• Rule 1: All participants must be 13+. No team may have more than three members, but individuals are welcome to enter.

• Rule 2: Your game MUST embody your assigned Genre and incorporate the contest-wide Modifier.

• Rule 3: Your game must be an original IP. Even if you got permission from Go Nagai to create a Cutey Honey RPG, you wouldn’t be able to use that IP for this contest.

• Rule 4: Your game must be original for this contest. You can modify or use an already existing engine (like D&D 5e or Savage Worlds), but the Genre needs to be represented by your mechanics, and the game must be created during this contest.

• Rule 5: You can do whatever you like with whatever you make – sell it, give it away, lock up all copies in a safe and bury it in a graveyard – but by participating in this contest you are giving Okashicon and NinjaHELL! Productions permission to use your submissions and Final Submission in advertising and media (such as the finalists being featured in an Actual Play podcast or stream series being produced by NinjaHELL! Productions).

• Rule 6: You are expected to submit by the dates listed in the schedule above by 11:59p CST

• Rule 7: Because we know life can both suck and throw unexpected hurdles your way, your team will have two Late Passes, including a No-Strings-Attached version, and one that requires submitting a fanwork of another team’s game.

• Rule 8: If for whatever reason you cannot submit to a check-in and you’ve already used up all of your Late Passes, your game is no longer eligible for the contest. However, you’re welcome to continue working on your game as a part of the Okashicon x NinjaHELL! Anime RPG Design Jam!

• Rule 9: By signing up for the Okashicon x NinjaHELL! Anime RPG Design Contest and associated game jam, you agree to only use the icon earned and associated rank assigned to you based on your level of completion (Jam participants will receive an icon different from the icon given to the finalists, which in turn is different from the icon given to the contest winner). You are free to mention the icon and associated rank in your marketing of the game and in the game itself.

• Rule 10: If you’ve participated in this contest before, and your team is given the same Anime Genre as the last contest, you can request one free respin on the wheel.

Late passes allow you to miss a deadline and still be in the running. As long as you submit both the missed deadline and the current one, you’ll still have an opportunity to be a finalist! Now, as anyone who has watched anime has seen, being late to class requires a punishment. You’ll need to create a fanwork related to someone else’s entry and submit it by the next scheduled deadline along with the late content and the content due that week. Fanwork can be anything from a 150 word fanfic, drawing, song, or any other work that celebrates another team’s entry. We request that you let the other team use what you made, but it’s up to you on that front. If you miss a deadline and have already used your late pass, you’ve lost out on your chance to be a finalist. But don’t give up! Finish your game as a part of the game jam, and get critique and a participation icon anyway.

In addition, due to the ongoing pandemic, every team also has a No-Strings-Attached Late Pass that can be used without needing to create a fanwork.

In order to claim a Late Pass, post in that week’s submission form claiming either your team’s Late Pass or No-Strings-Attached Late Pass. If a Late Pass is claimed, but both are available and you didn’t claim which you’re using, we will automatically apply your No-Strings-Attached Late Pass first.

We’ll be posting the contest-wide Modifier February 29th at 11:59p CST, and it’s something you’ll have to include in your entry. Anime can be released in different ways and are created to serve different purposes and entertain different audiences. The best way we can simulate that is to introduce a “Modifier”, which every entry has to utilize. Will you have to make a mash-up of two genres? Will you need to use your RPG to promote an item for sale (which, for some reason, is sold separately)? Does it need to encourage a Melodramatic story, or an ULTRAVIOLENT ONE?

Past Modifiers: (These will not be showing up this year)

• Sequel Series – Games must be a sequel to an unreleased (not actually existing) property, and should incorporate that succession meaningfully into the mechanics and theme.

• Propaganda and/or Social Engineering – Games must be made to promote a set of beliefs or encourage specific actions that a (real or fictitious) group want the world at large to adopt. This cultivation should be meaningfully present in the game’s mechanics and theme.

• Son of Sequel Series – Games must be a sequel to an unreleased (not actually existing, though there is an exception) property. In addition, the number 4 or 18 must be meaningfully incorporated into some form of limiting mechanic (such as session length or player count).

Exception: If participants in the Son of Sequel Series contest participated in the original Sequel Series contest, they may make legitimate sequels to the games they made originally (as the thread that contest happened in is now locked behind a paywall).

Considering our traditional contest prizes requires meeting people in physical, Not-In-An-Active-Pandemic meat space, here is the list with some small contingencies in place if we’re still under these conditions in 2022:

• Everyone who finishes gets a special icon to pop in their finished game to show it participated, finished the whole contest, was considered a finalist, or won this year’s contest. We distribute these as soon as a final position is known. Fly that flag high – you earned it!

• The winning team will be sent $100 (by check or PayPal) to be split, as the team sees fit, between themselves.

• The winning game will be promoted as the official game of Okashicon 2022 or Okashicon [at Home] 2022. This could potentially include an advertisement to be played during livestreams the week of Okashicon 2022 or Okashicon [at Home] 2022.

• If at all possible, gameplay demos will be held either in the game room of Okashicon 2022 or via Roll20, Role, or a similar service during Okashicon [at Home] 2022 by a member of Okashicon’s volunteer staff to promote your game to attendees.

• There are more prizes that will be announced as the contest continues!

Okashicon x NinjaHELL! Productions Anime RPG Design Contest Official Rules

Okashicon x NinjaHELL! Productions Anime RPG Design Contest Official Rules

• • By participating in this contest, you agree to giving Okashicon and NinjaHELL! Productions permission to use your game design submissions in media and promotional material. 
    • This does not constitute you giving up ownership of your design or game. You will be leaving this contest with full ownership of it.
  • Teams can have no more than three members.
  • You must be 13 years or older to be a part of the contest, or be a member of any team
  • At least one team member must be registered to the Discord server.
    • There are no limits to how many people in your team can sign up however! We encourage all of you to be a part of the server.
  • Without an exception, a team that doesn’t sign up for the contest and join the Discord before February 28th, 2021 at 11:59p CST will need to use a late pass to stay in the contest.
    • If you want to participate in the game jam instead, or are out of the running for the contest, sign up works the same (sign up on the link here and join the Discord) without the date requirement.
  • All entries must be representative of the Genre assigned to your team in theme and mechanics. Any game who’s final submission doesn’t meet this requirement will be disqualified.
    • The Judges will be incredibly flexible with this rule, and all entries that the Judges do not initially feel fit their assigned Genre will be given an opportunity to defend their decision.
  • All entries must be representative of the Modifier assigned to all entries in the contest. Any game who’s final submission doesn’t meet this requirement will be disqualified.
    • Judges will not be flexible towards this.
  • Any team that has received approval from at least one Judge that a game does meet the above two requirements will be accepted as meeting this requirement by all Judges for the purposes of not being disqualified.
  • All games must be original in terms of Intellectual Property. Final versions that blatantly break this rule will be disqualified at Judges’ digression.
    • While games can be inspired by anime series that exist, the games cannot be direct adaptations.
    • Also, game engines that feature an Open Gaming License are fair game to be used in entries, but game engines that are not covered by an OGL can still be used if the final entry does not feature any copyrighted or trademarked terms from the original engine.
    • Participants will only receive one warning and be given one opportunity to fix this before they are disqualified from the contest. All participants that do this in the game jam will also be removed from the game jam and be denied the opportunity to use icons and placement in the contest for their own marketing.
  • All submissions are due by 11:59p CST on the Saturday of the week in question, with the exception of the final submission deadline: That is 11:59p CST Sunday May 23rd.
    • They must be posted by no more than one team member in the appropriate #submissions board by the above time.
    • Files must be uploaded to a GDrive, Dropbox account, or can be hosted on their own website, and the link posted to the #submissions board must be publically viewable using the link.
    • Images may be posted attached to your post instead of linking them.
      • The exception to this is a team using a late pass.
        • Each team has two late passes to use in the contest that will allow them to skip a deadline.
          • A late pass can even be redeemed to enter the contest a week after the initial sign-up period.
        • Instead of submitting that week’s submission, they will
          • …post that they are using their Fanwork Late Pass and submit the missed week’s submission with the next week’s submission and a piece of fanart, fanfiction, or other fan creation relating to another team’s game if they are using their Fanwork Late Pass.
            • All are due according to the later week’s deadline.
            • The fan creation can be granted toward the other team to use in their game if you so choose.
          • …post that they are using their No-Strings-Attached Late Pass, and submit the missed week’s submission and the next week’s submission.
            • Both are due according to the latter week’s deadline.
  • The Deadlines in question:
    • Before Week 1: Sign-ups
    • Week 1: Game Concept and Ad-Blurb
      • Submit your game concept and a 150 word Ad-Blurb that would appear on the back of the book if sold at a game store.
    • Weeks 2-6: Development
      • Submit proof of progress. Tell us about a mechanic or aspect of your game that has been worked on. You could even talk about something that was giving your team trouble about the game. Each week should be something different, though you could post a solution (or progress toward a solution) to a problem that was talked about in a previous progress post.
        • We highly recommend posting about something else you worked on as well that week if you post about progress towards fixing an issue, so your team doesn’t fall behind.
    • Week 7: Rough Draft
      • Submit a version of your game that is playtestable. While you aren’t required to have art and a fancy layout, you must submit all resources needed to playtest the game in question.
        • This could be as simple as a word document character sheet and copied text from any game engine you may be using but have not typed up yet.
          • This copied text from another source will only be allowed at this stage of the contest.
    • Weeks 8-11: Refinement and / or Playtest Reports
      • Either post about refinement you’ve made to prepare your final submission, or submit a playtest report for your entry or another team’s entry in the contest. You are expected to provide plenty of material in your report (as you should be looking for issues in the other team’s game that they can fix).
        • If a team playtests another team’s game, they earn a tiebreaker point if they have not already done so.
    • Week 12: Final Submissions
      • Teams must submit a judgement ready version of your game and all relevant resources needed for play. It must be submitted in the form of a PDF, though it is not required that any art or fancy layout be used.
        • Art and layout could help your game stand out from the crowd. Check the #game-making-resources board for links that could help you out.
  • Finalists will be announced within two weeks, and will be the top 4 teams entered.
    • Judges will be ranking each game based on potential for interesting play, with the top games being chosen from all games’ combined scores.
  • Finalists will be featured in a series of Actual Play podcasts or livestreams hosted by NinjaHELL! Productions on the Okashicon Twitch channel (twitch.tv/okashicon). At the end of each entry’s final episode, the Judges will be giving their ratings according to the following criteria:
    • Genre and Modifier Adherence – On a scale of 1-10, how well did the game incorporate the genre and the modifier into its mechanics, theme, and feel?
    • System – On a scale of 1-10, how well did the game function? Were there issues that were not addressed? Were examples of play provided?
    • Flavor – On a scale of 1-10, how well executed was the game’s own style and flare? Did you enjoy the world and setting that was provided for you to play in? If it was purposefully uncomfortable, did the flavor do its job well?

• Tiebreakers – In the case of two finalists being tied, three criteria will be considered to break said tie
  • • Playtest Helpers – If one of the finalists playtested at least one other team’s game during weeks 8-11, they win. If both teams did, the next tiebreaker is used.
      • eReader Helpers – If a finalist submitted an eReader friendly version of their final submission, this counts as playtesting a different team’s game for the purposes of this tiebreaker.

• • • Realization – Each Judge will be scoring the tied games by one more criteria. From where the games began at Week 1 with their initial pitches to where they are at the end of the contest, which game has grown the most? Did one surprise you at how well it worked versus what they mentioned the game would be at the beginning? Did one game get completely reworked at the last minute as a Hail Mary play, and become something amazing?
    • If the games are still tied at this point, they both share the higher rank and split the prizes of the higher and lower tier (divided equally between them). A d20 will be rolled to simply decide which game will be listed first for the rank in question. 
• Games are allowed to cover almost any topic, but no entry in either the contest or game jam may be discriminatory towards any sex, religion, sexual orientation, or race.
• Participants are expected to be decent to each other. Harassment will not be tolerated, and could result in disqualification (at Judges’ discretion).
• Judges are not allowed to participate (whether as part of a team, as a team themselves, or as a playtester during the design portions of the schedule) of either the Okashicon x NinjaHELL! Anime RPG Design Contest or associated game jam, as it is a clear conflict of interest. Teams and Judges that are in clear violation will be removed from the contest and subsequent game jam.