Those of you who've been regular readers for the past year or so know that I've been trying to big-up the signal for TTRPG designer Owen K.C. Stephens. He's had his hands in some of the biggest games to come out in decades, and all of us have probably played something that has his name in the credits, or his fingerprints on the design. And while designing TTRPGs is often as frustrating as it is satisfying, one unavoidable truth is that it is not the most lucrative career in the world... even for those of us who are legends in our own time.
Let's cut right to the chase, here; Owen's Go Fund Me for his cancer treatment is trying to raise $150,000. And I think we should do everything we can to get him there!
One of our own calls for aid... can we answer?
As always, 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!
Help If You Can, And Spread The Word!
There's no beating around the bush with this week's update. I'm not trying to sell you on a bundle, or boost the signal on somebody's YouTube channel... this is literal life and death. Unfortunately, America has decided to make how much money you can cough up the most important facet of whether or not you get to keep living, and the difficulty curve just goes up when you get really sick.
But there's no point in hemming and hawing over how things should be. We can worry about those things after Owen wins this battle, and more importantly, can afford to keep living his life once he's defeated the enemy within.
When it comes to situations like this, numbers are what matter!
So please, if you can help donate to Owen's Go Fund Me! Even just a small payment can make a big difference if enough of us do it.
And if you want to do more than just a one-time tip to help with this process, consider sharing the link to the fundraiser, or even to this blog to help boost awareness, and overcome the algorithm! Also, consider doing the following:
- Follow Owen on Twitter (yeah, it's falling apart, but a replacement has yet to take its place)
While it might not seem as important as providing direct assistance, remember, social media boosts our signals as creators based on our audience share. So making sure you plug-in to Owen's channels still helps his messages reach a wider audience. Still, give if you can, and boost the signal regardless of the state of your wallet. All it takes is a few minutes of your time!
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!
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!
Molly felt cold. It wasn't the sharp, immediate cold of the wind outside, or the chilly, winter claws that scrabbled at the corners of the cracker box of her studio apartment, though. It was the sort of cold that marked an absence. It was how you felt when there were no more laughs or tears inside you. It was how you felt when you'd been clinging to your diet for so long your stomach had gone quiet, and even your tongue couldn't be bothered to complain. It was how you felt when the water around you went pink, and the panic had ebbed out along with your blood.
"Time's a funny thing, isn't it, kid?" a voice asked. It was a strange voice, with an old-timey accent she'd only ever seen on clips from black and white movies and news broadcasts.
Molly blinked, using what little energy she had to turn her head on her pillow. She glanced at the cracked TV with the cardboard shims to keep it even sitting on the old dresser she'd found in an alley. Her eyes slid over the kitchenette, where the empty fridge hummed on, and her one set of dishes sat ready to be used. Her laptop was open on the rickety desk she'd gotten from a neighbor who didn't want to pack it up. The old machine's screen was dark, but a single, green eye pulsed in the dimness. That was the closest thing there was to another person in the room with her, as usual.
"Hearing things..." Molly muttered, her eyes falling closed again.
"That's the nature of the spoken word, Molly Mouse," that voice said again. "Hearing is the first step to understanding."
Molly's eyes shot open, and adrenaline pumped through her veins. She sat up fast enough to give herself vertigo, her head whipping around. That voice hadn't come from inside her head; it had come from the tiny clock radio that sat on the milkcrate she used as a bedside table. She hadn't turned the thing on since she'd moved in, but she just hadn't had the give a damn to move it. She blinked, trying to focus, peering at the speaker.
"Can... can you hear me?" she asked in a small, soft voice.
"Of course I can hear you, Molly," the radio said. Then, from across the room, the same voice leaked out of her busted TV. "The question is, dearest heart, are you hearing me?"
Molly's mouth went drier than dust, and her eyes opened wide enough that her lids practically disappeared. Hissing, electric laughter echoed on the air, emanating from every speaker in the room. Molly shook her head, putting her hands up to cover her ears. She shut her eyes, as if not seeing the room would mean she couldn't hear what was happening. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, everything went silent. Molly opened her eyes, and stared in open-mouthed silence at what she saw.
