Pyramid: Random Thought Table: My Shadis Story

My Shadis Story

All right; this week I promised to tell you all the Shadis story. So here it is. (And I also promised more information on writing for us. It's here too.)

I'd been reading the role-playing game magazine Shadis from almost its beginning; my collection goes back to issue nine or so (1993, for those of you keeping track. . . I wonder if this Magic: The Gathering is going to catch on?). It had been my favorite RPG magazine for a while, coming out more regularly than Pyramid.

But then something happened. I'm not sure what, exactly, but the magazine seemed to fall in quality, or at least change into something I didn't really care about. I stopped reading.

And then, several months later, I picked up an issue at random. (Issue #27, to be precise.) I read it cover to cover. And it was fabulous.

So I wrote them a letter.

(An aside: I'm a letter-writer. I'm one of those odd folks who, if I have horrible service in a restaurant, or a product doesn't live up to my expectations, or my detergent eliminates a stain I thought would never come out, will usually write a letter. The folks I write to usually write back. I firmly believe most organizations want to know what they're doing right and wrong. . . so I'm more than willing to give them my opinion.)

Anyway, I wrote Shadis a letter; and in it I basically said what I said above; the magazine started great, became bad, and had a very good issue. I outlined exactly what I liked about the issue, what I disliked about what they'd done in the past, and so on. I begged them to ensure this issue wasn't a fluke, and, to give an example of what I like to read, outlined what I thought would be a "perfect" issue, complete with article ideas. I'd also included a SASE, in case they wanted to mail me a response or a dead rat or something.

About a month later, I received the SASE back, stamped with a Shadis return address. Inside was a letter:

This was easily the coolest letter I have ever received in the mail.

I didn't know what to make of it; at the time, I assumed it simply meant to keep reading at the magazine, and I wouldn't be disappointed. Which was fine; maybe they'd print my letter and talk about it a bit in a future issue.

And, indeed, the magazine continued to meet (or exceed) my expectations for several months after that. So I'd almost forgotten about the letter, when issue #34 came out.

In issue #34 there was, on page 79, a black silhouette of a head with a white question mark on it. Above it, in black letters, it asked, "Who is Steven Marsh?"

It was the most startled I'd ever been reading a magazine. " RPG news. In Nomine review. Miniature ad. My name in 72-point font!" I do believe I squealed like a toddler.

So I figured, "Okay. That's what the letter meant. They wanted me to watch and wait so they could freak me out while reading their magazine." I showed it off to my friends, and figured this was my fifteen minutes of fame.

I was fourteen minutes off.

The next month, issue #35 came out. There, on the cover, it proudly exclaimed, "Special Steven Marsh Issue." Put mildly, I was surprised.

The entire issue was written around my ideas and suggestions for the "perfect" issue, right down to the titles I'd offered. In all, three (or maybe four) articles and a request for a board game were honored. They wrote an editorial about how much they liked my letter, and detailed their six-month scheme to create my ideal issue.

I was stunned, delighted, and amazed. Obviously I had to buy multiple copies. And obviously the game shop I worked at sold out before I went to work that day. And obviously I special ordered a couple more. In the end, I bought my multiple copies, they sent me a box of extras, and I was inspired to write a couple of articles, both of which were accepted within a few weeks.

Shadis eventually went away, which is really too bad. Sure, Pyramid's weekly dose of gaming information kept me happy, but there will always be a special place in my heart for the magazine that moved heaven and earth to give me exactly what I wanted.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my Shadis story.

* * *

For those of you hoping to write for Pyramid, I promised to tell you all how to make your submissions more professional, with an eye directed towards what I wanted for Pyramid submissions. I'm sure that those of you interested in writing for us have already read the Pyramid guidelines, so you know a bit more what to do and what not to do. (If not, you may want to go do that first.)

Without further delay, then, here is my first list.

Ten Ways To Improve Your Chances At Getting Accepted

Be inclusive. An article telling people how to use their Eric Clapton: Crossroads boxed set when running the AD&D adventure Vault of the Drow is only going to be useful for those people who own the Crossroads boxed set and want to run the Drow adventure with it. An article offering general advice for incorporating music into a gaming session has a greater potential audience. Likewise, a cyberpunk adventure with advice for coverting to GURPS, Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0, and Shadowrun is probably more likely to be accepted than an adventure irrevocably tied to either of those three.
Write your articles the correct length. When asked how long any paper or project needed to be, my high school Creative Writing teacher always answered the same way: "Make it like a miniskirt. . . long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to be interesting." (She was a very interesting teacher.) Keep this advice in mind; if an article is 7,000 words, ask yourself, "Why? What am I doing with these words that I couldn't do with a thousand less?" If you have a good answer to that question, then by all means send it in. If you don't, try to pare it down to 6,000 words and ask the question again. (By the same token, make sure your article is long enough. A 500-word article detailing the Roman Empire isn't likely to be useful.)
Keep it tight; keep it thorough. As a writer you may be thinking, "The more words I use, the more I'll get paid." This simply isn't so. If your article rambles, it's less likely to be accepted, and you won't be paid anything. Don't cut out important points just to make it shorter, but don't belabor obvious points just to meet some internal word count.
Make sure your topic hasn't been written about before. If you're writing for a specific game system, make sure you have access to all the relevant books when writing the article. If you're writing some optional rules, make sure there aren't similar rules already in the Pyramid archive. . . or, if there are, why yours are better.
"Generic" doesn't mean "boring." For example, a generic fantasy setting intended for any system still needs to have enough different and unique about it to spark something in my imagination. If you submit a character for Supporting Cast, make sure there's something interesting about him/her/it. A generic FBI agent isn't interesting, but an FBI agent who has secret ties to an occult organization might be.
Make sure it makes sense. If you're creating a fictional world, make certain there's no glaring illogical aspect that would force me reject it; avoid a race of Lava Men living on an iceberg for no good reason. For an adventure, make sure there's no gaping plot holes (like a parchment map found in a water-filled undersea cave). Make certain you've extensively playtested any alternate rules or strategies.
Different is good. I like to run a variety of articles, including those for card games, board games, and other interesting bits. While I won't print a substandard board game article just to run a board game article, the odds of writing the best board game article I receive all month are much better than the odds of writing the best RPG article I receive all month.
Re-read our guidelines. They're at http://www.sjgames.com/general/guidelines/writers/. Check out the libel and obscenity section. Don't create an adventure revolving around a real-world celebrity who goes around cursing and killing people. I will not run it. Re-read that first paragraph of your article. Make sure it's perfect. (If you scar me on the first paragraph, I'm much less likely to recover than if I notice a minor typo on page three.) Make sure you're not missing any words; it raises my hackles to read, "The villain will make sure the do not find him." Remember: "spell checking" is not the same as "proofreading." I don't expect everything to be perfect, but the closer it is, the greater its chances.
Don't be afraid to ask. If you have an idea that's out there, feel free to send a query to me. Although I'll probably say, "Sounds interesting; write it and send it in," I might also be able to tell you some pitfalls or problems you might run into.
Surprise me. If I knew what I wanted, I would write it myself. Follow these guidelines, or break the rules if you feel up to it.

Beyond this advice, I guess I can't say much more right now. There isn't anything I really don't like, so long as it's interesting: adventures, historical perspectives, "real world" ideas, and so on. As a couple of ideas, I'll probably weep with joy if I ever receive a Creature of the Night that sparks my interest. I'd love to receive an Adventure Pizza that was intriguing. I don't have any of the articles mentioned in my first column, with the exception of Kenneth Hite's "Return to Metro City Baghdad." (Which ran the same week as my column; coincidence or conspiracy? I think we all know the answer.) And. . .

I need reviews! Although I'll still reject a substandard review, or make you rewrite one that doesn't live up to my expectations, a quick bit of math will tell you that I print about as many reviews a week as I do normal articles. I'll probably devote a column to writing reviews at some point, but keep in mind that a review of a new, recently released product has a much greater chance of being accepted than one of a product released a year ago. And make sure you read previous reviews to get an idea of what they're supposed to sound like.

I hope this advice has helped some of you out there. As has been said elsewhere, I get a lot of submissions a week, so yours needs to be really special to stand out. Don't be discouraged by the competition; be driven by it. And, as ever, feel free to write me with praise, curses, questions, or comments. If you'd rather it be a discussion, post to the sjgames.pyramid newsgroup. Next week I may tell the Torg story. Or maybe I won't.

-- Steven Marsh

* * *

Last week's answer: Sons of Ether Tradition Book (for White Wolf's Mage), back cover.

(Three stars) "It's a great new fantasy role-playing game. We pretend we're workers and students in an industrialized and technological society."

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Article publication date: March 3, 2000

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