[Community Project] Wayfinder #21 Call for Submissions •

[Timitius]

After two years, Wayfinder returns to Golarion, and Avistan is no longer the same. The Whispering Tyrant, Tar-Baphon, has broken free of his prison, destroying the nation of Lastwall in the process, and lashing out at the entirety of Avistan before finally being forced to retreat to the Isle of Terror. This is the current state in The Age of Lost Omens.

What changes will you find? Will you describe the unsettling scenes in The Gravelands, full of undead serving Tar-Baphon? Or perhaps explore Oprak, the new kingdom of hobgoblins? Will you venture West to the Saga Lands, and see what New Thassilon has to offer? Travel to Irrisen, and see how it has changed with their new Queen? Dare to visit to the East, to the Sarkoris Scar, and join the Reclaimers in their quest to restore their homeland after the demonic invasion? These are just a few of the changes that have transpired in the ten regions of the Inner Sea. There is much to discover.

There is also a whole new set of rules to explore and expand upon! New character creation rules and options! Ancestries, and feats galore! A new action economy! Revamped classes! And that opens up a lot of opportunities for new ideas to fit into the new rules!

So, let’s explore all the changes that a new Second Edition ruleset and an everchanging campaign setting presents, and expand upon it in this, the 21st issue of Wayfinder!

Goal
The goal for the fanzine is to create a collection of fan-created articles and supporting art set in Paizo’s Campaign Setting world of Golarion and the Pact Worlds.

The theme for Wayfinder #21 will be The Age of Lost Omens: Aftermath! Please use the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook Second Edition as your main reference, along with the Lost Omens World Guide, (as well as the handy-dandy Archives of Nethys)! Preference will be given to articles that follow the issue’s theme. Writers are invited to submit articles that fit within the following categories:

Advice: Share valuable information or experiences with new GMs or players in the new Lost Omens campaign setting and 2nd edition rules system. Submission size: 750 words.
Bestiary: New creatures to terrorize your PCs! Each creature counts as a separate submission. Submission size: 750 words per creature. However, because multiple creatures are combined to form a single bestiary article, smaller entries will be considered as long as they are complete. (i.e., a hard target word count of 750 words does not apply to bestiary entries. See the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary or Bestiary 2 for examples of proper formatting and content.)
Fiction: Wayfinder now accepts fiction submissions directly from the public. Joining a writer’s group to help with editing and development is still highly recommended. Submission size: either 750 or 1,500 words. Longer fiction pieces allowed only by pre-approval of the Editor-in-Chief.
Flavor Articles: People, shops, organizations, events, or other aspects of life in the Pathfinder Lost Omens Campaign Setting. These articles should build on the material already available in other Lost Omens sources. Flavor articles may include some rules material, such as item, location, or spell stat blocks, if necessary, but it should be a minor part of the article. Submission Size: 750 or 1,500 words.
Gazetteer: Expand and explore places in Golarion following the escape of the Whispering Tyrant that have little to no information about them in the campaign setting literature. If applicable, you may submit up to a 1/2-page map of your chosen locale. Submission size: 750 or 1,500 words.
Of Chance and Skill: Games, new to or adapted for Pathfinder, to play at your table. Submission size: 750 or 1,500 words.
New Rules: Articles devoted to new backgrounds, ancestries, feats (ancestral, class, or general), or spells for the Pathfinder RPG Second Edition. Multiple smaller entries (usually feats, spells, or magic items) can be grouped together by a clear theme and submitted as one article. Submission size: 750 or 1,500 words.
New Equipment: Articles detailing new weapons, armor, or magic items. See the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook Second Edition for examples of proper formatting and content. Article should have a "theme" tying the items together. Submission size: 750 or 1,500 words. However, much like the Bestiary entries, we will accept smaller item entries, but these have a lesser chance of being used unless we can find a good home for them in an article.
Side Trek Seeds: Side trek seeds are short outlines that provide GMs with ideas, either as side treks for a Pathfinder adventure or as mini-adventures in the Inner Sea region after Tar Baphon’s escape and rampage. Each side trek seed counts as a separate submission. Please refer to earlier issues of Wayfinder for the layout for this article. Submission size: 325 words.
Poetry and Song: Music lyrics and poetry often define a culture. Share your vision of the best-known songs and poems of Golarion, with special emphasis on the issue’s theme. Submission size: 35 to 50 lines in total.
Weal or Woe: Two 6th-level or lower NPCs (including statblocks) — one potential ally, one potential adversary, set in the campaign setting following Tar Baphon’s resurgence. Include hooks for how PCs might meet each NPC and how to use them in a campaign. Include a boon that can come from the Weal character and a drawback from the Woe character. Please reference earlier Wayfinders for the layout for this article, and try to avoid lengthy and complicated stat blocks, as they take up more space than regular text, and can cause problems with layout (i.e., not enough room for art). Submission size: 1,500 words.

