World's Oldest Profession... Is The Third Time The Charm?

For those who haven't been paying attention to every TTRPG supplement I put out, this weekend saw something of a milestone for me. The supplement World's Oldest Profession: 100 Rumors To Hear In A Brothel went live, and it is the third installment in this particular series (behind the previous two supplements A Baker's Dozen of Brothels and 100 Courtesans and Concubines respectively). I don't usually work on series like this, but the runaway success of the first two supplements meant that I had to go back to the well for a third installment.

However, some things have changed since those first two splats dropped. There's some additional challenges I'm facing now, and there's some potential storm clouds on the horizon. So if you're one of the many folks out there who has grabbed one (or all) of these supplements, and were hoping this train would keep rolling a little while longer, this update is going to be important for you.

And grab a copy of the latest, if you haven't yet!

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!

What Happened Before (And Why There's A Struggle Now)

When the first two supplements from this series dropped, they were met with a rather surprising amount of audience demand. Both of the original supplements went Silver by the end of the first weekend (100+ copies sold), and both of them wound up at Electrum status when all was said and done. Not only that, but both of them spent a rather long time in the top slot of the #1 Bestseller Under $5 on the TTRPG front page.

So what's happened with this latest release?

Well, it went Copper by the end of its first weekend (50+ sales), and though it's made it to the top sellers chart, it's been sitting pretty around slot #5 for the past day or so. There's been a definite slow-down in demand, and the reaction doesn't seem as large as it was for the previous two.

We're going to dig into this a bit.

Now, a lot of this can be chalked up to the changes I mentioned a little while ago in Drive Thru RPG's New Site Isn't Great For Smaller Publishers (Now With Numbers!), but I'll touch on some of the bigger points here. In short, the new site (which was rolled out between the second supplement and the brand new one) has a terrible algorithm that makes organic discovery nearly impossible for people browsing the site. So the only ways people are finding new releases from publishers is if they're on that publisher's newsletter, if they catch them on social media, or if they happen to see a particular product on the top sellers section.

Given that social media of all stripes has been strangling creators' signals, and that getting sales off of FB, Twitter, YouTube, etc., is like wrangling a unicorn, the fact that this installment has done this well is a testament to just how popular the series (if I'm calling it that) has been so far!

With that said, if you're someone who wants to see more installments of this series, then please get a copy of World's Oldest Profession: 100 Rumors To Hear In A Brothel. And if you're one of the folks who has already done that, please leave a rating, a review, and share the link either on your own social media pages, or share the link to this blog instead. I say this because, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter the negative forces the market throws up in my way; numbers talk, excuses walk. If the numbers see a sharp decline, then it will be tougher to justify expanding this particular series of supplements.

This is true not just for the fantasy versions that are already on the market. In keeping with my strategy as a creator, I had been hoping to make sci-fi versions of these three supplements as well, kicking off Galaxy's Oldest Profession. Because whether you're spending your loot from a dragon hoard, or you're suddenly flush with credits after a big corpo job, we all know the kinds of "distractions" that mercenaries, enforcers, and so-called adventurers seek out once they've upgraded their gear and find they have a little scratch left in their accounts.

The OTHER Issue Looming On The Horizon

A lot of my readers might not have dug through the Project 2025 papers, or have been paying a lot of attention to the news lately, but there has been a major push to reclassify a lot of things as pornography, and to make possession or purchase of that kind of pornography illegal. We've already seen this with romance novels that were sold on Amazon and which have been taken down, as well as in state laws restricting access to particular kinds of content.

And while none of the World's Oldest Profession supplements have anything explicit in them (the worst they have is some PG, tongue-in-cheek innuendo), that hasn't stopped other books from getting banned from libraries, or becoming the subject of controversy all over America.

Trying to avoid this guy as best I can.

Because of this, even if I can get a few hundred folks to answer the call and help boost this series, there is every chance that the political winds might decide to remove anything deemed "adult content" from any markets, including the ones offered by DTRPG. So even if I manage to get these supplements expanded, and I get a sci fi version of them up to get a second version of them going, it's possible that something will happen in the next handful of years that will force them to be deleted from the site entirely.

Which is why I'd recommend everyone who likes these supplements download copies and backups of them to be sure you don't lose them in the event they do wind up caught in a purge.

And if you're someone who wants to see this series keep going (short-term or long-term), then please help me get the word out about the supplements that are available, and leave a comment down below telling me which future installments you'd most like to see! Fantasy, sci-fi, or even other genres we haven't thought about branching out into just yet, all input is welcome!

In addition to the supplements themselves, I wanted to remind folks that the silly little introuctory stories inside them get made into audio dramas. The two that are out actually tell a fun little two-part tale set in the underground brothel known as The Pit, staffed largely by tieflings, and a handful of aasimar. The first tale talks about the party cleric sneaking off to have a bit of fun...

And the second story, of course, is what happens when the rest of the party shows up, having tracked him to the brothel. They think he's joined a cult and made a bargain with dark powers, of course, which leads to some rather... awkward interactions.

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!

Consider Removing Doors From Your Dungeons (Dungeon Design Tips)

We've all had that moment in a dungeon crawl where we find ourselves at a door, asking whether or not to open it. After all, doors represent the possibility of risk. It might be trapped. There might be an ambush on the other side of it. There might be a hoard of treasure. Or it might just be an empty bunkhouse, a derelict kitchen, or a broom closet.

However, doors also serve another purpose we don't often think about as Game Masters... they segregate the arenas where things take place. After all, ask yourself when was the last time a monster opened the door instead of the player characters? When was the last time something occurred  that drew enemies, curses, or even allies from beyond this current room/location when there were doors present?

While doors have their uses, this week I want us all to consider what might happen if we take a few of them off their hinges, and ask how that would change things in the games we run.

This entry was inspired by the post Doors Are Terrible by Manowaffle.

Consider, for example, the archway and its implications.

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!

What Happens If You Remove The Doors?

Consider, for a moment, the humble door. At its most basic, this door represents an action sink; it typically takes some kind of resource for someone to open the door, leaving them unable to use more of their turn (especially if an ambush occurs or a trap goes off once the door is open). It also, as has been mentioned, functions as a kind of boundary (in our minds, if not on the board). Because yes, we might be academically aware that the thin, wooden door isn't going to stifle the sound of a barbarian's roar of bloodlust, or the blast of the gunslinger's weapon, but nine times out of ten it doesn't matter how raucous the combat is. As long as no one opens the next door, nothing is going to come to where the party is because it's out-of-bounds in our minds. Sure, monsters might hear a commotion, but they'll just set up an ambush behind the door, and wait for the party to come to them.

Who knows what the hell is behind these doors?

Now take a moment, and ask yourself what would happen if you put your players in a dungeon that didn't have doors in it... or at least had significantly fewer doors. Perhaps there were once doors, and they've rotted out in the dank. Maybe the doors were smashed out during a previous siege, or maybe the location merely has grand archways that never had doors in them at all. You might have hanging curtains for privacy, or even chains and beads, but nothing really separating one room from another.

Do you have that image clearly in your head? Good. Now ask yourself what kind of dynamic movements this lack of doors offers for your game.

Take your traditional setup for a dungeon, where the party comes in from the south to a big, square room that has additional doors to the north, west, and east. Think of it almost like entering a dungeon in Legend of Zelda. Instead of just dealing with whatever the threat in this main chamber is, unconnected from anything else, your party is now acting in an organic environment. Can they sneak past the goblin guards in the main room, angling themselves into the side chamber? If they begin combat, what will it take to draw the interest of any other forces in the complex? What kind of patrols of monsters exist that they have to be concerned with?

And, most importantly, how will the party (or their enemies) use these open doors to their strategic advantage?

Does the paladin stand in the doorway behind his tower shield, protecting the ranger while they ply their bow? Does the rogue duck into the shadows, sneaking from one archway to another to stab unsuspecting foes in the back, or to fire their crossbow unseen? Does the dynamic space make the ability to shape the battlefield with illusions, smoke bombs, or other forms of concealment more powerful? Does the party genuinely have to contend with size restrictions, using narrow spaces to thwart larger foes, or grappling with smaller enemies who retreat into crawlspaces that leave bigger characters easy prey?

These are all questions we don't really think about when we're sectioning off the parts of a dungeon in our minds, and constructing specific arenas that have specific, laid-out challenges for our players to deal with. But when we open up the entire dungeon, and treat the whole thing as one, connected, Rube Goldberg device that's ready to go off with movements the party can only partially stop, it can become a much greater challenge.

So Where Should There Be A Door?

Now, it's perfectly possible to build an entire dungeon without a single door in it. After all, hallways, thresholds, stairs, and other locations are still perfectly viable locations for traps, ambushes, and so on. However, doors do still serve a valuable purpose, and there are several places they should be. But their presence should feel organic, rather than taken for granted. For example:

- Exterior Doors: These doors keep out invaders as well as the weather. Whether the doors are huge, like castle gates, or relatively small like postern doors, these are meant to be serious barriers that are not overcome lightly.

