Gathering The Grimdark (Tying My Warhammer 40K Shorts Together)

Most folks who wind up on this blog are here for TTRPG discussion, but if you've been checking out my Table Talk posts, then you know I've been trying to work a little bit of my fiction into my updates for the past few years. And of the stories I've been telling, the most popular pieces have all been tales of the grim darkness of the far future. So if you've been enjoying my Warhammer 40K stories, keep on reading, because I've got an update that (I hope) will peak your interest.

And if you're just joining us, well, there's plenty of stuff for you to catch up on!

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!

How This All Got Started

As with so many recent creative endeavors, this whole project actually got started thanks to the pandemic. Let me explain.

I'd been quietly getting into Warhammer 40K since about 2018 or so, mostly via the various readers and lore channels on YouTube. And when the pandemic hit and we were all staying home, I needed something to stop me from online window shopping, where it was all too easy to just buy random fan merch. So I decided to take a jacket I'd had hanging in my closet for a while, get some fabric spray paint, and make myself a little something as a dedication to Cadia. And rather than just post photos when it was done, though, I put together a short story to commemorate the project.

"Almost" is still up, for folks who want to read it, as well.

And it's possible I would have just called it quits there. I had fun my with my arts and crafts project, and I enjoyed writing a little story to go with it, but then I crossed with Paul Graham, the voice and talent behind the YouTube channel A Vox in The Void (which you should go subscribe to if you enjoy this kind of content). He liked "Almost," and as you can see he did a lovely reading of it. The community response was overall positive, and it was refreshing actually having some of my work seen by people who genuinely liked it.

So I figured, what the hell, I'll write another story or two and see where it goes!

At the time of this blog I've put together 7 Warhammer 40K short stories (8 if you count the 50 Two Sentence Horror Stories, Warhammer 40K Edition), and a majority of them have either appeared on A Vox in The Void, or are slated to in the near future. A few of them have even gathered a small following, which makes me extremely happy. Not only that, but when "Almost" went up, the channel had around 8k subscribers. As of right now there are 46k folks tuning in to listen!

And since commenters seem to enjoy the tales I put together, I sat down with Paul and pitched him an idea... what if I started taking the individual story threads that are already on the channel, and began weaving them together to a single, climactic conclusion?

The Narrative Thickens

The first story that gathered audience enthusiasm was Waking Dogs: A World Eaters Tale. In this story we follow Crixus, a veteran of the long war who remembers the 12th Legion before the return of Angron, and the installment of the Butcher's Nails into the legion. During a moment of lucidity he looks around at the twisted battlefield, and decides this is unacceptable. In a shocking bout of wrath and violence, he purges the entire force he was sent to support, his rage now completely focused for the first time in 10,000 years. He means to wipe out the rabid dogs that the World Eaters have become... an impossible task, but one he intends to dedicate himself to all the same.

The sequel to this story, Broken Chains was even more popular, as we see Crixus confront his old sergeant, and settle a score that's been millennia in the making. We also get a glimpse into what he was like before the Heresy, and before the Imperium fell into rot and ruin.

The second thread that I laid down began in the story Field Test. In this tale an inquisitor comes to a world in the path of an ork waaaaugh, and she assures the populace she has a weapon to devastate the greenskins. In the end, though, it was all a test for a member of her retinue... something to prove his worth in a real, life-or-death situation. This story was, surprisingly, the most popular piece of mine so far, both in terms of reads on Vocal, as well as in terms of views on A Vox in The Void.

The third thread is the upcoming story Blackest Knights, which is a tale of the Deathwatch. Chosen by the viewers in a very close vote, this story follows Kill Team Errant, who is made up exclusively of blackshields. As the story goes on, though, we begin to realize what the secret is behind their black armor, and why it is they had nowhere to redeem themselves other than the Deathwatch.

This story hasn't yet appeared on the channel, but it is currently in the works, so if it sounds like fun, stay tuned to see what's coming up!

So what's the grand plan? Well, without giving too much away, I want to weave together these three narratives throughout the coming year (or possibly two years) into a single, cohesive whole. First to bring together Inquisitor Hargrave with Kill Team Errant to face a threat that requires the reinforcement of that many astartes to act as a decapitating strike. Then after we follow Crixus on his quest to wipe out the stain of his brothers from the galaxy, we begin to realize that war can make for strange bedfellows indeed... and in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.

What sort of numbers are we looking at, though?

Well, ideally, there would be one more story to bring together the inqusitor with the kill team. Then another story about Crixus that would potentially lead to his one-man quest for vengeance turning into something a little grander in scale (not much, but a little). Then a third story bringing all of them together to face down a serious threat that will thin the ranks of our protagonists quite significantly. And while I could end the story there, if that's what readers want, I would also like to write an epilogue tale, showing the ripples of what this combined force managed to accomplish.

So, all in all, we're looking at between 3 and 5 additional stories, making for a full grouping of between 7 and 9 stories (which would make for several hours of listening content, if you prefer the audio versions).

