General Use RPG Products Hedge Your Bets (And Overall Sell Better)

About a week or so ago I was tooling around in a FB group, and I saw a post from someone I'd worked with in the industry lamenting a challenge that RPG creators and companies alike are facing. A large number of his company's products were for Pathfinder Classic, Pathfinder 2nd Edition, and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. However, if you look at the top 20 sales spots on Drive Thru RPG for all three of those games, you find something that might surprise you if you're a player instead of a creator.

Only about 4-5 of the sales slots for those editions were products that are expressly made for those editions. 25 percent, at best. The other 75 percent (including most of the top slots)? Those were general purpose RPG products that you could use for nearly any game. Sometimes they're genre-specific, but they're never game-specific.

The numbers have changed since then, but the general setup remains pretty steady; generic stuff outsells system and setting specific stuff, even in its own category. This didn't come as a surprise to me then, and it doesn't surprise me now. But I figured that if you're a player and you're wondering why so many creators and companies are putting game-specific content on the back burner that I'd try to answer that question as best I can.

Since it's stuff like this that's always a bestseller.

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Evergreen Content, and The Broader Market

There's a concept that I first learned when I was a baby ghostwriter called "evergreen content," and it essentially boils down to the idea that whatever you're creating needs to always be a viable and useful piece of text. A movie review of a recently released film might be timely, engaging, and entertaining, but chances are good it's going to fall by the wayside relatively quickly to be replaced by something new. A guide for using a particular software suite might be popular as long as that piece of software remains unchanged, but your advice might be nonviable as soon as the next update hits. And so on, and so forth.

Evergreen content is stuff that's geared to always be viable, and of-interest. Examples from my own archive include articles like Why Do Superheroes Wear Their Underwear on The Outside? (which goes into the history of costume design and inspirations), How to Kick in a Door (pretty self-explanatory), and even articles like 10 Questions to Put on Your Character Creation Document.

And this is where we sidestep back into RPGs.

And why so many products are aiming for evergreen.

I was completely unsurprised when I saw that a majority of top-selling products in game-specific categories were game/edition neutral, because I've been seeing those same results in my own sales charts basically as long as I've been earning royalties on the splats that I create.

Because the sorts of products that tend to get the best, most regular sales are the ones that aren't tied to any specific game's mechanics or setting, but which still provide Game Masters or players with something of value. For example, some of my most regular sellers and biggest break outs over the past year and change have included:

- 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master: Possibly my fastest-selling supplement ever, this piece went Silver over the weekend when it was first released. While sales tapered off after a month or so, it still moves copies every pay period.

- 10 Fantasy Villages: While it got a big boost from being the Deal of The Day last Fall, this collection of 10 villages that can be plopped right down into any setting, complete with maps, rumors, NPCs, and more (but which is absent any mechanics) remains one of my better sellers.

- 100 Merchants to Encounter: One of the first things I wrote to hit Gold status, it's just what it says on the tin; 100 merchants, some weird and wild, some utterly normal, that GMs can keep in their back pocket for when the players need to go spend their loot, or locate particular kinds of items.

A majority of the supplements I've written over the past few years fall into this category, specifically because they tend to sell more copies than game-specific ones. Not only that, but they have staying power as different games rise in popularity, errata are released, or new editions come out. Many of them also have the benefit that whether someone is running a module or book-based campaign, or putting together something completely homebrew, these supplements can slip right into both scenarios. They are, in a lot of ways, universal tools as long as they fit the genre/style a given Game Master is aiming for.

What About Being a Big Fish in a Small Pond?

When you're creating content for RPGs, you want to make sure that you have as big a potential audience for your game as you can. It is, for example, why basically everything I write for Pathfinder Classic almost has to have a 5th Edition DND version as well... because I sort of need viability in both markets to even hope for a return on investment.

But isn't there something to be said for specificity? When a product fills a specific niche, doesn't that make it more valuable? Well... no, not really. And it's often a lot more difficult to predict what is going to work, and what isn't in that arena.

Like this supplement, for example.

I've written a lot of products for specific games over the years, too. Whether it was modules/adventures like The Curse of Sapphire Lake for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, Evil Incorporated: 10 Pentex Subsidiaries for the World of Darkness, or even 150 Sights To See (And Rumors To Hear) in Absalom for Pathfinder, by and large the products that are tied to one specific setting or one specific edition of mechanics don't sell as well. Even if they do all right, they rarely make the same kind of numbers that the more generic supplements do.

And there are reasons for that.

Firstly, a limited audience means you've got a smaller pool of potential buyers. Even if you "limit" yourself to DND 5E (arguably the largest chunk of the RPG market), it does push out folks running Pathfinder, Powered by The Apocalypse, Savage Worlds, and all the other games with a smaller market share. And if you're making a game specifically for one of those smaller markets, then you have a drastically smaller pond!

In addition to working within a smaller niche, you now have to ask how much competition you have. Like I said, 5E is the biggest slice of the market, and there's a huge amount of content for it coming out every day. The same is true to a lesser extent in Pathfinder, Starfinder, and some of the spheres of the World of Darkness like Vampire and Mage. So if you're fighting over attention with other creators, and there are fewer eyes and ears who might be interested in what you're selling, you've entered a much tougher market.

At the end of the day, I'd be more than happy to write adventure modules, full campaigns, class archetypes/subclasses, or even setting expansion stuff like my recent releases for my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting for DND and Pathfinder... but those things almost never sell as well as another generic list. Worse, they can cost a lot more in terms of time, effort, art, editing, promotion, etc. So a lot of the time you end up working a lot harder to produce something that isn't going to sell as well.

