Character Trailers (A Small Sample From An Upcoming "Exalted" Project)

I like to try out new TTRPGs and new systems (both for personal reasons, as well as professional ones), and no one has ever accused me of half-assing something I've done for a table of mine. Recently a friend of mine decided to really make a pitch to get me to try out Exalted. I wasn't a huge fan of the pitches I'd heard in the past, but I was given a little extra incentive with the Green Sun Princes... characters that were given corrupted power through a pact with the deposed and mutilated Primordials who now rule in hell as the Yozi.

I've been craving something grim, dark, and dreadful, and so what was born was a man named Barabbas. A man who lost everything, and has now taken up the cleaver once more in dreadful service to new and terrible masters. Allow me to present the character trailer for Barabbas The Butcher!

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!

Character Trailers, And a Potential Project

Regular readers round these parts know my fondness for the art of the audio drama, and I like to think that the short little video I made introducing Barabbas above is enough to both convey the broad sweeps of his character, and to give those who see it an idea of who he is, and what he's about. I found myself thinking of it as a character trailer, and I have suggested making them for other members of the game as a way to quickly sketch out who they are, and to give them the same kind of time in the spotlight.

We've met devil Hulk... what about the rest of the team?

While roughly half the players have expressed an interest in getting their own trailers made (and I'm hoping to dump the dossiers on our Sidereal player for the final installments, since all of us are going to be his problem), I feel like this little side project opens a potential door. After all, the world of Creation is a wild setting, and it hasn't gotten as much attention as more traditional, Western fantasy ones have.

If you're a fan of my work, would you like to see me throw my hat in the ring to make more Exalted content? Whether it's to create some towns, villages, or secret societies to find in Creation itself, working on some more mechanics-based supplements, or just expanding on the tales of Barabbas and the others to make something a little heftier, like an episodic podcast telling of their adventures?

All of these are on the table! But I mostly just wanted to share this piece, and get some feedback from folks who didn't see it, or who simply hadn't heard about it. And if you enjoyed this, don't forget to subscribe to both the Azukail Games YouTube channel, as well as my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary!

As an added note, this story will be set in the 2nd Edition of Exalted, which is not the current edition of the game. If you want to follow-along with the tale, consider grabbing a copy of Exalted's 2nd Edition base book, or if you want to go whole hog, grab the full Exalted 2nd Edition bundle!

Lastly, if you're interested in other contenders for a podcast-style project from me, make sure you check out Windy City Shadows, A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal as well!

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 hard-boiled noir series featuring the street beasts of NYC in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, 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.

More RPG Bundles and Products To Help Owen KC Stephens In His Battle With Cancer!

As most members of the TTRPG community know by now, Owen KC Stephens is battling cancer. This has been the case for a while, and since Owen is one of my fellow American creators, he's got a two-front war to fight; one against cancer, and one against capitalism. Since healthcare in America has its hand in your pocket up to the elbow, he needs all the help he can get!

Which is why, first and foremost, I wanted to remind everyone to donate to Owen's Go Fund Me to cover his cancer payments. This is the most direct way to help, and it is one of the best ways to provide assistance.

With that said, if you're someone who likes TTRPG products and bundles, but you still want the proceeds to go to a good cause, then check out the list below!

There's some great stuff in here!

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!

Bundles, Art, and More!

Look at this awesome thing!

At the top of the order we've got the Owen Stephens is... RAD! bundle. This bundle has well over $1,000 worth of supplements in it for Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, D20 Modern, Starfinder, Star Wars, Call of Cthulhu, and many, many more... all of it for about $30 or so.

That is a deal you absolutely cannot beat! And if you haven't grabbed your copy of this yet, you should put it in your cart ASAP so that you don't miss out, and so that Owen can get one more arrow in his quiver for winning this fight.

And some great stock art for those who missed it!

For those who didn't see this stylish piece of stock art from Publisher's Choice stock art, Owen The Sage is another fun piece whose proceeds go to help Owen win his fight, and get back on his feet so he can keep doing what he does best for many years to come! Whether you just want to have a fun little piece of art for your home game, or you feel like Owen's all-knowing art would be an ideal addition to your supplement, don't let this one pass you by either!

This is all we have going on for now, but you can rest assured that as new bundles crop up I'll be doing my best to boost the signal on them!

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 dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, 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!

Milestones and Struggles For The Azukail Games YouTube Channel

People asked me for ages why I didn't make video content, and a few years ago I finally bit that bullet and started making stuff for the Azukail Games YouTube channel. While I've been working hard on making videos talking about my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, dramatizing stories from my various supplements, and running shows like Discussions of Darkness and Tabletop Mercenary, there's only so much that I can do on my end to make the numbers go up.

Which is why today I wanted to talk about one number that's been going up pretty high... and one that I need your help to push up so I can keep putting out content for everyone!

Programming like this is literally made possible by viewers like you!

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!

The Good, The Bad, and The Frustrating

So, first things first the good news! At time of writing the channel has 985 subscribers, meaning that we're only 15 subs away from hitting that first major milestone of 1,000 people! So if you haven't done so yet, please subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel to put us over that goal!

Okay, now for the bad news... which is a little more complicated.

This is where the algorithm gets involved.

For most of 2023 things seemed to be going pretty good for the channel. Videos were being well-received, the audience was growing, and I was doing my best to diversify the content. Changes were being made to tweak and improve as I picked up new skills, got new equipment, and generally tried to make things better for everyone. For a while it seemed that we were getting between 200 and 400 views on an average video, with occasional outliers climbing to 700, 800, and in a few cases with videos even breaking 1,000 views. Small views for the site in general, but still a positive trend for a small gaming channel.

So what happened? In short, the algorithm happened.

Around November of 2023 we experienced a big slow down in our traffic, even as the number of subscribers to the channel grew. For the past several months we've had to fight tooth and nail to get any of our videos up over 100 views, with the only one doing notably well during that time period being my unboxing video for Army Men because... well, the algorithm likes unboxings, it seems.

What that means is that, while we were making slow but steady progress toward actually getting the channel monetized (which requires a minimum of 500 subscribers and 3,000 watched hours of content in the past 365 days), we've hit a big bump in the road that's trying to become a full stall. Last month we needed about 800 hours and change of watched content to get across that line... but now it's fallen to the point where we need a full 980 hours (because if your traffic slows down, you start going backwards on this count)!

Unfortunately, whatever was done to the algorithm doesn't seem to be something that making more videos, or sharing more links on social media, is helping with. We've got a wet blanket thrown over us, and we don't have the power to do anything about it all on our own.

That's Where You Come In!

At time of writing, there's a couple hundred videos on the Azukail Games channel. And while a majority of them are previews for the various supplements the publisher has put out, there's also a lot of other content I'd recommend checking out!

First and foremost there's my rather long list of audio dramas! These cover fantasy stories from my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, as well as stories taken from supplements for Vampire, Changeling, Geist, and Mage from the World of Darkness! There are also miscellaneous fantasy and sci-fi stories in the mix, many of which are connected together into various serieses, as I talked about in my older posts My Sci-Fi Audio Drama Trilogy is Now Complete and My Cyberpunk Audio Drama Trilogy is Now Complete!

Another series of videos I've been working on is my Discussions of Darkness series, which talks about the World and Chronicles of Darkness setting, and which shares advice (much of it hard-won) about how to really make these games work. The most recent episode, linked above, actually started a decent amount of conversation regarding mortals in the World of Darkness, and how strong mortal weaponry is... but for all that conversation, very few people actually watched my video on the subject.

This has been something of a pattern for the last little while, actually. Because while there have been some rather impressive comment threads, and a few folks have expressed interest in the topic of particular videos as well as the channel overall, that interest doesn't usually translate to views... and views are kind of what we need right now!

My most recent series, Tabletop Mercenary, is all about what happens behind the curtain when it comes to being a professional TTRPG designer, and about giving folks advice on this career path should they choose to seek it out. While there were a lot of folks who said they wanted something like this to exist (and I've got a decade of experience in the industry at time of writing) I've had trouble getting eyes on these episodes.

So if you would like to see more of this series, by all means, share any of the videos that exist right now, and leave comments telling me what topics you want to see going forward! Audience feedback is how I decide what questions to answer, and what topics to research (if I can't speak from experience)!

