Need More Grimdark Tales? I've Got My Own Playlist Over On "A Vox in The Void"!

For all the books I've written and short story anthologies I've been a part of, it seems like most people who know my name recognize me from the work I've had featured over on the YouTube channel A Vox in The Void. From tales of the grim darkness of the far future like Waking Dogs or The Final Lamentation, to installments like my Pacific Weird War story Where The Red Flowers Bloom, or the Dead Space tale Black Marks, literally tens of thousands of people have heard those stories because they appeared on the channel.

But I've hit something of a milestone recently, and I wanted to share it this week... because enough of my tales have appeared on A Vox in The Void that I now have my own playlist!

Seriously, go check it out if you haven't yet!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

13 Tales of Blood, Death, and Vengeance!

I've been working with A Vox in The Void for several years now, and I've watched their channel grow, and their professional career take off. I won't say I'm responsible for it by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm glad to have done my part to help grow things, and I'm glad the audience seems to like my work overall. However, given how the Internet is these days, it's entirely possible that there are regular readers here who haven't been over there yet... and if you're one of those folks, take a moment to, at the very least, give my stories a listen!

Additionally, if you find a story on that list that you really like, consider leaving a comment and saying what appealed to you about it! And if you want sequels to any of the stories, make sure you let me know. I only add to things that it seems folks want to read, so your voice is what helps me lock-in to make more stuff!

And Once You're Done With Those Stories...

I will admit, I've only got 13 stories on that playlist. For most folks, that's going to be a long day of chores, or maybe half a week of commuting. If you need more, I have two specific recommendations for you to check out, both of which would help me a great deal!

The first is the ongoing audio drama YouTube channel I just launched with Alice Liddell titled The A.L.I.C.E. Files. In addition to the individual, stand alone stories we're presenting, there's also an ongoing narrative about the new "Alice" who just accepted a job with the mysterious Carroll Institute which is finally starting to rev up a little bit. We've had trouble getting eyes on this channel, and any subscriptions and views would be greatly appreciated!

If you managed to get through all of that, and you still find yourself wanting to listen to more audio fiction from yours truly, I have a rather sizable playlist on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. This is where I first started refining my skills, and if you listen to the playlist from back to front you can actually watch as my audio dramas evolve in real-time. All views are appreciated, as they help put pennies in the jar for Azukail Games, which is my main employer and publisher these days.

For all the folks who check these stories out, upvote, and subscribe, thank you. I like writing stories, and I like making audio versions of them... but doing it for free takes a lot of eyes to make the wheels turn. So if you're willing to put your shoulder to that wheel to help push, I (and all the other folks who work to bring these stories to life) are very grateful for it.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Table Talk. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my more involved audio drama channel The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

A Holiday Wish From Improved Initiative

It's that time of year again. The decorations are going up, Mariah Carey has been defrosted, and everyone is looking for the best possible deals on what to get their loved ones before the upcoming holiday, and the end of 2024. And because I know that money is tight for everyone, I try to provide as much free content as I possibly can, both here on Improved Initiative, but also on our sister blog The Literary Mercenary for the writers out there, and in my Vocal archive, which has over 300 free articles (most of which are about gaming).

However, 2024 has been rough as hell with Drive Thru RPG basically slashing my earnings in half. Adding in the projections for 2025 that are all doom and gloom, I would like to take this week to ask for a favor from my audience... because I could definitely use a bit of that holiday spirit to help carry me through.

Every little bit helps...

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

I Could Really Use A Hand Up This Holiday

Things have been rough all over for creatives the past few years, and the seas are looking pretty stormy right now. To make things worse, this is typically the time of year when folks decide to cancel Patreon patronage, stop tipping creators they follow, and so on because of all the other holiday costs they're amassing; gifts, travel, time off work, and so on, and so forth.

So, before I get into all the other stuff, if you want to help keep this blog going please consider becoming a Patreon patron, or buying me a Ko-Fi as a tip. That's the best bang for your buck, honestly, and that goes for basically any other artist out there you want to support this year, too.

That's not the ONLY option I'm asking folks to consider, though...

I know that's not for everyone. However, I wanted to lead with that one because it's the easiest way to ensure that I keep the lights on, and have a minimum of hardship as I pay all of my big bills in the coming year (taxes, renew car insurance, things like that). If you do want to help me keep the wheels turning, but you'd like other options, consider the following categories...

Free Stuff That Helps

Like I said, I know that everyone is having a tough time right now, and not all of us have cash to spare. So I wanted to list a bunch of stuff you can do for free right now that will help boost me up as a creator, and which will put money in my hand, and help me do more, without costing you a dime.