If you want to see creators produce more game or setting specific content then it's up to you, as an RPG player or Game Master, to do your part to help us boost that signal. Because it's hard to make sales on that stuff, and the less of a return on investment it generates, the less likely our publishers are to green light it, and the less likely we are as creators to write more of it.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the 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!

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Getting Into RPGs as a Business? You Need To Know How You're Making Money

Since shut downs and social distancing started, a lot of folks have decided to throw their hats in the RPG ring. Some people have used their systems and settings as a kind of pandemic project, taking all the time they now have to get their games ship-shape and market ready. Others are just looking for an outlet, or to build up a side hustle they can work from home. Some aren't really sure what they're doing yet, but they've always wanted to turn their hobby into their job.

And to all these game creators out there, both those who never thought they'd be here and those who've been hemming and hawing about taking the plunge for years; welcome. It's a rough gig, and sometimes it can feel like it's literally a roll of the dice whether you sink or swim. However, I wanted to point out something I've seen from a lot of creators, old and new alike.

In short, if you don't have a plan for how you're going to turn a profit, you need to stop what you're doing right this second. Go back to the drawing board, and do not resume work until you know exactly how this thing you're making is going to not just pay for itself, but put money in your bank account.

 

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Step One: Create Content, Step Two: ???, Step Three: Profit!

It's a Fun Job, But It's Still a Job

I've talked about this before on my sister blog The Literary Mercenary, but today I want to address RPGs specifically. Because there's a lot of numbers involved in this game, and a lot of the folks who are getting into it right now don't know what they're looking at, or what they should expect.

So I'm going to do my best to break it down for you.

Because as with any game, it's all about the numbers.

First things first; you need to understand that you are creating a product. That is your job as an RPG creator. Maybe you're assembling map packs, or you're writing blog entries to help GMs run better games, or you're going the distance and creating a full RPG of your own; end of the day, you are making a product. For you to actually turn a profit, that product has to in some way earn you money.

For example, say you've got a bunch of files you've created for really cool cavern maps you've used in a home game. It's your art, so you can do whatever you want with it! So you put them together into a pack, and you toss it up on Drive Thru RPG for a couple of bucks. Whenever someone buys a map pack, part of the profit goes to the website as the host, and the rest of it goes right into your pocket.

Pretty simple so far, right?

The problem that a lot of folks I've spoken to recently is they're starting from scratch. They don't have any art assets, they don't have any modules they've been tinkering with, and they've got no supplements (or anything else) for them to put out there to try to start some money flowing to them. Alternatively, someone might have a little bit of cash flow, but they want to do something big and ambitious; like set up an entire online platform for game masters, or put together a full campaign that's going to be 4-6 books of content by the time it's done.

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news... but it is highly unlikely that you'll be able to sell enough copies of something that big in order to break even, much less turn a profit. Also it can take a long time to complete something like that... and if you're using that time to create, your profits need to cover your future expenses, as well as pay your bills for the time being.

Making enough to pay one month's rent doesn't do you a lot of good if it took you 6 months to make the thing, if you see what I mean?

Time, Effort, and Keeping The Lights On

I talked about this in Writing a Book is an Investment, as Well as a Gamble, but creating a product takes time. Whether it's a relatively small and straightforward supplement like 100 Merchants to Encounter, or a module like Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh, or something bigger like a core rulebook for a unique game, or a full-sized campaign, everything takes time.

As an example, my turnaround time on a simple supplement like the merchant list above? It's at least a few weeks. Once I have it written and edited, it has to go through proofreading, it needs to be properly formatted, given art and a cover, priced, etc., etc. I don't handle those aspects of the publishing, but those things still need to be done.

Minimum turnaround time on something like that? Two to three weeks if you're thorough, but if it's the only thing on your to-do list you might be able to get it done faster. So let's say, nose to the grindstone, you put out 2 small supplements a month. You might be able to do more, but that's a realistic estimation of time, energy, and progress.

And then money, yes?

So, let's say you busted your butt during that month, and you got your supplements polished up and looking pretty. The art pops, the text is tight, and you do a big fanfare for release. Great, you got it done!

Most RPG products that go up on the market, though, don't even sell 50 copies (hitting Copper status on Drive Thru RPG). So a "good" debut of 50 copies each might net you... anywhere between $50 and $100 depending on your pricing, and how much of that cost actually ends up in your pockets. Even if you produced that supplement, module, whatever for no cost, using only software you had, free-to-use art, writing and editing the text all on your own, chances are good that your monthly expenses for food, rent, etc. are a lot more than a C-note.

And that's if you did well. If you don't already have an existing audience, or you don't manage to catch the eye of passing traffic, it's entirely possible that you could bust your hump all month, sweating and straining to get these products out there, and then sell exactly 0 copies, making no profit whatsoever.

 

The good thing is that once you complete something and get it up, it stays up. So it's possible that something that has a slow debut may build steam over time. Something that starts popular may even stay popular, selling steadily as time goes on. But realistically, you need to build up an archive of products/work; making a big profit off of your first two or three offerings is basically buying a random scratch-off and hitting the $24 million prize out of sheer, stupid luck.

