To Influence Creators, You Have To Actually Support Them

Given that we just had a bunch of elections, I want to describe a political situation that happens in the U.S. among more left-leaning people, and their reaction to power.

So, the Democratic Party puts out its representative. This person is usually pretty unacceptable to those who want meaningful, structural change, and they typically have a bunch of status quo policies. They might be good on one or two issues, and neutral on others, but a lot of folks see them (and not incorrectly so) as a lesser evil. So these voters fold their arms, and refuse to participate until they are given a candidate who is more in-line with what they actually want. When this happens, though, the democrats don't push further and further left to court their votes; instead, they track further toward the American center (the global right) or the American right (the global far right).

The reason for this is that folks who are center-to-right vote reliably, they engage with the process, and they are going to make a more reliable base for that candidate to actually get into office. Yet over and over again folks seem confused why their attempts to punish these candidates drive them toward conservatives, rather than making them more leftist.

In general, this is because if you aren't supporting someone (you aren't voting for them, donating money to them, giving them volunteer hours, etc.) then you have nothing you can take away from them. So your opinion on their platform, what they're doing, etc., is irrelevant because they lose nothing by ignoring you, and it's uncertain that your support would be worth the investment it would take to get you on their side.

This post isn't about politics, though. It's about people who make art, and understanding why your criticism may not be getting the reaction you want from the creators whose work you're trying to shape.

Why aren't they listening to me!?

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

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

You Have To Have Leverage If You Want To Use It

I've been in this game for a while now, and I've got over 200 titles with my name on them. I've worked for a dozen or more publishers as a freelancer, and I am (knock wood) still managing to survive. However, this week I wanted to address the connection between consumer behavior (that is to say all of you, out in the audience) and creator behavior (folks like me who are making things for all of you to use, enjoy, and consume).

Generally speaking, your feedback is extremely important to us. And while some of that will be comments on social media, or the reviews of the things we've made, feedback also comes in terms of sales numbers and general audience attitude.

For a specific, let's take the whole OGL situation that Wizards of The Coast stepped in a few years back. They were going to tear down the Open Game License agreements that allowed everyone to use the Dungeons and Dragons ruleset, turn the screws on creators by demanding big shares of their sales, put up walls around D&D, add in AI, force it to go digital, and a whole bunch of other stuff I can't even recall now. And they backed off of basically all of that because people started cancelling their subscriptions, and no longer buying DND 5E materials. The company was bleeding profits, and it was that action from the audience that forced their hand and made them change direction.

If Wizards had been bombarded by messages from people who weren't actually buying their books, or who weren't people with accounts on their digital platform who were telling the company, "Well, I'm not going to give you any of my money now!" they would have utterly ignored it. Because you're threatening not to give them phantom sales that they don't have. But people who were paying the companies' bills closing their accounts and leaving en masse? That got the suits' attention really fast because they were losing actual, measurable profits and the brand was taking a nosedive.

Oh... those numbers aren't good...

And this is a point that I want to drive home to people out there. Creators will absolutely listen to you... but if you're not part of their fan base, if you're not actually buying their books, playing their games, watching their channels, and so on, then they aren't going to change what they're doing just to please you. Creators (and companies) change to keep the support they have, not to roll the dice and take a gamble on support they might maybe possibly get according to unverified accounts online.

Two strong examples of this come to mind for me, personally.

Somewhere between 3 and 5 years ago there was a person on Reddit who raised a big stink about the way I posted in a particular sub. They were very mad about my behavior, accused me of just being in it to make money, and said that he and his entire table who supported me on Patreon were going to delete their pledges immediately. I found that somewhat alarming, worried that I'd pissed off a not-insignificant part of my own fanbase (since I've never had more than 35 paying patrons at a time)... but one day after another went by, and there was no change in my numbers. I even reached back out to the person, wanting to make sure he hadn't deleted a pledge to someone else he'd mistaken for me. At the end of the day, it was just an empty threat made by someone who just wanted me to stop posting in his group.

Another incident came with the recent project I was part of, Night Horrors: Primoridal Peerage. This supplement was met with a lot of flak because one of the major names on the original Beast: The Primordial turned out to be a predator, and it sort of tainted the game in the eyes of a lot of players. To be clear, that person was not involved with this supplement, and the folks I worked with on it appear to be a pretty solid team of people as far as I know. However, there were a lot of comments saying how we shouldn't make anything for Beast, how they didn't play that game and weren't going to buy this. There were event a few folks who said they'd moved on from the Chronicles of Darkness entirely because there were too many problematic designers who'd contributed to the games. At the end of the day, though, the supplement hit Silver status (minimum 101 sales), and there were some folks who liked it despite its pedigree. And the folks who left those comments... well, all they were telling us was that this wasn't a game they were going to play. It apparently never occurred to them they weren't the target audience, so their criticism didn't exactly move the needle all that much.

In Summary... Don't Go All In When You've Got No Hand

It's true that creators and businesses will listen to their fans when they make themselves heard. But you need to have something you can take away from them if you expect them to change their behavior. If you're a member of their crowdfunding audience, people cutting off that support and telling the creator why might get them to change their behavior. If people start unsubscribing from their YouTube, unfollowing them on social media, and telling them why on the way out the door, that might get their attention.

But if you aren't subscribed, you don't buy their books, and you don't support them, then what are you threatening to take away? Because in that situation you're the angry woman loudly proclaiming, "You just lost yourself a customer!" to a store you've never actually bought anything from as you storm out the front doors. If you didn't actually establish a pattern of supporting them, then they lost absolutely nothing when you left.

All right... have a nice day, or something...

