A Holiday Wish From Improved Initiative

It's that time of year again. The decorations are going up, Mariah Carey has been defrosted, and everyone is looking for the best possible deals on what to get their loved ones before the upcoming holiday, and the end of 2024. And because I know that money is tight for everyone, I try to provide as much free content as I possibly can, both here on Improved Initiative, but also on our sister blog The Literary Mercenary for the writers out there, and in my Vocal archive, which has over 300 free articles (most of which are about gaming).

However, 2024 has been rough as hell with Drive Thru RPG basically slashing my earnings in half. Adding in the projections for 2025 that are all doom and gloom, I would like to take this week to ask for a favor from my audience... because I could definitely use a bit of that holiday spirit to help carry me through.

Every little bit helps...

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!

I Could Really Use A Hand Up This Holiday

Things have been rough all over for creatives the past few years, and the seas are looking pretty stormy right now. To make things worse, this is typically the time of year when folks decide to cancel Patreon patronage, stop tipping creators they follow, and so on because of all the other holiday costs they're amassing; gifts, travel, time off work, and so on, and so forth.

So, before I get into all the other stuff, if you want to help keep this blog going please consider becoming a Patreon patron, or buying me a Ko-Fi as a tip. That's the best bang for your buck, honestly, and that goes for basically any other artist out there you want to support this year, too.

That's not the ONLY option I'm asking folks to consider, though...

I know that's not for everyone. However, I wanted to lead with that one because it's the easiest way to ensure that I keep the lights on, and have a minimum of hardship as I pay all of my big bills in the coming year (taxes, renew car insurance, things like that). If you do want to help me keep the wheels turning, but you'd like other options, consider the following categories...

Free Stuff That Helps

Like I said, I know that everyone is having a tough time right now, and not all of us have cash to spare. So I wanted to list a bunch of stuff you can do for free right now that will help boost me up as a creator, and which will put money in my hand, and help me do more, without costing you a dime.

Watch My Azukail Games Videos

I have been making videos for the Azukail Games YouTube channel for going on 3 years now, and in all that time I've made a pretty wide variety of content. From audio dramas and channel updates, to talking about my settings Sundara: Dawn of a New Age and my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, to industry talk in Tabletop Mercenary, and shows like Discussions of Darkness where I talk about the World and Chronicles of Darkness settings.

As of time of writing, we only need about 100 hours and change of watched content... meaning we need our audience to clock in a little over 100 hours more so that we can get monetized. Because for all the episodes I've put up (and all the work Adrian has done on his crafting videos), and all the signal boosting you see here and on social media, we haven't seen a single, red cent from YouTube because we haven't met the creator minimum yet on the amount of traffic we've generated. Hell, if everyone who subscribes to me @LiteraryMercenary on Blue Sky (far and away my smallest social media following) watched 1 video a day for the month of December, we'd clinch that number, and start the new year off right.

This is such a big deal to me because, though it isn't my channel, if it is earning revenue for my publisher, that's money that can be reinvested to make bigger, more engaging videos, TTRPG supplements, and a variety of other projects as well! So if you want to help me avoid stagnation, subscribe to the channel, watch some videos, leave comments on them at least 7 words long (that's the magic number on the algorithm), and share the ones you like on your social media pages. It makes a much bigger difference than you know!

Read My Vocal Articles

I have SO many of them...

Vocal.media is a website where authors are able to write whatever they want, and we get paid based on how popular our articles are. So if you wanted to read my classic top story It's Okay To Admit There Are Problems In Your Hobby (which always seems to light flame wars when I share it), you can do that for free, and I'll get paid for it. If you're a Warhammer 40K fan, my Leagues of Votann story Pyramid Scheme is on there as well, or if you're looking for a new character concept for your next Pathfinder game, consider my article The Beer Brewing Witch.

The issue is, of course, numbers. Because I make $6 for every 1,000 articles that get read on Vocal. Not clicked, mind you, but read. The pages have crawlers and bots on them that track who's reading, and their pace, ensuring that only read, organic reads go through.

Still, there's 321 stories on My Vocal Archive at time of writing, and I add at least 1 per month. So if 1,000 people all decided to just read 1 of them per day, I'd make about $6 a day for most of the next year. That doesn't sound like much, but I can confirm right now that an extra $180 or so a month would, in fact, be life-changing for me as a creator. So if you enjoy my gaming content on this blog, bookmark my Vocal author page, and make it part of your daily routine to dig through and see what's in there! I've got character conversions, character concepts, horror articles, short stories, instructionals, and a slew of other nonsense that's just waiting for you!

Follow My Social Media (And Interact With Me)

Social media is the backbone of modern creatives. We don't have money to buy ad banners on websites, and getting organic word-of-mouth about us and what we do is amazingly helpful. However, every platform out there has been choking our signals, and making it impossible for us to reach anyone with the stuff we make. A post we make today will get maybe 10% of what we would have gotten a few years ago, if we're lucky... and unless you can count your followers in the tens of thousands, the algorithm is going to put its boot firmly on your windpipe.

