Get Your Questions In For The Next Ask Me Anything For "Army Men"!

It's been about two years since my first RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic dropped. And while I've been trying to keep putting out fresh content for it by talking it up here on my blog, making a series of videos called Tactical Plastic Report over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and writing as many supplements for it as I have time and space for, I wanted to take a moment to reach out to all my readers and fellow players out there. Because I could keep taking stabs in the dark all day, but I want to know what you want from the game going forward. I want your thoughts, your curiosities, and most of all, to answer your questions...

Which is why I think it's time to put together a second Ask Me Anything for this game!

My ears are open!

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my 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!

Wait, SECOND Ask Me Anything?

For folks who are just joining us, I actually put together an AMA when the Kickstarter was still running for Army Men several years ago. The video appeared over on the High Level Games YouTube channel, and it's still there if you want to take a look at it!

Now, I didn't intend on making that original AMA, but during the early days of the Kickstarter we were getting a lot of questions... or, more specifically, we kept getting the same question being asked by dozens of different people. As such, I figured it would be a good idea to take some of the most common questions, lay out the answers, and provide the truth straight from the horse's mouth, as it were.

 

However, it's been a hot minute since that video came out. As such, I thought it might be time for a sequel! So if there is something you're curious about regarding Army Men that wasn't answered in that original video, what I need you to do is put your question in the comment section of Tactical Plastic Report, Episode 16: Should We Have Another AMA For Army Men?

Now, I'm asking folks to leave their questions on that video for 2 reasons. First and foremost, it's a much easier comment section to monitor, and it will be seen by myself as well as Adrian Kennelly, the fellow behind Azukail Games. Secondly, it would be nice to get some extra upvotes, comments, and views on that video to help it spread its wings a little so that maybe the algorithm will help it reach more people's feeds, and thus I can get even more feedback before I start putting together an AMA!

So if there's something you've been curious about regarding the game itself, any of the supplements currently on the market, anything else that might come out for it in the future, or even about what goes on behind the scenes and what my experience was like with Kickstarter, BackerKit, and so on, leave those curiosities in the comment section for the above video, and if we get enough folks weighing in I'll be able to take some time to answer!

Army Men's Releases (At Time of Writing)

If this is your first time coming across Army Men, and it sounds like something you'd like to check out, consider grabbing the following materials to start digging in!

- Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic - The base rulebook which comes with everything you need to run or play the game, as well as an initial adventure to give you a jumping off point!

- Army Men: Threat Assessments - The first supplement released for the game, Threat Assessments is full of additional adversaries for your troopers to come across to really beef up the rogue's gallery.

- Army Men: Medals of Honor - This supplement introduces the Medals System, which is a way for you to reward your players, and to give troopers unique bonuses that carry through based on their past achievements. A good way to note successes, since equipment is requisitioned, and characters don't receive loot.

 

- Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps - A collection of noted in-world booby traps, these deadly hazards can make your troopers a great deal more careful.

 

- Boots On The Ground: Baker Team - A ready-to-play squad of troopers, Baker Team is ready to roll! Ideal for a pick up game, or for players who want to try out Army Men but aren't ready to make their own characters, this supplement can also be used as NPCs if your troopers need a little help on their current mission.

- A Night At Breckon's Beacon and Assault On Outpost 13: The first two stand-alone missions, the first involves searching for a squad that simply disappeared while out on maneuvers. The second involves an apprehension gone wrong, and a syndicate figurehead being held at a remote outpost. Troopers need to provide support, but will they be able to hold onto their captive when others come to spring him?

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 additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! 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!

"Boots On The Ground" Is Out For Army Men (The Potential Start of a New Series)

It's been a few years since my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic dropped after a successful Kickstarter, and some time on BackerKit. And since it's come out there have been supplements for additional enemies (Army Men: Threat Assessments), supplements for booby traps (Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps), the medals system to award players for their performance in the field (Army Men: Medals of Honor), and two additional mission modules (A Night At Breckon's Beacon and Assault on Outpost 13).

However, there has been a request for a particular kind of supplement I hadn't released for the game yet; collections of iconic characters. Because while folks playing the game at home with their friends usually wanted to make their own troopers and squads, there were some folks who wanted to run the game at conventions, or at their local gaming stores. And there were some GMs who thought having premade characters would help get their players into the spirit of the game to see if they wanted to go even deeper.

So I put together what I'm hoping will be the start of a series... Boots On The Ground: Baker Team!

And if you haven't grabbed a copy of it yet, do so today!

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!

A Starting Squad, and An Homage

The idea behind Boots On The Ground, as a series of supplements, is to provide players and Game Masters alike with complete squads of troopers, each of which has its own history and iconography, and where the troopers themselves have motivations, broad personalities, and a bit of history with one another. In short, the supplements are meant to give you everything you need to run a quick and dirty game without everyone needing to dig through the rulebook and spend hours on character creation if they just want to get stuck in and see how the game plays.

I even talked about this a bit in Tactical Plastic Report, Episode 10: Future Expansions For Army Men, over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel.

And because I'm a sucker for a good homage (Assault on Outpost 13 is an obvious callback to the film Assault on Precinct 13, after all), I decided to draw on one of the most famous action movies out there. For folks who can't pin down the tickle in the back of their minds, Baker Team was the elite unit that John Rambo fought with in Vietnam... and the Baker Team presented for Army Men has a similar vibe. They are the ace-in-the-hole team that's sent in to do the dirty jobs nobody else will, and even if they meet their end the brass will consider it a win if they sold their lives for significant enemy numbers.

Originally I was going to put together 5 entire squads in a single book, but the size of that project would have been prohibitive in terms of both time and sheer word count. So to test the waters, I released this first installment of Boots On The Ground to feel out audience response, and to see if more supplements in this line would be something folks would respond to.

So, if this is something you'd like to see more of, pick up a copy of Boots On The Ground: Baker Team today, and leave a rating and review on it once you've given it a read! Also, feel free to tell me which nation you'd like to see a squad from next either in your review, or in the comments below... especially if there's another homage you feel would be right at home in this game of tactical plastic!

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 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!

Assigned Motivation in RPGs

Oceans of ink have been spilled by people writing about character motivation. From lists of potential motives, to questions to ask about your character, to story concerns, and the intricacies of the unfolding plot, few aspects of the game are as important as figuring out why your characters are doing the things they're doing.

Hell, it's why my supplement 100 Character Goals and Motivations is an Electrum seller, after all.

However, while characters should always have personal motivations that come into play throughout a campaign, a lot of Game Masters overlook the expediency of a game that comes with assigned motivation... often to the point that a lot of people are completely unfamiliar with the idea, or they consider it a form of unacceptable railroading.

So let's talk about that this week, shall we?

Forward! Go, go, go!

As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!

The Mission IS Your Motivation

The standard model of many RPGs is that player characters form some kind of party, and then go off on an adventure. Sometimes they're mercenaries, and sometimes they're brigands. They might be wandering around looking for a reward, or for good deeds they can do. In these kinds of games the characters' personal motivations are often what takes center stage for each of them. Maybe there's a holy warrior attempting to follow their god's will, they team up with a former soldier trying to find where their next meal is coming from, and they cross paths with a savage warrior seeking some trial grand enough to act as a rite of passage for their people. These motivations are all very personal to the characters in question, and wildly different from one another. Generally what a GM will do at this point is figure some way to weave together all the characters' independent goals and motivations into the unfolding plot, dangling hooks for each of them to get them to work together.

And that is a lot of work... both on the players' parts, but also on the GM's part.

Assigned motivation works differently. In this structure, every character is part of a unit, an organization, a group, a cause, and that cause has the ability to assign them to handle matters on its behalf. You and your fellow party members aren't necessarily going to handle the current issue du jour because it fits with your moral code, or because there's treasure to be gained, or a reputation to be won... you're doing it because your commanding officer assigned you to go and take care of it!

Now, this is the method I used for my own RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, precisely because it's a military-themed game. Because yes, your characters should be individuals with their own wants, their own goals, and so on, but you're in the squad to do a job. And sure, maybe your medic joined up because they couldn't afford to go to medical school, and a tour of service will help them do that. Maybe your grunt is fulfilling a family tradition, and he's a third-generation soldier. Maybe your ordnance specialist caught a charge for arson and weapons trafficking, and he'd rather join the army than do time. Whatever the reason, and whatever goals someone is shooting for, they're still going to go and deal with the missions that command sends them on. They don't have to like it, but that's the agreed-upon framework for the game and story.

And this isn't a new idea by any stretch of the imagination. You see this same setup in the Warhammer 40K RPG Dark Heresy, where the PCs are all part of an inquisitor's retinue, and expected to complete the tasts and assignments the inquisitor gives them. You'll also see something similar in Spycraft, which is a game that I personally took a lot of inspiration from when designing Army Men. However, this same setup can be used in any RPG if your GM sits everyone down and says, "Okay, I want you all to be part of a mercenary company, a squad of town guards, conscripts in a current war," or whatever other flavor they've come up with.