A man was seated in her rickety old desk chair. He wore polished shoes with dark spats, and a crimson lounge suit with barely-there silver pinstripes. His legs were crossed, and his long-fingered hands were laced together over one knee. A watch chain snaked out of his breast pocket, hanging like a coiled serpent that hissed and shushed against itself. His tie was like a piece of a dream, shifting colors with the light every time he moved, as if the wan beams of winter sun were revealing deep, dark secrets. His face was strangest of all, though, in that he didn't have a face. He didn't have a head either... not really. Instead, sitting atop his neck was an old-fashioned radio. There was one dial for volume, and one for tuning, and a band filled with numbers beneath the off-black speaker. Molly frowned, trying to make out the numbers, but they seemed to blur and change, taking on shapes and patterns that made no sense. The figure raised one hand, and snapped his fingers; it sounded like the volume coming back on.
"I've got a limited time offer for you, Molly," the figure said, tilting its head forward slightly. "And I need you to listen very carefully. Because you've been here too long, and this may just be your one chance out of that bed."
"I don't need-" Molly tried to say, her words slipping over numbed lips, but the bizarre figure interrupted her.
"On the contrary, my dear, you very much need," he said. "You've done without for far too long. Friends, family, fulfillment, purpose, love, and even food... you've told yourself you don't need for so long that you almost believe it. But if that were true, then you wouldn't have those scars on your wrist, now, would you?"
Molly groped for her wrist, cupping the places where she'd cut deeply, but not deeply enough. The tuner on the radio spun, and static flickered with a dozen different voices before the thing spoke again.
"You have cut yourself in more ways than that," he said, his voice lowering conspiratorially. "You have carefully carved away every part of yourself that needs. Every part of yourself that wants. Maybe you thought it was safer to deny yourself, rather than to be denied by someone else. Maybe denial is the one thing you felt you had control over, until you realized that you didn't. Whatever the reason, though, your window is closing, and this is your final opportunity."
"Opportunity for what?" Molly asked in a hoarse whisper.
The dials spun again, and this time they were accompanied by a flash of color. It bathed Molly's face, and a dozen emotions flooded her mind. Anger. Joy. Lust. Pain. But atop all of them, like the tart frosting on a sour cupcake, was a single, overriding emotion. An emotion Molly had almost convinced herself she didn't feel; Want.
"An opportunity to raise your voice," the figure said, leaning in close enough that Molly could hear the hiss of static from the speaker. she swore she heard other voices in that static... a thousand times a thousand people, all talking at once, from somewhere very, very far away. "Let me be your microphone, and turn that whisper into a demand. What do you say?"
Molly raised one hand. She hadn't realized how thin she'd grown... or how weak she'd become. She swallowed, and she heard a hollow click from her throat like a gun cocking. A tremor ran through her, and she ran her dry tongue over dry lips.
"What are you?" she asked.
"Vox Mortis," the figure said, holding out a hand. "Now tell me, Molly... do we have a deal?"
This isn't where your story ends... not if you don't want it to!
Molly "Mouse" Madrigal and Radiohead
Molly Madrigal was a lurker in her own life. A product of environments she found threatening, and social cliques that were always looking for victims, she moved through her life choosing safety and security. Forgotten about by her classmates, and even her parents, she had two great loves in her life; music, and the Internet.
As a young woman, Molly consumed everything she could find. Songs, music videos, tutorials, ASMR, affirmations, storm chasers... no matter what it was, she wanted it. Being able to consume emotions vicariously, and to watch the interactions of others on forums without every getting involved, gave her a feeling of connection in a way she'd never had before... even if the connections were parasocial at best.
Old habits died hard, though, and Molly's were the sort of habits that could kill you if you didn't yank them out by the roots. As more of her happy spaces were taken over by aggressive trolls, scam artists, and worse, she soon found she had nowhere to retreat to. Every social media page, forum, and fandom was being poisoned, and it was all too much. She lost herself in the comfort of old voices, but soon even those faded away to noise. Food was bland and tasteless in her mouth, and even the warmth of her bed was less of a comfort, and more of something she was simply too tired to try escaping from.
She would have died there, and likely remained undiscovered until the slumlord who owned her building came to investigate why she was behind on rent, if not for the intervention of the geist calling itself Vox Mortis... a creature she often refers to simply as Radiohead.
Since that time, Molly has embraced life again. Not only that, she's become one of the more recognized voices on the local Twilight Network. The smoky tones of her broadcast are well-known to most Sin Eaters in the Chicagoland area, and those in the know tend to keep an ear out for when she and her associated geist make vital information known to people.
Would You Like To See More of Them?
While this is a brief introduction to this Sin Eater and her geist, I would like to make a pitch to all my readers out there this week. Because I would like to do more with these two... in fact, I think they would make ideal hosts for season two of Windy City Shadows, which I mentioned a while back in the post talking about Dead City Blues, which is my tentative title for the Geist season.
Now, Dead City Blues as a season would wrap up the story of Johnny Hammer, the Six Gun Saint, and their grudge with the mage Cyprian who wronged both of them. However, the sheer scope and scale of that revenge story is going to involve a lot of factions in Chicago, with both sides looking for allies, and trying to counter their enemies. Even the tentative plot I have right now is a significant step up from the very small and personal stakes I have for the Changeling season, which is slated to go up before that.
However, Molly and Vox Mortis would fill the role for season 2 that would be held by Mr. Nowhere in season 1; the voice of our announcer, and characters who are still part of the story as it unfolds, getting more and more involved in the events they'd previously been mere commentators about.
If these two represent an interesting addition to the cast that you'd like to see/hear more from, then all you have to do is help me get the Azukail Games YouTube channel monetized so that I can finally start in on making these episodes! We're just over 900 hours of watched time away, so check out the Chronicles of Darkness audio dramas we've already made, and maybe check out some of our other shows like Discussions of Darkness or Speaking of Sundara while you're at it! Also, if you're someone who's a fan of Geist in general, consider grabbing a copy of my supplements 50 Geists and 100 Mediums, which planted the seeds for this entire season of the show I'm practically champing at the bit to make!
And for those who got this far and are curious, yes, I finally got around to watching Hazbin Hotel. Inspiration strikes from the oddest of places, doesn't it?
Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!
That's all for this week's addition to my Unusual Character Concepts! To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the 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!
Regular readers on this blog have probably noticed that I'm a fan of the grim darkness of the far future. I've even written several stories that take place in the 41st millennium, many of which have been adapted into rather popular audio dramas (as I mentioned recently in my post More Audio Dramas, Grimdark Tales, and Fantastical Fiction!). What folks might not know is that I love the Imperial Guard, and theirs are some of my favorite stories to tell.
And since I had them on my mind recently, I wanted to share a fun little hack for anyone who may have a Warhammer 40K army or two laying around, and who'd like to adapt them as the figures for a game of Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic!
Forward! For The Emperor!
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!
Grimdark Meets Plastic
For those who are unfamiliar with Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, it features the resinous peoples of the Plastos Federation standing against the invading forces of the vespoids; colossal, insectile creatures who seem bent on destruction. Though the war has been ongoing, there's not a clear victor in sight, leading to a constant need for more soldiers, training, material, and more! Additionally, though resinous persons come in several different types, and from many different nations, they are (nominally, at least) united in their battle lines against these invaders... and anything else that threatens them!
Forward! I want that anthill to be nothing more than a smoking crater!
So what does this have to do with the Astra Militarum and the grim darkness of the 41st millennium?
Well, Army Men was explicitly designed so that the little plastic soldiers we all know (and which many of us still have in our closets) would be accurate representations of the world in which we're playing. The same is true for the giant insects of their enemies, and the fortifications that make up their battlefields. While it is still an RPG, much of it is combat-forward as you and your squad struggle to accomplish your missions.
If you're an Imperial Guard player, and you have your army (or armies) on-hand, these themes map pretty clearly onto their typical deployment against a tyranid force. Not only that, but it's simple to take the colors of the resins (green, gray, red, blue, and tan) and to attach them onto particular regiments of renown that their abilities fit best. My personal choices (though I'd encourage players to do what they feel is most fun for their game) is:
- Green: Catachan
- Gray: Cadia
- Red: Valhallan Ice Warriors
- Blue: Mordian Iron Guard
- Tan: Armageddon Steel Legion
Whether you just prefer the DND 5E mechanics with some extra tactical rules, or you just don't really jive with the other Warhammer 40K RPGs that are available on the market, I'd suggest folks give this retrofit a try if they've been looking for something simple, easy, and which they already have figures and map terrain for!
Notes on Expansions and Gaps
Before anyone rushes off to grab their copy of Army Men, I wanted to put a few qualifications on this week's recommendation. Because while I've been having fun playing around with it, there are some things that might be deal breakers for more diehard grimdark fans.
First and foremost, variety of antagonists. The base bestiary found in Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic has normal animals, as well as bandits and rogue soldiers (for those who want to track down traitor regiments), but its primary focus for monstrous/alien enemies are the vespoids. And while there have been some notable additions to the monstrous creatures a squad might face in the first expansion Army Men: Threat Assessments, there is definitely a rather limited bestiary to draw on at the moment.
Second, the game has yet to expand out into all of the possible equipment for fighting a war. While there's a lot of man-portable weaponry, it's currently focused on the older types of weapons seen with army men toys. Additionally, the rules for vehicles and heavy artillery have yet to be added, as the initial game focuses on the actions taken by individual squads of troopers.
There are plans to expand into all of these areas for the game, with supplements like Army Men: Motor Pool to cover vehicles, vehicular combat, etc., and Army Men: Weird War where things like psychic powers, more advanced weapons tech, and other strange, sci fi additions will be made. While we aren't there just yet, there are definitely plans for getting energy rifles, tanks, huge cannons, and more onto the tabletop! I just didn't want anyone who saw this week's installment, and thought it was a cool idea, to be surprised that the game is still on the ground floor in terms of what's available in the base book.
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!
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!
TTRPGs come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with vastly different levels of complexity, time investment, customization, and even means of determining the direction the story goes in. However, something that we often forget is that our games (as well as the stories we tell using those games) often have a scale as well. And while some games can tell stories at a variety of different scales, some of them can't... and it's important for us to consider this as players and Game Masters alike so that we're measuring out expectations in the proper units.
Ah, so we're looking at an end-of-the-world scenario, 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!
How Big Are You Going, Exactly?
The question of scale is an important one to remember, because not every game, story, and genre, is meant to go to the same scale. I recently mentioned in Game Masters, When Running Army Men, Avoid White Rooming At All Costs, but feel I should repeat, that designers build certain expectations into their games. This often extends to the scale of your stories, and what the engine is meant to do. For example, Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder are both meant for telling stories that start small, and escalate to high-stakes, high fantasy crescendoes. This is why so many of the adventure paths out there end up with the party fighting ancient wizard kings who have defied death, dragons on the verge of godhood, or entire cabals of apocalyptic monsters bent on reconquering an entire nation, if not the world!
The only thing that stands between those ancient gods, and you, is me.
Now, that is not to say that you can't run smaller-scale games using these systems, but doing so will likely mean that the games are shorter due to a lower level cap, or that players are never going to rise above a particular level so that their skills and abilities don't render these smaller-scale threats and plots something that can be dealt with out of hand. This is a perfectly legitimate way to play, but the assumption in the game structure is that players are going to start at level 1, and likely stop somewhere between 16 and 20 when they wrap up the story.
For contrast, consider a Call of Cthulhu game. The very nature of this game is that you take on the roles of normal people who cling to their sanity as they explore the dark, strange, monstrous corners of reality. You may grow more skilled, or you may learn secrets of dark doings, but you aren't going to grow into epic heroes who fight the Old Ones mano a mano, because that's not built into the genre or the system. You are small parts of a vast world, and your efforts are just turning the lock on a door that, sooner or later, is probably going to open. Your task is to survive the madness taking root in your mind, and to do what you can to stop the machinations of things that would spill the mythos into the world you know.
When a game has a built-in style and scale, it can help to shape your expectations as a Game Master, as well as the expectations of the players around the table. However, when a setting or system could handle a variety of scales in terms of both story and power level, that's when you're going to have to sit down with your players and make sure that what they want to play, and what you want to run, are going to fit together.
As an example...
For example, consider games like Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader set in the Warhammer 40K universe. On the one hand, these games can see players in charge of entire armies, leading crusades against planets filled with opposing forces, and going toe-to-toe with the forces of hell itself in a way that few would dare, and even fewer would survive. On the other hand, characters could also be deep cover operatives working careful sting operations to uncover cults, solve mysteries, and to track down political corruption in ways that might be ended without even firing a shot if all goes according to plan.
