Expanding "Army Men" Into Other Genres

For folks who haven't heard, a lot of my content is currently on-sale over on Drive Thru RPG thanks to the GM's Day Sale going on right now! While 144 of my titles are on-sale right now, today I wanted to talk about Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic. Because while the first supplement Army Men: Threat Assessments is already out, and I'm hard at work on Medals of Honor (which should be ready for release this spring), I do have some longer-term goals for this game... goals that will be much easier to reach if I can get some of you fine folks all aboard the bus in order to help me keep putting together new stuff for this RPG!

I can see the next objective from here!

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!

Mercenaries, Gangsters, Psychics, and Spies!

While Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic is a fully functional RPG base book that one can grab and use as it stands, it was always meant to be a spring board to jump out to other genres of play. Because while the base game is meant for squad-based play where you and your fellow troopers are given missions and assigned objectives to complete, I know that isn't the game for everyone out there.

However, it was never intended to be the only style of game play supported by this RPG... I just couldn't fit all the options into the base game!

I've got plans... just need a little help to make them happen...

So what does the future hold, assuming I can find enough rope to play out for this game? Well, in addition to more gear, guns, vehicles, classes, monsters, and mission packs, I'd also like to expand the genre to some of the following areas:

- Army Men: Soldiers of Fortune- Rather than being regular members of the military, the party operates as hired guns. A more traditional "adventuring" route, this would come with new classes and subclasses, and a Reputation metric to replace the load out typically given to soldiers by the military they serve. This would, ideally, have a kind of A-Team vibe, where players could come from anywhere, and get involved in nearly anything!

- Army Men: Game of Shadows- The intelligence services of the Plastos Federation, and all of its member nations, fight their wars in alleys and backrooms, using whispers, rumors, poisons, seduction, and other tools of the espionage trade to complete their missions. Whether you want to do something wild and crazy like James Bond or Mission: Impossible, or you'd rather stay grounded and serious, taking inspiration from WWII and the Cold War, this book would expand your toolset, and likely delve deeply into the shadow warriors, paramilitary forces, and other aspects of the setting to give them even more teeth.

- Army Men: Gangsters and Gumshoes- The streets of the Federation may seem clean, but every town has its dirty business. From back alley runners to street corner dealers, everybody answers to someone. Whether your squad are an up and coming group of hoods looking to break into the big leagues with a heavy score, or you're a pack of private eyes who are out there doing what the cops can't (or just won't), this particular game would have a smaller focus than the grand wars seen in the previous two. Players would be solving cases, getting into mysteries, pulling jobs, and trying to make heads or tails of what's happening while trying to stay out of jail, and avoiding floating face down in the river.

- Army Men: Weird War- While we have a couple of very sci-fi additions in Threat Assessments, those are just an appetizer for the nonsense I'd love to add in with Weird War. This book would get into the strange implications of what the vespoids truly are, where they came from, and what some of the other forces operating behind the scenes are who may have instigated this whole conflict for their own benefit. Who built the bizarre Mekanauts that have wiped out entire regiments before finally being destroyed? What are those strange lights in the sky some airmen have reported? What kinds of experiments go on in the backrooms of government laboratories? From psychic classes and advanced weaponry, to the implications of aliens, intelligent machines, and more, this one will cover a wide variety of sci fi nonsense that would greatly expand antagonists, as well as resources for players.

What Do You Want To See Most?

If you read this far in this week's entry, I want to know from you... what do you want to see in Army Men going forward? Do you have a particular genre of the four above that really speaks to you? Or is there one I didn't mention (such as the Old West for folks who want to use those plastic cowboy toys)? Alternatively, would you rather see mission packs so you could run your players through some preplanned battles, NPC lists to fill out the roster, or just more interesting locations to beef up what's on the map?

It's still early enough in the game that we can go in all sorts of directions, but we need to hear what you want before we can pick the proper direction! So please leave your thoughts in the comments below, or reach out to us on social media. Lastly, don't forget to pick up your copy of Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic and Army Men: Threat Assessments while they're still on-sale this week!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

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

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

Sci Fi or Fantasy Supplements? What Do You Want To See More Of?

Regular readers on this blog know that I've been bouncing around into a lot of different games, genres, and styles over the past few years. From Call of Cthulhu, to the World and Chronicles of Darkness, to Pathfinder, Dungeons and Dragons, Starfinder, Zweihander, and now Castles and Crusades, there's a pretty wide variety of stuff out there with my name on it.

As I said last month in Why I Will Have Fewer Community Created TTRPG Projects Coming Out, I'm sort of getting back to basics when it comes to my supplements, and focusing on general use, genre-specific stuff. However, I wanted to poll my readers and ask a question that will determine the direction I end up going in... would you use sci fi supplements more, or fantasy supplements? And what topics would you like to see them cover?

There are many possibilities out there, after all.

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

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

Which Genre Do You Wish To See?

In the long ago and far away at the start of my career as an RPG writer, I started off writing general-use fantasy supplements. While most of them sold at least well enough to break Copper (not all, but most), they usually ended up around Silver. A few of them, though, like 100 NPCs You Might Meet at The Tavern, 100 Random Taverns, and 100 Merchants to Encounter managed to hit Gold status!

In order to cover as much ground as possible, Adrian (the fellow who runs Azukail Games) suggested that I also write some sci-fi supplements, using what had been popular in my fantasy supplements as a guide. And while supplements like 100 Sci Fi Foods, 100 Sci Fi Cocktails, and 100 Space Bars have all hit Electrum status, none of my sci-fi stuff has managed to hit Gold just yet... though most of them do come in around Silver, making the average about the same when it comes to sci fi vs. fantasy in terms of general popularity.

