Dungeon Design Tips: Limited Resources Can Lead To Creative Strategies

When you pop the hood on what makes an RPG challenging, there are a lot of different systems at play. However, if you dig down to the very foundations of what makes the game work, a lot of it comes down to a smart use of the available resources to complete a task, or achieve a goal. Whether it's spell slots, rage rounds, alchemical items, carrying capacity, or even time, limiting the resources your players have available is one of the main ways a Game Master establishes challenge... and it can often lead to creative strategies on your players' part.

We've got three of them left... how many villains are there?

As always, 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!

Putting Pressure On Your Players

Challenge is, on the surface, a very simple thing to create. There is an obstacle, and the players need to find a way over it, around it, under it, or through it... and whichever strategy they use is going to come with risk, and it will use some of their resources.

 

What you have to determine, as the Game Master, is how you're going to apply pressure to ensure that your players have to get creative with both their risks and their resources.

 

Think this will be enough ammo for the quest?

 

What resources you have on-hand typically determines what strategies players will want to try... however, the most important consideration for you, as the Game Master, is that every strategy to solve a meaningful problem should come with some kind of potential risk as well as a potential reward.

As an example, take one of the most basic situations found in fantasy RPGs; your party is going to a crumbling ruin that is infested with monsters (and potentially traps) in order to take the treasure inside for themselves. A simple dungeon crawl... however, there are some ways that this scenario might lack challenge. And while most Game Masters just add extra monsters, slap more hit points onto existing creatures, or increase the difficulty and damage on the traps, those things can feel arbitrary.

So instead, let's ask what other things might add pressure to this treasure hunt. Potential challenges include:

- Time Constraints: If the dungeon is only accessible during a specific time frame, say for three days, the party doesn't have a lot of spare 8-hour recharge times to use. The same is true if they manage to get to the dungeon first, but there are other so-called adventurers hot on their tails that they don't want to fight for the loot.

 

- Food: While most campaigns don't pay any real attention to how much your players eat, take a moment and ask how many provisions they brought with them out into the depths of this old-growth forest. Do they have the necessary skills to forage? Do they end up eating something poisonous or rotten, and getting sick? Even if they technically have all the time in the world, they can't keep fighting on an empty stomach.

- Tools: Typically RPGs don't worry about weapon and armor durability, but there are some tools that can break if checks go badly enough. If the rogue only has two sets of lockpicks, and one set gets broken on a door because they rolled poorly enough, will they press forward? Will they allow companions to kick in doors instead, risking drawing the attention of monsters? Or will they use another strategy entirely to open locked portals?

- Material Components: We typically don't worry much about these things, but they are a major necessity for spellcasting. So while relatively simple components might get a hand wave and a pass, ask which spells require notable costs, and expensive or rare components. Because if the party can only bring a handful of those, their absence is going to be felt sooner rather than later.

- Resetting Dungeon: If the players don't complete the dungeon crawl, it should reset or change in a meaningful way when they either abandon it, or hunker down to rest. Perhaps the creatures are reinforced with fresh recruits, or the dead get back up, reanimated by the nature of the place. Maybe creatures that were held in check by creatures the party slew can now expand their territory and wander freely. Maybe the locks reset themselves. Perhaps the traps come back online, or they're reset by monsters who regularly patrol the dungeon. If retreating is a strategic choice, then the dungeon shouldn't just remain in status in their absence.

 

All of these, and many others, are ways you can use limited resources to put a squeeze on your players... and every way they find around one of these constraints is a victory for them. For example, if a ranger can reliably forage well enough to feed themselves and their companions, that removes food as a constraint that can weigh on players. If players have access to fast travel through spells or unique mounts, that also buys them more time, and lets them bypass the dangers of the wilderness.

 

The key here is to get your players thinking in terms of what will use the fewest resources, or what will be most effective, and seeing if it will get them venturing off the beaten path as they search for solutions.

 

Because if you have a thousand arrows, a trunk of material components, and all the healing items in the world, then it's likely your players might try to brute force their way through overwhelming odds by fighting a grueling war of attrition against every monster, bandit, and assassin that comes for them. However, if they just don't have the resources to make that a winning strategy, it can be interesting to see what they do instead. Do the players instead embrace stealth, either ambushing enemies to get the upper hand, or skipping combat altogether to reach the treasure chamber? Do they employ guile, using lies and disguises to hide in plain sight? Do they set traps, or use the ones already in the dungeon to damage or destroy monsters they themselves couldn't fight on their own?

