Onyx Path Submission Guidelines

These are the writer submission guidelines. Art submission guidelines are here.

Onyx Path is always on the lookout for new writers, editors, and game ideas! PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE PAGE BEFORE SENDING YOUR SUBMISSION, OR IT WILL BE DELETED UNREAD.

All material sent to us must (MUST) also include a Disclosure Form. If there is not a Disclosure Form submitted with the work, it will be deleted immediately, unread. You can find the disclosure form here.

If you have questions, you can email us at opp.submissions@gmail.com.

Once you submit, it’s time to wait feverishly. No need to follow up!


WRITING SUBMISSIONS

We’re looking for new submissions no longer than 1,000 words: 500 words of setting or fiction and 500 words of mechanics. If the proportions aren’t exactly even, don’t worry about it. What we’re really looking for are writers that can create compelling and evocative game material, and that know how the mechanics work. Samples of your past work are okay, but that doesn’t tell us how you’ll write for our games. So send in a submission that’s custom-tailored to one of our products.

Please do not submit just fiction. We are not hiring people who write only fiction at this time.

We aren’t buying your submission. If you send in that hypothetical bloodline, we’re not going to take that and hire you to write that particular thing for a book, in all probability. What we will do is use your submission to gauge whether your writing is what we’re looking for. So, exactly what you send us is less important than how well it’s written.

All writers are hired on a freelance, work-for-hire basis. This isn’t a permanent gig or a job for which you’d have to relocate. It’s one book at a time. We’ll hire you no matter where you live; it’s not just the USA. We have authors and developers all over the world.

If you are a previous Onyx Path freelancer, you only need to submit if you want to work on a game system you haven’t written for before for us.

Game systems we support include:

  • Cavaliers of Mars
  • Curseborne (Storypath Ultra)
  • Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Storypath)
  • Earthbane Cycle (Storypath Ultra), including: The World Below, At the Gates, Monster Kingdoms
  • Exalted (Third Edition)
  • Legendlore (5e OGL)
  • Realms of Pugmire (Second Edition)
  • Scarred Lands (5e OGL)
  • Scion (Second Edition; Storypath)
  • They Came from…! (Storypath)
  • Trinity Continuum (Storypath)

We’re not looking for submissions for older editions, nor do we want submissions for the following games:

  • Chronicles of Darkness 2nd Edition
  • World of Darkness. Specifically:
    • Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition
    • Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition
    • Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition
    • Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition
    • Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition
    • Changeling: The Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition

Here is the form to send in your submission.


EDITING SUBMISSIONS

If you are interested in being an editor for Onyx Path, please fill out this form. If you are an indexer, please contact us at theonyxpath@gmail.com.


NEW GAME SUBMISSIONS

If you’re sending a game pitch, attach it as a Word, Rich Text, or PDF document, and keep it short — three pages is a good rule of thumb. We don’t want the whole manuscript; we just need a taste of what you’re proposing. If you send us a full manuscript, we’re not going to read it.

The same goes for inquiries to license the Storypath system, or to engage in a license arrangement using one of the Onyx Path-owned properties: send us a pitch, and we’ll investigate it.

Right now, we are not accepting pitches for the following:

  • World of Darkness
  • Chronicles of Darkness
  • Exalted
  • Dystopia Rising: Evolution
  • Legendlore

Here is the form to send in your pitch.

You can learn more about how to write an effective pitch here.


Get to Work!

There’s no time limit on this; we’re always looking for good people to work with. But the sooner you submit, the sooner we can read your submission. If you don’t hear back from us after a couple of months, you’re welcome to try again! Just ensure each submission is different rather than using the same one repeatedly.

If you have any questions, please contact opp.submissions@gmail.com.

Good luck!

Additional Information: