[Musings of a Game Store Owner] GGP- The Big Shots

This is the last installment of the series about getting a game published. I had hoped to share some insights from folks that had published materials with the "big boys", but the interviews never panned out.

The thing is, that doesn't mean there isn't information available out there about the process. It's been well over a decade, but at one time, TheDude was in negotiations to write a supplement book for HERO. He had a great idea, and he had some friends who had worked for HERO who were willing to vouch for his work.

He made the connections with the line editor and started talking about the idea he had and how to turn it into a product. At the time, it didn't go anywhere (mostly because we saw friends not getting paid for work performed); but it was valuable to learn how to proceed in the process of being a published author in the industry.

Things are a little different now. The OGL has changed the landscape pretty seriously. While it allows ease of access to new ideas, the rules and requirements have to be accepted and met before you can publish. For those of you who aren't familiar with the OGL, it's open source material to use for game/adventure publication. It's owned by WotC, and it's community enforced. Porky has an illuminating article about the OGL here.

Something he mentions in his article is worth repeating- Pathfinder was born out of the OGL. The folks at Paizo wanted choices, but were willing to follow the rules that "conventional wisdom" said would ruin the industry. It didn't.

Pathfinder is currently the best selling RPG in the industry, beating out D&D by several percentage points. Pathfinder has let a large amount of its published material go through third party vendors to avoid a lot of risk, but also reap a ton of rewards. This "little game that could" is taking advantage of the dynamics of the industry to create a community driven game. People who want different things publish them at their own risk, but get big ups by applying the Pathfinder label to their material. Win-win.

Would any of our favorite tabletop games benefit from something like this? Wouldn't it be great to be able to publish our own scenarios, codex material and even figures for big name games and not have to worry about the hammer of a lawsuit? Or would that water down the brand and create confusion?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this one... because I think it's worth considering.