Watch My Azukail Games Videos

I have been making videos for the Azukail Games YouTube channel for going on 3 years now, and in all that time I've made a pretty wide variety of content. From audio dramas and channel updates, to talking about my settings Sundara: Dawn of a New Age and my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, to industry talk in Tabletop Mercenary, and shows like Discussions of Darkness where I talk about the World and Chronicles of Darkness settings.

As of time of writing, we only need about 100 hours and change of watched content... meaning we need our audience to clock in a little over 100 hours more so that we can get monetized. Because for all the episodes I've put up (and all the work Adrian has done on his crafting videos), and all the signal boosting you see here and on social media, we haven't seen a single, red cent from YouTube because we haven't met the creator minimum yet on the amount of traffic we've generated. Hell, if everyone who subscribes to me @LiteraryMercenary on Blue Sky (far and away my smallest social media following) watched 1 video a day for the month of December, we'd clinch that number, and start the new year off right.

This is such a big deal to me because, though it isn't my channel, if it is earning revenue for my publisher, that's money that can be reinvested to make bigger, more engaging videos, TTRPG supplements, and a variety of other projects as well! So if you want to help me avoid stagnation, subscribe to the channel, watch some videos, leave comments on them at least 7 words long (that's the magic number on the algorithm), and share the ones you like on your social media pages. It makes a much bigger difference than you know!

Read My Vocal Articles

I have SO many of them...

Vocal.media is a website where authors are able to write whatever they want, and we get paid based on how popular our articles are. So if you wanted to read my classic top story It's Okay To Admit There Are Problems In Your Hobby (which always seems to light flame wars when I share it), you can do that for free, and I'll get paid for it. If you're a Warhammer 40K fan, my Leagues of Votann story Pyramid Scheme is on there as well, or if you're looking for a new character concept for your next Pathfinder game, consider my article The Beer Brewing Witch.

The issue is, of course, numbers. Because I make $6 for every 1,000 articles that get read on Vocal. Not clicked, mind you, but read. The pages have crawlers and bots on them that track who's reading, and their pace, ensuring that only read, organic reads go through.

Still, there's 321 stories on My Vocal Archive at time of writing, and I add at least 1 per month. So if 1,000 people all decided to just read 1 of them per day, I'd make about $6 a day for most of the next year. That doesn't sound like much, but I can confirm right now that an extra $180 or so a month would, in fact, be life-changing for me as a creator. So if you enjoy my gaming content on this blog, bookmark my Vocal author page, and make it part of your daily routine to dig through and see what's in there! I've got character conversions, character concepts, horror articles, short stories, instructionals, and a slew of other nonsense that's just waiting for you!

Follow My Social Media (And Interact With Me)

Social media is the backbone of modern creatives. We don't have money to buy ad banners on websites, and getting organic word-of-mouth about us and what we do is amazingly helpful. However, every platform out there has been choking our signals, and making it impossible for us to reach anyone with the stuff we make. A post we make today will get maybe 10% of what we would have gotten a few years ago, if we're lucky... and unless you can count your followers in the tens of thousands, the algorithm is going to put its boot firmly on your windpipe.

So help me overcome this by following my socials (listed below), and interacting when you see me post stuff! Hearts and shares are good, but so are 7+ word comments, because those get the algorithm to notice you... a good tip for any other creators you follow, too!

- Facebook

- Blue Sky

- Twitter (for now, at least)

- Reddit

- LinkTree (I promise I'm trying to update this more)

Also, as a bonus, subscribe to my newsletter to make sure you get all my content sent to your email every two weeks so you don't miss anything!

Things You Can Buy (Which Also Helps)

If you're looking for the ideal gift for a friend or family member, I've got a lot of stuff that's out there for-sale! And, as a bonus, the more numbers these things do, the more likely I am to put out additional stuff for these games, novel series, and so on!

And, as a bonus, all of these links (as I mention in my fine print on this site) are affiliate links... so even if you just click through to check something out, that still helps!

My Novels/Short Story Collections

I've had a lot of fiction come out over the years, and it's been a time and a half trying to get any of it into people's hands. So if you or someone you know is a reader, check out some of the following stories (and listen to the audio drama above linked from my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary).

- Old Soldiers (A dystopian sci fi novel about a defunct super soldier solving a mystery)

- Crier's Knife (A witchborn mountain boy goes to bring home his wayward cousin by any means)

- The Rejects (A collection of short stories that never quite made the cut in other anthologies)

The Hardboiled Cat

My noir series about Leo, a hardnosed Maine Coon from the Bronx, deals with the problems going on among the street beasts throughout the city. So if you want to make sure Leo gets a few more stories under his bottlebrush tail, grab the three books he's been featured in so far!

- From A Cat's View (The debut short story for Leo can be found in this anthology)

- Marked Territory (Leo ends up doing a favor for the raccoon mob, and stumbling on a conspiracy)

- Painted Cats (Leo ends up looking for a missing stray, and take care of her abandoned kitten)

Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic

A game where you take on the roles of troopers fighting for their homelands in the Plastos Federation against the insectoid monsters of the vespoids!

- Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic: The base book for the game, this is technically the only book you need to play this game... but it never hurts to get some of the others as well!

- Army Men: Threat Assessments: The first collection released after the original game dropped, this supplement is full of new creatures for your squad to have to deal with when out in the field.

- Army Men: Medals of Honor: This supplement introduced the Medals System, allowing players to earn medals for their troopers, gaining unique bonuses and abilities usable for the rest of the campaign.

- Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps: Giant bugs and enemy combatants aren't the only threats you'll have to deal with in the field. Booby traps are a serious concern among troopers looking to leave their service with as many limbs as they started.

- Army Men Missions: A Night At Breckon's Beacon: When a squad goes missing while they're on patrol, it's your squad's mission to find them, and bring them home... or to avenge them, if that can't be done.

Sundara: Dawn of A New Age

This is a setting I've been gradually expanding for several years now, and there's a new series of supplements coming out for it in the near future! Sundara can be played on its own, or it can be added piecemeal to your own settings to fill in gaps and blanks so that you don't have to do as much heavy lifting the next time you get folks around your table!

Cities of Sundara

The setting first began with the Cities of Sundara splats. Self-contained guides to some of the larger and more powerful centers of trade, industry, arms, and magic, these unique locations provide plenty of fodder for character generation and plots. Not only that, but each one comes with unique, mechanical goodies for players and GMs alike to take out for a spin!

- Ironfire: The City of Steel (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built around the Dragon Forge, Ironfire is where the secret to dragon steel was first cracked. The center of the mercenary trade in the region, as well as boasting some of the finest schools for teaching practical sciences, Ironfire is a place where discovery and danger walk hand in hand!

- Moüd: The City of Bones (Pathfinder and DND 5E): An ancient center of trade and magic, Moüd was lost to a cataclysm, and then buried in myth. Reclaimed by the necromantic arts of the Silver Wraiths guild, this city has once again become a place teeming with life. Despite the burgeoning population, though, it is the continued presence of the undead that helps keep the city running, ensuring that Moüd is not swallowed up once more.

- Silkgift: The City of Sails (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built on the cottage industry of Archer cloth (an extremely durable material used for sails, windmills, etc.), Silkgift is a place that prizes invention and discovery. From gravity batteries that store the potential of the wind, to unique irrigation systems, to aether weapons, the city positively churns out discoveries... and then there's the canal they cut through the mountains that makes them a major center of trade across the region.

- Hoardreach: The City of Wyrms (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A center of power across an entire region, Hoardreach is ruled over by a Cooperation of five different dragons. A place for refugees and outcasts of all sorts, Hoardreach boasts some of the most unusual citizens and creations from across Sundara. Infamous for their sky ships, which require the cast-off scales and unique arcane sciences of the Dragon Works to take to the air, one never knows just what they'll find in this city built atop a mountain.

- Archbliss: The City of The Sorcerers (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A floating city in the sky, Archbliss has been a refuge for sorcerers for thousands of years. It's only in relatively recent years that the city has allowed those from the ground below who lack the power of a bloodline to join them in the clouds. However, while there are certainly amazing wonders to behold, there is a darkness in Archbliss. Something rotting away at its heart that could, if not healed, bring the city crashing to the ground once more.

Gods of Sundara

- Gods of Sundara (available for Pathfinder and DND 5E): In a world with no alignment, and where the gods are often genuinely mysterious forces that are far too large for mortals to truly comprehend, the divine feels genuinely strange and unknown... something that really does have to be taken on faith. This supplement provides a sample pantheon for Sundara, but also provides instructions on how to easily make your own gods in a world where you can't cast a spell and tell whether someone is good or evil.

Species of Sundara

Sundara is filled with creatures that many of us recognize, but I wanted to give greater depth to their cultures, and a wider variety of options. After all, humans always get 15+ ethnicities, languages, and unique histories, while elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, etc. are almost always left with footnotes, or maybe with a handful of offshoots. So, in short, I wanted to give all the fantastical creatures the treatment that humans usually get in our games.

And there is no human book yet. If readers demand to know more, then I may sit down to pen one... but I figured that humans didn't need to be front-and-center in this setting just yet.

- Elves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Elves are one of the most quintessential fantasy creatures... but if you want to see more than just high elves, wood elves, and elves of the sun and moon, then this supplement has you covered!

- Dwarves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): The children of the primordial giants who were meant to fill in the details of the world they'd made (or so the myths say) there are as many kinds of dwarves as their are kinds of giants... and possibly more, depending on who is keeping count.

