Make In-World Media For Your Game (Your Players Will Appreciate It)

Game Masters are always looking for ways to enhance immersion, and to really get players stuck into their games. Some GMs will put together playlists and background ambience for particular scenes, others will put together physical props like wallets or maps that the characters may find during their adventure. However, something that a lot of us might not think to do, but which you can get a lot of mileage out of, is creating in-game media that plays into your ongoing campaign.

And while this can be just one more hat for the GM to wear, trust me, few things will draw players in quite the same way as these little extras.

And they can even be fun to make!

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Newspapers, Radio Broadcasts, and More!

As an example of what I'm talking about, let's take your average high fantasy game. Maybe it's Dungeons and Dragons, maybe it's Pathfinder, or maybe it's something else entirely... whatever your system, you should find a way to put in some kind of local newspaper (or at least a broadsheet) that can act as both a recap of your party's adventures thus far, but also as a combination job board, and way for them to potentially get news about the rest of the setting.

This could be a straightforward re-telling, or you could even add a bit of a slant depending on what kind of public persona your PCs have. You might even give it the Jonah Jameson treatment, where the person behind the paper is constantly trying to paint the party as a menace, acting as whole other obstacle to be overcome. You could have quotes from NPCs they've interacted with, eyewitness reports about particular noteworthy moments, and then in the back pages, some personal ads. If you want to get extra clever you can even bury secrets in those want ads so that characters who know spy codes or thief craft may realize there's a bit of doublespeak going on there, and that if they dig deeper there could even be hidden plot points to pursue.

For another example, consider these broadcasts I create from Mr. Nowhere, a representative of Radio Free Fae in my Changeling: The Lost game.

For those who have not played the game before, Changeling: The Lost is about people who are kidnapped by god-like, alien entities from another dimension. These True Fae tear out a captive's soul, pour fae magic into the gap, and then alter these people to be their servants. Those who escape and make it back to the real world find themselves changed, hence the name changelings, and they tend to come together for mutual protection, as well as to help one another cope with (and perhaps even heal from) their traumatic experiences.

Changelings often join large organizations called courts for mutual protection and support, and one of the most common types of courtly arrangement are the courts of the four seasons. The Winter Court are known as spymasters, information brokers, and when necessary, assassins. Radio Free Fae is one way that Winter Courtiers will occasionally broadcast information to other changelings, letting them know about dangers and risks in the area... though these broadcasts tend to be put into coded language so that only those in the know can interpret the true meaning.

The above broadcast was the one I made for my players this Summer. This emotional weather report (named for the Tom Waits song, and because changelings feed off powerful emotions to fuel their magic) talked about which areas of the city are currently dangerous (north side is vampire turf, hence why it might seem dead, but is quite dangerous), where there will be good places to harvest emotions (construction season is peak time for absorbing rage from passerby), and even warnings about dangers that are coming in from outside (a specific reference to white supremacist groups that were causing problems in the city).

And since it's been up for a few months, I went a step further. For those who go to the full page for Emotional Weather Report (Broadcast From Mr. Nowhere), you will find some clues buried in the video tags. Winter Courtiers love to talk in code, after all, and the phrase "Beware The Ashen Lady," was an early warning about one of the True Fae who was making her way to the area. Mr. Nowhere didn't know what her deal was, but knew she was dangerous, and that everyone in the area needed to be warned. To put the other tag in context, Froebischer is a large, emperor penguin in a Hawaiian shirt that breathes fire who wanders through the local Hedge... the message that he is not a penguin could simply be a red herring, or there might be a deeper meaning to it.

If any of my players are reading this, consider whether or not this is a clue.

The first Emotional Weather Report turned out so well (and was so positively regarded by my players) that I've decided to make it something of a seasonal thing. Now Mr. Nowhere acts as an early warning system, allowing players to glean some hints and clues about things that are coming, so long as they put in the effort to maintain good rapport with him, and to do their part to make sure tragedy doesn't befall him, or his broadcasts.

As to what this most recent report above means... well, it's still fresh, so I don't want to spoil anything. But rest assured, I will have a full write-up down the line, once all the actions are taken, and the story is complete. For those who want to stay on top of these broadcasts, as well as other audio dramas I make, don't forget to subscribe to the Azukail Games channel on YouTube, as well as to my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary!

