Climbing YouTube's Mountain (And Boosting The Signal For Some Other Creators)

As most folks around here know, the Azukail Games YouTube channel finally got monetized at the start of 2025. It was a 3-year struggle to get it to that point, but with all of your help (and a little dash of luck) we managed to get over the hump! However, we don't want to rest on our laurels, so we're trying to push forward to hit our next goals, and to expand beyond where we are now.

That's why this week I wanted to give folks a break down on where we're at, what we're doing, where we'd like to go, and how you can help us make it happen! And after all that, I wanted to give a shoutout to some other channels that could use your help climbing up the mountain as well.

A hand up can make a WORLD of difference.

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!

Where Azukail Games Is, And Where We're Aiming For!

When it comes to YouTube, numbers and statistics mean a lot to you as a creator. At time of writing we're just shy of 1,600 subscribers (tiny in terms of the platform, but really impressive for us as a very small channel), and our video views garner roughly $25 - $35 a month on average.

It's definitely not nothing... but we've got a lot of room to grow! I also talked about the process a little while back on an episode of Tabletop Mercenary, for those who are curious.

Where would we like to go, though? What is a reasonable, achievable goal? Well, I have some ideas.

What I would love to pull off is, by the end of 2025, to have the channel's subscriber count up to at least 2,000 people. 3,000 would be amazing, but I'm trying to set some reasonable expectations. And, ideally, I'd like to double the amount of videos getting seen so that we can bring in a minimum of $50 a month from our views.

More would be nice, but again, I'm trying to keep things reasonable.

What's my plan for making that happen, you might ask? Well, first and foremost, I aim to keep our current content going on a fairly regular schedule. That means more episodes of the shows Speaking of Sundara (where I talk about the Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting for DND 5E and Pathfinder), Discussions of Darkness (where I talk about the World/Chronicles of Darkness setting and games to provide insight for those running and playing them), Tabletop Mercenary (where I talk about the behind-the-scenes aspects of working in the TTRPG field), Tactical Plastic Report (where I talk about my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic), as well as the audio dramas and short stories that regularly go up on the channel.

You can't get new results just doing the same thing, though, so I have some additions to this plan!

First and foremost, I'm still plotting additional video essays (since The Problem With Pentex blew up so big, and is the main reason we're currently monetized). The next one I have on the list is going to be regarding Radio Free Fae, which is an aspect of Changeling: The Lost that I feel often gets overlooked. And that particular video essay ties neatly into the upcoming audio drama podcast (which will be backed up on the channel) Windy City Shadows! The first season of this show is going to put us squarely into the world of Changeling, and if the first season goes over well, then I intend to do at least 2-3 more.

If you're interested in the show, then check out the AMA I did for it a little while back!

What Can You Do To Help Make These Things Happen?

If you want to help keep the Azukail Games channel going, and you want to make sure I can bring these projects to fruition, the two main things you can do are subscribe to the channel, and actually watch the content we make. While we have nearly 1,600 subscribers, new videos barely break 100 views most of the time... which is a problem, because the views are what earn us ad revenue. The subscriber count, bu contrast, is what lets the algorithm know that we're growing, so it should kick our videos out to more people.

Both of these are necessary, and we really need to increase the numbers on them!

But what if you're already subscribed to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and you already watch our videos regularly? Well, you can hit the bell to make sure you get notifications, which will make sure you don't forget about us, and that our new videos show up on your feed. You can also leave comments of at least 7 words on our videos, because that's the number of words the algorithm needs to kick into gear. Lastly, share our video links on your social media platforms to help boost our signal... you might only be able to watch a video once, but if you've got 10, 50, or even 100 folks on your friends list, or in a FB group, discord, or subreddit that would like to check it out, that can make a big difference for someone that's still in the minor leagues on the platform.

As always, thank you in advance. Without you checking out the stuff we make, we wouldn't be able to make it.

A Few Other Channels You Should Check Out!

Before I go today, I wanted to give a shout out to some other folks on YouTube who could use a bit of a signal boost. My hope is that folks reading this can lend a helping hand, and give a few other creators a much-needed boost!

#1: Owen KC Stephens

For folks not familiar with the name, Owen KC Stephens is a fellow whose name is on a wide variety of RPG projects. Perhaps best-known for Pathfinder and Starfinder, he's been doing this at least twice as long as I have, and most folks refer to him as the favored uncle of the RPG space. He struggled recently with a cancer diagnosis, then beat the cancer, but is still fighting to pay down debt, cover bills, and keep his prescriptions filled.

He's got more than enough subscribers to get the channel monetized... but you can always use a few more. So stop in, watch some of his videos, leave some comments, and see if a sharp spike in his figures will help his YouTube presence!

#2: KHR Arts

If Alice looks (or sounds) familiar to some folks, it's because she's been in several of the videos over on the Azukail Games channel in the past. KHR arts is her video gaming channel, and it's packed full of Minecraft, classic SNES games, and more that can just be fun to listen to and relax. She has sort of the opposite problem of a lot of folks, though, in that she has plenty of views, but she's really having a hard time hitting the subscriber count (she's just past 600 at time of writing, and needs 1,000 to get fully monetized). So drop by KHR Arts and subscribe... and go through the archive while you're there!

And if you're more of a writer and board game enthusiast, you should also go by her second channel Alice The Author, which is full of unboxings, book reviews, and advice for folks who want to make a living as creative professionals.

#3: Altered State Adventures

Folks who know me know that I have a soft spot for the grim darkness of the far future. Forever and a day ago I wrote a story about a long-forgotten knight, and his return to the fray with a new pilot on a world that had forgotten him, and which had fallen into barbarism and darkness. If you never got a chance to read Broken Heroes, I'd highly suggest you check it out, along with my other stories over on Vocal... and then go subscribe to Altered State Adventures, and check out some of their audio dramas (including their production of my story) because they are a lot of fun to listen to!

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!

Updates On The Azukail Games YouTube Channel (And Our Progress)!

This week I wanted to give something of an update for my readers out there! While I've talked about this on both Facebook, and in my most recent newsletter, I don't want anything getting lost in the fickle tides of the algorithm, and I've got some exciting developments I wanted everyone to be aware of. So keep reading, and I'll get to it shortly enough!

We've been putting in a lot of work on this!

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!

Patreon, Ko-Fi, And Getting Monetization!

So, first things first! As lots of folks know, YouTube altered their rules last year so that, in order to be approved for monetization (which is to say, you actually get paid some of the ad revenue on your videos, rather than all of it going straight into YouTube's pockets), you need to have 500 subscribers to your channel, and 3,000 hours of watched content in the past 365 days. At time of writing, we have 1,070 and change subscribers, and just over 2,500 hours of watched content... which means that another 500 hours will put us over the line, and allow us to finally start getting ad revenue from the videos we make!

That would be a huge boon all by itself, because right now none of the videos actually generate income for Azukail Games from YouTube. While there are ads on them, none of that goes to the company, which means the channel is not, currently, an income stream in this manner. And if we can start getting some of that cash to flow to the company, then it can start underwriting some larger, more ambitious projects. For those who didn't see the update on the channel itself, I talked about it back in May in the video below.

Another thing I mentioned in the video above is that Azukail Games now has its own Patreon and Ko-Fi accounts, and if you're feeling generous, don't be afraid to toss some coin over there! Now, I want to be clear, these are separate from my Literary Mercenary Patreon and Ko-Fi pages listed below, which go to help support these blogs. For those wondering why there are separate accounts, it's because I do not (contrary to a lot of common belief, it seems) run Azukail Games as a company, or a YouTube channel. Adrian Kennelly is the man behind that company; I'm just a writer and contributor who works for the enterprise.

Which is sort of the reason I want to see it grow... the better they do, the more of my shenanigans the company can publish and support for the entertainment of all of you out there!

For folks who are wondering why I don't have my own YouTube channel, I laid out the details on that issue a while back in Trying Out Rumble As A Platform For My Audio Dramas over on my sister blog The Literary Mercenary. The short version, though, is that even if I personally got the 500 subscribers and 3,000 hours needed to get monetized on my own channel, I couldn't get paid by YouTube because it requires a Google AdSense account, and Google blocked me from having one of these over a decade ago.

So in this case I'm going to remain a freelancer.

With that said, though, if the Azukail Games channel does get monetized, it's possible that I'll be able to start a bigger project that will be on multiple platforms, such as Spotify, in addition to just YouTube. If that's something you'd be interested in, then check out Windy City Shadows: A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal!

