This contest is probably going to become my main focus until the end of May.

For those who don’t know, Chaosium is holding a Design Challenge for Basic Roleplaying: Universal Game Engine. Link to the details here. This is the kind of thing I’ve been saying needs to happen in the TTRPG sphere more often. (That, and anything related to winning a free, all expenses paid trip to a major convention.)

We get a new Dungeons & Dragons edition this year and whatever Wizards of the Coast does to screw it up. Last years Great Open Game License Debacle touched off a ton of fantasy games coming out in the next two years. I think people are wisely migrating away from D&D until September. I think having new games, settings, campaigns, and adventures will be really great.

Personally, I feel like a runner who has prayed and trained for one specific race his whole life. Suddenly someone comes along and says, “Hey, how would you like to win cash for this one race you’ve been waiting for your whole life?” Cash is nice and all, but I finally get a chance to run the race.

I mean, I don’t want to sound all like [Redacted] on YouTube. He’s a raging D&D psycho who reminds me a lot of Homestar Runner. The only difference is Homestar couldn’t drive deliver and didn’t worship Gary Gygax like Blue Super Space Chicken Jesus. I’m not that geeked out over anything, much less a single TTRPG. (*I mean all of them together might be a different story.)

The ongoing internal debate over what to submit.

I was talking to my friend the OG GM on X (Twitter) about the contest, and I told him my biggest challenge at the moment was deciding what genre and campaign setting to choose from my list of dozens. Much to my surprise, this turned into one of his Saturday videos. You can find it here. I don’t actually think he made the video specifically on my behalf, but maybe one of a handful of people. It’s a popular topic right now.

I think the Chaosium FAQ below the contest guidelines is incredibly helpful. I don’t recall seeing it when I sent my email. (Apologies to brian@chaosium.com if it was all there.) I think I’m one of the people that was asking about length of submissions and whether or not we could send more than one as long as they’re different.

I have dozens if not over 100 different campaign settings I could pull over to BRP and build a core book, setting guide and several sourcebooks out of tomorrow if I wanted to. I’ve been writing down “cool campaign ideas” for 35+ years ago when I decided I wanted to be a TTRPG designer. (I could never admit that to my parents, though. They were a completely different generation.)

Anime themed games run in my blood.
I’ve had campaign outlines for everything known to the TTRPG market. My current favorites were attached to mostly generic systems already. Big Eyes, Small Mouth 1E and 2E dominated a lot of my notes from the 1990’s along with the defunct Mekton Z and Roadstriker. I’m a big anime/mecha RPG fan from the early days of Rifts, Robotech and Battletech. I’m also huge on superhero games and anime/superhero crossovers such as Bubblegum Crisis, Big O, and Giant Robo.

Masamune Shirow has been a huge influence on my game writing and anime viewing preferences since I first saw Appleseed on VHS. (I literally watched one copy of that tape to death.) Black Magic M66, Tank Police, and Ghost in the Shell also come to mind.

Earlier today when I was pondering a high fantasy setting, the first thought that came to mind was Orion, another Shirow manga/anime. I’m also a big fan of Samurai Champloo, Afro Samurai, and Record of Lodoss Wars, too. Oh, and we simply can’t forget Ninja Scroll. My unsuspecting 3rd Ed D&D players certainly can’t.

Cyberpunk and Deadlands are two of my all-time favorite campaigns.

I had some really outstanding players during my college years for both games. The PCs were really the stars of the show, but I did enjoy my NPCs for those games. I should mention Werewolf: The Apocalypse, too, but it doesn’t fit into the BRP discussion quite as well. I really want to pick a genre/campaign/world setting that will stand out as something we haven’t done to death. Unfortunately, Chaosium is synonymous with Call of Cthulhu and horror RPGs. But Cyberpunk, Weird West, and Mecha aren’t prominent in the Chaosium roster yet.

I also haven’t seen much by way of Post Apocalyptic games from Chaosium. I’m toying with the idea of a dystopian United States in the relatively near future where corporations have more power than government and regular non-corporate citizens are basically screwed unless they rebel. (Yay punk!) This falls under more of a Fifth Element or Aeon Flux sort of situation.

Segue to the Space Anime campaigns.

One of my absolute favorite campaign settings of all time was titles Ultra Space Battleship Kyoden. The ship was loosely named after Santo Kyoden who I admire. Not sure they’d ever have named a battleship after him IRL, but we’ll pretend they did. It was similar to Macross with some elements of Evangelion and Battlestar Galactica thrown in. I’ve been writing space fiction short stories and campaign notes about it on and off for decades. In terms of story writing, stories set in spacefaring societies are by far my favorite.

This is also the mecha/space game I’ve been thinking about building out with my own system for a while now. I won’t reveal all of the campaign details, but it would be set on a ship far from Terran space, lost and on its own. The mechs would be similar to the UN Spacy Valkyries/Robotech Veritech fighters. (Some might know them as Land/Air Mechs.) There would also be a good number of ground pounder mechs and smaller suits similar to Appleseed’s landmates. (I’m a fiend for mecha and powered armor.) I’m also borrowing a tiny bit from Star Trek: Voyager, but please don’t hold it against me.

I’m more in the Starship Troopers camp when it comes to societies set in the future. I personally find Star Trek less plausible for the humans of Earth, at least. The United Federation of Planets was actually channeled to Gene Roddenberry by a group of beings known as the Ashtar Command. Look up a man named George Van Tassel for more information on his group, of which Gene was rumored to be a member. Personally, I think humans are slightly different than the ones portrayed in Star Trek, and we always will be to some extent.

Dynamite new ideas for BRP.

I’ve had a lot of cool campaign notes for settings in FATE, OVA, Cortex, Savage Worlds, BareBones Fantasy, and yes, even 5E over the last decade. I also had something cool figured out for Singularity RPG that I may still build out for something eventually. I lost track of the number of campaign playsets I built in my notes for a little game called Cartoon Action Hour Season 3, too. I can talk about that game all day.

But as much fun as grabbing one of my “old” campaign ideas would be, I think it might be better to come up with something totally new and original for the BRP Design Contest. That’s where some of the contest criteria come into play.

I can write a pitch for just about anything, but writing a winning pitch? I’ve got to have a product that really stands out from the rest all on its own. Some of my “old” stuff is pretty niche and specific to my preferences if you ask me. I’m into some facets of gaming that I would say the average TTRP gamer isn’t really into as much.

I would also say the industry, hobby, and even individual tastes have evolved over three and a half decades since my journey into TTRPG writing began. Maybe the traditional fantasy smash-the-monster, grab-the-loot model of fantasy gaming isn’t as popular as it once was. I hear cozy, friendly, more cooperative, non-combative games are in nowadays. Don’t ask how an old codger like me is going to make that happen, because I don’t know either.

I also get the strong impression solo TTRPGs are becoming more popular. I agree with this notion as I have been dabbling more with solo experiences as of late. (Shadowdark, Power Rangers, Marvel Multiverse, and Monster of the Week.) I guess BRP could work as a solo game, so maybe I should gear a campaign setting for fewer average players down to one. I can imagine some game settings that would qualify.

Closing thoughts and thanks.

The next time we pick this topic up, probably soon, I want to talk about what I prefer in a new TTRPG setting I would buy versus things I wish to avoid. The marketing research portion of the design contest looks critical. I want to put some serious effort into it. I’m going to be digging into Google Trends and doing some analysis. I also know there were games in the past that earned an instant “hard no” never to be looked upon again.

I will say this BRP contest is likely going to derail my Shadowdark efforts for the time being. It sucks, but I really want to give it 100% between now and the final deadline. That means making some temporary sacrifices. I also have a family trip and my oldest is graduating from High School between now and deadline day. That’s less time to work on TTRPG projects. (Don’t worry. I will always cover my blog.)

Law of Attraction says to picture the end result as if it has already happened. (I am happy and grateful to be named on the short list, to be sure.) This sounds arrogant, but I’ve seen it work. I always tell my kids, picture the grade you want on the test whether it’s A, B, C, or D and do what you think a student with that particular grade would do. It worked today when our high school freshman took First Place in the 200 Meter Freestyle.

So, yeah. I’m happy and grateful I have $500 to spend and my BRP game is going to be published very soon. It’ll be fun to complete a project and see it all the way to the finish line regardless. I’m happy people are enjoying something I created and being recognized as a writer by an industry leader. That feels amazing! (Thanks, Jake Ducey and Neville Goddard.)

I’m making a copy of the submission form in order to make sure all of my I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed. I want to submit a quality product. Time permitting, I might do two. This contest is something I’ve been dreaming about for years. I’m going to do anything/everything in my power to make this thing a huge hit.

Okay, enough geeking out for one day. Thank you for being here. I appreciate you. I hope you will join me in celebrating in this contest by participating if BRP appeals to you. Please embrace whatever brings you the most joy today.