MEET THE MAKER: DANDMADEEASY
Interview by Tabletop Crafter
We sat down with Dan, from DanDMadeEasy, to chat about Dungeons and Dragons, accessibility, and creativity!
So tell us, who are you and what do you do?
I’m Dan and I run DanDMadeEasy, which is currently just me! I make stylish print-at-home player aids to help people streamline their games and increase immersion at the gaming table. My flagship product is a full Character Journal, which lets people create beautiful, custom Journals for their D&D 5E characters. Recently, I’ve been spending most of my time with MadeEasy making YouTube videos about D&D and other TTRPGs.
Character Journal - Barbarian Class Insert
Tell us more about you outside of your business!
When I’m not working on my business, you may find me cross-stitching, reading non-fiction, or watching a sci-fi or fantasy show. Every so often, I get to play D&D as well, but it has been a while! I work full-time in technical marketing and product management for a global software company. I’m very grateful that this has given me most of the skills I needed to start DanDMadeEasy.
How did your business start?
Around the winter solstice in 2021, it was like I had a personality transplant. I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to create things for others while also earning extra income outside my 9-5 job. Around that time my first business venture was an Etsy store, LifeAccordingToDan, where I shared cross-stitch patterns and astrology symbols, among other things. A few months later, I combined my love for roleplaying with my love of crafting to start DanDMadeEasy.
How did you get into tabletop gaming and nerd culture?
When I was around 10, I saw my cousin playing Baldur’s Gate and I was hooked on role-playing games immediately. I didn’t play tabletop games until I went to university, but when I did I realised that I found it way more fulfilling than playing video roleplaying games. I loved acting in school, and always created wild stories as a kid, and TTRPGs combine both perfectly!
What do you like best about being part of the TTRPG community?
I love how inclusive and supportive the community is. It’s amazing seeing people with different cultures and backgrounds sharing great times and learning from each other. It’s also great being part of the Tabletop Creator Hub (thanks!).
Tell us a little about why you create DnD character journals, and how accessibility played into that decision.
I believe it was destiny. My first product (and my first foray into accessibility) was a defense and hit points tracker. I included infographics in this to make it clear what should be done and when. Then I made a few class trackers, which are printed and laminated for use with erasable markers. When I made a tracker for the Wizard, I realised it should come with a section for known spells, as a Wizard will typically know many more spells than they can prepare. While making an accompanying spellbook product, I then realised that this would need to be bound to make it usable. That then gave me the idea to make my Character Journal, which I did as part of a Kickstarter project. Accessibility has always been one of the key considerations in everything I create (“made easy”). I make ample use of rules reminders and infographics in my products to help people better understand their characters’ abilities and get the most from their games.
Druid Class Tracker
What’s your favourite product by another maker in the community?
I’m an around-the-table player at heart – I want to see the expressions on my players’ or fellow adventurers’ faces during a game in real-time, non-digitized. I don’t often use maps, but in the instances I do, I’d love to have access to pretty much everything made by fellow hub creator DungeonTokens
What inspires you to create?
My mission is to help people share joy and passion in their role-playing games. That mission inspires me to create. A positive review from someone I have helped is priceless to me.
Do you have any exciting products or projects coming up that we should know about?
I recently played the Daggerheart playtest and got excited about playing with cards to represent abilities. I plan to create custom cards that players can fill in for themselves and print, which should suit players of D&D, Daggerheart, and other TTRPGs. It should be a collaborative project with artists, which should be fun!
The new version of D&D is due to come out in a few months, and depending on the licensing, I may also create projects to make the revised 5e versions of my current products.
I’ll also continue making videos for my YouTube channel.
Where can we find you?
I’m excited to go to my first convention soon - UK Games Expo 2024! Please come and say hi!
You can find all of my neat products on my website, and make sure to sign up to my newsletter if you want a chance to win free loot every month. You can find me at @dandmadeeasy on most social media platforms including YouTube, Twitter (X), Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. You can get to most of my links in one place at https://linktr.ee/dandmadeeasy.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell us or share?
One of my main aims in everything I do is to inspire people to realise they are powerful creators. DanDMadeEasy was just an idea a couple of years ago, and in the time since I have accomplished so much. If you have an idea for how you can make the world a better place, please act on it – you can do anything you believe you can!
