The Key To A Sandbox Is To Make Sure It's Populated, And Stuff Is Happening

One of the biggest complaints I hear from players is that they want to play in campaigns and settings where they feel like they have freedom and autonomy, and not that they're going to be put on rails and driven toward the Game Master's predetermined destination. The opposite end of that setting is, of course, the sandbox game. This is where players are plopped down into the game world, and they are free to explore, take up quests, meet NPCs, and get tangled up in whatever webs they please.

The thing is, for a sandbox to work, a Game Master has to actually populate it with stuff for the players to interact with, and events to take part in... otherwise you end up with a ghost town.

Also, if this subject interests you, then I highly recommend checking out River Games: Somewhere Between The Sandbox And The Railroad.

Between all these grains of sand, there should actually be stuff.

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!

Load Up The Sandbox, And They'll Never Run Out Of Things To Do

As someone who has run both linear games where there's a direct through line where the game starts and ends, as well as someone who has put together a handful of sandboxes, I can tell you that the latter take ten times as much time, energy, and effort to set up. This isn't just because you have to populate the world with NPCs, plot hooks, news, rumors, loot, dungeons, and more... you have to do that for a linear progression game as well. The difference is that for a sandbox you have to have more of everything, because you have no way of knowing what your players are going to do, or what direction they're going to go in.

Sandbox GMs are a majority of my readers.

Think about it for a second. If you're going to run a linear plot, you have a series of events that take your players from Point A, to Point B, to Point C, dragging them along a pathway toward the eventual showdown with the campaign's big bad. But if you are running a game where you simply set the world in motion, then turn your players loose, you need to have significantly more stuff for them to do, people to talk to, and happenings to get involved with!

For example, in a linear game, you might have one bar with plot-relevant characters, a couple of town guardsman with actual information worth delivering, and a series of dungeons where encounters will take place... but for a sandbox, you need to have that kind of setup for a wider variety of decisions the players might make. Not only that, but there's going to be a ticking time clock on events, because what the players choose to get involved with, and what they choose not to get involved with, can affect the machinery of the world.

Consider the town of Timbersong. It's a small port town with half a dozen fishermen and some traders and travelers. There's a lumber operation there (or at least there used to be), and most people who come up that way do so for the hot springs, or to look for work in the growing boom town and its surrounding farms. And there are dozens of things that can be done in this location, including:

- Taking on work at the Hardwick Agency as a private guard

- Examine the Palatine Spring, and the rumors of something unusual there

- Go into the old growth forest in search of treasure, ruins, or monsters

- Talk to sailors coming in from the sea to hear about rumors of pirates attacking coastal towns

- Escort a caravan down to the next town

- Take passage on a ship to go further along the coast

Now, if this was a linear game, you might have a specific idea of what you want your players to do. Hopefully they get hired by the detective agency, which then sends them to deal with something that's been seen out in the woods. They uncover an ancient cult, tie that to the springs, and realize the healing waters are drawn from an ancient genius loci. They form a pact with that spirit, and the old rituals are kept up to appease it, ensuring the town can grow around it. At that point the PCs leave Timbersong either by road or by ship to move onto the next town, and the next set of rumors, happenings, and people.

But that's one set of events. And sure, the PCs might take that specific bait and follow those particular events, but what if they step off that path? What if they instead want to try to recruit one of the odd cats that roam the town, either as a pet, or to have a familiar? What if they want to immediately go pirate hunting, trying to figure out if there are bounties and rewards for those who slay buccaneers, and trying to find a captain to take them on this errand? What if they take on tasks from Marlena Racks who needs surveys taken along the coast so she can draw accurate maps? What if, what it, what if...

None of these are random, either. Timbersong is one of the towns in my supplement 10 Fantasy Villages, and it's jammed with stuff like the above suggestions to give Game Masters an edge on laying the ground work for a localized sandbox.

Having a linear game means you have a single chain of events, more or less. There are likely a few side quests here and there, but nothing outside of the important main line is going to get really fleshed out. It's that old situation where there's one clearly important NPC in the bar, and while you can talk to other folk, that individual is the one with the information that's going to move the story along.

But if you have a sandbox game, you need to have either multiple chains of events that all branch off on their own stories, or you need to have a bunch of disconnected events and individuals, and allow the interactions of your players to build the story based off the things they choose to do or not do.

