Another Social Media Struggle (Reddit Has Decided To Kick Me In The Teeth, And I Could Use Some Help)

We've all heard that philosophical argument about how if a tree falls in the forest, but there's no one around to see it or hear it, did it actually fall? Well, that's kind of what being a creator is like. Because it doesn't matter how amazing your art is, how engaging your book might be, or how deep and thoughtful your video essays are, because if no one knows they exist, they can't actually become fans of your work. And since most creators don't have money to spend on advertisements, or doing dozens upon dozens of conventions where they take a loss every time as they try to build an audience, we rely on social media to get the word out about what we do.

And while social media enshittification has been hitting hard, I've been managing to tread water... until recently. Because the last piece of driftwood I was clinging to seems to have snapped underneath me, and now I'm back to trying not to drown.

And this, of course, involves the hive of scum and villainy that goes by the name Reddit.

A hand up would be deeply appreciated right now...

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!

The Social Media Saga (And Why This Is Such A Problem)

The official term for what we're all struggling with these days is Platform Decay, but most of us refer to it as Enshittification. Essentially social media started off as a free, functional way for us to keep in touch with our friends, family, and creators, celebrities, etc. that we liked to follow, and it mostly worked. But over the past several years it's been deliberately sabotaged, twisted, and made impossible to use as a creator (and nearly impossible to use for regular people, too). I talked about this more in-depth in The Reason Social Media Sucks For Everyone These Days (Not Just Creators) a while back, for those who missed it.

For those who like numbers, I have a couple of Before and After averages to share, from about 10 years ago, and today. Keep in mind that my subscriber count has only gone up between these two time periods, so if anything I should have held steady, instead of decreasing to a fraction of engagement.

 

- Average Facebook spread used to net between 400 and 1,000 impressions. Now it's barely 25.

- Average Twitter blast used to net between 100 and 250 impressions. Now it's less than 20.

- StumbleUpon netted me between 50 and 500 impressions. The site is unusable anymore.

- Digg would net between 25 and 1,000 impressions. AI slop broke the site entirely, and it's closed.

 

For sites that aren't listed, Tumblr and LinkedIn both have significantly lowered engagement. Pinterest is a ghost town that's jam-packed with AI slop. Google+ is gone, of course, and sites like MeWe have never been worth more than a few dozen views. Blue Sky has never been great for creators (though it's quite a nice platform for journalists and news creators), and places like Discord and Mastadon have no discoverability because all the servers are separate, with no way to cross-pollinate.

And in the midst of all of that, Reddit was a website that has been chugging along. You could even keep using the old version of the site, which made it easy to see and understand at a glance what was happening. My current Reddit account has over a quarter million karma (not bragging, just pointing out the amount of positive interaction I've had on the site), and it's been active for 11 years.

Then I was shadowbanned last week. No warning, no explanation, just POOF, your account is gone. I appealed, and got it back, but the issue I was facing was that even though the decision was made by a random bot (and was immediately overturned by a human), being shadowbanned immediately hid all of my submissions to the website.

So while my karma count was still intact, over a decade of posts were just swept under the rug, and unable to be seen by users. And while I don't usually use language quite this strong around here, this incident has fucked me as a creator... and to make it worse, at time of writing, I was randomly shadowbanned again, likely because a bot just decided that I'd crossed an unspoken line and had to be removed, even though nothing about my behavior has changed in a decade on the site, and it's never been a problem before today.

Why This Is Such A Big Damn Problem

The reason this is a massive problem for me is two fold. The first is fairly obvious; if I'm shadowbanned on Reddit (or if I keep getting shadowbanned by AI-driven bots) then I cannot share links to either my work, or anyone else's work. I try to maintain the balance and not just talk about my stuff all the time, and I mix it up with videos, RPGs, etc. by other creators that I enjoy, and think more people should hear about.

However, I want to circle back around to how it has hidden a decade of my submissions, essentially making them unusable. Put another way, that's somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 posts just poofed out of existence like a Thanos snap. That's also a low-balled guess as to just how many posts I've made over the past 11 years.

If you want to know what that's worth, most days when I check my DTRPG earnings, I had between $10 and $25. That's not an amazing income, but it adds up at the end of the month, and it paid most of my half of my rent. Ever since I was shadowbanned, and all those posts were removed? I'm making somewhere between $3 and $8 a day. This past weekend I had the first day in 4 years where I didn't sell a single thing on DTRPG at all, and it's directly correlated with this decision.

This shadowbanning didn't remove any of the blog entries I'd written, of course. It didn't delete articles or videos. It just made all those things less visible, effectively slamming the door on people randomly stumbling across my work while running searches or browsing the site. And again, if people don't see this blog, my videos, my supplements, etc., then they can't interact with them, which means I can't pay my bills.

 

EDIT: Apparently it's just regular banned, as my account was basically shuttered up. There's no "shadow" about the whole process. 

And since no other sites are working either... you see where this is going...

The bigger kick in the nuts here is that while Reddit can absolutely erase over a decade of submissions to the site on the word of a bot, it can't restore them. You basically have to ask the subreddit mods to pretty please go through the removed posts and reapprove them, or resubmit those posts. Mods are not willing to do this, and certainly not to the extent that would be required for some of the subs I regularly post in where there are hundreds (potentially thousands) of posts going back for years (since some I posted in weekly, and others I posted in daily). And while there's nothing stopping me from resubmitting my posts (except the site's bots deciding that me submitting things is suspicious), I built up that 11 year archive organically. I didn't just show up all day, every day blasting my own signal for hours at a time. I shared my own stuff, yes. And then I shared actual plays that I'd seen. Or I commented on a topic. Or I told everybody about this other game, supplement, etc. that I'd seen. Or I shared bundles, such as the Owen Stephens Summer Survival Spectacular to help Owen Stephens pay the bills for his fight against cancer. You get the idea.

You can't just replace all those posts in a few months, or even a year. It took me 11 years to submit them in the first place, it would take me a decade to get back to that point. And even after that decade of posting, assuming everything went perfectly and I wasn't randomly shadowbanned, I still wouldn't have my archive restored. Because you see there were a lot of subreddits that I was no longer allowed to post in, but they still had all my previous posts acting as one more place someone might stumble across me... those are gone, and cannot be replaced.

So... yeah. I was already trying to crawl out of the muck, and now because an overzealous collection of 1s and 0s decided I wasn't up to their secret standards, I've now been kicked in the teeth, and thrown back down into some fairly desperate circumstances as a result.

What I'm Going To Do (And How You Can Help)

Wallowing isn't going to help me, especially since I need to get back on my feet before yet more bills come due. Unfortunately, there's only a few things I can do. First and foremost, I'm trying to appeal the shadowbans, to get some statements from the site about what's happening, and to stop this cycle from happening again. I'm also looking for alternative sites, Discord servers, and communities where I can make up at least some of the lost audience potential. And, lastly, I'm going to keep making stuff for people to enjoy, and hope that I can overwhelm the algorithms with the sheer volume of projects I'm churning out.

I don't really have any other options.

However, I'm basically at the mercy of you all. I'm in the Colosseum fighting for my life, and I need the crowd to roar in my favor so that I can be allowed to live and fight another day. So if you made it this far, I have a list of things you can do to help me for free, and a list of things you can do to help that will cost a bit of money... not much, though. As art goblins go, I'm a fairly cheap pet.

So, without further ado...

How You Can Help For Free

- Follow My Facebook

- Follow My Blue Sky

- Check Out My LinkTree

- Subscribe To My Weekly Newsletter

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

- Subscribe To The A.L.I.C.E. Files (an audio drama channel I launched with Alice Liddell)

- Read my articles on Vocal.Media (every read puts a penny in my pocket)

- Share my articles, videos, RPG supplements, and anything else I make on your own social media pages (and if you're a Reddit user, tell your favorite subs about stuff I make out of spite)!