Please, if you've read this far, understand what I'm saying. You are absolutely free to support or not support any writers, game designers, or companies you want to. No matter what kinds of products they make, it's your money, and you can do whatever you want with it.

With that said, if you want to actually use your buying power to shape the kinds of products that creators put together, then you have to actually have support you can take away from them. Because you can't give people less attention or fewer sales than zero, so you don't really have anything you can threaten them with if you don't have any skin in the game.

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 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!

Drive Thru RPG's New Site Isn't Great For Smaller Publishers (Now With Numbers!)

Making a living as a writer of any stripe is hard as hell, and if you want to make tabletop RPGs for a living you have an uphill battle of Sisyphean proportions ahead of you. With that said, I've been in the game for over a decade at this point in my life. I've got nearly 180 products with my name on them, and I've worked for more than a dozen different publishers during my stint as a creator. I've released supplements that were smash hits, and topped the bestseller list for over a week when they came out. I've also released supplements that moved a handful of copies, and then vanished into the void, rarely to be seen again. However, with every year that's gone by I've had a bigger catalog of material, and that has translated to a larger, more reliable set of earnings.

Until this year.

And while there are always going to be fluctuations in the market, changes in what the audience wants, etc., this is far beyond those normal fluctuations. I've recently had my monthly earnings cut in half, and I've been struggling with it for the latter half of 2024. After discussions with other creators who operate on my level, I kept hearing the same stories. So I put my head together with Adrian Kennelly, my publisher at Azukail Games, and we started looking into things.

This week I wanted to explain to folks what we've found, and to present some solutions for those who want to help the creators they love ride out this storm so we can keep making stuff for you and your tables.

The numbers aren't great, I'm not going to lie.

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

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

All Right, What Are We Looking At?

Let's take one of my most recent releases, 100 Helpful Hirelings. This NPC list actually performed far better than a lot of my other recent releases in terms of numbers, which landed it on the Top Sellers Under $5 bar on the front page of the site. At the time I checked the numbers, the supplement had sold 58 copies, with 35 of them coming from the Azukail Games newsletter (which is roughly 60% of sales).

Now, that is an outside performer that did better than average... but in the past if I had a supplement wind up on that top sellers bar, it would be because it crossed the 100 sales line in either the first day, or the first weekend. The fact that I got onto that bar with less-than-triple-digit sales tells me that sales are likely decreasing across the board, and showing up on the front page isn't enough to cover the deficit.

If that's the outsized numbers, and something that would be considered a successful release, then what does an average release look like?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

The numbers don't get any better.

Let's take page views. In the past when a new supplement dropped, we could regularly expect 60 page views on it in the first hour. That was what we got when the algorithm was working, and the site was encouraging organic discovery. Now? It takes several days for the page view count to get that high. And this isn't a one-off thing with a couple of supplements... this has been going on for months! It now takes Azukail Games products days to get the kind of views they used to get in a single hour!

As if that wasn't bad/frustrating enough, sales have absolutely cratered for our supplements. Our numbers are down so low because it seems that 90% of new release sales are coming from the Azukail Games newsletter, rather than due to traffic on Drive Thru RPG itself. This is damning in multiple ways, because it means that not only is organic searching on the DTRPG site itself tanked to the point where it is nearly useless, it means that all the social media platforms where supplements are announced (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.) also have terrible organic discovery. So it doesn't matter how many places we share our releases, or who we tell about them, a majority of our sales are coming from people who actually open the Azukail Games newsletter and read what's inside.

That's a lot of numbers. But what does that mean for me, personally, as a creator? In short, my sales/royalties income has been cut in half.

Around this time last year, I was regularly pulling in between $350 and $425 a month in combined royalties and affiliate earnings from DTRPG sales. My projection at the time was, if I kept growing the way I had in the past, that I'd be earning between $450 and $500 a month around this time this year.

However, I'm barely pulling in $150 to $220. And given that I already live below the poverty line, that was not the kick in the crotch I needed.

How You Can Help

If you are reading this, you probably can't stop the enshittification of social media platforms, or undo how DTRPG has completely screwed up the ability to connect creators with their potential audience. However, what you can do is choose to plug-in to the creators you care about to make sure that you don't miss any of our releases and updates, and to do your best to make sure you don't have to depend on the random and inexplicable tides of the algorithm to find out when we're releasing stuff.

And if you want to help me out, specifically, please do the following:

- Follow My Facebook

- Follow My LinkTree

- Follow Me On Twitter

- Subscribe To My Weekly Newsletter

- Subscribe To The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (where I contribute video content)

- Subscribe To My Rumble Channel (longer videos that won't show up on YouTube)

Lastly, if you want to hear about all of the releases from Azukail Games, go to the Azukail Games website, and sign up for the company newsletter! It's on the right-hand side of the page.

With all of that said (and I cannot stress this enough), make sure that you stay plugged-in to the creators and companies you actually follow. Subscribing to our newsletter does neither of us any good if it just goes into your spam folder and you don't see it. You don't have to buy everything we release, but every purchase, review, like, and share on social media helps us overcome the algorithm, and try to make up for the damage it's causing to us.

As always, we can't do any of this without you!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

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!

Supplemental Merch For "Army Men" (What Should Make The Cut?)

As most regular readers on this blog know, my game Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic dropped earlier this year. While the base book gives you everything you need to play the game (including a sample mission for you and your fellow troopers), since then we've also released Army Men: Threat Assessments (for extra creatures and dangers), Army Men: Medals of Honor (which introduces the Medals system for rewarding player achievements in the field), and Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps (which is full of deadly traps to sprinkle across the battlefield).

