My conscience stopped me from submitting.

[uv23]

What people aren't realizing is that even when you don't win, you've submitted precious ideas to WOTC that they have full access to use at their discretion, outside the domain of this current offering. The contract basically states that there is no guarantee of WOTC having not had the exact same idea that you have submitted. In fact, I see this whole contest more as an excersize by WOTC to collect a bunch of free, well developed ideas that they can use in whole or in part for furture products, with the actual winning campaign setting a secondary goal.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

If you're speaking to me, then here's my response:

That $120k is only a short term benefit. Yes, I could use it too. And I would except $120,000 if it was given to me. But is it still a short term benefit. Once you spend it, its gone. I'd rather be doing something that would set me up for the long term. That is, I turn down this kind of money in favor of generating residual or passive income from a business.

I'd rather keep my setting, market it, and make money of it, rather than sell it to some company for only a small amount compared to the money the company would make off of it.

Ulrick

I was speaking to the first guy. You I can see holding it back if you think you can market it yourself later and make a nice profit. But if someone is keeping their setting back becuase they can't bear to "cheapen" by making it into a published setting i'd laugh.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

That $120k is only a short term benefit.
Ulrick

Well sure, if you go out and spend it all on candy and sports cars. The idea (at least my idea) is to use that money to make money.

For me, gaining $120,000 would have very far reaching consequenses and I will not hesitate in the least to say that it would have a profound impact on my life.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Well sure, if you go out and spend it all on candy and sports cars. The idea (at least my idea) is to use that money to make money.

For me, gaining $120,000 would have very far reaching consequenses and I will not hesitate in the least to say that it would have a profound impact on my life.

Yep, you could use that cash to make a lot more cash, if you played it right.

 

[Thorin Stoutfoot]

I agree with Mongoose Matt

If your goal is to become a professional writer, then I agree with him. You absolutely have to learn to write on demand, to whatever publisher wants if the publisher was willing to pay for your work. And the Wizards contest would be such an amazing launchpad for you as a designer/writer that I think anyone turning down such an opportunity if it was a desirable career goal reflects a lack of discipline that will not serve you well as a professional.

I did not submit because I'm not interested in being a game designer as a career. (I'm already writing part time with a contract as well, so I have a taste of what it's like as a game designer/writer) The step down in salary is not that interesting to me. However, in your position, I'd do it in a heartbeat if I thought it was any good.

 

[Alcamtar]

Your post sounds as though you decided not to submit because, once you won of course, that you would have issues giving away the rights to your 'labor of love' setting.
(snip)
There's nothing to stop you from simply bowing out graciously in round 2 if you feel that your precious work is in danger of being sullied by WoTC.

If he knows he'd never want to give it away, why waste time writing it up?

I originally planned to submit, but changed my mind. One reason is that I like to retain creative control over things I create; if chosen, Wizards would take it and do what they want, and I probably wouldn't like what they did. I also don't like the idea of losing all rights to something for a mere $120,000... especially something they might make millions on.

You realize that if you sell a setting to WOTC, you're probably going to have to enter a noncompete agreement and be barred from ever doing anything remotely similar with another company. Even if you don't sign it, you'll be in their legal sights. $120K is a pittance for signing away your creative freedom. Look what happened to Gary Gygax. (And before you say "that was TSR not WOTC," note that WOTC hasn't released him from his obligation.)

I dunno, maybe I'm just paranoid. But this is a hobby, and I don't really want to turn it into a job. I mean it would be cool to do it all day long and do nothing else, but it used to be fun programming night and day too; now it's just my job, and I write what they tell me to write. If I have cool ideas I'll publish them on my website for free. I'd much rather have my freedom and rights to my own work than the money. I'm not a huge fan of the commercialization of the hobby anyway, and have no great desire to help the largest RPG company become even larger.

Lastly, D&D is fun and all, but if I were going to put a lot of effort and creativity into a game setting, I'd pick a different game system. D&D *is* a setting, and however you package it it's still going to be D&D. I'm not really sure why we need more D&D settings with the same core set of character classes, races, magic items, and monsters. YMMV.

 

[Gadodel]

I feel the same way about my setting. It is more labor than love, but love nonetheless. I have the sense that if I did send it in and it was rejected, I might give up on it. By the time they start looking for another world 10-15 years from now, I might have enough love for it to stand the rejection. I guess that is the worse part of the deal, I do not want give up on it just because it was rejected-yet I do not want to over work either.

 

[Alcamtar]

I see this whole contest more as an excersize by WOTC to collect a bunch of free, well developed ideas that they can use in whole or in part for furture products, with the actual winning campaign setting a secondary goal.

That's how I see it too. They're using the open source approach: mine the public for free ideas and development work. (Which is cool unless you're making money off it.) How many thousands of hours worth of free work are they getting just in the 1-page outlines? This is a lot cheaper than hiring new creative staff.

Also, the people who submit are the same people who are likely to homebrew their own worlds instead of buying something from WOTC. This lets them find out what people are designing so they can hopefully produce something that you'll buy. $120K is cheap market research, especially considering that once you know what the market wants, you get to pick the three settings that match it most closely for free, and then develop them yourself without further royalties. Then combine and modify those three into a single merged setting (you own the rights after all) to increase variety and bulk it up. Or they could insert it somewhere in the Forgotten Realms, maybe a new continent on the other side of the planet... replace the original gods and cosmology with something unique and they have material for several new hardback books.

There's a LOT they could do with this.

 

[Thorin Stoutfoot]

Just some persepective

$120,000 is a lot of money for most game designers. So those of you who think that WoTC is getting a free ride from the every Tom, Dick, and Harry, are delusional. If every Tom, Dick and Harry was a great game designer, they'd be published by now.

The stiffest competition is going to come from within WoTC, which do have game designers who will submit offerings, as well as ex-WoTC designers such as Monte Cook, Sean Reynolds, etc. That's the quality of competition that you'll be dealing with. If those folks (i.e., people who already make a living from their ideas, and have more to lose if WoTC really screwed them) are willing to sign the agreement already, then you can be assured that this is above-board, legal, and you're not giving up an ioata of creative control over your future free-lance work.

 

[Lizard]

I'd rather keep my setting, market it, and make money of it, rather than sell it to some company for only a small amount compared to the money the company would make off of it.

Ulrick

Unless you are extraordinarily talented, and extraordinarily lucky, you will NOT make more than 120,000 dollars from your setting. The odds are good you will make less than nothing, that is, you will LOSE money trying to market it.

You might have a setting which will make WOTC/Hasbro a million dollars. This does not mean YOU could make a million dollars from it. If you don't understand why, I don't think I can explain it in the space allotted to a web forum...