How You Can Help If You Have A Budget

- Become A Patreon Patron

- Give Me A Tip On Ko-Fi

- Buy Some of My TTRPG Supplements (link goes to a pin board, but you could also search "Neal Litherland" on DTRPG to get the full 200+ list of things I've made)

- Buy A Book From My Amazon Author Page

- Buy Yourself A Tub of Dubby (use the code LITERARYMERCENARY for 10% off this powdered energy drink)

The reason I put all of this out there is that I literally do not care how my bills get paid. If 50,000 people decide to buy copies of my hardboiled cat novels Marked Territory and Painted Cats, then I'm going to pause a lot of projects to write a third installment in that series. If a bunch of people decide to support me on Patreon, then I'm going to make sure my blogs are polished up, and that everyone is getting their money's worth. If a couple thousand people decide they want to get my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, then I'd focus on expanding that game, or if folks picked up supplements like The Blade Itself: Corrupt Equipment For Hunter: The Vigil, Like A Good Neighbor - Portraying True Fae in Your Chronicle, or Night Horrors: Primordial Peerage, I'd put a lot more time and energy into extra content for Hunter, Changeling, Beast, or other spheres of the Chronicles of Darkness.

And, of course, if folks want to see more of The A.L.I.C.E. Files, I'd be making bigger, longer, and more complicated soundscapes to tell some of my rather... involved stories.

This whole situation has put me in something of a bind, but I'm not just sitting here twiddling my thumbs hoping things get solved. If you can help, please do so, because I need every hand up I can get. Even if you just follow my Patreon as a free supporter to stay up-to-date, or you just subscribe to the YouTube channels, or share my supplements online when you see them, it makes a difference. And if a few hundred individuals who think their efforts won't matter all pitch in, then you're going to be a damn potent force.

As always, stay tuned for more updates, and thank you in advance to everyone who helps me stop this slide toward the cliff's edge before I go over.

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!

Stay Up-To-Date On All The Latest "Army Men" Developments!

As most folks know, my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic dropped a couple of months back. It was the Deal of The Day last month on Drive Thru RPG, which got a lot of fresh eyeballs on the game, and less than a month after its debut we already had the first supplement available. In the event you didn't grab your own copy yet, Army Men: Threat Assessments is ready for you to snatch up if you need more antagonists for your missions!

However, there are a lot of fresh things coming up for the game, and I'm hard at work on even more... so if you don't want to miss what's going on, make sure you join the newly created Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic group over on Facebook today!

Seriously, if you're going to play this game, you're going to want this one!

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

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

A Central Location For Your "Army Men" Needs!

As we all know, social media has been tightening the leash more and more these days. Posts that used to be able to fly free are now routinely shot down by the algorithm, and this makes it significantly more difficult for gamers out there to stay tuned-in to what's going on with any given RPG... especially independently-produced and created ones, which don't have the budget or clout to get wider notice on a platform.

And while a lot of platforms were tossed around for where we wanted to start (including both a Discord and a subreddit), Facebook is where we decided on for the time being. Firstly because it's a platform that still has a lot of dedicated users, but also because it has discoverability (the potential for outsiders to stumble across the group and its content, even if they weren't specifically looking for it). Because the goal here is two-fold; to give existing players a place to congregate, but also to provide resources for new players who are looking for a community.

So what kinds of things can you find in this group if you join?

Well, it's certainly going to become a place for folks to share their experiences with the game, to find groups, and (hopefully) to post videos of live plays. It's very likely to be a place where additional tutorials (like the one above) are going to be shared as a way to help folks diversify their tables, and create more interesting arenas to battle in. It will also be a place to catch up on the latest news about supplements that are coming out, supplements that are currently being batted around as potential projects, short stories, audio dramas, and more!

So if you've wanted to give this game a try, or you want to talk to some of the folks who backed it and have been playing it, join the Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic Facebook group so that we can start growing our numbers. And if it gets large enough, who knows, we may even be able to expand and claim some territory on another platform as well!

It's also a great way to make sure that creators like myself, as well as other contributors, see what you would be interested in, so that we have some idea of what you want going forward as a community!