While I've got at least one more supplement awaiting release (which will mark the first mission outside of the sample one in the base book), I've also been taking Army Men to various conventions since it came out. Though I intend to start running some game demo sessions in the future, I was thinking that I should have more than just the base book for sale at my booth. And since the supplements mentioned above are digital-only offerings, it's got me thinking... what other things would folks like to see?

I don't have the resources for making medals yet... but...

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!

Some Ideas I'm Currently Kicking Around...

Now, I'm planning on doing more conventions (and more different conventions) starting in 2025. While there are a few smaller events left in 2024, I'm not going to scramble to try to get any merch ready for this year. And while I'm reaching out to manufacturers, trying to get quotes, and to see what's feasible, the feedback and interest from my audience is also extremely important to me. So if there is an idea you particularly like, make sure that you let me know in the comments below, along with why you like it, and what you would consider a fair price for the item in question (so I can see if it matches up with what it would cost to get it made).

Also, Army Men is getting it's own show over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel! So check out the first episode if you haven't, and leave your comments for what you'd like to see on it.

Now, the current ideas include...

#1: Faction Dice Sets (And Crate)

Standard-issue, of course.

Custom dice were, of course, one of the original items we were hoping to get with the Kickstarter stretch goals for Army Men, but we fell a little short of the numbers we needed to make that a reality. However, good ideas often take on a new life in a new form, which is why I had the thought of offering faction dice at my booth for those who want a little something extra for their next mission (or who just think it would be cool).

The modified version of this idea is faction dice. Each set will be a standard, solid-color set of d20 dice that is largely representative of a particular nation of the Plastos Federation, as well as a set for the Federation itself. The dice won't be custom, in that they won't have unique pips, inclusions, or anything like that. The idea is that these are the "standard-issue" weapons you're given before going out into the field. While custom dice could still be something done for a future Kickstarter, these are going to be a more humble, more reliable, offering.

What makes them special, then? Well, my hope is to find a unique case for them, such as a metal, slide-top tin that will have the Army Men logo either etched or printed onto the lid. While I would love to find a tiny ammo crate, I'm still trying to find an option that will be affordable for both myself, and for folks interested in this offering!

#2: Uniform Patches & Pins

Acrylican 301st: "No Horizon Unexplored"

I'm a sucker for patches, and I had a few made a year or so ago featuring my Literary Mercenary skull, and a motto that got me a lot of dirty looks from parents who didn't want their little ones reading a bad word. But given the military setup of Army Men as a game, I thought it might also be fun to have patches for the various nation's militaries, or even pins made to go on one's lapel, pocket, etc.

However, there are additional hurdles with this option.

First and foremost, I'd have to work things out with our book's artist if I want to use any of her assets on these patches or pins (such as the versions of the flags she made). Alternatively, if I wanted to use different assets, well, I'd have to either make them myself, or commission new ones from someone. Both are an expensive process. Then there's the extra up-front cost for patches getting printed, the question of whether we want iron-ons, sew-ons, or velcro patches, and whether they're rubberized or not... it's a long list of nonsense!

Doable nonsense, of course, but nonsense nevertheless!

Now, my original idea was to pair this kind of merch with something like Army Men: Regiments of Renown (as a sample title), where I would provide additional lore for the setting through creating various irregular units and special forces for the different nations' militaries, while providing players with additional subclasses, gear, etc., that they could bring into the field if they wanted to be part of these units (or, at least, have been part of them at one time). That way in addition to the standard military choices, players could get a little niche with their loyalties.

#3: Stickers

All right, this one MIGHT be a little obvious...

In fairness, this is probably the most obvious bit of extra merch, and one of the most affordable. Whether you're using it to label your folders, everything from the logo to the flags (again, post-negotiation) could be on this list if that's something players are interested in. But I've found, overall, that stickers are a very hit-or-miss thing. On the one hand, they're very low investment for the dealer, and they can have a very low price point. On the other hand, there seems to be either a lot of interest in them, or absolutely none.

So what about you? Would you be interested in stickers? And if so, what kind would you like to see?

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!

4 Tips For The Business Side of RPGs

Most of the time when I talk about making changes or additions to games on this blog, I'm talking about doing it around your table with your fellow players. However, this week I wanted to take a moment to talk to my fellow creators out there. Whatever it is you're working on, whether you've been in the game for a while or you're just sticking your toe into the market, please, keep these tips in mind. I have found that they prevent a lot of problems and frustrations that can occur when you just don't think about certain parts of the process.

Because getting stuff made is hard enough.

Don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron!

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

But First, A Brief Announcement!

As of about fifteen minutes before I sat down to write this blog entry, my first Kickstarter for "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic" just got funded! Hitting that minimum goal of 6k means the game is going to exist, and folks will be able to play it... but there's still 2 weeks left in the Kickstarter campaign, and 2 stretch goals we haven't hit yet. The first is a set of army green dice at 10k, and at 15k we unlock an ammo can that will carry your book, your dice, and a boat load of minis all in a single, easy-to-haul package.

We're taking aim at our next goal!

So if that sounds like something you definitely want to get in on, please help us reach those stretch goals today, and boost the signal if you've already backed, so we can get in front of as many eyes as possible!

Tip #1: Understand What Your Content is Meant To Do

This isn't as obvious as some might think.

Before you put a single word on to paper, you need to know what the purpose your particular game, supplements, etc., is meant to do. What need does it fulfill at a game table? What does it do that will get people (players, Game Masters, or both) to buy a copy of it?