In The End, This All Depends on You

As I've said repeatedly over the past several years, audience participation is what gets content made. I'm all too happy to write stories if people are reading and/or listening to them, and I'm not shy about taking on big, bold narratives if there's interest. But I want to make sure there's folks who are actually eager to hear more of the story.

So what can you do to help make this happen?

Sending in reinforcements is ALWAYS an option!

First things first, please read and share the text versions of these stories. It's really tough getting eyes on them, and a lot of folks don't even know there is a text version. If you prefer to listen to your narratives, though, then listen to Paul's gorgeous presentations, like, comment, and subscribe to A Vox in The Void if you haven't already! The more subscribers there are, and the more listeners the channel has, the better the chance there is that I'll be able to keep working with the channel on big projects like this.

If you like these stories enough to throw money at us as creators, you can either leave me tips through Vocal, Buy Me a Ko-Fi, or consider becoming a Patreon patron. I'm the first to admit I'm not 40K-specific in a lot of my content around here, but if you like tabletop RPGs with occasional steps into the grimdark with things like my Pathfinder Character Conversion for a Night Lord Space Marine, then you may be more at-home than you expect.

And if you'd like to help support A Vox in The Void, you can Buy The Channel a Ko-Fi as well, leave a PayPal donation, and of course hit that Join button on YouTube in order to pay $2.99 a month to help Paul keep the content flowing.

Some Extra Content For You!

I wanted to say thanks for reading through all of that, and thanks in advance of any and all support you can offer. It takes a lot of time and energy to get projects like this together, and it really helps when the audience is there to help us boost the signal, to offer an encouraging word, or to just put a tip in the jar.

And since you made it this far, I figured I'd offer you some extra content as well!

In addition to all of the stories mentioned above (and this video, which is the audio version of my 50 Two-Sentence Horror Stories, 40K Edition found on my Daily Motion channel), I wanted to lay out some of the extra stories I've put together that you may have missed!

- Broken Heroes (A Knight Story): When Renn and a squad of city guard are sent out into the wild to retrieve an experimental weapon, they end up fighting for their lives against waves of enraged, colossal, insectoid creatures called Deadheads. In trying to lead them away from his companions, Renn discovers an ancient bunker... and a weapons who's been waiting for centuries to finish the fight it started so long ago. This one hasn't yet been slated to get an audio version from A Vox in The Void, but if you send messages in to Paul he might consider putting it on the docket in the future!

- The Emperor's Hand (A Gav and Bob Story): Gav Smythe has a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When the ogryn and the rest of his inquisitor's retinue wind up in the middle of a war zone, he finds a Black Templar thrown off a cliff by an enemy commander. Picking up the black sword, Gav sees visions, and is told that the Emperor needs a champion. There's no time to find another... now the ogryn must finish what the astartes started!

What's Next on Table Talk?

That's it for this installment of Table Talk! What would you like to see next? I'm listening for your comments and votes!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archives, as well as the YouTube channel for Azukail Games. Or, to check out books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my recent 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, and Twitter, as well as on Pinterest where I'm building all sorts of boards dedicated to my books, RPG supplements, and greatest hits. Lastly, 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 donation can have a big impact.

If You're Going To Make a Setting, Ask Yourself This One Question

One thing I've noticed over the years is that a majority of folks in the RPG community seem to want to make their own worlds for games. Whether the RPG system in question was meant to be a grab-and-go game, or the folks in question have to scrape off all of the meta plot and world building associated with the core game, a lot of Game Masters out there seem determined to make their own world, and to play the game their way.

Nothing wrong with that. That is one of the oldest traditions in the RPG space. But there is often a question that I feel like a lot of folks don't ask before they roll up their sleeves and start building cosmologies, nations, histories, and dynasties.

Simply put, what does your world provide that other worlds don't?

It is, surprisingly, not a question a lot of folks ask.

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!

Why This World?

A lot of Game Masters reading this probably had the mental equivalent of bringing out charts, maps, and notes, laying out what makes their settings unique and special. However, too often we get attached to our settings because they're ours, when that is really the only unique thing about them; the fact that we made it.

The difficulty that so many of us run into is that when we make a game world, we often design it to be played with a certain game's mechanics in mind, and the trappings of an expected genre. And if you designed a setting to be played with Dungeons and Dragons, or Pathfinder, or any other system, chances are that you molded the flavor and fluff around the bones of those mechanics and expectations so that it would be smooth to play.

That's good world design... but it can also reduce the unique selling point of your world.

Why do we want to go here?

Let's reach for some low-hanging fruit. You're making a setting for Dungeons and Dragons 5E (now that the heat is off, and you aren't going to have WoTC come knocking on your door). You design all the cities, you create a new pantheon of gods, you put plot hooks galore across the countryside, draw up new maps, and everything... but what can people do in your world that they can't do in another world? What have you done to offer a different, unique experience?

I talked about this some time ago in Fantasy Writers, If You're Just Changing Something's Name, Don't Bother, but I feel this lesson is important for Game Masters to consider as well. Because if you're reading a standard high fantasy novel where the elves are called Duranen, and the dwarves are called Thrusken, and the orcs are Raskol, but nothing else has changed, then why are you bothering to give them a new coat of paint? The same thing is true of your fantasy setting for a game. Just because you re-arranged all the existing pieces and present them differently, that isn't a unique selling point that would make people want to play in this setting.

