EricNoah
Adventurer
Ok, all of the following is in my opinion only, feel free to ignore...
To me that's easy to understand. The first four words are important.
"In scope" -- that means how big. They don't want a universe. They don't want a galaxy. They don't want just a city or a dungeon. They want a planet or a sizeable part of a planet. Also they don't want a setting that's on the verge of blowing up tomorrow. They want one that will have enough meat to last gamers years of play.
"In ... flavor ... similar to our existing settings" -- this is trickier, but for a second forget about FR and DL. What they want, in terms of flavor, is a fantasy world where the players can play heroic characters and have adventures. What they're trying to avoid is submissions of more "adult-themed" worlds, or something so weird that it would appeal only to a niche. There has to be enough stuff going on in the world that a variety of races and classes can be found there and be played as PCs and have fun adventures.
Finally, I feel that people are thinking of this as a contest. It doesn't seem to be that way to me. This is the potential beginning of a professional publishing career for you, in a sense. If you're going to do it you have to do it as a professional. Put yourselves in their shoes -- are they going to haggle with you over the length of the first proposal? Are they going to say, "Oh no we didn't say it had to be in 12 point fonts, I guess we have to accept this 3,000 word entry in 1 point font." No, they're going to expect you to make things easy for them by following their guidelines and trying to anticipate their needs even when not explicitly laid out. So just think about things from their point of view and try to figure things out for yourselves.
Note I'm not saying "don't ask questions" -- but be careful to begin this relationship on a good note by showing self-sufficiency and the ability to follow what directions are provided and problem-solve when they're not.
To me that's easy to understand. The first four words are important.
"In scope" -- that means how big. They don't want a universe. They don't want a galaxy. They don't want just a city or a dungeon. They want a planet or a sizeable part of a planet. Also they don't want a setting that's on the verge of blowing up tomorrow. They want one that will have enough meat to last gamers years of play.
"In ... flavor ... similar to our existing settings" -- this is trickier, but for a second forget about FR and DL. What they want, in terms of flavor, is a fantasy world where the players can play heroic characters and have adventures. What they're trying to avoid is submissions of more "adult-themed" worlds, or something so weird that it would appeal only to a niche. There has to be enough stuff going on in the world that a variety of races and classes can be found there and be played as PCs and have fun adventures.
Finally, I feel that people are thinking of this as a contest. It doesn't seem to be that way to me. This is the potential beginning of a professional publishing career for you, in a sense. If you're going to do it you have to do it as a professional. Put yourselves in their shoes -- are they going to haggle with you over the length of the first proposal? Are they going to say, "Oh no we didn't say it had to be in 12 point fonts, I guess we have to accept this 3,000 word entry in 1 point font." No, they're going to expect you to make things easy for them by following their guidelines and trying to anticipate their needs even when not explicitly laid out. So just think about things from their point of view and try to figure things out for yourselves.
Note I'm not saying "don't ask questions" -- but be careful to begin this relationship on a good note by showing self-sufficiency and the ability to follow what directions are provided and problem-solve when they're not.
This is certainly an interesting opportunity. Of course I will send a submission!