- Security Doors: Typically found at a choke point, think of the sort of doors you'd find at the entrace to a cell block in a prison, or for gaining access to a deeper part of a castle or fortress. These doors are meant to be defensible, and difficult to pass through without a key, the proper tools, a spell, or some combination thereof.

- Vault Doors: The ultimate door, a vault is the highest possible security. Whether it's defending some great treasures, or it's keeping unfathomably dangerous beings locked away, these doors are typically strong enough that you can't just smash through them with brute force even if you have time to try. They require a combination, answers to a riddle, or even proper spells to open.

Now, other than these big three categories, ask yourself why interior doors are necessary in a given location. Because if access is meant to be free and easy (such as between the back and front of a shop or a tavern), then chances are good there will just be a curtain, or at most a swinging, batwing-style door. The doors of an inn are likely to be closed off to give guests privacy, and the doors of a prison are locked and barred to prevent escape. But will the huts and cottages in a village even have interior doors? Or exterior doors, for that matter? Would an aging castle exposed to the elements for centuries still have doors now, even if it once did? What need for privacy would a crypt have, especially if there was nothing valuable buried inside the vaults? Would a place meant to be open to the public, like a church, have more than a handful of doors to ensure only specific people could easily access specific locations?

Again, whether a door does or doesn't belong on the map is a choice that's ultimately up to you. However, it is worth stopping to ask how we let the presence of doors funnel us into one-challenge, one-arena thinking, which can make an RPG feel far more like a game, and far less like an unfolding experience for your players... good or bad.

However, if you do want to have doors in your dungeons, consider using some of the following resources:

- 100 Doors To Find In A Dungeon (as well as a Pathfinder version)

- 100 Secret Doors To Find In A Dungeon (which also comes with a Pathfinder version)

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!

Drive Thru RPG's New Site Isn't Great For Smaller Publishers (Now With Numbers!)

Making a living as a writer of any stripe is hard as hell, and if you want to make tabletop RPGs for a living you have an uphill battle of Sisyphean proportions ahead of you. With that said, I've been in the game for over a decade at this point in my life. I've got nearly 180 products with my name on them, and I've worked for more than a dozen different publishers during my stint as a creator. I've released supplements that were smash hits, and topped the bestseller list for over a week when they came out. I've also released supplements that moved a handful of copies, and then vanished into the void, rarely to be seen again. However, with every year that's gone by I've had a bigger catalog of material, and that has translated to a larger, more reliable set of earnings.

Until this year.

And while there are always going to be fluctuations in the market, changes in what the audience wants, etc., this is far beyond those normal fluctuations. I've recently had my monthly earnings cut in half, and I've been struggling with it for the latter half of 2024. After discussions with other creators who operate on my level, I kept hearing the same stories. So I put my head together with Adrian Kennelly, my publisher at Azukail Games, and we started looking into things.

This week I wanted to explain to folks what we've found, and to present some solutions for those who want to help the creators they love ride out this storm so we can keep making stuff for you and your tables.

The numbers aren't great, I'm not going to lie.

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!

All Right, What Are We Looking At?

Let's take one of my most recent releases, 100 Helpful Hirelings. This NPC list actually performed far better than a lot of my other recent releases in terms of numbers, which landed it on the Top Sellers Under $5 bar on the front page of the site. At the time I checked the numbers, the supplement had sold 58 copies, with 35 of them coming from the Azukail Games newsletter (which is roughly 60% of sales).

Now, that is an outside performer that did better than average... but in the past if I had a supplement wind up on that top sellers bar, it would be because it crossed the 100 sales line in either the first day, or the first weekend. The fact that I got onto that bar with less-than-triple-digit sales tells me that sales are likely decreasing across the board, and showing up on the front page isn't enough to cover the deficit.

If that's the outsized numbers, and something that would be considered a successful release, then what does an average release look like?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

The numbers don't get any better.

Let's take page views. In the past when a new supplement dropped, we could regularly expect 60 page views on it in the first hour. That was what we got when the algorithm was working, and the site was encouraging organic discovery. Now? It takes several days for the page view count to get that high. And this isn't a one-off thing with a couple of supplements... this has been going on for months! It now takes Azukail Games products days to get the kind of views they used to get in a single hour!

As if that wasn't bad/frustrating enough, sales have absolutely cratered for our supplements. Our numbers are down so low because it seems that 90% of new release sales are coming from the Azukail Games newsletter, rather than due to traffic on Drive Thru RPG itself. This is damning in multiple ways, because it means that not only is organic searching on the DTRPG site itself tanked to the point where it is nearly useless, it means that all the social media platforms where supplements are announced (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.) also have terrible organic discovery. So it doesn't matter how many places we share our releases, or who we tell about them, a majority of our sales are coming from people who actually open the Azukail Games newsletter and read what's inside.

That's a lot of numbers. But what does that mean for me, personally, as a creator? In short, my sales/royalties income has been cut in half.

Around this time last year, I was regularly pulling in between $350 and $425 a month in combined royalties and affiliate earnings from DTRPG sales. My projection at the time was, if I kept growing the way I had in the past, that I'd be earning between $450 and $500 a month around this time this year.

However, I'm barely pulling in $150 to $220. And given that I already live below the poverty line, that was not the kick in the crotch I needed.

How You Can Help

If you are reading this, you probably can't stop the enshittification of social media platforms, or undo how DTRPG has completely screwed up the ability to connect creators with their potential audience. However, what you can do is choose to plug-in to the creators you care about to make sure that you don't miss any of our releases and updates, and to do your best to make sure you don't have to depend on the random and inexplicable tides of the algorithm to find out when we're releasing stuff.

And if you want to help me out, specifically, please do the following:

- Follow My Facebook

- Follow My LinkTree

- Follow Me On Twitter

- Subscribe To My Weekly Newsletter

- Subscribe To The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- Subscribe To My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

Lastly, if you want to hear about all of the releases from Azukail Games, go to the Azukail Games website, and sign up for the company newsletter! It's on the right-hand side of the page.

With all of that said (and I cannot stress this enough), make sure that you stay plugged-in to the creators and companies you actually follow. Subscribing to our newsletter does neither of us any good if it just goes into your spam folder and you don't see it. You don't have to buy everything we release, but every purchase, review, like, and share on social media helps us overcome the algorithm, and try to make up for the damage it's causing to us.

As always, we can't do any of this without you!

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!

Pentex, Windy City Shadows, And Closing In On Goals For Azukail Games

There's been a lot of nonsense going on behind the screen recently, so I wanted to take this week's Table Talk to bring some folks up-to-date, and to provide something of a progress report on two current projects. So if you've been hoping for some news on some irons I mentioned I had in the fire, then this should answer some of your questions. And if you're only just now joining me, well, keep reading because I'm going to do my best to provide any necessary context as we go along!

Now, let's get into the details!

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!

First and Foremost, Progress And Pentex

For those who don't know, I've been making a lot of videos for the Azukail Games YouTube channel for the past several years. Originally used as a place to host the preview videos for several of the company's TTRPG supplements, I expanded the offerings with several shows like Speaking of Sundara (where I talk about my RPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age), Discussions of Darkness (where I talk about the World and Chronicles of Darkness settings), Tabletop Mercenary (where I talk about the business of TTRPGs), and now Tactical Plastic Report (where I talk about my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic), along with a slew of audio dramas taken from TTRPG supplements I've written.

I've been fighting an uphill battle to try to get the channel monetized for a while, and we were well on our way this time last year... until the algorithm change last Autumn. That absolutely cratered our progress, and sent us several rungs down the ladder. As of my last check-in with Adrian, though, the channel is at 2,825 hours of the 3,000 hours we need to hit in order for us to become monetized.

That means we only need 175 hours of additional watched time on our videos, which is the closest we've gotten so far in this entire saga! It's still a huge chunk of watch time for a relatively small channel, but I'm hoping that I can get some folks currently reading this to help us reach that goal.

And this is where Pentex comes into the picture.

Since I've wanted to revisit it ever since I worked on this supplement.

As I mentioned a while back in my post Video Essays On The World and Chronicles of Darkness... What Would You Like To See?, I've had a couple of concepts floating around in my head for a little while. One of those is one that I'm tentatively titling, "The Problem With Pentex," because while I love it as an antagonist, and a thematic part of the World of Darkness, there is (in my opinion) something that makes it fit strangely with the rest of the setting. So I wanted to outline the position I'm taking, and then provide some suggestions to fellow Storytellers for how I would handle Pentex, were I to alter the setup and origin of this faction (or just expand it out to encompass a bigger picture).

I've also got a fun little tongue-in-cheek commercial that will be appearing in the middle of the episode. While I'm definitely taking the piss, though, Dubby is a real product, and I do really get a cut of the proceeds if you choose to try it out. All the info for this powdered energy drink is in the video below, so give this a watch if you're looking for a chuckle, or if you want to be one of the first to check out the closest thing to a sponsor any of my videos have had yet!

Up Next, Windy City Shadows!

I tend to bring up this project once a month or so, but it's a big deal to me, and it's something I've been kicking around for a while that feels like it's close to finally moving beyond the idea phase. While I have a full Ask Me Anything about the project, posted below, the elevator pitch is that Windy City Shadows is going to be an audio drama podcast set in the world of the Chronicles of Darkness. Each season will focus on different spheres of this world, but each season will build off the story of the one that came before, dealing with the ripples of those stories as they move across the various supernatural communities. Season One, Grim Promises, can best be summarized as "modern fantasy John Wick," and for a textual rundown check out the blog post Windy City Shadows: A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal.

For folks who have wondered why I first proposed this podcast a year ago, but nothing has been released for it, well, it's because even if art is offered at no cost to the customer that doesn't mean it's free to make. One of the major things I needed to have in place to help underwrite the project was that the Azukail Games YouTube chanel (where the podcast is going to be backed up and available for folks to listen to in addition to other podcast platforms) needed to be monetized so that these episodes were seen as something with earning potential, instead of just one more thing floating out there on the vast sea of the Internet.

However, since we're slowly closing in on that goal, I have started laying the groundwork for the show's production! During the month of October I laid out the skeleton for season one's 10-episode plan, and I have a script for a preview that I'll be putting together and releasing both on the Azukail Games YT channel, and on the Windy City Shadows podcast channel once we cross that finish line and get the YT channel monetized. And while there are currently some extra projects on my work desk, my hope is to start writing scripts for the show before the year is over, and to begin recording once my current housing situation is settled next year (for those who don't know, I reside in government-subsidized housing, which makes renewing my lease a less-than-straightforward process).

Though I feel like a broken record saying it, this may be some folks' first time seeing these words. If you're interested in Windy City Shadows as a project, or just seeing me continue to make videos in general, please help me smash that goal this month! Like and subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, but even more than that, go through the archive and watch our videos! Leave comments on the ones you like (or, hell, the one's you don't like), and consider sharing some of them around on your own social media pages. The algorithm is stamping down harder than even before, and the only way we can get our stuff seen at all is by folks like you helping to boost our signal.

Thank you in advance... 175 hours is a lot for a relatively small channel of our size, but with your help hopefully we can surpass it before Thanksgiving comes and goes!

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.

What Future Mission Modules Would You Like To See For "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic"?

It's been a little over half a year since my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic hit the market. Since we had a pretty successful Kickstarter, I wanted to make sure that I kept expanding on the options players and Game Masters alike had available to them, and one thing I was concerned about was the missions squads would get sent on. Because while there is a mission in the base book to get players and Game Masters started, I wanted to make sure there was more than just that one module to kick things off.

As of this weekend, the first stand-alone mission A Night At Breckon's Beacon is officially out! And if a squad hunting down missing comrades-in-arms, and tracking them to an old, dilapidated castle on the Western border of United Polymeria sounds like a good way to spend your night, then I'd highly recommend you get yourself a copy! However, I don't want to rest on my laurels, and I did have a few questions for players (as well as potential players) regarding my plan for the rest of these initial mission releases.

Seriously, check it out if you haven't!

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!

A Sample Platter of The Plastos Federation

For folks who haven't picked up a copy of Army Men for themselves yet, the location we start off in is the Plastos Federation; a collection of the nations United Polymeria, the Styric Republic, Acrylica, and the Acetal Alliance. A Night at Breckon's Beacon takes place, as mentioned, in United Polymeria, and plays into some of the culture and history of that particular nation (U.P. is at least partially inspired by the U.K. and its history, so it has timelines going back for centuries to when the longbow and the claymore were actual weapons wielded on the battlefield, and castles were the norm for fortress construction).

My intention was to provide one mission for each of the other nations, as well as a Federation mission that would be specifically geared as a cooperative mission drawing on troopers from any nation players wanted to bring. However, since I'm looking at my workdesk and plotting which projects are going to go out next, I thought I'd share some of the ideas that I had, and ask my readers what mission description interests them most?

I've got quite a few ideas to choose from...

The current ideas include:

- (Acrylica) Experimental Duty: A squad of troopers is sent to reinforce security at a location that will be running a classified experiment. This module will likely involve several waves of enemies, a great deal of firepower, and a need to properly defend a static location.

- (Styric Republic) Precinct Assault: Organized crime and corruption is a serious problem in the Styric Republic. An infamous gangster is being held at a decommissioned precint, but his gang comes to try to break him out. The only thing standing between them and their goal, is your squad.

