I've Got Over 200 TTRPG Credits Now! (Technically 201)

Well, I knew this day was coming sometime in 2025, but with all the things going on it seems that I overshot this celebration just a bit. In my defense, though, there was a bit of a glitch in Drive Thru RPG last time I tried to look, so this little occasion slipped past me.

However, it seems that I've finally crossed the finish line I set for myself, and I've now got over 200 TTRPG titles with my name in them! And, because I missed the deadline by a week or so, it turns out I actually have 201 titles! So, bonus celebration, I suppose!

If you could, please give me a single "Huzzah!" under your breath. Thank you.

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!

One Goal Scratched! (But I've Got 2 More Left To Go)

For folks who were watching the Azukail Games YouTube channel, then you may have come across the video I made earlier this year where I set some of my goals. And while I wanted to try to get my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic to at least Silver metal status in terms of sales for Drive Thru RPG, and I wanted to try to release 5 starting missions for the game to give players and Game Masters plenty of options, the third goal was the one I was certain I was going to clinch.

I wanted to have my name in the credits of at least 200 TTRPG titles by the end of 2025... and huzzah, I did it!

So, what was I working on that finally got me over the hump? I'm glad you asked!

In case you didn't see it, #200 for my titles was my Storyteller's Vault supplement Like A Good Neighbor: Portraying The True Fae in Your Chronicle for Changeling: The Lost. As the title suggests, this supplement is all about adding a little depth and flavor to the most powerful entities in the game, but it was also the first time I tried a long-form supplement that talked about Storyteller advice instead of delving into a list of items, NPCs, and so on for the Storyteller to make use of.

And if you haven't grabbed it yet, I highly recommend it!

The other title, which dropped this past weekend, is the first sci fi horror piece that I've put out in a while. I'm back to the list format with this one, but it's 100 different scenarios that a crew might run into on a stranded starship. From deadly aliens, to insane robotic staff, to quantum time loops, there are so many things that your players might have to deal with... so check out Beyond The Black: 100 Dread Scenarios on Stranded Starships!

And if you don't have this one yet, you know what to do!

So, I wanted to take a moment this Monday to celebrate making this goal. However, if you really want to make my day, consider picking up copies of these two titles, or any of my others from Drive Thru RPG! Pushing these two up into Silver metal status, or beyond, would be a great way to start regaining my momentum so I can push forward and get a few more titles cranked out by the end of the year!

And, of course, I've already got some ideas for where I want to go from here... because there ain't no rest for the wicked, and I can't afford to sit on my laurels for long.

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!

3 Tips For Writing Adventure Modules

Adventure modules are the quintessential tabletop RPG supplement. While there are world guides, NPC lists, villain stat blocks, factions, and a thousand other things, the most common item folks often add to the base game book is an adventure to run with their shiny new roleplaying game.

However, while more of us can create adventure modules than ever before thanks to the nature of modern day publishing and programs like DMs Guild and Storyteller's Vault, there are still a lot of hurdles to overcome. So if you're considering writing an adventure and putting it on the market, consider this week's tips from someone who had his share of rodeos under his belt at this point.

It's not as easy as it looks, I can tell you that...

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!

Tip #1: Get The Art First

Like this one, if you haven't checked it out yet...

I talked about this a little while back in the interview I did with Isaiah Burt, but it really bears repeating; before you put a single word down on the page, make sure you have ALL your art assets in place and ready to go.

Art is the most expensive part of most RPG products, and modules require cover art, interior art, and maps to make sure that you have all the resources possible to run your players through this adventure. And since getting custom art is expensive, it's important to make sure you have all the art assets ready to roll before you come up with the story you intend to write... assuming you want to stay under budget, that is.

The Price of Iron, pictured above, was the first time I did this, and it made everything go a lot more smoothly than previous adventures I'd written. Additionally, if you are working with the art assets you have access to, it can often make you more creative as a writer. For example, when I sat down to gather assets for the Army Men mission module Assault on Outpost 13 I was looking everywhere I could for a map of a modern (or at least semi-modern) jail. I couldn't find one, though... all I could find was a bank. Which gave me the idea to canonically write the jail the PCs have to enter in order to protect a valuable prisoner an old bank that was converted to a jail during the revolution that led to the Styric Republic, thus allowing the map to make sense, while still being an asset that didn't cost me (or my publisher) any extra money to use.

Tip #2: Don't Hide Necessary Advancement Behind Checks

So, I don't know... I guess just keep rolling till one of you manages?

A method I've developed over the adventures I've written is to use "trap mentality" when it comes to designing the mechanical challenges in an adventure module. We all know how traps work, of course. A character looks for the trap, and if they meet the Perception DC they spot it before it goes off. This gives them the ability to try to avoid the trap, to disable the trap, or to knowingly set it off in some way. However, if they don't see the trap, then it goes off in their face and they have to try to save against it, or hope their armor and speed protects them.

The same logic should be applied to everything from gathering information, to Survival checks, to Stealth rolls, in that failing doesn't stop the players' progress going forward... it just means that progress is going to happen to them, instead of the other way around.

Put another way, provide ways for players to fail forward, or ensure that success gives them a boon, but isn't required for progressing.

For example, there's a section in my murder mystery module False Valor where players get to ask around at the bar to gather information. A local girl was murdered, and the circumstantial evidence says it may have been done by factions of an elven nation in a nearby forest who once fought a war across this region. While everyone who asks around gets a base bit of information, for every additional success on a Persuasion check, the players get another tidbit of information. Those who succeed really well find out that the leader of a local gang who seems to be champing at the bit to avenge the death on the elves has a lot of ideas in his head about what the war was like... mostly because his grandfather told him a lot of lies about the glory and honor of the fighting.

Now, players don't need that information to find the answer to the mystery. If they don't hear that piece of gossip, they can still go investigate the murder scene, and even talk to the girl's family to try to gather information about the events leading up to her murder. And even if they don't do that, the perpetrators are going to end up ambushing them to try to make the party look like more casualties in an escalation of hostilities.

The only difference is the more information the party successfully gathers, the faster they can put the pieces together about what happened, and the less taken off-guard they're going to be when the confrontation occurs.

Tip #3: Multiple Paths, and Multiple Ends

This was one of the first times I experimented with this...

Let's get the obvious out of the way first... you cannot cover every, possible action the players might take. It isn't going to happen. The best you can do is set up the steps of the adventure, and how things are playing out for the Game Master, and then provide some suggestions for the most likely player actions.

What you can do, though, is create funnels to drive the players to certain events, and to provide a handful of descriptions based on these outcomes. A funnel is different from a rail. Rails are where players have to follow a specific course of events from A to B. A funnel is more like a particular event you need to get them to, one way or another, but which is more flexible with the journey overall.

For example, in The Curse of Sapphire Lake, the town is being terrorized by a massive figure in a bone white mask. Players will have a run-in with him, and whether it goes well or poorly, he retreats to his underwater lair. This funnels players to him, because waiting him out won't work; they have to go in after him. When they do they find a tragic situation at the end, and they're faced with a choice. Do they slay this figure, cutting him down? Do they allow him to live? And in either case, do they attempt to go back and tell the town chieftain what happened? Because depending on their actions there are at least 3 different ways the story could end... of course, GMs are free to add their own ending text, if the included ones don't cover enough options.

This can take some trial and error, and if you have the time (along with a dedicated playtesting group) consider incorporating some of these changes into the final product before you're ready to put it out to market!

Additional Modules

A last piece of advice I'll give is that if you want to write adventure modules you should study what other folks have done. Not just in terms of story and plot, but in terms of layout, how stats are presented, and even how maps are marked for certain incidents. Seeing what works, and what doesn't, is solid research for how to write your own modules.

And in addition to the ones I've mentioned above, I'd also recommend checking out:

- A Night At Breckon's Beacon (Army Men): Your squad is tasked with finding soldiers who went missing on patrol. Near the ruins of an old border fort, you find evidence they were here... but what happened to them?

- Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh (DND 5E): The town of Bracken is beset by something terrible. There's a bounty for those who save them from this lurking threat... but will you survive to claim the reward, or merely vanish beneath the waters of the Sorrow Marsh?

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!

Back To Arkham... But Should I Stay There?

Arkham, Massachusetts is the iconic city created by horror author H.P. Lovecraft, and it is as much the center of the Cthulhu Mythos as anywhere else in his fictional setting. A seaside town that boasts the prestigious Miskatonic University, an asylum, and a black market of gangsters and rum runners, it's quite a cosmopolitan place to say the least.

And while I've spent a little time there as a designer, it wasn't until July 2022 that I put out something for the place with 100 Businesses to Find in Arkham. While it was fun writing a period piece, I didn't follow it up until 2023 with 100 Gangsters, Gun Molls, and Goons, which was meant to expand on the underworld present in Arkham. And while I took a hiatus from community creation platforms (largely due to the fact that they don't really pay me enough to keep my bills square), I decided to dip my toe back into the waters with my latest release 100 Books To Find in The Miskatonic Library (That AREN'T In The Restricted Section). The idea for this supplement was to fill out the books available in the campus library, and to offer alternative methods to get information into the players' hands that didn't require them breaking into the special collections where the real dark grimoires and tomes of power are kept.

However, I wanted to ask my readers something this week. Namely, do you want to see me keep kicking around in Lovecraft Country?

There's a lot to see there, and I haven't explored it all yet!

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!

Should I Let The Investigation Die? Or Keep Digging?

I've been a fan of the Cthulhu Mythos as a whole since my teen years, and I love the twists and turns one can find in even a "normal" Call of Cthulhu game. However, as I mentioned above, I stepped back from community creation platforms because they only pay half as much up-front to me as original content does, which makes paying my bills tough. Still, variety is the spice of life, and I figured that adding another chapter to a couple of my older series might get some fresh readers interested in not just what's dropping now, but what I worked on a few years ago.

Additionally, while the stories for the Businesses and Gangsters supplements wrapped up in a two-part adventure, there is a fresh investigation beginning in 100 Books To Find in The Miskatonic Library (That AREN'T In The Restricted Section). So in addition to getting additional supplements in the future, it's very likely that readers would also get serial installments of the case being taken up by a Miskatonic academic and his strongarm associate as they head out beyond Arkham in search of lost tomes of eldritch knowledge.

So, if that's the sort of thing you'd like to see, now is your chance to weigh in!

What Do You Need To Do To Send A Message?

If you're the sort of player out there who enjoys my Call of Cthulhu content, and you'd like to see more of it, there are a few things you can do to help ensure that more of it gets put out. I've listed them in descending order of effectiveness, as well, so if you feel strongly about me staying in this particular arena, start at the top of the list and work your way down!

- Buy and review a copy of the three supplements I listed in the introductory section. The first two are at Silver metal status at time of writing, and the third is creeping up toward Copper. If those start pulling increased numbers and attention, that motivates me, personally.

- Check out the rest of the titles Azukail Games has for the Miskatonic Repository! While these are by various authors, the main reason these kinds of supplements have slackened has been lack of audience interest. The more people who pick up copies, and the more reviews they leave, the more likely the publisher is to put more energy into future titles from myself and others!

- Watch and share the videos I linked above, and leave comments on them! The Azukail Games YouTube channel is finally monetized, and getting a few thousand fresh views on these videos would make them stand out among our other audio dramas, and show that there's definitely interest in more Mythos expansion. Subscribing to the channel would also help us get closer to our next milestone, which would give us more resources to take more risks with.

- Leave comments on this blog, and on social media, to let us know what you'd like to see! While it's definitely valuable to give us your feedback, it's very easy to say what you want, but those kinds of asks carry a lot more weight when they come from folks who are buying our supplements, and boosting our signal!

And for folks who are curious, these same steps can help you get the attention of basically any publisher that you want to see go in a particular direction, but it's particularly effective with indie publishers because it doesn't take a whole lot of activity for them to perk up their ears and take notice. Hell, if even 100 people bought a copy of each of the three supplements I mentioned (a relatively small number when you think about the industry as a whole) that would basically be a shot across the bow that more CoC material is wanted immediately.

So, just something to think about in case you're one of my readers who like to see me venture out a little deeper into Lovecraft Country!

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!

Tie-In Publications From Sundara (Novels, Table Games, and More!)

My fantasy TTRPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age had its first release going on three years ago, and I've been steadily expanding the map a little bit at a time. The original splat books for Cities of Sundara were pretty popular, as were the Species of Sundara books where I talked about the fantastical creatures you could play as, and for the past year or so I've been working my way through what is (more or less) the Factions of Sundara series, with installments like Sellswords of Sundara (for Pathfinder and DND 5E) as well as Cults of Sundara (for Pathfinder and DND 5E).

However, it was with the recently released Merchants of Sundara that I had an idea for a new project for the setting... making some tie-in projects for this setting!

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!

Building on The Foundation We've Already Laid

For folks who've been keeping an eye on Sundara as a setting, you know we've already had our share of tie-in media. The above video, for instance, is a dramatization of the introductory story from the supplement 100 Effects of a Primquake, which came out a little while ago. In addition to all of the audio dramas you can find on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, there's also projects like the story Legacy of Flames by Isaiah Burt.

However, Merchants of Sundara presents interesting opportunities for something we haven't tried yet... meta tie-in projects.

You ever play a game of Regicide before?

In particular, this supplement discusses two merchants of note; Black Feather Books, and Alabast Games. The former is a publisher of unique treatises on history, ghost stories, and tales of adventure, while the latter is a little niche store run by a clever halfling who enjoys making unique card games, board games, and even dice games using little toy soldiers deployed on sand tables to fight their tiny wars.

Most of the time when creators make tie-in projects for their settings, these projects are meant to tell stories that take place in the setting itself. For example, Tales From The Moot is a collection of short stories of the deeds of werewolves in the World of Darkness, and The Irregulars is a story of an Andoran strike force set in the world of Golarion. These stories happen in the setting, and they could even cross paths with the campaign you're running. You could have characters influenced by the events of these stories, or who have some relationship to the characters or events in them, working them into your game as it unfolds.

This is a little different, though. For this project I'd be writing short stories or books that one could find in the setting itself, allowing players to read the same stories their characters would be reading if they picked up a book at a trading post to keep them entertained on their upcoming journey. This is not too dissimilar from what I proposed a while back in Would You Like To See Books From Golarion? In addition to books that might appear in the setting, though, I've considered the idea of putting together games that people might play in Sundara which are produced by Alabast Games. Games like Regicide or Gravedigger, which are played using a set of Crown Dice, for example, along with a chart explaining what die type Crown Dice are, and how to translate the dice from your personal dice bag so you can play the game with your fellows around the table... either just for fun, or to add to the immersion of your RP.

The question, of course, is whether this is something you would like to see as one of my readers? So if you're a fan of the setting (whether or not you picked up a copy of Merchants of Sundara for yourself yet), tell me the sort of thing you'd like to see in the comments below! The more folks who speak out, and let both myself and the publisher know what they'd like to see, the greater the chance that it's something I can make room for in the 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 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!

"Tabletop Mercenary," The New Show About The Business Side of TTRPGs, Is Here!

A few weeks ago I let people know that I was putting together a new show titled Tabletop Mercenary, which is going to be me (and possibly an occasional guest) trying to pull back the curtain, and to show people how the sausage gets made in the tiny niche of the publishing industry that is tabletop RPGs. Well, the first episode dropped this past Friday, and as I've said with my previous endeavors, if you want to help shape the content going forward, now is the time to make your voices heard!

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!

What The Show's About (And What I Need From You)

Just to re-iterate what I said above for those who skimmed to this point, Tabletop Mercenary is a show all about the business side of TTRPGs. I want to dispel the mystery behind being a creator, answer questions about what it is that goes on behind the scenes, and give what advice I can for those who are hoping to make gaming a side hustle, or perhaps their entire career. In addition to being featured on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, episodes of this show will also appear on my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary, alongside various audio dramas and other, long-form creative projects I've worked on previously.

And for those who have expressed curiosity as to why this show is appearing in two different places, it's at least partially as a dry-run for bigger, more involved content that would need to be able to both reach a bigger audience, and to have multiple income streams in order to keep it going. Especially since the Azukail Games YouTube channel is not yet monetized (we still need at least another 1,000 hours of watched content to make that happen), and I've got to do what I can to keep the lights on while I'm making things.

For those wondering what those "other" shows I'm talking about are, I mentioned this a while back on Discussions of Darkness.

But, back to Tabletop Mercenary and how you can help me going forward.

First and foremost, if you've ever had questions about how games go from ideas to products, or about how creators actually get paid, please go to the first episode of the show, and leave your question in the comments on the video! Additionally, it would mean a lot if you could share the video around on your own social media channels to help me reach a larger audience, and get more eyes on this show while it's in its larval stages so we can build up the momentum to keep going.

As to which link you should share, that will depend on how you want to help. If you share the episode on YouTube, that will bring more attention to the Azukail Games channel, and help get it monetized, while also growing the subscriber base. If you share the episode on Rumble, that will help me get noticed on that much smaller platform, but it will also help me build up the earnings from the video, since Rumble doesn't have a 500 subscribers and 3,000 watch hour requirement for creators... they just pay you straight from the get-go based on your traffic.

I would also appreciate it if folks could tell me what I could offer as a creator to get your support for this show via my Patreon page. Would you want early access to new episodes? Shout-outs in the outro for your support? The ability to request specific topics, rather than merely lobbing a suggestion at me and hoping I take it? These are all on the table at present, but if you have other thoughts that would get you to throw money at the operating budget, I'm all ears!

Speaking of funding...

On that note, if you want to help me keep this show going through the early stages (as well as support me keeping this blog and my sister blog The Literary Mercenary running), then please consider putting some money in my tip jar on Ko-Fi, or becoming my Patreon patron. It takes a lot to keep the content flowing, and the more fuel my readers help put in the tank, the more stuff I'll be able to make going forward.

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!

"Tabletop Mercenary," A New Show in The Making For Azukail Games

Regular readers around these parts are likely aware that in addition to running two blogs, putting out articles, and constantly jamming away on TTRPG supplements, I also make a variety of content over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. It started out with the show Speaking of Sundara, where I talked about the various releases and developments in my fantasy TTRPG setting "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age," and to go along with that series I started dramatizing the introductory fiction for various supplements to give listeners a little glimpse into the kinds of stories you could tell with those supplements. Then, most recently, I started a show called Discussions of Darkness, where I talk about various aspects of the World/Chronicles of Darkness, and how to get the most out of it while avoiding problematic pitfalls.

And with all of that going on, I thought it was time to put one more ball in the air... a little show I'm calling Tabletop Mercenary!

Keep your eyes out for this logo going forward!

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!

Getting Into The Trenches

To catch everyone up, I've been helping out by expanding the content on the Azukail Games channel for a while now, and we've been slowly chugging our way toward getting the channel monetized (according to my last check-in, we were rounding 1,600 of the 3,000 hours we need). Since we're a little over the halfway point (and I wanted to start putting out more staggered Speaking of Sundara episodes, since the setting isn't expanding as rapidly as it was in the past), I wanted to give our viewers out there something new to check out.

While I mentioned several options in An Update on Our Progress Toward Monetization, the one that the numbers looked strongest for was Tabletop Mercenary.

So what is this show going to be about? Well, in the broad sense, I want to talk about what it takes to be a TTRPG professional, the pitfalls you're likely to contend with, and what you should actually expect if you want to get into this niche of the publishing industry. For specifics, though, I wanted to ask all my readers out there what topics you would like to see covered!

For some context, I've been a professional writer for going on a decade, and for a lot of that time I've also been putting out TTRPG content in some way, shape or form. I've worked as a freelancer for big names and small, I've written a variety of supplements, I've slogged through contracts, and I've watched the landscape change bit by bit as titans of the industry fell by the wayside, and new ideas, methods, and games rose to prominence. A lot of the knowledge and expertise I have has been learned through trial and error, and I'd like to save all the folks watching as much of that experience as possible.

That's why I wanted to ask my readers out there... what questions would you like to see answered on this show?

There's all sorts of directions we could go, after all.

Some of the topics that have been proposed include:

- How Did I Get Into This Field?

- How Much Can TTRPG Designers Expect To Make?

- What Are The Advantages and Disadvantages of Community Creation Platforms?

- What Products Sell Well, and What Products Never Sell At All?

These are just a few, general topics to sort of prime the pump, and get us going, but I want to hear from you all what topics you're curious about. What have you always been curious about? Or, if you're thinking about throwing your hat into the arena to design games, what's a practical thing that you don't know that I might be able to answer for you?

Toss your comments below, or if you found this on social media, feel free to leave your ideas there as well. The first episode should be recorded in the very near future, so please, don't be shy with your queries!