Guidelines

Thou shalt not disregard canon, thou shalt build upon it.

Keep in mind thy audience. Keep it PG-13. No slash fic/porn fantasies, cheesecake/beefcake/fan service. These are prohibited by the Community Use Policy.

Short and sweet. Refer to the word count requirements for each type of submission. These are HARD targets, not a range. Articles submitted with word counts more than 5% above or below the target numbers will not be accepted.

Limit of up to THREE submissions per person per issue. So, pick your three best ideas!

Do not submit an article that relies heavily on another submission, whether the other submission is yours or someone else’s. Any submitted articles that reference (an)other article(s) must be pre-approved by the Editor-in-Chief.

Stick to the theme. Articles that do not relate to the theme will not be accepted. Articles should be taking place in the Inner Sea region during the times after Tar Baphon’s reappearance in some way.

Submissions used to defame, harass, or threaten board members are not tolerated.

Submission Instructions

Conditions for Submissions: All authors and artists must agree to have their works reproduced for this and other Wayfinder products, be it for translations into other languages (we will be responsible for the truthfulness of the translations), special publications, or use on a Wayfinder website. All of Wayfinder’s publications are NON-PROFIT, and authors and artists will be given proper credit where due.

Send all submissions to: [e-mail] with the subject line containing “Wayfinder #21 Submission:”, followed by the article title.

All text submissions must be submitted in DOC or DOCX format (doesn’t matter if you use Office or OpenOffice). Note: Files sent in RTF, TXT, or any other format than DOC will be rejected.

For people who use open-source software, like OpenOffice and LibreOffice, and save their files as .DOC files, there is a mismatch between file types when trying to open the .DOC files in versions of Word from 2013 and up. It results in losing the last few lines of text. Those lines can only be viewed on Word 2010 or earlier. If you use these open-source programs, you MUST put one or two carriage returns after your last paragraph before you save the document as a .DOC file. Otherwise, we will have great difficulty being able to read and edit your submission.

Do not use fancy fonts or colors or styles for formatting - these will get stripped out in the editing and layout process. Use the standard body font for the program you’re using - bold and italics are fine. Ask us for an example of our style templates, if you’d like to use that. Tables must be tab delimited (DO NOT USE FORMATTED TABLES).

Use standard Pathfinder RPG Second Edition formats for stat blocks. Familiarize yourself with the style and wording choices used in Paizo products and apply those same style and wording choices to your submissions.

At the top of your submission, in the body of the article, provide the following information: article title (and subtitle, if any), author name(s), contact e-mail address(es), and word count of the submission.
For example,
Article About Something Cool: Subtitle Would Go Here
Liz ‘Lilith’ Courts
[e-mail]
Word Count: 1,501 words

Accepted entries will go through editing passes for clarity and concision.

Depending on time constraints, you may or may not receive feedback from the editing process.

Failure to follow these instructions or to meet one or more guidelines will result in rejection of the submission.

DEADLINE: October 31, 2020, 11:59 Pacific. All entries will be handled on a first come, first serve basis. Some articles may be rejected depending on the final size of the PDF.

[motteditor]

Looking forward to coming up with some ideas!

[Harrowed Wizard]

Super excited about this! I think I have some great ideas ready for a basic write-up after GenCon!

I also went ahead and posted all over Discord too, gotta spread that word!

[FallenDabus]

Are we cool with updating some 1e monsters to 2e, assuming they are theme-appropriate?

[Timitius]

FallenDabus wrote:

Are we cool with updating some 1e monsters to 2e, assuming they are theme-appropriate?

