Peregrine's Nest: What Does a Line Developer Do?

The role of a Line Developer appears self-explanatory, but few people really know exactly what it entails.

In role-playing game production the role of a Line Developer appears self-explanatory, but few people really know exactly what it entails. Sure, you clearly ‘develop the game line’, but what does that really mean?

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Picture courtesy of Pixabay.

I’ve been lucky enough to be a Line Developer, initially for Victoriana 2nd edition (Cubicle 7) and more recently Dune: Adventures in the Imperium (Modiphius) and My Little Pony (Renegade) as well as doing development work on a couple of other books. While some companies consider this an in-house position, my experiences have all been as a freelancer.

Definitions

Line Developers are essentially the ‘show runner’ for the game or book they are developing (some companies take on developers for a line, others for each book). There is a lot of creative control, which is part of the attraction, but not as much as you might think. Some companies leave you to get on with it, others like a tighter reign. That’s only fair, as they will be paying all the costs, so they get to overrule the Line Developer, or at least set certain terms and styles they want to see in the game. While you may be the creative boss of the team, you rarely have carte-blanche to do as you please.

As the Line Developer, it will usually be your job to create the concept of each book in the line, or work with the producer to decide on that concept. This means roughing out what should be in the book and in what order, and delivering a word count estimate for how large each section will be. The total word count will usually already be defined by the size of book the company wants to produce. Sometimes the Line Developer is told it will be a book about ‘X’ and it will be ‘Y’ pages long, so you have ‘Z’ amount of words to divide up.

Concept

Creating a concept for the book isn’t a lot of writing, but does require some experience. Knowing what detail should go into the book means being both familiar with the setting and with the expectations of a TTRPG customer. Luckily, you probably are a TTRPG customer, so you mainly need to ask yourself what you would want to see in it. The tricky part is gauging how many words you will need dedicated to each section. If the Line Developer doesn’t get the book structure right, they will usually find some writers may have overwritten their allotted count. Word count bloat is not uncommon; it's often hard to cut it down, as many will have thought of things you wish you’d put in the initial concept!

Assigning

Once a concept is approved by both the company and the licence holder (if it’s a licenced product), the next step is to assign writers to each section. This means you need a good stable of reliable writers to call on, and not all of them will be available when you need them. I like to show my team the concept and ask if anyone has any sections they’d like to do, then try and assign everyone what they’d like. I think a writer tends to work best on what they are most interested in. But some developers like to decide that for themselves and offer assignments that way.

If you are a writer yourself, then you can shamelessly assign yourself the parts you're interested. It’s one of the main perks of the job. But you also need to be realistic about your time. You can’t miss the writing deadline, because that is when the other writers will deliver a ton of work you need to dive into and develop. There are times with Dune I’ve wanted to write a section and had to pass it to another writer as there just wasn’t time. If you're a fan of the setting (probably a requisite if you are a Line Developer for a game), it can be tough to let this go. But it's important to balance your time, interests, and the skills of your team along with your love of the game.

Deadlines

Once the writers' deadline hits, the Line Developer should have a pile of drafts. However, it's not uncommon for writers to miss the deadline. In extreme cases, this means reassigning the work, so it is always good to have a fast writer on hand who can dive in at the last moment to cover those who can’t deliver. When it comes to managing writers, speed is just as important as communication. Line Developers are constantly anticipating challenges and adjusting schedules, but they can only do that if they have enough information about each piece of the product. The earlier they know about an issue, the faster they can adjust. Life happens, and Line Developers factor this into their timeline, as we'll see below.

Redlines

Once you have a pile of drafts, you can dive into editing and developing, or ‘redlines’. You can start on this if you are missing work from a late writer, depending where it is. So giving a straggler a little extra time while you look at the delivered work you already have is a good way to find extra time. If you are a Copy Editor, part of redlines will be correcting spellings and grammar, etc. But you may have an editor do that for the final manuscript anyway. For the most part, your job is to do a 'developmental edit,' ensuring the text has everything that was asked for, in the format and style it was requested. The Line Developer will also need to make sure the rules and system used are correct. This means you need to be an expert on the game rules of your line, often more than you know the setting.

How you return redlines to your writers is up to you. Unless there is something really egregious, I tend to make rewrites myself, given I’m also a writer. For me, it’s easier to make small amends the way I need it done than try to explain to the writer how they should do it. But some Line Developers send back an annotated document and ask the writer to make all the adjustments. The style is particular to each Line Developer, although most writers prefer the opportunity to do the rewrite themselves, especially if it is a major change. So a good balance is best.

Even with the best writing team in the world, you will have to do a certain amount of writing to connect everything together. You will likely need to adjust or add to the ends and beginnings of the submitted work to connect them to make the manuscript cohesive. You might also consider writing the introduction, as you're the best person to introduce the book and set the reader’s expectations.

Finishing Touches

Once the manuscript is complete, your work is mostly done, and it’s time for the rest of the team to take over. You may have a Copy Editor check over the work. You may need to help the Art Director create briefs for artists, or at least make sure that what they have fits the concept of the book and the setting. If it is a new game, you will have a say in the look of the layout, but you won't be the only one. If it’s already an ongoing line, the layout template will be fixed by now, so you are just looking for consistency.

With the art in and the layout done, you get to see the book in final digital form to give it a once over with everyone else. You will find a ton of proofing errors and oddities you can’t believe you missed, but that's part of the process. Make sure you’ve done all the ‘page XX’s and then it is ready to go.

Extra Duties

While the above covers most of what's expected of a Line Editor, there are a lot of other responsibilities that come with the job. The main one is that you are there to fill in any shortfall. It’s your responsibility to deliver a manuscript, so you'll likely be expected to fix any issues. You're also one of the main advocates for the line, so you be prepared to write for blogs, support the marketing team, and do a few podcasts (although these are a lot of fun).

Being a Line Developer can feel like a step up from writing, a promotion of sorts, but it's a very different job that requires a wide variety of skills. The creative control is very nice, and getting to be the lead in forming the way a game is presented and styled is amazing. However, as the lead, the developing the game will leave you with a lot less time to do actual writing. The end result is a bit like being the ‘show runner’ for a TV series: while the final product might have given you plenty of headaches, it is an amazing feeling to hold a game in your hands that you and your team brought to life!
 

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Andrew Peregrine

Andrew Peregrine


timbannock

Hero
Supporter
Having done individual book development freelance for some indie companies, I really enjoyed it. Although I do a lot of writing, I'm definitely more in love with the project management process, the editing and wrangling; writing is a distant second to all that, to me.

I'd love to have an experienced line developer allow me to be a fly on the wall for a few projects in a line, to see if going from individual books to a full line is my next step.
 

Corone

Adventurer
Can you say how playtesting interleaves with the process you lay out?
Depends how that all runs and how much is being done. Sometimes on an established line there isn't really much that needs doing (if you have the experience to spot potential issues). A new game will need a lot and you do as much as you can. If you are lucky the company has a team, otherwise it may well be up to the LD to organise. That will mean at least sorting out a package to send out, and possibly finding people. But the web/marketing people should be able to help collate the responses and send out large mail shots.
 

Corone

Adventurer
I'd love to have an experienced line developer allow me to be a fly on the wall for a few projects in a line, to see if going from individual books to a full line is my next step.
For a line its basically the same, you just do more books! :)
Actually its a little easier as you can look towards the next books and build on what you already planned on the previous ones. I think doing it by line rather than by book is much better in general but you can't always find someone ready to do that.
 

Austin Conrad

Scribbler
Thanks for the peek into the blurry spot between business and game design—this was an interesting read. I've done a bit of freelance work in addition to independent work, and I'm interested in doing more. Do you have any advice for trying to become someone in a Line Developer's or an editor's "stable" of writers?

Although I do a lot of writing, I'm definitely more in love with the project management process, the editing and wrangling
That's really interesting to me—I'm the total opposite. 😆 Project management, editing, graphic design, etc. can be fun for one of my books, but during that work I always feel like "Gee, I wish I could just get back to writing!"
 

Corone

Adventurer
Thanks for the peek into the blurry spot between business and game design—this was an interesting read. I've done a bit of freelance work in addition to independent work, and I'm interested in doing more. Do you have any advice for trying to become someone in a Line Developer's or an editor's "stable" of writers?
Not much beyond the usual. Mail companies of the games you love and ask who to talk to about writing for them. Asking the same at a con is also good as that person might be there to chat to. Basically, build a connection and hopefully you’ll hit someone at the right time and they may have something for you. Newer games are sometimes easier as they don’t already have an established team, but more ‘prestige’ games may not be open to newer writers.
But you can always get lucky, if you are not right for one team you might be just what someone else is looking for. So keep trying. :)
 

timbannock

Hero
Supporter
Thanks for the peek into the blurry spot between business and game design—this was an interesting read. I've done a bit of freelance work in addition to independent work, and I'm interested in doing more. Do you have any advice for trying to become someone in a Line Developer's or an editor's "stable" of writers?


That's really interesting to me—I'm the total opposite. 😆 Project management, editing, graphic design, etc. can be fun for one of my books, but during that work I always feel like "Gee, I wish I could just get back to writing!"

Responding in reverse order:

Yeah, I think that's super common because the TTRPG industry is still kinda-sorta-not-really-an-industry in how it functions, so it's filled with far more creatives than any other position. I went to school to get into publishing for the technical side, and so I was surrounding by people wanting to get into publishing in order to get published, so I'm kind of used to seeing that. (Unfortunately, my main professors were also people that got into publishing in order to publish their own stuff, so they taught me very little of what I wanted to know, so I ultimately switched gears after college.)

As to how to become part of a stable of writers, the best route is to get some stuff published, best if you can do so as part of a team of writers. Even better if there's a developer or editor (or several) on that team. But the point is to (1) get stuff out there (published), and (2) prove you can work on a team, and improve how you work on a team, constantly. The more contacts you make, and the more you become known as the person who is a team player, can write quickly and well, and can take feedback (or sometimes just orders) well, the more opportunities you'll find. As to specific avenues, I used to be on several Discord servers for spaces like DMsGuild and there were loads of collaborative projects going on; join those. That's how I became a part of Eat the Rich and 12 Days of Midwinter, and both were great experiences. The Cortex RPG Discord used to run "Creator Confabs" that were prompt-based, team-edited collaborations. Game jams on itch.io are another great source, because those automatically come with a "sub-community" forum for entrants to talk about their creations, possibly collaborate, and so on.
 


Austin Conrad

Scribbler
But you can always get lucky, if you are not right for one team you might be just what someone else is looking for. So keep trying. :)
Thanks for the encouragement. :) I appreciate it!

@timbannock Thanks for the advice! I tentatively agree that we need more business-y folks in TTRPGs (tentatively because, well … I keep seeing what happens at WOTC). I've accidentally picked up more of the project management/development toolkit than I ever expected while making my indie RQ stuff. 😆 Like I said I don't dislike it, but it's also not my passion.

Studying publishing to get published feels kind of weird. It feels analogous to becoming a waiter in order to get people to eat your new burger recipe. Like I see the connection, but it also feels backwards—if someone wants to make stuff, then shouldn't they study how to make good stuff? I dunno, hah.
 

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