"Species of Sundara" Takes Aim at Monolithic Fantasy Races

If you've played most mainstream fantasy RPGs for any length of time then you've likely noticed the issue where all the non-human creatures become monolithic. Flip through most books out there, and you'll find that humans get half a dozen different ethnicities and cultures, each varying wildly across the setting. Then you look at halflings, and find they're all basic copy/pastes of the Shire. You look at orcs, and they have a nearly universal culture of violence and 'might makes right.' You flip to goblins and find they're just this big, discordant wad of gnashing teeth and chaos no matter where you go. And so on, and so forth.

Some settings will change things up and give you a few different varieties of a particular creature. You see this in elves and dwarves in DND 5E, where they have sub-races for players to choose from at character creation. Even in games where there's some variety, though, we tend to fall back into tropes and stereotypes where elves are all aloof ancients of the forest, dwarves are all brash, heavy-drinking Scotsmen from the mountains, etc.

And I wanted to do something to break players and game masters alike out of that mindset. Which is why I've been working on the latest series of releases for my setting titled Species of Sundara!

Get your copy today!

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Cultures, Customs, Languages, and More!

As a designer I understand the purposes these monolithic cultures serve as a tool. It takes a lot of time, effort, and energy to develop parts of a world, and giving every single species its own set of involved customs and culture, its own history and languages, and its own unique religious beliefs can be exhausting when taken along with all the other aspects of designing a game. And that's before you come up with dozens of different languages and dialects, and try to envision what physical differences (both cosmetic and more-than-cosmetic) that exist between different iterations of the same species. Every new addition is one more thing that needs to add value to the game, and provide useful tools for players and GMs alike, and that's a tall order.

But I'm trying to do that anyway.

There's more to us than meets the eye.

That's the goal of my Species of Sundara project, which debuted recently with Elves of Sundara (which is currently available for Pathfinder Classic, as well as Dungeons and Dragons 5E). Each of these books takes a look at a player species, discuss the various languages they use and how they developed, discuss at least 5 different variations of the species, and provide broad discussions of their environments, their cultures, and their customs.

As an example, elves in Sundara are still recognizable in many ways. They have an extremely long lifespan, they are often thought of as keepers of ancient wisdom, and many times they keep themselves apart from even their proximate neighbors. However, the central theme of elves in this setting is that they are able to adapt themselves to their environments and purposes. This is often done on a deeply physical level, which means that elves you find living in the old growth forests are quite different from those who live atop the mountains, or those who have honed themselves to the singular purpose of war. This adaptability also means that elves are capable of having children with any sentient species, which leads to its own unique permutations that will be covered in a later book.

But while there are defined physical changes between different broad groups (the Rashar, for example, have developed fast-clotting blood that makes them nearly immune to bleed effects, whereas the Malisus have developed light sensitivity due to their primary adaptation being in the Underworld), a point I make clearly is that not every culture is made up solely of certain heritages and bloodlines. Cultures are fluid, and elves who may boast features and abilities inherited from one family may be adopted by, or simply raised in, a different elven culture. Some may have extended family, political alliances, or simply be neighbors with, those who are different than themselves. Additionally, intermarrying may result in traits broadly associated with one group of elves showing up in someone born to a different group. So while there are different sections in the book, there's quite a lot of bleed over that creates gray areas for players and GMs to get creative with.

Also, for those who didn't catch it, go check out my 5 Tips For Playing Better Elves over on my 5 Tips page!

Thinking Outside Defined Boxes

The goal with this series is to break down the ideas of species-based monoliths, not just by providing a larger number of more defined cultures and physical heritages, but to also make it clear that these things are fluid. There are no firm lines drawn that keep someone in a box, and players and GMs are encouraged to get creative with the specifics regarding backgrounds in their games. Because language, culture, family, religion, and experience should all come together to form a unique individual who will have influences from all these different aspects, but who should still be more than just the sum of their parts.

Mostly what I said recently in Remember That Characters Are Still Individuals.

Lastly, though I am trying to fill these splats with as much useful information as I can, there is another important point made in them; that these options are far from the only ones available in the setting. So if players or GMs want to create unique settlements and cultures with their own rules and traditions, that's to be encouraged in Sundara! Because while I can provide a sample to get one's creativity started, I don't want players to feel like they have to color within certain lines when it comes to the cultures their characters can be from, or the influences that shaped them into who and what they are.

Because if I had to choose, I'd much rather have enthusiasm to be creative and unique than to have other players or GMs arguing that because a particular species or culture tends to be one way, then a player has to fall in line with those elements.

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!

Examining The Fantasy Atheist

For a moment, the light dimmed. It was as if a cloud had passed over the sun, leaving the companions in shadow. Then there was an impact in the air, as if the world itself had gasped, and a being stood before them. It glowed with a preternatural light, and it gazed upon them with eyes of fire. It possessed a dozen arms, each bearing items of a strange, alien origin. It turned to the one who had summoned it, nodding its head in acknowledgement. Before it could speak, though, Korrun rolled his eyes.

"Really?" he said. "Don't you think this is taking your make believe a little far?"

The Herald reached out its empty hand, and touched the cleric on the shoulder. "You bear a great burden traveling with this one."

"I do," Invaris replied. "This I know well."

Could I trade him to you? Please? Any bid, I'm listening.

Before we get into the week of this month's character concept, sign up for my weekly newsletter to ensure you don't miss anything! And if you want to give me the fuel I need to keep content like this coming your way consider becoming a Patreon patron! It really helps.

There Are No Gods!

Chances are good that if you've been playing fantasy RPGs for a while that you've come across the atheist character at some point. Though, for added clarity, The Fantasy Atheist is the name of a trope, and is not meant to be a deeper examination of this form of philosophy... especially since that's not how these characters tend to be played when someone decides to use this archetype. These characters are, in most cases, merely a more specialized version of the Fantasy Flat Earther, which I talked about in Examining The "Doubting Thomas" Character Archetype in Fantasy RPGs a while back. Because just like the sorcerer who claims magic isn't real, the Fantasy Atheist will watch a cleric perform a miracle, or even summon a celestial being from the outer planes, and stubbornly fold their arms, refusing to acknowledge the divine exists at all.

