The May 31 deadline for entries rapidly approaches.

Today is the first day I really started freaking out about the deadline. Putting together pitches, budget, manuscript, and other details honestly looks easy on paper. I’ve definitely been learning a lot during this process so far.

The biggest challenge I face today is getting from this neato idea that’s been running around in my head for years down into print so it can be shared with the whole world. Sometimes I think I’d almost rather be using a different system, but Chaosium has been kind enough to offer us $2,000 for the three lucky winners and $500 for the ten shortlisted entries. $2,500 to develop and RPG is nothing to sneeze at. There’s also an additional $500 for the People’s choice of the shortlisted titles. $1,000 is still pretty darn cool.

I’ve been dreaming up lore for this book on and off for 35 years. Originally I think it was going to be an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition game. Laughably it’s also been a BESM game. I’ve also looked at D&D 3E, GURPS, Alternity, FUDGE, FATE, ICRPG, W.O.I.N, and most recently Cypher System. I’m just happy and grateful the Design Challenge came along to motivate me even further. BRP is a good system, probably best known for Call of Cthulhu.

The best part of BRP, to me, is that it’s been playtested thoroughly for years. Sure, I could pull out the Daggerheart V1.3 rules and crunch my game into that, but it would be a foolish endeavor on so many levels. Likewise, I could pick up Dragonbane or Tales of the Valiant. But all three of the games I just mentioned have their own world. BRP has been around for decades. It’s well tested and proven to work on a variety of settings.

Daggerheart, lovely though it is, hasn’t been fully tested yet. Yes, I will continue to fool around with it in my free time, but it’s not the game for me mechanically at the moment. The other problem I have with using Daggerheart is that the world Darrington is building isn’t mine. Yes, there will be amazing stories to be told in Daggerheart, but mine lies elsewhere.

I have new species of my own to introduce. I have new lands to explore. There are new creatures to meet. There are new ruins and catacombs to conquer. There might even be a dragon on the horizon.

More on that tomorrow.

Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.