D&D 5E [Merged] Candlekeep Mysteries Author Speaks Out On WotC's Cuts To Adventure

In an event which is being referred to as #PanzerCut, one of the Candlekeep Mysteries authors has gone public with complaints about how their adventure was edited.

Book of Cylinders is one of the adventures in the book. It was written by Graeme Barber (who goes by the usernames PanzerLion and PoCGamer on social media).

Barber was caught by surprise when he found out what the final adventure looked like. The adventure was reduced by about a third, and his playable race -- the Grippli -- was cut. Additionally, WotC inserted some terminology that he considered to be colonialist, which is one of the things they were ostensibly trying to avoid by recruiting a diverse team of authors for the book.

His complaints also reference the lack of communication during the editing process, and how he did public interviews unknowingly talking about elements of an adventure which no longer existed.

"I wrote for [Candlekeep Mysteries], the recent [D&D] release. Things went sideways. The key issues were that the bulk of the lore and a lot of the cultural information that made my adventure "mine" were stripped out. And this was done without any interaction with me, leaving me holding the bag as I misled the public on the contents and aspects of my adventure. Yes, it was work-for-hire freelance writing, but the whole purpose was to bring in fresh voices and new perspectives.

So, when I read my adventure, this happened. This was effectively the shock phase of it all.

Then I moved onto processing what had happened. ~1300 words cut, and without the cut lore, the gravity of the adventure, and its connections to things are gravely watered down. Also "primitive" was inserted.

Then the aftermath of it all. The adventure that came out was a watered down version of what went in, that didn't reflect me anymore as a writer or creator. Which flew in the face of the spirit of the project as had been explained to me.

So then I wrote. Things don't change unless people know what's up and can engage with things in a prepared way. So I broke down the process of writing for Wizards I'd experienced, and developed some rules that can be used to avoid what happened to me."

He recounts his experiences in two blog posts:

• What happened? Writing for Wizards Part 1
• What Happened? Writing for Wizards Part 2

The author later added "Wizards owns all the material sent in, and does not publish unedited adventures on the DM Guild, so there will be no "PanzerCut". I have respectfully requested that my name be removed from future printings. "

 

[Morrus]

If your goal is to secure paying work in the field, writing for a major WotC product gives you exposure and credibility that can’t be matched.

Writing an adventure for Candlekeep Mysteries isn't matched by creating Call of Cthulhu in terms of credibility (whatever that's supposed to mean) and exposure?

I very, very strongly disagree.

 

[jerryrice4949]

Maybe RPGs and/or freelance work is a different beast. I work in a large organization and do a lot of hiring. I would never consider someone for a job that airs their grievances on Twitter. Just never. I don’t mind disagreement and or conflict, in fact I encourage dissent in meetings to avoid groupthink, but publicly airing grievances to me is bush league.

Please note I am not referring to abusive or illegal behavior in any way. That is something altogether different.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's what bothers me. Like, for exactly what reason was there to feel the absolute need to insert the word "primitive?" What was the goal of that, exactly? I'm going to wager it wasn't anything wholesome or innocent at all.

Alternately, it could just be a failure of vocabulary and sensitivity, wanting to describe a striking difference between the more-established buildings and the buildings built by the refugees.

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Writing an adventure for Candlekeep Mysteries isn't matched by creating Call of Cthulhu in terms of credibility (whatever that's supposed to mean) and exposure?

I very, very strongly disagree.

I think there's been a move, maybe it's always been there, with work-for-hire where the people hiring expect 'exposure' or 'getting your name out there' to have a monetary value - that they can pay X% less because this intangible has a presumed value.

I also think about how John Wick wrote a 4,000 word essay overnight just to get John Zinser to let him play an orc bard in a D&D game. A 4,000 word essay that turned into the 302-page Orkworld next to me. It's an incredible book, and I think it's a shame that this creator won't be able to take those 2,000 words that were excised and put something out on the DMs Guild of the culture and playability of this race. I get that that's how it goes in writing and publishing - you don't get your scraps back to use usually.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

He's not complaining that they edited his draft. His concern is that he feels WOTC made fundamental changes to the concept after they accepted his initial pitch and went through initial rounds of feedback and editing.

Yep, that sucks. It also is not uncommon or necessarily indicative of anything other than a swamped editor, an individual bad editor, etc.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Maybe RPGs and/or freelance work is a different beast. I work in a large organization and do a lot of hiring. I would never consider someone for a job that airs their grievances on Twitter. Just never. I don’t mind disagreement and or conflict, in fact I encourage dissent in meetings to avoid groupthink, but publicly airing grievances to me is bush league.

Please note I am not referring to abusive or illegal behavior in any way. That is something altogether different.

I would generally agree with this. I do think if you're a creator who has a presence you want to make sure is represented, I think you should be able to get out there and say 'Hey folks, this work was changed. It's not how I submitted it and doesn't reflect my intent, and I'd like to Alan Smithee it going forward.' The problem then becomes people will want to know what happened, and with lack of details, that space will quickly and rapidly fill with thoughts, opinions and innuendo. I'm reminded of how musician John Roderick was asked in an interview about being the third most handsome man in Seattle, I think it was, and going forward the only reference to that became a giant ouroboros.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Layout designers aren't typically given carte blanch to edit text.

Maybe not, but Chris Perkins just recently (as in last week) did an interview where he said that he will often delay final cutting until everything has been loaded into InDesign.


Relevant section begins at 9:24 if the link doesn't work right.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Maybe RPGs and/or freelance work is a different beast. I work in a large organization and do a lot of hiring. I would never consider someone for a job that airs their grievances on Twitter. Just never. I don’t mind disagreement and or conflict, in fact I encourage dissent in meetings to avoid groupthink, but publicly airing grievances to me is bush league.

Please note I am not referring to abusive or illegal behavior in any way. That is something altogether different.

I've freelanced and I've done work for hire as a full-time employee. Going to social media about an issue, to me, looks like an act of someone who doesn't expect or want to work with the company again.

There have been times when it's worked out differently -- the employees of the LA Times launched very successful Twitter campaigns to address issues in their newsrooms, regarding equity, bullying management and union issues. But I think they all knew that it was a risky move, and they have union protections on their side.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Based off of another tweet, it seems that Panzer got Warlorded. The highest priority for WOTC is to mantain the "classic" feeling of D&D, and that means cutting out anything that isn't tradional. But if that's your highest objective, why would you recruit a writer who wants to reform the underlying ideas of D&D?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I also think about how John Wick wrote a 4,000 word essay overnight just to get John Zinser to let him play an orc bard in a D&D game. A 4,000 word essay that turned into the 302-page Orkworld next to me.

And all this while he was killing Russian mobsters.