I know there are quite a few game designers on these forums (most of them far more successful than drunken old me) and that we probably have good advice for people who are thinking of starting their own games.

Personally, my advice is:


Artwork
Make sure your artwork matches up where you put it. There is nothing sacred about color work, black and white can work, as can line artwork. Yes, color artwork is cool and looks good, but it has become waaaaaay over-used in RPG's. The artwork in the 1E books still evokes nostalgia, and some of it was quite good. The succubus picture is rather famous, as is the Paladin In Hell pictures.

TALK TO YOUR ARTISTS! Including giving your artists samples of the text where it will be placed. Make sure they understand what the product is, that way they have it in the back of their mind how the pictures should look.

Fluff Text
A lot of people just toss fluff text into the book, but fluff text can make or break a product. When writing flavor text, make sure it has something to do with the section. Yes, battles are always exciting, but anecdotes, descriptions of locations, and other stuff are all good.

Don't be afraid to describe things, but learn to do it quickly and concisely.

Outline
I usually start with an outline, moving stuff around and setting everything up. In a lot of ways, my outline is easily translatable to the ToC, and I have found it to be invaluable when writing.

Content
You need to decide, right away, what the rating will be. I know before I start penning each product, what the target audience and rating I want.

Make sure things are clear and concise.

Playtest playtest playtest.

Before it goes to press, give it one more playtest shot.

Other publishers
If you can't keep civil, shut the fuck up. (For a full explanation, see This post I made a long time ago.

Don't badmouth your competition, because when you do, you are badmouthing, obliquely, your own product.

Don't be afraid to ask another publisher if you can use their d20 work. No sense to reinvent the wheel. Many publishers will let you, and even provide advice, maybe even forward you a section of text that they had to cut out due to space constraints or other reasons.

Don't be afraid to ask another publisher for advice or help. A lot of them are really nice guys, and if I'm sober enough, I'll give what help I can.

If you feel like throwing down on the mat with another publisher, be prepared for people to fuck with you over it. I'm a drunken jackass, and everyone knows it, and some people fuck with me about it (no prob, I know what I am) because I'm not afraid to get in the trenches.

Personal Relationships
Be nice to people, both on the boards and the chat rooms, because nobody likes a dick. Sure, I'm a dick, but hey, I've been that way as long as there has been a NFSNET.

Cultivate friends, and keep your ear to the ground.





Anyone else got any advice?

Have a business model

Are you freelancing?  Are you indie publishing?  Are you on contract?

How much money do you need in order to make the project make sense for you?  Where will that money come from?  How reliable is that income stream?  If it falls through, what's your contingency plan?  What are your expenses (all your expenses) and how will they be repaid?

Of course, odds are that you're not "doing it for the money."  That's fine.  The money doesn't have to be your motivation.  But if you don't have a careful eye on the money in addition to your primary motivation (art, fame, love of the game, whatever) then you're short-changing yourself ... and that's quite likely to turn out literal.

Take backups.  Then backup the backup.  Then periodically burn it to CD and store the CD off site (but check the CD works on different machine to the one you used to burn it)

Even professionals forget this.  If Terry Pratchett hadn't already sent an early draft of Reaperman to his editor, he'd have lost the lot.  Alan Moore did recently lose the entire script to Albion when his PC was stolen, he had the rewrite the thing and it wasn't as good

Don't forget the Wallace and Gromit fire. Yea, not exactly the same... but the result would be.

I've never had anything "published", but I keep writing.  And that is my first suggestion, "keep writing".  Doesn't matter what happens, just keep going.  You, me, my uncle...we're all writing and if you give up, the "publishers" will just never know what they lost.     And you don't want to make it easier on me, do you?

Second suggestion, get a good editor.  Nothing is more annoying than misspellings and typos in a game/book you have purchased.

Third (and my last), details and tools are important.  When you are writing about combat, give examples.  If you are writing about alignment, give examples and tools to help people stay in character.  Give the players sample characters, worlds and environments (a bar/inn, a temple, etc.).

BobManGM

I'm sorry, I forgot to add 1 thing; protect your intellectual property.  Take your writings, seal it in a good envelope with good tape (any strong tape that would show tampering will do) and mail it off to yourself.  Get the post office to stamp over the seal, if you can.  This will give you a date of creation, which you will need IF you have any problems down the road.

BobManGM