 

When you have access to all the resources in the world, you can get lazy and just do whatever. But when the pressure is on, and you have limited options, that's when people start getting creative with the choices they make... and it can overall lead to a much more satisfying experience!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Crunch post! 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 the dark sci fi channel I contribute stories to, 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!

My First Worldbuilding Supplement Just Dropped... Should I Make This A Series?

While most of the supplements I've written over the years have focused on Game Master tools like extra NPCs, plot hooks, businesses, rumors, and places, this past weekend was the release of something a little bit different... the first supplement I've written that is genuinely meant for GMs looking for a little guidance on worldbuilding.

And 100 Worldbuilding Questions To Ask For A Fantasy City has gotten a better response than anything else I've dropped in 2026 so far. As such I wanted to take a moment to ask my regular readers... do you think I should expand this into a supplement series?

Seriously, if you haven't picked up a copy yet, take a look at it!

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my 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!

Starting Small And Spiraling Outward

For folks who've been following my releases over the past few years, I've done a lot of work on fantasy cities. Whether it's Ironfire, the City of Steel, or a place like Archbliss, The Floating City of The Sorcerers (both found in my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting for Pathfinder and DND 5E), I've thought through a lot of the necessary building blocks for a fantastical city to feel organic, which helps it feel lived-in and authentic. And while I'm gearing up for adding more cities to my Sundara setting this year, I figured I'd pen this supplement as a little warm up, and offer fellow Game Masters some of the questions I ask myself when going through the process.

It takes practice, not going to lie.

What I'm trying to determine at this point is whether this kind of supplement is something that folks out there are going to vibe with, and if I should do more like this? Much like how the success of 100 Tips and Tricks For Being A Better Game Master led to me writing a bunch of follow-ups like 100 Dark Secrets or 100 Questions To Ask About Your Characters, this could lead to additional lists of worldbuilding questions to help Game Masters (and even authors) iron out all the wrinkles in their settings to ensure everything is solid before the story gets started.

The real question, of course, is what are some things you all would like to see as readers? Because some of the ideas off the top of my head include:

- 100 Worldbuilding Questions For Fantasy Faiths (zeroing in on the divine)

- 100 Worldbuilding Questions For Sci Fi Stations (going into space where things are isolated)

- 100 Worldbuilding Questions For Fantasy Realms (discussing macro worldbuilding)

These are just skimming some of the creamier concepts off the top of my cheese barrel, but I wanted to ask my readers out there this week if this is something they'd be interested in? If so, would you like to see one of these topics, or something I didn't mention? Another genre, perhaps?

Whatever your thoughts, please take a moment to leave a comment on this article, or to punch your thoughts into the comment section on social media that led you to this page! I've got several other supplements on my work desk as we speak, but I could circle back to this one by the time spring is well and truly here, and if it's something readers want to see I'm only too happy to give you what you want!

Also, if you're curious about my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, I'd highly recommend heading over to the post A New Year Is Coming For "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age" (What Would You Like To See?), which I wrote earlier this year to try to keep folks abreast of changes coming to the setting.

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 additional audio dramas over on 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!

Build A Character For The Game You're Actually In (Square Pegs and Round Holes)

If you're a fan of RPGs, then you're likely familiar with the Character Assembly Line. This is a phenomenon that happens to both players and Game Masters alike where you start making character after character, and concept after concept, even though you don't have games to put them in right now. Sometimes you make a few notes on them, and sometimes you draw up an entire character sheet (just for the practice) and write dozens of pages of backstory, but a lot of RPG enthusiasts go through this process.

And there's nothing wrong with going back to that archive and snatching up a character when you finally get a chance to play, or when you're running a game and you need an NPC, an antagonist, etc. However, the issue comes when you choose a character whose theme, story, and tone really don't match the game you're planning on putting them in.

Which is why it's important you aren't trying to ram a square peg into a round hole... because no one is going to enjoy that.

Also, before we go any further, take a minute to check out the following supplements that have advice on this, and other subjects:

- 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better RPG Player

- 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master

Don't put the wrong concept down there...

As always, 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!

