Hal Maclean's page

Sorry, sorry, sorry - please I don't mean to be rude about writers articles (d'oh I guess I didn't think the actual writers might be watching the message boards).

I appreciate each writer who excercises their talent and imagination each time they come up with material. Thank you.

I'm just not sure the Class Acts format is great. I want more than a single page.

I wasn't offended either and I didn't in any way consider your comments rude (you can keep the "polite" part of your name as far as I'm concerned :) ).

I've already said my piece re. why I think single page articles are sometimes useful so I won't repeat. But here's a thought expanding upon some of the posts I've read today:

Can folks list some of the CAs that have appeared that they actually liked?

(as opposed to gnawing on the ones they didn't like :) )

Off the top of my head I was quite taken with "Tokens of Faith", "Knowstones" and the one that offered up a bunch of new arrows (for rangers? Unfortunately the name/relevent class escapes me at the moment). I'm sure if I give it a moment or two others would come to me.

Maybe if we take a look at them we could find a common thread?

Hei,

The 'Class Acts' articles are pretty much a waste of space!

In 1 page they manage to be short, shallow, mainly useless and even broken!

I still haven't seen 335 yet so I can't comment on any specific articles. But on the topic of one page articles.

(get ready for something profound here :) )

Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

Of course whether you categorize an article as good (i.e. useful) or bad (i.e. not useful) depends to a great extent upon your own needs at the time and personal experience. Some of the 140+ CAs that have appeared in the last 13 issues have left me scratching my head, but lots of others have left my rubbing my hands and thinking about how I can put them to work in my own campaign.

The eleven pages given over the Class Acts are my favorite part of the magazine that actually deals with gaming (gotta confess, I read the comics first :) ).

Sure, if you put some or all of those pages back into the features pool you will get some meatier articles elsewhere. But whether or not you find them good (i.e. useful) or bad (i.e. not useful) will once again depend upon your own needs at the time and your personal experience.

Yes, reducing the pages allocated to CAs will make the Darwinian struggle amongst the articles a little bit fiercer. Meaning overall only the most fit will survive and in general the quality should rise. However, there will be a price to be paid for this.

With space for fewer articles the onus will be on making sure each one counts and reaches to broadest audience possible. That means some quirky, even oddball, articles that would have been acceptable with the one page format won't make the cut.

To use examples of what I mean from other industries.

It's the difference between HBO (Sopranos)and CBS (Survivor).

It's the difference between the giant bookstore on the edge of town that pretty much focuses on bestsellers and high volume magazines and the eccentric little used book store where you sometimes find a gem buried in the piles.

I'm drifting off topic here a little. My point, the one page format served a purpose, as a showcase for stuff that while interesting could not, should not, work for longer articles. Those 700 hundred words gave us a chance to play with ideas in a way that you simply can't when dealing with a 5000 word article.

I haven't received issue #335 yet so I can't comment on it specifically. But there does seem to be a slight jump in your comments from "it needs a theme" to "I don't like the theme or at least the approach taking". Which I think you will agree are two different points (if I'm misinterpreting you my appologies).

Personally I like themes too. Not just for the ways they stimulate my own imagination but also because it makes it easier to find a particular article! Once your pile of magazines gets large enough that becomes a consideration :)

So, what was the theme of Issue #335? Forgotten Realms? There were four articles related to that. However, one was fiction (and generally, I've considered all fiction published in Dragon crap since about Issue #10), and one was an interview with Ed Greenwood. That really leaves only two articles that are "Realms Specific Game Material". And both dealt with bards. I wouldn't consider that sufficient breadth to consider it a Forgotten Realms Theme Issue. Perhaps Bards in the Forgotten Realms? That's a little too specific. Something more general would be better.

Now, Hal, about your article - I actually don't dislike it. I think there is an interesting concept there. However, it is not designed for fighters, and I think you know that.

Thank you :)

As I already said, part of the goal of the article was to get readers thinking about fighters in new ways by presenting feats (the essential fighter class trait) tied to a non-class skill (Perform). Yup, I suspect that a lot of them will find their ways onto the character sheets of bards, fighter/bards and other class combos as well as pure fighters.

Which is cool to me :)

Personally I like CAs that can apply to more then one class since it increases their portability within the campaign. For instance, I wouldn't object to a bard using Knowstones. Yes, I know that's not exactly a fair comparison, both bards and sorcerers cast spells in substantially the same way making it a much easier cognitive leap then the Perform/bonus feats concept of "Cultured Combatants".

To use one of my CAs (as opposed to dragging poor Joshua Cole into it :) ) as an example instead, I wrote "Vision Quests" a while back now for barbarians. However, I would not object to a ranger, druid or character from any appropriately savage background taking the feat and going on a vision quest.

To sum it up, as a reader and a writer I like CAs that push the envelope in some way, offering new rules, new ideas or encouraging readers to think differently about their characters. One of the great traits of the short format is that you can try things that would never make it through the screen of a longer article. It's sort of like a laboratory allowing you to experiment with ideas. I think Mike (the editor in charge CAs) called it the "Unearthed Arcana" section of Dragon.

