Submission call for new Expeditious Retreat Press line

[jgbrowning]

Expeditious Retreat Press is now accepting submissions for their latest series, Seeds. Seeds are ideas, adventure hooks that spark the imagination of the GM. The first round of seeds will consist of adventure ideas for four different genres: fantasy, modern, horror, and supers.

Each individual seed shouldn’t be more than a few paragraphs and the utter maximum should be about ½ a page (maximum of 300 words). One line seeds are acceptable, as long as they kick-start a great idea. If your seeds is accepted and published, pay will be $0.01 a word and a copy of the product in which your submission appears.

This is a “test the waters” product for us. We’re assessing the cost/benefit ratio involved with short page-count PDFs as well as gauging the time/effort ratio associated with submission processes.

All submissions should be sent to josephbrowning@exp.citymax.com and contain [Seeds Submission] in their title. The seeds should be sent as text, NOT as an attachment and the author’s name and address should be included in the e-mail. We’ll notify accepted authors and pay upon acceptance via check to the address in the e-mail. As this is a very short product, work will be without contract. All accepted material becomes the property of Expeditious Retreat Press upon payment.

Thanks and Good Luck!

Joseph Browning and Suzi Yee
Expeditious Retreat Press

 

[MatthewJHanson]

I'm interested in the project, I can't help thinking, "idea seeds, that could be just about anything," so I'm wondering if I could get a little dirrection. Here are some questions I'm thinking about.

Are these meant to inspire a night of gaming, or an epic campaign, or is there some of both?

Do you have an idea of how much detail you want? I feel that more detail leads to more inspiration, but of course it takes up more space.

Are there any general suggestions for making submissions more appealing?

Here's an expritiment, I've written up the same scenerio with three different degrees of details. The plot itself iscliche and I would probably not submit it, but it just to give you an idea:

The party is drinking at a bar, when a mysterious old man enters, hands them a map, and keels over dead. The map reveals the location of each of the three parts of the artifact of Kaz.

The party is drinking at a bar, when a mysterious old man enters, hands them a map, and keels over dead. The map reveals the location of each of the three parts of the artifact of Kaz.
The first piece of the artifact is in the hands of an giant chief, the second is being held by a lich, and the third is guarded by a group peaceful elves.

The party is drinking at a bar, when a mysterious old man enters, hands them a map, and keels over dead. The map reveals the location of each of the three parts of the artifact of Kaz, a device that is said to have the power to bring peace and happiness to the universe.
The first piece is being held by the giant chieftain Armorskull Bloodaxe, a ruthless tyrant always hoping to increase his power. He is currently hoping to overthrow and enslave a goblin tribe to the south. He does not recognize the value of the artifact.
The second piece is being held by The Nameless, a lich so old he has forgotten his own name. He has managed to tap in to a small portion of the artifact’s power, and jealously hopes to get his hands on the rest, but he is imprisoned in a small demiplane from which he cannot escape.
The last piece of the artifact is being held by the Order of the Golden Bow, an elven organization dedicated to protecting peace and harmony. They believe that the artifact is actually a creation of evil, and while they are normally peace loving, they are willing to die and kill to make sure the artifact is not assembled.

 

[jgbrowning]

I'm interested in the project, I can't help thinking, "idea seeds, that could be just about anything," so I'm wondering if I could get a little dirrection. Here are some questions I'm thinking about.

Are these meant to inspire a night of gaming, or an epic campaign, or is there some of both?

Some of both.

Do you have an idea of how much detail you want? I feel that more detail leads to more inspiration, but of course it takes up more space.

Are there any general suggestions for making submissions more appealing?

Anything that's not longer than 1/2 a page is acceptable. The writing should be like a bathing suit, enough to cover the subject, but no more.

Here's an expritiment, I've written up the same scenerio with three different degrees of details. The plot itself iscliche and I would probably not submit it, but it just to give you an idea:

The party is drinking at a bar, when a mysterious old man enters, hands them a map, and keels over dead. The map reveals the location of each of the three parts of the artifact of Kaz.

The party is drinking at a bar, when a mysterious old man enters, hands them a map, and keels over dead. The map reveals the location of each of the three parts of the artifact of Kaz.
The first piece of the artifact is in the hands of an giant chief, the second is being held by a lich, and the third is guarded by a group peaceful elves.

The party is drinking at a bar, when a mysterious old man enters, hands them a map, and keels over dead. The map reveals the location of each of the three parts of the artifact of Kaz, a device that is said to have the power to bring peace and happiness to the universe.
The first piece is being held by the giant chieftain Armorskull Bloodaxe, a ruthless tyrant always hoping to increase his power. He is currently hoping to overthrow and enslave a goblin tribe to the south. He does not recognize the value of the artifact.
The second piece is being held by The Nameless, a lich so old he has forgotten his own name. He has managed to tap in to a small portion of the artifact’s power, and jealously hopes to get his hands on the rest, but he is imprisoned in a small demiplane from which he cannot escape.
The last piece of the artifact is being held by the Order of the Golden Bow, an elven organization dedicated to protecting peace and harmony. They believe that the artifact is actually a creation of evil, and while they are normally peace loving, they are willing to die and kill to make sure the artifact is not assembled.

The latter two are prefferable, but that's probably just because the idea's a bit cliche.

Hope that helps!

Joseph Browning
Expeditious Retreat Press

 

[Y.O.Morales]

Hi Joseph

A cool project that has to be done sooner or later.
Anyways, what's the deadline for this open call?

Thanks for the opportunity.

 

[jgbrowning]

Hi Joseph

A cool project that has to be done sooner or later.
Anyways, what's the deadline for this open call?

Thanks for the opportunity.

There is no deadline right now. We're testing out the idea and leaving our options open. Roughly, I'd rather not have to still be accepting submissions after Sept 2004, but this will depend on the number received.

I'm excited to see what people think up...

joe b.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Each individual seed shouldn’t be more than a few paragraphs and the utter maximum should be about ½ a page (maximum of 300 words). One line seeds are acceptable, as long as they kick-start a great idea. If your seeds is accepted and published, pay will be $0.01 a word and a copy of the product in which your submission appears.

Uh, maybe this is a stupid question, but wouldn't you always want to write a seed of exactly 300 words so that you get the maximum amount of money?

 

[Napftor]

Uh, maybe this is a stupid question, but wouldn't you always want to write a seed of exactly 300 words so that you get the maximum amount of money?

Making a boat payment with this open call?

Seriously though, in this case it's not the money, it's the chance to be included in an XRP product and work with the charming Yee's.

 

[jgbrowning]

Uh, maybe this is a stupid question, but wouldn't you always want to write a seed of exactly 300 words so that you get the maximum amount of money?

You can submit as many ideas as you want. We're just trying to keep each inividual seed rather short.

Making a boat payment with this open call?

Seriously though, in this case it's not the money, it's the chance to be included in an XRP product and work with the charming Yee's.

Thanks, very kind of you to say so. Yeah, this isn't much as far as a paying project goes, mostly because no one's going to get more than a few pages at most. Unless someone really knocks our socks off.

joe b.

 

[Joshua Randall]

I wasn't trying to be obnoxious -- it's just that ever since I started watching Family Ties as a kid, I've wanted to be Alex P. Keaton. Money grubbing is so... sexy!

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Can the seeds be specific to a system? Such as using D&D monsters (only ones from the SRD, of course) for fantasy adventure seeds. Or are you trying to keep this product more general?