Dungeon Design Tips: Build Challenges Around Your Table's Abilities

It's the first session after your last level up, and you as the Game Master know your evoker just picked up fireball. They're excited as hell to use it... so at some point in the next combat, there's a moment where enemies are clustered together in perfect formation for an explosion to wreck havoc. Or maybe the barbarian just got this really handy ability that lets them get extra damage on enemies bigger than they are... and wouldn't you know it, the enemies drag out an ogre because they think it will help win the day!

Some people might call this patronizing your players. However, it's a good idea to throw them bones every now and again, and to actually understand what this represents for your game, and the give-and-take between you and your players.

So you took the fighting style for dragons? Well, how convenient...

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!

Make Sure They Can Actually Accomplish The Goals

A criticism I once heard for the video game System Shock 2 was that it presented itself as a full freedom RPG where you could build whatever character you wanted, but when you got to the latter parts of the game you had to be able to overcome very particular challenges. And if you didn't build a character with the requisite skills to do those very specific things, well, sucks to suck, guess you have to go back to the beginning and try again!

And while I'd argue that's bad design, I see how it happens with a video game, or even a premade campaign. Designers need to provide challenge, but they also have to take a stab in the dark, guessing what players are most likely to do, and to bring to the table. However, with a pen-and-paper RPG, the GM has all the power in the world to alter challenges to actually fit the characters who are across the table from them. And that's exactly what they should do.

Note that I said "fit" the characters. Not change the game to make it easy for them, or to change it to make it harder for them, but to specifically do something to fit the game, its themes, and the challenges, to the party that's actually in front of you.

Could I, perhaps, make a Diplomacy check or two?

Consider for a moment a dungeon that has a number of traps in it, but the party does not have anyone with the ability to actually disarm traps. Well, one solution to this is to change the nature of the traps so that it better suits the story you're actually telling. For instance, instead of a rending scythe, are there traps that try to lower a portcullis, turning them into a test of strength for the barbarian to hoist, holding the path open until the others can get through? Does a room slowly fill with water, allowing the amphibious character to hunt for the off-switch with relative ease? Or do you remove traps as a meaningful obstacle, and replace them with something your players do have the capacity to deal with?

For instance, are there doors blocking the path that require the knowledge of a certain song? Is there a maze that could be solved by someone with a ranger's unique tracking and survival skills? Or are there inhabitants of this dungeon who could be persuaded to help players walk past particular traps with the right social skill checks (and perhaps a bribe or two)?

In the original setup, the party did not bring a rogue (or just a character capable of dealing with traps). As such, the traps become significantly bigger obstacles, usually just resulting in them being a random hazard that's going to suck out resources, and feel like a punishment. "Because you came here without a trap finder, now you're just going to get hit over the head with traps." And while that might be fair according to the rules, it quickly gets boring for players, who just feel like they're being punished because they built a different character than this game was designed for.

Provide Them Opportunity, Not Success

To reiterate what I said above, you want to provide your players the opportunity to actually use their characters' skills and abilities, instead of giving them deliberately mismatched challenges they don't have the ability to deal with. Much like how if you know you have a sorcerer who specializes in fire spells, it's kind of a dick move to make all the monsters they have to fight immune to fire (or so resistant to it that they might as well be).

And you don't have to change every, single challenge in your game to suit the talents of the characters present. However, it is helpful to make sure there are multiple ways to progress forward so that you don't get to a certain point and realize you have built a challenge that your party cannot hope to actually overcome. I actually talked about this a while back on Discussions of Darkness, and GMs who don't watch that show should head over the the Azukail Games YouTube channel and at least check out Episode 6, The 3 Solutions Strategy For Storytellers.

In short, ask if there are multiple paths to success, and if the characters at your table are capable of participating. You don't want to just hand your players success; you want to hand them the ability for their character to participate in a meaningful way.

Maybe that means you allow a trial-by-combat to impress the duke the party is supposed to get close to when no one has a really high Charisma, but there are some serious bruisers in the party. Maybe that means you have the big bag's encampment guarded by deadly wargs so the druid can get some use out of their animal empathy. Perhaps there's a black market way to get spell components in prison so the wizard has the ability to participate in the upcoming jail break. Or maybe it means that you line up a bunch of enemies in a single fight so that you can give one of your players the chance to let loose with lightning bolt so they feel like they made a good decision on their spell choice.

Your players should still have to make smart, strategic decisions. They should have to expend resources. There should still be a chance that they fail. But they shouldn't be making their checks with one hand tied behind their backs because they didn't guess what skills and abilities would be most necessary for overcoming the challenges you were planning on using!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my 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!

What Future Mission Modules Would You Like To See For "Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic"?

It's been a little over half a year since my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic hit the market. Since we had a pretty successful Kickstarter, I wanted to make sure that I kept expanding on the options players and Game Masters alike had available to them, and one thing I was concerned about was the missions squads would get sent on. Because while there is a mission in the base book to get players and Game Masters started, I wanted to make sure there was more than just that one module to kick things off.