Sometimes the answer to this is easy. For example, when I wrote 10 Fantasy Villages, the purpose of the supplement was to offer Game Masters some smaller villages, NPCs, plot hooks, maps, etc., so they had ready-made locations to put into the empty places in their worlds between big cities. The Curse of Sapphire Lake is a low-level module that combines DND with Friday the 13th, giving players a unique horror experience that's a little tropey, but also fun. Even something like 100 Merchants to Encounter was meant to expand the NPC list for Game Masters so that when players want to go shopping the GM doesn't have to make up entirely new merchants, and the types of wares they sell, right on the spot every time.

When you make content for RPGs, you're essentially creating tools. And for a tool to be functional, you need to understand the job it's meant to do.

Tip #2: Understand The Demand

You need this? Ah, I thought not.

You could invent the most brilliant, perfect tool for solving a particular need... but if that need isn't common, then there isn't going to be a lot of demand for that tool. Or, put in plainer English, your RPG content has to solve a problem, or provide enough value, that players or Game Masters are going to buy it.

Now, there's a lot of variability in this tip, so I'll try to cover as much ground as I can. Things that might affect your demand can include:

- What RPG system is this meant for? Game line specific content like 50 Geists for Geist: The Sin Eaters is going to have a narrow market of buyers, whereas something more generic like 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master could be used by any GM for any system, hugely increasing your potential audience.

- How expensive is this content? Getting someone to read a free article like the character concept for The Savage Monk is extremely easy, though difficult to make money off of. However, low-cost pieces like 100 Encounters in a Fey Forest (which is only $1.99) are often easy to get customers to buy as an impulse, even if they aren't certain they need/will use it. A full RPG game book ranging from $30 to $70, though, is a purchase that's a lot heftier, and which will be a harder sell overall.

- Does this do anything differently than existing content? This is often a question folks need to ask when they're making a game setting, but it applies to other types of content as well. If all your setting offers is a different map with different country names, for example, but it's got the same aesthetic, monsters, quests, etc., that your competitors have, then why should people use your setting instead of one from a different company? Or one they made themselves?

- Is this actually something people buy? The best example I have of this is adventure modules. While they're a product customers often request, and they're something every company seems to put out there, the numbers suggest they're actually one of the worst-selling products you can create. This is not to say you can't be successful with adventure modules (or any other product) but that the market is stacked against you for certain types of products.

Everything from what form your product takes, to what genre it's geared toward, to what games it can be used for, to how expensive it is, and even if it's digital-only or print-on-demand, factors into whether an audience will buy it or not. And while there is no possible way to be absolutely certain when something will or won't make a lot of sales, it's a good idea to try to test the wind to see if the thing you're going to make checks the right boxes.

Tip #3: Ask What It Will Cost To Make

You're not working for free, after all.

A mistake that a lot of people make when it comes to designing RPG content is that they don't view their own efforts, time, and energy as expenditures. Someone might say, "Well, it's a digital release, so there's no printing costs. And I wrote everything, so I don't have to pay an author. I did the layout using free software, and I used free stock art/art I made, so I essentially paid nothing for this, and everything I make is pure profit!"

In one sense, that's true. However, if you're designing game content as a business (or at the very least a side hustle that you want to grow), then you need to look at your bills, and what you need to earn. For instance, did it take you a month to make that supplement? Or 6 months to write that adventure? How about 2 years to write a full RPG? How much is your labor worth? What costs did you incur just to live over that time period?

This can get even more complicated once you start doing bigger, more involved projects where you do have to buy art, where you want to source unique miniatures, where you're getting books printed, and so on. All of those costs add up, and you need to be honest with yourself about what your game needs to earn back to be worthwhile. This number may look different for different people, but it's important to go through the numbers and to look at your margins.

As a good example, my Kickstarter for Army Men had a minimum goal of $6k. That was just to get the bills paid and the expenses covered so the game could exist, and be shipped out to all the backers. That initial funding level doesn't actually pay me for the 2 years it took me to write the game; my earnings come from pledges beyond that base amount. Same for the other contributors who receive a cut of the proceeds beyond that basic, out-of-the-red zone.

This is not a fun aspect of designing RPGs, but it is a necessary one. If you can't eat, or pay your electricity bill, it's going to be really hard to keep making stuff for your audience.

Tip #4: Ask How You Plan To Market It

There are so, SO many dice to roll on this...

I've said this before over on The Literary Mercenary, but most people who like writing books don't actually want to market them. I've found the same is largely true for RPGs and RPG supplements. Chances are that if you like writing these things, then you just want to be left alone to write them, and if money just magically appeared in your account you'd probably vanish off of social media entirely.

Sadly if you want to move copies you have to climb up on the soap box, and get people's attention.

The good thing is there are a lot of options for getting attention onto your game even if you don't have a budget. The bad thing is that basically all of these options are the equivalent of pulling the handle on a slot machine; it might work, it might fail, and just because you got one result last time it's no guarantee that's the result you'll get this time. But some of the things you can do include:

- Social Media Posts: Facebook, Reddit, MeWe, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram... whatever platforms you can get on, you should use them. However, it's not really a matter of asking which platform is best for you. You're basically going to have to use ALL of them to get your message out.

- Content Creation: Whether you're writing blogs about gaming, making YouTube videos of real plays or demos of your game, or doing something else entirely, this is a great way to drum up interest in your products. If nothing else you can sprinkle in links where they'll get in front of people's eyes (like I did for most of the article up to this point) treating them like land mines for readers to trigger.

- Interviews: Whether you get on podcasts or YouTube channels, anytime you can get a slot where you can talk directly to someone else's audience, that really helps you get your stuff in front of fresh faces. It might be tough, but if you build up a network of people to interview you then you'll become a regular guest in no time!

- In-Person Sales: Attending conventions takes time, energy, and money, but you can often get your badge paid for if you run games for an event. And if you run modules you wrote, or a game you created, that's a great way to give people a try-before-you-buy experience.

