Win Up to $2K In Chaosium's Design Challenge

A total of over $10,000 in cash prizes is being offered by Call of Cthulhu publisher Chaosium as part of it's Basic Roleplaying Design Challenge.

New and upcoming creators are invited to submit a pitch, budget, outline, market analyses, and selling points of a proposed news game using BRP, the Basic Roleplaying game engine, as well as a draft of the game and any art. The entrants retain ownership of their work and are free to publish their game themselves.

Up to 10 people will be shortlisted and win $500 each. Of these 3 winners will win another $2,000.

Submission close on May 31st.

 

[Richards]

...So win up to 2.5K, correct? Those who win $2,000 would have already won $500.

Johnathan

 

[Wofano Wotanto]

...So win up to 2.5K, correct? Those who win $2,000 would have already won $500.

Johnathan

It's right at the linked page:

So maximum possible is $3000 if you also win the People's Choice.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

So maximum possible is $3000 if you also win the People's Choice.

Yes!

 

[sevenbastard]

The assumption is if you win the top prize then you parley that into crowdfunding momentum. Not a bad way to get exposure.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

For questions you might have about the BRP Design Challenge, please see our FAQ at this post on Chaosium.com.

 

[Anon Adderlan]

So technically you don't even need to produce a game, merely present a compelling pitch, and you retain all rights to your work regardless. The winnings are too small to justify anything other than paying yourself or a single artist however.

For questions you might have about the BRP Design Challenge, please see our FAQ at this post on Chaosium.com.

I warned folks that the #ORC license would bite people in the ass in exactly this way, and here we are.

Q: I love the Call of Cthulhu Sanity System. Can I include it in my game?​

A: The simplified rules for Sanity in BRP are open under the ORC, which means you can use that version of the rules. The specific Call of Cthulhu Sanity rules are not part of BRP, (any more than RuneQuest's Rune magic or Pendragon's rules for Passions) which means they are not under the ORC.​

On the contrary, they absolutely are licensed under the ORC by virtue of using BRP mechanics, because the ORC license is viral, and opening all mechanics which use or modify any mechanics under it is mandatory. Just because you don't include the license text doesn't mean you get to avoid the licensing requirements. So maybe it's not permitted in this particular contest, but it is outside of it.

 

[dulsi]

So technically you don't even need to produce a game, merely present a compelling pitch, and you retain all rights to your work regardless. The winnings are too small to justify anything other than paying yourself or a single artist however.


I warned folks that the #ORC license would bite people in the ass in exactly this way, and here we are.

Q: I love the Call of Cthulhu Sanity System. Can I include it in my game?​

A: The simplified rules for Sanity in BRP are open under the ORC, which means you can use that version of the rules. The specific Call of Cthulhu Sanity rules are not part of BRP, (any more than RuneQuest's Rune magic or Pendragon's rules for Passions) which means they are not under the ORC.​

On the contrary, they absolutely are licensed under the ORC by virtue of using BRP mechanics, because the ORC license is viral, and opening all mechanics which use or modify any mechanics under it is mandatory. Just because you don't include the license text doesn't mean you get to avoid the licensing requirements. So maybe it's not permitted in this particular contest, but it is outside of it.

The creator of BRP can chose to license it under ORC. They can also use it without that license because they have the copyright. I would not count on Call of Cthulu's system being available legally. I haven't looked at CoC or BRP so maybe you are right but I wouldn't say it is automatically the case.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

So technically you don't even need to produce a game, merely present a compelling pitch, and you retain all rights to your work regardless. The winnings are too small to justify anything other than paying yourself or a single artist however.

As noted in our FAQ, we don't expect winners to be able to produce and release a game for $500 if they get shortlisted, or $2500 they win (or $3000 if they also win the people's choice vote). We’ve set up the BRP Design Challenge to give some assistance to independent creators in their goals of publishing their own original tabletop roleplaying game (using the BRP rules). The funds received, the prestige of winning, and the promotion we will give to shortlisted and winning designers, will hopefully help make a significant difference to reaching that goal.

The extra funds received could be used to hire a cover artist, or improve the cartography, or engage the services of a professional proofreader, etc. Or, if crowdfunding is the aim, paying for some sponsored ads on social media, for example. But if an entrant just wants to say in their budget that they'd use the prize money from the BRP Design Challenge to "help pay my rent while I work on my game" that's a perfectly valid response too.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

The creator of BRP can chose to license it under ORC. They can also use it without that license because they have the copyright. I would not count on Call of Cthulu's system being available legally. I haven't looked at CoC or BRP so maybe you are right but I wouldn't say it is automatically the case.

Yes, Call of Cthulhu is not part of the ORC (Open RPG Creative License). However the 303 page BRP ORC Content document does have Sanity rules of its own, and someone could certainly go ahead and create a cosmic horror mythos roleplaying game along the lines of Call of Cthulhu using it if they so desired. That's not what we're looking for here in the BRP Design Challenge though – we're hoping to see interesting new uses of the BRP engine, rather than recreating games that already exist.