It was last summer when I first announced that the Literary Mercenary's Patreon page, which is where folks support both Improved Initiative as well as my writing blog The Literary Mercenary, was going to transition from a per-item rate to a per-month rate for membership. Well, between then and now there were several delays and miscommunications, but the change finally went through.
Which is why, this month, I wanted to ask for help from all my regular readers and old patrons alike. Because there's already growing pains, and I'm hoping to get past them.
Seriously, folks... if you've been thinking about pledging, now is the time!
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!
What Led To This Change
I've been on Patreon for over 15 years now, and there are some folks who've been supporting me on there for the entire time my account has been active. And when I first signed up I chose the per-item payment option because that way I felt that my readers would get what they were paying for. If I didn't write a blog that month, well, they wouldn't have to pay for it. Not only that, but my Monday posts on this blog were always free-of-charge, because I wanted to make sure I didn't overcharge folks.
And, generally speaking, I was pretty happy with this setup. However, in the summer of 2025 there was some chicanery that rocked the boat.
We have altered the bargain. Pray it is not altered further.
As I understand it, Apple's payment platform was threatening to no longer support the per-item rates on Patreon. I don't know the full story behind that, but Patreon issued an announcement that as of Fall 2025 those who were using that payment structure would no longer be able to grow their audience. I thought it over for a week or so, and decided that I should make the change. So I sent an email, and asked to start migrating my account from a per-item payment structure to a monthly membership structure.
There was some miscommunication, though, and Patreon didn't actually put through my request at the time. Then the site went back on the warning, stating that per-item accounts were going to be allowed to go forward, and no changes would be made. The problem was that I'd already made my decision, and put some things in-place to try to make the jump. So during the Fall of 2025, once I noticed the transition hadn't taken place, I reached back out to Patreon support. This time a date was set for January 5th for the transition to go through.
So, new year, new account style, but the same old content on the same schedule everyone has come to expect!
Here's Where The Problem Comes In...
Ideally, this would have been a simple sidestep... but there's a bit of an issue with the migration. It's one I knew about, and tried to prepare for, but I can only do so much.
To really smooth out this rough road, I need the help of all the folks reading this. Because, in short, Patreon basically put everyone down in the $1 a month pledge and expects you all to up yourself to a new tier if that's what you intend to do.
Seriously, every pledge, post, and tip helps.
In terms of hard numbers, what this means is that I go from making between $180 - $220 a month (since some months had more paid blog installments than others) to making about $45 a month or so. That is a massive change in my personal finances, and it's not a hit I can just tank. That's "pay my utilities" money, and more than once it's been "cover the rent" money. I cannot overstate how important my Patreon patrons are to me, and to my ability to keep doing what I do.
That's why I wanted to ask all my current patrons to please check out my new Patreon, have a look at the tiers, and consider choosing something above the $1 a month level if you're able to. And if you're someone who isn't currently one of my patrons (or is a free patron) I'd appreciate any help you can give while I get my feet back under me after this change! And if you're someone who wants to help, but doesn't know if you can commit to the full Patreon sign up, feel free to leave me a tip by buying me a Ko-Fi... those little gifts go a long way, as well, I can tell you that as a fact.
However, if you don't have the spare dosh lying around, but you still want to help, then please consider doing the following (all of which cost you no money):
All of these things help, and honestly the more people that subscribe, read, watch, etc., the more likely it is I'll be able to beat the algorithm, and actually make some progress. Give how restrictive the algorithm as been of-late, though, it's been tough to even reach my actual subscribers... so if anyone reading this likes my work, and wants to see my blogs keep going forward, I'd appreciate any help you could give!
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!
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!
Making a living as a writer of any stripe is hard as hell, and if you want to make tabletop RPGs for a living you have an uphill battle of Sisyphean proportions ahead of you. With that said, I've been in the game for over a decade at this point in my life. I've got nearly 180 products with my name on them, and I've worked for more than a dozen different publishers during my stint as a creator. I've released supplements that were smash hits, and topped the bestseller list for over a week when they came out. I've also released supplements that moved a handful of copies, and then vanished into the void, rarely to be seen again. However, with every year that's gone by I've had a bigger catalog of material, and that has translated to a larger, more reliable set of earnings.
Until this year.
And while there are always going to be fluctuations in the market, changes in what the audience wants, etc., this is far beyond those normal fluctuations. I've recently had my monthly earnings cut in half, and I've been struggling with it for the latter half of 2024. After discussions with other creators who operate on my level, I kept hearing the same stories. So I put my head together with Adrian Kennelly, my publisher at Azukail Games, and we started looking into things.
This week I wanted to explain to folks what we've found, and to present some solutions for those who want to help the creators they love ride out this storm so we can keep making stuff for you and your tables.
The numbers aren't great, I'm not going to lie.
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!
All Right, What Are We Looking At?
Let's take one of my most recent releases, 100 Helpful Hirelings. This NPC list actually performed far better than a lot of my other recent releases in terms of numbers, which landed it on the Top Sellers Under $5 bar on the front page of the site. At the time I checked the numbers, the supplement had sold 58 copies, with 35 of them coming from the Azukail Games newsletter (which is roughly 60% of sales).
Now, that is an outside performer that did better than average... but in the past if I had a supplement wind up on that top sellers bar, it would be because it crossed the 100 sales line in either the first day, or the first weekend. The fact that I got onto that bar with less-than-triple-digit sales tells me that sales are likely decreasing across the board, and showing up on the front page isn't enough to cover the deficit.
If that's the outsized numbers, and something that would be considered a successful release, then what does an average release look like?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
The numbers don't get any better.
Let's take page views. In the past when a new supplement dropped, we could regularly expect 60 page views on it in the first hour. That was what we got when the algorithm was working, and the site was encouraging organic discovery. Now? It takes several days for the page view count to get that high. And this isn't a one-off thing with a couple of supplements... this has been going on for months! It now takes Azukail Games products days to get the kind of views they used to get in a single hour!
As if that wasn't bad/frustrating enough, sales have absolutely cratered for our supplements. Our numbers are down so low because it seems that 90% of new release sales are coming from the Azukail Games newsletter, rather than due to traffic on Drive Thru RPG itself. This is damning in multiple ways, because it means that not only is organic searching on the DTRPG site itself tanked to the point where it is nearly useless, it means that all the social media platforms where supplements are announced (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.) also have terrible organic discovery. So it doesn't matter how many places we share our releases, or who we tell about them, a majority of our sales are coming from people who actually open the Azukail Games newsletter and read what's inside.
That's a lot of numbers. But what does that mean for me, personally, as a creator? In short, my sales/royalties income has been cut in half.
Around this time last year, I was regularly pulling in between $350 and $425 a month in combined royalties and affiliate earnings from DTRPG sales. My projection at the time was, if I kept growing the way I had in the past, that I'd be earning between $450 and $500 a month around this time this year.
However, I'm barely pulling in $150 to $220. And given that I already live below the poverty line, that was not the kick in the crotch I needed.
How You Can Help
If you are reading this, you probably can't stop the enshittification of social media platforms, or undo how DTRPG has completely screwed up the ability to connect creators with their potential audience. However, what you can do is choose to plug-in to the creators you care about to make sure that you don't miss any of our releases and updates, and to do your best to make sure you don't have to depend on the random and inexplicable tides of the algorithm to find out when we're releasing stuff.
And if you want to help me out, specifically, please do the following:
Lastly, if you want to hear about all of the releases from Azukail Games, go to the Azukail Games website, and sign up for the company newsletter! It's on the right-hand side of the page.
With all of that said (and I cannot stress this enough), make sure that you stay plugged-in to the creators and companies you actually follow. Subscribing to our newsletter does neither of us any good if it just goes into your spam folder and you don't see it. You don't have to buy everything we release, but every purchase, review, like, and share on social media helps us overcome the algorithm, and try to make up for the damage it's causing to us.
As always, we can't do any of this without you!
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!
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 wanted to take a moment this week to apologize to my readers out there. The wheels haven't come off of the struggle bus, but there have been a lot of doings on my end of the screen of late. Because of this, I've missed a couple of updates, but I wanted to take this Monday's post to catch you all up on what's been going down, and to say sorry for the missed steps, and for getting some projects out a little more slowly than I'd like to.
Sadly, there just aren't enough hours in the day or gas in the tank to do absolutely everything I want to. Or even need to!
It's been... a lot of a lot.
As always, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.
Lastly, for hundreds of extra articles on gaming, weird history, and for more free fiction, check out my Vocal archive, too!
What Have I Missed (And What Am I Doing)?
Though it might not seem obvious to everyone, I've missed a couple of updates recently on both my gaming blog, as well as over on my writing blog. I also missed my newsletter this past Sunday... but I have a good explanation for both of these things!
The short version is, I've been busy. The longer version is detailed below!
All gas, no brake.
Well, first things first, I've been trying to keep the plates spinning on all of my major TTRPG projects. For folks who didn't see it, my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age supplements were all on sale for DND 5E earlier this month in an attempt to stir up some more attention for them. Not only that, but my TTRPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic was deal of the day on DTRPG earlier this month. I spent a lot of time running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to make sure those sales got all the eyes I could reach, because my hope is that I'll be able to keep expanding both of those games and settings for at least a few years to come.
In addition to those things, which ate up a great deal of my time, I'm currently working on 2 new TTRPG supplements, and I'm trying to make sure we keep getting new videos for the Azukail Games YouTube channel since we're still in need of about 1,000 hours of watched content from our viewers to get monetized. I've even got our first short up, taken from the Geist: The Sin Eaters audio drama Russian Roulette, and you should consider checking out both if you haven't yet!
As if all of that weren't enough (and it definitely was), I was also at the Chicago Steampunk Expo this past weekend. It was my first time at that particular event, and it was a lot of work. And while I sold a handful of books, it was hardly enough that I can kick up my feet and take a breather. And if you missed out on getting copies of my Hardboiled Cat novels Marked Territoryand Painted Cats, I'd highly recommend stopping in to grab some copies soon. Also, if you missed out on the hardback copies of Snowhaven, I'd recommend giving this snowpunk TTRPG setting a look, since it was the second most popular thing I brought to the show (which is damning it with pretty fine praise).
There's also a thing I can't talk about right now that I'm working on, but if it goes the way I'm hoping it will (fingers crossed on that) then it should open up several new projects in the future. But while I'm focusing on Project X, I won't have as much time and energy to keep up with all of the balls I've already got in the air!
How You Can Help
Again, regular readers, your patience and interest is greatly appreciated. If you want to help keep me going so I can keep making all this lovely content for you to enjoy, then please consider leaving me a tip on my Ko-Fi, or becoming a full-on patron on my Patreon page. If you're a reader or a gamer, please grab a copy of some of my books, or just take a spin through my Vocal archive to boost my numbers. And if you're someone who prefers video content, head over to the Azukail Games YouTube channel and check out some of the stuff I make there.
I'm doing my best to catch my breath, and to get back on top of the to-do list. But I could definitely use a little extra support, if you have the power to give it right now.
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!
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!
For all the readers out there who go all the way to the end of my blog posts, you may have noticed a change over the past year. If you scroll down the page, the only section you really see represented is Moon Pope Monday, which are the catch-all Monday posts I put up on Improved Initiative. There may be an occasional entry from Table Talk, or Crunch, but for the most part folks who just come by this blog haven't seen any posts for Fluff or Unusual Character Concepts in over a year.
I didn't stop writing them... they've just been appearing over on my Vocal.Media archive for the past year or so. It's been an ongoing experiment, but it hasn't been going as well as I'd like. As such, I figured this week I'd deliver the preliminary results, and give folks the behind-the-scenes rundown of what I've been doing, the problems I've run into, and how you can help.
It's been... less successful than I'd hoped it would be.
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!
Vocal, Improved Initiative, and What I Was Trying To Do
I've been writing blogs for Improved Initiative for a decade or so, now, and my format has been pretty standard for years. I would write a Monday post, and then a second post that would go Crunch, Fluff, Unusual Character Concept, and Table Talk, before starting over again. This helped ensure variety in my articles, and it meant there was something different every week for folks who didn't just want more of the same content over and over again.
However, what some of my readers may not know, is that I don't make any money from the traffic on this blog. Even when my ads did function (which was a while ago), so many people have some form of ad blocker that it just wasn't worth the effort. My Patreon and my Ko-Fi are the primary way that my blog gets support, but I know that not everyone out there has money to just throw at me every month to help me keep the lights on while I write.
But it would help, if you wanted to go that route. Just saying.
For all the gentle reminders I put in my blogs about crowdfunding, and for all the links to the TTRPG supplements I write, though, I really don't like asking people to just give me money. I'd much rather have the traffic I earn translate into cash, because that allows a direct transfer of the amount of attention my work receives into how much money I earn. There's also a certain kind of frustration that comes with seeing an article get thousands (or sometimes tens of thousands) of reads, and knowing that none of that activity is going to put money in my pocket.
Enter Vocal.Media.
For those who've never been to this site, it's a place that lets writers create and publish their own work. It's where all of my Character Conversion Guides are published, and it's where I've written a lot of articles about miscellaneous history, geek things, weird etymology, etc. Hell, my article It's Okay To Admit There Are Problems in Your Hobby once blew up so big that someone turned me into a meme because they were so tired of seeing it. And generating traffic on that site does actually pay me money. It's $6 per every 1,000 reads (not just views, actual reads), which means that if something explodes it will actually put cash in my hand.
For the first few years I wrote articles for Vocal, I got some pretty good views. I was generally managing between 14,000 and 20,000 reads a month, which comes out to between $70 and $120, give or take. Not life changing, but it was enough to literally keep my lights on, and fill in the gaps when other projects fell through, or didn't sell enough copies, or when some of my patrons had to stop supporting me because they could no longer afford to. Reading articles was free, after all, so it was something everyone could do.
Then the social media landscape changed, and that oasis dried up.
You see, a majority of the reads I was getting were from my Character Conversions. However, as Pathfinder's first edition wound down, they were becoming less and less popular. That was always going to happen, which was why I tried to pivot and write other articles, like 5 Tips For Playing Better Evil Characters, or my more recent Find a Reason For Your Character To Get Involved. However, while I was diversifying my content, the algorithm underwent an abrupt shift over the space of a few weeks. This meant that Reddit, which I'd been using for years to boost the signal on these articles, now automatically removed any links to Vocal.Media. This wiped out years of my submissions across dozens of subreddits, and set me back in a big way. Then as the follow-up to that heavy punch, Facebook altered their algorithm so that if you included a link in your post it got shoved all the way to the bottom, and nobody saw it.
In real terms, I went from getting 400-500 reads a day, to barely cracking 70... and I wanted to try to fix that.
When in doubt, create more content!
This brings us up to about a year and change ago. I figured that if I could create more Vocal content, then maybe the sheer amount of it would help overcome the resistance of the algorithm. And if I could get my existing audience to help me boost those numbers, maybe I could turn Vocal back into a viable source of income... but I couldn't do that while also writing 2 blogs a week here on Improved Initiative.
So I kept my Monday posts right where they were, but I moved the second post of the week over to Vocal, hoping that it would drive the folks who enjoyed my content to check those articles out over there instead.
It Didn't Work... But Could It?
As of time of writing, I have 285 articles in my Vocal archive. Additionally, my daily reads haven't been above 100 for at least 2 months now. Which is, as the kids say these days, not great. Because if you've read my other post, If 90,000 People Read This Article, I Can Pay My Bills This Month, you know that it takes a colossal amount of attention for writers depending on per-read pay to stay one step ahead of the rent.
The question, of course, is what do I do about this?
It's big brain time!
Now, on the one hand, it's true that articles here on Improved Initiative are easier to market. My blog is perfectly shareable on Reddit (for the most part), and it does no worse on Facebook than Vocal does in terms of attention. However, as I mentioned above, even if 10,000, 50,000, or 100,000 people all read an article on this blog, it isn't going to pay my bills. I won't see a single, red cent from any of that traffic.
Popularity isn't something you can eat, sadly, or the choice would be pretty easy.
What I need to help me keep the lights on and the content flowing is for people to support my work. While direct support through my Patreon or my Ko-Fi is always going to be preferred (immediate support yields immediate results), helping my Vocal articles get traction is something folks can do for free right now!
Consider the following actions:
- If you have a Vocal account, subscribe to me! Also, throw a like onto my articles, and leave some comments. The algorithm likes those things, and it helps me stand out. If you don't have a Vocal account, it's free to make one, and it makes organizing your subscriptions easier.
- Bookmark my page, and check back. I typically have at least 1 update a week on Vocal, so there's usually new stuff waiting for you to take a look at.
- Read through my Vocal archive. You don't have to do it all at once. If 100 people each read an article a day for a month, that would be 30,000 reads, and it would put me 1/3 of the way toward paying my rent... which is nothing to sneeze at!
- Share my articles so other people can see them. This is probably the most important, and if it was paired with the above request, it might actually get me the 90,000 reads I would need to cover a full month of bills. Because 30,000 reads is great ($180 and change). But 30,000 shares, whether it's on Facebook, Twitter, Blue Sky, your gaming Discord, or anywhere else... that makes a massive difference!
Little things really do add up if enough people participate... the problem is getting a lot of people to all pitch in, and to pitch in consistently, so that the numbers stay high. So please, if you haven't seen any of my Vocal articles before (or if you have, but didn't know there were quite that many of them) go take a look around! Every read helps me stay one step ahead of my landlord, and that lets me keep making more content for all the gamers out there.
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!
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!
It's been one hell of a year on my end of the screen, folks. And while I've (so far) managed to weather the worst of it, I wanted to take this Monday's post to send out an S.O.S. I'm currently dealing with a rather unfortunate situation, and I could use a hand up before the root I'm holding onto gives way, and I go tumbling off of this cliff I'm currently dangling over.
Details are below, and there's a lot of a lot going on here.
Things are... sort of dire at the moment.
Before I get into the details, though, 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! To be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!
Also, since it keeps getting lost in the shuffle, check out my Vocal archive for more articles about RPGs, character conversions, character concepts, weird history, nerdy topics, and more!
So... What All is Happening?
All right, this is going to be a string of depressing events that I've been dealing with the past year. Apologies in advance, but I feel it's important to explain the timeline to put things into perspective.
It's a lot.
Let's start with this time last year. My apartment building was under construction for the majority of 2022, which was frustrating in and of itself, but last summer I had to pull stakes and leave my apartment to stay in a hotel. What was supposed to be a week-long stay ballooned out into over a month where I was doing guerilla blogging and video recording, trying to keep up with deadlines while not actually being home. I didn't have to pay for the hotel itself, but the sheer stress levels of working under those conditions (along with all the other expenses you accrue while in that kind of situation) took a toll on me, and on my work.
Around that time Eric Flint died, as did his company Ring of Fire. This meant that not only did I not get a royalty check for any book sales I'd made from December to June in 2022, but it also meant 3 of my novels were now off the market. I had to scramble to try to find them new homes, while also dealing with not receiving a check that should have (based on the numbers I was seeing) paid for several fees I had to dig into my savings to cover.
I was back in my apartment by September. Just as I started getting back into the groove, my cat started showing a lot of distressing symptoms I couldn't explain. I took him to the vet in November, and paid several hundred dollars for a battery of tests. I then had to pay several hundred more dollars to have him put down, because his heart was just giving out after 16 years of being my companion. That was a huge blow to me both emotionally and financially, but I figured that if I could get on the other side of it that I could start rebuilding and moving forward.
At the beginning of 2023 we had all the fuckery (and no, I will not use a more family-friendly term for it) from Hasbro and Wizards of The Coast. This disrupted a majority of my income, forced last-minute readjustment, and caused a lot of issues with my Kickstarter for Army Men, which was first delayed, and then had to contend with the wave of people who'd sworn off of anything even tangentially connected to DND 5th Edition (which, when the game was first created, had been the dominant system in the RPG sphere for years).
I finally managed to get all of that mess straightened out, and the flow of my projects coming out again, when the electronic fuel injector gave out in my car. This basically meant that my car couldn't accelerate, leaving me going at an idle speed whenever I took my foot off the brake no matter how far down I pushed the gas. That was not a good situation, but I managed to get it into a local shop, and they made the necessary repairs. While I had some help at the time, this still set me back several hundred more dollars, on top of all the previous things I still hadn't recovered from.
Wait for it, friends, because this is where things get even worse.
Then there's the crescendo... because, you see, that fuel injector has been nothing but trouble since it gave out the first time. A few weeks back I was driving to my weekly game at a friend's house (it's about an hour or so from my apartment to their house, and a lot of it is interstate driving). I was on the interstate when all of a sudden that warning light came on, and I started losing speed. I managed to pull off without getting creamed by a semi (it was a bit of a near thing), and then I had to arrange for a tow truck to come get my car, and for a friend to pick up myself, and my two roommates to drive us back home. The shop covered all of the expenses, diagnosed the problem, and I was back on the road seemingly no worse for wear.
Then there was last Friday. I'd had no problems for a few weeks, and I was just starting to relax. I figured if I kept my head down and my nose to the grindstone that I would be able to come out on the other side of things, and start backfilling the holes that had been sinking my ship. I was on my way to my Friday game, and the only worry I had was getting the rest of my bills covered... then my injector went out again. This time it left me stranded in Gary, on the IUN campus where I graduated college. It was also around 5 o'clock, which is when all the auto shops close, and no one can do anything for you. It was a repeat of the whole previous kerfuffle, with a tow truck bringing my car back into town, friends coming to pick me up, etc.
The difference was that this time I'm the one who got stuck with the tow truck cost. Which was another $200 I hadn't planned on spending.
As of time of writing, I don't know if I'm going to end up paying a few hundred dollars more to get additional repairs done on my current vehicle, or if I'm going to need a few thousand in order to get a replacement car that will actually be safe for me to drive (something I sort of need to have if I'm going to go to cons and similar events to sell books, network, etc.).
And that is why I'm asking for your help today.
How You Can Help!
Because I could really use a hand up.
