Pyramid Writer's Guidelines

February 2002

Pyramid Magazine is a general-interest gaming magazine published on the World Wide Web by Steve Jackson Games in Austin, TX. At one time, we printed our magazine the old-fashioned way -- on paper (30 issues!). But in 1998 we began publishing entirely on the Internet, becoming the first electronic publication to first be nominated for -- and then win -- an Origins Award for Best Professional Game Periodical. Pyramid's URL is http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/

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Pyramid covers all aspects of adventure gaming -- roleplaying (of course), but also boardgames, card games, strategy games, miniatures, wargames, and even play-by-mail. And while some of what we put up each week is written by SJ Games staffers, most of it comes from freelancers. Pyramid provides an excellent opportunity to get some exposure in the game business, and to establish a professional relationship with Steve Jackson Games.

We get many submissions, more than we could ever use, so a lot of perfectly good articles get rejected. If this happens to you (and it will . . .) please don't take it personally. If the editor has any comments or suggestions, take them to heart. If he suggests that you resubmit the article after making certain changes, do it -- editors love perseverance and a willingness to take directions. But let's get to the important stuff:

What We Want

What kind of articles do we publish? Well, a quick look at the Pyramid archives (or back issues of the paper magazine) will answer that question. In fact, if you don't have at least a passing familiarity with our magazine, you have no business trying to sell us an article. No, you don't have to be a devoted reader with a complete run of slipcovered back issues and a hard drive full of downloaded files, but you should know what kind of magazine we are. Our "want list," in no particular order, is something like this:

• Something that surprises us. This is our favorite. Come up with something that isn't on this list, that makes us want to stop working and play games. If we knew exactly what we wanted, we wouldn't need freelancers.
• Roleplaying Material. This means articles on better GMing and playing, complete adventure scenarios, new monsters, new equipment, articles adapting real-world ideas to a game, new magic, essays on campaign-building . . . anything relating directly to roleplaying games. A tip, though: "seed" items like creatures, characters, and magic objects need to have context -- give them an interesting back story, adventure seeds, ideas on how to work them into a game. Just sending us the stats for your favorite character (or a random list of magic swords) won't do.
• Game Variants and Strategy Articles. If you have an interesting variant or strategy for your favorite wargame, boardgame, card game, CCG, computer game, or strategy game, send it in! We prefer that the game in question be currently available -- we're more likely to buy an article for Kill Doctor Lucky than one for Junta. On the other hand, some currently unavailable games (like Talisman) are sufficiently "classic" that we might assume that enough of our readers will like your article, anyway.
• Entire Games. If the components can be found around the house or printed onto a website, and the game is simple and fun, we want it. "Magazine-scale" games are often more whimsical than entirely serious, but again, feel free to surprise us! Games submitted for publication in this way should, above all else, be fun, ideally strategic or combining strategic with random elements; entirely random games are almost always unsatisfying. If your game boils down to a game with the depth and playability of the card game War, we probably aren't interested.
• The Gaming Life. Articles on how to keep your gaming group together, articles on teaching games to newcomers, articles on integrating your gaming schedule with your real-life schedule, articles on cross-media gaming and on how gamers relate to each other . . . Our readers are game players, and many are serious hobbyists. Although these articles can be difficult to write (since it takes more than random observations to make these type of articles satisfying), Pyramid is very interested in any articles about the gaming life.

While some portion of Pyramid will be always be devoted to SJ Games products, we are by no means a house organ. So yes, send us those GURPS and Car Wars and Toon and Ogre and In Nomine articles, but don't forget d20, Champions, Kult, Call of Cthulhu, Magic: The Gathering, Vampire, Kingmaker, Empire Builder, Third Reich, Star Wars CCG, Trinity, or anything else that interests you.

Features

Pyramid publishes a number of features. The information here is a collection of information on each one, and tips for what we're looking for; read previously accepted articles of these types to get an idea of what each feature is like.

• Supporting Cast: This feature details non-player characters, with game stats and background. Supporting Cast members are the most common feature to submit; as such, we need to be choosy with what we accept. To increase your chances of acceptance, we recommend making sure your NPC is different and interesting. Stats and background for a generic police officer probably aren't that interesting; an FBI agent who's working undercover to bring the mob down while double-crossing both to the Yakuza is a lot more likely to catch our eyes.