However, that being said, I see your point and I will keep it in mind when dreaming up ideas for future articles. I've got two in the next issue for instance that hopefully you will find more in keeping with the traditional concept of the classes they represent.

I do appreciate the feedback :). In my book anyone who takes the time out of his or her life to present a well reasoned commentary (and avoiding any of the nastiness that seems so common in this virtual age) deserves an equally well reasoned and respectful response.

Hopefully I met your expectations since you certainly met mine :)

Hal

If I had one suggestion, it would be to go back to the "theme" issues. I still say that Issue #301 was better than any of the issues following.

Could you expand a little upon what you mean by theme issues? I was under the impression that many/most issues still were themed around particular topics. For instance, 328 dealt with PC races didn't it?

(I'm fuzzy on numbers, just ask the tax people :) so if I got the issue wrong my appologies)

And I know three or four issues a year are geared towards perennial themes like dragons and horror.

BTW, as the fellow who wrote those "Cultured Combatants" articles I see your point. But sometimes it's nice to give a PC a reward for taking a less then optimal skill array even if just to encourage them to try out some unconventional characters. A fighter schooled in the courtly graces who strums on his lute when not flailing about with his sword seems like a neat idea. Yeah, a lot of them could -and probably in most campaigns will- work with bards, or fighter/bards (and many other combos), but slanting the article specifically to bards just seemed too easy.

Sure, there's a certain logic in giving new feats for wizards tied to Spellcraft or Concentration, just like you could do Knowledge (religion) for clerics, Survival for rangers or Disable Device for rogues. Pretty much every member of the class has ranks in those critical skills, just like every bard would have ranks in Perform. But there's lots of those sorts of feats out there already so why not a few for the less obvious character designs?

I guess it's more of an esthetic thing for me. All of my most memorable characters have been a little bit quirky, druids with allergies, clerics who got blamed their gods for every little set back and, yeah, fighters who dreamed of standing on stage and basking in the warm glow of an appreciative audience.

Medesha wrote:

3) Class Acts was originally 11 articles a month; now it is 12 due to repeated requests for non-core class articles.

Or will be soon, anyway. :)

I've got this great idea for an article on mute ninjas... :)

Surely there's a massive demand to fill that particular niche?

Hmm... Has anybody been *submitting* Winning Races articles as of late?

I pitched one a few weeks ago as part of a bunch of other article ideas. It was for a new race rather then one already found in one of the existing books (at least I hope so :) ) so I'm interested to see if it gets any nibbles.

I haven't seen the issue yet myself (thank you post office)

Well, my issue finally arrived last week but I didn't have a chance to read it until last night. Another excellent issue! Mind you, not perfectly suited for my needs -however I'm just one voice in the choir :)- but more enough to keep me coming back for seconds and thirds.

I only skimmed the two adventures that are tied to on going sagas ("Blackwall Keep" and "Blood of Malar") but from what I could see they they appear fairly simple to run as stand alones. Once I have all the parts I plan to give them a more detailed read.

(and likely plunder the best ideas for my own campaign... :) )

"Clockwork Fortress" on the other hand was a real gem that completely drew me in. Not only an engaging plot and exciting encounters but also with a gorgeous back story. I may have to reread "Old King Bog" soon just to see if it's been knocked out of first place for the last year or so :)

"Menagerie" gave me a new respect for a much neglected monster. I only used the ravid myself once, and didn't think much of it, but this opened my eyes to a world of other possibilities. With me the real proof of the depth of an article or an adventure is the "that could stand on it's own" moment. When you see something, just casually tossed in that could easily develop into an article itself. In this case it was the little sidebar on different kinds of animated objects. I could easily see that as a "Campaign Workbook" all its own, listing a bunch of unusual objects, by size and outlining their special combat effects.

(e.g. "Stapler (tiny object)whenever it deals maximum damage the target must make a DC 11 Fort save or become pinned in place, unable to leave his square until he either makes a Fort save in subsequent rounds or yanks himself free dealing 1d4 damage to himself in the process." That's not the best write up but imagine a few dozen common or not so common objects with similar ideas attached to them)

Once again, in "Dungeon Craft" Monte Cook took something I already used and showed me ways to make it even better.

Now at last we move into my favorite part of the magazine, the reason I resubscribed after a decade or more of absence.

"Merchant Madness",the first of the CWs, nicely blended presenting adventure ideas with some useful NPC patrons/foils in a format that is very, very, unforgiving to the long winded (take it from someone who knows :) ). That's a tough tightrope to walk without falling off on one side or the other. It gave just enough to spark the imagination.

"Swamp Dangers" managed not only to present some useful hazards (Choking Cinder Fungus :) ) but also nicely captured the atmosphere of the swamps too. Pestilent, vermin plagued and down right unpleasant.

And finally we have the return of "Critical Threats"!

(I guess I can stop holding my breath now... Good thing, was starting to get a bit woozy :) ) A brand spanking new NPC, with lots of interesting bits of history to develop and nibble on. The crunchy elements were a nice touch too.

That mental image of a tatooed and pierced former dancing girl ripping her way through a group of PCs in some kind of savage frenzy is absolutely priceless.

Hal Maclean wrote:

You know, the traditional time to stage a coup is when "El Supremo" leaves the capital...

I suggest that you use your legion of plushies to seize control of the radio and TV stations first :)

Mike's siezed control of his truck... the regular editorial staff has left the building, leaving me and a tiny bamboo plant to run the magazines. The time IS ripe for a coup, if only the two of us can overcome our idealogical differences....

-James

I suspect the plant is an idealist, if you simply publicly announce your commitment to the phyotosynthetic process it will likely back you. By the time it realizes how deeply you have consolidated your grip it will be too late.

Remember, nitrogen is the opiate of the people...

The Art of James Jacobs will feature over a thousand painstakingly rendered depictions of the creatures in Mr. Jacobs head.

If you come out with an audio version featuring the voices in his head sign me up for a pre-order :)

You know, the traditional time to stage a coup is when "El Supremo" leaves the capital...

I suggest that you use your legion of plushies to seize control of the radio and TV stations first :)

For questions like this, oftentimes the easiest way to find the answer is to look through a recent issue of Dungeon for an example. Opening 126 to a random page (31) we see: "The reptiles give the harpies a safe place to sleep, tasty carrion to eat, and occasional humanoid sacrifices to 'play' with, and in return the harpies watch over the lair at night."

From that, you can deduce that the Dungeon style does place a serial comma before the “and,” and therefore you should as well.

Sorry James.

With me it's a matter of whether or not I take any kind of pause or place a special emphisis upon the "and" when reading the phrase out loud (which I usually do several times before sending something in... not that it protects me from stupid mistakes :) ).

For instance, consider the difference between "the sun, the moon and the stars" as opposed to "the sun, the moon, and the stars".

If you were reading the second one out loud it would sound something like this "the sun, the moon, AND the stars".

So, obviously, I'm not one of the twelve ascended masters of grammer and style. I rely upon instinct and what my own ear suggests is most appropriate. But since there seems to be some sort of convention in play I'll try to keep that in mind when using comma sequences.

BTW, just in case any of the twelve ascended masters of gramer and style happen to be out there, does anyone remember what a gerund is?

(never could keep that one straight :) )

I remember my fifth grade teacher was not amused when I wrote "a fruit with a hard shell" on a quiz...

Zherog wrote:

Mike? A guru?

:rofl:

::Notes to reject all of Zherog's future submissions.::

You're a guru? That explains why all your emails begin with "oooohmmm".

If you move to an ashram and spend your days meditating who gets your stuff?

(gurus are non-materialistic right? or is that gnus... :) I always get them mixed up)

For the most part, though, we prefer to include prestige classes as part of a larger article, such as with the Demonomicon.

What's the average word count for the new PrC format? As I recall the old ones varied from around 1200-1500 (5 levels) to 2000+ (10 levels). There's a lot more stuff with the new format so I'm curious if anyone has done any kind of sample.

That's a very interesting idea, though I can see the logic of the objections to it as well. The overall concept, of presenting a fully developed B plot for a campaign that slowly unwinds, is also really intriguing. Reminds of "Secrets of the Towers" (issue #10 I believe) and I can't off the of my head recall anyone else ever taking that notion and running with it.

(wish I had thought of it :) ).

Any plans to take another stab at the concept is it more standard adventure ideas from now on?

For the twelve issues since the relaunch. I already discovered I made an error with the CA count, if there's any others here my apologies for them as well.

Top Ten Contributors (By Page Count)

(1) Mike Mearls (46)
(2) Keith Baker, James Jacobs, Joshua Cole (35)
(3) F. Wesley Schneider (30)
(4) Mike McArtor (26)
(5) Mark A. Hart (25)
(6) Eric Cagle (22)
(7) Hal Maclean (21)
(8) Kyla Ward (19)
(9) Bruce R. Cordell (17)
(10) Amber E. Scott (16)

Top Ten Contributors (By Page Count excluding Class Acts)

(1) Mike Mearls (37)
(2) Keith Baker, James Jacobs (35)
(3) Joshua Cole (23)
(4) Eric Cagle, F. Wesley Schneider (22)
(5) Kyla Ward (19)
(6) Mike McArtor, Mark A. Hart (18)
(7) Bruce R. Cordell (17)
(8) Ed Greenwood (13)
(9) Hal Maclean, David Schwartz (11)
(10) Matt Smith, Jason Bulmahn, Richard Faresse (10)

Comfy? Good. Stay right there, Hal. I'll be right back.

"SOMEBODY CALL FOR THE GUYS IN THE WHITE COATS! GET 'EM HERE, PRONTO! WE GOT AN EMERGENCY TYPE CASE HERE!"

Still feeling relaxed, Hal? Great. I have some friends coming over. They're nice people. They're going to help you. No problem at all.

All of a sudden I had a Simpson's image pop into my head, Homer running for garbage commisioner, interupting a U2 concert and Bono saying, "Don't worry folks he's getting the help he needs"

(as the giant screens show the roadies pounding on him :) )

I'm an avatar of chaos myself so I have no choice but to use files, color coded paper clips, idea logs, designating certain times for specific activities (pitch week) and all of my other little tricks to hold the shadow at bay. If I didn't I'm quite sure the clutter would eat me in my sleep :) Despite that I am still, unfortunately, all too familiar with the "looming piles of paper" to which you speak.

