Now Accepting Adventures!*

Thursday, November 19, 2009

*Sort of.

Beginning today, I am opening the door to the Pathfinder Society Organized Play open call not for a week but for a long, unspecified length of time. I am looking for three specific types of adventures (detailed below) for Pathfinder Society. I am NOT seeking generic Pathfinder RPG adventures nor am I asking you to pitch me a new Pathfinder Adventure Path. Any submissions that aren't specifically for Pathfinder Society Organized Play scenarios will be ignored.

Instead of asking you to send me a 750-word outline, I'm asking you to send completed adventures. A completed adventure cannot exceed 12,000 words and must (MUST!) follow the style for a Pathfinder Society Organized Play adventure scenario as established by the Season 1 scenarios. Those of you not brave enough to send a completed adventure can instead send me a short (less than 500 words) query instead that quickly describes the adventure. I will review completed adventures and queries as I receive them and respond appropriately. If I receive one that I like (especially if I receive a completed adventure that I like), I will likely give that author a contract and pay him or her for the adventure. If I receive one that I 80% like, I will likely ask that author to rewrite elements and resubmit for possible future publication. There is no guarantee at any point in this process that I will give you a contract and pay you for your work.

By making the opening the open call for a longer period of time, I hope to see an increase in the quality and volume of submissions. Paizo uses the Pathfinder Society Organized Play open calls to find new talent for our other product lines—maybe that new talent is you!

And now for some rules:

Rules of Submitting for the Pathfinder Society Organized Play Open Call

1. Only submit Pathfinder Society scenarios or scenario ideas. I won't even respond to other queries.

2. If you submit a complete 12,000-word adventure, you must include a scan of this PDF with your signature on it with your submission. If your submission lacks this PDF, it will be rejected without being read. The PDF is NOT necessary for 500-word queries.

3. All submissions must be made via email to pathfindersociety@paizo.com.

4. Your submission must be in .doc, .rtf, or .txt format.

5. Your submission must include your full legal name, physical mailing address, email address, and a contact phone number on the top of the first page. This does not count toward word count.

6. Your submission file (not the agreement PDF) must be named LASTNAME_TITLE.EXTENSION such as FROST_AMONGSTTHELIVING.doc.

7. The subject line of your submission email must be labeled the same: LASTNAME TITLE.

8. Allow 72 hours for a response before resubmitting. Allow for more time on a holiday weekend.

9. Read at least one season 1 scenario (you probably want to read all of them) before submitting. I can usually tell in about the first 50 words if you've actually read or played in a scenario.

10. Failure to follow any of the above rules will result in a rejection.

General Guidelines

Here are a few tips for your scenarios or scenario ideas:

1. Use our setting details to make your own story, don't cram your story so full of our canon that it reads like a Frankenstein's monster of other authors' work. Read this post for an example.

2. Understand that Pathfinder Society is not a good-aligned organization, nor is it evil. Also understand that evil characters are not allowed in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Also understand that all scenarios must be PG-13.

3. Avoid child endangerment stories. It's cheap, it's trite, and I'm tired of reading them.

4. Not really looking for comedies.

5. I am really looking for high adventure stories with drama, action, and roleplay.

6. Speaking of roleplay, I'd love for someone to knock me dead with a good murder mystery scenario. And I mean really good in the sense that after 4 hours of game play at a convention every class of player walks away from the table satisfied. Tall order, I know, but I'd love to see it happen.

7. #5 and #6 do not mean that all I want to see are high adventure stories and murder mysteries. If you have a really good idea that's neither of those two, I want to see it.

8. Only send me your best ideas and your (very important) BEST-WRITTEN ideas. You may send more than one idea.

9. NO EASTER EGGS. What I mean by that is this: don't be cute and include a reference to your favorite comic book/movie/song/etc. If we catch it, you're done. If we don't catch it, we could get the pants sued off of us. Just don't do it.

10. Passive voice is a rejection in the making. Read this website and this thread to understand passive voice.

11. Read this post. And this thread.

What Pathfinder Society is Currently Seeking

We need the following adventure submissions for Pathfinder Society Organized Play:

1. Tier 1–5 scenario set in Absalom.

2. Tier 1–5 scenario set in Qadira.

3. Tier 1–7 scenario set in Absalom.

Good luck!

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager