Those of you who've been regular readers for the past year or so know that I've been trying to big-up the signal for TTRPG designer Owen K.C. Stephens. He's had his hands in some of the biggest games to come out in decades, and all of us have probably played something that has his name in the credits, or his fingerprints on the design. And while designing TTRPGs is often as frustrating as it is satisfying, one unavoidable truth is that it is not the most lucrative career in the world... even for those of us who are legends in our own time.
Let's cut right to the chase, here; Owen's Go Fund Me for his cancer treatment is trying to raise $150,000. And I think we should do everything we can to get him there!
One of our own calls for aid... can we 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!
Help If You Can, And Spread The Word!
There's no beating around the bush with this week's update. I'm not trying to sell you on a bundle, or boost the signal on somebody's YouTube channel... this is literal life and death. Unfortunately, America has decided to make how much money you can cough up the most important facet of whether or not you get to keep living, and the difficulty curve just goes up when you get really sick.
But there's no point in hemming and hawing over how things should be. We can worry about those things after Owen wins this battle, and more importantly, can afford to keep living his life once he's defeated the enemy within.
When it comes to situations like this, numbers are what matter!
So please, if you can help donate to Owen's Go Fund Me! Even just a small payment can make a big difference if enough of us do it.
And if you want to do more than just a one-time tip to help with this process, consider sharing the link to the fundraiser, or even to this blog to help boost awareness, and overcome the algorithm! Also, consider doing the following:
- Follow Owen on Twitter (yeah, it's falling apart, but a replacement has yet to take its place)
While it might not seem as important as providing direct assistance, remember, social media boosts our signals as creators based on our audience share. So making sure you plug-in to Owen's channels still helps his messages reach a wider audience. Still, give if you can, and boost the signal regardless of the state of your wallet. All it takes is a few minutes of your time!
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!
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!
It's been one hell of a year on my end of the screen, folks. And while I've (so far) managed to weather the worst of it, I wanted to take this Monday's post to send out an S.O.S. I'm currently dealing with a rather unfortunate situation, and I could use a hand up before the root I'm holding onto gives way, and I go tumbling off of this cliff I'm currently dangling over.
Details are below, and there's a lot of a lot going on here.
Things are... sort of dire at the moment.
Before I get into the details, though, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! To be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree!
Also, since it keeps getting lost in the shuffle, check out my Vocal archive for more articles about RPGs, character conversions, character concepts, weird history, nerdy topics, and more!
So... What All is Happening?
All right, this is going to be a string of depressing events that I've been dealing with the past year. Apologies in advance, but I feel it's important to explain the timeline to put things into perspective.
It's a lot.
Let's start with this time last year. My apartment building was under construction for the majority of 2022, which was frustrating in and of itself, but last summer I had to pull stakes and leave my apartment to stay in a hotel. What was supposed to be a week-long stay ballooned out into over a month where I was doing guerilla blogging and video recording, trying to keep up with deadlines while not actually being home. I didn't have to pay for the hotel itself, but the sheer stress levels of working under those conditions (along with all the other expenses you accrue while in that kind of situation) took a toll on me, and on my work.
Around that time Eric Flint died, as did his company Ring of Fire. This meant that not only did I not get a royalty check for any book sales I'd made from December to June in 2022, but it also meant 3 of my novels were now off the market. I had to scramble to try to find them new homes, while also dealing with not receiving a check that should have (based on the numbers I was seeing) paid for several fees I had to dig into my savings to cover.
I was back in my apartment by September. Just as I started getting back into the groove, my cat started showing a lot of distressing symptoms I couldn't explain. I took him to the vet in November, and paid several hundred dollars for a battery of tests. I then had to pay several hundred more dollars to have him put down, because his heart was just giving out after 16 years of being my companion. That was a huge blow to me both emotionally and financially, but I figured that if I could get on the other side of it that I could start rebuilding and moving forward.
