In the "real world" of freelancing, one of the methods of maximizing your productive work time is to ensure you get the greatest result from your research time. Say you research an article on the ecological damage caused by the building of the Three Gorges Dam in China. The good freelancer can use part of that research to write a second article on how dams affect different ecologies around the world, write another article about the social ramifications of the Three Gorges Dam, and yet another article concerning the loss of the archeological sites covered by the lake the dam creates.

Writing four articles from the same research is a huge benefit. Let's say that you spent 40 hours of research for that first article and then spent 10 hours in the writing, market research and other needs. If you sell that article to Onearth Magazine for $1,500, you've earned $30 an hour. If you begin your research over again each time you write an article, your rate stays the same. If, on the other hand, you write additional articles from the same research, you earn another $1,500 from only 10 hours of work, thus earning $150 an hour. For the four articles in toto you increase your hourly wage over the first article alone by 150%.

Writing for a single game system allows you to maximize your research results in a similar way. While the dollar amounts are obviously smaller in the role-playing game market than in consumer magazines, the lesson is still the same--less research equals more productive time. In this case, however, the research applies to time spent learning game rules well enough to write material on a professional level. You can't do that in three or four hours.

To learn a game system, you'll read the core rulebook, make up a character or two, and play or run at least one session. Even if you have a spectacular ability to learn the rules, that's not enough. You have to know what is on the market already to avoid duplicating or contradicting existing material.

Ideally, if you're writing for a game, you've played or run at least a short campaign--say, 6 gaming sessions of at least 4 hours' time, plus taking some notes or doing some planning outside of the game session. It's a fair assumption that learning a new game well enough to write gaming material takes at least as much research as the Three Gorges Dam article--40 hours or more, depending on how much existing material you need to learn.

All of which supports the learning fewer game systems but doesn't suggest which game system you should learn.

D20 is ubiquitous. A quick and informal check of the last 60 or so open calls on various RPG forums indicates that at least half of the open calls ask for D20 writers. Distribution receiving lists similarly indicate that a commensurate percentage of products being released use the D20 system or one of its variations (the most common being D20 Future). By writing for the D20 system, you extend your reach to a commanding percentage of the role-playing game market with a minimum of effort.

Furthermore, multiple publishers use the D20 system. If one publisher doesn't like your work, you can try elsewhere. On the other hand, if Steve Jackson doesn't like your GURPS material, you're out of luck. If Steve Jackson Games approves a proposal but rejects a full book manuscript, you lose months of work.

If you had written that work as a D20 project you might be able to sell it as is to another market, or at least salvage it by revising it for a different setting. Spending a week or two in revision is far preferable to letting your work languish unpublished in a drawer. Thus, writing for the D20 system limits your risk.

D20 might not be your favorite game system in which to play, but it's the best business choice for freelancers.

Lloyd Brown
www.lloydwrites.com