- Make More Games: There's a saying that the best ad for your current book is actually your next book. The same thing applies to RPGs and supplements. The more stuff you can make, the bigger the pile becomes, and the more likely people are to check out your older stuff when your new releases catch their eyes. Of course it also helps that your new releases can include a list of links to your other projects and products, much like how novels used to have an intro page that listed all of an author's previous works so readers who liked one book could more easily find others by the same writer.

- Buying Advertising: There's a lot of ways you can save on this early on to see if it works for you. Large social media sites like Facebook and Reddit will often give you credits to try out certain services, and if you're running a Kickstarter, or trying to get fresh eyes on a tough-to-market product, this is often a good time to grab those coupons, and put them to good use.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Daily Motion channel!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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

If You Want To See More of a Game, Help Make it Popular!

There's an old two-panel comic that I couldn't find a copy of, but it's something I think about fairly often these days. The first panel is a gaming group sitting around a table, and a friend of theirs comes in to tell them that the company in charge of their favorite game has elected to discontinue it. Everyone expresses outrage and frustration because they love that game, and they play it every week. The second panel is one person at the table talking about how they printed off a pirated version of the rulebook, and someone else who stole several of the game's official minis, and a third player talks about how they use these other dice rather than the game official dice to play, but they're so much prettier than the ones the company put out.

And I get it; as a gamer who lives below the poverty line and has for the better part of a decade, I really do. Today I wanted to address that disconnect that so many of us have between audience lack of support, and a game, line, or setting being written off and discontinued. Because every time it happens there's gamers scratching their heads wondering why, when the answer is right in front of them.

This is not the way.

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

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

RPGs Are a Business

I've said this before, but it bears repeating; RPGs are part of the publishing industry. The purpose of the publishing industry is to sell books, and things related to books. At the end of the day, the publishing houses that make up that industry don't care if an author is supremely talented and created a rich setting full of amazing stories, or if they're a hack who spits a load of regurgitated dreck onto the page. What they care about is which books are moving copies, and which titles are sitting on the shelf taking up space?

The books that sell copies? They get sequels greenlit. The ones that don't move copies? Those authors get form letters as the company moves on to the next thing.

Prospects are bad. On to the next thing!

And for all the folks out there who are about to point out the very large market of independent creators, I want to make it clear that this applies to all publishers great and small. Whether you work at one of the big-name game companies, you're part of a smaller game publisher, or you're an independent RPG creator, anyone who does this for a living is paying attention to their numbers. If they write something that gets a lot of positive reactions from readers, or which gets a lot of positive attention, that is what they're going to want to do more of in the future. If they put out something that does poorly then regardless of how much love they have for that kind of product, or how much effort they put in, it gets abandoned.

At the very least it goes to the bottom of the priority pile.

But what about passion? Love of the game? The thrill of seeing a thing you made finally show up on the market? Those are all good things to have, and I've never met anyone who writes RPGs (or any kind of fiction, for that matter) who doesn't care about those things. However, you can't pay your rent with love of the game. You can't put passion in an envelope and send it to the power company. You can't trade your pride as a creator for groceries.

We can hem and haw about that all we want, but at the end of the day companies and creators are stuck living in the economic system we have. As such, if a game or product isn't earning enough money at the end of the day, it's not getting greenlit for expansions, sequels, or in some cases even being kept in the catalog.

So What Can You Do To Make a Game Popular?

So, the fate of the company, designers, and/or a game you like rests on your shoulders... what are you supposed to do? After all, you're just one lowly gamer, how can you make a difference on the scale necessary to get future expansions greenlit by publishers? Or to encourage an independent designer to make more of a game/setting you like?

Well, it isn't just about money. Don't get me wrong, money is nice if you have it, but there's other stuff you can do besides just spending your paycheck on new books, minis, tokens, dice, maps, supporting a creator's Patreon and Kickstarters, and so on to boost your game of choice.

Though by all means, inject cash flow if you have the dough.

In addition to buying the game and all of its expansions (again, money talks in publishing), the best thing you can do is to try to raise the profile of the thing that you like. Whether it's a core RPG, a setting, a supplement, whatever it is, boosting that signal is often the shout that starts an avalanche.

So how do you do that? Well, you can:

- Leave Reviews: Whether on Amazon, DTRPG, or elsewhere, reviews make games easier to find, and often persuade potential buyers. Just, "I love this, and I want more!" is enough if you aren't the sort of likes to leave essays about why you love certain things.

- Talk About The Game: Whether on social media or to your friend group, sharing stories of games and supplements you love is a big deal. Sharing links is also great, as creators often aren't allowed to do this in social media groups because there are rules against self-promotion. And as I mentioned in 5 Things You Can Do To Be A Better Ambassador For Your Hobby, bringing in new people helps a lot!

- Share Posts From The Creators: Whether it's the designer or the company, sharing news about latest releases, interviews, articles, and other content helps send the word along. It can also be a big help since YouTube channels, blogs, etc., often act as secondary sources of income for smaller companies and creators.

- Follow on Social Media: Just clicking that Follow/Subscribe button makes a difference. The more followers a page has, the nicer the algorithm is to it. So if a few hundred (or a few thousand) people just show up and click, that creator/company already has a bigger reach than they did before.

- Play The Game: Just playing a game is often enough to turn your friends into true believers; especially if you make the experience a great one. For bonus points, if you enjoy doing live plays then uploading your game where others can see it might be enough to spark interest beyond your immediate circle.

- Request Channels You Like Review The Game: Whether you run a game review blog, a YouTube channel, or some other sort of content creation outlet yourself, making content about a game can often be a huge deal when it comes to finding a new audience for that creator. And if you don't make content yourself, reach out to creators you like and ask if they'd check out a game/setting/supplement and help shine a light on it.