Mercenaries Aren't The Answer To Your Problem, Either

 

A lot of new creators on the scene try to shorten their design time by hiring folks like me to help turn their ideas into reality. The problem you're going to run into there is that mercenaries need to get paid. While rates for RPGs are criminally low (half a cent per-word on the laughable end and 3 cents per word from more reputable companies), even low rates are very quickly going to dig you into a hole if your sales don't keep pace with what you're paying out. And the more text, art, etc. you want to get from freelancers to shorten your development time, the more copies you're going to have to sell in order to turn a profit when all is said and done.

Not only that, but freelancers get paid up-front. So if you shell out a couple hundred bucks to get your writing or art done by someone else, and then you only sell a handful of copies once your product has released, you're firmly in the red when it comes time to try to make and market the next thing. Again, you might make it back over time, but if you don't have any cushion then that's not very comforting.

You don't want to be halfway through your jump before realizing you miscalculated.

This doesn't just apply to full RPG products, either. A lot of folks try to maintain blogs, hoping to draw fresh eyes to their sites so they can get a larger audience for their future content. If you need content, the cheapest most writers are going to go is $20 for an article. Unless you have ads, or a Patreon page, or some way for your blog to pay you, there's no WAY you're going to make that back off of content that is, essentially, free for your audience to view.

For reference, It would take me about 3,500 reads on articles in my Vocal archive to earn back that much money. So unless you have sponsored content, affiliate sales links (more about those in If You're An Author, You REALLY Need an Affiliate Marketing Account), a crowd funding audience, or some other way to make back the investment you're paying out to other folks, you're basically throwing your money into a hole in terms of generating profits so you can keep making more stuff in the future.

Kickstarter Isn't a One-Size-Fits All Solution, Either

This one is for all the folks out there who think that crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter (and Patreon to a lesser degree) are going to swoop in and save you. I can tell you from experience that getting Patreon patrons is a bitch and a half, and that keeping them around is even harder. For a Kickstarter, you should really have a majority of the work done before you try to fund it, as well, thus ensuring minimal chances of failure, and showing your audience you're a reliable investment in the future.

You also need to market whatever it is you're creating. And you need to figure out how to raise your voice above every other Joe Schmo with an idea for a new, fast-paced RPG, board game, deck builder, etc. who's up on their own soap box, cane slapping and voice raised to try to get folks into the tent.

By all means, roll the dice... but know you're taking a risk.

In a lot of ways this is the creative equivalent of, "Hell with it, I'll just become a stripper!" It takes a lot of work to make something so intensive (between makeup, physical exertion, performing skill, customer service chops, persona creation, etc.) look effortless. Selling a game is the same way.

Just because you hear one success story of someone hitting it big with a patron landslide, or a huge Kickstarter campaign, keep in mind that you're not hearing about the dozens (or more realistically hundreds) of people who aren't getting any traction on the platform at all.

With All of That Said, You Should Still Do The Thing!

It might feel like I've just been tossing out doom and gloom this whole time, but you are far more likely to succeed if you set yourself realistic goals, and keep attainable expectations. And though RPGs are possibly bigger than they've been since the hobby began, it's important to remember this is still a pretty niche market.

However, with that said, you should still do your best to make your mark. So whether you want to start a blog writing reviews, make a new game, put out modules and supplements, or just make maps and cool gaming art, do that thing! Because making games matters, and if you don't take your shot then you're never going to get anywhere.

But remember, if you're doing this either as a side hustle or with the intention of making it your job, you've got to treat it as such. You're not just making a pet project for yourself and your friends, or messing around creatively for fun... you're creating a product. And you need to find (and entice) an audience who wants or needs the thing you're making if you want to stay in business.

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!

Where Do Your Characters Get Their Standards of Beauty From?

Pretty much every roleplaying game on the market has some metric for how attractive you are. Sometimes it's a catch-all category, like how Charisma is your physical appearance, your force of personality, leadership skills, and personal magnetism all rolled into one. In other games, like the newer World of Darkness, your social abilities are broken down into separate categories like Presence, Manipulation, and Resolve, with merits like Striking Looks which specifically state how attractive other people find you.

It's the spikes. Gets them every time.

As anyone with even a passing interest in other cultures knows, though, standards of beauty vary wildly from one place to another. Not only that, but they change over time, and for numerous reasons. Just try to dress yourself by the standards of beauty in the early 1900s, and see how confused you quickly become. If you start mixing in immortal bloodsuckers, inhuman races, and other elements, it can cause a huge mess.

Fortunately, it's a mess you can fix by taking a moment, and asking what your characters see as beautiful, and why they feel that way.

From Fashion to Passion, What is Your Norm?

Beauty is, as they say, in the eye of the beholder. And those beholders are shaped by the cultures they grow up in, the norms they're brought up around, the interactions they have with other people, and the lessons that are ingrained into their minds.

What does that mean, exactly? Well, the clearest example in my mind is from an old Wizards of the Coast novel. There was this scene that took place in a temple to the goddess of beauty, and her high priestess entered with all the pomp and circumstance the ritual she was performing demanded. She was everything her faith held holy, from her thick auburn hair, to her narrow waist, and flared hips. Dressed in flowing silks, with all the poise and grace of the goddess herself. She was stunning, and she left the room in awe.

All except the protagonist's ogre bodyguard, anyway. He just snorted, and shook his head at the pretty, skinny thing that would probably break under a stiff breeze.

And that pretty much sums it up.

