A Thought: Community Sourcebook

[adembroski3]

Has anyone thought about undertaking a sort of community project that would combine the thoughts of many players and DMs into a PDF download?

Sort of a community sourcebook... for the consumer, it would be a free resource, for the contributers it would be a "foot in the door" so to speak of those fans who'd like to get some material out there for paying companies to look at.

This would be an opporitunity for a lot of people that would like to get into the gaming industry but don't know how to do it, or are finding a lot of road blocks (as am I).

Essencially it would be a sort of catch-all splatbook in a way. Certain members of the community would, of course, edit and decide what is of high enough quality to get into it, but we wouldn't have a page count limit sense it would be a download.

A lot of people get into the video gaming industry this way... Neverwinter Nights is an exceptional example with the careers built on Dragonlance Adventures and the City of Doors Initiative.

Anyways, just tossing a line out to see if I get a bite. Let me know what you think.

 

[Tonguez]

Its a good idea and might work if an established person(s) is willing to put in the effort of producing the final product.

I was part of some of the creature-by-poll monsters in the creature catalogue thatwere recently published (eg the Riptide Horror) and there is the PDF from the mini-scenarios competiton floating around somewhere

However twice in the recent history of Enworld has there been an attempt to create a community project -first the Shark World setting and second the City of Mors End.
In both cases there were prolific contribution and a panel of 'editors' in both cases interest eventually waned and no one picked it up for completion.

Then of course there was the free Enworld magazine which went into recess for lack of contributors!

 

[Crothian]

I have all the Shark World stuff....It was a good idea to begin with but lacked a certain organization. I'm suprised people remeber that.

I think for this to work you really need someone devoted to it. One would of course have to have a clear goal in the begining, and then work from there.

 

[adembroski3]

Then of course there was the free Enworld magazine which went into recess for lack of contributors!

Argh, that's horrible. Ya know, I always thought someone serious enough about the game to spend time hanging out on places like enword is into it enough to want to be part of the industry.

 

[Knight Otu]

I have all the Shark World stuff....It was a good idea to begin with but lacked a certain organization. I'm suprised people remeber that.

How could anyone forget it? It turned you into Crothian Hivestarter, after all.

I think for this to work you really need someone devoted to it. One would of course have to have a clear goal in the begining, and then work from there.

And obviously, contributors. Quite a few of them. Tonguez mentioned Creature by Poll. After a stall, I took that concept and revived it, but now we're again at something of a stall due to a lack of contributors.

Argh, that's horrible. Ya know, I always thought someone serious enough about the game to spend time hanging out on places like enword is into it enough to want to be part of the industry.

Well, not everyone will want to be a part of the industry. If I had to guess, I'd say maybe many of the really regular posters would want to.
Also, there is the issue of trusting your own capabilities. I knew I wanted to submit something to the Asgard magazine, but I was unsure if I really should. By the time I made up my mind to do so, the mag was declared dead.
(I may have a "toe in the door" by now, to use your picture, though - Once, I also contributed to the Riptide Horror, and I have submitted a few creatures to the CCIV open call.)

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Argh, that's horrible. Ya know, I always thought someone serious enough about the game to spend time hanging out on places like enword is into it enough to want to be part of the industry.

Of course, one might wonder why people aren't hunting the forums looking at the material people have posted and asking for that material to be expanded on (if possible) and OGL'd for inclusion. It kinda strikes me as a no-brainer to find the talented hobbyist (no, no... I'm too busy with my own thing, but thanks...), so it seems odd that (given the nature of Open Gaming) publishers aren't doing this already.

(Speaking of which...

Crothian: Check your Priest Class in the House Rules forum, please.)

 

[adembroski3]

Well, I for one would be a willing and dedicated contributer, and would also be willing to put in plenty of editing time.

That said, I know nothing about making websites or PDFs, so that's probably the biggest need.

I guess this request was somewhat self serving. I'm hoping for a forum of some sort to submit my own work in order to try and get noticed

 

[HellHound]

I'm VERY interested in this project. AND I'm hereby volunteering some layout time to the project - as long as the editors get the art and material together, I'll lay it out if no one minds putting the E.N.Publishing logo on the final beast.

 

[DaveStebbins]

This sounds to me like any of the hundreds of netbooks or shared worldbuilding projects that are already out there. Or maybe like any of the dozens of PDF publishers which already exist.

 

[Crothian]

any volunteers willing to devote themselves to heading this up? It needs direction, it needs definition, it needs editing, it needs someone to pester people to get things turned in, etc. Not a small undertaking.