I'm almost done decompressing from RPG SS! For two months I've had to be acutely aware of what I say about the contest for fear of being disqualified because I said something too publicly. Almost all of my commentary on the contest was limited to my pit crew, who are a wonderful group of men and women who have been in the same position I was in. Today I want to talk about them and how they helped me to win and who to look for in your pit crew.
On Tuesday, after I spoke with Owen, was tackled by my daughter, hugged my husband and was ignored by my son (he was building on Minecraft, he has priorities), I called my mom to tell her I won. My mom isn't a gamer, she's a practical person, but she is the person who played board games and card games with me as a child and I love her. Sheesh, who wouldn't call their mom to tell her they won a great big writing contract? She and I talked for a few minutes and as I was getting ready to hang up she asked me "So, why did you win? What made yours so special?" I didn't have an answer for her. I really don't know why I personally received the most votes in the last round. I told her it might be because my story was tighter or resonated with more people or it was a great big cosmic joke and they miscounted. I really didn't know, but I invited her to go read my stuff, since I had not done that before.
I've spent three days trying to figure out why I won and why some of my friends were predicting I was going to win from the beginning. I think the biggest reason I won was because I wasn't trying to win, I was trying to produce the best work I had inside of me. I found things that resonated in me and I followed those through to a point where I felt like there was little room to improve on them, then I sent it out to my pit crew and really listened to what they felt needed to be improved and tried to incorporate their suggestions. It is an arrogant or naive person who feels like you can do something like this on your own the first (one hundred) time(s). Before this contest the only monster stat blocks and encounters I ever really read with a critical eye were Andrew's entries for previous RPG SS contests (and the other individuals who's pit crews I was on, I really did read your stuff guys). I have never GM'd a Pathfinder game before. I have served in a Storyteller capacity for White Wolf LARP games, but mechanically there is no overlap.
Knowing that you know nothing makes things challenging in good and bad ways. My pit crew never said "Do it this way" because that doesn't help me learn, it gives me the "answer." My crew would say things like "I don't like the way that flows", "This doesn't make sense, do you even English?", and "Is that all you got? Not exciting enough." And then I would go back and look at the parts that didn't resonate as strongly with them as it did with me and tried to find a way to push the envelop to hook them into my vision. I also did not share my work early on with them and not with all of them at the same time. I had my core first look, who saw my work with all it's warts and bumps, then my final "first reaction" crew, who got to see my final draft to see if I hit all the high notes. If my beta pit crew liked it or at least didn't hate it, I turned that bad boy in so I would stop tinkering with it. I had to accept that not everyone was going to love what I did, only I had to love it and if others agreed, then all the better.
Without people who's opinions and experience I trusted, I would not have received the most votes. Sometimes the smallest, offhanded comments made the biggest difference in how I adjusted my designing lens. In an early draft of "Down the Blighted Path" I had an encounter with duergar slavers that one of my pit crew felt was clunky. I cut it out completely in later edits because I needed the words elsewhere, but I chose to cut that section because it disrupted the flow of the pitch. That encounter will be in the final product, at least in my mind, because it's the right place for it to happen and I need 15-20 encounters, but it had no place in the pitch. The encounter was a "random" enough encounter and it didn't progress the story of the pitch.
Another piece of advice that I followed early on and then tossed to the side was the inclusion of the second orphne in the pitch. The original drafts felt weirdly choppy. I had things I wanted to have happen but I didn't want to endanger the boss until the end, because players do crazy things when given the opportunity. It was suggested that I had a lot of undead already and bringing in an undead making machine would be overkill and initially that was correct. As the pitch progressed though I felt like there was less and less tying things together. Several comments, feedback and the key advice from my friend about not being afraid to succeed sparked the light bulb and I added in the second fey. I felt at that point I had made the pitch that would win, that the story from beginning to end had a flow, a direct path even if the PCs didn't follow it precisely. The advice was good, but eventually it became unnecessary in light of other developments.
