My conscience stopped me from submitting.

[RangerWickett]

I love my setting. My girlfriend is also a DM, and she loves her setting. We're writers and artists, and though $120,000 would be an incredible, neither of us really want to give up our settings. We both plan to work on our worlds for years to come, and though we might not net the same amount of profit, it will be a better labor of love.

It came to a head last night. We went out to get dinner, and I was planning to finish writing up our setting proposals as soon as we got back. And then, over dinner we began discussing what was going to happen to all the various characters in our settings after our current campaigns were over. I would propose a line of thought, and we'd both say how our various favorite characters would respond. Over the course of dinner and the drive there and back again, we came up with the premise for nearly an entire novel about our characters and how they deal with the end of adventuring. And I realized, I can't let someone have my characters, even some of the most obscure NPCs. I love them too much to let a stranger write them.

I mean, it would've been nice to propose the settings, just to see if WotC would put either of them in the top ten, but Jessie and I realize that both of our settings have certain traits that would be undesirable to WotC (namely Judeo-Christianity as religions in the setting). Sure, we could work around that, and cut it out, but we just can't.

So, that's how I stand. I love my setting to share it with everyone. I might have a chance to have the worlds be famous, but it wouldn't be on my terms, or on Jessie's for her world. If we're going to make our cherished stories widely-known, we plan to take the more difficult, but far more rewarding path. We'll do it on our own, even if it takes years, because we love it.

If you want to see the settings, you can read the Tides of Homeland storyhour (mine), or the High Fantasy: Savannah Knights storyhour (Jess's), because you won't be seeing them with a WotC logo.

Anybody feel the same way?

 

[Oracular Vision]

No.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I understand where you're coming from, but why not take those elements that are cool from your setting, rename them or rework them, and submit that?

The setting I submitted is based on my own campaign world, but much of it is substantially different.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Ranger Wickett,

I've surfed your site in the past and I must say, the loss is ours. While its obviously in my own best interest to keep the number of submissions as low as possible, I'd still liked to have seen you in the winner's circle.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

hmmmm...... Maybe I'm just not that sentimental, but $120,000 to let somebody else play my character?

[I will now be using a phrase I detest but feel there is no other way to convey my answer....]

Show me the money!!


With all the time I'd able to take off from work, screw it, I'll write myself a new setting.

I'm not saying you did the wrong thing Wicket, but there is no way I could turn down this chance. To me it seems crazy.

 

[Lizard]

IAnybody feel the same way?

Nope. I spew out worlds the way my cat spews out hairballs. If WOTC buys one of my submissions, and then decides to never let me write a word on it, and turns it over to a team of a million monkeys with a million typewriters for 'development', I will not give the tiniest bit of a damn.

After all, nothing can stop me from using my worlds in my own games, no matter WHAT WOTC might do. And, furthermore, being able to put "Originator of the Realms Of Magical Conflict, the hot setting from WOTC" on my resume will open a lot of doors, including doors leading to places where I get to build worlds *and* retain some degree of creative control.

 

[Xeriar]

I just took a major subplot from my main campaign, and upped the scale to be the story-focus for the world.

Sure, if by some miracle I am actually picked, I need to work a little harder for the detail. It is a new setting, however, and, unlike my current world, it cannot be described as a 'FR-clone' in any remote sense of the term

 

[Henry]

I would have to second Ashrem's thoughts. Every man has his price, and mine is $120,000. If WotC liked our team's submission, then I'd sell itin a heartbeat.

Even if it were my Alyxia Campaign, whose characters I know by heart, and know how all the NPC's react, and what happens from year to year, then I would STILL not bat an eye. I would myself in fact derive some modicum of pleasure from knowing that something I CREATED was being produced for profit. I would join the hallowed ranks of Gygax, Greenwood, et. al. as being the "birth-mother" of a popular setting.

I however am not in Ryan's or Jessie's shoes. I have NOT yet been published, and I don't have the kind of talent that they have for art and writing. So I applaud your convictions, since this world has far too few people with true convictions in it anyway.

OTOH, my group and I agreed, $60,000 plus would buy a LOT of gaming supplies and pay a LOT of bills.....

 

[uv23]

I have been working on a campaign setting that, when all is said and done, will have taken about a year and a half to two years to develop. I love working on it and I think I've done some great things with it... and there's no way I'd give it over to someone else to do with as they please. IP ownership is important when it comes to things that are a labor of love, far more so than money. So basically, I'm on the same level as RangerWickett and I think you made the right choice. That being said, keep an eye out for "red spire press" in 2003.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

I feel differently. My worlds are labors of love, and I intend to run them until I or my players are sick of them. But if WotC or another company comes along and says "You might get $120,000 for your setting," I'm submitting my worlds in a heartbeat.

If one of my settings is the Chosen One, then hey, I'm a little richer...but I still have my campaign. WotC isn't going to knock down my door and say, "You're not allowed to run that game any more." As long as I don't attempt to publish anything with that campaign after selling the rights, I don't see an issue.

It's not like I was going to self-publish the games anyhow.