What Would You Like To See Next? Hunter? Beast? Something Else?

Folks who know my work know that I have a deep and abiding love for the World/Chronicles of Darkness. For several years of my career, in fact, I would release a supplement every month, or every other month, for one of the games in these settings. About two years ago I stopped, though, because it just wasn't financially feasible for me to continue... however, variety is the spice of life, and it seems there are still folks who really want me to come back to these games.

So I wanted to ask folks again... what games would you like to see me come back to?

Speak, and perhaps you shall receive.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, 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!

My Next Destination... The Vigil? The Primordial?

Back in March, I made an episode of Discussions of Darkness asking viewers what they would like to see me put together for future World/Chronicles of Darkness content. The two games I proposed were Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Changeling: The Lost, since those are the two games I've written the largest number of supplements for over the years.

I started with Dark Reflections: 50 Sights To See in The Penumbra for Werewolf, and yesterday I cracked the seal on my next Changeling project, which deals with the Gentry, and will dovetail very nicely with 7 True Fae in Arcadia for folks who picked up a copy of that supplement from Lily Lessard. However, I'm laying out plans for what I want to start on this fall, and I wanted to touch base with all my readers out there...

First and foremost, I was recently part of the supplement Night Horrors: Primordial Peerage, which is a hefty book for Beast: The Primordial that deals with a lot of extra lore, character archetypes, etc. to flesh out the setting. I had fun with my part of the game, but I was a little surprised by the size of the response from folks. Apparently Beast is quite a popular game, and there are a lot of folks who are hungry for more... so would you like to see me put out some supplements for this game as well? And if so, what sort of things would you like to see added into the mix?

However, I've also picked up Hunter: The Vigil, and I'm working my way through it. I can honestly say I haven't looked at Vigil since I took part in the initial playtest for it, but I'm trying to read a few dozen pages a night before bed. While I'm doing the work for a chronicle I plan on running for my own group, I have several ideas of things I'd like to organize and arrange into supplements based on the material I'm making... particularly since the game I'm writing is set during Prohibition!

So this week, I wanted to check in with you all as my readers... do either of these proposals sound interesting to you? And if so, which one would you prefer to see?

Place your vote in the comments below, and leave it on social media for extra points to be sure I see it! Additionally, check out the 39 supplements I've written in my World/Chronicles of Darkness pinboard so you can see everything I've already put together for this setting!

Also, if you haven't checked out my latest Changeling: The Lost video essay which introduces the host for my upcoming podcast Windy City Shadows, then give this video a look see, as well!

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 Blue Sky, 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 Transformative Properties of Pain (Delving Into Zon-Kuthon, Slaanesh, and Others)

There are things that exist in our favorite fictional universes that can leave our skin crawling, and our minds rebelling. Things with mutilated flesh, who are seemingly unbound by moral precepts, and who are a dark mirror to many things we hold dear. They are not just monstrous, and not just evil, wicked, or blasphemous... they are alien. They are so removed from our experiences that the only way we can categorize them is to say they are insane... that only the mad would see logic in what these things are, and the actions they take.

Despite that, though, many of us feel drawn to them. We want to see more, to understand more, to experience more... and this is both the power of these things, and a cornerstone of what makes them what they are in many ways.

Because to desire, to want, is the gateway. And even if what lies beyond that threshold is pain, we will endure it precisely because of the want that made us open the door in the first place.

Come... I have such sights to show 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!

Pain and Transformation

Zon-Kuthon. Slaanesh. The Cenobites. The Godhand. Even my own god Tensa found in Gods of Sundara (available for Pathfinder as well as DND 5E). Our fiction, and our games, are full of creatures shaped by alien forces and impossible desires... things that corrupt you, twist you, and which bring their followers to the other end of madness.

And while that works well enough for antagonists in a story, things and people we want to see as cold, alien, and unknowable, it doesn't work as well for our characters. Because we need to understand them, and we need those around us to understand them. Which is why it's important to think of desire, pain, and the transformative nature of the experience that comes with these things.