At the beginning of 2023 we had all the fuckery (and no, I will not use a more family-friendly term for it) from Hasbro and Wizards of The Coast. This disrupted a majority of my income, forced last-minute readjustment, and caused a lot of issues with my Kickstarter for Army Men, which was first delayed, and then had to contend with the wave of people who'd sworn off of anything even tangentially connected to DND 5th Edition (which, when the game was first created, had been the dominant system in the RPG sphere for years).
I finally managed to get all of that mess straightened out, and the flow of my projects coming out again, when the electronic fuel injector gave out in my car. This basically meant that my car couldn't accelerate, leaving me going at an idle speed whenever I took my foot off the brake no matter how far down I pushed the gas. That was not a good situation, but I managed to get it into a local shop, and they made the necessary repairs. While I had some help at the time, this still set me back several hundred more dollars, on top of all the previous things I still hadn't recovered from.
Wait for it, friends, because this is where things get even worse.
Then there's the crescendo... because, you see, that fuel injector has been nothing but trouble since it gave out the first time. A few weeks back I was driving to my weekly game at a friend's house (it's about an hour or so from my apartment to their house, and a lot of it is interstate driving). I was on the interstate when all of a sudden that warning light came on, and I started losing speed. I managed to pull off without getting creamed by a semi (it was a bit of a near thing), and then I had to arrange for a tow truck to come get my car, and for a friend to pick up myself, and my two roommates to drive us back home. The shop covered all of the expenses, diagnosed the problem, and I was back on the road seemingly no worse for wear.
Then there was last Friday. I'd had no problems for a few weeks, and I was just starting to relax. I figured if I kept my head down and my nose to the grindstone that I would be able to come out on the other side of things, and start backfilling the holes that had been sinking my ship. I was on my way to my Friday game, and the only worry I had was getting the rest of my bills covered... then my injector went out again. This time it left me stranded in Gary, on the IUN campus where I graduated college. It was also around 5 o'clock, which is when all the auto shops close, and no one can do anything for you. It was a repeat of the whole previous kerfuffle, with a tow truck bringing my car back into town, friends coming to pick me up, etc.
The difference was that this time I'm the one who got stuck with the tow truck cost. Which was another $200 I hadn't planned on spending.
As of time of writing, I don't know if I'm going to end up paying a few hundred dollars more to get additional repairs done on my current vehicle, or if I'm going to need a few thousand in order to get a replacement car that will actually be safe for me to drive (something I sort of need to have if I'm going to go to cons and similar events to sell books, network, etc.).
And that is why I'm asking for your help today.
How You Can Help!
Because I could really use a hand up.
As most of my regular readers know, being a professional creative doesn't pay all that well outside of a handful of rockstars in any particular part of the industry. I'm not one of those folks, and according to my own tax documents I didn't even break $13K last year... and that's been my average for half a decade or more. Keep in mind that's before taxes... I have to pay all of those at the end of the year.
I wanted to front load that so readers know where I'm at, what I'm working with, and why I'm putting out an S.O.S. to help me deal with this unfolding situation.
#1: Direct Support (Donations and Patronage)
Direct support is always the most efficient.
The best way for folks who want to help me dig my way out of this hole (or at least throw me a line so I can start climbing) is direct support. If you want to throw me a quick one-time donation, go to The Literary Mercenary's Ko-Fi page. Alternatively, if you want to provide me some long-term support so that I can keep taking steps forward while paying my new bills, consider becoming a Patreon patron. This helps keep my two blogs going, and I try to give my patrons as much free stuff and extra content as I can.
I know times are tough all around, but I'm front-loading this option because it provides the best, most immediate support not just for me, but for any creator you want to help out.
If that's too many options for you (decision paralysis is a real thing, after all) and you're looking for good value to you as well as to me, I'd recommend checking out the following bundles:
- Inn & Tavern Bundle: A great one for all fantasy games, this has some of my most popular splats in it!
- 100 Kinfolk Bundle: This was my extra large Werewolf: The Apocalypse project. There's 15 supplements in here, and that's a total of 1,600 kinfolk NPCs for your Werewolf chronicle!