Sure. I think that's OK. But, remember that Paizo does tend to slowly update the ol' standbys so once they do that, it overrides those in Wayfinder.

[J. A. Chapman]

Interesting!

[Michael Riter]

Well, this certainly is interesting. I haven't put my hat in the ring since #14, so this should be fun!

[Isabelle Thorne]

Hmm. Maybe I should write a lil' something for this one...

[Mikhail Rekun]

Marking interest, probably Flavor Articles expanding on minor adventure hooks or what-have-you that I've put into recent Lost Omens books.

[Dustin Knight]

Awesome! Let's see what I can find in the ole word mines!

[Curaigh]

Awesome! Aftermath is sooo ripe for opportunities!

[Belabras]

Time to get working!

[Woran]

*puts on thinking cap*

[Sasha Laranoa Harving]

Ooh... *ears perk up*

[Uchuujin]

So would this be the best spot to ask questions about submission guidelines and the like? Or is there a better web page or Discord or something?

[Rysky]

Dottin in :3

[motteditor]

Uchuujin wrote:

So would this be the best spot to ask questions about submission guidelines and the like? Or is there a better web page or Discord or something?

This is probably a good place to ask. Then others can see the answers too.

[Meraki]

Hooray! Hopefully I'll actually have time to submit something this year.

[Timitius]

Uchuujin wrote:

So would this be the best spot to ask questions about submission guidelines and the like? Or is there a better web page or Discord or something?

At the moment, yes, this is the best venue for asking questions.

[E.G]

I don't know where to ask lore related question about the gods to know if I am building on what we have or making up new things.

[Rysky]

Archives of Nethys and Pathfinderwiki both have lore on most of the deities ^w^

[pH unbalanced]

There are a few deities that were in PF1 that are not in Gods & Magic -- would translating them over fit into the New Rules section of submission? Or is that beyond the scope?

[Timitius]

pH unbalanced wrote:

There are a few deities that were in PF1 that are not in Gods & Magic -- would translating them over fit into the New Rules section of submission? Or is that beyond the scope?

I mean that's a possibility, but I would then ask how that ties into the aftermath of the Whispering Tyrant and all the actions from past APs being resolved (aka the theme).

Plus, these are gods...there's not going to be a lot of room to expand on theme, without risking breaking canon. I'm not saying NO, but I am saying be careful and stay on theme.

[GM Lamplighter]

So excited to get back to pre-Gap times for Wayfinder! I love me some Starfinder, too, but Golarion is home.

Working on a piece of fiction and some other bits... Tim, I'll PM you to see what you might need more of.

[Vlorax]

The post mentions "supporting art" but doesn't list any guidelines for art submissions?

[Timitius]

Vlorax wrote:

The post mentions "supporting art" but doesn't list any guidelines for art submissions?

There is an entirely separate process for art. We don't accept open art submissions because it depends entirely on the articles that get accepted, and we won't know that until after the call closes and we review them all.

Instead, we assemble an artist roster. Artists are encouraged to send inquiries to us to be added to the roster. This requires an online portfolio of some kind so that we can see your pieces and decide if your style and talents fit the issue. If you are added to the roster, then we send out a notice to the roster list that we will be making our selections for the articles, and will then be making assignments for art for those articles. And we ask about your availability to do some illustrations, and an estimate on how many pieces you think you'd like to do. That information is entered into the roster, and when we finally select the articles, the available artists are given their illustration assignments, and given roughly 6-8 weeks to complete them.

That, in a nutshell, is the art process. If you'd like to volunteer your artistic talents for Wayfinder, send us an email with a link to your works, and we'll review, and see if you're a good fit for this issue. We love bringing new artists into the mix!

[Andrew Mullen]

I've got an idea that sort of spans two entry types, and I want to see if it's alright.

I was originally going to write an anadi-style poem, a format taken up by the survivors of Tar-Baphon's escape in the Gravelands that they use to write eulogies. But I want to play with the format and structure, including some visual elements based on spiderwebs. That requires some explanation that wouldn't fit in a poetry entry's 35-50 lines.

I think either fiction or flavor article would work to expand on that practice and ground it in the Aftermath theme. I also know submitting two articles contingent on one another is a no-no, and I worry that maybe this is sidestepping that rule a bit. What do you think?