So help me overcome this by following my socials (listed below), and interacting when you see me post stuff! Hearts and shares are good, but so are 7+ word comments, because those get the algorithm to notice you... a good tip for any other creators you follow, too!

- Facebook

- Blue Sky

- Twitter (for now, at least)

- Reddit

- LinkTree (I promise I'm trying to update this more)

Also, as a bonus, subscribe to my newsletter to make sure you get all my content sent to your email every two weeks so you don't miss anything!

Things You Can Buy (Which Also Helps)

If you're looking for the ideal gift for a friend or family member, I've got a lot of stuff that's out there for-sale! And, as a bonus, the more numbers these things do, the more likely I am to put out additional stuff for these games, novel series, and so on!

And, as a bonus, all of these links (as I mention in my fine print on this site) are affiliate links... so even if you just click through to check something out, that still helps!

My Novels/Short Story Collections

I've had a lot of fiction come out over the years, and it's been a time and a half trying to get any of it into people's hands. So if you or someone you know is a reader, check out some of the following stories (and listen to the audio drama above linked from my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary).

- Old Soldiers (A dystopian sci fi novel about a defunct super soldier solving a mystery)

- Crier's Knife (A witchborn mountain boy goes to bring home his wayward cousin by any means)

- The Rejects (A collection of short stories that never quite made the cut in other anthologies)

The Hardboiled Cat

My noir series about Leo, a hardnosed Maine Coon from the Bronx, deals with the problems going on among the street beasts throughout the city. So if you want to make sure Leo gets a few more stories under his bottlebrush tail, grab the three books he's been featured in so far!

- From A Cat's View (The debut short story for Leo can be found in this anthology)

- Marked Territory (Leo ends up doing a favor for the raccoon mob, and stumbling on a conspiracy)

- Painted Cats (Leo ends up looking for a missing stray, and take care of her abandoned kitten)

Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic

A game where you take on the roles of troopers fighting for their homelands in the Plastos Federation against the insectoid monsters of the vespoids!

- Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic: The base book for the game, this is technically the only book you need to play this game... but it never hurts to get some of the others as well!

- Army Men: Threat Assessments: The first collection released after the original game dropped, this supplement is full of new creatures for your squad to have to deal with when out in the field.

- Army Men: Medals of Honor: This supplement introduced the Medals System, allowing players to earn medals for their troopers, gaining unique bonuses and abilities usable for the rest of the campaign.

- Ungentlemanly Warfare: A Baker's Dozen of Booby Traps: Giant bugs and enemy combatants aren't the only threats you'll have to deal with in the field. Booby traps are a serious concern among troopers looking to leave their service with as many limbs as they started.

- Army Men Missions: A Night At Breckon's Beacon: When a squad goes missing while they're on patrol, it's your squad's mission to find them, and bring them home... or to avenge them, if that can't be done.

Sundara: Dawn of A New Age

This is a setting I've been gradually expanding for several years now, and there's a new series of supplements coming out for it in the near future! Sundara can be played on its own, or it can be added piecemeal to your own settings to fill in gaps and blanks so that you don't have to do as much heavy lifting the next time you get folks around your table!

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.

Organizations of Sundara

Phase 3 has been going strong, but there's still a few titles left in it! So if you haven't seen them, consider checking out:

- Sellswords of Sundara: With power structures being smaller in scale in Sundara, standing armies aren't often maintained for long. As such, soldiers of fortune are quite common! This supplement contains 10 mercenary companies, their history, uniform, sample members, whispers and rumors, as well as either an archetype or subclass for playing these unique warriors. Grab your copy for Pathfinder of DND 5E.

- Cults of Sundara: Faith comes in many forms in Sundara, and there are as many gods in the Prim as there are dreams in the minds of people. This supplement contains write-ups for 10 cults, their histories, sample members, rumors about them, their beliefs and tenets, and a unique magic item for each. Get your copy for Pathfinder or DND 5E.

- Guilds of Sundara: While cities and villages may be relatively local, guilds are spread across the length and width of Sundara. From professional orders of skilled miners and dredgers, to monster slayers and bounty hunters, this supplement has 10 guilds with histories, sample members, rumors, as well as unique feats one can take to represent the skill and benefits of joining this order. Available for Pathfinder as well as DND 5E.

- Merchants of Sundara: While city states might be the largest form of government you find in the setting, merchants hold an outsized amount of power. From huge mercantile houses, to small brands infamous for their quality as much as for their price, there are a lot of options listed in this particular world building supplement.

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!

My Wish List Goals As I Finish a Fourth Decade of Life This May

Normally I'm not a real big birthday guy. It's nice when people remember, and I love presents as much as anyone else, but ever since I turned 30 they've been sneaking up on me more and more to the point where I sort of forget until I wake up and have three dozen messages on Facebook sending me well wishes.

Which is definitely a nice change of pace from the sort of messages I usually wake up to.

However, this year is something of a milestone for me. I'm turning 40, but I've also been a professional TTRPG writer for a little over a decade now. I've weathered a lot of storms and disappointments, and I've managed several feats that I'm relatively proud of. So I thought I'd set myself some goals for this month, and ask my regular readers to help me achieve them before May's flowers give way to June's insufferable heat index.

All righty... let's light those damn candles already!

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!

Goal #1: Break That 50-Review Goal For My First Novel!

I'm a big believer in achievable goals, and I do my best to be realistic with the things I set. So I wanted to put the layup achievement first... getting my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife up over the 50 reviews it needs to finally get noticed by the Amazon algorithm! For those who don't know, 50 is the point when Amazon starts sharing your book around, and letting it be seen by other people because it's proven popular enough to garner a sizable amount of reviews.

The book has been out for a few years, and it's just been teetering on 49... so all it needs is at least one person reading this to push it over. With that said, when it comes to book sales and reviews, more is definitely better!

So grab yourself a copy today!

This novel, my first one on the market, follows the adventure of Dirk Crier as he's sent on a task to go retrieve a wayward cousin... an errand that becomes far more complicated when Dirk finds out his kin has gotten himself mixed up with some dangerous folk far in the hinterlands. This far from the mountain, this northern cult doesn't recognize him... but they'll learn well why the hill folk say that only a dead man crosses a Crier.

If you're one of my regular readers who's already got your copy of this novel, and you've left a review, then thank you very much for the assist! But if you like my books, consider grabbing my Hard Boiled Cat novels Marked Territory and Painted Cats, which are all about the cases of a Maine coon alley cat named Leo trying to navigate the cutthroat world of the street beasts of New York City. Or if you've enjoyed my stories of space marines, consider checking out the dystopian sci fi thriller Old Soldiers, where we follow Pollux and the other myrmidon as these genetically-engineered shock troopers try to unmask a conspiracy before it puts a bullet in each of their backs!

Goal #2: Get "Army Men" Up To Copper Metal Status on DTRPG

Regular readers know that my first full tabletop RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic went live on Drive Thru RPG a few months ago. The game was successfully Kickstarted, and it's been met with some pretty positive reviews by folks who've actually played it. It was also Deal of The Day last month, which helped get a few more eyeballs on it.

At time of writing, though, it's still about 20 sales shy of hitting Copper status on DTRPG. While I would love for it to hit Silver, Electrum, or even Gold status, I feel like Copper is something that could be achieved by the end of the month with a little luck, and some help from all of you!

Army Men is a game where you and your companions take on the roles of a squad of troopers in the Plastos Federation, defending your people and your homeland against the invasion of the insectile creatures known as Vespoids. However, while that is a simple setup, there are politics and bad blood that exist in the corners of the Federation, and this game is being expanded into all kinds of different modes of play and genres... and the more people who show interest and grab some copies, the more time and energy I'll be able to dedicate to getting stuff into your hands as players and Game Masters!

If you've already grabbed your copy and left a review (reviews matter on DTRPG the same way they do on Amazon), then consider picking up a copy of the game's first supplement Army Men: Threat Assessments to ensure that you have enough enemy threats to throw at your players during their next mission!

And if you've already done all of that, consider sharing a link to the book so all your fellow gaming friends can see it! I've been doing everything I can think of to get the word out, and a little help can go a long way.

Goal #3: Get The Azukail Games YouTube Channel Monetized!

While my previous two goals are leaning hard into sales and moving copies of books, this one is completely free to anyone who wants to help! If you have access to YouTube, and you enjoy my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, the World/Chronicles of Darkness, an insider's view into the business of RPGs, building your own map terrain, and audio dramas from a slew of different settings and genres, then you should definitely be subscribed to the Azukail Games YouTube channel!

I've been making video content for this channel for several years now, and at time of writing we have 1,028 subscribers (which is more than enough to get monetized), but we're lacking the second goal required to make YouTube give us that stamp of approval; watched hours. We still need, as of the moment I put these words on the page, about 800 hours of watched content before we can get monetized, and actually get a cut of the profits our videos are generating.

So, put bluntly, if folks reading this wanted to give me a great birthday present, subscribe to the channel, and spend the rest of this month watching 1 video a day.

I know it sounds like a big ask, but let me break some numbers down for folks:

- Our average video on the channel is between 6 and 15 minutes, give or take. We'll say 10 for an easy number.

- There are 60 minutes in an hour.

- Even small word counts for readers on this blog tend to get at least 300 views.

So let's say 300 people out there each watched a single 10-minute video on the channel. That's 50 hours of content. If those 300 people did that every day for a week, that would be 350 hours. Two weeks? 700 hours. In three weeks time, the channel would be monetized, which would allow me to start in on making bigger, more involved video projects for all the folks who've been wondering why we tend to stay small and simple when it comes to our shows and series.

Of course, if you want to help add a little gas to this race, consider putting on a playlist, and watching through any of the various shows and series we have for you. Share videos you like with your friends, and toss them onto your social media pages... we're in a, "So close, yet so far," style situation, and I would deeply appreciate a boost to help me meet this goal I've been working toward for years before I turn 40 this month.

Goal #4: Expand My Patreon Following

I'll be the first to admit, I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to Patreon. I know that the best way to expand your Patreon following is to put certain kinds of content behind a paywall, so that when someone becomes a supporter they gain VIP access to something that non-supporters don't get. Whether it be bonus episodes of a show, or early access to content, or the ability to help steer the direction a creator goes with their work, all of these things are good motivators in building that fan base.

And I don't do that. The one real perk I can offer is that, when I get free copies of a new supplement, I offer it to my Patreon patrons as an exclusive, but that is a relatively small perk.

The reason I do that, though, is that I know a lot of the people who enjoy my content do so because I don't put it behind a velvet rope and a cover charge. A lot of my fans are on fixed incomes, or like me they're struggling just to pay the bills in this capitalist hellscape, and even $5 a month is too much for them to justify when they sit down and really weigh their budgets. Unfortunately, though, AdBlock has basically made putting ads on a blog pointless (I removed mine over a year ago because it just wasn't worth the effort), and though I try to utilize sites that pay creators based on traffic (like my 300+ article archive over at Vocal.Media), it requires over 90,000 reads a month on those articles just to pay my part of the rent.

That's something I've never managed, by the by. If you're curious, I have the full number breakdown in If 90,000 People Read This Article, I Can Pay My Bills This Month.

It's exactly as ridiculous as it sounds.

Patreon is basically the way I fund my blogs, though, and it is a major part of my monthly bills (it's actually what I use to buy food, for those who are curious). So if you want to help keep this blog going, and ensure that I've got enough coffee and tacos to keep churning out fresh articles, please consider becoming a Patreon patron today! And if you're just someone who wants to give me a little tip so I can go get myself something nice as a reward for surviving four decades, you could buy me a Ko-Fi as a tip for a job well done instead!

All Help Is Appreciated!

I know this seems like a lot to get done in one month, and while I'm doing my best to reach these goals, I won't be able to do it without all of you! So whether you're just a regular reader, you lend me a few hours to help boost the YouTube channel, you help me get my books noticed by the algorithm, or you decide this is the year you want to help fund this blog so I can keep it going, I appreciate everything you do for me.

Without readers like you, I wouldn't be able to do any of this!

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!

I'm A Little Behind (Here's What's Going On)

I wanted to take a moment this week to apologize to my readers out there. The wheels haven't come off of the struggle bus, but there have been a lot of doings on my end of the screen of late. Because of this, I've missed a couple of updates, but I wanted to take this Monday's post to catch you all up on what's been going down, and to say sorry for the missed steps, and for getting some projects out a little more slowly than I'd like to.

Sadly, there just aren't enough hours in the day or gas in the tank to do absolutely everything I want to. Or even need to!

It's been... a lot of a lot.

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!

What Have I Missed (And What Am I Doing)?

Though it might not seem obvious to everyone, I've missed a couple of updates recently on both my gaming blog, as well as over on my writing blog. I also missed my newsletter this past Sunday... but I have a good explanation for both of these things!

The short version is, I've been busy. The longer version is detailed below!

All gas, no brake.

Well, first things first, I've been trying to keep the plates spinning on all of my major TTRPG projects. For folks who didn't see it, my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age supplements were all on sale for DND 5E earlier this month in an attempt to stir up some more attention for them. Not only that, but my TTRPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic was deal of the day on DTRPG earlier this month. I spent a lot of time running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to make sure those sales got all the eyes I could reach, because my hope is that I'll be able to keep expanding both of those games and settings for at least a few years to come.

In addition to those things, which ate up a great deal of my time, I'm currently working on 2 new TTRPG supplements, and I'm trying to make sure we keep getting new videos for the Azukail Games YouTube channel since we're still in need of about 1,000 hours of watched content from our viewers to get monetized. I've even got our first short up, taken from the Geist: The Sin Eaters audio drama Russian Roulette, and you should consider checking out both if you haven't yet!

As if all of that weren't enough (and it definitely was), I was also at the Chicago Steampunk Expo this past weekend. It was my first time at that particular event, and it was a lot of work. And while I sold a handful of books, it was hardly enough that I can kick up my feet and take a breather. And if you missed out on getting copies of my Hardboiled Cat novels Marked Territory and Painted Cats, I'd highly recommend stopping in to grab some copies soon. Also, if you missed out on the hardback copies of Snowhaven, I'd recommend giving this snowpunk TTRPG setting a look, since it was the second most popular thing I brought to the show (which is damning it with pretty fine praise).

There's also a thing I can't talk about right now that I'm working on, but if it goes the way I'm hoping it will (fingers crossed on that) then it should open up several new projects in the future. But while I'm focusing on Project X, I won't have as much time and energy to keep up with all of the balls I've already got in the air!

How You Can Help

Again, regular readers, your patience and interest is greatly appreciated. If you want to help keep me going so I can keep making all this lovely content for you to enjoy, then please consider leaving me a tip on my Ko-Fi, or becoming a full-on patron on my Patreon page. If you're a reader or a gamer, please grab a copy of some of my books, or just take a spin through my Vocal archive to boost my numbers. And if you're someone who prefers video content, head over to the Azukail Games YouTube channel and check out some of the stuff I make there.

I'm doing my best to catch my breath, and to get back on top of the to-do list. But I could definitely use a little extra support, if you have the power to give it right now.

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!

More Audio Dramas, Grimdark Tales, and Fantastical Fiction!

Folks who enjoy my fiction have had a lot of new additions to check out in the past year. If you're a fan of my long-form work, all three of my out-of-print novels are now available once again (the two tales about a hard-nosed cat getting involved in gangland shenanigans in NYC's mean streets, Marked Territory and Painted Cats, as well as my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers). If you enjoy my audio dramas, the Azukail Games YouTube channel has been adding more and more of them, many of which are now connected as parts of ongoing series! And, lastly, I've had a big variety of stories going up as part of my Vocal archive, ranging from the Weird War II story Where The Red Flowers Bloom to the much more recent fifth installment of the Gav and Bob series Faith and Martyrs, adding a new chapter to the adventures of the Imperium's bravest ogryn.

However, I wanted to remind folks that if you really enjoy my stories, but you wish you could listen to more of them, then you should definitely head on over to A Vox in The Void, because his channel has been doing some really great adaptations of my work over the past year!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my bi-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!

Even More Stories For You To Listen To

I've given shout outs to A Vox in The Void several times on this blog, as the channel has done audio renditions of a majority of my Warhammer 40K short stories, including classics like Waking Dogs, the tale of a renegade World Eater, Field Test, which is the story of a potent experiment being conducted by an inquisitor, and even The Final Lamentation, a story of what happens when a Lamenter falls to the Black Rage. However, I wanted to remind folks this week to head over there, subscribe to the channel if you haven't, and to check out the latest round of my stories that have appeared there!

While I've been focusing on other projects since late last year, my hope is to get back onto a few fresh stories that will show up on the channel in the future... so make sure you check them out, and help keep the views up for both my stories, and others as well!

There's More Potential Projects on The Way As Well!

While I've got a lot of stuff out there, I also wanted to take today's post to remind folks that my hope in 2024 was to do a larger audio drama project of my own, likely in the form of a combination podcast/video channel. This project might take the form of a combined series of Chronicles of Darkness seasons, which I talked about back in Windy City Shadows: A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal, but that isn't set in stone. So if folks would rather see a long-running fantasy story set in my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting, if they'd rather see a continuation of my sci-fi series, or even see me take on a setting like Pathfinder's Golarion, or Exalted's Creation, I'm not averse to trying those things out, either.

It's really going to depend on you!

The first step for making this project go is to get the Azukail Games YouTube channel monetized. We're just under 1,000 hours of watch time to hit that goal when last I checked, and getting past that point would be a huge boon. So please, subscribe to the channel if you haven't, and share the videos you like best, because those are the ones that will likely get the top consideration for expansion when it comes to a fiction project. Also, make sure you leave your thoughts and feelings in the comments on said videos, because that will get the publisher's attention, as well as the algorithm's!

Lastly, if you want to check out a bunch of my stories that don't wind up on YouTube, make sure you follow my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary. That channel is likely to be another destination for future stories, so make sure you don't miss those installments!

What's Next on Table Talk?

That's it for this installment of Table Talk! What would you like to see next? I'm listening for your comments and votes!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archives, as well as the YouTube channel for Azukail Games. Or, to check out books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my hard-boiled noir series featuring the street beasts of NYC in Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, or my recent short story collection The Rejects, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, as well as on Pinterest where I'm building all sorts of boards dedicated to my books, RPG supplements, and greatest hits. Lastly, to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little donation can have a big impact.

Tie-In Publications From Sundara (Novels, Table Games, and More!)