In the interest of transparency, this is my second option because it takes a lot of sales to add up to a meaningful number, and they take a little while to clear. Sales of a supplement like 100 Body Mods and Augmentations For a Sci Fi Game pays me about 30 cents or so, while a supplement like 10 Fantasy Villages pays me about 60 cents per copy sold. In either case it can take a month or two before DTRPG releases the funds, and I can cash them out. So if this is an option you want to take, please consider also leaving a rating and a review on any supplements you get, and sharing the links to them on your social media, discord server, etc., so I can reach a bigger audience, and put a few more coins in the jar.
#3: Buy A Book
I'm still so ridiculously pleased with this cover...
I mentioned that my old publisher shuttered its doors, but my books are starting to make their way back onto the market. My dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Solders presents my own take on the space marines in the form of the myrmidon, and Pollux has to outwit a conspiracy tracking him (and possibly the former members of his squad), with the intent of eliminating them... or is it all in his head, a product of intense paranoia left behind as a relic of his time in the Hyperion Conflict?
If that doesn't quite sound like your cup of tea, though, there's also my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, about a young man sent to go retrieve his missing cousin, and to bring him back to their home on the mountain... or, if his cousin is dead, to make sure he's got plenty of company on the reaper's cart. And if you're one of those rare folks who enjoys short fiction, my collection The Rejects is also on Amazon, and you can check out audio dramatizations of at least one short story, Suffer The Children, on my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary.
Then there's this book, too...
Lastly, for folks who didn't get in on the Kickstarter for it, Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic is currently on pre-order through Backerkit! We're currently handling layout, editing, art, etc., but this book is definitely going to happen, and throwing your support behind the project by pre-ordering your copy would definitely help ensure that it's profitable enough to both pay the folks involved, and maybe to underwrite sequels and supplements in the future!
This option is third on the list for two reasons. First, it takes time for sales of books to clear, and to come to me. A few months for my novels, and probably half a year or more for Army Men to really finish up, and for the profits to be divided among all the contributors. But if you want to help out by buying a product that isn't a TTRPG supplement (especially if you're one of the folks out there who enjoy my fiction, but might not be a gamer) these are good options to pursue.
#4: Engage With All of My Free Content!
Seriously... I have so MUCH of it!
I don't want to dislocate my shoulder patting myself on the back, here, but I make a lot of content, and I do what I can to make sure that a lot of it is free so that people who don't have a big budget for extra stuff can still enjoy what I make, and have fun with some of my ideas.
If you're one of the folks out there who doesn't have any spare dosh lying around (or maybe you've pursued one of the above options and want to do a little more to help as a cherry on top), then please consider doing any or all of the following!
- Check Out My Vocal Archive: I have 283 articles on Vocal at present, and these cover my RPG character conversions, weird history, a decent amount of free fiction (including stories for both Pathfinder and Warhammer 40K), and more! Vocal pays me roughly $6 for every 1,000 reads my articles get, so I encourage folks to bookmark my author page, read an article or three a day, and please share the ones you like on social media to help boost their numbers!
- Subscribe to (and Watch) Videos on The Azukail Games YouTube Channel: I do a lot of work for Azukail Games, and I try to put one video onto the company's YouTube channel every week. At time of writing we have well over the 500 subscribers we need to get it monetized, but we only have about 1,000 of the 3,000 hours of watched content we need before YouTube shares any earnings with us. While this won't help me directly (it's not my channel, I just contribute), if it starts pulling in money, then it's likely I'll be able to do bigger, more involved projects, and to get an increase in my pay for making those videos in the first place. Again, interacting with those videos, and sharing the ones you like so more people can see them, would be a big help.
It would also let me justify my Windy City Shadows project, which I talked about recently in Discussions of Darkness Episode 11, for folks who missed it.
- Check Out My Rumble Channel: I've said it before, but I legally cannot be paid by YouTube, because Google AdSense banned me from their platform. I've been looking for some kind of alternative for a long time, and the closest functional thing I've found is Rumble. My archive there is small, and I'm adding to it as I can, but like everything else in the free section it takes a colossal amount of activity to make even a few nickels fall out of it. I'd probably need hundreds of thousands of watches on those videos before a C-note made its way into my hands, but I won't say no to views, shares, and folks who want to help me grow my audience this way, either.
