I want to create a pack - need suggestions

Greetings. I'm thinking about making a pack for this place. I don't like generic stuff, I am used to working with clients directly, so I'd rather make something to suit a certain client or group of clients. I am not familiar to this kind of format that I see in the marketplace - I did not play D&D so far. I saw two kinds of tokens so far: a kind of portrait and those view from above characters. Are those used in the same kind of game or is it one or the other ? I'm guessing the portrait ones are used somewhere on the edge of the screen like in other games. As I said, I don't know and I'd like to know before I start so I don't work for nothing. If you are a client to this place and you have some suggestions, they are welcome. Also I would like to hear the thoughts of artists about this site (though I doubt you'd help competition). The emails I sent were met with typical corporate "PC" generic responses. And the help wiki doesn't cover some of the things I wanted to know. Is this place worth the effort ?

Alex C. said: I saw two kinds of tokens so far: a kind of portrait and those view from above characters. Are those used in the same kind of game or is it one or the other ? I'm guessing the portrait ones are used somewhere on the edge of the screen like in other games. There are different places in the Roll20 interface where both styles can be used. The portrait "avatar" on the Character Bio or on Handouts, also commonly used as a Token on the map especially when they have a circle border, sometimes called a pog, that style is used on many of the 5E modules. Top-down view is also very common to use as tokens on-maps. Some games might use both (top-down view as the Token on maps, and pog or portrait as avatar on the Character Bio or Handouts). Many games and game-styles probably lean towards one style or the other. <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Journal#Bio_.26_Info_Tab" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Journal#Bio_.26_Info_Tab</a> <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Token_Features#Creating_a_" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Token_Features#Creating_a_</a>...

So it's better to make one or the other for a pack. Thanks. Any other suggestions from people ?

There are also some "side view" tokens, some people that do these usually crop the head into a circle for people to use as portrait (or for people who prefer to use circle border tokens instead of the full character. These are some examples (first one is mine, second one is from Kevin Berry pack) What you shouldnt do i would say is mix different view points, like making a side view token togheter with a top down one For pen and paper RPG people use anything to represent their character on the combat grid (a map), for example my sisters when she plays, she doesnt have any miniature (since they play a game her boyfriend made), and so they just use different colored die to represent each creature in battle. The same applies for online play, you could mix and match any style and view, but if you can unify its style (for example in my case it would be everything pixel art) then it would look better. As for the question to other artists, we are very friendly with each other (we have a slacks chat for marketplace creators were we help and give advice). If you are wondering about if its "worth it" it depends, i would say do this if you enjoy doing it as you wont see piles of cash on your firsts packs, in my case I started because I did all the tokens in a pixel style to play with some friends one time, they were fun to do and i wanted to explore more on pixel art (before this i never did much of that). My packs are decently popular (i think) and got more than what i expected, but still not enough for it to be a full time job (unless you are Gabriel Pickard).

Will have to think about this. Thank you for your help. If anyone else has something to add, please do.

This might be unpopular, but I'm gonna suggest "just start". Go with your gut, and what you as a dm or player would want to see, or something you feel no one else is doing that you could bring. Then make 3 packs and toss them up. (Expect low sales til you have at least 3) You'll learn as you're doing them what works, what doesn't, what takes an utterly unreasonable amount of time when you scale it to thousands of tokens... And you will inevitably hate seeing your first packs anyway, 2-3 years down the road. (Right Gabe and Russ and Devin?) So just embrace it, experiment, and let lightning strike, then assess and build on that for your next packs.&nbsp; And when your first one is out come join us in slack to talk through issues like this and others!!

I prefer top down tokens personally, and am a huge fan of Devin Night Vanderforge and Graemation's style. I have one set of tokens I created, but I'm more of a map guy. I personally make my players choone a top down token for my games because I like things uniform. I've played with DMs that don't care as much and I've seen PC tokens be all sorts of miss matched, and that is quite common I think, or at least with my experience. It really depends on who is running the game, honestly.&nbsp; I'll also echo what the others said. Do what you find enjoyable for yourself (not only as a player or DM, but as a creator as well) and release it! Take a look at the other artists work to get an idea for how much to include in each set, and try to release 3 or 4 packs. You won't see much at first with your first few but as you release more work, people tend to be more open to checking your stuff out.&nbsp; Good luck and happy creating! Reach out to one of us once you get a set released if you want to join our Slack chat!

Thanks for the responses. Guess I'll give it a shot. Meanwhile, post any thoughts you have. Might help others too.

Dead bodies! Monsters and PCs...

Alex C. said: So it's better to make one or the other for a pack. Thanks. Any other suggestions from people ? I like the 3d top down as we rotate the token on the map and the POG type looks stupid upside down. I do have POG ones I used and make myself because I don't have 3D version of them yet. All the Players have 3d top down. There are very few good commoners in the market place, like Blacksmith, Maids, Bartenders, Guards, Merchants, kids, people doing various things, drunks, etc of all different races. &nbsp;

I use the portrait/pog style tokens exclusively, as when zoomed out, I tend to visually lose some tokens as they blend into the background. On more than one occasion this has led to NPCs not taking their turns or being forgotten about.

I'm working on a dead body pack for you, Ajax!! It's just taking me forever because it is really, really unpleasant to paint....