Goodman Games

OPEN CALL FOR 4E GSL “BOOK OF RITUALS”

Goodman Games is looking for writers! This is an open call for 4E game designers who want to contribute to Book of Rituals, a hardback compilation that will see print in the fall. This is paid work-for-hire. All accepted submissions become the property of Goodman Games, and contributors receive 3 cents per word, printed credit, and a copy of the published book.

Book of Rituals covers heroic level, paragon level, and epic level rituals. It includes rituals for binding, creation, deception, divination, exploration, restoration, scrying, travel, and warding. Submissions should be limited to rituals within the scope of the book.

Here are the guidelines for submissions:

* The open call is open to anyone. Both amateur and professional writers are welcome.
* The submission period ends February 28.
* Each submission is one ritual.
* Each submitted ritual must be saved as a separate Word document of 500 words or less.
* You may submit as many submissions as you like, but each submission must be contained in a separate email.
* The submission must follow the format and style of the example ritual. For fonts, use Times or Arial, in a 10- or 12-point font size, as demonstrated in the example.
* The submission must be PG-13 or milder in nature.
* The submission must show a firm understanding of 4E mechanics.
* Submissions will be rejected for poor grammar and spelling, inability to follow the format guidelines, and unfamiliarity with 4E mechanics. Submissions that are over word count will also be rejected.
* We do not need submissions with rituals related to summoning monsters.
* By making a submission, you agree not to submit the same material to any other publisher until December 31, 2009, or until your submission has been rejected or accepted. Accepted submissions will be commissioned for exclusive publication by Goodman Games at a rate of 3 cents per word. Rejected submissions remain the copyright of the author.
* Send submissions to bookofrituals@goodman-games.com.

If you have additional questions, please post them to our forums or e-mail us.

"Gears turning........

Indeed. I submitted like, eight so far. Hopefully they like one of them. :-3

Well, I am armed with a bunch of rituals that are set to be sent in, but hesitation over a quibbling matter has struck; is there a preference for contact material (i.e. e-mail, address, etc) within the article itself or within the body of the e-mail?

I imagine since it was not listed it is a small concern in this case, but better safe than sorry.

Thanks!

goodmangames wrote:* The submission must follow the format and style of the example ritual. For fonts, use Times or Arial, in a 10- or 12-point font size, as demonstrated in the example.

Just to be clear, when you refer to "the example," are you referring to the format outlined in the PHB?

The Velvet Souljah wrote:Just to be clear, when you refer to "the example," are you referring to the format outlined in the PHB?

example ritual

The web site open call has the link but they didn't post it here.

The Velvet Souljah wrote:

goodmangames wrote:* The submission must follow the format and style of the example ritual. For fonts, use Times or Arial, in a 10- or 12-point font size, as demonstrated in the example.

Just to be clear, when you refer to "the example," are you referring to the format outlined in the PHB?

Yes. And as dulsi posted, we also posted a Word doc. in the open call so that people could copy the formatting, fonts, etc.

BD

Thanks guys. Appreciate it.

I wish you guys had chosen a standard format to request submissions in. It's 2009 after all

GAH! I lose my email password and something awesome pops up and now I have just over a week to split my head open and dig out all the ideas!

But I still have questions becaus I'm crazy like that!

Ok, it says the limit is 500 words. How do you judge the number of words? per 5 letters, per space? Do the manditory things for a ritual count against the limit?

Level: 3 Component Cost: Special
Category: Exploration Market Price: 125 gp
Time: 10 minutes Key Skill: Nature
Duration: Special

like level, category, time... ect.

Do you just plug it into Word and have it do the Word Count function?

Just asking cause I have a few ideas that may, as I'm writing them out, be over 500 words and I'm worried about what does and does not count for the purpose of condesing it to below the limit while making sure it still makes sense.

Also it says in the initial post that you are not needing rituals to summon monsters. Are there any types of rituals you would be interested in getting more of, like eploration based rituals or more esoteric rituals? (You don't have to answer this one, but it would help everyone so I wouldn't be the only one getting an advantage if you did.)

I think that's it, I'll start putting the ideas together and getting them in soon(after geting an answer or two).

Seben-PistonRager wrote:Ok, it says the limit is 500 words. How do you judge the number of words? per 5 letters, per space? Do the manditory things for a ritual count against the limit?

Use the MS Word function "Word Count." Spaces count. Mandatory elements (level, time, etc.) count.

Seben-PistonRager wrote:Also it says in the initial post that you are not needing rituals to summon monsters. Are there any types of rituals you would be interested in getting more of, like eploration based rituals or more esoteric rituals?

We won't know the answer to this until we analyze the final composition of all submissions. At that point we may go back and commission rituals for any areas that ended up underrepresented. For now, though, submit whatever strikes your fancy.

Good luck!

Thanks for the quick answers! I'll do my best! Good luck everyone else too!

I might have a few more questions than most, since this will be my first time submitting.

Will the book be intended primarily for player usage? Or as a DM tool? Or a mix?

After I submit a ritual, when will I know whether or not my submission has been accepted?

Does Goodman Games accept the submitted ritual text (such as the ritual's level, flavor text, and mechanics) as-is, or will there be editing involved?

Assuming one or more of my submissions are accepted, how will Goodman Games send me payment, and when should I expect payment and a copy of the "Book of Rituals"?

At what point in the process would I be expected to provide my personal information, including my name and address, for receiving a writing credit and for receiving payment and a copy of the book?

Thank you for reading.

Emperor,

Thank you for the questions.

The Sword Emperor wrote:Will the book be intended primarily for player usage? Or as a DM tool? Or a mix?

Primarily for players, but it will serve as a springboard for a lot of nasty DM ideas.

After I submit a ritual, when will I know whether or not my submission has been accepted?

We want to give all rituals an equal shot at acceptance, so we won't be finalizing the acceptance list until after the end of the open call. We have received an incredible number of submissions, and I want to be sure to give each submission a fair shake, so it will likely take us up to 3 weeks to sort through them all and make our final picks.

Does Goodman Games accept the submitted ritual text (such as the ritual's level, flavor text, and mechanics) as-is, or will there be editing involved?

Everything gets edited and then proofed.

Assuming one or more of my submissions are accepted, how will Goodman Games send me payment, and when should I expect payment and a copy of the "Book of Rituals"?

At what point in the process would I be expected to provide my personal information, including my name and address, for receiving a writing credit and for receiving payment and a copy of the book?

Upon acceptance, you will receive a contract detailing all this information.

//H

I use Open Office and can create a word doc for submission. Is doing so acceptable?

As long as the submission is formatted as a word doc, that's fine.

//H

Thank you for the expedient response to my questions. I greatly appreciate it. I have a few more questions I thought of (and a host of rituals that I look very much forward to submitting soon).

How often does Goodman Games do open calls?

And when you do open calls, how many respondents do you usually get?

When I have a question about a hot topic, such as the book of rituals, is it usually better to ask my question on the forum or via e-mail?

Do you keep writers "on file" if you accept their submitted work?

Do you respond to every submission, or only to the submissions that you choose to accept?

Can the Word document be on Word 2007? Would you prefer Word 98-2003?

Thanks again for reading.

The Sword Emperor wrote:How often does Goodman Games do open calls?

Well, one this year. This one is going very well so we may do another one later this year.

The Sword Emperor wrote:And when you do open calls, how many respondents do you usually get?

An awful lot. We've been averaging 50-100 submissions a day. It will probably accelerate in the last couple days before the deadline. We'll post the final stats after the open call is over.

The Sword Emperor wrote:When I have a question about a hot topic, such as the book of rituals, is it usually better to ask my question on the forum or via e-mail?

Personally I like forums because that way other people see the answers too.

The Sword Emperor wrote:Do you keep writers "on file" if you accept their submitted work?

Yes, one of the reasons we do open calls is to give unpublished talent a chance to show their skills.

The Sword Emperor wrote:Do you respond to every submission, or only to the submissions that you choose to accept?

There's no way we can answer every individual submission. Every accepted submission will get an individual reply; once that is sorted out, all individuals will receive an email covering the balance of the submissions.

The Sword Emperor wrote:Can the Word document be on Word 2007? Would you prefer Word 98-2003?

We need to be able to open it as a .doc file. You make that happen.

Hope that helps.

goodmangames wrote:* The submission period ends February 28.

Does this mean until midnight on the 28th? (So I use the 28th polish my final batch of submissions) or is there a cutoff time earlier in the day?

Thanks!

MatthewJHanson wrote:

goodmangames wrote:* The submission period ends February 28.

Does this mean until midnight on the 28th? (So I use the 28th polish my final batch of submissions) or is there a cutoff time earlier in the day?

Thanks!

Midnight Chicago time.

Just one final question before we get here to the due date (fifteen rituals sent in, and still got a few to go!).

I followed the formatting as closely as possible, but a few of the rituals might be a little off, either with the font at size 11, the text in Calibiri (a font style almost exactly like Times New Roman, and is supported by the .doc format/MS Word 98-03), or the page zoomed in. Would you prefer the rituals with these minor formatting errors to be resubmitted (maybe with a "Revised" tag) or is the situation okay?

Edit: I resent them with (Revised with Proper Formatting) in the subject line. The file names are the same as the originals. Will that work?

(All this writing is more hectic than I expected! But very fun. )

Emperor,

Yes, that will be fine. We're not robots --- if a good submission has a few oddities, that is fine. But by the same token, there needs to be a good faith effort to meet the standards.

//H

Mailbox is full.

Was full last night too.

Hmm...still plenty of room in both memory and bandwidth. (Over 200 emails last night, alone.) I'll check w/ Joseph. If there is was a glitch somewhere, we can extend the deadline another day or two so everyone has a chance to re-sub.

Edit: The most recent submission came at 7:15 AM this morning, so it seems to be working. I'll send a test email myself to confirm.

//H

My test emails have come through just fine.

//H