This option is last on the list because it's the hardest to affect immediate change with. If I could get 1,000 people to all watch the full playlist for my Discussions of Darkness show in order to monetize the Azukail Games channel overnight, that would be awesome! If I could somehow get an article like Partners and Polycules: Polyamorous Designations Based Off Dungeons and Dragons Dice to go viral and get 1 million reads (which would be about $6,000 for me... which seems like a lot of work for not a lot of pay) that would solve a lot of my current problems.
For this one to work, a lot of people need to work in conjunction to overcome the algorithm, and to generate the huge numbers it takes to make free content actually pay me as the creator. The upside, though, is that this one is open to everyone! So if you have a few spare minutes to read and share an article, or you just want to put on a playlist in the background while you do chores or plan your campaign, it would be very much appreciated!
Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!
That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!
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!
"And so their blades clashed. The Red Knight was the rolling fury of thunder, but Kialla was lightning, her sword always there a moment before his blade could fall. Steel slid against steel, the spells sparking against one another, until faster than a blink Kialla slipped inside his guard. Though the knight's plate was crimson from slaughter, it availed him not against her righteous fury, and his head fell at her feet."
Kialla looked up from the book, one eyebrow cocked. The scar that bisected that brow, the one she'd been given as a parting gift from the Red Knight, was white and clean. "This really the way you remember it, Dendrick?"
Dendrick smiled at her, showing a touch of the underbite his orcish heritage had given him. "I took copious notes that night, if you remember."
"I stabbed him through the heart," Kialla said. "In under the armpit. His gorget was thicker than three of my fingers. If I'd tried to cut through that the only way he'd have died would have been laughing at me too hard."
"Artistic license," Dendrick said with a shrug. "You did sever his head to collect the bounty, so it still happened."
Dialla shook her head, sighing. "I can't believe people pay you for this."
"Highways are long, and often boring," Dendrick said, smiling. "Besides, they pay me, and I pay you, so everyone gets their portion of the proceeds."
"This keeps up, I might not have to hunt bounties anymore," Dialla said.
Dendrick winced. "Don't say that! I need to have something ready by next summer. The readers are going to want another."
So who is next? A bandit king, perhaps? That cult we keep hearing about?
A Chronicler of Low-Price Legends
Our games tend to be replete with tale-telling bards and traveling minstrels, but there is another form of entertainment we often don't think about... especially if our worlds are advanced enough that the printing press exists. Because if there is a publishing industry, people are going to want entertainment from it. And once cheap materials can be used to turn cheap profits, all they need are cheap stories to fill the pages with.
And that is where the Dime Novelist comes into the picture.
"The Bloody Blade of Brighton"? I think we still have a copy somewhere...
For those not familiar with them, dime novels were the precursors to the pulps. They were written quickly, tended to be lurid, and they were printed on cheap paper, bound with cheap glue, and they hit newsstands and stores as fast as publishers could pump them out. They were quick, disposable entertainment, and most of them were about gunslingers, detectives, outlaws, and other adventurers who tended to be far removed from the readers in terms of lifestyle, distance, or both.
While most individuals who penned these books were just slapping words on the page, piecing together gossip, fantasy, and lurid stories with their own artistic flare, the concept of the dime novelist as a character is someone who wants their stories to be more authentic (if not precisely an exact accounting of events). Whether it's because they believe that what they're doing deserves to have integrity, or because they feel that being an eyewitness to the events will make for better sales, adventuring is merely a means to an end. After all, if they want to get a good story, they have to go to where the story is happening.
This concept can be done in a variety of different ways. After all, one could play a bard who prefers the written word over the fife or the drum, publishing the adventures of themselves and their companions to earn a living, but also to big-up their reputations. If there's too much embellishment, this could lead to people over-estimating them, or to individuals trying to ask them about things they never actually did. The sort of thing that leads their Small Legend to grow much faster than they'd like. Or, if the novelist is unscrupulous, they might specifically cause trouble in order to give their companions a threat to deal with... something that could end badly for them, if it's found out the novelist was the source of a dangerous situation.
