I'm Not Just The President, I'm Also a Client (Using My Own TTRPG Supplements in My Games)

My fellow kids who were born in the 80s will likely remember the Hair Club For Men commercials. These things were geared toward middle aged guys who were losing their hair, and they wanted to recapture their vigor and vitality by regrowing it. The man talking to the camera was a fellow named Sy Sperling, and he assured everyone that not only was he the president of this company, but that it was through the products he was offering that he had regrown his own thick, lush mane of hair.

I find myself thinking about those commercials whenever I end up as the Game Master. Because when I sit down to work on a supplement, the question that I usually ask myself is, "If I were running a game, what heavy lifting would I want already done for me?"

The files get a little bigger every month, 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! 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!

Being A Game Master is Hard Enough As It Is

I've been in the game for a while (pun very much intended), and there's an attitude that I've run into a lot when it comes to TTRPG supplements. Namely, there is a portion of the population that believes if you don't make everything yourself from the ground up (the RPG equivalent of homemade cooking versus a boxed mix) then you aren't a real Game Master.

I've gone on the record with this, but I feel like Game Masters should be given all the help they can get. They're already expected to craft a plot, keep track of an entire party worth of backstories and motivations, and keep the world all around the PCs spinning without letting things topple off the cliff... if they want a handy chart of random rumors, odd encounters, or just NPCs to meet at the bar, they shouldn't feel any shame whatsoever about GMing smarter instead of harder.

I sure as hell don't.

As a lot of my regular readers/viewers may have seen, I was planning a Changeling: The Lost LARP right around when Covid hit. I shelved my plans for it at the time, but I kept tinkering with the ideas I'd had, and the elements I'd already worked out for it. It was a lot of labor for a game I wouldn't be able to run till after the end of a global pandemic, so I decided the best thing to do for now would be to publish some of the better ideas I'd had, and to put the supplements out there for folks to use.

And now that my game is running, I'm really glad for all the pregaming I did with these supplements, as having them on-hand has saved me so much time, energy, and effort. This is particularly true for Buyer Beware: 10 Goblin Markets, which has the layouts and rules for all the local goblin markets in my game's immediate area, as well as 100 Strange Sights to See in The Hedge, which has helped me keep any journeys into the world next door feeling bizarre, unexpected, and dangerous, rather than letting it turn into just another fantasy forest. My players have also been loving the additions to the setting I put into 100 (Mostly) Harmless Goblin Fruits and Oddments To Find in The Hedge, which is honestly the bestselling thing I've ever written for the World of Darkness at this point.

Of course, I've done this with other systems, too.

Additionally, while modules are some of the toughest products to sell, my Critical Hits series is always good to have on-hand for folks who haven't played before, and who just want a quick introduction to tabletop RPGs. Thus far I've run people through Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh (a creeping dread besieges a marsh town), False Valor (a murder mystery where you get to kick fantasy Proud Boys in the teeth), and The Curse of Sapphire Lake (the hate child of Beowulf and Friday the 13th), and every time I was able to dedicate so much more of my energy to NPCs, scene setting, and facilitating interactions because the bulk of the adventure was already laid out in front of me, requiring no extra effort on my behalf.

I haven't run The Price of Iron (story about dark fey and a warehouse of horror) yet, but it's queued up for the next time my group is champing at the bit for a solid game with a dire threat!

Seriously... Don't Reinvent The Wheel

If you've been raking yourself over the coals as a Game Master because you feel like you don't put in all the work your job requires, or you're letting your players down, just take a deep breath, let it out, and remind yourself that you don't have to do everything for your game. Hell, this is my job, and I still don't force myself to come up with brand new, freshly-made stuff every time I get behind the screen, or put on my ST hat. Whether you're running a fully pre-made campaign arc, using a world built by someone else, or just grabbing a list of sci fi mercenary companies, sights to see in a steampunk city, or just some random prophecies to hear from an oracle, saving yourself processing power can be a life saver when it's time to run a game.

