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Games and Gaming: The BPG Owlbear Challenge

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  1.  # 1
    It's time to put your design skillz where your Owlbear-talkin' mouth is.

    THE BULLY PULPIT GAMES OWLBEAR CHALLENGE

    1. Choose three of the following four ingredients. You will be judged by your skill at incorporating them, as well as the usual stuff like speling.
    2. Make your game in 24 hours or, you know, less.
    2. Submit your design to 1km1kt by 9 August* and send me the URL.
    3. BPG staff will judge all entries and select a winner. A non-gamer librarian** will break all ties.
    4. The winner gets a free Roach Fun-Pak.

    Your Ingredients are:

    Owlbears
    Mark Twain
    Apiculture
    Owlbears

    *If you are coming to Gen Con, bring us a copy or two. All the judges will be there.
    **Non-gamer librarian will not know what an owlbear is.
    •  
      CommentAuthorJosh Roby
    • CommentTimeJul 24th 2006
     # 2
    Must... resist... temptation... must... actually work at work....
    •  
      CommentAuthorrossum
    • CommentTimeJul 24th 2006
     # 3
    How delightful! Just today, I stumbled across a nice inspirational poster for this challenge.

    Must.. not.. rip.. off.. Stanger Things... "You have one number that represents the constant struggle between your Owl nature and your Bear nature..." Ack, too late!

    MDK
  4.  # 4
    I was thinking more of ripping off The Mountain Witch...

    "You are six mighty OwlBears who must travel through the Forest of the Bees to defeat Mark Twain. Beware the Uzis and Ferrarris of your past!"

    -Eric
  5.  # 5
    It's on now!
    •  
      CommentAuthorGraham
    • CommentTimeJul 24th 2006
     # 6
    If you use both "Owlbears" and "Owlbears", must you have two Owlbears? Or two distinct sets of Owlbears?

    Graham
  7.  # 7
    I have said enough. It is for you to decide how to incorporate the ingredients.
    •  
      CommentAuthorAndy
    • CommentTimeJul 24th 2006
     # 8
    The next Gamechef rules will simply be the following:

    You are Jason Morningstar. You must write a game between 40 and 60 pages. GO!
    • CommentAuthorJ. Walton
    • CommentTimeJul 24th 2006
     # 9
    Writing games as other designers is both fun and hard. I tried to write When The Forms Exhaust Their Variety as Shreyas, but ended up not quite having the vocabulary for it. Trying to write as Jason would be... interesting.
    •  
      CommentAuthorJosh Roby
    • CommentTimeJul 24th 2006
     # 10
    Andy, Jason doesn't write games that long. ;)
  11.  # 11
    Alright, my submission was just emailed to 1km1kt. Let me know if you want it emailed to you as well. :)
  12.  # 12
    Rockin'. What's it called?
  13.  # 13
    Owlbears
    by Samuel Clemens

    His mother wrote the foreword. :D
  14.  # 14
    I was going to say "Holy crap! I can't wait!" but, being impartial, I'll just give you a cursory nod.
    • CommentAuthorMcdaldno
    • CommentTimeJul 25th 2006
     # 15
    Too wicked, Stuart!
    •  
      CommentAuthorGraham
    • CommentTimeJul 25th 2006
     # 16
    Damn you, Morningstar. I'm running a LARP this Saturday, I need to do last minute stuff for that, and I'm thinking about bloody Owlbears. I had to write an Owlbear RPG just to get Owlbears out of my head. Otherwise there was going to be an Owlbear in the LARP.

    Anyway, I've submitted "Owlbear: Fragile Duality". Is there a prize for most pretentious title?

    Graham
  17.  # 17
    There is now!
    • CommentAuthorMcdaldno
    • CommentTimeJul 25th 2006
     # 18
    What about a prize for the most emo title?

    My "Red Rimmed Eyes" is on its way.
  19.  # 19
    In the BPG Owlbear Challenge, everyone is a winner!

    Except, you know, the losers.
    • CommentAuthorMcdaldno
    • CommentTimeJul 25th 2006
     # 20
    Just for the record, Stuart's "Owlbears" is potentially the best thing I have ever read.

    Not just best RPG. Best thing. evar.
    •  
      CommentAuthorGraham
    • CommentTimeJul 26th 2006 edited
     # 21
    "Owlbears" is fantastic.

    Bizarrely, 1km1kt has credited Owlbear: Fragile Duality to a famous and brilliant game designer who isn't me.

    (Although, of course, they'll probably change it before you look at it, which means that this post will make no sense. Oh well.)

    Graham
    • CommentAuthorMcdaldno
    • CommentTimeJul 26th 2006
     # 22
    Red Rimmed Eyes has been submitted to the 1km1kt site.

    For the record, its three choices are:

    mark twain (the measurement of 2 fathoms depth.... "safe passage")
    owlbear (the owlbear campfire story)
    owlbear (the ferocious beast)

    Alternately, you could rationalize the use of owlbear AND owlbear as reflecting the two sides we see:
    -ferocious killing machine
    -afraid, cornered animal
    • CommentAuthorthor
    • CommentTimeJul 26th 2006
     # 23
    Graham - It looks like they lost some text in the sample too, unless the morning is made of Owlbear cub fur?
  24.  # 24
    Graham, that's a stroke of marketing genius on your part sure to win the judges over.

    We're all very excited to read over the entries, except the librarian, who said: "I don't want to judge your stupid contest. I don't even know what an 'owlbear' is. I'll vote for the one with the prettiest font or something, I'm warning you. I hate games!"

    I found Fragile Duality and Owlbearsover at 1km1kt - somebody shout when Keeton puts Red-Rimmed Eyes up. There's still time to get in on the hot owlbear action!
  25.  # 25
    I think Samuel Clemens will be very pleased to hear people are enjoying his game. :)

    I'm really looking forward to seeing all the other entries. (I just downloaded Fragile Duality!)
  26.  # 26
    Keeton over at 1km1kt writes me:

    "...So yesterday I got a 24 hour RPG submission with an owlbear theme. I thought nothing of it and posted it to the site. Then another owlbear submission came and I started wondering what the heck was going on. The authors of those two submissions finally pointed me to your post at story-games. I love owlbears, so I was disappointed that this was a contest and not just a kick-ass new RPG craze.

    Here's a link for all the 24 Hour RPG Owlbear submissions on 1KM1KT.

    Submissions should go here.

    Also, if people want to sign up for the newsletter and the RSS feed, they can get notification of contests and the most recent updates here."

    Thanks, Keeton! Everybody support 1km1kt, which is a great resource for our community.
    • CommentAuthorMcdaldno
    • CommentTimeJul 26th 2006 edited
     # 27
    somebody shout when Keeton puts Red-Rimmed Eyes up.


    http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/Red_Rimmed_Eyes.php
  28.  # 28
    We've got three entries so far and they all look excellent. None of them uses the ingredient "Mark Twain" in the same way. There's still time for your entry...

    The librarian says: "I thought an owlbear would be a species of bear, but it turns out it is a half-owl half-bear hybrid. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Whose idea was that?"
  29.  # 29
    Owlbear: Fragile Duality and Red-Rimmed Eyes are great! They take such a sensitive approach to the Owlbear. :D
    •  
      CommentAuthorJosh Roby
    • CommentTimeJul 27th 2006
     # 30
    I'm trying desperately to not use the Apiculture-based analytical engineering lingo I developed for FLFS. Because, I mean: Victorian Hacker Owlbears. That hurts just to type out.
    • CommentAuthorGaerik
    • CommentTimeJul 27th 2006
     # 31
    Um...

    http://i54.photobucket.com/albums/g113/menocchio442/ColbertMotivator.jpg
  32.  # 32
    Josh, as a judge, I 100% cannot tell you to make a FLFS Moreau-owlbear mod as your entry.
    •  
      CommentAuthormisuba
    • CommentTimeJul 27th 2006
     # 33
    A friend tells me that, while Owlbears are rares in D&D Minis, they should be available in singles bins at Gen Con retail booths for < $4.

    Also, I'll have my PDF ready over the weekend but my design's done.
    •  
      CommentAuthorMikeRM
    • CommentTimeJul 27th 2006
     # 34
    Correction for Rossum's inspirational poster link:

    Owlbear.

    I like this one too for some twisted reason.
  35.  # 35
    The cut-out mask on page 5 of Owlbears would improve ANY game with Owlbears.

    Image you were playing a game of Owlbear: Fragile Duality, Red-Rimmed Eyes, Shab-al-Hiri or Yahtzee! and you said to the other players "I'll be right back, I have to go to the bathroom", and when you returned -- OWLBEAR MASK!

    I bet everyone would be really impressed.
    •  
      CommentAuthorGraham
    • CommentTimeJul 28th 2006 edited
     # 36
    Well, yeah, but then you'd want to throw all the dice out the windows.

    P.S. I think Jason's "librarian" is a made-up person who he uses to make anti-Owlbear comments.
    •  
      CommentAuthorAdam Dray
    • CommentTimeJul 28th 2006
     # 37
    joepub, your game is gonna make me cry. Fantastic!
  38.  # 38
    Graham, I dare you to tell her she's imaginary to her face. She will revoke your lending priveleges permanently.
  39.  # 39
    I just got the August issue of Comics & Gamges Retailer, and saw that Goodman Games now has miniatures, including:

    Raging Owl Bear!
    •  
      CommentAuthorndp
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2006
     # 40
    Oh man.

    There's something in the works that will put all of these entries to shame. To shame, I tell you!

    More details? Mayhaps. Mayhaps.






    they have no thumbs!
    • CommentAuthorMcdaldno
    • CommentTimeJul 30th 2006
     # 41
    Dude, no freakin' way can you top Stuart's/Samuel Clemen's Owlbears.

    It contains trampolines, NINJA INVISIBILITY!, candy!, no dice, and a mask!!!!!!!!
  42.  # 42
    All the entries so far have been of a high standard. I'm looking forward to more owlbear goodness that can compete with them.

    As a side note, I''ve been reading about chickens today, and apparently there is a show breed called the owlbeard.
  43.  # 43
    There's something in the works that will put all of these entries to shame. To shame, I tell you!
    -- 22 hours ago


    Hmm. Sounds like more than 24 hours to me... ;-)
  44.  # 44

    Posted By: hamsterprophet

    Oh man.

    There's something in the works that will put all of these entries to shame. To shame, I tell you!

    It's true. Nathan will rule this competition.

    •  
      CommentAuthorndp
    • CommentTimeJul 31st 2006
     # 45
    Does an entry with multiple authors violate the letter or spirit of this competition?

    Just...um...curious.
  46.  # 46
    Nothing in the rules that says that multiple authorship is not allowed. However, the 24 hour requirement remains! Also, you'll have to divvy up the Roach Fun-Pak amongst yourselves should you win, unless we are feeling charitable.
    •  
      CommentAuthormisuba
    • CommentTimeAug 1st 2006
     # 47
    http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/You_Gotta_Do_What_You_Gotta_Do.php

    I am absurdly proud of having made this. While at the same time understanding it is probably terrible, mind you.
    •  
      CommentAuthorThomas D
    • CommentTimeAug 1st 2006
     # 48
    Submitted for the 24 Hour RPG Owlbear challenge: Winnie-the-Owl-Pooh wants you and all his d100 Acre Wood friends to join him in a grand Adventure. However, you know that when the Owl-Pooh wants to have an Adventure, it really means you're going to get into Troubles. But that's okay, he's such a Silly old Owlbear that nobody really can stay mad at him for long.

    Submitted to 1km1kt. Also available at http://gameworld.thesnakefarm.com/24hourrpg.php

    Woot!
    •  
      CommentAuthormisuba
    • CommentTimeAug 1st 2006
     # 49
    Owl-Pooh!
    •  
      CommentAuthorThomas D
    • CommentTimeAug 1st 2006 edited
     # 50
    I still have two and a half hours! I can still do the map!

    Edit: And done!

    Editer: Ingredients used: Owlbears, Apiculture, and Mark Twain.
  51.  # 51
    Holy crap guys, awesome. The owlbear madness rages on.
    •  
      CommentAuthorndp
    • CommentTimeAug 1st 2006
     # 52
    Sweet!

    Just finished mine. Will upload later or tomorrow, or something.

    Hmm...is it worth laying it out 6x9 and getting it printed at lulu to bring to GenCon and WOW the Judges?

    Hmm....

    HMMMMM.......
  53.  # 53
    These are fantastic entries! I love the board-game angle in You Gotta Do What You Gotta Do (I'm really impressed with the entries that created a non-destructive, playable game in 24 hours), and Owl Pooh is so nicely put together. I love the little drawings of the characters.
  54.  # 54
    Hey Nathan, if you are up for that, wait until the contest is finished and we'll see if we can get all the authors to agree to an owlbear game compilation. Because that would be really funny.

    7 days left ... the bar is set very high, owlbear aspirants.
  55.  # 55
    I'd be very happy to have Samuel Clemens' Owlbears in a compilation.

    It would be nice if any proceeds beyond printing / distribution costs went to any of the following charities:

    World Owl Trust
    World Society for the Protection of Animals
    World Wildlife Fund

    The same kind of idea as what you're doing with Drowning and Falling for ORBIS.
  56.  # 56
    Agreed, Stuart. Of course we couldn't go with the World Owl Trust, since it would enrage the bears. Fragile duality and all that. I'd love to see someone else take charge of this.
    •  
      CommentAuthormisuba
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2006
     # 57
    (I should probably playtest mine first)

    Thanks for the kind words Stuart. All of the entries that I've read have been amazing. I wouldn't have thought that a quickie weird deal like this could bring out all this creativity. (Despite all the evidence of, you know, years of 24 Hour RPGs.)
    •  
      CommentAuthorndp
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2006
     # 58
    Here is it!

    Jason, I'll totally spearhead that. After Gen Con. It's not like I'm doing anything else until September.
  59.  # 59
    I was going to do a 100acre wood game, i can't beleive you beat me to it. You filth eating pig dog, a curse on both your houses.

    well done, sir.
    •  
      CommentAuthorThomas D
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2006
     # 60
    But I only have one house. Wait -- do you mean the shed out back?

    Danke.
  61.  # 61
    Two sheds?

    Thomas
    •  
      CommentAuthorThomas D
    • CommentTimeAug 2nd 2006
     # 62
    The first Owlbear game with a supplement! One of Winnie-the-Owl-Pooh's friends is Batman. Read how Winnie-the-Owl-Pooh leads a rust monster, a gelatinous cube, and Batman on a merry adventure to whitewash a fence in The Cave at Owl-Pooh Corner, also at http://gameworld.thesnakefarm.com/24hourrpg.php.
    •  
      CommentAuthorMikeRM
    • CommentTimeAug 3rd 2006
     # 63
    Thomas, that's hilarious!

    Cave at Owl-Pooh Corner. I love it. Mashup-tastic in a very - kid way.

    I enjoyed your description of GMing: "Someone picks who is the Owl-Pooh for right now. That person explains what the Adventure is and everyone says that today is a wonderful day to do just that and off we all shall go."
  64.  # 64
    Two more days to enter the contest. The competition is fierce but you are awesome, so go ahead and enter - if you've got the sand.
    •  
      CommentAuthorThomas D
    • CommentTimeAug 7th 2006
     # 65
    I say Kevin Allen Jr -- you must do your 100 Acre Wood game! We shall do battle for the heart of Christopher Robin!
    •  
      CommentAuthorSelene Tan
    • CommentTimeAug 8th 2006
     # 66
    What this competition needs is CRUNCH!

    Therefore I bring you Owlbears in SPACE, a boardgame-RPG where Owlbears and Owlcubs battle it out for control of the Dream Hive.

    I submitted to 1km1kt but they haven't put it up yet.
    •  
      CommentAuthorrrr23
    • CommentTimeAug 9th 2006
     # 67
    Gah! Due to sudden changes in work and social arrangements I failed to complete my owlbear game within 24 hours. Therefore you are all deprived of the magnificence of Beehive of Elemental Evil.
    •  
      CommentAuthorThomas D
    • CommentTimeAug 9th 2006
     # 68
    Beehive of Elemental Evil it a totally awesome title.

    Speaking of titles: Selene, is it too late to change your game's title to Owlbears in SPAAAAACE! ?

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