Episode: 300

According to Roll for Combat publisher Stephen Glicker, creating a great game is only one piece of a much bigger puzzle.

Episode 300 – What actually makes a tabletop game successful?

According to Roll for Combat publisher Stephen Glicker, creating a great game is only one piece of a much bigger puzzle.

Sean sits down with Stephen to unpack nearly five decades of gaming experience and the lessons he’s learned building Roll for Combat and Battlezoo into major third-party publishers for Pathfinder, D&D, Shadowdark, and now Deathbringer. Stephen shares how his background in publishing, advertising, video games, and even studying casino psychology shaped the way he approaches game design and marketing.

They also dig into the realities of running a tabletop publishing business—from printers, fulfillment, NDAs, and structured playtesting to the growing challenge of proving artwork wasn’t AI-generated. Stephen explains why understanding the mechanics behind a game matters more than simply playing hundreds of games, and why designers need to learn how to deconstruct what makes games work.

Guest Bio:
Stephen Glicker is the publisher of Roll for Combat and the creator behind the Battlezoo line of tabletop roleplaying products. Roll for Combat publishes material across multiple systems, including Pathfinder, D&D 5E, Shadowdark, and Deathbringer.

Stephen has been playing tabletop RPGs since 1977 and brings decades of experience across gaming, publishing, design, and marketing. Before working full-time in tabletop publishing, he ran Skyscraper Studios, producing websites and interactive projects for Fortune 500 companies, and studied print publication and design at Carnegie Mellon.

Roll for Combat originally began as an actual-play podcast before Stephen experimented with publishing his first Battlezoo Bestiary. When COVID disrupted his original plans to sell the book at conventions, he took it to Kickstarter instead—where the first campaign raised more than $300,000.

Today, Stephen works alongside game designers and creators on products including Battlezoo Bestiary, Eldamon, Battlezoo ancestries, adventures, dragon-focused products, and Deathbringer with Professor Dungeon Master. He also co-hosts Roll for Combat’s weekly show, discussing tabletop game design, publishing, crowdfunding, fulfillment, and the business behind the industry.

Chapters For YouTube:
00:00 Why Great Games Still Fail
00:28 Meet Stephen Glicker
02:19 49 Years of D&D & Game Design
04:30 His First Kickstarter Raised $301K
05:20 From Publishing to Tabletop Games
09:38 How the OGL Changed the Industry
13:40 Why Your Network Matters
14:25 The Problem With AI Art
16:00 How to Verify Human-Made Artwork
19:15 The TTRPG Community’s AI Debate
23:08 Lessons From the Video Game Industry
25:34 What Casinos Teach About Game Design
27:00 Why Great Games Still Fail
28:40 Playing Games vs. Studying Game Design
36:29 The Math Behind Great Game Design
39:38 How Professional Playtesting Works
42:22 Why Playtesters Sign NDAs
45:15 The #1 Tip for Your First Kickstarter
48:00 Building—or Borrowing—a Community
52:35 Roll for Combat, Battlezoo & Deathbringer

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