  By the same token, avoid making characters too weird or interesting. Resist the urge to make the double-crossing police officer a psychic, for example, without a very good reason. (As a general rule, more than one plot twist in a character is usually too much to be believed.)

  It is acceptable to make Supporting Cast members with more than one set of stats; for example, a medieval thief might be detailed in both GURPS and d20.

• Terra Incognita: Articles of this type describe an unusual place, whether it's a fantasy temple, a modern horror hotel, or the mysterious moon of a planet deep in space. They are usually generic (and without game statistics), although they are usually tied to a certain genre (fantasy, horror, science fiction). This type of feature details the history, geography, and features of the place. Again, make sure the place is interesting; a standard hotel isn't terribly likely to spark our interest, although a hotel that travels through time might.
• Warehouse 23: This feature details strange objects from any campaign type and genre. An ancient goblet that allows the user to communicate with people he's killed, a sentient car that wants to tour the world, or a computer that contains all the world's information as of 1977 are all equally weird for Warehouse 23. Again, they are usually generic, although if they are tied to a game world they can contain rules for use in that campaign. The history, effects, and consequences of the artifact are detailed in the article. Yet again, make sure the object is interesting and unique. Armor that magically protects someone from damage is commonplace; armor that transfers all damage to the wearer a week in the future is special -- especially if the background story is compelling!

  Supporting Cast, Terra Incognita, and Warehouse 23 submissions should generally have adventure seeds -- mini-adventure ideas that give the reader some ideas how the person, place, or thing can be used in a game.

• Adventure Pizza: This is our generic adventure feature. It's designed to be open-ended and applicable to many campaigns (although, again, it's common to tie them to one genre). These are, generally, looser than more formal adventures; ideally, the core idea, conflict, and/or story are all applicable to many different games. Formally, this feature consists of an "Ingredients" section, detailing the setting and opening action through a narrative that fits within the given genre, including a few details suggesting useful NPCs, items, and the like; the "Cooking Tips" section, offering at least three different plot directions, each with multiple "Extra Spice" entries that elaborate on the theme; and the "Side Salad" section, reminding the GM of any areas in the narrative that he may wish to develop further. These designations are, however, fairly loose; see previously accepted Adventure Pizzas for guidance.
• Appendix Z: This is a catch-all category of articles, usually 1,000 words or less, that contain new rules, game aids, or other short information. They can be generic ("Complications While Gathering Information") or game specific ("Jumpgate Encounters for Fading Suns"). These articles are ideal for us to fill in small holes in our issues, and good for writers who have an idea that's difficult to write a larger article around.

Pyramid Reviews

Pyramid publishes reviews of new products in our "Pyramid Reviews" section. We run reviews across the spectrum -- love it, hate it, or somewhere in between, we want to see it. We will choose a special few products as "Pyramid Picks," spotlighting the very best in gaming (the section subtitle is, "Gee, We Wish We'd Done That"). Pyramid reviews are typically 750 to 1,000 words in length. With almost no exceptions, reviews shorter than 750 words are automatically rejected. It simply isn't possible to provide the depth we require from our reviews with less. Longer pieces are perfectly fine . . . but don't overdo it. If your review is more than 2,000 words, then the game is either gargantuan in depth and scope, or you're writing too much.

Pyramid also publishes reviews of non-gaming material, provided it has direct roleplaying relevance. For example, we have in the past reviewed the Howdunnit series of mystery-writer reference books and a compact disc with music from a Fading Suns-based computer game. Such reviews must directly tie to roleplaying. It's not enough to simply review a book about inventions of the 1920s; you should mention how the book can be used by GMs and/or players for Cliffhangers or other historical games. We're looking for insights and observations not available from your standard Amazon.com review. Any such reviews should be useful and positive; if a product doesn't have gaming relevance, and it isn't any good, why should we care?

We will also consider reviews of computer games and products. These reviews must, again, have direct roleplaying or gaming relevance. There are a thousand sources for standard computer game reviews -- especially most mainstream multimillion-selling computer games -- so we try to be distinct and focused. Thus we might be interested in a review about how faithful and satisfying the latest Dungeons & Dragons computer RPG is, compared to the tabletop game, or a review of an Axis & Allies computer game from a fan of the original wargame. (Of course, products that are originally designed for gamers -- like the latest Campaign Cartographer 2 expansion -- need no special focus.) Utilities of possible interest for gamers are also acceptable to review; for example, we have published a review of the Faces utility, designed originally as a mug shot generator for police departments, suggesting it as an aid for GMs looking to generate NPC faces.

Tips for Reviews

• For non-roleplaying material, make sure you give a sense of how the game plays. For a boardgame, it's not enough to explain how the game is set up, what pieces are moved where, or the like . . . you should also describe what choices a player has, how fast the game plays, how replayable it is, what strategy (or lack thereof) the game encourages, and so on. You might even give a brief example of a turn.
• For roleplaying material, you may want to include a note about how the book might be of use for people who don't play that game. (For example, if a Vampire: The Dark Ages supplement would be particularly useful for people who play other historical medieval games, you may want to mention that.)
• For that matter, anything you can do to avoid giving the sense of "Those who are fans of this roleplaying game world will like this game world supplement" is a good thing.
• Avoid a methodical inventory list of a book's contents; if a book has nine chapters detailing nine regions of a game world, it's not necessary to have nine paragraphs each saying, "Chapter one gives the history, geography, and important NPCs of this region. Chapter two gives the history, geography, and important NPCs of this region . . ."
• Try to determine who the audience is for a review, and determine how well the review targets that audience. For example, if a roleplaying supplement is designed for story-heavy games, it's appropriate to mention that the book won't be of much use for those who like hard game information, and to say how well (or poorly) it provides story-building possibilities for its target audience.
• Please include all information traditionally included in the header of our published reviews. This includes the product name, the game line it supports, the publishing company and its website, the writer(s) and artist(s), the page count (and whether it is color or black & white), and the cost of the product.

What We Don't Want

• Articles that aren't game-related. While our readers are often fans of science fiction, fantasy, anime, and comics, Pyramid doesn't cover those things.
• We can't publish articles that give game stats for characters we don't own or have license to use -- this means there's no point in sending us GURPS stats for Spider-Man or James Bond, or adventures that include them.
• We don't accept submissions of fiction or poetry.
• We're very picky about articles of any kind that exceed 5,000 words. Frankly, most articles that long are overwritten. There are exceptions, though, and if you've written something Big and Brilliant, we do want to see it. (If you do submit something this big, you may want to include a suggestion as to how the article can be logically split into two or more articles.)
• Articles for games based on licensed properties can be problematic. For example, at this time we cannot publish any support articles for the Star Wars RPG. Articles for such games generally require a bit of additional checking around to make sure we can publish them; before you write such an article, you may want to contact the company that publishes the licensed game to see what their policy is, to avoid writing a piece no one can use. (As a general rule, if we have published an article for that game in the past year or so, it's probably safe to submit. Also, properties that SJ Games has licensed -- like Planet Krishna or Alpha Centauri -- are fine.)

Checklist: Before You Submit Your Article

Every Pyramid submission sent to us via the Internet should be mailed to pyramid@sjgames.com, and must include the following elements. If your submission doesn't conform to this checklist, we're likely to either bounce it back to you with a request to fix it, or simply reject it. Please, follow directions . . . it makes our lives so much easier.

• A proper subject line. If you're sending us an article called "Pain Magic for d20," the subject line of the e-mail should look like this:

  [SUBMISSION]: Pain Magic for d20

• A cover letter. Keep it brief, but describe (in one or two paragraphs) what your article is like, and what part of our audience it's written for. If you like, you can also include a brief history of your published work; this helps us get to know you, but it's optional.
• Your contact information. We want your full legal name, your phone number, your e-mail address, and your physical (snail mail) address. If you have a Social Security Number, we want that, too. We can't pay you without it. If you are not a citizen of the United States, there's a form we'll send you, if your article is accepted, to allow us to pay you. Also include how you want to be paid, either in cash or SJ Games credit. (If you want a Pyramid subscription, this is where you should mention it, too.)
• An article! The article should be spell-checked and proofread before we ever see it. Failure to do so seriously harms your chances of a sale. The article should have a title; under the title should be your name as you want it to appear in the magazine (many writers forget this part! Don't!). The article should be in plain text in the body of your e-mail; please set your email program to send plain, unformatted ASCII text. (Turn off HTML, "Smart Quotes," etc.) Do not send articles as file attachments. The article should be written in American English; do not use British/Canadian spellings of words like armor and authorize.
• Footnotes and References. If your article is a factual essay (an article on the history of WWI firearms, for instance), you should include a reading list at the end of your article, preferably a mix of in-print books that the reader might enjoy and web links. Suggested reading lists are also appropriate for some other kinds of articles -- if you think you've written one that would benefit from one, include it! When referring to fictional works, keep in mind that novels often have different titles in other countries, even English-speaking ones. If you are aware of these alternates, include them.

Things You Should Have, But Not Send

There are two things (specifically: graphics and WYSIWYG documents) you should have ready for us when you submit your article that should not be included in the e-mail (because we don't like spending an hour downloading our mail any more than you do).

• Graphics: If your adventure needs maps or diagrams (or photographs) of any kind, you need to be able to provide them. At this time we are generally unable to redraw these illustrations; as such, if your graphics are unsuitable for publication and your article requires them, we'll probably be forced to reject the article. We do pay for these illustrations, as per SJ Games' standard Pyramid art rates. Please don't e-mail us graphic files with your submission! Rather, include a note in your cover letter that you have such things waiting for us, should we ask to see them. (Internet-savvy contributors might put illustrations in a hidden part of their websites and submit the relevant URLs with their contributions.)

  The exception to this rule is if, in essence, your article is a graphic file. For example, if you are submitting a printable, foldable tank compatible with Cardboard Heroes, then there isn't much to evaluate without the graphic. In that case, feel free to send the file in a common format (GIF, JPG, or PDF) with your submission. Just please make sure your files are fairly small. A needlessly huge file will assuredly be rejected.

• WYSIWYG: We don't accept submissions from new writers in WYSIWYG formats of any kind (including HTML); as stated above, we want them in plain text. If the italics and bolds are so vital to your article that you feel it can't be evaluated properly without them, then feel free to use your own system to denote such items; for example, -this- might be italics and *this* might be bold. (Describe your system in your cover letter.) Alternately, you can use the HTML tags of <B> , <I> , </B> , and </I> . Just make sure your email program isn't converting those to HTML!

  In some rare cases we may ask for a formatted version of your article in an alternate format -- usually HTML or RTF. This is most common if your article contains complex tables that we can't figure out.

Where To Send It

All submissions must be sent via e-mail; send them to pyramid@sjgames.com. In the event that you absolutely cannot submit via e-mail, you may contact us via e-mail at this same address for how to submit via paper. (Yes, we require you to have e-mail access to tell us you don't have e-mail access.) Since Pyramid is an electronic publication, paper submissions are problematic for us, and will delay evaluation of your article by at least six to twelve months. And, ultimately, we will still require an electronic version of your article if it's accepted.

Queries and Follow-Ups

How often should you write to find out if your article is accepted? Should you e-mail us with an idea before committing yourself to writing an article?

The short answers to both: never, and no. The long answers:

We do our best to evaluate any new submission within eight weeks of receiving it. If you haven't received a reply in three months, drop us a polite note to make sure we received it. Do not write us three hours after e-mailing it! If you didn't receive a bounce message, then odds are we got it, and will respond to it in turn. We get a lot of e-mail -- sometimes hundreds a day.

Query letters (where you ask us "are you interested in an article on Giant Wombats?") are a reasonable idea, but the reality of it is this: our answer will always be the same. If it's game-related, and it doesn't violate any of the other rules here, we want to see your submission. If it's not, we don't. We can't tell if we want your article until we read it, so please don't expect any hints or revelations if you send us a query, and just because we want to see your submission is never a guarantee that we'll buy it.

What We Pay

Pyramid pays 3 cents a word, shortly after the article appears online (we do the word count ourselves based on the final, edited article). Pyramid Reviews pay a flat $25 each. If you prefer, we can pay in SJ Games merchandise credit instead of money. If that's your choice, the pay is doubled (in other words, we'll pay $50 in merchandise credit for an article we'd normally pay $25 cash for). We generally just cut checks; if you want merchandise instead, let us know with your submission. (It's always a good idea to say how you want to be paid, just to be on the safe side.)