Consider for a moment seeing someone in middle school or high school who is in their first official relationship. You've never seen anyone that happy, riding high on a fresh emotion that has them walking on air. And then when they have their first break up, it is devastating for them. They bawl, they kick, they scream, and they might even break things. To adults looking on, it seems so petty, and unimportant, because most of us have gone through this process many, many times before. We might remember what it was like when we went through this when we were children, but it's so far removed from who we are now that it often feels like it happened to someone else.

Going through that pain, and recovering from it, changed us. We shifted something in ourselves. Some of us heal, and some of us limp, but we continued on.

Alternatively, think of the original Little Mermaid. She was given legs, but every step was agony, akin to walking on razors for the rest of her life. A bargain she made with her eyes open because she wanted that so badly. She knew that to be changed would bring agony, but the change was worth the pain.

These are two halves of the same coin. On the one hand we have pain that transforms us, and on the other side we have transformations that hurt us. In either case, we will become a different person than who we were... and in some cases we may no longer even recognize what we've become. Or who we used to be.

This is a philosophical basis that can act as a starting point with characters attached to a philosophy of pain, darkness, or even depravity. However, it's important to remember that even in the case of a penitent being remade by the cenobites, or someone rising to become a member of Berserk's Godhand, the transformation doesn't begin with the dramatic final step... the transformation began down a long and winding road that led to where they wound up.

A Thousand Resurrections On The Path of Corruption

Even if you are not a drug user, you're familiar with the idea of building up a tolerance. The first time you take even the smallest dose, the drug hits your system like a freight train, and you feel it pretty intensely. And if you only indulge every now and again, that level of intensity will be your normal experience... but if you use a drug regularly, your body and mind will get used to it. You'll have to take more, and more, just to move the needle. It's why a child being allowed to have a normal caffeinated soft drink might be bouncing off the walls, while their aunt or uncle can drink 2 cans of Monster before they start to shake off feeling like they need a nap.

Alternatively, think of how muscles grow. When you exercise, you create a small tear, and when your body fills that small tear back in the muscle grows in size and power. This allows you to easily lift something that would have been far beyond your capacity even a few years ago, because you have slowly transformed yourself through regular rituals of suffering and self-inflicted pain.

And when we take these relatively mundane things, and apply them to a darker path, we begin to see how characters might walk into the shadows deliberately and with great purpose.

No one comes to sit where I do by an accident of fate...

Through a steady diet of pain, bloodshed, suffering, or even torturous rites, a character might become something new... something different than they were before. Perhaps they were seduced, as we see with hedonists who had exhausted earthly pleasures who pursued the Lament Configuration to experience the next level of sensation. Or they were told there was a way they could overcome an earthly weakness, but only if they followed the path of the Black Spiral, and reached the end.

If these characters simply swallowed a mouthful of this poison, it would kill them, or cripple them. But if they swallow a little at a time, over and over again, year after year, soon they would build up a functional immunity. This is how they might accept the early rites or requirements of these dark gods or strange philosophies, building up the tolerance, determination, and iron will that will see them through as they pass over the threshing blades that will tear them apart, and allow them to reborn anew.

Others may stare at them in horror. They may see what they're doing as an abomination, a desecration of morality, or a grievous sin. But they have not seen what the one on the left-hand path has seen. The naysayers have not walked where they've walked, and done what they've done. And while the dark pilgrim might try to explain these truths, there are certain experiences that words fail to properly convey. It is only through first-hand knowledge that one can truly understand what lurks beyond pain, and beyond the transformations it heralds.

And on a final note, those who haven't seen this article should check out my Pathfinder character conversion for the cenobite Pinhead!

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 Blue Sky, 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!

Changes Are Coming To My Patreon In August!

Improved Initiative has been running for something like 12 years now, but what a lot of folks may not know is that I started this blog at basically around the same time that I got on Patreon. The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page has been a literal lifesaver for me, and it is one of the major reasons I'm able to stay afloat as a professional writer. There's no ads on this blog, or on my sister blog The Literary Mercenary; all the money I earn from these platforms is either from patrons who help pay my bills, or people who buy things through my affiliate links in my articles.

