Compersion Is An Important Aspect of Being a Game Master

Compersion is a term that a lot of gamers are familiar with, because a polyamorous lifestyle is the easiest way to ensure that you have enough people for a regular RPG or board game night. However, if you've never heard the term before, the most general definition is that it is when a person feels a sense of happiness cause by seeing someone else's happiness; particularly someone important to that person.

And generally speaking, I think this is something a lot of Game Masters should take to heart, because the idea is one that can make game night a lot more enjoyable for everyone involved.

Lastly, before we get started this week, you should check out my older article Partners and Polycules: Polyamorous Designations Based Off Dungeons and Dragons Dice in the event you need a chuckle today.

It can really help to have your head, and heart, in the right place.

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!

Making It About Your Players (Instead of Yourself)

Since I can hear the clearing of some throats out there, I wanted to give the more in-depth definition of this term as it applies to polyamorous people. Mostly because I feel that will give the following topic a little additional weight. Now, for those who don't know, polyamory is a relationship style where people have multiple romantic and/or sexual partners at a time, and there is open communication and knowledge among everyone involved. Now, in this case, compersion is often about seeing one of your partners being happy with another partner, and feeling happy that they're happy.

And I bring this up because for a lot of people seeing their partner go out on dates with another person (or knowing they were up to something more intimate) would give them very negative feelings like jealousy, sadness, or anger. And while those things can still happen, for a lot of folks the idea that you would see your partner in this situation, and be happy that they're having fun and excited, can be a lot to wrap their heads around.

But I would posit that there's a parallel here for a lot of Game Masters. Because it feels like a lot of folks who run games can sometimes put their players' happiness and excitement last, which leads to problems.

I hope they're having a good time right now. I really do.

Now, to start us off on the right foot, I agree with the sentiment that the Game Master is also a player at the table. They have a very different role, but they should absolutely be enjoying themselves as much as anyone else. However, with that said, it's important for a Game Master to ask themselves if they're excited when their players are excited, or if seeing their players having fun gives them a rush of positive feelings. Even if the players are doing something unconventional.

Because there are a lot of Game Masters out there who get frustrated or upset with players when they use an ability in an unexpected way, when they try out a strategy the GM didn't see coming, or just when the dice gods smile upon the players and things really go their way with a natural 20 or critical success at a clinch moment. And sure, maybe you were hoping that your villain would make more of an impression on the players, or you're frustrated their figured out a plot twist sooner than you wanted them to, or a fight they were supposed to lose is one they actually walked away from victorious... and it's all right to feel those things. But ask yourself if your players are having fun, and if that shouldn't be more important in this moment?

The ability to take your ego out of things, and to bask in your players' enjoyment, is really important for having a good experience as a GM. Because even if your players ignored a dungeon you'd hoped they would go down, or they solved a mystery two sessions early, or a twist of fate allowed them to absolutely wreck a villain you'd hoped would have been more of a challenge, if your players are having fun, ask yourself if those other things are more important at the end of the day?

That perspective, and that shift in mind set, can make a lot of difference. It can also allow you to shrug off things that would otherwise bother you. If you develop the ability to say, "Well, as long as everyone is having fun," and to really mean it, that will make your life a great deal easier.

And if you haven't picked up my 100 Tips and Tricks For Being A Better Game Master, as well as the companion piece 100 Tips and Tricks For Being A Better RPG Player, I'd highly recommend grabbing some copies for yourself!

As A Final Note: Compersion and Bad Behavior

I heard a few folks cracking their knuckles for comments, so I wanted to tack a section onto the end of this week's post. It's important for you, as a Game Master, to tell the difference between harmless behaviors from your players, or your own hang ups as a GM, and problem behavior. As I mentioned, the goal here is for everyone at the table to be having fun, the GM included. And there is a world of difference between allowing your players to go off-script, or allowing an unexpected but earned victory to stand, and putting up with bad behavior from your players.

However, in another polyamory comparison, the best course of action is to talk about things. Whether you feel your players aren't being appreciative of the effort you're putting into the game because they keep ignoring what you're telling them, or you feel that they're deliberately undermining the tone you all agreed to at the outset, or you feel that tea-bagging your minis is disrespectful, and they're going to hurt themselves when they eventually fall off the table, have a conversation about it.

And don't wait until there's months (or years) of pent up negativity and bad blood about something that can come boiling out. Just talk to your players, open up a dialogue, and tell them, "Hey, I'm having some thoughts/feelings about this. I don't want it to become an issue, but I'd appreciate if we could talk this out."

It really does solve problems.

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!

Dungeon Design Tips: Provide Targets For Your Players' Big Guns

The Internet is full of Game Masters asking for advice on how to best counter the abilities and powers the player characters acquire in their games. And while I've given my share of advice on the subject (many of which are previous entries in this very series like getting rid of doors, actually triggering multiple encounters when warranted, terrain and cover, etc.), this week I'd like to remind Game Masters that if your players go through all the effort and struggle to acquire a big gun... well, you should at least let them knock down a couple of targets with it from time to time.

They're clustered in a 20-foot radius circle, you say...

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!

Set Encounters Up (So Your Players Can Knock Them Down)

Picture this scenario. You're running a campaign, and the evoker has finally survived to 5th level. They've just picked up fireball, and their trigger finger is itching to give it a go. As a Game Master do you, A) ensure there are never groups of enemies in close proximity to one another, thus making sure this spell meant for horde elimination is never used for what it was designed for, or B) do you conjure a scenario or two where your wizard gets to sling their new spell, and feel that it made a significant difference in the encounter?

A lot of Game Masters go for the first option because they don't want their players to feel too powerful, or like they're somehow winning in the arms race versus their enemies. But you should really opt for the latter for at least a few reasons.

And morale is just one of them.

First and foremost, letting players flex their new abilities and tools is good for the game. It keeps players invested and paying attention, and it lets them come to grips with how a spell or power is supposed to work. Additionally, by creating scenarios where players get to use their abilities, it keeps them participating in scenarios... and it often uses up their resources, which is the actual point of most encounters, and what creates challenge. Encounters are supposed to be gone through in a sequence, with each one being progressively harder as players use more and more of their daily allotment of abilities to survive.

Let us say, for example, that you are running a scenario where the party has to defend a tumbledown fortress from a massive hoard of the undead. There are waves of shambling zombies and skeletons, and then after their initial assault there are disease-spreading ghouls, and then at the end the commanding death knight takes the field. You can key different aspects of this encounter specifically to the abilities of your party so that everyone feels useful, and like they're getting moments to shine.

We lead with the evoker and their fireball, because it allows them to act as an artillery piece, firing from extremely long range and punching holes in the enemy's forward line. It's possible that, if the rolls are good enough, the wizard might destroy the walkers altogether. Then the ghouls start rushing in, and as they close it's the ranger's turn to use their new feat, rapid-firing their bow to try to bring the monsters down before they can reach the walls. And if the ghouls do manage to close, the monk has placed himself in the gap, preventing the ghouls from entering, the monk's recently acquired passive immunity to disease taking away the ghouls' most dangerous weapon. Then when the death knight takes the field, the paladin steps out to smite them, backed up by the rest of the party.

Now, this encounter could be shifted and changed to make every aspect of it even more frustrating for the players. A Game Master could choose to have the undead approach under cover of darkness or mist, making them difficult to target until they're at the gates. The field could be filled with trees or ruins, giving the approaching enemies ample cover, frustrating the party's ability to actually do anything to halt their progress. There could even be a secret way into the fortress, leading to undead coming out of tunnels inside the walls, leaving the party scrambling about whether to fight the monsters within, or the monsters without, first.

The damn things are everywhere!

It's easier to add difficulty to a scenario than it is to take it away, and it's important that your players feel challenged, without feeling overwhelmed. Most importantly, though, you don't want to punish them for trying to play the game. So when you're concocting an encounter (and the dungeons/adventures they make up), make sure that you're offering square pegs for square holes so that your players can accomplish the task in order to overcome the challenge, and move on to the next step. At the end of the day, you want them to be able to finish this. You want them to succeed, because if they fail then the campaign ends.