Because while most of us are capable of just making something up on the spot, if you end up doing that over and over again as the night progresses, pretty soon you won't have the necessary grip strength to run the rest of the game. So if you haven't used GM aids and TTRPG supplements at your table, check out some of mine, and maybe give one or two of them a whirl!

I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't use them myself.

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 dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, 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!

Sci Fi or Fantasy Supplements? What Do You Want To See More Of?

Regular readers on this blog know that I've been bouncing around into a lot of different games, genres, and styles over the past few years. From Call of Cthulhu, to the World and Chronicles of Darkness, to Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons, Starfinder, Zweihander, and now Castles and Crusades, there's a pretty wide variety of stuff out there with my name on it.

As I said last month in Why I Will Have Fewer Community Created TTRPG Projects Coming Out, I'm sort of getting back to basics when it comes to my supplements, and focusing on general use, genre-specific stuff. However, I wanted to poll my readers and ask a question that will determine the direction I end up going in... would you use sci fi supplements more, or fantasy supplements? And what topics would you like to see them cover?

There are many possibilities out there, 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! 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!

Which Genre Do You Wish To See?

In the long ago and far away at the start of my career as an RPG writer, I started off writing general-use fantasy supplements. While most of them sold at least well enough to break Copper (not all, but most), they usually ended up around Silver. A few of them, though, like 100 NPCs You Might Meet at The Tavern, 100 Random Taverns, and 100 Merchants to Encounter managed to hit Gold status!

In order to cover as much ground as possible, Adrian (the fellow who runs Azukail Games) suggested that I also write some sci-fi supplements, using what had been popular in my fantasy supplements as a guide. And while supplements like 100 Sci Fi Foods, 100 Sci Fi Cocktails, and 100 Space Bars have all hit Electrum status, none of my sci-fi stuff has managed to hit Gold just yet... though most of them do come in around Silver, making the average about the same when it comes to sci fi vs. fantasy in terms of general popularity.

Though I will say that the audio dramas over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel do seem to favor sci fi stories over fantasy ones in terms of views. For those who were curious.

Now, I could just take a stab in the dark, and hope that I land on a topic that's popular among my readers. I sometimes get lucky, like when I put together 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master, but I prefer to work off of some kind of data whenever I can.

So this week I'd like to ask a couple of questions, and get some responses from all of you, either down in the comments below, or on whatever social media platform you saw this blog post shared on. What I need to know is:

- Do you have a preference for sci-fi or fantasy supplements?

- Would you want to see locations, NPCs, items, factions, or random encounters/events?

- What tone would get you most interested? (grim, dark, noble bright, high fantasy, hard SF, etc.)?

- What game/setting would you want a supplement to be compatible with?

- Would you prefer 100 smaller entries, or 10-13 more detailed entries?

If I can get some ideas of what would appeal to folks out there, and what you'd be most interested in, then I can start working on fresh content that should (ideally) be moving in a direction that those readers who raise their voices can enjoy!

One more thing...

Lastly, 100 Sci Fi Bands dropped this past weekend. I had a lot of fun with it, because the question of entertainment is often overlooked in our settings, and I wanted to try to fill in this gap. And if you're more of a fantasy than a sci fi player, then check out my 100 Fantasy Bands instead!

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 dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, 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 Final Lamentation" is Out! (And There's More To Come)

Back in April I released my latest Warhammer 40K fan story The Final Lamentation, which tells the tale of Astin Furon, the last of a squad of Lamenters taken prisoner onboard a Black Legion ship. Things go poorly, of course, as the bad luck of this cursed chapter manifests itself, leading to ship-wide mayhem.

The story was, as far as my short fiction on Vocal goes, mostly a flash in the pan. When last I checked, the reads on the story had barely broken triple digits. Then the audio version by A Vox in The Void dropped, and it is doing really well! At time of writing it's sitting at around 53K views, and it was only released 5 days ago!

