Esteemed members of the Fraternity,
This is the time to plan for Halloween already! Thus, the Fraternity of Shadows (FoS) is now opening submissions for the next release of Quoth the Raven (QtR).
That fan-made netbook will be number 18 of this classic serie of netbooks!
This netbook will be full of great surprises, from the FoS and famous Ravenloft authors. Be in there too!
Submission Guidelines
Read the guidelines below for information on how to contribute to QtR #18.
What D&D edition? We accept articles from all D&D editions. We do not really care which D&D system you are using, since we believe the most important thing is the flavor text, not the mechanics.
So we accept:
- D&D 1st edition, 2nd ed., 3.0 ed., 3,5 ed., and of course 4th edition
- Paizo's Pathfinder’s system
- New: but also other system like Gurps’s, etc.
As long as it is Ravenloft, it’s accepted!
Those wishing to provide multiple edition stat blocks for their work (ex: 4th ed and 3.5) will be well thought of.
What about the rights to each submitted article ?Each author keeps the rights to his own work. What you do with your text afterward is your decision.
The only thing we ask is to have the exclusivity until the QtR is published. We request this to publish exciting netbooks with 100% new stuff. After Halloween 2011, of course, you can do as you wish with your text!
Where should I send my article for submission ?Please send your article to submission@fraternityofshadows.com for consideration. When we receive the article, we'll send you a confirmation.
Please only send COMPLETED articles (if you want advice on an article idea or draft, ask privately to a FoS member, or on the board for help from another member of this board)
What are you looking for ? Anything new and cool about Ravenloft: rules, new class, NPCs, domains, monsters, adventures, etc.
Since no official adventures are planned for Ravenloft in the foreseeable future, we are looking for material that can quickly be implemented in a game. Make sure to suggest adventure hooks!
Any articles made on the CotN model, i.e. a monster/NPC description followed by an adventure is well thought of.
Also, we strongly encourage submission of Ravenloft fiction, art and poetry!
Of course, the QtR will be accepting Gothic Earth / Masque of the Red Death articles, for those interested in contributing to that campaign setting!
Who can submit ?Everybody! Yes! That means you!
What is the submission deadline? The deadline to submit is September 15, 2011! , because QtR # 18 release date should be around Halloween 2011
Do you have standard text formats?We will format the texts ourselves, for homogeneity. However, authors should use the standards format text block for a netbook article (see the recent QtRs for models on how to structure your text, titles with author names and email, and the FoS domain reports for statblocks).
Can we use reference material from another party?If you submit things that are OGL material (another publisher then WotC or Paizo), we might ask you to send us a scan of appropriate pages from said OGL books. The reason is that we do not have read all d20 material out there (and do not wish to!).
Will you change my article ?We will ONLY make minor grammatical and spelling changes; any creative changes will be made by the author.
As we have many young RL fans browsing this site, we do intend to hold to WotC guidelines for what is appropriate in an article with respect to language, sexual and violent content (in a word, avoid harsh language, explicit violence and sexuality, and especially when those three are somehow mixed)
This doesn't mean you have to completely remove mature content in your articles: veiled references are good help here, if you let the readers read between the lines.
Where will it be distributed ?The QTR netbooks are available for free at the FoS site, in the library section. Upon the QtR release, we will also post “promotional posts” on major D&D boards so you will have as many readers as possible.
Do you have other guidelines on writing?Here’s a few additional tips for submissions to the Fraternity’s various projects :
1) Capitalization: Names are capitalized, races are not. Strahd is capitalized but vampire is not. Things like lycanthrope, doppelganger, marikith and caliban are similar to cat, dog and horse and do not need to be capitalized. Additionally, while phrases such as the Mists (when referring to the supernatural fog of the demiplane) and the Dark Powers are capitalized, darklords, demiplane and domain are not. Spells and similar abilities (fireball, sneak attack, favoured enemy) are also not capitalized (spells and ability names are in italic).
2) Teasing: Dread Possibilities and Adventure Hooks are a MUST, but these are best used as teasing hints and mysteries. Unless you are writing an adventure, whole plots should not be spelt out and there should be some wiggle room for DMs to customize these for their own campaign. A good dread possibility, adventure hook or even throw-away line is one that excites the imagination and starts the reader thinking.
3) Infanticide: When writing you must kill your babies (alternatively, darlings); inevitably there will be fun phrases, bits of trivia and lovely passages that simply slow down the reader and add nothing to the work. Sentences must be trimmed, paragraphs excised! While writing a netbook product with no page-limit and publisher screaming about size, it is tempting to let the word count blossom, this must be avoided to prevent a bloated and unreadable mass of a netbook.
4) Formatting: Please keep formatting as simple as possible: try to only use bold and italic. If you feel there might be some confusion (due to a number of separate sub and sub-sub-headings or for a complicated table) feel free to add an eye-catching, erasable note (highlighter or different coloured font works good for this) offering explanation.
5) Rules: Know them! Read the PHB, DMG and MM or flip through the SRD. Base your style (formatting, arrangement) on the Fraternity's netbooks and the various 3.5 Ravenloft and D&D products. If you do not feel you know the rules well enough then ask for help (the Fraternity board is more than a good place to test ideas and make good ideas work) or stick to fluff.
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Thanks for your attention!
The Fraternity of Shadows
Home of Ravenloft since 2003