- (Acetal Alliance) Reclamation: The war between the Silicate Autocracy and Halogen left lasting scars, even though the two nations united in the face of the vespoid threat. Booby traps are commonplace, and before any abandoned town can be rebuilt it's necessary for squads to sweep them for dangers. A relatively routine mission turns deadly, and your squad has to find out if there are more than ghosts of a past war haunting an aging, abandoned town.

- (Plastos Federation) Bug Hunt: Vespoid incursions don't always require an all-out assault... sometimes what they need is a decapitating strike. Federation assault teams often take on these dangerous missions, and your squad has been tasked with joining. Commanders promise you'll all get a medal for this if you pull it off... of course, Federation medals are often given posthumously.

While I have a couple of other suggestions for missions (some of which are larger than the one-offs described above), these are the ones I plan to start with. My intention is to offer a different kind of goal and playstyle for each one, and to give players the ability/opportunity to get a little sample of each nation, and to get a little dash of history and personality from them in order to decide which they really like. These missions can be played with the same characters, or with different ones, allowing players to try a variety of castes and builds to see what really jives with them.

So, which of the above ideas appeals to you? What would you like to see? Or is there a style of play or a kind of mission I didn't include that you'd like to see made official with an Army Men mission all its own? Make sure you let me know in the comments down below!

Additionally, consider checking out the following supplements that have already been released for the game, along with the show Tactical Plastic Report, which is currently available on the Azukail Games YouTube channel!

- Army Men: Threat Assessments: The first collection released after the original game dropped, this supplement is full of new creatures for your squad to have to deal with when out in the field.

- Army Men: Medals of Honor: This supplement introduced the Medals System, allowing players to earn medals for their troopers, gaining unique bonuses and abilities usable for the rest of the campaign.

- Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps: Giant bugs and enemy combatants aren't the only threats you'll have to deal with in the field. Booby traps are a serious concern among troopers looking to leave their service with as many limbs as they started.

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!

Fresh NPC Lists Are Now Available! (Taking Requests For Future Releases)

If you're a fan of my TTRPG supplements, then you probably know that I'm rapidly approaching 200 splats at time of writing! While it's unlikely I'll cross the bicentennial by the end of the year, it probably won't be too long after 2025 gets here that I'll mark that particular occasion. However, with all of the different topics I've covered over the years, I wanted to draw some attention to two of my more recent releases, and to ask the readers out there if they'd like to see me put out more NPC-based supplements in the near future!

And if you haven't checked these out yet, please do!

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!

What Kind of NPCs Do You Need At Your Table?

For folks who aren't subscribed to my newsletter, or aren't keyed-in to my social media feed, my two most recent releases were 100 Helpful Hirelings (which is a list of NPC hirelings that have a variety of skill sets a party might want to put on the payroll), and 100 Town Guards (since most towns have some sort of guard or militia ready to protect them from threats).

While these might seem like the standard sort of release you'd put out for Game Masters, it's actually been quite some time since I've focused on NPC lists specifically. Most of what I've put out lately has been keyed to a specific game (like my recent release Army Men, or my fantasy RPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age), or I've been focusing on organizations over individuals.

Why, you might ask? Well, at first it was because organizations overall seemed more popular than lists of individual NPCs (100 Monastic Orders seemed like a more enticing supplement than 100 Monks to Meet, so I wrote the former, but not the latter... yet, at least). After that, though, it was because I just needed some variety in my output, since if I write the same kind of content for too long I start going cross-eyed. But I figured that it was time to come back to something that honestly started off my career with Azukail Games, and which is currently one of my top types of sellers.

But I wanted to ask readers this week... what kinds of NPCs do you need most at your table? And before you scroll down to leave your request in the comments below, check the existing supplements I've listed to see whether the one you want/need is already out there, and waiting for you to pick it up!

Also, before you all get to scrolling, please take a moment to check out The Wind and The Demon, the introductory story from 100 Monastic Orders. If you like it, subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and share it around to help us get a little closer to the 200 hours we still need to get the channel monetized!

Current NPC Supplements

I'm not including the NPC lists I've written for the World/Chronicles of Darkness, or for Call of Cthulhu, as I feel those are a little bit too game-specific for this week's post. But in addition to the supplements for town guards and hirelings mentioned above, I've also put together:

- World's Oldest Profession: 100 Courtesans and Concubines: Brothels can be found all over our fantasy settings, and if you're looking to make sure there are plenty of memorable NPCs in yours, this list will definitely make that happen!

- 100 Nobles To Encounter: Whether you need antagonists, paymasters, or extended family members for some of your player characters, this collection of nobles has all kinds of aristocrats to choose from.

