D&D General Win The Title of D&D's Best DM

WotC is running a competition called the Dungeon Master Challenge. Similar to Paizo's old RPG Superstar contest, it features various design rounds which whittle down the contenders until only one remains.

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The winner gets a trophy and some D&D products worth just over $2K.

Note: your entry becomes the property of WotC, which can use it in any way it wishes, even if you don't win. They don't even have to credit you for it. Be sure to consider this when deciding whether to enter.

• The first design challenge for a 1,000-word entry is Thursday June 17th, and contestants have three days to submit their entries. This round is open to everybody who qualifies (18+, in one of a list of countries).
• 10 contestants will then proceed to the next round in July, which is an elimination stage with various weekly 1,000-word design challenges.
• Three of those will go on to the final challenge in September, which involved being a DM on a livestream, judged by a panel.

What's a Freelance RPG Writer Worth?

Freelance writers (as opposed to those on salary) tend to be paid per word. The rate varies from publisher to publisher, and on how experienced the writer is. Ed Greenwood, for example, can command a much higher rate than a new writer can. Obviously only you, the freelancer, can decide...

www.enworld.org

 

[Morrus]

Graeme Barber butted heads with his editor and WotC for his chapter in Candlekeep, and it ended up being heavily rewritten and chopped up for the final release, to the point where he has requested that his name be removed from future printings:

What happened? Writing for Wizards Part 1 - POCGamer

The stages of writing for Wizards that I experienced, and some rules that writers may want to use if they choose to write for Wizards.

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Oh right, yep. I do remember that!

 

[ersatzphil]

Oh right, yep. I do remember that!

I can't seem to find the tweet that I'm remembering, but the author mentions his stated goal of showcasing and extending deep FR lore here: Twitter. He had a followup I can't seem to find now where, after his public freakout, he mentioned that he had reached out to Wizards and had been told that an adventure in an anthology product simply wasn't the place for a huge lore dump.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think it will be more specific. It will be the dwarven NPC voice. Scottish or German? Drunk or sober? 10 different versions that all end up sounding like Willy the Janitor from the Simpsons.

Oh, man, my dwarf voice is neither of those! I am in it to win it!

 

[Helldritch]

I've always wondered about that. What does Quebec have against contests?

We srict laws for and against contests and lotteries. The full reasons for these regulations is mainly to protect a government monopoly on these activities and to avoid fraud both against the people and the government. It is unfortunate that skill contests fall into such regulations.

 

[Burnside]

Just submitted my entry. Worst case scenario, I wrote a fun trap to spring on my own players.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Just submitted my entry. Worst case scenario, I wrote a fun trap to spring on my own players.

Yeah, I'm making something modular that I should be able to drop in almost anywhere.

 

[ersatzphil]

Yeah, I'm making something modular that I should be able to drop in almost anywhere.

Interesting - I took the opposite tack for narrative reasons, and made a very specific one.

 

[Quickleaf]

Just submitted my entry! That was fun, but man was working within the 1,000 word count limit a battle!

Good luck to everyone.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Just submitted my entry! That was fun, but man was working within the 1,000 word count limit a battle!

Yep. I'd have had a 1500 word version done in half the time.

 

[Lwaxy]

WotC is running a competition called the Dungeon Master Challenge. Similar to Paizo's old RPG Superstar contest, it features various design rounds which whittle down the contenders until only one remains.

Hrm... seriously, the best GMs are often not the best writers - indeed, very often it is the GMs whoimprovise who are best. On the other hand the good writers often have really big issues with adventure design. The only way to know a good GM is to see them in action. So this contest is really badly named. I'll completely ignore it