I’ve always said that writing for this blog is a lobour of love. It is its own reward. While that is indeed true, in the back of my mind I’ve always secretly hoped that it would give me the experience and exposure needed to write for Wizards of the Coast. Well, that dream is becoming a reality in September as Wizards will be publishing two of my submissions.
Way back in April 2011 Wizards reached out to a wide field of up-and-coming writers asking if they’d be interested in contributing to Dragon Magazine or Dungeon Magazine. Many of these would-be authors, myself included, had no professional writing experience aside from what we posted on our gaming blogs. Needless to say I jumped at the chance to contribute to the D&D cannon.
The Table of Contents for Dungeon #206 (September 2012) is now live on the Wizards of the Coast website. I don’t know when in September my articles will be live, but when they are I’ll let everyone know.
In my article “The Xanathar: Crime Lord of Waterdeep” I got to reinvent the famous Beholder, his most senior lieutenants, and some of the inner workings of his secret organization. When I was in high school I played many adventures in Waterdeep and The Xanathar was a big part of my most memorable campaigns. I drew on many of these experiences to create something I hope you’ll find interesting and useful for your campaign.
In the adventure “Eyes on the Ball” I was asked to come up with a situation where a group of adventurers would willingly aid The Xanathar and his organization. The old adage my enemy’s enemy is my friend immediately came to mind. In this heroic tier adventure The Xanathar extends a temporary hand of friendship to the heroes (along with generous payment) if they’ll help him rid Waterdeep of an even greater evil than a Beholder crime lord.
I’ve got to admit that it’s very exciting to see these articles on the Dungeon ToC and know that they’re finally coming out. After they’re live I’ll share some of the behind the scenes work that went into creating them included early character designs, rough maps and other tidbits that ended up on the cutting room floor.
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17 replies on “I’m Getting Published in Dungeon Magazine”
I’ve used Xanathar in two games I have played in Waterdeep, looking forward to reading your article.
Congratultations, man!
I look forward to reading them.
Congratulations! Truly and honor amongst nerds!
Wow… The funny part of all this, last night Chris and I were looking at that Table of Contents. We both even said Eyes on the Ball sounded amazing. But now that we know it was wrote by you Derek… EW! IT LOST ITS AMAZINGNESS!
Gratz man. Hard work paid off.
Congratulations! It’s always cool to see a non-pro get a turn in the spotlight.
Congrats! Great to see the community of bloggers increasingly be an active part of the games we love!
Nice work. 🙂 I think it might secretly be every roleplaying blogger’s dream to see something published in a more official capacity.
Well done boss. I think most bloggers would admit that getting recognized by a gaming company is kind of the dream when they start writing for themselves, so big congratulations to you.
Well done, looking forward to your article and adventure.
Congrats Derek, I’m a little surprised knowing of your affection for the Eberron setting that the articles weren’t in there.
Congratulations on having your work reach becoming public! I’ve had a few things greenlit from the last couple submission windows, and can’t wait to see them that far, myself.
A small note, though — it’s “canon,” not “cannon.”
Congratulations!!!
[…] I go, I have to give a hearty congrats to Ameron (Derek Myers) @ Dungeon’s Master for getting published in Dragon Magazine! That’s […]
Grats on getting published Derek!
I was curious… When you say that The Eye was killed by a group of adventurers, was that a clever reference to the old SSI/Westwood game Eye of the Beholder (where you go deep beneath Waterdeep and kill the head of the Xanathar, a beholder)?
@Andrew
You’re absolutely correct.