Sometime last fall, I decided to write some small reviews about the 4e products that I bought. I am not even sure why I got that idea, but as it turns out, it had some very interesting consequences.
Now, I have always been a honest (some would say blunt) person, so that was naturally reflected in my reviews. I am sure a lot of people do not like it, whereas others like it. One of those was Angellis_ater from Dreamscarred Press. I gave his first 4e product a fairly poor (read abysmal) review, but instead of taking it personally, he reached out and asked for advice (fool!
). 4e was very new for him, and he wanted someone to give him feedback on the crunch he was going write for a reskinning of the cleric class that he was going to write.
I must admit, that at this point, I had never seen myself as being anything else than a DM, let alone as someone helping creating a product that would see the light of the day. I did however initially take his question a bit as a dare (Sure, it's easy to review and tell other people what they make it crap, but can you actually do better?). Maybe it was. I still do not know. I haven't gotten around asking him yet.
Anyway, soon after (this was around January), I found myself knees deep in what would become the Ardent. I am actually credited as editor in the release, but that's exaggerating a lot. I merely looked and helped some on the crunch, the balance of the powers. I had no say in how things were done or how the powers were written. I simply told him if I thought things got way too wacky and non-balanced. Needless to say, I found myself having lots of fun, but I felt the same as I feel when I play D&D - I hated not being in control, which is probably why I always end up DM'ing
Well, it's not exactly true that I only "fixed" crunch, I did contribute with more, namely some defining mechanics which also are used for the Mentalist, but that's another matter altogether.
Some weeks passed, and I was beginning to get more and more emails from various publishers who wanted help or more detailed info on the crunch issues I had picked up while reading their products; so that they could incorporate it in the errata. I figured I was on to something at least, and (I must admit) my ego got slightly inflated because of it. It's always nice when people you "look up to" ask your advice on matters that interest you.
A some point around March 2009, I convinced myself that I was actually some sort of an expert on 4e - and I promptly pitched the mentalist to Dreamscarred Press. I knew that the Psion wouldn't see the light of day until the PHB 3 at the very least, which was slated to the summer of 2010. So I figured I would make my own class, and maybe there would be some interest from the psionic fans so that at least we would have something until the official version came out. Now, as it turns out, I was right about the PHB3 - but not about the release date, but that is a different matter.
Dreamscarred Press liked my pitch and soon enough, I had a contract in hand. My deadline was May 1st. And so I started. At first, it was called the psionicist . Not really original, but it was a start. I was making good progress, and was happy with what I had. This is so simple I remember thinking, why on earth aren't more people doing it. Then again, that was just me ignoring I had absolutely no fluff for neither the class, nor the powers. Merely a collection of 1d6+ int, push 3 squares. 1d10 close burst 5, immobilize and daze all targets, etc. I was merely deluding myself into thinking I was almost done. After all, the crunch is the important part, right?
When I sent in the first draft, Angellis_ater replied: Hey Chris, this look good, but you know how you made a class that is really two classes (I had around half the powers being mindblade/soulknife powers). That won't work! Then he went on about thematic issues and lot of other things I had never thought about, and I found myself nodding like a preschooler. The man had some good points. And he understood the class and the history of the class. Much better than I. Back to the drawing board.
The next version was all psychic or force based. I was very happy with that too, but when we went over it, we noticed that one fire power. Seemed a little out of place. Also, there were a lot of powers that just looked alike. The focus of the class was just too narrow. Again, back to the drawing board. More fire! Meanwhile, May 1st was getting closer.
This is when I ran into my biggest problem - time and feedback. I had written a draft and sent to Dreamscarred Press so that we could talk about things and see where we would go from here. But two weeks later, not a word. Time was ticking (or so I felt) and I was getting impatient (yeah, I am not a patient man). At first, I was worried that they hated it and just couldn't decide how they would tell me. Then I thought that maybe it was so awesome that they were in the process of copying it and releasing it without my name on it (I still hadn't signed and sent the contract). Then I realized I was being silly and figured they really hated it. As it turns out, it was neither. my editor had simply been busy and besides, two weeks is not an unusual amount of time to wait for some good feedback, at least not when you are dealing with small companies. Also he had tried to catch a hold of me via google chat, but since I had never used it before, and always have the sound turned off, I never noticed anything... Phew, I was happy and positive once again.
I got some awesome feedback and a lot of great suggestions on how to improve the Mentalist (who was still called something else at this point) and immediately went to work. Two days later (around April 1st), I had in hand what I thought was a really nice draft. I sent it in and waited. And waited. And waited. 3 weeks later and not a word. I had roughly one week left on my deadline, and all the paranoia came back. Maybe there was something in the contract that I had misunderstood. Maybe this was payback for the lousy review. They were going to drag things along so that I wouldn't be able to meet the deadline, and then using some ridiculous US law from 1824, they would sue my ass for a gazillion dollar. Yeah, I never claimed to be a 100% sane
As it turns out, my editor had been sick as a dog for weeks, which explained the delay. Once again, I got some great feedback that really improved the class. However, just as I thought I was pretty much done, my editor said something like: "The powers are great, and so are the two builds, but I feel they should be even more different. We need to link the builds to the type of area of the powers to a greater extend..." Which almost made me cry. And I never cry. I mean, I had spent a lot of time carefully balancing every single power (at least I thought so). Having to change the area of effect of about half of them would mean countless rounds of re-balancing. And I had 8 days left until the deadline.
Luckily for me, it wasn't that bad. I was pretty happy with the result after only 4 days, which left me plenty of time for me to make feats, paragon paths and magic versions of our brand new implement, the psicrystal.
I turned in the final draft of the Mentalist on April 29th. Or so I thought. It was still not ready. Back and forth it went between my editor and I, and finally, on May 17th, we were both satisfied. It was sent for proof-reading and layout. And then nothing.
Now, many of my frustrations come from lack of knowledge of the business and wrong expectations. I also tend to forget that other people also have a life besides RPGs and they also need sleep. In my mind, it couldn't take long to proofread my stuff, and then slap it together with some pictures and make it into a PDF. Yeah right. I got wiser.
Writing the Mentalist has taught me a good deal of things. First of all, it has taught me that crunch isn't everything, and that fluff and thematic consistency is just as important when making a complete class. This process also taught me to be patient, and that while I might want people to stay up all night in order to give me feedback so that I can get back to work when I have the time just isn't realistic. But most of all, it has taught me that it is much easier criticising others people work. Creating yourself can be quite a bitch, especially when it's not only "for your eyes only". I also learned that I will never ever be a freelancer for anything but the fun and joy of making stuff that others will use, because the pay is horrendous, no matter how sweet a deal you cut. I also learned that while I have a solid grasp on 4e rules, it takes a lot more to make a balanced, interesting class, along with the 80 odd powers, paragon paths, feats and whatever else follows.
But now, finally, after several rounds of sickness, crashing hard-drives, layout problems and a lot more, the Mentalist is just about ready. There is a preview (attached below) exclusive to ENworld, and I can't wait to hear what people think about it.
I hope you like it
Cheers
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