This is not a clever or unique character concept. It's a joke character, and it's a joke that was never funny to begin with.

You Can Make It Work (With The Right Circumstances)

With all of that said, there are certain ways you can play this style of character, and certain circumstances that can make them workable. I would still recommend against it due to the baggage the concept has, but you can do it if you're determined enough.

I provided some circumstances in my Sundara setting.

The first way to make this concept work is to play in a setting where the divine is largely mysterious, unknown, and unknowable. Mortals still have their myths and their legends, and you'll still find clerics, oracles, druids, and others wielding the power of the divine, but the gods aren't fully known or understood. Settings where there's an unknown quantity of gods, or where it's impossible to know if the gods of a certain faith are who their followers believe they are, work as well. In short, you need some kind of doubt that what people believe (even people who have been empowered by the gods) is the truth of what's happening beyond the material world.

This is very much the sort of setup you find in my recent release Gods of Sundara, available both in a Pathfinder version and a DND 5E version. Because in Sundara the gods are truly cosmic, which means that mortals can only ever see and comprehend a small portion of these beings. They are alien in many respects, taking different forms and appearing in different ways to different people. So Grimwald with his black sword worshiped by the hill clans of the far north, and the colossal dragon De'nagi paid homage by the lizard folk tribes of the southern swamps are, in fact, both manifestations of the same god; Charne, god of war. The fluid nature of the divine, where people really do have to take it on faith that the things they believe are even remotely true (and not some shell game played by the beings of the spirit realm) means there actually is plenty of room for doubt and argument as to whether a particular god or a particular faith is what someone thinks it is. And that leaves room for discussions on faith, the trustworthiness of religion, and how much knowledge is lost or misunderstood in translation from the realm of the gods to the mortals.

On that note, wanted to mention my 5 Tips For Playing Better Clerics for those who haven't checked it out yet!

Alternatively, You Need To Change Your Character

Not every fantasy setting has that element of mystery to it regarding the divine. In a lot of settings the gods are set in stone, and the faith taught to people on the mortal plane is true. The myths and legends are real, and these divinities will walk the world and perform great deeds... and when they aren't personally appearing, their servants often will in the form of angels, devils, and other divine/infernal beings.

If you're playing in a setting where there's no need to take things on faith because they've been confirmed multiple times, and there are records that this is how the cosmos is structured, then you don't have the wiggle room of a setting where things are more vague. It's hard to argue that the gods don't exist when their servants can wield divine fire to slay demons, and when avatars manifest to aid in your fight against the army of undeath around level 12.

All right, all right, I get it. They're real, okay!

In a setting that doesn't really require belief (since these creatures and powers are just facts of life), you have a few options to really make the atheist character work. The first is using it as a character arc as they learn more about the universe itself. We saw a version of this in Marvel comics when for years Tony Stark refused to believe that Thor was who he said he was. Until finally, out of patience, Thor grabbed Tony and transported them both to Asgard. So Tony saw with his own two eyes that the rainbow bridge, the city of the gods, and more were real. And he learned that the Thor from the old Norse myths and the being he fought alongside were truly one and the same.

As a character arc, this works pretty well. It's usually meant as a way to take an arrogant aspect of a character, and to humble them by showing there are things they don't know, and entities beyond them in the universe. It's similar, in a way, to how we see Han Solo go from, "The force is just a fairy tale," to simply acknowledging it as a fact of the universe.

However, there's the seed of a second way to play this in the Thor and Iron Man example. Because as folks who read Marvel know, Asgardians are not gods as we typically think of them. They are an alien species whose technology is so advanced that it is in many ways indistinguishable from magic. So while it is not inaccurate to call them gods, it is also accurate to say they are highly advanced beings whose understanding of the universe is inexplicable to humanity. It doesn't change the nature of what they are, but the altered definition can make someone seem far more reasonable. Because they aren't denying that these beings exist, nor are they denying the power they wield. Instead, they are simply saying that calling them "gods" is inaccurate, and that more nuanced language is required to understand them more precisely.

The third option was one popularized by Rahadoum in the Golarion setting for Pathfinder. The so-called Kingdom of Man does not allow divine worship or magic within its borders. Not because the gods aren't real, but because the nation acknowledges that they are real, and they want no part of the gods or their followers within their borders. So in this case the "atheist" character isn't denying that gods exist, and that there's some other explanation for extraplanar manifestations and the power of divine characters; they're just saying they want no part of the divine and the mess it represents.

Of the three of these options, the third is probably the easiest to make work in a high fantasy game. From refusing boosts from the cleric, to using health potions and alchemical tablets for restoring your own hit points, to refusing to participate in any form of religious ceremony (or merely making sure others understand you're just being polite), it can cause some friction and challenge, but it isn't usually enough to make the rest of the table want to grab you by the shoulders and shake you for obstinately proclaiming the sky to be chartreuse when we can all plainly see that it's blue.

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned For More!

That's all for this installment of Unusual Character Concepts. Hopefully this one gave you something to chew over, whether you're a player, or a game master.

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 alley cat noir novel Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my most recent collection of short stories 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!

Game Masters, Don't Make Your Players Hold The Idiot Ball

If you've watched any long-running TV show, or even most popular movies, then you're passingly familiar with the idea of an idiot plot. These are, in the broad strokes, plots that only happen because someone (or everyone) abandoned critical thinking and good sense for no apparent reason, thus letting things spiral out of control to create the plot. Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is an obvious modern example, where a supposed professional and expert in the field of magical beasts has to make so many amateurish mistakes and poor decisions for the film to happen that it beggars belief he would ever be allowed to work in a pet store, much less near genuinely dangerous magical creatures.

Ooooh... I wonder what this one does?

We see this kind of plot over all sorts of different media. James Bond gets captured because he walks face first into obvious traps that any experienced spy should have seen coming. Batman, supposedly the world's greatest detective, goes haring off on a wild goose chase because he didn't do the most basic bit of proper deduction. John Q. Normal nearly destroys his one chance with his dream partner because none of his friends slapped him, and pointed out all the massive, obvious mistakes he was making that are necessary for this romantic comedy to be longer than 5 minutes as they clear up a silly misunderstanding.