On the one hand, there are a lot of players out there who do really well with assigned motivation in a game. Being told by the GM that they need to make a member of a knightly order, or a soldier in an army, or someone who works for this fantasy world's secret service takes the pressure off of them when it comes to character motivation, and it allows them to color within the lines they've been given. However, there are also players (and even Game Masters) who really don't care for this approach to character building and game management. They often feel that it means they can't make their own, individual characters with their own, individual goals, and that they're expected to just fall in-line, and to go along with the motivation that's presented to them.

Now, just to reiterate, preferences in your game are perfectly fine. But if you've never tried using assigned motivation in your campaigns before, consider giving it a shot if it sounds interesting to you. Just remember that it's something you need to bring up with your players early on in discussing the game, and you need to make sure you have full buy-in from everyone.

Or, if you really want to, you could try any of the games I've mentioned here, and see if they agree with you!

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!

Resource Management and Tracking (Additional Challenge or Needless Frustration?)

There are a lot of contentious discussions when it comes to roleplaying games. Everything from the age-old debate of casters versus martials, to whether alignment implies a game setting is deterministic in its morality, to whether clerics and paladins require divine patrons to empower them, it seems these topics crop up again every handful of years, and a whole new generation of players and Game Masters grapple with these issues.

One topic that is often overlooked, though, is the proper place of resource management as it applies to your game's challenge. Because while all games have this aspect to some degree, the question is how in-depth do you want to go with it in your campaign, and at what point does it become more of a frustration than a way to add challenge to your game?

Wait... how many rounds have you fired?

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!

Tools and Limitations

When we strip back all the upper layers and look at the mechanics of how RPGs work, resource management is one of the most basic concepts that goes into creating a game's challenge. How many spells a character can cast before they need to rest, how many hit points they have before they die, how many times they can use certain class features before they need to be refreshed, all of these things fall into the "resource management" category. And, generally speaking, the broad categories I just mentioned are things that we accept as necessary as both players and Game Masters.

However, like a lot of mechanical aspects of a game, resource management can very quickly become micro-management if one isn't careful.

Okay, so, exactly HOW are you carrying all of that?

For example, a system to make the use of magic finite is generally thought of as a good use of a resource management mechanic. Whether it's a pool of spell points that the character uses to fuel their powers (each use of which costs a certain number of points), or a Vancian magic system where they can cast a certain number of specific spells per day, the idea is that they have to figure out when a situation is serious enough for them to dip into their magic since they only have so much gas in the tank before they're going to be tapped out. There are other situations, though, where managing particular resources is seen as more of a pain in the ass than it's really worth. Whether it's keeping track of a character's carrying capacity (including the weight of their clothes and their armor), tracking how many arrows or crossbow bolts they're carrying, or asking how much food they have in their packs for their journeys, a lot of Game Masters and players just don't want to deal with these things.

And, to be clear, that's fine if you don't want to deal with those aspects at your table. However, too often we just toss tools aside without really examining them... which is why this week I'd like to propose something I don't see show up very often in this conversation.

Instead of just universally writing off a resource management mechanic because you don't care for it, or don't want to use it, take a moment to really look at it. And while you're examining it, ask what kind of game it would be good for, and how it could act to create serious challenge in that game.

Using The Right Tool For The Right Job

Resource management is deeply tied in to the challenge of a game, and often the players' access to resources is what shapes their strategy and their decisions. For example, if your party of adventurers heads out into the forests for weeks on-end, but your ranger only brought a dozen arrows for their longbow, what is going to happen when they've fired every shaft? Will they attempt to recover the spent ammunition from the undergrowth? Will they pull their arrows out of the corpses of the creatures they shot in order to reuse them? Will they craft fresh arrows around the fireside, or while they're sitting on watch, to be sure they have enough ammunition to see them through to their destination?

For the purposes of an example, you can swap out any other item. What if the wizard runs out of material components for their spells? What if the fighter's sword breaks, and they need a backup weapon? What if your party has a two week trek through the forest, but they only brought enough food for 4 days? Or, and this is the big one, what if they only have enough silver to buy a certain number of items, but not everything they feel they're going to need?

Now, if you're a Game Master who prefers to travel by map in between towns, cities, and dungeons, then none of that is likely going to make a difference in your game. Because if surviving out in the wilderness and having to deal with random encounters (or even planned encounters) isn't something you're going to worry about, then none of the things mentioned above are going to be a big deal.