I haven't seen the article yet, so I'm so happy to read your praise, Troy! Wes told me it would undergo some serious edits as they revise the Ecology format,

They're revising the Ecology format? I haven't seen the issue yet either but I take it from the comments that it's getting some crunch?

Hal is probably our most organized contributor, at least from what I've seen interacting with him. :)

You're just saying that because I worked out the crunch/fluff ratio of articles in the last twelve issues. There's nothing weird about that.

(right? please?)

Actually, when you think of it, the sorts of people who are most often refered to as "organized" also sometimes end up featured in news stories with the phrase "quiet and kept to himself"

:)

Seemed like for a while Dragon Magazine did have a new dragon flavor of the month.

If we're talking flavors I vote for strawberry...

And a moment of silence for the those brave adventurers who ended up the "tasted" instead of the "tasters"

!

More than the sum of its parts, Dungeon 126 is a great exercise in C Y-ing your “A.” Here comes Gencon and Mona and company must face the readership. So -

Talk about damning with faint praise :)

I haven't seen the issue yet myself (thank you post office) but I'm glad about the return of "Critical Threats" too. Personally, my favorite part of the magazine are the Campaign Workbooks at the back. I'd be happy if all four/five were included in each issue, but even one or two is better then nothing.

So what about things on the Dragon side? What's a reasonable expectation over there for hearing back on queries and/or submissions?

It varies considerably, depending upon the time of year, the needs of the editor ("an interesting idea, perfect for that issue we're planning six months from now...")and numerous other factors. I was recently asked for an outline for something I originally queried back in January. On the other hand I was once given a deadline of less then a week.

The guidelines say they'll reply within 12 weeks so I usually send in an email about that time if I haven't heard back. I also, if need be, send follow up emails if I don't hear back on the first one :).

On the subject of queries specifically, I tend to pitch a lot all at once, and then stagger the resulting deadlines out over a couple of months. It usually takes at least a month to hear back on feature queries, and sometimes quite a bit longer.

They're levels members of a given race can take in place of the normal classes. They help to customize the class by making it a bit more racial themed. You can find them for sure in the "Races of" books. I don't recall if they're in any other sources or not.

I just finished a CA that offered substitution levels for any member of a particular class, not tied to a specific race. We'll see how that works out. I still had to come up with a theme for them though.

Yeah, I got "resubmit with changes" too (along with a bucklet load of "No thanks", "Forget it", "What do you take me for?" and strangely enough even one "A liquidation squad has been dispatched to your location you commie/mutant/traitor" :) ).

I did learn one thing though, apparently they aren't interested in "Backdrops" right now. Not sure if anyone else has touched on this but I thought I would mention it.

what's all this talk of elimination... positive thoughts people! I submitted a whole slew of ecology proposals this weekend... I'm looking forward to many rejections... and with luck at least one "we'd like to see more"

- Ashavan

Yeah, I just wrapped up another "pitch week" myself. Final total, thirty-three unless I missed a few here and there (slippery little buggers :) ). Assuming a few get the nod I probably won't trot out any more ideas until around Christmas.

Of course, I've still got two articles left to go from my last pitch week, but if I can just manage to coordinate my queries properly I should hopefully hear back right around the time of the last deadline :)

(Zen and the art of article queries...)

Which magazine did you "kill off" Hal?

Two as I recall, both charitably called "small press" (we're talking micro, we're talking "our core demographic are the preteen offspring of nanobots" :) ).

One had a title something like "Youthquake", and was dedicated to serving as "the voice of the emerging majority" (which I think meant people born in the early to mid 70's :) ). The other was something like "Coastal Dreamers" intended to serve as a forum for regional fiction.

But it does seem, now that I've graduated to killing off departments within magazines, that my aim has improved. Not sure what the next step would be, maybe certain kinds of punctuation?

(semi-colon, you're a dead man!)

One of the ones Matt wanted to see was a prestige class. At some point after my submission of the article, it was decided to drop "Gaining Prestige" as a regular feature, and I got the bad news somepoint shortly after that.

I don't recall if that was the first article I had rejected or not, but that's the first one that actually stung a little bit. The worst part of that rejection, though, was the news that Dragon wasn't accepting queries for prestige classes at the time. I was just about to send in my next query, and it had probably a half dozen or so prestige classes that I use in my game - so I pretty much had to scrap the entire query.

*sniff* I still get all verklempt just thinking about it... *sniff* Talk amongst yourselves....

:P

Don't even get me started on that!

(oops too late :) )

I wrote a bucket load of "Adventurer Tricks", "Player's Tips" and "Heroic Feat" articles in sequence, each scrapped only after my deluge. I began to suspect I had the reverse Midas touch when I dutifully started in on "Gaining Prestige" and "Winning Races" articles, which also promptly went extinct as regular features.

On one level though it was an improvement, prior to killing departments I used to kill entire magazines :) All it took was for an editor to accept something I had written and the magazine was sure to go belly up before it made it too print.

