Pathfinder 1E Paizo: Number of monthly submissions?

[James Jacobs]

I'm a huge fan of Call of Cthulhu. Unfortunately, we cant mix Call of Cthulhu with D&D in Dungeon. That said, there are certainly lots of monsters in the game that are Lovecraftian, and we can definately print adventures that use Lovecraftian themes and plots.

Focusing your adventure on a cool monster that hasn't seen much play in the last 12-24 issues is an excellent way to catch our attention.

Another good trick is to set your adventure in a memorable location. We get hundreds of adventure proposals that start out in a bland, generic village or city. If said village or city is built into the wall of a massive cliff with dozens of waterfalls cascading through it, thoguh, now we're talking! The same goes for dungeons. A normal 3-level dungeon under a ruined castle in the woods is one thing, but it's the dungeon built inside the ginormous gnoll-headed sphinx that's partially buried in a glacier, or the dungeon that's actually cobbled together from two dozen derelict ships stuck in a sargaso sea that'll catch our attention.

 

[Jason Bulmahn]

I'm a huge fan of Call of Cthulhu. Unfortunately, we cant mix Call of Cthulhu with D&D in Dungeon. That said, there are certainly lots of monsters in the game that are Lovecraftian, and we can definately print adventures that use Lovecraftian themes and plots.

Focusing your adventure on a cool monster that hasn't seen much play in the last 12-24 issues is an excellent way to catch our attention.

Another good trick is to set your adventure in a memorable location. We get hundreds of adventure proposals that start out in a bland, generic village or city. If said village or city is built into the wall of a massive cliff with dozens of waterfalls cascading through it, thoguh, now we're talking! The same goes for dungeons. A normal 3-level dungeon under a ruined castle in the woods is one thing, but it's the dungeon built inside the ginormous gnoll-headed sphinx that's partially buried in a glacier, or the dungeon that's actually cobbled together from two dozen derelict ships stuck in a sargaso sea that'll catch our attention.

It should be said that if you want to get Mr. Jacobs attention, all you need do is put dinosaurs, bards, and Cthulhu all in the same adventure...

As for Dragon, we are always on the look out for new and innovative takes on the rules, exploring concepts that help players and DMs, and fleshing out pieces of existing campaign worlds. It's a very broad category for us...

We tend to reject around 70-80% and usually have a backlog of 40-50 proposals at any one given time. Of the ones that make it through the first round, we often ask for an outline or refocus from about half of them. The other half we ask for articles from, although we often make suggestions about direction.

Hope that helps

Jason Bulmahn
Associate Editor of Dragon
dragon@paizo.com

 

[Ranger REG]

It should be said that if you want to get Mr. Jacobs attention, all you need do is put dinosaurs, bards, and Cthulhu all in the same adventure...

As for Dragon, we are always on the look out for new and innovative takes on the rules, exploring concepts that help players and DMs, and fleshing out pieces of existing campaign worlds. It's a very broad category for us...

We tend to reject around 70-80% and usually have a backlog of 40-50 proposals at any one given time. Of the ones that make it through the first round, we often ask for an outline or refocus from about half of them. The other half we ask for articles from, although we often make suggestions about direction.

Hope that helps

Jason Bulmahn
Associate Editor of Dragon
dragon@paizo.com

And what do you look for in a proposal, other than the first impression of one's writing skills?

 

[James Jacobs]

It should be said that if you want to get Mr. Jacobs attention, all you need do is put dinosaurs, bards, and Cthulhu all in the same adventure...

That's not entirely true... you should also put kenkus in the adventure.

 

[Jason Bulmahn]

And what do you look for in a proposal, other than the first impression of one's writing skills?

I know it's a bit nebulous, but I usually look for fresh new ideas. One of the number one reasons why a proposal gets shot down is because there is very similar work already in existence, either in our pages or in a Wotc souce. Now, that does not mean that we do not like the expansion of part of the game that are thinly covered or only basically presented. For example, we recently asked for an article exploring different types of alchemist's fire.

We are also looking for good flavor pieces. Articles that cover aspects of established campaign worlds or explore new directions. These are a bit tougher to get through the process, but are more useful to us.. generally.

Things to avoid.. rules only articles.. if it cannot stand alone without its crunch, we are probably not interested.

Jason Bulmahn
Associate Editor of Dragon

 

[Steverooo]

Jason Bulmahn
Associate Editor of Dragon.. now with broken foot

Get well, soon,... uh... Iuz!

 

[MKMcArtor]

The Dragon account gets rougly 5-10 proposals per day, depending on what day of the week it is.

Keep in mind that is just for the main email account, and it mainly deals with features proposals. Wes and I also get proposals sent to us for the departments we've been put in charge of. While I can't speak for Wes, I see anywhere from 1 to 10 Class Act or Bazaar of the Bizarre proposals every day. (Yes, if you don't like the way Class Acts or Bazaar of the Bizarre have been going lately you can complain directly to me.)

As for backlog, I always have 40-80 Class Act submissions waiting for me to go through, I generally have 10-20 I've accepted that I haven't assigned yet, and I'm finally beginning to get some articles assigned to future issues. Now, that isn't to say that I'm not <i><b>ALWAYS</b></i> looking for more Class Act articles. I am always short on Class Act articles from at least one class (usually those near the middle or latter half of the alphabet). Besides, sometimes I have an article assigned that is a filler article... if you send me something wicked cool I will bump the filler and put your article in sooner.

Finally, the departments at the back of the magazine (Spellcraft, Bazaar of the Bizarre, and Class Acts) is a good place to get your name known to us. If you write me a few good Class Acts or a good Bazaar of the Bizarre I'll remember your name. Later, if you submit a feature proposal I'll put in a good word for you at our monthly proposals meeting.

 

[Welverin]

Bump, because it's interesting and informative stuff that deserves to be read.

 

[der_kluge]

With such a backlog of stuff, maybe they should double the number of Dungeon magazines per year!

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

I waiting for that good word, Mike.

Over a dozen Class Acts and I haven't heard back on a feature query for months, man.

Perhaps the others are plotting against you to marginalize your editorial influence, and you're actually dragging unfortunate Class Acts writers down! Maybe I should be asking you not to mention me, instead.