As of this weekend, the first stand-alone mission A Night At Breckon's Beacon is officially out! And if a squad hunting down missing comrades-in-arms, and tracking them to an old, dilapidated castle on the Western border of United Polymeria sounds like a good way to spend your night, then I'd highly recommend you get yourself a copy! However, I don't want to rest on my laurels, and I did have a few questions for players (as well as potential players) regarding my plan for the rest of these initial mission releases.

Seriously, check it out if you haven't!

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 Sample Platter of The Plastos Federation

For folks who haven't picked up a copy of Army Men for themselves yet, the location we start off in is the Plastos Federation; a collection of the nations United Polymeria, the Styric Republic, Acrylica, and the Acetal Alliance. A Night at Breckon's Beacon takes place, as mentioned, in United Polymeria, and plays into some of the culture and history of that particular nation (U.P. is at least partially inspired by the U.K. and its history, so it has timelines going back for centuries to when the longbow and the claymore were actual weapons wielded on the battlefield, and castles were the norm for fortress construction).

My intention was to provide one mission for each of the other nations, as well as a Federation mission that would be specifically geared as a cooperative mission drawing on troopers from any nation players wanted to bring. However, since I'm looking at my workdesk and plotting which projects are going to go out next, I thought I'd share some of the ideas that I had, and ask my readers what mission description interests them most?

I've got quite a few ideas to choose from...

The current ideas include:

- (Acrylica) Experimental Duty: A squad of troopers is sent to reinforce security at a location that will be running a classified experiment. This module will likely involve several waves of enemies, a great deal of firepower, and a need to properly defend a static location.

- (Styric Republic) Precinct Assault: Organized crime and corruption is a serious problem in the Styric Republic. An infamous gangster is being held at a decommissioned precint, but his gang comes to try to break him out. The only thing standing between them and their goal, is your squad.

- (Acetal Alliance) Reclamation: The war between the Silicate Autocracy and Halogen left lasting scars, even though the two nations united in the face of the vespoid threat. Booby traps are commonplace, and before any abandoned town can be rebuilt it's necessary for squads to sweep them for dangers. A relatively routine mission turns deadly, and your squad has to find out if there are more than ghosts of a past war haunting an aging, abandoned town.

- (Plastos Federation) Bug Hunt: Vespoid incursions don't always require an all-out assault... sometimes what they need is a decapitating strike. Federation assault teams often take on these dangerous missions, and your squad has been tasked with joining. Commanders promise you'll all get a medal for this if you pull it off... of course, Federation medals are often given posthumously.

While I have a couple of other suggestions for missions (some of which are larger than the one-offs described above), these are the ones I plan to start with. My intention is to offer a different kind of goal and playstyle for each one, and to give players the ability/opportunity to get a little sample of each nation, and to get a little dash of history and personality from them in order to decide which they really like. These missions can be played with the same characters, or with different ones, allowing players to try a variety of castes and builds to see what really jives with them.

So, which of the above ideas appeals to you? What would you like to see? Or is there a style of play or a kind of mission I didn't include that you'd like to see made official with an Army Men mission all its own? Make sure you let me know in the comments down below!

Additionally, consider checking out the following supplements that have already been released for the game, along with the show Tactical Plastic Report, which is currently available on the Azukail Games YouTube channel!

- 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.

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!

Owen K.C. Stephens Has Won His Cancer Battle, But The War Goes On!

For the past year and a half or so, one of our own has been engaged in a struggle with the Hateful Flesh. Though it tried its best to drag him down, as of the last news I received, Owen K.C. Stephens is currently cancer free!

This is, indeed, a moment to celebrate. However, as they often say, even when the battle is won the war is ongoing. And though Owen's recovering physically, he still has another foe to fight... the American healthcare system. Because beating cancer is a bastard and a half, but even more importantly, it's not cheap. Which is why he's still trying to make sure all the bills get paid so that he can go back to doing what he does best.

And that's why I wanted to let folks know about the new bundle going around to help the cause, along with other ways you can assist.

Will you answer?

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 New Bundle, Solid Supplements, And Other Funding Options!

The newest funding option that's been given for folks looking to help Owen pay his bills is The Beacons Are Lit! bundle. This bundle, which is jammed with supplements for Pathfinder, DND 5E, Icons, and a bunch of other systems, gives you a ton of fresh stuff to use at your tables. It's only been up for a little while, but this deal isn't going to last forever, so I'd recommend getting yourself a copy before it's gone!

It's not the only one, of course.

In addition to The Beacons Are Lit!, I'd recommend folks also check out Like A Boss, which has a slew of boss battles and creatures for both editions of Pathfinder, along with a lot of other systems they've been converted to. And for those who are looking to get some direct thoughts from a veteran of the craft, I'd highly recommend grabbing copies of Essays on Freelance Tabletop RPG Writing and Publishing, as well as its sister piece Essays On Surviving An Indpendent Tabletop RPG Career. While these have been up for a while, they're important for anyone out there who intends to make a living in this profession.

If you find yourself looking for career advice, though, I'd also recommend checking out my series Tabletop Mercenary (which is free on the Azukail Games YouTube channel).

If you're not in the market for new TTRPG supplements (which is a heresy we'll let slide, as that's not the focus for the day), there are other things you can do to help Owen come out on top in this second fight! So take a moment to:

- Go to Owen's Go Fund Me

- Becoming one of Owen's Patreon patrons.

- Bookmark and follow his blog.

