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Monday, May 29, 2023

I Have Officially Broken 150 TTRPG Supplements!

It's been a crazy few months around my neck of the woods, what with preparing for the Army Men Kickstarter, setting up interviews, finishing up short stories, and trying to get some scripts done for a project I can't reveal just yet. I've been so busy, in fact, that I completely missed the fact that I passed something of a milestone recently.

As this week's title says, I've broken 150 TTRPG supplements!

It's been one hell of a ride...

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

Also, since it keeps getting lost in the shuffle, check out my Vocal archive for more articles about RPGs, character conversions, character concepts, weird history, nerdy topics, and more!

It's Taken a While To Climb This High


While taking a moment to reflect on how I got here, it seems that I've been doing this job just a little bit longer than I initially thought I had. One of the earliest projects I worked on that's still available is Bastards of Golarion, and it looks like that book came out back in 2014! That was not too long after my short story The Irregulars went up on the Paizo blog, even though it just became available for purchase fairly recently.

Not my first, but damn near!

It wasn't off to the races straight away, though. It took me more than a year to start taking on additional TTRPG projects. In 2015 I started working with TPK Games, contributing to The Demonologist base class for Pathfinder, as well as writing Feats Reforged IV. In 2016 I was part of the overlooked supplement Inspired by Heraldry for Pathfinder from Flaming Crab Games. I worked on Whispers and Rumors: Borderland Town for Raging Swan in July 2017 (currently the only project I've done with them, and it wasn't long after that when I wrote 100 Bits of Miscellaneous Tat to Find for Azukail Games... my first, but far from my last, supplement they'd publish.

While I was definitely a TTRPG designer and writer at that point in my life, I think that 2019 is when I really had to kick things into overdrive. I was already putting out regular supplements for Azukail Games every month, in addition to managing this blog and writing gaming articles, but it was the first time I took on a second, long-term project at the same time. My 100 Kinfolk project marked the first time I'd done something more than blogs for High Level Games, and it began with 100 Get of Fenris Kinfolk, ending (nominally) with 100 Stargazer Kinfolk. While I took a bit of a break after that series of 14 supplements was over (and it's available as the 100 Kinfolk Bundle, for those who are interested), going back to 1 supplement most months, it was in 2021 when I had to start putting the pedal back to the metal. Since then I've been doing my best to put out at least 2 supplements a month just to make sure the lights stay on, and the bills get paid.

It's really easy to lose track of stuff, especially when you have to keep your nose so close to the grindstone that you can't take a look back the way you've come. But I wanted to take a moment, and let out a breath. Because I can't afford to stop making things (I don't make that many sales), but sometimes it's important to take stock, and examine the bricks you laid to build the road leading to where you are today.

Speaking of supplements #149 and #150, though...

I wanted to end this week's blog with a shout out for my two most recent supplements for those who hadn't seen them. For my Changeling: The Lost players, don't forget to check out 100 Rumors to Hear at The Freehold, which is full of weird urban legends, strange beliefs, and potential plot hooks for your chronicle. Secondly is the supplement pictured above. 100 Body Mods and Augmentations For Your Sci Fi Game does exactly what it says on the tin, providing you a bunch of accessories for your cyborgs.

If you haven't given them a look yet, consider grabbing yours today! And if you're curious about all my other RPGs, either search my name on DTRPG, or check out my TTRPG pinboard, which has links to all of my supplements, and is updated on the regular.

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 FacebookTumblrTwitter, 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!

Friday, May 26, 2023

My Sci-Fi Audio Drama Trilogy is Complete!

As regular readers are no doubt aware, I've been putting together little audio dramas on the Azukail Games YouTube channel for a hot minute now. It all started when I began adding introductory vignettes to my gaming supplements, and I wanted to give readers some kind of preview as to what they were going to be getting if they picked up a copy. So while you might argue these are glorified commercials, I thought I'd try something a little sneaky and string together some of the stories into a single, continuous plot.

I first did this with some of my Changeling: The Lost supplements, but those are kind of niche as far as gaming interests go. So I thought I'd go a little bit bigger with a series of sci-fi shorts, given that the supplements they were attached to seem to be quite popular.

And in case you haven't seen them, I didn't want anyone to miss the update!

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!