And this goes double if your players could play the exact same campaigns, and the exact same plots, in a world they are already familiar with, instead of trying to learn a completely new setting that doesn't change anything but the surface-level stuff.

Also, while I'm on the subject, consider hopping over to 5 Tips For Creating Fantasy Towns and Cities if you haven't read that article yet. Cities are tough to get right, and I wanted to share what insights I've gleaned from all the ones I've made so far.

Go Deeper, And You'll Make More Interesting Worlds

A lot of what we get caught up in is the surface-level nuance of our world design, but asking what your world does that no other worlds do is often far more important. Not just because it validates all the work you're putting into it (personal opinion), but because it makes players more inclined to come play in your sandbox because you have stuff in there they can't play with in other sandboxes.

As a for-instance, was the elven nation responsible for imperialism and totalitarian dictatorship, only overcome by an alliance of humans, orcs, and dwarves that overthrew their total control? Does your setting have no humans at all? Is your game in a flooded world with only rare spits of land, and legends of floating cities that avoided the Great Downpour? Have you eliminated alignment entirely from a system where it usually plays a major role? Have all the gods been wiped out, leaving the mortals to struggle alone in the darkness without the divine to call on for aid?

Is it some combination of all of those factors?

Whether you want to run a bronze-age game, fantastical steampunk, grimdark pirates on the black seas, or something else entirely, it's important to survey the landscape and see what already exists. Because if you propose the next campaign take place in your setting, and your players ask, "Why should we use that setting instead of Forgotten Realms/Ravenloft/Starjammer/Golarion/etc.?" you'll have an answer for them.

And if it's a good answer, your players may never want to leave that new world.

Speaking of New Settings...

Regular readers know that I've spent the last few years releasing content for my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting for both DND 5E and Pathfinder Classic. While it was on hold for a while during the whole OGL situation at the start of this year, I've been working on some new content for it.

As to the unique sales pitch, there's a 32-video playlist all about the setting on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. Consider giving them a watch, subscribing to the channel, and if the setting sounds like fun, giving Sundara a look for yourself!

Cities of Sundara

The setting first began with the Cities of Sundara splats. Self-contained guides to some of the larger and more powerful centers of trade, industry, arms, and magic, these unique locations provide plenty of fodder for character generation and plots. Not only that, but each one comes with unique, mechanical goodies for players and GMs alike to take out for a spin!

- Ironfire: The City of Steel (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built around the Dragon Forge, Ironfire is where the secret to dragon steel was first cracked. The center of the mercenary trade in the region, as well as boasting some of the finest schools for teaching practical sciences, Ironfire is a place where discovery and danger walk hand in hand!

- Moüd: The City of Bones (Pathfinder and DND 5E): An ancient center of trade and magic, Moüd was lost to a cataclysm, and then buried in myth. Reclaimed by the necromantic arts of the Silver Wraiths guild, this city has once again become a place teeming with life. Despite the burgeoning population, though, it is the continued presence of the undead that helps keep the city running, ensuring that Moüd is not swallowed up once more.

- Silkgift: The City of Sails (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built on the cottage industry of Archer cloth (an extremely durable material used for sails, windmills, etc.), Silkgift is a place that prizes invention and discovery. From gravity batteries that store the potential of the wind, to unique irrigation systems, to aether weapons, the city positively churns out discoveries... and then there's the canal they cut through the mountains that makes them a major center of trade across the region.

- Hoardreach: The City of Wyrms (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A center of power across an entire region, Hoardreach is ruled over by a Cooperation of five different dragons. A place for refugees and outcasts of all sorts, Hoardreach boasts some of the most unusual citizens and creations from across Sundara. Infamous for their sky ships, which require the cast-off scales and unique arcane sciences of the Dragon Works to take to the air, one never knows just what they'll find in this city built atop a mountain.

- Archbliss: The City of The Sorcerers (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A floating city in the sky, Archbliss has been a refuge for sorcerers for thousands of years. It's only in relatively recent years that the city has allowed those from the ground below who lack the power of a bloodline to join them in the clouds. However, while there are certainly amazing wonders to behold, there is a darkness in Archbliss. Something rotting away at its heart that could, if not healed, bring the city crashing to the ground once more.

Gods of Sundara

- Gods of Sundara (available for Pathfinder and DND 5E): In a world with no alignment, and where the gods are often genuinely mysterious forces that are far too large for mortals to truly comprehend, the divine feels genuinely strange and unknown... something that really does have to be taken on faith. This supplement provides a sample pantheon for Sundara, but also provides instructions on how to easily make your own gods in a world where you can't cast a spell and tell whether someone is good or evil.

Species of Sundara

Sundara is filled with creatures that many of us recognize, but I wanted to give greater depth to their cultures, and a wider variety of options. After all, humans always get 15+ ethnicities, languages, and unique histories, while elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, etc. are almost always left with footnotes, or maybe with a handful of offshoots. So, in short, I wanted to give all the fantastical creatures the treatment that humans usually get in our games.