Lastly, make sure you subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel. There's going to be a fair amount of Army Men content over that way in the near future, and I wouldn't want anyone to miss it!

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!

Surprised Paizo is Releasing 5E Content? You Really Shouldn't Be

For those who've been paying attention to gaming news, it seems that Paizo (the company behind Pathfinder) will soon be releasing one of its older adventure paths for 5th Edition DND players. So if you're a 5E main who's been looking for something to really sink your teeth into, soon The Abomination Vaults will be ready and waiting for you to dig right in!

Incidentally, you might also want to pick up something like the Abomination Vaults GM's Guide, as keeping megadungeons flowing is far from the easiest trick to manage, whatever edition you're playing.

I'd forgotten about this one, so I may try the original recipe.

Some people have been loudly asking what I think is a very silly question. It boils down to, "Wait, isn't Paizo like the Sega to Wizards of The Coast's Super Nintendo? Why would they release content for the game that is their main competitor?" While I'm not the first person to answer this question, as someone who deals with this setup in a microcosm as a creator, I figured I'd add my voice to the growing stream.

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!

Why Is This Happening? Money, And Audience Share

I am not the oldest creator in the game, but even I've been around long enough to understand something very important when it comes to making RPGs as your job. First, there's a limited audience you're playing to. Even with the huge surges in interest the hobby has seen, RPGs are still a niche part of the publishing industry. This is why pay rates are so low, and why budgets tend toward the shoestring, and why risk is a word most folks in charge don't like to hear; long and short, even "successful" RPG companies don't have a lot of spare cash in their war chest if something tanks, unless they're part of a parent company that can bail them out when something goes poorly.

And let's not forget, we're talking about companies here. Players love these games. Designers love these games. Companies make decisions based on bottom line, risk, and return on investment. Given that viewpoint, I'm honestly surprised it took this long for Paizo to start porting their content to the 5E system to try to get a bigger piece of the pie.

Make no mistake, this is a very smart business move.

As regular readers know, I've been releasing content for my own setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age for a little over a year at time of writing. While I originally planned and designed this setting to run on the Pathfinder system, I was more or less required to port every release I had to Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition as well. Why? Because numbers that I've seen peg DND 5E as being something like 80% of the total RPG marketplace. That game system has the fastest growing fan base, the largest number of players, and it represents the biggest pool for designers to go fishing in. So while a lot of content for my setting is a bastard and a half to translate to 5E in any meaningful way (given that PF has a vastly more complex and robust rules system that my world design sort of revolves around), not doing it would make the project a non-starter for my publisher, who'd like to actually make money off the content I design.

Same deal for Paizo, but on a larger scale.

Because Paizo has spent more than a decade developing a complicated, interesting setting. There's a massive variety of classes and archetypes, dozens of fully-written campaigns, and a staggering number of smaller modules out there which all take place in Golarion. This is intellectual property that Paizo already owns, and which it is already selling. However, by translating this content to a 5E compatible version they're making all of this older work accessible to players who previously may never have had a reason to check it out for themselves, or who are leery of leaving the comfort zone of their preferred system, Paizo stands to snag a large group of players who never would have tried their products otherwise. While it could lead to players buying additional PF Classic or PF 2E books and content, that would be more of a fringe benefit. The primary purpose would be to re-use all the assets Paizo already paid for, but to sell them to a new audience, thus making a tidy profit with less initial investment.

Incidentally, before moving on here, you can find a full list of all the splat books I've been releasing listed in Speaking of Sundara (My Latest Video Series With Azukail Games), if you're interested in checking out what I've been putting together, whether you prefer PF or DND 5E at your table.

This Isn't an Either/Or Situation

A final thing I feel should be made clear here (and which most designers who do this for a living already understand) is that this isn't a one-or-the-other setup when we're talking about a company as big as Paizo. They have the ability to hire freelancers and recruit designers to keep several plates spinning at a time in order to tap multiple markets. So while they seem to be testing the waters with this release, it would be entirely possible for them to keep releasing new content for their existing players with one hand, while converting their older content to a different edition with the other.

However, if you're someone who's worried that Paizo is going to stop supporting your favored edition of the game, then make sure you're voting with your wallet, and doing what you can to big-up the signal to spread the word. Buy copies, leave reviews of what you get, start conversations, get people interested, and so on. When companies review the charts are the end of the day, they're looking at what products got a big response from the audience, and that's where more effort and energy is going to go.

Keep that in mind, because it's the voice of almighty dollar folks tend to listen to when making decisions about what they're going to produce next.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my cat noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel 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!

Pathfinder Infinite (And Other News Involving Paizo)

For those folks who unplugged themselves recently, there's been a lot of big news going on. The one that a lot of people are focusing on is the announcement of Pathfinder Infinite (and Starfinder Infinite as well, if that's your thing). In short, after years and years of steadfastly going things on their own, Paizo seems to have finally decided to get on the community creation bandwagon along with Onyx Path, Wizards of The Coast, and a lot of other developers out there.

So what does this mean, exactly?

Before we get into the nitty gritty details of how this is going to affect not just me, but other creators out there, take a moment to sign up for my weekly newsletter if you haven't already. And since my blogs basically run on the contributions of readers like you, consider becoming a Patreon patron if you haven't already!

How Does Community Content Work? What About The OGL?

For folks who aren't sure what's going on, I'll begin at the beginning. A community content platform is when a gaming company allows creators to use their intellectual property under the rules they set forth, typically with a royalty/profit split between the creator and the company. So if you wanted to put together an adventure set in, say, Ravenloft or the Forgotten Realms you could publish it through DMs Guild which is the platform for Dungeons and Dragons. Alternatively, if you wanted to put together a book expanding on the Hedge in Changeling: The Lost (such as my recent releases 100 Strange Sights to See in The Hedge as well as 100 (Mostly) Harmless Goblin Fruits and Oddments to Find in The Hedge) then you could publish that piece through Storyteller's Vault.

And once this project is up and running you'll be able to publish similar content using Golarion and its surrounding solar system with both Pathfinder and Starfinder content.

Yes, yes, the Open Game License, that's next.

For those of you not familiar with it, Pathfinder as well as Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition (and 3.5 and 4th Editions as well, to the best of my knowledge) are written under an Open Gaming License. This means that the mechanics, the systems of the games are open to anyone who wants to use them for their own worlds, settings, RPGs, etc. It's why I can put out something like my recent Species of Sundara: Dwarves book for both Pathfinder Classic and DND 5th Edition without even once worrying about getting sued over them, or having to share my profits with anyone. Because nothing in those books uses the intellectual property of either Paizo or Wizards of the Coast, even though they use the mechanics of both Pathfinder and DND 5E respectively. Because those things were basically open for anyone to use already.

So if you can use the mechanics freely, then why would anyone sign up for the platform where you have to split your earnings with the company who holds the intellectual property, and follow all the rules they set out for what you can and can't do with it?

The short answer is money. The longer answer is because it's a lot easier to get people interested in a new contribution to a property they already know and like than it is to get them completely invested in a new property they've never seen or played around in before. So while you might get some people to check out your completely unique fantasy setting where you get to keep all the profits of those sales, you're likely to make far more sales using a setting they already know, love, and probably have campaigns and characters active in. And so those increases in number of sales more than makes up for splitting your royalties with the company who holds the intellectual property you're being allowed to use.

But What About That "Other" News?

Again, for those who haven't been paying attention recently, you may not have heard about the other news story involving Paizo of late. In short, Jessica Price dropped a lot of accusations about scandalous behavior that other creators and freelancers have stepped forward to confirm (at least in part) in the week or so since it's come out.

I'd advise folks to read the thread in its entirety, but a lot of it is going to feel very familiar if you've been following revelations like this from big companies in general, and gaming companies in particular. We've got the classics like bullying female employers, management entrenching itself against progressive ideas and stifling voices from POC creators, not paying people who actually created the product enough to live on while hoarding profits for the higher-ups... but there are some I didn't expect. Not cleaning the office to the point that it was a health hazard for employees wasn't on my bingo card, nor was the weird obsession with Victorian occultism that led to... problematic discussions, to say the least.

Huh... didn't expect that one.

This puts a lot of us in a bind, creatively and professionally. Because on the one hand it's an opportunity to make the content we never had the chance to before (I would very much like to write sequels to The Irregulars, for example, since I was only ever allowed to write a single tale for the squad, and I had more adventures planned for them), and it would allow creators whose voices may not have been heard before to step up. This could allow a lot of us to make the setting genuinely more diverse, without meddling from management and higher-ups who (according to accusations, at least) often tried to rein those efforts in. On the other hand, that profit split means that everything sold through the platform puts money right back into Paizo's pockets as a company.

I can't speak for any other creators, as I haven't had any in-depth conversations with anyone on this subject yet. However, as folks have pointed out, a lot of the individuals accused of bad behavior at Paizo no longer work for the company. However, that doesn't let them off the hook for the accusations that prove true. Generally speaking I want to see things change (both at Paizo, and at companies in general) and for problems like these to be fixed so that I am not supporting bad faith and negative behavior. I'd like to be a part of making a gaming company whose products I like better and more profitable, but only if that company is going to treat its creators well, and not try to drag itself backward into all the -isms we've worked so hard to undo, shrug off, and cut away over the years.

So, while I'm still tentatively excited about the potential opportunity Pathfinder Infinite presents, I'm not going to sweep aside my other projects to jump right on it any time soon. The dice are still rolling, and I hope they come up good... but we'll just have to see how that turns out before I put my nose on this particular grindstone.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my cat noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel 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!

The "Modern Adventures" Kickstarter Has Begun!

Admit it, we've all had that thought. That thought that goes, "what if we could take all the stuff we like in this fantasy RPG, but set it in the modern day?" You know, so you could have elf politicians arguing against term limits because they're prejudiced against long-lived races. Or gangs of goblins on the lower east side that you need to either fight, bribe, or win Diplomacy checks with to make your allies against greater dangers. Maybe you want to see dragons protected as an endangered species, or ask what it would be like to see a team of orcs play football.

Rather than hammer your head through the table trying to adapt Pathfinder to do all those things, check out the Kickstarter for Modern Adventures.

Your otyugh problem's fixed. Bathroom's a mess, though.

Now, I haven't read the rules myself, but it looks like a project worth checking out.

What Makes Modern Adventures Different

So what's the big deal about Modern Adventures? Well, the most obvious change is that it takes place in the modern era. That means guns are pretty common, Internet exists, and you can still go down to the corner cafe to get a grande latte. The difference is that your barista might be a gnome, and you might have a halfling correspondent on the news, telling you about the day's happenings.

Weather's great out in Shire, California. Back to you, Cliff!

The other big difference is that this game isn't set in Golarion, or any other fantasy world you'd typically play Pathfinder in. It's set on Earth, and it's meant to reflect the reality we know through a slightly fractured lens. So, while the ancient Persian empire still happened, it's possible that the Immortals were, in fact, a contingent of full-blooded orcs. There may be elven veterans who remember, and talk about, the American Civil War. And when urban blight gets bad, it might create a home for aberrations, monsters, and dangerous creatures, in addition to opening the doors to drug abuse, poverty, and all the ills we see from our purely human civilization.

Is It Worth A Look?

I repeat, I have not seen this book. I have not read the changes it made to the skills, and I haven't see what stats it created for heavy weapons, kevlar, etc. I have not see what explanations the game makes for how we got to the modern world we're all familiar with, even with trolls, magic, wizards, and clerics who can call upon the divine to turn belief into fact when it comes to religion. Nor have I seen how the game eliminates spell levels, and instead gives all spellcasters control over a kind of pool of power.

I do know that all those things have been promised. I'll be withholding judgment on the game as a whole until I can look at the content, but I know that some of the things I might think of as flaws would be features to other players. So, go look at the Kickstarter, and see if Modern Adventures is a game you've been looking for.

