Another Shout Out For Owen K.C. Stephens (And Some Supplements Designers Should Grab)

There are several, unfortunate truths that we are all dealing with these days. First and foremost, the American healthcare system is absolutely terrible. Secondly, creative professionals as a whole don't get paid well, and TTRPG designers are a tiny subset of the publishing world that get paid especially poorly. Third, cancer sucks, and the very concept of it can die in a fire.

Folks who read my post Help Owen K.C. Stephens Roll His Save Against Cancer (And The Healthcare System) last April know that one of our own has been stuck at the intersection of all three of these unfortunate circles in this Venn Diagram of Suck, and he's doing his best to stay one step ahead of the bills as they pile up. While he's got a lot of stuff out on the market at present, and there's been quite a few charity bundles for folks who have been looking to buy some TTRPG supplements to help him keep fighting, there are two in particular that I wanted to shine a light on this week. Mostly because there's a lot of content out there for players and Game Masters, but not as much for designers.

And if there's one thing Owen knows a lot about, it's designing games as a professional.

Even if they were both the face of the initial two charity bundles.

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.

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Seriously, If You're Getting Into The Trenches, Get These

The two supplements in question are Essays on Freelance Tabletop Writing and Publishing (which at time of writing has hit Platinum status), and Essays on Surviving an Independent Tabletop RPG Career (currently at Gold status).

If these two supplements look familiar, it's because they were each the cover of Owen's initial charity bundles on Drive Thru RPG back in April. And while lots of folks have focused on many of Owen's other projects such as Like a Boss: The Book of Boss Encounters, or The Genius Guide To Loot 4 Less: Things That Make You Go Boom, those essay collections are something that I think more folks really need to check out.

Because there are a lot of folks out there who know how to create game mechanics. They know how to tell good stories, build atmosphere, and their tables really enjoy the games they run. But while those are all good skills to have, and make a solid foundation to build on, those aren't going to be nearly enough for you to be successful if you want to be a professional game designer.

A lot of folks can handle the "game" part of the job. But the business side... well, it can sneak up and slap you right upside the head if you don't know what to expect. So it's best to go into things with your eyes open, because forewarned really is forearmed in this case.

Because it's a lot more complicated than a lot of folks think.

Lastly, I wanted to remind folks that every little bit helps. So if you've already grabbed what you can of Owen's work, but you still want to pitch in to help in this uphill battle, then I wanted to remind you to do the following things, as well:

- Becoming one of Owen's Patreon patrons.

- Bookmark and follow his blog.

- Follow Owen on Twitter (yeah, it's falling apart, but a replacement has yet to take its place)

It might not seem like much, but as someone who's been in this profession a few years myself, it does make a difference. Even if you can only afford to give a little tip every now and again on Patreon, or you just act as a regular participant and commenter on social media, if a lot of people all do that, it really does add up when all is said and done.

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!

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Want Help Designing Your Own Monsters? Check Out The Genius Guide to The Talented Bestiary!

One of the hardest jobs you have as a DM is designing your own monsters. On the one hand, you don't want to make something that's ridiculous, silly, or which goes down in two hits. On the other hand, you don't want to be the DM that players tell horror stories about, because the monster you made up to "challenge" them ended up wiping the party out, and ending your campaign. Finding that happy medium is a chore, and in a crunchy game like Pathfinder it can be a nightmare for someone who doesn't have a huge amount of prep time, a graphing calculator, and who's forgotten everything they learned in trigonometry.

On the third hand, there is an Armageddon Tarrasque... for when your players get cocky.

That is where the latest collaborative effort between Rogue Genius Games and The Four Horsemen comes into the picture. This guide is a book that breaks down creature types, and divorces them from established crunch so that you can build truly unique creatures, and keep your players on their toes, without worrying that you overdid it.

Seriously, check out The Genius Guide to The Talented Bestiary!

So How Does This Thing Work?

One of the biggest issues dungeon masters face with experienced players is that they've seen it all, and done most of it twice. You can't say the word "goblin," "troll," or "zombie" and expect a reaction. To the players, these are quantifiable enemies, and they understand them in ways that strip out all of the mystery, even if they attempt to keep their meta knowledge out of the game itself. What The Genius Guide to The Talented Bestiary does, is allow the DM to get creative with monster presentation and abilities, removing that lifetime of meta knowledge from the equation.

Go for the head? I don't know, that worked before!

Take the troll, for example. A smooth DM would give a unique description of the hulking, tusked beast, streaming filthy water and raking its claws through the muck as it charges. That's simple enough, but once players dope out the ruse, the excitement is gone. This guide lets you do more than just give a creature a new paint job so your players don't recognize it right away. It gives you the tools to re-design monsters using simple formulas and stat blocks that will keep your players from making any assumptions whenever the dice start rolling.

And, of course, it provides hundreds of new monsters (with fully-tested mechanics) for you to use straight out of the book, so your party won't have any idea what's coming at them.

As of right now there's a little under two weeks for anyone who wants to back this project, so go check out The Genius Guide to The Talented Bestiary right now, and get in on the action!

Also, if you're in a giving mood, why not stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page? All it takes is $1 a month to get yourself some sweet swag, and to help me keep making the content you love. Lastly, if you haven't done so yet, why not follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter to keep up on all my latest news?