More Meta Supplements Are Coming Your Way!

Folks who've been following my work over the past few years have seen all kinds of different supplements with my name on them. I've had general fill-in content for Game Masters like 100 Random Oracular Pronouncements, or 100 Random Mercenary Companies. I've released DND 5E adventure modules such as my murder mystery False Valor, or the horror-themed Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh. I've written 14 different supplements for my Sundara setting at time of writing, all of which are conveniently listed out in my previous entry What Do You Want To See Next in Sundara: Dawn of a New Age? And that's not even counting the various World of Darkness supplements I've put out, or the short stories I've got on the market, like my contributions to the Werewolf: The Apocalypse collection Tales From The Moot, or my Pathfinder Tale The Irregulars.

Needless to say, it's been a busy few years.

However, something that was meant to be kind of a one-off palate cleanser for me as a creator ended up making a far bigger impact than I expected. So, in a classic case of, "follow the audience's interest," it looks like I'm switching to a new project for at least the next few months. And for lack of a better term I'm calling them my meta supplements.

Just in case you didn't see this when it dropped.

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Making More of The Meta

Typically when I put together a supplement it's full of stuff that's meant to be in-world. It's NPCs you might meet, or encounters you might have, taverns you could meet in, guilds or cults you might cross, things of that nature. However, when 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master first dropped, it went Silver within the first few days. I won't say that's never happened to me before, but it is rare enough that when it does happen I sit up and take notice.

Since the response to that supplement was bigger than I expected, I figured I'd try another couple of titles out to see if the response was similar. And while 100 Character Goals and Motivations didn't explode quite as hard as the Game Master tips supplement did, it still went Silver faster than most of my other supplements have. While the third installment, which will be 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better RPG Player hasn't dropped yet (though it should be out this weekend, and I'll update the link to reflect that when it comes out), I am currently plotting more of these supplements for the future as long as readers keep checking them out.

So, what makes a meta supplement, exactly? Well, one thing is that they tend to have a lighter tone, as evidenced by Why Are You Here? the introduction from the goals and motivations supplement where we find that the fighter's true motivation is nowhere near as dark, serious, or gritty as everyone else in the party.

Perhaps more important than a lighter tone mixed with a little humor, though, meta supplements aren't in-game resources that are meant to be plopped down as a piece of set design. Instead they're advice on how you can be a better player, a better Game Master, or a discussion of the meta aspects of the story you're trying to tell. In a lot of ways this makes these supplements less concrete than some of the other examples I mentioned in the opener, because they were meant to be point-and-shoot. If you need a bartender, open this supplement. A cult, open this one. A knightly order, a mercenary company, a guild, there's a supplement you can pluck them out of and fill in the blank.

At the same time, though, I have a sneaking suspicion that it is the less concrete aspects of these supplements that might be what makes them popular. There's dozens of splats out there full of character names and the contents of treasure piles, but not a lot of them discussing character motivations, story beats, player habits, and general table behavior. But we'll see how folks respond to the upcoming releases, and whether the demand maintains. Because as I repeatedly say on this platform, as long as readers are buying copies and asking for more, that's a vein I'll continue to mine until I'm completely out of ideas.

Also, if you enjoyed the little audio drama above, consider subscribing to the Azukail Games YouTube channel. We need every set of eyeballs we can get, since YouTube won't monetize it till after it gets 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watched content within the past year... we're nowhere near either of those, and every drop fills the bucket up a little bit more!

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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!

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