When you have that kind of variation in a game, where players could be anything from bottom-rung gangers scrabbling to take over their own neighborhood, to imperial agents whose authority is utterly unquestioned, it's important to make sure you are all building the same type of characters who are here for the same scale of plot. This same kind of variation can be found in the World of Darkness, Mutants and Masterminds, and several games in the Savage Worlds line as well. These are games that could have characters working on small, localized, personal issues where the stakes are only large to them, or games where the fate of thousands of people, and entire swaths of a country (or a continent) could ride on what the players choose to do... or not do.
And since we're talking about assumptions, game designers can only predict so much about what people will do with their games once they're on the market. However, if you're making assumptions as a Game Master or a player, it's a good idea to talk about them before the game starts to make sure that you're both on the same page... otherwise you might have someone who showed up to conquer the galaxy who is now tasked with running down a small-time corruption scandal that could bring down the local mayor.
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!
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!
Since my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic recently dropped (and I'm hard at work on supplemental material for it) I've had it on my brain quite a lot recently. Which is why for this week's Crunch post I wanted to highlight something for the Game Masters who are planning on running a campaign (or even just a handful of missions) with this game.
Namely that under no circumstances should you be running your encounters in open, white rooms that are utterly disconnected from one another, with perfect lighting and fire lines. Because dynamic combat and strategy are the name of the game.
That's initiative! Go! 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!
"Tactical" is in The Title, After All
When you sit down to design a game, you build in certain assumptions of play. For example, if you make a high fantasy game where magic is commonly available, then part of the challenge rating of your encounters assumes that players will have access to spellcasting, magic items, and so on. If a Game Master decides to then restrict the availability of magic, that's going to throw off the game's balance and challenge because players are now being forced to participate with one hand tied behind their backs in a way that the designer never intended.
The same thing will happen if you try to run Army Men in an open field where two lines of enemies line up, and keep rolling dice until one side or the other is dead.
Cover! Where is my damn cover!?
When I sat down to create Army Men, I wanted to make a version of the DND 5E ruleset that had more options when it came to combat tactics. From a morale system, to expanded rules for cover, to a wider variety of weapons, there's a lot of stuff in here... but one of the assumptions that I made was that Game Masters would create dynamic encounters that put a lot of different battlefield conditions into play in order to get the most out of the game. It's why there are so many rules for all of these different aspects.
And it's why I would strongly recommend that Game Masters use those rules! Because tactics and strategy is a big part of the challenge your squad will have to face, so remember to consider:
- Lighting Conditions: None of the resinous peoples have darkvision without the aid of gear.
- Cover: A huge concern, everything from trenches and sandbags to trees and chest-high walls.
- Height: Higher ground has always been desirable.
- Ammunition: From the Hollywood Guns rules where you don't bother with ammo tracking at all, to low-ammunition situations where every round is valuable, this is a big deal for challenge
- Time: When a mission is time sensitive, you can't spend days raiding, retreating, and resting.
- Alerting The Enemy: Gunfire travels, and if your squad opens up that's going to attract more threats to their position.
And in addition to all of those reminders, Army Men's first supplement Threat Assessments recently dropped, which is full of additional enemy types with their own, unique abilities that can cause serious problems for your squad (in case you needed more tools to do so).
It Helps To Think Big Picture
When designing encounters in most games, but particularly for Army Men, it's important for a Game Master to look down at the full map, and ask what might go right or wrong when determining challenge for their squad. Because too often we just end up looking at a creature's CR, and plopping them down on the map without utilizing their full breadth of abilities and stretegies that makes up that challenge.
Which is why so often your encounters end up feeling too easy, or you have to bulk up enemy hit points or numbers just to challenge your players. Because this time it's the monsters who have one hand (or other miscellaneous limb) tied behind their backs.
What do you MEAN it's still up?!
As an example, many of the vespoids (the huge, insectoid creatures that are one of the prime antagonists in Army Men) have a hive mind feature. This means that whenever your squad attacks, that information is immediately conveyed to the hive, and it can make decisions based on its available data. That might mean that your squad has 1d6 rounds before more enemies show up. Even if they manage to ambush these bugs and kill them before they know what's going on, their deaths will still be registered to the hive mind... they just won't know the precise nature of the threat.
