3 Systems I Would Recommend For Running an SCP Foundation Game

While I might be a little late to the game, so to speak, I've been really enjoying the SCP Foundation as a fictional entity. From short stories, to YouTube lore channels, to short films, there's a lot of it to take in, and it's getting a little bit bigger every day. Heck, I even made my own contribution a little while back with 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, SCP Edition, and the audio drama version I put together below.

Consider checking those out, if you haven't seen them yet. It's been tough getting views on them, and I'd like to justify doing a little bit more in this setting, if I can.

However, with so much rich content under creative commons license, it was only a matter of time until someone put out an SCP roleplaying game. And while there is an SCP-specific game on the market now, simply titled SCP The Tabletop RPG, I haven't found it to be a game that really grabs me.

This got me thinking about what other games there are out there one could use to run an RPG campaign in the SCP universe. And while I'm sure there are a lot of games that I missed, I think that the following list makes for some pretty strong starting places.

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Game #1: Delta Green

Just the facts, please, sir.

The first game on this list, and perhaps the most obvious, is Delta Green. This secretive government entity exists in the shadows, and since the raid on the town of Innsmouth in the 1920s the agents of this bureau have combatted the horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos wherever they find them, protecting the world and safeguarding us against the machinations of mad cults and dark gods alike.

While this game started off life connected to the Call of Cthulhu RPG, they've grown and changed to the point that they're separate entities at this juncture. However, honorable mention to Call of Cthulhu as another option for those who want their players to be even more vulnerable than your average Delta Green agent. If that's an option you want to pursue, consider grabbing the Investigator Handbook and the Keeper's Rulebook for the 7th Edition of the game!

Game #2: Hunter: The Vigil

Werewolves, you say? Shame... I'll just have to shoot them a LOT.

If you want a game where the characters are a little more durable, but have to deal with just as much supernatural nonsense, I'd also recommend checking out Hunter: The Vigil. Part of the Chronicles of Darkness series of RPGs, Hunters are the ones who bump off the things that go bump in the night, and they're often used by storytellers as a threat when players are being a little too loud, and breaking the veil of secrecy a little too often in the other spheres.

While the variability in Hunter can be used to scale the power and equipment your agents have access to, you can also use the other spheres of the Chronicles of Darkness to bring in the various aspects of the SCP universe. If you need reality benders and bizarre magic users, Mage: The Awakening has you covered. If you want beings of phenomenal, cosmic power to act as allies or antagonists, you can find them in Demon: The Descent. And if you want that mid-range of mutants and monsters, then all of the creatures and power sets located in Deviant: The Renegades might be right up your alley.

This option has the most scalability of the choices, but it does require a lot of reading on the part of the ST, and it would require the largest number of books. Still, if you happen to have the Chronicles of Darkness books gathering dust on a shelf, and you're looking for a new way to breathe life into them, consider giving this a try!

Game #3: Savage Worlds

Absolute savages.

Much as with the Chronicles of Darkness, the Savage Worlds RPG system has a lot of different games you could bring to bear on creating an interconnected SCP universe game. However, Savage Worlds tends to be a lot lighter on mechanics, which might be more appealing to some players who like the idea of a big, sprawling, multi-book game, but who don't want to have a stack of tomes on the floor that reaches to the top of the table should they need to reference something during the campaign.

While you'll definitely need the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition as well as Dark States to start with, I'd also recommend using a combination of the weird Western game Deadlands, and the Victorian monster hunting game Rippers as the basis for the campaign. While both of these are period piece games, they provide a lot of the rules and backgrounds one could easily use to get an SCP campaign going. You might even want to expand into books like Weird War I, or even Necessary Evil which includes rules for super powered characters, but that will be up to your particular game, and what sort of elements you want to bring in.

What Games Did I Miss?

Do you have a game or system that you feel would make a good basis for covering the wide variety of genres and stories found in the SCP universe that didn't make this (admittedly very short) list? Toss it in the comments below! I'm always looking for new stuff to check out, so I'm happy to take a gander at any recommendations folks want to throw my way.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Daily Motion channel!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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

The Black Ballad... A Campaign That Begins Once Your TPK Ends!