That's a really solid debut, and my hope is that this kind of attention from the audience means that I can keep this train rolling!

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!

Delving Deeper Into The Grim Darkness of The Far Future

Back in March on this very segment, I laid out a plan for where I'd like to go with some of my Warhammer 40K fan stories. The details can be found in Gathering The Grimdark (Tying My Warhammer 40K Shorts Together) for those who missed it, but it involves taking the 3 major threads of characters and stories that I've laid down (Inquisitor Hargrave and her retinue from Field Test, Kill Team Errant from my Deathwatch story Blackest Knights, and Crixus's journey of vengeance that began with Waking Dogs) and tying them all into a single narrative that leads to a conclusion for multiple stories.

Of course, as with any other fiction project of mine, whether or not this happens depends on you all as my readers and listeners!

Raise your banners! The crusade begins today!

So what can you all do to help make sure that I keep this project going, tie off the threads I have so far, and possibly start some new ones? Well, I'm going to need your ears, your eyes, and your voices!

First, Help Increase My Reads

Real talk, here. I may be the author of these stories, but I do not draw nearly as much traffic as when they appear on A Vox in The Void with an audio cast. But if you want to help show me, directly, how many people are reading my stories, then please check them out, and share them with like-minded folks who may be interested in joining the audience!

Crixus's Stories (Renegade World Eater)

- Waking Dogs: Crixus awakens from the haze of the Butcher's Nails, and decides that he and his brothers have been a plague on the galaxy long enough.

- Broken Chains: The Skull Cutters warband is invading a hive city, when something goes wrong. Crixus has a score to settle with the band's Captain, and either he or his former sergeant is going to die tonight.

Inquisitor Hargrave (Inquisition)

- Field Test: Hargrave came to a world in the path of an ork waaaaugh, and promised them a weapon that would destroy the greenskins. What that weapon is, though, shocks even the hardened commander of the planet's garrisoned force.

Kill Team Errant (Deathwatch)

- Blackest Knights: Kill Team Errant has a reputation for efficiency, and a refusal to surrender. When they find themselves on a drukhari ship rescuing a captured inquisitor, though, they find out there's something far more valuable on this ship even than a member of the Ordo Malleus.

Other Stories

- Gav and Bob Part IV: The Emperor's Hand: The Word Bearers were ready for anything when they began their ritual to swallow an entire world into the warp... anything except the intervention of the Imperium's bravest ogryn, that is!

- Broken Heroes: When Renn led a team into the wilds to recover a prototype weapon, he knew it would be dangerous. Hemmed in on all sides, and ready to face death, he never expected to find something capable of destroying an entire hive of Dead Heads... something that's been waiting in stasis to be awoken to finish a fight it began thousands of years ago.

Second, Help Increase My Views

Not all of us have time to sit down and dedicate our eyeballs to a screen these days. However, if you like to listen to audio dramas while you're on the bus, at the gym, going for a walk, or just painting minis, then drop by A Vox in The Void, subscribe to the channel, and give the stories there a listen! Most of the stories I've linked to on this page either have an audio rendition over there, or will have one shortly, but when you're done with my stories, go back through the archive and give the others a listen as well!

Most importantly, though, leave comments on the stories you like, and give feedback. You can just say, "I really liked this story!" or you could leave requests for future narrations, ask questions, etc. Interaction is key to helping channels grow, and helping creators get the support they need to keep creating!

Lastly, Something 40K Adjacent

If you've already gone through all of my previous stories, but you still find that you could go for one more helping of gigantic, genetically-engineered soldiers in a dystopian setting, then you should also check out my novel Old Soldiers. This book follows Pollux, a colossal shock trooper forged to fight in the Hyperion Conflict, trying to live his life as a civilian in a world never meant for him, or those like him. When a violent conspiracy seems to be gunning for him, he assembles the remains of his old squad to get to the bottom of what's happening... but what if it's all mixed up in his head, and he simply can't live in a world where there isn't a war to fight, or an enemy to oppose?

Get your copy today!

Alternatively, if you're in the market for even more audio drama content, make sure you check out my channel The Literary Mercenary over on Rumble, as well as the Azukail Games YouTube channel where I put together all kinds of stories taken from my TTRPG supplements. There's all sorts of stuff out there, so read, listen, and consume away!

Just remember that it's the stories and projects that get attention that get sequels... so if you want more of something, make sure you make your voice heard!

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, my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, 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.

What Phase 4 Holds For "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age"

Things have been pretty busy over here on my side of the screen, and with all the stuff going on it's all too easy to lose track of new updates and announcements. So I wanted to take a moment to talk about my fantasy RPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age, where it is currently, and where I'm hoping to go with it in the near future.

Because we started here, but there's no telling where we might go!

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!

Finishing Up Phase 3, And Laying Foundations

I recently put together the above video for the Azukail Games YouTube channel (which you should subscribe to if you haven't, as we're trying to get it monetized going forward), but I wanted to reiterate some of the points this week because I know far more folks read my blogs than watch the vlog updates on the channel.

So, to sum up, Sundara began a few years back with the release of the Cities of Sundara line, covering places like Ironfire, Archbliss, Silkgift, and Hoardreach. I then moved on to Species of Sundara, where I covered most of the standard fantasy species players are used to, and after that I moved into what I tend to think of as the Organizations of Sundara, where I've thus far covered mercenary companies, cults, and guilds. To finish out Phase 3 (as we always have at least 5 splats in a phase) I'd like to work on Merchants of Sundara (which I'm actively prepping right now) and then Secret Societies of Sundara, which could be used almost like a faction guide to the setting, for folks who enjoy those kinds of plots.

The question we then face is... what's going to be in Phase 4?

As I mentioned in the video, there's nothing set in stone for Phase 4 just yet. I could, if my readers want, go back and expand on more cities, more species, or even just do Phase 3.5 and bring out even more organizations. I could write 100 Random X lists for the setting based on its unique features, or I could write modules, fiction, treasure troves, monster entries... the sky is the limit, really! I've only laid a relatively small amount of groundwork for Sundara as a setting, and there so much still to explore.

What gets explored, however, is going to be up to you!

Make Your Voices Heard!

Whether you've been following Sundara since it first debuted, or you're just now hearing about it, I want to solicit opinions from all the folks out there regarding this setting! I'm making these materials for players and GMs to use, so I need to know what it is that's going to appeal to you all the most. So to make your voices heard, please consider doing the following:

- Leave Comments: Whether on the video above (which my publisher sees), on this blog (which I see), or on social media (my links are below), let me know what you want more of in this setting going forward!

- Boost The Signal: Sundara is a mostly unknown, independently-produced TTRPG setting, and it's tough getting people to sit up and take notice of it. So please consider sharing this post, or any of my other posts about the setting, as well as links to the supplements. And if you got copies of your own, please consider reviewing them on DTRPG so that the algorithm helps promote it.

- Buy Copies: Money talks, as the saying goes, and that's true in all corners of the publishing world. So if there's a particular type of supplement you like, a particular game line it's in, or you just want to support the setting in general, consider grabbing some of the supplements linked below!

Need To Catch Up On Sundara?

Whether this is the first you're hearing about Sundara, or you're one of the folks who picked up the Deal of The Day and are curious about what else you can find in this setting, the older supplements are all listed below! Additionally, I've been putting together episodes of Speaking of Sundara on the Azukail Games YouTube channel (which you should definitely subscribe to) talking about some of the design strategies I've used, breaking down what's in particular supplements, and explaining some of the changes I've made to what folks might expect from a traditional fantasy RPG setting, from how I chopped out alignment, to the uncertain nature of gods, to how technology and magic both lead to unique inventions among the people of Sundara!

Check out the full 26-video Speaking of Sundara playlist, in addition to the following supplements!

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.