A Trilogy of Tales


This whole thing began with the supplement 100 Spacer Superstitions, which was a sci fi response to the popularity of 100 Superstitions For a Fantasy Setting. A relatively short tale, it gives us some insight into the world of long-haul space transport, and the adjustments one can have moving from military life onto a simple ice hauler. It also has a warning about the sirens that dwell in the void, and the strange things that might (or might not) lurk out in the deep black.


That story was originally just a stand-alone piece, not really meant to go anywhere, but both the video and the supplement were so popular that I decided to expand on them, and go a little grander with the next installment. In 100 Sci-Fi Cults (which was the answer to 100 Cults To Encounter) we find that the ice hauler from the first story has been set upon by space pirates. All seems lost, until a single boarding torpedo delivers them their salvation, in the form of a member of the Knights of The Void.


The last part of the story takes place in the middle of a warzone. In the intro story from 100 Knightly Orders For a Sci Fi Setting (which follows on from the fantasy supplement 100 Knightly Orders), we find a squad of Titansworn Knights, and their colossal war machines defending the space port our ice hauler was bound for... and they are in for one hell of a fight!



Would You Like To See More?


I've been interconnecting my stories more and more frequently as I write more TTRPG supplements. I mentioned I've done it with Changeling, but there's also a deliberate plotline that starts in my 50 Geists supplement where a former hitman named Johnny Hammer makes a deal with a creature called the Six-Gun Saint, and we follow that up with the tale from 100 Shadow Names (And Their Meanings), where the mafioso who took over Johnny's family is revealed to be the Moros known to the Mage community as Cyprian.

I would like to expand this part of my work, though, and do something a little grander.



This video, for those who aren't familiar with it, is something I put together a little while ago. Suffer The Children is a modern fantasy short story taken from my collection The Rejects, and it follows an Old Testament angel Malachi as he stalks through the bloody back alleys of Los Angeles. Old gods and new sins lurk in that place, and he does what he can within the rules he's been set. He bears witness to the worst humanity has to offer, but when a kidnapper takes a child under Malachi's protection, he intervenes before it's sacrificed to one of the true powers that claims dominion in Hollywood.

This is one of several videos I'm intending on sharing on my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary, so consider stopping by, following, and giving me some likes and comments if you have the time!

The question I have for folks this week, however, is do you want to see more stuff like this? If so, what form would you like to see? Would you be more interested in:

- More vignettes (which will likely just be more audio versions of supplement short stories).

- Longer, complete short stories (stand-alone pieces like Suffer The Children, and others).

- Longer, connected series (likely in the form of a podcast).

Lastly, if you have a preference, would you like to see more content for:

- World/Chronicles of Darkness

- Call of Cthulhu

- Golarion

- Sundara

- Unspecified Sci Fi Setting

- Stories not related to pre-existing TTRPG content/settings

Please leave your thoughts in the comments, as well as on my social media channels! I like to try to give my readers things they're actually interested in, and I don't want to put in the hours making something folks don't really want to see... or hear, as the case may be.

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 FacebookTumblr, 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.

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

I Was Recently Featured on "Manufactured Myth and Legerdemain"!

This one is a bit of an 11th hour update for a lot of reasons, but I'm really excited about it, and I wanted to share it with folks. I just finished up chatting with Matt Yancik over on Manufactured Myth and Legerdemain, and in the event you didn't catch it when it streamed live, go watch the interview for yourself!


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!

Is That All?


Well, yes and no.

On the one hand, it was very kind of Matt to have me on his channel, and I wanted to give him a shout out to see if my audience could do him a solid. So let's see if we can get enough folks to subscribe to Manufactured Myth and Legerdemain to put them over 500 people (the channel is sitting at 480 at time of writing). And if you want to stay on top of all the folks who come on the channel (and there are some seriously heavy hitters in TTRPG circles who've been interviewed), make sure you also follow Manufactured Myth and Legerdemain on Facebook, as well as on Twitter.


The other thing I wanted to talk about is that the Kickstarter for "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" has 36 hours to go at time of writing. We are also just under $1,600 away from our first stretch goal, or 40 book-level backers on the project.

EDIT: Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, is now available on DTRPG!

So if you haven't backed the game yet, please consider tossing a little extra weight behind us. If you have, then please reach out and tell your friends about it, or share the campaign on your social media channels, because we need one, big push to seal the deal, and to at least get those "standard-issue" green army dice to sweeten the game for all the folks who want to play it.