It's important to remember, though, that standards of beauty affect everyone. For example, in ancient Greece the standard of beauty for men was to be slender, youthful, and smooth. If someone showed up looking like a bodybuilder from the late 1970s (who were at the cutting edge of attractive in their own time thanks to a social shift), they would have been seen as barbarians, and likely gawked at in the streets. And that's just differences between two human societies.

It isn't always about body type, either (though a lot of it definitely is). Standards of beauty include everything, from eye color and makeup style, to what clothes someone wears (or doesn't wear). It's about how you sound, how you act, and about whether the culture or subculture approves of your looks and actions.

It Changes How You See Your Characters, And The World

Standards of beauty don't just affect the way your character sees other people; they affect how a character views themselves. That, if nothing else, is why they're worth thinking about.

He dressed like that on purpose, after all.

Take basic assumptions about beauty, and question them. Is long hair considered attractive on men where your character comes from? What about women? What about people who shave their heads? Are tattoos seen as an expression of artistic talent, or are they seen as ugly and uncouth? Is body hair something that's embraced, despised, or something no one even pays attention to? Is having a tan a sign of vigor and youth, or does their culture view pale skin protected from the harsh sun as a status symbol? Do men wear makeup where you're from?  Is a lean physique seen as attractive, or is bulkier muscle seen as more ideal?

Once you have that lens, take a look at the world through it. Things might look different than you expected.

Now, with that said, I'll happily point out that your character's standards of beauty may not affect anything mechanical (this is a Fluff week post, after all). However, it's still an aspect of your character's mindset and worldview that deserves some examination. Whether they're a world-traveler, who's seen beauty all around the map, or a fresh-faced farmhand getting away from their home patch for the first time.

That's all for this week's Fluff post. It's a little short for such a convoluted topic, but I might come back to flesh it out further depending on comments and reaction. If you'd like to see more content like this, then head to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a patron of mine. Pledge at least $1 a month, and I'll even throw in some sweet swag along with my eternal gratitude. Lastly, if you haven't done so yet, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter to make sure you don't miss any future updates of mine.

You Don't Get Brownie Points For Building Ineffective Characters

This week's title is a bit incendiary, but it's an issue I think we all need to have an open, honest conversation about. Because, on the one hand, our characters are special to us. As players, we put our minds, and our hearts, into these constructs of lightning and imagination. We invest in their stories, and in many ways we view them as extensions of ourselves. When they succeed, we triumph. When they fail, part of that failure laps around our knees like a salty, lukewarm sea.

The thing is, though, this isn't a playground game of make-believe where you can just out-imagine the monsters to win. Roleplaying games are about story, but beneath that story is the underlying bones and muscle of the world in which we're playing. The same material that you need to build your characters from in order for them to function. And if you take all the gooey story-flesh, and slop it into a pile, it isn't going to stand up. You need to have the bones, and that is something a lot of gamers simply do not want to hear.

What do you mean I can't start this game with three dragons that do my bidding?

You Need One To Make The Other Work

I'm going to tell a story you've probably heard before. While the details may be different, you may even have a tale like this of your own.

Years ago, I joined a table that was running Shackled City in DND 3.5. I knew the others at the table casually, and I'd played with the DM before. I noted our lack of a front-line meat shield, and asked the DM if he would allow me to build toward the Frenzied Berserker, or if he thought that would be too broken. He gave me his assent, and I started going through the options, and assembling the usual suspects. Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Brute, Shock Trooper... we all know how this dance goes. The goal was to assemble a barbarian/fighter who could do his job, and buy the rest of the group time to do theirs. This was aided by a bullshit set of stats where my dump stat was a 10, but my Strength, Dex, and Con were all nearing superhuman levels.

That was when two options presented themselves. Options that shaped the flavor of the character, and explained his mechanical monstrosity.

You going somewhere with this, boy?

The first was that Arius wasn't, in fact, human. He was a half-orc who was passing as human (something my DM offered as an enticement because he wanted a half-orc in the party). The second was that this campaign gave us a background trait we could take. I took nightmares, which made me immune to the fatigued condition. So I had a barbarian who couldn't be fatigued.

Where does the story part come in? Well, Arius's mother had been captured by raiders, and had never told her husband what they'd done to her. Arius was born from that violation, and the boy suffered awful night terrors. He'd often wake up screaming and howling. His parents sent him to the temple of Kord, and though they didn't cure him, they channeled his energy into fitness and prowess. Arius was a prodigious weight lifter, a canny wrestler, and a brutal swordsman, because whenever he couldn't sleep, he would train. He didn't ask what kept him awake, and he didn't want to know the terrors that lurked in his mind. But when his Rage manifested, he fought in his sleep. The things in his dreams filled him, and made him a monster that knew no fear, no pain, and no mercy.

Now, I told you that story to tell you this story.

There was another fellow in the group who opted to play a cleric. A good choice, since every group needs a cleric, and they have a lot of options when it comes to what they can accomplish. He also opted for a non-human race, the problem was that the player chose a winged, half-bird race with an equivalent character level. For those not familiar with 3.5 rules, that meant he'd always have fewer levels than the rest of the party, because he gave up several levels in order to trade for the race. Much like how you could play a frost giant, but you'd be a level 1 fighter, while the rest of the party was level 14.

The primary appeal of this avian race was that he would, eventually, get functional wings. Eventually was the key word. This meant that the player gave up several levels of spellcasting in exchange for an IOU on flying a handful of levels from the start. That's not an inherent problem. It became a problem, though, when he expected to be able to waltz into a fight, and swing around the sort of numbers Arius was capable of. The cleric couldn't crack skulls the way the secret half-orc could, anymore than Arius would gain the ability to fly. But the player had an image of his character as a warrior priest, and he wouldn't be dissuaded no matter how many times he got his ribs kicked in when it came to melee.

