RoleplayingTips.com Submission Guidelines - Automated Response To Your Request

[johnn]

[Last update: July 28, 2003]


Your Tips & Advice Wanted By 13,000 Game Masters!
=================================================

Hi,

Thanks for requesting the submission guidelines for the
ezine! The ezine is published each Monday via email and
online at www.RoleplayingTips.com later in the week. The
ezine currently has 13,241 subscribers, so your submission
will be read by many--and that's not including the thousands
who read the zine online!

The ezine is 100% free and has been going strong since 1999.
The whole purpose of it is to help GMs improve their game,
and any tips or advice you could pass along would be much
appreciated.

These guidelines can be summed up in a single sentence:

Quality and useful game mastering advice for any game system
or genre is always welcome, regardless of grammar or writing
skills.

I'll make you a deal--I'll tweak the spelling and grammar if
you share your secrets. :) Single or stand-alone tips for
the Readers' Tips Of The Week section are always needed, and
full-length feature articles are great too.


Table Of Contents
=================
1. 15 Tip Topic Requests
2. Sending In Tips & Articles
3. Grammar Advice From Dave Gross, Former Editor Of
   Dragon Magazine
4. Tip Writing Advice from Johnn
5. Legal Stuff
6. Important Last Notes
7. Contact Information


1. 15 Tip Topic Requests
========================
Recently, I've been publishing a lot of articles covering
gaming etiquette and world creation/content. These topics
are perfectly fine, but I'd like to see more focus put on
the art of game mastering and storytelling in the near
future to balance things out. GMing encompasses many skill
sets and I'd like the ezine to help readers with a wide
gamut of tip topics.

Session Tips
------------
1. Tips For Creating Suspense & Drama
2. Tips For Creating Fear & Paranoia
3. Tips For Creating & Running Mysteries & Clues
4. Tips On Better Roleplaying
5. Tips On Helping Players Create Interesting PCs

Organization Tips
-----------------
6. Session & Story Planning Tips
7. Tips On Speeding Up Combat
8. Tips On Running Smoother Games
9. Advice About GM Binders & Information Management
10. GM Planning & Designing Tips (Methods, Processes)

Storytelling Tips
-----------------
11. Tips On Winging It
12. Narrative & Speaking Tips
13. Tips On Improving A GM's Game-Table Charisma
14. Advice On How To Make A Story Interesting
15. Tips On Pacing

There are many, many more great topics that aren't covered
here. If you have a subject you're interested in writing
about, and it's not on this list, don't worry about it--just
write your tip(s) and email them on in.


2. Sending In Tips & Articles
=============================

Sending In Tips
---------------
All RPG-related and game mastering tips are welcome. Type
your tips, tricks, techniques, and ideas in an email and
send them to me at: address@hidden

That's it. I'll take care of spelling and grammar, so don't
worry about that stuff.

Also, my policy is to credit you using your first name and
the first letter of your last name. i.e.:

   From: Johnn F.

Let me know if you want me to credit your full name, email
address, and/or a web site (Tip: gaming companies and
writers have reported getting great exposure by including
their URL with their tips.)


Sending In Ezine Articles
-------------------------
Whether you are looking to add a writing credit to your
portfolio, you have some advice you'd like to share with
your fellow GMs, you simply enjoy writing, or you are
looking for an effective way to promote your gaming
company/web site, your article is welcome!

* Email your article to: address@hidden

* Feel free to send me your topic idea before writing your
article, but it's not essential.

* Pick a specific topic and avoid wide-scope or expansive
topics. "Using Food In-Game To Enhance Adventures" is better
than "World Creation" because it's focused.

* Ideal length is 500-1500 words. Longer pieces might be
split into a multi-part series.

* Format is important. Split your article into 5-16 numbered
tips. Use as many bullet lists and ideas lists as possible.
Look at recent issues in the archives for examples of
format. http://www.roleplayingtips.com/archives.html

* Try to write each tip as an action item that a GM can
immediately perform or use at the game table. This keeps
your advice down to earth and useful to your readers.

* Don't forget to spell check. MS Word, plain text, and
email are all great formats.


3. Grammar Advice From Dave Gross, Former Editor Of
   Dragon Magazine
===================================================
Dave Gross was editor of Dragon Magazine when I first
started my DM's Toolbox column in Issue #284. He gave me a
few points of great RPG writing advice that I'd like to pass
along to you for your tip writing:

* Try to limit yourself to one "very" per article. It's one
of those words that means something only rarely, because
it's used so often.

* Beware of writing compound or complex sentences as two
sentences. If your sentence starts "And" or "So," maybe it's
part of the previous sentence.

* Relax a little! Use contractions when they "sound"
appropriate, and don't think so hard about your sentences so
they'll come out a little shorter and more natural.

* "Really" is another word to use only when you're making a
strong point about the difference between perception and
reality, or a necessary emphasis akin to "truly."

* Instead of starting a sentence with "But," try "On the
other hand," "Alternatively," or "Instead."

* Don't use "they" when your example is a single person. Use
"he" or "she," but not "he or she." Mix it up to make it
about 50/50, but don't give yourself eyestrain counting the
instances of either pronoun.

* Usually, "can" serves you better than "may," and "might"
is the word you usually want instead of "may" when talking
about permission. You'll never need to write "in order"
unless you mean "in sequence." Most of the time, that's a
superfluous phrase.

* Lose "etc." from your written vocabulary. Use "and so on"
if you must, but just end the examples in most cases.

* Lose "i.e." and other abbreviated Latin conjunctions. Use
English instead.

* Use "that" instead of "which" in almost every case except
those rare instances when "which" is correct. I'll explain
if you like, but it's boring. Basically, "which" comes after
a comma because it's a nonrestrictive conjunction. See? I
told you it was boring.


4. Tip Writing Advice from Johnn
================================
* The true test of a tip or bit of advice is usefulness.
Will your tip help a GM improve, even if it's by a tiny
measure? Note that improvement isn't always "an evolution"
but sometimes just doing something differently for a change.

* Keep tips and advice action-oriented. A GM must be able to
act on your advice in some way, else it's just fuzzy theory.

* Write for screen-reading (lots of headers, sub heads,
bullets, short paragraphs).

* Pick a topic or theme and stick closely to it. If your
article wanders topically, consider splitting it into
shorter, more focused articles.

* Focus on a problem that players or GMs could have, and
then present one or more solutions. Articles without
solutions are more like complaints. ;)

* Always feel free to send in a brief outline for approval
before writing the whole article (there are some topics I
won't publish).


5. Legal Stuff
==============
* Being a free ezine and all, RoleplayingTips.com cannot pay
you for your submissions. You'll have to settle for fame and
glory. :)

* I need to reserve the right to make final approval and
edits on submissions. Your submissions need to be original
work written by you. And you grant RoleplayingTips.com non-
expiring republishing rights (which means
RoleplayingTips.com can permanently store your article and
tips on its hard drives, web site, CD Roms, and so on) for
all of your submissions.

* You also grant republishing rights to the web sites,
companies, and individuals that RoleplayingTips.com has
allowed to repost its issues.


6. Important Last Notes
=======================
* Thanks again for your interest in submitting a tip or
article! I'm certainly not the world's best GM and I know
you definitely have some good tips yourself, even if you
think they're obvious. The core basics are always worth
repeating. So, please share your advice.

* If you just have a tip or two to send in, forget all these
guidelines and just send 'em on in. I'll deal with the
editing and formatting. I'd rather put a little effort into
some editing than not receive your tips at all. :)

* Topic requests are always welcome.

* Currently, I have articles queued for about the next 10
issues. As the ezine is weekly, that means your article will
appear in a couple of months or so. Sorry for the long
delay! I feel that if you've taken the time to write you
should see your work posted in a timely fashion, but that's
the reality of the situation currently.

I've played with the idea of publishing issues more
frequently but that takes extra time, money, and resources--
plus I don't think readers would want to suffer under
receiving two issues a week. :)

I've also toyed with the idea of a premium/paid version and
publishing that in addition to the current ezine (which will
always remain free!). I don't know if game masters would pay
for extra tips and advice though. If you have any thoughts
on this, drop me a note.


7. Contact Information
======================
Send your tips and articles to:
  address@hidden

I'm Canadian, eh. In the PST (GMT-8) time zone. Due to email
volume and a full-time day job, it can take me a few days to
return messages.

Please don't hesitate to email me with any questions or
comments you have. Also please let me know if you've found
any errors in this document. Thanks. :)

Warm regards,

Johnn Four
address@hidden
http://www.roleplayingtips.com