Building Your Campaign Setting With The Hollow Earth Hypothesis

If you play RPGs, then chances are the idea of a Hollow Earth is probably not new to you. With games like Hollow Earth Expedition, Adventure To Hollow Earth for Mage: The Ascension, or Terra Incognita, a Hollow Earth setting for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, the concept has been explored in a lot of ways. And that's without discussing Hollow Earth in popular fiction, such as the prehistoric Pellucidar.

However, just because an idea is popular, that doesn't mean everyone has heard of it. And if you haven't read the history of the Hollow Earth theory, it's pretty damn wild!

So, this is the Earth...

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The Origin of The Hollow Earth

According to the Library of Congress, the Hollow Earth theory was originally created back in the 1600s as a radical way of explaining a natural phenomenon. You see, when sailors would go out on their ships to cross the ocean, they would bring all the tools they had with them to make sure they didn't get lost. Star charts were common, as well as tools that helped them easily locate true north so they could orient themselves accordingly. However, it was noted that sometimes the magnetic needles in their compasses did not point north. They would, in fact, go wandering and become completely useless at certain points.

How could this happen? Well Royal Society member and astronomer Edmund Halley (yeah, the guy whose name is on the comet) had an idea... the Earth was actually hollow!

All right, I'm gonna back up. Tell me where I lost you.

So, the basic idea that Halley proposed was that the Earth we know up on the surface is just an outer shell, and there is actually an inner Earth with its own magnetic poles, and that these two Earths spin freely. This change in relative positioning of the inner Earth interfered with the natural magnetic laws on the surface, which is why the compass needles would sometimes wander for no discernible reason. He even went so far as to suggest that this inner sphere would harbor some kind of life.

On the one hand, this is sort of ridiculous... on the other hand, though, he wasn't that far off. We're more of a Jawbreaker Earth, with a bunch of layers, but the molten iron core does actually shift and fluctuate. This is what causes the magnetic drift that was being observed. That explanation, though, is nowhere near as much fun as the idea of there being an entirely different world inside our own!

Making This Concept Your Own

A lot of Hollow Earth games have a very pulp adventure/steampunk vibe to them, because that's when the concept really hit pop culture awareness. Books, short stories, and movies all trying to capture that pulp era really leaned into the Hollow Earth idea. Sadly, it turns out John Quincy Adams didn't believe it, but an alternate history game where he did, and funded an expedition your characters are now part of is just one inspiration for a Hollow Earth game.

However, if you want to build a really unique Hollow Earth game, I would recommend doing something a little different, and mashing it up with games or genres that we don't usually associate with this kind of setup.

A world without sun, you say...?

For example, is this Hollow Earth a place where all the creatures of horror have their origins? A place filled with vampires, werewolves, the walking dead, and other terrifying beings? Is it instead a place filled with alien races who have lived here far longer than humanity, the center of the world filled with horrors like elder things, gugs, and other Lovecraftian monsters? Did the Earth open up to swallow people at the end of the world in Mork Borg, and now this place is being explored by those who were raised on the poisoned prophecies of the basilisk, finding out there were long-lost truths beneath the surface?

Is the Hollow Earth where this fantasy game has been happening this whole time, and it is through finding the boundaries of this world that our adventurers climb out to the outer shell? And if so, what do they find when they reach the upper crust of a world they thought they knew? Is it the modern world as we know it? A ruined hellscape of frozen wastes representing the edges of Snowhaven? Or something else entirely?

If you've been looking to do something different for your next game, but the previous installment of Using Flat Earth Theories To Fuel Your Fantasy Worldbuilding didn't really scratch that itch, then consider what a Hollow Earth game might look like at your table! Even (or perhaps especially) if the game won't be taking place on Earth at all.

Lastly, before you head out today, consider the following articles of mine as some additional reading/inspiration for this week's post:

- 5 Real Underground Cities To Inspire Your TTRPG Campaign

- 5 Tips For Creating Fantasy Towns and Cities

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!

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 Glimpse Into Potential Future Releases For "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age"

Regular readers around these parts know that my fantasy setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age (available for Pathfinder's 1st edition and Dungeon and Dragons' 5th) has been coming out for years now. A modular setting, it's made up entirely of splat books that can be used on their own, or which can be incorporated into your own setting.

While I've produced a lot of content for it (links below for those who are curious), there have also been other contributors who have expanded the setting with me over the past few years. And I recently sat down to talk with one of them about it... so whether you're a fan of mine, a fan of Isaiah Burt, or you're just curious where this setting is going to go in the near future, I highly suggest everyone reading this week's update check out the video below, along with my highlights from the conversation!

Along with some of the releases we've been putting out!

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!

Proposals For New Directions!

A couple of weeks ago in my post More Updates For "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age" Are On The Horizon I discussed some of what's going on with Sundara, but I primarily talked about finishing up the 4th phase of supplements (the Whispers & Rumors series), as well as teasing the video below. However, now that Isaiah and I have had our interview, I wanted to touch on some of the things we talked about, and get our audience's thoughts on it!

For those who haven't watched the video (though you should to help us boost our numbers, and subscribe to the Azukail Games channel while you're at it), some of the major ideas that I feel had promise were:

- Expanded player species options for the setting, with the first two being gargoyles and minotaurs (though not necessarily in that order).

- A book of prestige classes to tie characters more firmly to the setting (and likely additional Cities of Sundara releases to fill out the setting a little more first).

- Even more arcane and advanced tech options that, while rare, are certainly out there (possibly adding mechs into the mix alongside air ships and pressurized gas weaponry).

- (Stretch Goals) More in-depth fiction, as well as adventure modules (if the setting's popularity and player base increase).

While we still have a couple of existing supplements to wrap up and release (I still have 2 more supplements for the Whispers & Rumors phase to actually write, and only 1 of them has dropped so far), I feel there is a lot of potential in the ideas Isaiah and I discussed, and they're something we could definitely work on going forward.

However, and say it with me now everyone...

All Of This Depends On You!

I say this in probably half the posts I write, but I feel this is important to remind people. Folks who write professionally, whether they're novelists, RPG creators, or even folks who make scripts for YouTube videos, are not solely driven by passion and creativity. We aren't doing this for ourselves... we're doing this, hopefully, for you!

So if these projects sound like something you'd get a kick out of, and it's something you want to support, Sundara needs you to keep growing! And if you aren't sure how, you can do any of the following things to make a difference:

- Buy copies of the supplements (listed below), and review them on Drive Thru RPG

- Subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel and watch the playlist for Speaking of Sundara (where I talk about the releases we've had, the setting so far, and bring everyone up to date)

- Boost Sundara's signal on your own social media feeds (the algorithm is a serious bastard to overcome without a lot of community help)

If you can take the time to do those things, it will help more people find out about Sundara, boost the metal tiers the supplements reach on Drive Thru RPG (which puts them in front of more people's eyes on the site), and it will help show that content about Sundara is getting more attention, which means the publisher (along with myself and other contributors) will be able to afford to lean into the setting. If you have money you want to throw at Sundara, or you just have enough curiousity to watch some videos about it and dig through this blog, anything that makes the numbers go up helps at the end of the day.

And speaking of links for all the interested gamers out there...

Catch Up On "Sundara: Dawn of A New Age"

Cities of Sundara

The setting first began with the Cities of Sundara splats. Self-contained guides to some of the larger and more powerful centers of trade, industry, arms, and magic, these unique locations provide plenty of fodder for character generation and plots. Not only that, but each one comes with unique, mechanical goodies for players and GMs alike to take out for a spin!

- Ironfire: The City of Steel (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built around the Dragon Forge, Ironfire is where the secret to dragon steel was first cracked. The center of the mercenary trade in the region, as well as boasting some of the finest schools for teaching practical sciences, Ironfire is a place where discovery and danger walk hand in hand!

- Moüd: The City of Bones (Pathfinder and DND 5E): An ancient center of trade and magic, Moüd was lost to a cataclysm, and then buried in myth. Reclaimed by the necromantic arts of the Silver Wraiths guild, this city has once again become a place teeming with life. Despite the burgeoning population, though, it is the continued presence of the undead that helps keep the city running, ensuring that Moüd is not swallowed up once more.