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 FacebookTumblrTwitter, 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!

Monday, May 15, 2023

Help Us Take The Hill! Stretch Goals For "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic"

As I'm sure regular readers are aware, the Kickstarter for my first full RPG "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" is still ongoing! There's 9 days left at time of writing, so please consider backing it if you haven't yet.

EDIT: We reached out goal, and Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic is now on DTRPG!

The good news is that we have reached the minimum funding we need for the game to be released. However, before we all start high-fiving and pouring champagne, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the stretch goals for the game, and why it's important for projects like this to get more than just the minimum amount of funding they ask for.

We've got them on the run... take that hill!

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!

The Difference Between Funded and "Funded" on KS


Crowdfunding has been a viable way of getting games made for a while now, but there's still a lot of us who don't know what goes on behind the scenes. Academically we know that the more money and pledges a project gets, the more money the creator makes, but it can be tough to really grasp what that means when it comes to specific terms. So I wanted to pull back the curtain a bit on my project, and give my readers an unvarnished look at what goes on behind the scenes.

Watch the shell casings. There's been a lot of test runs around here.

Typically when a creator asks for a minimum funding amount, that's the price tag it takes to get all of the initial bills paid so that a thing can exist. In the case of this RPG, that's the amount of money it takes to pay the other writers (I did the bulk of the work, but this was not a one-man show), the artists, to print and distribute the books, to pay for layout, and all of the other necessities.

So while getting over the minimum goal is definitely a good thing, it's by no means a full "Mission Accomplished" kind of situation.

If I were making a movie, or writing a novel, then this might be a one-and-done sort of setup. Backers give me the funds I need to finish the product, I deliver it to them, and everyone walks away happy. However, while Army Men is a stand-alone RPG you can play in its entirety with just the base book, I have additional supplements and follow-ups that I'd like to write for it. I mentioned some of them a while back in What's Next For "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" After The Kickstarter?, but from expanding the rules to include vehicles, mounts, and animal companions, to writing out mission packs, making new monsters, adding new factions, and generally expanding the setting, my hope was that this book would be the first stepping stone in a series that would grow over time.

And while that's still very possible, the best way to ensure that happens is if Army Men manages to hit its stretch goals so that this extra funding can be used to make those additional installments happen.

I can certainly write supplements and expansions for Army Men; that's not even a question. However, it would be a lot easier to write them if there was a little nest egg of extra funding that came from the initial Kickstarter that would allow me to keep the lights on and the rent paid for a little while, allowing me to dedicate my full time and energy to the project. If there's extra money in the pot, then I won't have to take on additional freelance work for other systems to pay my bills. I won't have to pitch fresh projects to other companies, and find time for Army Men in between paying gigs. I could just focus on these expansions, giving them the attention and polish they need to put our best foot forward!

If the audience makes it clear they want more content, then more content is what I'll provide... I'll just be able to do so a lot faster if I'm not juggling a dozen other assignments, and I can focus entirely on building up and expanding this game.

Which Brings Us To Those Stretch Goals!


The main way that you persuade your audience to help you expand a project, and to fund it past the base level (aside from just making something that a lot of people want to see become a reality) is to offer stretch goals. For those who aren't familiar, these are options that unlock once a campaign has reached a certain level, and they're usually fun, extra things to go along with the base product.

So what does Army Men have to offer?

Glad you asked!

The first stretch goal we have unlocks at $10K, and it's a "standard-issue" set of army green dice. While it may not have the floating skulls, light up numbers, or irreverent phrases some specialty dice have, that's almost kind of the point. Just like how bags of the little plastic toys were always the same, these dice are meant to give you that feeling. Instead of being issued a pair of combat boots, a set of BDUs, and a rifle, these dice are meant to be the weapons you take out into the world with you to help you achieve your missions in this RPG.

The second stretch goal is something I absolutely love, because it was partially (though not completely) my idea. Some folks might remember how, in decades past, you could sometimes get a foot locker of little plastic army toys. Well, to sort of recreate that feeling, we wanted to offer an ammo can that will hold your book, minis, dice, and other accessories that will unlock at $15K.

At time of writing we've slipped down just under $7K... so while both of these stretch goals are a goodly ways off, there's no telling what the Internet may do with a little bit of prodding.