So whether the barbarian picked up the ability to attack in a whirlwind and hit every target around them, or the bard just grabbed the power to fascinate a crowd of people, or the rogue finally got the ability to add poisons to their attacks, facilitate them actually getting some mileage out of these abilities. They just got a new hammer, and you should let them drive some nails with it. It will, overall, make your game a great deal more fun for everyone involved.

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!

The Literary Mercenary's (And Improved Initiative's) Recent Newsletter Change

The chaos of the year keeps on shifting, and over here on Improved Initiative I'm doing my best to roll with the punches. Which is why, first off, I want to give my monthly shout out to my patrons Phillip Litherland and Tracy for being my VIPs over on The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. I'm still reeling from the changeover (I lost more than half of my Patreon earnings switching from a per-item account to a single, monthly fee account), so if you want to help me keep my bills paid while working on stuff like this blog, please consider becoming a paid member this month!

However, as if that wasn't enough to deal with, it seems that a certain Digital Ape wanted more bananas from myself, and a bunch of other creators who were just trying to get the word out about our work. Which is why I recently had to switch my bi-weekly newsletter to a new service. So, keep an eye out for Email Octopus, if you haven't seen it yet!

Come, friends. Let me tell you the latest happenings!

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!

So... What Happened (And What This Will Change)

For folks who haven't been with me for a while, a few years back I took the advice from various folks, and put together a newsletter to keep all my interested readers updated on all my recent releases. The idea was that people who like my work could get personal, up-to-date content round ups coming straight from me, rather than depending on social media algorithms to see my posts (since these sites have been blocking, strangling, and silencing creators across the board). I never had a big following (10,000 is generally the number you need for a newsletter to be a money maker), but there were 300-500 folks subscribed to my newsletter at any given time.

And for all the time since I started this newsletter, I was a Mail Chimp user. You could send out up to 1,000 emails or so a month on your free account, and since I never really grew large enough to worry about going over that (as long as I did bi-weekly newsletters), it was a business arrangement that worked for me.

Until last week, when I settled in to send out the latest, and found the monkey with his hand out, demanding that I pay to play.

Your subscribers are waiting... what's it gonna be?

It seems that when I wasn't looking that Mail Chimp changed their policy so that anyone with over 250 subscribers on their list (I believe that was the number, at least) now had to pay to use their service. Well, given that only about 20% of my list actually reads their messages, and I don't really make any money from sending out these two newsletters a month, I wasn't going to just start tossing cash into a hole.

So I decided to use a different service... and that was why I've migrated my service over to Email Octopus (and you can sign up for the new location right here)!

I was fortunate in that all my previous users were downloaded and slotted right into the new service (so if you were already on the newsletter, you don't have to sign up again), but I'm going to be changing over links and trying to make sure that new folks don't end up on the old service as best I can. Sadly, that's a LOT of posts, so it's possible a few will slip through the cracks. My apologies in advance, but having to go through and change everything individually is going to take me a bit of time.

On A Final Note...

Speaking of going back through and swapping out links, I'm going to be replacing a lot of video links in both this blog, and over on The Literary Mercenary. For folks who haven't seen any of the updates, I recently launched a new YouTube channel with Alice Liddell called The A.L.I.C.E. Files, which is going to have a lot of my older RPG audio dramas on it, in addition to all the fresh content we're going to be making for it!

You'll see videos like this latest Deadlands-inspired tale Dead Man's Bluff, which appeared in my collection The Rejects. So stop on in, give us an extra view, subscribe if you like what we're doing, and consider sharing it around so I can keep making more stuff just like this!

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!

"The Blade Itself," Is My First (But Hopefully Not My Last) Venture Into Hunter: The Vigil

Monsters lurk in the dark places of the world. Vampires. Werewolves. Changelings. Mages. These are merely a handful of the inexplicable, supernatural creatures who prowl the shadows preying on humanity. Even in a world with cameras in every pocket, and the miracles of technology growing more fantastical every day, these things manage to slip into blind spots, unseen by most of the population.