Compliments to the gang at Paizo for surviving my radioactive writing :)

How about a city on the plane of air in a never ending free fall?

The plane's still infinite right?

I want to know if I'm the only one to experience this; I'm looking forward to getting a rejection notice for my first Dragon Magazine queries! Is that so strange?

Yes, I know I should be optimistic, but this *is* my first query. I really just want a response! Am I the only one to feel this way?

I can't say as I remember my first rejected query (there've been so many :) ). But I do remember my first rejected article, "Staffs for Specialists", with some fondness.

Good luck!

I think this is a great idea! I was thinking of something similar to this awhile ago, based on crime and punishment. I sort of love it and hate it when I see things like this on the boards. I first feel like my own idea has been validated, but then I worry about submitting lest I look like a hack stealing ideas from others. I saw mention from someone on anther board about an article they would like to...

Generally I don't talk about any ideas I have in a public venue either. Best case scenario it gives you some competition, worst case it attracts criticism before it's ready or it becomes passe even before you can pitch it.

However, in this case the thing to keep in mind is that there's an emerging concensus that flaws have played themselves out. I was simply trying to show that there's more ways to skin that particular cat and flaws could serve a very useful role in many campaigns. Plus, I think the idea of connecting flaws to specific feats is kind of neat.

WOO, I made the top 10!

I have one this issue too. :-D Um, barbarian, I think.

Zherog (John E. Ling Jr.) should be getting up there in the count too.

-Amber S.

Oops, you're right.

(glad I apologized for any errors in advance :) )

Somehow managed to count him as two different people. Three CAs in one issue, rocketing him into a tie for tenth place with a bullet :)

Anyone like stats?

There've been 12 issues so far that feature Class Acts articles and this, based upon my admittedly sometimes wonky calculator finger seems to be the results. Just for the record "Crunchy"=new game content/rules while "Fluffy"=advice, historical flavor and similar things.

Total # of Class Acts Articles in Sample: (131) Crunchy (62) (47%) Fluffy (69) (53%)

Top Ten Contributors

(1) Joshua Cole (12)
(2) Hal Maclean (10)
(3) Mike Mearls (9)
(4) Mike McArtor (8)
(5) F. Wesley Schneider (8)
(6) Richard Pocklington (8)
(7) Troy E. Taylor (8)
(8) Mark A. Hart (7)
(9) Amber E. Scott (7)
(10) Richard Faresse, Paul Leach (5)

If I missed anybody, got a name or a count wrong, my appologies :)

Total # of Class Articles contributed by this group (87) (66%)

I don't think I've ever actually pitched an ecology article, though they seem like fun so I know I will at some point :)

About doing one on an iconic monster like the beholder or the illithid. I could be wrong, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if WotC has recently come out with a book dealing with the creature (e.g. Lords of Madness) the bar might be set a bit higher until the novelty wears off. That being said, I would loooove to see an ecology of the aboleth...

On the subject of rejected pitches, boy oh boy do I get a lot of them!

(I believe the technical term is "oodles" :) )

I tend to make pitches for features and the like only a couple of times a year. Each "Halkrieg" as I call it, usually totals 20 to 30 ideas by the time I run out of gas. For instance, back in January I trotted out about 25 ideas (five to an email max!!) and got the greenlight for 5 of them which I then wrote over March/April/May. So far I've only heard back on the first of them, tentatively scheduled to appear in that oh so precise "sometime early next year" :) and the other four are still in limbo at the moment.

Ideas are everywhere once you start looking for them, it's just a matter of getting in the habit of remaining receptive.

Righto!

(and if need be, Tallyho too...)

On the subject of flaw articles, I recently had an idea for a variation on the theme. Specialized flaws differ from regular flaws in two key ways.

(1) A character may take a specialized flaw past 1st level though it still counts towards the maximum number of flaws she may take (i.e. 2).

(2) A character who takes a specialized flaw gains a bonus feat, however, she must take the particular feat mandated by the specialized flaw.

Of course, if you later eliminate the drawbacks of the flaw you also lose access to the bonus feat. Not sure if anyone else has had this idea before, too many books out there to read them all :)

The genesis for this idea comes from searching for some way to induct characters into secret societies/mystical orders and similar things. The flaw represents the consequences of a vow, sacrfice or ordeal undertaken during the process of membership while the mandated bonus feat represents the advantages of joining.

So for instance, a character might undergo a trial by ordeal with some sort of volcanic themed race (the "lavafolk" for lack of a better name) plunging her hand into a molten pool and gaining the "Charred Hand" flaw as a consequence. However, she would also immediately gain the "Kin of the Lavafolk" feat, whatever that might be.

Personally I think flaws have a lot of potential, but there's a natural tendency to only take them if you can avoid most of the disadvantages. This is where the DM has to step in.

Not to hijack the thread into a discussion on flaws but any oppinions?

I've never pitched an ecology article myself (although I'd like to try one sometime). However, here's an outline for "The Plunderer's Handbook" which appeared a few issues back. As you can see some of the elements I wanted to deal with got chopped out either during the writing process or the editing process. I tend to write looooong so some things have to go!