That's it.

However, there's going to be a change in my Patreon starting this August. So if you're one of my patrons, you'll definitely see this post shortly. And if you're not, but you've been considering it, well, this might be good news for you!

Especially if you only have a little bit of cash to spare.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, 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!

Finally Swapping To A Per-Month Structure

So, when Patreon first started, creators on the platform had the option to charge patrons either a flat fee per month (basically a subscription), or a fee per item they created. I opted for a per-item cost, so I charged my patrons for 2 blog entries a week, and I made my Monday posts free of charge. I chose this structure because it generally kept me on-task, and I feel like it kept me accountable to my patrons because if I didn't write a blog entry in a given week, then I didn't get paid for that week... pure and simple.

However, all good things have to come to an end. It seems like this Fall Patreon is giving creators a choice. You can stick with a per-item payment structure if you want to, but if you do that then you won't be able to get new patrons until you shift to a monthly payment structure.

And while I love every single one of my patrons... I don't have enough of them to make that kind of decision. So to get ahead of the curve, this August I'm going to shift my Patreon over to the monthly subscription model.

Needs be when the devil drives, sadly.

At time of writing, this is the only thing that should be changing. I fully intend to keep my regular posting schedule, and to include extra content for my paying patrons when I have it (particularly free copies of my latest TTRPG supplements when they drop). However, I want to ask a favor from anyone who is currently a patron, or who is considering becoming a patron.

I'd appreciate any and all help you can give.

I know times are tough, and budgets are tight. But a big reason I didn't make this change sooner is that I only have 30 or so paying patrons, and I only bring in about $200 a month or so. I didn't want that to drop to under 100 because folks didn't notice the change, and I suddenly had an even harder time making ends meet for bills.

So if you enjoy my work, and you want to help support me, then please consider dropping in and becoming a Patreon patron. My plan is to make this change in August 2025 as soon as the July patronage clears, and my balance returns to zero.

And, of course, if there are other things you would like to see me add to my Patreon, feel free to let me know that down in the comments below!

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 Blue Sky, 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!

Not All Tactics Are Endgame Viable (Pathfinder)

There are few things more frustrating that when your character is in a situation where your character's main skill set isn't applicable or effective. Whether it's the greatsword-wielding barbarian who can't fight the flying dragon, or the wizard's spells slide right off the golems, or the rogue who just can't use their sneak attack on creatures who don't have a discernible anatomy, it can be incredibly frustrating.

But it's even worse when this becomes your character's permanent state of being. There are a lot of situations where this can happen, which is why it's important to take a step back, and really evaluate your strategy's viability.

Because it can be frustrating to get sidelined right as the campaign is coming to the climax... or even when you hit the midpoint.

Because no one wants to be Bruce Banner when they built the Hulk.

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 Are The Weaknesses in Your Strategy?

No matter what kind of character you're building, they're going to have some kind of weakness... something that is necessary for them to operate at full-strength, or which they are not going to be truly effective against. After all, if you're a fighter in heavy armor with a tower shield, then you probably aren't going to be great at a lot of saving throws. If you're a melee specialist then you have to be able to close with the enemy in order to hit them. If you're a ranged combatant you need to have line of effect to your target... and so on, and so forth.

And generally speaking, when you realize these flaws, you should take measures to deal with them. For example, if you know you need to be able to reach your foes in melee, you need to ensure you have some method of increasing your speed, or flying, etc. in those instances where an enemy would be otherwise out of reach. Alternatively, you need to be sure you have some kind of ranged weapon option that, while it might not be ideal, will still allow you to participate in a battle instead of just slogging forward and hoping for the best. If you know there will be situations where your spells can't hurt the enemy, then you keep a few party-buffers, defensive spells, or area manipulation spells up your sleeve so you can still do something.

But in Pathfinder the issue arises that some strategies simply are not long-term viable simply because of the nature of how so many adventures function.

We are legion, and we are many.