- Orcs of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Supposedly a creation of the elves, none can say for certain exactly how or why orcs have been made. What most agree on is that these creatures are far more than most may think at first glance.

- Halflings of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Little cousins to the dwarves, halflings are tough, clever, and not to be underestimated. From living beneath the hills, to taking up residence in the deep forests, halflings in Sundara come in quite a variety!

- The Blooded (Half-Elves and Half-Orcs) [Pathfinder and DND 5E]: When orcs and elves mix their bloodlines with other creatures, the result is one of the Blooded. This inheritance takes many forms, and it can even wait generations before manifesting when the right combination of individuals come together to have a child.

- Gnomes of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Gnomes are strange creatures, found in places where the spirit of the land has coalesced and made children of its own. The sons and daughters of the ancient nymphs, they are the stewards of these places, and they change as often as the weather and the land.

Organizations of Sundara

Phase 3 has been going strong, but there's still a few titles left in it! So if you haven't seen them, consider checking out:

- Sellswords of Sundara: With power structures being smaller in scale in Sundara, standing armies aren't often maintained for long. As such, soldiers of fortune are quite common! This supplement contains 10 mercenary companies, their history, uniform, sample members, whispers and rumors, as well as either an archetype or subclass for playing these unique warriors. Grab your copy for Pathfinder of DND 5E.

- Cults of Sundara: Faith comes in many forms in Sundara, and there are as many gods in the Prim as there are dreams in the minds of people. This supplement contains write-ups for 10 cults, their histories, sample members, rumors about them, their beliefs and tenets, and a unique magic item for each. Get your copy for Pathfinder or DND 5E.

- Guilds of Sundara: While cities and villages may be relatively local, guilds are spread across the length and width of Sundara. From professional orders of skilled miners and dredgers, to monster slayers and bounty hunters, this supplement has 10 guilds with histories, sample members, rumors, as well as unique feats one can take to represent the skill and benefits of joining this order. Available for Pathfinder as well as DND 5E.

- Merchants of Sundara: While city states might be the largest form of government you find in the setting, merchants hold an outsized amount of power. From huge mercantile houses, to small brands infamous for their quality as much as for their price, there are a lot of options listed in this particular world building supplement.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Blue Sky, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Extra Short Stories (For Those Who've Been Enjoying My Audio Offerings)

Folks who have been enjoying my fiction releases recently have likely noticed I've been putting together a lot of short vignettes and flash fiction series when it comes to my audio dramas. And while the ones most folks see are taken from the introductory material in my TTRPG supplements, there are some longer, more in-depth stories out there. Some bigger, complete tales that are just waiting for you to come check out.

And if you haven't given them a look yet, I'd highly recommend stopping by my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary, in addition to following the Azukail Games YouTube channel.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

A Few Examples From "The Rejects"

Most of the audio dramas I've put together, like the one above, are only a few minutes long. Typically they're dramatized versions of vignettes that set the scene for a supplement, but even when I put together a series of these little shorts they can feel more like eating several small, bite-sized candies instead of a meal.

However, for folks who don't know, I write more than just TTRPGs. In addition to the nearly 200 supplements and games with my name on them, I've also written several novels, and even a few collections of short stories. And in my free time a while back, I started dramatizing some of the short stories from my collection The Rejects, which is a book that features all the short stories I wrote that kept almost getting chosen by publishers, but which were ultimately passed on.

 

EDIT: Both of these tales have been moved over to the new YouTube channel The A.L.I.C.E. Files, which I highly recommend checking out if you haven't yet! 

 

 

The first story is Dead Man's Bluff, a weird Western. A ghoulish little story that features a game of cards between an itinerant gambler and a mysterious young man, the twist at the end is a particularly dark one. The moral of this story, of course, is to never cross a witch, and be careful where you bury one if you do.

 

The second story is Suffer The Children, which gives us a glimpse into the dark underbelly of a modern fantasy setting subtly unlike any other you've come across before. We meet Malachi, an angel walking the shadowed back alleys and nasty streets of Los Angeles, as he attempts to stop a cult of child stealers. This is, technically, the second story featuring Malachi and his adventures, but it gives readers a glimpse into the sort of hard, nasty choices he often has to make. While I haven't added to Malachi's world since this tale, there were plans for more stories (as well as a few novels) featuring additional cases that he had to handle. If it turns out more folks are interested in Malachi's saga, though, it's something I could squeeze in if folks wanted to hear/see more!

What Other Stories Would You Like To See?

My original plan with these tales was to give my readers (and potential readers) a little taste of the stories that could be found in The Rejects. However, I would like to dramatize at least half of them, leaving the other half as a mystery for readers to uncover for themselves... but which stories would you like to get this treatment?

