Comments on: Gen Con: How to Start an RPG Career — Freelancing 101

By: Alphastream

Alphastream — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:37:12 +0000

The statement “Wizards doesn’t often draw from its organized play program for freelancers” has been somewhat true historically, but Dragon and Dungeon in July had some 8 or 9 contributors that had been involved in organized play. There are organized play authors authoring Lair Assault, writing upcoming published adventures, and creating Encounters seasons. Mike Mearls is a former Living Greyhawk Triad member.

Now, there are hundreds of organized play contributors. As with anything else, the quality of what you do matters and you want to work on the whole package so you rise to the top. A good reputation for organized play contributions, good relationships with organized play admins, a positive/constructive presence on company forums, getting involved with playtesting, maintaining a blog with examples of your work… these all work together to increase positive exposure and improve your chances.

Writing an organized play adventure is a good way to prove to a publisher that you can write, meet deadlines, and understand a variety of audiences. Organized play is very hands-on editorially, making it especially good for learning authoring skills and mastering the editorial process (realizing your work will be changed after submission).

As one of the admins for Ashes of Athas, I feel our authors learn a lot about writing a great adventure. I would expect the process would give the authors a good feel for whether they are ready to freelance for a major publisher.

So, yeah, the percentage of freelancers coming from organized play is small, but that isn’t due to it being a poor vehicle for entry. It is actually a very good way to develop skills and a reputation.

By: Adam Daigle

Adam Daigle — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 03:43:03 +0000

I’m happy folks liked this and took something useful away from the panel and the wonderful summary Wolfgang whipped up.

Get out there and write!

By: Seth White

Seth White — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:21:00 +0000

It was a really great panel discussion. I especially appreciated the question/answer session and the down-to-earth discussion about writing for the hobby.

Also, Ben was super cool about just chatting about freelancing afterwards.

By: Wolfgang

Wolfgang — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 18:05:35 +0000

MBanach: alas, I suspect fiction freelancing is a whole ‘nother panel. And of course KQ and Open Design don’t publish fiction, so I’m not necessarily much of an authority for that.

Steven S. Long: great addendum, and actually the rule “Don’t be a dick” did come up. I will never understand why people think being relentlessly negative will win anyone over.

By: Steven S. Long

Steven S. Long — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:50:28 +0000

I’ll add an addendum to #4 — don’t make yourself visible by being a jackass online (or anywhere else for that matter). Being an active member of a company’s message boards is a great way to get noticed. Being active by being arrogant, overly argumentative, pedantic, or just generally dickish is a good way to turn off that potential employer… or at least it is if that potential employer is me.

By: MBanach/Ezekiel

MBanach/Ezekiel — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:07:26 +0000

All sounds like very good advice.

Did the panel address the process for free-lancing fiction for PFRPG/3pp? (Like novels, novellas, web fiction…)

By: Wolfgang

Wolfgang — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 04:24:53 +0000

Jeff, yes, I’ve sent responses to all the Summer submissions I have. I think I asked to consider one for Fall, the rest are either accepted or rejected at this point.

By: Jeff Dougan

Jeff Dougan — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 02:59:09 +0000

Wolfgang: So something that was submitted as article for summer is not still under consideration for fall. That’s the type of answer I was looking for. Thanks.