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!

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

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

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

Seriously, check it out if you haven't!

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

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

A Sample Platter of The Plastos Federation

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

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

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

The current ideas include:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

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

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

Should I Make Videos For "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic"?

As most folks know, I've been contributing videos to the Azukail Games YouTube channel for a while now (and you should check them out and subscribe if you haven't yet). While I originally talked about my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age fantasy RPG setting for Pathfinder and DND 5E, I started making audio dramas for the vignettes found in my supplements soon after. That eventually grew into Discussions of Darkness where I talk about the World and Chronicles of Darkness, and Tabletop Mercenary, where I talk about the business side of publishing in general, and RPGs in particular.

However, I was wondering if folks would like to see me talk more about my first full RPG, Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic on the channel?

... what do you think?

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!

Fighting The War On All Fronts

There are some people who prefer to read articles because they consume text more easily. There are some people who prefer to see the face of the people who make the products they use, and to hear the thought process of the designer in an interview-style format. For the former there's plenty of blog entries right here on Improved Initiative about this game, why I designed it the way I did, and the potential it has going forward... but I figured that it might be worth expanding that a little bit.

And not just because the unboxing video for my copies of the game books was one of the higher-watched videos the channel has put out in a while.

While it's been on the market since this Spring, Army Men has already had 2 supplements drop for it (Threat Assessments, which has more monsters and enemies for troopers to deal with, and Medals of Honor, which includes a Medal System for giving permanent bonuses and rewards to troopers who accomplish particular feats in the field), and there are 2 more in the queu to be released by Azukail Games in the future.

Since I'm still fighting to get the game seen and played (we're only 7 sales away from hitting Copper status last I checked the figure sheets), I figured that this is one area I haven't expanded into yet, and I wanted to see what you thought of it as members of the potential audience? Would you be interested in watching me talk about Army Men, giving break downs of the game, the world, the ideas behind it, and the supplements I've both made for it, and would like to make for it?

Some topics that are currently under consideration include:

- Reviews/rundowns of the current supplements

- Discussions of future supplements/soliciting audience opinions on what should come next

- Breakdown of the lore/setting/timeline of the resinous peoples

- Advice for how to run missions with this game

If there's something you'd like to see that isn't on the list, please feel free to include it in the comments below, with one exception. While it's been mentioned a time or two that I should do a recorded play of the game with a group and put that up for folks to see how it plays in real time, that is something currently outside the scope of my space, my equipment, and my skills. If I were to put something like that together it would take a lot of scheduling, resources, and editing to make it look good, sound good, and play smoothly... and that just isn't something I'm capable of making at the moment.

So it's not out of the question, but it isn't something I'd be able to make happen this year, barring something going extremely well for the game, and a massive audience showing up out of nowhere to raise their voices for it.

With that said, though, as long as I'm putting together additional supplements, my hope is to (at the very least) continue giving my listeners glimpses into the world, and into what Army Men can be as a game, and all of the different genres it can cover, and the stories it can tell. Such as this piece, taken from Medals of Honor, which has a definite James Bond flair to it.

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!

What Would You Like To See in Sundara in 2024?

As I step into 2024, I realize that I'm closing in on 3 years of releasing content for my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting. It all started with the initial release of Ironfire: The City of Steel back in 2021, and since then I've put out a total of 17 unique splat books for it (many of which have been double released for Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons), with one more on the docket to be released later this month. That book, for those who've been wondering, is Merchants of Sundara, which I've been hyping up for a little bit.

However, with the year still fresh, I wanted to ask you all something... what would you like to see for Sundara while we start wading into 2024?

More like this supplement, perhaps?

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!

There's So Much Of The Setting That's Still Open

While Sundara has been one of my biggest ongoing projects, I've been placing less emphasis on it over the past year and change. However, it's definitely still on my work desk as a place I'd like to add more stuff to... if there's an audience for it, of course.