Would you like to hear the tale of the young boy, his uncle, and the dark, dangerous secret no one else would ever believe that we see in Bloody Bones? Perhaps the gritty, sword and sorcery tale Champion For Hire is more your speed, with weaving steel and dark plans in a city desperate to avoid a bloody war of succession in its underworld? From the steampunk gruesomeness of Eyes, Hands, and Heart, to the strange, harsh reality of The Mark of The Legion, there are a lot of options in this book... but which ones would you like to hear?

And, lastly, if you haven't left a review of this book yet, please consider dropping by Amazon and leaving me some stars and a review so more people can find these stories!

What's Next on Table Talk?

That's it for this installment of Table Talk! What would you like to see next? I'm listening for your comments and votes!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archives, as well as the YouTube channel for Azukail Games or the ongoing audio drama channel The A.L.I.C.E. Files! Or, to check out books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my hard-boiled noir series featuring the street beasts of NYC in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, or my recent short story collection The Rejects, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, as well as on Pinterest where I'm building all sorts of boards dedicated to my books, RPG supplements, and greatest hits. Lastly, to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little donation can have a big impact.

A Year-Long Experiment With Vocal Media (And Why I Need Your Help)

For all the readers out there who go all the way to the end of my blog posts, you may have noticed a change over the past year. If you scroll down the page, the only section you really see represented is Moon Pope Monday, which are the catch-all Monday posts I put up on Improved Initiative. There may be an occasional entry from Table Talk, or Crunch, but for the most part folks who just come by this blog haven't seen any posts for Fluff or Unusual Character Concepts in over a year.

I didn't stop writing them... they've just been appearing over on my Vocal.Media archive for the past year or so. It's been an ongoing experiment, but it hasn't been going as well as I'd like. As such, I figured this week I'd deliver the preliminary results, and give folks the behind-the-scenes rundown of what I've been doing, the problems I've run into, and how you can help.

It's been... less successful than I'd hoped it would be.

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

Vocal, Improved Initiative, and What I Was Trying To Do

I've been writing blogs for Improved Initiative for a decade or so, now, and my format has been pretty standard for years. I would write a Monday post, and then a second post that would go Crunch, Fluff, Unusual Character Concept, and Table Talk, before starting over again. This helped ensure variety in my articles, and it meant there was something different every week for folks who didn't just want more of the same content over and over again.

However, what some of my readers may not know, is that I don't make any money from the traffic on this blog. Even when my ads did function (which was a while ago), so many people have some form of ad blocker that it just wasn't worth the effort. My Patreon and my Ko-Fi are the primary way that my blog gets support, but I know that not everyone out there has money to just throw at me every month to help me keep the lights on while I write.

But it would help, if you wanted to go that route. Just saying.

For all the gentle reminders I put in my blogs about crowdfunding, and for all the links to the TTRPG supplements I write, though, I really don't like asking people to just give me money. I'd much rather have the traffic I earn translate into cash, because that allows a direct transfer of the amount of attention my work receives into how much money I earn. There's also a certain kind of frustration that comes with seeing an article get thousands (or sometimes tens of thousands) of reads, and knowing that none of that activity is going to put money in my pocket.

Enter Vocal.Media.

For those who've never been to this site, it's a place that lets writers create and publish their own work. It's where all of my Character Conversion Guides are published, and it's where I've written a lot of articles about miscellaneous history, geek things, weird etymology, etc. Hell, my article It's Okay To Admit There Are Problems in Your Hobby once blew up so big that someone turned me into a meme because they were so tired of seeing it. And generating traffic on that site does actually pay me money. It's $6 per every 1,000 reads (not just views, actual reads), which means that if something explodes it will actually put cash in my hand.

For the first few years I wrote articles for Vocal, I got some pretty good views. I was generally managing between 14,000 and 20,000 reads a month, which comes out to between $70 and $120, give or take. Not life changing, but it was enough to literally keep my lights on, and fill in the gaps when other projects fell through, or didn't sell enough copies, or when some of my patrons had to stop supporting me because they could no longer afford to. Reading articles was free, after all, so it was something everyone could do.

Then the social media landscape changed, and that oasis dried up.

You see, a majority of the reads I was getting were from my Character Conversions. However, as Pathfinder's first edition wound down, they were becoming less and less popular. That was always going to happen, which was why I tried to pivot and write other articles, like 5 Tips For Playing Better Evil Characters, or my more recent Find a Reason For Your Character To Get Involved. However, while I was diversifying my content, the algorithm underwent an abrupt shift over the space of a few weeks. This meant that Reddit, which I'd been using for years to boost the signal on these articles, now automatically removed any links to Vocal.Media. This wiped out years of my submissions across dozens of subreddits, and set me back in a big way. Then as the follow-up to that heavy punch, Facebook altered their algorithm so that if you included a link in your post it got shoved all the way to the bottom, and nobody saw it.

In real terms, I went from getting 400-500 reads a day, to barely cracking 70... and I wanted to try to fix that.

When in doubt, create more content!

This brings us up to about a year and change ago. I figured that if I could create more Vocal content, then maybe the sheer amount of it would help overcome the resistance of the algorithm. And if I could get my existing audience to help me boost those numbers, maybe I could turn Vocal back into a viable source of income... but I couldn't do that while also writing 2 blogs a week here on Improved Initiative.

So I kept my Monday posts right where they were, but I moved the second post of the week over to Vocal, hoping that it would drive the folks who enjoyed my content to check those articles out over there instead.

It Didn't Work... But Could It?

As of time of writing, I have 285 articles in my Vocal archive. Additionally, my daily reads haven't been above 100 for at least 2 months now. Which is, as the kids say these days, not great. Because if you've read my other post, If 90,000 People Read This Article, I Can Pay My Bills This Month, you know that it takes a colossal amount of attention for writers depending on per-read pay to stay one step ahead of the rent.

The question, of course, is what do I do about this?

It's big brain time!

Now, on the one hand, it's true that articles here on Improved Initiative are easier to market. My blog is perfectly shareable on Reddit (for the most part), and it does no worse on Facebook than Vocal does in terms of attention. However, as I mentioned above, even if 10,000, 50,000, or 100,000 people all read an article on this blog, it isn't going to pay my bills. I won't see a single, red cent from any of that traffic.

Popularity isn't something you can eat, sadly, or the choice would be pretty easy.

What I need to help me keep the lights on and the content flowing is for people to support my work. While direct support through my Patreon or my Ko-Fi is always going to be preferred (immediate support yields immediate results), helping my Vocal articles get traction is something folks can do for free right now!

Consider the following actions:

- If you have a Vocal account, subscribe to me! Also, throw a like onto my articles, and leave some comments. The algorithm likes those things, and it helps me stand out. If you don't have a Vocal account, it's free to make one, and it makes organizing your subscriptions easier.

- Bookmark my page, and check back. I typically have at least 1 update a week on Vocal, so there's usually new stuff waiting for you to take a look at.

- Read through my Vocal archive. You don't have to do it all at once. If 100 people each read an article a day for a month, that would be 30,000 reads, and it would put me 1/3 of the way toward paying my rent... which is nothing to sneeze at!

- Share my articles so other people can see them. This is probably the most important, and if it was paired with the above request, it might actually get me the 90,000 reads I would need to cover a full month of bills. Because 30,000 reads is great ($180 and change). But 30,000 shares, whether it's on Facebook, Twitter, Blue Sky, your gaming Discord, or anywhere else... that makes a massive difference!

Little things really do add up if enough people participate... the problem is getting a lot of people to all pitch in, and to pitch in consistently, so that the numbers stay high. So please, if you haven't seen any of my Vocal articles before (or if you have, but didn't know there were quite that many of them) go take a look around! Every read helps me stay one step ahead of my landlord, and that lets me keep making more content for all the gamers out there.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my dystopian sci fi thriller Old Soldiers, or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Improved Initiative Needs Your Help (And It Won't Cost You A Dime)!

One good thing that came out of the whole power grab with Wizards of The Coast trying to take back the open game license at the beginning of this year is that it pulled back the curtain for a lot of folks in the TTRPG community regarding exactly what people who make games for a living get paid. And generally speaking, unless you work for WoTC or a select few other companies, you probably aren't making much. This goes double if you're a small publisher, a jobbing freelancer, or an independent creator.

And while a lot of players did their best to support independent creators to help get us over this hump, I'm the first to acknowledge that there's only so much spare change in everyone's pockets. So while I will never say no to selling some of my RPG supplements, and I won't turn down people who want to become Patreon patrons, or who want to buy me a Ko-Fi, I wanted to ask for something other than just a donation from my readers this week.

If I can get enough folks onboard, it will really help me out, and allow me a second or two to catch my breath while I actually plan out some bigger pieces of content for the future. And best of all, it won't cost any of you reading this so much as a dime!

And together, hopefully, we can really fill up my tank!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

So, What All Has Been Going On?

I already mentioned the recent kerfuffle with Wizards and their attempt to completely upset the TTRPG industry. This led to a LOT of my projects being put on-hold, and it's meant that a lot of other projects have been thrown into chaos regarding what is and isn't a priority for myself and my publishers. However, that whole situation is in addition to the pandemic wiping out thousands of dollars of outstanding work that clients owed me money for, but which vanished into thin air due to many of them ceasing to exist. Not only that, but last summer my publisher for my novels died, and the company dissolved. This took my books off the market, and I didn't even get my final check for the royalties I'd accrued during the final quarter before everything crumbled.

So, saying that things have been a little stressful is a bit of an understatement.