Make Sure Everything Matches

Consider for a moment that you're starting a new campaign. It's going to take place in the deserts of the deep south, and you're going to be dealing with fire elementals, mummies, trapped tombs, and ancient devils long-buried beneath the shifting dunes. It will be filled with horror, tension, and dark secrets of an empire long past.

Now, if you decided the best fit for this campaign was to bring an awakened polar bear that tells dad jokes whose sole motivation is a search for the world's most epic cheese, your GM is likely going to feel like you're just being a contrarian. After all:

- Polar bears are going to suffer in the desert heat, leading to massive negatives for the player

- The character has a ridiculous goal that's at-odds with the campaign

- The character has a radically different tone from the established tone of the game

This doesn't make this a bad character. It makes that character a bad fit for this particular campaign.

The bear isn't the problem, here.

The example seems obvious, but we make these kinds of mistakes all the time when we choose our characters, and try to shoehorn stories, ideas, or even builds that just don't work into a campaign. For example, playing a happy-go-lucky bard is perfectly doable in most Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder games, provided the tone of the game works for that character. But you can't take that same concept and just port it over to a grimmer, darker game like Warhammer Fantasy or Zweihander and expect it to work either mechanically, or tonally (since magic tends to come with dark, dangerous repercussions, and joy is a thing found only in stories). By the same token, playing an inflexible agent of the law (whether that be a church inquisitor or a sheriff empowered by the regional lord) can definitely work in those grimmer settings where paranoia and brutal use of force are part of the setting and story, but trying to play that same concept in a group where everyone else is planning to run heists, defraud the nobility, etc. is going to create immediate, negative conflicts.

Every character concept comes with assumptions built into it, and if those assumptions are not true in the game you're trying to put them in, it's likely that everyone is going to have a bad time. Which is why before you choose a character concept, whether it's from your archive or made fresh, hold them at arm's length and ask what assumptions have to be true for them to work.

For example, if you want to play a character that's an orc, or a tiefling, or a goblin, do those creatures even exist in the setting you're playing in? And if they do exist, do they exist in a way that allows your concept to work? If you want to play a young wizard's apprentice who is growing into their own and trying to make their way in the world, that concept only works if magic exists in a setting. And even if magic does exist, it's worth asking whether wizardry can be practiced openly in the world, or if it's a black art that's as deadly to the user as it is to those around them, because that could drastically alter the story you're trying to tell.

And even if there aren't fundamental issues between your character concept and the setting, they might still be a bad fit for the job. If the campaign is going to be focused on investigation, mystery, and politicking with relatively little (if any) combat, then bringing a character that's a bloodthirsty berserker that lives for battle is going to be a mismatch for the game. If the game is going to be set in the middle of a war where constant fighting and strategy need to be utilized, that is probably not a great game to bring a soft-hearted poet with no viable combat skills to. And if the game is dealing with cults who worship eldritch fiends, and said fiends are an open and understood part of this world, no one wants to have an elven academic constantly trying to debunk the existence of the devils when they are very real, very present, and they go next in the initiative order.

Seriously, my guy... just cast something please?!

Again, all of these character concepts can work well in the right game. Players simply need to make sure they choose the character that is going to fit the campaign they signed up to play, and tailor that character to fit so they're a fun, engaging, and interesting part of that campaign.

Lastly, and this is just as important, if you don't vibe with the sort of game being proposed, remember that you are not obligated to play. If you're really jonesing for something upbeat, simple, and fun, but the groups want grim, serious, and complicated, that's not a game you're going to enjoy. If your creativity and your desires as a player aren't meshing with the game, or with the direction a group is going, it's perfectly okay to sit this one out. No game is better than a bad game, and when you aren't having a good time, that's going to send ripples through the rest of the table.

Find a character that fits the world and story, and find a table that fits for you and your needs as a player.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Fluff post. 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 the dark sci fi saga of 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!

How To Avoid Decision Paralysis Among Your Players (The 3 Choices Method)

Generally speaking, as a Game Master, you want your players to have a good experience playing with you. And it's not really controversial to say that most players want to feel like they have input in how a game is run, and that the decisions their characters make really matter. However, it's one thing to say that you want freedom, and to do whatever you want in a game... but it's another matter entirely to actually exercise that freedom in a way that helps build a story.

And while you don't want to impose your will on the table as a Game Master, sometimes you have to facilitate swifter decision making, and you have to support your players. Which is why I'd suggest taking the following tips to heart!

All right, so, let's work on a combined vision, shall we?

