When a munchkin builds a role playing game character, that player looks at all the skill selections, feats, classes, races, equipment, psionic powers, cybernetics, combat options, spells, edges, traits, and all of the other factors that go into building a character. He chooses those options that work together to achieve a pinnacle of capability at a certain skill. The result is often a staggering display of power that chokes the GM and awes the other players at the table.

When freelancers begin their career, they often take whatever jobs they come across without considering their goals. The emotional rush of being in demand and a token financial reward often convince people to accept a job without considering whether or not they should. Why is it that people try so much harder with a character than with real life?

Okay, I’m not really going to discuss that one.

I will point out that a little career planning with a more munchkin-like approach can pay off. Even better, no GM is going to stomp on your plan. Best of all, you can still awe players at the table.

Set a Goal

You can’t know if you’ve reached your goal if you don’t know what the goal is. You can set multiple goals, set goals in stages, or you can set a short-term goal for now and then set a higher goal as you go. The important thing is to have something achievable, measurable, and realistic in mind when you start.

When setting a goal, it’s a good idea to make sure it’s legally possible. Maybe you have an irresistible urge to bring Dark Sun back from the dead in print. Dark Sun—and other game settings from previous editions of D&D—is the intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast. While you can write volunteer material for www.athas.org, the official website of 3E Dark Sun material, you can’t earn anything that way.

Sample Goals

• Land a job as a full-time game designer.
• Land the above job with a particular company.
• Write novels (and, presumably, have them published).
• Become a publisher.
• Sell a publisher your role playing game, Magnum Opus the RPG.

• Become famous. "Famous" is hard to measure. It’s also extraordinarily difficult to achieve universal name-recognition within the role playing game industry. Becoming a guest (or even better, the guest of honor) at a convention is a measurable goal.
• Earn the respect of other game designers. Vague much? A better way to express a similar goal might be "Earn an Origins Award." You might even have a specific category in mind. Have women throw their underwear at you. Measurable, yes. Realistic—not so much.

Note that "Seeing what’s out there" is a perfectly acceptable initial goal. Gaining some knowledge and experience is a valid way to start out. Keep in mind that this is your initial goal. When learning a role playing game, you might build a character just to learn how that game’s combat system works, and then build a "real" character that you plan to use for a long time. That’s similar to what you’re doing if "Seeing what’s out there”"is your initial goal.

If SWOT is your goal, stay on it. Write for different publishers. Write for different games. Experiment with different genres. Work on different types of material. Locking yourself into a 12-issue series on D20 Mushroom Farming won’t help you explore the freelance landscape very much.

Outline a Path

Create a broad outline of how you want to achieve your goal. Even if the specifics change, keep following the outline. Anything that takes you off the outline should have some benefit of its own in order to justify your attention.

If you want to write novels, you might want to establish your fiction reputation by selling a few short stories. Enter the Wizards of the Coast open call. This goal actually overlaps nicely with the world of book publishing, since any writing experience you get with the fantasy genre helps improve your marketability in the RPG field. If you’re good enough for Tor, you’re good enough for just about anybody.

If your short-term goal includes writing a Conan supplement for Mongoose, which of these steps puts you on the right path?

Writing an article about bards for Dragon Magazine? Submitting a random number of random magic items to a random PDF publisher? Writing articles about the Conan RPG for Signs and Portents?

While the answer seems obvious under the intense light of scrutiny, you might be surprised how often people choose the wrong answer.

Avoid Distractions

As a corollary to the rule about doing what helps, actively avoid what doesn’t. For example, you might want to become a publisher after you write enough material to have a substantial product base. In that case, any contract that signs away all your rights is contrary to your goal. You might offer to sell electronic rights or first print rights, or foreign-country rights instead (you might offer a local Australian fanzine Australian print rights only, for example).

If you want to eventually sell your independent role playing game and see it published, you should concentrate on rules design. Not only will people (publishers and players) come to trust your ability, you might learn something that improves your own system. You might also playtest a game for another publisher; better yet, moderate a playtest group for somebody else’s game.

Focus Your Efforts

By finding in area in which you specialize, you can often improve your marketability. Craig Zipse (www.craigzipse.com) set out to sell art. While publishers weren’t blown away by his portfolio, they love his maps. Craig can name set his own rates now for his maps, and his work has given him a chance to work with some of the biggest names in the industry.

Emphasizing a particular specialty can, over time, establish you as an expert on that topic. If your NPC galleries sell twice as many copies as the average NPC gallery for a publisher who specializes in that type of book, and you’ve written more of them to boot, you’ll earn a reputation as someone who writes characters extremely well.

Possible Specialties

• Crunch
• Rules Design
• Characterization
• Adventure Writing
• Fiction
• Editing
• Reviews

Benefits of Focus

If you maintain a website to support your writing, maintaining a narrow focus means that your represented work is far more beneficial. Having articles or books on similar content makes it easier to group any links to that content. The concentration of related topics means that your site comes up higher in search engines. Your site has a tighter theme, which means more visitor time on your site.

In the same vein, consolidation of topics helps if you want to collate your material from previous publications into a book, or if your publisher has the same goal. Eric L. Boyd at one point penned a bunch of god descriptions for Polyhedron as part of a series of article. He eventually wound up writing Powers & Pantheons and Demihuman Deities—largely out of material he had originally written (for pay) for Polyhedron.

Finding one publisher or editor who wants a long series similar works saves you from having to hunt around for a new home every time you write something. You build up a rapport and possibly even a friendship. You develop a trust with the readers, who are more willing to accept something a little radical once in a while.

None of this says you can’t deviate from your path for a quick check, or a change of pace, or just to work with that editor you’ve known for years but never had a chance to work with. Just know why you’re doing it and how much it’ll help or hurt what you really want to do. Maybe you won’t do 1,032 points of damage in real life, but sacrificing a bit of fluff for an edge can pay off.