D&D 5E DM's Guild: The Advice You Didn't Ask For

Mouseferatu

Hero

• Jan 15, 2016

• #1

So I've been skimming through the Dungeon Master's Guild, looking to see if anything interests me, and I've picked up a few PDFs. But...

Oy.

Okay, folks, look. The Dungeon Master's Guild market/license for D&D stuff is a great opportunity and a lot of fun. I get why so many of you are eager to get material up there ASAP. But I hope you'll accept a bit of free advice from someone who's not just a fan, but a professional.

Appearance matters, and editing matters.

You need to know how to put a sentence together, and you need to have your work read over by other people who know how to put a sentence together. I promise you--promise--that if you have obvious typos or overtly poor grammar in your product description, a lot of people are never going to even look at the product itself, let alone spend any money on it. There are several people who have already lost me as a potential customer based on a single sentence of their product entry, because it was so poorly written that I don't trust them to be able to deliver a usable product.

Take your time and do it right. You're not getting a leg-up on the competition by rushing things; you're shooting yourself in the foot.

 

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Herobizkit

Adventurer

• Jan 15, 2016

• #2

Already starting to see the oncoming tide like the one when 3.0 hit... it'll be like picking through a bargain bin, or a yard sale... no, like Youtube, because, regardless of quality or content, people don't always have to pay for what they get .

I thought WotC would want to vet fan creations before they're offered to the public, but oh well.

 

Q

qu0zl

First Post

• Jan 15, 2016

• #3

You can save yourself a lot of time by finding a few prolific reviewers who you trust and looking at what they recommend. Admittedly you'll run the risk of missing some obscure hidden diamonds but most of us don't have the time/money for that depth of trawling. That's what the reviewers can provide

I'm already used to doing that with 3PP stuff for other systems. Hopefully the 5e equivalent of Endzeitgest (maybe Endzeitgest!) will make him or herself known soon.

 

CapnZapp

Legend

• Jan 15, 2016

• #4

Oy is the word.

 

Ezequielramone

Explorer

• Jan 15, 2016

• #5

I totally agree with you. In any aspect of life, when I see typos or poorly written sentences immediately I mistrust and detract them.
Particularly with 3rd era books that happened to me a lot.

 

CapnZapp

Legend

• Jan 15, 2016

• #6

Thank you.

 

delericho

Legend

• Jan 15, 2016

• #7

Herobizkit said:

I thought WotC would want to vet fan creations before they're offered to the public, but oh well.

Click to expand...

I'm sure they'd like to, but have you considered just how many there are already?

 

A

Awesome Adam

First Post

• Jan 15, 2016

• #8

WOTC isn't going to vet any of these. They found a way to make 10% of the sales, of enthusaistic fan content, with ZERO labor on their part. It's pretty ingenius.

 

meomwt

First Post

• Jan 15, 2016

• #9

Mouseferatu said:

So I've been skimming through the Dungeon Master's Guild, looking to see if anything interests me, and I've picked up a few PDFs. But...

Oy.

Okay, folks, look. The Dungeon Master's Guild market/license for D&D stuff is a great opportunity and a lot of fun. I get why so many of you are eager to get material up there ASAP. But I hope you'll accept a bit of free advice from someone who's not just a fan, but a professional.

Appearance matters, and editing matters.

You need to know how to put a sentence together, and you need to have your work read over by other people who know how to put a sentence together. I promise you--promise--that if you have obvious typos or overtly poor grammar in your product description, a lot of people are never going to even look at the product itself, let alone spend any money on it. There are several people who have already lost me as a potential customer based on a single sentence of their product entry, because it was so poorly written that I don't trust them to be able to deliver a usable product.

Take your time and do it right. You're not getting a leg-up on the competition by rushing things; you're shooting yourself in the foot.

Click to expand...

I'm behind this statement all the way.

I see professionally produced reports and documents for work and cringe at the bad spelling and typos. Why should I pay for them in a D&D adventure?

 

R

Reynard

Legend

• Jan 15, 2016

• #10

Its just this kind of ellitist grammer nazis that teh DM Guilds supposed to sercumvent. No one wants there work torn apart by some wanabe editer. The hole point of the Ogl is to let the fans decide whats good. Coming on here and making fun of people that put alot of work in to there games just makes you look like a jerk. people should be able to by what ever they want without be told what to do by grammer anzis.