games and supplements
Joined UK TIN and attended 3 meetups
Taken part in 2 charity events
Created 3 YouTube videos
Entered 4 TTRPGs to TTRPG jams
Started (but didn’t finish) writing 5 TTRPGs
Ran and played 35+ TTRPG sessions
Let’s see that in more detail! For ease of reading, I'll split it into 3-month chunks.
The First 3 Months
January saw me writing my very first full-length game, Summit. I’d begun working on it in December, and by early February I began receiving feedback from playtesters.
Summit was published in February, along with Play Your Cards Right, my supplement aimed at bringing card games to more TTRPGs by converting them for use with dice. The two were created for the video of that month, about the use of playing cards in TTRPGs and why I think they should be used more. I still think it’s one of the best videos I’ve made. As a further third part of that video, I compiled a list of TTRPGs that made use of playing cards. I recently brought that list off Google Docs and onto this blog.
The first charity event of the year also took place in February. This is the second year I’ve attended a local 24-hour event and I’ve loved it both times. I got to play Vaesen and Ten Candles for the first time, all while supporting a couple of great causes. There’s something about the community aspect of TTRPGs, supporting charity, the storytelling of tabletop games and the delirium that comes with being awake for far too long that works perfectly.
March saw me grappling with D&D 5e once again (it happens a little too often, I have plethora of things I feel like the system should be capable of but isn’t). This time, my gripe was with large-scale combat, that is combats with lots of enemies.
The result was my squads system, as well as the accompanying video. I created rules that allow DMs to group up to 6 identical creatures into a much more easily managed form, as well as a load of example statblocks using the system.
The End of the First Half
In April I rediscovered the UK Tabletop Industry Network (TIN), after briefly finding them while researching UK Games Expo (UKGE) the previous year. I joined the discord. The verdict? The community is as welcoming as I could possibly have hoped for and everyone is so happy to share their knowledge and experience. I cannot recommend joining enough if you’re UK-based and in the TTRPG industry in any way (yes, that means you, aspiring designer).
I also started designing a new game this month, ostensibly for a video. I’ve talked about Trouble Brewing in the in-progress section of this website but, simply, it’s a GM-less game in which you play as witches attempting to flee town before the witchhunters arrive.
The design of the game continued into May where I ran into some issues. On paper, the rules seemed serviceable, though in need of balancing. In solo playtesting, however, the amount of gameplay problems came into focus. It went back to a rewrite and has been stalled since.
Also in May, I attended my first social through UK TIN: ROLEPLAY BLAST!, run by Marx (of Far Horizons CoOp). It was a small affair, during which we chatted about games and played a session of Fall of Magic. It was a very good time.
Late May saw fellow UK TIN members travelling to UKGE – and encountering issues along the way. On a whim, I created a game about it, my very first true one-page game: I HAVE SOMEWHERE TO BE. It’s a simple game about ludicrous obstacles to overcome with the contents of your pockets and I thoroughly enjoyed designing both the game itself and the layout.
UK TIN and Hive Mind Games were also collaborating to run Stamp Quest during UKGE. The idea was that each participating stall had a unique stamp, and those participating would go around to those stalls, getting their booklet stamped at each. Those that collected all stamps had a chance at winning a bunch of very cool prizes.
As I was headed to UKGE, I naturally wanted to join in with Stamp Quest, but also wanted to make it easier for myself to find the stalls. So I created a map, which I posted on the UK TIN discord. Turns out, the organisers liked the idea too! They encouraged me to publish it and also promoted it on social media. Just like that, my little spur-of-the-moment idea had become the official map of Stamp Quest!
June brought, of course, UKGE itself. I was there for just one day, the Saturday, and found that I didn’t have nearly enough time to get around to everything I wanted to see. On the upside, the time pressure probably saved my wallet some damage – there were so many things I wanted to buy from so many talented designers. I got around to all but one of the Stamp Quest stalls, only missing the final one because they’d been moved last minute.
The Saturday evening saw the second UK TIN meetup of the year, and by far the biggest. I got to chat with a tonne of people whose work I admire and learned a lot. Highly recommend. Next year I’m aiming to go to all three days of UKGE, as one day just wasn’t long enough. Maybe then I’ll have time to play in some games while I’m there, or perhaps even run some.
June 22nd was Free RPG Day, and I remembered… about a week before. I’d not released anything for it the previous year, so wanted to do something this time around. Something, in this case, meant the biggest game I’d ever designed. In a week.
The Curse Lingers uses Caltrop Core by Lex Kim Bobrow (Titanomachy RPG), and would have been impossible to make in the time without such a strong foundation to build upon. The game is a post-apocalyptic dungeon-crawler inspired by nuclear semiotics, warning methods for future cultures about nuclear waste.
I’m incredibly proud of the game, and the fact that I got all the writing, design and layout done in that week. I plan to make a few changes in the coming year based on feedback and playtesting, but the core gameplay is something I’m very happy with.
June also saw the release of the TTRPGs for Palestine itch.io charity bundle, which I submitted several of my games/adventures to. The bundle did fantastically well, raising over $200,000 for Medical Aid for Palestinians. I’ve only scratched the surface in looking through what I got from buying the bundle and can’t wait to dig in further.
My final video of the year was also released in June, a short update video (see above) on everything I’d released or been up to in the year to that point, not unlike this blog post. I’ve tailed off a bit on my YouTube channel, which I’m going to try and rectify somewhat this coming year, if I have time.
That marks the halfway point! It’s insane to me quite how much happened in the span of six months, and unsurprisingly I needed a bit of a break in July.
The Start of the Second Half
July was a quiet month. I took some time to rest, then jumped in at the tail-end of the month to join the One-Page RPG Jam 2024, releasing What Scraps Are Left, a GM-less scrapbooking game about building mismatched chimeras and pitting them against the local townsfolk.
August saw the release of two more entries to the jam, Ill Advised, a GM-less game about trying to survive an inevitable revolution, and The Boulder, a one-page, 100-word game about an impossible task. It’s safe to say I’m enjoying the one-page format.
Making The Boulder reminded me of BREAKTHROUGH, my entry to David J. Prokopetz’s 200-word jam the previous year. I’d never really been a fan of the layout I’d done for it, so I updated it this month.
September marked the beginning of a new project, based on fighting video games like Tekken, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. A Call To Compete, as it was named in November, is nearing completion as I type this. It should hopefully be released in early 2025, if all goes to plan.
The Final Quarter
October saw the continuation of A Call To Compete. It was probably the quietest month for me of the year, with only one other major event: I began looking into getting print copies of Summit and The Curse Lingers. With luck they’ll be available through UK TIN at a future convention.
November meant the return of David J. Prokopetz’s 200-word TTRPG Jam over on Tumblr. I struggled for a while with finding an idea I was happy with and ended up with Head of a Bull, a game about fighting a battle you never asked to, just to survive.
November was also the month of new projects: my sister requested I create a murder mystery game for her and I also decided to write a custom game for the 24-hour charity event. The Dead Speak, a murder mystery game set at a Victorian séance, and Debris Field, a game of deception, limited information and hidden threats while floating in deep space, are both coming along nicely.
The final UK TIN meetup I attended in 2024 was also in November, joining 7 fellow members for a chat and a drink on a rainy Saturday afternoon. It was wonderful to meet more members, chat about games, Star Trek and strange choices in Magic The Gathering for a few hours. Will absolutely be trying to make this kind of meet up a more regular thing in future.
To round out the year, December brought with it this website, what feels like a big step for me but likely not for anyone else. Now I have a space to talk about whatever I choose, go into more details of what I’m working on, and create resources others might find useful (see my colossal list of card-based TTRPGs). Looking forward to making good use of the space.
I also got to playtest a solo game by Grace Gittel Lewis (In Case of Grace) this December, which I’m thoroughly enjoying so far. Keep an eye out for that when she publishes it!
To round out this round up, let’s go for a few more numbers: how much have I made on TTRPGs this year? Not a lot, but not nothing. I’m going for raw numbers here, not profit, as I have absolutely not made any profit.
I publish my stuff on 2 platforms, DriveThruRPG and itch.io. After they take their cuts, this year I made:
$54.15 on itch.io and…
$88.76 on DriveThruRPG.
So, as I said, not tonnes, but not nothing. That's spread across 3022 downloads on itch.io (averaging $0.018 per download) and 861 "purchases" on DriveThruRPG (averaging $0.103 per "purchase"). With a good chunk of my catalogue being pay-what-you-want, those figures don't surprise me much.
2024 was a good year for me in many ways: I released the most games and supplements of any year so far (with low competition, in fairness) and I’m incredibly proud of how far I’ve come. My confidence as a designer has increased tenfold and I’ve got much better at putting myself out there, especially when it comes to talking to designers whose work I admire.
And what about 2025? What’s next?
My aims for 2025 are simple: I want to make more big games, learn from others in the industry and attend more conventions. Oh, and continue the habit I managed to start in November of regularly reading the games I own. I’ve got quite the catalogue to peruse.
Here’s to a 2025 of creativity, fun and cool games!