Lastly, in addition to episodes showing up on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, they will also be found on my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary. So if you haven't followed both of those channels yet, please consider doing so to be sure you don't miss an episode going forward!

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!

If You Want To See More of a Game, Help Make it Popular!

There's an old two-panel comic that I couldn't find a copy of, but it's something I think about fairly often these days. The first panel is a gaming group sitting around a table, and a friend of theirs comes in to tell them that the company in charge of their favorite game has elected to discontinue it. Everyone expresses outrage and frustration because they love that game, and they play it every week. The second panel is one person at the table talking about how they printed off a pirated version of the rulebook, and someone else who stole several of the game's official minis, and a third player talks about how they use these other dice rather than the game official dice to play, but they're so much prettier than the ones the company put out.

And I get it; as a gamer who lives below the poverty line and has for the better part of a decade, I really do. Today I wanted to address that disconnect that so many of us have between audience lack of support, and a game, line, or setting being written off and discontinued. Because every time it happens there's gamers scratching their heads wondering why, when the answer is right in front of them.

This is not the way.

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!

RPGs Are a Business

I've said this before, but it bears repeating; RPGs are part of the publishing industry. The purpose of the publishing industry is to sell books, and things related to books. At the end of the day, the publishing houses that make up that industry don't care if an author is supremely talented and created a rich setting full of amazing stories, or if they're a hack who spits a load of regurgitated dreck onto the page. What they care about is which books are moving copies, and which titles are sitting on the shelf taking up space?

The books that sell copies? They get sequels greenlit. The ones that don't move copies? Those authors get form letters as the company moves on to the next thing.

Prospects are bad. On to the next thing!

And for all the folks out there who are about to point out the very large market of independent creators, I want to make it clear that this applies to all publishers great and small. Whether you work at one of the big-name game companies, you're part of a smaller game publisher, or you're an independent RPG creator, anyone who does this for a living is paying attention to their numbers. If they write something that gets a lot of positive reactions from readers, or which gets a lot of positive attention, that is what they're going to want to do more of in the future. If they put out something that does poorly then regardless of how much love they have for that kind of product, or how much effort they put in, it gets abandoned.

At the very least it goes to the bottom of the priority pile.

But what about passion? Love of the game? The thrill of seeing a thing you made finally show up on the market? Those are all good things to have, and I've never met anyone who writes RPGs (or any kind of fiction, for that matter) who doesn't care about those things. However, you can't pay your rent with love of the game. You can't put passion in an envelope and send it to the power company. You can't trade your pride as a creator for groceries.

We can hem and haw about that all we want, but at the end of the day companies and creators are stuck living in the economic system we have. As such, if a game or product isn't earning enough money at the end of the day, it's not getting greenlit for expansions, sequels, or in some cases even being kept in the catalog.

So What Can You Do To Make a Game Popular?

So, the fate of the company, designers, and/or a game you like rests on your shoulders... what are you supposed to do? After all, you're just one lowly gamer, how can you make a difference on the scale necessary to get future expansions greenlit by publishers? Or to encourage an independent designer to make more of a game/setting you like?

Well, it isn't just about money. Don't get me wrong, money is nice if you have it, but there's other stuff you can do besides just spending your paycheck on new books, minis, tokens, dice, maps, supporting a creator's Patreon and Kickstarters, and so on to boost your game of choice.

Though by all means, inject cash flow if you have the dough.

In addition to buying the game and all of its expansions (again, money talks in publishing), the best thing you can do is to try to raise the profile of the thing that you like. Whether it's a core RPG, a setting, a supplement, whatever it is, boosting that signal is often the shout that starts an avalanche.

So how do you do that? Well, you can:

- Leave Reviews: Whether on Amazon, DTRPG, or elsewhere, reviews make games easier to find, and often persuade potential buyers. Just, "I love this, and I want more!" is enough if you aren't the sort of likes to leave essays about why you love certain things.

- Talk About The Game: Whether on social media or to your friend group, sharing stories of games and supplements you love is a big deal. Sharing links is also great, as creators often aren't allowed to do this in social media groups because there are rules against self-promotion. And as I mentioned in 5 Things You Can Do To Be A Better Ambassador For Your Hobby, bringing in new people helps a lot!