There are a lot of projects I'm starting to get excited about, but all of them sort of hinge on us getting the YouTube channel to a point where it's a legitimate earner, and not just a place for us to put our preview videos for the TTRPG supplements we put out. So if you want to help us get there, please subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel if you haven't yet, watch our videos, and share them around so we can acquire the hours we need to blow past those goal posts, and really start revving our engines to make bigger, more involved stuff for you all to enjoy!

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!

Making Improvements Over Time (Progress on My RPG-Inspired Audio Stories)

Back in February I started doing something a little different in terms of producing content. I've been a lifelong enjoyer of audio dramas and audio books, so I wanted to toss my hat into that arena while still staying firmly within my pond as an RPG writer. Not wanting to get too ambitious right out of the gate, I thought I'd turn the intro fiction in several of my recent RPG releases into audio dramas that might get folks interested in the products they came from!

As with anything else, you never start off being the best. But looking back on what I've learned the past few months, I can definitely see the difference.

Well, hear it. You know what I mean!

Before we get into it 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!

Theater of The Mind

The first piece that I dramatized way back in February came from the supplement 100 Resources and Rumors to Find on SchreckNet. Though it didn't have an official title in the supplement, I tend to think of it as Missed Connections, as we have a Nosferatu attempting to arrange a rendezvous with a contact via the network. While the result wasn't bad (I don't think) it does have a rawness to it, and it comes across a little flat.

Still, not bad for all that.

Over the past few months I've made 8 such audios, taken from both my Cities of Sundara series, as well as other World of Darkness supplements like 100 Hobs to Meet in The Hedge, 100 Mourning Cant Dialects, Phrases, and Meanings, and most recently 100 Gateways Into (And Out Of) The Hedge. While I did acquire a new mic since I made the first video, I also started figuring out editing tricks, returning to old places where I used to get foley sounds, and watching tutorials from other creators on how they make their audios more unique and engaging.

And this is where I'm at now.

While this isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, I'm trying to improve one thing per video. Whether that's finally figuring out normalization settings (which is what I did with this piece), fine-tuning voice editing effects, trying out new tricks on creating monster voices (I have something planned for that when I do the story from Hoardreach), or even using a totally different recording program so viewers don't have to deal with that ugly and distracting watermark, I'm sticking with my one-thing-per-video rule.

I have half a dozen more of these to put together going forward, and they're going to be from both older supplements, and upcoming ones. If this is something you'd like to see more of, the head over to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, watch more, and subscribe while you're there! It takes 1k subscribers and 4k hours of watched content in the past year (which is 11.5 hours per day, for those who like numbers), so we're going to need all the help we can get if we're going to pull that off!

Lastly, if you have any particular stories you'd like to see me tell in this audio format, or if you'd like to see me do longer videos with more involved tales (I have kicked around the possibility of doing an audio rendition for Devil's Night, as an example), leave a comment below and let me hear your thoughts!

And for anyone else running a podcast, making videos, etc., I highly recommend Tabletop Audio! If you haven't checked them out yet, and you're working on a small to nonexistent budget, you really need to give them a look.

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 Fallen Hero

"That can't be him," Arabelle said, shaking her head.

"I'm telling you, that's him," Thoran said. "Look at the mark on his hand!"

The figure half-slumped against the bar didn't look like much. With a ragged coat and unkempt hair, and a growth of stubble just starting to turn into a beard, he looked like any of a dozen other surly drunks lost in their cups before the mid-day bells. There was no denying that the mark on the back of his left hand looked like a raven in flight, though upside down it was hard to tell. Thoran approached cautiously, sliding onto a stool a little ways down. If the man noticed, he gave no indication.

"Sir," Thoran asked quietly. "Is your name Benton?"

"S'what if is?" he asked, grunting as he poured another shot.

"Benton Ravenkill?" Thoran asked.

He stopped pouring, and frowned. While his gaze was still bleary, there was a spark in his dark eyes. A glimmer of something. He put the bottle down hard enough to make Thoran jump, and slugged back the whiskey.

"That man's dead," Benton said. "He died at the Battle of White Thrush. And I'm gonna drink to his memory until I forget him true."

Thoran had his mouth open to say something, when a big man shoved him out of the way. Three others rattled the boards behind him, heavy weapon belts criss-crossing their hips. Their buckles were worked with the bloody hawk of the Emberhearth.

