How to Create a Jovian Chronicles Sourcebook

by Christian Schaller

In preparing for what I'd intended to write this month -- a piece about the information oversight system (IOS) that monitors the Shinjuku arcology of the Takeda Corporate Zone -- I realized I find myself with more than just information about that IOS. In fact, in order to present the IOS in any kind of meaningful way, I would have to know a lot about the arcology itself, and I would probably have to write something about the arcology. (The mere fact that I would suddenly be talking about a city that gets not even lip service in the published texts reveals that much!) "Well," I thought, "that's fine. Next month, after all, we're going to be looking at interesting places in the Jovian Chronicles setting, so I could write about HIOS [for that is what I've decided to call the Shinjuku IOS] this month and Shinjuku itself next month." The chief problem with that strategy is that you would be reading about this HIOS thing without any context at all -- you would have to wait a month before you could even hope to see Shinjuku itself, and the overseeing software would make little sense without it.

It makes much more sense to present Shinjuku itself first and then to introduce HIOS. That is, in fact, how one would do it in a sourcebook about Shinjuku... If it had been a snake, it would have bit me, as the saying goes. Duh! Why not actually write a Shinjuku city sourcebook? Such a thing isn't even close to being on the official DP9 Jovian Chronicles wish list, and it's hard to imagine filling the minimum book size with information on Shinjuku, so it wouldn't be something I'd submit to DP9 for publication. It does, however, make a nice project for an APA such as this one.

It also occurred to me that I could do a lot worse than turn this Shinjuku city sourcebook into a sort of "how-to" series of articles on writing RPG source material. While I'm not a widely published freelance author (yet), I have worked on two books from beginning to end (the Jovian Chronicles Mechanical Catalog 2 and the Heavy Gear Terranovan Spaceship Compendium). I've also edited over a dozen Dream Pod 9 books, much of which involved more than just editing. So that's what I'll be doing from here on out until I finish this little project: I'll be writing what I naturally will consider to be a passable Jovian Chronicles sourcebook and using it as an illustrative example of how to go about doing such a thing yourself. Hopefully this process will be educational for everyone following along, even if you have no interest in writing Jovian Chronicles material.

Chapter 0 - How to Write a Jovian Chronicles Sourcebook

0.1 - Preparatory Work

The first thing you need to do is understand just what the hell you're getting into. This step is probably the most crucial of the whole process. If you have no idea what you're about to do, you'd best step back and reconsider or you will get burned, possibly quite severely. There are really two things to consider: what exactly do you want to write and what exactly does the company expect of you?

0.1.1 - What the Company Wants

This part of the first step is really the most important. If the company doesn't want what you plan to write, there may be no point in trying to write it. In some cases, you may be able to find another company that would want your material. The Dungeons and Dragons game is such a case -- there are dozens of companies producing material for the game, so if your sourcebook doesn't fit with Company A's plans, it might fit with those of Company B. In most cases, however, the company that publishes the game is likely to be the sole owner of the right to publish material for the game, and if your material doesn't fit, you won't be able to sell it to it. (These statements assume you're planning on writing "official" material for a book to be published in hardcopy. If you're writing for online publication, for a fan magazine, or some other medium, you will probably find yourself in a different boat.)

Before you start, figure out what the company wants. In most cases, you should be able to find information on its website. I've looked at three companies' sites, and each has had -- right up front -- a link to information on submitting freelance material. Two of them have been pretty vague, unfortunately. Personally, I think Dream Pod 9 lays it out the most clearly. (I would, wouldn't I?) DP9 has both a comprehensive set of submission guidelines and a wish list that outlines clearly what it wants in the way of sourcebooks -- for each of its product lines.

In lieu of actual information on what the company wants, take a look at the game line about which you're thinking of writing. If your book fits neatly with what has already been published, you stand a better chance of getting it published yourself. If it repeats something that's already been published, forget it. If it is an entirely new kind of product (such as a book that details a city, when every other sourcebook has been about entire planets), you will probably have a tricky time getting the company to accept it, but you probably shouldn't give up.

An examination of the previous products will also give you some clues as to format. Format is as important as content, and it's something you had best pay close attention to. If you screw around with the formatting -- both the layout concepts as well as the overall organizational format -- you will waste more than just your own time. It's much simpler to stick to the format from the beginning than to make the editor try to force what you've written into the company's style. Trust me on this point.

Language

It's a good idea to know ahead of time what language to use. This concept seems almost ludicrous, but keep in mind that there are at least four different variants of English (that I can think of off the top of my head). The United Kingdom, Canada, The United States, and Australia all speak English but each has a different concept of what "English" is. (The UK, Canada, and Australia are all wrong, by the way.) It's best to contact the company to find out how it plans to deal with your particular variant of English if it's not the same as its own.

There's one major difference between US English and the other three, by the way: in US English, collective nouns are always singular; in the others, they're always plural. The last sentence in the previous paragraph would look like this in UK English: "It's best to contact the company to find out how they plan to deal with your particular variant of English if it's not the same as their own."

Grammatical and spelling considerations aren't the only things you will have to worry about, either. You'll also need to think at least cursorily about word choices. The UK is fond of the word "whilst," for example, but we never use it here in the US.

Your word processor and related tools (spell checkers, grammatical checkers) should be good enough to handle multiple variants of the language. Mine, for example, can check spelling and grammar for UK, US, Canadian, and Australian English. (It can be pretty stupid at times, too, so you should grab yourself a stylebook for the language in question. If I allowed my word processor's grammar checker to traipse along unchecked through this paragraph, the sentence two prior to this one would end with "UK, Canadian, Australian English, and US." That doesn't make any kind of sense at all.)

0.1.2 - What you Want

Now that you know what the company wants, you should figure out what you want. Most likely, you had at least a vague idea of what you wanted when you started looking into what the company wants. At this point, however, you can refine your basic idea into something that you will enjoy writing and something that the company will likely accept for publication.

Don't start writing it yet, however. The company's guidelines should tell you how to go about writing for it. Dream Pod 9, for example, needs a project proposal from you first. You'll need to present a brief description of what you plan to write and you will be required (at some stage prior to writing) to submit a detailed outline of what your book will contain. This stage is where you concern yourself with these details.

Let's pretend that Dream Pod 9 really wants city sourcebooks. Let's suppose that, on its website's Jovian Chronicles wish list, there's an entry for city sourcebooks that states that DP9 is soliciting manuscripts that cover one city each in great detail. It notes that the manuscript should include a history for the city, a guide to interesting locales within the city, and information on major players -- both NPCs and corporations. The description further states that DP9 plans on one to two cities for each of the major powers in the Solar System, including CEGA, the Free Earth states, the Jovian Confederation, and so on, and that colony cylinders count as "cities" for this purpose. It also states how many pages the company plans to devote to the project. In this case, it's 32 pages. (NOTE: DP9 is not currently seeking manuscripts of this sort at all. I'm using this as a premise for an illustrative example. Make sure you read the actual wish list before you embark on a project of your own!)

I plan to write about Shinjuku, which in 2214 is an arcology rather than the open-air region it is today in real life. I was originally planning on writing about its IOS, at which point, recall, I realized I should write about the city itself. Here's a catch, though: I hadn't actually thought about writing a historical section, per se. I had sort of hoped to avoid that, since I don't particularly like writing such things or, more importantly, researching them. I had hoped to let whatever historical material I needed sort of fill in the gaps as I was writing, perhaps as sidebars. The wish list, however, makes it clear that I need to include a historical section. That's probably for the best, come to think of it.

Now I need to write a letter to the senior editor and let him know I'm interested in writing a city sourcebook. It's a pretty good idea to have a decent outline of what you intend to write at this stage, even if you don't include it in the cover letter.

The Cover Letter

Your cover letter is the mechanism by which you sell yourself to the company. In it, you should explain clearly and succinctly what it is you intend to write and why the company should want to publish it. If you're unfamiliar to the company, you should also introduce yourself and explain why you're qualified to write this book. Treat this document as a formal business letter (because it is, actually). Spelling and grammar count! (Spelling and grammar should always count, as a matter of fact.)

I won't be writing a cover letter for this pseudo-project.

The Outline

The outline is important for several reasons. First, it provides a means for you to organize your thoughts and ideas. It also allows the editor to see clearly what you plan to write and how much of your text each concept will occupy. It also lets the layout artist plan for your manuscript. Finally, if circumstances force you to farm some of your writing out to other authors, it provides them with a clear idea of where to go with their assignments.

Keep in mind this fact: the first outline you write will not be the last. It may change as you write and it may change at the very last stage over which you have any control of the project.

The rest of this article will cover the outline for the Shinjuku Arcology Sourcebook.

0.2 - Creating the Outline

At this point, you should have an idea as to what you want to write and what the company expects of you. You should know the format your manuscript will ultimately take. It's time to create your outline. (I actually recommend doing this for pretty much any writing you're going to undertake, even fiction. It really helps to organize your thoughts before you dive into them.)

0.2.1 - Initial Considerations

The Shinjuku Arcology Sourcebook will take 32 pages. As a side note, nearly all of Dream Pod 9's black and white manuscripts fill multiples of 16 pages. This fact is due to the printing process they use, in which 16-page "booklets" are bound into one square-spine binding. If your project is to have color pages, your editor will tell you how many you get. (At the moment, most color pages are limited to details regarding miniatures. If your project has nothing to do with miniatures, you almost certainly won't be worrying about color pages.) Again, due to the printing process used, color pages are found in "booklets," though they're booklets of 4 pages each in this case. These must be inserted in between 16-page booklets, not anywhere else. You cannot insert a color run on pages 8 and 9, for example. First, that's only a two-page span (not four) and second, that's right smack in the middle of 16-page b/w run. It is impossible to put your color pages there. There are some other restrictions, as you'll see in the next paragraph.

Dream Pod 9 chapters always begin on an even-numbered page and end on an odd-numbered page. Chapters are therefore an even number of pages long. Note, however, that the booklets used in binding begin on odd-numbered pages and end on even-numbered ones. If you have a color section, it must therefore occur within a chapter, not in between chapters! In the simplest example, a 32-page book with a 4-page color section (36 pages total -- color sections don't replace b/w sections), the color section must start on page 1, page 17, or page 33. Starting on page 1 is right out, since that page is the cover page. Starting on page 17 means it will interrupt a chapter, because a chapter must begin on an even-numbered page, such as page 16, not an odd-numbered one. Thus, your color section should be related to the chapter in which it is located. (You might start a chapter about miniatures on page 16, for example, especially if your color section is about painting miniatures.)

Dream Pod 9's books have specific formats for chapters, sections, character write-ups, and so forth. Because these formats have slowly changed over the years, you are best off consulting the most recent sourcebook in the line on which you're working to see examples of these formats. In general, expect to write about 850 to 900 words per page. (This document is almost 4400 words long, incidentally.) Illustrations cut down on the number of words, but don't plan on having tons of illustrations in your book. Guaranteed illustrations include character and archetype illustrations, creature illustrations, and mecha illustrations. Some equipment will likely have accompanying illustrations. Political entities and corporations will have flag and logo illustrations. Most chapters will have a lead-in illustration on the first page of text, and each will probably have one or two additional illustrations to provide some visual flavor.

0.2.2 - Planning, Stage One

At the risk of repeating myself, the Shinjuku Arcology Sourcebook will have 32 pages. The first step in outlining this book is to think about how many pages to devote to each chapter.

We can't quite jump into that yet, however. There are some additional things to note. First, the first page in each book is the cover page (or "fly page," as some folks call it). This page has the Jovian Chronicles logo and a small illustration, likely taken from the cover of the book. The next two pages contain the credits, the table of contents, and the legal information. A 32-page book probably doesn't need two pages for its ToC (as we call it), but we'll devote two pages to it anyway. Finally, the last page of the book is usually the index. We probably don't need a full page for the index, though. We'll set aside the full page nevertheless. Now notice that we're down to 28 pages.

We still can't jump right in there! Each chapter has two pages of required material. The first page of each chapter is the book's representative illustration (the one used on the cover page) plus a relevant quote. (There are variations. The hardware books, for example, tend to have a representative piece of hardware leading off the chapter.) (Also, note that Heavy Gear books have a piece of fiction on this first page plus an illustration of the situation depicted in the vignette.) The second page of the chapter serves to introduce the chapter, although it needn't be as blatant as "Introduction to the GM Resources Chapter."

A corollary to this fact is that the more chapters you have, the fewer pages you actually have to write about the contents of each chapter! For example, if I had a chapter on major NPCs, a chapter on equipment, a chapter on character archetypes, and a chapter on animals, I would have 6 fewer pages than if I had one chapter that included all four elements.

While the first two pages of each chapter serve important purposes, there is a balance point between necessary content and wasted space. If you have more than five chapters, you might reconsider your presentation -- this recommendation is especially true for smaller books.

Let's get back to the Shinjuku book. What should this book contain? It should have NPCs, character archetypes, equipment, and campaign seeds, certainly. There's a tendency for fans of the game to demand mecha, too, but in general you probably shouldn't plan on packing your book full of mecha -- unless, of course, it's a book about mecha. (Note that I'm using the Japanese definition of "mecha" here, which is any mechanical vehicle or device. Tanks, helicopters, spaceships, and cars are all mecha, not just giant robots.) Mecha don't add as much to the setting as details about the society that fields them. Despite this, I'll include a bunch of mecha in here, mostly because, right now, I'm not sure I can write 20 or so pages about Shinjuku. Mecha will be the first things I scrap as I discover other things to include, however.

The book should have a history of Shinjuku, starting from the present day, proceeding through the events that led to the Fall, continuing through the Fall itself, and emerging in the current timeline. Incidentally, I'm setting this book in 2214, which is the current "waypoint" in the Saga of Mankind. The history chapter will end with a treatment of Shinjuku citizens' view of the Odyssey Affair and, most recently, the Battle of Kurtzenheim.

There should also be a chapter on the city itself, including interesting locales and things to do. A map of the city would be nice. Another chapter should focus on key players in the city's progress, particularly the corporations and organizations that keep the city interesting. Let's look at all of this as a brief, introductory outline:

• Chapter 1 - Introduction and History
• Chapter 2 - City Guidebook
• Chapter 3 - Organizations
• Chapter 4 - GM Resources
• Chapter 5 - Mechanical Catalog

Right there is a problem. I'd be awfully tempted, as an editor, to merge the Mechanical Catalog into the GM Resources chapter, especially since I'm working with 32 pages here, no more, no fewer. I'll go ahead and do that for this book. So we have four chapters to span 28 pages. The city map should probably be two whole pages. For the Heavy Gear league books, each city-state has only about half of a page for a city map. Since this book is focusing in detail on a city, we should donate more space to the map. This is especially true since Shinjuku is an arcology rather than a traditional city, so its layout will be a lot less familiar to most of us.

With 28 pages for the meat of the book and four chapters, we have 7 pages per chapter. That's obviously not going to be final, since chapters must have an even number of pages, and each chapter is not "worth" the same number of pages. Let's figure 6 pages for the history chapter for now, 8 pages for the guidebook, 6 pages for organizations, and 8 pages for GM resources.

Hm. You know what? Right now, I can think of more than 8 pages of material for the GM resources. There really isn't much difference between an organization and a person, actually. (In fact, there's a branch of ethics that defines "person" such that organizations are entitled to the same rights as humans.) Let's merge the organizations into the GM resources chapter and give ourselves 14 pages for the total.

Taking a look at the revised basic outline, we find the following:

• Chapter 1 - Introduction and History (6 pages)
• Chapter 2 - City Guidebook (8 pages)
• Chapter 3 - GM Resources (14 pages)

That's respectable. The next step is to flesh that out into a page-by-page breakdown of the contents.

0.2.3 - Planning, Stage Two

My first task will be to decide where HIOS fits into the scheme. Recall, if you will, that this whole idea came about because I wanted to write about Shinjuku's IOS. (Incidentally, if you don't know what an IOS is, and if you have no idea what the Takeda Corporate Zone is, I suggest you run out and pick up the Shadow of CEGA planetary sourcebook!) As the city's IOS, a factor that affects each citizen's daily life, HIOS is a major player in the city. It will get mention in the historical chapter and the guidebook, but will be detailed mostly in the GM resources chapter.

When I broke the book down by pages, I discovered that I had no real room for creatures. That's probably okay -- there's hardly much call for creatures in an arcology. I also found that I had little room for archetypes and mecha. I also had little room for campaign seeds; I will probably resolve that by littering the organizations and HIOS with enough to get a GM started on reasonable campaigns.

Let's take a look at the page-by-page breakdown of the book:

See? That GM chapter filled up quite quickly. I may yet fiddle with it. The most likely thing I'll do is spill some of it over onto the last page, since, as I've noted, there's not much need for an index in this book. (We in fact did this very thing for the Mechanical Catalog 2.)

There is now a pretty decent plan for this book. What each of these things is may not be obvious to you right now. You probably don't know what the Hitomi Clan is or why it's important. You may never have heard of the Saotome Institute. HIOS is still almost certainly a complete mystery. (The "H" doesn't stand for Hitomi, by the way.) Be assured that all will be revealed as I get deeper into this project.

Hey, you know what I just realized I left out? I don't have a section on the culture of the arcology. I might replace one or two pages of "Places of Note" in Chapter 2 with details on the society itself. The editor probably would have pointed this deficiency out to me after I submitted my first draft of the outline. Like I said, don't expect your outline to stay fixed in stone.

0.3 - Next Month...

That about covers the first steps towards writing a Jovian Chronicles (or other) sourcebook. It's probably deficient in many ways and probably too wordy in others. Next month, I'll delve into the Guidebook chapter. You'd think I'd start with the History chapter, but next month, we (the members of the APA) are presenting several city or colony structures, and the Shinjuku Guidebook chapter fits better into that theme.

Modified August 7, 2001

Jovian Chronicles is © 2001, Dream Pod 9, Inc. All rights reserved. Jovian APAworks is not affiliated with Dream Pod 9 in any way. Submitted material remains the property of the creator.