- Follow Owen on Twitter (yeah, it's falling apart, but a replacement has yet to take its place)

We've had a victory in this fight, but we haven't claimed the hill yet! So if you can help, please do. And spread the word even if you've just got a couple of dimes in your own account, and you can't afford to pitch them in right now. Every little bit helps, whatever form it takes!

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!

Make Sure You Have A Story To Tell (Whether You're A Player Or The Game Master)

Roleplaying games, generally speaking, come in two parts. One part is the game, where you roll your dice, add up the numbers, cast your spells, swing your swords, and determine whether you succeed or fail in the task you wanted to complete. The other half of the game, though, is the roleplaying. It's creating unique characters, and telling their stories as they attempt to achieve their goals, whether it's something as grand as saving the world from the threat of extinction, or as relatively small as solving a murder and catching the person responsible.

However, too many of us think that the responsibility of story rests with either the players or the Game Master. This week I wanted to remind folks that, just as the GM is also a player at the table, so too they should be a part of the collaborative storytelling exercise you're all participating in.

It's all about give and take.

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!

Everyone Should Be Contributing

One of the primary mistakes that I see at tables is that either the players will assume that all story needs to come from the Game Master (and so they bring only bare bones archetypes, rather than fully fleshed-out characters with their own histories, goals, etc.), or the Game Master will assume that the players are here to drive the story, and so they sit back and wait for the table to pursue leads and make decisions that are important to the characters (a mistake that has sunk more than a few attempts from GMs to run sandbox-style games).

However, as with almost everything else at the table, this effort needs to be a cooperative one. Players and GMs shouldn't be dictating the story to one another, insisting that X, Y, or Z events need to happen. It's more like moving a couch. Each of you picks up your end of things, and you move it along a path, calling out warnings to one another as necessary, and trying to avoid as many hazards as possible.

You don't want one person carrying, and the other one sitting on the couch asking them why they aren't making progress.

Hey... how come we aren't getting anywhere?

If you're a player at the table, you should have a character who is willing to participate as part of a team (as TTRPGs tend to be team-focused activities), and who is willing to follow plot hooks as they're dropped. However, you should also have a character who has a history, who has goals, and who has a story both for who they were before the game started, but who also has a story of their own you want to tell with them as the game goes on. Whether they're a masked vigilante looking to topple a fascist regime, a farmgirl hero who wants to prove herself worthy of knighthood, or a government experiment who is trying to find their origin while escaping from their handlers, your character should have a story of their own you want to tell.

The Game Master should also have a story they're looking to tell as part of this campaign. This story might be how a gang of brigands and thieves became the heroes of the land when they helped overthrow a corrupt monarch, or it might be how a band of noble warriors stood against the lich king when no others would. It might be the story of Project Apotheosis, who tried to unlock superhuman powers in unwilling candidates, or it might be the story of how a generation ship floundering in the deep black was brought back online, and an entire generation of colonists were saved.

The key is that everyone on both sides of the screen should be helping tell both their own stories, and those of other people around the table. To do this we need to be open with our Game Masters and our players about the kinds of stories we want to tell, and to offer to integrate our stories together as part of the exercise.

That sounds simple enough, but it's something that takes practice.

For example, say you have two players who want to enmesh their stories together. One player is a holy warrior who is looking for a sibling they lost while they were in the orphanage, but who has also set their sights on being knighted for their efforts. We have a rogue who ran with a street gang as a child when they ran away from the orphanage, and then became a bandit when they got older and had to duck the law or wind up in prison. They've amassed quite a bounty on their head, and this life has caused them to grow hard over the years, though they often wonder what might have been.

Those two players could decide to wind their stories together. Maybe the brother was too young to come with, and the older sister promised she'd come back for him, but she never could. Plucked up by the church, he was trained to fight, to read, and to pray, while she led a hardscrabble life. They may not recognize one another at first, but they slowly begin to change each other's black-and-white views, and to grow closer. He begins to realize there are shades of gray in the world, and to be more flexible, while she learns that her skills can be used for good ends, and there really are people out there who care about her, and who will protect her if she'll just let down her guard enough to let it happen.

And then the Game Master could take that combined story, and weave it into the story they're telling. For example, was their mother slaughtered by the warlord who is currently conquering the northern fold, which is why they were in an orphanage in the first place? Is that warlord the father of these two characters, and their mother spirited them away to try to hide them from what being the heirs apparent to a kingdom of blood would do to them? And will they attempt to save their father, end him for what he's done, or will they join with him in hopes to achieve their own goals, twisted or otherwise?

I never had a chance to be other than I am... neither did you. Will you change that?

There are, of course, a variety of considerations to keep in mind. Whether it's dedicating too much involvement or story to too few players, ensuring everyone gets adequate time in the spotlight, etc. However, the basic idea shown here is that all of you should have different threads of story when you come to the table... and all of you should participate in weaving those disparate elements together to create a single, more cohesive, whole!

Need Help With The Heavy Lifting?

Coming up with all the different story elements isn't easy, especially for those of us who aren't used to building bigger, more involved stories, consider trying out some of the following tools:

- 100 Character Goals and Motivations: If you need a list of things to help make your character's journey stand out, and to help you shape their story, check these ideas out!

