And if enough eager readers pick up copies of them, it would help me convince my publisher(s) to circle back and perhaps pen a few more pieces in these unfinished/discontinued lines and abandoned product formats.
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| Let's take a look in the vault, shall we? |
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! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.
Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!
100 Creature Supplement Series
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| I've got a soft spot for this one... |
Regular readers know that a majority of my bestselling supplements have all been in the 100 X format or the 10 X format... but one series of these that may have slipped under your radar was what I was thinking of as my 100 Creatures series. Unfortunately I really only managed to put together 100 Unusual Aasimar and 100 Tieflings to Meet in Your Travels before I put this one up on a shelf for seriously underperforming.
While I tried to go in a different direction with 13 Fiends: A Backer's Dozen of Devils, all three of these supplements were really slow movers, and at time of writing none of them have gone very far past Copper metal status.
My original plan for this series was to do one entry for all of the core species for most fantasy games, and then to move on to the more unusual/monstrous creatures that you may still encounter so that GMs would have a slew of NPCs to hand, and players could use the lists as inspiration for their own characters, or to fill out parts of their backstories. At the time there didn't seem to be that much support for it... but maybe that's changed now, eh?
Adventure Modules
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| A tough product to create, but even tougher to sell. |
One of the most commonly requested products from readers is adventure modules. However, writing these things is one of the more intensive, difficult tasks you could ask a creator to do, as they take the skill to tell a short story, along with the challenge of balancing encounters, and attempting to predict what an average group of players will do, giving the Game Master tips and advice on how to handle a variety of story paths without sprawling out into a massive tome.
And even if you manage to do all of that, adventure modules are, statistically, the products that are the hardest to sell. Yes there are exceptions to this statement, but attempting to move copies of this kind of product is basically playing the marketing game on hard mode.
The first series of adventure modules I wrote, called the Critical Hits, was a series of 3 adventures I put together 5 years ago. It consisted of:
- False Valor: A murder mystery where players have to solve a wrongful death, and perhaps kick some fantasy Proud Boys in the face!
- The Curse of Sapphire Lake: The bastard child of Beowulf and Friday the 13th, an awful specter is haunting the settlement of Kingsbridge... can the PCs figure out what is happening, and stop it, before anyone else dies?
- The Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh: Something strange is happening around the town of Bracken. Bizarre sights lurk just off the high road, waiting for darkness to lurch out of the marshes. The town is being strangled... but who will put these haunts to rest?
Since these modules were released, the first two have only managed to go Copper, and the last one hasn't even reached that level. I haven't been shy about sharing them (particularly around Friday the 13th for all the horror fans who also enjoy TTRPGs), but aside from a few players who really loved them, most folks seem pretty indifferent.
The same could be said of the other two adventure modules I've written. Dreadful Tales was a series of 3 modules for the Victorian Gothic TTRPG, and my contribution was a module that was a nod to both Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson. The most recent module I wrote was the above-pictured The Price of Iron, a bizarre little adventure featuring dark fae, rips in reality, lies, betrayal, and horror that can really test your players. But, like all the others, it's really had a hell of a time getting traction.
So if you're one of the folks out there who'd like to see me write more modules, please consider grabbing a couple of these. And if you're one of those rare readers who's already gotten your copies, make sure you leave a rating, a review, and share them on your social media for other folks to see!
Fiction
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| It comes in a lot of shapes and sizes. |
Another request I've gotten a lot over the years is people who want me to expand into game tie-in fiction, particularly for my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age TTRPG setting. This is something I'd really like to do, actually, as I got into game writing via writing the short story The Irregulars for Paizo back in my early days. However, neither that story, nor the anthology Tales From The Moot have been particularly popular when it comes to sales.
Now, there could be a lot of reasons for that. Maybe it's the format, maybe it's the setting, maybe it's the length, but I would actually really like to write more fiction than I do these days... the only problem is actually finding an audience of folks out there who want to read it.
I may have a loophole, though... especially if you're the sort of person who enjoys audio drama content.
As some readers know, I've been including fiction in my TTRPG supplements for years, and for about a year and a half I've been making these little audio dramas for them over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. I've also been slowly linking these little vignettes together into several different series, weaving narratives between my supplements which then become things my listeners can follow for free.
So even if you're not the sort of person who would necessarily buy copies of short stories (or even novels) of tie-in fiction, but this is something you'd enjoy, please subscribe to the channel, watch the videos, and share them around so we can get more views! Because as I said recently in "Windy City Shadows," A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal, if we can get that channel monetized it will give me the leeway to start making bigger, bolder, interconnected narratives that listeners can really sink their teeth into.
We have all the followers we need (though more are always appreciated)... the issue is we're falling short on how many hours of watched content it takes. We need to cross 3k hours in the past year, and when last I checked we'd barely cleared 1k hours. So check out the audio drama playlist, share some videos with your friends, and help us clear this hurdle if this is a project you'd like to see more 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 Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my dystopian sci fi thriller Old Soldiers, or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!
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