If you're a game master, it's all too easy to rely on idiot plots to get your party involved in the game. In the name of making sure no one around the table feels like they're being railroaded or talked down to, do not force your players to pick up the idiot ball.

Before I go much further, I want to remind folks that becoming a Patreon patron is how you can help me keep this blog going. And if you don't want to miss any updates, remember to sign up for my weekly newsletter as well!

Playing Catch With The Idiot Ball

The idiot ball is a term for when a character who is normally rational and competent suddenly and inexplicably throws their knowledge, experience, and good sense out the window so that plot can happen. Thought of another way, you throw the idiot ball at a character, and when it hits them they make inexplicably bad decisions due to the impact rattling their brains.

Too often a GM will build an entire game around expecting the party to suddenly set aside good sense and rationality in order to get on board the plot bus. And when they don't do it, a lot of GMs will exasperatedly try to force the characters to make objectively bad or unwise decisions just to move the story along.

Don't do that.

Yeah... why are we doing this, exactly?

Firstly, Create Proper Motivation

Let's use an example here so we're all on the same page. Let's say your party's path goes through an old, abandoned mining village. They're heard rumors about this town, and the supposed haunts that lurk within it. The fastest way to get to their destination is to just ride right through the town, but giving it a wide berth would be smarter and safer. So your players choose to do that, adding half a day or so onto their travel time.

As the GM, you may have that entire camp drawn out and prepped up, filled with zombie hordes, and haunts, angry ghosts, and maybe a necromancer in the depths of the abandoned mine. But with the scenario given, there is absolutely no reason for the party to put themselves directly in harm's way if all their expertise tells them to just go around and avoid stepping in the bear trap.

Don't cut off their escape routes and force them to go through the town just because it's what you had prepped to go. Respect their decision to take the safer road. And then, if you really want them to go back to that mining town, figure out a logical, sensical way to motivate these particular characters to go kick in the door on their own.

I remember that place. Supposed to be treasure in those tunnels, you believe the legends.

For example, if the party was trying to get to the next town over to deliver a package, let them accomplish that goal. Then, once they've finished, drop a fresh hook to go back to the haunted camp. Somebody in town looking for bodyguards on an expedition? Did a contact they were supposed to meet go to the camp and not return? Was the Blood Brand gang, whom the fighter has a grudge against, supposedly holed up in that place, using its reputation to keep people away? Does the dwarven rogue overhear a myth about veins of silver and gold left untapped, speculating that it could be enough to pay off the massive debts they owe while retiring from this adventuring life?

It doesn't matter what reason you use to get the party to want to go to the location you have prepped... but you need to make it their decision to chase the carrot you're dangling. It's why if you read any of my modules like False Valor, The Curse of Sapphire Lake, or even Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh, the first section after the intro is a note to the GM about ensuring the PCs all have proper motivation to be part of this plot. Because without that motivation, there's nothing to stop them from riding right on past.

Secondly, Respect Player Agency and Decision-Making

Even if you get your players to go to the place you want them to go to (which isn't always easy), there's still a chance that they manage to just avoid everything you had planned out.

Again, examples work best here.

Guys... please just step in it? Please? I worked really hard on it...

Let's say the party goes to the camp to look down the tunnel to find treasure. Now, part of the challenge you have is that there are traps and haunts in the various out buildings, and your plan is for the party to trigger enough of them to wear them down a bit. However, the party glances through windows, or peers in through doors, and when they don't see anyone or anything in there that would pose a threat to them, they shrug and move on. As such, they don't trigger any of your carefully laid threats, and they walk right into the main tunnel completely unscathed after using no spells, potions, or special abilities to overcome your threats.

As the GM, this really screws with your plans because you were expecting those hazards to become an issue. But the players doing things the smart way (or just being lucky that they were focused on the mine and indifferent to other areas that actually contained hazards) should be rewarded. Trying to come up with a contrived or flimsy excuse to get the PCs to go into those outbuildings is basically hurling the idiot ball at their head and demanding they go into a place for no apparent reason when they have a necessary goal somewhere else.

Like I said in The Best Zombie Game I Ever Played (Where Nothing Happened), the best thing you can do as the GM is to respect your players' autonomy and decision-making, even when it messes with your plan or your plot. Don't force your players to go down particular paths, or try to dictate what happens. Instead, make sure you know the goal you want them to reach, and let them figure out how they're going to get there on their own. It makes for a smoother, more enjoyable game at the end of the day.

There's a reason this tip made it into my supplement 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master, after all!

Additional Reading

If this week's post struck a chord with you, I wanted to point out some of my other posts on similar subjects that might be of interest too!

- 10 Unique Prompts For Your Next Campaign: If you're just not sure what you want your next game to be about, but you want something that will really grab your players' attention, then you might want to check out a couple of entries off this list.

- Onion Plots, An Alternative to Linear Storytelling For Game Masters: Something I put out only a few weeks ago, this one made quite a splash. It touched on similar themes, but was more about overall plot and campaign construction.

- 3 Ways To Spice Up Combat in RPGs: Combat can often become a boring, repetitive slog if you aren't careful. These suggestions offer alternatives that can change up a fight, and inject some additional challenge back into things.

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!

Remember That Characters Are Still Individuals

The human brain likes neat categories, and clear explanations of things. We like things to be neat and clean, and we have a thirst that often makes us see patterns even when they aren't there. And while this tendency can be useful in a lot of situations, it can often bite us when we're trying to make interesting, unique characters for our games.

Which is why this week I wanted to take a minute to remind folks of a very important thing that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. Namely that while our characters might be part of a larger species, a particular culture, a given religion, they are still individuals. They are shaped by the forces of the game world, but they are not under an obligation to follow tradition if we don't want them to.

There are many knights, but none like me.

As always, for folks who want to stay on top of all my latest updates consider subscribing to my weekly newsletter. And if you want to help me keep the lights on and the wheels greased, you could also become a Patreon patron! Every little bit really does help.