So if you'd like to help us reach those goals, and help myself and other members of the team get the resources we need to work on everything from rules expansions, to mission packs, to future installments of game books, please back Army Men on Kickstarter, and share the link in your social media for folks to see. We're in an uphill battle against the algorithm, and even against gamer apathy, and we need all the help we can to plant our flag so folks can see it from miles around!


Thanks in advance for all of your help... we really can't do this without you!

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 FacebookTumblrTwitter, 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!

Tuesday, May 9, 2023

4 Tips For The Business Side of RPGs

Most of the time when I talk about making changes or additions to games on this blog, I'm talking about doing it around your table with your fellow players. However, this week I wanted to take a moment to talk to my fellow creators out there. Whatever it is you're working on, whether you've been in the game for a while or you're just sticking your toe into the market, please, keep these tips in mind. I have found that they prevent a lot of problems and frustrations that can occur when you just don't think about certain parts of the process.

Because getting stuff made is hard enough.

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!

But First, A Brief Announcement!


As of about fifteen minutes before I sat down to write this blog entry, my first Kickstarter for "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" just got funded! Hitting that minimum goal of 6k means the game is going to exist, and folks will be able to play it... but there's still 2 weeks left in the Kickstarter campaign, and 2 stretch goals we haven't hit yet. The first is a set of army green dice at 10k, and at 15k we unlock an ammo can that will carry your book, your dice, and a boat load of minis all in a single, easy-to-haul package.

We're taking aim at our next goal!

So if that sounds like something you definitely want to get in on, please help us reach those stretch goals today, and boost the signal if you've already backed, so we can get in front of as many eyes as possible!

Tip #1: Understand What Your Content is Meant To Do


This isn't as obvious as some might think.

Before you put a single word on to paper, you need to know what the purpose your particular game, supplements, etc., is meant to do. What need does it fulfill at a game table? What does it do that will get people (players, Game Masters, or both) to buy a copy of it?

Sometimes the answer to this is easy. For example, when I wrote 10 Fantasy Villages, the purpose of the supplement was to offer Game Masters some smaller villages, NPCs, plot hooks, maps, etc., so they had ready-made locations to put into the empty places in their worlds between big cities. The Curse of Sapphire Lake is a low-level module that combines DND with Friday the 13th, giving players a unique horror experience that's a little tropey, but also fun. Even something like 100 Merchants to Encounter was meant to expand the NPC list for Game Masters so that when players want to go shopping the GM doesn't have to make up entirely new merchants, and the types of wares they sell, right on the spot every time.

When you make content for RPGs, you're essentially creating tools. And for a tool to be functional, you need to understand the job it's meant to do.

Tip #2: Understand The Demand


You need this? Ah, I thought not.

You could invent the most brilliant, perfect tool for solving a particular need... but if that need isn't common, then there isn't going to be a lot of demand for that tool. Or, put in plainer English, your RPG content has to solve a problem, or provide enough value, that players or Game Masters are going to buy it.

Now, there's a lot of variability in this tip, so I'll try to cover as much ground as I can. Things that might affect your demand can include:

- What RPG system is this meant for? Game line specific content like 50 Geists for Geist: The Sin Eaters is going to have a narrow market of buyers, whereas something more generic like 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master could be used by any GM for any system, hugely increasing your potential audience.

- How expensive is this content? Getting someone to read a free article like the character concept for The Savage Monk is extremely easy, though difficult to make money off of. However, low-cost pieces like 100 Encounters in a Fey Forest (which is only $1.99) are often easy to get customers to buy as an impulse, even if they aren't certain they need/will use it. A full RPG game book ranging from $30 to $70, though, is a purchase that's a lot heftier, and which will be a harder sell overall.

- Does this do anything differently than existing content? This is often a question folks need to ask when they're making a game setting, but it applies to other types of content as well. If all your setting offers is a different map with different country names, for example, but it's got the same aesthetic, monsters, quests, etc., that your competitors have, then why should people use your setting instead of one from a different company? Or one they made themselves?

- Is this actually something people buy? The best example I have of this is adventure modules. While they're a product customers often request, and they're something every company seems to put out there, the numbers suggest they're actually one of the worst-selling products you can create. This is not to say you can't be successful with adventure modules (or any other product) but that the market is stacked against you for certain types of products.