And if you're curious, Froebischer is one of my creations that came out of the supplement 100 Hobs to Meet in The Hedge, so check that out if you'd like to add some odd little NPCs to your own Lost chronicle!

It's Work, But It's Worth It

I'm the first to admit that making this kind of media for your players is definitely a lot of extra work, even if you have the know-how and resources to put it together. However, it is a great way to take your game up to the next level, and to really get your players' enthusiastic about the campaign.

Not only that, but if you're crafty, you can even get your players to participate in the creation process, which spreads the work out for you!

For instance, if you have a player who likes to write short stories, they might do a dramatic write-up of an adventure, and then that could be published as a kind of dime novel in your game's setting (not dissimilar to what I did for my Hell's Rebels game with The Silver Raven Chronicles). You might have someone who makes music, and their tunes end up getting played at the next bar you go to (whether the songs are about the heroes, or praising the villains, that depends on the inspiration). You could have players volunteer to write the secondary articles or ads in the newspaper so that you can focus on the game relevant ones (and leave the players guessing since they don't know who wrote which parts of the newspaper). And if you want a super easy way to keep folks involved, have players write letters to NPCs (with return letters coming their way over time), or keep journals to chronicle their adventures going forward.

All of this takes energy, no doubt. But when it comes to RPGs, you get out what you put in... and if you've never tried your hand as this sort of thing before, at least give it a whirl! If nothing else, it's often one of the things you're players are going to latch onto, and tell stories about for years to come!

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!

The Stories We Tell Make a Difference

I told myself I was going to do something a little more lighthearted for the next few weeks. I've been touching on some heavy topics of late, and I don't want folks to get burned out. But if you've looked at your news feed recently (or you just haven't been burying your head in the sand), then you know about what's going on out there right now. You know about the struggle, the riots, the violence, and all the rest. It's a big, confusing mess, and we all want to do our part to get involved in trying to fix it. To help out in some way. But as a post that came across my Facebook feed said, you don't necessarily need to be on the front lines to help. You just need to use your voice in any way you can.

Every successful party needs support casters, after all.

And while it might not seem like it matters, or that it's important, telling stories is a little thing that can have an impact going forward. Even if they're made-up stories about people who don't exist, and places that never were... because our brains are lightning-filled-jelly, and they're surprisingly easy to trick.

Before I get into this week's thoughts, though, if you have the time and extra dosh, consider donating to and boosting some of the following:

- Black Lives Matter (Chicago)
- Minnesota Freedom Fund

The stories we hear are what program our minds.

Variety in Stories is a Necessity

All too often the media we consume is dismissed as unimportant brain popcorn. Just distractions that we mentally munch on so we can get our daily dose of feel-good neurotransmitters and unwind. However, the attitudes, ideas, and even opinions and biases that we absorb from the stories we read stick with us. If you've ever talked to someone profoundly affected by the work of Ayn Rand (I don't recommend having this conversation if you've managed to avoid it thus far), then you've seen this in action.

The media we consume doesn't control our minds. But if your brain is a garden, then what goes in through your eyes and ears is a large part of the environment. It will affect what grows in your skull, whether you want it to or not.

For those who skipped the above video (I highly recommend giving it a watch when you have time for a Ted Talk), novelist Chimamanda Adichie describes what it was like growing up and only reading books about white people in America and England. Places she'd never seen as a Nigerian girl, and people who looked nothing like her. The total lack of representation meant that, when she first started writing as a girl, she wrote stories about places she'd never been, and people who were nothing like those she knew. Nothing like her.

Because she hadn't seen any examples that said people like her could exist in literature. Girls with dark skin and kinky hair were not the protagonists of the books she'd read, and it took expanding her intake of stories to realize that didn't have to be the case.

Those stories stirred her imagination, they engaged her, but they were windows instead of doors. They didn't let her in, the way they had let in children who looked like the protagonists, and who were from the places they were from. Part of her work, as a creator, was to change the nature of that message. To build doors so that children like her would be able to see people like themselves in the stories they read. So they would hear the message, "You belong here. You can be a part of this, if you want to."

And that is a powerful thing; both to say, and to hear.

Parasocial Relationships, and Fiction

There is another aspect of stories other than making sure that other people have a seat at the table, though. If you've never heard the term parasocial relationships before, it is when you form a one-sided relationship with a person. This is common in the cases of celebrities whose fans may feel connected to them, who may feel positive regard for them, and who empathize with a person whom they've never met, and who doesn't even know they exist.