Lastly, we have my Speaking of Sundara series. These were actually the first videos I made for the channel, and the ones where you can see the most growth and change in my presentation style, my setup, my equipment, and more. These videos cover the supplements I've released for Sundara: Dawn of a New Age as a setting, discussed some of the ideas that have slipped between the lines, and what I'd like to do with the setting going forward. While Sundara has a few fans, it could always use more love... and for folks who are curious, the above video is all about how ideas get recycled in some of my projects, allowing me to keep turning out fresh material while saving myself creative juice in the process!

Whichever videos interest you, and whatever you prefer, please go check out some of our content over on the Azukail GamesYouTube channel today! If everyone who is currently subscribed to our channel just went through and watched 1 video per day, we'd have ourselves monetized by the end of the month.

It might not feel like the handful of minutes you spend listening to an audio drama, or watching me talk about TTRPG design, makes a big impact... but nearly 1,000 people all doing one, little thing consistently can make a big damn difference when all is said and done! So please watch, like, and share videos around if they're the sort of things you want to see more of! Lastly, make sure you leave your thoughts and comments on our videos in order to give us feedback, boost us in the algorithm, and to let us know the direction you want us to go in.

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 dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, 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!

Consider Giving Summoned Creatures, Spirits, Etc. The Full NPC Treatment

The ability to summon allies to your side via magic and spell-like abilities is a staple of TTRPGs, and there are entire classes and character builds geared toward making the most out of these spells and abilities. However, too often we end up just treating these monsters, spirits, and even summoned animals as nothing more than collections of stats and numbers, rather than as what they are; characters. Even though they may only show up for a brief period of time, and they typically show up just to do a specific job, we often overlook the story potential these creatures can provide us with.

All you need do is open the door, and ask them to come to your side.

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!

When You Have Friends in Low (And High) Places

While there are a lot of games out there that use summoned creatures and spirits, I will be using the framework of Pathfinder, as well as Dungeons and Dragons for discussing this idea. Since it's a largely roleplay-centered idea, you can apply this idea to any other game where the creature or spirit you summon and control is an actual entity, rather than a simple collection of energy that has no will or thoughts of its own that merely mimics a creature.

Okay? Okay.

Who's messin' with you, fam? Point me at 'em!

The idea of summoning a creature to your side to aid you in whatever struggle you're currently dealing with is not a particularly new one, as far as magic in the genre goes. From the ancient wizards battled by barbarian heroes like Conan, to Gandalf calling on Shadowfax to whisk him and Pippin away, to the warrior mages of Magic: The Gathering, calling on powerful monsters and deadly beasts to fight your battles for you, or to provide you aid at a critical moment, is nothing new in the genre. But while it can be a pain to keep track of multiple miniatures on the map, as well as the hit points, special abilities, attacks, etc. used by your newly-summoned allies, you can squeeze a little more RP value out of them if you're willing to.

For that, you need to make them full NPCs, and give a few hints of the story you have with them, and how they play into your character's history. As an example, consider some of the following scenarios:

- The sorceress with a secret tie to an archdevil reluctantly calls upon infernal creatures to aid her in battle. The lesser creatures refer to her with the term mistress as a sign of respect, but more powerful devils might use a title unfamilar to the rest of the party, or simply offer a cryptic message like, "Your godmother sends you her regards," before vanishing at the end of the battle. While the sorceress may not interact with the devils much, she calls on them by name, showcasing her mastery of the devil's tongue, and suggesting that something more than mere arcane study is to blame for her skill at calling on these allies.

- The gnome druid Bingala only calls on animals he's personally met and befriended with his spells to summon nature's allies. At first this might lead to some moments of affection as he's nuzzled by a wolf pack that defended him, or he sends a bear off with a scratch behind the ear, and a whisper to watch over his mother before he disappears. But as the animals get stranger and stranger, the druid has more and more tales to tell about his travels, and how he encountered such truly bizarre allies... as well as what he did to earn their friendship so that they would come to his side when called by the power of the green.

- An aasimar summoner who was born on the celestial plane, and only came to the material plane on the business of the higher realm. When they call on celestial creatures, they do so because these are the beings from their home plane, and the kinds of monsters they're most familiar with. Even if that means colossal, feathered T-Rexes with glowing eyes golden claws, or boars with silver ridges who speak in a tongue like a perfect bell. Seeing the bizarre creatures they call to their side, and how the summoner interacts with them, can drive home just how alien they are, and how bizarre the plane they grew up on is compared to the one whose soil they now tread.