Additionally, though this is an ideal concept for a bard, they're far from the only characters capable of making this idea work. A retired fighter might pen their memoirs, and find they need fresh material to keep putting more books out (the Richard Marcinko career path), or a wizard might intercut their field notes with stories of how their companions fared against various challenges. A monk might use the tales of their allies' actions to illustrate finer points of combat philosophy in their manual, or a sorcerer might need extra funds to support a lavish lifestyle. All the characters needs is the necessary skill to put the words on paper, and someone willing to distribute their stories... which is a significantly more interesting use of the Leadership feat when you consider your dozens of followers could all be your sales reps helping spread the word of your and your companions' great deeds!
Lastly, while this is an interesting role for a player character, this is also one that can work beautifully for a supporting NPC. And if you are going to go the bard route for it, I'd highly recommend checking out my 5 Tips For Playing Better Bards before putting this one in game!
Speaking of Dime Novelists...
One of the comments I keep getting on this particular series is how much folks enjoy the little snippets of fiction I put in the opening paragraphs. Even if the character concept isn't for them, or they're not sure they'll like it, they often find those little flashes to be of interest.
If you're one of those readers, you should know I write books as well. And, in fact, I just had a new one drop on the 1st!
Sci-fi thriller about de-commissioned super soldiers, anyone?
Old Soldiers is my most recent novel, and if you've had a hankering for 9-foot-tall albino bioweapons that Resident Evil hasn't quite satisfied, then you are definitely going to want to take a moment to meet Pollux and the other Myrmidon as they try to unravel a shadowy conspiracy that reaches all the way into the heart of New Liberty.
Or, if you're more of a modern fantasy reader, you might want to check out my other series. It's got hard-boiled mysteries with dark alleys, shadowy players, gangs of bruisers... and all of them are street animals in New York City. Our protagonist, Leo, is a Maine Coon with a bad attitude, a heart of gold, and a serious curiosity streak that gets him into trouble in Marked Territory and the latest tale Painted Cats which came out in May.
If you're a fan of traditional sword and sorcery adventure, then my novel Crier's Knife might be more up your alley. Alternatively, if you like game tie-in fiction then my story The Irregulars from the Pathfinder Tales might be more to your taste, and if you enjoy the grim darkness of the far future take a look at Waking Dogs- A World Eaters Tale. The last one's even free!
And that's just a smattering of what you'll find on my Amazon author page, in addition to the now triple-digit search results you'll find for my supplements on Drive Thru RPG! So if you enjoy my work, please, go check those out too!
Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned For More!
That's all for this installment of Unusual Character Concepts. Hopefully this one gave you something to chew over, whether you're a player, or a game master.
To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!
I'm leading with this because I don't want anyone who goes further to think I'm armchair quarterbacking the realities of designing tabletop RPGs. On the contrary, making games is very much my day job, and not a day goes by where I'm not elbow-deep in something's engine trying to figure out what's making that rattling sound, or how to get just a little more horsepower out of it.
There's your problem; no universal dice rules.
So whether you're a fellow professional, or just someone who likes to retool games and make changes for your personal friend group, I would ask that you please keep the following tips in mind. I say this from experience; they are going to help far more than they're going to hurt.
Tip #1: Do Not Play Favorites
As someone who's up to my shoulder in a core rule book right now (I'll tell you more when I can, trust me), I truly sympathize with everyone out there who has a favorite in their games. Whether it's a particular class you're all gung-ho about, or a character race or background package, or just one particular faith in your game, do not give them all the toys. It will not endear them to your players, and it will draw into question your objectivity when balancing a rule set for fairness.
Look no further if you need an example.
If you've never played the first edition of Scion, it's a game with a really cool premise. In short, one of your parents was a god, the titans have escaped their prison, and now you need to stand with your parents to become a hero like those in the old myths and legends. Eventually you will ascend to stand at your parent's right hand as a god yourself... if you survive.
Which powers you get access to, and which attributes you can make godly, vary largely based on your parent, and which pantheon they belong to. If you read this book it's pretty clear someone on the design team loved the Norse gods, and Odin in particular. The one-eyed wanderer is hands-down one of the most powerful parents in the game, and if you're going for raw numbers and options there's very little reason to play a scion of any other god at least 80 percent of the time.
That sort of favoritism creates problems in game balance and design, and it can make players who'd rather opt for something else feel like they're being punished for wanting to explore other options. Make every option unique and viable, and you'll have a better overall game.
Speaking of significance in game design...
Tip #2: Make Your Options Mechanically Significant
One game I played a lot of when it first came out was D20 Modern. While it had all the usual flaws of 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons, it presented a lot of fun options and unusual potential for playing modern fantasy games using an at least vaguely familiar class system with prestige classes, feats, and other recognizable elements.
It's really not that bad, if you can overlook the flaws.
One of the big issues I felt this game had from a design perspective (a flaw shared by Shadowrun, and some books in the World of Darkness as well) was there were entire tables dedicated to modern firearms of every make, size, and style over the decades. But when all the semi-automatic handguns did the same damage, had the same rate of fire, and the same size clip, there was really no point in including three dozen variations that amounted to the same thing. Ditto the shotguns, machine guns, submachine guns, etc. If it's all the same, why waste the page space?
I've seen this with classes, with monsters, with weapons, armor, and background traits. If there is no mechanical difference between two aspects of the game, or if you're just going to assign the same value to a dozen different options, don't bother reprinting them. Flavor reskins are a part of any game, but don't waste your players' time and energy reading through a bunch of palate swaps.
Tip #3: Don't Let Random Chance Reign Supreme
Randomization is the function of the dice. However, that randomization should be something that affects the challenge of the game, not something that decides every aspect of it. Put another way, if it's possible for a character no matter how ill-prepared to overcome a challenge entirely on a single roll of the die, then your system is little more than a slot machine; unbalanced, and probably grossly tilted in favor of the house.
It's an RPG, not a craps table.
To give an example, a character who rolls a natural 20 on an attack is going to hit in basically every edition of Dungeons and Dragons. However, even if that farmer with the hoe smashes an impossibly lucky blow into the face of the conquering tyrant Eldrakkar, it isn't going to kill him. Eldrakkar is the game's big bad, after all, and a CR 17 fighter/necromancer. Such a lucky blow is unlikely even to phase him, likely giving him little more than a thin cut along his cheek. This firmly establishes that it is always possible to hit, but that it is not possible to randomly destroy a powerful character because of a lucky roll of the die... whether that's the campaign's big bad villain, or the party's front line fighter once they really hit their stride.
All it takes to throw that out the window is to add a chart of random critical hit effects. The chart might have some less potent options like, "stunned for a turn," or, "character loses weapon," but often more brutal entries like, "character loses a hand," or, "character is decapitated" wind up on these lists.
Imagine that you're playing a campaign, and the big boss that you've had all this built-up for dies in a single hit because the wizard's player got lucky, and stabbed the bad guy in the heart for an instant death. Or, flip the script, and imagine that your heavily armored professional soldier who's survived dozens of encounters is killed in the first round of the first combat of the game because the DM rolled a natural 20, and then chopped your head off because a goblin sergeant got in a lucky hit with a hatchet.
That kind of extreme randomness is not good game design. Especially when you consider that in any game the DM is going to roll far more dice than the players, meaning that the players are going to be on the receiving end of any unfair odds. There's always going to be elements of chance and randomness, and good or bad luck can sway how a game goes... but if every roll of the die literally carries the potential to end a challenge (or the party) I'd suggest trying to re-balance the game so you're not swerving all over the road when you fire it up.
Also, while we're on the subject of randomness in game design, I would like to ask all my fellow designers to please stop padding out games with huge tables of random things. Don't waste page space with twenty different criminal backgrounds, or random starting ages and weights for characters. Even random encounter tables are a little passe at this point, since a majority of groups would rather focus on the story they're all there to tell without wasting an hour fighting off two enraged grizzly bears who were just there for the lulz. We've got limited time, and focusing on meaningful challenges and story beats is often far more preferable.
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 sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!
To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!