And there is no human book yet. If readers demand to know more, then I may sit down to pen one... but I figured that humans didn't need to be front-and-center in this setting just yet.

- Elves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Elves are one of the most quintessential fantasy creatures... but if you want to see more than just high elves, wood elves, and elves of the sun and moon, then this supplement has you covered!

- Dwarves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): The children of the primordial giants who were meant to fill in the details of the world they'd made (or so the myths say) there are as many kinds of dwarves as their are kinds of giants... and possibly more, depending on who is keeping count.

- Orcs of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Supposedly a creation of the elves, none can say for certain exactly how or why orcs have been made. What most agree on is that these creatures are far more than most may think at first glance.

- Halflings of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Little cousins to the dwarves, halflings are tough, clever, and not to be underestimated. From living beneath the hills, to taking up residence in the deep forests, halflings in Sundara come in quite a variety!

- The Blooded (Half-Elves and Half-Orcs) [Pathfinder and DND 5E]: When orcs and elves mix their bloodlines with other creatures, the result is one of the Blooded. This inheritance takes many forms, and it can even wait generations before manifesting when the right combination of individuals come together to have a child.

- Gnomes of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Gnomes are strange creatures, found in places where the spirit of the land has coalesced and made children of its own. The sons and daughters of the ancient nymphs, they are the stewards of these places, and they change as often as the weather and the land.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

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

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

Geists, Mages, and More, Oh My! (My Latest Steps Into The 'Chronicles of Darkness' Setting)

Around Halloween of 2022 I asked my readers what sort of content they'd like to see from me for the World/Chronicles of Darkness setting (and if you missed it, the entry was What Corner of The World of Darkness Would You Like To See Me Touch on Next?). One particularly vocal direct request was to see some supplements for Geist: The Sin Eaters, and the comments sections on most social media pages were asking for some content for Mage, whichever edition I happened to prefer.

Well, it's been a few months since then, and both 50 Geists and 100 Shadow Names have hit the market!

However, as I'm catching my breath (and finishing off another supplement for Changeling: The Lost), I wanted to ask folks once again if they had any requests... not just for which game in this setting, but also what type of content they'd like to see!

There's more ideas where these two came from, after all.

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!

Ask, And Ye Shall Receive

Regular readers already know this, but for folks who are new on this blog, I like to try to get a sense of what my regulars want. Part of that is just good business (you don't want to spend weeks of effort making a thing nobody is interested in, after all), but the other part of it is that I want people to feel like I'm listening to them. So rather than just seeing what floats to the surface of my imagination, I wanted to ask my readers what kind of products they'd like to see for World/Chronicles of Darkness games in the future.

For instance, would you like to see me continue my Geist and Mage offerings? Or would you like me to go back to Changeling, Vampire, or even Werewolf? Should I continue with the list-based format you see with supplements like 100 Resources and Rumors to Find on SchreckNet and Evil Inc.: 10 Pentex Subsidiaries, or would you like to see me try something different? Perhaps ST guides for pre-made freeholds or territories, or guides for running certain subgenres of horror, like Midwest Gothic or Neo Noir? Or perhaps you'd like to see more fiction, like the collection Tales From The Moot, or the ongoing flash fiction series I've been turning into audio dramas?

All of these are options. And if there's something I didn't think of, feel free to make your pitch and see if it grows wings!

What I Need You To Do

If you want to make your voices heard, there are a lot of things you can do to send a message to both me, and to my publishers. Because, contrary to popular belief, I'm not the one who actually publishes these supplements on Drive Thru RPG and Storyteller's Vault; I work with Azukail Games, High Level Games, and other folks to make these things a reality. So in a lot of cases it's not just about what I want to do, but also about what the other folks involved in the process think is a good idea based on the numbers we're clocking.

Firstly, Things You Can Do For Free:

- Comment: Whether it's on this blog entry, or on social media, the more folks who speak up about what they want, the more likely it is to get made.

- Share: The more folks who see this, the more likely we are to get a lot of people participating in the conversation.

- Subscribe to The Azukail Games Youtube Channel: Admittedly, this is best for helping ensure I make more videos, but if you enjoy either my audio dramas or the Discussions of Darkness series I've been doing on the channel, helping me reach the 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watched content monetization requires would be a big help! I'd like to start doing longer, more involved stories, but I need to prove the audience is present if I'm going to get something like a full-sized podcast greenlit.

Secondly, If You Want To Send a Message With Your Money:

- Get Copies of Supplements You Want To See More Of: All 35 of my WoD/CoD supplements can be found on my World/Chronicles of Darkness pinboard. Whether you want to see more Mage, Geist, Vampire, Changeling, or Werewolf, consider grabbing some copies for yourself. The more copies something moves, the more likely it is that I'll be able to get the publisher to greenlight fresh projects in that setting, and of that type.

- Leave Reviews: If you've already gotten copies of some of my supplements, consider leaving a share on DTRPG and Storyteller's Vault. Star ratings are good, but even short reviews about what you liked about a supplement can make a big difference!