The Unicorn of Optimized Fluff

In the above example, the player behind the cleric was getting quite frustrated after the fifth or sixth time he had to be fireman carried off the battlefield. So, when we had a gap in play, I asked why he kept rushing into melee, when he saw it clearly wasn't working. His reply was that his character was a fighter, and he was going to stand up for what was right. I asked what mechanics he was using to make that work, thinking perhaps I could make some suggestions on feats or strategy, and the response was a scoff. He was convinced that an out-of-the-box cleric, fighting with one arm tied behind his back, was the equal of a monster truck that ran on the blood of innocents.

And he just couldn't figure out why I was cleaving a bloody trail, while he struggled to take down a single enemy by the end of the fight.

You're adorable.

Rules matter. Even if your DM completely re-writes your game manual, and you have a 3-ring binder full of house rules, you still have to build your characters, and play them, according to those rules. And, while you should make a deep, compelling, interesting character, that doesn't excuse you from following those rules.

By extension, if you spend your resources frivolously, you don't get roleplay brownie points for it. Mistakes aren't magically transformed into roleplay decisions just because you did them for story reasons. You're shooting yourself in the foot, and then asking everyone else to tell you how brave you are for struggling on through your newly acquired disability.

Play To Win (But Not How You Think)

Player characters exist to accomplish goals. Whether you're raiding a fire giant stronghold, sniffing out a spy, or keeping the peace in the city's slums, your character has a job to do. As a player, it's your responsibility to make sure your character is built in such a way that they will be effective as a part of the overall team. Or, at least, that they have certain things they can accomplish which will explain their presence in the story, and as part of team protagonist.

The safety is coming off.

For example, you only have a certain number of skill points to spend every level in Pathfinder. Even if you have a high Intelligence score, and you play a class that gets a lot of skill points, you should make sure the points you spend are going into skills you're actually going to use. Say, for example, that your character is highly dexterous, so you invest points into Sleight of Hand. That's not a problem, but if you're spending those points, you are declaring that this is a skill you intend on using. Not just in downtime, or between the scenes, or just for flavor, but all the time. If you aren't the kind of character that will be picking pockets, or who intends to secrete weapons on his person in case you get captured, then this may not be a useful skill for you.

But what if your backstory is that you grew up as a pickpocket? Don't you have to spend ranks in Sleight of Hand to justify that? Not really.

This is where flavor and practicality come together. Say your character is a brawler who grew up on the streets, and she was a thief until she became a cage fighter. You aren't required to buy Sleight of Hand just because you were once a sneak thief. It would be far more likely that you'd have skills like Intimidate, Acrobatics, and Escape Artist. After all, you haven't been a sneak thief for a long time, and after countless matches your knuckles are more effective for cracking skulls than they ever were at riffling a purse.

Being "Well-Rounded" is Often a Defense of Poor Budgeting

One of the primary arguments on this topic is players who say they want to play "well-rounded" characters. That they would rather go into a game having a wider set of skills at a mediocre level, then one or two abilities that they excel at. That's a fair opinion to have, but ask yourself if you were hiring someone for a specific job, would you hire the guy with the specialized degree and field research, or the person who's worked in a bunch of different areas, and who has a smattering of skills?

Jeff is a great camp counselor... but I wouldn't hire him to re-wire my house.

No one character can do, or be good at, everything. The mechanics of any RPG are set up so that the choices you make when you invest your points define your areas of expertise. As such, you need to know what you want to do, and you have to realize what goals you have for this character.

We do this all the time at lower levels, but for some reason many players turn their noses up at playing the long-game. If you're a level 1 character in Pathfinder, and you want to deal a lot of damage in melee, the feats you'll take are likely Power Attack and Furious Focus for a Strength-based character, or Piranha Strike for a Dexterity-based character. If you're going to operate at range, you take Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot, whether you're a ray specialist, an archer, or someone with an unhealthy love of throwing axes. If you're going to multiclass as a spellcaster, then one of the best traits you can take is Magical Knack, because it helps keep your caster level on an even keel.

Does that mean there's only one way to play a character? Of course not! But you need to know what you're going to do, and how you're going to back-up that concept, if you are going to get the results you want. Can you play a hedonistic privateer on a mission from the gods who has a parrot familiar, and who is out to become the governor of his island in order to protect his people? Sure you can! But you need to know what abilities that character has to have, and you have to incorporate them into your concept.

Lastly, talk to your DM. Make sure your concept works the way you think it works, and be sure that what you want to make will actually be useful in your game. A swamp-dwelling druid who wrestles gators for fun might be a deadly grappler, but if you're playing a highly political game in the big city, with lots of backstabbing and innuendo, you might feel as useless as a fish with a new bicycle.

Thanks for reading through this week's Moon Pope Monday post. It's on the longer side, but I had a lot to say. If you enjoyed it, and would like to see more, then why not stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to leave a little support? Even $1 a month goes a long way, and there's some free swag in it for you! Lastly, if you haven't followed me on Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter yet, now would be a great time to do so.