Organizations of Sundara

Phase 3 has been going strong, but there's still a few titles left in it! So if you haven't seen them, consider checking out:

- Sellswords of Sundara: With power structures being smaller in scale in Sundara, standing armies aren't often maintained for long. As such, soldiers of fortune are quite common! This supplement contains 10 mercenary companies, their history, uniform, sample members, whispers and rumors, as well as either an archetype or subclass for playing these unique warriors. Grab your copy for Pathfinder of DND 5E.

- Cults of Sundara: Faith comes in many forms in Sundara, and there are as many gods in the Prim as there are dreams in the minds of people. This supplement contains write-ups for 10 cults, their histories, sample members, rumors about them, their beliefs and tenets, and a unique magic item for each. Get your copy for Pathfinder or DND 5E.

- Guilds of Sundara: While cities and villages may be relatively local, guilds are spread across the length and width of Sundara. From professional orders of skilled miners and dredgers, to monster slayers and bounty hunters, this supplement has 10 guilds with histories, sample members, rumors, as well as unique feats one can take to represent the skill and benefits of joining this order. Available for Pathfinder as well as DND 5E.

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 dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, 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!

A Year-Long Experiment With Vocal Media (And Why I Need Your Help)

For all the readers out there who go all the way to the end of my blog posts, you may have noticed a change over the past year. If you scroll down the page, the only section you really see represented is Moon Pope Monday, which are the catch-all Monday posts I put up on Improved Initiative. There may be an occasional entry from Table Talk, or Crunch, but for the most part folks who just come by this blog haven't seen any posts for Fluff or Unusual Character Concepts in over a year.

I didn't stop writing them... they've just been appearing over on my Vocal.Media archive for the past year or so. It's been an ongoing experiment, but it hasn't been going as well as I'd like. As such, I figured this week I'd deliver the preliminary results, and give folks the behind-the-scenes rundown of what I've been doing, the problems I've run into, and how you can help.

It's been... less successful than I'd hoped it would be.

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!

Vocal, Improved Initiative, and What I Was Trying To Do

I've been writing blogs for Improved Initiative for a decade or so, now, and my format has been pretty standard for years. I would write a Monday post, and then a second post that would go Crunch, Fluff, Unusual Character Concept, and Table Talk, before starting over again. This helped ensure variety in my articles, and it meant there was something different every week for folks who didn't just want more of the same content over and over again.

However, what some of my readers may not know, is that I don't make any money from the traffic on this blog. Even when my ads did function (which was a while ago), so many people have some form of ad blocker that it just wasn't worth the effort. My Patreon and my Ko-Fi are the primary way that my blog gets support, but I know that not everyone out there has money to just throw at me every month to help me keep the lights on while I write.

But it would help, if you wanted to go that route. Just saying.

For all the gentle reminders I put in my blogs about crowdfunding, and for all the links to the TTRPG supplements I write, though, I really don't like asking people to just give me money. I'd much rather have the traffic I earn translate into cash, because that allows a direct transfer of the amount of attention my work receives into how much money I earn. There's also a certain kind of frustration that comes with seeing an article get thousands (or sometimes tens of thousands) of reads, and knowing that none of that activity is going to put money in my pocket.

Enter Vocal.Media.

For those who've never been to this site, it's a place that lets writers create and publish their own work. It's where all of my Character Conversion Guides are published, and it's where I've written a lot of articles about miscellaneous history, geek things, weird etymology, etc. Hell, my article It's Okay To Admit There Are Problems in Your Hobby once blew up so big that someone turned me into a meme because they were so tired of seeing it. And generating traffic on that site does actually pay me money. It's $6 per every 1,000 reads (not just views, actual reads), which means that if something explodes it will actually put cash in my hand.

For the first few years I wrote articles for Vocal, I got some pretty good views. I was generally managing between 14,000 and 20,000 reads a month, which comes out to between $70 and $120, give or take. Not life changing, but it was enough to literally keep my lights on, and fill in the gaps when other projects fell through, or didn't sell enough copies, or when some of my patrons had to stop supporting me because they could no longer afford to. Reading articles was free, after all, so it was something everyone could do.

Then the social media landscape changed, and that oasis dried up.

You see, a majority of the reads I was getting were from my Character Conversions. However, as Pathfinder's first edition wound down, they were becoming less and less popular. That was always going to happen, which was why I tried to pivot and write other articles, like 5 Tips For Playing Better Evil Characters, or my more recent Find a Reason For Your Character To Get Involved. However, while I was diversifying my content, the algorithm underwent an abrupt shift over the space of a few weeks. This meant that Reddit, which I'd been using for years to boost the signal on these articles, now automatically removed any links to Vocal.Media. This wiped out years of my submissions across dozens of subreddits, and set me back in a big way. Then as the follow-up to that heavy punch, Facebook altered their algorithm so that if you included a link in your post it got shoved all the way to the bottom, and nobody saw it.

In real terms, I went from getting 400-500 reads a day, to barely cracking 70... and I wanted to try to fix that.

When in doubt, create more content!

This brings us up to about a year and change ago. I figured that if I could create more Vocal content, then maybe the sheer amount of it would help overcome the resistance of the algorithm. And if I could get my existing audience to help me boost those numbers, maybe I could turn Vocal back into a viable source of income... but I couldn't do that while also writing 2 blogs a week here on Improved Initiative.

So I kept my Monday posts right where they were, but I moved the second post of the week over to Vocal, hoping that it would drive the folks who enjoyed my content to check those articles out over there instead.

It Didn't Work... But Could It?

As of time of writing, I have 285 articles in my Vocal archive. Additionally, my daily reads haven't been above 100 for at least 2 months now. Which is, as the kids say these days, not great. Because if you've read my other post, If 90,000 People Read This Article, I Can Pay My Bills This Month, you know that it takes a colossal amount of attention for writers depending on per-read pay to stay one step ahead of the rent.

The question, of course, is what do I do about this?

It's big brain time!

Now, on the one hand, it's true that articles here on Improved Initiative are easier to market. My blog is perfectly shareable on Reddit (for the most part), and it does no worse on Facebook than Vocal does in terms of attention. However, as I mentioned above, even if 10,000, 50,000, or 100,000 people all read an article on this blog, it isn't going to pay my bills. I won't see a single, red cent from any of that traffic.

Popularity isn't something you can eat, sadly, or the choice would be pretty easy.

What I need to help me keep the lights on and the content flowing is for people to support my work. While direct support through my Patreon or my Ko-Fi is always going to be preferred (immediate support yields immediate results), helping my Vocal articles get traction is something folks can do for free right now!

Consider the following actions:

- If you have a Vocal account, subscribe to me! Also, throw a like onto my articles, and leave some comments. The algorithm likes those things, and it helps me stand out. If you don't have a Vocal account, it's free to make one, and it makes organizing your subscriptions easier.

- Bookmark my page, and check back. I typically have at least 1 update a week on Vocal, so there's usually new stuff waiting for you to take a look at.

- Read through my Vocal archive. You don't have to do it all at once. If 100 people each read an article a day for a month, that would be 30,000 reads, and it would put me 1/3 of the way toward paying my rent... which is nothing to sneeze at!

- Share my articles so other people can see them. This is probably the most important, and if it was paired with the above request, it might actually get me the 90,000 reads I would need to cover a full month of bills. Because 30,000 reads is great ($180 and change). But 30,000 shares, whether it's on Facebook, Twitter, Blue Sky, your gaming Discord, or anywhere else... that makes a massive difference!

Little things really do add up if enough people participate... the problem is getting a lot of people to all pitch in, and to pitch in consistently, so that the numbers stay high. So please, if you haven't seen any of my Vocal articles before (or if you have, but didn't know there were quite that many of them) go take a look around! Every read helps me stay one step ahead of my landlord, and that lets me keep making more content for all the gamers out there.

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!

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!