The general populous doesn't have much of an idea about what goes on in the publishing industry in general, or the RPG publishing industry in particular. All they see are the finished products, with their flashy art, shiny minis, and polished presentations to make them look as appealing as possible. And the things people do see tend to be celebrity gamers with big budgets and huge followings, forgetting that they're putting on a show. So naturally many players assume that RPG designers, much like authors, are making some solid earnings, and that companies whose games are popular have big slush funds of cash with which to design new and exciting games for all of us to play.
Let me burst that bubble for you right now. Because none of that is remotely true.
Because trust me, the whole industry is a gamble. With VERY long odds.
No One Gets Paid, Everything is Broken, We're Trying Our Best
The first thing I can confirm is that no, no one in the RPG industry is paid well. There are lots of people who are, "paid well for RPGs," but if making games is your main job there are just certain realities you've probably had to make peace with. Things like never owning a home or property of your own, for example. Only a tiny fraction of people in the industry have benefits or insurance, and a frankly staggering number of us make RPGs as a side hustle (or have to depend on a spouse's job for main household income, vision, dental, etc.). A lot of us can't even afford to actually buy games, much less the high-end accessories you see like fancy gaming tables, elaborate dice towers, or gaming scenery.
Personally, one of the only reasons I have access to any new games is this blog, and the reviewer files I get from publishers looking for promotion. Something I'm very grateful for, and which I'd never be able to afford to buy if I still wanted to eat.
So if you have ever had that moment where you thought we game designers were some kind of big-money rock stars, scrub that idea right out of your brain pan. And if you really want to make the creators you love feel like rock stars, go support them right now! I'm on Patreon at The Literary Mercenary, and if you're a fan of Mr. Stephens' work, check out his Patreon too!
That's far from the only truth, though.
Another thing that I can testify to is that RPGs are very similar to novels in another respect. Everyone thinks they can do it, and those who have interesting ideas, those who can write compelling stories, and those who can actually sell books are rarely the same person.
Incidentally, if you haven't picked up my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my short story collection The Rejects, go check them out!
To be clear, here, this is not the criticism it sounds like. However, when it comes to RPGs, you often have to wear a bunch of different hats in order to get the job done, and if you can't wear a particular hat that job tends to go to a freelancer. If you have great ideas but can't put them into words, you hire someone like me to take the core of your idea and flesh it out into engaging prose. If you can write a story or create a setting, that doesn't necessarily mean you have any aptitude for designing functioning rules systems. And if you can design rules systems, that doesn't mean you have any marketing knack at all.
The sexism, racism, and other issues in tabletop gaming Mr. Stephens mentions? Definitely present. I've been fortunate enough that I've not witnessed it from other professionals or companies that I've worked with (quite the opposite, in that most companies I've worked with have been trying to educate themselves to make sure they don't alienate potential players by looking or acting biased) but I have seen quite a lot of it from the fans who play games. Mostly white guys (several of whom are older than me) who lament that they're now minorities because their games only have 40 percent white guys instead of the more accepted 80 percent when they got into the hobby. The sorts of fans who will violently stomp out of the room (or flounce from a forum) because games include black elves, non-European cultures, or because the game made it clear that prejudice against LGBTQ+ people is not a part of their game or setting.
And I've only witnessed a tiny portion of this behavior, as most of it doesn't get slung my way as a masculine presenting white dude. Though I do seem to recall there was one guy who called me a race traitor because I pointed out that fantasy settings have a somewhat less than stellar record on diversity and inclusion. That was a weird day.
It's Still a Business (Even If It Looks Like Fun and Games)
I wanted to add my own contribution to the #RealGameIndustry hashtag. This was present in the spirit, but I didn't see it spelled out, so I thought I'd add it in.
There are a lot of people out there trying to make games. But there are not a lot of folks out there who actually know how to run a business. And that becomes a problem when you expect to actually get some kind of return for your efforts.
Money make the world go round.
Finding people who are making games isn't hard. Go to a con and throw a rock, and there's a decent chance you'll hit somebody who's tinkering with an RPG project. But far too many people get caught up in the art of the game, and the rush of actually creating, and then don't ask how they're going to sell it. Forgetting, of course, that games are expensive to make... and more so if you had to hire freelancers to help get it done.
