Introduction
Good day, everyone. Though Black Marches isn't even ready to gather its parties and venture forth, we're seeing a lot (and I mean a lot) of request content. Unfortunately, there is a lot of Pathfinder content, both official, 3rd Party, and Homebrew, and not all are created equal (even from "official" sources) and as such may not be healthy for this persistent world.
When running a persistent world, it is very important to run a tight ship concerning allowed content. While that doesn't mean being stingy and banning new material, it does mean adhering to a level of quality and consistency whenever possible. Because of this, it is very likely that if a piece of material is requested but found wanting by the staff, it will be turned down. If it is turned down, we'll let you know why is was turned down and if possible, provide suggestions for alternatives, or suggestions for where the material can be improved before being resubmitted for approval (sometimes certain major flaws may exist in an otherwise decent piece of work and fixing those flaws would mean it could be accepted later).
So this post is to help save everyone time and frustration (by everyone, I mean the person submitting the content, the staff, and everyone else who is waiting for the staff to review their material) by detailing up front what sort of things are likely to get a submission approved and rejected.
Getting Rejected
I'm going to explain the quickest ways to get rejections first, because unfortunately a lot of RPG material is terrible and ill-conceived and so it's better to get this out of the way.
(Lack of) Clarity: The clarity of the content is very important. If a submission does not define its mechanics very well, is vague in wording, or isn't particularly legible, it will generally be rejected immediately. In an RPG like Pathfinder, especially in a persistent world environment where we're dealing with many players and GMs, the wording of abilities, spells, and items must be as clear as possible. It cuts down on rules disputes and helps adjudicate disagreements between members of the community.
Be sure to go through anything you intend to submit and make sure the language it uses fits with the game.
(Lack of) Consistency: Consistency within RPG systems is important. Consistency comes in many forms so I'm going to discuss a few of the most important ones as far as Black Marches is concerned.
- Consistency of Mechanics: The d20 system has certain standards that help the system run smoothly. If the mechanics aren't consistent with the core framework of the game, you can expect rejection. For example, DC is 10 + 1/2 your level + an ability score is consistent with d20 (while DC of 5 + wisdom + charisma + 1/4th your level is not).
- Consistency of Balance: Balance comes in many forms but our gold standard for determining balance is comparing what content allows you to do, and at what levels, and how that matches up to the core content of the game. Let it be known that when we're comparing it to core, we're looking at the core content that is consistently high quality (so not Fighter, Rogue, or Monk) so if a submission is better at adventuring than a "core rulebook Fighter", that's not going to get the submission denied. We also compare material to level breakpoints that are normal for the game (such as when certain spells and options are accessed) and if your submission doesn't fit well into those breakpoints (such as getting 3rd level spells at 4th level) then it's likely to be rejected. Balance goes both ways as well (if your submission doesn't meet the standards of adventuring, it will get rejected as well).
- Consistency of Setting Flavor: This one might upset some people but Black Marches isn't intended to fulfill all possible fantasies. It is intended as a pseudo-Sword & Sorcery style game where people fight mythical creatures, wield powerful magical artifacts, and exist in a loosely traditional fantasy world (it may look similar to Middle Earth has been bingeing on cocaine and LSD; it's flashy, wild, and cranked to 11, but it's still hobbits, orcs, dragons, kingdoms, castles, etc). What this means is that everything that's submitted needs to not rock the boat too much. If you've got your heart set on playing a World War II airplane pilot class, or exploring the final frontier of space with Star Trek material found on a 3rd Party blog, we may have some bad news for you.
- Note: That's not to say that you can't do a lot of stuff that pushes the boundaries of flavor with existing material (such as creating giant robots using Craft Construct), or run a game as a GM that involves players venturing into outer space in a magical space ship. Merely that these things are exceptions that make them more exceptional, rather than the norm, and so we'll be hesitant to OK anything that may disrupt the overall flavor of the game. There's a lot of stuff that magic makes possible, but it needs to be focused through a fantasy lens. For example, having a character that contains their summoning spells in a USB drive that hooks into a computer on their wrist is probably right out, but if it's fluffed as having summoning seals that are placed in their caller's focusing gauntlet…well, the end result is the same but it's a lot less jarring to everyone's verisimilitude.
