Dungeon Design Tips: Ticking Time Clocks, And Wizard Bullets

There is a common complaint among many Game Masters that players ride roughshod over their dungeons and encounters without any serious challenge. Things are just too easy, and there's rarely any real risk to them. However, once Game Masters start pulling back the curtain, it becomes clear they're leaving out an important aspect of the game... namely, that sometimes things need to be done quickly.

For more installments of this series, check out:

- Consider Removing Doors From Your Dungeon

- Combine Combat With Traps

- Cover, Firing Lines, and Dynamic Arenas

- Antagonist Action Economy (Never Fight Just One BBEG)

- Pay Attention To The Environment

Seriously, it makes a difference...

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

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

A Timer Makes A Big Difference!

Now, before we get going on this, it's important to remember that not all events should have a ticking time clock on them. Sometimes the party should be allowed to take their time, explore, and go at their own pace. However, time should be treated as a resource in an RPG, and like any resource it should be finite. Not only that, it should be more finite in particular instances than others as a way of creating additional challenge.

For some examples, consider the following situations:

- The party must reach the heart of the Shrine of Eternal Storms... but it is only ever accessible for 3 days out of a year. If they fail in their quest, they will either need to escape and wait another year, or they will be trapped inside!

- A jailbreak is happening tonight! They need to get themselves, and a specific fellow prisoner, out... preferably before the guards realize what's happening!

- A force of the dread warlock Al-Kazir is approaching the ruins with the intent to seize the Bloodstone. They need to get it first, otherwise it will fall into his hands... then there may be no way to stop him and his legions if that happens!

While there are just a few broad strokes, you get the idea. It's not just that the party has to fight their way through a dungeon, or explore a dangerous crypt, or acquire a certain relic... it's that they don't have the luxury of time. This means that they will have to make choices based on the sand falling through the hourglass as much as anything else, and it will likely lead to some hard decisions.

We don't have time for this...

As an example, the smart thing to do in a dungeon is to carefully check every inch of the floor for traps... but if you have enemy forces closing on your position, you don't have the luxury of crawling along the floor and fiddling with every door. So now the rogue is rushing the job, or alternatives methods are used. Does the barbarian or the fighter bulldoze their way down a hallway, counting on toughness or armor to save them from the worst of the trap's damage? Or does the necromancer take one of her least-robust servants, walking the undead down the hall to trigger any tripwires or slicing blades, sacrificing the zombie in order to gain a few precious minutes of efficiency?

The same is true of combat situations in the dungeon. While a party might normally decide to clear a dungeon room by room, fighting anything that resists them, that can turn into a slog, and use a lot of resources that requires members to rest, recuperate, and replenish themselves. Alternatively, the party might like to try diplomacy and negotiation, but such tactics can be unreliable at best, and they often eat into the amount of time one has allotted. Does the press of minutes mean that the characters embrace stealth or guile instead? Perhaps attempting to sneak in without being seen, getting close to their goal and rushing out before they can get caught? Or do they attempt to blend in, don the uniforms and forms of creatures or warriors who should be present in this place, avoiding battle as much as possible in order to get what they came for and get out?

These are the kinds of pivots and changes that can be made when players don't have time to rush in, face first, sword swinging, before retreating half a dozen times to try again the next day once they've had 8 hours of rest, a Gatorade, and a chance to replenish all their spells and class features.

This is Where The Wizard Bullets Come In

Vancian magic is the dominant form of magic in Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, and similar games. Characters start the day with a certain amount of spells, and even if you aren't a spellcaster per-se, you often have a class feature or power that has a pool of points or resources (a cleric's channel energy, an alchemist's bombs and extracts, a monk's ki pool, a swashbuckler's panache, and so on) that runs out as you use them. This acts kind of like the bullets in a gun, which means that spellcasters and similar characters are extremely dangerous as long as they still have ammunition, but once they run out of their resources, they have a serious problem.

The problem arises when players have no time limit on their activities, and there's no penalties for rushing in, empting their magazines (so to speak), and then retreating to rest and recharge before coming in fresh. Because the challenge of these games is set up in such a way that a party should go through between 3 and 5 encounters between when they first loaded up to fight, and when they are supposed to be drained of their abilities.

By putting a time constraint on your players, you eliminate them retreating and "reloading" after every single encounter (or only a small handful of them), thus forcing them to conserve their resources and make tougher decisions about where they're going to use their powers, and how they're going to handle things going forward.

Oh balls... Guys, I think I'm tapped out!

For example, does the sorcerer really want to cast a spell just because it's their turn? Or will they use a wand or a scroll that will still be a helpful contrinbution to the battle while keeping their own powers in reserve? Does this battle really warrant the barbarian using their Rage, or can they handle this with their raw, brute strength and clever maneuverability? Does the ranger want to use their special arrows on this fight, or should they save those for the upcoming boss fight, knowing they only have a handful of them?

Because if players know, academically, they're on a time crunch they are going to get a lot more creative with their resources. Not only that, but they're going to really ask whether it's worth pulling the trigger when they only have so many rounds in the magazine... or should they just let the fighter with the greatsword handle it, even if it means the spellcaster has to wait a round or two while the martials mop up the rest of the battle?

If your players can just go in, guns blazing with no repercussions for walking back out and taking 24 hours to rest and recuperate to get themselves fully locked and loaded before wading back in... well, that's certainly going to undermine your threat and danger. But if they know they have to do all of this in one go, and the only resources they have are the ones they bring in the door with them, that's going to be a very different (and usually much more tense) adventure.

Additional Recommended Reading

If you enjoyed this piece, then I would recommend checking out 100 Tips And Tricks For Being A Better Game Master, along with the companion piece 100 Tips For Being A Better RPG Player. Both of these supplements have been quite popular, and they collect some of the best field-tested tips that have been covered on this blog over the years!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

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

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on 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!

Dungeon Design Tips: Pay Attention To The Environment

Our adventures are supposed to take place in dangerous, terrifying places. From lost ruins, to dense forests, to haunted castles, our parties go to places where most normal people would never go. However, as Game Masters, we always seem to forget that the environment they're in isn't just limited to the box text we read at the beginning of the scene... it should show up on the mat as well!

Because environmental factors can be a huge component of any encounter.

Previous entries in this series (for those who haven't seen them) include:

- Consider Removing Doors From Your Dungeon

- Combine Combat With Traps

- Cover, Firing Lines, and Dynamic Arenas

- Antagonist Action Economy (Never Fight Just One BBEG)

Initiative? Ah hell... I can't see a damn thing!

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!

It's About More Than Light And Darkness

When it comes to environmental factors, the most common aspect Game Masters remember to use is light levels. If the party is sleeping around a campfire, and they're ambushed by orcs in the dead of night, then the firelight only goes so far, and beyond that there's darkness. This situation obviously benefits creatures with darkvision (such as the attacking orcs), and penalizes those who don't have the ability to see in the dark.

And while that is an important consideration for your combats, it is far from the only environmental condition one might have to overcome.

All right... let's get this fire going.

For example, consider some of the following environmental effects your party might have to deal with, and how they could drastically tilt the challenge level of a quest, and the encounters in it.

- Temperature: If the temperature is too cold, or too hot, it can require very specific gear, spells, and potions to combat it. This can also greatly reduce viable armor choices, or favor the natural abilities of certain species over others.

- Visibility: Whether it's from mist and fog, dense trees, or even rain, visibility is a huge deal when it comes to encounters. This is particularly true when it comes to enemy movements, and the difficulty this can inflict on those who focus on ranged weapons and spells during combat.

- Wind and Storms: There are half a dozen spells for dealing with wind, and we rarely end up using any of them. Whether it's affecting those trying to track by scent, interfering with arrows and bolts, or it's significant enough that it poses a real hazard to Small-sized creatures, this doesn't factor into nearly as many campaigns as you'd think it would. And when you add in lightning strikes, deafening thunder, and other aspects, it can be a real issue to overcome!

- Miasma: Whether it's the rotting stench of a swamp, or the bad air deep in a dungeon, breathing in the wrong thing can be unpleasant at best, or dangerous at worst. Add in the fact that it can hide the stench of dangerous enemies, or render the ability to track by scent impossible, and you have a serious obstacle.

