Welcome to GFA 2020 – Level Up! Edition

Salutations to our fellow Gongfarmer friends and patrons! We once again lay down the offerings and start the ritual to summon all of you; The amazing authors, artists, editors, proofers, and supporters that year after year help to build the annual gift that will be The Gongfarmer’s Almanac. The tenets remain the same: The almanac is open to everyone, make content you love, keep it free.

We have some wonderful people helping out with GFA Coordination this year! Please help me in welcoming and welcoming back; Shyloh Wideman, Karim Glue, Jeff Scifert, Michael Harrington, and Jon Hershberger. That being said it is going to take all of our enthusiasm and effort to ensure that The Gongfarmer’s Almanac (GFA) continues to thrive. Last year we lost G+ and it felt like we were starting over with another funnel. You all came together and survived 2019 in spectacular fashion. So this year, Let’s Level Up!

I will try and summarize the process and all the important details below:

Deadlines

• Writing: April 13th
• Art: June 1st
• Editing: May 25th
• Proofing/Final Layout: July 1st
• Funding: July 12th
• Printing & Stapling: July: 24th
• Distribution: July 30- Aug 2 at Gen Con
• Post- GenCon distribution of physical copies: Aug
• Post- GenCon distribution of separate digital zines: Aug
• Post- GenCon distribution of compiled edition: Aug/Sept

How is communication going to work?

Based on the communication avenues that provided the best interactions last year we will be focusing on the following for community notifications:

• GFA Website
• GFA Website Mailing List
• GFA Community (MeWe)
• DCC RPG (Facebook)
• MCC RPG (Facebook)
• DCC RPG Rocks! (Facebook)
• Dark Trails RPG (Facebook)
• DCC RPG (Reddit)

* You are free to reshare our posts to other social media groups/locations

How to participate

Thank you for wanting to contribute! It is because of you that the GFA continues year after year. In order to manage access and maintain people’s privacy we have created a 1-page contributor sign-up form. Simply fill out the form to tell us how and what you would like to contribute. Once submitted an administrator will grant you access to the google drive documents and folders that relate to your contributor role. If you have any questions, please email us directly or use the Contact form. Also, please allow a couple days for us to complete this process. Signing up will also sign you up for our mailing list.

We will be tracking project phases using the 2020 Gongfarmer’s Almanac Content Master spreadsheet.

Writing Submissions (4/13 deadline): The first and most important step is content. We are looking for those who have passionate, original, unpublished Goodman Games-related ideas and want to write about them. “Survive the funnel” was last year’s GFA topic so “let’s level up” is this year’s topic. Submissions geared towards leveling up would be cool: Level 1 adventures, Character Classes, Patrons, Weapons, Artifacts, etc. That said, and like always, we are open to all types of content: short adventures, new classes, gods, patrons, rules, items, monsters, etc. Submissions should fall in the 200-8000 word range. After signing-up, you will receive an email(s) with the important details.

Artwork (6/1 deadline): We are looking for awesome people to contribute original artwork. Some art will need to tie into the articles, but we’ll also be looking for spot art. As submissions start coming in we will be reaching out to see if there is anything you’d like to illustrate, especially pieces authors have flagged with an art request. After signing-up, you will receive an email(s) with the important details.

Editing (5/25 deadline): We are looking for people that want to help edit articles after they are submitted. We can’t do this without you! We will have articles that need editing as soon as they come in. As an editor, you will be responsible for suggesting edits and working with the author to get the article ready for layout, including getting author approval for the edited version of the article. This is all done through Google documents with Suggestion and Comment features. You will receive email(s) connecting you with an author and article from a GFA Coordinator for every article you are asked to edit.

Layout & Proofing (5/25-7/12): We are looking for people that enjoy and have experience in laying out booklets, zines, and print material to layout the wonderful content into the volumes. We will provide some basic guidelines we wish to be followed. Typically, a Layout Artist will be assigned 1 or more volumes. You will receive an email with details and links outlining everything you need.

Publishing & Funding: If you love the ideas and content the zine produces and want to help get it published for distribution at GenCon 2020! we will be asking for your patronage to offset the print costs. We will likely kick-off a campaign for this in May to July. More details will be given then. We have the added goal this year to raise enough funds to have it professionally stapled as well!

Coordination: If you are interested in taking an active role in helping coordinate the GFA, you are Awesome! We are always looking for people who are interested in editing coordination, art coordination, and volume layout coordination. These people play a crucial role in helping the GFA continue for years to come. Please contact us!

Master Index Research: We are doing something new this year. We have created the GFA 2020 – Master Index Research form to help us collect information of articles, zines, and other Goodman Games related content published after July 2019.  This will help us make the Master Index Volume(s) come together and be as accurate as we can make them. We need your help though!

You can find resource materials, templates, and guidelines for the different roles in our GFA Guidelines.

When can I get my copy?

Online distribution of the GFA volumes will be available after GenCon 2020 and a full volume compilation will be available soon after that from our Downloads page.

Final Thoughts

Our GFA website centralizes a lot of core content, resources, and status updates.

We appreciate all of your effort and it goes without saying that everyone retains ownership of their work. The intent is NOT to sell the zine for profit; we’re all volunteering our time and talents. If you’d rather get paid for your work, that is totally cool, but this is not the right venue.

If you have any questions please reply to one of our posts on any of the community social media outlets, email us directly or use the Contact form. If emailing or using the contact form, please start the subject with “GFA 2020 – Your Subject.”

Go forth, create, spread the word far and wide, and from myself, the other coordinators, and all the supporters of the GFA: Thank you for being awesome!

Clayton Williams