Writers Wanted for Dog Soul's Folkloric Line

[Cathix]

Dog Soul Publishing is looking for writers who are interested in working on our Folkloric line of 'mini settings'. Each writer is responsible for producing a 35 - 75 page setting, using d20 fantasy rules, and based upon an earthly folk tale or legend. Release dates for these additional Folkloric books would begin in September and continue until the end of the year.

If you're comfortable with writing both flavor text and mechanics, and would like to get involved with this project, email us at siretokkor@yahoo.com. If you're a bit rough with mechanics but can get 80% of the stat work done and polish it with the help of an editor, also contact us. While we do work with writers who are new to game design, for this particular project we need folks who are more experienced writing for d20. Thanks for your interest!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This sounds interesting, but I'm a little hazy on how these would be settings. Let's take, for instance, the real world (as opposed to Disney or Tim Burton) Legend of Sleepy Hollow. At 75 pages, very little of that will have much to do with the real world legend or folklore, and most of it would be the author's own creation, extrapolated (hopefully) from the real world source material. Is that the kind of thing you're looking for?

 

[Cathix]

This sounds interesting, but I'm a little hazy on how these would be settings. Let's take, for instance, the real world (as opposed to Disney or Tim Burton) Legend of Sleepy Hollow. At 75 pages, very little of that will have much to do with the real world legend or folklore, and most of it would be the author's own creation, extrapolated (hopefully) from the real world source material. Is that the kind of thing you're looking for?

So far (meaning the first four books due to be released), the authors have taken elements from earthly folk tales - mythical figures, symbolic items, geographic features, settlements, and tone of voice/language - and altered them slightly, tweaked them, given them stats and created a purely original d20 fantasy setting.

Your example of Sleepy Hollow would actually fit better into our Urban Legends series, although it'd be a lot more archaic then we anticipated Urban Legends to be. (it's a good idea, though ).

But to really answer your question - yes! I'm sorry, it's been a long week, and my kids have decided there's nothing wrong with waking up at 7am on a Sunday.

 

[Nellisir]

I'm intrigued and very interested, but a little uncertain about how it's supposed to work. For instance, if an author is working from "The Three Billy Goats Gruff", would you be looking for rules on animal PCs? Or just stats for three awakened goats plus the troll and a "mini-mini"-setting of the bridge and two pastures? What about similarities and compatibility between different tales (ie, "Snow White" & "Sleeping Beauty", or "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and "The Brementown Musicians")?

Cheers
Nell.

 

[dead_radish]

Or is it that, rather than stats for just 3 goats and the pasture, it would be a write-up on animal PC's, as you said, a discussion of the land where goats are sentient, and interact with bridges, and the type of society that springs up around them.

I think the main question is whether these are little sub areas to be dropped in a campaign world as weird magic zones, or whether these are intended to be small, stand-alone type worlds built up from a myth.

And not to be horribly mercenary, but what kind of pay structure are you looking at? Contract work, royalties, a mix, etc?

 

[Cathix]

I'm intrigued and very interested, but a little uncertain about how it's supposed to work. For instance, if an author is working from "The Three Billy Goats Gruff", would you be looking for rules on animal PCs? Or just stats for three awakened goats plus the troll and a "mini-mini"-setting of the bridge and two pastures? What about similarities and compatibility between different tales (ie, "Snow White" & "Sleeping Beauty", or "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and "The Brementown Musicians")?

Cheers
Nell.

Each Folkloric book gathers folk tales from a particular area of our world, and puts them together to form a small setting which can either be dropped into an existing campaign or played as a stand alone game. So far we have two books which draw from Russian folklore, one which draws from English fairytales, and another which incorporates legends, such as the kitsune, from 13th century Japanese culture.

 

[Cathix]

I think the main question is whether these are little sub areas to be dropped in a campaign world as weird magic zones, or whether these are intended to be small, stand-alone type worlds built up from a myth.

And not to be horribly mercenary, but what kind of pay structure are you looking at? Contract work, royalties, a mix, etc?

Much bigger than a 'weird magic zone' - but about the size of one of the medium sized regions in Toril of Forgotten Realms.

Payment is by percentage. Each author receives 50% of each book's cover price, each time a pdf or printed copy is sold. Feel free to email me if you have more questions regarding this. siretokkor@yahoo.com

 

[Nellisir]

Each Folkloric book gathers folk tales from a particular area of our world, and puts them together to form a small setting which can either be dropped into an existing campaign or played as a stand alone game. So far we have two books which draw from Russian folklore, one which draws from English fairytales, and another which incorporates legends, such as the kitsune, from 13th century Japanese culture.

OK, so the books are based on more than just a fairy tale; the source would be more like a class or type of fairy tale; ie tales about Baba Yaga; Aesop's Fables; anthropomorphic fairy tales (Billy Goats Gruff, Brementown Musicians, Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood); "princess" fairy tales.

OK, got it. Cool.

Nell.

 

[Cathix]

OK, so the books are based on more than just a fairy tale; the source would be more like a class or type of fairy tale;

Actually, each book is based on tales gathered from a particular earthly culture. i.e. Russian, Japanese, English, Inuit, Maori, etc. This offers each author a delightfully deep pool from which to draw.

 

[KingOfChaos]

Your example of Sleepy Hollow would actually fit better into our Urban Legends series, although it'd be a lot more archaic then we anticipated Urban Legends to be. (it's a good idea, though ).

Well, you could always 'modernized' the legend of sleepy hollow. Imagine a guy driving around in an old 57 chevy that has had the roof ripped off in some manner which also managed to kill the guy driving the car by decapitating him (a serial killer that was never caught) and now he drives around late at night decapitating people out after a certain time. ^_^

Could also use a motorcycle, but that'd be too predictable.