- 100 Dark Secrets: Everyone has secrets... and these secrets can make an excellent basis for your story. Both as a player and as a Game Master.

- 100 Questions To Ask About Your Characters: Sometimes it helps to look at our characters from perspectives we didn't previously consider, whatever side of the GM screen you're on.

- 100 Fantasy Professions (That Aren't "Adventurer"): It helps to mix it up from time to time, and your professional handle can say a lot about who you are, and what you do.

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!

Rules Light Games Require Trust (And a Good GM) To Work

Of all the conversations I have with people about gaming, the one that never goes anywhere is the one about how dense a game's rules system is. Because for a lot of players (and a lot of game masters, too) rules are always an impediment to their fun, their stories, or both. They see them as unnecessary boundaries that micro-manage their creativity, and even worse require them to read stacks of tomes or memorize large swaths of text to understand how their own character works.

That's a valid opinion to have. It's one I don't share, because as I mentioned in Rules Might Limit Dungeon Masters, But They Also Protect Players, roleplaying games are still games. Games, by their nature, have rules, victory conditions, and mechanics that determine who wins whenever there is a conflict. Rules are what keep things fair, and stop a session from becoming a playground game of make-believe where someone can out-creative you. Math plays no favorites, in other words.

However, there is something else I'd like to point out this week that I think often gets overlooked. It is that, simply put, games with fewer rules require you to have a greater trust in the person running the game that they will be fair. Not only that, but they require a GM who is willing to spin a lot of absolute nonsense out of thin air in order to roll with the punches, and keep the game going.

Hold on, hold on... I got this...

Before we go too much further, if you haven't signed up for my weekly newsletter yet, consider doing that! It ensures you don't miss a single new release of mine. Also, if you want to help support Improved Initiative and the content I'm creating, consider dropping a few bucks on my Patreon page! As little as $1 a month goes a long way.

Let's Talk Improvisation

No game is going to be able to cover everything players want to try. Sooner or later someone is always going to make a suggestion there are no rules for, and when that happens you either need to say, "There's no rules for that, you can't do it," or, "There's no rules for that, but let's make some!"

What the hell, let's make it happen!

What you're going to find is that the simpler a game's rules are, the more often the game master is going to have to come up with some way to allow the players to do things they didn't account for. Sometimes it's simple, like repurposing an existing type of skill check to use in a very different situation, but other times it can feel like you're building a whole new wing onto a house that you thought was done when you bought it.

And just like how someone who owns a home isn't necessarily someone who can build a home, so too there's no guarantee that someone who runs a good game can actually build a good game.

Don't get me wrong, here. There are some GMs who can whip out their toolbox and come up with smooth, well-fitting mechanics that run just like they were part of the original game. What I can tell you from experience, though, is that the number of GMs who think they can do this is very different from the number who actually can. And even if a GM is really good, an untested idea come up with on the spur is almost never going to be as good as something that was planned, workshopped, and put through playtesting before it was included in a rulebook.

And if your GM isn't actually good at this? Or worse, they purposefully skew things to put players at a disadvantage because the existing rules don't tell them they can't do that? That's going to create a bad time really fast.

As An Example

For those who want something concrete as an example, I'd suggest reading the rules for necromancy in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. While that might not be what some folks think of as a rules light game, I'd argue that it's right on the borderline since it has very rigid limits on what characters can and can't be, and you have relatively few meaningful options when it comes to customization. Especially when you compare it to more rules-dense games.

This is particularly true when it comes to what you can actually do with necromancers as a player.

Seriously, ya'll, black cloaks get hosed.

What do you think of when you think of necromancers? Typically it's someone who can raise or control large numbers of undead to do their bidding. And if you're playing a necromancer in Pathfinder, then it's like being at a buffet! If a creature has a corpse, then you can make it into a skeleton or a zombie, raising all sorts of strange and bizarre creatures to do your bidding, from skeletal orcs, to a zombie T-Rex that follows you around like a foul-smelling puppy! And as you go up in level you can create (and control) more powerful undead, applying templates to all kinds of bodies and creatures as long as their hit dice falls under your caster level, and ability to inflict your will.

In Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, necromancers can make no more than a few basic kinds of undead, even fewer forms of advanced undead, they lose control of them within a day after the casting, and they can only be made from human corpses (though one would assume any humanoid would work).

Now, I will freely admit that I don't have access to the entire trove that Wizards has put out from 5E, because unlike Pathfinder the entire archive isn't online for free where I can triple check my numbers. But this particular difference cropped up while I was working on Moüd, The City of Bones for my Sundara campaign setting. The city is run by a guild of necromancers called the Silver Wraiths, and one of the most obvious examples of their arts at work are the massive sand trains that tirelessly pull goods and people across the wasteland where their city is built. The creatures that haul these trains are skeletal mammoths, directed and controlled by a Silver Wraiths drover.

In Pathfinder, you can basically do this as a mid-level character with a few extra boosts to tweak your caster level, as long as you have access to the bones and materials to cast the spell. In DND 5E, as far as I was able to find, there's no way to do this short of GM fiat because the spells don't allow anything outside of basic undead made only from human corpses. And that's one thing that made converting the Pathfinder edition of Moüd: City of Bones to the DND 5E edition of Moüd such a pain in my behind.