The list goes on, but I'm trying to be brief.

There is, however, one other problem I've been dealing with. Because for those who don't know, aside from the money pledged by my patrons, and sales for supplements through the affiliate links in my articles, this blog doesn't actually make me any money. Ad services are so universally blocked and ignored that over the decade or so I had ads on Improved Initiative, I earned a total of $50 or so, and the last time I got a check for that payment was several years back.

I made up for this by also creating content for Vocal. As some of my readers know this is the website that hosts all of my Character Conversion Guides, as well as a lot of my Unusual Character Concepts, my 5 Tips articles, and more than a few of my short stories. Vocal pays me roughly $6 for every 1,000 reads my content gets, and this time last year I was pulling down $60-$90 a month from Vocal, with some months going as high as $120 or more. It wasn't huge, but it was a big help when I needed it.

Now... well, now I'm lucky if I can even get $20 worth of reads in a month. So what changed?

The short answer is the algorithm. The more complicated answer is that Facebook is a shadow of what it used to be for interaction, Twitter is now a sewage dump where it was once at least a passable silver mine, and Reddit banned Vocal links entirely, adding them to the auto-remove list of websites the bots dump in the trash as soon as you try to share them. This last one hurt a lot, since it also removed probably a year or more of backlinks to my articles that I'd shared to various subreddits.

Here's What I Need You All To Do

At time of writing, I have 269 stories (nice) in my full Vocal archive. From TTRPGs and short fiction, to weird history, bizarre linguistic dives, and a couple rants about horror movies, there's a rather ridiculous amount of content on there. Additionally if you want to narrow your scope then you can just click which topic you want to see along the top of the archive (just below Pinned Stories), and it will sort the articles by topic for you!

What I really need is folks to read these articles. Not just click them, but actually read through to the end.

To be clear, you don't have to read all of them. You don't need to spend hours gorging yourself on my text. But if all of my regular readers could bookmark my archive, and just make it a point to read at least one article a day, that would help. Even more importantly than that, though, if you find an article you like that you think more people should read, share it on your socials. FB, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Discord, I'm not picky... but there's only so much traction I can get on my own, and I'm definitely sliding down the hill right now as it gets harder and harder to promote myself across the board.

Every read, share, and like helps... seriously.

The reason I'm asking for this instead of just soliciting patrons or donations is that Vocal is completely free to anyone who wants to read it. Not only that, but reads are tallied every day, so there's a minimal wait for me to cash-out if something I write does go viral and explodes with coins like a Mario enemy that ate an entire bank vault.

But as I mentioned in If 90,000 People Read This Article, I Can Pay My Bills This Month, it requires a frankly absurd level of interaction just for me to pay my rent. However, if you're one of the folks out there who wants to help a creator out, then all you need is an Internet connection and a willingness to consume content to help me stop falling behind!

And if you're looking for some places to get started that have proven popular in the past, might I direct your attention to the following articles?:

- 5 Things You Can Do To Be a Better Ambassador For Your Hobby: This one still gets a little play every now and again. Mostly I just wanted to do my part to help other folks realize that if we don't let fresh blood into our hobbies, then they're going to die in fairly short order.

- It's Okay To Admit There Are Problems in Your Hobby: This article was so divisive it got people to make a meme out of me. It resurfaces every few years, but it's not enough to keep the wolf from the door.

- Partners and Polycules: Polyamorous Designations Based Off Dungeons and Dragons Dice: This was a silly article of mine that is the closest thing I've had to a viral success in the past few years. If you haven't seen it, give yourself (and maybe your friends) a giggle!

- The 5 Awful Paladins You Will Meet in Your Gaming Career: This was the first of my ongoing series about awful character archetypes that we all run into if we play TTRPGs long enough. While several of the follow-ups were also popular, none of them seemed to draw quite as many eyes as the paladin for some reason.

Oh, There is One More Thing You Can Do...

In keeping with the spirit of the title, I'm going to keep my suggestions to things folks can do for free that will have a tangible effect on my income stream. But if you don't have as much time to read as you'd like (or you just prefer to listen to videos while doing chores, painting minis, or getting your steps in), you could also subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and listen to videos I make for them.

Full disclosure, I do not own this channel. It's the channel run by one of my publishers... I do, however, make content for it. And the more hits my videos get, the more likely it is that the channel will get monetized, and that I can (perhaps) ask for a bump in my compensation for making said videos. Because it takes 1,000 subscribers, and 4,000 hours of watched content in the past year (or about 11.5 hours a day for 365 days, if you were wondering) for YouTube to even think about letting you make money off your videos, and that is a high bar to clear when you're doing everything all on your own.