Of Course, If You Want To Help Me Out, I'd Appreciate That, Too

And for folks who just want to do their part to help me make more content, please subscribe/follow me in these locations:

- My Facebook

- My LinkTree

- My Weekly Newsletter

- The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- My Daily Motion Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

And if you happen to have some spare dosh lying around, and you want to be sure my supply doesn't run low, consider become a Patreon patron, or leaving a tip by Buying Me a Ko-Fi!

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!

Improved Initiative Needs Your Help (And It Won't Cost You A Dime)!

One good thing that came out of the whole power grab with Wizards of The Coast trying to take back the open game license at the beginning of this year is that it pulled back the curtain for a lot of folks in the TTRPG community regarding exactly what people who make games for a living get paid. And generally speaking, unless you work for WoTC or a select few other companies, you probably aren't making much. This goes double if you're a small publisher, a jobbing freelancer, or an independent creator.

And while a lot of players did their best to support independent creators to help get us over this hump, I'm the first to acknowledge that there's only so much spare change in everyone's pockets. So while I will never say no to selling some of my RPG supplements, and I won't turn down people who want to become Patreon patrons, or who want to buy me a Ko-Fi, I wanted to ask for something other than just a donation from my readers this week.

If I can get enough folks onboard, it will really help me out, and allow me a second or two to catch my breath while I actually plan out some bigger pieces of content for the future. And best of all, it won't cost any of you reading this so much as a dime!

And together, hopefully, we can really fill up my tank!

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!

So, What All Has Been Going On?

I already mentioned the recent kerfuffle with Wizards and their attempt to completely upset the TTRPG industry. This led to a LOT of my projects being put on-hold, and it's meant that a lot of other projects have been thrown into chaos regarding what is and isn't a priority for myself and my publishers. However, that whole situation is in addition to the pandemic wiping out thousands of dollars of outstanding work that clients owed me money for, but which vanished into thin air due to many of them ceasing to exist. Not only that, but last summer my publisher for my novels died, and the company dissolved. This took my books off the market, and I didn't even get my final check for the royalties I'd accrued during the final quarter before everything crumbled.

So, saying that things have been a little stressful is a bit of an understatement.

The list goes on, but I'm trying to be brief.

There is, however, one other problem I've been dealing with. Because for those who don't know, aside from the money pledged by my patrons, and sales for supplements through the affiliate links in my articles, this blog doesn't actually make me any money. Ad services are so universally blocked and ignored that over the decade or so I had ads on Improved Initiative, I earned a total of $50 or so, and the last time I got a check for that payment was several years back.

I made up for this by also creating content for Vocal. As some of my readers know this is the website that hosts all of my Character Conversion Guides, as well as a lot of my Unusual Character Concepts, my 5 Tips articles, and more than a few of my short stories. Vocal pays me roughly $6 for every 1,000 reads my content gets, and this time last year I was pulling down $60-$90 a month from Vocal, with some months going as high as $120 or more. It wasn't huge, but it was a big help when I needed it.

Now... well, now I'm lucky if I can even get $20 worth of reads in a month. So what changed?

The short answer is the algorithm. The more complicated answer is that Facebook is a shadow of what it used to be for interaction, Twitter is now a sewage dump where it was once at least a passable silver mine, and Reddit banned Vocal links entirely, adding them to the auto-remove list of websites the bots dump in the trash as soon as you try to share them. This last one hurt a lot, since it also removed probably a year or more of backlinks to my articles that I'd shared to various subreddits.

Here's What I Need You All To Do

At time of writing, I have 269 stories (nice) in my full Vocal archive. From TTRPGs and short fiction, to weird history, bizarre linguistic dives, and a couple rants about horror movies, there's a rather ridiculous amount of content on there. Additionally if you want to narrow your scope then you can just click which topic you want to see along the top of the archive (just below Pinned Stories), and it will sort the articles by topic for you!

What I really need is folks to read these articles. Not just click them, but actually read through to the end.

To be clear, you don't have to read all of them. You don't need to spend hours gorging yourself on my text. But if all of my regular readers could bookmark my archive, and just make it a point to read at least one article a day, that would help. Even more importantly than that, though, if you find an article you like that you think more people should read, share it on your socials. FB, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Discord, I'm not picky... but there's only so much traction I can get on my own, and I'm definitely sliding down the hill right now as it gets harder and harder to promote myself across the board.

Every read, share, and like helps... seriously.

The reason I'm asking for this instead of just soliciting patrons or donations is that Vocal is completely free to anyone who wants to read it. Not only that, but reads are tallied every day, so there's a minimal wait for me to cash-out if something I write does go viral and explodes with coins like a Mario enemy that ate an entire bank vault.

But as I mentioned in If 90,000 People Read This Article, I Can Pay My Bills This Month, it requires a frankly absurd level of interaction just for me to pay my rent. However, if you're one of the folks out there who wants to help a creator out, then all you need is an Internet connection and a willingness to consume content to help me stop falling behind!