Broad Strokes and Fine Lines

Let's take a moment and think about our lives outside of gaming for a second. All of us have dozens of labels that describe the groups we're part of, and the experiences that have shaped our lives. A person will have an ethnicity, a nationality, a religion (or lack thereof), and a place in a family structure of some kind. In addition to that there's the region they grew up in, what schools they attended, what social clubs or hobbies they've joined, what fandoms they're a part of, what kind of relationship style they prefer, and dozens of other factors that make up who we are as individuals.

And while we know these things about ourselves, we sometimes forget that the people around us are just as complicated, and formed by just as many experiences and forces as we are. Instead of seeing them as complex individuals made up of thousands of different facets, we reduce them to easily observable categories. Often we resort to stereotypes, seeing individuals as indistinguishable from a greater whole that they're part (or seem to be part) of.

A lot of the time these ways of thinking worm their way into our creative processes, and we end up with characters who are all broad strokes, and no fine lines. Characters that, a lot of the time, are actually pretty close to caricatures.

So just because I dress fashionably I'm automatically a Toreador? Foolish mortals.

You see perfect examples of this in the World/Chronicles of Darkness setting. Because Vampire, Werewolf, Changeling, and the other spheres all have sections in the books where we see the stereotypes of certain character options held both within their own culture, and when seen by outsiders. For example, in Vampire games the Toreador are typically seen as art snobs, concerned with fashion, appearance, and beauty above other factors. In Werewolf, the Get of Fenris are seen as warriors, but also as brutes who tend to be bull-headed and crass.

But those are just general, broad stereotypes. They're even listed as such in the book so that we know this isn't required, but it's flavor meant to inform.

These stereotypes aren't like a Nosferatu's physical and spiritual repugnancy; something that is an actual fact within the game world and which has its own mechanic to represent it. They're broadly held opinions... but opinions don't dictate how a character must act, or the experiences they've had. So if you wanted to play an ogre in a Changeling: The Lost game, the facts about your character are the ways you can spend glamour, and the contracts that come more naturally to you. You might be stereotyped as a dim-witted bruiser, but you could just as easily be a computer programmer, an investment banker, or a philosophy professor who, much like Plato, could power bomb people to win an argument if they so desired.

Separate Stereotypes From Facts

A useful exercise I've found is to wipe away everything that isn't a fact about a particular character, and to start from scratch when deciding what they must be, and what you can choose to make them. For example, it is a fact that orcs can see in the dark. It is a fact their bodies are physically more durable than humans (represented by the ferocity trait), and it might be a fact that a certain character has rending teeth because they have a bite attack.

But a lot of the other baggage that comes with playing an orc (that they're inherently violent, that they're savage, that they're evil, etc.) aren't necessarily facts because the rules don't state them as such for games like Pathfinder and more recent editions of Dungeons and Dragons. As such, these are not aspects you are beholden to, and you can often ignore, or plot around them in order to change your particular character and the path they're on. Once you know what facts must be included in their makeup (things that are often physical aspects of who and what the character is), you now need to go down that list of influences (culture, region, religion, history, profession, family, etc.) and ask how those things added to your character to make them who they are.

Whichever direction you choose to go in.

For example, you might have a royal family whose personal bodyguard is made up of orcs drawn from a particular clan as part of a political peace treaty. As such, your character has grown up with a sense of duty for their charge, but also with intense training to educate you not just on the ways of war, but the ways of the court so that you understand the ebb and flow of the rituals surrounding politics. This could lead you to hold certain prestige among the population, and even notoriety if orcs are treated like the Varangian Guard who watched over the emperors of Eastern Rome. It might also mean that you can never marry nor have children until you have left service, as there can be no divided loyalties.

And that's just scratching the surface when it comes to generating a character who seems to defy expectations. Not because they're a one-of-a-kind snowflake, but because their culture, life experience, and opportunities have shaped them into something different than what you may think of when someone says, "I'm playing an orc fighter/barbarian."

An Update: Species of Sundara Has Begun Releasing!

I had this topic on my mind because for the past few months I've been working on a new series of releases I'm calling Species of Sundara. Each of these will explore a player species in my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, and attempt to break down the monolithic identities we usually assign to a given species (which happens to most, if not all, non-humans in fantasy RPGs).

The idea behind these splats is to create several different, broad cultures for each species, and to do away with things like racial languages in favor of more organic options. There will also be different varieties of each creature type, and the ability for players to customize their characters beyond simply playing the same old elf, dwarf, orc, halfling, etc.

And the first one is finally out!

The first installment in Species of Sundara talks about elves in this particular setting. There are five major cultures presented, along with their unique adaptations and changes, as well as getting to the heart of what makes elves so strange in Sundara. Not to spoil, but it's because elves are masters of altering themselves to suit their environment, meaning they can take on a huge variety of forms and evolutions in order to better suit their homes. And, since players always ask, elves in Sundara can conceive offspring with any sentient species... a byproduct of their mastery over their own forms, and the inherent magic inside of them.

For those who'd like to check this one out, this book is available both for Pathfinder Classic, as well as for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Fluff post!

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 alley cat thriller Marked Territory, it's sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my recent 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!

Why Do I Design For Older, Less-Popular Games?

For folks who are just joining us this week, my name is Neal, and I write RPGs for a living... or, at least, as part of my living. While a lot of my older supplements are game-neutral resources like 100 Cults to Encounter or 100 Fantasy Foods, recently I've been working on a lot of releases that are very game and edition-specific. For example, my supplements 100 Mourning Cant Dialects, Phrases, and Meanings and 100 (Mostly) Harmless Goblin Fruits and Oddments to Find in The Hedge are written specifically for the Chronicles of Darkness game Changeling: The Lost, and they're meant to be used in both editions of the game. Additionally I've been releasing supplements for my fantasy RPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age all year, and while they're available in versions that are compatible with Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, they're primarily conceived of (and written for) Pathfinder's first edition.

The most recent example, in case you want to get your copy today!

While there have been a lot of folks who are excited to see more content come off my desk for these and other projects, there have also been a lot of folks who are wondering why I'm keeping one foot in older editions at all. After all, the door has closed on those games. Nobody's playing them anymore, so why cater to them?

This week I'd like to provide answers to those questions, and to shed a little insight onto my goals and my process as a designer. As always, subscribe to my weekly newsletter if you want to stay on top of all my latest nonsense, and if you can afford to support my work consider buying a copy of anything I've got linked in this Monday's update, or becoming a Patreon patron if you want to tip me more directly!

Firstly, Because I Know I'm Not Alone

It's true that once a publisher stops creating new content for a certain system (or creates a great deal less content while focusing on other games), a lot of the player base moves on. Some folks will keep playing the older games and editions they like, though, working their way through all the content that's available for them.

And those folks are going to want fresh material.

This one's for all the necromancers out there! Get your copy!

Because while it's true that the audience for older editions isn't as big, there's often a lot less competition for eyeballs. And if bigger companies have moved on to greener pastures, the people who stayed behind are probably folks who want to see what else you can do with a game system even after it's been around for so many years. Which is why I hope to give them something unique and interesting to play with. Whether it's a Pathfinder Classic setting with no alignment, weird magic, and bizarre cultures, or just expanding on the sheer wildness of the stuff you might find wandering the Hedge in Changeling, I want to provide the remaining audience with something that fires their imaginations and gets them excited about having more adventures in these older games and editions.

Secondly, I Hope To Bring New Converts Back In

There is a truth about the publishing industry I learned as a novelist that applies equally well to tabletop gaming. In short, as long as there is interest in your niche, you're never going to run out of potential readers. And given how many people play tabletop RPGs (it's hard to get solid numbers, but I think it's safe to assume the audience is millions of people) that means there's a huge potential audience for me to reach. Not only that, but younger generations grow up, and people who weren't into tabletop games are going to keep trying out the hobby and exploring their options.

Functionally, this means I'm going to have an ever-refreshing pool of people that I can try to persuade to give my supplements and settings a try. And while I may not be able to get a commanding slice of the gaming populous (especially given that I'm a relatively small fish even within this niche industry), there's still going to be people for whom my content is intriguing and interesting.

Come in and have a look why don't you?

On the one hand, ensuring there are versions of my projects available for more popular systems is just smart business. After all, the more potential eyeballs you can draw your way, the larger the possible audience you have overall. But my hope is that there are going to be players out there who are growing tired of DND 5E, and who are looking for a stepping stone to a different game. And if someone is already fond of Sundara, and wants to explore a more nuanced take on the places I've already presented, it's just a jump to the left to walk these familiar streets in Pathfinder Classic.

This is, in a very real way, an example of what I talked about way back in 5 Things You Can Do To Be a Better Ambassador For Your Hobby. Because rather than complain about how my preferred editions have been left behind, or how there just isn't as much attention on games I like, my goal is to make interesting, intriguing content for my preferred games and edition that draws people in. Not to yell at people for, "playing the worse games," but instead to make something unique that might tempt folks to step into a different tent for a while. Maybe just for this one show, or maybe a little longer if they're enjoying what I'm laying down.

And if folks choose to stick with the other games they like better? Well, that's fine too, because whichever version they grab, at end of the day I still get paid.

Speaking of Pathfinder and My Sundara Setting...

If this is the first you're hearing of my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, the idea is that it's a fantasy RPG that utterly removes alignment, and whose goal is to focus on moving forward rather than constantly looking back into some mythical, half-remembered past. A place of strange magics, unique discoveries, and constantly shifting alliances and borders, it's a realm filled with adventure as surely as any other!

And if you've already gotten your copy of Gods of Sundara (available for Pathfinder and DND 5E), consider checking out some of the Cities of Sundara splats that started this world off!

- Ironfire: The City of Steel (Pathfinder and 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 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 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 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 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.

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!

Don't Underestimate The Power of Battlefield Control Spells (in Pathfinder)

As I said back in Vulgar Displays of Power: Tips For Getting The Most Out of Your Magic in Pathfinder, sometimes the best spells to defeat an encounter won't do a single hit point of damage. Whether it's spells like haste, which allow the fighter and barbarian to crank out additional attacks and obscene amounts of damage, ray of enfeeblement which can leave a powerful foe sluggish and weak when they would otherwise have been a dire threat, or summon monster when you need temporary allies to help stem the tide of foes rushing toward the party, strategic use of magic is often what carries the day.

There is a particular kind of spell that doesn't get enough love in my view, though. Spells which can seem cumbersome and difficult to manage, but in the hands of a tactical player they can make all the difference. These spells are commonly referred to as battlefield control magics.

You should have surrendered. It would have been easier on all of us.

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What is Battlefield Control?

Since terminology can get confusing, a battlefield control spell is, generally speaking, any spell you cast that alters the battlefield. These spells typically alter terrain, create new hazards, or throw up boundaries that can be used to protect allies, reduce an enemy's mobility, and to generally shift the balance of how an encounter is going.

Examples generally work best, though, so here's a simple scenario to keep in mind.

The party is engaged in a battle in an opera house. Cultists with swords are fighting the party down on the stage, but they have allies up in one of the box seats who are firing crossbows down at the party. The swordsmen are a threat, but it's really the bolts that are causing the most harm. So the wizard, thinking quickly, casts wind wall. The wind wall blocks the crossbowmen's line of fire completely, rendering them a non-issue until they move to a new position, which could take several rounds. In that time the rest of the party can focus on the swordsmen, eliminate them as a threat, and then focus on a new enemy.

Just let me adjust this challenge a bit...

Whether you cast darkness so that your party has at least partial concealment from enemies that can't see in the dark, or create pit in a narrow hallway so that enemies don't have the ability to retreat without leaping over a chasm, battlefield control spells allow you to adjust the encounter so as to give your allies advantages and protection by altering the environment around them.

And it's not easy to do... but once you have the proper mindset, you can often tilt a battle with a snap of your fingers and a single, spoken word.

Tips For Getting The Most Out of Your Battlefield Control

The core concept of battlefield control spells (creating obstacles for your foes and benefits for your allies) is pretty simple. However, the same could be said when it comes to describing the basic mechanics of chess, and that doesn't mean it's an easy game to win. Which is why I'd recommend keeping the following in mind when it comes to choosing the best battlefield control spells for your party and your particular campaign.