So, while this isn't as direct a hand up as reading and sharing my Vocal articles would be, it would still be a big help, and assist me in getting a slightly bigger share of the pie with at least one of the publishers I work with.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Daily Motion channel!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Making Improvements Over Time (Progress on My RPG-Inspired Audio Stories)

Back in February I started doing something a little different in terms of producing content. I've been a lifelong enjoyer of audio dramas and audio books, so I wanted to toss my hat into that arena while still staying firmly within my pond as an RPG writer. Not wanting to get too ambitious right out of the gate, I thought I'd turn the intro fiction in several of my recent RPG releases into audio dramas that might get folks interested in the products they came from!

As with anything else, you never start off being the best. But looking back on what I've learned the past few months, I can definitely see the difference.

Well, hear it. You know what I mean!

Before we get into it this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Theater of The Mind

The first piece that I dramatized way back in February came from the supplement 100 Resources and Rumors to Find on SchreckNet. Though it didn't have an official title in the supplement, I tend to think of it as Missed Connections, as we have a Nosferatu attempting to arrange a rendezvous with a contact via the network. While the result wasn't bad (I don't think) it does have a rawness to it, and it comes across a little flat.

Still, not bad for all that.

Over the past few months I've made 8 such audios, taken from both my Cities of Sundara series, as well as other World of Darkness supplements like 100 Hobs to Meet in The Hedge, 100 Mourning Cant Dialects, Phrases, and Meanings, and most recently 100 Gateways Into (And Out Of) The Hedge. While I did acquire a new mic since I made the first video, I also started figuring out editing tricks, returning to old places where I used to get foley sounds, and watching tutorials from other creators on how they make their audios more unique and engaging.

And this is where I'm at now.

While this isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I'm trying to improve one thing per video. Whether that's finally figuring out normalization settings (which is what I did with this piece), fine-tuning voice editing effects, trying out new tricks on creating monster voices (I have something planned for that when I do the story from Hoardreach), or even using a totally different recording program so viewers don't have to deal with that ugly and distracting watermark, I'm sticking with my one-thing-per-video rule.

I have half a dozen more of these to put together going forward, and they're going to be from both older supplements, and upcoming ones. If this is something you'd like to see more of, the head over to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, watch more, and subscribe while you're there! It takes 1k subscribers and 4k hours of watched content in the past year (which is 11.5 hours per day, for those who like numbers), so we're going to need all the help we can get if we're going to pull that off!

Lastly, if you have any particular stories you'd like to see me tell in this audio format, or if you'd like to see me do longer videos with more involved tales (I have kicked around the possibility of doing an audio rendition for Devil's Night, as an example), leave a comment below and let me hear your thoughts!

And for anyone else running a podcast, making videos, etc., I highly recommend Tabletop Audio! If you haven't checked them out yet, and you're working on a small to nonexistent budget, you really need to give them a look.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my cat noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

Looking For a New Virtual Table For Your Campaign? Check Out Mythic Table!

In a post-Covid-19 world, online gaming has become more common than ever before. Even diehard resisters who said they would wait it out to meet around a table again have at least taken a stab at making Discord and Roll 20 work for them. Some brave folks have even tried Astral, the digital tabletop platform you find on Drive Thru RPG if you scroll down and take a look at the left-hand column.

Chances are good that your group has already fallen into a rhythm by now, and you've found a platform that you can use, even if you don't particularly love it. However, it is the nature of tabletop gamers to always keep our ears open when looking for a game that offers us something our current setup doesn't have. Especially if it's free.

Which is why you should take a moment to check out Mythic Table.

Unleashing the potential of the imagination!

What is Mythic Table?

The elevator pitch is that Mythic Table is an online virtual tabletop that is completely free to use, and which has been created by a team of industry veterans who want to make sure players have a platform that will let them enjoy their games to the fullest.

There is more to Mythic Table than that, though. Because while it's a customizable platform you can use to build and create your ideal online campaign, it's also open source! New features are always being added, and the platform itself can handle math, modifier tracking, lighting, and all those other pesky details that can be a pain in the butt when you're running your game.

Math, the downfall of most GMs.

While an argument could be made that Mythic Table is just another virtual gaming portal, it is extremely sleek, stylish, and pretty user friendly for a portal that's free. The fact that it's funded by the audience, and that there are already announcements for new and interesting features is certainly enough to make checking it out worth your time.

So follow Mythic Table on Facebook, and subscribe to their YouTube channel where you can listen to their town halls about the platform, and what they expect to do with it! If you like what you see and want to help support them, check out their Patreon page as well! Also, there's a special release coming on the 21st of this month, which I'll be adding a link for once it's ready, so be sure to check back for that this weekend!

 

Also, in case you missed it, I recently added 5 Tips For Playing Better Vigilantes to my ongoing 5 Tips series. So stop in to check that out if you get a moment!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my cat noir thriller Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!