And this is my job. There's no guarantee that someone who's running a game has the same skill set and experience it would take to design those kinds of options, even if they want to make them available for their players. And while there's nothing saying the GM has to do that, the simpler a game's rules are, the less support they're going to have when a player wants to step beyond the basics that's available.

Just Some Food For Thought

As I said in How The Trend in Rules Light RPGs Has Affected Me, I understand why these games are so popular. And not just popular, but thriving. These games require less investment of time and energy, they allow faster play, and less overall system mastery for someone to actually sit down and start rolling dice. And that is what a lot of players want, or need, and there's nothing wrong with that.

However, it's important to understand a rules-light game is like a knife. A good-quality knife can stand you in good stead, and it can accomplish a lot of different tasks. However, if you want one tool that can do even more tasks, even if said tool is a little fiddly, then a Swiss army knife, or a multitool is going to be the better option.

Because it's entirely possible that your GM is skilled enough to saw off a tree branch, pick their teeth, clean their nails, and open a wine bottle with a survival knife... but if that's the sort of task they're looking to do, it might be better to use a broader toolbox to avoid problems, frustrations, and accidents.

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, 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!

You Are Not Obligated To Like Games Just Because They're Popular

Like a lot of gamers, I came into the tabletop RPG hobby through what was then the current edition of Dungeons and Dragons. This was right around the time that 3.0 was making its transition to 3.5, for those of you looking to construct a timeline. I'd had brushes with funny-shaped dice and narrative gaming before, but that was when I really committed to the hobby.

It wasn't long after that my dice collection began to become... an issue.

Also like most gamers, the longer I was in the hobby, the more games I discovered. The World of Darkness got its reinvention not long after I became aware of it (the games now referred to as the Chronicles of Darkness for those feeling confused), and several groups I played with ran stuff like BattleTech, Call of Cthulhu, and in one night of zany experimentation, Paranoia. And one of my clearest memories as a gamer was when Wizards of the Coast brought out the 4th Edition of DND.

Like a lot of gamers who'd gone all-in on 3.5, I hated 4th Edition. I felt the lack of customization was a major flaw, and I disliked how it felt more like an MMO or a minis war game than the sort of RPG I was used to. My group all shared the same opinion, and we decided to stick to 3.5 until we found something we liked better. Which we did when Paizo released Pathfinder. It was everything we liked, plus some extra wooge, and we couldn't have been happier.

I Told You That Story So I Could Tell You This Story...

The reason I told you all of that is to establish that for the first decade or so of my gaming career, I was a gamer who found that most of my wants and needs were in sync with the broader strokes of what was popular in the hobby. I came in when the dominant game design philosophy was to make games that focused on giving players the ability to fully customize their characters, and where the DMs had to do the minimal amount of improvisation regarding common rules (there were charts and scales for falling damage, weather, monsters and traps were fully statted out, skills had specific thresholds and modifier, etc.).

However, over the past several years as both a player and a designer I have noticed that the pendulum is definitely swinging the other way now. 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons came back hard from 4th Edition's failure, and gobbled up a huge amount of the market. Thanks to shows like Stranger Things, simpler editions of DND are coming back in vogue. And, generally speaking, the market is filling up with games that have a lot fewer moving parts, and which require a lot less investment and time on the part of players and storytellers alike.

Just what the hell is going on here?

There are a lot of reasons for this. One is that with gaming's increased accessibility, gamers are reaching for the editions they see in their favorite shows (Critical Role, in particular, I hold responsible for a portion of 5th Edition's booming fan base). Another is that more gamers are adults, and adults with jobs (and sometimes kids of their own) don't typically have hours upon hours to dedicated to learning labyrinthine, complicated storytelling systems. When you add in that lots of games are also geared toward shorter campaigns, and even one-shots (I'm looking at you, Dread), the market is clearly changing to fit a much different audience. And since shorter, less complicated games require a lot less work to make, they're popping up in greater numbers.

This is a gaming demographic I'm not part of.

This is frustrating both as a gamer, and as a game designer (though in my defense I'm stretching out and following the curve with 5th Edition DND modules like False Valor and The Curse of Sapphire Lake), but meditating on it has lent some clarity. Once upon a time the things I liked in games were popular, and that drove profit margins. Now my style of game is less popular, and as a result there are fewer companies putting out the type of content that I enjoy. That's not a slight against me, that's just how the free market works; if there were more gamers in the hobby who wanted what I want, it's what companies would produce.

And that's fine (at least personally; professionally it's a different kettle of fish). I am under no obligation to buy the games being produced if they're not the sort of things I want to play. No one is going to make me move on to Pathfinder's second edition, or Dungeons and Dragons' fifth, in the same way that no one forced Vampire: The Masquerade players to move onto Requiem when it was released. The games I like still exist, and I have full control over what I play in my own time. We all do.

With That Said... Let People Enjoy Things

Having said all of that, not liking something doesn't mean that you should volunteer your opinion in places where it isn't wanted. If people are talking about their latest campaign, and your only contribution is to disparage the edition or system they're using, just shut up. Move on from that conversation, because it's not for you, and no one is asking for your input.

"In my day, natural tharks weren't an auto-success!"