So whether you're someone who's been following the setting since I first started putting out splats for it, or you're one of the recent arrivals to these strange and unusual lands, now is your time to raise your voice and let me know what you'd like to see for both the setting's official releases, but also for the supplemental material and associated media that I (and other folks) put together for it!

For example, do you want to see more cities in the setting? Or, since Cities of Sundara: Hoardreach seems to have become popular overnight for no particular reason (other than the fact that it's awesome), should I delve deeper into this location run by a Cooperation of 5 dragons and write an adventure module that takes place there? Or should I write a piece of fiction set in the city, either as text, as an audio drama, or perhaps both if the audience likes it enough?

Something that expands on the story I already wrote for the supplement, and which has been made into an audio story on the channel, Testing Your Wings, perhaps?

As you can see, these questions go beyond just which pieces of content should I put up for sale on DTRPG. For example, would you like to see a follow up to my Ask Me Anything About Sundara that I made a little over a year ago, answering fresh questions about the setting? Do you have a particular rules system that you'd like to see already existing supplements ported to, whether it's Castles and Crusades, Savage Worlds, or any others? Do you have something that you feel has been overlooked in Sundara so far that you want to see addressed, either on this blog, on the YouTube series Speaking of Sundara, if not as part of future releases?

I'm asking you all directly because while there are lots of things I'd like to do with Sundara as a setting, a soldier marches on his stomach. The fewer copies the setting moves, and the fewer views videos about it generate, the tougher it is to go back to the well to draw up more water... not only that, but the less activity the setting generates, the harder a sell future content becomes. Because if something hasn't proven profitable, then why would a publisher want to keep doubling down on it in the hopes that it might, maybe, possibly become popular in the future?

So if there's something you would like to see, whatever form it takes, make your voice heard! And if there's something that already exists in the setting that you want to see more of, please consider boosting the signal on that story, supplement, video, etc., so that more people can become aware of it. The better the setting does, after all, the higher a priority I can make it for future releases.

Need To Catch Up On Sundara?

Whether this is the first you're hearing about Sundara, or you're one of the folks who picked up the Deal of The Day and are curious about what else you can find in this setting, the older supplements are all listed below! Additionally, I've been putting together episodes of Speaking of Sundara on the Azukail Games YouTube channel (which you should definitely subscribe to) talking about some of the design strategies I've used, breaking down what's in particular supplements, and explaining some of the changes I've made to what folks might expect from a traditional fantasy RPG setting, from how I chopped out alignment, to the uncertain nature of gods, to how technology and magic both lead to unique inventions among the people of Sundara!

Check out the full 26-video Speaking of Sundara playlist, in addition to the following supplements!

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.

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!

Some of My Lesser Known Supplements (That Still Deserve a Look)

The Christmas in July sale at Drive Thru RPG is basically over, and for a lot of creators that means we're going back to the drawing board to work on the next wave of TTRPG projects and products for all you gamers out there. However, while I'm currently hard at work on the next round of my own nonsense, I wanted to take this Monday's post to shine a light on some of my older supplements that haven't gotten a lot of love, but which I think are still worth your time to check out.

And if enough eager readers pick up copies of them, it would help me convince my publisher(s) to circle back and perhaps pen a few more pieces in these unfinished/discontinued lines and abandoned product formats.

Let's take a look in the vault, shall we?

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!

100 Creature Supplement Series

I've got a soft spot for this one...

Regular readers know that a majority of my bestselling supplements have all been in the 100 X format or the 10 X format... but one series of these that may have slipped under your radar was what I was thinking of as my 100 Creatures series. Unfortunately I really only managed to put together 100 Unusual Aasimar and 100 Tieflings to Meet in Your Travels before I put this one up on a shelf for seriously underperforming.

While I tried to go in a different direction with 13 Fiends: A Backer's Dozen of Devils, all three of these supplements were really slow movers, and at time of writing none of them have gone very far past Copper metal status.

