Which of My Ongoing Series Would You Like To See Continue?

Over the 10 years or so that I've been running Improved Initiative I've started a lot of different series. While many of them have waxed and waned in popularity, I thought I'd take this Monday to ask my regular readers which one of these series you'd like to see get more attention going forward. And if you're a relatively recent addition to my audience on here, you might find a series you haven't even come across yet!

So if you have a strong opinion about what you want to see more of, leave it in the comments below! Or if you want me to start a new series discussing something I didn't mention here, or haven't covered yet, let me know. If enough people request the same thing then it's definitely something that will get my attention going forward.

The floor is yours!

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!

#1: Character Conversions List

Perhaps the biggest and longest-running list of all the ones on this blog, this series currently has 63 entries on it! They range as far afield as Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones, to Harley Quinn from DC Comics, to The Incredible Hulk, Guts from Berserk, all the way to the Death Korps of Krieg in the Warhammer 40K universe.

It's a pretty big project, admittedly.

This series was a major breadwinner for a time, but it's grown steadily less and less popular in terms of views. Which makes sense, given that it was conceived primarily for Pathfinder's first edition, and while I love that game it's definitely seen its player base diminished over the past few years. If you add in the lack of searchability that articles hosted on Vocal have, along with conversion fatigue (since it seems the thirst for this kind of content has largely passed), I've been only adding to it sporadically.

With that said, if folks want to see this project renewed, check out the Character Conversions master list, and share your favorite guides on social media! The more reads they get, the more likely it is that I'll boost this series up over 100 entries.

#2: 5 Tips

Speaking of long-running projects that have gotten pretty involved over the years, my 5 Tips series has quite a number of entries as well! Perhaps the runner-up in terms of numbers (depending on how you count the entries) there are over 40 articles in this series touching on everything from base classes, to player species, to broader pieces of advice like 5 Tips For Creating Fantasy Towns and Cities, 5 Tips For Roleplaying Characters With Mental Disorders, and even 5 Unusual Martial Arts For Your Monks.

There's still plenty of topics to cover with this one!

This series has met with a lot of successes, and a lot of duds, over the years. A recurring theme folks will notice, of course, is that stuff hosted on Vocal hasn't gotten the views I need it to in order to feel like it's worth continuing. That said there are still several books worth of classes I could cover, as well as everything outside the standard species players usually have access to. I could even expand the tips list to cover Starfinder classes and species, or switch this over to cover more World/Chronicles of Darkness concepts, which I already started with entries like 5 Tips For Running Better World of Darkness Games, as well as 5 Tips For Running Changeling: The Lost Games.

#3: Awful Characters You Meet in Your Gaming Career

This series got started off with a one-off joke in the form of The 5 Awful Paladins You Will Meet in Your Gaming Career. The sheer amount of stories people swapped over these 5 archetypes of painful player character took days to die down, and it still sees occasional spikes. It felt like I'd tapped into something people wanted more of, so I followed it up with other entries. While there was still interest, it seemed to have seriously diminishing returns over time. So far the list includes:

- 5 Eye-Rolling Rogues

- 5 Bothersome Bards

- 5 Infuriating Fighters

- 5 Cringey Clerics

While not as numerous as the first two entries on this list, this is the one that felt like it had the most potential in terms of audience interest. What I don't know is whether folks just stopped reading it because the novelty wore off (entirely possible), or the algorithm stopped it from finding its way to folks' faces. Regardless, though, if this is a series you'd like to see more of, share the entries, and maybe comment some of the classes (or even species) you'd like to see more of!

#4: Gaming Etymology

Etymology has a soft spot in my heart, and it's something that always fascinates me. This goes double when it comes to the creatures, classes, etc. that wind up in our games. From articles like What It Really Means To Be a Swashbuckler? to What is a Barbarian?, I had a lot of fun putting these together. When it comes to the projects I work on, though, fun takes a distant second to what will actually get the reads I need to keep the lights on around here.

There are a lot of other subjects to cover, still!

You know the drill by now, of course. If you liked this project, check out the Gaming Etymology master list, and help boost the signal so I can justify putting some more of these together in the near future!

#5: Alignment Deep Dives

While I eliminated the alignment system from my own setting, Sundara: Dawn of a New Age (more on that in the video below), I've always found the absolutism of alignment a fascinating, philosophical discussion. And while it's often very gray and very squishy, sometimes there are enough examples in a character's canon that you can genuinely sus out which of the 9 boxes they fit into... roughly speaking.

The project's original goal was to find at least one character of every alignment box to operate as an example of who best fit into that little square. However, I only got around to really covering The Punisher, Robocop, and Captain America before the project went into the fridge for a while. If you'd like me to pick it back up again, consider suggesting some characters along with sharing any of the existing articles!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Daily Motion channel!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my 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 Start Up My Character Conversions Once Again?

I've been creating RPG content for quite a number of years, now. I've worked for companies big and small, I've dabbled in half a dozen systems, added to existing settings, and made one of my own. However, if I look back to where it all got started, I can trace my career (such as it is) back to my Character Conversions project... something that started as a lark, but became something more.

You never know the places you'll go.

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!

How It All Got Started

This whole, sordid tale actually goes back to one of my earliest gaming stories, Don't Ever Field a One-Eyed Dragon. During the course of this game there was something of an arms race between myself and the GM, who had a bad habit of letting far more players than he could handle join the table, and then scrambling to come up with appropriate challenges for that many adventurers. This led to my acquiring a cohort via the Leadership feat, and I built him using one of the earlier drafts of my Incredible Hulk character conversion guide. I enjoyed the character so much (and there were so many shenanigans) that I turned the build I'd used into an early draft of that guide, and threw it online on a website called Associated Content that hasn't been around for a long, long time.

And folks really liked that guide. So much so that I was getting a dozen or more requests for other characters. That was when I realized I might have opened up a Pandora's box; I could either struggle to close it, or throw the lid wide open and see where it went.

I went with the latter option, for those who are curious.

The first thing I did was put together other members of the Avengers, such as Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Thor. I spiraled out from there, touching on characters from the DC Universe, Game of Thrones, figures from history, horror movies, action films, and toward the end of my active run, from the Warhammer 40K universe. The project currently has about 60 or so guides in it, and it spans more than 6 years. Not only that, but it was started on Associated Content, which then became Yahoo! Voices. That site closed and I started moving the guides to HubPages, but Google banned my AdSense profile, so I was no longer allowed to make money with that site. I moved them to InfoBarrel, which is also now defunct, and eventually they found a new home over on Vocal.

That was a lot of work to both move the old guides (which were updated and remastered when they went up on Vocal), but I can honestly say that without them I probably wouldn't have half the career I do today as a game designer. It was these guides that got me noticed by Azukail Games, who is the primary publisher I work with. It's also what got me a gig with Louis Porter Junior when I put together the entry Lucia Krille: Enemies of NeoExodus, which was a direct riff on the character of Absorbing Man from Marvel Comics.

One frustrating thing about this project, though, is that every time it started getting close to really building momentum, something went wrong. Just as my Gotham guides were really getting a lot of attention, Yahoo! decided to deep six the site, which sent my searchability plummeting. I got half of them back up on HubPages, and then they were no longer allowed to pay my bills. I got them on InfoBarrel, and a site update that was never fixed tanked both creator tools, and made articles almost impossible to find via a search. Then I got them all up on Vocal, and Pathfinder announced a new edition was coming out, telling me that once more the project's days were numbered.

Would Readers Like To See It Return?

While there have been a couple of updates to the project, such as my guides for The Mandalorian, or the soldiers of 40k's Death Korps of Krieg, my character conversions have more or less been in cold storage for 2022. And the reason for that has been, honestly, new installments just didn't get the views I needed to justify the time, energy, and effort to keep the hits coming. For context, I make $6 for every 1,000 reads an article gets. When guides were getting 5k reads, I was more than happy to spend the 2+ hours it takes to put them together. When they get 250 reads, though, not so much.

With that said, writing these guides is something I did long enough that I sort of miss it now... so I figured I'd ask if it's something my readers would like to see make one more triumphant return?

There are, however, some provisos here.

Before anyone leaves a comment below, or on social media where you found this link, I want to make something clear. If I do bring this project back and start adding to it once again, I will more than likely continue these write ups in Pathfinder Classic. While it's possible to write some guides for DND 5E, I do not have access to the material for that edition (it doesn't have a complete SRD like Pathfinder does), and I feel that it is much too limited, mechanically, for the sorts of tricks and tips that I feel is necessary for the deep dive into a character's abilities that is the series' main selling point. While it might be possible to start making guides for Pathfinder's second edition, I am extremely reluctant to do so. I did not care for the playtest, and while there were changes made afterward, none of them served to make me eager to create anything for that system the more I read about its finalized version.

With that said, if there's folks who want to sponsor guides for particular characters in a particular edition, I'm always happy to listen to business proposals. But I wanted to be clear about the direction that I would take things if left to my own devices so that folks know what they're supporting/asking for.

If you're still with me, there are a couple of things I would like you to do in order to help let me know this is a project you want to come back:

- Leave a Comment: Either below or on social media is fine, just put it somewhere I'll see it. Feel free to make a character request in your comment if I haven't covered them yet!

- Share a Guide: Increased traffic is what really gets my attention. So share which guide you like best, or just the Character Conversion master list to help get it seen by folks.

That's it!

I'll be reading the comments and checking the numbers. If enough people are willing to help me break the seal and take this one out of cold storage, then it's something I'm happy to do in the coming months!

Lastly, if you're someone who's been thinking about trying their hand at writing a character conversion, I'd recommend reading through Tips For Writing RPG Character Conversions. I basically boiled down my process, what I learned, and how I was able to keep things going as long as I did.

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 YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like 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!

Don't Use Character Build Guides If You Aren't Familiar With The System

Thanks to the Internet, it's now possible for players to do more research than ever before when it comes to how to build their ideal character concept. We can talk with other players on social media, chat in forums, ask questions in discussion groups, and get references for everything we ever wanted to know. Additionally, we also have players writing their own guides for how to execute ideal character concepts. If you've ever been to my Character Conversions page, you've seen all 48 of the guides I've written for everything from Game of Thrones, to The Avengers, D.C. comics characters, and badasses of history.

Like this crazy son of a bitch right here!

A fun fact about all those conversions... my Character Conversions page is the most visited page on this blog, closely followed by my Crunch page. That makes sense, though. Since I primarily write about Pathfinder, and Pathfinder is a rules-dense game, readers are turning to me to point out the sections of interest. The bulk of my regular traffic comes from gamers who are looking for a guide to machete their way through this jungle of text, rule books, and minutiae.

That's fine, from where I'm sitting. I like knowing that my fellow gamers trust me enough to look at my thoughts, share my guides, and come back week after week to see what I'm doing now.

With that said, there is something I feel needs to be addressed. A caveat to all the content on my blog, in my guides, and on the Internet from other creators. There is nothing wrong with a player reading through these guides to find information that will help them build better characters. There's nothing wrong with just building the character as it's laid out in a guide. However, if you don't understand the mechanics in the post you're reading, do not bring that character to your table.

If you can't drive stick, don't get behind the wheel.

There Is No Shortcut to System Mastery

I will reiterate, a build guide can help you find your way to executing the character concept you want. But you need a certain amount of system mastery (which is a fancy term for saying you understand the rules, and you can apply them to your character) in order to use a guide properly.

I sense an example would help, here?

 

Let's take a basic example. Say you're talking with Dave, who's never played Pathfinder before. Dave wants to play a fighter, but he doesn't want to be one of those big, armored tanks. He wants to be a human who is light on his feet, and whose speed is what makes him deadly. You, as an experienced player, can tell him that he should take Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus, and Slashing Grace as his three 1st-level feats, then he'll want to take Piranha Strike as his 2nd-level feat. Now imagine Dave nodding, and writing all that down.

The problem is that he has no idea what any of that means. Sure he can look those feats up, and read their wording, but if he's never played the game before, and he has no experience to draw on, he might not know what this text really means. Worse, he might get the wrong idea of how it works, which means he'll then have to unlearn his first impression. If you don't walk him through it, and explain it to him, there's a chance he's just going to be confused.

Now imagine that same scenario, but Dave is instead reading a guide that plots out a character from level 1 to level 15. He isn't getting the experience of building a character himself; he's just writing down what someone else told him without any real understanding of what these words mean, or how they go together. That's going to lead to problems sooner, rather than later.

We Can Be Wrong, Too

Here's a thing that a lot of players sometimes forget... we aren't special. Those of us who create content are players, just like you. Some of us are more experienced, or we spend more time reading the books, but we're just players. Sometimes we misread something, or we forget rules, or we just don't find out about an errata that has said no, that combination is not legal. We are only human.

If you are not familiar with the game system you're playing, though, you won't catch our mistakes. You may not see, for example, that a character with Slashing Grace can't also use his secondary natural attacks in the same round he benefited from that feat. We might have missed that a particular sorcerer bloodline power is listed as an extraordinary ability, instead of a spell-like ability, meaning it can't be modified with feats like Quicken Spell-Like Ability.

Our advice isn't perfect. Sometimes it's downright wrong. But if you aren't familiar enough with the system in question, then you won't know. And even if we do get everything right, you need to be able to take the advice we've given you, and properly apply it. For example, say that Dave decided he was going to play that greatsword-wielding tank after all. So he takes Power Attack, and Furious Focus. Problem is that when he hits level 6, and gets two attacks, he forgets that Furious Focus only removes the negative from the 1st attack he makes. It doesn't stop the Power Attack penalty from affecting his second attack, his attacks of opportunity, etc.

It's A Tool, Not A Cheat

When I was in high school, I used to tutor younger kids for pocket money. A problem I ran into time and time again was that my students just wanted me to give them the answers. The problem is that's like paying a personal trainer to work out for you. Sure, the work is still being done, but it isn't actually benefiting you.

I'm trying to teach you how to fight, because I'm not at your table to throw the punches for you.

 

So, if you want to use guides you find on the Internet for inspiration, go right ahead! I will never say no to more traffic on my Character Conversions or Crunch pages. However, what I recommend is that you take what I (or anyone else) has to say with a grain of salt. Look up the rules we're quoting, the feats we're suggesting, and the class abilities we're talking about. Make sure you can take those building blocks, and construct them into a character you understand how to play. Talk to your DM, and make sure they know what you're bringing to their table, and that you can explain to them how your abilities work.

If you can do that, then you're probably good to go.

We all make mistakes. If you're a newer player, or you just aren't familiar with a certain class of rules, don't just take a guide you found online at face value. Break it down, check the math, and make sure you can actually drive it once you bring it to the table.

Because we might have given you a Porsche, but if you don't have the system mastery, all you're going to do is grind gears on your way out of the parking lot. That's not what you want.

That's all for this Moon Pope Monday post. Hopefully some folks found in helpful, or at least insightful. We were all new once, so don't be afraid of a little book diving. It does you good. To keep up to date on my latest posts, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you'd like to help support me and my blog, head over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page today. Pledge $1 a month, and you'll get both my everlasting gratitude, and some sweet swag, too!

Would You Like To See More Pathfinder Character Conversions?

As my regular readers know, I have a side feature where I write two Pathfinder character conversion guides every month. Whether it's Tyrion Lannister, The Winter Soldier, or even Harley Quinn, I provide a full guide that starts with your attributes, race, and traits, and goes all the way through classes, feats, special powers, and other ear marks players can use to translate these character from their original mediums and into the Pathfinder RPG.

As of right now, I have 40 different character guides sitting pretty on my Character Conversions page.

Seriously, it's a rather crazy amount of conversions.

Now, overall, the response to my conversions articles has been positive. I write them with players in mind, and I keep to the Paizo rules without including any third-party books or wonky house rules. They're useful for DMs, too, in the event you want a ready-made bad guy like Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane, or Killer Croc to throw at your players.

However, I'm running into a bit of a problem, and it's a problem I'd like to ask all my readers for help on.

If A Tree Falls in The Forest...

This project started as a one-off post when I wrote up a character guide for building The Incredible Hulk, showing how I had brought the green goliath as a cohort in a game I was playing. That was three years ago. The response from my readers was so popular that I wrote guides for the rest of the movie Avengers, and Loki as well. People seemed to really like it, so I kept up on the project, trying to put up at least one new character conversion every month.

The problem I'm running into isn't that I'm running out of characters or ideas (I could, in all likelihood, keep this feature going as long as there are people playing Pathfinder). The problem I'm running into is that the amount of response the articles is diminishing, and it's a little overwhelming when compared to the amount of time and effort that goes into researching and writing them.

This is the part where you all get to be big damn heroes.

 

 If you're a fan of my character conversions, even if you just found out about them, here's what I'd like you to do right now.

- Click over to my Character Conversions page.

- Find a character conversion article that you like.

- Share that character conversion on your social media pages (Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, etc.).

And... that's it, really. If you can help me spread the word about my character conversions by telling your friends, fellow players, DMs, and if we can get some of those fine folks to like and share them as well, then I'll be able to keep giving them the care and attention you've come to expect (since it's the traffic that pays the bills around these parts). And, best of all, this doesn't require anything from you but time, and a little effort.

Oh, and before I forget, you might also enjoy some of the other bonus gaming articles I've been putting out. As of time of writing, they include:

- 5 Tips For Playing Better Paladins
- 50 Shades of Rage: Flavoring The Barbarian's Signature Power
- Table Attorneys Vs. Rules Lawyers: How To Be Fair Without Bogging Down Your Game

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed, and if you've used run these kinds of games before, leave us a comment to let us know what worked for you!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, 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!

How To Create a Character Conversion in 4 Simple Steps!

Those who've been regular readers of my work for the past two years know that one of my favorite RPG hobbies is character conversions. For those who haven't been reading me that long, now you know. All you need to do is stop by the Character Conversions page, and you'll see my takes on the Avengers, Gotham City's vigilantes, and on a pretty big swath of the Game of Thrones cast.

Some swaths are bigger than others.

Since I started writing character conversions I've gotten a lot of praise, some thoughtful additions, and one recurring question; how do you make a character conversion?

It's harder than it looks, but I guarantee you it's easier than you think it is.

Step One: Choose Your Character

This seems self-explanatory, and at least some of you reading this had a character in mind before you got to this step. That's good. Now ask yourself, can I play this character?

Also, just because you CAN, that doesn't mean you SHOULD.

I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about. After I finished my most recent character build for Loras Tyrell, the Knight of the Flowers a Reddit user asked me how I would build Prince/King Joffrey. I answered that I wouldn't, not because I find Joffrey to be a repugnant human being, but because he doesn't fit the mold for a player character.

In an RPG the character you're playing has to have both the ability to act, as well as the desire to do so. The problem with characters like Joffrey Baratheon, his mother Queen Circe, and even (it could be argued) Tywin Lannister is that they are not characters that do, they are characters who have it done. While these characters might make ideal NPCs for a game, their preferred methods of "order an underling to do my bidding," makes then passive participants.

Put another way, M is a necessity to MI-6, but I'm pretty sure you'd rather play James Bond.

Step Two: Identify That Character's Traits

Characters are known by their traits. Think about the Hulk. He's inhumanly strong, durable, brimming with rage... oh, and he normally looks like this guy.

Incredible!

A character's defining traits are what make them who they are, and as such they represent the core ideas you're going to have to convert. Whether it's how Sir Lancelot was a knight who only kept his legendary strength as long as he remained true, or how Wolverine has adamantium claws, the nose of a tracking hound, and a regenerating anatomy, you're creating a list of things your final conversion needs to have in order to accurately represent the character's abilities.

Step Three: Represent Those Traits

It seems pretty easy, at a glance. Once you have your complete list of traits all you have to do is figure out some way to translate them into your game world. The question you have to ask yourself at this point is what things must be translated in a certain way in order for the conversion to work, and which things can be re-skinned or hand-waved simply to give you the feeling of the character?

I feel an example coming on...

Thanks to the power of movie magic (and the charisma of Robert Downey Junior), Iron Man is one of Marvel's most popular characters. With three movies all his own, as well as appearances in two Avengers movies at time of writing, Iron Man has inspired somewhere between dozens and hundreds of gamers to try and create their own armored titan in their games of choice.

If you were to go to Paizo's forums and post the question, "How Do I Build Iron Man in Pathfinder?" you'd get a dozen different suggestions within the hour. You might also start a flame war that will get the question shut down pretty quickly, because everyone has an opinion on this issue. The most common suggestions you're going to get are:

- Play a straight Magus. Stark is a genius, and this class lets you cast in full armor with no penalties pretty fast.

- Play a Summoner with the Synthesist archetype. This lets you summon your eidolon and wear it like armor, allowing you to wreck shit at level 1.

- Play a Wizard/Fighter/Eldritch Knight. You'll be able to fight and cast spells without really losing the access to what you can do as a wizard, and you'll be able to craft your own armor.

- Play a 3rd party class. This thing was specifically built to have an Iron Man feel to it.

Now, none of these are inherently wrong. If you examine the motivation behind the choice, though, you'll find different players are interested in different aspects of the character. For instance, the Magus players often feel that the ability to use magic while wearing armor is enough to accurately portray the character, especially since magi draw their power from their intelligence. Summoners, on the other hand, often feel that Iron Man should be a powerhouse, and that they should be able to throw their weight around at level 1 instead of building up to the armored Avenger by level 15 or 16. The third option is typically offered by players who take a long-game view, and will re-enact a fantasy version of Stark discovering and refining his armor, instead of simply being a spellcaster who can do his thing while encased in steel.

Players who suggest 3rd party material often feel that if someone has already gone to all the hard work of creating a class that is meant to let you play this specific archetype, thereby rendering conversion on your part minimal, why not do that?

When I decided to write my Iron Man Pathfinder conversion I had a single goal for it; actually creating the armor. That was why I advocated a wizard with all of the feats and skills necessary to forge magical construct armor, which protects the magic user inside, and grants the wearer all sorts of additional strengths and powers. Flight? Sure. Durability and strength? Covered. Gauntlet loaded with wands for disposable searing ray? Yup, got that, too.

Step Four: Whip Cream, Cherries, Enjoy!

The last step in a character conversion is figuring out how much of the initial character's story gets poured into the new mold. For example, if you want to make Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane, how much of him are you putting in? He's monstrous big and monstrous strong, yes, but is he also a knight? Is your version a brutal killer, or is he a misunderstood monster who uses his size to stop problems so he doesn't have to pull steel?

Do you go all the way, find a halfway point, or scrap the story entirely and create one of your own?

Lastly, remember how I said there's no wrong way to do a character conversion? It's an extension of the rules that says there's no wrong way to enjoy playing a character. While there are some conversions that are more accurate than others (making your Hulk a Master Chymist who actually changes forms when he hulks out according to game mechanics, instead of simply playing a barbarian who has a mental schism when he rages according to player flavor, for example), how much accuracy you need for the conversion to be complete is entirely up to you as a player.

As always, if you want to support Improved Initiative then stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page and become a patron today! If you want to make sure you don't miss even a single update then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter to stay plugged-in.

Would You Like To See More Character Conversions?

This blog has grown a lot since I started it more than a year and a half ago. I've touched on some great RP strategies, I've developed a more in-depth knowledge of several systems, and (if my inbox and comment sections are to be believed) I've helped a lot of fellow gamers and DMs make their games better. Over the past year or so one of my most consistently popular endeavors has been my character conversions, where I've shown players how to create the heroes from the Avengers, the vigilantes from Gotham, and now some of the fan favorites from the cast of Game of Thrones.

If you haven't stopped by to check out my character conversions page, go take a look. I'll wait.

You done yet?

So, as you can see I've built up a goodly list of builds. I'd like to do a lot more, though. What are some things I'd like to add to the list? How about Batman's Rogues Gallery, which will of course include several members of the Suicide Squad? I'd also like to do a Disney set or two (one for heroes, one for villains), pulp action heroes like the Green Hornet and the Shadow, the Knights of the Round Table, as well as a set dedicated to mythological heroes for players who want a legitimate reason to crack open the mythic rules.

Why haven't I done that yet? The answer is simple; time.

You see, at the moment I only have enough spare time to do a single character conversion a month. That isn't a lot, and at this rate it will take me nearly a year to finish up my Game of Thrones series to the point that I'm satisfied with it. That's because in order to pay my rent I still have to write ad copy and do freelance work for half a dozen hours a day.

You can help me change that, though. If you want to.

How Can I Change That?

I'm glad you asked.

All you need to do is go to my Patreon page and become a patron today! If I can add 10 new patrons by the end of the month of May that will allow me to dedicate more time to my character conversions (and to my blogs in general). That means I'll be able to add two character builds a month, averaging out to one every two weeks or so.

If I can double my current patrons (I only have 22 at the time of this writing) then I'll go one step further. I will write one character conversion per week. I'll be able to do that because I'll no longer have to spend most of my day writing catalog entries about lingerie, and faux user success stories about Ukrainian dating sites.

I'd like to say there was serious money in that, but I'd be lying.

It's my goal to give my readers what they want, and if what you want to see are more character conversions let me know by clicking the Support Improved Initiative link on the top right of the page, or leaving a donation at my Patreon page. It doesn't take much, so let me know what you want by becoming a patron today, as well as leaving stuff you'd like to see in the comments or by emailing your thoughts right to me using the form below.

As always, thanks for stopping by Improved Initiative! If you want to make sure you're getting all of my updates then make sure you're following me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter as well!

Improved Initiative Needs Your Help!

I regret to interrupt your regularly scheduled blog post, but this is a pretty important announcement.

Improved Initiative Needs Your Help!

Got your attention? Good.

Not quite what I meant, but you get the idea

First of all, hi! My name is Neal Litherland, and I'm the fellow who runs Improved Initiative. I'm a freelance writer and author, but most of you probably know me as the guy who provides interesting content on character builds, obscure rules, and roleplaying flavor. It's been my privilege and sincere pleasure to create content that makes your games better. I fully intend to keep doing that, but there's a slight problem.

You see, my monthly income just took a sucker punch in the face.

What Happened?

I'm glad you asked that bold, italic text. Some of you may have heard of Yahoo! Voices, but if you haven't it's a huge network that pays contributors $2 for every 1,000 hits their content gets. Some of you may have seen my Avengers character builds there. Recently my page views at Yahoo! have provided me with enough royalties that I thought I would be able to relax a bit, start saving, and focus more on blogging and writing a novel.

So, of course, Yahoo! Voices is slamming its doors closed forever August 2014.

Hold onto your nappies, it gets worse.

What This Means For You

When August comes around it means that all of my content (400+ articles at last count) is going to be deleted off of Yahoo's system. I'm currently running helter skelter to try and save the articles that are worth saving. You'll likely see my Avengers articles, as well as my Gotham Knights series (Batman, Robin, Huntress, etc.) showing up on here in the next few months. I'll also keep creating new content and trying to offer shiny, new ideas for your next campaign.

That said, the fact remains that I'm losing a big chunk of income from Yahoo's up-front payments, in addition to losing the royalty check that comes at the end of the month.

What I'm Asking

I need help, and before you start telling me you don't have any loose change, you don't need any. Here's a list of all the ways you can help, and I'm not asking anyone to do more than they're able.

Divine intervention is welcome, if you have a solid track record.

# 1: Become a Patron

Maybe you don't have any cash laying around, but maybe you're one of those folks who has a secure day job to support your gaming habit. If that's the case, and you'd be comfortable donating as little as $1 a month to keep the gaming articles flowing, the stop by my Patreon page by clicking right here and becoming a patron. It's pretty simple; you pledge a certain amount per blog (say $1), and then when I update my Patreon page it will charge you that $1. You can also set your maximum donation per month so that even if I updated this blog every day you'd only ever spend that single Washington on my behalf.

Make sense?

For those who choose to become a patron, you all have my sincere thanks. Since I know those aren't worth very much, I'll also throw in one of my ebook titles for free to sweeten the pot. Lastly, while I will be moving my articles from Yahoo! over to Improved Initiative, all the transfers will be done free of charge! Woo, more content for everyone!

#2: Leave a One-Time Donation

Maybe you never noticed it before, but on the upper right hand side of the page there's a little box titled "Bribe the DM". That tip jar connects directly to my Paypal, and you can choose to drop some spare in there whenever you have it. So if you've got a couple bucks this month, but you don't want to commit to a regular thing, I'll gladly accept any and all donations left in my virtual glass.

#3: Tell Your Family, Tell Your Friends, Tell Your Table!

This one gets an exclamation mark because it's the best way to help, and it requires nothing but your time.

Improved Initiative, like any blog that uses Google AdSense, makes money based on its ad clicks. When someone clicks an ad, that earns a fee. So the more traffic this blog receives, the bigger the chances are that my readers will see an ad that interests them. Also the more traffic I manage to get the better my page ranking will be, the easier the blog will be to find... you get the idea. If your website becomes popular then that very popularity has a way of sustaining itself.

What I'm asking you to do, valiant readers, is to help spread the word. If you see an entry you like, don't be afraid to share it on your Facebook or your Tumblr page. Hell, throw it up on Reddit if you feel compelled to do so. If you have friends looking for advice, send them over this way. Don't be afraid to dig through my archive to see what topics I've covered, and to share those too. In short there's no such thing as bad traffic.

Lastly, don't be afraid to submit your email on the top right and get my updates on the regular. The more followers Blogger says I have, the better I look, the more people see me... you get the idea.

What Do You Get Out of This?

I don't expect something for nothing.

That's why I'm a really shitty bank robber.

First and foremost, you get my sincerest thanks. Since I know precisely what that's worth, you also get my pledge to keep creating great content for your enjoyment and use. If I can manage 10 new patrons I will also do my best to increase my updates to 3 times per week with a Moon Pope Monday feature, a character build conversion, and one of my other features (Crunch, Fluff, or a Table Talk story on a rotating cycle) to fill in the rest of the week.

I think that about wraps it up. Thanks very much for your patience, and I hope next week to return you to your regularly scheduled awesome.