- First, know your party members. Certain battlefield control spells are going to impact your party just as negatively as your enemies, so you need to be aware of what everyone's capabilities are. If the whole party has darkvision, for example, then darkness can be a great card to have up your sleeve for making sure the enemies are taking miss chances when they attack you. If only one or two party members can see in the dark, though, then everyone else is going to have problems. Obscuring mist is another good example, because unless the rest of the party can see what's happening (an oracle with blindsight, a rogue with fogcutter lenses, a cleric in a goz mask, etc.) then the cloud hampers you and your allies as surely as it does the enemies. This doesn't make it useless, but it does narrow its use significantly.

- Secondly, know the enemies you face. As with the darkness example, if your enemies all have darkvision then the spell doesn't actually help anyone. If you're fighting a dragon and you use obscuring mist to hide from it, its dragon senses will still allow it to pinpoint any nearby party members. Wind wall won't block spells or hurled boulders. Just as you need to know what won't hamper your party, you need to have some idea of your enemies' capabilities so that you can create effects that are actually obstacles to them. Otherwise you'll just be blowing through spells that aren't having an effect.

- Thirdly, consider the actions being taken, and the flow of combat. Throwing up a wall spell to block off a doorway is a great trick to have if a foe tries to escape, but you don't want to brick up the route prematurely in case your party members want to use it, or allies are trapped back there and can't join the fray. Additionally, throwing down pits might hamper ground-based foes who depend on melee, but if they can fly, or fire from further away, those same pits can be a problem for your allies. Don't just look at something in terms of whether it's a good move in this exact moment; ask how it will affect an encounter going forward.

- Fourth, and final for this list, remember that battlefield control spells are often there to waste an enemy's time, energy, and effort. If you throw up a wall, and half a dozen enemies have to spend their turns going over or around it in order to reach the party/to get new lines of effect so they can resume the attack, it can feel like you wasted your action. However, what you actually did was use your one turn to force multiple enemies to reposition themselves, buying your allies time. Because even if some enemies don't slip in your grease spell, or fall into your pit, the fact that the hazard is there means it's complicating the enemy's actions... and that's your job. Being the spanner in the enemy's battle plans.

Further Reading For Spellcasters

If you're a player who's looking to branch out with your spellcasters in Pathfinder, then consider some of the following reading to hit on the RP side of things, as well as the mechanics side!

- 10 Backgrounds For Your Spellcasters: Part of a short series I worked on, this list in particular is there to remind folks that just because you're a wizard, a sorcerer, a cleric, etc., that doesn't need to be all of what your character is. Flesh them out, and provide some context in order to make your character more memorable!

- 5 Tips For Playing Better Wizards: My 5 Tips series has been going on for a while, and I've tried to offer unique tips for as many classes as I can. If wizards aren't your thing, though, I've also covered sorcerers, clerics, bards, druids, alchemists, inquisitors, oracles, witches, summoners, and more!

Like, Share, and Follow For More!

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

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now on Pinterest as well! And if you'd like to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little bit of help can go a long way, trust me on that one.

Onion Plots, An Alternative to Linear Narratives For Game Masters

Every game master knows the pain of players wandering off into the weeds, and away from the plot they had ready. The challenge in this instance is respecting your players' autonomy to go where they want and to explore the world in their own way, while also trying to get them to actually go toward the destination and story you have prepared for them. And no matter how artfully you push, players can feel like they're being railroaded and just driven along the preset path without any choice when you start manipulating things from behind the scenes.

Something that can often help in this instance is to think of your plot not in terms of a line between A and B, but rather as if it were layers of an onion. It doesn't matter where your players start peeling at the onion, because any point of entry can progress them closer to the goal.

Ogres are optional.

Before I get into the details, if you want to make sure you don't miss any of my updates then all you have to do is subscribe to my weekly newsletter! And if you're a regular reader who wants to help me keep the wheels greased and the lights on, consider becoming a Patreon patron today!

What is an Onion Plot, And How Does It Work?

When most of us think of plot in an RPG, we tend to think in terms of straight lines. The party fights goblins in encounter A, this leads them to go up road B to the caverns, and then to go into cave C to slay the leader and rescue the hostages. If they deviate from this path (the party ignores the goblins and keeps moving, they save the town but elect not to go up to the caverns, or to go a different route than the one you prepared, etc.) it can throw you for a loop as a GM.

Instead of thinking of the game in branching paths, like you get in video games and other linear narratives, you need to think of your game in terms of layers instead.

It's just one mask atop another mask.

So, let's take the following campaign premise. The central thrust of this arc is the goblin war chief is raiding surrounding towns. However, the chief is doing this at the behest of a local nobleman in order to justify a clamp down from the duke who wants to expand his military presence. The goblins provide destruction, take hostages, steal things, etc., and this gives the duke the political leverage to recruit, train, and deploy more of his own men across the region. An action that, in other circumstances, would be highly suspicious. Once the duke has an iron fist across the region his plan is to consolidate power, and to draw more allies to him. He then plans to repeat this success with other monstrous allies, growing his forces exponentially until his personal army rivals the king's, allowing him to seize power.

That's the whole onion, and your players are going to start on the outermost rim of it. The actions they take, or don't take, is what determines how they get to the next layer.

Say they defend the town from goblin attack, because they're in the town and it was at least partially self-defense. If they track the goblins back and kill the warchief in the caverns, so much the better, that will end the threat entirely. If they don't do that, word will spread back to the chief about the stiff resistance from one particular village. So now goblin forces will need to be drawn away from other towns and raids, bringing the fight to the party. This will eventually force the party to fight for their lives, as even escaping may be impossible. In either case, the goblin threat will be dealt with, and the party will have thrown a spanner into the duke's plans.