This also happens with investment in made-up characters.

Parasocial relationships also extend to fictional characters, and our investments in them. This is something most of us have experienced to some degree whenever we develop a favorite character in a book, a comic series, etc. We get invested in them, and they give us feelings, even though they aren't real.

Remember how I said your brain is just a jelly jar full of lightning and pudding? Well, it's amazingly advanced in some ways, but in other ways it's really dumb. And one way that it's dumb is that it has the same reaction to reading about characters in stories, or watching portrayals in movies, that it has to actually meeting people of different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, etc.

When you combine this with contact hypothesis (the basic idea that the more exposure you have to people from a certain demographic, the less "other" they become to you), it shows that proper portrayals in media can do two things at once. They send the message to people from other demographics that they are part of this story, and they matter. With the other hand, though, they give people from the more dominant demographic (people who may not come into contact with these "others" all that often) some kind of exposure to different people.

Innuendo Studios touched on this in the video below, Why The Alt-Right is Like an Abusive Relationship.

So what does all of that mean?

Well, in less academic terms, this setup means that you can use fiction to empathize with people you've never met, because your brain thinks you have friends from that demographic. You haven't deluded yourself into thinking your fictional characters are real people (most of the time, at least), but your brain learns to ignore the knee-jerk reaction to "other" real people because you've had contact with them. Even if that contact was only in your mind.

Whether it's the LGBTQ+ community, black people, Native Americans, Jewish people, Muslims, those suffering from psychological trauma or mental disorders, your brain learns to identify with other humans through art, and the messages in that art.

However, the quality of the representation (and the message it sends) can affect what your brain receives.

For example, if you go back and watch a lot of cartoons over the years, you'll notice that the villains tend to be queer-coded. Whether they have soft voices, elaborate costumes, "weak" hand gestures, etc., the message being sent was clear; to resemble gay stereotypes is bad. We see it in action movies and TV where the only role you can get as a black actor is as a pimp or a gang banger, and the only role offered to those of Middle Eastern heritage is a terrorist. We see it in movies that always show tribal villages and insane warlords in Africa, but never acknowledge that would be like setting all American movies in the Alaskan wilderness ruled over my gangs of methed out religious cultists (which is to say it does happen, but it's nowhere near the norm).

And so on, and so forth.

Good or bad, the portrayals we see are poured into our heads, and they swirl around. The messages we see can color our perceptions, and make us think in certain ways over time. But just like realizing that not all stories have to be about apple-cheeked white boys having snowball fights, they also allow us to change our narratives.

What This Has To Do With Gaming

The games we play are just stories mixed with math. And even if we are in a place like the Forgotten Realms, Golarion, or a setting of our own making, the things we choose to include (or not include) in our games can make a difference. Like rain drops that fill a dry lake, or snowflakes that cause an avalanche, little messages can add up to big trends.

And I'm trying to do my part to help.

As a creator, it is my job to provide resources for people to tell stories. But part of that is also attempting to widen the variety of stories we tell, the messages we send, and the thoughts and ideas we can explore.

False Valor is a one-shot module that deals with people trying to start a race war, and taking extreme measures to provoke it into happening. Spoiler warnings, but it's not an accident that several of the NPCs in this book read like Proud Boys with hunting knives and longbows instead of AR-15s. My best-selling Azukail Games supplement 100 NPCs You Might Meet at The Tavern has gender fluid merchants, dark-skinned knights, big-boned wizards, and other characters that are outside of what one might typically expect to find bellied up to the bar. And for folks who saw A Response to The "Flaw" in my 100 Kinfolk Collection, I've made it very clear that my goal for creating more than 1,000 kinfolk NPCs for Werewolf: The Apocalypse was to specifically push back against the 90s edginess that led to so much cringe, and so much exclusion in what is supposed to be a global game. My goal is to do something, even if it's small, to make players think about what sorts of characters they have in their games, and even more importantly, why they don't have other sorts.

I don't expect my work, all on its lonesome, to make a huge difference. I like to think there are some players and storytellers out there who read through it, and smiled when they saw something unique and different between my pages, but I am under no illusions about the size of the community that follows my releases. However, given the chance, I'll make as many individual droplets of rain as I can. Because I want my hobby to expand. I want more people to be able to hear, and tell, their own stories.

And mostly, I want to try to show that we're not so different, when it comes time to stand together.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday!

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 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!