Everything from what form your product takes, to what genre it's geared toward, to what games it can be used for, to how expensive it is, and even if it's digital-only or print-on-demand, factors into whether an audience will buy it or not. And while there is no possible way to be absolutely certain when something will or won't make a lot of sales, it's a good idea to try to test the wind to see if the thing you're going to make checks the right boxes.

Tip #3: Ask What It Will Cost To Make


You're not working for free, after all.

A mistake that a lot of people make when it comes to designing RPG content is that they don't view their own efforts, time, and energy as expenditures. Someone might say, "Well, it's a digital release, so there's no printing costs. And I wrote everything, so I don't have to pay an author. I did the layout using free software, and I used free stock art/art I made, so I essentially paid nothing for this, and everything I make is pure profit!"

In one sense, that's true. However, if you're designing game content as a business (or at the very least a side hustle that you want to grow), then you need to look at your bills, and what you need to earn. For instance, did it take you a month to make that supplement? Or 6 months to write that adventure? How about 2 years to write a full RPG? How much is your labor worth? What costs did you incur just to live over that time period?

This can get even more complicated once you start doing bigger, more involved projects where you do have to buy art, where you want to source unique miniatures, where you're getting books printed, and so on. All of those costs add up, and you need to be honest with yourself about what your game needs to earn back to be worthwhile. This number may look different for different people, but it's important to go through the numbers and to look at your margins.

As a good example, my Kickstarter for Army Men had a minimum goal of $6k. That was just to get the bills paid and the expenses covered so the game could exist, and be shipped out to all the backers. That initial funding level doesn't actually pay me for the 2 years it took me to write the game; my earnings come from pledges beyond that base amount. Same for the other contributors who receive a cut of the proceeds beyond that basic, out-of-the-red zone.

This is not a fun aspect of designing RPGs, but it is a necessary one. If you can't eat, or pay your electricity bill, it's going to be really hard to keep making stuff for your audience.

Tip #4: Ask How You Plan To Market It


There are so, SO many dice to roll on this...

I've said this before over on The Literary Mercenary, but most people who like writing books don't actually want to market them. I've found the same is largely true for RPGs and RPG supplements. Chances are that if you like writing these things, then you just want to be left alone to write them, and if money just magically appeared in your account you'd probably vanish off of social media entirely.

Sadly if you want to move copies you have to climb up on the soap box, and get people's attention.

The good thing is there are a lot of options for getting attention onto your game even if you don't have a budget. The bad thing is that basically all of these options are the equivalent of pulling the handle on a slot machine; it might work, it might fail, and just because you got one result last time it's no guarantee that's the result you'll get this time. But some of the things you can do include:

- Social Media Posts: Facebook, Reddit, MeWe, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram... whatever platforms you can get on, you should use them. However, it's not really a matter of asking which platform is best for you. You're basically going to have to use ALL of them to get your message out.

- Content Creation: Whether you're writing blogs about gaming, making YouTube videos of real plays or demos of your game, or doing something else entirely, this is a great way to drum up interest in your products. If nothing else you can sprinkle in links where they'll get in front of people's eyes (like I did for most of the article up to this point) treating them like land mines for readers to trigger.

- Interviews: Whether you get on podcasts or YouTube channels, anytime you can get a slot where you can talk directly to someone else's audience, that really helps you get your stuff in front of fresh faces. It might be tough, but if you build up a network of people to interview you then you'll become a regular guest in no time!

- In-Person Sales: Attending conventions takes time, energy, and money, but you can often get your badge paid for if you run games for an event. And if you run modules you wrote, or a game you created, that's a great way to give people a try-before-you-buy experience.

- Make More Games: There's a saying that the best ad for your current book is actually your next book. The same thing applies to RPGs and supplements. The more stuff you can make, the bigger the pile becomes, and the more likely people are to check out your older stuff when your new releases catch their eyes. Of course it also helps that your new releases can include a list of links to your other projects and products, much like how novels used to have an intro page that listed all of an author's previous works so readers who liked one book could more easily find others by the same writer.

- Buying Advertising: There's a lot of ways you can save on this early on to see if it works for you. Large social media sites like Facebook and Reddit will often give you credits to try out certain services, and if you're running a Kickstarter, or trying to get fresh eyes on a tough-to-market product, this is often a good time to grab those coupons, and put them to good use.

