Make In-World Media For Your Game (Your Players Will Appreciate It)

Game Masters are always looking for ways to enhance immersion, and to really get players stuck into their games. Some GMs will put together playlists and background ambience for particular scenes, others will put together physical props like wallets or maps that the characters may find during their adventure. However, something that a lot of us might not think to do, but which you can get a lot of mileage out of, is creating in-game media that plays into your ongoing campaign.

And while this can be just one more hat for the GM to wear, trust me, few things will draw players in quite the same way as these little extras.

And they can even be fun to make!

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!

Newspapers, Radio Broadcasts, and More!

As an example of what I'm talking about, let's take your average high fantasy game. Maybe it's Dungeons and Dragons, maybe it's Pathfinder, or maybe it's something else entirely... whatever your system, you should find a way to put in some kind of local newspaper (or at least a broadsheet) that can act as both a recap of your party's adventures thus far, but also as a combination job board, and way for them to potentially get news about the rest of the setting.

This could be a straightforward re-telling, or you could even add a bit of a slant depending on what kind of public persona your PCs have. You might even give it the Jonah Jameson treatment, where the person behind the paper is constantly trying to paint the party as a menace, acting as whole other obstacle to be overcome. You could have quotes from NPCs they've interacted with, eyewitness reports about particular noteworthy moments, and then in the back pages, some personal ads. If you want to get extra clever you can even bury secrets in those want ads so that characters who know spy codes or thief craft may realize there's a bit of doublespeak going on there, and that if they dig deeper there could even be hidden plot points to pursue.

For another example, consider these broadcasts I create from Mr. Nowhere, a representative of Radio Free Fae in my Changeling: The Lost game.

For those who have not played the game before, Changeling: The Lost is about people who are kidnapped by god-like, alien entities from another dimension. These True Fae tear out a captive's soul, pour fae magic into the gap, and then alter these people to be their servants. Those who escape and make it back to the real world find themselves changed, hence the name changelings, and they tend to come together for mutual protection, as well as to help one another cope with (and perhaps even heal from) their traumatic experiences.

Changelings often join large organizations called courts for mutual protection and support, and one of the most common types of courtly arrangement are the courts of the four seasons. The Winter Court are known as spymasters, information brokers, and when necessary, assassins. Radio Free Fae is one way that Winter Courtiers will occasionally broadcast information to other changelings, letting them know about dangers and risks in the area... though these broadcasts tend to be put into coded language so that only those in the know can interpret the true meaning.

The above broadcast was the one I made for my players this Summer. This emotional weather report (named for the Tom Waits song, and because changelings feed off powerful emotions to fuel their magic) talked about which areas of the city are currently dangerous (north side is vampire turf, hence why it might seem dead, but is quite dangerous), where there will be good places to harvest emotions (construction season is peak time for absorbing rage from passerby), and even warnings about dangers that are coming in from outside (a specific reference to white supremacist groups that were causing problems in the city).

And since it's been up for a few months, I went a step further. For those who go to the full page for Emotional Weather Report (Broadcast From Mr. Nowhere), you will find some clues buried in the video tags. Winter Courtiers love to talk in code, after all, and the phrase "Beware The Ashen Lady," was an early warning about one of the True Fae who was making her way to the area. Mr. Nowhere didn't know what her deal was, but knew she was dangerous, and that everyone in the area needed to be warned. To put the other tag in context, Froebischer is a large, emperor penguin in a Hawaiian shirt that breathes fire who wanders through the local Hedge... the message that he is not a penguin could simply be a red herring, or there might be a deeper meaning to it.

If any of my players are reading this, consider whether or not this is a clue.

The first Emotional Weather Report turned out so well (and was so positively regarded by my players) that I've decided to make it something of a seasonal thing. Now Mr. Nowhere acts as an early warning system, allowing players to glean some hints and clues about things that are coming, so long as they put in the effort to maintain good rapport with him, and to do their part to make sure tragedy doesn't befall him, or his broadcasts.

