Fantasy Flight Games doesn't want your ideas

Hmm, I was just reading about this potentially great, great Pulp Adventure game in the Blog section. And I would love to see this published asap (if the designer thinks it's ready to be published). Theme, style and amount of cards would suggest FFG to be a front-runner for this. Until I saw this note on their website:

" Board & Card Game Guidelines
Fantasy Flight no longer accepts unsolicited board and card game submissions. "

Argh!!! Wtf?! So, what does that mean, there is no chance that they will pick up games like Merchant & Marauders or Thrilling Tales of Adventure! or any other cool game F:ATties or other people have in the pipeline? I appreciate that they have their hands full with the stuff they bought recently, but still, isn't that a (many?) lost opportunity(s)?

Maybe it's just me and everybody knew about that before, but I just saw it today and felt a bit disappointed.

There are legal issues with accepting external ideas. BIG ONES. You'll here/see the same message at the majority of board game/video game design shops. Don't think of FFG as just a publisher--they are a game creation facility--unsolicited game designs have baggage.

I went through the Vapor Ops job application process at Wizards of the Coast (publisher of MAGIC: THE GATHERING) some years ago and I had to sign every original thought on there away before the test could be handed to me. It's just to cover them, man.

That's still pretty poor showing though. So what are first-time Ameritrash-style game designers supposed to do? There's no small-scale publishers working in the field and self-publishing games is fraught with its own problems.

I realise it's a business decision. But it makes them look more like the corporate behemoth they probably are than the gamer-friendly company we'd like them to be.

But what do you do, if you have a good prototype ready at hand? You'll just ignore the message and contact the publishers of your choice? Does the FFG message just mean you're not supposed to send in your great 'Kronk, the Librarian' game, printed on cheap paper accompanied by Carcassonne meeples without asking them first? If yes, then there's hope, of course!

Just shop it to Z-man. Zev's probably the biggest publisher that openly accepts amature submissions and he's got good taste in games. If he thought he could sell enough, he'd pick up M&M or Thrilling Tales, I'd think.

Ska_baron wrote:

Just shop it to Z-man. Zev's probably the biggest publisher that openly accepts amature submissions and he's got good taste in games. If he thought he could sell enough, he'd pick up M&M or Thrilling Tales, I'd think.

Maybe he already has picked up M&M ...

Z-Man is a good possibility. Also Asmodee, White Wolf and Twilight Creations. White Wolf published my game design. Twilight Creations published a game that one of my friends designed, though he already had serious credentials from working at FFG.

Oh! They *want* my designs. Every other day I get a call from Peterson begging for my prototype "Racer knight Gladiatorial Mutants of the Dark Imperium."

Yeah <sniff> I might let him publish it if he throws enough money at me...

Steve"RKGMotDI"Avery

Tons of small publishers out there. Reiver games, Jolly Roger, Bocephalus, probably a dozen or so others will all publish your game if it doesn't suck.

FFG is probably worried about getting sued by some dweeb who sends them his shitty game, then two years later says "they stole my mechanic." If commercial insurance carriers are savvy to how FFG's business works, FFG probably saves some real money on their insurance by refusing to accept amateur submissions.

Plus lets face it their in house designers are excellent, and I'm sure if a name designer approached them with something they would take a look.

Actually they are backed way the hell up. I was talking to Richard Launius the other day and FFG has so much lined up that they aren't considering new stuff until they get some of their slated projects done.

Steve"Inside_Scoop"Avery

That's probably a wise move on their part.

Stephen Avery wrote:

Actually they are backed way the hell up. I was talking to Richard Launius the other day and FFG has so much lined up that they aren't considering new stuff until they get some of their slated projects done.

Steve is correct. They simply have too much on their plate right now, and having made a huge number of (existing game) acquisitions over the past few years, they don't need to look at anything else, at least for the time being. It's nothing personal, it's simply a matter of prioritizing limited resources.

Presumably, they'll still consider new titles, but not unsolicited ones, which basically means they might consider either designs from someone they already know and have a relationship with already, or something that they've heard enough about that they take some definite interest in. As full as their plate is, I'm sure they still keep their eyes and ears on future possibilities. But they just don't want prototypes or messages about new games from out of nowhere and from people they don't know.

Thats' cool news about Merchants & Marauders! And yes, I was thinking the same thing about Thrilling Tales of Adventure being perfect for FFG. The sad thing is, I almost can't picture that being published by anyone else, even Z-Man. So it might have to wait until FFG is ready...

Honestly, Z Man does components almost as well as FFG. I wouldn't be embarassed to have him publish my game at all. Plus, he isn't picky about the design. Shit, he published heads of state, which is a half finished euro knockoff if I've ever seen one.

I realise it's a business decision. But it makes them look more like the corporate behemoth they probably are than the gamer-friendly company we'd like them to be.

That's exactly the way I feel about their refusal to allow non-crippled VASSAL modules of their games to be distributed which, I'm sorry, is total bullshit.