That feature is a large part of what makes these specific kinds of vespoid such a threat to a squad, because if you fight one of these creatures, you're fighting all of them. There is no way to take out an individual cluster of drones or soldiers without putting all of the others on high alert unless it's done at a range where they're not connected to the rest of the hive. They can act in perfect coordination, and even worse for a squad, hive minds are often immune to fear... which means that the squad has to struggle with Morale effects, while their enemy does not.
Consider, if you will...
It helps to picture a mission from a bird's eye view, and to see all of these separate encounters not as disparate, unconnected events, but as parts of a whole. What a squad does, and how well they succeed or fail, should organically effect the rest of their mission in important ways.
For example, say your squad was tasked with dealing with a criminal syndicate who has been stealing ordnance from the military, and trafficking those arms. If your squad poses as corruptible members of the military, and makes the right overtures to sell additional weapons, they might get in close with the customers. If they pass all the social checks, they might even be able to get everyone drunk enough at a post-sale celebration that they pass out, or are severely hampered. This puts the enemy at an extreme disadvantage when the squad starts cuffing the criminals to hand over for prosecution.
Strategy carried the day in this example, without a shot being fired.
However, say your squad instead snapped up a criminal contact and squeezed them for the information about who was buying guns. Yes, they might get the information about who is behind these crimes, where they are, etc., but that contact going missing could put the gun runners on high alert. And if the squad chooses to go after the war profiteers with their fingers on their triggers, now they're facing a group of people who are ready for a fight, and who have prepared themselves accordingly with a booby trapped and reinforced warehouse where they store their merchandise, body armor, heavy weapons, and other threats that put the squad at a dangerous disadvantage. This version is much more difficult as far as challenge goes, but that challenge is a direct result of actions taken (or not taken) up to this point.
The enemies in question didn't change in both scenarios. All the NPCs you had at the beginning are still there, as are all the weapons, armor, traps, etc., that could have been brought to bear agaisnt your squad. But what options the players chose, the strategy they used, and how well their dice rolled (as they would have a serious fight on their hands if their cover was blown while they were in the middle of enemy territory, and the gang had to get rid of them) all play a part in how events go down.
This is the sort of mindset a Game Master should adopt in order to make their games feel more organic, and to give as much power to their players as possible. Think of the mission as a clock. You choose the pieces, you fit them together, and you set it in motion... from that point onward, you're just watching what your players do, and making sure that all the moving pieces act in accordance to the abilities and strategy they bring to bear. Everything should be connected, because that's what's going to lead to an overall better game.
Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!
That's all for this week's Crunch post. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the 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!
There's a lie all of us fans of TTRPGs have heard at least once, and which many of us have probably said it to someone looking to get into the hobby. "Oh, how much does it cost?" they ask. "Not that much," we say, lying. "All you need is a book, some dice, a pencil, some paper, and your imagination!"
Those of us who've been in the life for a while, of course, know that this is a technical truth at best. Because the more you play, the more stuff you tend to acquire. From extra dice sets, to battle mats, to dice towers, the accessories add up... and nowhere do a lot of us spend more money than when it comes to miniatures (and sometimes) set dressing.
Now, a lot of us will use creative substitutions as our physical representations, and while they get the job done, it can sometimes scratch the paint on our immersion. For Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, though, I wanted those cheap phys reps and Dollar Store plastic figures to be accurate representations of the field you see before you!
Pictured: A World-Accurate Miniature
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!
Spill Out The Toy Box!
A lot of us likely remember the days of the old Army Men toy soldiers from when we were little... well, they're still in production! Not only that, but they come in a wider variety than ever before, and their price is still pretty far below what you'd pay for most gaming-specific minis. For example, a classic, 400-piece collection of armies that has the green, gray, red, and tan soldiers (leaving out only the blue from the RPG itself) only runs you about $18. Detailed, action sculpts different from the standard soldiers of yesteryear are a little more expensive, but you still get 100 troopers for about $14. There are even packs of Army Women which, while a little pricier at $15 for 36 figures, have some pretty great detail that will really make them pop on the board!
There are even sets that have towers, bridges, tanks, tents, sand bag walls, and more, all for significantly less than you might pay if you went shopping for miniatures terrain that you'd see in a war gaming store. The Ikasus set and the Flexzion set are perfect examples, especially when you consider that both are under $20!
What about the enemies?