Now you've entered the second layer. The duke wants to expand control over the area, but with his goblin allies defeated he has to now take another tack. Perhaps he approaches the party to try to recruit them to his army. If the party agrees, you now have the ability to send them out to "problem" areas that aren't in the duke's hair, hoping they are killed so his plans can continue. Perhaps the "rebellion" they are putting down informs them of the knights who came, executing dissidents and hanging so-called traitors without authority, thus showing the duke's hand early. Perhaps young men were being press-ganged into the army, and the townsfolk are resisting what is basically the kidnapping of their young men. If the party refuses the duke's offer, then the nobleman can send his own men disguised as bandits to try to assassinate the party and eliminate them that way. Either way, the party faces danger, and in the end will become a much larger thorn in the duke's side.

And so on, and so forth.

Focus on The Goals Instead of The Methods

This is something I've said before, but it bears serious repeating. Focus on what you want the party to do, rather than how you want them to do it. If you create the scenario, just roll with what actions the PCs take, keeping the big picture in mind.

Trust me, it's ALL connected!

The major advantage of thinking of your plot in terms of layers, rather than in terms of lines, is that it stops you from getting overly hung up on how you want the PCs to accomplish their goals. If they want to fight the mercenary band of orc raiders, cool, throw down in a field and call it a day! If they want to wage a campaign of assassination and poisoning, taking the orcs out one by one, that gets the job done, too. Maybe they want to negotiate with the orc leaders and become their new paymasters, giving them a fair wage and benefits to staff the abandoned fortress the party recently acquired. If that's within the sensible nature of the leaders of the band, there's no reason that couldn't work... and if you want to throw in a complication like the mercenaries' mates and children are being held hostage by a cult forcing them to fight, now the party can save the children, defeat the cult that was going to be the next big enemy early, and make a slew of new allies in the process!

If you think of your plot in terms of layers of complication that are fluid, and able to respond and change to fit what your party does, it allows you to give players that freedom and agency, while also maintaining some kind of structure for the story you're trying to run. Because you may not know how the party is going to defeat a given challenge, but whatever they do is going to cause ripples, and that will peel back the layers as they go.

Additional Reading

I didn't have any organic way to work in some links for my other articles and projects, but folks who liked this article should definitely check out the following.

- The Onion of Secrets (A Character Concept With Layers): This unusual character concept piece is the one that indirectly inspired this Monday's post. As such, I figured those who want to make characters who keep a lot of different secrets going might enjoy it... applicable to PCs and NPCs alike!

- Critical Hits: The Curse of Sapphire Lake: With the spooky season upon us, I thought I'd share this module of mine for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. It's been struggling to get over that Copper metal status, so check it out... especially since it offers your players multiple endings depending on the actions they take!

- 100 Encounters in a Fey Forest: A system-neutral list of potential incidents, this is always a good one to keep up your sleeve if you want your players to stay on their toes while they're traveling through fey territory.

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!

5 Tips For Running The "Curse of The Crimson Throne" Adventure Path

A little while back I put together 4 Tips For Running The "Rise of The Runelords" Adventure Path, and readers generally seemed to respond well to it. As such, I figured I'd offer some more advice for game masters considering running Curse of The Crimson Throne for their tables this week. My Table Talk run through of the campaign starts with The Saga of Majenko, as I called it, so feel free to give it a read through if you want to see how my table completed the campaign. Of course there will be spoilers both there and here, so keep that in mind going forward.

It's a tough one... but well worth running with a few tweaks.

Before we get into the meat of things, consider signing up for my weekly newsletter so you don't miss any updates! And as always, please become a Patreon patron if you can... even small donations add up.

Tip #1: Give Locations A Personality

Walk down the wrong alley in Korvosa, and who knows what you'll find.

While CoTCT isn't the only campaign that takes place in a major urban area, it was one of the first games Paizo put out that did. And Korvosa itself is large enough that a GM should really sit back and think of how to best bring across the personality of this city, as well as the feel of all its different districts and locations. The docks should feel different from the Shingles, which should feel different from the castle district, and so on, and so forth.

My personal take is that Korvosa should feel akin to Gotham City. It has splendor and grandeur, but there's dark alleys aplenty, crushing poverty, and a crazed vigilante that only half the populace believes is real. But don't worry, we'll get to Blackjack later.

For GMs who want to keep some resources on-hand for adding details to make things organic, consider some of the following:

- 100 Gangs For Your Urban Campaigns: While we meet a few members of Korvosa's scummier side, given the roles the PCs get roped into it's good to have more. Whether they're snitches and contacts, former comrades, or just background information for you to feed your players when they go to the rough parts of the city, there's all sorts of options in this supplement to draw on.

- 100 Random Taverns: Though not all of the taverns in this collection are in a city, there's plenty of strange and unusual options that are. So if the PCs want to ask around for information, catch a bite to eat, or just have some RP time, consider adding some of these locations in between the margins in the setting.

- 100 NPCs You Might Meet at The Tavern: Whether the PCs are looking for informants, experts in history, gossip, or just somebody to fix a damaged boot, there's all sorts of strange and unusual NPCs in this collection... it's also (at time of writing) the only one of mine to reach Gold seller status!

Also, this tip applies to more than just Korvosa (though it will be where the bulk of the campaign first happens). It also applies to Scarwall, to the countryside you travel through, to Kaer Maga if you go there, to the lands of the Shoanti, each of these places needs to have its own personality in order for the players to really engage with it. Don't just read box text and roll some dice, either. Incorporate the environment, the culture, the feel, the smell, and the taste of things so that there's a real difference from block to block, street to street, region to region.

Tip #2: Prep Your Players For Their Upcoming Role

The city needs people like you. Will you volunteer today?

Like most other adventure paths, CoTC gives players a background trait to help tie them to the plot. I remember when I first tried the adventure that I thought Gaedren Lamm was going to be the antagonist of the whole first arc of the game. After all, he's such an ideal bad guy. He's just a ganglord with a decent gimmick, and he's been in power long enough that he's wronged an entire party of adventurers who are coming together to deal with him.

If you've read the adventure at all, though, you know that Lamm is confronted and defeated in the very first session. After that the party gets sort of unceremoniously shuffled to the "opportunity" to be a special part of the Korvosa City Watch, putting their unique talents to work under Cressida Kroft. The difficulty here is that if the players put together a party with mutual grievances against this one guy, then once he's dead/captured/no longer a threat, their primary motivation may be complete.