You Cannot Contain Power Players (So Try Working With Them, Instead)

Every roleplaying game out there is built on a foundation of rules. The rules decide how many points you get to spend on your attributes, how likely your attacks are to hit, what special abilities (if any) your character possesses, and how they work. And if you get a table of four players together, and you present each of them with the same options, there's going to be at least one of them who finds the right combination of abilities to make a character that's really good at his or her job. They didn't break the rules, or even twist them, but their character is definitely in the heavyweight category compared to the other players when it comes to spellcasting, skullduggery, swordplay, or any other tasks that start with "S".

These are your power players.

Time to meet the monster.

I would like to give an important piece of advice to all the DMs out there who see power players coming their way, and who try to tie them down with red tape and house rulings. Take a breath, and stop. Because whatever your power player has brought to the table, taking away one toy will just mean they go back to the toy box to find something else that will let them accomplish the same goal in a different way.

If There Are Rules, There Are Building Blocks

I'll give you a perfect example of how this situation tends to go. Mind's Eye Society, a group that ran and oversees World of Darkness LARPs, saw that too many players were building the biggest possible combat pools they could, and using these combat powerhouses to essentially take out other characters in a single hit. Instead of addressing things on the small-scale, however, the organization chose to institute a blanket ruling that put a cap on the amount of damage that could be done in a single hit.

This worked about as well as you think it would.

The theory was that if you made it impossible to build one-shot wonders, then players wouldn't use violence as a means to solve every situation. That was, of course, not what happened. Instead of building bigger brutes, some players invested in characters who could soak up inhuman amounts of punishment, since there was no cap on how much health you can have. That way they could simply outlast the other characters, tanking as much hurt as they could before walking away the victor. Other players invested in recruiting small armies of NPCs, which meant that instead of having one trigger to pull, a single player could have control of a dozen, highly-trained shooters at a time.

The point is, taking away the ability to build a character that could cave in someone's ribs and rupture their heart with a single punch didn't stop people from building combat monsters. All it did was create a detour, making players use different means to achieve the same end.

And, as a DM, that's what you're going to see if you start arbitrarily telling players who did their homework that they aren't allowed to use certain abilities, or create certain combinations. Because if the player hasn't broken any rules, it can feel like you're punishing them for being able to find, and use, the most effective options available.

Make Your Power Players Work For You

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; every game needs a Session 0. If you have a power player (or two, or three) at your table, you need to sit down with them, and listen to what they're planning on doing. If you have someone who's planned a multiclass shock trooper, capable of smashing through hordes of foes, then you need to ask yourself how that's going to gel with the game you're planning on running, and where that leaves the rest of the table. Because if the group is made up of a face man and two spellcasters, then that sort of muscle might be just what they need. But if there are already two other combat specialists, and you know they won't be able to keep up with the power player's build, then you should try to fix that.

But you don't fix it by just banging a gavel and denying one of your players a perfectly legal option. Instead, talk to them, explain that you appreciate what they're trying to make, and work with them to make something that will let them have fun, but which will help keep the game going in the direction you want, while allowing everyone else to enjoy it, too.

It doesn't seem that hard, does it?

Now, there will be some players who get offended that you'd ask them to change their concept because you feel it would be disruptive. Some players may even make a stink that you want them to "play down" to the rest of the table's level. If you present your case in a reasoned, thoughtful sort of way, and that's the reaction you get, un-invite that player to your table until they learn that this game isn't just about them, but that it's a cooperative effort among everyone.

That is the sort of understanding you need to foster, if you want a power player to give you a character that will not only do the job they were built for, but help build up the rest of the table at the same time. It takes skill, time, and dedication to learn how to match the right options together in order to build a powerful PC. But being able to do that without overshadowing anyone else, that takes cooperation, care, and more than a little help from the person behind the screen.

As always, thanks for stopping in to see what I had to say for this week's Crunch topic. If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, even if it's as little as $1 a month, click over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page. Every new patron, regardless of how much they choose to put in the tip jar, gets free books, and access to all my future giveaways! Lastly, if you haven't followed me on Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter yet, now would be a great time to start.

Why We Need To Pay What Games Are Worth

I've had this one on my "to-promote" list for a while now, and I finally found room for it. For those of you who didn't see it, I'm talking about the article Why We Need To Pay What Games Are Worth, Not What We Think They Should Cost by Christopher Helton. If you haven't read it, then I encourage you to click the link, and give it a read through.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Finished? Good, because this article brings up some things that we, as gamers, need to talk about. And not just talk, but understand so we can continue to play our games responsibly, and understand where our money is really going.

RPGs Aren't Expensive (Once You Know What You're Buying)

People who've been into RPGs since Dungeons and Dragons burst on the scene in the 70s remember the days when you could buy a core book, and probably a module or two, for $20 or less. Even those of us who got into them before the turn of the last century remember being able to swoop in and snatch a gaming book or campaign for $30 or so, if they were on sale, or the owner of our friendly local gaming store owed us a favor. Today, though? When a base book can cost $60 or more, and supplements can cost just as much, why are RPG fans paying so much? What are publishers doing with all this dosh?

Yes... all $4 and change.

What most fans don't know is just how much money it costs to put together a rule book. For example, most big RPG companies (or even mid-list ones) don't have a staff of writers doing all the work. Those individuals often head the projects, come up with the ideas, and write the core sections (new classes, concepts, rules, etc.) but the rest of the content is done by freelancers. Those keyboard mercs, like yours truly, tend to get paid .02 per word on a project (sometimes less, sometimes more, but never that much more). While that isn't much for the publisher to pay, it's still a cost. A cost that has to be added to art, editors, formatting, printing, shipping, marketing, and, of course, the cost of saving up for the next project. And paying the regular staff, let's not forget that.