All of the things I've listed above may take varying amounts of time and energy on your part, but a lot of them are things you can do for free. However, the louder a creator's signal gets, the more likely it is to draw in more people. The more folks who show up, the more likely it is that some folks decide to buy copies. And if a YouTube channel run by the creator/company starts blowing up with views and comments, well, the revenue generated from that can help offset the cost of something a lot of folks seem to enjoy, but which hasn't exactly flown off the shelves. Yet, anyway.

I've said it repeatedly, but creators and companies need readers in order to keep doing what they do. A lot of us like building worlds, creating new classes, coming up with adventures, and exploring the possibilities of our game worlds... but we can't do that if it isn't keeping the wolf from the door. And if the choice comes down to working on a project we aren't as passionate about, or keeping the lights on, most of us will opt for the latter.

So make your voice heard, and make sure we know what you want from us so that we can keep the content coming!

Also, Check Out Sundara: Dawn of a New Age If You Haven't Yet!

As an example of something that I've put a lot of work into, but which I've had a tough time getting people to check out, consider taking a look at my "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age" setting for Pathfinder Classic and DND 5E. And if you're one of those folks who wants to hear a pitch before you make a purchase, I've been putting together episodes of Speaking of Sundara on the Azukail Games YouTube channel (which you should definitely subscribe to) talking about some of the design strategies I've used, breaking down what's in particular supplements, and explaining some of the changes I've made to what folks might expect from a traditional fantasy RPG setting, from how I chopped out alignment, to the uncertain nature of gods, to how technology and magic both lead to unique inventions among the people of Sundara!

Check out the full 26-video Speaking of Sundara playlist, in addition to the following supplements!

Cities of Sundara

The setting first began with the Cities of Sundara splats. Self-contained guides to some of the larger and more powerful centers of trade, industry, arms, and magic, these unique locations provide plenty of fodder for character generation and plots. Not only that, but each one comes with unique, mechanical goodies for players and GMs alike to take out for a spin!

- Ironfire: The City of Steel (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built around the Dragon Forge, Ironfire is where the secret to dragon steel was first cracked. The center of the mercenary trade in the region, as well as boasting some of the finest schools for teaching practical sciences, Ironfire is a place where discovery and danger walk hand in hand!

- Moüd: The City of Bones (Pathfinder and DND 5E): An ancient center of trade and magic, Moüd was lost to a cataclysm, and then buried in myth. Reclaimed by the necromantic arts of the Silver Wraiths guild, this city has once again become a place teeming with life. Despite the burgeoning population, though, it is the continued presence of the undead that helps keep the city running, ensuring that Moüd is not swallowed up once more.

- Silkgift: The City of Sails (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built on the cottage industry of Archer cloth (an extremely durable material used for sails, windmills, etc.), Silkgift is a place that prizes invention and discovery. From gravity batteries that store the potential of the wind, to unique irrigation systems, to aether weapons, the city positively churns out discoveries... and then there's the canal they cut through the mountains that makes them a major center of trade across the region.

- Hoardreach: The City of Wyrms (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A center of power across an entire region, Hoardreach is ruled over by a Cooperation of five different dragons. A place for refugees and outcasts of all sorts, Hoardreach boasts some of the most unusual citizens and creations from across Sundara. Infamous for their sky ships, which require the cast-off scales and unique arcane sciences of the Dragon Works to take to the air, one never knows just what they'll find in this city built atop a mountain.

- Archbliss: The City of The Sorcerers (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A floating city in the sky, Archbliss has been a refuge for sorcerers for thousands of years. It's only in relatively recent years that the city has allowed those from the ground below who lack the power of a bloodline to join them in the clouds. However, while there are certainly amazing wonders to behold, there is a darkness in Archbliss. Something rotting away at its heart that could, if not healed, bring the city crashing to the ground once more.

Gods of Sundara

- Gods of Sundara (available for Pathfinder and DND 5E): In a world with no alignment, and where the gods are often genuinely mysterious forces that are far too large for mortals to truly comprehend, the divine feels genuinely strange and unknown... something that really does have to be taken on faith. This supplement provides a sample pantheon for Sundara, but also provides instructions on how to easily make your own gods in a world where you can't cast a spell and tell whether someone is good or evil.

Species of Sundara

Sundara is filled with creatures that many of us recognize, but I wanted to give greater depth to their cultures, and a wider variety of options. After all, humans always get 15+ ethnicities, languages, and unique histories, while elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, etc. are almost always left with footnotes, or maybe with a handful of offshoots. So, in short, I wanted to give all the fantastical creatures the treatment that humans usually get in our games.

And there is no human book yet. If readers demand to know more, then I may sit down to pen one... but I figured that humans didn't need to be front-and-center in this setting just yet.

- Elves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Elves are one of the most quintessential fantasy creatures... but if you want to see more than just high elves, wood elves, and elves of the sun and moon, then this supplement has you covered!

- Dwarves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): The children of the primordial giants who were meant to fill in the details of the world they'd made (or so the myths say) there are as many kinds of dwarves as their are kinds of giants... and possibly more, depending on who is keeping count.

- Orcs of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Supposedly a creation of the elves, none can say for certain exactly how or why orcs have been made. What most agree on is that these creatures are far more than most may think at first glance.

- Halflings of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Little cousins to the dwarves, halflings are tough, clever, and not to be underestimated. From living beneath the hills, to taking up residence in the deep forests, halflings in Sundara come in quite a variety!

