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

[Arthur Tealeaf]

Offhand, I'd say that if you have something that you cannot explain without the use of diagrams or illustrations, it's probably too complicated to include in the initial one-page summary. This first round of submissions is more a competition of concise writing skills than anything else.

Steve M

It's actually not very complex, it's very simple, but the concept is just so much easier to understand if the text is complimented with this simple illustration (how complicated is two circles and a few letters?). It's also essential to the campaign world, and without it, the proposal will be confusing and probably thrown away.

 

[Oni]

It's actually not very complex, it's very simple, but the concept is just so much easier to understand if the text is complimented with this simple illustration (how complicated is two circles and a few letters?). It's also essential to the campaign world, and without it, the proposal will be confusing and probably thrown away.

Do it, what have you got to lose. If you think it will help save your idea from obscurity why not.

 

[Voneth]

It's actually not very complex, it's very simple, but the concept is just so much easier to understand if the text is complimented with this simple illustration (how complicated is two circles and a few letters?). It's also essential to the campaign world, and without it, the proposal will be confusing and probably thrown away.

Go for it, but I assume it had better be a snazzy graphic. Though, I can't imagine how a graphic would be so intergral to the setting that it defies explination. For example ...

The Creator decided that the universe had been stagnant too long and decided empower certain mortals with powers to rivial the gods. Those with the power are marked with a glowing red and yellow symbol that resembles a stark ying-yang circle.

And so Welcome to the Cross Gen comics universe. This symbol is intergal to the oldest comic books to the series, yet it's purpose, meaning and origin were told in two sentences. Perhaps you should take a step back and rethink the idea.

(sorry, I just keep remembering a DM I had who would always start his invitation to his campians with a "Look at this!" It would be some abstract design and I'd be nonplussed at the design. He would then take half an hour explaining the details of the gods and magics and how this symbol was the key to understanding it all. Well, now it all made sense!, sort of. It added flavor, but I'd hate to set up a pitch based off that.)

 

[SteveMND]

I have to disagree. They are going to get thousands of submissions and I guess that getting into the top 50 is going to depend entirely on grabbing the panelist's attention and tickling their imagination in the first sentence or two. Nice tight, carefully crafted prose is not going to be the deciding factor in the first read of your submission - it has to demand attention.

Well, I suppose that's sort of what I meant. Out of all the thousands of entries they get, I suspect 95% of them can be summed up at the one-page level by talking about how "it's a fantasy world with medeival technology where heroes battle against evil villains and strange monsters using swords and magic."

Why? That sums up 95% of ALL the fantasy RPGs that have been published in the last 30 years. The above statement sums up the d20 Core Books, and since that's what WotC is looking for, that's the essence of what people will be submitting.

However, once you get to the point where those one-page summaries are expanded into 10-page overviews, THEN the true differences and 'unique flavors' of the various worlds will start to be seen, and that's _really_ where the differences will stand out.

However, the tricky part -- and the point I was alluding to -- was the fact that the winners will be the ones who are able to somehow manage to distill that 10-page collection of what makes their world unique and fit it onto a single-page summary, and do it both professionally and engrossingly. _That's_ where the tricky bit will come from.

Steve M

 

[Parcher]

Folks:

As Anthony said in an earlier post and as several people have said since, the best thing to do about these one-page submissions is use common sense.

The committee reviewing the submissions anticipates a very large volume that we will have to get through very quickly. Therefore, it's in your best interests to make your submission is easy to read and understand as possible.

If you really feel diagrams and charts are absolutely necessary, you can include them, provided they fit on a one-page submission, but at this stage, I'd discourage you from doing so, since it simply makes it more complicated for us to review.

The most important thing is to answer all six questions and to make sure your submission is clear, readable, that everything is spelled correctly, and that all your essential points are there.

 

[Altmann]

(Very) short stories ?

Hi,

Pray tell, Zulkir, if we may add some lines to the question templates, describing the world as it should be seen, and not just according to the form. I believe this would make reading most entries more lively.

Thank you,
YA

 

[mirzabah]

Re: (Very) short stories ?

... I believe this would make reading most entries more lively.

I don't think that WotC is doing this because they've run short of reading material...

 

[SteveMND]

Pray tell, Zulkir, if we may add some lines to the question templates, describing the world as it should be seen, and not just according to the form. I believe this would make reading most entries more lively.

Perhaps, but keep in mind what Anthony said near the beginning -- part of this first round is, if I may paraphrase, to "eliminate those people that don't know how to follow directions." The more you deviate from the given template, the more of a chance you may well be taking. Personally, I'd suggest that instead of using that extra space to add information that is unsolicited at this stage, it would be better used to expand on the sections that are requested and make them even better.

Hey, what am I doing, giving suggestions to the competition!?

Steve M

 

[Sulimo]

Hmm...

What does this mean? Are they not even the least little bit interested in someone creating a new setting for their D20 modern system?

I wondered about this from another angle, whether this meant that WOTC was not interested in any pre-medieval style setting.

 

[Dave Blewer]

Originally posted by whatisitgoodfor

Hmm...

What does this mean? Are they not even the least little bit interested in someone creating a new setting for their D20 modern system?

But surely, we can't really be certain that our splendid D20 Modern ideas aren't exactly what WotC have in store for us anyway?

Maybe we should wait until D20 Modern is actually released before thinking up "new" settings for it...