Submission Guidelines

Last Modified: Saturday, 30-Jul-2011 11:55:31 EDT

Introduction

In this guide is some information on what we like to see in a submission, some ideas on what information an entry should contain, what you should submit on, plus some very important disclaimer info.

Disclaimer

This Encylopedia has been developed for the use of fans of Ground Zero Games, and, to a lesser extent, for Ground Zero Games themselves. Material appearing on this site or linked to by this site may be examined by Ground Zero Games, and may be used in part or whole as part of future rule books, supplements, or other material. Any material used in whole will be credited to the Author of the material, and he/she still retains copyright unless waived.

By making a submission to the Encyclopedia, you agree to allow your copyrighted material to appear in GZG products.

Jerry Han has no connection with GZG and gains in no way from this publication.

I want to get a better feel for all of this

subscribe gzgpedia

subscribe gzgpedia-digest

It also helps if you're familiar with GZG products, and subscribing to the GZG-L list is nice. (You can find instructions for this off the Starship Jockey home page.)

How do I make a submission?

In order to submit something, first send a short information blurb to Jerry Han (jhan@warpfish.com), explaining what you want to write about, where it fits in the GZG Universe, etc. I'll look at it, and then offer suggestions, or just give you the go ahead to write.

As you write, bear in mind the guidelines here. It is also recommended that you go on to the list to discuss things occasionally, or just to see what other people think of your idea.

When you're done, let me know. I'll take a look, offer suggestions, and then link it/put the article up on the site.

It is highly recommended that you let the gzgpedia list know about your submission, so that they can give it the once over. If you haven't, I'll probably do it myself when you're ready to submit; they'll catch things I never will.

If you're writing an article for the GZGPedia, please adopt our formatting convention i.e. suggest rankings, comments, editorial suggesitons, etc. You can break your comments out into multiple sections, as several other people have done.

Also take a look at the Guide to Entries. Finally, if you submit in text or HTML, it makes my life that much easier. (8-)

What year is it?

It is, of course, up to the author to decide what year he/she wants his/her information to be current.

What about consistency?

That being said, remember to include a little blurb with your submission describing where it fits i.e. is it meant to fit into the GZG Official Universe, or is it some alternate timeline? If the later, we need a short description of the universe of your alternate timeline.

In any event, we will try and classify all nations and technologies into one of four categories of consistency.

• Official - Mentioned in a GZG rulebook or publication e.g. NAC

• Official(R) - Mentioned by Jon Tuffley as Canon, or miniatures are available for it, but no GZG rulebook mentions them as of yet e.g. Phalons

• Conventional - Powers and technologies that the editor and list feels integrates relatively smoothly into the Official Universe, but these powers are written by fans and are not part of the official timeline or universe e.g. New Jordan

• Open - Everything else; in particular powers that require a large diveregence from the published GZG Future History timeline. e.g. Nea Rhomaioi (New Roman Empire)

As a hint, if a fan nation ranks higher than a 7 or so in more than one category, it'll probably fit into an open category, unless there's some justification for keeping it 'conventional' (Anything that powerful or influential requires a special reason why it hasn't taken an active part in history to this point.)

As a part of this process, I will also decide whether something is a nation or an organization, and I will put it in the appropriate book.

What do we want in a submission?

Here are some other guidelines we want the submissions to follow.

1. Read the Disclaimer
   Make sure you understand the disclaimer; by submitting something, you agree to it.

2. Read the Encyclopedia
   Somebody may have already written about what you wanted to write about, or may have come up with the same ideas. Check to see if it's in there. If it has, see if it duplicates what you want to do. Get in touch with the person(s) who wrote the current existing entry; many existing nations have a working group, and we'll try to get your ideas incorporated. In a worst case scenario, we'll create a duplicate entry, clearly delinated.

3. Use Common Sense
   We don't demand total realism, but try to be realistic with your figures. A single colony with a navy the size of the NAC's is a little hard to swallow.

4. Use Common Courtesy
   If your entry uses information from another entry in the GZGPedia, or relies heavily on another entry (as an ally or as an enemy), contact the person who wrote the first entry. Make sure what you're doing is okay with his/her vision of things. If you have any problems, you can refer them to me. And please give credit where credit is due.

5. No "UberNations"
   Please don't send us any nations that would destroy the balance of power in the GZG Universe. Do feel free to send us large superpowers. However, in most cases, these will be placed in the "Open" category.

6. No Aliens
   Right now, we have our hands full co-ordinating human societies. We'll take aliens in the future, but, right now, please limit entries to human societies. (The exceptions being Alien Races from GZG.)

7. Be careful when writing about "official" objects
   Many entities appear in GZG official publications, with information relating to them. Please be careful of copyright when dealing with these nations; give credit to Jon if you're using something out of one of the books. Copying of large sections of text from the books is something that's frowned upon.

• Nation Name, Symbol or Flag
• Description and 'Colour'
• History
• Population, Listing of Important Planets
• Current Politics
• Economony and Trade
• Security Threats, Internal and External
• Allies and Foreign Relations
• Armed Forces (Somewhat Detailed)
• Player Notes, Ideas, Tactics, etc. (For people wanting to use background)
• Designer Notes
• Specifications

Also remember that this information should have some attraction to the GZG gaming crowd in particular, and the sci-fi/miniatures gaming crowd in general.

What about getting my nation into the starmap(s)?

There is the Inclusive Map, built by Winchell 'Nyrath' Chung. It was created before the GZGPedia, and was tweaked to include as many of the original entries as possible. We'll still try and include things on the Inclusive map, but, as you can understand, it's a pretty tight fit, and we don't guarantee people will get what they want.

There is what we call the Conventional Map, also built by Nyrath. This map contains all the "Conventional" powers. To be put on this map, your nation must be consistent with the GZG Official Universe and timeline, and must be reasonably consistent with what other people have written.

Both of these maps are administered by Nyrath. If you have any problems, please contact the editor.

And Remember...

Questions