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday installment. Hopefully you find something worth chatting about, whether or not you become a backer. If you're looking for more content from yours truly, check out my Gamers archive. It's growing all the time. To stay up-to-date on all my latest content, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. And if you want to help support me and my work, head over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a patron. All it takes is $1 a month, and you'll be helping me out in addition to getting some sweet swag as a thank you!

Dungeons and Dragons Finally Got Its Own Ted Talk!

Ted Talks have captured our imaginations, and convinced us to put our butts in our seats to listen to people talking about better worlds. Whether it's the potential of 3D printing, the changes the Internet has (and will continue to bring) to our lives, or the possibilities created through cultural exchange, Ted Talks get us to stop, and think about the world around us. They also take concepts that aren't quite in the mainstream, and introduce them to the culture at large.

And Ted Talks have finally set its sights on Dungeons and Dragons.

The fellow presenting this Ted Talk, in case you don't recognize him, is Ethan Gilsdorf. He was around when DND first hit the shelves, and he was an avid player in his youth. While he eventually grew up to become an essayist, teacher, critic, and other things as well, he never forgot the lessons he learned from his days as a player, and a dungeon master. And, though he eventually stepped away from the table, like so many of us, he came back as soon as he had the opportunity.

But what is the substance of this Ted Talk? After all, Dungeons and Dragons (and all its descendants) are great fun, but what use do they have in your day to day life?

Do you even game, bruh?

Well, what do you learn from DND? Top of the list, I suppose, is reading comprehension and the ability to do quick math on the fly. You also learn problem solving, since there's always a dozen different ways to approach any given situation, and players who think outside the box tend to come away the winners. Not only that, but roleplaying games teach us to look at character motivations, and to empathize with other people's viewpoints. It even teaches diversity, though that "D" word might as well be "dynamite" if you bring it up too blatantly in some corners of the hobby.

If you're an experienced player, then the Dungeons and Dragons Ted Talk won't shine a new light on things for you. But the next time someone asks, "why do you play that?" make them watch this video. Maybe it will help.

Hopefully you all found this week's Moon Pope Monday update of interest. If you'd like to help me keep bringing great content about all our favorite games straight to you, why not stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to toss a little bread in my jar? As little as $1 a month makes a big difference, and get you some free swag to boot! Lastly, if you haven't done so already, why not follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter?

"Tournament of Rapists" Creates Unpleasant Wave of Sick in The RPG Community

Gaming, as a community, has been going through some serious growing pains over the past few years. A big part of those pains have been how open and welcoming it is to women, minorities, the transgender community, and other communities who have not exactly experienced big hugs from gaming in the past. There have been arguments (some of them vicious) over just how women are treated in the community, or whether or not it's okay to make certain jokes, or to allow certain kinds of themes into a game.

The latest controversy is Tournament of Rapists.

If you experience extreme discomfort, just look at this silly goat for a bit.

So, if you're not familiar with the latest kerfuffle in the community, here's what happened. Skorched Urf Studios released a third-party supplement titled Tournament of Rapists. The rule book introduces players to a world where "An assortment of superhumanly powerful and inhumanly misogynistic men," compete in a fighting tournament where the loser is killed, raped, or some combination of the two. Given that this was created for the Black Tokyo campaign setting (according to the creator, who spoke about it on The RPG Site), the supplement seems like it's meant to tap into the fetishization of rape found in certain kinds of anime.

It should be clear that the players in this game are supposed to take on the role of the heroes, who are uncovering this brutal underground fighting ring and opposing the aforementioned super-misogynists. Even with that caveat, though, the supplement sounds like a terrible fan fiction playing on a loop in the darkest depths of a teenage sex offenders subconscious after watching too much body horror and doing peyote. While there is a market for this kind of fetishization (if the listings on hentai sites are to be believed), the reaction to it being put into the RPG market has been violently negative. It has even led to reputable RPG stores striking the game from their archives, making it much harder to find or purchase. Beside Notepad has more information on the sale of the game and some of the details.