- The Blooded (Half-Elves and Half-Orcs) [Pathfinder and DND 5E]: When orcs and elves mix their bloodlines with other creatures, the result is one of the Blooded. This inheritance takes many forms, and it can even wait generations before manifesting when the right combination of individuals come together to have a child.

- Gnomes of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Gnomes are strange creatures, found in places where the spirit of the land has coalesced and made children of its own. The sons and daughters of the ancient nymphs, they are the stewards of these places, and they change as often as the weather and the land.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Daily Motion channel!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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

Not Every Product is Made For Every Gamer

As gamers, all of us have different wants and needs when it comes to our favorite pastime. Some of us want games that are extremely rules-light where we just have some vague boundaries for our collective storytelling experience. Some of us want games with a lot of heavy crunch where we can chew through a complex and robust rule system. Some of us like dark themes that can leave us dealing with heavy issues and existential questions, and some of us want games where we can just fire lasers at space Nazis.

Most of us understand this. There's some folks out there, though, who seem confused that just because they don't want a particular product, that doesn't mean other gamers out there share that opinion.

And if you don't need it, you don't have to buy it.

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

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Sometimes You're Not The Target

On the surface, most of us get this. If you don't play Blades in The Dark, for instance, then you know instinctively that when someone writes a supplement for it that they aren't thinking about gamers like you as their target audience. We also get it that if we prefer games with fire-breathing dragons and arcane orders, then all the content coming out for Cyberpunk RED isn't aimed at our wallets.

It's when we have more general use products, though, or gaming supplements that appeal to a specific type of play more than a particular game that (for some reason) a lot of us lose our grip on this objectivity.

Like this one, for example.

I ran into some of this push back with both Towns of Sundara above, as well as its predecessor 10 Fantasy Villages. Both of these supplements provide pre-made towns with maps, NPCs, rumors, histories, and little plot hooks should you want to use them as the starting point of a campaign, or you just need a little inspiration for side quests. And for some Game Masters this was just what they were looking for (given that the fantasy villages supplement is currently sitting at Electrum status), but for some reason there were some people who felt the need to leave derogatory comments on posts about it. It seems that, to these particular individuals, any Game Master who didn't build 100% of their own setting with their own hands wasn't a "real" GM, and they didn't deserve to sit in the chair. As such, they felt the need to turn their nose up at a product that offered pre-made towns with advice, NPCs, etc.

That attitude probably merits a blog all its own, but it's useful for illustrating the point. If that's the way you feel about RPGs, and you have zero use for a supplement like either of these books, then you can rest assured that you are not the type of gamer I wrote them for in the first place.

If you don't like modules, horror games, or DND 5E, then my horror module The Curse of Sapphire Lake for DND 5E isn't a product you're going to want. If your group is steering clear from games with dark themes and topics, or you have really good communication with your table, then the tools found in the free supplement Consent in Gaming might not be something you want or need. If you're confident in your style and abilities, then you may not feel the need to check out 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master.

And all of that is fine. You should, as I so often say, do what works for you.

At the same time, though, if something isn't for you, then don't engage with it. Whether it's a strategy you don't want to use, or a game you have no interest in playing, or a setting you don't want to touch, you're perfectly within your rights to say no to it. Hell, as I pointed out in Let People Dislike Things, you can even go complain about it, if that will make you feel better. I've done that very thing on this blog more than once, and it can be quite therapeutic.

But if a game's only sin is that it doesn't appeal to you, remember that it probably wasn't made for you in the first place. There are other gamers out there who might enjoy it, even if it's not your preferred brand of beverage... so keep on scrolling. It's a silly hill to die on, and there's no reason to make a stand when you can better spend that energy finding things you do like, and enjoying them 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 if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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

Why I Think Paizo Releasing Content For 5th Edition is a Smart Move

Anyone who's been around here knows my views on the upcoming Pathfinder 2nd Edition (and if you don't know I summarized them pretty neatly in 5 Red Flags in Pathfinder's 2nd Edition Playtest). In short, I'm not a fan. For my two cents I feel like Paizo is essentially trying to reach across the aisle to court the DND 5th Edition audience by removing the 3.5 engine that Pathfinder is built on, and releasing a game that gives you fewer options, removing the mechanical freedom that marked the Pathfinder classic edition.

And since I feel that way, folks might assume that I would be equally down on Paizo's stated intention to release a DND 5th Edition compatible Bestiary with their anniversary edition of the Kingmaker adventure path. However, in this case, you couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, I think that Paizo releasing straight-up 5th Edition content is an extremely smart idea, and it's something I wish the company would put more effort into.

Seriously, I think it's a much smarter play.

I Thought You Hated 5th Edition?

As I've said repeatedly, I have no beef with 5th Edition. It's a perfectly functional rules system, and it appeals to players who like a game where they can pick up and play without too much in the way of complexity. However, it is not a game that has a lot of mechanical freedom. I talked about this more in-depth in Understanding The Difference Between Story Freedom and Mechanical Freedom in RPGs a while back, but the short version is that mechanical freedom is when the rules of the game support your story in specific ways. In 5th Edition you can play a barbarian who goes Jekyll to Hyde when he rages, but in Pathfinder you can physically transform into another person with their own alignment, appearance, race, personality, etc. through the Master Chymist prestige class, or in several Vigilante archetypes. It's the difference between re-skinning a mechanic to look different, and actually have a mechanic that functions differently.

However, the more mechanical freedom you want in your game, the more mechanics you need to have. So players who want to keep the rules relatively light tend to stick to games that require a minimum of prep. And that's why, according to an industry contact of mine, over 80 percent of sales made on Drive Thru RPG right now are for 5th Edition-compatible content.

That's a market that's hard to ignore.