And if you're looking for some places to get started that have proven popular in the past, might I direct your attention to the following articles?:

- 5 Things You Can Do To Be a Better Ambassador For Your Hobby: This one still gets a little play every now and again. Mostly I just wanted to do my part to help other folks realize that if we don't let fresh blood into our hobbies, then they're going to die in fairly short order.

- It's Okay To Admit There Are Problems in Your Hobby: This article was so divisive it got people to make a meme out of me. It resurfaces every few years, but it's not enough to keep the wolf from the door.

- Partners and Polycules: Polyamorous Designations Based Off Dungeons and Dragons Dice: This was a silly article of mine that is the closest thing I've had to a viral success in the past few years. If you haven't seen it, give yourself (and maybe your friends) a giggle!

- The 5 Awful Paladins You Will Meet in Your Gaming Career: This was the first of my ongoing series about awful character archetypes that we all run into if we play TTRPGs long enough. While several of the follow-ups were also popular, none of them seemed to draw quite as many eyes as the paladin for some reason.

Oh, There is One More Thing You Can Do...

In keeping with the spirit of the title, I'm going to keep my suggestions to things folks can do for free that will have a tangible effect on my income stream. But if you don't have as much time to read as you'd like (or you just prefer to listen to videos while doing chores, painting minis, or getting your steps in), you could also subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and listen to videos I make for them.

Full disclosure, I do not own this channel. It's the channel run by one of my publishers... I do, however, make content for it. And the more hits my videos get, the more likely it is that the channel will get monetized, and that I can (perhaps) ask for a bump in my compensation for making said videos. Because it takes 1,000 subscribers, and 4,000 hours of watched content in the past year (or about 11.5 hours a day for 365 days, if you were wondering) for YouTube to even think about letting you make money off your videos, and that is a high bar to clear when you're doing everything all on your own.

So, while this isn't as direct a hand up as reading and sharing my Vocal articles would be, it would still be a big help, and assist me in getting a slightly bigger share of the pie with at least one of the publishers I work with.

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!

3 Strategies For Coming Back From a TPK

Hanging over nearly every encounter in every RPG is the potential that none of the player characters survive this fight, this trap, or this riddle contest with a devil. Whether the characters make bad decisions, the dice are against them, or something goes horribly awry, there's a chance that everyone winds up dead. It might be a remote chance in some circumstances, but it's usually in the background, watching and waiting.

The problem with a total party kill is, of course, that it severs the story you were all trying to tell, and it leaves everyone in a difficult position. The players need to come up with motivation to make new characters who want to pick up where the others left off, and the Game Master has to figure out some way to accommodate that new party so the story can keep going.

That's a massive headache, so I thought that this week I'd expand on some of the thoughts I had forever and a day ago in Undoing Character Death, and talk about methods and ideas for moving on/fixing a TPK so your game can continue, and you can finish the story you were all collectively telling.

Would you look at that? Seems the game goes on...

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!

Avoid Death Entirely

The first, and most obvious, solution to dealing with a TPK is to instead have a TPL... Total Party Loss. The PCs still came out on the losing end of the encounter, but for one reason or another they all survived to tell the tale. So the characters are still in the game, but now they're at a significant disadvantage, and they've got to try to overcome their current circumstances.

Look, I'm just saying, you ain't worth much if I bring you in dead.

As a for-instance, say the party was brought down by a bandit ambush. If the PCs are low enough level, the bandits might just take any of their valuable gear, and move on, leaving them where they fell. After all, the penalty for murder is a lot worse than the penalty for highway robbery, so they might just take what they want and move on. If the PCs were fighting a cult, perhaps the cult wants to sacrifice them, so they have to keep the PCs alive for now. If the enemy was from another faction, perhaps they want to trade the PCs to a more powerful villain, or they might even want to try to sell them into slavery.

Whatever the reason, the PCs are at least not killed, and they might actively be kept alive to serve a purpose.

This is not a perfect solution, of course. After all, animals like manticores, mindless foes like undead or automatons, and creatures who hate the PCs may not wish to allow them to live. But there are a lot of TPKs that can be fixed by simply moving to a TPL instead. Especially because the PCs then have to regroup, and come up with new plans like how they're going to escape captivity, how they're going to get their gear back, and so on. The PCs might also have temporary (or permanent) injuries such as a loss of a hand or eye, or negatives to certain attributes until they can receive proper healing. This can make it feel like the GM isn't just giving the players a get-out-of-dead-free card, maintaining that balance of challenge.

This is also where having friends can help the PCs out a lot, as I mentioned back in The Case For Using Recurring NPCs in Your Game.

"Outsider" Intervention

So, the PCs are well and truly dead. Now what? Well, if the task they've been set is truly important (or if they are pawns in a cosmic game, as often happens in our campaigns), it's possible that some variety of outsider might step in and offer them a chance to try again.