Merchandise credit is paid in the form of a voucher mailed to you via post. (International customers have the option of having the voucher mailed directly to SJ Games, saving the two-way international trip.) Once you receive it, you can redeem it when purchasing any product directly from us, either via Warehouse 23 or at an official SJ Games convention booth. Merchandise vouchers cannot be redeemed through retailers. Please read the Voucher FAQ before redeeming. Contributors do not get automatic access to Pyramid. Non-subscribers may choose to be sent an electronic version of their HTML document (complete with graphics, if any), for their own personal use only. If you wish to receive a Pyramid subscription as part of your payment, we'll be happy to do that (deducting $20 from your check before any doubling for merchandise credit). Just let us know you want a subscription as part of your payment with your submission.

What Rights We Purchase

Pyramid buys all electronic rights to any original article we publish; if it appears in Pyramid, it may not appear in electronic form anywhere else without permission or license from Steve Jackson Games. We reserve the right to take the first crack at paper publication of any article purchased for Pyramid -- we may eventually publish anthologies of electronic Pyramid articles in book form, for instance. If there are other parties interested in buying paper rights to an article we own the electronic rights to, contact us immediately to let us know. We reserve two months from that time to make a counter-offer. Pyramid is also interested in purchasing second serial rights to articles that have already been published (as first serial purchases) in other magazines. We pay half our normal rates (1.5 cents instead of 3) for second serial rights.

Alternate arrangements to these can be made in special cases; ask us.

Reasonable permission is granted in advance to authors who wish to include Pyramid articles in a writing portfolio. We would prefer not to have to define "reasonable"; in general, if you think you're skirting (or over) the line, you probably are.

Some Tips for Writers

Not all of these are not hard and fast rules, but they are some of the points we keep in mind while evaluating an article. If you're brilliant, feel free to deviate from these points if you think it makes for a better article . . . but it's always better to break a rule knowingly than to do so from ignorance.

• Style: Although Pyramid can be a bit looser in style than, say, your average GURPS book, we still generally prefer to be professional. Unless your writing style is very confident and sharp, it's generally best to remain detached yet interesting; don't feel the need to include slang, pop culture allusions, or other "kewl" lingo in your piece. You can use first person language if appropriate ("In my modern horror campaign, I had the vampire prince take control of the newspapers in order to sway the city council . . ."), but often it is better to rewrite such pieces into the third person ("For example, in a modern horror campaign, a vampire prince may take control of the newspapers in order to sway the city council . . .") This is especially true for reviews; although it's easy to get emotional about particularly good (or bad) games, too much emotion makes it difficult for readers to discern if a product would be of interest to them.
• Generally Avoid Absolutes: Pyramid has, arguably, the most diverse readership of any gaming magazine. We have those who love heavy number-crunching articles, those who love story ideas, those who love campaign settings, those who love one particular genre or game, those who hate one particular genre, and so on. As such, it's very difficult to make statements that are universally true. To that end, we generally frown on any blanket statements . . . especially those that are unfounded or likely untrue. For example, a statement like "No one likes to have their characters die . . ." is probably better written "Many players don't like to have their characters die . . ." Remember that there are all manner of gamers; blanket statements are likely to alienate someone.
• Avoid Overly Broad Articles: Articles with too wide a scope are almost always too meandering to be satisfying. "How to Be a Better GM" is perhaps the most common article title we get . . . and with few exceptions, these are rejected. Why? Because even 5,000 words isn't enough to do justice to such a huge concept. Try to focus big concepts into something more manageable; articles like "How to Use Audio to Be a More Atmospheric GM" or "How to Avoid Plot Holes as a GM" are more likely to cover their topics effectively than "How to Be a Better GM."
• Length Vs. Audience: Pyramid only has a limited number of words per week we can print, yet we have a wide and varied audience. As such, we are constantly trying to balance between articles that are of interest to a wide group, while also having pieces that will appeal greatly to a smaller audience. We need to be aware of how big an article is, versus how much of our audience will be able to use it; as such, a long article will need to appeal to a larger audience, or be of greater interest to a smaller audience.

  For example, we'll almost always have room for good 2,000-word articles we like, even for an obscure game. If that article is 3,000-4,000 words, we need to look at it a bit more closely, particularly if it's for a game without many fans. One 5,000-word article will take up most of a week's issue; it will either need to appeal to a large number of people, or be the best darn article for an obscure game we've ever seen.