With numbers like that, it's no surprise that Paizo wants to try to tap the 5th Edition crowd. It's what I'd do in their shoes, and I don't begrudge them that in the slightest.

The problem is they've been going about it in the worst possible way.

Marketing Mistakes and Cash Grabs

First of all, let's get something straight here. Pathfinder's core base was formed by players who wanted to keep playing DND 3.5, and refused to move on to 4th Edition when it came out. Paizo gave us that, and it's why we bought book after book, year after year. That's the game we liked, and we wanted to keep getting new adventures, accessories, tokens, optional rules packages, etc. for that game.

And while there are a lot of DMs out there who complain about "bloat", or who argue that Pathfinder needed a new edition, coming out with one was always going to be risky. Coming out with one that essentially throws all the old content in the garbage, making it unusable in the new edition, was going to lead to deep, angry divisions. That was one, major reason that so many 3.5 players didn't move on a decade and change ago; they'd dedicated 3 shelves of space to monster manuals, player books, race guides, etc., and they were not willing to leave all that behind for a new game that would cost more money and give them fewer options than what they already had.

Looking at you.

That was exactly what the playtest did. It introduced a system that was just different enough that all the content players and DMs had invested in was no longer valid, wiped the slate clean, and set the stage for a new game entirely. And then the company sold bound copies of the playtest, which just looked like a naked cash grab, and didn't help the accusations that the reason behind this new game was more profit-driven than it was a legitimate demand from the market for a new game.

Will some players move on? Of course they will. The same way some players moved on from 3.5 to 4th edition, and were perfectly happy to do so. My prediction? I think this has a good chance of alienating 1/3 to 1/2 of the existing player base who will play through the material they have, and then either turn to 3rd party publishers to get their fix, or simply play a different game entirely.

But I was talking about 5th Edition.

By releasing existing content from the Golarion setting in a 5th Edition-compatible package, Paizo is making a very smart move. As I alluded to earlier, people are attached to the games they have, and more often than not they don't like being moved out of their comfort zone (and forcing a gamer out of their comfort zone by discontinuing support for their game of choice is how you get people who refuse to play anything else out of sheer spite). So the solution for how to get some of that sweet, sweet 5th Edition audience isn't try to making some bizarre hybrid game that's going to piss off a lot of your core fan base and which probably won't entice people who already like 5th Edition.

It's to just make 5th Edition content.

Two Birds, One Stone

Producing an RPG is expensive, and over the past decade Paizo has put out a lot of rock solid content, great adventure paths, and truly bonkers set pieces. Instead of trying to make a hybrid game that is too bland for one side, and too complicated for the other, the smart move is to just showcase their setting, their creatures, their adventures, and the raw, insane creativity of Golarion as a setting and repackaging it in 5th Edition form. This also has the benefit that 5th Edition players don't have to buy a whole new support network to try out your product, which makes it even more enticing!

Now you're starting to get the picture.

If you already have the content and the IP (which Paizo certainly does), it takes a lot less effort to convert it to 5th Edition, and put it in front of players who would happily buy it if only it was compatible with their game of choice. Whether it's introducing new archetypes for the existing classes, or giving players access to some of the nutso stuff Pathfinder players have had for ages that just doesn't exist in traditional 5th Edition. From gunslingers and oracles, to magi and vigilantes, there is all sorts of stuff you can do in Pathfinder that you just can't do in 5th Edition out of the box.

If you give players and DMs the option to use those things in the games they're already playing, they are a lot more likely to snap them up. Because now it's a fun accessory, rather than a huge investment of time and energy that a new game often represents.

This would allow Paizo to diversify its lines and tap into the biggest gaming market out there, but also help keep their core audience happy by not pushing them to accept a divisive game that many will just refuse to buy. Additionally, regular Pathfinder players could continue to act as the test market for new ideas, seeing which adventure paths, classes and archetypes, etc. are popular, and thus more likely to succeed in the larger 5th Edition market. And, of course, there will be 5th Edition players who want to see how their new favorite classes played in their original form, giving Paizo cascade sales as more 5th Edition players check out Pathfinder, since the converted content essentially got Paizo's foot in the door, and now they have an emotional investment.

Do I think that's what's going to happen? No, probably not. Paizo has gone all-in on making this second edition happen, and the only thing that's going to stop its forward momentum is if it tanks as a product (which is still possible, but I don't have the market numbers to say it it's likely). At this point I think the best we can hope for is that Paizo continues digital support for existing Pathfinder Classic content, while pushing this new edition as hard as they can.

But I think it would be a much smarter, more efficient move to just put a few splat books of occult classes, monsters, and some adventures in front of the 5th Edition crowd, and let the rich flavor of the setting and ideas speak for themselves.

Speaking of 5th Edition Content From Creators You Love...

For folks who haven't seen some of the goods, yet.

The shift toward 5th Edition's market share has affected all of us out there, yours truly included. Which is why I decided to diversify my offerings, too! As of right now two of my modules, False Valor and The Curse of Sapphire Lake are both available from Total Party Kill Games. Both of these one-shots can be played independently, or you can work them in as a starting point for a larger campaign if you want to.

And False Valor recently went Copper, which has me all kinds of excited!

And for the DMs out there who want something a little smaller than a full module, I've got something for you, as well. A Baker's Dozen of Rumours (And The Truth Behind Them) is ideal for injecting a little intrigue into your game. Meaty enough to work as a full session, if you want, these rumors can slot right into most campaigns. And if you're looking for a chart to keep on hand, 100 Encounters For on The Road or in The Wilderness also went Copper fairly recently!

Like, Follow, and Keep in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you enjoyed the film, and it provides you all with the same sort of inspiration it did me!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal and Gamers archives, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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