My fantasy TTRPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age had its first release going on three years ago, and I've been steadily expanding the map a little bit at a time. The original splat books for Cities of Sundara were pretty popular, as were the Species of Sundara books where I talked about the fantastical creatures you could play as, and for the past year or so I've been working my way through what is (more or less) the Factions of Sundara series, with installments like Sellswords of Sundara (for Pathfinder and DND 5E) as well as Cults of Sundara (for Pathfinder and DND 5E).

However, it was with the recently released Merchants of Sundara that I had an idea for a new project for the setting... making some tie-in projects for this setting!

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

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

Building on The Foundation We've Already Laid

For folks who've been keeping an eye on Sundara as a setting, you know we've already had our share of tie-in media. The above video, for instance, is a dramatization of the introductory story from the supplement 100 Effects of a Primquake, which came out a little while ago. In addition to all of the audio dramas you can find on the Azukail Games YouTube channel, there's also projects like the story Legacy of Flames by Isaiah Burt.

However, Merchants of Sundara presents interesting opportunities for something we haven't tried yet... meta tie-in projects.

You ever play a game of Regicide before?

In particular, this supplement discusses two merchants of note; Black Feather Books, and Alabast Games. The former is a publisher of unique treatises on history, ghost stories, and tales of adventure, while the latter is a little niche store run by a clever halfling who enjoys making unique card games, board games, and even dice games using little toy soldiers deployed on sand tables to fight their tiny wars.

Most of the time when creators make tie-in projects for their settings, these projects are meant to tell stories that take place in the setting itself. For example, Tales From The Moot is a collection of short stories of the deeds of werewolves in the World of Darkness, and The Irregulars is a story of an Andoran strike force set in the world of Golarion. These stories happen in the setting, and they could even cross paths with the campaign you're running. You could have characters influenced by the events of these stories, or who have some relationship to the characters or events in them, working them into your game as it unfolds.

This is a little different, though. For this project I'd be writing short stories or books that one could find in the setting itself, allowing players to read the same stories their characters would be reading if they picked up a book at a trading post to keep them entertained on their upcoming journey. This is not too dissimilar from what I proposed a while back in Would You Like To See Books From Golarion? In addition to books that might appear in the setting, though, I've considered the idea of putting together games that people might play in Sundara which are produced by Alabast Games. Games like Regicide or Gravedigger, which are played using a set of Crown Dice, for example, along with a chart explaining what die type Crown Dice are, and how to translate the dice from your personal dice bag so you can play the game with your fellows around the table... either just for fun, or to add to the immersion of your RP.

The question, of course, is whether this is something you would like to see as one of my readers? So if you're a fan of the setting (whether or not you picked up a copy of Merchants of Sundara for yourself yet), tell me the sort of thing you'd like to see in the comments below! The more folks who speak out, and let both myself and the publisher know what they'd like to see, the greater the chance that it's something I can make room for in the near future!

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!

Neal Litherland (And Improved Initiative) Need Your Help!

It's been one hell of a year on my end of the screen, folks. And while I've (so far) managed to weather the worst of it, I wanted to take this Monday's post to send out an S.O.S. I'm currently dealing with a rather unfortunate situation, and I could use a hand up before the root I'm holding onto gives way, and I go tumbling off of this cliff I'm currently dangling over.

Details are below, and there's a lot of a lot going on here.

Things are... sort of dire at the moment.

Before I get into the details, though, 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! To be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Also, since it keeps getting lost in the shuffle, check out my Vocal archive for more articles about RPGs, character conversions, character concepts, weird history, nerdy topics, and more!

So... What All is Happening?

All right, this is going to be a string of depressing events that I've been dealing with the past year. Apologies in advance, but I feel it's important to explain the timeline to put things into perspective.

It's a lot.

Let's start with this time last year. My apartment building was under construction for the majority of 2022, which was frustrating in and of itself, but last summer I had to pull stakes and leave my apartment to stay in a hotel. What was supposed to be a week-long stay ballooned out into over a month where I was doing guerilla blogging and video recording, trying to keep up with deadlines while not actually being home. I didn't have to pay for the hotel itself, but the sheer stress levels of working under those conditions (along with all the other expenses you accrue while in that kind of situation) took a toll on me, and on my work.

Around that time Eric Flint died, as did his company Ring of Fire. This meant that not only did I not get a royalty check for any book sales I'd made from December to June in 2022, but it also meant 3 of my novels were now off the market. I had to scramble to try to find them new homes, while also dealing with not receiving a check that should have (based on the numbers I was seeing) paid for several fees I had to dig into my savings to cover.

I was back in my apartment by September. Just as I started getting back into the groove, my cat started showing a lot of distressing symptoms I couldn't explain. I took him to the vet in November, and paid several hundred dollars for a battery of tests. I then had to pay several hundred more dollars to have him put down, because his heart was just giving out after 16 years of being my companion. That was a huge blow to me both emotionally and financially, but I figured that if I could get on the other side of it that I could start rebuilding and moving forward.