- Silkgift: The City of Sails (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built on the cottage industry of Archer cloth (an extremely durable material used for sails, windmills, etc.), Silkgift is a place that prizes invention and discovery. From gravity batteries that store the potential of the wind, to unique irrigation systems, to aether weapons, the city positively churns out discoveries... and then there's the canal they cut through the mountains that makes them a major center of trade across the region.

- Hoardreach: The City of Wyrms (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A center of power across an entire region, Hoardreach is ruled over by a Cooperation of five different dragons. A place for refugees and outcasts of all sorts, Hoardreach boasts some of the most unusual citizens and creations from across Sundara. Infamous for their sky ships, which require the cast-off scales and unique arcane sciences of the Dragon Works to take to the air, one never knows just what they'll find in this city built atop a mountain.

- Archbliss: The City of The Sorcerers (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A floating city in the sky, Archbliss has been a refuge for sorcerers for thousands of years. It's only in relatively recent years that the city has allowed those from the ground below who lack the power of a bloodline to join them in the clouds. However, while there are certainly amazing wonders to behold, there is a darkness in Archbliss. Something rotting away at its heart that could, if not healed, bring the city crashing to the ground once more.

Gods of Sundara

- Gods of Sundara (available for Pathfinder and DND 5E): In a world with no alignment, and where the gods are often genuinely mysterious forces that are far too large for mortals to truly comprehend, the divine feels genuinely strange and unknown... something that really does have to be taken on faith. This supplement provides a sample pantheon for Sundara, but also provides instructions on how to easily make your own gods in a world where you can't cast a spell and tell whether someone is good or evil.

Species of Sundara

Sundara is filled with creatures that many of us recognize, but I wanted to give greater depth to their cultures, and a wider variety of options. After all, humans always get 15+ ethnicities, languages, and unique histories, while elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, etc. are almost always left with footnotes, or maybe with a handful of offshoots. So, in short, I wanted to give all the fantastical creatures the treatment that humans usually get in our games.

And there is no human book yet. If readers demand to know more, then I may sit down to pen one... but I figured that humans didn't need to be front-and-center in this setting just yet.

- Elves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Elves are one of the most quintessential fantasy creatures... but if you want to see more than just high elves, wood elves, and elves of the sun and moon, then this supplement has you covered!

- Dwarves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): The children of the primordial giants who were meant to fill in the details of the world they'd made (or so the myths say) there are as many kinds of dwarves as their are kinds of giants... and possibly more, depending on who is keeping count.

- Orcs of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Supposedly a creation of the elves, none can say for certain exactly how or why orcs have been made. What most agree on is that these creatures are far more than most may think at first glance.

- Halflings of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Little cousins to the dwarves, halflings are tough, clever, and not to be underestimated. From living beneath the hills, to taking up residence in the deep forests, halflings in Sundara come in quite a variety!

- The Blooded (Half-Elves and Half-Orcs) [Pathfinder and DND 5E]: When orcs and elves mix their bloodlines with other creatures, the result is one of the Blooded. This inheritance takes many forms, and it can even wait generations before manifesting when the right combination of individuals come together to have a child.

- Gnomes of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Gnomes are strange creatures, found in places where the spirit of the land has coalesced and made children of its own. The sons and daughters of the ancient nymphs, they are the stewards of these places, and they change as often as the weather and the land.

Organizations of Sundara

Phase 3 has been going strong, but there's still a few titles left in it! So if you haven't seen them, consider checking out:

- Sellswords of Sundara: With power structures being smaller in scale in Sundara, standing armies aren't often maintained for long. As such, soldiers of fortune are quite common! This supplement contains 10 mercenary companies, their history, uniform, sample members, whispers and rumors, as well as either an archetype or subclass for playing these unique warriors. Grab your copy for Pathfinder of DND 5E.

- Cults of Sundara: Faith comes in many forms in Sundara, and there are as many gods in the Prim as there are dreams in the minds of people. This supplement contains write-ups for 10 cults, their histories, sample members, rumors about them, their beliefs and tenets, and a unique magic item for each. Get your copy for Pathfinder or DND 5E.