[Hmm]

I think you are doing the right thing asking Tim in advance!

Hmm

[Pip Hip Hooray]

Also my birthday was July 19, so a Wayfinder announcement is a fabulous birthday present!

[Rysky]

Happy belated birthday ^w^

[Timitius]

Andrew Mullen wrote:

I've got an idea that sort of spans two entry types, and I want to see if it's alright.

I was originally going to write an anadi-style poem, a format taken up by the survivors of Tar-Baphon's escape in the Gravelands that they use to write eulogies. But I want to play with the format and structure, including some visual elements based on spiderwebs. That requires some explanation that wouldn't fit in a poetry entry's 35-50 lines.

I think either fiction or flavor article would work to expand on that practice and ground it in the Aftermath theme. I also know submitting two articles contingent on one another is a no-no, and I worry that maybe this is sidestepping that rule a bit. What do you think?

How about we try this a different way? I would not be opposed to seeing a 750 word or 1500 word article that explains the practice of the special eulogy, and then provides an example (or two). This sounds like a very thoughtful flavor article to me. I would be fine with mixing a flavor and poetry article together. We allow flavor articles with rules, why not poetry?

Feel free to email me Andrew if you want to discuss further.

Tim

[Hmm]

I cannot wait to see this anadi-style poem! I am now considering what I want to create for you! Being part of Wayfinder has become my new tradition!

Hmm

[jkaynin]

Hi. I just have a few questions.

1. It might just be me, but I'm little confused about the theme: "Lost Omens: Aftermath". The Age of Lost Omens is still present, isn't it? Does it just means what's happened since the previous Age finished?

2. Are we allowed to write about things beyond the Inner Sea region? The idea I had in mind is rooted in norhtern Casmaron, yet has had effects that have mainly spilt over into the northeast of the Inner Sea region, with trickles into the other parts.

3. For entries, if I were to submit a piece of fiction and an ancestry that complimented each other (yet weren't dependent on one another), would that be acceptable? You don't need the ancestry to understand the fiction, nor the other way around. It would provide extra information for either one if both were published, though they'd still be understandable if only one was published.

I hope these questions don't seem too silly.

I'm very excited to see how this issue turns out! It's such a great thing to be able to see the community get around the game (and for Paizo to be so supportive of it). It's just another reason why I admire the Pathfinder community so much. :)

[Timitius]

jkaynin wrote:

Hi. I just have a few questions.

Good questions....let's see if I can help clarify.

1. Yes, the Age of Lost Omens is still going on. The Aftermath refers to Tar Baphon's escape. The new campaign setting starts after his return, and that's what we are making our theme: Golarion after the Return of the Whispering Tyrant. With that is all the finished results of the previous APs...so the world has changed A LOT.

2. If you venture beyond the Inner Sea region (those 10 areas in the Lost Omens World Guide) you are kind of stepping outside of the setting. I'm a little wary of doing that because it's part of the world Paizo has not fully addressed yet. Anything you write could be completely nullified by future Paizo products. We like Wayfinder to be complimentary to Paizo content, so that it gets good mileage for years and years. So, Qadira is safe.

3. That is the key, yes. If you can write two articles that can be taken separately, and no dependence upon each other, that's OK. The reason we have this rule is that earlier on in Wayfinder, people would circumvent the word counts for an article by just making TWO articles to cover it. The result was that if we liked one article, we were forced to accept BOTH. I know, gamers gaming the system, right? It happened often enough, we needed the rule. If we deem two articles that are by the same author to be related AND dependent on each other, they both get rejected. So....don't do that.

[jkaynin]

Timitius wrote:

jkaynin wrote:

Hi. I just have a few questions.

Good questions....let's see if I can help clarify.

1. Yes, the Age of Lost Omens is still going on. The Aftermath refers to Tar Baphon's escape. The new campaign setting starts after his return, and that's what we are making our theme: Golarion after the Return of the Whispering Tyrant. With that is all the finished results of the previous APs...so the world has changed A LOT.