Your art, your text, your editing, your rules, your maps, the publishing... all of that takes money. And if you don't sell copies of your game, then you're not going to make money to invest in future projects and installments (or pay your bills). More than that, though, freelancers tend to avoid dead-end projects once they recognize them for what they are. Because a paycheck is nice, but if that game is never going to be published (or if it has, "pet project" stenciled on in big red letters), they're going to jump ship. If their name is in the credits, it's on their work history. If you don't treat your game like a product you intend to sell (and to sell as widely as you possibly can), then you're going to have trouble attracting serious talent to your table.
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 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!
Most folks who stop by this blog do so because they're looking for thoughts, advice, reviews, and news on tabletop gaming. That's kind of my schtick, after all. However, for those who don't know, I also create other types of content! And given that so many of us are currently practicing social distancing, I figured I'd take this week to offer some sign posts, and some free material, so we can all avoid the encroaching boredom that's starting to grow teeth in some areas.
Such as this reading I recently did of the short story "Dressing The Flesh" from my new collection The Rejects!
Also, a big thanks to Dungeon Keeper Radio for hosting this video, as I ran into last-minute problems with it and had nowhere else to plop it down for listeners' consumption.
What Else I've Made (That You Should Totally Go Check Out)
So what else do I have out there right now? Well, I'm glad you asked!
The list is growing a little... expansive.
Let's begin at the beginning. If you want more free gaming resources, then you should definitely check out my Vocal archive. For those of you who read my character conversion guides and my 5 Tips lists, you're probably familiar with some of what I've put on that site, but my archive has grown a great deal over the past year. I've been transferring over a lot of content from an older site that had some of my work, and at time of writing there's 145 articles in that archive. They're all free to you to read, so take a spin through and see if you like something! Every read helps my earnings, and one way I decide what sorts of content I'm going to create more of is what gets read, and what doesn't. So please, if you like a thing, share it around so I can make more like it!
Speaking of free gaming resources, you should also check out the channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. In addition to hosting my latest reading, there's more than a year of videos that I helped write and voice. The channel has mostly been in stasis for the past several months because YouTube moved their goal posts, making it very difficult for the channel to get monetized, but if folks show an interest then that could re-light the spark under the team. Especially if you've got the spare scratch for a Patreon pledge for them. Just saying.
In addition to gaming content, though, I also write fiction. Since some of my readers on here have mentioned that the little bits of story I put into my unusual character concepts are always interesting, I figured I'd direct those folks to my broader body of work.
If you're in the mood to read something that's free, and Pathfinder related, you should take a moment to read the short story The Irregulars that I wrote for Paizo several years ago. While that story got a lot of praise from early readers, I was sadly not asked to turn it into anything bigger for the company. If you'd like more short stories, then you should also check out The Rejects, but if you're more in the mood for a sword and sorcery novel, I'd direct your attention to Crier's Knife instead. Both books have fairly long free samples that should let you know just what you're in for. And if you find yourself curious about other books I've been a part of, then I'd urge you to check out my Amazon author page and take a look around!
What About The Giveaway?
As I said in the title, I've decided to run a giveaway over the next month or so. In addition to all the free stuff I've got listed above, if you'd like a collection of DMing supplements, a one-shot module written by yours truly, or even a free ebook, all you have to do is use the Contact Me gadget on this blog to send me a message. Just reach out to me with your email address, and the free thing you'd like (supplements, module, or ebook), and I'll make sure it's on its way to you promptly!
Supplies are unlimited when stuff is digital after all!
And if you wanted to make some specific requests, feel free to take a look at my Drive Thru RPG listings! I've got over 73 products with my name on them, and though I don't have giveaway copies of everything, I will try my best to get people stuff they'd like.
Also, if you're interested in supporting Improved Initiative as a Patreon patron, keep in mind that I host regular giveaways for my patrons. Just something to keep in mind if you could stand to part with at least $1 a month!
Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!
That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday! Hopefully it's given some of my readers some fresh avenues of content to check out to while away their hours!
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 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!