- Guilds of Sundara: While cities and villages may be relatively local, guilds are spread across the length and width of Sundara. From professional orders of skilled miners and dredgers, to monster slayers and bounty hunters, this supplement has 10 guilds with histories, sample members, rumors, as well as unique feats one can take to represent the skill and benefits of joining this order. Available for Pathfinder as well as DND 5E.

- Merchants of Sundara: While city states might be the largest form of government you find in the setting, merchants hold an outsized amount of power. From huge mercantile houses, to small brands infamous for their quality as much as for their price, there are a lot of options listed in this particular world building supplement.

Rumors of Sundara

The newest series of supplements in the setting, these are meant to add to the cities, and to give GMs ideas for plots, or just to provide a little extra grist for the mill in terms of what people are gossiping about!

- Whispers and Rumors For Ironfire, The City of Steel!

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 Mission Packs: Full Modules, Or Merely A Mission Brief?

While the Anniversary Bundle For "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" is currently going on, I've been thinking on new directions to go with future supplements, and how to expand the game in a meaningful way. Though I've had ideas for expanded equipment, more enemies, additional genres, and more, I figured that the best thing to put out would be a few more missions. Because while there's a single mission module in the core rulebook, and A Night At Breckon's Beacon came out a little while ago, I figured that the best thing to get more people playing was to give them an easy way to get more boots on the ground.

However, a suggestion recently came in for upending the format I have been using so that I can get more missions (and more creative freedom) into the hands of Game Masters... my question for you all is which road you'd prefer I go down?

As always, make sure you leave your comments down below!

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 Detailed Module, Or A Brief Layout?

For folks who've picked up any of my modules, whether it was for Army Men or something like my dark fae adventure The Price of Iron or the fantastical slasher The Curse of Sapphire Lake, you're probably familiar with the way I write a mission. Generally I cover the main plot, I provide a handful of NPCs and interactions, some history of the location, necessary maps for any combats, and some different, branching paths an adventure might take depending on player actions (or lack of actions, in some cases). It's pretty complete, and usually hits just over 10K words (something like 15-20 pages).

However, it was recently suggested that I should release something for Army Men that's along the lines of what Modiphius does for their Star Trek Adventure Briefs. The way these supplements are laid out is that each one details a dozen given disasters that act as the central plot lines of adventures, essentially givine the Game Master the central thrust of the mission, and then leaving them to fill in the blanks to flesh out the mission their own.

I'd check it out if you haven't!

Both of these formats have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, fully-contained modules have their own maps, NPCs, and a full story along with a lot of safety rails to help a Game Master keep a story going. However, they require a lot of art, a lot of careful weaving together of plot points, and even adventure modules on the shorter side can eat up a lot of word count in a big damn hurry. They're also a huge pain in the ass to write, and frankly they don't tend to move a lot of copies... which are two main reasons I don't put them out as often as other supplements.

On the other hand, a single supplement that contains a slew of potential missions can make it feel like the Game Master is getting more bang for their buck. However, I feel the key is for all of those adventures to take place in a single location, which will act as the tentpole the missions surround. So just like how Star Trek mission packs focus on the ship and its crew, I feel that I would need to release these packs around something like a naval vessel and the situations it engages, or around a location like Fort Foxtrot, detailed in the back of the base book.

Where the hell is our fire support, dammit! We can't lose this fort!

On the one hand, I can see the appeal of getting a bunch of potential complications around a single location. However, given the tactical nature of Army Men as a game, I feel like leaving out all those details leaves a lot of work for the Game Master, who will now need to design encounters with vespoids, shoot outs with cartels, booby traps, maps of where troops are moving through, and so on, and so forth.

So I want to take a moment to ask folks this week, what kind of supplements would you like to see more of going forward? Do you like the detail-oriented missions where the Game Master is given the stats of the monsters, maps, laid-out encounters, equipment recommendations, and all the details they need to run a 2-4 hour session? Or do you think giving the Game Masters some basic tools, the profile of a shared location, and a nudge in the right direction is sufficient, even with all the extra work they'd need to do?