As geeks and gamers (particularly those who are used to being the dominant audience), we occasionally get confused and think that other people beyond the folks we play with care what we think. We fall into that trap where we mistake not being catered to with having our interests ignored, and too often we end up trying to spread that negativity around. Like how grown men will rail against the popularity of boy bands or romance novels just because something that isn't made for them is popular and successful.

So the next time you get ready to hold forth about something you don't like that's popular in gaming, or how this or that group who's clearly having fun is contributing to the popularity of the "wrong" kinds of games, take a moment and ask if anyone solicited your opinion. If you were specifically asked to share, consider whether what you're about to say will have a positive impact on those who hear your words.

Take my advice on this one; your games of choice will not get more popular if you shout about how they're superior to all the stuff people are playing and enjoying now. Instead, make a pitch for what your games do that other games don't. Put on your salesman's cap, and hold the door open for gamers who may not have heard of your favored system, or preferred edition. Be an ambassador who persuades those watching to give your style of gaming a try.

Because in this instance, you will catch far more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully you found this suggestions useful!

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 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!

Don't Have Time To Waste With Your Games? Check Out First Five Reviews!

As most folks who follow my blog know, in addition to creating gaming content, I'm also an author and a regular convention participant. So when a friend of mine from con invited me to do a reading from my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife at the Gumbo Fiction Salon hosted at the Galway Arms in Chicago, I really couldn't say no.

If you're wondering what I read, check out the free sample!

The reading went beautifully, and when I and my fellow readers had closed our covers, I stood around talking with several of the other participants. One fellow I met, whose work I found intriguing, told me that he'd been working on building a YouTube channel for a while. The idea behind it was that, since no one working today's ridiculous hours has the time to throw away on playing games that may demand months of your energy, that he would find games that gave you quality over quantity. Games that lacked unnecessary filler, and which didn't string you along for two, three, or four unnecessary cliffhangers so you could feel like you got value out of your play time.

That idea intrigued me, which is why I'd like to tell all of your out there about First Five Reviews!

Games For People Who Have Stuff To Do

I remember back in the days of yore where I could sit in front of a television screen for five or six hours a day for weeks at a stretch, and find all the little puzzles, secrets, and story chocolates in an intricate RPG. Or where I could go through a fighting game and figure out how to win with every character on the roster so I got all the lore.

These days, you're lucky if I pick up a controller once in a blue moon. So knowing there is someone out there who also has no time for bullshit in a game makes this channel a valuable screening tool for what I do with my free time.

Also, since I've helped out on Dungeon Keeper Radio so much, I know exactly how hard it can be to build a following, and get the necessary view counts to get your channel monetized. So I figured I'd help a creator out with one hand, and show everyone this cool new thing I found with the other.

That's a thing you know about now. Go check it out!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday post! If you'd like to see more of my work, then take a look at my Vocal or Gamers archives. And if you're in the market for some books, head over to My Amazon Author Page to see what I've got to offer... like my novel Crier's Knife that I mentioned earlier!

To stay on top of all my updates, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you'd like to help support me and my work, then consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or becoming a regular monthly patron on The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. Every little bit helps, trust me!

Like Improved Initiative? Then You'll Love Dungeon Keeper Radio!

Regular visitors have no doubt noticed that I've re-arranged my tabs in the header of this blog. While all your old favorites are there, I've moved Table Talk over to the right-hand side, just above Moon Pope Mondays. In its place I put a link to Dungeon Keeper Radio, and if you're wondering what that is, then you should click the link and check it out.

Just click-through, and come on down. The irons are warming.

For those who didn't go investigate on their own, Dungeon Keeper Radio is a YouTube channel that I've been lending my voice and my pen to for the past few months. The show is put together by local gamers in my area, and the goal is to create episodes that appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike. Some of them are focused on crunchy topics, some of them have advice for DMs, and some of them are meant to give listeners a laugh. And, as part of the ongoing experiment, we're using the shows to build the world of Evora, where all these shenanigans are taking place.

So what can you expect to see and hear on the channel? Well...

Dungeon Hacks

The first show we created is Dungeon Hacks, and it's meant to offer insight and aid to all the DMs out there. Whether it's sharing ideas for little tweaks you can add to your dungeons, or discussing meta concerns like screening or not screening your die rolls, the Dungeon Keeper is here to be the voice of (occasionally twisted) reason.

The first episode was about putting the death back in deathtraps, and it's so far the most popular episode we've put up.

Risky Business

Risky Business is both the name of the show, and the name of the bar owned and run by the infamous Razor Jack. An icon amount rogues and renegades, Jack's been in the business long enough to provide insight on class abilities, strategy, tactics, and the gear to get the job done. His debut episode was a brief tutorial on sneak attack, though there are plenty of other topics planned for his future episodes.

Mythconceptions Monthly

Kerowynn Brooks is a woman who has never been afraid to seek out the truth. And when it comes to the myths, legends, and stereotypes she's heard her whole life, she wants people to set the record straight. So her quest is to find prominent members of different classes, races, and even certain kinds of monster, and to ask them about the common misconceptions they face every day. For her first episode she managed to get an audience with one of the most famous barbarians in the realm... the Crown Prince, Alvin Dragonsborn.