Now, this can be simple or complicated. For example, if your party is slain on holy ground, perhaps they are offered a chance to return to life by the spirit or god who claims that place. This might mark them in some way going forward, requiring them to follow certain vows, or to accomplish certain tasks (mechanically represented by a geas, perhaps). The PCs might be given a chance to flee the afterlife, returning to their bodies, but now there are bounty hunters from the afterworld on their trail to drag them back for judgment. A spirit, a god, or a devil might offer the PCs a chance at life for its own purposes, as well. So even if a devil offers them the bargain, it might be doing so because the PCs are going to inconvenience one of its rivals, potentially creating a power gap that this devil can step into when the PCs achieve their goals. So while it might seem like the devil's bargain is too good to be true, it has its own motives the PCs may not be aware of.

You could make it more complicated, as well, if you want.

You can choose to make this part as complicated as you and your players want, as well. You could even make escaping the underworld a whole arc of the campaign... or a new campaign in and of itself if you check out my earlier post The Black Ballad... A Campaign That Begins Once Your TPK Ends! This particular game went live on BackerKit today, so go check that out if this is something that interests you.

Adding a Template

This is usually something I advocate for when it comes to villain survival after the PCs killed them, but turnabout is fair play when you're the GM. If you want the party to come back, and to come back hard, consider adding a template to them, or altering their creature type... at least temporarily.

Raven 1, going dark.

While you could grab ideas out of I'm Back- 25 Reasons For a Villain's Survival, I'd suggest that any GM who wants to use this particular tactic put a little more effort into making this feel organic. Because whatever template your characters are given should make sense for where they are, who they are, what they're trying to accomplish, and how they died.

For example, ask what it would be like to bring characters back as sentient undead for an arc. Vengeful ghosts, haunted armor, shambling zombies, or wrathful, spellcasting skeletons might be a fun thing to do for a party that was slain in the Forest of Spirits. Having the party reanimated as various golems or cybernetic creatures could work if they were used as subjects by a mad alchemist. Vows that allow them to temporarily become celestial or infernal creatures could be fun as well! Just ask yourself if this is a template you want everyone to have for the rest of the campaign, or if there will be a quest to undo this state of being once the immediate goal is achieved.

For Pathfinder players, corruptions are a ideal for this. These sets of dark powers put a burden on the character, while also giving them some additional abilities, and they are an ideal way to explain why someone isn't dead. Additionally, corruptions can be removed with time and effort, making them an even better choice than a template for this strategy. For those who are interested in them, consider the following articles as a jumping off point:

- 5 Classes To Pair With The Shadowbound Corruption

- 5 Classes To Pair With The Promethean Corruption

Paying The Iron Price

It really isn't all that expensive.

While that's all for my suggestions on coming back from a TPK today, I did want to make folks aware of something new that dropped recently. The Price of Iron is a module I wrote over a year ago for High Level Games, and it's a DND 5E adventure. When the party is offered a sack of silver and a masterfully crafted cold iron weapon each for a single night's work guarding a warehouse, it seems too good to be true. Of course, when portals to other realities begin to open, and the servants of a dark fey begin trying to break out, they realize they have quite a challenge before them.

If you've been looking forward to more modules from me, consider picking this one up, and keeping an ear out because I should have another piece that's long overdue finally becoming available in the very near future!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my 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 Case For Using Recurring NPCs in Your Game

Before we get started on this week's topic, I wanted to take a moment to ask a favor from my regular readers. Recently I put together an article titled If 90,000 People Read This Article, I Can Pay My Bills This Month. The piece goes into the sheer, ridiculous numbers that creators need to have in order to get any amount of money for their work, and it emphasizes the importance of community support.

So if you want to help me actually stay one step ahead of my bill collectors, please give that article a read, and share it on your social media pages. Or, if you want to help more directly, please consider becoming a Patreon patron, or even buying me a Ko-Fi to help me get through the challenges 2023 is throwing at me.

And now, on with the show!

The Case For Using Recurring NPCs in Your Game

I return, singed, but triumphant.

We all know what NPCs are. After all, it's right there in the name; non-player character. Any person in the game world who isn't one of the players' avatars falls into this category, from the bartender at the local tavern, to the head of the thieves' guild, to the king who gave them the quest, and the lich lord they're opposing. Everyone not under the direct control of the players is an NPC, and they're all being puppeted by the Game Master.

However, there are a lot of GMs out there who will treat NPCs like tissues; they use them once, and then throw them away. That's why this week I wanted to take a moment to explain why I think recurring NPCs are an important part of a game, and why GMs (and the players) are better-served by a rotating cast of established characters than they are seeing new faces all the time.

Point #1: It Leads To Greater Investment

I mentioned back in Death, and Its Role in RPGs that when you have a game with a high lethality rate, players don't get overly invested in their characters. The same thing happens when you have NPCs who vanish from the narrative once they've walked onstage, said their lines, then walked off again.

This isn't to say that every NPC has to be a long-term commitment. Sometimes people are only there to serve a minor role, or you don't have big plans for them in the story. But when the PCs interact with the same cast of characters repeatedly, they begin building relationships with those characters. Whether it's as comrades, or as long-term antagonists, this can really enhance the game over time, and get your players immersed in the narrative instead if just dismissing NPCs because they know they won't be present long enough for any meaningful interaction.

Also, if your players tend to kill any enemies you put in their path, consider checking out I'm Back!, which is a supplement specifically for explaining villain survival and/or resurrection when we thought for sure they were permanently dealt with.