- Water: The existence of water and water hazards changes things up entirely. Whether it's ankle-deep water that hinders movement, waist-deep water that can be a serious hazard for Small-sized characters, or deeper bodies that are a risk for anyone who can't breathe under the waves, water comes in many shapes, sizes, and choices.

These are just a few of the options when it comes to the enviornment that we often overlook as a Game Master. Because as I've mentioned in previous installments of this little series, putting your party in a plain, white room or an open field with perfect lighting, clear sight lines, and no cover on concealment means that you've handed your players a straight-up fight.

Why would your monsters ever do that?

While you don't have to stack the deck against your players like a death run by Tucker's Kobolds, consider the environmental effects that should be an issue for them, and possibly for their enemies. If the dungeon is underground, or it's night time, what source of light is the party making use of? Do their enemies also need a light source, or can they see using other means? Is the air laced with spores of poisonous mold that don't bother the necromancer's undead minions, but which can be a serious problem for the party? Is the exposed side of the Dragon Mountain a place of cutting winds and potential avalanches, both of which might be used by yeti and ice dragons to wear down and kill their enemies?

So before you decide to just add more hit points to your enemies, or to slap another dozen monsters onto an encounter, ask yourself whether you've considered possible environmental effects. Because they might not be a make-or-break part of an encounter, but they can be that little extra bit of challenge that can put an edge on your game.

Lastly, if you're looking for some extra things to throw into your games regarding weather and strange conditions, consider these classic encounter lists:

- 100 Random Encounters For On The Road Or In The Wilderness

- 100 Encounters In A Fey Forest

- 100 Pieces of Floatsam and Jetsom to Find on a Beach

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

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

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on 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!

Dungeon Design Tips: Cover, Firing Lines, and Dynamic Arenas

If you've played RPGs long enough, chances are you've been in your share of scrapes and scraps. And while there might have been one or two memorable events, chances are good that a majority of these combats were in wide open fields, square or rectangular rooms, and with an occasional circular chamber mixed in for variety. But while the shape of these arenas might change, many of them suffer from the same problem; they're wide open spaces with clear sight lines.

So if you want to make your arenas more dynamic, consider changing that up.

Who's up for a little crossfire?

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!

Cover, Firing Lines, And Changing Up Your Formula

Let's use the humble tavern as an example. It's one of the most infamous places in fantasy RPGs, because it feels like this is always where your adventure takes place. And while we often think of taverns as little more than long, rectangular rooms, consider all the potential aspects of them. There's the bar itself, which provides cover for those standing behind it. There might be heavy support columns that could do the same throughout the room. There's also the benches and tables that one could leap up onto in order to claim the high ground, or flip over in order to hide behind them in the event that arrows, crossbow bolts, or spells start flying.

And that is just a single example of how a relatively "normal" location for a combat could immediately become a more dynamic arena. But ask yourself what could happen if you introduced that same kind of philosophy to other places where it's likely that steel and spells will come into play.

This is where creativity can really alter the challenge.

Consider the goblin cavern that most adventurers will venture into at some point in their careers. Are there small niches higher on the wall where said goblins can station archers to fire down on intruders? Are there lower ceilings that make their home difficult to invade for anyone Medium-sized, forcing them to fight at a disadvantage? Are there stalagmites that break up line of sight along the cavern, making it hard to target individual enemies as they converge? You could even take this strategy and apply it in outdoor areas, using tall grasses, underground burrows, and even simple hills to give some targets high ground, cover, and so on.

And this is before you have players assault locations that are specifically built to give the advantage to defenders.

This isn't just castles, though they're the most obvious location. Narrow bridges and hallway choke points, stairways, balconies, fences and barricades can all add dynamic aspects and elements to your dungeons and encounters, while also making particular powers more viable and interesting than they would otherwise be in a game where all your arenas are empty, square rooms with no real strategy involved except swinging a sword or firing arrows until all the enemies fall over.

For example, say you have a castle courtyard where there are melee warriors down in the dirt with the party, but there are archers or spellcasters up along the ramparts directing their aggression downward. At this point, characters who have access to spells like spider climb, or abilities like shadow jump could use those to immediately close vertical distance, shifting their position up to threaten the ranged enemies who thought they were safe. Alternatively, if you had an evoker with a spell like chain lightning or fireball up their sleeve, they could use those to clear the upper deck, while the party melee brutes kept the other enemy fighters busy.

And if you had a particularly acrobatic/mobile party, they might all be able to clamber up to the ramparts, keeping themselves out of melee reach while using their new, more protected position to their advantage by slinging spells, firing arrows, or just hucking bombs down at an enemy that can no longer reach them.

These will fix a VARIETY of problems...

The more dynamic you make an area with things like cover, difficult terrain, high ground, low ground, and so on, the wider a variety of tools and strategies your players will be able to use to achieve their goals. And, on top of that, it can stop combat from feeling like just another slog... which is what this whole series is about!

Lastly, when designing these arenas, keep in mind that this also adds to the CR of the encounter. So keep in mind that fighting a squad of orc berserkers and a single shaman in a knock down, drag out brawl is a very different matter than crossing an area of difficult terrain with cover, Czech hedgehogs, and so on that forces the party to get... creative with their solutions!

If you enjoyed this article, and you'd like more ways you can change things up as a GM, make sure you grab a copy of 100 Tips And Tricks For Being A Better Game Master!

 

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

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

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on 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!

Dungeon Design Tips: Combine Combat With Traps

A while back I put together an article titled Consider Removing Doors From Your Dungeons, and it was popular enough that I thought I'd come back to the topic of dungeon design this week. And before I get into this next topic, I wanted to ask my readers out there... is this something you'd like to see me turn into an ongoing series? And if so, would you like to see it remain part of my Crunch updates, or would you like to see it become its very own section? And, for that matter, do you want it to remain hosted on this blog, or should I put it over in My Vocal Archive?

All input is welcome, as it's the voices of my audience I use to try to guide my decisions going forward. With that said, onto this week's topic!

After all, not all traps are this obvious!

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!

Combat And Traps: A Match Made In Hell

As I mentioned in the previous installment, a lot of us tend to think of our dungeons in segmented parts and pieces, which we don't allow to interact with one another. If there's a room with an encounter in it, then no matter how long or loud the combat gets, other denizens of the dungeon won't come to see what's happening, even though that's the logical thing to do... it's as if the doors are all soundproof, and none of the other monsters want to overstep the limits of the arena they're placed in. To help break us out of that mindset, my suggestion was to eliminate doors, or to at least leave them open so it's clear they aren't a barrier between what happens in this part of the map, and what happens further away.

However, just as we often section off our rooms and arenas, keeping them separate and apart from one another, we often refuse to let two other parts of our dinner touch; namely traps and combat encounters.

Guys, got a monster! Stop checking for traps and help me!

Consider this. A majority of the time we put traps in long hallways, cramped corridors, and otherwise empty rooms because (whether we're thinking about it or not) we consider the trap to be the encounter in that area. While some doors might have traps on them (thus allowing the trap to act as the opening salvo of an encounter), that is a one-two punch rather than a genuine combination of a trap and encounter. Like having a burger and fries in the same take out container, but they're still not touching each other.

No, this week's advice is to purposefully and deliberately combine traps with combat encounters as a way to create a more dynamic arena, and to increase the difficulty/challenge rating for your players.

There are a few different ways I would suggest thinking about this. Some of those methods, with examples, include:

- Added Threat: Consider a room with hidden crossbows or arrow traps, but which all fire at a height that will hit a Medium creature and not a Small one, and which go off when triggered by a higher weight than a Small creature possesses. This ensures the goblins in the room can run amok, goading the party to close the distance via certain routes, thus setting off additional, hidden attacks. Bonus points if the bolts/arrows are drugged or poisoned, thus creating an additional danger.

- Ticking Clock: We've all been in a room with a flooding trap before, putting a ticking clock on how long players have before they're drowned... but what if there are hungry crocodiles released into the rising waters? Or skeletal warriors who aren't bothered by things like a need to breathe? The water doesn't hurt the characters in and of itself, but it does add one hell of a challenge.

- Battlefield Control: The party steps into a room with a handful of orc archers firing their longbows. Clearly the solution is for the barbarian to charge them so they can no longer take pot shots at the party. But that's when the roaring brute finds, to their chagrin, that parts of the floor are loose, leading to drops into spiked pits. The enemy knows where the camouflaged pits are, and while the party now has to move carefully, the enemy can fire at will, or engage however they wish to.

These are just a few ways that traps can add additional threats to a situation, and create an additional threat for your party to deal with!

With that said, consider some of the following caveats...

Before going ham and adding traps to every encounter, take a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Because when choosing the proper traps to mix into your combat, it's important to consider the following questions:

- Is This An Equal Opportunity Trap? Most traps will likely be avoided by the monsters in the room, but there are some traps which will only be an issue for the party, even if they go off. A poison gas trap, for example, won't affect the zombies in a room, even if it creates a deadly poison cloud that can be a serious danger for the party.

- Is This A Crippling Trap? Most traps are dangerous in-the-moment, but if someone survives the trap, will it create a condition that character now has to deal with for the rest of the dungeon? Something that deals hit points, or which creates a short-term negative is very different than something that gives the victim a permanent negative, or which takes away one of their options to participate in the game going forward. Just like how a monster sundering a fighter's sword is a serious issue that shouldn't be considered lightly, so too is a trap that leaves an effect on a character after the room it's encountered in (other than hit point loss, as that's often reparable).

- Does This Trap Make Sense In This Location? If the party is invading the secret underground lair of a mad alchemist, then it makes total sense for rooms to be rigged with poison gas, explosive traps, and other challenges... but would those same devices be found in the lair of a dragon? Or a defunct crypt that no living person has entered in a century? Just because a trap might make good tactical sense, that doesn't mean it makes sense with the world's internal consistency.

- Is This Avoidable? There shouldn't be a guarantee that a trap goes off. There should be a chance that players avoid it, whether it's moving in a certain way to avoid triggering it, making a Perception check to notice the trap, or having some ability to negate or stop it from going off. Traps that you basically have to set off, or disable while you're under attack, can quickly suck the fun out of an encounter, and they're something you should avoid doing often (or at all, depending on the opinion of your table).

One last thing I would add as a piece of advice here is to choose your traps carefully. Just like how players will get tired of fighting the exact same monster over and over again, or how they'll come up with strategies to deal with specific tactics, a particular trap layout is only going to work so many times before it goes from a new and dangerous threat to an annoyance or frustration.

More importantly, though, is that the real advantage of traps is the uncertainty they create. For example, if your party snuck into a forbidden crypt, and they had to do battle with undead squires to enter the tomb proper, then the lack of a trap might make them confident. But then they have to cross a bridge that is trapped while undead archers fire arrows at them, that might leave their confidence shaken. When they enter the depths of the tomb, and find a skeletal champion and its retainers waiting for them, is the party going to assume this is another straight-up fight? Or will they be moving with caution, wondering where the booby traps are?

A trap only has to happen every now and again for the party to become wary of them. However, traps can grant a serious home field advantage, often allowing a small number of adversaries (or even just one) to take on an entire party of well-armed, well-prepared player characters!

Speaking of Traps...

Part of the reason I was thinking on this topic was that I've been re-reading my recent supplement Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps that I put out a little while back for my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic. I'm slowly gearing up to write a few more missions set in this world to follow up the first release A Night At Breckon's Beacon, and at least one of these missions is going to have a lot of traps as part of the challenge a squad is going to have to face.

Seriously, grab a copy if you haven't yet!

If you're looking for a game that definitely encourages the use of traps as part of the challenge (for both allies and enemies), then grab yourself a copy of Army Men for the holidays! And if you just want some improvised mayhem in your game, well, Army Men is based off of a 5E engine, so if your game also runs on something 5th Edition, or a 5th Edition port, these booby traps should be equally useful for you as well! And while some are meant for dealing with infantry, there are several that are meant for taking out vehicles, as well as their entire crew... so tread carefully!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

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

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on 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!