The Dice Bag

The fourth, and final, show on the channel is the Dice Bag. This is where we put together skits, tell odd tales, explore the world of Evora, and when we eventually have enough material, post our outtakes so listeners can hear the kind of silliness that happens when we're doing sound tests.

The first episode of the show is a kind of adventuring gear infomercial, as Victor E. Vanguard gives us his pitch for why we should trust Vanguard tower shields to keep us safe while we heed the call to adventure.

How You Can Help Us Grow

If you like what we're trying to do over at Dungeon Keeper Radio, or you're just curious to see how we'll change and grow as we put together more episodes, there are some things you can do to help us reach our goals.

The first is to watch our videos, and subscribe to the channel. It takes 10,000 views before YouTube will even consider monetizing your channel with ads, and we're barely 12% of the way to that goal. Feel free to leave comments, give us feedback, and let us know what you want to see more of. We intend on writing scripts and presenting topics based on what our viewers want to see. Additionally, you can follow us on Facebook to be sure you don't miss any of our updates, and to start conversations with us.

If you really like what we're doing, and you want to make sure we have the funds to do things like buy the full version of Filmora (so we can get rid of that watermark), offer more than pizza to the people willing to lend us their voices, and pay our bills while we make these videos, you could also head over to the Dungeon Keeper Radio Patreon page to become a patron. Whatever you can afford is much appreciated, and we only put up 2 videos or so a month at present. Of course, if we get a bunch of people who want to see more, then that might change.

So, yeah. We've put up the first video for each show, and we plan to keep uploading a new video every second and fourth Friday. It takes a lot of time, effort, and coordination, and we're hoping all of you out there enjoy it!

That's all for this installment of Moon Pope Monday. Thanks for stopping in, and I hope you all head over to Dungeon Keeper Radio to show some love. If you want to see more great gaming content from me, then check out my Gamers archive for even more articles by yours truly. If you want to keep up-to-date with all my latest releases, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you want to support Improved Initiative, head over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. All it takes is $1 a month to earn my everlasting gratitude, and to get yourself a pile of sweet gaming swag!

A Good DM Knows What The Party Can (And Can't) Do

The Internet is absolutely jam-packed with advice on how to be a better DM. Some people say you should use a screen, others say you should never use a screen. Some people say you should use terrain and props, other players turn their noses up at such gimmicks. One camp says you should check out Tabletop Audio to get ambient music to play while you run, and another camp shouts that down as a distraction at best, a crutch at worst.

A lot of the above suggestions come down to personal preference, and what works within your particular group. However, I'm going to give some fairly uncontroversial advice that every DM should take to heart.

Take the time to know everything you can about the PCs at your table.

And I do mean "everything".

Minimize The Monkey Wrenches You Have To Deal With

It might sound like a bunch of busy work, but trust me on this, it's not. Before you begin your campaign, review every character in the party. Look at their attributes, check their skills, and review their feats and class abilities. Look at their spells, and go through their backpacks. You don't need to know them like the back of your hand, but the more you know, the fewer the problems you'll have later. You should also review the characters every time they get new rewards, buy upgraded equipment, and every time they take a level. Sit down with your players, and ask them to explain their characters, and attributes, to you to ensure you're on the same page.

Because you have to know what you're dealing with.

For example, say your mid-level party doesn't have anyone with trapfinding, and no one has invested a lot of points into Disable Device. That's something you should know before you make them crawl through a dungeon where, if they aren't disabling the traps they find, they're going to spend 3/4 of their resources healing from the damage said traps are doing to them. Or, say you wanted to throw a challenge at your spellcasters, so you give them some monsters with spell resistance. That's a good thought, but if the casters have to roll a 19 or 20 on the die to beat the SR, then the "challenge" feels more like a cudgel the wizard and sorcerer are getting hit with.

And that's before they even pick up a die.

Then there's the opposite problem. Rather than making a challenge that's too difficult, you make one that's too simple. The mystery of who killed a room full of victims is a lot easier to solve when you can talk to the dead, or simply ask questions of the divine to confirm your theories. A group of swarms would be a problem for most parties, but you have an alchemist, and an evoker in the midst of a turgid love affair with area of effect spells, so they're unlikely to last more than a round. Perhaps you'd planned on making the climb up a decrepit clock tower a central challenge of the next session, forcing the party to make skill checks while dodging falling bells. Of course, if the whole party can fly, it sort of renders the whole thing moot.

It's a simple rule, but definitely worth remembering. Because you don't want to be halfway through what should feel like an epic session, only to have your story completely undercut by the fact that everyone in the party is immune to the poison your big bad relies on, or to have the whole party die in what was supposed to be a warm-up because you misjudged what the "average" hit points among them was by about 45.

That's all for this week's installment of Moon Pope Monday! Hopefully it helps the DMs out there, and makes your games easier to run. If you want to keep up on all my latest releases, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you'd like to support Improved Initiative, all you have to do is go to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page, and become a patron. $1 a month is a surprisingly big help, and there's some sweet gaming swag waiting for all my new patrons once you've signed up!

If Your Character is Evil, Own It!

"So your character is a thief, a liar, a murderer-for-hire, a slaver, a trafficker in demonic powers, and he just threw a baby off the cliff because it was annoying him. Goddammit, Chet, I told you not to bring an evil PC to my game!"

"Dude, he's not evil! He's chaotic neutral... I'm just playing his alignment."

You keep using this term. I do not think it means what you think it means.

 

How many times have you had to listen to (or have) this conversation at your table? Well, if you're like me, the answer is probably along the lines of, "more times than I can recall." As such, I thought I'd take a moment today to put out a public service message for all the players, and DMs, out there.

Do not waffle about your character's wickedness. Do not hedge about their heinousness. And lastly, do not equivocate about your evil. If you're bad, then be bad.

 

Also, check out 5 Tips For Playing Better Evil Characters to make sure that your fun isn't going to ruin someone else's.

If You Want To Play An Evil PC, Then Own It

Let's not beat around the bush here; if you have an alignment system in place, then there are a lot of areas that are cut-and-dry about what constitutes an evil act. Murder for hire is evil, and that's why the assassin prestige class requires an evil alignment. Slavery, as an institution, is evil. While it might be legal in certain parts of the world, that doesn't change the nature of owning sentient creatures. Using spells with the evil descriptor inherently corrupt one's spirit, forcing them into an evil alignment if the magic is used too frequently. Dealing with evil creatures like devils and demons for personal gain, while it might seem harmless at first, is an act of small evil that can quickly get out of hand. And if there is ever a question about whether something is or isn't evil in the cosmic sense, your DM can (and should) rule on it. Especially if it's integral to your character's alignment, and beliefs.

No, of course there's no risk. Just sign here, here, and initial here...

 

We can split hairs all we want about certain issues. For instance, is summoning evil creatures like demons to fight other evil creatures still an act of evil? Is assassinating someone because it will prevent greater suffering still evil? What if you just use soul rend once a month, and then you say some prayers to the god of rainbows and kittens as a form of atonement?

Evil is like pornography; we know it when we see it. And you know something? It's fine if you want to play an evil PC! Nowhere in the core rules of the game does it say that you cannot have a character with an evil alignment. In fact, there are entire campaigns dedicated purely to playing evil characters. Know something else? Evil characters can perform ostensibly good acts! No one is evil just for the sake of being evil. Just like no one is good just for the sake of being good. You perform acts (good or evil) because they're what you believe is necessary, because that's how you've been socialized, or because they will get you closer to your goals. Additionally, just because your alignment box has an E in it, that doesn't mean the character thinks of themselves as evil. They might, on the contrary, protest they're a good person. They're just doing what they have to do to get by. Sometimes that means another person has to bleed, or die, for them to reach their goals.

Here's an example. A chaotic evil character tracks down a bunch of bandits, kills them, and rescues the hostages they took to claim the bounty from the local lord. Why does he do that? After all, that seems out of character for someone who's evil. Well, he likes killing people, he likes money, and this job is a way for him to legally do something he'd be hung for if he did it to anyone else. Sure he's more violent, more reckless, and less interested in the safety of the hostages than a heroic character might be, but he gets the job done. And when the job is over? Well, he'll go on his merry way in search of more work that's to his liking. Is he a bad guy? Undoubtedly. To some, though, he's a hero. Doesn't change the alignment marker in his box, however.

Make A Character For The Game You're Actually In

This is where we get to the part most players don't like. Because, as Simon Peter Munoz said over at the CRB, you need to make a character for the game you're actually playing. Because no matter how into your drow assassin, undead lord, or half-demon cult leader you are, if your DM made it clear there are no evil-aligned PCs allowed in his game, then those concepts should go up on the shelf for another day. Don't just throw a chaotic neutral skin over them, and try to sneak them into the campaign anyway. Your DM is going to get annoyed that you're trying to skirt the rules he set up in the beginning, and you're going to be disappointed every time someone stops you from doing things in your character's preferred manner (whether that's summoning an army of the living dead to do your bidding, torturing captives for information, etc., etc.).

Also, flip the script. Would you argue that you should be allowed to play a paladin in an evil campaign? And if your DM did give you the go-ahead, would you pitch a fit if (or more likely, when) you lost your powers from the sheer amount of evil acts you'd been complicit in? Even though you knew what you were getting into when you signed up?

Now, with all of that said, if you really want to make a case for your PC, don't water down their alignment and claim it's something it isn't. Pitch them to your DM during Session 0 (and if you don't have one of those, you really should; more on that in The Importance of Session 0 in Your Tabletop Games). If you can make a compelling argument about why your evil character should be allowed into the game, then it's possible your DM will allow you to give it a spin. It's also possible your DM might work with you to put together a compromise, allowing you to play some of the aspects you're interested in, but without other aspects that would be a headache for this particular campaign. If you're a bad guy in a setting where bad guys tend to get punished swiftly and harshly, though, don't act surprised when the hammer falls.

Those are my thoughts for this Moon Pope Monday. Hopefully more of us can just stop beating around the bush when it comes to playing evil characters, and that if that's what your players want, then more DMs will hear that, and respond appropriately. If you want to keep up-to-date on my latest posts, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter. Lastly, if you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, then consider heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. For as little as $1 a month you can help me keep my bills paid, and get a load of sweet gaming swag while you're at it!