Point #2: It Emphasizes Consequences For Player Actions

It's been said (by me, in 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master) that a majority of your job as GM is just to watch what your players do, and give them appropriate consequences for the actions they take. Because from small decisions like choosing to show kindness to the beggar on the street, or big decisions like taking their enemies in alive to face justice, are all far more meaningful when the NPCs circle back around as an active part of the narrative.

For example, say the party rogue tosses a coin to the street urchin outside the tavern. You could just leave that as a one-off encounter, and nothing ever comes of it. But maybe word gets around about the rogue's generosity. The gang of boys said urchin belongs to starts coming around more, and the rogue ends up becoming something of a teacher and a patron to them. These NPCs can be used as a way to get information to the party, to introduce new quests, etc., but their continued presence is a direct result of player action, showing them that attempting to build rapport has results in this game.

Alternatively, consider PCs who broke up a cult, killing the cult leader. Are they kind to the followers? Do they take the time to deprogram their hurtful beliefs, or do they just abandon them? If the former, do these ex-cultists become squires and apprentices, helping the party? Do they reintegrate into society, watchful against threats like the cult that swept them up? If ignored does the cult reform, with someone new reaching out to the dark powers that their leader had tried to wield? Whatever happens, it should be tied directly to what the PCs did (or didn't) do.

Point #3: It Makes Things Easier For You As The GM

This point is third on the list, but it's first in my mind as the GM because it falls under the work-smarter-not-harder ethos. Because if you've already put in the time and effort to create NPCs who fill certain roles in the story, and those characters are known quantities who are already on the table, why do that job again, and again, and again instead of utilizing the resource you already have at your fingertips?

Don't be afraid to get creative with this one, either!

For example, let's say you had a tailor who helped the party prepare for their debut at the duke's ball. The wild-haired gnome took every question, no matter how strange, in-stride and formed a budding friendship with some folks in the party. The ball went splendidly, and the PCs now have to seek out a guild of spies that the duke claims are undermining the government, and leaving them vulnerable to outside enemies. And sure, you could just create a whole new set of NPCs for that role... but why not bring back Marselie the masterful tailor as a representative of the Red Thread Society? This adds a new aspect to the character, and it might make the PCs question who's side they're on, and who is lying to them about what's really happening. Is the duke telling the truth? Is the society the tailor belongs to really a bunch of freedom fighters? Or are both sides trying to use them as pawns?

Alternatively, say the PCs are in a tight spot, and you're looking for some narrative reason that will keep the story going, but which won't feel like you just gave them an out. Perhaps they're captured, and locked in the villain's dungeon... but the henchman put in charge of them is a bandit whose life they spared several levels back. He owes them, and makes them a deal. If he unlocks their irons, and leads them to their gear, then they'll get the price taken off his head by the governor who gave them the quest once they've dealt with the warlord who's building a dark army. This both shows that the PCs' previous actions have consequences, and it gives you more tools you can use to further the story without introducing any new elements.

Also, as a final benefit, this strategy can make it look like you had deeper plans than the players were initially aware of... even if you tacked on the secret backstories or surprise appearances of these recurring NPCs based on who the party had the best (or worst) interactions with in the past.

Need Some Extra NPCs in Your Game?

Folks who've been following my work know that over the past few years I've put out a lot of content that revolves around giving Game Masters extra NPCs to draw on should they need names, personalities, and descriptions in a hurry. If you want to have a list of NPCs you can quickly draw on to fit your game, and who might become recurring characters, consider grabbing some of the following:

- 100 NPCs You Might Meet at The Tavern: This was my first Gold metal book from Azukail Games, and you get what's on the cover. Hedge knights, traveling boot makers, wandering merchants, an elven gang lord, and more can all be found between these pages!

- 100 Merchants to Encounter: My second Gold metal winner, this one is meant to spice up the shopping experience, and to make getting gear (particularly rare, unusual, or even illegal items) more than just a numbers game. From strange fey creatures who appear in glades at sunset, to suppliers of assassination supplies who operate toy shops as a front, to Crazy Olaf's hock shop geared toward those looking to offload all their dungeon trash, there's all kinds of options to make shopping an actual experience in here.

- 100 Random Bandits to Meet: Whether you're looking for a dangerous, recurring antagonist like The Maneater or Dreadskull, or you simply want the hoodlums and highwaymen your party encounters to have a little more personality (and something that would justify roping them back into the story later) there's all kinds of rogues and rebels in this supplement. For those in a seagoing campaign, consider checking out 100 Pirates to Encounter, as well as 100 Prisoners For a Fantasy Jail if you're going to be spending any time in lockdown.

- 100 Nobles to Encounter: From dragon-riding warriors, to strange, long-lived lords of the moors, to seat-holders of the dwarven enclaves, the nobles in this supplement could make for powerful friends, or foes, depending on how the party treats them. So whether you need quest givers, schemers, plotters, or patrons, there's a slew of options in this supplement. Or, if you want something with a little more depth to it, consider taking a look at A Baker's Dozen of Noble Families!

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!