- Share Posts From The Creators: Whether it's the designer or the company, sharing news about latest releases, interviews, articles, and other content helps send the word along. It can also be a big help since YouTube channels, blogs, etc., often act as secondary sources of income for smaller companies and creators.

- Follow on Social Media: Just clicking that Follow/Subscribe button makes a difference. The more followers a page has, the nicer the algorithm is to it. So if a few hundred (or a few thousand) people just show up and click, that creator/company already has a bigger reach than they did before.

- Play The Game: Just playing a game is often enough to turn your friends into true believers; especially if you make the experience a great one. For bonus points, if you enjoy doing live plays then uploading your game where others can see it might be enough to spark interest beyond your immediate circle.

- Request Channels You Like Review The Game: Whether you run a game review blog, a YouTube channel, or some other sort of content creation outlet yourself, making content about a game can often be a huge deal when it comes to finding a new audience for that creator. And if you don't make content yourself, reach out to creators you like and ask if they'd check out a game/setting/supplement and help shine a light on it.

All of the things I've listed above may take varying amounts of time and energy on your part, but a lot of them are things you can do for free. However, the louder a creator's signal gets, the more likely it is to draw in more people. The more folks who show up, the more likely it is that some folks decide to buy copies. And if a YouTube channel run by the creator/company starts blowing up with views and comments, well, the revenue generated from that can help offset the cost of something a lot of folks seem to enjoy, but which hasn't exactly flown off the shelves. Yet, anyway.

I've said it repeatedly, but creators and companies need readers in order to keep doing what they do. A lot of us like building worlds, creating new classes, coming up with adventures, and exploring the possibilities of our game worlds... but we can't do that if it isn't keeping the wolf from the door. And if the choice comes down to working on a project we aren't as passionate about, or keeping the lights on, most of us will opt for the latter.

So make your voice heard, and make sure we know what you want from us so that we can keep the content coming!

Also, Check Out Sundara: Dawn of a New Age If You Haven't Yet!

As an example of something that I've put a lot of work into, but which I've had a tough time getting people to check out, consider taking a look at my "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age" setting for Pathfinder Classic and DND 5E. And if you're one of those folks who wants to hear a pitch before you make a purchase, I've been putting together episodes of Speaking of Sundara on the Azukail Games YouTube channel (which you should definitely subscribe to) talking about some of the design strategies I've used, breaking down what's in particular supplements, and explaining some of the changes I've made to what folks might expect from a traditional fantasy RPG setting, from how I chopped out alignment, to the uncertain nature of gods, to how technology and magic both lead to unique inventions among the people of Sundara!

Check out the full 26-video Speaking of Sundara playlist, in addition to the following supplements!

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.

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!

General Use RPG Products Hedge Your Bets (And Overall Sell Better)

About a week or so ago I was tooling around in a FB group, and I saw a post from someone I'd worked with in the industry lamenting a challenge that RPG creators and companies alike are facing. A large number of his company's products were for Pathfinder Classic, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. However, if you look at the top 20 sales spots on Drive Thru RPG for all three of those games, you find something that might surprise you if you're a player instead of a creator.

Only about 4-5 of the sales slots for those editions were products that are expressly made for those editions. 25 percent, at best. The other 75 percent (including most of the top slots)? Those were general purpose RPG products that you could use for nearly any game. Sometimes they're genre-specific, but they're never game-specific.

The numbers have changed since then, but the general setup remains pretty steady; generic stuff outsells system and setting specific stuff, even in its own category. This didn't come as a surprise to me then, and it doesn't surprise me now. But I figured that if you're a player and you're wondering why so many creators and companies are putting game-specific content on the back burner that I'd try to answer that question as best I can.

Since it's stuff like this that's always a bestseller.

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!

Evergreen Content, and The Broader Market

There's a concept that I first learned when I was a baby ghostwriter called "evergreen content," and it essentially boils down to the idea that whatever you're creating needs to always be a viable and useful piece of text. A movie review of a recently released film might be timely, engaging, and entertaining, but chances are good it's going to fall by the wayside relatively quickly to be replaced by something new. A guide for using a particular software suite might be popular as long as that piece of software remains unchanged, but your advice might be nonviable as soon as the next update hits. And so on, and so forth.

Evergreen content is stuff that's geared to always be viable, and of-interest. Examples from my own archive include articles like Why Do Superheroes Wear Their Underwear on The Outside? (which goes into the history of costume design and inspirations), How to Kick in a Door (pretty self-explanatory), and even articles like 10 Questions to Put on Your Character Creation Document.

And this is where we sidestep back into RPGs.

And why so many products are aiming for evergreen.

I was completely unsurprised when I saw that a majority of top-selling products in game-specific categories were game/edition neutral, because I've been seeing those same results in my own sales charts basically as long as I've been earning royalties on the splats that I create.

Because the sorts of products that tend to get the best, most regular sales are the ones that aren't tied to any specific game's mechanics or setting, but which still provide Game Masters or players with something of value. For example, some of my most regular sellers and biggest break outs over the past year and change have included:

- 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master: Possibly my fastest-selling supplement ever, this piece went Silver over the weekend when it was first released. While sales tapered off after a month or so, it still moves copies every pay period.

- 10 Fantasy Villages: While it got a big boost from being the Deal of The Day last Fall, this collection of 10 villages that can be plopped right down into any setting, complete with maps, rumors, NPCs, and more (but which is absent any mechanics) remains one of my better sellers.

- 100 Merchants to Encounter: One of the first things I wrote to hit Gold status, it's just what it says on the tin; 100 merchants, some weird and wild, some utterly normal, that GMs can keep in their back pocket for when the players need to go spend their loot, or locate particular kinds of items.

A majority of the supplements I've written over the past few years fall into this category, specifically because they tend to sell more copies than game-specific ones. Not only that, but they have staying power as different games rise in popularity, errata are released, or new editions come out. Many of them also have the benefit that whether someone is running a module or book-based campaign, or putting together something completely homebrew, these supplements can slip right into both scenarios. They are, in a lot of ways, universal tools as long as they fit the genre/style a given Game Master is aiming for.

What About Being a Big Fish in a Small Pond?

When you're creating content for RPGs, you want to make sure that you have as big a potential audience for your game as you can. It is, for example, why basically everything I write for Pathfinder Classic almost has to have a 5th Edition DND version as well... because I sort of need viability in both markets to even hope for a return on investment.

But isn't there something to be said for specificity? When a product fills a specific niche, doesn't that make it more valuable? Well... no, not really. And it's often a lot more difficult to predict what is going to work, and what isn't in that arena.

Like this supplement, for example.

I've written a lot of products for specific games over the years, too. Whether it was modules/adventures like The Curse of Sapphire Lake for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, Evil Incorporated: 10 Pentex Subsidiaries for the World of Darkness, or even 150 Sights To See (And Rumors To Hear) in Absalom for Pathfinder, by and large the products that are tied to one specific setting or one specific edition of mechanics don't sell as well. Even if they do all right, they rarely make the same kind of numbers that the more generic supplements do.

And there are reasons for that.

Firstly, a limited audience means you've got a smaller pool of potential buyers. Even if you "limit" yourself to DND 5E (arguably the largest chunk of the RPG market), it does push out folks running Pathfinder, Powered by The Apocalypse, Savage Worlds, and all the other games with a smaller market share. And if you're making a game specifically for one of those smaller markets, then you have a drastically smaller pond!

In addition to working within a smaller niche, you now have to ask how much competition you have. Like I said, 5E is the biggest slice of the market, and there's a huge amount of content for it coming out every day. The same is true to a lesser extent in Pathfinder, Starfinder, and some of the spheres of the World of Darkness like Vampire and Mage. So if you're fighting over attention with other creators, and there are fewer eyes and ears who might be interested in what you're selling, you've entered a much tougher market.

At the end of the day, I'd be more than happy to write adventure modules, full campaigns, class archetypes/subclasses, or even setting expansion stuff like my recent releases for my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting for DND and Pathfinder... but those things almost never sell as well as another generic list. Worse, they can cost a lot more in terms of time, effort, art, editing, promotion, etc. So a lot of the time you end up working a lot harder to produce something that isn't going to sell as well.

If you want to see creators produce more game or setting specific content then it's up to you, as an RPG player or Game Master, to do your part to help us boost that signal. Because it's hard to make sales on that stuff, and the less of a return on investment it generates, the less likely our publishers are to green light it, and the less likely we are as creators to write more of it.

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!