All told, an RPG company gets to keep about one-quarter of the retail price of its materials. Which means it has to sell a ton of copies just to keep its ink in the black.

It's A Fun Job, But It's Still A Job

Even after it's been explained how little many RPG writers, designers, and artists make, lots of fans fall back on the old, "you're working your dream job, just enjoy it," argument. After all, they have to slave away at a job they hate for a wage that sucks, so why should someone who likes their job make more money doing something that has to be more fun?

Because everyone should be paid a living wage.

Especially you, so you can buy our books when you get paid.

If you're plugged in to the RPG gaming communities online, then you know how hard it is for the creators of some of your favorite projects to pay for things like medical care, or to recover from personal disasters. That's because, even if they're well-known and successful, they simply don't have the scratch to get back up when something like that hits. Hence why it seems there's a new Go Fund Me campaign every other week to help an RPG creator who wound up in the hospital, got in a car wreck, or is dealing with some other form of ill fortune.

So, whether the views in this post, and in Why We Need To Pay What Games Are Worth, Not What We Think They Should Cost, changed your mind or not, think about them the next time you're looking at the price for an RPG supplement.

Because you get what you pay for.

As always, thanks for stopping in to check out this week's Moon Pope Monday update. Also, if you'd like to do your part to help a game creator you're a fan of, then why not stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to help keep Improved Initiative going strong? All it takes is $1 a month, and you get some sweet swag just for becoming a new supporter! Lastly, if you haven't done so already, why not follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter?

Why "Appeals to Fun" Are Pointless in RPG Discussions

As folks have noticed, when I'm not talking about RPGs themselves, I tend to talk about how we think about them. The language we use to describe our games, and what themes can expand or contract a game's focus, are some of my favorite topics. In fact, posts like Sexuality Matters in RPGs (And Here's Why) and Calm Down, No One is Taking Your Games Away are some of my most popular articles. So, since it's Monday, I thought I'd take the opportunity to talk about something related to gaming, that isn't gaming itself.

In short, I would like to ask that all of us stop making appeals to fun as a way to try and win an argument, or to end a conversation whenever we're online and trying to score debate points.

Appeals to Fun (And Why They're Useless)

The entire point of playing RPGs is to have fun, and tell a story. If you're not having fun, chances are good you're going to quit playing, or find another game that fulfills your needs. However, an "appeal to fun" is something that shows up in conversations about RPGs, not in the games themselves.

And, since examples work best when illustrating a point, I'll use one for you.

Oh good, I was in danger of getting confused.

Let's say we're on a Facebook group dedicated to Pathfinder. A conversation springs up about mental health in adventurers. They have to face awful dangers, and they're often subjected to terrible stresses. Post-traumatic stress disorder seems like a surefire condition many of them might suffer from, though it's far from the only condition that might crop up. Alcoholism, drug addiction, violent acting out, and other symptoms are also discussed. Other people get in on the conversation, either arguing for or against why certain conditions would or wouldn't affect certain races, or whether or not magical treatment would be effective when it came to mental disorders.

And then, in the midst of discussion around this topic, someone chimes in with, "why are you getting so involved in this? It's a game, forget all of this and just have fun already!"

The problem with this sort of statement is that, clearly, someone is having fun with this idea. For some players, the idea of having to face serious repercussions for violent lives, and losing limbs and companions along the way, is engaging. It's the sort of thing they think will improve their roleplaying experience. For other players that aspect of the game might be a downer, getting in the way of what they consider to be the fun part of the game (the power fantasy that comes with slaying dragons and fighting gods, for example). Just as some players will dive face first into cosmic horror, or grimdark sci-fi, other players want something uplifting, or even funny, for their game's tone.

Most of the time when someone says, "just go have fun," what they mean is, "go have my kind of fun."

If It's Not Your Game, Walk Away

The definition of fun will change from one person to another. There is no single activity that everyone will enjoy. So if you're the sort of person who likes to relax with a book and your cat, you do you. If your friend likes to get hammered at the bars while belting our karaoke, good for him. But if your friend tries to get you to come along for his kind of fun, and you don't want to, telling you that if you go out with him you'll experience real fun is a massive logical fallacy. Just because you love something, that doesn't mean anyone else shares your opinion.

The sword is so you can fight off the hangover in the morning.

So the next time you're reading a conversation about gaming, and you think the people having this discussion are somehow missing the point, or they're more focused on rules or tone than having fun, remember this; for some people, that is the fun part.

If you don't have anything to actually contribute to the conversation, keep scrolling. Seriously, it will make your life so much easier, and the people who are actively engaged in what they're doing won't have to deal with comments from people who just want to step in, shout, "you're gaming wrong," before they leave again.

As always, I hope you enjoyed this Moon Pope Monday post. If you'd like to help keep Improved Initiative going, then why not drop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page? As little as $1 a month will help me keep producing content, and it will get you some sweet swag. Lastly, if you haven't done so yet, why not follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter?

The 4 Major Flaws of Character Building

If you've ever frequented an RPG forum, or spent any time in social media groups dedicated to gaming, you've likely seen your share of ridiculous character builds. Whether it's the warrior with impenetrable armor, the magic user with the one-shot nuclear spell, or the social sledgehammer who can convince anyone of anything, these builds seem like unbeatable titans.

I'll let you in on a little secret, though... most of them are houses of cards.

Quail before me!

