How did you experience the WotC Setting Search

[ashockney]

The setting searched prompted a long, furious email exchange between me and my buddy... Those collected emails still make up the bulk of our 'campaign guide'.

A few weeks before the 1-pager winners announcement, we got an email from someone at Wizard's, telling us that joint submissions required both authors signatures, and could you please have me sign a form and get it to them ASAP...

Needlless to say, we took this as a fantastic sign...

Then we found out we didn't make it round 2.

Amazing.

This was basically exactly our experience. Which then resulted in the launch of our own d20 pdf publishing: Myrik Games! Check us out at www.myrikgames.com.

 

[Ghostwind]

I sent a submission in based on something I put together off the top of my head. I was neither surprised nor saddened when I didn't hear anything back. It was a longshot and I felt I had to at least make a concerted effort at it once.


On the flip side, I put together a whole issue of d20Zine! devoted to the fantasy search. You'll find a lot of folks' submissions there.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I submitted something that was obviosuly The Hyborian Age of Conan, claiming it--and all of it's intellectual property--was my own creation

It was a drunken dare.

 

[TerraDave]

1) Engineer a success on the scale of the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance. These were their two smash hits, setting wise, far outstripping all the other settings. FR and DL had spawned comics and books and games and made them a ton of money and WotC was certain they'd be able to leverage the popularity of the Realms into a TV show and movie. Though they had people dedicated to hanging out in L.A. trying to make deals happen, nothing materialized.

Of course, this seemed pretty stupid to me, but then I think all such marketing/PR driven creative endeavors are stupid. Neither the Realms nor DL were engineered to be the successes they became, and no comittee could produce something that would capture the same popularity.

Interesting. As for FR and DL there is a chicken and egg problem: these were the two traditional fantasy settings that recieved by far the most support. Neither Greyhawk nor the D&D Known World (mystara) got anything like that kind of support-inspite of their central place in the game. And the other setting where all less traditional.

Eberon is getting a lot of support right now, and a lot of buzz, but is also not really a traditional setting, though all the standard D&D stuff is in there....

 

[Insight]

True. But writing and NOT being published doesn't make you a better writer either - particularly if you write in a vaccuum (which is the case for the vast majority of unpublished writers). NOBODY reads the material, there's no feedback or editorial insight, no incentive to refine the craft, no CONTEXT to help the developing author understand that writing is a process of crafting a dialog WITH an audience, and NOT merely an exercise in self expression. Writing alone, furtively, under the covers, is about as fruitful as the OTHER thing going on there (not unsatisfying in its own right, but not actually useful...)

A talented, unpublished writer with a) something to say and b) who works at it CAN get read and even published.



Oh, B-Crap: Write. Submit. Get Published or Rejected. Learn from the rejection, develop your craft. Heck, self-publish or author a Blog. It's a reasonably level field, all things considered. I don't have a lot of sympathy for "the man's holding me DOWN, dude" pose, if you want to get published there's nothing at all stopping you except you.

The Setting Search was a bit of a 'Hail Mary' long shot: 11000 to one, massive payday up for grabs. What are the odds that all of the 11000 are gonna good losers? And a number of deserving folk DID get a payday - WoTC certainly held up their end of the bargain.

I certainly knew, when I entered, that I was going to be going up against some varsity - they said it was open to anyone - not just rank amateurs and wannabees. Plus, $100K is enough 'bank' to attract even reasonably successful professional authors.



Not to belabor MY point, but double B-CRAP. Writing short but effective content is about the HARDEST thing to do well in terms of writing. So YES, being able to distill a WORLD down to a page and still getting across its unique advantages and differentiators, PLUS making it 'sing' enough to be picked out from amongst thousands of other entries DOES mean you're a better writer. I would love to see the 1-pagers for the first round picks - I bet some of that material is freakin' poetry.

Even if it's NOT poetry (to the untutored eyes of the envious), it was successful and effective (in other words 'better') writing by the only criteria that actually matters - they got the gig...



Conclusions drawn on base allegations and wishful thinking not even hinted at in evidence. Statement stricken from the record.

Wow. It must be nice to know everything. The fact of the matter is that I am not the only person who felt misled about this Setting Search, as evidenced by the many complaints after the fact about how it went. Sure, some of this may be fostered by a misconception about the true purpose of the Setting Search, but its still how we feel about it.

 

[Storm Raven]

Wow. It must be nice to know everything. The fact of the matter is that I am not the only person who felt misled about this Setting Search, as evidenced by the many complaints after the fact about how it went. Sure, some of this may be fostered by a misconception about the true purpose of the Setting Search, but its still how we feel about it.

And your delusions are WotC's responsibility?