2012 BRP Sci Fi Contest

[ORtrail]

Is there a PDF version?  I only saw the print version for sale at the Chaosium website (or maybe I missed it?). 

 

Also, in line with most of this thread, I thought Swords of Cydoria filled a nice niche for BRP.  My local game/comic store could never get a response from Chaosium about ordering some copies (and hopefully some other monographs too).  I suppose there just isn't the time/money to try and push/support much of anything outside of CoC. 

[sladethesniper]

I am going to second the idea that (Nick was talking about on page 1) the setting is the most important part of a game line.  A good setting can drag a lackluster game system into success (Shadowrun) and if you have a good enough setting, you can build a very devoted following even if the crunchy bits are almost universally hated (Rifts, from Palladium Books, specifically).  Getting an IP that already comes with a strong catalog of items is a good deal, but even that can turn sour if you don't support it well enough (LUG version of Star Trek) or your licensing agreement is atrocious (Star Wars comes to mind, but a lot of the Anime based in the mid-90's were like that such as R. Talsorian's game Bubblegum Crisis and Palladium Books Robotech license that is still causing them issues).

 

So, the key to success would be to have an original setting that is engaging, the system to not be bad (but being good is not that important) and to support the game with several books a year over the life of the game.

 

-STS

[seneschal]

Are all the scenarios Sci-Fi?

Yes.  Chaosium actually had two genre-specific BRP adventure contests in 2012:  a science fiction contest and a children's adventure contest.  "Mission to Epsilon" is the result of the former.  Not sure how many submissions they got for the latter.  The "Orient Express" project for Cthulhu sidelined both.

[seneschal]

 

I am going to second the idea that (Nick was talking about on page 1) the setting is the most important part of a game line.  A good setting can drag a lackluster game system into success (Shadowrun) and if you have a good enough setting, you can build a very devoted following even if the crunchy bits are almost universally hated (Rifts, from Palladium Books, specifically).  Getting an IP that already comes with a strong catalog of items is a good deal, but even that can turn sour if you don't support it well enough (LUG version of Star Trek) or your licensing agreement is atrocious (Star Wars comes to mind, but a lot of the Anime based in the mid-90's were like that such as R. Talsorian's game Bubblegum Crisis and Palladium Books Robotech license that is still causing them issues).

 

So, the key to success would be to have an original setting that is engaging, the system to not be bad (but being good is not that important) and to support the game with several books a year over the life of the game.

 

-STS

 

Both Chronicles of Future Earth and Swords of Cydoria could have filled that role, as could have The Green.  Chaosium has published several solid non-Cthulhu products over the last eight or so years that could have been spun out into game series.  Instead they've been treated as one-shots, and some of the frustrated creators have since re-sold their projects to other publishers.  It is a shame, really, because the assorted authors' enthusiasm could have generated a catalog of follow-up books for Chaosium.

 

As we've discussed elsewhere, D100 games (no matter who publishes them) are in desperate need of radical, fanatical promotion.  My local game shops barely stock Chaosium's flagship Call of Cthulhu books.  If not for BRP Central, I wouldn't even know that Magic World, RuneQuest 6, BRP Rome or BRP Mecha, etc., exist.  This "available online only" stuff limits sales to customers who already know of and play BRP when what we need to be doing is expanding the customer base and general public awareness that Chaosium/BRP and the other D100 publishers exist and have cool stuff that folks absolutely have to buy -- right now! 

[clarence]

​Mine was "Descent with Modification."

 

 

Congratulations! Good work. This title is on the top of my shopping list : )

[camazotz]

Although Outpost I9 and Fractured Hopes are both really cool (I am considering using both for future games) I wonder if anyone's tried pitching a Future World type product to Chaosium (same principle as Magic World)? I wonder if, with the changing of the guard back to Stafford and Petersen that such a concept might fly....Magic World benefits from being a reissue of Elric!, but BRP could really use a generic all-purpose SF companion similar to what GURPS Space does for GURPS or an even better recent example, the Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion, which is an excellent toolkit system....designed to make building your own SF setting easy. 

[clarence]

I'm having a conversation with Chaosium at the moment about the future of BRP Space, the re-named & expanded BRP Starships pdf, but not to be published by them though. They have a lot on their hands at the moment and asked for some more time to sort everything out before committing to new stuff, but hopefully it won't take too long. The book is finished and I'm just waiting for all the formalities to be finished. Stay tuned.