The next time you're presented with a seemingly overpowered character build, the first thing you need to do is read the fine print to be sure there were no mechanical mistakes (bonuses that don't stack being added twice, wording that's been changed or interpreted differently from errata, etc.). If all the actual numbers check out, the next thing you need to do is run down this list of flaws which could take a powerful build, and put a big, fat crack right down the face plate.

Mistake #1: Depending on Limited Use Powers

How many bullets does your big gun have?

One of the most common methods of balancing a game is to limit the number of times per day characters can use powerful abilities. Think about every first-person shooter you've ever played, and ask yourself how many rounds of ammo you found for that game's BFG 9000. You know, that ridiculous, kill-almost-anything weapon that was meant for boss battles, but which only had 3 or 4 shots in it if you saved them all till the end of the game?

Some character builds are the equivalent of that gun. Which is why, before you start smack-talking your DM, you should take a look at how many times you can use that big bang. Because it's entirely possible for you to put everything you've got into one, big blast that will send tremors through the very earth... but what happens if there's another big boss that comes after the one you just destroyed? Or if you miss, and can't do it again until you've had a lie down and a full night of sleep?

Mistake #2: Ignoring The Character's Lower Levels

What do you do between levels 1 and 15?

While not every system is level-based, every system does have what's considered a starting point for the average player character. Then as the game progresses and your characters gain strength, you earn experience points, or you're given more power. One of the biggest flaws a character build can have is focusing on what you're going to do once you're a veteran character with a lot of experience under your belt, and not asking how you're going to survive long enough to get there, or how you're going to contribute to the game before hitting your plateau.

The longer it takes a character build to hit its stride, the bigger this flaw becomes. Because sure, if you hit level 20 and you've put all your ducks in a row, then you have a really powerful character. If you're not starting out at your build's sweet spot, though, you need to know what you're going to do until you get there.

Mistake #3: Relying on Rare Equipment/Abilities

Behold, the Sacred Sphere of... what do you mean I can't find one?

Any time a character build requires a character to get his or her hands on powerful relics, or rare powers, it's important to curb your enthusiasm. For example, the book might have stats for the Mallet of Storms, the weapon wielded by the god of thunder, but it is folly to assume that, as a player, you'll be able to find something so rare, much less allowed to wield it. And while it's true that the master of the rare and exotic art of Knoph-Reh can tear an enemy's soul out through his mouth, it's important to make sure that your character will find a master, and be able to learn it before you hinge all your hopes on it.

The easiest way to fix this problem is to sit down with your DM in Session 0 to make sure that what you want to do will be possible within the scope of your game. If you're not sure what that is, then you should check out The Importance of Session 0 in Your Tabletop Games.

Mistake #4: Not Looking For Your Build's Weaknesses

I can totally take that raging green monster!

Everything has a weakness. That's both a truism of storytelling, and a part of an RPG's inherent balance. You're always going to have weaknesses no matter what character you play. It only becomes a problem when you go into the game unaware of your weaknesses, and having no plans for how to deal with situations where your strengths are nullified.

Let's say you have a one-hit wonder; the kind of warrior whose sword can destroy any enemy that comes within reach in a single slash. The problem is that not all enemies will fight fair. So, instead of standing and fighting,the wizard you're fighting floats into the air and out of sword reach. Or, alternatively, rows of crossbow snipers take aim from cover, turning your unbeatable swordsman into a rather shamefaced pincushion. Or you find yourself facing the angry dead, whose insubstantial bodies cannot be harmed by steel, but whose icy touch can sap the life from your bones. Or you could take an example from the other direction. Say you've created a powerful sorcerer who can bend fire to his will... what happens when he has to fight demons, to whom fire is a warm bath? Or creatures of pure elements, who are healed by being bathed in what was supposed to be a torrent of death? Or you have an assassin whose poisons and precise strikes are rendered useless against the walking dead, or creatures from beyond the stars whose anatomies are impossible to understand?

A character should be geared toward a particular end. However, if your big trick isn't going to fix the problem, it's important to have a few other tools in your toolbox so you don't find yourself sidelined. Or, even worse, killed.

As always, thanks for dropping in to check out this week's post. If you'd like to help support Improved Initiative, and keep content like this coming to you on the regular, then stop by The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to make a pledge. Even as little as $1 a month ($12 a year) can make a big difference. Lastly, if you want to make sure you don't miss any of my updates, then follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, too.

Ancient Mythology Family Trees, Fully Illustrated

Mythology is one the biggest influences on fantasy RPGs. We use it for our monsters, for our quests, and in many cases we have pulled our gods straight from the pages (or runestones, or oral histories) of world religions. Whether it's older editions of Dungeons and Dragons, or games like White Wolf's Scion, ancient mythologies are always close to hand.

Which is why I thought that this image, uploaded at Imgur by Shoopdawoop2000, is particularly awesome.

EDIT: The comic is originally by Korwin Briggs, whose website is Veritable Hokum.

These trees will have no real effect on your game, unless you have a cleric who needs to be able to explain a pantheon to the curious with a chart. Mostly, I chose to make this my Monday update because I think they're cool, and the illustrations gave me a few chuckles on my way down the page. So, I hope all of you find this just as amusing as I did.

Also, if you'd like to help keep Improved Initiative going strong, consider stopping by my Patreon page. For as little as $1 a month, you can aid me in turning up the profound, and the mildly amusing, week-in and week-out. Lastly, if you want to keep up-to-date on all my latest posts, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter.