Some of My Lesser Known Supplements (That Still Deserve a Look)

The Christmas in July sale at Drive Thru RPG is basically over, and for a lot of creators that means we're going back to the drawing board to work on the next wave of TTRPG projects and products for all you gamers out there. However, while I'm currently hard at work on the next round of my own nonsense, I wanted to take this Monday's post to shine a light on some of my older supplements that haven't gotten a lot of love, but which I think are still worth your time to check out.

And if enough eager readers pick up copies of them, it would help me convince my publisher(s) to circle back and perhaps pen a few more pieces in these unfinished/discontinued lines and abandoned product formats.

Let's take a look in the vault, shall we?

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

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

100 Creature Supplement Series

I've got a soft spot for this one...

Regular readers know that a majority of my bestselling supplements have all been in the 100 X format or the 10 X format... but one series of these that may have slipped under your radar was what I was thinking of as my 100 Creatures series. Unfortunately I really only managed to put together 100 Unusual Aasimar and 100 Tieflings to Meet in Your Travels before I put this one up on a shelf for seriously underperforming.

While I tried to go in a different direction with 13 Fiends: A Backer's Dozen of Devils, all three of these supplements were really slow movers, and at time of writing none of them have gone very far past Copper metal status.

My original plan for this series was to do one entry for all of the core species for most fantasy games, and then to move on to the more unusual/monstrous creatures that you may still encounter so that GMs would have a slew of NPCs to hand, and players could use the lists as inspiration for their own characters, or to fill out parts of their backstories. At the time there didn't seem to be that much support for it... but maybe that's changed now, eh?

Adventure Modules

A tough product to create, but even tougher to sell.

One of the most commonly requested products from readers is adventure modules. However, writing these things is one of the more intensive, difficult tasks you could ask a creator to do, as they take the skill to tell a short story, along with the challenge of balancing encounters, and attempting to predict what an average group of players will do, giving the Game Master tips and advice on how to handle a variety of story paths without sprawling out into a massive tome.

And even if you manage to do all of that, adventure modules are, statistically, the products that are the hardest to sell. Yes there are exceptions to this statement, but attempting to move copies of this kind of product is basically playing the marketing game on hard mode.

The first series of adventure modules I wrote, called the Critical Hits, was a series of 3 adventures I put together 5 years ago. It consisted of:

- False Valor: A murder mystery where players have to solve a wrongful death, and perhaps kick some fantasy Proud Boys in the face!

- The Curse of Sapphire Lake: The bastard child of Beowulf and Friday the 13th, an awful specter is haunting the settlement of Kingsbridge... can the PCs figure out what is happening, and stop it, before anyone else dies?

- The Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh: Something strange is happening around the town of Bracken. Bizarre sights lurk just off the high road, waiting for darkness to lurch out of the marshes. The town is being strangled... but who will put these haunts to rest?

Since these modules were released, the first two have only managed to go Copper, and the last one hasn't even reached that level. I haven't been shy about sharing them (particularly around Friday the 13th for all the horror fans who also enjoy TTRPGs), but aside from a few players who really loved them, most folks seem pretty indifferent.

The same could be said of the other two adventure modules I've written. Dreadful Tales was a series of 3 modules for the Victorian Gothic TTRPG, and my contribution was a module that was a nod to both Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson. The most recent module I wrote was the above-pictured The Price of Iron, a bizarre little adventure featuring dark fae, rips in reality, lies, betrayal, and horror that can really test your players. But, like all the others, it's really had a hell of a time getting traction.

So if you're one of the folks out there who'd like to see me write more modules, please consider grabbing a couple of these. And if you're one of those rare readers who's already gotten your copies, make sure you leave a rating, a review, and share them on your social media for other folks to see!

Fiction

It comes in a lot of shapes and sizes.

Another request I've gotten a lot over the years is people who want me to expand into game tie-in fiction, particularly for my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age TTRPG setting. This is something I'd really like to do, actually, as I got into game writing via writing the short story The Irregulars for Paizo back in my early days. However, neither that story, nor the anthology Tales From The Moot have been particularly popular when it comes to sales.

Now, there could be a lot of reasons for that. Maybe it's the format, maybe it's the setting, maybe it's the length, but I would actually really like to write more fiction than I do these days... the only problem is actually finding an audience of folks out there who want to read it.

I may have a loophole, though... especially if you're the sort of person who enjoys audio drama content.

As some readers know, I've been including fiction in my TTRPG supplements for years, and for about a year and a half I've been making these little audio dramas for them over on the Azukail Games YouTube channel. I've also been slowly linking these little vignettes together into several different series, weaving narratives between my supplements which then become things my listeners can follow for free.

So even if you're not the sort of person who would necessarily buy copies of short stories (or even novels) of tie-in fiction, but this is something you'd enjoy, please subscribe to the channel, watch the videos, and share them around so we can get more views! Because as I said recently in "Windy City Shadows," A Chronicles of Darkness Podcast Proposal, if we can get that channel monetized it will give me the leeway to start making bigger, bolder, interconnected narratives that listeners can really sink their teeth into.

We have all the followers we need (though more are always appreciated)... the issue is we're falling short on how many hours of watched content it takes. We need to cross 3k hours in the past year, and when last I checked we'd barely cleared 1k hours. So check out the audio drama playlist, share some videos with your friends, and help us clear this hurdle if this is a project you'd like to see more of!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary!. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, my dystopian sci fi thriller Old Soldiers, or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

More Meta Supplements Are Coming Your Way!

Folks who've been following my work over the past few years have seen all kinds of different supplements with my name on them. I've had general fill-in content for Game Masters like 100 Random Oracular Pronouncements, or 100 Random Mercenary Companies. I've released DND 5E adventure modules such as my murder mystery False Valor, or the horror-themed Ghosts of Sorrow Marsh. I've written 14 different supplements for my Sundara setting at time of writing, all of which are conveniently listed out in my previous entry What Do You Want To See Next in Sundara: Dawn of a New Age? And that's not even counting the various World of Darkness supplements I've put out, or the short stories I've got on the market, like my contributions to the Werewolf: The Apocalypse collection Tales From The Moot, or my Pathfinder Tale The Irregulars.

Needless to say, it's been a busy few years.

However, something that was meant to be kind of a one-off palate cleanser for me as a creator ended up making a far bigger impact than I expected. So, in a classic case of, "follow the audience's interest," it looks like I'm switching to a new project for at least the next few months. And for lack of a better term I'm calling them my meta supplements.

Just in case you didn't see this when it dropped.

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

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

Making More of The Meta

Typically when I put together a supplement it's full of stuff that's meant to be in-world. It's NPCs you might meet, or encounters you might have, taverns you could meet in, guilds or cults you might cross, things of that nature. However, when 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better Game Master first dropped, it went Silver within the first few days. I won't say that's never happened to me before, but it is rare enough that when it does happen I sit up and take notice.

Since the response to that supplement was bigger than I expected, I figured I'd try another couple of titles out to see if the response was similar. And while 100 Character Goals and Motivations didn't explode quite as hard as the Game Master tips supplement did, it still went Silver faster than most of my other supplements have. While the third installment, which will be 100 Tips and Tricks For Being a Better RPG Player hasn't dropped yet (though it should be out this weekend, and I'll update the link to reflect that when it comes out), I am currently plotting more of these supplements for the future as long as readers keep checking them out.

So, what makes a meta supplement, exactly? Well, one thing is that they tend to have a lighter tone, as evidenced by Why Are You Here? the introduction from the goals and motivations supplement where we find that the fighter's true motivation is nowhere near as dark, serious, or gritty as everyone else in the party.

Perhaps more important than a lighter tone mixed with a little humor, though, meta supplements aren't in-game resources that are meant to be plopped down as a piece of set design. Instead they're advice on how you can be a better player, a better Game Master, or a discussion of the meta aspects of the story you're trying to tell. In a lot of ways this makes these supplements less concrete than some of the other examples I mentioned in the opener, because they were meant to be point-and-shoot. If you need a bartender, open this supplement. A cult, open this one. A knightly order, a mercenary company, a guild, there's a supplement you can pluck them out of and fill in the blank.

At the same time, though, I have a sneaking suspicion that it is the less concrete aspects of these supplements that might be what makes them popular. There's dozens of splats out there full of character names and the contents of treasure piles, but not a lot of them discussing character motivations, story beats, player habits, and general table behavior. But we'll see how folks respond to the upcoming releases, and whether the demand maintains. Because as I repeatedly say on this platform, as long as readers are buying copies and asking for more, that's a vein I'll continue to mine until I'm completely out of ideas.

Also, if you enjoyed the little audio drama above, consider subscribing to the Azukail Games YouTube channel. We need every set of eyeballs we can get, since YouTube won't monetize it till after it gets 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 hours of watched content within the past year... we're nowhere near either of those, and every drop fills the bucket up a little bit more!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my cat noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

What Do You Want To See Next in "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age"?