2. If you venture beyond the Inner Sea region (those 10 areas in the Lost Omens World Guide) you are kind of stepping outside of the setting. I'm a little wary of doing that because it's part of the world Paizo has not fully addressed yet. Anything you write could be completely nullified by future Paizo products. We like Wayfinder to be complimentary to Paizo content, so that it gets good mileage for years and years. So, Qadira is safe.

3. That is the key, yes. If you can write two articles that can be taken separately, and no dependence upon each other, that's OK. The reason we have this rule is that earlier on in Wayfinder, people would circumvent the word counts for an article by just making TWO articles to cover it. The result was that if we liked one article, we were forced to accept BOTH. I know, gamers gaming the system, right? It happened often enough, we needed the rule. If we deem two articles that are by the same author to be related AND dependent on each other, they both get rejected. So....don't do that.

Thanks for answering so swiftly.

1. Right. There are a lot of changes then!

2. Okay, that makes sense. I should be able to keep the idea to the Inner Sea region, especially with Qadira.

3. Thanks for clearing that up. I can see why that'd be frustrating. I'll have to throw out the fiction idea then, because it would talk about the new ancestry a little too much (even if it were only a small part), and I don't want to force that onto anyone.

[N'wah]

Working on a submission, and I was wondering just to confirm: for Bestiary entries, that's 750 words for just one creature, correct?

[Timitius]

N'wah wrote:

Working on a submission, and I was wondering just to confirm: for Bestiary entries, that's 750 words for just one creature, correct?

It's 750 words or less, for 1 creature. For 2nd edition monsters, the stat blocks and text work out a little different. Stat blocks can be a lot shorter in the new format. If you make a monster with a basic and then larger form (so like the flytrap entry), I'd count it as one creature if it stays under 750 words TOTAL.

Monsters entries are different in that they don't have hard word count targets, but do have upper limits.

Make sense?

[N'wah]

Sounds good. Thanks!

[Tarondor]

Can we include an explanatory note telling the editor/reviewer where to find the canon upon which our submissions build, without that note counting towards the word count?

[Kalindlara]

Tarondor wrote:

Can we include an explanatory note telling the editor/reviewer where to find the canon upon which our submissions build, without that note counting towards the word count?

The comments feature in Word is an excellent way to do this, and such comments have never counted against wordcount in my time as a contributor. ^_^

[Hmm]

Agreed! Comments are your friend.

[Riobux]

Only just noticed this, so thought I'd give contributing a go. Not sure if it'll be accepted as it's referencing Lost Omens Legends and is a smidge morbid (Ustalav isn't a happy land), but figured it was worth a shot. Might come back in the following week to do something else as well as the Side Trek Seed.

[Timitius]

Riobux wrote:

Only just noticed this, so thought I'd give contributing a go. Not sure if it'll be accepted as it's referencing Lost Omens Legends and is a smidge morbid (Ustalav isn't a happy land), but figured it was worth a shot. Might come back in the following week to do something else as well as the Side Trek Seed.

Using Legends is fine. It came out after our Call for Submissions went up, but does indeed work well for this issue too!

[Riobux]

Timitius wrote:

Using Legends is fine. It came out after our Call for Submissions went up, but does indeed work well for this issue too!

Oh phew! As daft as it is, I didn't think about the possibility Legends would be discounted due to the book's release date. More that it's not as known as World Guide or Core, would be referencing things that may sound like I made it up for the seed (i.e. Razmir's interesting relationship with Jaklyn) and so wouldn't be suitable as you can't assume audiences would have read that book.

[Tarondor]

The problem isn’t ideas. It’s how to summarize them in so few words!

[Hmm]

Tarondor wrote:

The problem isn’t ideas. It’s how to summarize them in so few words!

Ha! Think of it as good practice for future word count crunching for professional assignments. Almost every project is tight on word count. The trick is to pick vigorous, active prose that conveys your meaning in fewer words!

Hmm

[Uchuujin]

Would a new oracle mystery be considered for New Rules?

[Timitius]

Uchuujin wrote:

Would a new oracle mystery be considered for New Rules?

Yes! APG rulebook is fair game now too!

[Woran]

Hi Tim, like last issue, would it be possible to know how many submissions there are per category at this point?

[Curaigh]

Any fiction writers want to workshop their masterpieces in the final weeks?

Send me a PM!