As to what this most recent report above means... well, it's still fresh, so I don't want to spoil anything. But rest assured, I will have a full write-up down the line, once all the actions are taken, and the story is complete. For those who want to stay on top of these broadcasts, as well as other audio dramas I make, don't forget to subscribe to the Azukail Games channel on YouTube, as well as to my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary!

And if you're curious, Froebischer is one of my creations that came out of the supplement 100 Hobs to Meet in The Hedge, so check that out if you'd like to add some odd little NPCs to your own Lost chronicle!

It's Work, But It's Worth It

I'm the first to admit that making this kind of media for your players is definitely a lot of extra work, even if you have the know-how and resources to put it together. However, it is a great way to take your game up to the next level, and to really get your players' enthusiastic about the campaign.

Not only that, but if you're crafty, you can even get your players to participate in the creation process, which spreads the work out for you!

For instance, if you have a player who likes to write short stories, they might do a dramatic write-up of an adventure, and then that could be published as a kind of dime novel in your game's setting (not dissimilar to what I did for my Hell's Rebels game with The Silver Raven Chronicles). You might have someone who makes music, and their tunes end up getting played at the next bar you go to (whether the songs are about the heroes, or praising the villains, that depends on the inspiration). You could have players volunteer to write the secondary articles or ads in the newspaper so that you can focus on the game relevant ones (and leave the players guessing since they don't know who wrote which parts of the newspaper). And if you want a super easy way to keep folks involved, have players write letters to NPCs (with return letters coming their way over time), or keep journals to chronicle their adventures going forward.

All of this takes energy, no doubt. But when it comes to RPGs, you get out what you put in... and if you've never tried your hand as this sort of thing before, at least give it a whirl! If nothing else, it's often one of the things you're players are going to latch onto, and tell stories about for years to come!

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!

If It Can't Be Killed, Don't Put It On The Board

I've been playing tabletop RPGs for the entirety of my adult life, and I've been a Game Master for a not-insignificant portion of my time at the table. And while there are a thousand and one moving parts that we could talk about when it comes to our games, I want to discuss one of the most important aspects that it is all too easy to fumble when you sit behind the screen.

Namely that if you're going to put something on the table, then you need to be prepared for it to be killed. Even if there's no reason your players should try, or if the chance of them succeeding in this task seems infinitesimal, you need to be ready for it. Because if the impossible happens, it's important to concede with grace, rather than trying to pull some last-minute deus ex machina because you wanted to use that character again at a later juncture in the campaign.

I am speaking from experience, here.

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!

The Agreement Between Players and Game Masters

There's a social contract between players and Game Masters that is often unspoken, but quite important. Among other things, we all agree that the world in which our stories take place will weigh equally upon all characters in the game. Now that's not to say that all characters will be equal in power level, ability, or toughness (that's clearly not true), but we all agree that the rules are there to govern everything in the world.

If the troll hits the wizard, and does enough damage to crush his skull, then that's what happened. However, if the sorcerer hits the troll with a fireball that does enough damage to reduce the troll to a cinder, then the GM should let said troll die. Even if they were meant to be a bigger threat, or to flee from the combat to inform their superior about the intruders, or if they were supposed to be a recurring bad guy throughout the campaign who would be beaten time and again, sometimes the math says no, this character is dead.

Fortunately, dead isn't always dead for long.

Now, as an important caveat to this statement, both player characters and their antagonists often have ways of undoing (or outright cheating) death in a particular RPG. In Paranoia, for example, player characters all start with a certain number of clones that can be shipped in when they're dead. Similar contingencies can be used for villains, as that's part of the existing ruleset. Dark Heresy, and other Warhammer 40K RPGs, use your Fate attribute as a resource you can spend to avoid being permanently killed. And while average NPCs don't have enough Fate to pull this off, important, named antagonists do, meaning there's a contingency option if players pull off a surprise victory and you want your villain to live another day.

