Moving Forward
The magazine I will publish (Run This...) is about adventures. It is possible that I might include some short fiction in it in the future, but really, the point is to publish adventures for others to run in their games. Or at least adventures that they can lift ideas from.
So why am I writing fiction?
Actually, I know the answer to this - I like writing. That said, it does not help me move forward with my business plans. As discussed previously, I realized that the first issue of Run This... will be written by myself and people I know directly, instead of by contributors. It was pure speculation to believe otherwise. I know there is interest in being published - the fact that the guys at Paizo regularly got behind reading through their submissions pile (and told us so) tells me that there are many many people who want to get published. The part I missed out on was that I need to give them a reason to send their submissions to Monohedron Games in the same way. The only way to do that is to publish an issue or three and let people know I exist and actually mean to publish.
Publishing is not an easy thing to do. While the physical acts necessary to do the job are fairly simple, the trick is in doing it all well. I can slap together a bunch of my adventure notes, run a basic formatting template on them, and then PDF the pile into something to sell. Would it be worth it for people to buy? Ego aside, probably not. My notes are only enough for me to remember the salient points while running, so much more actual writing is necessary to make them complete. Not all of it works beyond my home campaign. Some of it is even, gasp, stereotypical.
(My ego has tapped me on the shoulder and demands that I point out that while the basic premise of some adventures has been done before, I tend to improvise a lot based upon what the players have their characters actually do. I've had adventures sharply veer to the left because the players decided to do something else. So be it - if that's not what I'd wanted, I'd write novels instead of run roleplaying games.)
So. One of the Gang of Five has a Pulp Era adventure mostly written up (for the Hero System). I long ago decided that I'd write mostly fantasy adventures (either D&D or Hero System), but knew it could not be based on my home game (too many borrowed things in the game). Therefore, I started putting together a new world on the side, writing bits and pieces of it when I was inspired. This has left me with a pile of notes and some basic development done. This weekend I decided to do something about that.
I've gathered all my hardcopy notes into one place and bound them (with a binding machine, not with The One Ring). I've started working on the general world map. I plan on doing weather and general climate zones and then make some broad outlines as to what goes where. Then I'm going to focus down to a smaller scale and write adventures for a specific region. I've done some of the regional work, but I need to do some work to refine it and match up to my world map.
Now some might ask why I don't modify the world map to meet the region. All I can say is - I don't work that way. I have the continental outlines and know where I want the region to go on that. This requires some changes to my midway between maps and maybe some changes to the text (the Goblinoid Horde invaded from the northeast instead of the northwest, et cetera). Once I have the two synced, I can go forward and expand my maps as necessary, but staying within the framework I've set up.
That's it for right now - I'll write more later this week.
Later!
So why am I writing fiction?
Actually, I know the answer to this - I like writing. That said, it does not help me move forward with my business plans. As discussed previously, I realized that the first issue of Run This... will be written by myself and people I know directly, instead of by contributors. It was pure speculation to believe otherwise. I know there is interest in being published - the fact that the guys at Paizo regularly got behind reading through their submissions pile (and told us so) tells me that there are many many people who want to get published. The part I missed out on was that I need to give them a reason to send their submissions to Monohedron Games in the same way. The only way to do that is to publish an issue or three and let people know I exist and actually mean to publish.
Publishing is not an easy thing to do. While the physical acts necessary to do the job are fairly simple, the trick is in doing it all well. I can slap together a bunch of my adventure notes, run a basic formatting template on them, and then PDF the pile into something to sell. Would it be worth it for people to buy? Ego aside, probably not. My notes are only enough for me to remember the salient points while running, so much more actual writing is necessary to make them complete. Not all of it works beyond my home campaign. Some of it is even, gasp, stereotypical.
(My ego has tapped me on the shoulder and demands that I point out that while the basic premise of some adventures has been done before, I tend to improvise a lot based upon what the players have their characters actually do. I've had adventures sharply veer to the left because the players decided to do something else. So be it - if that's not what I'd wanted, I'd write novels instead of run roleplaying games.)
So. One of the Gang of Five has a Pulp Era adventure mostly written up (for the Hero System). I long ago decided that I'd write mostly fantasy adventures (either D&D or Hero System), but knew it could not be based on my home game (too many borrowed things in the game). Therefore, I started putting together a new world on the side, writing bits and pieces of it when I was inspired. This has left me with a pile of notes and some basic development done. This weekend I decided to do something about that.
I've gathered all my hardcopy notes into one place and bound them (with a binding machine, not with The One Ring). I've started working on the general world map. I plan on doing weather and general climate zones and then make some broad outlines as to what goes where. Then I'm going to focus down to a smaller scale and write adventures for a specific region. I've done some of the regional work, but I need to do some work to refine it and match up to my world map.
Now some might ask why I don't modify the world map to meet the region. All I can say is - I don't work that way. I have the continental outlines and know where I want the region to go on that. This requires some changes to my midway between maps and maybe some changes to the text (the Goblinoid Horde invaded from the northeast instead of the northwest, et cetera). Once I have the two synced, I can go forward and expand my maps as necessary, but staying within the framework I've set up.
That's it for right now - I'll write more later this week.
Later!