Publishing T&T material (help!)

[illustriouslife]

Hey guys,

Wanted to move my announcement about publishing from the OP thread to it's own thread.

This is my open call for submissions for Illustrious Life Books. I have official permission to publish Tunnels & Trolls material from Rick Loomis at Flying Buffalo. I will be publishing under the 5.5 edition of the rules, not the 7.5 edition of the rules. Why? It was a difficult choice, but I feel that FBI's current version is just a bit more solid at this point.

I am speaking with Ken St. Andre, he is into the idea, he has plans for new material and hopefully it will come my way. I've been speaking with Rick back and forth for a while now clearing everything up. I will separate the game and my products as far from OP as possible, this will all be "official", it won't be "pirated" material or anything of the like.

Here's a short list of things I'm looking for:

- Campaign Settings - I am looking for anything pre-existing or someone who wants to write material for a game setting. I will only be looking to publish one or two of these and then further expand upon them. Think AD&D - not rules wise - but as far as the depth of material to the game. I will always try to encourage my writers to keep the fun and funny parts of the game intact.

- Game master adventures - Generic, set in the world of T&T 5.5, or one offs for the game. The more the better.

- Solos - I'd like to publish solo adventure compendiums. Also, something specific to a certain race or class would be great.

- Game supplements and aids

- Magazine material - Anyone thinking about starting a T&T zine (or who likes to contribute to one) please get in touch.


ART ART ART ART ART ART ART ART ART ART

My girlfriends an artist, her best friend is an artist, I live in a city of artists, etc. That being said, I can use as much as I can get. YOU WILL GET CREDIT FOR ANYTHING YOU SUBMIT (I can not stress this enough). If you would like to draw for me or have art you would donate then *great*. If you've got the experience (and the portfolio) to have a going "rate" then send it to me and maybe we can work something out. Besides this, I'll be going with the local artists I know as friends as much as I can. The artists will have their own page in the back with contact info and links. Cool huh? And legit, too.


PAY?

Touchy subject, I suppose. I would like to publish magazines where people submit stuff just to share it, the mags aren't sold for too much money, and get a couple of free copies for their efforts. Everyone pretty much "gave" their work to "that guy" at OP, and after all of this he still owns the rights to all of it. What a shame! Well, if anyone wants to submit something for publishing and doesn't want to get paid (want some copies? free copies of other things we publish?) I promise you I won't bring shame to the game or to your work, as seems to have happened recently.

If you want to write for me, or if you have material you would be willing to let me publish for some kind of price or rate per word, get in touch. It should be good, quality stuff. I'd hire someone to write an awesome campaign setting for T&T and give them fair pay for their work *if* I knew they were a) on top of it b) knew what they were doing c) could show me other work they've done and d) fast!

So what do I do now?

Well, if any of the above applies to you, please send me an e-mail to [e-mail] and show me what you've got. We'll go from there!


I'm really excited about this, I'm working on the business plan and figuring out all the details as quick as I can. I will tie up all the loose ends with Rick and Ken and before the first product is off to the printer it bear within an official seal of approval, maybe (hopefully) even some kind words, and a sense of knowing we can all enjoy something that was fairly made by fair people and published by a fair guy.

I think T&T is a wonderful game, and any chance to participate in it's heritage is an honor in my eyes. Can't wait to get this off the ground. Get in touch!

and discuss....

[lostheretic]

Illustrious_Life,

Might I suggest that you hold off on taking submissions until you're done talking with Rick Loomis and Ken St Andre? I realize that you're excited and you're trying to build excitement with in the community, but it would be prudent to wait until there is a press release from Flying Buffalo.

I'd also recommend to wait until you have a complete business plan and website before soliciting work? It would be much better to put your business's information somewhere permanently on the internet, rather than a message board.

I'm sure you've realized everything I proposed, but this community has suffered quite a bit recently. You'll have to be empathetic to my skepticism and what you've already seen.

Thank you and good luck,
Michael

[illustriouslife]

Hey Michael,

I have received permission from Rick - no ifs, ands, or buts about it. I'm following his rules (they're pretty easy) and am more than happy to meet his demands. I understand the community being sensitive, but I think that "that company" is "that guy"'s problem and it shouldn't ruin the game for anyone. Most of the material available for this game just - poof - disappeared.

I've got permission from the publisher, a business plan (excuse me if I didn't make it sound like it was complete - it is), the finances, and now I'm just looking for work. What would be the purpose of even to bothering to get any of those things in order without even investigating to see what material was out there. Does it exist? Would people want to write this stuff? It seemed like a reasonable question so I'm asking.

By the time I have material ready to go all of the hurdles will have been jumped - I'll get Rick to mention it and release an official press release into the industry. I'll come one step short of getting Ken and Rick to personally sign off on each copy.

Sorry if it seemed soon, but I've got to get the word out there - I've got a lot of energy and momentum and I didn't decide to do this last week, I've been working towards it. It's part of a larger project, but a very cool part.

Thanks.

[machfront]

Folks are a bit sensitive of late, all things considered.
I don't think what you're asking is unreasonable.
Just unfortunate timing is all. No harm, no foul.

I don't think that you came up with this out of the blue "last week". You seem to pretty well have all your ducks in a row as near as I can tell.
As a to-the-core capitalist, I applaud what you're doing. There became an empty space where there was once supply, you saw the demand remains, you wish to feed that demand with your supply.
Cool.

Again, I wish you luck.

Jan 5, 2010 20:21:40 GMT -5 illustriouslife said:

If you want to write for me, or if you have material you would be willing to let me publish for some kind of price or rate per word, get in touch. It should be good, quality stuff.

Good luck with that.
This won't win me any friends, I'm certain. But apart from a very small handful of folks on here...those that create "quality" material (be it art, adventures, rules, writing in general, etc.) in the realm of T&T fandom are really thin on the ground.
I know I'm certainly not one of the few.
Were I creative and/or actually talented, I'd happily contribute, but such is not my lot.

[machfront]

Ok. I won't use the "edit" function as my personal time machine, but, uhh... that last post came out wrong and a bit more...shall we say... critical than I meant. Much more so.

Honestly, I don't know quite how to put it, so I can't further clarify what I really mean so that I'm better understood.
Still, it sounded right ugly and I apologize. I can be a bit...terminal sometimes, I know.

I'll try this:
It seems that when I see fan stuff for old-school D&D or, perhaps C&C or Warhammer or, well, whatever else, it's usually a good bit more polished and so forth than a lot of T&T stuff I've seen.
I'm not sure why.
It may have something to do with T&T being so loose and, as I've said before, "wild 'n' wooly", that tends to sorta guide folks to create a lot of their T&T materials that way.
I mean my limp and sorry meanderings were published in the last issue of Hobbit Hole and if that isn't direct evidence of the sort of junk that was present, I don't know what is. ;D

[zanshin]

Good luck illustriouslife. Very eager to see more T&T stuff. There are some very talented people around.

I am focussing my energies on Trollzine at the moment, but may have articles to throw at you for consideration later.

If there is a disparity in quality of published stuff between T&T and D&D , its because a lot more people play D&D, so there will be more stuff to choose between , probably. The average quality of all stuff is probably the same. Just less quality T&t stuff to fill the magazine space.

Have not read the latest HH, so i am sure you are being self deprecating Mach.

[skathros]

For 5.5? Nice! My prefered edition! I'll be sending stuff your way for sure! My dream is to see v5E shine its brightest, being such a perfect game.

I think a focused output of 5E material is just what T&T5E needs to give the game a life it hasnt had in a long time! 7E is great and all, but 5E is just perfect.

What i'd love to see is a Knockspell type mag for 5E. Hell, Knockspell is doing wonders for S&W, I think 5E deserves the same. I'm working on my own Knockspell-like rag for 5E called Troll Lore, but being a "one-man-show", it's slow going. I'll get in touch with you, illustriouslife.

[illustriouslife]

skathros - definitely get in touch!

I'm definitely interested in publishing a fanzine for the game - it seems like others are into that so let's work together to make it happen!

5.5 is great, and very solid. New material won't be difficult, and I'm very excited about it. Hopefully there is a real desire for it out there, so it can work. We'll see!