Looking for Staff for new Game Workshop

[kingschizo]

Okay I will try not to be to vauge on what I am looking for.  The first thing you should know is that I have set up a Role-Playing Game company.  It's name is the SchizoLogic Games Workshop.  The workshop is in the business of creating traditional Role-Playing Games played not on the table-top but via the internet using chat/messenger clients.

These games are being offered for free to the public via the internet for anyone who has internet access.  The company at this point in it's development is not at a profit making point yet.  It is in it's very early stages of development and if it breaks even on the cost of hosting the games on the internet within the first year I will be surprised.  Therefore anyone who would be interested in joining the staff could not be paid at this point in time.

The current game that I am working on is a Role-Playing Game called Avatar-X.  Avatar-X is a game about a future where the internet has become such a part of the daily lives of people on the planet that some people live their entire lives hooked into the net.  People jack-in to the net via cybernetic implanted Universal Neurological Busses and browse the net in a virtual reality type world.  In this world they use Avatars as a representation of their own bodies.  In the game you play a person who is control of an Avatar on the net.  These Avatars can have powers which are seemingly superhuman.  So in some respects the game is a part cyberpunk part superheroes type game.

The game is being offerred in a "wiki" format.  I am doing this to allow for easy collaboration between people who decide to become a part of the staff and contribute to the game.  This means that if you decide the project interests you and you would like to become a part of the staff of the SchizoLogic Games Workshop that you would be able to edit the game with just your web browser.

What I am looking for:

I am currently looking for game designers, editors, graphic artists (especially ones who can create "comic book style superhero" type graphics, and creative consultants.  More or less it would be a contribute as you can type situation.  If you are able to contribute to the game then you would be ecouraged to do so. 

Again, at the current time I am unable to offer any monetary compensation for people who work on the project.  The reward that you would recieve by working on the project at the current time is in knowing that you are designing a Role-Playing Game that is open for all the public to use.  Sort of a "Linux" for the Role-Playing Game community.

If you are interested in learning more about becoming a member of the staff of the SchizoLogic Games Workshop, please either reply to this post, send an email to admin@schizologic.com, or use yahoo messenger to instant message me at the yahoo ID: kingschizo2722

I really hope that by this post I can find some motivated people who would like to help out on a worthwhile project that I believe this project is.

[Eero Tuovinen]

King Schizo: welcome to the Forge! Now, go read the stickies in the Site Discussion forum. You'll note that this is a forum dedicated to independent roleplaying game design and publishing ventures. Many of the regulars are designers and publishers themselves, and the oft-stated policy of the site management is to frown upon using the forums for non-independent project development. It's simply outside the charter.

Regulations aside, our focus on indie design and publishing means that the best and the brightest of the community are more often than not already established as independent actors with their own agendas in roleplaying. Thus they're unlikely to be interested in working on a project owned by another, especially for no pay. I can say that I personally am swamped with rpg-related projects as is, and I'm in no way special in that. The last thing I need now is to contribute in a charity project.

What this means in practice is that this is probably not your best bet in getting people to hook up. RPG.net is probably a better choice of venue, and it's bigger, too.

[Arpie]

You know, I completely misunderstood what you folks meant by "independant." I can do independant without help. I did not think that independant meant "isolated." I think I'm gonna stop posting here. But I will look you up, schizogames.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Nah, it's just Ron & Clinton, the owners of the site, who define independent this way. And we should honor their wishes, yes? I myself, for example, disagree with them in some edge cases, usually in favor of a looser definition. The Forge is rather hard-line about this.

To clarify, Forge considers the main criteria of independence to be artist control over the content, publication and finances of a given project. Notice that it's not a person or company that's independent, it's a given product. Also note that selling the rights to your game, even to the degree of allowing a publisher to advertize your game without your case-by-case permission, will most likely disqualify your project. Most independents-by-Forge-definition are thus published by the designer himself, who then contracts other folks as necessary into the business.

Arpie: isolation or cooperation have little to do with independence as defined by the Forge. It's only a matter of control. My (completely unofficial) estimation is that based on what Schizo told us, his project is not independent; he's looking to hire staff into his company for the purpose of expanding his own IP, if I understand him correctly. If he were instead looking for, say, equal partnership with shared IP rights, that could be independent.

Also, understand that it's not always simple to make the decision about whether a given project is independent or not. Luckily we don't need to, because you can contact "Ron Edwards" via PM and ask him when in doubt. Ron'll make the call, and that's that. In that sense nobody should take my ponderings as anything definitive; for all I know Ron's right now bashing his head on the wall and cursing my stupidity when I don't see Schizo's evident indieness.

[M. J. Young]

Also note that selling the rights to your game, even to the degree of allowing a publisher to advertize your game without your case-by-case permission, will most likely disqualify your project. Most independents-by-Forge-definition are thus published by the designer himself, who then contracts other folks as necessary into the business.

I think this is not so, because Multiverser has always been regarded "Independent" but "allowing a publisher to advertise your game without your case-by-case permission" is something to which we have agreed.

Our situation is that a corporation exists, its principle stockholders being the creators of the game plus our early playtesters and some investors. The elected president of the corporation negotiated and periodically renegotiates a license with one of the authors. The license, in general, requires that any product which will bear the Multiverser name be approved by one of the game creators, and that royalties be paid to the game creators for all game-related product even if not created by them. Royalties are also paid to some of our artists (others work for payment up front, as do some freelance editors), and to a couple of contributing authors. The primary restriction on the creators is that we can't publish Multiverser stuff for sale in competition with the corporation. However, I don't control promotional materials--that's not my forte, and I've got people who are better at that, so I let them do it. If they need my involvement, they have it, but advertising is not part of product and not covered by the license as such.

So the game is creator owned and controlled, with some contributions from others who are paid royalties based on sales of their works, and some contributions who are paid up front for their work.

There is a line, but we're on this side of it. I agree that Ron is the final arbiter of such matters, and the terms of the license were recently updated. Of particular significance, the corporation was given the power to negotiate subsidiary licenses for fan publications, so that 1) fans could publish Multiverser worlds and other materials for free distribution without jeopardizing our trademarks and 2) those who wanted to sell their Multiverser materials could do so by paying royalties to the creators through the corporation. I think this, though, is the equivalent of Ron allowing fans to create and publish their own setting materials for Sorcerer, although I don't recall the terms for that.

The category may be at least a bit broader than you thought, although I might be misinterpreting something too.

--M. J. Young

[daMoose_Neo]

"To clarify, Forge considers the main criteria of independence to be artist control over the content, publication and finances of a given project." <- Heart of statement. I've seen you talk about your model before, and this remains as true for you as it does for me - you just have more bodies involved in the process. This is as opposed to me turning Twilight over to WotC and them saying "All right, we'll take it from here, here's a royalty check. Now go away."
The authors are still involved in the process, they, either as elected president or as the negociating author, direct the publication of the game. Now, I don't think any contributing writers to MV would have the same claim.

[CommonDialog]

You'll note that this is a forum dedicated to independent roleplaying game design and publishing ventures. Many of the regulars are designers and publishers themselves, and the oft-stated policy of the site management is to frown upon using the forums for non-independent project development. It's simply outside the charter.

Where would a good place for him to post be?  RPG.NET?  EnWorld?  I'm pretty much a n00b at this, so I can't give him good advice and since I am a n00b, I think the opportunity to help others with their games might give me the experience to create mine.

I know this is off topic and probably against The Forge rules, but I think it's good information to be able to pass out the next time someone posts something like this.