  What does all this mean? Well, a longer article for a little-used game may be rejected, with advice to either shorten it or make it more general-purpose. As such, it is often helpful to plan your article toward one of those two goals in the first place. (On the other hand, if a long article for a less-popular system is brilliant, we may well accept it anyway.)

  As an aside, crossover games are especially tricky; if you want to write an article about crossing over Call of Cthulhu with Bunnies and Burrows, then it will generally only be of interest to those who are fans of both games . . . which will obviously be a smaller group than fans of either game individually. Again, such articles will need to be short and focused, appeal to a broader audience, or be brilliant.

• Read all the guidelines. Steve Jackson Games has a lot of authors' guidelines; read the SJ Games style guide, and if you're writing for a specific SJ Games product, read the guidelines for that game. Yes, it can take a while to read all those pages, but it takes longer to write an article that will be rejected because you didn't follow the rules.

  Of particular note are the rules against libel. Pyramid tries to avoid any mention of real living people, including celebrities, political figures, and anyone else. Articles that contain such references will probably be rejected, with instructions to rewrite without mentioning real people. Articles mentioning real companies and organizations are likewise problematic; it's bad to, say, describe how the real company GloboMediCo is, in fact, controlled by undead monsters. Try to avoid the headache altogether; don't say "GloboMediCo," say "a large pharmaceutical company."

• Don't plagiarize. Although this is covered elsewhere, it bears mentioning again. Plagiarizing is the taking of anyone else's work and passing it off as your own. This is especially important with "real world" articles; if you find a website detailing a list of 100 medieval plants, it is not acceptable to simply reiterate that list in your own article . . . especially if your article has a title like "100 Medieval Plants." In the event you plagiarize, we will (of course) reject your article, and we will never work with you again.
• Tie articles to gaming. Although it may be obvious that articles should be tied to gaming, many people seem to forget . . . especially with historical or factual articles. For example, you might submit an article about the history of communication innovations in the last millennium. It might be entirely accurate and well-written, but you may forget to include any context for how it can be used in a roleplaying game. Without that tie, the article might well seem like one that could be found in Time, Discover, or National Geographic. Probably the easiest way to connect an article to gaming is to give adventure seeds or possibilities using the ideas presented in the article.
• It must be fun. Consider this the canonical rule of Pyramid submissions. All aspects of gaming are, ultimately, hobbies -- which are supposed to be fun. And as a gaming magazine, Pyramid strives to make sure its articles are fun.

  Of course, "fun" is entirely subjective, and difficult to describe. Generally, though, it's easier to determine what isn't fun: Overly academic or formal writing, needlessly complex or pointless rules, and topics so esoteric that only a select few would care . . . these are all examples of "un-fun" mistakes that writers make. If we doze off while reading your article, its chances of acceptance aren't very good.

  GURPS books are generally great examples of writing that is factual and well-researched while still fun.

• Make it as flawless as you can. Perfection is probably impossible, but dumb mistakes are avoidable. Spell-check, proofread, go over it. Have a friend read it. Pyramid publishes over 750,000 words a year . . . everything you can do to make sure your words require as little editing as possible increases its chances of acceptance.

  If you discover your article has a significant mistake after submitting it, feel free to resubmit it. (Include a note in the cover letter that it's a resubmission.) Of course, issuing too many corrections in this way shows us that you may not know how to make it right the first time . . .

• Include full contact and payment information, including how you want to be paid. If you don't, there may be months between when we print your article and when we finally sort out everything necessary to pay you.

Further Reading?

We've said it before, but every Pyramid submission should make it plain to us that you've read these guidelines and are willing to follow them. You should also show a familiarity with our "house style" and other details described in the general Steve Jackson Games Authors' Guidelines. These guidelines are a supplement to those; treat both as gospel. Exception: don't bother with a Game Evaluation Waiver. Those are for manuscripts that you hope to sell to SJ Games for publication as a game product, not for magazine articles.

Where to Get the Document You're Already Reading

Our guidelines change occasionally as the magazine matures; you should be working from the most current version of these guidelines. If you're reading a hardcopy that you feel might be out of date, you can always find the most current version on the World Wide Web at http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/writing.html

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