As most of my regular readers know, being a professional creative doesn't pay all that well outside of a handful of rockstars in any particular part of the industry. I'm not one of those folks, and according to my own tax documents I didn't even break $13K last year... and that's been my average for half a decade or more. Keep in mind that's before taxes... I have to pay all of those at the end of the year.
I wanted to front load that so readers know where I'm at, what I'm working with, and why I'm putting out an S.O.S. to help me deal with this unfolding situation.
#1: Direct Support (Donations and Patronage)
Direct support is always the most efficient.
The best way for folks who want to help me dig my way out of this hole (or at least throw me a line so I can start climbing) is direct support. If you want to throw me a quick one-time donation, go to The Literary Mercenary's Ko-Fi page. Alternatively, if you want to provide me some long-term support so that I can keep taking steps forward while paying my new bills, consider becoming a Patreon patron. This helps keep my two blogs going, and I try to give my patrons as much free stuff and extra content as I can.
I know times are tough all around, but I'm front-loading this option because it provides the best, most immediate support not just for me, but for any creator you want to help out.
If that's too many options for you (decision paralysis is a real thing, after all) and you're looking for good value to you as well as to me, I'd recommend checking out the following bundles:
- Inn & Tavern Bundle: A great one for all fantasy games, this has some of my most popular splats in it!
- 100 Kinfolk Bundle: This was my extra large Werewolf: The Apocalypse project. There's 15 supplements in here, and that's a total of 1,600 kinfolk NPCs for your Werewolf chronicle!
In the interest of transparency, this is my second option because it takes a lot of sales to add up to a meaningful number, and they take a little while to clear. Sales of a supplement like 100 Body Mods and Augmentations For a Sci Fi Game pays me about 30 cents or so, while a supplement like 10 Fantasy Villages pays me about 60 cents per copy sold. In either case it can take a month or two before DTRPG releases the funds, and I can cash them out. So if this is an option you want to take, please consider also leaving a rating and a review on any supplements you get, and sharing the links to them on your social media, discord server, etc., so I can reach a bigger audience, and put a few more coins in the jar.
#3: Buy A Book
I'm still so ridiculously pleased with this cover...
I mentioned that my old publisher shuttered its doors, but my books are starting to make their way back onto the market. My dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Solders presents my own take on the space marines in the form of the myrmidon, and Pollux has to outwit a conspiracy tracking him (and possibly the former members of his squad), with the intent of eliminating them... or is it all in his head, a product of intense paranoia left behind as a relic of his time in the Hyperion Conflict?
If that doesn't quite sound like your cup of tea, though, there's also my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, about a young man sent to go retrieve his missing cousin, and to bring him back to their home on the mountain... or, if his cousin is dead, to make sure he's got plenty of company on the reaper's cart. And if you're one of those rare folks who enjoys short fiction, my collection The Rejects is also on Amazon, and you can check out audio dramatizations of at least one short story, Suffer The Children, on my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary.
Then there's this book, too...
Lastly, for folks who didn't get in on the Kickstarter for it, Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic is currently on pre-order through Backerkit! We're currently handling layout, editing, art, etc., but this book is definitely going to happen, and throwing your support behind the project by pre-ordering your copy would definitely help ensure that it's profitable enough to both pay the folks involved, and maybe to underwrite sequels and supplements in the future!
This option is third on the list for two reasons. First, it takes time for sales of books to clear, and to come to me. A few months for my novels, and probably half a year or more for Army Men to really finish up, and for the profits to be divided among all the contributors. But if you want to help out by buying a product that isn't a TTRPG supplement (especially if you're one of the folks out there who enjoy my fiction, but might not be a gamer) these are good options to pursue.
#4: Engage With All of My Free Content!
Seriously... I have so MUCH of it!
I don't want to dislocate my shoulder patting myself on the back, here, but I make a lot of content, and I do what I can to make sure that a lot of it is free so that people who don't have a big budget for extra stuff can still enjoy what I make, and have fun with some of my ideas.
If you're one of the folks out there who doesn't have any spare dosh lying around (or maybe you've pursued one of the above options and want to do a little more to help as a cherry on top), then please consider doing any or all of the following!
- Check Out My Vocal Archive: I have 283 articles on Vocal at present, and these cover my RPG character conversions, weird history, a decent amount of free fiction (including stories for both Pathfinder and Warhammer 40K), and more! Vocal pays me roughly $6 for every 1,000 reads my articles get, so I encourage folks to bookmark my author page, read an article or three a day, and please share the ones you like on social media to help boost their numbers!
- Subscribe to (and Watch) Videos on The Azukail Games YouTube Channel: I do a lot of work for Azukail Games, and I try to put one video onto the company's YouTube channel every week. At time of writing we have well over the 500 subscribers we need to get it monetized, but we only have about 1,000 of the 3,000 hours of watched content we need before YouTube shares any earnings with us. While this won't help me directly (it's not my channel, I just contribute), if it starts pulling in money, then it's likely I'll be able to do bigger, more involved projects, and to get an increase in my pay for making those videos in the first place. Again, interacting with those videos, and sharing the ones you like so more people can see them, would be a big help.
It would also let me justify my Windy City Shadows project, which I talked about recently in Discussions of Darkness Episode 11, for folks who missed it.
- Check Out My Rumble Channel: I've said it before, but I legally cannot be paid by YouTube, because Google AdSense banned me from their platform. I've been looking for some kind of alternative for a long time, and the closest functional thing I've found is Rumble. My archive there is small, and I'm adding to it as I can, but like everything else in the free section it takes a colossal amount of activity to make even a few nickels fall out of it. I'd probably need hundreds of thousands of watches on those videos before a C-note made its way into my hands, but I won't say no to views, shares, and folks who want to help me grow my audience this way, either.
This option is last on the list because it's the hardest to affect immediate change with. If I could get 1,000 people to all watch the full playlist for my Discussions of Darkness show in order to monetize the Azukail Games channel overnight, that would be awesome! If I could somehow get an article like Partners and Polycules: Polyamorous Designations Based Off Dungeons and Dragons Dice to go viral and get 1 million reads (which would be about $6,000 for me... which seems like a lot of work for not a lot of pay) that would solve a lot of my current problems.
For this one to work, a lot of people need to work in conjunction to overcome the algorithm, and to generate the huge numbers it takes to make free content actually pay me as the creator. The upside, though, is that this one is open to everyone! So if you have a few spare minutes to read and share an article, or you just want to put on a playlist in the background while you do chores or plan your campaign, it would be very much appreciated!
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!
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!
While some folks in the RPG community may not know Owen K.C. Stephens by name, chances are good they're still familiar with his work. A major hand on Pathfinder and Starfinder, he's made content for games like Star Wars Saga, Fantasy AGE, Savage Worlds, 13th Age, and more over his many years in the field. Chances are good that if you went through the books on your shelf (or the PDFs in your folders) that you'd find his name in the contributor section for a lot of stuff you've played over the years.
While he's been a recognizable name, though, he'll also be the first to tell you that nobody who works in the RPG field is paid well... some of us might be paid well for RPGs, but that's not the same thing. And when you wind up having to fight cancer, well, that's when you need all the help you can get.
For someone who has given us so much, let us return that aid in a time of need.
Call The Banners!
Back in February, Owen suffered a pulmonary embolism, which as you'd imagine sent him to the hospital. And while he was in the hospital he was diagnosed with stage 2 cancer. Now that's a rough 1-2 punch for anyone, but it's also important to remember that we're talking about the American healthcare system, here. That means that each day in the hospital still costs thousands of dollars after insurance, and he was in the hospital for several days before he was able to go home again.
While Owen still intends to keep making games and creating lovely toys for all of us to use, it's times like these when a designer could really use the support of the community.
And there are several ways we can make that happen.
And get some great games in the bargain!
If you're on most social media accounts, you've probably seen Owen's Medical Bills Bundle #1, and Owen's Medical Bills Bundle #2 by now. They were getting a lot of attention in the Drive Thru RPG hottest offers, and the response to them was pretty good overall. And if you're looking for a way to help Owen cover his bills so he can come out on top of this situation, grabbing both of them is a great way to do that.
Between the 2 bundles there's over 180 PDFs for a dozen systems, as well as system agnostic content you can use in your games. The estimated value is over $1,500 for all of this stuff put together, and you can get both bundles for around $70 total (or $34.95 each). Pathfinder, Starfinder, DND 5E, 13th Age, Savage Worlds, Shadow of The Demon Lord, Shotguns and Sorcery, setting books, GM tools, and a slew of other stuff that will make your head spin, and all of it available for a ridiculously low price to help out a good cause.
That's not all the options, of course.
But if you've already grabbed the bundles, or you're wondering what else you can do to help, I wanted to give a few additional options, as well. So if you want to go above and beyond the call of duty, consider:
- 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!
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!
One of the fun things about going to conventions is that it allows you to discover unique things you would never come across in your day-to-day experience. Even though I spend most of any given day up to my elbows in RPG content, I never would have come across Weird Detective Mystery Adventures, and I feel confident in saying the same for all my readers out there.
So if you've been looking for a game with gangsters, gun mals, masked vigilantes, super heroes, mad scientists, and more, this is a game you could use to scratch that itch.
An offer that might be tough to refuse.
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!
Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!
Let's Start With The Good
The best part of any proposal.
Right off the bat, what is Weird Detective Mystery Adventures? Well, it's an RPG that uses 2d6 and a lot of charts to help you tell stories that are just what it says on the tin. If a story can be found in the canon of weird or pulp fiction, then you could emulate it with this RPG. Whether you want to do gritty private eyes digging into gangland deals, masked vigilantes stopping bank robbers, or superheroes fighting supernatural cultists and their dark gods, all of that is possible within this system.
Aside from power scaling, which is quite important for any game, the rule book is pretty thorough when it comes to all your options. Everything from contacts you can call on, to a superhuman accuracy with firearms, to mastery of disguises, to being filthy rich, or being bulletproof and able to fly is covered in here. And while there are sequels and extra content planned for future installments, the core book is all you need to play the game.
As to the system itself, it has a decidedly old-school feel to it. A single chart is used to determine success or failure for a majority of actions, ranging from stunts and tricks with metahuman abilities, to standard punch-ups with goons in a bar. The base stats all have their own unique names one needs to get used to, but once you get in the groove figuring out success, failure, and your odds of either, the game becomes pretty easy to manage.
Now Onto The Bad
You didn't see nuthin', got it smart guy?
Nothing is perfect, and I wouldn't want anyone tracking this game down without making them aware of the flaws it has, as well as its benefits.
First and foremost, if you came into gaming via d20 games, this is going to be like learning a whole new language for you. While I've seen games with similar systems before, if you're more used to various editions of DND, or even the World of Darkness, this will be something of a rough start for you. Additionally, this book is thick... we're talking old-fashioned Yellow Pages thick. While you may not need to read all of it depending on the game you want to play, there's a lot of material in there, which will not be to a lot of players' tastes. Particularly in this age of short rulebooks and minimal mechanics gaming. Lastly, for all of the material the book does give you, this game isn't meant to take place in a particular setting or world; details like that are left largely up to the storyteller to figure out for themselves. So while you have a big skeleton with a lot of moving parts, everything from the era, to the lore, to the world is on you to figure out.
Lastly, and this is the one that struck me strange, this book is damn near impossible to come across. To get yourself a copy you must go to the Weird Detective Mystery Adventures website and buy one, or come across the game's booth at a convention. You can't find copies of it on DTRPG, nor can you locate it on Amazon. Even stranger, there is no PDF version of the game available at time of writing, and the physical copy is rather large at just under $50 for a paperback version. For someone who hasn't played the game themselves and is only curious to check it out, that is a rather large risk to take.
The Ugly
You knew this was coming.
I want to start this section by making one thing clear; I didn't dislike my read-through of this game system. While it's certainly a heavy game in terms of options, it has a certain nostalgic quality that will draw you in a bit, and it presents a lot of interesting ideas that would be fun to play with.
However, this game is definitely not going to be for everyone. Worse, though, it feels like this game is attempting to re-invent the wheel in a lot of ways.
As a for instance, everything I mentioned about different game styles, scaling power, power sets and abilities, etc., could also be said of Mutants & Masterminds. Also, while not a simple game, M&M was far easier for me to grasp when I was presented with it, and it has a great deal of supporting material one can choose to use if they want, like the Player's Guide To Emerald City, Hero High, or the Supernatural Handbook, depending on the needs of your game. And if one wanted a simpler game with easier-to-digest mechanics, but which still boasted all of those positive aspects already mentioned, then Savage Worlds Adventurer Edition would work just as well. Especially since one could add in all the other material they want for their game piecemeal, such as hunting monsters with the Rippers Resurrected player guide, Weird War I player's guide, Arcana and Mysticism, or any of a dozen other books and supplements that are available to customize one's playing experience.
Both of these other options are available as digital copies, they're easier to learn, and they're easier on your wallet if you're looking for a game of pulpy adventure that's all over the board in terms of what you can bring to the table.
Again, WDMA isn't a bad game. But if you're interested in giving it a closer look, I would definitely recommend looking through the homepage to make sure it's going to appeal to you and your play style. Because as of this moment there isn't a free sample or a starter's guide to let you try before you buy, and it's got a pretty hefty price tag attached 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!
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!