Your Mileage May Vary

To get out in front of some of the comments I've seen with advice columns like this before, this isn't a strategy everyone is going to want to try. Some players and Game Masters may already be juggling too many balls to start assigning story significance, personal narratives, and more to summoned creatures who are only going to be on the board for a single fight, or a handful of rounds. However, I've found that this is a unique method of injecting a little extra character and story into using summoned creatures as a main method of overcoming challenges, so I wanted to share it for folks who wanted to add some more personality to what can quickly become a very scattered and impersonal method of magic use.

Also, I've linked some of the articles I've written about the most common classes in Pathfinder who are known for using summoned creatures. Please consider giving those a look as well, as I'd love to get back to this series and really finish it out!

- 5 Tips For Playing Better Clerics

- 5 Tips For Playing Better Druids

- 5 Tips For Playing Better Summoners

- 5 Tips For Playing Better Sorcerers

- 5 Tips For Playing Better Wizards

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Fluff post. 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 dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, 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!

All My Guest Slots From 2024 (So Far)

While I do everything in my power to let folks know about all the projects I'm working on, all the releases I put out, and all the stuff I'm involved with, there's only so much you can do to boost your own signal. That's why I try to slide into as many different podcasts, YouTube channels, and review slots as I possibly can to try to reach some fresh eyes and ears.

Unfortunately, with new stuff constantly coming out, sometimes releases can slip through the cracks. That's why I wanted to take a breather this Monday, and remind folks of the places I've been interviewed so far in 2024, and to officially extend an invitation to anyone out there who needs a guest slot filled on their program. I'm happy to help out, and we've got to stick together if we're going to stay afloat in this business!

There's no such thing as too much coverage when you're in a niche this small!

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!

So Where Have I Been So Far This Year?

Well, let's begin at the beginning. Earlier this year I had a Q&A With The Hardboiled GM over on his Discord. Most of the questions centered around my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, what players and GMs can expect if they pick it up, and what makes it different from other fantasy TTRPG settings. So if you've been curious about the setting, but didn't want to slog through the whole Sundara YouTube playlist to find your answers, this is a pretty concise conversation on the subject!

Though if you did want to check out that playlist and subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, that would also be great!

And that's just the first of several!

Next up, I was pleased to once more be a guest on Me and Steve Talk RPGs, Episode 162, which was a Meet The Creator episode. It was just myself and one of the Steves, but great conversations were had all around about everything from Sundara, to Army Men, to Exalted, and figuring out how to properly scale a game, and how much storytelling you can do before the dice ever get involved. The last time I was on was just about a year ago when Josh Heath and I were talking about Army Men's Kickstarter, and making last-minute adjustments to a few of the systems we'd written into the game.

Lastly, and most recently, I had the privilege of being a guest on The Kevin Long Show, where we talked about Army Men, how it functions, and what players should expect from it. Folks who are looking to get in on the ground floor of a new show, I highly recommend following his work, and checking out what other guests and scenarios he has in the future!

Final Shout-Out For The Week!

As I'm sure most folks are aware, Owen K.C. Stephens is still fighting through his cancer treatments. While he's doing everything he can, this is America, and we all know how that story plays out when it comes to anything related to medical bills. So, please, consider donating to Owen's Go Fund Me if you haven't yet!

There is also another mechanism at play, here...

In addition to the Go Fund Me, Publisher's Choice Stock Art has put out this great image of Owen the Sage! Whether you're a writer, a designer, or just someone who likes having cool character art for your games, go buy a copy today, since all proceeds from these sales will be donated to help pay for Owen's cancer treatment.

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 dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, 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 Exploits System: How "Army Men" Gives Players More Meaningful Character Customization

One of my major gripes with the 5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons when I first got my hands on it was that it had been streamlined and simplified to the point that players had relatively few choices when it came to actually customizing their characters. You got to pick your class and race, and then when you hit level 3 you got to pick your subclass... and that was about it. Feats existed, along with multiclassing, but both of them came with a rather large "optional" tag attached to them. You could pick spells, if your class got them, but even then it was a pretty truncated list compared to what previous editions had given us.