Many people better than me have said this before, but it bears repeating - Surround yourself with people who are already doing what you want to do. Preferably they will already be successful at it as well, but beggars can't be choosers when you start out. I was very lucky to be able to assume Andrew's pit crew, whom I served as pit crew for, with a couple of additions of my own when I started this venture. Almost all of my pit crew have a Superstar tag. They were all people that I felt comfortable taking criticism from and could argue intelligently with. That's not to say that every pit crew must be previous competitors. Every pit crew should have a rules mechanic and a grammar editor though. They function as your developer and your editor, which you will have once you get to publishing. You should also have a few people who like different things than you do, especially someone who doesn't like a lot of the same things you do, because this person is going to challenge you more than anyone else. If your pit crew is full of "yes" people, you aren't going to succeed. Not only did I have to satisfy my own sense of accomplishment, I never wanted to turn over something that someone I trusted lacked faith in. The creative process is about satisfying yourself, but you'll never it in any field if you are the only one who likes your work.
Many people better than me have said this before, but it bears repeating - Surround yourself with people who are already doing what you want to do. Preferably they will already be successful at it as well, but beggars can't be choosers when you start out. I was very lucky to be able to assume Andrew's pit crew, whom I served as pit crew for, with a couple of additions of my own when I started this venture. Almost all of my pit crew have a Superstar tag. They were all people that I felt comfortable taking criticism from and could argue intelligently with. That's not to say that every pit crew must be previous competitors. Every pit crew should have a rules mechanic and a grammar editor though. They function as your developer and your editor, which you will have once you get to publishing. You should also have a few people who like different things than you do, especially someone who doesn't like a lot of the same things you do, because this person is going to challenge you more than anyone else. If your pit crew is full of "yes" people, you aren't going to succeed. Not only did I have to satisfy my own sense of accomplishment, I never wanted to turn over something that someone I trusted lacked faith in. The creative process is about satisfying yourself, but you'll never it in any field if you are the only one who likes your work.
I feel like I should share something else about how I worked on DtBP here, while it is in no way based on "The Wizard of Oz" I looked at it as though it were a Pathfinder version of TWoO. I needed to put my adventure pitch into context of a story line that I was acutely familiar with and could follow in parallel to keep to vision. I needed a model "encounter" to help keep me on target. While the final adventure may not be "Down the Blighted Path" the name is my little homage to the Yellow Brick Road that helped me bring this adventure pitch home. I include this because everyone creates differently. I also had a soundtrack for my work, music puts me in a place to access my creativity and if you like music, you really should consider this. Don't just use your favorite songs, find music that fits your theme, to put you in the right place.
And lastly, do not forget to read. Read all about where you're creating, read about things that happened there or in places like there. I came across throw away comments about mobats, doombats, and stirge hounds as flying mounts in The Endless Gulf and I knew that if I didn't put that in my pitch there was no point in even trying. I am looking forward to realizing that scene, among others, because it will be so awesome. In fact, it is so awesome I'm astonished I came up with it. I'm a little jealous, I kind of want to play this adventure too.
As Shel Silverstein once said "If there is a book you want to read but isn't written yet,write it." So, there isn't a book yet about Lady Delbera's ghost and Zohir Totek the orphne necromancer, but there will be one day because I'm going to write it. I'm not going to write it because I'm special, I'm just a kid from Cincinnati. I'm going to write it because a lot of people think it should exist. Maybe we're all special and we just need to find that special spark.I still don't know why I won, but I know that if I can do it anyone can if they dig deep, work hard and put aside all the things that stand in their way, even if one of those things is self-doubt.
And lastly, do not forget to read. Read all about where you're creating, read about things that happened there or in places like there. I came across throw away comments about mobats, doombats, and stirge hounds as flying mounts in The Endless Gulf and I knew that if I didn't put that in my pitch there was no point in even trying. I am looking forward to realizing that scene, among others, because it will be so awesome. In fact, it is so awesome I'm astonished I came up with it. I'm a little jealous, I kind of want to play this adventure too.
As Shel Silverstein once said "If there is a book you want to read but isn't written yet,write it." So, there isn't a book yet about Lady Delbera's ghost and Zohir Totek the orphne necromancer, but there will be one day because I'm going to write it. I'm not going to write it because I'm special, I'm just a kid from Cincinnati. I'm going to write it because a lot of people think it should exist. Maybe we're all special and we just need to find that special spark.I still don't know why I won, but I know that if I can do it anyone can if they dig deep, work hard and put aside all the things that stand in their way, even if one of those things is self-doubt.
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