But if that's the case, these tools aren't made for the game you're running.

On the other hand, games that do focus on scarcity of resources, on environmental dangers, or just on survival often do lean heavily on these exact mechanics. Whether your party is lost in deep caverns of the World Beneath, whether you're all escaping from slavery and have to use whatever you can get your hands on to survive in the wilds away from civilization, or whether you're on an expedition to lost ruins to see what lies deep within, part of the inherent challenges of these scenarios is that you don't have endless resources... whether those resources happen to be ammunition, spells, healing, food, or even the amount of time it takes to complete your mission.

Now, pointing out that some players legitimately enjoy games that utilize these tools doesn't mean you have to play games centered around resource management. It doesn't mean you need to incorporate them into your game, and subject your players to these things if they aren't really interested in these mechanics. However, if you're one of the folks out there who have been wondering why these "relics of an older gaming age" as they're so often thought of still exist... well, I just wanted to provide some food for thought on the matter.

Lastly, if this is a topic you're interested in that you want to include more of in your games, might I recommend checking out some of the following:

- How Does Your Character Stay Fed? What Does It Take?: A recent post talking about food and eating while characters are out on the campaign trail.

- 100 Random Encounters For On The Road Or In The Wilderness: If you want to throw some unexpected surprises into your party's travel time... for good or ill!

- 100 NPCs To Meet On The Road Or In The Wilderness: A companion supplement to the above piece, just because the road is long or the wildlands dense, that doesn't mean there aren't people to meet.

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!

3 Tips For Writing Adventure Modules

Adventure modules are the quintessential tabletop RPG supplement. While there are world guides, NPC lists, villain stat blocks, factions, and a thousand other things, the most common item folks often add to the base game book is an adventure to run with their shiny new roleplaying game.

However, while more of us can create adventure modules than ever before thanks to the nature of modern day publishing and programs like DMs Guild and Storyteller's Vault, there are still a lot of hurdles to overcome. So if you're considering writing an adventure and putting it on the market, consider this week's tips from someone who had his share of rodeos under his belt at this point.

It's not as easy as it looks, I can tell you that...

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!

Tip #1: Get The Art First

Like this one, if you haven't checked it out yet...

I talked about this a little while back in the interview I did with Isaiah Burt, but it really bears repeating; before you put a single word down on the page, make sure you have ALL your art assets in place and ready to go.

Art is the most expensive part of most RPG products, and modules require cover art, interior art, and maps to make sure that you have all the resources possible to run your players through this adventure. And since getting custom art is expensive, it's important to make sure you have all the art assets ready to roll before you come up with the story you intend to write... assuming you want to stay under budget, that is.

The Price of Iron, pictured above, was the first time I did this, and it made everything go a lot more smoothly than previous adventures I'd written. Additionally, if you are working with the art assets you have access to, it can often make you more creative as a writer. For example, when I sat down to gather assets for the Army Men mission module Assault on Outpost 13 I was looking everywhere I could for a map of a modern (or at least semi-modern) jail. I couldn't find one, though... all I could find was a bank. Which gave me the idea to canonically write the jail the PCs have to enter in order to protect a valuable prisoner an old bank that was converted to a jail during the revolution that led to the Styric Republic, thus allowing the map to make sense, while still being an asset that didn't cost me (or my publisher) any extra money to use.

Tip #2: Don't Hide Necessary Advancement Behind Checks

So, I don't know... I guess just keep rolling till one of you manages?

A method I've developed over the adventures I've written is to use "trap mentality" when it comes to designing the mechanical challenges in an adventure module. We all know how traps work, of course. A character looks for the trap, and if they meet the Perception DC they spot it before it goes off. This gives them the ability to try to avoid the trap, to disable the trap, or to knowingly set it off in some way. However, if they don't see the trap, then it goes off in their face and they have to try to save against it, or hope their armor and speed protects them.

The same logic should be applied to everything from gathering information, to Survival checks, to Stealth rolls, in that failing doesn't stop the players' progress going forward... it just means that progress is going to happen to them, instead of the other way around.

Put another way, provide ways for players to fail forward, or ensure that success gives them a boon, but isn't required for progressing.

For example, there's a section in my murder mystery module False Valor where players get to ask around at the bar to gather information. A local girl was murdered, and the circumstantial evidence says it may have been done by factions of an elven nation in a nearby forest who once fought a war across this region. While everyone who asks around gets a base bit of information, for every additional success on a Persuasion check, the players get another tidbit of information. Those who succeed really well find out that the leader of a local gang who seems to be champing at the bit to avenge the death on the elves has a lot of ideas in his head about what the war was like... mostly because his grandfather told him a lot of lies about the glory and honor of the fighting.