As an example, consider poison use. It takes a specific class feature in order to use poison safely as a PC, and the saves for most poisons are fairly minor. Poison itself is expensive to acquire, and time consuming to make... but all of these challenges can be overcome if a player really wants to make poison use a central feature of their character build. However, the issue is that many enemies that tend to make up the end-game threats of a campaign (powerful outsiders, deadly constructs, undead creatures, etc.) are outright immune to poison. So what might have once been a trump card becomes an absolute dead-end, and all the time, energy, and resources dedicated to honing poison into a genuine strategy becomes useless.

You see the same with a variety of other tactics. Mind control spells and certain types of illusions are all well and good when dealing with creatures that have minds to control, or who are subject to illusions. But if your enemies have immunity to mind-affecting effects, or if they tend to have true seeing or similar abilities, then these spells are going to fall flat. Even combat maneuvers like disarm, while they're useful at lower levels, tend to fall flat when your enemies are all monsters with natural weapons, or spellcasters who have no weapons that can be disarmed. Hell, even characters who focus on fire as their main damage element often run into issues because so many creatures have large resistances (or outright immunity) to fire when you hit higher challenge ratings.

None of this is meant to discourage players who want to pursue these options, and in many cases you can still use them effectively for a great deal of the campaign. However, it's important that you have secondary strategies you can rely on in the event your main strength doesn't work against a particular foe, and in a particular way.

Lastly, talk to your Game Master about what you're planning, and ask if this strategy is going to work when you reach the endgame. Don't ask specifically what's coming, but make sure that if you have a strategy in mind that you are going to lean into that your Game Master is aware of it so they can tell you yay or nay.

Because just like telling the ranger who just leveled up not to take Favored Enemy: Goblin, because you're never going to fight another goblin in the entire campaign, they should also tell you if your strategy of using the knockout venom from your pseudodragon companion is going to simply stop working after level 7 because every enemy after that point will simply be immune to it, and you'll need to do something else for the next 10 levels until you reach the conclusion.

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 Blue Sky, 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!

"Night Horrors: Primordial Peerage" Is Out (For Those Who Wanted To See Me Contribute to "Beast: The Primordial")

A lot of folks who are familiar with my work know that I love the World/Chronicles of Darkness, and that I've made liberal use of the Storyteller's Vault platform. Whether you checked out my 100 Kinfolk Bundle (which has over 1,400 NPCs for Werewolf: The Apocalypse), vampire supplements like 100 Resources and Rumors to Find on ShreckNet or 100 Havens, a changeling supplement like 100 (Mostly) Harmless Goblin Fruits and Oddments to Find in The Hedge, or even my supplements for geist and mage, 50 Geists and 100 Shadow Names (And Their Meanings) respectively, I've got a lot of content available for these settings.

However, one of the games I haven't worked on in the past is Beast: The Primordial. While it has both its fans and its detractors, it just wasn't a particular pool I'd dived into before... however, with the release of Night Horrors: Primordial Peerage, I've added one more notch on my belt for parts of this setting I've had a hand in adding to.

And you should all check this book out ASAP!

A lot of people worked hard on this, so help spread the word!

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, 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 Just What Is This Book About?

In Beast: The Primordial, players take on the roles of the Begotten... humans who have merged with the primal horrors that live on in the dreams of humanity. Beasts take on a thousand different masks, some familiar and some alien, but all of them prey on the darkest, most ancient fears of mankind... and the Begotten are those who connect with these ancient nightmares, who now live in their soul, and feed off mortal victims.

It's said that Beasts were the first of the Night Mother's offspring, but that most (if not all) of the other horrors of the Chronicles of Darkness are their younger cousins. Though the relations between them and vampires, changelings, werewolves, mages, sin eats, prometheans, and others may be distant, or strained, the Begotten often see themselves as the elder siblings of the world's darkest shadows.

Night Horrors: Primordial Peerage aims to dig deeper, and stretch wider, allowing for a greater variety of characters to exist within the scope of Beast... and it provides history, examples, art, and templates for making such characters!

We are legion, and we have taken many paths.

