Re: OT: RPGs (was Re: Conlangs in RPGs...)

On Wed, 17 Jan 2001, Eruanno none wrote:

> >it's actually pretty damn difficult.  At one short story sale per year
> >for the past four years for ~$400-$500 per story, I'm *way* below the
> >poverty level...unless you're Harlan Ellison in sf/f, novels are where
> >it's at.
>
> Wow, that much for a short story?  Cool ^_^
> I make a webpage in a day for that much money tho...
But you see, even really prolific writers don't *write* more than one
good, polished, publishable (at a professional rather than semipro
market) story a month, or even very generously, once every two weeks.
Add to that the fact that magazine response times can be anywhere from 2
weeks (highly uncommon) to 6 mos.--and you never know *exactly* how long
it'll take them to get to your story, let alone respond to it.  Add to
that the fact that unless you're already established, your percentage of
sales is probably *way* under 100%, and for a newcomer probably will be
0% for the first several years as you learn how to write better.  Even
writers who seem to get out 10-12 stories published a year, probably at
higher rates (professional magazines start at around 5 cents/word, but
generally only publish things up to 10,000 words or so long)--say 10-20
cents a word.  You do the math.  :-p  It's such a bloody unreliable way
of trying to make a living it's not even funny.  With novels at least you
can hope for the novel to outsell its advance and start getting you
royalties.  And even *then,* Orson Scott Card himself recommends keeping
a extra year's income's worth of money in the bank....

I don't mean to be unnecessarily discouraging, but $500/year honestly
doesn't pay the bills.  There are a lot of helpful writing articles at
http://www.sfwa.org (yes, I'm a SFWA member) if you're curious.

> >Sounds good to me.  :-)  Another thing y'all could do is split the $20
> >cost of a RPG you want to try (the basic set--most systems have insane
> >numbers of supplements) and go at it.  Everyone has to start somewhere.
> >I would tend to advise that someone who's good at storytelling and
> >mediating, as well as recordkeeping, try being gamemaster, though y'all
> >can always rotate.
>
> Game master is the same as dungeon master, correct?
Gamemaster is probably the most common term across systems.  Dungeon
master is rather xD&D-ish; I've also seen storyteller, game judge, game
guide, story guide, etc.  Anything to avoid getting sued by T$R....

> I wanted to put together a PbEM based off of D&D so that I could learn how
> to do it, but then nobody wanted to do it, and they were expecting me to be
> an expert, even tho on the invite I said it was for me to learn!
> Lol, anyways...
<wry look>  Generally the GM should be the *most* knowledgable person in
the group about rules, or at least comfortable with them.  I can see why
you didn't get many potential players.  In a L5R tabletop campaign I
co-GM so Joe deals with mechanics and rules, and I deal with storyline.
Most things I run tend to veer toward freeform, but the numbers make
people feel more secure or something.  =^)  The Black Wall
(http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/blackwall/) was nominally xD&D, but in
practice the thing was run as freeform.

> What would be the chances of all of us CONLANGers getting together and
> forming an RPG, with little pieces of everybody's land in them...
<shudder>  I'd hate figuring out how to integrate all that stuff.  I also
tend to want to keep my stuff out of circulation because I intend to
submit Origami Souls to publishers.  <shrug>

Also, I'm co-GMing one PbEM and participating in another (a hilarious
Pern-based PbEM called Far Jordan, which seems to be the only other PbEM
Alioqui could find other than mine that has *good writing skills* as a
*prerequisite* for potential players), so I'm not likely to participate.
I'd sure love to lurk if something like that did come up, though.

YHL