Now, players don't need that information to find the answer to the mystery. If they don't hear that piece of gossip, they can still go investigate the murder scene, and even talk to the girl's family to try to gather information about the events leading up to her murder. And even if they don't do that, the perpetrators are going to end up ambushing them to try to make the party look like more casualties in an escalation of hostilities.

The only difference is the more information the party successfully gathers, the faster they can put the pieces together about what happened, and the less taken off-guard they're going to be when the confrontation occurs.

Tip #3: Multiple Paths, and Multiple Ends

This was one of the first times I experimented with this...

Let's get the obvious out of the way first... you cannot cover every, possible action the players might take. It isn't going to happen. The best you can do is set up the steps of the adventure, and how things are playing out for the Game Master, and then provide some suggestions for the most likely player actions.

What you can do, though, is create funnels to drive the players to certain events, and to provide a handful of descriptions based on these outcomes. A funnel is different from a rail. Rails are where players have to follow a specific course of events from A to B. A funnel is more like a particular event you need to get them to, one way or another, but which is more flexible with the journey overall.

For example, in The Curse of Sapphire Lake, the town is being terrorized by a massive figure in a bone white mask. Players will have a run-in with him, and whether it goes well or poorly, he retreats to his underwater lair. This funnels players to him, because waiting him out won't work; they have to go in after him. When they do they find a tragic situation at the end, and they're faced with a choice. Do they slay this figure, cutting him down? Do they allow him to live? And in either case, do they attempt to go back and tell the town chieftain what happened? Because depending on their actions there are at least 3 different ways the story could end... of course, GMs are free to add their own ending text, if the included ones don't cover enough options.

This can take some trial and error, and if you have the time (along with a dedicated playtesting group) consider incorporating some of these changes into the final product before you're ready to put it out to market!

Additional Modules

A last piece of advice I'll give is that if you want to write adventure modules you should study what other folks have done. Not just in terms of story and plot, but in terms of layout, how stats are presented, and even how maps are marked for certain incidents. Seeing what works, and what doesn't, is solid research for how to write your own modules.

And in addition to the ones I've mentioned above, I'd also recommend checking out:

- A Night At Breckon's Beacon (Army Men): Your squad is tasked with finding soldiers who went missing on patrol. Near the ruins of an old border fort, you find evidence they were here... but what happened to them?

- Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh (DND 5E): The town of Bracken is beset by something terrible. There's a bounty for those who save them from this lurking threat... but will you survive to claim the reward, or merely vanish beneath the waters of the Sorrow Marsh?

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!

A New Mission (In A New Genre) Drops For "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic"!

We just passed the 1-year anniversary of my first RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic a little while ago, and while it hasn't blown up, the game is definitely making some gains! The core book, as well as the first supplement Army Men: Threat Assessments have hit Copper status, and are still moving copies. Not only that, but some of the other supplements are starting to get a bit of attention, which is exciting.

And now I've got a fresh mission available for folks to try! It's the first to take place in the Styric Republic, but it also shows there's more than one kind of mission that troopers can be sent on.

And you should definitely grab a copy if you haven't yet!

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!

Mystery, Betrayal, And Gangland Shootouts!

Folks who have gotten a copy of Army Men (or who have simply watched a few episodes of Tactical Plastic Report over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel), often have the impression that this is a very streamlined game with a single way to play. After all, you're a squad of army men, so you're obviously out in the trenches, stalking through the woods, or raiding nests of the colossal insectoid creatures called vespoids that are the game's main antagonists, right?

And while you can make an entire campaign out of that, as I mentioned in The Threats You Face in Army Men, there are so many more problems that your squad might be dispatched to deal with.

The new mission, Assault on Outpost 13, is me giving an example of some of the other kinds of enemies you might need to fight, and missions you'll need to accomplish.

In this mission, players take on the role of troopers in the Styric Republic, called in to provide assistance to a fellow military member who needs backup. She's captured a high-value criminal target, and needs to hold onto him until he can be transferred to her commander. The Rostok crime syndicate isn't going to take the loss of one of the family's favorite sons lying down, though, and troopers are going to have a fight on their hands.

Not only that, but they might find that in addition to enemies without, there may be enemies within. A syndicate doesn't get to be that successful without at least a few state personnel on their payroll, after all...

