Talking the future of the Cosmere RPG and more with Johnny O’Neal at Nexus 2025

I had the chance to interview Johnny O'Neal from Brotherwise Games to talk about the future of the Cosmere RPG and other Cosmere games at Dragonsteel Nexus 2025.

Transcript below:

00:00:00:12 - 00:00:22:02
I'm Tom, I'm Invested in the Cosmere, and I am here with the one and only Johnny O'Neal of Brotherwise Games. Johnny, Nexus 25, the Brotherwise Booth... Tell me about all the hard work that the team has put into the booth. This year. What? You guys are showing what you're excited about. Oh, man, this is always our favorite show to come to.

00:00:22:07 - 00:00:42:18
We do GenCon. We sometimes do Pax unplugged, but this is where all of our fellow Cosmere fans are. And, so much fun. Yesterday, the RPG team actually had a cool creative summit while my brother and the core Brotherwise team members did all the hard work of setting up the booth. Amazing. But, they have worked hard to set everything up.

00:00:42:22 - 00:01:00:53
We've got the, like, Mistborn deck building game metal tokens for sale for the first time here. Also, a lot of people picking up the RPG for the first time here. And, so that's been pretty busy. And we've got a bunch of panels coming up this week. It's going to be awesome. Awesome. So The Stormlight Setting has come out an amazing achievement from the team.

00:01:00:55 - 00:01:23:53
I have been the feedback that I get on my videos of people getting into the RPG and playing it has been absolutely amazing. But we all know that the Mistborn, the setting is coming just around. That's right. One of the biggest questions I get from fans is the books themselves. Do you need if you're let's say you're a diehard Mistborn fan?

00:01:23:56 - 00:01:45:46
Yeah. Do you need to also have the Stormlight Settings books to kind of complete the picture and play the game? Or can you can you operate in both separately? I would say you can definitely operate in both separately. I think, right now, until we release Worldhopper content, these books are primarily made for playing in each setting separately.

00:01:45:51 - 00:02:18:53
We do have, like a couple pages in the Mistborn handbook about how to combine some of the effects and things like that. Like how, I just as an example, like aluminum allomancy can cancel like somebody trying to use the surgeon of division on you. So like, there are some built in things or we talk about how bronze can detect, use of investiture and other places outside of Scadrial, but it is primarily, unless you're trying to kind of like homebrew a Worldhopper campaign.

00:02:18:58 - 00:02:42:30
Which you can do if you have those books, but unless you're trying to do that. Yeah, you just Mistborn stuff to play Mistborn. Stormlight stuff to play with Stormlight. Awesome. I am so curious about where we're going next, and I. I have a suspicion that Saturday, when the, Cosmere RPG live is going on, is when we'll find out some of that information.

00:02:42:34 - 00:03:00:38
But you personally, if you could wave a magic wand and say, this is where I think the team should go next in the setting that you're most excited about exploring, what would you say that is? And that's a good that's a good way of phrasing it. Yeah. I mean, I would say we're we're going to hint at, I think, our next steps on Saturday.

00:03:00:40 - 00:03:22:42
I don't know that will full out like announce reveal. Sure. Partially because it's far enough out that like, frankly, Brandon could change his mind and we might go in a different direction. So I can tell you, like, a year ago, I thought our next setting would be this and now our next setting is that.

00:03:22:44 - 00:03:38:03
Like, it's different. That has shifted. Sure. As a result, partially, I think of Brandon deciding, like, yeah, I'm going to write this book next, or I'm not going to write this book next, or just kind of like, oh, having seen the RPG, I think this is going to be better content for the RPG, that kind of stuff.

00:03:38:08 - 00:04:00:15
So, while Brandon is very collaborative is awesome partner. It's also the case that if he like if he says something, we'll pretty much like pull up our sticks and do something different. Because right now I do have to hold you accountable - at Nexus 2024, You did do a cheer based metric on this setting, and it was Warbreaker. Warbreaker was the next one.

00:04:00:17 - 00:04:26:34
And that's what I want more than anything to answer your question, my so why do you want it? Out of curiosity. I it's it. There is such a I would say, like, compared to the other magic systems, there's such a lack of information on awakening. And yet we know there's all this potential. We know that there is a huge connection to, Nalthis in the ways in which investiture is measured.

00:04:26:34 - 00:04:48:33
And there's all this science to it. And so really being able to dive in and explore that specific area, that magic system, that's what gets me excited. I also would love another Warbreaker book. So the idea of like, when do you even set the Warbreaker setting? Yeah, it's it's all very interesting. Well, and you can do like, for example,

00:04:48:47 - 00:05:05:49
if Brandon decided, oh, I'm doing War Breaker two now, then we probably would hold off on doing RPG stuff until he was done with Warbreaker 2. So there's there are considerations like that. Like when he does the novelization of White Sand, that would have a huge impact on when we release a White sand, source book.

00:05:05:49 - 00:05:42:50
But to not dodge your question of which one I would do if kind of if I had my druthers, I would say I'm most excited for like Worldhopper. And what I like about the idea of Worldhopper is that you can, we could we could give you kind of a sampler of the Cosmere and of kind of like space age Cosmere, some of that stuff, like, there's so much cool stuff that we get bits and pieces of, some of which might not justify its own setting book, but which, definitely, when combined with other things, could be a very rich source book.

00:05:42:55 - 00:06:01:00
So that's that's an area where I think I'm like, my dream Cosmere RPG campaign is definitely a worldhopping campaign, and it looks a lot like, you know, it looks a lot like what we saw in Isles of Emberdark, where you've got, like, Starling and her crew, like, yeah, that is a campaign I want to play.

00:06:01:05 - 00:06:11:18
And so, I will neither confirm nor deny where that is in our release schedule, but it's definitely in our plans, and, I'm excited for it. Awesome.

00:06:11:23 - 00:06:27:02
with your updates that you put out to your email, you have this nice little grid. And on that grid are just words that don't exactly. It's it's almost like a tease of what's coming in the future.

00:06:27:02 - 00:06:51:40
What you guys are working on. Yeah. What's coming up? I am obsessed with what my headcanon is of War for Roshar. Okay. What can you tell me about that? So, Brandon alluded to War for Roshar in his last in with the Sanderson. I think he called it. Guys, this is the complicated one. Yes. So I can tell you that the,

00:06:51:45 - 00:07:16:29
I think we've alluded to it being, kind of grand strategy, complex, but not as, maybe not as complex as, like a full on, like Twilight Imperium. Like, there's there's a whole swath of games that is, it will be, I think the biggest crunchiest game Brotherwise has ever made. But it is going to be something that is, designed by John Declare, who did the Mistborn deck building game.

00:07:16:36 - 00:07:40:33
And I think there's a really good job of striking a balance between, like, giving you a lot of complexity without overwhelming you or making it something that, like, you have to be super hardcore to play. Sure. So we will be sharing more about that on Saturday and Well of Ascension in the same barrel, I don't think I think that is the only thing I have heard about one that, Well of Ascension is, I can tell you is an expansion to the Mistborn deck building.

00:07:40:33 - 00:08:06:34
Amazing. It brings in, new, like, double metal, cards. It brings in, more content from, Well of Ascension, a little bit of Hero of Ages, and it brings in, a really expanded solo co-op mode that, is inspired by the Siege of Luthadel. So it's, it'll be a really good expansion, like over a hundred cards.

00:08:06:39 - 00:08:10:15
It's a shuffle, an expansion. So we're accessing. So

00:08:10:20 - 00:08:25:31
now that the Stormlight RPG is, well, the Cosmere RPG, The Stormlight setting is out, what would you say was sort of the biggest and maybe the most proud moment that you had working with the team, getting to this release? Oh, man.

00:08:25:31 - 00:08:30:37
that is hard to narrow down because there were so many proud moments.

00:08:30:41 - 00:08:52:23
You know, I think seeing, anytime the team has gotten together in person, that's been very special. So a year ago, when we all got together and, and we're able to, like, be on stage and, talking about this stuff that felt really, really nice. Like, I remember after you're after last year's, State of the Games in the Cosmere panel.

00:08:52:27 - 00:09:18:17
We like, we took a big group photo, with a bunch of big Cosmere fans. And that was like, mostly people from, like, Uruguay and like, and Spain and, like, feeling that kind of, like global connection to all of these people who love these books as much as we do was really, really nice. And I think, when I talked recently in a little video I did about how, like, why did Brandon choose us when he could have chosen indie short, right?

00:09:18:22 - 00:09:45:04
He could have chosen Wizards of the coast to do this. And, I think it's because he really wanted people for whom this would be their dream. Just like. And that's that's what he's got. He's got people working on this who are like, putting our whole hearts and souls into it. Because we love this stuff. Amazing. So I had I interviewed Andrew earlier today and I asked him a question, but I want to get your answer to the question as well for your Cosmere RPG character.

00:09:45:09 - 00:10:11:32
Where are they from on Roshar? Okay. Well, I, I have played a fair amount. Josh’Oneal a, a who was a like a lost listener, basically. So I played him a couple years ago at on stage, and, saw the third ideal on stage with him. And, and we actually, like, that was actually, like, his first time scoring the third idea.

00:10:11:32 - 00:10:36:15
I think we played with him a bunch. And so that was like a very nice, like culmination for me personally. So, you know, he's from the shattered places, from Narak. But, I've, I've played a few different, over, over the playtesting, as you might expect. This Saturday night I'll be playing, Jack Ardo who is my, gold faring character.

00:10:36:26 - 00:10:54:12
So he's a, he's a dilettante, somebody who, like, just has had kind of like a life where, like, things come easily to him and he thinks he's awesome at things and he jumps into any situation with overconfidence. And it's okay, because if he made a stupid decision, he can regenerate it from it because he's the blood maker. Right?

00:10:54:17 - 00:11:14:47
So that is like, I like characters where I can take some aspect of my personality and just like, exaggerate it. And that kind of like unearned confidence is, is definitely something I possess in real life. But like, taking it to the next level is fun. Amazing. So much. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me, answering some questions, and, good luck with the rest of us.

00:11:14:50 - 00:11:15:45
All right. Thank you.