Death is the end in most campaigns. Whether you were just starting off your adventuring life, or you stood before the wrath of a great threat and were struck down, if there is no one to call you back from the blackness then that is where your tale ends. But in The Black Ballad, it's where your adventure begins!

This is a project I've been keeping an eye on for a while, but I realized I haven't actually talked about it here on Improved Initiative. And since we're getting pretty close to its release on BackerKit, I figured this would be a good time to give it a shout out!

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

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

What Is The Black Ballad?

The short version is that the Black Ballad is a campaign set in the massive city of Nox Valar in the Sunless Crossing... the world that one finds themselves in after they've died. Where you all go at that point is, at least in part, up to you!

According to the page on Storytellers Forge, there are 10 cinematic chapters to this campaign, and over 30 separate acts, along with multiple side quests. What's even more unique, though, is that unlike other campaigns this one comes with multiple endings and paths as a way to really drive home that the player's have agency to follow the paths they want. Speaking from personal experience, that's something I've never seen before in a campaign book!

This is in addition to presenting the game in a variety of formats for ease of reading, phenomenal work by award-winning artists and writers, and coming with an entire soundtrack to accompany it! Which makes sense when you consider it was inspired by the works of DiAmorte, who has done their part to help bring this project to life.

Speaking of, check out DiAmorte on YouTube to get a taste of their tunes!

Additionally, while The Black Ballad is intended to be compatible with Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, it's also setup in such a way that converting it to any d20 game (such as Pathfinder's 2nd Edition for all the folks who jumped ship during the OGL madness recently) is straightforward and simple. It's even been hinted by Rick Heinz, the writing director on the project, that there may be different editions available depending on what game folks prefer to play.

Now, if you checked out the links for the project, and you think the idea of a game that takes place after everyone has died and finds themselves in that nexus of the dead, make sure you check out The Black Ballad on BackerKit! It's launching on March 7, 2023, so depending on when you read this blog will depend on what you find.

So, here's hoping to see you there when the Ballad begins!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Daily Motion channel!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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

Where Would You Like To See "The Irregulars" Return in Golarion?

At any given time I've got maybe a dozen different projects spinning around my work desk. From articles and blogs, to TTRPG supplements, to videos, audio dramas, and more, I generally keep things pretty busy on my end. However, one of the shifts that I made during the recent uncertainty regarding the OGL was that I started putting together some more ideas for Pathfinder Infinite content... and while doing that, an idea that I've been hemming and hawing over for a while came back to me.

In short, I'd like to get the team back together, and redeploy The Irregulars into Golarion. If I did, where would you like to see them go next?

Seriously, check it out if you haven't yet!

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

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Who Are The Irregulars?

My first professional writing credit as an RPG creator was a short story for Paizo's Pathfinder Tales titled The Irregulars, which is now available on Drive Thru RPG. Described as the best and the brightest of the bottom of the barrel, this squad of irregular troops specialize in sabotage, ungentlemanly warfare, impossible missions, and disruption on a scale that far exceeds their numbers. Outcasts and rebels from the ranks of Andoran's armed forces, they were given one last chance to prove themselves... and they took to the freedom of their new task with gusto!

In short, they're kind of my fantastical take on the A-Team.

We could be anywhere. Anytime. Sleep well.

I really enjoyed writing their debut adventure (the start of a campaign of sabotage in Molthune, suggested to me by James Sutter, who was head of fiction at the time), and ever since the story came out I've wanted to more with Garm, Trilaina, Chaplain, Gunner, and their half-mad commander Lieutenant Sturgeon Hook. I never really did more work for Paizo at the time, though, and response to their original tale wasn't overwhelming enough to talk about a novel for them at the time. Thanks to the existence of Pathfinder Infinite, though, I could call the squad out of retirement, and send them off to do what they do best once again!

My question for you, dear readers, is where would you like to see the Irregulars causing mayhem this time? Should they go into Isger, trying to do what they can to pry the fingers of Cheliax off the thrall state's throat? Should they infiltrate the Shackles to retrieve information, or possibly a person, important to Andoran? Does one of the gray corsairs call in a favor, getting the squad to hit a location on Stonespine Island to free a group of slaves?

My ears are open... so leave a comment down below regarding where you would like to see the squad deployed. Because if folks want to see them come back, mayhem will quickly ensue!

Of Course, There Are Other Options As Well...

While I'm really excited about the idea of a novella about this squad, I understand that might not be everyone's cup of tea. However, if military fantasy set in Golarion doesn't strike you, what other kinds of stories would you care to see? Gothic romances in the style of Ailson Kindler? Heroic epics featuring small parties of heroes? Urban fantasy where elven private eyes have to match wits with skinwalker gang lords and hobgoblin loan sharks in the City at The Center of The World?

Cause I've got some ideas for those, as well.

And if you're looking for some free samples of my stories set in Golarion thus far, check out The Silver Raven Chronicles, the (albeit unfinished) tales of my group's run through the Hell's Rebels adventure path.

- Part One: Devil's Night

- Part Two: From The Ashes

- Part Three: The Raven's Nest

- Part Four: Circles in Salt

But maybe Golarion isn't a setting that really draws your interest... well, what about the World of Darkness? Because as I mentioned back in Stories of Sundara, Tales of The World of Darkness, and More!, I've been actively trying to build a jumping off point out of some of the flash fiction appearing in my World/Chronicles of Darkness supplements. Because while the anthology Tales From The Moot for Werewolf: The Apocalypse was met with a somewhat mixed response, I figured that changing things up might get readers' attention.

Would you like to see a novella, or even full novels, set in the World of Darkness or Chronicles of Darkness setting? Or would you prefer a podcast series with a team of readers acting out the audio drama, like you see on the Azukail Games YouTube channel where I put shorts like the one above? Regardless of which of those you prefer, which sphere of the game would draw you most? The beautiful madness of Changeling: The Lost? The weird lines of life and death of Geist: The Sin Eaters? Do you want to hear or see Mage done some justice, or do you feel like Promethean really deserves a moment in the spotlight?

Again, toss a comment below if this sounds like something that would interest you... of course, subscribing to the channel would also send a message to my publisher that people have their ears open for that kind of project going forward.

As a final option, though, I've also been building some other universes. There are several Sundara stories in the various splat books for the setting, and most of those have been dramatized on the Azukail Games YouTube channel as well. Then there's the sci-fi shorts, like the story above, that folks have been telling me I should weave into a more cohesive narrative in a future timeline... either for Sundara in the space age, or for another sci-fi setting all its own.

While Legacy of Flames by Isaiah Burt was the first Sundara novella to be released, I'd be more than happy to pen my own if folks wanted to hear stories of my setting from my perspective as the creator. Or if you're more of a listener than a reader, I could expand the audio efforts I've been putting forth to make bigger, longer projects in a serial format. Once Azukail Games gets the channel monetized, at least, and such efforts would generate ad revenue, in addition to getting more people interested in the setting as a whole.

Let Me Know What You Want To See!

I'm in something of a unique position right now. There was a big gap created by Wizards' OGL power grab, and I'm faced with either going back to the projects I had planned, or going off in a new direction. I won't lie, the idea of writing more stories, and building stronger fiction for any of the settings and worlds I mentioned above, would be a lovely breath of fresh air in my workload. Most of the time I'm just making one list, one setting splat, or one species adaptation after another, and it does tend to get a little dull after 2-3 years.

But living under late capitalism, I can't just decide to make something new. I need to make sure my readers are coming with me, and they're going to support that endeavor going forward. So please, leave your thoughts in the comments, or get at me on social media (links below in case you don't follow me already)! I'm looking forward to building something new, and I want as many folks in on the ground floor as I can find.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Daily Motion channel!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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