Though I will say that the audio dramas over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel do seem to favor sci fi stories over fantasy ones in terms of views. For those who were curious.

Now, I could just take a stab in the dark, and hope that I land on a topic that's popular among my readers. I sometimes get lucky, like when I put together 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master, but I prefer to work off of some kind of data whenever I can.

So this week I'd like to ask a couple of questions, and get some responses from all of you, either down in the comments below, or on whatever social media platform you saw this blog post shared on. What I need to know is:

- Do you have a preference for sci-fi or fantasy supplements?

- Would you want to see locations, NPCs, items, factions, or random encounters/events?

- What tone would get you most interested? (grim, dark, noble bright, high fantasy, hard SF, etc.)?

- What game/setting would you want a supplement to be compatible with?

- Would you prefer 100 smaller entries, or 10-13 more detailed entries?

If I can get some ideas of what would appeal to folks out there, and what you'd be most interested in, then I can start working on fresh content that should (ideally) be moving in a direction that those readers who raise their voices can enjoy!

One more thing...

Lastly, 100 Sci Fi Bands dropped this past weekend. I had a lot of fun with it, because the question of entertainment is often overlooked in our settings, and I wanted to try to fill in this gap. And if you're more of a fantasy than a sci fi player, then check out my 100 Fantasy Bands instead!

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 dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, 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!

Avoiding Tonal Dissonance Always Makes Your Game Better

Even if you haven't heard the word tonal dissonance before, you know what it means. It's when you're watching a movie, reading a book, or playing a game, and there's a sudden, jarring shift in the tone. Like if you were watching Winnie The Pooh, and all of a sudden Pooh picked up an ax and started chasing Christopher Robin through a darkened wood. While that might be entertaining as hell, it wouldn't jive with the previous half hour of tree-house fun and adventure we'd been having. For any kind of storytelling experience to suck you in, and be immersive, you need a consistent tone. Any time it jars, there's a chance you'll be flung right out of your suspension of disbelief.

What does that have to do with gaming? Everything.

Because there is no escaping tone, no matter what you roll.

How Players, And DMs, Can Avoid Rocking The Tone

So, you've all agreed to play a game. Let's say you were told it's going to be an action-thriller sort of setup. Lots of combat, lots of fast-paced action, and a lot of explosions as the party walks away from dungeons, slowly putting on their sunglasses. The DM expressly requests players to bring badass characters with hardened reputations. This is going to be the A-Team, if they were from Middle Earth.

Now, the first part of keeping the tone relies on the players. If you've been told we're looking for ass-kicking soldiers, former spies, hardcase mercenaries, and swashbuckling rogues, it is the table's responsibility to bring characters who fit that mold if they agree to this setup. That's why Bridgett's ex-army evoker, with a burn scar along the side of her neck and a chip on her shoulder, works just fine. Keith's dandified bard who gets the vapors at the sight of blood, though, not so much.

Why doesn't that work? Well, when you ask for hardened characters who've been around the block, and who are putting the pedal to the metal on the action road, you don't want to have the nagging question of, "So why are these four scarred veterans dragging a terrified court singer around with them?" looming over the campaign. And the more Keith's bard tries to play comic relief, or alleviate the tension and action of the campaign, the more out-of-place the character will look. Not only that, but the more ridiculous it will seem that the party still keeps him around. It would be like bringing a feather duster to the Normandy landing.

Yeah, I know you put a lot of thought into him, Keith. But not this campaign, all right?

The other part of the responsibility for maintaining the tone, though, is on the DM. And since the DM is the one who set the tone in the first place, they will be held doubly tight to this standard. Most DMs understand that they should keep to an established tone, but they often undermine themselves in little ways. For example, if you're running a serious game where you want players to feel like badasses, the way you describe their actions (or allow the players to handle that description) matters.

Let's return to our example campaign. Mike's getting into the spirit, so he brings a mostly-reformed pirate captain, who has since turned privateer. He's a renowned swordsman, as evidenced by his choice of swashbuckler, and use of solid feat choices. However, when they get into combat, any time Mike's PC misses an attack roll (not even a natural 1, just a plain-old miss), the DM describes the attack as a whimsical prat fall. Oh, Captain Black missed because he slipped on a banana peel (rather than because his opponent managed to jerk aside, catching the point of his enemy's rapier on his shield at the last moment). Oh, he missed again, must be because a sea gull pooped on his head (instead of, say, locking blades with an equally skilled opponent, the two of them shoving and snarling for advantage on the ship's heaving deck).

Combat is one of the most obvious places a DM can undermine their own tone, but it's far from the only one. If you're running a light-hearted game, you wouldn't interrupt the local festival with the discovery of a grisly murder where the body was hacked to pieces, and the head put up on a spike. That would, essentially, be a play straight out of the Tyler Durden book of splicing a single frame of pornography into a family film. If you specifically ask for a crack team of warriors, you wouldn't then send them into a political game where everything is back-room deals and information gathering where they can never be armed, and even an attempt at combat gets them all thrown in a gulag.

Etc., etc.

So, in short, you should know the tone you want for your game. You should then communicate what you want to your players so they understand what they're signing up for. Once you have the tone established, stick with it. Try to keep things fast and flowing, and lead by example. If you blaze the trail, your players will often follow.

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday update. Just a little niggle that bothers me, but I thought some other folks might be looking for a solution as well. If you want to check out even more gaming content from yours truly, take a look at my Gamers archive. To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you want to help support Improved Initiative, go to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a patron today! All it takes is $1 a month to get some sweet swag as a thank you.