Some people do see them, though. They become aware of the monstrous and the terrifying, and rather than closing their eyes they light a candle against the darkness, and take up the fight. Hunters come in many shapes and sizes, and they use a variety of tools to hold the line, and to defend humanity... but my recent supplement The Blade Itself: Corrupt Equipment For Hunter The Vigil gives players and Storytellers alike a whole new resource to draw on.

And if you haven't grabbed a copy for yourself yet, you should check it out!

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!

The Corruption System (And What It Does)

Hunters, generally speaking, stand with their grit and determination against the monsters of the Chronicles of Darkness. While certain hunter factions provide unique equipment or unusual powers, those who don't ally themselves with these compacts and conspiracies find themselves shit out of luck when danger comes calling.

However, this supplement provides an extra option... though it is a double-edged one.

This gun's got stains on it... what's a few more?

Corruption, capital-C, is a force that hunters typically try to avoid. Associated with Tainted Places and Slashers alike, Corruption is the darkness that lurks beneath the world, bubbling up in physical places, as well as in the souls of human monsters... but it can also mark items that are associated with particularly potent legends. Corruption imbues these items (usually, but not always, weapons) and bestows on them unique properties... but every corrupt piece of equipment comes with a price. For items that are barely corrupt it might be urges the wielder has to spend Willpower to control, or nights of bad dreams that come after wielding it. For more potent items it can be loss of Integrity, debilitating Conditions, or even a loss of self to the legend of items that want to write a new legacy in the hunter's blood.

The supplement provides a simple description for this 1-5 dot merit, with the general level of a legend surrounding a piece of equipment (with the 4 and 5 dot items typically connected to Rippers and Scourges), as well as 5 examples of each level (for a total of 25 pieces of equipment). However, Storytellers and players are encouraged to create their own examples, and to forge their own legends using these items as templates.

The purpose of the Corruption system is to give hunters access to unique gear without the prerequisite of belonging to a particular faction, and given access to their unique powers and armories. Of course, corrupt items are usable by any hunter, so whether you're utilizing none of the compacts and conspiracies, a mixed bag of them, or all your players are part of the same organization, these legendary items can still come into their possession. They might be part of an ongoing plot, or merely a temptation to see whether they can maintain their integrity while dipping their toes into the darkness all while telling themselves it's for a good cause, however one chooses to use them.

Would You Like To See More Hunter Content Going Forward?

Hunter is one of those splats that all of us know, but it seems relatively few of us actually play. After all, hunters are the bogeymen in most Chronicles of Darkness splats because the monsters need to keep themselves to the shadows in order to avoid drawing unwanted attention from dangerous mortals of all sorts. The deeper I've dug into it, though, the more interesting I've found the game to be overall.

I even made a video a while back over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel about how it's actually one of the ideal entry points into the Chronicles of Darkness for folks who know little to nothing about the setting.

However, while I love this setting, I actually had to take a break from anything for Storyteller's Vault for a while. I didn't write anything for it in 2024, and in 2025 I only put out three supplements: Dark Reflections: 50 Sights To See in The Penumbra for Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Night Horrors: Primordial Peerage for Beast: The Primordial (though I was just a single contributor), and Like A Good Neighbor: Portraying True Fae in Your Chronicle for Changeling: The Lost.

I'd like to drop at least a handful of Storyteller's Vault supplements per year, and I have a lot of ideas for Hunter in particular. Some of these include:

- New compacts and conspiracies

- "Unredacted" histories for Task Force Valkyrie, discussing the conspiracy's potential deeds

- Collections of Slashers (both Rippers and Scourges)

- A supplement for play as Slashers, for player groups who want to take on these monstrous mantles

- A collection of additional combat style merits (some of which fill in gaps left by Hurt Locker)

These are just a sample of the things I'd like to spend some time on, but for folks who don't know, Storyteller's Vault content is a risk for me as a creator because I take a 50% pay cut up-front to make it. So unless I sell a lot of copies (at least 50, though preferably breaking the 100 copies barrier) it can be tricky to keep my bills paid while working on these titles.

So if you want to see me work on more Chronicles of Darkness stuff in general, and Hunter in particular, please grab a copy of The Blade Itself: Corrupt Equipment For Hunter The Vigil, and leave a review of it on Drive Thru RPG. Additionally, let me know down in the comments which of the ideas I mentioned sound interesting to you, or if you'd prefer to see me work on something else in 2026!

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!

The A.L.I.C.E. Files Is Here (And Will Soon Be Featuring Various Audio Dramas)!

I mentioned earlier this year that I had a secret project I was working on, and that I would provide more information when it was ready to be revealed... well, that time is now! I've started a new YouTube channel in partnership with Alice Liddell called The A.L.I.C.E. Files, and it's going to be an ongoing audio drama with two different layers. On the one hand there's the tale of a young woman who ends up working for the mysterious Carroll Institute as a witness cataloger, and she gets drawn deeper into the bizarre nature of the organization's endeavors to explore parallel dimensions through the unique device known only as the Rabbit Hole. On the other hand, though, there are the stories in the files themselves; agent reports in the form of dramatized fiction from Alice, myself, and from a variety of other authors.

And at least some of these stories are going to take place in various tabletop RPG settings, which is why I'm giving the project a shout out in this section of my blog.

And if we're going to make this project soar, we're going to need your help!

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

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

The Settings I Have Ready To Go

While I'm writing, recording, and editing the meta stories about Alice, the Institute, and the dark mysteries that lurk within its walls, I do have a variety of stories that are ready to go, and which will begin appearing on the channel very soon! Some of these include:

- An Exalted story (which falls under the Dark Pack rules)

- A Warhammer 40K collection

- Some Lovecraft/Call of Cthulhu short horrors

- A Deadlands-inspired tale from my short story collection The Rejects

In addition to these settings (and several original stories of my own that either have been, or will be, dramatized), I also have some plans to adapt my story Devil's Night, which was the first story for my group's run through the Pathfinder adventure path Hell's Rebels.

In case folks were interested in more tales from Golarion.

I wanted to take a moment to ask my readers, however, which settings they'd like to see featured on the show. While not all of them will be feasible, I want to at least look into it, and see which stories I could spin into at least one episode of the show... though popular stories are much more likely to get sequels as long as folks keep putting their eyes and ears on what we're doing!

What Makes This Channel Different Than Azukail Games?

As regular readers know, I've been making audio dramas for the Azukail Games YouTube channel for a while now. Which, speaking of, go check out my videos over there and subscribe to the channel is you haven't done so already!

However, there are two things that make The A.L.I.C.E. Files different from what I've been doing for Azukail Games. The first is that while my Azukail Games stories are sometimes connected, generally they're stand alone stories, or they're only loosely related because the shorts come from the introductions to my TTRPG supplements that I write for the company. They're meant to draw in the viewer/listener, and to get them interested in seeing more... they're basically an RPG commercial with voice acting.

The second thing that's different, though, is the length of the average story over on the new channel. For example, consider the trailer:

It comes in at 7:33. It's short, sweet, and to-the-point, while also making sure that the listener gets a full story to draw them deeper into the Institute. However, the first episode of the show is over 20 minutes, and Dead Man's Bluff (which should be dropping next Friday) is also well over the 20 minute mark.

So, this new channel won't just have an ongoing connected story to follow (both in terms of full meta episodes, but the introduction snippets for unrelated stories will also feed into the ongoing narrative), but it will give us room to tell longer, more involved stories in ways that I haven't done before.

What We Need From You As Listeners

First of all, we aren't asking for money. We're very new, and we're trying to earn it ourselves. However, YouTube doesn't share any of the ad revenue with creators until they have at least 1,000 subscribers to their channel AND 4,000 hours of watched content (which is over 11 watch hours per day for an entire year).

And just to add insult to injury, those watch hours can't be from people with ad block. Because our first week had 65 hours of real watch time according to our metrics, but YouTube only counted 4 of those hours as real for the purposes of our monetization.

So... you see the sort of hill we're going to have to climb here.

What I need from you, dear readers, is simple, straightforward, and best of all, it's free! Just:

- Subscribe to The A.L.I.C.E. Files on YouTube (we're 1/5 of the way to the subscriber goal)

- Watch the videos we have up (preferably with your ad block turned off, if you can)

- Upvote the videos, and leave comments of at least 7 words on them (it's for the algorithm)

- Share our videos and channel on your own social media pages (we need a bigger reach)

That's it!

My experience with getting the Azukail Games channel monetized is that what we really need is folks to show up, listen, and share if we want to get our numbers up. Because if something went truly viral today (let's say the trailer garnered oh... I don't know... 20K fresh hits who all watched the whole thing, and then at least half of those people watched episode 1 in its entirety), we'd basically be monetized by the time Monday rolls around.

But that kind of success doesn't just happen out of nowhere. It happens because an audience watches, comments, and shares videos, boosting the size of the potential audience, and getting more folks to walk in the door. So if you're one of the folks out there who has enjoyed my audio drama work, and you'd like to see me really expand on the stories I tell (and you're enjoying a broader cast of voice actors), then follow the steps above to help make it happen!

There Is A Bonus Option, As Well...

I said above that we aren't asking our listeners for money, and I mean that. At the moment we are very focused on getting the channel monetized so that we can just focus on telling good stories.

With that said, though, if you do want to monetarily support us, check the video descriptions because we will have links to the books we're dramatizing stories from. Whether it's my own book The Rejects, one of Alice's short story collections, or even novels like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, buying from the links we have will help ensure that the channel makes some money while we struggle up the hill to force YouTube to actually share some of the profits our work is generating.

Thanks in advance to all who take the bonus option!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

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

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

Another Step Into Miskatonic Country... Should We Delve Further Into Yog-Sothothery?

For the past four years I've been delving into making supplements that pair with the Cthulhu Mythos setting. It started with 100 Businesses to Find in Arkham, and from there it expanded into 100 Gangsters Gun Molls, and Goons for criminal NPCs. I left the dark and dreary world of the Mythos behind for a time, but last year I started a new arc of supplements with 100 Books To Find in The Miskatonic Library (That AREN'T In The Restricted Section), and 100 Whispers and Rumors To Hear Around Arkham.

And this past weekend my latest supplement, 100 Academics, Adventurers, and Information Brokers just dropped!

Seriously, give the latest a look if you haven't yet!

The question I have for everyone out there, though, is very simple. Should I continue with more mythos-inspired supplements? And if so, what would you like to see more of?

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!

What Parts of Miskatonic Country Would You Like To See?

The reason I keep getting drawn back into the terrible world of the Cthulhu Mythos is that it's a breath of black, cosmic wind when other supplements start feeling too samey, and I need to get a bit of variety into my day. That, and I'm a lifelong fan of cosmic horror, and Lovecraft's work was one of the early introductions for me into the genre.

And those mystery-style games are hard as hell to run... so I figure Game Masters who take up the challenge are going to need all the help they can get.

Madness and cosmic terror are hard as hell to run. Just saying.

And while I've only got five supplements for Miskatonic Country, I'd be more than happy to increase that number, as long as folks out there would find it useful. So, if you enjoy these supplements, and you'd like to see me write some more, which of the following would appeal to you most?

#1. Time Period?

My supplements have, thus far, been geared for the classic Prohibition-era where a lot of Call of Cthulhu and Lovecraft-adjacent games take place. However, would shifting that time period be of-interest to you as a reader? Supplements set during the second World War (or even the first) might work for games where mankind is trying to utilize the mythos as a weapon. Supplements for the 1950s might play into Red Scare paranoia, and supplements during the 1960s could capture the hippie movement. The hedonism of the 1980s, or even something like Modern Miskatonic might all offer their own, unique twists as well!

#2. Mortal or Mythos?

Most of the supplements I've written focus on the mortal side of things. They're full of books one might find, characters one might come across, places to visit, rumors to hear, and so on. While there are mythos implications of many parts of these supplements, they tend to focus on the more grounded side of an investigation... should I stick with that strategy? Or would aspects of the various things that dwell in the darkness be more useful? Whether it's cultists to encounter, visions to see while in the Dreamlands, or even more unusual things, should I get weird with future installments?

#3. Persons, Places, or Things?

I like to joke that my supplements tend to be nouns, as they're full of NPCs, locations, and items to encounter during an investigation. However, what are some of the things you would find most useful? Do you find yourself more in need of NPCs to build interactions around? Rumors for players to hear, and to use as a basis for plot arcs and investigations? Or items to locate while searching private libraries, or going through a missing person's apartment? Even visions to see, monsters to encounter, or cults that aren't detailed in Lovecraft's work or in the stories written by other contributors to the setting?

Make Your Voice Heard!

Since my crystal ball has been on the fritz for the past several years, I'm depending on my readers to tell me what they want to see. As such, please leave a comment below, or hit me up on social media, to detail the sorts of supplements that you would like to see me pen for the mythos going forward! The more folks who raise their voices, the more likely it is that you're going to get precisely what you want to see sometime in the next couple of months.

Also, don't forget to check out the audio drama series I've been putting together for the latest supplements! I mentioned this a bit ago in "A Trail in The Margins," A Call of Cthulhu Audio Drama, Has Fresh Episodes Coming Up!

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!

Should I Expand My Monster Hoard Supplement Series?

I tend to be a bit all over the place when it comes to TTRPG supplements because, well, I like variety. That, and because even if I find something that seems to resonate with the audience, I don't want to go back to the same well so much that the novelty and fun wears off. It's why my World's Oldest Profession series only has 3 supplements so far, with a 4th on the way.

And for those who are curious, the three that have been released are A Baker's Dozen of Brothels, 100 Concubines and Courtesans, and finally 100 Rumors to Hear in a Brothel.

However, I recently dropped a supplement that was sort of a soft test for a potential series, depending on how people reacted to it. And while the numbers were all right, it wasn't exactly a ringing cheer from the crowd. So I wanted to ask this Monday... do you think I should follow up 100 Items To Find in a Chromatic Dragon's Hoard?

And, really, if you haven't grabbed a copy, you should consider it!

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!

Do We Need More Monster Hoards?

Generally speaking, we know what the purpose of a monster hoard is in a mechanical sense; it's to give your players loot and magic items that they can then use to buy upgrades to take on the next monsters they face. However, if it just turns into writing down numbers and doing calculations, then players can quickly lose the impact of what it means to be in a monster's den, and to really get a grasp of who the creature is... or was.

And that is where this supplement, and others like it, would come in.

Because it's not just about that glitter.

The items in this supplement aren't statted-out weapons, armor, and so on. They are the sorts of things you would find in a place where a monster lives (or lived), and which are indicative of its history, its personality, and which add flavor to the area. Like a sword that's been bent and charred because a red dragon used it as a toothpick, or a red-stained bathtub that's been pressed into service as a wine goblet. And whether these items are used as set dressing after the fight is said and done in an attempt to ground the scene and remind players of what they just accomplished, or they're used before a fight during an exploration of a lair, it comes in handy both ways.

And that is the purpose of these supplements. As long as the monsters in-question exist in your world and setting, you can use these to add atmosphere and gravitas to these scenes.

Which gets to what I'd like to do going forward. Because the obvious sequel would be 100 Items To Find in a Metallic Dragon's Hoard, so that folks have a nice yin and yang of the two major dragon types. But I could expand the series to other iconic monsters like liches, hags, bugbears, goblins, and more! Whichever monsters get added to the list, the idea is to do more than just provide a list of gold values and magic items, and to help players stay in the scene, and in the story, with a couple of curve balls.

So, if that's something you want to see going forward, here's what I need you to do:

- Get a copy of 100 Items To Find in a Chromatic Dragon's Hoard. If you already have a copy, leave a rating and review on DTRPG so more folks can find it!

- Leave a comment here, or on my social media pages, about which monsters you'd like to see get a list like this going forward.

The more attention a given supplement receives in terms of sales, reviews, reposts, comments, etc., the more likely it is that a creator or publisher will dedicate more time and energy to that project. If we see there's an audience, we're going to do our best to give them what they want... so if this is something you want to see, take a moment and make your voice heard on the subject!

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!