Now, this isn't technically an either-or situation. I'm perfectly capable of doing both varieties of content. However, I can only write so many things so quickly, so what I'm asking for from my readers this week is to let me know in the comments which variety of supplement you would prefer to see first. Are you someone who wants a bunch of loose threads and ideas that can be woven together into a pretty decent arc of a full campaign? Or do you prefer having all of the tools in your hands with as many maps, notes, and NPCs as possible so you aren't caught off-guard?

Let me know down in the comments below, on social media, and so on. Also, don't forget to pick up your Army Men Anniversary Bundle before it expires! And lastly, if this is your first time hearing about Army Men, and you'd like to know more, check out the series Tactical Plastic Report I'm doing about it over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel!

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!

It's Christmas in July (And 150 Of My Supplements Are On-Sale)!

It's that time of year again! Every July, Drive Thru RPG has a sitewide sale that gives us as much as 40% (and sometimes more) off of the games we've been looking into, and been telling ourselves we were going to get one of these days. I wanted to remind you that, in case you've been going through my catalog, and earmarking things for when there's a sale, 150 of my current titles are on-sale right now!

And that's something that only happens... well, basically once a year.

So come get your copies before the sale is over!

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

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

So... What's On-Sale?

Like I said in the intro... 150 of my titles are currently on-sale! This includes offerings from most of the gaming companies I've worked for over the years, and it runs the gamut from my old work to my new. Given that my total titles are 178 at time of writing, that's a majority of my catalog currently marked down for you!

For instance, if you've wanted to get your hands on Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic and its current supplements Army Men: Threat Assessments and Army Men: Medals of Honor, all of those titles are on sale. So if you've wanted to check this game out, there hasn't been a better time than now!

But what if you're more of a World/Chronicles of Darkness player? Well, now would be a great time to pick up some of the pieces I've done for those games, too. Whether it's stuff I wrote for Azukail Games like 100 (Mostly) Harmless Goblin Fruits and Oddments To Find in The Hedge or 100 Mediums, or you'd prefer to grab some of the titles I wrote for High Level Games that appear in my 100 Kinfolk Bundle, now is a good time to get your hands on those, too. There's more than 30 titles with my name on the byline, and I've covered Vampire, Changeling, Werewolf, Mage, and even general use WoD titles like Deadly Country: 100 NPCs of Central Florida.

Additionally, all of my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age supplements are available right now! So whether you want to start off with something like Towns of Sundara (which provides 10 smaller towns and villages complete with maps, notable NPCs, histories, etc.), or Merchants of Sundara (which provides snapshots of 10 different merchant brands and unique operations in the setting) or even one of the city guides for places like Ironfire, Hoardreach, or Archbliss, now is the perfect time to see if my unique fantasy TTRPG setting is for you!

For those who are interested, I should note that Sundara is (at time of writing) only available for Pathfinder's first edition, and DND 5E. Other system conversions have been discussed, but the wheels are turning slow on that.

But what about older stuff? Stuff that might have fallen through the cracks over the years that you haven't seen, that you've forgotten about, or that you might not even have known I was part of? Well, I've got some of those for you, too!

If you're a fan of chaps and six-shooters, then you should definitely check out both 3Deep in The Wild West, and Devil's Staircase: Wild West Roleplaying. If you're a fan of Dungeons and Dragons 5E modules, and you didn't pick up the three I wrote for TPK Games, then I would highly suggest grabbing copies of False Valor (a murder mystery), Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh (a horrific battle in the bogs with vile monsters), and The Curse of Sapphire Lake (the love child between Beowulf and Friday the 13th)!

Look, I could keep going, but 150 of my 178 total titles available on DTRPG right now is a lot of stuff to talk about. Not only that, but because I've worked for so many different companies over the years on so many different settings and games, there's not really a clean way to categorize a lot of my work. So follow this sale link, and go take a look for yourself! The sale is only going on for 9 more days, so don't let it slip through your fingers.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

The Exploits System: How "Army Men" Gives Players More Meaningful Character Customization

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exploits: What They Are, And How They Work

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At your 2 o'clock, Peterson!