While the previous module A Night At Breckon's Beacon pits troopers against a vespoid threat, this module asks them to do more than point and shoot. Troopers need to decide where they stand in regards to the standoff, they need to try to see behind the lying disguises of their enemies, and they need to uncover evidence and interrogate prisoners in order to get a grip on just what is happening, and what kind of hornet's nest they've put their feet into. Or perhaps they use the James West approach of shoot first, shoot later, shoot some more, and then when everyone is dead try to ask a question or two... a viable approach, but one that may make the module significantly harder for a squad of trigger-happy troopers.

And this mission gives us a couple of milestones for the game, as well! For example:

- It's the third total mission (including the mission in the base book), which means players can now have their first level-up without the GM doing any additional work!

- It's the first mission in the Styric Republic, which means we've (technically) received missions for 3 of the 4 nations that make up the Plastos Federation.

- It's the 5th supplement to be released for Army Men as a game so far, which feels pretty special to me as the creator.

So, while I'm putting in as much work as I can going forward, I wanted to ask folks out there... what sorts of things would you like to see more of for Army Men as a game? What would really get you invested? Leave your comments below, or on any of the videos for Tactical Plastic Report, because my publisher will see those and take note of them going forward!

All of Army Men's Releases So Far!

If you want to get in on this game and help me take the next hill so I can keep making cool stuff, then consider grabbing one (or all!) of the material for it linked below!

And if you do... don't forget to leave a review!

- Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic: The core rulebook, and technically the only book you need to play this game.

- Army Men: Threat Assessments: A book of extra enemies and threats for players to deal with, this expands your bestiary quite substantially!

- Army Men: Medals of Honor: This book introduces the Medals System, which allows you to reward your players from one mission to the next for their achievements.

- Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps: Traps are quite common on many battlefields, and if you're looking to increase the threat in your next mission this supplement has you covered!

- [Mission Module] A Night At Breckon's Beacon: Your squad is tasked with finding out what happened to a patrol that went missing in the rough country on the borders of United Polymeria.

- [Mission Module] Assault on Outpost 13: Your squad is tasked with helping protect a prisoner so he can be properly transferred. His syndicate isn't going to let him go without a fight, however.

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!

"Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" Earns Its First Metals!

My first RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic dropped a little over a year ago, and I've been doing my best to get it into folks' hands, and to provide as much supplemental material for it as I'm able to. And while it can sometimes be discouraging to get lost under the constant crush of new posts and fresh games out there, I have made at least some progress on my goals.

Because so far both Army Men, as well as its first supplement Army Men: Threat Assessments, have both hit Copper metal status on Drive Thru RPG!

In case you needed even MORE of a target-rich environment.

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!

One Step Closer To Taking The Hill!

As most folks know, Army Men was a game that actually went to Kickstarter, and that's how it got made. So since a majority of the people who knew about it already had their books bought and paid for before it went up on Drive Thru RPG, it's been tough trying to keep getting it into fresh hands. It's been Deal of The Day, we had an Anniversary Bundle for it a little while ago, and I try to cover it on this blog as often as I can, along with putting together a show titled Tactical Plastic Report over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel to give viewers a run down on what's in the game to try to increase interest.

While it's definitely been an uphill battle, early this year I finally managed this little bit of progress! And even though Copper metal status is just the first tier you can hit (50+ sales), more than half of games and supplements that appear on DTRPG don't even hit that mark. And while I mentioned a while back that the core book had hit Copper, it wasn't until last month that Threat Assessments joined it!

However, if you're a fan of Army Men, why stop there? Consider grabbing yourself copies of some of the other releases that have come out so I can keep expanding the setting going forward!

- Army Men: Medals of Honor: A supplement that introduces the Medals System to help Game Masters reward players who have survived various missions, and conducted themselves in a way becoming of a trooper.

- A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps: A collection of nasty surprises for Game Masters to deploy in the event you plan to conduct some guerrilla warfare in your games.

- A Night At Brekon's Beacon: An Army Men Mission Module: A stand-alone mission for Army Men, this brings your squad to an abandoned ruin far off the beaten track... will you avoid the fate that befell the squad that came before you?

In addition to all of these supplements, at time of writing I also have a second mission module that's currently in layout... so stay tuned for a mission that takes place in the Styric Republic (the northern faction inspired by the Soviets)!

What Would You Like To See Next?

Army Men, as a game and a setting, is still very young. Additionally, we were only able to fit so much into the core rulebook, so there's all kinds of room for further expansion in gear, enemies, missions, and more!

The question is... what do you all want to see? And to help folks avoid getting decision paralysis, I'll make a few suggestions:

- Mission Modules: The Army Men equivalent of adventure modules, these one-shot supplements do all the heavy lifting for the Game Master.

- Additional Equipment: From weapons and armor, to tool kits, vehicles, and more, Army Men's challenge is largely decided by what kinds of gear your troopers bring to the fight.

- Bigger Books: In the past I've had such suggestions as Motor Pool for vehicle rules, Soldier of Fortune for a mercenary-style secondary way to play that's geared more toward media like the A-Team, and a few others. These would take significantly more work, and would likely need to be Kickstarted.

- Fiction: Whether in text form or as an audio drama/podcast, Army Men has the potential for some really fun fiction, if that's something folks would like to see more of (consider the sample below if this interests you!)

However, as all the war bond posters said, we can't make any of this happen without your help!

If you're someone who wants to see Army Men expand as a game, and as a setting, then you need to help me make sure the signal grows, and that we find a group of folks who want to play it, and see more stuff come out for it! As such, please do as many of the following things as you can:

- Buy Copies: The more sales a game and its supplements get, the easiser it is to get more projects green lit, and the more the algorithm pays attention. So the best thing you can do is help our numbers go up!

- Leave Reviews: If you already bought your copy of the book and supplements, leave a rating and a review on them! You don't have to get in-depth, just tell people you liked it, and maybe mention something that sticks in your mind about it. Reviews are also key to getting the algorithm to take notice.

- Subscribe to The Azukail Games YouTube Channel: Maybe you've already done the first two, or you simply can't afford new game stuff right now. Either way, subscribing to the Azukail Games YouTube channel is free, as is watching episodes of Tactical Plastic Report, and all the other Army Men-related content on the channel. Again, upvote videos you like, leave comments, and so on, because that helps us get paid, and sends a message that at least some of our audience wants MORE Army Men stuff!

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!

Reaching Fresh Milestones (Some Good News Among All The Fire and Brimstone)

Right now the world is on fire. If you're on social media, or you're watching the news, it feels like we're living through a prequel of some of the worst post-apocalypse movies of the 1980s. However, as a lot of folks are reminding us, it's important to take the victories where you can find them, and to acknowledge your successes where they exist.

So even though it can sometimes feel tough to keep working, and to keep making art in all its forms, I've recently had a couple of good things happen that I want to talk about. And if you're one of those folks who is looking for ways to pitch in on good causes, don't you worry, I've got a section for that below!

You take your wins where you can get them...

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!

Carving A Few New Notches

I wanted to start out of the gate with some stuff that I'm pretty pleased by, and that I could not have done without all of you!

First and foremost, when I wasn't looking, Improved Initiative crossed the 1,000 post line! I've been running this blog for over 10 years now, and it's got over a thousand unique posts and articles on it (and that's not including any of the posts I've written for my Vocal.media archive, which is another 300 and change). It's a really big number, but while I'm patting myself on the back for it, I wanted to remind folks that this blog doesn't actually make me any money, and it's basically underwritten by all my affiliate links for my TTRPG supplements, as well as my Patreon page. So if you want to make sure I can keep this blog going, consider becoming a Patreon patron today!

It's going to be an uphill journey!

In addition to the growing archive of this blog, another accomplishment for the year is that the Azukail Games YouTube channel got itself monetized right at the start of January, which was a goal I'd been hammering away at for 3 years or so. While I'm currently working on a video detailing the process, and how we went from where we were to where we are, trust me when I say it was... an endeavor. Not only that, but as of yesterday we hit 1,500 subscribers, which is tiny in terms of what YouTube thinks is big, but given that we had barely 300 people when I started contributing I'd say we've come a damn long way!

But I don't want to sit on my laurels with this one, so if you've been holding off on subscribing, I'm hoping to keep the channel growing. First to 3,000 subs if we can, and then to 5,000 if we can manage that! More is always better, but I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself on this one.

Lastly, I wanted to talk about a goal I mentioned in the above video, because we are (technically) about halfway there at time of writing. I mention my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, and how a lot of folks have wanted to see me put together an actual play of this game in action. That's a lot of time, energy, effort, and editing work, and it's unlikely to result in any real interest or sales of the game... however, I have pledged that if the game hits Silver metal status by the end of 2025, then I will put together such an episode, and upload it to the Azukail Games YouTube channel for everyone to see.

And as of time of writing, the base book just hit Copper metal status!

