Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I'm
Jonathan G. Nelson, the owner, publisher, and creative director for
AAW Games and Adventureaweek.com. The focus of Adventureaweek.com is
primarily on publishing adventures compatible with the Pathfinder
Roleplaying Game such as Rise of the Drow
and Snow White.
Although I spend much of my time working on games I also have a day
job at a non-profit where I help seniors and the disabled. In my free
time I enjoy longboarding, playing drums in a local band, and
spending time with my two awesome kids.
How
did you get into RPG design and what kind of projects have you been
working on? What have been your best experiences?
I
got into RPG design at age 8 when I started DMing our D&D group.
I got involved in RPG design at a professional level in 2011 when I
created Adventureaweek.com and decided I was not only going to design
and build the website but also write all of the adventures for D&D
3.5 and Pathfinder RPG. It was rough going at first but just like
anything, you get the hang of it. ;)
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| RotD, a very successful Kickstarter by AAW |
Since
I specialize in adventures I'll talk about strictly adventure related
products. What makes a good adventure is a nice balance between
combat, exploration, and roleplaying. They are all good things but
too much of a good thing can spoil the soup. It's important to find
the right balance, which may differ depending upon the kind of
adventure you're writing. Political intrigue? Well, there is likely a
lot more investigating (exploration) and roleplaying, it's less
likely to contain a lot of combat although chase scenes and a couple
nasty big dogs could make things more interesting. Protect a small
city from a siege? There's probably going to be a lot of combat
although great situations for both roleplaying and exploration will
still crop up and can be utilized to your advantage.
Of
course there's an important key to writing a good adventure beyond
balance—coloring outside the lines without completely ignoring them
(the lines that is). It is incredibly important to remember that the
lines are there for a reason and you better listen to them or your
house of cards could come crashing down around you, but at the same
time, they're just lines...guidelines to be loosely adhered to, not
followed to a T. So many freelancers fall prey to the same old things
time and time again. I can't tell you how many pitches I've received
where some orcs or goblins are up to no good and holed up in the
cave. Now the PCs must go and kill them to stop raids on the local
village. Really? I mean, yeah—I've written those too and look how
far I've come over the years, but if you're looking to set yourself
apart from the competition and really cause us to raise our eyebrows,
don't send us a pitch like this. Instead color outside the lines.
Make yourself stand out and make sure it's a damn good adventure.
More on this later in the interview.
When
and how did Adventure-A-Week get started?
Conception
was in December 2010. I built the site with artist Todd Gamble's help
from 2011-2012. Beta tested from end of 2011-early 2012. We finally
opened our doors on March 1st, 2012. Adventureaweek.com was
originally an idea I had to run my adventures using just an iPad and
my website. That way I wouldn't have to haul 50-75 lbs. of books with
me to every game session. The site worked just the way I wanted, but
later on our subscribers begged for PDFs so we complied and later we
started making print products as well as the demand increased. Now
every product we release comes out first in web format (yes, we know
it's html but not everyone understands that terminology), PDF, and
Print.
What
can you tell about the products of Adventure-A-Week?
We
have a very wide array of adventures and player books written by many
notable authors from Stephen Yeardley and myself (Rise of the Drow,
Snow White), to Michael McCarthy (Dreamscarred Press), Jonathan
McAnulty (Kobold Press), and Mike Myler (VerantheaCodex).
Can
you give us an exclusive teaser about a future product?
You'd
like something that we have not publicly announced eh? That's a tough
one since there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes but none
of these secret projects are far enough along to really reveal a
whole lot. For those of you who love(d) the Rise of the Drow we have
some additional setting expansions planned for release in 2015
including Stoneholme, Fungi Forests (other forests located around the
Underworld), and some other exciting locations which can further
enhance your campaign in the Underworld.
What
are the best things about the products of Adventure-A-Week and what
type of players or GMs would you recommend them for?
As
I said before, most of our adventures color outside the lines. We
have adventures for all types of players and GMs. Our A-series takes
place in our own campaign setting of Aventyr. B-series are a
smattering of setting agnostic modules which can be dropped into any
setting and are written by a wide array of authors. C-series are old
school Gary Gygax style adventure modules (mostly dungeon crawls) but
with some new modern twists. We also have many adventure paths which
take PCs typically from level 1 up to 14, 16, or higher.
For
strictly players we have our Underworld Races & Classes books
where you can play a funglet psilocybist
(Underworld
mushroom dude, size large, who trips out his enemies), a hoyrall
gunslinger
(four-armed insect which uses an alien creature as a weapon), or an
ahool ironsinger
(giant bat dudes who scream so loud your ears will bleed). There's
many more options out there for players as well. Check out all the books on our website!
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| Underworld Classes: Masters of the Web |
We
have a number of Kickstarters planned as well as regular adventure
releases on our website. The biggest challenge is continuing to make
sure we provide high quality content across the spectrum, keep up on
regular adventure releases with Adventureaweek.com, while at the same
time running and fulfilling Kickstarters. We all have full time day
jobs to pay the bills (we do the RPG biz because we love it) but as
more and more time is required we would eventually like to phase out
the 9-5 and phase in the writing and publishing. Balance is the key
and thus far we've been working ourselves pretty ragged. It's
important to have enough time away to be inspired and that I would
say is the biggest challenge right now. If there's anyone out there
who needs a companion on a voyage to say Maui or Tahiti I'm your guy!
;)
Is
there anything else people should know about Adventure-A-Week?
You
should know that we love what we do. We're not in the this for the
money but rather because it is a passion, an addiction in a way, and
we want to leave something behind for people to enjoy. To know people
will be playing our games and having fun when we're long gone from
this planet gives us a sense of longevity and satisfaction. Having
fun is one of the best things in life, so why not make some games
yourself? Then send me your pitch! :)
How
do you generally find new freelancers to work for you? What is the
application process like?
Usually
freelancers find us by submitting a pitch through Adventureaweek.com.
In regards to artists and cartographers I typically either receive a
recommendation or search through Cartographers Guild or DeviantArt in
search of pieces which are appropriate for the adventures we are
releasing. I'm not a big fan of receiving emails about your artwork
unless it's damn professional and your rates are actually reasonable
-keeping in mind we're a small publisher and can't pay what WotC or
Paizo pays artists.
What
are the main requirements for a freelancer to work for you? What
other skills and/or experience are useful?
When
it comes to writers, many freelancers got their start with us.
Stephen Yeardley, Will Myers, Mike Myler and I have gotten pretty
good at spotting a diamond in the rough. Sometimes it just needs a
little polish and we're more than happy to serve as creative
directors to help improve an adventure beyond its original idea or
concept. Of course, the freelancer must be able to stand on their own
and be creative as all get out. Still, don't ever let fear of
rejection ever be a deciding factor when submitting material, just
make sure you've done your best and send it in.
As
far as skills go, you better at least be aware of the Pathfinder
Compatibility License and what you CAN and CANNOT do in an adventure
for a 3PP. No violence or implied violence toward children, reference
only books listed within the license, never reference specific page
numbers, etc. You also must be well versed in the english language
and utilize spelling, grammar, and punctuation in such a way that our
editors don't scream and run into the forest upon opening your
document.
For
artists I look for someone who can accurately draw a realistic
humanoid. I also want to see something that sets you apart from
everyone else. Although some people may be excited to see Wayne
Reynolds clones, I prefer a fresh and unique perspective when it
comes to artwork. Recent artists who spring to mind who have their
own style and only recently became popular include some of the fine
folks who worked on the Numenera setting for Monte, Jason Rainville
who did Lords of Gossamer & Shadow for Steve Russell (Rite
Publishing), and Marcel
Mercado who did a lot of the cover art for New Paths by Kobold Press
as well as the interior art for the Tyranny of Dragons for the new
D&D game. These artists all have their own style which is unique
yet professional, they also have rates which while not cheap won't
break a small publishers bank on a Kickstarter project. A few of my
personal go-to artists are Jacob Blackmon, Mates Laurentiu, and Todd
Gamble.
Can
you describe a typical assignment you give to new freelancers? What
steps does the process typically include from the freelancer's point
of view?
For
authors we ask for a pitch. Once received we go over it and send all
our unedited advice "straight from the horse's mouth".
After the pitch has been approved we send over the ACT 2.0 (Adventure
Composition Tutorial) so they can learn the proper way to write an
adventure for Adventureaweek.com. We have very specific codes set up
for various textboxes and rules which must be followed in order to
make our product compatible with Pathfinder. We adhere to the strict
guidelines contained within this guide which we provide at no cost to
all hired freelance authors.
I
usually start with a full color interior piece for artists, typically
a humanoid or humanoid monster. This piece and the price of this
piece usually determines how often I'll be working with the hired
freelancer.
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| A B-series module |
If
you're a writer and want to get into adventure design I HIGHLY
suggest picking up the Kobold Guide to Game Design from Kobold Press
and read it cover to cover at least twice before you even submit a
pitch to us. Also, as I said before you should become familiar with
the Pathfinder Compatibility License. Finally, if you're really
serious I recommend downloading a couple of our newer adventure
releases in PDF to get an idea of how things layout in a final
product.
If
your pitch is accepted please adhere to word count. If we ask for
13.5k words don't give us 14k. Don't be late turning in your
manuscript. Passing up a deadline is never a good thing for your
reputation. If you have a family emergency contact us ASAP and
explain what's happening, at least keep us in the loop. Finally, make
sure you are professional and don't send multiple emails asking
questions you could ask in your initial email. If you're unsure of
the process ask at the start and we'll be more than happy to fill you
in.
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