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!

The 3 Choices Method

Too often we end up with either a completely scripted plot that the Game Master wants the players to follow, or the Game Master spreads the world out at the players' feet and waits for them to choose the direction they want to head off in. This puts the onus entirely on the Game Master, or on the players, when the game should be a collaboration between both sides of the screen.

Which is why I recommend what I call the 3 Choices Method.

This inspiration partially came from my 3 Solutions Strategy which I recommend for the World and Chronicles of Darkness. That strategy, for those who didn't watch the video, boils down to making sure there's a Physical, Social, and Mental way to solve most situations that players are faced with. The idea is that everyone at the table should have something they can do to help advance the plot with the options in front of them.

The 3 Choices Method is meant to provide enough options that players feel like they have real choices, but to stop them from overanalyzing and second guessing themselves as they're overwhelmed by being able to choose anything.

For example, you know what game system you want to run, and the table is all in agreement. You know what world you want to run your campaign in. But where in the setting should you explore? While you could leave this decision up to the players to figure out, it's often faster to provide 3 choices for the players to pick from. Those choices should be different enough that the distinction feels meaningful, but they should all be options that you are willing to follow through with as the Game Master. The same is true when it comes to the genre of plot you offer your players (say a Dungeon Crawl, Political Intrigue, or Kingdom Building plot); they should be distinct enough to be different, but you need to be willing to follow through on whatever the table picks.

This isn't just for the foundational stages of making your new campaign, either; it can be used for major decisions throughout the game as well. For example, if there are large organizations or patrons vying for the characters' services, it's a good idea to give your players 3 viable options to choose from. This makes it feel like they have more than just a binary choice, but it stops them from being paralyzed by too many paths to pick from. If they finish one arc of a campaign, and they're deciding where to go next, providing 3 choices can cut down on deliberation so that decisions can be made relatively quickly. Even if you're snatching rumors and plot hooks out of a supplement like 100 Ads and Announcements To Find on a Village Noticeboard, giving 3 to follow up on gives your players choices, without giving them room to spiral.

Now, the key here is to think of this method in terms of a road trip. There are several different routes that will get your party to their destination... but you're letting them choose the forks in the road. They choose where they're going, who's going to sit where, and who's going to be in charge of what responsibilities, but after that they can only exercise their choices when there's a turn to be made. If you got on the freeway, you need to see that choice through until to find a turnoff to a different path if you want to change. If you opted for the back roads, you've got to keep following them until you intersect with a highway, and you can make a choice to take an alternate route. And so on, and so forth.

There are many roads in your campaign, and your players should have a lot of say in which route they take to get where they're going, and how they deal with the hazards or threats in their way. This takes a little more prep on your part as a Storyteller, but it can be really worth it in the end!

Lastly, don't forget to check out some of my other advice in my Electrum bestseller 100 Tips And Tricks For Being a Better Game Master, as well as the Silver-selling sequel 100 Tips And Tricks For Being a Better RPG Player... both of them are jammed full of all kinds of things that will make your games go more smoothly from both ends of the screen!

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 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!

An Easy-To-Make Village Noticeboard For All Your Quests And Warnings

Folks who keep a regular eye on my release schedule may have noticed I had a fresh RPG supplement drop this past weekend. If you didn't see it, consider grabbing your copy of 100 Ads And Announcements For A Village Noticeboard! It's hit Copper status at time of writing, and it would be awesome if we could push it up to Silver by the end of the month.

Because this supplement has been surprisingly popular, though, I wanted to draw some particular attention to a video that's over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. It's been a while since it went up, but if you're into making your own, unique terrain to put onto the map, this is one you'll get a lot of use out of!

All righty... which of these are within our CR...?

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!

A Location For Your Quests?

While it might seem a little hamhanded, the village noticeboard is something of a standby for a lot of games because it's a simple way for the GM to get new jobs into the hands of the party, to share local news, and it's a fun little addition to a setting and story. Particularly if there are actual mysteries involving who is posting notices, or if there are Easter eggs hidden in some of them.

This goes double if you're one of those GMs that likes to print out or otherwise make notices players can hold in their hands. And if that's an addition you'd like to make, don't forget to check out How To Make "Parchment" Paper Using Tea, in addition to the video below.

