WotC Seeking Your Setting Proposals (was "Big Wizard announcement")

[EvilPheemy]

Look at it this way, it goes to show just how enthusiastic and optomistic the D&D fan base is. Because you're looking to get overwhelming response to the search, it's showing that an enormous amont of people (as opposed to an amount of enormous people, though they're free to join in too) feel comfortable enough with WotCs treatment of D&D to throw their hat in the ring.

Of course you could make it easy on yourself, and just look for the entry with my name on it, and send a check for the $120 grand to the address accompanying it.

 

[jester47]

I hate to say it but nine out of ten of the replies to this board builds my confidence in my submission.

Some things to keep in mind:

Do a word count on your submission. Divide that in half if it is single spaced. Remember this number. Open up magic of Faerun. Start counting words on a page that does not have any pictures. Stop counting when you reach that number of words. Where are you on the page. Chances are about half way down the first column. If so than this means that your bible will be equivalent to about 25 pages from Magic of Faerun. Guys, thats not much.

Think of it this way, you are making a recipie for a pastry crust. With this recipie a whole slew of other people will make a banquet. You might be asked to make a pie or a quiche or a strudel, but you will not make the whole banquet. You are not the head chef, you just wrote the recipie for the pie crust.

Aaron Webb

 

[King_Stannis]

i think WotC may have missed the boat in some respects. they should have charged $5 per submission, payable in check or money order. that would have weeded out the lowest rung and made the next rung think hard whether it will be worth it or not. plus it would have put money in their pockets.

 

[Tom Cashel]

I hate to say it but nine out of ten of the replies to this board builds my confidence in my submission.

Think of it this way, you are making a recipie for a pastry crust. With this recipie a whole slew of other people will make a banquet. You might be asked to make a pie or a quiche or a strudel, but you will not make the whole banquet. You are not the head chef, you just wrote the recipie for the pie crust.

Another suggestion:
Proofread, proofread, proofread!

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

Re: Good morning

Hey Folks,
Okay, I'm starting to get nervous about how many entries we are going to get.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

 

[Ywain]

i think WotC may have missed the boat in some respects. they should have charged $5 per submission, payable in check or money order. that would have weeded out the lowest rung and made the next rung think hard whether it will be worth it or not. plus it would have put money in their pockets.

Can you imagine the epic slagging they would get if they charged even a single cent to submit? T$R received its symbolic moniker by simply offering too many products (well, and being a bit agressive with their copyright defenses) for sale. Charging fans to apply for a job would undo any goodwill that WotC has managed to squeeze from a pretty cynical fan-base.

 

[toberane]

They can't expect too much in the way of art, because the timing doesn't allow for anything much besides pre-generated art to go into the thing.

I wouldn't get disheartened because they are going to ask for a fully fleshed out campaign bible that can be used to write and illustrate a complete FRCS type book without them having to do much of the development. I didn't really expect anything less.

I don't know, in my opinion a 100-page manuscript falls a little short of what I would consider "fully fleshed out." When you consider that the FRCS was over 300 pages of VERY VERY small print, 100 pages of 12 point type would only make up a fraction of that.

 

[MythicJustice]

I don't know, in my opinion a 100-page manuscript falls a little short of what I would consider "fully fleshed out." When you consider that the FRCS was over 300 pages of VERY VERY small print, 100 pages of 12 point type would only make up a fraction of that.

Keep in mind that the 3 finalists are not writing the next FRCS book but the setting bible. The bible won't include kewl new feats, spells or fully written PrCs, rather the setting bible will flesh out the setting's mood/themes, style/images, cultures, important characters, etc. The bible is not a rules document or something which is published. It provides guidelines for writers, artists and product development for the setting.

-Chad Justice

 

[Tallow]

Keep in mind that the 3 finalists are not writing the next FRCS book but the setting bible. The bible won't include kewl new feats, spells or fully written PrCs, rather the setting bible will flesh out the setting's mood/themes, style/images, cultures, important characters, etc. The bible is not a rules document or something which is published. It provides guidelines for writers, artists and product development for the setting.

-Chad Justice

Also keep in mind that the best writers don't necessarily know what it takes to create a world for gaming supplement use, and those who are great creative designers don't necessarily have the skill to write the publishable works. Just because you make the top 3, or the top honcho for the $100,000 doesn't mean that you have the writing skill to also publish works for this world you created. Chances are you do have the skill if you've gone that far, but it doesn't mean that you can put together the game mechanics or fluff, or fleshed out part that is required in a full-fledged supplement.

Andy Christian

 

[Ywain]

Think of it this way, you are making a recipie for a pastry crust. With this recipie a whole slew of other people will make a banquet. You might be asked to make a pie or a quiche or a strudel, but you will not make the whole banquet. You are not the head chef, you just wrote the recipie for the pie crust.

Actually, I think that it might be more accurate to say that you are conceptualizing the restaurant, setting the menu and selecting the wines for the wine list and that the chefs and interior designers are going to handle making the actual recipies and decorating the details to your specifications.

But yeah, I wouldn't expect to be cutting and pasting many (if any) prestige classes or new mechanics into the 100 page document. The bible, which is intended to be applicable to novels, RPGs, etc., will probably be extremely mechanics-light and flavor-detail heavy.

Just my guess though, "write what you write best" is probably as good an approach as any.