The World Needs To Move Without Them

I mentioned this concept back in Game Masters, Make Sure The Villains Aren't Just Sitting Around Waiting, but it's worth being repeated here. Because if you have an entire sandbox world, the player characters won't be able to respond to everything... so when they aren't involved, that also has consequences that can spiral out of control.

Consider Timbersong again. There's a cult in the forest trying to awaken the wrath of a genius loci to wipe out the town. There are pirates pillaging the coast. There are farmers being attacked by terrible beasts who lost their habitats. While it's possible for the party to solve all of these problems all at once, if they neglect something, or don't consider it worth their time, then it will come to a head without them.

For instance, if the party goes out to hunt pirates on the waters, they might find a bounty, and bring them down quickly, giving them the time to get back to Timbersong to deal with the cult. But if they're gone for too long due to storms, bad rolls, etc., then they might come back to a town that's been ruined by an angered spirit within the spring. Or, if they focus on the cult first, and then handle the pirates, by the time they come back to town they might find people deep in debt because the farms were overrun and all their food now has to be imported.

Or if the PCs chose to do an escort mission for a ship or a caravan, then they might hear about the uprising in Timbersong, or about how a disaster wiped it off the map, only for the survivors to be captured by pirates and sold into slavery.

It's a rough life on the bloody seas.

Now, the point is not that you need to give your players impossible decisions... the point is that for your sandbox to have meaning that there has to be a lot of stuff in it, and for the decisions your players make to have weight and gravitas. And while you might be able to tie various things together due to the players' actions (say they do capture a special cat from the forest, and it turns out to be able to talk. So now it can clue them in on secret knowledge of the cult, and the spring spirit, which they didn't have before because they did a seemingly pointless side quest), it needs to feel organic.

 

In other words, if you only have one bar, and it doesn't matter which one your players walk in they're getting the same NPCs and the same floor plan, that gamble only works if they don't realize you played switcheroo with them. Because if they feel you're just creating a Potemkin village that makes them feel like their actions have consequences, but really there's only ever been one path to walk, that's going to deeply disappoint people who showed up to play in a sandbox.

So yes, sandbox games require a lot more in terms of worldbuilding, NPCs, plot hooks, events, etc. But once you have all those things in place you can basically set the world in motion, and then just watch what your players choose to do, and ask how that affects the physics of the world that was already turning.

 

Harder to start, but fairly easy to keep running once you flick the switch and all the gears start running!

With that said, I would recommend checking out all of my 200+ TTRPG supplements that are largely meant to help you populate your game, and to be sure you save your brain power for the heavy lifting. You can take a look at this pinboard of all my supplements and games, but if you're looking to build a sandbox I would definitely suggest grabbing copies of:

- 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master

- Towns of Sundara

- 100 Character Goals and Motivations

- 100 Ways To Start a Campaign (That Aren't In a Tavern)

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 the dark sci fi channel I contribute stories to, The A.L.I.C.E. Files! 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!

Moving From Reactive Characters To Active Ones In Your Tabletop Games

There is a tendency among players to be reactive. There may still be roleplay going on, and the character may still be doing things, but those things are rarely important or goal-oriented. They'll be drinking at the tavern, cooking meals in a kitchen, splitting wood, wandering through a carnival, fighting in a local pit, or any of a thousand other things, but these tasks are rarely in service to actually accomplishing anything... instead, they're merely things that can be stopped as soon as the actual task is set before them by the Game Master.

Put another way, a lot of characters are swimming around like fish, waiting for something that looks vaguely like a hook to appear. And then when the hook is there, it's like they're waiting for it to grab them, and pull them to wherever it is they're supposed to be.

However, a game often goes far more smoothly (and can actually be a lot more fun) if the player characters are actively pursuing goals and plots, instead of passively waiting for something to happen to them in order to spark a reaction.

When was the last time the king cleared the board?

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!

Motivation Is Only Part Of The Formula

When it comes to character actions, the discussion often turns to motivations and goals. After all, if a character isn't pursuing what they want, then it must be because they don't have a clearly defined brass ring they're reaching for, right? The difficulty is that motivation is just the gas in the tank; you need to have it, but the fuel isn't what drives you forward... it's pushing your foot down on the pedal that does it. It is applying action and ignition to the motivation that makes the wheels turn.

 

To continue this metaphor, you can have a character with deep, abiding motivations. They may have causes they care passionately about, or goals they must achieve if they're to move on with their life... but picking a direction doesn't mean you are moving in that direction.

 

Knowing the route isn't the same as walking the road.

For a less metaphorical example, do you play your character like Fred or Shaggy? Are you actively looking for answers, trying to find solutions, or even setting up traps, or is your character constantly making excuses, ducking plot hooks, or trying to run away unless the plot grabs them by the scruff of the neck, or they're dragged into things by the rest of the party?

 

Now, that is not to say you can't play a Shaggy. But if the entire party is reluctant to participate in what's happening, and is looking for reasons to get out of it to be somewhere else, and to do something else, then there's either not going to be a game to play, or the plot is going to have hem the party in to force them to solve a problem. However, if 3 of the 4 characters are being proactive and jumping in with both feet, this typically drags a reluctant (or a purely reactive) character along in their wake.

 

If you find yourself constantly twiddling your thumbs, looking around the table for someone to make the first move, or constantly waiting around for your character to be told what to do next, consider taking the initiative instead. Be the one who makes a plan, and gets the table talking. Call out to your companions, and tell them what you plan to do, and ask them to come with you on this endeavor. You don't necessarily need to be the party leader, but sometimes all it takes is being willing to dive in to really get the gears turning.

 

It also saves your Game Master from having to constantly prime the pump, and come up with some kind of event or NPC to give everyone a push in order to keep things moving.

 

Lastly if you are interested in a little extra motivation for your characters, then I'd recommend checking out my supplements 100 Character Goals and Motivations, which went Electrum a while back, and 100 Dark Secrets which is still Silver at time of writing, but could move up to the next metal level with your help!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Fluff 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 the dark sci fi saga of The A.L.I.C.E. Files! 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: Limited Resources Can Lead To Creative Strategies

When you pop the hood on what makes an RPG challenging, there are a lot of different systems at play. However, if you dig down to the very foundations of what makes the game work, a lot of it comes down to a smart use of the available resources to complete a task, or achieve a goal. Whether it's spell slots, rage rounds, alchemical items, carrying capacity, or even time, limiting the resources your players have available is one of the main ways a Game Master establishes challenge... and it can often lead to creative strategies on your players' part.

We've got three of them left... how many villains are there?

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!

Putting Pressure On Your Players

Challenge is, on the surface, a very simple thing to create. There is an obstacle, and the players need to find a way over it, around it, under it, or through it... and whichever strategy they use is going to come with risk, and it will use some of their resources.

 

What you have to determine, as the Game Master, is how you're going to apply pressure to ensure that your players have to get creative with both their risks and their resources.

 

Think this will be enough ammo for the quest?

 

What resources you have on-hand typically determines what strategies players will want to try... however, the most important consideration for you, as the Game Master, is that every strategy to solve a meaningful problem should come with some kind of potential risk as well as a potential reward.

As an example, take one of the most basic situations found in fantasy RPGs; your party is going to a crumbling ruin that is infested with monsters (and potentially traps) in order to take the treasure inside for themselves. A simple dungeon crawl... however, there are some ways that this scenario might lack challenge. And while most Game Masters just add extra monsters, slap more hit points onto existing creatures, or increase the difficulty and damage on the traps, those things can feel arbitrary.

So instead, let's ask what other things might add pressure to this treasure hunt. Potential challenges include:

- Time Constraints: If the dungeon is only accessible during a specific time frame, say for three days, the party doesn't have a lot of spare 8-hour recharge times to use. The same is true if they manage to get to the dungeon first, but there are other so-called adventurers hot on their tails that they don't want to fight for the loot.

 

- Food: While most campaigns don't pay any real attention to how much your players eat, take a moment and ask how many provisions they brought with them out into the depths of this old-growth forest. Do they have the necessary skills to forage? Do they end up eating something poisonous or rotten, and getting sick? Even if they technically have all the time in the world, they can't keep fighting on an empty stomach.

- Tools: Typically RPGs don't worry about weapon and armor durability, but there are some tools that can break if checks go badly enough. If the rogue only has two sets of lockpicks, and one set gets broken on a door because they rolled poorly enough, will they press forward? Will they allow companions to kick in doors instead, risking drawing the attention of monsters? Or will they use another strategy entirely to open locked portals?

- Material Components: We typically don't worry much about these things, but they are a major necessity for spellcasting. So while relatively simple components might get a hand wave and a pass, ask which spells require notable costs, and expensive or rare components. Because if the party can only bring a handful of those, their absence is going to be felt sooner rather than later.

