Sandy's Soapbox
- You're invited to be a Guest at a Con... as long as you pay your own airfare and hotel and help run their auction, masquerade, and booth takedown crew.
- That panel you started at last year's Con was so successful, they decide to run it again... but don't invite you.
- You get a last-minute writing gig! (At half the pay of the A-list who flaked on it.)
- You never make it past Origins Award NOMINEE.
- The guy who wrote the Foreword in your last book gets more mention in its press release than you.
- The players in your game don't realize you're the one who wrote it.
- You're listed in Wikipedia's List of RPG designers, but no one really knows why.
Hi, my name is Sandy and I'm ... I'm a B-list game writer. And all of the above have happened to me.
Heck, just this week an editor wrote to me and his other writers with this little tidbit: "Pay is .03 per word unless I normally pay you a higher rate, in which case you get that rate." It's bad enough to be underpaid, but to find out you're deliberately underpaid, well, that can suck away your motivation to keep writing.
Perhaps B-listing is not so bad a life. You get to drink beers with the A-listers, especially if you're buying. And then you get to drink even more beers with the other B-listers while the A-listers drift off to that other party you hadn't heard about.
Being a B-lister combines the best aspects of consistently scoring low paying work with not being recognized at Conventions. It's the life of being semi-almost-famous!
And best of all, you have the security of keeping your day job.
The main key to B-list success is coming up with an evocative epithet or two.
| Writer | Good | Bad |
| Chad Underkoffler | the Monkey-Ninja-Pirate-Robot guy | the Monkey-whatever guy |
| Rebecca Borgstrom | Wrote 'Nobilis' | Drafted for more women-in-gaming articles than anyone other than Nicole Lindroos |
| Sandy Antunes | co-wrote "Roleplaying with Kids" | Wrote this column |
There are ponds of many sizes. Gygax is flat out the biggest name in the RPG Pond, and perhaps the only one who could a nod at a New York or Hollywood soiree. The number of notable A-list RPG Writers who would be recognized at even a small book expo is still small. Conversely, a B-lister can be an A-lister for sub-genres. Ron Edwards has well-earned prestige in the indy scene. But, he would get bumped by Gygax, Cook and Costikyan for a 3-person panel.
That said, I set about making a list of "A-listers". Such a list goes beyond 'fan favorites', 'industry insiders', or even 'old masters'. This is an attempt to figure out which names have even a remote shot of being found by a typical book clerk if you were to go up and ask for their books.
Here is my cut at "A-listers". This ended up being a surprisingly teeth-gritting exercise, as there were many names I wished I could add. But me wishing history recalled some greats does not make it occur. My take:
* Dave Arneson * Keith Baker * M.A.R. Barker * Frank Chadwick * Monte Cook * Greg Costikyan * Matt Forbeck * Gary Gygax * Ed Greenwood * Tracy Hickman * Kenneth Hite * Steve Jackson * Robin Laws * Marc Miller * Steve Perrin * Sandy Petersen * Mike Pondsmith * Mark Rein*Hagen * R.A. Salvatore * Kevin Siembieda * Mike Stackpole * Greg Stafford * Greg Stolze * Jonathan Tweet * Margaret Weis * John Wick * Loren Wiseman * Erick Wujcik *
Note I neglect CCG creators, millionaire publishers, definitive artists, and German board game designers (among others). This is about RPG writers.
And now, just like catty armchair critics, let's cut this apart. Who'd I miss, who should be dropped?
Until next month,
Sandy
sandy@rpg.net