For those who aren't familiar with Drive Thru RPG and what the metal levels mean, Copper means at least 50 copies of the book have been sold, while Silver means it's crossed the 100 level mark. So if you're one of those folks who want to see me get a squad together to tackle one of the missions that's come out by then, get yourself a copy of Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic to get us closer to this goal!

And Now, Some Other Causes You Should Help Out!

Like I said, the world is on fire (both literally and metaphorically), but there were two particular causes I wanted to draw folks' attention to before I call this Monday's update done.

First, we're dealing with the California fires.

For most of us, the massive California wildfire is still fresh in our memories. A huge amount of homes were destroyed, people lost their livelihoods, and communities have been left smoldering. The California Wildfire Relief Bundle from Fainting Goat Games is trying to help those suffering from these events by donating a portion of proceeds to the American Red Cross... an agency that is definitely going to need all the help it can get! So whether you want a slew of fresh gaming products for your table, you want to help those in need, or both, consider grabbing a copy!

Secondly, I want to get some help for one of our own.

Most of us out there know that Owen K.C. Stephens recently beat cancer... but he hasn't yet defeated the U.S. healthcare system. So if you want to help him keep the wheels turning, and give him the resources he needs, head over to his Go Fund Me to add your strength to the cause!

If you do want to grab some of his work rather than just giving him money (or you want to do both!), I'd personally recommend getting Essays on Freelance Tabletop RPG Writing and Publishing, as well as the companion piece Essays on Surviving an Independent Tabletop RPG Career. And if you're the sort of person who wants something more mechanically useful for your table, you simply can't go wrong with Like A Boss- A Book of Boss Encounters which covers a variety of TTRPG systems!

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!

Playing Warhammer 40K, Trench Crusade, Or Army Men? Adrian Has Your Terrain Covered!

Many RPGs take place in the theater of the mind, using the pure imagination of those around the table to play out the story. And while that's all well and good for the cinematically inclined, other games focus on distances, cover, strategic maneuvers, and small-unit successes. These games can't rely on the imagination alone, because they depend on all the players viewing the same battlefield, and having the same understanding of what's happening. And whether you're assembling a table for the grim darkness of the far future in Warhammer 40K, you're joining the war against (or for) the heretic legions of hell in Trench Crusade, or you're taking up arms on behalf of the Plastos Federathion in my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, you owe it to yourself to check out the terrain crafting videos being done by Adrian Kennelly over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel.

From Vracks to the Somme, you'll find something you like!

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!

Table Terrain To Make Your Battles Blaze!

Before I go too much further, I wanted to offer full disclosure for folks who aren't regular readers. I'm a contributor to the Azukail Games YT channel, and I'm an author of several of the game supplements the publisher has released. And while I make a majority of the shows that are hosted on the channel, when we really started gaining momentum, Adrian started doing semi-regular crafting videos for tabletop gaming. And while several of the early videos were very much geared toward traditional fantasy gaming, a lot of the more recent additions are for terrain pieces that are much more at-home in modern warfare scenarios.

Such as the first video he made for Army Men about how to make barbed wire!

In addition to the tutorial for barbed wire, Adrian has also covered videos for making a Czech hedgehog tank trap, how to make craters, how to make ruined walls, and even how to make supply pallets for your table terrain! All of which I happen to think is pretty damn neat, and were I a craftier sort of gamer (and had more space to assemble and store this kind of terrain) I'd likely have a bunch of my own examples to show off by now.

However, I wanted to give Adrian's content a shout out this week because I know exactly how much work it takes to make videos like this. From lighting and setup, to making sure that you have just the right angle and just the right voice overs and music to keep your viewers watching while also giving them value for their time isn't easy. Not only that, but a lot of the stuff he makes also gets me fired up to play (and design) more gaming stuff... which is important when the creative side of things starts to feel like a slog!

So if this is the sort of content you enjoy (whether it's because you like crafting tutorials or you just enjoy checking out the tips and tricks of the trade), subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel today, and while you're at it watch the Crafting Playlist that has a complete run of all 35 of Adrian's videos on it. I'm urging folks to watch the videos, upvote the ones they like, leave comments of at least 7 words (because that's what tickles the algorithm's fancy), and maybe share them around on your own social media pages... because few things encourage folks who make videos, blogs, and games than hearing from our audience, and being told loud and clear that they like what we're making, and we should keep going!

Lastly, if there's a particular type of terrain you're interested in, make sure you leave a comment on the videos asking for a guide! Whether you want full trenches, bombed-out buildings, sniper nests, or anything else, making a suggestion (and getting it upvoted by others) is a great way to let us know what you want to see!

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!