- Consistency of Campaign Norms: If a submission, be it race, feat, class, or anything of the sort is heavily rooted in some sort of specific campaign fluff or requires a nonstandard mechanic (such as Taint mechanics, Insanity rules, a specific cosmology, specific major organizations, a rich historical culture that isn't present in this campaign) it will need to go through major revisions before it could even be close to being accepted. For example, a prestige class that uses mechanics that don't exist in this campaign (such as Taint from 3.5), or a race that needs all of its fluff rewritten because it's for a specific campaign, will likely be dismissed pending revisions.
The Material Affects A Lot: If the material affects other material within the game, then it will take longer and potentially increase the chances of it being rejected. If your proposal makes major changes to the system as a whole (such as changing creature types, removing a school of magic, adding a school of magic, an alternative feat system, a new way of awarding XP, etc), then it will take our staff time to process the ramifications and weigh the pros and cons of the proposal and it may be denied or rejected pending revisions.
Okay, now that we've covered ways of making your requests hard on yourself, let's look at some things that can help you get stuff accepted.
Requesting for Success!
Here are some quick ways of ensuring that what you're proposing has the best chances of being approved in the timeliest fashion.
Minor or Isolated Mechanics: If you're introducing a new feat, spell, or magic item, it takes our staff a lot less time to evaluate and process the request. If the material allows for something existing material doesn't (or is better written than existing material) while also maintaining quality of balance, it'll probably get accepted pretty quickly. A side benefit of minor requests like these is if some revisions are necessary, it can often be done in the same day and a staff member may present a revised version in their response posts (because minor editing of this sort isn't super inconvenient).
Knowing Your Material: If you already have a strong grasp on the material being submitted, include any notes and/or thoughts on the material, such as how you think the material improves the game, where you think the material is weakest, where you think it is strongest, and what sorts of thoughts on balance it warrants. Honesty is important, because we're more likely to accept something pending minor revisions if someone points out a few flaws that can be removed or patched, rather than trying to downplay negatives of the material.
Not Fighting With Us: Notice I didn't say not arguing. At least two members of the staff (including myself) are more than happy to get into a civil, friendly debate. We won't reject something for the lulz. If you think we're making a mistake or overlooking something, you're more than welcome to try to convince us that perhaps we should take a second look, and in fact, this sort of thing is expected since many submissions will be rejected pending revisions (and sometimes the revision process may look a little bit like haggling to the untrained eye).
However, fighting with us is another story. Being insulting, condescending, or disruptive will get you no where. If your request for a diamond katana with a 2-20 threat range is rejected, please leave our mothers out of the conversation. :)
Suggest Generally Useful Material: To elaborate, the review process is pretty much the same for material regardless of how niche it is. However, there are a lot of players in a persistent world and some material is frankly more useful to a wider audience. The more niche the requested content, the lower on the list it is going to get placed when the staff is working on things. That might not sound fair, but I'm trying to be honest. And honestly, there's a lot more pressing concerns when maintaining a persistent world than determining whether or not a prestige class that is only available to celestial blooded tiefling sorcerers is appropriately balanced. It's a cool concept (no seriously, I suddenly want to make an opposite-bloodline planetouched now), but at the end of the day, it's not going to benefit the community very much (it has a lot of specific requirements) and so it's more likely to take a back seat to other issues.
Also, to poke fun at one of our founder's Rayne Kitty, I should note that requesting material that is useful to everyone improves your odds as well. For example, proposing mechanics that would allow players to play Construct races is pretty useful to anyone since anyone might decide to make some sort of clockwork man or something. Requesting a custom tiny sized doll race to indulge in your Loli fetishes is less helpful to the general community. :3
Being Patient
There's a process that has to happen before something gets approved. Sometimes the process is simply reading over the material and going "Yeah, looks good. Ship it!", sometimes the process requires questions, revisions, and additional review. But it always takes some measure of time, even if the proposal is 100% perfect, we still have to read and evaluate it. It may take a week or more to evaluate large, complex things, such as whole classes (especially if we have to discuss things with each other), so be patient.
Because of this, I would recommend not requiring a lot of custom material for your first characters here. Having a more traditional character (or at least one that makes use of currently approved material) to play while you're waiting for your celestial blooded tiefling prestige class would probably help ease the pain of waiting a lot. :D