World's First Perfectly-balanced Table-top Rpg. Game Module

Any system can be broken, espcially in an RPG where a player can basically do anything they want.

In a board game, the environment is more limited, so achieving perfection could be more probable, but even then, most board games are not perfect. In fact I don't think there is any perfect board game.

Even the great settlers of catan, which a world wide acclaimed game, has some flaws. Not many, but there are flaws.

So I don't think a perfect RPG system could ever be perfect. In fact, I think the perfect RPG system, is to have no system at all. At least in that case, there are no system to break.

So yes if you approach publisher by saying you have the perfect system, you are going to look like a weirdo and they are simply going to throw away your idea in the garbage can without looking at it.

However, I'd like to take a chance to help you write that letter the way I think it should be done.

First: we have to isolate exactly what the publisher wants from this e-mail. They want something that they can sell. There are dozens of completed game systems out there, so, like was said above, you likely don't have a foot to stand on by comparing it and saying that "it's better in every way".

Second: What is the feeling that you want your audience to glean from your letter? As it stands, it sounds a bit pretentious, and sadly, a bit immature. It uses a lot of short sentences, and its only means of persuasion is to state that it is better, without providing a comparison.

Third, immaturity in the board games industry is detected by your unwillingness to share pieces of your idea. When a new designer is asking for Non-Disclosure Agreements and utter secrecy about their project, publishers turn a blind eye. Why? If you were to send this to Wizards of the Coast, and their new D&D v5.0 had some elements of what you wrote about, there's a lawsuit waiting to happen, because you could claim those ideas were yours! They don't want that (and you probably shouldn't pitch there anyways). If you sent it to another publisher, they would simply say to themselves, "This guy will be hard to work with. Is it worth our time?"

Something I have learned since getting into the hobby of board game design is that not sharing my ideas publicly is really just a way to halt creativity. We really do learn a lot from each other. If they decide to steal your idea, you have the e-mail transcripts to prove that you thought of it first, so don't worry. If you posted your idea on this website, we know it's yours, and publishers don't see it as worth it to steal that idea. Too much liability risk. Don't include anything "secretive" inside your letter.

Finally, just sell one product. Don't say that you work on a whole bunch of things, but not deliver and say what exactly you have done in the past to back that up. In fact, on a first contact e-mail, I'd leave that out entirely.

Source: Experience on websites like these and the fact that I write research grant proposals as a job. Persuasive writing is kind of my thing.

Now, to write it how I would write it:

Ahem
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Dear [Publisher],

My name is [Ruy343], and I'm an independent game developer.

Recently, my interests have taken me on a foray into the field of Role-Playing-Game Development. As I played several games with friends, I noticed that those in my group who were power gamers consistently found ways of breaking the game that make it so that their characters were too powerful by comparison to others, and that it ruined the experience for the rest of my group.

[note that here I'm starting by saying why I got into the design of the game, and what my goal was, but I'm doing so in a manner that the reader can relate to. I'm 100% certain that they have played with a power gamer before that had to be nerfed by the DM at some point]

However, rather than try resorting to the standard game Master nerf to tone down that character, I began to experiment with the system itself, attempting to create a more balanced RPG. In particular I began by tweaking [insert a general idea here], and had some success. However, over time, I realized that the root of the problem was [insert another general idea here].

[explaining how you came to the conclusions that you did to change the game really helps the publisher learn how you think, and learn why you would be a good, logical person to work with]

Once I fixed these issues, the game ran much more smoothly. We really liked it! So, I began to playtest with other gaming groups, and they all reached the same conclusion: we were on to something! In particular, they really liked the new ways that the characters could interact with each other, bringing them closer together as a team, and helping the players to tell the story as a group. Also, it made the Game Master's job much easier because of the adventure enhancement tools we came up with. Our adventures were fantastic!

[Ah, a piece of dangling meat for them to latch on to. The system is attracting more gamers. I am, of course, fabricating this generic story because I'm assuming that it is true because you say that it's perfectly balanced, therefore you must have tested it extensively. The key here, in this paragraph, is that the game is exciting, and rather than focusing on the system being the source of the "betterness" it is now a source of fun. Fun sells far better than "betterness"]

[I took the improvement ideas from your above letter. I would probably cut the second one out though since that makes it a bit longwinded]

That's why I'm coming to you with this letter. We want to share this system with you because, through you, we want to share this system with the world. We admit, we have a lot to learn, but we feel that we've come across some key innovations that will really help push the RPG genre into its next golden age.

