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Read game material. All of it. Don't limit yourself to one system or even one type of game.
Join RPG Superstar, submit work and get feedback from designers.
Submit articles to Kobold Quarterly and other publishers that accept submissions.
Volunteer at conventions. Mingle with the employees there. (PaizoCon is excellent for this.)
Read. Read read read. History, mythology, fiction, non-fiction, anything to broaden your knowledge. You never know what you'll be able to use.
Write. Write write write. Get ideas on paper, bend them, twist them, throw them out, and bring them back in. The only thing that gets you better at anything is doing it.
You should download all the Pathways PDFs. Besides being decent products and free, they also have interviews with people in the industry. You can see what they've done.
Look all over for the websites of the writers and developers. Those with their own pages might have their path and some tips. Use Facebook to Friend them. I follow several. Follow authors as well. Follow the ones you like and don't like. They have all had various levels of success and you can learn from all of them.
Don't expect to make a living at this right away, or even quickly. I have a friend who is a game designer. He has created and worked on several games. He still has a job that he uses to live on.
Read game material. All of it. Don't limit yourself to one system or even one type of game.
Actually it is good to play different systems. It gives much more perspective.
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What they said.
Also:
Keep an eye on the forums for publishers and people looking for writers. (See Raging Swan's current offer or Wayfinder 8 for example)
Send something in, as often as you can and as good as you can. Stand up and be counted, and if you don't get in this time, try again.
Other useful things for writers to remember:
1. Be active on the boards if you can. Don't be a jerk.
2. Don't neglect the 3PPs, they are much more likely to give you a start than the big companies like Paizo and Wotc.
3. Remember that the customer is always right - and in this case the customer is the publisher. If they want something you've written for them changed, put on a brave and cheerful face and change it; writing is not done in stone and you won't die if your favorite phrase doesn't make it into print/pdf.
4. Be prepared for rejection. Lots and lots of rejection. It's part of the job.
5. Don't give up.
4. Be prepared for rejection. Lots and lots of rejection. It's part of the job.
Isn't the freelancer game designer job actually made of rejections?
I don't know about completely made (there must be acceptances somewhere, or nothing would get made) but I could certainly repaper the house with rejection slips and still have some left over!
Excepting a handful of companies, pen-and-paper gaming is mostly a cottage industry, meaning it's largely owners/partners of small outfits supported by legions of artists and writers working freelance.
Most of the folks I know who "work in gaming" got their start writing, doing art, and organizing gaming "in the hobby", got their work exposed, and eventually got freelance level jobs writing scenarios, editing books and so on - and THEN made a full-time move into the industry when a (rare) opening came along.
An excellent example is Mike Brock: Mike was a detective in the Atlanta area, an ardent gamer, and pretty much single-handedly built up a huge Pathfinder Society playerbase in Atlanta; he organized game days at area game stores, used to run games at his house about weekly (I used to schlep an hour out into the distant burbs to play there), developed area GMs, was a generally very energetic guy, great GM and natural leader. I probably play PFS because of him, and I can think of dozens of others who'd say the same thing. At some point an opportunity came along at Paizo, and because he'd gotten a lot of attention (and getting attention is important in "creatives" like gaming), there he was.
So a gaming career is a mix of ability, pluck, and luck.
A plan: play a lot, run games, organize gaming in your area. Write games, attend cons and suggest *you* to con organizers: they love people coming to run games. It could be your own system or your own modules. As you write and game, you begin generating a portfolio and getting seen and remembered. Enter contests, but don't *depend* on them - their main value is feedback. Solicit criticism. Join - or start - a gaming oriented writer's group. Network with gaming biz folks at cons (they'll have tables there), attend seminars, and learn "the business": know the companies, the people, the trends and issues in the industry. Become a freelancer and then start hunting for opportunities!
Adventureaweek.com is looking for adventures. Check out this thread for more details.
Paizo does have internships. You should seek out one of those.
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No to sound super-cynical, but don't expect to make much. The folks at Paizo and WOTC have done well, but most in the gaming industry publish part-time and work around dayjobs. From what I have heard, it is a labor of love that may not always put dinner on the table.
Yeah, be prepared to look for other work. Not that you can't get work in the RPG industry, but that pickings are slim. One author that I know has won an Ennie on his first book, gotten excellent reviews/buzz on his second and got some work with one of the bigger releases this year... But he's still having trouble earning money even close to what he had at his graphic design job.
This isn't to discourage you. It's just a fact, there are more authors than jobs in this community.
My sister-in-law is a novelist, but she can't get enough work just writing. To supplement their income, she teaches online writing courses.
Example of work for success: Epic Meepo's monster thread where he designed many monsters based on readers' requests. While he dropped out of Superstar in (IIRC) 3rd round), he was noticed by developers and the last part of Skull and Shackle's AP bestiary will include his creation(s).
Be sure and attend seminars on design at conventions. You can learn quite a lot in them, and you can also make contacts that way.
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No to sound super-cynical, but don't expect to make much. The folks at Paizo and WOTC have done well, but most in the gaming industry publish part-time and work around dayjobs. From what I have heard, it is a labor of love that may not always put dinner on the table.
Indeed. Step one in the process of getting to work in the gaming industry is to decide what other thing you are going to do to make a living.
Yeah participation in face to face and online forums is always a good idea (just remember your participation is being watched, so stay outta flamewars!).
Its pretty much the same way I use things like LinkedIn for industry engagement.
Get involved in dialogue+know what you are on about+persistence=$profit$/.
One more thing... Make games.
blog post from a personal favorite game designer of mine.. It's mostly aimed at a female trying to break into the industry, but it has an important lesson for everyone. Don't wait for someone to invite you to make a game. Just make a game.
You'll learn a lot from the process. Make mistakes, figure out what they are and improve on them for your next game.
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Kobold Press
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Play games. Make games. Stay positive, even after publishers reject your work or change their minds. Work hard to improve both your writing and your playtesting skills. Focus on what makes your game entertaining to read and to play. Maybe read the Kobold Guide to Game Design, or Raph Koster's Theory of Fun.
Mostly, obey Wheaton's first law: Don't be a dick.
Thanks for that post, the link was a great read!