- Resetting Dungeon: If the players don't complete the dungeon crawl, it should reset or change in a meaningful way when they either abandon it, or hunker down to rest. Perhaps the creatures are reinforced with fresh recruits, or the dead get back up, reanimated by the nature of the place. Maybe creatures that were held in check by creatures the party slew can now expand their territory and wander freely. Maybe the locks reset themselves. Perhaps the traps come back online, or they're reset by monsters who regularly patrol the dungeon. If retreating is a strategic choice, then the dungeon shouldn't just remain in status in their absence.

 

All of these, and many others, are ways you can use limited resources to put a squeeze on your players... and every way they find around one of these constraints is a victory for them. For example, if a ranger can reliably forage well enough to feed themselves and their companions, that removes food as a constraint that can weigh on players. If players have access to fast travel through spells or unique mounts, that also buys them more time, and lets them bypass the dangers of the wilderness.

 

The key here is to get your players thinking in terms of what will use the fewest resources, or what will be most effective, and seeing if it will get them venturing off the beaten path as they search for solutions.

 

Because if you have a thousand arrows, a trunk of material components, and all the healing items in the world, then it's likely your players might try to brute force their way through overwhelming odds by fighting a grueling war of attrition against every monster, bandit, and assassin that comes for them. However, if they just don't have the resources to make that a winning strategy, it can be interesting to see what they do instead. Do the players instead embrace stealth, either ambushing enemies to get the upper hand, or skipping combat altogether to reach the treasure chamber? Do they employ guile, using lies and disguises to hide in plain sight? Do they set traps, or use the ones already in the dungeon to damage or destroy monsters they themselves couldn't fight on their own?

 

When you have access to all the resources in the world, you can get lazy and just do whatever. But when the pressure is on, and you have limited options, that's when people start getting creative with the choices they make... and it can overall lead to a much more satisfying experience!

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 the dark sci fi channel I contribute stories to, The A.L.I.C.E. Files! 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!

The Difficulty of Destined Heroes and Fail States

We have all been in those games where destiny takes a hand in the plot. Perhaps our heroes are chosen by the gods to act as their direct representatives in a spiritual proxy war (a similar setup to what I called The Cold War of The Gods). Maybe there was a prophecy that foretold them rising up to challenge a great power. Or this just happens to be the trope the GM is leaning on because it was difficult to find an organic way to get such a disparate group of killers, thieves, and liars to all come together to accomplish a shared goal.

However, there is nothing more likely to result in a clash between rules and plot than something going wrong in a destined hero game. Which is why, before you gear up to run one, you need to think through how you plan on dealing with a fail state.

The dragon warriors were supposed to free us all... but then they died. To one lucky goblin.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my 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!

How Does Destiny Manage To Weave Through Failure?

We've all read a story where a hero or heroes were destined to do something, and while things might have seemed bleak or hopeless at times in that story, the characters always seemed to make it through in an interesting way. Which is why if you're playing a game where the plot device is that your party have been chosen by fate, the gods, or some other higher force, you need to take a moment to ask how you're going to keep the game going if bad luck stalls out the story's progress.

The gods are not so easily denied, small one...

Let's start with the obvious... what happens if one or more of the characters get killed? They've been chosen for this great destiny, and they're on their way to fulfill it, when an orc ambush goes a little too well, and the party goes down. Now you've lost the champions of the plot... what is destiny going to do now?

Well, I have a few recommendations for how to handle this.

Firstly, if you're going to run a chosen one plot, wait until the PCs have gained a few levels before you start throwing around that kind of language and making them officially chosen ones. The major advantage of this is that it gives your players a couple of levels to get into the groove of their characters, and to get past the point where one good critical hit can spell an unlucky game over. The secondary advantage is that it gives the party time to become cohesive, and for players to get really attached to their characters. After all, a player wanting to bring in a completely different PC can screw with the whole destined heroes plot just as much as a character death.

However, even waiting until the PCs are a little beefier doesn't guarantee they won't meet with an ignoble end. That's why it's a good idea to have some kind of force in place to give the characters a way to survive at least 1 death. However, as I mentioned recently in both Undercutting Death Can Undercut Your Story, as well as Villains Can Cheat Death (Without Taking Away Your Players' Victory), it's important that this doesn't feel like you're just throwing your players a bone. Overcoming death should come with some kind of cost or hardship, or it should be uncertain in some important way. Perhaps a divine being must stand in the place of a PC in the Underworld until they complete their quest, or they have to make some kind of bargain with a powerful outsider.

You can even have a whole separate part of the campaign happen in the land of the dead if you want to bring in a game resource like The Black Ballad, which is all about running campaigns that take place partially (or even entirely) in the hereafter. Alternatively, you might find some inspiration in I'm Back! - 25 Reasons For A Villain's Survival.

Resurrection can be a finnicky thing.

Lastly, and this might sound counterintuitive at first, you should try to come up with fail states beyond death for the PCs.

I've talked about this before, but when it comes to a destiny-style game, consider the implications of death in the ongoing power struggle. Will killing the heroes of the prophecy actually stop the prophecy from coming true? Or will this just allow the divine essence to slip away, where it will empower a different, unknown hero that the villains will have to find and track down all over again? Do the villains want to steal the PCs destiny, but they can't do that if they're dead, so they have to be kept alive and captured? Are the PCs themselves a necessity for the villain to win, whether it's by turning them away from their current path, making allies of them, or getting them to somehow renounce the quest laid before them?

It's your game, so you're the one who gets to decide how the prophecy, destiny, or driving plot force behaves. However, providing multiple fail states, or a way for players to fail-forward is a good idea. For example, have the villains been given explicit instructions by their master to take the PCs alive at all costs? If so, then they should find themselves held prisoner in the enemy's fortress when that was where they were going anyway... the difference is that now they have to engineer a jailbreak instead of just sneaking in. Alternatively, perhaps they're in a race to acquire magical artifacts, and the fail state for that arc of the quest is not being killed, but rather the enemy acquiring the items first, which puts the PCs at a disadvantage they need to recover from in the next arc.

And so on, and so forth.

To wrap things up, I'm not saying that games where PCs are the chosen ones, or where they're fulfilling some grand destiny, are bad. Far from it. After all, everyone likes to be special from time to time. However, if that is the trope you're using as the main thrust of your campaign, it's important for you to have off-ramps and work arounds in the event things don't go according to plan.

Which every Game Master will tell you is basically guaranteed to happen as soon as you hand the reins over to the players, and the dice start hitting the table.

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 additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! 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!

Villains Can Cheat Death (Without Taking Away Your Players' Victory)

I recently wrote a post over on my sister blog The Literary Mercenary titled Undercutting Death Can Undercut Your Story. And while I wrote this from the mindset of an author, there were quite a few references to RPGs and comic books about how introducing mechanics that render death mutable or reversible can have a major effect on your story's stakes, and with how seriously we take death as a consequence.

And this week I wanted to elaborate on this a bit for the Game Masters out there... because while it's true that what's available to the player characters is available to their enemies, if you're going to bring back a villain after they were killed then you need to do so in a way that doesn't feel cheap, or undermine your players' success, and which adds to the ongoing story.

Also, a shout out to Adrian Kennelly's supplement I'm Back! - 25 Reasons For A Villain's Survival for Game Masters who could use a bit of a kickstart on this topic.

It's a delicate balance... but you can manage it.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my 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!

Should You Bring This Villain Back?

Its happens to all of us. Your players get lucky, and they sink a critical hit at a bad time. Or maybe you forgot about an ability on their sheet that stripped away your villain's exit strategy. Or for the first time in recorded history one of those one-hit-kill powers actually worked, and it dropped your big bad instantly. Well, you had plans for this villain in the narrative going forward, but the numbers made it clear that your players won this round, and your villain is dead.

First and foremost, ask yourself why they shouldn't stay that way. Aside from the fact that it would make your life easier as the GM, who in your ongoing campaign has a vested interest in that villain remaining on the mortal plane? And, perhaps even more importantly, what role are they supposed to actually serve in the ongoing narrative?

You had one job, Crassus... now go do it!

Take a moment, and ask who this villain is. Are they a hired mercenary who was just working for the real villain? Are they a servant of a cult, who might have access to relics or rituals that can bring back their servants? Or does this villain serve a dark god, or powerful necromancer, who might decide their minion has skills and abilities that would be too hard to replace at this stage of their plans? Did they make a deal with someone, or something that isn't going to let them out of it so easily?

