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Message: <blockquote data-quote="d20Dwarf" data-source="post: 1470644" data-attributes="member: 314">Berne Convention....medical journals....c'mon. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I have been known to edit a piece or two in my time (quiet, William <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ), and game editing and the realities of the game business are not comparable in the least to a medical journal. Certainly you can see that. In most cases, game editors *are* game designers as well. Erik is one, I am one, Michelle Lyons is one, and so on. As someone mentioned above, "editing" encompasses a heckuva lot of things in this industry, from proofreading to number checking to style and yes, to rewrites. Some companies in this business have a more traditional publishing schedule, allowing for long periods between manuscript and publishing. Most have *very* short schedules, however. Paizo falls somewhere in the middle, which means sometimes they can guide an author and sometimes they cannot. Generic articles can be sent back more easily, since they can be shuffled from issue to issue. A big event like Dark Sun might have simply had to be edited in house. There was probably some designer conceit involved as well. Erik has probably helped shape Paizo's design philosophy, which could definitely diverge from WotC's or Dave Noonan's. For instance, it seems that they think all setting material must be compatible with the entire core, thus the inclusion of paladins, monks, and bards in Dark Sun. I've seen Dave's Athasian bard prestige class, and it's awesome, but it probably won't ever see the light of day in that form, which is a shame. Paizo has to stay true to their design vision, however, just like every other company does. In this case it seems a shame they didn't stick to the vision of the original and that they made such fundamental changes to the author's work, but I don't think they overstepped their boundaries as game publishers or as editors. EDIT: Satori asked about Mearls, and I can give my own experience. One of the articles I had published last year was virtually untouched, while the other one had name changes and ability changes that brought it more into line with what WotC was doing at the time. I didn't care either way, frankly, because they bought it. On the Dungeon side, I went through a 2-year rewrite process to get the FR adventure published, which was outrageous, especially considering the niggling nature of many of the changes. I wanted to say "just fix his hit points, for God's sake!" <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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