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

[your father is]

re: another virgin poster

Sent mine last week--from Canada--so it should be arriving about now. It is 800-or-so words (and I included my name in the right place and everything). Following this thread definitely helped me focus my ideas. Thank you all.

I've sampled a few TSR/WotC novels over the years but I always found them dreadful. Passive voice, spelling errors, and everything that causes me--as a reader and a writer--pain. Maybe I just hit the bad ones.

I will definitely be checking out this new world (especially if it's mine ). I think this is a great chance for WotC to broaden its audience and I hope they put out a quality product. Healthy game tie-ins means a healthier genre, in my opinion.

Everyone who sent in a proposal is a winner, in my view. A lot of great games are going to come out of this, and maybe some stories and novels too.

------
"Around the survivors a perimeter create."

 

[Weeble]

Re: re: another virgin poster

I've sampled a few TSR/WotC novels over the years but I always found them dreadful. Passive voice, spelling errors, and everything that causes me--as a reader and a writer--pain. Maybe I just hit the bad ones.

I will second that

I will definitely be checking out this new world (especially if it's mine ). I think this is a great chance for WotC to broaden its audience and I hope they put out a quality product. Healthy game tie-ins means a healthier genre, in my opinion.

It's also a great way for WotC to get everyone who was interested in the proposal "contest" to be interested in the winning setting.

 

[your father is]

It's also a great way for WotC to get everyone who was interested in the proposal "contest" to be interested in the winning setting.

Yes. Everyone wins here, except maybe WotC's poor admin. Or maybe she enjoys the infamy and overtime.

-----

"Much to learn you still have."

 

[Jubelo]

I sent mine off today. It weighed in at 516 words, which seems about average.

Thanks to all of you who posted helpful comments, especially Zulkir and Parcher.

Good luck to all

Jon

 

[NemesisPress]

Don't forget - if your reviewer happens to have heartburn from days of eating cold pizza when he/she is getting to your part of the stack - or if the admin spills diet coke on your inkjet original - it's all over.

 

[gregweller]

From the USPS site:

Your item was delivered at 8:18 am on June 21, 2002 in RENTON, WA 98057.

So now I get to suffer the agonies of the damned until they announce the winners.

 

[Matt Black]

colour vs compact

I'm curious about how other people balanced 'flavour text' with straightforward explanations.
Our team used a lot of examples when answering the questions, which allowed us to sneak in cool
place and character names, and to hint at the types of scenario possible in our world. This also
allowed us to demonstrate our creative writing style (which we hope is a good thing). In the
end I think we achieved the right balance of flavour and explanation. Of course, it took us
870 words to do so.

So were you terse and didactic? Or did you go for a more colourful approach?

MB

 

[kafka47]

My submission

Single, team-based submission.
10 pt Verdana font.
435 words.
Many pizzas consumed.

I sent our proposal in this morning, after a grueling two weeks effort.

The amount of material we produced easily exceeded a ten-page overview, minus throwaway.

We were fairly economical with our descriptions. We stuck to the essence of our world, rather than the fine details. Initally, we designed based upon physical assumptions about the planet, which produced plen-ty of ideas. It all became quite natural after that point, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

I was extremely fortunate to have discovered this message board in the interim. The comments and the banter made us feel like we weren't alone in our efforts. Unfortunately, that may be our downfall : we're altogether not alone enough!



All told, if we were selected for the ten-pager, that would be enough. The money isn't the most important thing. The process and the professional validation would be all the reward we'd need. Plus, witnessing how the D&D community has SPRUNG TO LIFE is very much worth any effort we've expended thus far.

Kudos, and good luck to all.
/Craig

P.S. I don't believe any harm would come for people who started to post their Ethos statements, just as teasers and for comparison. Thoughts?

 

[your father is]

ethos

P.S. I don't believe any harm would come for people who started to post their Ethos statements, just as teasers and for comparison.

"A world where heroes battle length restrictions with magic and skill to propose interesting new settings."

-----

"Is Darth Vader my father?"

 

[Fast Learner]

Finally Off

I sent mine four hours ago, just 10 minutes under the wire (though I had a backup plan, as my fiancee's company has a postage meter I could have used in the next 3 hours). For me it wasn't so much polishing (though I did some of that certainly); rather, it was letting those last couple of details come in from the aether to finish off the ideas.

Since everybody's doing it (yes, I'd jump off a cliff, I suppose):

580 words
11 pt Goudy Old Style
12 pt Arial Bold headers

It was a fun exercise in editing down material. When I had narrowed it down to an 800-word outline I was pretty pleased, but probably needless to say such an outline can easily fill 10 pages, so it was still a challenge.

I didn't go for flavor text. I thought about it quite a bit, and decided against it, but, if I'm not selected, I'll never know if it would have made the difference. (If I am... )