All of that context matters. Because if your villain was just some guy who had a certain set of skills, but not a particularly rare one, then they shouldn't be resurrected unless the circumstances of their death were genuinely up in the air. If they fell off of a cliff and into a rushing river, then maybe they could survive, for instance. But if the PCs stabbed them to death, dismembered them, and burned their body, that villain is dead for sure. In that situation it's better to bring in a new villain who will take their place, and who might be looking for vengeance on those who killed that original bad guy. Maybe it's an old war buddy, an enraged father, a vengeful mother, an even more evil twin... someone who fills the role nicely, and who shows the party their actions have consequences, and what they do affects the story as it unfolds.

However, if this villain was truly difficult to replace either because of their unique power level, or you really wanted to build up more of the personal antagonism between them and the PCs, then consider using any of the absurd methods you have on-hand for resurrecting them. For example, could their parts and pieces be reassembled with dark technology, or terrible magic into some kind of angry cyborg a la Darth Vader, or an evil Robocop? Could they be truly resurrected by a patron, or a deity, who marks them in some way to remind them they have failed (perhaps removing a finger, like a Yakuza soldier, or marking them with terrible brands, taking an eye, etc.)? Or are they resurrected with a template added onto them, perhaps as a powerful undead, or some kind of horrible demon hybrid creature?

Or are they operating under a curse, like those who wield the Widowmaker, a terrible, corrupt weapon found in The Blade Itself for Hunter: The Vigil?

Give it a look if you haven't yet!

Now, the key here is that for this villain to come back it can't feel like you just hit the undo button behind the GM screen, and invalidated your players' victory because it was inconvenient to the narrative. This resurrection should clearly have come at some kind of cost to the villain, and it should be uncertain as to whether it will happen again. Even if you want to use resurrection or reincarnation as a kind of power for this particular enemy, the challenge will then become finding the thing that truly kills them for good so they stop coming back. But it should never feel like a victory (hard won or otherwise) is just being handwaved away because you couldn't be bothered to draw up a fresh villain, or to modify a story because you were operating under the assumption that this particular bad guy would be present and un-murdered for what comes next.

Remember that you can get creative with this! Just be sure that your resurrection feels well thought-out, appropriate to the story, and that the cost of it undercuts exactly how far the villain is willing to go to thwart the party... especially because their new lease on life may very well depend on them succeeding where previously they failed!

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 additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! 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!

My First Worldbuilding Supplement Just Dropped... Should I Make This A Series?

While most of the supplements I've written over the years have focused on Game Master tools like extra NPCs, plot hooks, businesses, rumors, and places, this past weekend was the release of something a little bit different... the first supplement I've written that is genuinely meant for GMs looking for a little guidance on worldbuilding.

And 100 Worldbuilding Questions To Ask For A Fantasy City has gotten a better response than anything else I've dropped in 2026 so far. As such I wanted to take a moment to ask my regular readers... do you think I should expand this into a supplement series?

Seriously, if you haven't picked up a copy yet, take a look at it!

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my 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!

Starting Small And Spiraling Outward

For folks who've been following my releases over the past few years, I've done a lot of work on fantasy cities. Whether it's Ironfire, the City of Steel, or a place like Archbliss, The Floating City of The Sorcerers (both found in my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting for Pathfinder and DND 5E), I've thought through a lot of the necessary building blocks for a fantastical city to feel organic, which helps it feel lived-in and authentic. And while I'm gearing up for adding more cities to my Sundara setting this year, I figured I'd pen this supplement as a little warm up, and offer fellow Game Masters some of the questions I ask myself when going through the process.

It takes practice, not going to lie.

What I'm trying to determine at this point is whether this kind of supplement is something that folks out there are going to vibe with, and if I should do more like this? Much like how the success of 100 Tips and Tricks For Being A Better Game Master led to me writing a bunch of follow-ups like 100 Dark Secrets or 100 Questions To Ask About Your Characters, this could lead to additional lists of worldbuilding questions to help Game Masters (and even authors) iron out all the wrinkles in their settings to ensure everything is solid before the story gets started.

The real question, of course, is what are some things you all would like to see as readers? Because some of the ideas off the top of my head include:

- 100 Worldbuilding Questions For Fantasy Faiths (zeroing in on the divine)

- 100 Worldbuilding Questions For Sci Fi Stations (going into space where things are isolated)

- 100 Worldbuilding Questions For Fantasy Realms (discussing macro worldbuilding)

These are just skimming some of the creamier concepts off the top of my cheese barrel, but I wanted to ask my readers out there this week if this is something they'd be interested in? If so, would you like to see one of these topics, or something I didn't mention? Another genre, perhaps?

Whatever your thoughts, please take a moment to leave a comment on this article, or to punch your thoughts into the comment section on social media that led you to this page! I've got several other supplements on my work desk as we speak, but I could circle back to this one by the time spring is well and truly here, and if it's something readers want to see I'm only too happy to give you what you want!

Also, if you're curious about my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, I'd highly recommend heading over to the post A New Year Is Coming For "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age" (What Would You Like To See?), which I wrote earlier this year to try to keep folks abreast of changes coming to the setting.

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 additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! 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!

Character Secrets Don't Matter If No One Finds Out About Them

Everyone loves a good plot twist, or a fun character reveal. The problem arises, though, when players (or even the GM) squeeze the story so tight to their chest that they end up smothering the secrets they were holding. Because while having a big reveal in your back pocket can be fun, if no one else is ever going to find out about it then it may as well not exist.

Which is why you shouldn't just know what your character's secrets are, as I mentioned in What Secrets Does Your Character Hide?, and elaborated on in the character concept The Onion of Secrets. You should also know how that secret is going to matter to the story you're all telling, and have some idea of how you're going to start revealing it to the people sitting around the table with you.

If they never dive down, how would they know?

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!

The Spice Needs To Go Into The Soup

Once you know what your character's secrets are (whether they're a secret vigilante, they were born to a noble family, they were a bandit in a former life, etc.) you can think of them as a little dash of spice. However, if you never actually add that spice into the dish, then it won't make any difference to the overall experience. However, adding in the spice at the wrong time, or in the wrong amount, can also ruin the presentation and flavor when all is said and done.

And this is why it's important for you to consult with the head chef (the Game Master) to make things come out just right!

Mmm... this one might be too salty. Let's do a half dose of this, how's that sound?

First things first, character secrets should be a collaborative effort between you and your Game Master. The reason for that is because the GM is the one who needs to facilitate a good reveal, and to help you set the stage so you can stand in the spotlight for a moment when it comes time to let everyone else in on the secret.

Secondly, once the Game Master agrees your secret will become part of the story, try to work with them to come to that appropriate place so that the collaboration stays strong. As an example, if your character used to be an infamous assassin before they joined the church and took the vows of a cleric, work with the GM to figure out when (and how) you want that information to come out. For example, do they have secretive tattoos or brands they keep hidden until they're revealed when the party is taken prisoner? Do they speak a particular language only known by members of this secretive order, and they have to reveal that to translate critical intelligence? Or do they find people who recognize them from their old life for one reason or another? Because sprinkling in these clues, or just adding in the big reveal at a dramatic moment, can really make the story sing.

Where a lot of players mess this up, though, is they will either keep their secrets extremely close to their vests to the point that they never come up in the game at all, or they will try to spring this surprise on their fellow players and on the Game Master, which is a terrible plan because it can create unnecessary confusion that will undercut the reveal.

Timing and placement is extremely important for maximum story impact. Because say that your character was actually a princess, but she ran away from her royal responsibilities to become an adventurer. Classic twist, very fun. However, if you aren't coordinating this with your Game Master then you don't have any in-world structural support for this character's entire secret backstory... and even if it is allowed to stand, there won't be anything in-place for the plot that this reveal will actually affect. But consider what might happen if you were in communication with your Game Master. Because if you wanted a secret princess reveal, and the Game Master agreed, then at the very least there's likely to be people looking for the missing princess. But it's also possible that the villain for the campaign will be a family member of hers, and that she has a legitimate claim to the throne that could lead the party to commit a coup rather than leaving her evil uncle or sadistic brother sitting on the throne.

Long story short, if you want your character reveal to have a real impact then it's going to require scaffolding and set dressing to really facilitate it. And if you don't work with your Game Master to set the stage, then the reveal is going to fizzle out... so make sure all the setup is in place before you step onto your mark!

Lastly, if you found this week's post of-interest, then take a moment or three to check out my supplements 100 Dark Secrets as well as 100 Questions To Ask About Your Characters.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Fluff 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 the dark sci fi saga of The A.L.I.C.E. Files! 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!

Compersion Is An Important Aspect of Being a Game Master

Compersion is a term that a lot of gamers are familiar with, because a polyamorous lifestyle is the easiest way to ensure that you have enough people for a regular RPG or board game night. However, if you've never heard the term before, the most general definition is that it is when a person feels a sense of happiness cause by seeing someone else's happiness; particularly someone important to that person.

