WotC Seeking Your Setting Proposals (was "Big Wizard announcement")

[Kilmore]

I know that there are a lot of D20 publishers are here keeping an eager eye on things. After WoTC takes their pick, how many are going to be looking at snapping up worlds that don't make the cut?

Also, since WoTC will be buying rights to the second and third place settings, is it same to assume that there will be at least a little bit of product released for those settings?

 

[mythusmage]

I should hope they do something with the other two settings. Maybe go into electronic publishing and set up subscription sites for them. At the least offer PDFs of setting material.

Where the 'losers' are concerned, I suspect the vast majority will go quietly into that good night. (Let us hope so.). Some few will head off to third party publishers, others will be the first product of a new company, and the rest will get self-published on the web.

There will also be something of a brouhaha as folks discuss Wizards' decision to go with one setting and not another, with partisans on all sides extoling the virtues of one over another. You can expect some folks to accuse Wizards of favoritism, cheating, and/or stacking the deck.

Wizards has certainly opened up a can of worms here.

 

[Talaysen]

I believe AV has stated that WotC will confirm the identities of semi-finalists who don't make it into the top three, at least if said people want their identities confirmed - and I would imagine that a handful of companies, at least, will be very interested in the seven "losers". As for the remaining entries? Most will probably fade into obscurity; a few might see public release; a small number of those might find success. As always, the best will rise to the top, and the rest will go away sooner or later.

 

[Oxidor Trucidel]

Re: Re: Good morning

I'm predicting you'll get around 5,000 submissions.
Even if 4,000 of them are crap, that's a lot to get through in just over a week.
The danger to applicants is that if the judges have to move through submissions that fast, this becomes more like a lottery than a round of submissions. So I hope I'm wrong.

There is a simple solution... ask a ten-pages submissions to each of the 1.000 non-craps.

 

[Oxidor Trucidel]

This is why spelling and grammar are very important. If they have 90 seconds to make the first read-through (weeding stage) I'm sure the entry will go in the round file at the first sight of a typo or verb disagreement. If you've already typed up your submission and were planning on sending it out tomorrow, don't. Take the weekend to re-read it forwards and backwards and to get friends, family and strangers to proof-read it.
[/B]

It's harder for frenchspeakers... I have no english friend to correct my text and I must send it before 21...

 

[Rasyr]

There will also be something of a brouhaha as folks discuss Wizards' decision to go with one setting and not another, with partisans on all sides extoling the virtues of one over another. You can expect some folks to accuse Wizards of favoritism, cheating, and/or stacking the deck.

Wizards has certainly opened up a can of worms here.

Well, it is their can to open.....

Seriously, You will always have sore losers...

From what Anthony has said regarding this, I would expect that the panel does not know the names of any of the contestants until the final selection. Impossible you say? Not all that difficult really.

If they keep the panel "blind" until after they select the winning 100 page bible, then there is no way that favortism or cheating can be substantiated (of course there will still be accusations).

All that is required to keep the panel blind throughout the entire contest is to have the admin who is handling the current round of submissions do the same thing for each successive round. In addition she can also handle all communications with the semi-finalists, and finalists. (plus the confirmations to other companies).
(Note: in the next rounds it isn't as important that the panelists not know the names of those selected as it is that they not know which name is attached to which entry).

Not only will this keep the panel in its "blind" status, but it will also give the panelists themselves a slightly lighter burden in the long run, allowing them to concentrate more on judging the submissions for quality than on other concerns.

At least this is my opinion....

 

[Spike Y Jones]

Word Count

If I dropped the font size to 11 points, dropped the margins to 0.75 inches, maybe tightened the spacing a bit, I could probably get another 200 words in. I could certainly use those words, but I don't have to have them to get in the stuff I like best about the setting.

So I'm taking a gamble that the 450 words I have will be sufficient, and doing what I can to make it as readable as possible. And it is a gamble - those 200 words may give the judges more of a feeling of my meaty, juicy world.

I'm willing to bet that none of the 10 winners will be in the "overstuffed" category of submissions.

Spike Y Jones

 

[GuardianLurker]

About the cover letter

To those of you who are in the industry :

I've been thinking of adding an "inspirations" paragraph to the cover letter.

I know the cover letter won't be read until late in the process by the panelists (at best it will act as a secondary filter), and I'd add it to the submission form, but there isn't really a good place for it, and it seems like it would ruin the template.

Would having a paragraph like the following example help/be welcomed?

Inspiration for this proposal came from Christopher Stasheff’s Her Majesty’s Wizard, Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner's Adept series, and the Indiana Jones movie trilogy.

Or is it a neutral thing?

 

[mirzabah]

Re: About the cover letter

I've been thinking of adding an "inspirations" paragraph to the cover letter.

I doubt it would help and it could easily be read as follows:

This proposal is completely unoriginal being freely stolen from Christopher Stasheff’s Her Majesty’s Wizard, Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner's Adept series, and the Indiana Jones movie trilogy. Anyone publishing this material will be taking a waltz through a litigation minefield, and if they survive that, they still must face the opprobium of the market which was anticipating something a little less derivative.

I'm not saying that any of this applies to your proposal, so don't get your knickers in a twist; I'm just painting a worst case scenario for you

 

[jester47]

I agree. Personally, I had the hardest time with the "what's unique". I didnt know how to play that right away. I didnt know whether I should product reference or not, etc.

I believe in the theory of primacy and recency. I tell all the younger attorneys to do their closing arguments using this principle. People remember what they hear first and last. So open strong and close strong. If you have 3 points, rank them in strength 1, 2, 3. Then present them 1, 3, 2 (or some advocate 2, 3, 1) so that you begin and end strong.

Why do I mention this?

Your strong open is your ethos sentence (primacy) and your strong close is your why is this different (recency). Those were the first and last read on your submission.

Clark [/QUOTE

I find the core ethos to be the clockwork in the world. What makes it go round and be a good place to have adventures. But then again I found the core ethos for FR, so I know what one looks like. Think clockwork gears and bolts. The whats different, in my mind is what sets it apart from others. So where does your core ethoes work differntly than usual.

Aaron.

Aaron.