I mostly wanted to draw attention to this video because it was one of the earlier ones Adrian made for the channel, and because it uses some of the great resources you can find over on the Crooked Staff publisher page. While I don't have a full setup for miniature crafting and terrain making myself, this has been in my queu for a while, and it was honestly the inspiration behind my latest supplement.

Additionally, if you're looking for some pre-built places to feature these rumors, consider grabbing yourself a copy of either 10 Fantasy Villages, or Towns of Sundara while you're at it!

Lastly if you're the sort of person who enjoys making minis and terrain pieces, make sure you stop by the Azukail Games YouTube page, subscribe, like, and leave some comments! Especially if there's something in particular you'd like to see go up next!

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!

Questions About Crowdfunding? Tabletop Mercenary Will Be Tackling That Topic Soon!

As regular readers know, in addition to running this blog, I make videos for the Azukail Games YouTube channel. And while I've talked about my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, offered insight and advice for the World of Darkness, and I've got the unboxing for my new RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic debuting this Friday, one of the series that I've been hard at work on recently is Tabletop Mercenary. And, as the name implies, this show is all about how to make a living working in tabletop RPGs for a living.

And so far the most commonly-requested topic for the series has been people asking me about Kickstarter. So I wanted you all to know that I'm listening, and I've got a clever plan to deliver on this topic.

And hopefully it will help other folks out, too!

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!

You Have Questions, I Have Someone That Has The Answers!

While there have been a lot of questions for a lot of different topics, the most common one thus far has been how to fund your RPG (or related project) through Kickstarter. And since my most recent release was successfully Kickstarted over a year ago, folks would naturally assume that this is a topic I know something about. However, I'll be the first to admit that I partnered with High Level Games specifically because I wanted the professionals to help me with that aspect of things. I could write the game myself, no sweat, but getting it funded was outside of my experience.

But fortunately for folks out there, Josh Heath has agreed to be a guest on the episode where we find answers to all your Kickstarter (and more general crowdfunding) questions!

Shut up and take my money!

So here's what I need from all of you!

- Leave Your Questions in The Comments: Here or on social media, both are acceptable.

- Share This Article: The more people who see this, the more questions we'll have to answer!

- Subscribe to Azukail Games, And Watch The Show: The more numbers we get, the better off we'll be!

If we can manage all of that, I dare say that we'll be able to collate, catalog, and ensure that we have the proper answers for the most commonly asked questions. However, if you have questions about stuff that isn't Kickstarter related (whether it's BackerKit, Patreon, or any of the other funding services and platforms out there) make sure you put those in your comments as well! If you're wondering about it, I promise you there are some other folks out there who are wondering as well.

Also, if you have a moment, consider checking out our most recent episode of the show where I discussed affiliate marketing, what it is, and why it should be a part of your strategy as a TTRPG designer.

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 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!

How To Help The Creators You Love This Holiday Season!

The holidays are upon us once again, and now that Spookyween and Turkey Day are behind us, we move onto the expensive one. However, with everyone out there getting their last minute shopping trips in, I wanted to take a moment to remind folks out there that independent creators need your help more than ever around this time of year.

So please, take a moment, and consider what you can do to help support the TTRPG creators, writers, artists, YouTubers, and others you depend on for entertainment and content so that we will still be here once 2024 rolls around, and we can keep giving you what you've come to expect from us.

Any and all help you can provide is much appreciated.

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!

The Struggles of The Year

Being a creative professional is no cakewalk. We're called "starving artists" for a reason, after all. However, 2023 has basically been kicking most of us in the stomach while we're trying to get up off of our hands and knees... and a majority of this is related to recent changes in the social media landscape, and the fresh set of hellish problems this has given all of us to overcome.

What was once a boon has turned to poison in our mouths.

At the top of the list, we have the dumpster fire that Twitter has become. This website was a central gathering place for authors, RPG creators, and YouTubers (along with a huge number of other creative professionals), and it has been absolutely gutted since the owner-who-shall-not-be-named acquired it. This completely destroyed the platform that a lot of us had built over years of time, and even those of us who didn't use Twitter as our main source of social media promotion still felt the impact as it damaged all of our efforts to share our creations with an enthused and engaged audience. It still exists, but only as a shadow of its former self.

That would have been bad enough, but then things got worse.