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 FacebookTumblrTwitter, 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!

Friday, May 5, 2023

Under The Hood With "Army Men": A 5E Game With a Lot of Tactical Add-Ons

Folks who have been around here for the past few weeks have likely heard that my first RPG "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" is now live on Kickstarter! And while I've been talking about the game in very general terms the past few weeks, for this particular Crunch installment I wanted to get into what I did with the game's mechanics. Because while it uses the rules of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition as a basis, there is a lot more to it than the basic package you might expect with a standard 5E game.

EDIT: Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic is now available on Drive Thru RPG!

Let's pop the hood, and see what's going on beneath your top coat.

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The Origin of "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic"


I've talked about it in a couple of interviews thus far, but for those who haven't caught any of the media I've been sharing around, Army Men was first devised several years ago when I was more or less put on retainer for a new game company who wanted to put together a product they could break into the market with. The head of the company wanted to design something that would appeal to the wargaming crowd, and while they originally wanted something that ran on the FATE system, after a lot of discussion we finally settled on using a system that was going to be more tactical in nature, but which was still going to be simple enough to pull in newer gamers.

And while there were a lot of options available at the time, DND 5E was definitely king of the heap. Even now, post-OGL, it's still a system known to a large portion of the tabletop community. It might not be their favorite game, but it is still one they won't need a crash course to learn how to play. And while this game was originally designed as an add-on for DND 5E, it is now a stand-alone game which uses the parts of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition that have gone into the Creative Commons.

However... I felt the need to make additions.

First, Tactical Options


Targets acquired.

As we all know, Dungeons and Dragons was originally inspired by miniature combat games. It's one reason that, for all its story potential, DND (and games that use its various engines) is still a very combat-forward game. The 5th Edition, of course, was a little light on tactical rules... so I felt that should be corrected. Some additions I made include:

- Suppressing Fire: A standard tactic used by modern militaries, this maneuver is a particularly useful in Army Men where it allows you to give your allies cover... but it may be a tactic your enemies use against you as well!

- Taking a Knee: No one stands up during a firefight. Dropping to a knee is similar to going prone, but it only gives you some of the AC bonus. It does allow you to make better use of existing cover, however, and it's easier to get up and run from kneeling than from full prone.

- Flanking: While the 5th Edition of DND rules did have optional rules for flanking, Army Men makes them standard.

- The 5 Foot Step: A rule that was removed for 5th Edition, I felt it was a useful thing to bring back. For those not familiar, it allows someone to take a single, 5-foot-step in any direction without triggering an opportunity attack. This removes the need to spend your entire turn disengaging in case you just want to step behind cover, or give yourself a bit of breathing room before emptying your clip.

- Morale: Army Men has a morale system that takes you from +1 (battle frenzy), to -4 (utterly demoralized). This system provides a fluid way for battle to shift and change, and things like the Shake It Off action can be used to remove negatives from you and your comrades. It also means things like critical hits, and slaying enemy commanders, can have a serious effects on your team's ability to keep fighting.

Streamlined Gear Acquisition and Character Advancement


One of the major challenges that Game Masters have to deal with in traditional DND games is treasure acquisition, and making sure that PCs are properly equipped. This means you need to give them proper amounts of gold, make sure they have proper gear in treasure hoards, and so on, and so forth. Not only that, but if you follow the traditional rules, you also have to make sure your players are getting enough XP to level up, and that they're given the proper number of challenges to justify that reward.

Army Men does away with both of these concerns, in a way that gives more power to Game Masters.

Treasure management is a thing of the past.

First and foremost, Army Men does not have any XP; player characters will level up roughly every 3 missions. This saves GMs and players a lot of headaches when it comes to keeping track of who is close to leveling up, but it also removes the onus to solve problems in a particular fashion so that players will get the points. If they can sneak past periphery guards to steal the documents they were sent in to get without being caught, the mission is accomplished. If they infiltrate a militia as double agents, get everyone absolutely hammered, and then arrest them while they're passed-out drunk, the mission is still accomplished. And if they build layers of booby traps for a nest of Vespoids, and then lead the insects into the maze of tripwires, stake traps, landmines, etc., so that they barely have to pull a trigger at all to win the battle, the mission was still accomplished.