For context, I started playing back under DND's 3rd edition, did most of my early gaming in 3.5, and I stepped over to Pathfinder's first edition when it came out. For folks who weren't there, or who aren't familiar with these games, they gave you a lot of choices and options when it came to making your character. Feats were mandatory, and generous, skills got fresh points to allocate every level, and you got slews of new abilities every other level.

While my primary desire for Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic was to increase the sheer number of tactical rules available, I also wanted to give players more options for customizing their characters in order to make them more unique. Thus I created the Exploits System!

It's a bucket of nonsense, and you can do whatever you want!

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!

Exploits: What They Are, And How They Work

For folks who are familiar with how feats worked back in DND 3.5 and Pathfinder's first edition, then saying the Exploits work the same way as feats did in those games is probably all you need. However, if you've only played DND's 5th Edition, then I want to explain how Exploits replaced the normal feats section of the game, and how they became a core part of your character rather than an optional switch your GM may opt not to let you flip, or something you have to sacrifice other benefits in order to have on your sheet.

In short, an Exploit represents a small, unique ability that your character has, and many of these Exploits can be built up in trees that give you progressively more and more powerful abilities as they unlock. You receive 1 Exploit as part of your background at level 1, and you choose a second as part of character creation. As you advance in rank, you choose a new Exploit that you qualify for at every odd level. While some class features may also grant you Exploits, most are gained purely as part of your leveling up process.

Also, to reiterate, you do not choose between gaining increased stats and a new Exploit; you get both.

This is my trooper! There are many like him, but this one is mine!

For example, take the background Irregular. As someone who was part of an unconventional unit, you are used to a variety of strange situations and unique approaches to achieve the goals of your mission. When you take this background, in addition to its other features, you get to choose either Unarmed Combatant or Nerves of Steel as one of your starting Exploits. The former allows you to deal 1d4 + either your Strength or Dexterity modifier when making unarmed attacks, and your unarmed attacks count as light weapons for the purposes of any cast abilities. The latter grants you Proficiency in Wisdom saving throws for the purposes of making Morale checks, and if you already have Proficiency in Wisdom saving throws then you instead gain a +2 bonus on all your Morale checks.

Now, let's say you took that background, and you picked Nerves of Steel... you would have an additional Exploit you could take at level one. If your character is particularly protective of their squadmates, or they just aren't good at turning the other cheek, then you could take Vengeful as your second Exploit. Vengeful requires Nerves of Steel before one can take it, and this Exploit says that whenever you or an ally receives a critical hit, or whenever an ally is reduced to 0 hit points, then you have Advantage on your next attack against the enemy who dealt that blow.

Alternatively, if you chose to take Close Quarters Combatant because your trooper has done a lot of up-close-and-personal work (and especially if they find themselves needing to remove targets without firing a shot), then you could choose to take Strangler as your second 1st-level Exploit. Strangler grants you Proficiency in Athletics for the purposes of grappling, and if you're already proficient in that skill then you gain a +2 bonus to grapple checks. Additionally, you can select between Strength and Dexterity when initiating a grapple, and whenever you successfully grapple a creature, or successfully maintain a grapple, you may choose to automatically deal your unarmed strike damage to that target once per round.

Combinations, Or Shiny Blue Balls, Both Are Equally Viable!

I wanted to take a quick breather here to reassure potential players of Army Men of something. Because while a lot of the existing Exploits fit together like Lego pieces, it is not required for you to dig through every possibly arrangement of abilities to put together the one best combination to achieve the ultimate expression of X strategy. This game is designed so that while Exploits are helpful and useful, they are difficult to exploit too hard, pun very much intended.

For example, you could just focus on Exploits that let you use different pieces of equipment than your cast normally gives you, like High-Caliber Specialist (high-caliber rifles), Shield Bearer (shields and ballistic shields), Front-Line Medic (first aid kit), or Heavy Armor Specialist (heavy armor). Alternatively, you could take Exploits like Spotter, which lets you grant allies Advantage to hit enemies you can both see, or Suppression Fire to give enemies negatives to attack you and your allies. You can take Exploits to gain new languages, to get Proficiency in new skills, and the list goes on.