This past spring, Facebook underwent some major changes to how the site works. While we've always had to fight the algorithm to get seen on that site, it's been absolute mess for most of 2023. Only a handful of posts actually get through into groups, and the rest are pushed into spam folders that many admins don't even see, effectively throttling your signal as a creator. On top of that, the site has grown even more restrictive with who sees your posts on your personal or business account, with the latter prodding creators to buy a signal boost with every post we make if we want our followers to actually see them.

Even Reddit hasn't been immune to this. Dozens of subreddits were shut down over the summer, and there were blackout protests over the tools being removed from the moderators. The list of websites and content varieties that the site's spam bots automatically removes grows daily, or so it seems, and there are several communities that were once oases that are now dry as deserts, as far as creators are concerned.

When you add in the massive surge in generative engines that are plagiarizing work left and right, the sectioning off of audiences under platforms like Discord and Mastadon, and how even the YouTube algorithm is making it more difficult for smaller creators to get their voices heard, the end result is that only those people who already had a large, vibrant following are still being seen and reacted to... and even they aren't immune to the squeeze being put on all of us by platforms that are getting more and more restrictive by the day.

What this means is that our reach has been cut, our views, our reads, and our sales (to say nothing of patronage and sponsorship) is drying up all across the board because no one can find us, and attempts to actually get seen are shut down almost before they begin. And if no one follows us and supports us, then creators simply cannot afford to keep making things.

Direct Support is The Best Support

If you want to help the creators you care about keep a roof over their heads, and food on the table, there are some specific actions you can take to make that happen. Not only that, but you should do as many of these things as you possibly can, because we need all the help we can get!

First and foremost... buy our merch!

Seriously... this is the MOST important thing you can do.

You've likely heard the numbers recently regarding how Weird Al Yankovic, who had millions of streams on Spotify, was paid $12 for all of that listening time. That is the unfortunate reality that a lot of creators are currently dealing with. We might have gigantic numbers when it comes to pages read on Kindle Direct, or a huge number of reads on our blogs, or a massive amount of streams... and when the year is over, all of that effort is good for a sandwich. Whereas if someone pays to download one of Al's albums? Or buys a tee shirt, or other piece of merch? That single sale likely pays him as much (if not more) than 80 million streams on Spotify.

So whether you buy an album, a tee shirt, a novel, a TTRPG supplement, a patch, a pin, or even a sticker, you will have done more to support a creator with that single purchase than if you left their podcast or YouTube channel running in the background every hour of every day for an entire month!

And if a given creator doesn't have something for sale that you want? Well, you can sign up to become a Patreon patron, or buy them a Ko-Fi to essentially just put a tip in their jar so they can keep things going. This is especially important for creators who produce mostly free content (like my blogs, YouTube videos, etc.), because it's a form of direct support that has immediate consequences for us.

Incidentally, check me out at The Literary Mercenary on both Patreon and on Ko-Fi if you want to help me weather the holidays in one piece!

There Are Other Things You Can Do, Too

If you don't have the spare scratch to buy merch and leave tips for every creator, does that mean you just can't help anyone? Of course not! However, it is important to remember that these steps are the next tier down... so they do help, but not as much as just giving artists money to help pay their bills.

We must do battle with the algorithm.

First and foremost, do interact with the stuff made by creators you love. If someone makes a video or writes an article you like, watch it, upvote it, leave a comment (even if you're just saying, "I'm so excited to see where this series goes from here!"), and share it on your own social media pages, or in your groups. If you bought a book or a TTRPG supplement, do all of these things, but also leave a review on Amazon, Drive Thru RPG, Goodreads, or whatever other platforms you can find it on!

As I explained in Leveraging The Algorithm: How You Can Help Creators You Love Get Seen, while your individual interaction may be very small, every one of these things helps meaningfully boost a creator's signal. Each interaction makes us more popular in the eyes of the algorithm, and that makes it more likely to work for us, rather than against us, helping us actually reach more people. The more people we reach, the more fans we can find, and the more interactions we will get... it's even possible that we'll make more sales, too!

Perhaps most importantly, though, is to remember that even if the traffic we generate doesn't pay us a lot of money (whether it's a Spotify stream, a Twitch chat, or a YouTube video), creators who have a sizable audience are also the ones who get approached by companies with sponsorship deals. So while we might only get a handful of dollars in exchange for hundreds of thousands of views, a sponsor might pay us a thousand or more to mention their product, or even to create a piece of content around it to help promote it to our audience, if we have enough reliable eyeballs on us.

