How it all started

The history behind Universal Battles books

Over thirty years in the making

Universal Battles has been around for over 30 years. Our RPG Game System has been play-tested by numerous gaming groups and players at various Gaming Conventions. Though real-life obligations such as marriage, college, and career made many of us retire from gaming for a short while, we've come back onto the scene again, now more determined and inspired than ever, with new creative ideas and goals. At the moment, our team are all publishers of Pen and Paper RPG games, as well as authors of Supplemental and Sourcebooks.

Started in a small home in Baltimore

Universal Battles was started back in 1984 in a small black community called Westport in Baltimore, Maryland, by two African-American brothers: Warren W. Randall Jr. (the author of this page) and Babatunji K. Olugbala. Both of us were passionate gamers and were very much into a television show called Robotech. Nevertheless, at that time, there were no role-playing games on the market that would allow us to play in scenarios like Robotech. So one day, my brother and me we sat down at the kitchen table and started to create our first RPG. It is a no-brainer that the original game we came up with was merely called Robotech. Our first RPG was designed to role-play as a pilot flying enormous transforming robotic planes, just like the ones in our favorite cartoon. It instantly became a huge hit with our gaming group.

Through the Hardships of the Past

Later on, our ideas progressed further and became more than just flying around in the robotic Mecca. Then we asked ourselves a question: why does our game include only one world and genre when we could include all imaginable settings and make a multi-universal game system? This is how "Universal Battles" (U.B) was born - a game system where you can play in any setting you want.


That moment had finally come - now gamers could play in a Fantasy world, in a Western theme, or a Modern Era setting without having to switch between the games. We created an innovative RPG Game System that included such genres as Superhero, Horror, Sci-fi, and even more, and they can be all played within a single ruleset. As we introduced Universal Battles, the possible game scenarios became limitless - as long as you could imagine it, you could play it.


n the mid-80s, because of the lack of funds and know-how at the time, we did not have any opportunity to publish our book for gamers who were so desperate to get a copy. This situation made us feel downhearted as everyone loved playing our game system, but we were not able to provide them with what they were asking for.

A Publisher is born

Universal Battles has been around for over 30 years. Our RPG Game System has been play-tested by numerous gaming groups and players at various Gaming Conventions. Though real-life obligations such as marriage, college, and career made many of us retire from gaming for a short while, we've come back onto the scene again, now more determined and inspired than ever, with new creative ideas and goals. At the moment, our team are all publishers of Pen and Paper RPG games, as well as authors of Supplemental and Sourcebooks.

The difficulties we faced in the past did not crush our spirit. Today we are happy to announce that we are ready to publish our first sourcebook for the Universal Battle RPG Game System. No worries - this time, we took care that there are enough hard copies and PDFs for every gamer who is willing to plunge into the new world of role-playing games. Our new book is titled "The Realm of Bethica," and is available directly through our website.


Bethica is a continent on a planet in the Star System that is protected by, and part of the "Universal Galactic Guardians (U.G.G)" Federation. But that's another story for another time.