- 100 Random Bandits To Meet: From being waylaid on the roads, to meeting up with old friends on the wrong side of the law, this supplement has all sorts of highwaymen and brigands, including a few legendary bandit lords who may not be quite what they seem.

- 100 NPCs You Might Meet In The Tavern: My first (and thus far only) Platinum seller, this is the book that started me down the NPC-list path. Grab this one, even if you grab none of the others, because you're going to be getting together at the bar sooner or later.

- 100 Pirates To Encounter: The flip side of the bandit supplement, this one is for adventure on the high seas! From scallawags and blackguards to pirate lords, there's a bit of everything in here.

- 100 Prisoners For A Fantasy Jail: Whether your characters start off in one of these, or they get sent there in the course of their "adventures," it always helps to have a couple of fellows to fill the cells with.

- 100 Merchants To Encounter: A Gold seller that isn't far behind the NPCs to meet at the tavern, this one has merchants from small towns and bazaars, to big cities and high-end districts... wherever your party goes, and whatever they need to buy, there's someone in here for them.

- 100 Unusual Aasimar: One face of the coin I wrote along with the following supplement, this was originally going to be the start of a series where I covered most basic player species. I could still get back to that, if there was a demand for it!

- 100 Tieflings To Meet In Your Travels: As mentioned above, tieflings and aasimar were meant to be two halves of a whole for GMs who wanted to sprinkle them throughout their game setting. Sadly, neither has crawled out of Silver metal status, so I never went back to species-specific supplements like these.

- 100 Characters You Might Meet In A Star Port: Thus far my only NPC-specific sci-fi supplement, I might have a few more of these up my sleeve in the near future, if that's something folks would like to see more of! Just like this one, the initial release will likely be geared toward the aliens found in Starfinder.

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 Cold War of The Gods (A Fantasy RPG Setup)

If you've been playing TTRPGs for long enough, there is a question you've no doubt come across several times in your career; why us? Whether it's a group of no-account drunks and thugs being asked to save a kingdom from the depradations of a lich lord, or some relative nobodies being given the task to close a hell rift, it can often feel disporportionate. After all, there are real heroes in the setting who have powers and abilities far beyond our simple level 3 party... why aren't you asking them to do it?

Or, the one that gets a lot of us in trouble, why aren't the gods handling these problems? Whether it's demons leaking through a breach in the abyss, or malignant forces belched forth from the darkness between the stars, where are the gods in this whole setup? Why do mortals have to fight these battles?

And that is where the idea of the Cold War of The Gods comes in. I found this on TikTok from Nobody Important, link to the original video is here.

Take this, and do what needs to be done.

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!

Proxy Wars in Your Setting

For those whose history books didn't cover the topic, I'm going to lay out a few generalities of the Cold War.

So, during the heights of the twin superpowers of the USSR and the USA, tensions were running very high. These two nations both had massive nuclear arsenals, huge armies, and they weren't shy about using them... however, both sides understood that open war with everything they had was a losing proposal. This would lead to Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD for short. And what was the point of fighting a war that would literally destroy everything and everyone?

Not much, since you ask.

The result of this was that both nations (and to some extent their allies) entered into proxy wars. They would offer arms, training, funding, and backing to a force they didn't directly control, and which was going to take actions they approved of. One of the most famous, of course, was the U.S. training the mujahideen fighters who would act as guerrilla forces against Soviet-held targets and interests. This would, of course, bite the U.S. when the very forces they trained turned on them because their interests no longer aligned (this will become important later). However, the point was that while both sides of the Cold War were engaged in spycraft, building up proxies and influence, etc., they could not take direct, overt action against one another without setting off the powder keg.

You can take this same setup, and apply it to the worldbuilding for your game.

Perhaps, in the long ago, the gods warred on the world. This incident may have been an apocalyptic event, nearly destroying everything. This would, naturally, have led to the sides who wanted to rule (not just destroy) the world to withdrawing, each menacing the other to keep them off the material plane as much as possible. They would build influence through religions, through selecting personal agents in the form of clerics, paladins, oracles, witches, and warlocks. They may even influence others, sending their lesser servants to act as guides and backers, ensuring that those who may not really be invested in one side or the other can still act in service to one of the great powers who is jockeying for position on the board.

How You Can Use This Setup

If you choose to put this setup in place, it provides you a great deal of interesting leeway when it comes to your plot, and the position of your party in the Great Game. If you need a convenient way to give out loot, divine intervention could literally lead your party to find items that are far greater than they should normally have (as in the TikTok example above with the holy avenger), which might lead to them asking what they need such items to do? It might lead your party, no matter how small they are in level, being used to fight in a series of proxy actions that seem unconnected, but when viewed from a divine perspective are all parts of a great whole. You could even use this setup to create antagonists, such as proxies who once fought for a given divine power, but who have now turned their backs to fight against that same divine power, once their initial enemies were overcome (told you to remember the mujahideen).

