This is another in a growing number of articles that I am putting out highlighting the wonderful people and organizations that make TTRPG world work! This one is for the founder of Rising Tide Discord, whose purpose is to cultivate the content creator arm of the gaming community by giving those creators a place to “talk shop” and encourage others in their creative endeavors. I found out about this Discord back in May of this year. To learn more about how this Discord came about and the one who created it, let’s go to the interview Domille!
Jared: First off introduce the Team here at TTRPG Rising Tide?
Domille: Sure!
Domille – The founder and “DM” of the tidepool
Jess Pendley – Tur Community Manager
HyperionSkies aka Alex – Social Media and Community Engagement, Goals Lead
Krystaline aka Linda – Tur Substack admin
Thai – Podcast Editor
Adam – Community Engagement and Moderation
Jared: How did this concept of collaboration of creators get started?
Domille: I had come up with this idea back in 2019. My own creator Discord, DWW (Domille’s Wondrous Works) was initially a creator-focused community. It saw some popularity within the Twitter-verse, but eventually my Discord turned from a creator Discord, to my DWW Patron community. The creator part of the community eventually dwindled.
Fast forward several years later, I sorely missed a creator support community in my life and none of the already existing Discords could provide what I wanted. So I reached out to all the people who helped me build DWW in the first place with this new idea for RT, and they were on board! We spent several months setting everything up, before we launched in January 2023. We have a lot in store, coming soon! Keep an eye on our announcements!
Jared: What keeps you going? Collaborating and encouraging creators?
Domille: Being a creator is more than just a job. To me, it is the work of my life. I am lucky to be in the position that I am, and I want to help others get to where they can be in a similar position or (hopefully) better. It is not an easy journey, and there aren’t a lot of resources out there about it, so we wanted to fill that void.
Jared: Where did the name “Rising Tide” come from?
Domille: My husband actually came up with it! I was talking to him about this new idea, and I had no name for it, which is when he had the idea of naming it Rising Tide!
Jared: Tell us more about the Rising Tide?
Domille: The general idea is supporting creators. But what does that mean? Having customized discussion channels is a given, of course we would have that, but what else could we provide to the community? What are some of the best ways to learn? Of course you learn from others who have been on the path longer than you. So we decided to have live talks with industry professionals, record them, and release as podcast episodes as well. We had Hit Point Press, B Dave Walters, Patreon Reps, Foundry’s Atropos, and many more already talk to our community and share their knowledge about becoming a professional in the TTRPG industry. And some of our guests include Ginny Loveday, Ashley Warren, and Griffon’s Saddlebag!
Being a solo creator also poses challenges such as isolation, and burnout. Self-imposed deadlines and motivation can also dwindle. This is why we also started doing the weekly GOALS meetings that are open to the entire community. These meetings not only help creators with accountability, but also help them connect, share their experiences, and break down what can otherwise feel like a never ending routine of “work, work, work.” At first, the meetings only took place once a week, but they grew in popularity so much, that we decided to break them down into 3 separate groups! We now have morning meetings, afternoon meetings, and night meetings – that way if someone can’t make it at any given time, they can always switch to a different meeting. Big thanks to the other GOALS leads – HyperionSkies, and Chris Hopper, who volunteered to lead!
Jared: What do you see as the future of Rising Tide? Goals?
Domille: So many! We have so many things coming up and so many things we want to do! One of the most recent goings-on is the Storytelling Collective. We helped raise funds for scholarships in content creation online courses. For more info, see https://buff.ly/47UR5XJ
Jared: What can people expect coming into the TTRPG Rising Tide server?
Domille: Friendly, supportive community that is always ready to help. We take the moderation of our community very seriously. We don’t just say things like “racism and sexism are not welcome”, we follow through with action to help maintain the inclusive, and supportive community we currently have. In addition, knowledgeable, reliable sources of information to help you grow your business.
Jared: Is there anything else you’d like to elaborate on within the Rising Tide and its current programs and the future?
Domille: Rising Tide is more than just a Discord server. We have already branched out into informative podcasting, and we will continue branching out to help as many people as we can with their TTRPG careers.
Jared: Besides the Discord are there other social media platforms that Rising Tide operates through?
Domille: We have our Twitter account: https://twitter.com/TTRPGRisingTide
Tumblr: https://ttrpgrisingtide.tumblr.com/
Mastodon: https://dice.camp/@TTRPGRisingTide
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089073339146
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