Game WISH 50

owen

This is from Game Wish 50:

Have you ever considered trying to publish something professionally in the gaming industry? Why or why not? What are the good points and bad points of being in the industry?

Have I considered it?  Sure.  Actually, I have a credit in one White Wolf book, and had a lot of writing in for Chris' game at ZN-Games before things went south.  I did quite a bit of work on the White Wolf Character Generator before the liason went bug-nuts and my real life couldn't handle his neverending insanity.

At this point would I consider doing it?  Professionally?  No way.  There are a couple of reasons:

  1. It pays NOTHING - Sorry to burst your bubble if you were thinking of getting rich off of your great RPG brainstorm, but you can't make money writing RPGs.  None.  Zero.  Forget it.  The guys that are making money off of it aren't even making money off of it.  Basically, if you want to have a big name in the business, you have to sell your soul for enough money to eat lunch.
  2. It takes up too much time - The guys that run the RPG publishing world are picky, picky, picky.  If you haven't worked with them before, you really won't know what to expect.  I suppose that there is a freakish chance that you both actually see eye-to-eye, but that's pretty unlikely.  So expect rewrites.  Expect rejects.  Expect that nothing you do will be good enough and that your project will never conclude.
  3. It's not fulfilling - There is no thunderous applause when it's over.  You will likely not get to sit in a celebrity panel at a game convention.  You will probably only get praise from your friends, which will sound more like, "Hey, Owen knows all those White Wolf guys, ask him how you're supposed to pronounce Garou."  (I'm pretty sure it's not ga-ROO, which is how my game group has always said it.)

Here are some better ideas to try before you seriously become serious about writing RPGs:

  1. Write at your own pace - Don't worry about publishing deadlines and meeting the bottom line.  Just write for yourself and make it good.
  2. Write it well - If you're going this route, pay somebody to read your writing and proof it for you.  Remember, your friends can barely speak English, let alone write it.
  3. Get your friends to playtest it - Every game that is a market success gets playtest time.  Gather your friends to playtest your games or supplements to work out the flaws and balance issues befure you try to sell it to anyone.  If you have no friends, you should work on that before you start writing.
  4. Buy Adobe Acrobat - You'll need this software.
  5. Publish online - RPGNow is a great place for starting writers to publish their first game or supplement.  Some of the most innovative and fun games in the past two years have been self-published as PDFs.

So that's my rant.  My main bit of advice to you is this:  Don't do it!  Just enjoy your games.  Share cool adventure ideas or house rules or game systems with your friends.  If they're really robust and unique, and they survive gameplay, then the rest of the world might like to read them in a PDF.