All of these strategies are viable ways to build your character that will be useful in the game. The question you have to answer is how do these abilities not just help you, but how do they help your squad?

At your 2 o'clock, Peterson!

Too often we get so concerned with what our characters can do, and whose build is "best," that we forget we're all on the same team. Army Men makes it very clear that you aren't just a ragtag group of adventurers held together by hopes of profit... you are a squad! You were trained and selected to work together, and you are expected to work as a team to achieve the goals of your mission... your Exploits are just one more tool in your box to help you accomplish what you were sent out to do.

So if you haven't gotten your copy of Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic yet, grab it while it's still on sale for GM's Day! And check out the unboxing I did for it a while back to get a look at just what's on offer.

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!

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 dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, 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!

Expanding "Army Men" Into Other Genres

For folks who haven't heard, a lot of my content is currently on-sale over on Drive Thru RPG thanks to the GM's Day Sale going on right now! While 144 of my titles are on-sale right now, today I wanted to talk about Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic. Because while the first supplement Army Men: Threat Assessments is already out, and I'm hard at work on Medals of Honor (which should be ready for release this spring), I do have some longer-term goals for this game... goals that will be much easier to reach if I can get some of you fine folks all aboard the bus in order to help me keep putting together new stuff for this RPG!

I can see the next objective from here!

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!

Mercenaries, Gangsters, Psychics, and Spies!

While Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic is a fully functional RPG base book that one can grab and use as it stands, it was always meant to be a spring board to jump out to other genres of play. Because while the base game is meant for squad-based play where you and your fellow troopers are given missions and assigned objectives to complete, I know that isn't the game for everyone out there.

However, it was never intended to be the only style of game play supported by this RPG... I just couldn't fit all the options into the base game!

I've got plans... just need a little help to make them happen...

So what does the future hold, assuming I can find enough rope to play out for this game? Well, in addition to more gear, guns, vehicles, classes, monsters, and mission packs, I'd also like to expand the genre to some of the following areas:

- Army Men: Soldiers of Fortune- Rather than being regular members of the military, the party operates as hired guns. A more traditional "adventuring" route, this would come with new classes and subclasses, and a Reputation metric to replace the load out typically given to soldiers by the military they serve. This would, ideally, have a kind of A-Team vibe, where players could come from anywhere, and get involved in nearly anything!

- Army Men: Game of Shadows- The intelligence services of the Plastos Federation, and all of its member nations, fight their wars in alleys and backrooms, using whispers, rumors, poisons, seduction, and other tools of the espionage trade to complete their missions. Whether you want to do something wild and crazy like James Bond or Mission: Impossible, or you'd rather stay grounded and serious, taking inspiration from WWII and the Cold War, this book would expand your toolset, and likely delve deeply into the shadow warriors, paramilitary forces, and other aspects of the setting to give them even more teeth.

- Army Men: Gangsters and Gumshoes- The streets of the Federation may seem clean, but every town has its dirty business. From back alley runners to street corner dealers, everybody answers to someone. Whether your squad are an up and coming group of hoods looking to break into the big leagues with a heavy score, or you're a pack of private eyes who are out there doing what the cops can't (or just won't), this particular game would have a smaller focus than the grand wars seen in the previous two. Players would be solving cases, getting into mysteries, pulling jobs, and trying to make heads or tails of what's happening while trying to stay out of jail, and avoiding floating face down in the river.

- Army Men: Weird War- While we have a couple of very sci-fi additions in Threat Assessments, those are just an appetizer for the nonsense I'd love to add in with Weird War. This book would get into the strange implications of what the vespoids truly are, where they came from, and what some of the other forces operating behind the scenes are who may have instigated this whole conflict for their own benefit. Who built the bizarre Mekanauts that have wiped out entire regiments before finally being destroyed? What are those strange lights in the sky some airmen have reported? What kinds of experiments go on in the backrooms of government laboratories? From psychic classes and advanced weaponry, to the implications of aliens, intelligent machines, and more, this one will cover a wide variety of sci fi nonsense that would greatly expand antagonists, as well as resources for players.

What Do You Want To See Most?

