Submission Guidelines
Artesia: Adventures in the Known World is a roleplaying game based on Mark Smylie’s award-winning comic, Artesia, and published by Archaia Studios Press. Archaia Studios Press is seeking proposals for scenarios set in the Known World of Artesia AKW. If you are interested in writing scenarios for Artesia AKW and adding to the richness of the Known World, please review the following guidelines:

The Query
Please send a proposal to editor@theknownworld.com. Your proposal should be 1,000 to 1,500 words (about two to three pages) and must include the following elements:

• A compelling working title. The title is subject to change, but a grabby, flavorful title goes a long way.
• A summary of the situation faced by the player characters. Give just enough back-story to color the situation. We’re really looking for the immediate problem the NPCs are facing and which the player characters can resolve (or muck up further). Keep it to 400 words or less, please. See the example below.
• A list of the major NPCs, each with a short description of the character’s significance to the situation. It is also suggested that you include how each NPC relates to the other NPCs (family, friendship, marriage, sex, love, hatred, rivalry, etc.), and a potential way that each NPC could use the player characters to further his or her ambitions (e.g., as muscle, political allies, patsies, lovers, go-betweens, etc.).
• A list of the major locations in the scenario with a brief description. Setting your scenario in a backwater village (like Belward of The Witch’s Price) is fine, but make it pop. The setting is an essential character of Artesia AKW, and each place should have its own story and feel.

Please keep in mind that we are not the players of your scenario. Don’t be sneaky about key elements of the scenario in order to avoid the big reveal. Surprises and twists for the players are great, surprises and twists for us are not.

Things We’d Like to See
If you want your proposal to make us sit up and take notice, make sure to include the following:

• An interesting use of a location that helps bring the setting to life.
• Situations not easily resolved with violence. If a situation is simple enough that taking a sword or dagger to a person is all it takes to make it better, then the situation requires more complexity.
• Interesting incorporation of Artesia AKW’s religions, magic, mysteries or politics.
• Decent spelling and grammar. Make sure to proofread your proposal before you send it to us.

Things You Should Know
After you submit your proposal, you will get a response acknowledging receipt.

It may take a while for your proposal to be approved or rejected. Please be patient and don’t constantly inquire about its status. If it has been a month and you still haven’t heard anything, please feel free to send an inquiry as a reminder.

Please bear in mind that we will likely reject most proposals. It’s not personal. Time permitting, we may provide a few brief suggestions for improving your next proposal, but there may be no explanation at all.

If your proposal should be rejected, please don’t resubmit the same proposal later. We won’t change our minds. You are, however, encouraged to submit a new proposal.

We will not accept proposals for multiple-scenario arcs from first-time scenario writers. Keep your first scenario tight. We will entertain more ambitious proposals from scenario writers who have shown their ability and proven they can work with us.

If Your Proposal Is Accepted
If your proposal is accepted, we will contact you to discuss payment and rights.  Our usual payment offer is an advance of 3 cents per word based upon the word count of the final submitted and accepted manuscript, against royalties of 30% of the net profits of the published work.  We know it’s not much; we do this for the love of the game and the hobby, not for the riches generated by the role-playing game industry.

Please note that while we offer net profit royalties, any scenario published by Archaia Studios Press becomes the sole property of Archaia Studios Press.  We seek to acquire all rights to any accepted submission that makes use of Archaia Studios Press’s copyrighted materials or that makes changes or additions to a product of Archaia Studios Press. 

Your part of the project will proceed along the following steps:

Example summary based on The Witch’s Price (See Artesia AKW)
A witch hides in the Erid Wold, near the Erid Danian village of Belward (fee of Ser Apelias, a vassal knight of Prince Fionne Thurias), and she keeps a secret that could bring down the kingdom: the bastard son of Crown Prince Hektor Thurias. Only the witch, Prince Fionne and his advisor, Kestrel, know the boy lives. Fionne plans to use the boy to usurp the throne of Erid Dania from his brothers when their father dies. Until then, Ser Apelias pays the witch 50 gold crowns a year on his liege lord’s behalf to keep the boy secret and safe.

When Lady Heketaia, Ser Apelias’s wife, asks the player characters to fulfill her husband’s annual obligation and deliver the payment on behalf of the knight (stricken with a terrible and unnatural fever), the players may come to learn the witch’s secret. In the process, they may make Prince Fionne into a powerful patron or a dire enemy.

Nothing is simple. High Priest Efruse, head of the Temple Precinct of Hagenwall (including Belward), has heard rumors of occasional sacrifices at Bel’vaine, the great barrow mound near Belward. He has secreted a spy, Orresto, as an assistant to Belward’s priest. Orresto has been preparing a report on the activities of the people of Belward for his master. He suspects Lady Heketaia and her handmaidens of following the Old Religion, and Ser Apelias’s strange fever has caused him to wonder if she has cursed her husband.

When he overhears the lady’s appeal to the player characters, he knows he must act. An old lady who lives in a hovel in a bog in the Erid Wold can only mean a witch. Perhaps Lady Heketaia is using the player characters to pay the witch for cursing her husband. Or worse, maybe Ser Apelias himself is involved with the idolatry at Bel’vaine. The zealous Orresto will stop at nothing to learn the truth, and the player characters may pay the price, caught between the schemes of a prince, the secrets of a village, and a church eager to root out heresy.