Soapbox: About the Industry

Fiction or Non-Fiction

by Sandy Antunes
May 05,2005

Fiction or Non-Fiction

by Sandy Antunes

As I'm hunting for a job come Fall, it's time for me to update my resume. I've written a lot, but how to list it all?

Are RPG Sourcebooks "fiction" or "non-fiction"?

Clearly more experienced professionals must have gone through this same connodrum, so I inquired politely on an industry list. Some weighed on one side, others on the other, a few quibbled about the middle, but in the end, four viewpoints really illuminated the topic for me.

The first was an issue I hadn't really thought of, the risks of listing RPG writing at all. We're often closet gamers for a reason. Being branded 'a gamer' and therefore unhireable, without even decent recourse to sueing for discrimination (because nothing says "I want to work here" like "or else I'll sue you!") makes the entire issue of whether to list worth considering.

But, on the other hand, I have a strong opinion on this. If I spent time writing it and I got paid, it's worth listing. Steve Perrin comments about the hazards of just listing it as "RPG writing", though, with:

People who read resumes want to see things they know about. If you spend 15 minutes explaining what an RPG is (assuming you still get an interview) you'll probably be knocked out of the running because you "spend too much time playing games," even if you were working on games. I lost out on a lot of tech writing jobs because I put too much emphasis on my game career.

Worrisome, but sage advice. So I was encouraged by Lester Smith's personal tale:

I currently work as a writer for an educational design house, published by Houghton Mifflin. When I started about six years ago, I took in an example RPG (Zero, in this case) to show that I could write more than a few words at a time. If I hadn't had some experience teaching in grad school, however, I'd have never gotten an interview.

Two years ago, they hired another ex-TSR guy, and about two months ago, two more. The four of us now share one large room, and it's pretty cool to all be back together. In this case, I guess once I'd demonstrated that publishing credentials is publishing credentials, that brought down the wall for the other guys (one of whom has no teaching experience at all).

There's hope! Certainly I'll list my RPG work. Steve's take on the fiction/non-fiction issue is, "I would suggest "technical writing" as an explanation for anything in RPG that isn't outright fiction."

Lester defines it as, "I always pitch the game work as technical writing, salted with fiction for entertainment.". Score two for "non-fiction".

James Cambias agrees and provides the very succinct, almost zen-like response, "RPGs are nonfiction, though sometimes they're nonfiction about imaginary things.". Beautiful wording, that. And that's 3 for non-fiction.

But of course, Kenneth Hite lifts the entire discussion into the cynical real world with his traditional flair.

If it's for a resume, it's best described as whichever looks best on your resume, since you can defend it either way -- and if the interviewer knows RPGs, then you won't have to explain its presence in the category, because you'll be too busy talking games.

So there we have it. For me, RPG writing is non-fiction, subclass "technical writing". It's good, it works for me, and it's supported by four people who write so well, just by accident they did most of this column's efforts for me. Hard to argue with that.