Announcing the $10,000 BRP Design Challenge Winners and People's Choice

Chaosium is pleased to announce the final results of our $10,000 BRP Design Challenge!

Chaosium vice president Michael O'Brien said, "We were amazed to receive 195 entries - this far exceeded our expectations. It was a difficult process whittling them down to just ten, and then pick a final three from the shortlist. Although we required submissions to be in English, it is a measure of Basic Roleplaying's world-wide appeal that the ten finalists come from Australia, Canada, Germany, Greece, New Zealand, Peru, the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland), and the United States. The judges did not know the identities or locations of any of the entrants."

Basic Roleplaying Universal Game Engine is a customizable rules system that forms the chassis of Chaosium's popular tabletop roleplaying games including Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest and Pendragon. A new edition was released last year under the ORC license. 

The BRP Design Challenge is Chaosium's TTRPG design competition which financially assists new and upcoming creators in bringing their games to independent publication (be that digital or print). We seek to empower designers from all walks of life, with original ideas, concepts, and systems, with the goal of seeing all shortlisted entries eventually published independently. 

All BRP Design Challenge entrants including winners and finalists retain ownership of their work in its entirety. Chaosium did not require the signing over of rights of any kind in order to enter the BRP Design Challenge. Nor do we audit how winners' prize money is spent.

WINNERS (alphabetical order) - each receives USD$2,500

• Nuna by Tedankhamen Bonnah
• Season of Magic by Sam Robson
• Titanosphere by Rakados

Nuna by Tedankhamen Bonnah: Welcome to Nuna (The Land), a world where ice entombs the old cities of men and mystical beasts stalk the tundra. Here, Inuit and Settlers (Vikings, Whalers, & Scientists) co-operate to survive, uncover the lost treasures of the frozen world, and bring them back to build their communities. Created by a NunatuKavut (Labrador Inuit) and professor of Global Society Studies, this game straddles both the indigenous and modern worlds in which the author grew up.

Season of Magic by Sam Robson: How far would you go for someone in need? Play as a witch equipped with knowledge, magic, and the kind heart necessary to heal even the deepest wounds and bitterest hearts.

Titanosphere by Rakados: Titanosphere immerses players in the pulp science fiction action of giant monsters, colossal mecha, and transforming heroes of classic TV shows and Monster movies using a unique bonded characters system putting them in control of both a human protagonist and a gigantic counterpart called titan. This split allows Titanosphere to seamlessly weave together scenes of human drama and action alongside earth-shaking brawls between giant monsters, robots, and super powered heroes.

FINALISTS (alphabetical order) - each receives USD$500.00

• A Looking Glass Jukebox by Mark Holsworth
• In Death by J.D. Trotter
• Kleio by Ian Hathaway & Errico Borro
• Rustbelt by Matthew Tansek
• Starlust Secrets by Marios Kagiasis
• The Prince of Masks by Steve Devaney
• Vanguard by Tyrant Nemesis

Read summaries of all the Finalist projects here.

PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD - receives an additional USD$500.00

• Vanguard by Tyrant Nemesis

Vanguard by Tyrant Nemesis: A cutting-edge space cruiser, lost in a remote and unexplored region of space with its worst enemy, together they must unite to survive or die separately. Aliens, scarce resources, secret experiments, deranged soldiers and conspiracies in the darkness of space are just some of the threats that will loom over the crew.

All winners and finalists also receive a trophy.

Chaosium thanks the 195 TTRPG creators who submitted to the BRP Design Challenge: be proud—you created something, and you put it out there! We encourage you to publish your game royalty-free under the ORC license.

Check out the Chaosium primer for designing games with BRP!