While some missions will have you fighting other resinous persons (whether it's dealing with those under the effects of mind control, squabbles between nations within the Federation, or simply dealing with unscrupulous mercenaries), a lot of the monsters your squad will fight in this game are other members of the discount toy aisle that a lot of us likely had sitting in our toy boxes as kids. The Vespoids are insectoid creatures that range from medium-sized, all the way up to huge, which lets you break out most of the giant spiders, ants, wasps, and other weird plastic bugs you might have. There's also the plastic dinosaurs, which are in the base book's bestiary (though I haven't disclosed where one might find them just yet)!
And if you're one of the folks who has picked up the expanded enemies and creatures found in Army Men: Threat Assessments, this trend continues. Creatures like the newly introduced mechanical menaces the Mekanauts can be easily replicated with the Futuristic Space Battle Toy Set, which has all the robots, droids, and alien creatures you could want! And if you look very closely at the illustration on the cover of Threat Assessments, then you might see why having some alien miniatures on-hand for future missions for Army Men might just be a good investment.
A Last Tip on Mini Preparation
It is perfectly acceptable to take the minis I've mentioned out of the bag, and play with them as-is. They'll be perfect represenations of the setting with no further work on your part... however, if you want to add a little bit of extra to your minis, consider grabbing some Nuln oil and giving your small soldiers a wash to really make the details on them pop! Vallejo black wash will do the job just as well, if you're keeping an eye on your budget, too, and you can get a lot of minis done with just one bottle... though putting a seal on them to protect the wash is a good idea, too.
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!
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!
Folks who enjoy my fiction have had a lot of new additions to check out in the past year. If you're a fan of my long-form work, all three of my out-of-print novels are now available once again (the two tales about a hard-nosed cat getting involved in gangland shenanigans in NYC's mean streets, Marked Territoryand Painted Cats, as well as my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers). If you enjoy my audio dramas, the Azukail Games YouTube channel has been adding more and more of them, many of which are now connected as parts of ongoing series! And, lastly, I've had a big variety of stories going up as part of my Vocal archive, ranging from the Weird War II story Where The Red Flowers Bloom to the much more recent fifth installment of the Gav and Bob series Faith and Martyrs, adding a new chapter to the adventures of the Imperium's bravest ogryn.
However, I wanted to remind folks that if you really enjoy my stories, but you wish you could listen to more of them, then you should definitely head on over to A Vox in The Void, because his channel has been doing some really great adaptations of my work over the past year!
Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-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!
Even More Stories For You To Listen To
I've given shout outs to A Vox in The Void several times on this blog, as the channel has done audio renditions of a majority of my Warhammer 40K short stories, including classics like Waking Dogs, the tale of a renegade World Eater, Field Test, which is the story of a potent experiment being conducted by an inquisitor, and even The Final Lamentation, a story of what happens when a Lamenter falls to the Black Rage. However, I wanted to remind folks this week to head over there, subscribe to the channel if you haven't, and to check out the latest round of my stories that have appeared there!
While I've been focusing on other projects since late last year, my hope is to get back onto a few fresh stories that will show up on the channel in the future... so make sure you check them out, and help keep the views up for both my stories, and others as well!
There's More Potential Projects on The Way As Well!
While I've got a lot of stuff out there, I also wanted to take today's post to remind folks that my hope in 2024 was to do a larger audio drama project of my own, likely in the form of a combination podcast/video channel. This project might take the form of a combined series of Chronicles of Darkness seasons, which I talked about back in Windy City Shadows: A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal, but that isn't set in stone. So if folks would rather see a long-running fantasy story set in my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, if they'd rather see a continuation of my sci-fi series, or even see me take on a setting like Pathfinder's Golarion, or Exalted's Creation, I'm not averse to trying those things out, either.
It's really going to depend on you!
The first step for making this project go is to get the Azukail Games YouTube channel monetized. We're just under 1,000 hours of watch time to hit that goal when last I checked, and getting past that point would be a huge boon. So please, subscribe to the channel if you haven't, and share the videos you like best, because those are the ones that will likely get the top consideration for expansion when it comes to a fiction project. Also, make sure you leave your thoughts and feelings in the comments on said videos, because that will get the publisher's attention, as well as the algorithm's!
Lastly, if you want to check out a bunch of my stories that don't wind up on YouTube, make sure you follow my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary. That channel is likely to be another destination for future stories, so make sure you don't miss those installments!
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!
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.
