A TON of people will be weeded out by failing to follow instructions or by not submitting a presentable, professional one pager. So those of you worried about not submitting becasue of the sheer numbers, dont worry. The fact they have an admin screener means they wont hesitate to trash a submission. Not even for a second. He or she wont care about the content. I guarantee that half of all the submissions sent in will hit the trash can. If not more. And that is being generous.
I have read over tons of submissions for my company. It is real easy to weed out those that dont follow directions. And frankly, it is a pleasure to do it. Why? Because as a publisher, if I cant trust you to follow directions on the 1 pager, how are you going to be responsible enough to work up a 10 pager or--more to the point--follow through on the bible?
Remember, good ideas are a dime a dozen. We are all gamers because we are creative people with good ideas. That alone isnt enough.
They want good ideas coupled with the ability to be professional and follow directions. All three of those are being tested by this submission. Drop the ball on one, and you will be out.
Let me clear up the font issue for everyone. Of course, no one really needs that question answered, no matter how many times it gets asked. You all know the answer to the question. Because it is obvious. You all know if you are just shrinking the font to cram more in. If you are, your point size is too small. If you are even engaging in selecting a font simply to make it fit, it is too small.
Use common sense. If you can't put the paper on your desk and read it from a sitting position with the font and point size you use, it is too small. If you have to use a certain font because of the point size you selected, it is too small (ie using one font instead of the other becasue it looks better at 7.6 point).
I have never seen anything smaller than 10 point Times (or Arial or similar) being even close to acceptable. If you are at 8 point (I dont care what font you are using) that is pretty freaking small.
If you are going below 10 point, you really need to think about that. That starts to become difficult to read. Dont give them a reason to can your submission. Cut some words and use a reasonable font.
What would that small of a font say to me as the reviewer? This guy cant follow directions and is trying to circumvent the 1 page restriction.
Try it yourself. Use the font you want, then print it out. Place it on your desk face down. Then quickly pick it up and glance at it (or better yet, have a friend do this). If they cant quickly read it, the font is too small. Guess what, that is how much review your submission is going to get by a small batch of guys who have looked at 250 before yours and have a stack of 250 more to get to and have had 5 cups of coffee. Thats how submissions go. If they cant read it under those conditions, it wont get read.
For those of you saying "but I cant describe my wonderful world in one page", the short response is yes you can. You dont need to tell them the whole history of your campaign world. Find the kernel of your world. The heart of it. Its "theme" if you will. That is what this is all about.
I would even venture to say that those trying to submit 20+ year old campaign worlds might be at a slight disadvantage. People seem to have a hard time encapsulating the "concept" of those worlds, since they have so much personal history. Why, because after 20 years of play it can be hard to find the theme. Those worlds tend to be "uh, a place for us to play D&D".
There is no rule that you have to submit your home campaign world. I am doing a submission and I have never even drawn a map for the world I am submitting. It is just an idea that is in my head. So why am I submitting that one? Because I really have a handle on the "theme" of the world.
Think about it, in a 1 page submission (where you have to answer specific questions) do you really have time to tell them about the cool city and the cool dungeon in your world? No! You have to be able to convey the "theme" of the world.
Want a way to practice finding the "theme?" Here is how. Take your favorite fantasy author's world and try to sum it up in a sentence. Just one sentence. And no cheesy mega-run-ons with semi-colons and stuff. That is cheating. Just one sentence.
Try Tolkien, for example:
A world of faded majesty where the descendants of the once powerful races are menaced again by an ancient enemy of great power.
Or perhaps Earthsea:
An elemental world of sea and sky, where schooled wizards strive against evil and ancient magics that lurk deep within the earth itself.
Or R.E.Howard's Hyboria:
A savage world of mythic prehistory, where sword and shield can carve out the destiny of those heroic enough to wield them.
There are a hundred different permutations of the above sentences. You might not like mine. I just made them up as I was typing this. But they do capture the authors' worlds. Try making up your own. Once you can summarize the works of your favorite authors, try to boil your campaign or your submission down to a similar sentence. It can be done!
I look forward to the creativity that this will generate.
But remember, you first have to make the cut to the 10 pager. So dont do something that will get yourself trashcanned. Dont get ahead of yourself on the 100 pager. Get the 1 pager right! Follow the directions! And those submitting your current game world, put your notes aside and ask yourself "what is my world really all about".
Good luck everyone!
Clark