If you read this far in this week's entry, I want to know from you... what do you want to see in Army Men going forward? Do you have a particular genre of the four above that really speaks to you? Or is there one I didn't mention (such as the Old West for folks who want to use those plastic cowboy toys)? Alternatively, would you rather see mission packs so you could run your players through some preplanned battles, NPC lists to fill out the roster, or just more interesting locations to beef up what's on the map?

It's still early enough in the game that we can go in all sorts of directions, but we need to hear what you want before we can pick the proper direction! So please leave your thoughts in the comments below, or reach out to us on social media. Lastly, don't forget to pick up your copy of Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic and Army Men: Threat Assessments while they're still on-sale this week!

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 dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, 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!

Getting Better At Your Craft (A Small Retrospective)

I spend so much time plotting, working on, and releasing new content that I sometimes forget to stop, take a breath, and look at just how far it is I've come in execution and skill level in some aspects. This is something that I think a lot of folks deal with in creative fields, especially those who haven't "made it" to the point that they have name recognition, and the sponsorship checks to go with it.

However, it's still a good idea to look back at the stuff you're making, and to acknowledge how far you've come, even if you're not quite where you want to be just yet.

It all comes back to drawn blades, and a little blood.

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!

A Year Or Two Can Make A BIG Difference

I have always enjoyed audio dramas. I grew up listening to them, and back when I was still earning my degree I dabbled with making an episode or two. It was an overall rewarding experience, but at the time I simply didn't have access to the tools and materials I needed to make things happen. Fast forward to not quite 2 years ago, and Adrian Kennelly at Azukail Games was looking to some ways to expand the content available on the company's YouTube channel. Since I was one of the major contributors, he asked me to talk about Sundara, my plans with it, and where I was going with the setting. That did pretty well, and he wanted to keep expanding... which gave me the idea to dramatize the short fiction from the supplements we already had on the market as a way to draw listeners into the worlds we were creating!

The Duel was the introductory fiction from Cities of Sundara: Ironfire, the first supplement from Sundara: Dawn of a New Age, which is still available for both Pathfinder Classic as well as Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. I wanted to start the setting off with an engaging story, and though it was originally split into two parts, the audio drama put them both together.

For what I was capable of at the time, this wasn't bad. I was recording off of a very small mic (the Samson SAGOmic, which is a fine piece of portable equipment or for virtual tabletop play, but not amazing for dramatic recording), I was using the free version of Wondershare Filmora (hence the watermark), and while I could competently clean up the vocals and add some sound effects and background music, there was definitely a lot of room to grow.

Compare that with the most recent tale told in Ironfire that came out a little over a week ago!

Swords and Sand is the opening story for the most recent supplement Merchants of Sundara. This supplement brought 3 years of releases full circle, and gave us the second installment of the tale of our mysterious outlander, and why he's returned to Ironfire. And if you watch this video you can hear the upgrade in my mic (I now use a Blue Yeti microphone, which I'd highly recommend), but it's more than just the tech that's improved. I've learned a lot of new tricks for cleaning up tracks, adding effects and voices, and I knuckled down and learned how to make an actual video using Shotcut to go with the audio drama (even if it is really more of just a slideshow to follow the main beats of the story).

It's not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination. However, I feel that it does show the improvement one can make if they regularly put in the time, energy, and effort to get better at something. and I wanted to take a moment to remind folks out there that, whatever it is you're doing, ask if you could have pulled off what you did today 2 years ago. A lot of you probably couldn't, which means you're doing better!

Coming Full Circle

Before I go today, I wanted to draw readers' attention to another video that recently went up on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. Because my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting is in something of a unique place right now. I don't want to stop expanding it, but at the same time I want to poll the audience to ask what they'd like to see more of.

I've gone through three phases of releases for the setting thus far, and I'd like to know what it is that readers and listeners are most interested in out there. Do you want more audio dramas? Novellas? Setting books? Factions? Species? Would you like to see small towns, plot hooks, or full adventure modules?

Everything is on the table right now, but I need to get feedback from folks to make it happen! And if you enjoy our audio dramas, and want to see more of them, go back through the archive, and leave comments on your favorites that you'd like to see expanded! Then, before you click away, make sure you subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel to help us get monetized so we can afford to keep making things!

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 hard-boiled noir series featuring the street beasts of NYC in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, 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.