"Couldn't help but overhear, friend," the leader said, baring his teeth. "But it sounds like you're the hero we've been looking for."

"I'm no hero," Benton said, taking the bottle by the neck. "Just a man, drinking alone."

The man grabbed Benton's shoulder, hauling him around. Though he looked half dead on the stool, Benton found his feet, smashing the edge of the bottle hard into captain's face. His nose cracked like frost-split stone, and a second blow drove the broken bone deeper. As he fell, Benton's whiskey-loosened fingers snatched the dead man's sword. The mark on his hand was darkling, drawing light from the room around him, casting the ragged drunk in a half shadow.

"You're looking for Ravenkill?" he snarled, wheeling on the soldiers and raising his stolen steel. "Congratulations, you found him!"

Don't push me... you won't like it when I push back.

The Fallen Hero

All too often we assume that our characters start off a game as blank slates. That whatever adventure we find them on is their first time out in the world, whether it's the farm boy hero trying to make a name for himself, or the duke's daughter fulfilling her obligation to protect her lands with spell and sword, first level characters haven't really done anything notable.

I laid out why that shouldn't necessarily be the case in Your Story Progression Doesn't Have To Be Linear (Even if Your Levels Are), but the Fallen Hero takes this idea a step further. Fallen Heroes used to be heroes... then something happened to them. Something knocked them off their pedestals, and they fell down hard enough that they haven't gotten back up. Until now, that is.

No one ever won by lying in the dirt.

 

The first step to putting this kind of character together is figuring out who you used to be. Were you a great war hero, such as a knight who defeated an enemy champion in single combat, saving the lives of everyone under your command to do it? Were you a powerful wizard, renowned for your skill and knowledge? Perhaps the leader of a gang of renegades who stole from the wealthy, and shared the take among the needy of the city? Some good places to look for background inspiration for some of these are 100 Random Mercenary Companies for the war heroes, 100 Random Bandits to Meet for scoundrels, and A Baker's Dozen of Noble Families if you're looking for a high-born kind of legend.

Once you know the hero you used to be, ask what knocked you down. This could be nearly anything, so feel free to get creative! For example, did you take a wound that nearly killed you, crippling your powerful sword arm and taking you out of the spotlight? Did the strain on your mind when using advanced magic send you into a fit, leaving you afraid to dip your fingers back into even simple spells for years afterwards? Did you swear an oath never to take the field again to a spouse or a parent, and you've tried to keep that promise even if they're no longer with you? Or for all the glory and honor heaped upon you, were you just tired of seeing your companions die around you needlessly?

Whatever happened, it caused you to stop. You put away the trappings, and went into forced retirement. Maybe you crawled inside a bottle, selling off everything you'd fought for to pay for one more round. Perhaps you tried to live a quiet life, telling yourself that all the bloodshed was behind you. You might have found yourself in an institution, or a prison cell, while the adventurer you once were grows ever more distant.

For folks who want to play a version of Thor from Avengers Endgame, this is the concept you're looking for. If that's the case, you might find How To Build Thor in the Pathfinder RPG a useful resource to start with.

The third stage, and the final one, is asking what brings you back. What lit that spark back up inside you, and gave you the courage to start the climb back to who and what you once were? Is it having the fight come to your doorstep, and feeling those old instincts come back? Is it the inability to stand by and watch others come to harm when you know you could do something about it? Or is it an old friend (or the child of an old friend) who comes to you to ask for help?

Somebody has to stop you from getting yourselves killed.

Who Do You Become?

The most important question with a Fallen Hero is asking what you become when you finally get back up. Do you become a version of the hero you used to be? Or do you try to become someone different?

If you used to be a flashing sword on the battlefield, hungry for glory, are you now more of a mentor figure? Does some of that old cunning you showed in your days as a master thief flash out from time to time when you're all planning a stealthy mission into the necromancer's fortress? Does your wizard, who barely speaks after the things she saw in the Void, slowly warm to the subject of ancient history, and helping educate her compatriots in the ways of spellcraft?

There are all sorts of options out there, and they're completely up to you!

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned For More!

That's all for this installment of Unusual Character Concepts. Hopefully this one gave you something to chew over, whether you're a player, or a game master.

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 alley cat noir novel Marked Territory, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my most recent collection of short stories 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!