As such, "spoil" this plot development with your players, make sure it's the role they're comfortable in, and that they've given their characters proper motivation to do it. My game actually skipped the cloak and dagger, and just started off as a squad of low-level patrolmen to get ahead of this arc.

Additionally, you should actually prepare a list of dos and don'ts for players once they accept their role as special consultants/troubleshooters to make it more than just a pretense for the rest of the campaign. Does the city offer armaments to them, allowing you to bypass the clunky mechanic of coinage as a reward and so they can get better gear, for example? Are they expected to bring people in alive for trial? Will they have jurisdictional squabbles with the Order of The Nail, or the queen's Gray Maidens?

Since the first half of the game is basically a cop drama, lean into that aspect and make sure your players really enmesh themselves in the city, and understand they can make a difference... for good or ill, depending on how they choose to act.

Tip #3: Make Sure Actions Have Consequences

I will remember this. Always.

While this adventure path eventually leaves Korvosa, the players are going to meet the same NPCs, go back to the same districts, etc., over and over again. The most important thing you can do as a GM is to make sure that the players' actions have appropriate consequences... both good and bad.

I talked about some of this in Character Reputation in RPGs: The Small Legend, but specific examples might be more helpful for applying this tip to your game.

Take the character of Thousand Bones, the Shoanti NPC. Early on the players have to find the body of someone important to him, and return it to Thousand Bones. This is a sensitive matter, both because of his grief, and because of the... fraught nature of relations between Korvosa and the tribes of Shoanti people. And since the PCs are eventually going to venture out into the harsh country where those tribes live, how they treat Thousand Bones, and how they approach his case should be reflected when they see him again later. If they were rude, dismissive, or disrespectful, they'll have a much harder time getting him to help them. If, on the other hand, they were helpful, sensitive, and acted in good faith, they'll find he's a far more willing ally to their cause.

There's countless opportunities for this to happen. Do the PCs kill Lamm, or take him prisoner and arrest him?  Does that create a power gap that other gangs move into, or are they lying low so as not to catch the attention of these new troubleshooters? What sort of situation do they create when they deal with the Spider? Do they form relationships with the community by doing outreach and helping, or do they hide behind their badge while abusing their authority? Do they form a bond with people that gets citizens to trust them over the plague doctors? Or are they seen as even less reliable than the hellknights, because at least the Order of The Nail has rules they follow?

The story shouldn't be happening in a vacuum. So keep track of what the PCs do, and ask how that affects the city, future scenarios, and how certain NPCs view them... as well as what sort of reputation it garners them.

Tip #4: Keep Track of Active NPCs and Relationships

I don't know who you are or how you got here, but it's in the box text.

This is related to the previous tip, but I felt it should be mentioned on its own just to drive home how important this is. Because CoTCT is jammed with named NPCs who can be more or less important, and if you want to create a cohesive narrative with your players it's important to look at who is going to matter going forward, and to ensure that you put in the effort to establish some kind of relationship with the party in order for those NPCs to actually matter to the party, and your players.

Cressida is a primary example of this. She is a major NPC, but if you just treat her like a stock quest giver then the party is going to have zero investment in her struggles trying to manage their actions along with the rest of the deteriorating situation in the city. Another big example of this is the mysterious vigilante Blackjack, who the PCs eventually have to go and save from a dungeon. But if they've never met Blackjack before (he never swooped in to assist them in a fight that was going poorly, he's never contacted them to provide plot-relevant information Batman-style, etc.), this is going to have zero impact on them. As such, what feels like a huge moment plot-wise is just going to fall flat because it comes out of left field.

Whether the NPCs are written into the module, or you want to add moments with individuals that aren't part of the established game (be it discussions with Severs DiViri from the Order of The Nail, or turning characters like Lamm into longer-running figures in the event the PCs don't kill them, etc.), you need to solidify those relationships to give them weight in the game. Otherwise they become just so much box text in the background that people forget about, or aren't interested in, and that sucks all the impact out of the story.

Tip #5: Keep Players Invested in The Overarching Plot

It's all connected!

CoTCT starts off as a minor story of revenge on a ganglord who personally wronged a bunch of people, and eventually spirals out into fighting a queen possessed by the spirit of a legendary dragon trying to re-conquer an empire that's centuries in the dust, and to subjugate thousands of people through blood magic. Unfortunately the sort of PC who'd be right at home in the former scenario may not be the sort of PC who has the motivation and drive to handle the latter scenario.

Without a little help from the GM, that is.

The early parts of the game are fairly straightforward. You're acting on behalf of the city because it's your job, this is where you live, it pays your bills, and whatever personal motivations you have as a character. As things spiral out of control with the queen actively engaging in conspiracy, becoming more and more extreme, etc., it is very important to make sure the PCs don't just say sod this, and flee the city so that Ileosa is no longer their concern.

There's a lot of things you can do, here. If the PC is loyal to the city because it's their home, or they view it as their duty to protect it, lean into that. Especially if it means establishing relationships with other protectors of the city so that the PC feels like part of an organization rather than just some unaccountable nobody who can book it if they get cold feet. If the PC is more selfish, ask who they care about in the city? Because they could leave, but that would mean their sister, their friends at the bar, their favorite restaurants, all those people they've protected (who should exist as NPCs with names and faces by that point) would be left defenseless. Duty to flesh and blood people, rather than the idea of city or country, can be  equally useful as a motivator.

Whether the motivation is religious zeal (useful for Iomedae worshipers), loyalty to their companions, a sense of duty to stand against the horror the queen has become, or even something as petty as spite, make sure the players don't feel like they're scrambling to remain part of the plot because it's become so different than what they what the early game might suggest.

Lastly, make sure you break down the current goals and plot arc in a way that makes sense to your players. With so much happening at any given time this adventure path can easily feel like a disjointed mishmash if events and characters aren't having a lasting impact on folks sitting around the table.

Also, if you're looking for any additional advice that will come in handy when running this and other adventure paths, don't forget to check out my supplement 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master!

What's Next on Table Talk?

That's it for this installment of Table Talk! What would you like to see next? Or do you have your own story you'd like to share with folks?

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