At the beginning of 2023 we had all the fuckery (and no, I will not use a more family-friendly term for it) from Hasbro and Wizards of The Coast. This disrupted a majority of my income, forced last-minute readjustment, and caused a lot of issues with my Kickstarter for Army Men, which was first delayed, and then had to contend with the wave of people who'd sworn off of anything even tangentially connected to DND 5th Edition (which, when the game was first created, had been the dominant system in the RPG sphere for years).

I finally managed to get all of that mess straightened out, and the flow of my projects coming out again, when the electronic fuel injector gave out in my car. This basically meant that my car couldn't accelerate, leaving me going at an idle speed whenever I took my foot off the brake no matter how far down I pushed the gas. That was not a good situation, but I managed to get it into a local shop, and they made the necessary repairs. While I had some help at the time, this still set me back several hundred more dollars, on top of all the previous things I still hadn't recovered from.

Wait for it, friends, because this is where things get even worse.

Then there's the crescendo... because, you see, that fuel injector has been nothing but trouble since it gave out the first time. A few weeks back I was driving to my weekly game at a friend's house (it's about an hour or so from my apartment to their house, and a lot of it is interstate driving). I was on the interstate when all of a sudden that warning light came on, and I started losing speed. I managed to pull off without getting creamed by a semi (it was a bit of a near thing), and then I had to arrange for a tow truck to come get my car, and for a friend to pick up myself, and my two roommates to drive us back home. The shop covered all of the expenses, diagnosed the problem, and I was back on the road seemingly no worse for wear.

Then there was last Friday. I'd had no problems for a few weeks, and I was just starting to relax. I figured if I kept my head down and my nose to the grindstone that I would be able to come out on the other side of things, and start backfilling the holes that had been sinking my ship. I was on my way to my Friday game, and the only worry I had was getting the rest of my bills covered... then my injector went out again. This time it left me stranded in Gary, on the IUN campus where I graduated college. It was also around 5 o'clock, which is when all the auto shops close, and no one can do anything for you. It was a repeat of the whole previous kerfuffle, with a tow truck bringing my car back into town, friends coming to pick me up, etc.

The difference was that this time I'm the one who got stuck with the tow truck cost. Which was another $200 I hadn't planned on spending.

As of time of writing, I don't know if I'm going to end up paying a few hundred dollars more to get additional repairs done on my current vehicle, or if I'm going to need a few thousand in order to get a replacement car that will actually be safe for me to drive (something I sort of need to have if I'm going to go to cons and similar events to sell books, network, etc.).

And that is why I'm asking for your help today.

How You Can Help!

Because I could really use a hand up.

As most of my regular readers know, being a professional creative doesn't pay all that well outside of a handful of rockstars in any particular part of the industry. I'm not one of those folks, and according to my own tax documents I didn't even break $13K last year... and that's been my average for half a decade or more. Keep in mind that's before taxes... I have to pay all of those at the end of the year.

I wanted to front load that so readers know where I'm at, what I'm working with, and why I'm putting out an S.O.S. to help me deal with this unfolding situation.

#1: Direct Support (Donations and Patronage)

Direct support is always the most efficient.

The best way for folks who want to help me dig my way out of this hole (or at least throw me a line so I can start climbing) is direct support. If you want to throw me a quick one-time donation, go to The Literary Mercenary's Ko-Fi page. Alternatively, if you want to provide me some long-term support so that I can keep taking steps forward while paying my new bills, consider becoming a Patreon patron. This helps keep my two blogs going, and I try to give my patrons as much free stuff and extra content as I can.

I know times are tough all around, but I'm front-loading this option because it provides the best, most immediate support not just for me, but for any creator you want to help out.

#2: Buy An RPG Supplement

Like a copy of Sellswords of Sundara, for example...

As I pointed out in a recent article, I've got over 160 TTRPG supplements to my name right now, and a lot of them pay me royalties for every sale. So just click through that link, or take a look at my Pinterest board for my TTRPG supplement master list, and select something that catches your eye!

If that's too many options for you (decision paralysis is a real thing, after all) and you're looking for good value to you as well as to me, I'd recommend checking out the following bundles:

- Inn & Tavern Bundle: A great one for all fantasy games, this has some of my most popular splats in it!

- Sci-Fi Bar Bundle: Same as above, but for sci-fi games.

- 100 Kinfolk Bundle: This was my extra large Werewolf: The Apocalypse project. There's 15 supplements in here, and that's a total of 1,600 kinfolk NPCs for your Werewolf chronicle!

In the interest of transparency, this is my second option because it takes a lot of sales to add up to a meaningful number, and they take a little while to clear. Sales of a supplement like 100 Body Mods and Augmentations For a Sci Fi Game pays me about 30 cents or so, while a supplement like 10 Fantasy Villages pays me about 60 cents per copy sold. In either case it can take a month or two before DTRPG releases the funds, and I can cash them out. So if this is an option you want to take, please consider also leaving a rating and a review on any supplements you get, and sharing the links to them on your social media, discord server, etc., so I can reach a bigger audience, and put a few more coins in the jar.