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

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

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Crunch post. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

I'm Not Just The President, I'm Also a Client (Using My Own TTRPG Supplements in My Games)

My fellow kids who were born in the 80s will likely remember the Hair Club For Men commercials. These things were geared toward middle aged guys who were losing their hair, and they wanted to recapture their vigor and vitality by regrowing it. The man talking to the camera was a fellow named Sy Sperling, and he assured everyone that not only was he the president of this company, but that it was through the products he was offering that he had regrown his own thick, lush mane of hair.

I find myself thinking about those commercials whenever I end up as the Game Master. Because when I sit down to work on a supplement, the question that I usually ask myself is, "If I were running a game, what heavy lifting would I want already done for me?"

The files get a little bigger every month, after all.

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

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

Being A Game Master is Hard Enough As It Is

I've been in the game for a while (pun very much intended), and there's an attitude that I've run into a lot when it comes to TTRPG supplements. Namely, there is a portion of the population that believes if you don't make everything yourself from the ground up (the RPG equivalent of homemade cooking versus a boxed mix) then you aren't a real Game Master.

I've gone on the record with this, but I feel like Game Masters should be given all the help they can get. They're already expected to craft a plot, keep track of an entire party worth of backstories and motivations, and keep the world all around the PCs spinning without letting things topple off the cliff... if they want a handy chart of random rumors, odd encounters, or just NPCs to meet at the bar, they shouldn't feel any shame whatsoever about GMing smarter instead of harder.

I sure as hell don't.

As a lot of my regular readers/viewers may have seen, I was planning a Changeling: The Lost LARP right around when Covid hit. I shelved my plans for it at the time, but I kept tinkering with the ideas I'd had, and the elements I'd already worked out for it. It was a lot of labor for a game I wouldn't be able to run till after the end of a global pandemic, so I decided the best thing to do for now would be to publish some of the better ideas I'd had, and to put the supplements out there for folks to use.

And now that my game is running, I'm really glad for all the pregaming I did with these supplements, as having them on-hand has saved me so much time, energy, and effort. This is particularly true for Buyer Beware: 10 Goblin Markets, which has the layouts and rules for all the local goblin markets in my game's immediate area, as well as 100 Strange Sights to See in The Hedge, which has helped me keep any journeys into the world next door feeling bizarre, unexpected, and dangerous, rather than letting it turn into just another fantasy forest. My players have also been loving the additions to the setting I put into 100 (Mostly) Harmless Goblin Fruits and Oddments To Find in The Hedge, which is honestly the bestselling thing I've ever written for the World of Darkness at this point.

Of course, I've done this with other systems, too.

Additionally, while modules are some of the toughest products to sell, my Critical Hits series is always good to have on-hand for folks who haven't played before, and who just want a quick introduction to tabletop RPGs. Thus far I've run people through Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh (a creeping dread besieges a marsh town), False Valor (a murder mystery where you get to kick fantasy Proud Boys in the teeth), and The Curse of Sapphire Lake (the hate child of Beowulf and Friday the 13th), and every time I was able to dedicate so much more of my energy to NPCs, scene setting, and facilitating interactions because the bulk of the adventure was already laid out in front of me, requiring no extra effort on my behalf.

I haven't run The Price of Iron (story about dark fey and a warehouse of horror) yet, but it's queued up for the next time my group is champing at the bit for a solid game with a dire threat!

Seriously... Don't Reinvent The Wheel

If you've been raking yourself over the coals as a Game Master because you feel like you don't put in all the work your job requires, or you're letting your players down, just take a deep breath, let it out, and remind yourself that you don't have to do everything for your game. Hell, this is my job, and I still don't force myself to come up with brand new, freshly-made stuff every time I get behind the screen, or put on my ST hat. Whether you're running a fully pre-made campaign arc, using a world built by someone else, or just grabbing a list of sci fi mercenary companies, sights to see in a steampunk city, or just some random prophecies to hear from an oracle, saving yourself processing power can be a life saver when it's time to run a game.

Because while most of us are capable of just making something up on the spot, if you end up doing that over and over again as the night progresses, pretty soon you won't have the necessary grip strength to run the rest of the game. So if you haven't used GM aids and TTRPG supplements at your table, check out some of mine, and maybe give one or two of them a whirl!

I wouldn't recommend them if I didn't use them myself.

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 Daily Motion channel!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!