That should be the end of it, right?

The Defenders of The Game

To be clear, this game wasn't something like Pie Shop, where rape might be an element associated with a single character's psychosis, or a game like Shadow of The Demon Lord where visceral horrors should be expected. In those examples rape is an element that can show up in the mix. In Tournament of Rapists, rape is the entire point. Sure, it's being done by the apparent villains of the game, but it is a necessary and central part of the overall premise. If you exclude rape from the game, you take away part of the title.

The goat required reinforcements.

As callous and poorly-presented as the subject is, there are people who have risen from the muck and the murk to defend it. A game like this, they may argue, is a test of the community's tolerance and respect for the first amendment. In order to prove how loyal they are to their ideals, it's paramount that we let this thing exist. And besides, we're clearly misunderstanding that if a game's villains are horrible rapists, then it's okay to have it featured so prominently in the game.

That sounds like a straw man argument on my part, but check some of the 4Chan forums about it and you'll see opinions that aren't too far off. Let's be clear here: this game is repugnant. As a product it sends all the wrong messages. Messages which the gaming community at large has demanded to be stricken from the shelves.

Which is, pretty much, how the first amendment actually works in practice. The top slot on the bill of rights stops the government for punishing you for what you say. No one from homeland security is coming down on the game designer's head for this. The publisher created a product, and that product has come under heavy criticism from customers, which have demanded it be taken down. When customers aren't happy, they demand changes. RPG sellers want to keep customers happy, so they get rid of games with the word rapist in the title.

Sorry I didn't have something more uplifting to report this week! If you want to get all of my updates (both the good and the bad), then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. If you'd like to help support me and my blog, then drop by my Patreon page to toss a few crumbs in my jar.

Dungeons and Dragons "Influential" Admits New York Times

Yes it's Tuesday, and I'm just now getting Moon Pope Monday's entry put up. The reason for that is I've spent the last few days setting up my own online shop so I can create custom gear for my fans here on Improved Initiative, and over at the sister blog The Literary Mercenary.

You know you want one.

If you'd like to check out the fledgling store then click right here. I'll be creating more gear for gamers, genre-lovers, and fans of fiction in all varieties.

Speaking of fiction, that brings me to today's topic.

New York Times Admits Dungeons and Dragons Influence

According to this article right here there are now a huge number of authors, playwrights, actors, screenwriters, and other pen monkeys who produce the entertainment you love that grew up using Dungeons and Dragons as their first tale-telling building blocks. From Junot Diaz to Brent Hartinger, along with men like Stephen Colbert and George R. R. Martin the game has had a massive, wide-reaching influence on the fiction you see on the shelves today.

Your point is?

All right for most of us this really isn't news. We already know how influential roleplaying games are because we've been reading these books. Some of us (myself included; my Amazon page is right here after all), use these games to keep our character creation and plot-skills sharp. That's not the point; the point is that in a culture that's still ringing with echoes of the Satanic Panic, and where big swaths of the populace still believe video games, heavy metal, and violent movies all lead to sexual deviancy and higher murder rates a major news outlet has acknowledged that the only thing playing roleplaying games really leads to is a better understanding of how story mechanics fit together to create a compelling, engaging plot.

In short, my friends, we stand victorious in the culture wars. The naysayers have had their books and papers debunked (such as the pack of lies that is "Seduction of the Innocent" that claimed comic books were destroying the youth; more at io9), and it's been shown that the things we love are no more harmful than any other form of entertainment.

This week on Moon Pope Monday I declare Mission Accomplished.

Again, thanks for stopping in and checking out what's going down in the world of gaming with Improved Initiative! If you'd like to follow my posts then plug your email into the box on the top right, or follow me on Facebook and Tumblr. If you'd like to keep me going then buy a book from Amazon, stop by my store and check out some of the sweet gear I'm now offering, toss a tip into the "Bribe the DM" button on the top right, or stop by my Patreon page and become a patron today!