This isn't always a game-specific caveat, either. Games like Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons, and others often have some form of resurrection magic in them, as well as various lesser forms of re-animating someone if they've died. In addition to spells like raise dead and reincarnation, one might also be turned into a powerful undead, be sworn to the service of a devil, or granted a favor by an angel to come back. There's all sorts of reasons for characters to come back on the board, and if you need any kind of inspiration all it takes is a basic flip through the supplement I'm Back- 25 Reasons For a Villain's Survival to get your juices flowing!

However, all of these items mentioned function off of mechanics that exist in the game, and these are (at least in theory) things that anyone could access under the right circumstances. More importantly, use of these options does not take away a victory from the players if they earned it; their accomplishment still stands, even if a villain they killed or defeated is resurrected somehow at a later time into a new, deadlier foe.

With all of that said, I feel this next piece is important, and I say this as someone who has made this mistake in the past (namely in my module The Curse of Sapphire Lake for those who have played it). In short, you should not build a campaign assuming that a villain can get away when you want them to. Whether it's a monstrous war leader, a cowardly necromancer, or just a noble lord revealed as a twist villain that you expected to be able to escape from your party in a dramatic moment, if the player characters caught or killed them fair and square, don't take that away from your players... even if it means you have to get creative with how you continue the story from that point forward!

A Note on Gods, Outsiders, and "Untouchables"

A large number of games (particularly fantasy games) tend to escalate things to the point that players take on the gods themselves, attempting to kill them with the power of math. Games like Call of Cthulhu or Changeling: The Lost might even go so far as to directly position gods (or at least godly figures) as the antagonists of their games. However, the question you need to ask for yourself, and for your game, is whether these godly entities operate on the same playing field as the rest of the characters, and if they are going to interact with the player characters in any meaningful way.

If these godly entities are bound by the same mechanics as other characters, and if they operate on the same plane of reality as other characters, then these things are also able to be defeated (even if true death is a far more difficult state to achieve for them). If they aren't bound by the same mechanics, or they don't exist on the same plane of reality, then one could argue that these entities shouldn't be involved in the campaign beyond the absolute necessities, if at all.

This will vary by table and taste, of course. However, if there are powers beyond the players' ability to challenge, and those powers are going to be playing an active hand in the story they're participating in, then it can feel like those things are just the GM's hand in a very visible sock puppet. That's not to say that you should tirelessly stat out every single entity the players might possibly come into contact with, but rather, ask yourself if there is a dialogue in the challenge, or if it's utterly one-sided. If something can affect the player characters, but there is nothing those characters could do in any way to affect that something in return (perhaps because it simply doesn't have stats) sit with that for a bit and consider the message that might send to your players.

Further Reading

If any of today's post resonated with you, or if you'd like to check out more advice like this, I'd recommend taking a look at 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master as well as 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better RPG Player. A lot of the advice in these supplements condenses the best tips I've given here on this blog over the past decade or so, squeezing them down into a simple, easy-to-digest format!

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!

Another Shout Out For Owen K.C. Stephens (And Some Supplements Designers Should Grab)

There are several, unfortunate truths that we are all dealing with these days. First and foremost, the American healthcare system is absolutely terrible. Secondly, creative professionals as a whole don't get paid well, and TTRPG designers are a tiny subset of the publishing world that get paid especially poorly. Third, cancer sucks, and the very concept of it can die in a fire.

Folks who read my post Help Owen K.C. Stephens Roll His Save Against Cancer (And The Healthcare System) last April know that one of our own has been stuck at the intersection of all three of these unfortunate circles in this Venn Diagram of Suck, and he's doing his best to stay one step ahead of the bills as they pile up. While he's got a lot of stuff out on the market at present, and there's been quite a few charity bundles for folks who have been looking to buy some TTRPG supplements to help him keep fighting, there are two in particular that I wanted to shine a light on this week. Mostly because there's a lot of content out there for players and Game Masters, but not as much for designers.

And if there's one thing Owen knows a lot about, it's designing games as a professional.

Even if they were both the face of the initial two charity bundles.

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!

Seriously, If You're Getting Into The Trenches, Get These

The two supplements in question are Essays on Freelance Tabletop Writing and Publishing (which at time of writing has hit Platinum status), and Essays on Surviving an Independent Tabletop RPG Career (currently at Gold status).

If these two supplements look familiar, it's because they were each the cover of Owen's initial charity bundles on Drive Thru RPG back in April. And while lots of folks have focused on many of Owen's other projects such as Like a Boss: The Book of Boss Encounters, or The Genius Guide To Loot 4 Less: Things That Make You Go Boom, those essay collections are something that I think more folks really need to check out.

Because there are a lot of folks out there who know how to create game mechanics. They know how to tell good stories, build atmosphere, and their tables really enjoy the games they run. But while those are all good skills to have, and make a solid foundation to build on, those aren't going to be nearly enough for you to be successful if you want to be a professional game designer.

A lot of folks can handle the "game" part of the job. But the business side... well, it can sneak up and slap you right upside the head if you don't know what to expect. So it's best to go into things with your eyes open, because forewarned really is forearmed in this case.

Because it's a lot more complicated than a lot of folks think.

Lastly, I wanted to remind folks that every little bit helps. So if you've already grabbed what you can of Owen's work, but you still want to pitch in to help in this uphill battle, then I wanted to remind you to do the following things, as well:

- Becoming one of Owen's Patreon patrons.

- Bookmark and follow his blog.

- Follow Owen on Twitter (yeah, it's falling apart, but a replacement has yet to take its place)

It might not seem like much, but as someone who's been in this profession a few years myself, it does make a difference. Even if you can only afford to give a little tip every now and again on Patreon, or you just act as a regular participant and commenter on social media, if a lot of people all do that, it really does add up when all is said and done.

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!

5 TTRPG Supplement Categories: Which Do You Want To See More Of?

I've said it before, but in the event you aren't a regular visitor to this digital space, I'm planning on changing up my TTRPG supplements in the near future. It will take a little while for the changes to become evident (as it takes me a month to write them, and then another month or so for the supplements to show up on DTRPG), but I'm trying to get as much input from my readers as I can during this transition period.

And whether you're one of my regular readers, or you've only picked up one or two of my supplements, I want to gather as much of your input as possible so I can take it into consideration going forward!

Because an author is nothing if they don't have an audience to read their work!

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!

Supplements Come in Many Shapes and Styles

For a lot of us out there, TTRPG supplements are just one, big blob of content. Anything can be a supplement! However, while you can break supplements down by the game or setting they're meant for, as well as be genre, you can also break them down by topic.

And that's what I'd like to do this week! While this not an extensive list of every possible topic or category a supplement could cover, these are the most common ones I've put out so far. So if you see something that would really help you at your table (whether you're a GM, a player, or some combination of the two), please leave your input down in the comments, or tag me on social media with your thoughts!

#1: NPCs

Just as an example.

Whether it's the 1,000+ NPCs that are part of my 100 Kinfolk Bundle for Werewolf: The Apocalypse, or something like my 100 Prisoners For a Fantasy Jail, this has proven one of the more in-demand types of supplement over the years. After all, coming up with NPCs on the fly is tough, but it's something you have to do if you don't want your game world to feel too empty. This is, honestly, the category I use most as a Game Master, so it's the one that I tend to default to when I try to think of new projects... but is it the kind you would use the most, or is it one of the others?

#2: Things

After all, you've need something to read on that riverboat ride.

A category that gets a lot of looks, but which never hits the same numbers as NPCs, is things. Objects. Stuff. Sometimes describing these as "flavor" supplements is literal, like my 100 Fantasy Foods or 100 Sci Fi Cocktails, but this can also cover books to read, random pieces of loot as in 100 Miscellaneous Pieces of Tat to Find, and other such volumes. Flavor supplements often fill in those broad categories of a setting, giving you interesting details to add, or fun pieces of culture and style, like in 100 Fantasy Tattoos (And Their Meanings). This is particularly handy for those who can get the broad strokes of a game down, but who can get tripped up by trying to come up with all the details.

#3: Places

For those looking to go back in time.

Our made-up worlds are big places, and outside of the main areas where plot is happening, we often find a lot of rolling, empty space. The third part of the triumvirate of nouns is places, and though a lot harder to write, they come in two basic varieties for me. On the one hand you have a lot of smaller places that can be used as a snapshot, or to fulfill a specific role, such as the 100 Arkham shops pictured above, as well as 100 Space Bars for sci fi settings, and 100 Random Taverns for fantasy settings. On the other hand, though, you have supplements that have a smaller number of places, but which go significantly more in-depth on them (typically providing maps, histories, notable NPCs, plot hooks, and other points of interest). Supplements like Towns of Sundara, as well as 10 Fantasy Villages, are perfect examples of this kind of format.

#4: Factions

Every game has factions, but we sometimes forget there should be more of them at play than whatever side the PCs belong to, and whoever represents the villain. These factions might be smaller antagonists, allies of your cause, or just parts of the world to make things feel fully fleshed-out, but they usually tend to make most games better overall.

As with places, factions tend to come in two varieties for me. There's supplements with a lot of factions, but which only give brief overviews, like you get with 100 Knightly Orders For a Sci Fi Setting, or 100 Gangs For Your Urban Campaigns. And then there's supplements where you get fewer factions, but they're far more in-depth, usually covering their history, motivations, sample NPCs, rumors about the faction, and some kind of mechanical benefit one gets for joining them. Examples of these bigger, more in-depth factions can be found in Sellswords of Sundara (for DND 5E or Pathfinder), Cults of Sundara (for DND 5E and Pathfinder), as well as in Guilds of Sundara (for DND 5E and Pathfinder).

#5: Modules

For those looking for some dark fey danger, check this one out!

I've said it before, but I feel I need to say it at least one more time. While modules are the main supplement a lot of us think of, they're the toughest ones to actually sell. Part of that's because they're usually game specific, but part of it is that the amount of energy and work they take is just tough to make a return on investment with. And, of course, a lot of GMs want to make their own stories from the ground up, rather than using anything written by someone else.

In addition to The Price of Iron (a module with dark fey and terrible risks), I've written False Valor (a murder mystery where you get to kick fantasy Proud Boys in the teeth), Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh (a horrific adventure where a town is besieged by terrors from the marsh that surrounds it), and The Curse of Sapphire Lake (the hate child of Beowulf and Friday the 13th). I'm not averse to writing more modules for other systems (I should have between 1 and 2 Pathfinder Classic modules finally coming out onto the market in the near future), but they're a truly tough sell for the amount of work they take.

Cast Your Vote!

I try not to pluck ideas from the void, and just hope there are gamers out there who'd be interested in them. So if one of these five categories appeals to you as a player or a Game Master, please leave it in the comments below, or on whatever social media platform you were on when you found this article! Even better, find me at my socials below, and drop me a line to let me know.

Lastly, I know I didn't include fiction as a category here. But if you like game tie-in fiction, I'd highly recommend checking out some of my previous work like Tales From The Moot for Werewolf: The Apocalypse, The Irregulars for Pathfinder, or even my recently re-released dystopian sci fi thriller Old Soldiers!

And if you're a fan of audio dramas, make sure you check out the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and take a listen to the dozens of tales we've got up so far! We're still over 1.5 thousands hours of listen time away from getting monetized, so please stop in and take a listen... we need all the help we can get!

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!