My original plan for this series was to do one entry for all of the core species for most fantasy games, and then to move on to the more unusual/monstrous creatures that you may still encounter so that GMs would have a slew of NPCs to hand, and players could use the lists as inspiration for their own characters, or to fill out parts of their backstories. At the time there didn't seem to be that much support for it... but maybe that's changed now, eh?

Adventure Modules

A tough product to create, but even tougher to sell.

One of the most commonly requested products from readers is adventure modules. However, writing these things is one of the more intensive, difficult tasks you could ask a creator to do, as they take the skill to tell a short story, along with the challenge of balancing encounters, and attempting to predict what an average group of players will do, giving the Game Master tips and advice on how to handle a variety of story paths without sprawling out into a massive tome.

And even if you manage to do all of that, adventure modules are, statistically, the products that are the hardest to sell. Yes there are exceptions to this statement, but attempting to move copies of this kind of product is basically playing the marketing game on hard mode.

The first series of adventure modules I wrote, called the Critical Hits, was a series of 3 adventures I put together 5 years ago. It consisted of:

- False Valor: A murder mystery where players have to solve a wrongful death, and perhaps kick some fantasy Proud Boys in the face!

- The Curse of Sapphire Lake: The bastard child of Beowulf and Friday the 13th, an awful specter is haunting the settlement of Kingsbridge... can the PCs figure out what is happening, and stop it, before anyone else dies?

- The Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh: Something strange is happening around the town of Bracken. Bizarre sights lurk just off the high road, waiting for darkness to lurch out of the marshes. The town is being strangled... but who will put these haunts to rest?

Since these modules were released, the first two have only managed to go Copper, and the last one hasn't even reached that level. I haven't been shy about sharing them (particularly around Friday the 13th for all the horror fans who also enjoy TTRPGs), but aside from a few players who really loved them, most folks seem pretty indifferent.

The same could be said of the other two adventure modules I've written. Dreadful Tales was a series of 3 modules for the Victorian Gothic TTRPG, and my contribution was a module that was a nod to both Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson. The most recent module I wrote was the above-pictured The Price of Iron, a bizarre little adventure featuring dark fae, rips in reality, lies, betrayal, and horror that can really test your players. But, like all the others, it's really had a hell of a time getting traction.

So if you're one of the folks out there who'd like to see me write more modules, please consider grabbing a couple of these. And if you're one of those rare readers who's already gotten your copies, make sure you leave a rating, a review, and share them on your social media for other folks to see!

Fiction

It comes in a lot of shapes and sizes.

Another request I've gotten a lot over the years is people who want me to expand into game tie-in fiction, particularly for my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age TTRPG setting. This is something I'd really like to do, actually, as I got into game writing via writing the short story The Irregulars for Paizo back in my early days. However, neither that story, nor the anthology Tales From The Moot have been particularly popular when it comes to sales.

Now, there could be a lot of reasons for that. Maybe it's the format, maybe it's the setting, maybe it's the length, but I would actually really like to write more fiction than I do these days... the only problem is actually finding an audience of folks out there who want to read it.

I may have a loophole, though... especially if you're the sort of person who enjoys audio drama content.

As some readers know, I've been including fiction in my TTRPG supplements for years, and for about a year and a half I've been making these little audio dramas for them over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. I've also been slowly linking these little vignettes together into several different series, weaving narratives between my supplements which then become things my listeners can follow for free.

So even if you're not the sort of person who would necessarily buy copies of short stories (or even novels) of tie-in fiction, but this is something you'd enjoy, please subscribe to the channel, watch the videos, and share them around so we can get more views! Because as I said recently in "Windy City Shadows," A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal, if we can get that channel monetized it will give me the leeway to start making bigger, bolder, interconnected narratives that listeners can really sink their teeth into.

We have all the followers we need (though more are always appreciated)... the issue is we're falling short on how many hours of watched content it takes. We need to cross 3k hours in the past year, and when last I checked we'd barely cleared 1k hours. So check out the audio drama playlist, share some videos with your friends, and help us clear this hurdle if this is a project you'd like to see more of!

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 sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my dystopian sci fi thriller Old Soldiers, or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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