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

[rpghost]

I am also well thought of by at least one other gaming company (the same one where Monte got his start - for the trivia hounds out there, do you know the answer?)

Ironcrown


IMHO, I think something that everyone fails to realise is that there will be an aweful lot of luck/chance/randomness in this because of the volume of entries and the need to get through them quickly. Even the best writing can be overlooked at random because the person was distracted for a moment or was looking forward to leaving as it was 4:55pm when he picked yours up or had to take a bathroom break right in the middle... It's impossible to accuratly grade that much work and only one pagers at that...

James
http://www.RPGHost.com

 

[Darraketh]

I think what Darraketh meant was that, by definition, if "average" is the (theoretical) exact middle, then half must be above and half below it

Exactly!

Originally posted by Zappo
Entering the top 10 is already a prize in itself,...

That's how I feel.

Originally posted by Zappo
...because it proves that your work is worth publishing.

I disagree.

What it proves is that you can write a one-pager worth considering.

 

[Rasyr]

rpghost gets the prize!

or in this case (to swipe a caveat from a well know comic company), the noprize!

In fact, (and I'll likely get flamed for saying this), but the latest version of D&D is more like the early versions of Rolemaster than ever before. Of course there are differences, but having played both systems, it is easy to see where some of the changes had their first roots....

Also, you are right that luck will play a major part in it...

As to the numbers I was spouting. Think about it. I was actually saying, that out of however many submissions there are, only ten percent are actually going to be in the running for one of the top ten slots, and making it into the next round. Thus, I was saying my submission is good enough to be considered part of that 10%.

 

[Fast Learner]

Largely OT, on average

OT: (Quick statistics lesson: Average, or "mean," isn't the middle at all. Median is the middle, and about half will be above median.

To determine the average you would need to, for example, give them all ratings of 1 to 10. If there are 5,000 total entries and, say, 4,000 of them are rated a 1 while the others are spread out evenly over the 2-10 range, again for example, then the average will be a rating of 2, yet 80% of them will be below average.

While I'm certain there won't be 80% that rate as poorly as a 1, the general concept still stands -- many fewer than half will likely be above average.)

 

[uberkitty]

why?

I'm not sure if this is the kind of question that's going to get answered by Wizards officials, but maybe the thread could hazard a guess:

Why was the topic of heroes broken into two questions (who are they; what do they do), but the topic of villains wasn't? I'm asking mostly because a knotty thing for me as I rewrite is figuring out how who someone is is fundamentally different from what someone does--and why the authors of the template seem to see the difference as more relevant to heroism than villainy. Is it just because we as players/readers tend to spend more time with heroes than villains?

(I'm totally aware, by the way, that I'm overanalyzing--I don't think that having an "answer" to this question is going to make a huge difference to my success or failure--I'm just kinda interested in kicking it around.)


<EDIT>

Fast Learner: I knew as soon as I posted about "average" that someone was going to explain the difference between average and mean, and make me look dumb!

 

[Zappo]

I disagree.

What it proves is that you can write a one-pager worth considering.

Oky, oky. I rephrase: it means that you have an idea that a good writer can turn into something worth publishing. Because I think I can safely assume that WotC will cut down everything that doesn't have a sellable concept at its core, no matter how well it's written.

 

[Ghostwind]

Re: why?

Is it just because we as players/readers tend to spend more time with heroes than villains?

Wotc (and most other publishers) consider the role of hero to be vastly more important that villain in terms of who gamers play. Nearly every published adventure inserts the characters into the role of some kind of hero pitted against tough odds and possibly destined for greatness. While sourcebooks for evil campaigns and players have been written, there is a significant percentage of gamers that prefer the valiant hero over playing a villain on a consistent basis and that is where the predominant marketing goes towards.

If you look at Dragonlance, for example, the entire story concept is hero driven from the start. Even aspects of Forgotten Realms is strong in the hero department (such as Drizzt and company, Elminster, and the Harpers to name a few). So I believe that Wotc is probably looking for a campaign world that can be hero driven in order to diverse the marketing possibilities into the options they talk about in their proposal guidelines.

 

[Suzerain]

It's impossible to accuratly grade that much work and only one pagers at that...

How about a vote of confidence?

I say they can and will get it done.

Robert

 

[Weeble]

How about a vote of confidence?

I say they can and will get it done.

Robert

I second that

 

[jester47]

Mine is about 600 words 12point font, 1 space between paragraphs, one space between last paragraph and my name. Margins are 1 2/8s of an inch. Revised after sending I can get @ 700 words with 11 point font and 1 inch margins.

Aaron.