I talked about this back in Unfortunate Facts: Without Sponsorship, Most Artists Can't Eat, for those who want a more detailed breakdown.

Lastly, make sure that you're connecting with the creators you want to support so that you don't miss when they're releasing new stuff, or working on new projects. Whatever social media sites they're on, follow their pages. If they're on video platforms, subscribe to their channels, and turn on your notifications. If they have a newsletter, subscribe to it (and make sure you actually get it, and it isn't just being eaten by your spam folder).

We don't ask you to do these things for funsies... we do it because these are literally the lengths we have to go to in order to make sure our audience actually sees the posts we make, and that we aren't being throttled to death by the algorithm!

Where You Can Support Me!

So, everything I've said up to this point could apply to any creator out there, and I fully support everyone who has read this far in going and helping as many artists as you can so we can all get through the holidays, and start 2024 off on the right foot!

But if you're someone who specifically wants to help me, first of all, thank you. Secondly, please consider the following:

First, check out the Azukail Games YouTube channel, which hosts a lot of my audio dramas, in addition to the shows Speaking of Sundara, Discussions of Darkness, and now Tabletop Mercenary! We're about a thousand watched hours out from getting monetized by YouTube, so please put on a playlist while you're wrapping presents, or just trying to avoid awkward family discussions!

Also, If you want even more content (particularly bigger, more expansive audio dramas) you should also subscribe to my Rumble account, The Literary Mercenary!

If videos aren't your thing, though, I've got plenty of other options for you!

For example, in addition to my blogs The Literary Mercenary, and Improved Initiative, I also have a Vocal Media archive! It just hit 300 articles this week, and I make $6 for every 1,000 reads those articles get. So if you want something to scroll through on your lunch break, consider checking out some of my stuff over there, and sharing it around if you find something you really like!

And, of course, you can always buy some of the stuff I've written!

My novels and short story collections are all listed on my Amazon author page, and there should be some new releases getting added there in the near future! These are particularly nice stocking stuffers, which is worth keeping in mind this time of year. Additionally, I currently have 168 titles on Drive Thru RPG, which vary from World/Chronicles of Darkness, to DND 5E, to Pathfinder, general genre supplements, modules, and more! Whether you buy one, a few, or a slew of them, that would go a long way to keeping the wolf from the door!

Lastly, you can follow me on all my social media spaces. Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and Pinterest are the places where I'm most active, but you can also get a bunch of my news and updates by checking out my Link.tree, or subscribing to my bi-monthly newsletter... that's twice a month, not once every two months, to be sure you know what you're in for!

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 dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, 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!

3 Strategies For Coming Back From a TPK

Hanging over nearly every encounter in every RPG is the potential that none of the player characters survive this fight, this trap, or this riddle contest with a devil. Whether the characters make bad decisions, the dice are against them, or something goes horribly awry, there's a chance that everyone winds up dead. It might be a remote chance in some circumstances, but it's usually in the background, watching and waiting.

The problem with a total party kill is, of course, that it severs the story you were all trying to tell, and it leaves everyone in a difficult position. The players need to come up with motivation to make new characters who want to pick up where the others left off, and the Game Master has to figure out some way to accommodate that new party so the story can keep going.

That's a massive headache, so I thought that this week I'd expand on some of the thoughts I had forever and a day ago in Undoing Character Death, and talk about methods and ideas for moving on/fixing a TPK so your game can continue, and you can finish the story you were all collectively telling.

Would you look at that? Seems the game goes on...

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!

Avoid Death Entirely

The first, and most obvious, solution to dealing with a TPK is to instead have a TPL... Total Party Loss. The PCs still came out on the losing end of the encounter, but for one reason or another they all survived to tell the tale. So the characters are still in the game, but now they're at a significant disadvantage, and they've got to try to overcome their current circumstances.

Look, I'm just saying, you ain't worth much if I bring you in dead.

As a for-instance, say the party was brought down by a bandit ambush. If the PCs are low enough level, the bandits might just take any of their valuable gear, and move on, leaving them where they fell. After all, the penalty for murder is a lot worse than the penalty for highway robbery, so they might just take what they want and move on. If the PCs were fighting a cult, perhaps the cult wants to sacrifice them, so they have to keep the PCs alive for now. If the enemy was from another faction, perhaps they want to trade the PCs to a more powerful villain, or they might even want to try to sell them into slavery.