As the Game Master, you can choose to make this the blatant setup of your campaign, with the PCs playing a role in the ongoing divine power struggle for dominance and influence. Or you can choose to leave that running in the background, only occasionally cropping up to intersect with the adventures your PCs are currently on. Which one you choose is up to you!

However, if you're looking for some extra inspiration, consider checking out some of the following:

- Keeping Gods Mysterious Maintains Their Mystique In Your Game: A simple collection of advice for making sure the divine stay beyond the common experience of mortals.

- Gods of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): The unique setup for gods in my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting may be of interest for folks who are looking for a Cold War style setup.

- 100 Random Oracular Pronouncements: The gods often speak through oracles, but if you need unique pronouncements to drive the PCs in a particular direction, this may be of some assistance.

Also, if you need a little advice for keeping the cloak and dagger in the divine, check out the video I made about this very topic below!

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!

What Mechanics-Based Supplements Would You Like To See For "Army Men"?

As regular readers know, my first RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic was released earlier this year after a successful Kickstarter campaign. In this game players take on the role of a squad of soldiers fighting for one of the nations of the Plastos Federation as they attempt to defend their home from the incursions of the vespoids; gigantic, insectile creatures that have placed all the resinous persons under serious threat. In addition to that very hot war there are also Cold War tensions between many of the nations, there are terrorist organizations and criminal syndicates to deal with, as well as pieces of strange, alien technology that may be more than they seem at first glance, as well as plastic dinosaurs roaming the wilderness beyond the Federation's borders.

What I'd like to ask folks this week, since we're in our Crunch update, is what sort of mechanical supplements you'd like to see for this game in the coming months?

What do you need for resupply?

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!

Exploits, Gear, And Creatures To Fear

Since Army Men initially dropped, three separate supplements have been released. The first, Army Men: Threat Assessments, is a collection of extra threats, creatures, and things that your troopers are going to have to deal with in the field. The second, Army Men: Medals of Honor, introduced the medals system as a way for you to recognize your troopers' accomplishments while on campaign, and to give your players things to strive for. And the most recent supplement, Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps, is full of deadly traps for Game Masters to put into the field for their troopers (or their enemies) to deal with. And if you keep your eyes peeled, the first of the Army Men missions should be coming out soon, with a short adventure set in United Polymeria!

However, because I wanted to focus this game on strategy, equipment, and abilities, I wanted to take a moment to ask folks in the audience... what would you actually like to see more of?

There's several options on the board!

So, I've had a lot of ideas for some things I'd like to expand for the mechanical side of Army Men for folks who want to see even more resources for the game. At the moment, though, the things I'm currently looking at are:

- Additional Missions: Though A Night At Breckon's Beacon isn't out at time of writing, my plan was to get at least 4 more mission guides written and going through editorial in the near future. However, if there's more demand for missions than there is for other options, they're going to get bumped to the top of the list!

- Army Men: Weapons Locker: While not a finalized title, the basic idea behind this series would be, as the title suggests, to be to put more weapons, armor, and general equipment into the hands of your troopers. There might even be some items with the Experimental tag attached to them, in the event folks want a little more of the sci-fi nonsense I've hinted at with this game.

- Army Men: Enhanced Exploits: The exploits system is the main way players pick up and add abilities to their troopers. While there's a variety of them in the base book, this supplement would give you new trees to draw from, and provide additional paths you could use to develop your character in your coming campaign.

- Army Men: Soldiers of Fortune: While originally the title I was going to use for a larger softcover release (which this might still be, if there's enough enthusiasm), the idea behind this supplement was to add something of an A-Team vibe to the game by including the option to play as mercenaries. This would provide players with new classes to choose from, new exploits, fresh backgrounds, as well as a slew of additional items, and likely a Reputation system for acquiring new gear in the field, or before a mission (since mercenaries may not have access to the armories of a nation's standing army).

These aren't the only ideas I've had for supplements to expand the game world, but at time of writing these are the four directions I've narrowed likely expansion to. So if you're a fan of Army Men, then make sure you make your voice heard so I know what sort of content you'd like to see from me going forward!

And if you'd like to know more about the game and setting, make sure to check out the new series Tactical Plastic Report over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. I just got it off the ground, so now is the perfect time to make your voice heard on what subjects you'd like to see covered!

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!