This flexible style also lends itself well to pick-up games, as well as character swaps due to death, wanting to try something new, etc. If someone new shows up (or a player had to make a new character), there's not really a lot of hemming and hawing over adding the new party member; command simply assigned them to the squad, here's their specialty, now shake hands and share your names, you've got a mission to complete.

Secondly, while characters in Army Men may have personal items and gear, a majority of what they're bringing into the field was given to them by the military before they were sent off on their mission. This removes the GM's need to make sure everyone is getting gold and treasure, because the PCs can just fill out a requisition form for the weapons, armor, ammo, etc., they want. But the Game Master can also restrict the gear that's available to add challenge/threat to a particular mission, if they so choose.

The very same mission with the same layout and the same enemies can be a very different game depending on what you allow the PCs to take into the field. If they're going to be fighting waves of Vespoids, but you give them huge belts of machine gun ammo, boxes of grenades, and high-quality armor, then it's going to be a Hollywood blockbuster sort of setup, with bullets flying and bugs dying. But if the PCs have standard armor, limited ammo, and they have to scrounge additional weaponry from the destroyed wreck of a base while avoiding Vespoid patrols, now that mission is going to feel tense and dangerous, with the squad choosing sneakier approaches, conserving ammo, and trying to keep moving.

Guns, Armor, and More!


Lastly, something I tried to do with this game was to try to avoid what's been dubbed the D20 Modern problem. Which is, namely, a game that has page, upon page, upon page of firearms, but where there's no real functional, mechanical difference between most of them. What I wanted to do instead was to present weapons and armor choices that each had their own strengths, unique capabilities, and which will allow players to really customize their characters in meaningful ways.

From plate carriers that can sacrifice a certain amount of armor to negate critical hits, to ballistic shields that can bring an old-world aesthetic to a modern battlefield, to shotguns rammed full of shrapnel to wreck utter devastation on close-range targets, there's all kinds of unusual options for players to play around with.

One shot, one kill.

And speaking of character customization, I altered both the way character backgrounds work, and introduced the Exploits System.

The changes to backgrounds is fairly simple. They still take the same form they did in Dungeons and Dragons 5E, but the difference is that each background gives you access to a specific, mechanical ability, in addition to a bonus exploit. These background abilities might be the power to requisition bonus equipment because you were a supply sergeant, so you know who to make the right phone calls to. Alternatively you might have been an irregular, so you can gain short-lived proficiencies in skills you don't normally have. You might be a spy with a cover identity, or a conscript who has friends in low places, allowing you to call in favors from the criminal elements of the setting.

And what is the Exploits System? Well, for folks who've played older editions of the game, it's basically the DND 3.5 version of feats. For those who haven't, they're a series of abilities that can shape the unique things your character is capable of doing when combined with their class features and background ability. Characters gain 1 exploit every odd level (including at creation), as well as an exploit from their background.

Exploits can do everything from making you better at hand-to-hand fighting, to granting you proficiency with certain types of weapons and armor, to allowing you to speak different languages, or granting you additional skill proficiencies. Some eliminate penalties from shooting from a prone position, while others give you bonuses to resisting fear and maintaining your morale. And by combining these abilities together, you can create a truly unique skillset for your soldier.

We Need You!





If that sounds like an interesting game system you'd like to give a try, back the Kickstarter today! We're 84% of the way to our initial funding goal at time of writing, but we have stretch goals at 10k and 15k that I would love to hit. And the more support this game gets at this stage, the more likely it is that we'll be able to expand and make even more supplements, missions, etc., going forward!

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 FacebookTumblrTwitter, 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.

Monday, May 1, 2023

What's Next For "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" After The Kickstarter?

Regular readers (as well as those who subscribe to my bi-weekly newsletter) have likely heard that my RPG "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" is currently live on Kickstarter! If you haven't heard of it yet, then I'd urge you to go check it out, and if you want to help make the game a reality then consider becoming a backer. It's just over 70% funded at time of writing, and we still need all the help we can get!

EDIT: The KS funded, and Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic is now available on DTRPG!

And while I covered a lot of stuff about the game last week in We Want You! "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" is Now Live on Kickstarter!, this week I wanted to talk about where I'd like the game to go, and what extra stuff I'd like to do with it, assuming we can reach our goals, and people want more than just a single, base book. So whether you've been following the news of this game for a while, or you're just now hearing about it, here's some stuff I'd like to do in the future, if the rest of this campaign goes well.

Because the Vespoids are just the beginning!


What The Game Already Has



For folks who are just joining us, I thought I'd offer a quick run down of what the base book for Army Men already has, so that what I want to add in the future has some context. In addition to the core rules of the game (it uses the mechanical parts of Dungeons and Dragons' 5th Edition that have gone into Creative Commons, with some additions for more tactical options), the base book gives you:

- 5 Resins to pick from, each with their own, unique benefits.
- 5 Casts to choose, each with 3 subclasses you can branch out into.
- A bestiary full of dangerous animals, dinosaurs, and the fearsome, insectile Vespoids.
- A setting full of nations, history, culture, and religions to explore.
- An armory full of unique weaponry and equipment.
- Unique systems for gear acquisition and threat management for Game Masters.
- A starting mission for players to really get stuck into the setting.

Now, that's a lot of stuff, but it's just the tip of the ice berg when it comes to what I'd like to put into the game once it's out in the wild and players have it in their hands.

What I Want To Add Going Forward


If I get a chance to shoot my shot, that is.

Army Men was never intended to be a one-and-done game, but rather a series of expansions strung together with supplements and tales that players could use to tell deeper, stranger, and more wide-reaching stories. And if we can find the audience for it, there are a lot of things I'd like to do for the game going forward. Some of the bigger things include:

- Additional rules for vehicles. Tanks, planes, motorcycles, and more, because vehicular combat should always be an option.
- Additional Casts to choose from, including options for characters with animal companions as a nod to historical figures like the horse Sergeant Reckless, and the Polish artillery bear Wotjek.
- Mission packs so that players can really get involved in the game and setting, and Game Masters can have a template to follow for designing their own campaigns going forward (given that Army Men uses a format that's unlike a lot of other RPGs).
- Options for mercenaries and contractors. While Army Men's core book sets the scene, this expansion (tentatively titled Soldiers of Fortune) would give players more flexibility, emulating things like The A-Team, or even The Equalizer using the setting and system.
- Expanded armories, tech levels, and enemies. Labeled "Weird War" in my ideas folder, this gets into sci-fi territory with ray guns, bizarre monsters, experiments gone awry, and more!
- Smaller supplements to flesh out the setting, similar to things like my 100 Fantasy Foods or 100 Sci-Fi Mercenary Companies lists.

Something I'd really love to do with Army Men is to get enough folks interested in playing it to expand the meta narrative of the setting, and to bring players along with the story as it develops through the mission packs and expansions. Because the core rulebook for Army Men starts us roughly 50 years after the incursions by the huge, insectoid creatures known as the Vespoids, which caused all the resinous peoples to set aside their differences, declare peace from the war they were fighting, and unite against this common enemy. But I'd like to expand the storyline so players can find out where the Vespoids came from, allow them to discover the even greater threat that lurks behind them, and to expand the borders beyond the Plastos Federation to see what other strange and bizarre nations, cultures, and creatures are lurking beyond their own battle lines!

And, as a final item on the wish list, I wouldn't be averse to expanding the game out to other forms of media, if that was something players wanted to see. Whether it be audio dramas (like the introductory story in the video above) collections of short stories/field reports, novels, or even comic books, if enough people love the setting there are all sorts of things we could do with it once the initial game is done.

So How Do We Get From Here, To There?


First, we've got to take that hill!

As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step... and in this case, the first step is getting Army Men's Kickstarter funded!

While the KS has been going all right thus far, we still haven't even reached our minimum goal, to say nothing of the stretch goals that unlock at 10K and 15K (a standard-issue set of army-green dice to ensure your troopers roll hard, and an ammo can for hauling all of your necessities to game respectively). And the best way to make sure that all of us have the energy and space to work on sequels is to be sure that the initial offering made the biggest possible splash, and that there's a lot of people out there who elected to check this game out!

So if any of those expansions sound like something you want to see, then help us lay the foundation for the game so we can go forward with confidence! Back the Kickstarter for Army Men today, and if you've already done that, share it with your friends, your gaming table, or even your family if it sounds like the sort of thing they might get a kick out of!

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 FacebookTumblrTwitter, 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!