I've been low-key setting myself up for streaming and content creation over the past couple of months, focusing on a very queer angle and enabling a safe, resilient community. I've got Patreon, Discord, Picarto, Twitch, YouTube and this Twitter all mostly set up.

Here's what's on the table: TTRPGs using FoundryVTT, digital art, games/vr/modding, YouTube guides/panels & edited streams. SFW streaming to Twitch, but there will be a lot of NSFW streams to Picarto, with NSFW vids going to Patreon.

(for those alarmed by the NSFW stuff—sex work is a valid profession BUT this is not a thing I'm going to be doing. No porn a.k.a. myself or other real people masturbating/fucking on video. That isn't for me. This is roleplay/art/games only—and I'm staying in my lane of very gay)

(I've got a group of local gay friends on board—we have trust + frank conversations/tools for safety & consent—and for future campaigns/multiplayer I'll be scouting additional BIMPOC—we're mostly white at the moment)

I've been poking OBS. Haven't bought an overlay yet because yesterday I did a Curse of Hearts (by @deathbybadger) session zero. I tried using Skype, sending friends' videos via NDI to OBS, sending via virtual cam to Discord streaming. It was too much though and didn't work out.

In the future I'll be running Foundry VTT as well as streaming to Picarto so I really need the technology to work. I guess for Curse of Hearts I'm just going to record my screen and edit videos to be Patreon exclusives, but streaming is a huge opportunity for community.

So this week I am doing whatever I can to see if streaming is possible or practical on my Surface Book 3, and if not I'm looking into building a gaming/VR/streaming rig with the new NVIDIA 3080 graphics card

It is very expensive to build a rig, and my Surface Book 3 was extremely expensive, so I really have to do all I can to get as much value out of it as possible. But I've already hit walls I didn't anticipate.

Aside from the streaming stuff, I also can't use Oculus Link because their software refuses to work if you don't have an HDMI port, even if your laptop internals are sufficient. It's really been a huge disappointment.

So we'll see... In the meantime, please share any solutions you have, PC parts good with a 3080, and whether you think trying to crowdfund this would be appropriate? Thanks!

Here's a little preview of how I am doing safe spaces in my discord. Thinking I'll add more soon. I am staying in my lane with my content BUT I know my audience will include all sorts of folks and intersectionality is so so important for all of us

Here's how I gatekeep for accepting the rules

Discord has NSFW verification but I also added my own so that mods can monitor it