Regular readers know that since 2021 I've been releasing content for my own fantasy RPG setting Sundara: Dawn of a New Age. This setting is available both for Pathfinder Classic, as well as for Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, and my goal with it was to upend a lot of the old stereotypes and conventions that come with fantasy RPGs, but without throwing the baby out with the bath water.

While I covered some of this in my blog What is "Sundara: Dawn of a New Age" All About?, the short version is that I wanted to make a game setting that tossed out monolithic aspects by adding more organic details, and which focused more on embracing new solutions and ways of doing things instead of feeling like it was constantly trying to re-capture some lost, mythic golden age.

Some of the things I've already done include:

- Removing alignment entirely.

- Making the gods more mysterious, and variable.

- Expanded non-human species so they are just as (if not more) varied than humans.

- Removed the concept of countries as we know them today, making power structures more varied.

- Added a bunch of weird guilds, technologies, and uses of magic across the setting.

Stuff is getting strange as the setting spreads out.

While I have plenty of ideas that I could spin up going forward, I wanted to take this week's Monday update to ask what you, the readers, would like to see?

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

Lastly, to be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!

What Would Get You More Interested in The Setting?

When I started this series off it began with Cities of Sundara, providing guides for places like Ironfire: City of Steel and Moüd: City of Bones. After I'd established several of these locations I put out a guide to how gods and the divine work in the setting (which is a lot less structured and established than in many other settings I've seen, where the mythology we hear is often taken as fact), and then moved on to Species of Sundara where I laid out broader diasporas and cultures for dwarves, elves, gnomes, halflings, orcs, and the Blooded (a combination of so-called half-elves and half-orcs). The most recent release, Sellswords of Sundara, covered famous and infamous mercenary companies, and soon there will be a collection of 10 towns with full details.

My question for you, as a Game Master or a player, is what would you be interested in seeing more of going forward? Not just in a, "This would be neat," sense, but in a, "I would pay money to support that," sense.

It's what makes the wheels turn, after all.

Current possible plans include:

- Expansion of locations in the setting (more town and city guides).

- Expansion of species guides (with more creatures and unique player options for them).

- Campaign modules (so players could actually explore some of the setting in more detail).

- World detail guides (moving on from mercenaries to guilds, cults, and other organizations).

While these aren't the only options, there are two projects that are not currently on the roster, and that's releasing a full-sized setting guide, and releasing a full pre-written campaign. The big reason for this is not because I wouldn't be interested in these things, but because this is a one-man show, and those kinds of projects take a lot of time to put together. So, generally speaking, anything that can't be completed in 1-2 months isn't feasible with the audience size Sundara currently commands. If audience demand grows then those things might be possible down the line, but not for the immediate future.

Which is, incidentally, the main reason so much of this content is designed to slot into homebrew games as well. Because if you just want one or two aspects, you can pluck them out of the setting without requiring a bunch of strings to come with it.

Well, most of the time, at least.

Also, for added clarity, I am not the publisher for this setting. I'm just the writer; Azukail Games is the one who's putting out all these splats. So I'm not just asking you what folks would like to see going forward because I want to sell more copies (though that is part of it). It's also because I need to be able to show growing interest in the setting, and to create a track record of positive sales, in order to get further books approved for writing and release.

So tell me what you want to see! Leave a comment below, or reach out to me on social media, but my ears are open for what would get more folks interested in checking out this setting as I add on to it.

Lastly, if you're not familiar with the releases to-date, I've linked them all below with a general description for you. And if you do choose to check them out, I hope they surpass expectation! Don't forget to stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, as well, where I have several videos talking about Sundara, the philosophy behind it, and covering some of what I'm trying to do with this particular world. Consider subscribing, as well, as we need to hit 1k followers there, and we haven't even broken 300 yet.

Take a Look For Yourself!

I took a brief break on making new Sundara content at the start of the year, but I'm already back on the wagon! Sellswords of Sundara (available for Pathfinder Classic as well as DND 5E) is full of unique archetypes/subclasses for mercenary companies that come with their own themes, histories, NPCs, rumors, and more, and that should be coming out shortly. Coming soon you'll also have Towns of Sundara, so that folks have some smaller places to put between the cities that are just as interesting and unique in their own ways (and which acts as a good follow up to 10 Fantasy Villages, which kicked this whole project off in the first place).

Cities of Sundara

The setting first began with the Cities of Sundara splats. Self-contained guides to some of the larger and more powerful centers of trade, industry, arms, and magic, these unique locations provide plenty of fodder for character generation and plots. Not only that, but each one comes with unique, mechanical goodies for players and GMs alike to take out for a spin!

- Ironfire: The City of Steel (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built around the Dragon Forge, Ironfire is where the secret to dragon steel was first cracked. The center of the mercenary trade in the region, as well as boasting some of the finest schools for teaching practical sciences, Ironfire is a place where discovery and danger walk hand in hand!

- Moüd: The City of Bones (Pathfinder and DND 5E): An ancient center of trade and magic, Moüd was lost to a cataclysm, and then buried in myth. Reclaimed by the necromantic arts of the Silver Wraiths guild, this city has once again become a place teeming with life. Despite the burgeoning population, though, it is the continued presence of the undead that helps keep the city running, ensuring that Moüd is not swallowed up once more.

- Silkgift: The City of Sails (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Built on the cottage industry of Archer cloth (an extremely durable material used for sails, windmills, etc.), Silkgift is a place that prizes invention and discovery. From gravity batteries that store the potential of the wind, to unique irrigation systems, to aether weapons, the city positively churns out discoveries... and then there's the canal they cut through the mountains that makes them a major center of trade across the region.

- Hoardreach: The City of Wyrms (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A center of power across an entire region, Hoardreach is ruled over by a Cooperation of five different dragons. A place for refugees and outcasts of all sorts, Hoardreach boasts some of the most unusual citizens and creations from across Sundara. Infamous for their sky ships, which require the cast-off scales and unique arcane sciences of the Dragon Works to take to the air, one never knows just what they'll find in this city built atop a mountain.

- Archbliss: The City of The Sorcerers (Pathfinder and DND 5E): A floating city in the sky, Archbliss has been a refuge for sorcerers for thousands of years. It's only in relatively recent years that the city has allowed those from the ground below who lack the power of a bloodline to join them in the clouds. However, while there are certainly amazing wonders to behold, there is a darkness in Archbliss. Something rotting away at its heart that could, if not healed, bring the city crashing to the ground once more.

Gods of Sundara

- Gods of Sundara (available for Pathfinder and DND 5E): In a world with no alignment, and where the gods are often genuinely mysterious forces that are far too large for mortals to truly comprehend, the divine feels genuinely strange and unknown... something that really does have to be taken on faith. This supplement provides a sample pantheon for Sundara, but also provides instructions on how to easily make your own gods in a world where you can't cast a spell and tell whether someone is good or evil.

Species of Sundara

Sundara is filled with creatures that many of us recognize, but I wanted to give greater depth to their cultures, and a wider variety of options. After all, humans always get 15+ ethnicities, languages, and unique histories, while elves, dwarves, orcs, halflings, etc. are almost always left with footnotes, or maybe with a handful of offshoots. So, in short, I wanted to give all the fantastical creatures the treatment that humans usually get in our games.

And there is no human book yet. If readers demand to know more, then I may sit down to pen one... but I figured that humans didn't need to be front-and-center in this setting just yet.

- Elves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Elves are one of the most quintessential fantasy creatures... but if you want to see more than just high elves, wood elves, and elves of the sun and moon, then this supplement has you covered!

- Dwarves of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): The children of the primordial giants who were meant to fill in the details of the world they'd made (or so the myths say) there are as many kinds of dwarves as their are kinds of giants... and possibly more, depending on who is keeping count.

- Orcs of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Supposedly a creation of the elves, none can say for certain exactly how or why orcs have been made. What most agree on is that these creatures are far more than most may think at first glance.

- Halflings of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Little cousins to the dwarves, halflings are tough, clever, and not to be underestimated. From living beneath the hills, to taking up residence in the deep forests, halflings in Sundara come in quite a variety!

- The Blooded (Half-Elves and Half-Orcs) [Pathfinder and DND 5E]: When orcs and elves mix their bloodlines with other creatures, the result is one of the Blooded. This inheritance takes many forms, and it can even wait generations before manifesting when the right combination of individuals come together to have a child.

- Gnomes of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): Gnomes are strange creatures, found in places where the spirit of the land has coalesced and made children of its own. The sons and daughters of the ancient nymphs, they are the stewards of these places, and they change as often as the weather and the land.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

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

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my cat noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!