And generally speaking, I think this is something a lot of Game Masters should take to heart, because the idea is one that can make game night a lot more enjoyable for everyone involved.

Lastly, before we get started this week, you should check out my older article Partners and Polycules: Polyamorous Designations Based Off Dungeons and Dragons Dice in the event you need a chuckle today.

It can really help to have your head, and heart, in the right place.

But before I get into the meat of today's post, remember, don't forget to sign up for my 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!

Making It About Your Players (Instead of Yourself)

Since I can hear the clearing of some throats out there, I wanted to give the more in-depth definition of this term as it applies to polyamorous people. Mostly because I feel that will give the following topic a little additional weight. Now, for those who don't know, polyamory is a relationship style where people have multiple romantic and/or sexual partners at a time, and there is open communication and knowledge among everyone involved. Now, in this case, compersion is often about seeing one of your partners being happy with another partner, and feeling happy that they're happy.

And I bring this up because for a lot of people seeing their partner go out on dates with another person (or knowing they were up to something more intimate) would give them very negative feelings like jealousy, sadness, or anger. And while those things can still happen, for a lot of folks the idea that you would see your partner in this situation, and be happy that they're having fun and excited, can be a lot to wrap their heads around.

But I would posit that there's a parallel here for a lot of Game Masters. Because it feels like a lot of folks who run games can sometimes put their players' happiness and excitement last, which leads to problems.

I hope they're having a good time right now. I really do.

Now, to start us off on the right foot, I agree with the sentiment that the Game Master is also a player at the table. They have a very different role, but they should absolutely be enjoying themselves as much as anyone else. However, with that said, it's important for a Game Master to ask themselves if they're excited when their players are excited, or if seeing their players having fun gives them a rush of positive feelings. Even if the players are doing something unconventional.

Because there are a lot of Game Masters out there who get frustrated or upset with players when they use an ability in an unexpected way, when they try out a strategy the GM didn't see coming, or just when the dice gods smile upon the players and things really go their way with a natural 20 or critical success at a clinch moment. And sure, maybe you were hoping that your villain would make more of an impression on the players, or you're frustrated their figured out a plot twist sooner than you wanted them to, or a fight they were supposed to lose is one they actually walked away from victorious... and it's all right to feel those things. But ask yourself if your players are having fun, and if that shouldn't be more important in this moment?

The ability to take your ego out of things, and to bask in your players' enjoyment, is really important for having a good experience as a GM. Because even if your players ignored a dungeon you'd hoped they would go down, or they solved a mystery two sessions early, or a twist of fate allowed them to absolutely wreck a villain you'd hoped would have been more of a challenge, if your players are having fun, ask yourself if those other things are more important at the end of the day?

That perspective, and that shift in mind set, can make a lot of difference. It can also allow you to shrug off things that would otherwise bother you. If you develop the ability to say, "Well, as long as everyone is having fun," and to really mean it, that will make your life a great deal easier.

And if you haven't picked up my 100 Tips and Tricks For Being A Better Game Master, as well as the companion piece 100 Tips and Tricks For Being A Better RPG Player, I'd highly recommend grabbing some copies for yourself!

As A Final Note: Compersion and Bad Behavior

I heard a few folks cracking their knuckles for comments, so I wanted to tack a section onto the end of this week's post. It's important for you, as a Game Master, to tell the difference between harmless behaviors from your players, or your own hang ups as a GM, and problem behavior. As I mentioned, the goal here is for everyone at the table to be having fun, the GM included. And there is a world of difference between allowing your players to go off-script, or allowing an unexpected but earned victory to stand, and putting up with bad behavior from your players.

However, in another polyamory comparison, the best course of action is to talk about things. Whether you feel your players aren't being appreciative of the effort you're putting into the game because they keep ignoring what you're telling them, or you feel that they're deliberately undermining the tone you all agreed to at the outset, or you feel that tea-bagging your minis is disrespectful, and they're going to hurt themselves when they eventually fall off the table, have a conversation about it.

And don't wait until there's months (or years) of pent up negativity and bad blood about something that can come boiling out. Just talk to your players, open up a dialogue, and tell them, "Hey, I'm having some thoughts/feelings about this. I don't want it to become an issue, but I'd appreciate if we could talk this out."

It really does solve problems.

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 additional audio dramas over on The A.L.I.C.E. Files! 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!