While there is a lot of content in this supplement book, the one that I think is most interesting are the templates for additional character types. Some of these are where the Primordial brushes up against another sphere, creating strange combination creates (Beast and Mage, Beast and Geist, and so on), but others are utterly unique, and play off the terrors that live at the heart of the human condition. The Cybernetic Horrors, for example, tap into the fears of what can happen when machines blend with flesh, and create something new and inhuman. Dark Lords, on the other hand, are people whose reputations are such that the urban legends about them begin to imbue them with genuine, supernatural abilities. You could use these for NPCs that could present a real challenge to a collection of Beasts, or who might act as allies or cultists helping to bolster a Begotten's goals. Or, if you really want to, you could run a chronicle where players take on the roles of these alternative types of mortals touched by the Primordial Dream.

So, whether you just enjoy expanded source material for Beast, or you've been looking for more ways to play that particular sphere, I would highly recommend picking up a copy of this new release!

And for all the folks who do wish I'd do more stuff with Storyteller's Vault, consider typing my name in there and checking out some of my other supplements! The higher those numbers get, the more likely it is that I'll be able to dedicate more time, energy, and effort to those supplements.

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 Blue Sky, 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!

Mr. Nowhere Talks About Radio Free Fae in This Latest "Changeling: The Lost" Video Essay

There are those among us who have been to a world that doesn't exist... a place mentioned only in fairy tales. A place ruled by petty tyrants and mad gods, most never get the chance to escape... those who do, and who manage to make their way back to the real world, find themselves changed. With their transfigured forms and broken minds, they have become something else... something other. These Lost band together, though, and they fight for themselves and their communities.

The voice of these communities, though, often comes from the members of the Winter Court. An irony for the Silent Arrow, they use secretive broadcasts to help keep others like them infored. Known as Radio Free Fae, these broadcasts are the early warning systems of many freeholds.

And this week, Mr. Nowhere finally breaks his wall of silence to tell you all about this operation.

Welcome back, my friends and fellow travelers on the trods...

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 Glimpse Into What's Coming For Windy City Shadows

For folks who've been watching my videos over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, you've likely heard me talk about my upcoming Windy City Shadows podcast project. And while I talked about it a while back in Ask Me Anything About "Windy City Shadows" A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast, the general gist is that season 1 is going to be what you'd end up with if John Wick was a changeling.

But the host of the show who handles our intro and outro is the Radio Free Fae DJ known only as Mr. Nowhere... and if you haven't heard his previous broadcasts, he's the voice of the latest video essay that just dropped on the channel!

While I'm still elbow-deep into writing season 1 (working on episode 4's script at the time of writing), I've wanted to start dropping occasional pieces of lore, and to give listeners a preview of some of the characters they're likely to meet as the season unfolds... and I thought I'd start with this simple video essay featuring our first host.

And if you want to help me keep making videos like this, while also revving us up so that I can get this podcast off the ground, please do the following things:

- Subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel

- Watch this video essay, upvote it, and stay until the end for the secret outro, and leave the suggested message in the comments section

- Share this blog entry, and/or the video, on your own social media! Particularly on Facebook, as the site has made it exceedingly difficult for me to actually share links to anything

And, lastly, if you want to catch a few more glimpses of Mr. Nowhere in some published work I've put out, I'd recommend picking up the Changeling supplements 100 Mourning Cant Dialects, Phrases, and Meanings as well as 100 Strange Sights To See in The Hedge.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Table Talk. 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!

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Campaign Building - A Single Novel, Or An Episodic Story?

Campaigns are how we describe our stories in RPGs. And while it's true that not every game you play is going to follow the level 1 to level 20 format, the idea of a story where characters gain resources, skills, abilities, and experience to become more formidable than they were until they hit the final confrontation and the story gets a crescendo is the basis of how most games work. However, there is a question that you, as a GM, should answer when you start putting the next game together.

Do you intend to run a game with a single throughline the way you'd read a novel, or are you going to run a segmented storyline that's more episodic in nature?

It's all connected!

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The Structure of Your Story

Whether you're writing your own adventure, or you're using a pre-written campaign like Storm King's Thunder or Kingmaker, the structure of the story you're telling still boils down to one of these two major styles. So I wanted to talk about them, and about the pros and cons, to try to get some of my fellow Game Masters actually thinking about these campaign styles, and why they use one or the other for a given campaign.