[NOW you can state your purpose, after you have sold the product. A lot of Kickstarter projects fail because they just include backer rewards without selling what the product is, so nobody thinks it's even worth it. Same goes for you here: you need to sell your product, and yourself, before you can sell your system. Also, a little humility never hurts, as long as it's sincere]

We ask that you give our ideas a try. We have a sample of our rulebook, including the [character classes?] section, to give you a taste of what you've been working on. If you'd like to read more, feel free to contact me anytime.

Thank you for your time,

[Ruy343]
+1-(999)999-9999
ruy343@-----.com

So you are making the sequel to SenZar or FATAL then?
No offense, but you kind of seem too full of yourself and you make very grandiose claims

Could you define "perfectly balanced" for me please? What exactly does the module try to fix that has been a problem with previous RPGs?

Right then, i think its safe to put this post into the "Troll" category and ignore it for life

All I'd like to say is I wish nothing but success for you, troll or otherwise. If this is your hobby, take it as far as you want it to go.

And take some of this constructive feedback in stride. :)

Those silly game publishers! They could make all the un-fun go away and heal the world of disappointment as well as make endless millions, if they only put their contact details somewhere for you to find. (It seems all the ones on the internet are not from real game publishers.)

If only there was some platform for cash-strapped creatives like you to pitch world-changing ideas like this to a broad audience.

Hateful world.

You can try self publishing at drivethru RPG. There is no fee for publishers, they only get a cut of the sale and RPG seems to sell better than board games. So if you are pretty confident about your game, it's a safe place to start to get feed back.

Nah, what do you know! you're just one of those guys that wants to ruin everyones fun! OP made the PERFECT game OF ALL TIME, a game for the entire MILLENIUM!

1. Drop acid
2. Still unbalanced?
3. Repeat

Hi Joseph,

I hope you aren't discouraged by the responses above, particularly the more aggressive ones. There's an old saying in publishing about brilliant novels turned down by 30 publishers before one picked it up.

In this day you don't need to wait for that one to pick it up. Lewpuls is right, DrivethruRPG is a wonderful route to go - and you don't need to get email permission from them to publish to their site.

Since you said you haven't heard back from them yet, I'm assuming you emailed them about your game. Don't bother - just sign up for an account with them and publish it. That's the beauty of their system. You can start your own publishing company, and get a very large return for every sale of your game if you offer it through their site.

Yes, you have to do a lot of marketing on your own to sell the game, but you get upwards of 70% of each sale.

If you are set on selling the game to a publisher, I suggest letting it speak for itself instead of talking it up. One of the responses in this thread early on offered a sample letter to send in instead of the one you had written - the specifics are obviously not accurate, but the tone is perfect.

Be humble. Appreciate that the publisher is might actually take the time to read, consider, and publish your game. Be thankful if they are even willing to look at it. Anything else will look like unwarranted arrogance and your game submission will be ignored because of it.

And most of all, NEVER call a game the best ever. Let the players decide that.

Give DriveThruRPG another look. Good luck with your game.

And for the rest of you, if anyone tries trolling this thread again it will be locked. And you risk being banned.

BGDF is a happy place, full of bunnies, rainbows, and constructive advice from designer to designer. There were many, many of you above you held true to that. Good on you.

BGDF has a name to uphold build and uphold as the best place to go for straight design discussion and advice without the attitudes.

From what I remember, you make yourself a user acount. Fill up their contract and sign it. Scan it or photograph it and send it by e-mail. You add on your contract the user name you have just created so that they could link your "Publisher Account" with your "User Account"

Then when you log in as a user, you get extra options for publishers allowing you to add products, see stats, upload files, etc. See other RPG product with their pricing to know which price to set. Too low and too high are both bad.

If you already have your product in PDF file, once your account is created it's a breeze to setup your product.

Here how it looks like, that is my board game:

http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/81447/Fallen-Kingdoms?term=fallen+...

It is strongly recommended you use PDF, because they can watermark it with the user name on it. So if the file get distributed on the net, you know who leaked the file.

To convert as PDF, you can get any free PDF printer. I use PDFfill, but there is also cute PDF. There are tons of free pdf printer software. Some have better quality output, so you might whant to check that. (PDFfill seemed to have better quality than cute pdf for me)