#3: Buy A Book

I'm still so ridiculously pleased with this cover...

I mentioned that my old publisher shuttered its doors, but my books are starting to make their way back onto the market. My dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Solders presents my own take on the space marines in the form of the myrmidon, and Pollux has to outwit a conspiracy tracking him (and possibly the former members of his squad), with the intent of eliminating them... or is it all in his head, a product of intense paranoia left behind as a relic of his time in the Hyperion Conflict?

If that doesn't quite sound like your cup of tea, though, there's also my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, about a young man sent to go retrieve his missing cousin, and to bring him back to their home on the mountain... or, if his cousin is dead, to make sure he's got plenty of company on the reaper's cart. And if you're one of those rare folks who enjoys short fiction, my collection The Rejects is also on Amazon, and you can check out audio dramatizations of at least one short story, Suffer The Children, on my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary.

Then there's this book, too...

Lastly, for folks who didn't get in on the Kickstarter for it, Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic is currently on pre-order through Backerkit! We're currently handling layout, editing, art, etc., but this book is definitely going to happen, and throwing your support behind the project by pre-ordering your copy would definitely help ensure that it's profitable enough to both pay the folks involved, and maybe to underwrite sequels and supplements in the future!

This option is third on the list for two reasons. First, it takes time for sales of books to clear, and to come to me. A few months for my novels, and probably half a year or more for Army Men to really finish up, and for the profits to be divided among all the contributors. But if you want to help out by buying a product that isn't a TTRPG supplement (especially if you're one of the folks out there who enjoy my fiction, but might not be a gamer) these are good options to pursue.

#4: Engage With All of My Free Content!

Seriously... I have so MUCH of it!

I don't want to dislocate my shoulder patting myself on the back, here, but I make a lot of content, and I do what I can to make sure that a lot of it is free so that people who don't have a big budget for extra stuff can still enjoy what I make, and have fun with some of my ideas.

If you're one of the folks out there who doesn't have any spare dosh lying around (or maybe you've pursued one of the above options and want to do a little more to help as a cherry on top), then please consider doing any or all of the following!

- Check Out My Vocal Archive: I have 283 articles on Vocal at present, and these cover my RPG character conversions, weird history, a decent amount of free fiction (including stories for both Pathfinder and Warhammer 40K), and more! Vocal pays me roughly $6 for every 1,000 reads my articles get, so I encourage folks to bookmark my author page, read an article or three a day, and please share the ones you like on social media to help boost their numbers!

- Subscribe to (and Watch) Videos on The Azukail Games YouTube Channel: I do a lot of work for Azukail Games, and I try to put one video onto the company's YouTube channel every week. At time of writing we have well over the 500 subscribers we need to get it monetized, but we only have about 1,000 of the 3,000 hours of watched content we need before YouTube shares any earnings with us. While this won't help me directly (it's not my channel, I just contribute), if it starts pulling in money, then it's likely I'll be able to do bigger, more involved projects, and to get an increase in my pay for making those videos in the first place. Again, interacting with those videos, and sharing the ones you like so more people can see them, would be a big help.

It would also let me justify my Windy City Shadows project, which I talked about recently in Discussions of Darkness Episode 11, for folks who missed it.

- Check Out My Rumble Channel: I've said it before, but I legally cannot be paid by YouTube, because Google AdSense banned me from their platform. I've been looking for some kind of alternative for a long time, and the closest functional thing I've found is Rumble. My archive there is small, and I'm adding to it as I can, but like everything else in the free section it takes a colossal amount of activity to make even a few nickels fall out of it. I'd probably need hundreds of thousands of watches on those videos before a C-note made its way into my hands, but I won't say no to views, shares, and folks who want to help me grow my audience this way, either.

This option is last on the list because it's the hardest to affect immediate change with. If I could get 1,000 people to all watch the full playlist for my Discussions of Darkness show in order to monetize the Azukail Games channel overnight, that would be awesome! If I could somehow get an article like Partners and Polycules: Polyamorous Designations Based Off Dungeons and Dragons Dice to go viral and get 1 million reads (which would be about $6,000 for me... which seems like a lot of work for not a lot of pay) that would solve a lot of my current problems.

For this one to work, a lot of people need to work in conjunction to overcome the algorithm, and to generate the huge numbers it takes to make free content actually pay me as the creator. The upside, though, is that this one is open to everyone! So if you have a few spare minutes to read and share an article, or you just want to put on a playlist in the background while you do chores or plan your campaign, it would be very much appreciated!

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 sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my dystopian sci fi thriller Old Soldiers, 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!