Whatever the reason, the PCs are at least not killed, and they might actively be kept alive to serve a purpose.

This is not a perfect solution, of course. After all, animals like manticores, mindless foes like undead or automatons, and creatures who hate the PCs may not wish to allow them to live. But there are a lot of TPKs that can be fixed by simply moving to a TPL instead. Especially because the PCs then have to regroup, and come up with new plans like how they're going to escape captivity, how they're going to get their gear back, and so on. The PCs might also have temporary (or permanent) injuries such as a loss of a hand or eye, or negatives to certain attributes until they can receive proper healing. This can make it feel like the GM isn't just giving the players a get-out-of-dead-free card, maintaining that balance of challenge.

This is also where having friends can help the PCs out a lot, as I mentioned back in The Case For Using Recurring NPCs in Your Game.

"Outsider" Intervention

So, the PCs are well and truly dead. Now what? Well, if the task they've been set is truly important (or if they are pawns in a cosmic game, as often happens in our campaigns), it's possible that some variety of outsider might step in and offer them a chance to try again.

Now, this can be simple or complicated. For example, if your party is slain on holy ground, perhaps they are offered a chance to return to life by the spirit or god who claims that place. This might mark them in some way going forward, requiring them to follow certain vows, or to accomplish certain tasks (mechanically represented by a geas, perhaps). The PCs might be given a chance to flee the afterlife, returning to their bodies, but now there are bounty hunters from the afterworld on their trail to drag them back for judgment. A spirit, a god, or a devil might offer the PCs a chance at life for its own purposes, as well. So even if a devil offers them the bargain, it might be doing so because the PCs are going to inconvenience one of its rivals, potentially creating a power gap that this devil can step into when the PCs achieve their goals. So while it might seem like the devil's bargain is too good to be true, it has its own motives the PCs may not be aware of.

You could make it more complicated, as well, if you want.

You can choose to make this part as complicated as you and your players want, as well. You could even make escaping the underworld a whole arc of the campaign... or a new campaign in and of itself if you check out my earlier post The Black Ballad... A Campaign That Begins Once Your TPK Ends! This particular game went live on BackerKit today, so go check that out if this is something that interests you.

Adding a Template

This is usually something I advocate for when it comes to villain survival after the PCs killed them, but turnabout is fair play when you're the GM. If you want the party to come back, and to come back hard, consider adding a template to them, or altering their creature type... at least temporarily.

Raven 1, going dark.

While you could grab ideas out of I'm Back- 25 Reasons For a Villain's Survival, I'd suggest that any GM who wants to use this particular tactic put a little more effort into making this feel organic. Because whatever template your characters are given should make sense for where they are, who they are, what they're trying to accomplish, and how they died.

For example, ask what it would be like to bring characters back as sentient undead for an arc. Vengeful ghosts, haunted armor, shambling zombies, or wrathful, spellcasting skeletons might be a fun thing to do for a party that was slain in the Forest of Spirits. Having the party reanimated as various golems or cybernetic creatures could work if they were used as subjects by a mad alchemist. Vows that allow them to temporarily become celestial or infernal creatures could be fun as well! Just ask yourself if this is a template you want everyone to have for the rest of the campaign, or if there will be a quest to undo this state of being once the immediate goal is achieved.

For Pathfinder players, corruptions are a ideal for this. These sets of dark powers put a burden on the character, while also giving them some additional abilities, and they are an ideal way to explain why someone isn't dead. Additionally, corruptions can be removed with time and effort, making them an even better choice than a template for this strategy. For those who are interested in them, consider the following articles as a jumping off point:

- 5 Classes To Pair With The Shadowbound Corruption

- 5 Classes To Pair With The Promethean Corruption

Paying The Iron Price

It really isn't all that expensive.

While that's all for my suggestions on coming back from a TPK today, I did want to make folks aware of something new that dropped recently. The Price of Iron is a module I wrote over a year ago for High Level Games, and it's a DND 5E adventure. When the party is offered a sack of silver and a masterfully crafted cold iron weapon each for a single night's work guarding a warehouse, it seems too good to be true. Of course, when portals to other realities begin to open, and the servants of a dark fey begin trying to break out, they realize they have quite a challenge before them.

If you've been looking forward to more modules from me, consider picking this one up, and keeping an ear out because I should have another piece that's long overdue finally becoming available in the very near future!

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!