The Novel

From page 1, all the way to the end.

The novel is, essentially, when you have a long-running campaign that will have the same characters all the way through from the beginning to the end. However, the trademark of the novel is that characters are also involved in a single, cohesive story for the entire campaign. This is a lot harder to do than it sounds, particularly in games where you want your players to grind up their levels before you throw heavy stuff at them. However, there's two ways to maintain this single story cohesion all the way through.

1. Write a complex storyline that, from level 1, has your players hooked into the ongoing narrative and setting up the final endgame. For example, they act as a squad of mercenaries sent to deal with orcs attacking a borderland town. They defend the town, discovering members of a cult who were backing the orcs in their attacks. Through this, they find the town is actually safeguarding an ancient relic that had been forgotten. The party escorts the relic to the regional governor, and end up having to uncover a conspiracy where several nobles were members of the cult. This failure of the minions draws the eyes of the cult's leaders, who then begin attempting to take this item. The party has to find the rest of the relics in the set so they can finally end the undying lord of the Unseeing Eye for once and all.

The idea is that each segment of the campaign feeds into the next, with the plot growing in stakes and danger, and all of them are connected. Every aspect matters, and it is all part of the same story.

2. Start the game off at the power level you want for the "interesting" part of things. This is a far easier approach, and it often means you dispense with any filler or level-grinding parts of the game to get the PCs up to snuff for when the main plot starts really rolling. So there's no low-level quests like clearing out goblin caves, or dealing with bandits on the highway just to solidify the party and get some XP on their sheets... you just start at level 5, because that's when the main plot of an undead army attempting to claim the nation would have started to unfold.

This does, of course, mean that your game isn't going to run as long as it otherwise might. That is either a feature or a flaw, depending on your outlook, as some GMs (and players, too) might want a tighter game where they play for 6 months to a year and focus on the "good part" of the game, without all the faff and chaff of the unconnected side quests, monster hunting, and grind that can often show up in a game.

The Episodic Story

As we rejoin our adventurers...

An episodic story is, well, episodic. There are smaller stories that each have their own arcs, and these stories are added to over the length of a campaign to create a complete chronicle of the characters' adventures. While some of them might be connected, many of them won't be.

Perhaps the best comparison for this kind of campaign is reading a collection of short stories about classic sword and sorcery heroes like Conan or Solomon Kane. Because while the stories feature the same character, and there might even be a loose kind of timeline involved, the events of one story aren't necessarily going to impact the next except in references made, or perhaps in a call back somewhere in the text.

An episodic campaign might have an eventual end goal, but not all the parts of the campaign will be bent toward that singular goal. For example, level 1-3 might deal with the PCs routing out a bandit encampment, and bringing down their leader Three-Fingered Galt. Then level 4-7 might involve trying to find a buried relic in a recently-uncovered castle in the deep desert. Level 8-10 might involve them challenging the Warlock of Black Mountain, and ending the threat he poses. And then, once they've really hit their stride, they spend until level 17 getting involved in the struggle over the Aqualine Throne... will they choose a successor, topple the kingdom entirely, or will they become the rulers of the nation's next age?

Episodic stories give you a lot of freedom, but more importantly they offer you off-ramps. So if someone wants to switch characters to try something new for the next arc, or your table is getting kind of bored, you can end the game at the end of a given episode, and try something else. However, there is that question of whether or not you want to stick with the same characters for their entire journey, and just how interconnected that journey really was.

Consider Your Structure

There's no objectively superior campaign version. You can do a full 1-20 campaign with a single, interconnected plot. You could do short arcs put together. Hell, if you really want to you could run a bunch of individual one-shots and just have a game that feels almost like a TV show (which is, incidentally, sort of how pick up games of my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic would run). But it's important that you ask what kind of story you're looking to tell, and what your players are interested in experiencing, before you start putting together the blueprint for your next campaign.

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 Blue Sky, 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!