(and yeah I know, some stuff just turns out to rely upon faulty game mechanics so please don't bother pointing them out :) )

The Plunder's Handbook (Outline)

Original Pitch

The Plunderer’s Handbook (Advice)

Money makes the campaign world go around too… To a
greater or lesser extent we are all motivated by the
hunt for treasure. Beautiful baubles, items of mystical
power, cold hard cash. This article will present tips
and strategies to help readers answer three critical
questions.

(a) How can I squeeze every possible copper piece out
of an adventuring site?

(b) How do I get all of this loot out of the dungeon?

(c) How do I keep all of my treasure until I am ready
to spend it?

-Intro/Teaser "All that glitters….

"Belongs to you.

"Or at least to your character."

Leave No Stone Unturned: Squeezing Every Last Copper
out of an Adventuring Site

-Money hungry (finding the treasure once the site is
cleared of active threats)

-Everything is valuable to someone (figuring out who
might want to buy something)

-With friends like these-using others (prisoners,
monsters, etc) to help you find treasure

-Sidebar (The Tightwad's Toolbox)

-Suggesting some useful equipment for treasure
hunters ranging from pliers (gold teeth) to scales to a
rod of metal and mineral detection

-Dead or alive (selling monsters, monster body parts,
ransoming prisoners, etc)

-Powerplay (feeblemind + Handle Animal)

-Handle Animal works for any creature with an
Intelligence of 1 or 2, though with a +5 DC on the
check, this means any enemy with its Intelligence
reduced via feeblemind could be trained to serve you
(dragons, manticores, etc)

-Less is better then None (e.g. it's smarter to melt
down a gold statue and sell the bars then leave it
behind)

-Sidebar (You gotta spend money to make money…
Preferably someone else's.)

-Getting others to expend resources on your behalf

-Selling the Site (making money off the dungeon locale
itself)

Nothing Gets Left Behind: Taking Your Treasure Home

-Porters and Packbeasts (finding people and creatures
to carry your stuff home)

- casting animate dead on your enemies, mule trains and
shadow walk, all those peasants who say "if only we
had some way to repay you" etc

-Containers (ideas for the things you put the stuff in)

-permanently animate a chest/wagon and fill it up,
magic items like bags of holding, filling up a Daern's
Instant Fortress/boat of folding and then deactivating
it to turn it into a manageable bundle, etc

-Sidebar (Death and Taxes)

-Dealing with custom inspectors and the like

-Concealing your Valuables (ways to hide them during
the trip)

-baleful polymorph on a fully loaded elephant, turn a
pack mule to stone so no one can steal what it's
carrying, etc

What's Mine, Stays Mine: Keeping Your Treasure Safe
Until You're Ready to Spend it

-Buried Treasure (simply hiding your loot)

-Guards (setting up protectors to deter would be
robbers)

-Sidebar (What's the Exchange Rate?)

-converting your treasure into something more
manageable

-Noxious (making your treasure useless or dangerous for
others as a way of deterrence)

I personally think that I can write good articles for Dragon. Perhaps I should. However, if I write articles for Dragon, its utility for me declines. Why? It is simply regurgitating material I already have available to me.

I've found that there's a lot of feedback in the editorial process. The advice, the revisions (the rejections :) )have given me a better understanding of my blindspots in my own campaign. You get a better understanding of the structure underlying the game once you start trying to work out how to balance a mechanic, or really reading a spell description to make sure you've got it right (I swear by all that's holy I was positive ray of enfeeblement had a saving throw :) and let's not even get into the alter self/person fiasco... ).

But that's just me, to each his own I guess.

On the subject of unpleasant labels and pointless feuds. Let's face it, some people, whether due to their temperament or their social development seem to make use of a lot provacative language. Personally I would appreciate a bit of civility since recently I've found myself checking out this site pretty much every day. Perhaps the best way to deal with those folks who seem to be going out of their way to pick fights is just to ignore them (why do I feel like I'm channeling my fourth grade teacher all of a sudden...)

I don't mean to be facetious, but surely all magazines are primarily composed of what the editor's like? I think -if I understand your point correctly- you are trying to say that Dragon's content should be based upon what the fans want right?

So then maybe we should discuss if the current content actually is what the readers want (which is presumably the point of this thread).

From my perspective, I switched over from a "browse and maybe, if I liked what I saw, buy" reader to a subscriber because of the rumors of the relaunch. The many departments, with the promise of something for everyone seemed like a good idea to me. As the song says, you can't always get what you want, but maybe, if there's enough stuff in each issue you'll always get something.

Personally I was leery of the giant articles when they started to appear, but so far they've all been quite good (gotta love those Demonomicons :) ). The fact that they tend to contain lots of secondary material related to the main theme also makes sure there's a little something for everyone.

I'm only one reader among many so I don't think it's possible to get a magazine that perfectly suits my needs all the time. For instance, I rather liked "Player's Tips" and "Adventurer Tricks" but apparently lots of others didn't so they got chopped.

My favorite articles in the last year or so have both been "advicey", offering up new ways to use the existing rules (both by Mike Mearls I believe). One on fighting in the dark (Who's afraid of the Dark) and the other on clever ways to use equipment found in the PHB (Bedrolls and Bells? something like that :)).

So I would advocate a balanced approach, a little bit of this and a little bit of that, rather then tilting the magazine too far towards the taste of one particular type of gamer.

I'm in the midst of writing a campaign workbook (actually, I'm almost done), but am unable to figure out what category it should go into. Without ruining it (not that I expect it to get accepted), let's just say that it has to do with adventure hooks. My co-author thinks that should be 'the journey', as the journey is about the path to adventures, but I think 'the journey' is specifically about the wilderness and that it should be 'the dungeon'. Who's right?

I could be wrong but I doubt if the label is all that important. It'll get slotted into where the editors think it fits best anyway. Just slap on the one that makes the most sense to you (that's all I do :) ).

However, since you're in a dispute...

The two CW's of mine to actually make it into print were -I believe- both for the dungeon and offered up adventure hooks just like yours. Maybe you could settle the issue by thinking more of the source of the hooks then where the hooks will lead. For instance, if you did an article about things overheard in the marketplace that's for the city but if it was about strange signs in the night sky and where they might take you it's probably for the journey.

Personally, I like Class Acts, which is why I've written a number of them. They're the first parts of the magazine I read each month, and (since I'm a DM) I often find interesting ideas to apply to my never ending, ever growing legion of NPCs to help make them a little bit more memorable. Not every idea works for me each month, but that's no reason to chop out the section. Likely some of the ones that work for me won't work for someone else and vice versa, meaning it's a matter of taste as opposed to quality.

As a writer I also enjoy the challenge of fitting a workable idea into 700 words (and I don't always succeed, which is why some of them end up as two parters :) ). I've already pitched several ideas to Mike that he suggested would work better as features and I've dutifully passed them on to Jason for his input. Hopefully a few of those will see print at some point.

(BTW, just in case there's anyone looking to start some kind of "you're biased because..." fight, I suspect that if the editors adopted a "less but longer" CA format I would still find ways to slip in a few articles here and there :) )

I do have two Critical Threat submissions that are about to hit the six month mark though, so maybe I'll email Jeremy about those. I'd wait a week to bug him though... he just got back from vacation to what I'm sure is a mountain on his desk.

- Ashavan

Six months? Bah!

:)

As of right now, though subject to change without notice, I've got a CT scheduled to appear in issue #127, which I first submitted about 30 months ago (March '03).

A single drop of water (or the regular, every six month nagging email :) ) can wear down even the most unyielding stone.

I once made up a cloak that did something like that. Sort of like a magical raincoat, kept water 1 ft. away from the wearer at all times. Things went fine, the PC got some kicks out of running through water elementals and the like. And then, one session, he got knocked off the prow of a ship...

:)

Loooogn fall, and then a splat at the bottom of the ocean.

(I said there was lots of mud to break his fall and let him teleport out... after I stopped laughing)

PS ...Hal ...I've really enjoyed some of your work. Keep it up.

Thanks, from your mouth to the editorial ear :)

Nice job on Essential Works, btw... I really liked that one.

- Ashavan

Thanks, it began life as a rejected Dragon article a couple of years ago, all I managed to keep from the first (and second :) ) draft was the title. Oddly enough, due to some miscommunications the way I found out that it had been accepted was by opening up the issue it appeared in... (bit of an oopsy there :) ) I was reading it and I thought to myself, "This seems familiar, what a weird case of deja vu."

As to your other question, of all the various kinds of CW articles I've only written one "Critical Threat", and I found it quite difficult keeping within the word limits. Most of the other ones are really just collections of smaller entries, so all I have to do is chop out the extras. That new stat block does look formidable, so I think I'll trot out some ideas for "The Cast" in the next few weeks just to get the practice :)

To put it another way, I've never had a CW article explicitly *rejected* yet, even though several of the ones I've submitted (like the 'Intelligent Magic Items' Cast article) are unlikely to ever see print.

You wrote one too? D'oh! :)

Want to compare notes? Drop me a line at haltalk@gmail.com and I'll forward you my version in exchange. I'd like to see how someone else handled the idea, especially if we canceled each other out...

I wrote mine back around the same time as "Essential Works" and "Treasure Trails" so I had my suspicions that maybe it had been shunted off track for some reason.

Just a couple of quick questions. Is anyone else here waiting for confirmation (YAY!) or rejection (RATS!) from this round of proposals?

Also, how many proposals do potential writers average in a three month period between the 'slush-pile' meetings? Usually, I average 4 per meeting, sometimes 5 sometimes 3...but about 1 proposal every 3 weeks or so.

Nine of my fifteen adventure outlines were passed on so far, leaving six still floating around. I also have two "backdrop" outlines waiting for a yea or nay. This was the first time I made a serious stab at Dungeon, not counting the half dozen or so "Campaign Workbook" articles I've written. Since I usually average about thirty pitches to Dragon every few months I wasn't sure how many I should have sent Dungeon's way. Apparently that was a lot (especially since I sent a bunch of them in before this thread started and I discovered I was emphasizing the wrong things :) ).

Hal Maclean wrote:

Sahagin, sahaugin, solongandthanksforallthefish...

(at least it wasn't ixit... ixitalc... those bloody manta ray things :) )

Ah yes, the ixitxachitl... the evil villains of my rejected adventure, Rays of Erythnul. ::sigh::

- Ashavan

You could have a lot of fun with them, maybe create a "Puppet Masters" styled scenario. Cross breed them with aboleth, make them smaller, give them the enslave power but require them to maintain physical contact with their victims. Let them draw sustenance from their thralls, allowing them to spend most of their days out of water, but require their victims to spend at least an hour a day in the tub/well/river etc.

I certainly do. I had my first adventure published in issue #12 of [i]Dungeon[/i

When I read that I couldn't resist digging that issue out and scanning the title page (the only one I remembered from good old #12 was "Huddle Farm").

Sceptre of the Underworld! One of the few solos to make it into the magazine. I remember something about a stone golem killing me off the first time around, and I think getting betrayed by drow at the end...

Ironically enough once I finally finished "Sceptre" off the fighter you created to serve as the character (Jan? Jay? something like that) found a new life as a henchman/bodyguard for my regular character, a magic user named Gillmore. He eventually gave his life to buy Gillmore some time during the climax of the "The Mines of Bloodstone", letting the surviving members of the party send Orcus back to where he belonged. So thanks for that :)

On the subject of advice to contributors, one red faced moment from me. If you mention a monster in your proposal make sure you spell the name right :)

Sahagin, sahaugin, solongandthanksforallthefish...

(at least it wasn't ixit... ixitalc... those bloody manta ray things :) )

It's time the truth came out - Mike McArtor is not human. Designed in secret by the U.S. government, the McA-1 is a uniquely engineered ettiquete and hospitality cyborg, modeled on the Judith Martin/Ms. Manners design of the Cold War and implemented as part of a plot to make citizens of other countries so polite through his example that they're all busy writing thank-you notes when our soldiers invade.

Is he by any chance gold plated? And how to you explain the British accent? :)

I will pass the warning on to my fellow Canucks but the politeness strategem is all but unbeatable. If the invaders can just learn to say "sorry" when someone steps on their toes their Canadian camauflage will be perfect.

Truth be told I always suspected a more organic explanation for his unusual origin. Mike is a member of the rarest and most endangered of endangered species...

People who laugh at my jokes.

We must work tirelessly to preserve them no matter what the expense, getting the radio tracking tag into his ear alone took three tranquilizer darts... :)

I just wanted to take a moment to give a public tip of the hat to Mike McArtor, one of the assistant editors at Dragon. Last friday -Canada Day for me and the other 32 million Canucks up here :)- he sent me, and apparently a number of other Canadian contributors a quick greeting and best wishes. He even went so far as to include the words to "Oh Canada" (in both official languages! :) ).

When you consider that it was the friday before his own country's national holiday, likely the best three day weekend of the year, it's pretty impressive that he took the time to send something like that out. It's the small details, the stuff you just do without any prompting or expectation of getting anything in return that tells you a lot about a person.

Now, if I could just figure out how to get Mongolian citizenship we'd have a real test of his skills... :)

True, however my main point was how these fundamentally identical flaws ended up in the same magazine just six months apart, particularly as the more detailed one was published first. Naughty Paizo, you owe us another cool arcane flaw now by my reckoning :)

I haven't seen the issue yet so I can't comment on the problem with that particular flaw. However, unless this has already appeared elsewhere here's a flaw that just occurred to me (once again, assuming I'm not inadvertently swiping it from someone else :) )

OVERSPECIALIZED (Flaw)

Your intense focus upon one particular form of magic, and disdain for all "lesser" schools sometimes trigers a backlash when you use magic foreign to your school.

PREREQUISITE: specialist

EFFECT: Whenever you cast a spell that does not belong to your school make a Fort save (DC=10+level of spell) to avoid suffering 2 damage/level of the spell.

You could tweak this in a number of ways, including dealing nonlethal damage or maybe work in fatigue instead of damage.

For another interesting variant the wizard could instead deal the damage to a willing nearby subject upon a failed save. If you add in the proviso that the wizard must form a magical connection with this subject (i.e. only one person at a time), and if the subject isn't nearby she can't cast the spell at all, you could create a magic system similar to the one found in Guy Gavriel Kay's "Fionavar Tapestry".

I've pitched that idea myself once or twice but to no avail, I couldn't find the right hook. The closest I came was some tangential notes I managed to slip into The Plunderer's Handbook (perhaps when no one was looking :) ).

I like that idea of the buyers and marketplaces though, it's not something that occurred to me. Hopefully that will push you over the top. Areas I'd love to see covered:

-Spell components (especially those metamagic ones)

-Magic item materials (e.g. wands made from dragonbone, extra abilities of some sort?)

-Curiosities, novelties and trinkets (e.g. minotaur mead horn)

-Industrial uses (e.g. using ground xorn as jewler's rouge)

-ultra-masterwork items (a master craftsmen and superior materials,e.g. a bow made from dragon bone)

-Gormet Food (baked basilisk anyone...)