Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 29: Other Dust

Written by TardisCaptain

Day 29 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge and we are almost to the end.  Today we are using the post-apocalyptic role-playing game, Other Dust.  This is from Sine Nomine Publishing that also released Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number.  This is in the same OSR style as those two games.  I had picked this up in one of the charity bundles. 

The character creation summary starts on page eight and it looks like there are nine steps in total (as compared to eighteen steps for Worlds Without Number).  The first step is to generate scores for the six standard attributes that we are familiar with.  We roll 3d6 in order but can immediately move points around (lowering anything 13+ and raising anything under 8). This is going to be a warrior type character (step two) who is protecting his village. 

Next is to pick a Background Package.  There were a series of interesting options, but I selected City Dweller and wrote down the skills.  For the class (next step), I picked the Slayer from the list.  I was then told that if one of the prerequisite attributes didn’t have a score of 14, to make it that.  Selecting one of the training packages for that class is the next step.  I looked at the list and selected Tribal Champion and wrote down the skills gained on my notes. 

Ah, we can’t have a post-apocalyptic game without mutations.  I get to roll three times on a chart to determine the starting mutations the character possesses.   I could make this character a pure-strain human and then just add points to the attributes, but I really want a mutation or two. For each mutation the character has, they also have at least one mutation called a stigmata and one mutation that has a flaw. I rolled one each to start with and wrote them down on my notes. For the first roll I ended up with a Powerful Form (get some physical bonuses), but he recovers slowly from system stress (when you activate a mutant power) and he has dwarfishly small legs. Um… OK. Do I want two more sets of good/bad mutations or should I just move the points to the attributes? I’m going to do the attributes because I’m getting towards the end of my allotted time to type this up.

Now I think we are in the wrapping up stage of the creation process. I rolled the character’s hit points, selected the languages he speaks (common) and selects equipment. Each character automatically has a knife (Now that’s a knife) a starting weapon for which he has skills in (in this case xxx), some armor, rations of clean food and rations of clean water. Then there is an equipment list I get to roll six times on. I then transferred my notes to the character sheet. Wait, I don’t have a name yet. I dub thee… Trabb.

Afterthoughts:

If you notice that the skills have a level 0, that is the level for “trained”. Untrained has no skill level listed and may not be accessible in this state. The highest level is 4 for “legendary”. To make a skill check, roll 2d6+att bonus (if any) and skill level. What I didn’t see in the book (or in the index) is how characters gain more skill points. But I also didn’t do a deep dive into the book.

I really want to try this game. Especially to see how the skill system works. Post-apocalyptic games (and movies) have always held a fascination for me. Probably because we all thought we would end up in such a society while I was growing up. Who knows, we may still end up getting there.

Additional Notes:

I just got the graphic from my artist honoring those who were able to create 31 characters in 31 days. It’s gorgeous and I can’t wait to show it off.

Coming Up Next:

Doctor Who 2nd Edition

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 28: The One Ring

Written by TardisCaptain

Day 28 (almost there) and the entry for the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge will be The One Ring by Free League Games. This is the last of the books that I selected from this publisher. This a game officially connected to the Lord of the Rings franchise. I had a chance to play this game at a past SaltCON, and from what I wrote in the blog entry I really liked the system as it worked very well with the Middle Earth universe that we were familiar with. I have a lot of these game books on PDF which makes me think I picked it up on a sale with DriveThruRPG or one of the charity bundles. My apologies if this entry seems rushed, I don’t have a lot of time today.

The character creation steps start on page 28, but they are in categories from the looks of things. So I won’t really be numbering the steps. But first is to pick the Heroic Culture that your character came from. These are the various cultures that are seen in the books and movies. Bardings (Northmen from the Wilderland), Dwarves of Durin’s Folk, Elves of Lindon (aaahhhhwoooo… oh sorry that’s Werewolves of London), Hobbits of the Shire, Men of Bree (from Bree-land) and Rangers of the North. Yes, I’ve made halflings before, but never a Hobbit since that term is copyrighted. So, I’m making a Hobbit. I’m instructed to follow the steps in the write up for this Heroic Culture then return to start the steps of character creation. Interesting, I can pick from a set of attributes, or I can randomly roll for one of the six. guess what I’m doing (dice clatter on table) and wrote down the score for his Strength, Heart and Wits. This also gave me some derived stats (I wrote them down in my notes) and Skill ranks. I was then instructed to pick some combat proficiencies, distinctive features and a name. From the list I picked Reginard Grubb. Boy there was a lot in that first “step”.

I guess there was a reason there was a lot in the Heroic Cultural portion, most of the steps now numbered on page 28 are already filled in. Let’s see, the Target Number mathematical formula is listed for each attribute so I can write that down. Ah, I was also supposed to pick an age. Well, it states that Hobbits come to age at 33 before they leave their comfortable lives. So, 33 he is.

Answer the call to adventure on page 44 is what is says next. Pick a Calling (aka Class), spend some experience points, pick some gear, record a score for Valour and Wisdom (1 each) and choose a Starting Reward and Virtue. The options for Callings are: Captain (leader), Champion (warrior), Messenger, Scholar (I think Gandalf is here), Treasure Hunter (gold, gold, gold, gold…) and Warden (protectors). Originally when I was thinking ahead on a possible character concept, I was thinking that Grubb was going to be an outcast. But that doesn’t seem to be an option, so I’ll go with Treasure Hunter. Perhaps he’s trying to gain a fortune so he can obtain the hand of a rich family daughter. Yea, that’s it. I followed the steps in this section and added the information to my character sheet.

For Previous Experience, I’m given 10 points to spend on skills and combat proficiencies. The higher the skill, the more the cost. So I filled in what I thought my wandering Grubb would need to try to survive while finding his fortune.

As for Gear, I’m instructed to pick a weapon for each combat proficiency (based upon the limitations of a Hobbit), some armor (including helms and shields) and common items (based upon the standard of living). The last item is a starting reward (better armor) and virtue (I picked nimbleness).

The last step is The Company. This is the group that Grubb would be adventuring with and requires some help from the Loremaster (aka GM). I’m instructed to choose a Patron (I wrote one down from the list), a Safe Haven (a village or who knows) and something called a Fellowship Rating. I think this is determined with the group and the voices in my head are mad at me and not talking right now. Plus I’m running out of time so I think I’m done. Here is the sheet.

Afterthoughts:

I thought the way of getting the gear was simple and easy. In fact creating this character was easier than I thought it would be. Again, I’ve played this game in a one-shot and I thought it made sense at the time. but that was back in 2024 so I don’t recall much off the top of my head. But I’d be willing to play again.

Additional Notes:

On the same day that I made my Terminator RPG character, Three Kobolds With A Trench Gun had posted his Terminator character on BlueSky. I had to laugh because we had both picked Historians and we both had about the same views on the game.

Coming Up Next:

Other Dust

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 27: The Terminator RPG

Written by TardisCaptain

On Day 27 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge I’m going to use another game that you can’t pick up on DriveThruRPG any more unless you had purchased it prior to September 2025. The Terminator Roleplaying Game by Nightfall Games. According to the Terminator Fandom Wiki, the publisher decided to end their rights by mutual agreement with StudioCanal. I didn’t know that until now and it may have explained why the game came up for sale when I had purchased it on DTRPG. The link I posted above goes to an Amazon listing for anyone looking for a copy.

I’ve always enjoyed the Terminator franchise and thought it would make for a good RPG campaign. I even remember reading articles with what-if scenarios like: “What if the series 800 model 101 infiltrator unit was accidentally sent back in time to 1886 instead of 1986?” I think that is what I like about science fiction stories and games. The “what-if” factor. In this game, it appears that you can play resistance fighters in the future war, or those who have been sent back to the 1980’s (or other times) to protect the timeline.

So the PDF I own has 232 pages in it. It was written by Andrew E.C. Gaska who also wrote the Planet of the Apes RPG, The Alien RPG and I even had a chance to meet at a past FanX: The Salt Lake Comic Convention. As I was reading the rules, I could see some of his fingerprints in the system based off the in-person conversation that we had at the con. The character sheet is one-page long and the character creation process starts on page 30. There are seven steps in total (with an optional eight step that I will not be using) to create a character. I’m going to make a member of the resistance who will be sent back to the 80’s to find and protect a target from being terminated.

Step one is to select a role. This could be considered a class or archetype. Not everyone in the resistance is a soldier (but everyone fights where they can). The options are Engineer, Grunt, Hacker, Historian, Medic, Pilot (ground or air), Scout and Strategist (aka generals). I made a Drow Hacker yesterday with Modern Necessities, so I’m going to go with Historian this time. I don’t think I’ve made one in any of my past challenge entries. Each role gets some initial stats, skills and a resistance ability. I wrote these down for my yet-to-be named character.

Next comes the stat generation. These attributes are Strength, Dexterity, Knowledge, Concentration, Charisma, Cool and Fate (which I was glad to see in the game). They range from 0 (poor) to 6 (incredible). Some of these stats already have a score thanks to the role selected above. I’ve been given 7 points to spend on the other stats. There is a max stat limit for the different roles and a chart is provided. For example, with his brains, this historian could have a score of 6 in KNOW, but only a 2 in STR. I didn’t know if I should make him general (1 point in each stat) or specialized? I think this is why I don’t like point buy systems. I decided to go with 1 in each category and added it to my notes.

Step three covers the Hope Points of the character. According to the book, this represents the faith that the character has in their own abilities and in humanity. There are three categories for hope points, Body, Brain and Bravado which are associated with a stat (example Brain has KNOW and CONC). I add the two associated stats together and then the category with the highest number gets 2 Hope points (in this guy’s case Brain, and the second gets 1 and the lowest gets zero. Since there was a tie between Body and Bravado, I was instructed to pick one. Now I’m confused. Besides the three points listed above from the values, it says that I have 3 more hope points to spend in any category (max 2) how I want? Am I reading this right? Slightly confusing. But I think I have the 3 more points to spend so I wrote them down on my notes.

Skills are the next step in the creation process. There are skills categorized by the stat would use them (e.g. melee weapons falls under STR). The range is 1 (skilled) to 4 (Specialist) with the max at creation time of 3 (Expert). Each Roll has a list of starting skills that begin at the rank of 2. I’m then given 36 points to spend on any skills with a chart of how much it costs to go to each rank. Ugh, again I dislike point buy. Yea they are good if you have something in mind or are homebrewing, but for just general character creation, I’m not a fan. First I picked some minimal skills that I thought a resistance member would have surviving in a robot apocalypse. I was able to get them spent and added to my notes.

Step five is the Traits that give the character some personality and possible hooks for the Director. I have zero points to spend on the traits, but if I take a negative trait, I’ll gain points. I’m getting a GURPS vibe here of all the negative things to get a bunch of points (something I dislike). I looked over the costs and descriptions and honestly nothing really pulled me in. Perhaps if this was random or required. I finally broke down and picked one good and one bad trait and moved on.

For step six we are doing the Figured Stats. These are stats that are calculated by other items noted above. Most have mathematical formulas. These include Hit Points (health of body), Willpower (mental strength), Movement (closing and rushing), Encumbrance and Initiative. Luckily after the descriptions there was a chart with all of the baselines and formulas for me to use when writing down my character notes.

And the last step (for me) is to come up with the Finishing Touches. Name (William Harden), background (was raised in an abandoned library so that is where he gained his knowledge and equipment (discussed with Director if the game is set in the future or if they traveled to the past naked). He’s naked to start.

There is a step eight, which is for the players who wanted to beg their Director to let them play a cyborg or fated (aka targeted by Terminators) character. Since I’m not using this according to the voices in my head, I skipped it. Here is the character sheet after I transferred my notes to it.

Afterthoughts:

They had the Terminator 2 font everywhere in this book. I think it was giving me flashbacks because that was one of the original fonts that we loaded onto our computers to make futuristic newsletters and flyers.

I like how they gave a one-word description of the different stat ranks. This would make it easy to homebrew stats for someone that I could have ported into the game.

This game uses a pool of d10s to determine success. One of the d10s has to be different from the others and it must role above the target number in order for the additional skill die to count. I kind of raised an eyebrow at this wondering how it would play at the table. Some of the target numbers were higher than 10, but you do add some modifiers to the roll if I read the system section correctly.

I know it sounds like I did a lot of complaining above. My issue is with the min/maxing of point buys. I wasn’t a fan of them in GURPS, and I’m not a fan of them in other games. I feel that it drags out the character creation process. Sure if you already have an idea in mind (which I didn’t) then it may help. While I hated making GURPS characters, I didn’t mind playing GURPS at the table. I wonder if I’d feel the same with this system? I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to try unless someone runs a one-shot at a con.

Additional Notes:

I’ve had some participants ask me if there will be a badge graphic for those who complete the 31 characters as we have done in years past. The answer is yes, my artists has been working on one and has sent me several prototypes for feedback.

I had a blogger reach out to me by emailing Carl (at) TardisCaptain dot com to let me know that they were posting their entries. I’ve added Skeleton Soldier Press Blog to the list on the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge page.

Coming Up Next:

The One Ring

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 26: Modern Necessities

Written by TardisCaptain

Another KickStarter game is being used for my Day 26 entry 2026 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Modern Necessities is a series of sourcebooks that sets up modern day rules (or future and western options) for Old-School Essentials. You can read my review of the KickStarter reward at this blog post.

So this one is going to be a little weird. Because I’m going to be using the character creation steps from Old-School Essentials. But when it comes to the class, spells (if needed) and gear, I’m going to be using Modern Necessities. I have used OSE for a past entry in the Character Creation Challenge that you can read here.

So the character creation process in the OSE book is listed on page 18. As mentioned in the last entry, there are multiple creation methods, but to use my Modern Necessitites options, I’ll need to follow the advanced path where race and class are separate. Everyone sing along now. To generate the ability scores, roll 3d6 down the line. Got some OK stats between 10 and 14.

From these I can now check which minimums the character meets for the different race options. I used the Half-Orc in the 2025 challenge, so this time around I’m going to go with Drow. I don’t know if I’ve had a chance to make one yeet. I added the ability modifiers and racial benefits to my notes.

Now we are to the part where we can switch over to the new Modern Necessities book, picking a class. I’m only using the modern times book, not the western times (with the Single Action book) and futuristic times (with the Cutting Edge book). My choices are Crook, Detective, Exorcist, Face, Heavy Gunner, Hired Killer, Martial Artist, Medic, Ninja, Psychonaut (drug powered users of magic or mental powers), Sapper, Scout, Secret Agent, Sniper, Soldier, Survivalist, Tech Expert, Treasure Hunter (think Laura Croft), Vigilante (think Punisher) and Wheelman. There are minimums for each class which helped with my consideration. While this unnamed character could have been most of them, for some reason I was drawn to Tech Expert (which includes some technomancy abilities). I wrote down the information presented from the class and picked his first spell.

OK, returning to the OSE book where step four is adjust ability scores. This is where I can raise a prime requisite ability by 1 by lowering another ability (STR, INT or WIS) by 2. Unfortunately a 1 point raise wouldn’t do the character any good on their attribute benefits so I elected skip any adjustments. I then went to step five which is noting the ability score modifiers and step six which was noting the attack values utilizing the optional Ascending Armor Class since I don’t like THAC0. Step seven is noting the savings throws and class/race abilities (which I already had done).

Ah, finally. Hit Points. Tech Experts are like magic users so they only roll a 1d4. I’m glad that I rolled a 4 since this yet-to-be named character has no CON bonus. I then proceeded to the next couple of steps by selecting the alignment and known languages.

Step eleven is buying the equipment. I rolled the 3d6x10 and then went back to the Modern Necessities book to look at what was available. After picking up the gear I noted the AC, level and XP for the next steps.

Step Twelve is an optional rule for secondary skills. The OSE book had fantasy based secondary skills. I didn’t see a listing like this in Modern Necessities. Honestly I think this was an oversight since Modern Necessities was based off of OSE. Perhaps writing up one of my own could be a homebrew project? But that will have to wait until later when the challenge is done.

The last step is naming the character. Hey look, a favorite website has a Random Drow Name Generator. I was able to pull the name Xathel Dalla. I also went to the Random Hacker Name Generator and selected BL4NK. Now there wasn’t a special character sheet for Modern Necessities or any of it’s two side books (yet, hint) so I used an OSE character sheet and tried to fill in the blanks.

Afterthoughts:

I can see where these two books can fit in with each other. And in old-school fashion, I can see where there are gaps that a GM may have to fill in (example, they gave extras to the basic races, but not the Drow as I discovered while creating this character). Not that this is a bad thing, because it leads to homebrew opportunities.

Now I really want to try this one at the table.

Additional Notes:

On the RPG.net message board, there is a participant going by the handle of “Hunter” who is making a set of characters for “The Alpha Squad” using the Outgunned: Adventure RPG. This is The A-Team in 1933 Los Angeles instead of the 80’s as seen in the TV show. I need to give him a golf clap for this one because it is very well done.

Another reader made a purchase on DriveThruRPG after clicking on one of my affiliate links. Thank you, that will help with future RPG purchases. I try to pick up games for the next #CharacterCreationChallenge.

Coming Up Next:

The Terminator

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Quotes, Star Trek

Daily Star Trek Quotes: January 26-Feburary 1

Written by TardisCaptain
Getting my last characters in before the deadline of the #CharacterCreationChallenge

Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the @STrekQuotes Bluesky account for the week of January 26th through February 1st. Note: Because Twitter/X will use posts to train AI, we will no longer be posting on that platform. This is out of respect for the owners of Star Trek.

January 26
“You’re married to your career, and you never look at another woman.” Deela “Well, if she’s pretty enough, I’ll look.” Kirk- Wink of an Eye, Stardate: 5710.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #Quote

January 27
Happy Birthday to James Cromwell. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/James_Cromwell #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #StarTrekFilm #StarTrekDS9 #StarTrekENT #StarTrekLDS #IDIC #Quote

“I built this ship so I could retire to some tropical island… filled with naked women. That’s Zefram Cochrane. That’s his vision.” Cochrane- Star Trek: First Contact, Stardate: 50893.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekFilm #IDIC #Quote

January 28
Happy Birthday to Gillian Vigman. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Gillian_Vigman #StarTrek #StarTrekLDS #IDIC #Quote

“I just don’t know if I’m cut out to be a science officer! I can’t get the captain to listen to me!” Tendi “Okay. Guess we’re doing this. Tendi, of course you’re cut out for it; that’s why I recommended you.” Dr. T’Ana- Mining The Mind’s Mines, Stardate: 58256.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekLDS #IDIC #Quote

January 29
“You keep working on that sense of humor, Commander Vulcan. You’ll get it one of these days.” Neelix- Before and After, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #Quote

January 30
“When push comes to shove, are we willing to sacrifice our principles in order to survive?” Dr. Bashir- Inquisition, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #Quote

January 31
Happy Birthday to Paul Scheer. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Paul_Scheer #StarTrek #StarTrekLDS #IDIC #Quote

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying, Ensign?” Billups “Er… I’d like to request a transfer out of Engineering.” Rutherford “Consider your request… granted! Oh, man, this is exciting. I’m sure wherever you end up, they’ll be lucky to have you.” Billups- Envoys, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekLDS #IDIC #Quote

February 1
“Never stop seeking what seems unobtainable.” Wraith- Rogue Planet, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #Quote

What are your favorite daily Star Trek quotes selected for this week? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Horror, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 25: The Walking Dead Universe

Written by TardisCaptain

As we enter the last week of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge I’m going to use another Free League game that I recently picked up. Day 25 is going to be The Walking Dead Universe which is my fourth of five games by this publisher in 2026. Now I had a chance to play The Walking Dead at a past SaltCON, but I really didn’t get a feel for the game for two reasons. The GM wasn’t on his top game (he had been up all night and was barely staying awake for the first game of the day) and 2/3rds of the players left in the middle of the game. If you are not familiar with The Walking Dead zombie apocalypse, it originally started out as a comic book. This book was adapted into a series of television franchises that was shown on AMC.

The PDF of the core rulebook has 180 pages. The character creation process starts on page 24 and there is a one-page character sheet. There are eleven steps in total for this process. The book states that we are building a character based upon the background and personality to become the foundation of it and their relationship with the other characters in the game. Well since I’m making this character solo, I’ll have to use the voices in my head to represent the other players. Hey, sometimes they have good ideas, and then there’s other times that they talk like I’m not even there.

So first is the Archetype (aka Class). This is what the character was doing before the outbreak that caused the zombie apocalypse. There are twelve of them that include Criminal, Doctor, Farmer, Homemaker, Kid, Law Enforcer, Nobody, Outcast, Politician, Preacher, Scientist and Soldier. I hadn’t given it any thought yet, but I think I’m going to go with Criminal because someone who had to stay one-step ahead of the law might be the person who stays one-step ahead of zombies and immoral humans. The book lists the key attributes, skill and talents. I’m also instructed to pick an Issue, Drive, Gear (random roll) and relationship to other characters. I wrote them down in my notes.

The next several steps are pretty quick because I had already selected them when I looked over the entry on the Criminal archetype. Pick a name (OK I hadn’t done this yet) which turned out to be Jay Dunn (thank you random name generator). Issue (picked from archetype suggestions) which is a flaw of the character and Drive (again from the suggestions) which is what keeps the character going in this world of the dead. No, not just outside the window, the world in the Walking Dead universe.

Next up is the Characteristics. These include the four Attributes that I can spread 13 points between them (min 2, max 4 or 5 for key attribute). These are Strength, Agility, Wits and Empathy and I wrote down my selection in my notes. Then there are the skills that are under each attribute (three each). I have 12 points that I can spend here with the lowest being 0 and the highest being 2 (to start the game) other then the main skill of the archetype (Strength in this case which can be up to 3). And then there are Talents which are special abilities that can help your character. They are listed in the Archetype and I need to pick one of the three listed. The last item in this step is the Health Points and each character has three. If the character loses all of them they are considered broken. The archetype also has you roll a d6 three times to get some random gear and gives options for the relationship with the other PCs (which I had already selected).

Next the game talks about Stress and Anchors. Each character gets two anchors which is someone that helps the character stay grounded. One is a PC and the other is an NPC. I’m going to leave these sections blank on the sheet only because I don’t have any other players or a GM to help me.

The last step listed on the list is to select a Haven. This is a temporary safe place (at least as safe as you can be among the walking dead). In the book it lists three possible starting Havens that have both positives and negatives. This could have been selected by the GM already (if they had something in mind for the scenario) or the players could talk it over. Since there are only three, I’m going to roll a d6 and it came up The Factory. According to the list on page 24, this was the last step. Let me transfer my notes to the character sheet and present it here.

Afterthoughts:

Because I like taking pictures of physical products instead of PDF books, the photo actually shows The Walking Dead Universe Starter Set that I had received as a thank you gift for GMing at SaltCON. But when I created the character, I used the PDF of the core rulebook that I had picked up from DriveThruRPG.

This appears to have the same RPG system as Twilight: 2000 I used earlier. Each number in the attribute (and skill) is the number of d6s you roll. Each six counts as a success which usually needs one to accomplish the task. If you don’t get any, you can push a roll (aka roll again) and take some stress. From what I recall, I didn’t like it when we were playing the one-shot because we hardly succeeded at anything. I don’t know, perhaps in a campaign and with an experienced GM, perhaps my thoughts on this may change. But currently I’m not really moved to run or homebrew for this system.

Additional Notes:

I had one follower tell me that they were interested in D.A.M.N.I.T. just on the name alone. And then another said it reminded them of Warhammer 40K. I’m not familiar enough with the Sci-Fi version of that game to know how accurate that is. I just barely made my first Warhammer Fantasy RPG character earlier in this challenge.

Davwj on the RPGGeek message board responded to a question that I had asked on my Swords and Wizardry entry into the challenge. “Matt and Frog God Games parted ways (amicably it appears) back in 2022 (link to comment from Reddit). Matt now houses all his games under his original Mythmere Games label including Swords & Wizardry both on his own website plus on DriveThruRPG.” I thanked him for the information. I’m not sure why my search skills failed me on DriveThru.

Coming Up Next:

Modern Necessities

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 24: EverReach

Written by TardisCaptain

Last year I had the opportunity to talk with the game designer for the sci-fi RPG, EverReach at SaltCON. He offered to send me a copy of his game to use in a future blog post. He also gave me the freedom to review the game as I saw fit. So, I am using it for today’s entry in the of the 2026 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Now, I had a chance to play this game with the designer at a past SaltCON.

So the PDF book is 324 pages and was released by Laughing Gnome Games. The ISBN number is 979-8-9925886-1-3. EverReach uses a system called the Luck Die System. To complete a task the player rolls 2d6 and another d6 known as the luck die, add any bonuses from skill, equipment and traits and try to meet or beat a target number. The player has a series of luck points and can replace one of the d6s that they just rolled with the results of the luck die.

The steps to create a character are listed on page 14. Create a character concept. Assign abilities. Pick a Genotype (think race). Select a character background. Select bonus skills and background. Select the character’s talents. Pick up equipment. Build a ship and finally finishing touches. There are little sub-steps or different methods in each step.

Step one is the character concept. As I’m typing this, I’m watching episodes of my favorite science fiction comedy series Red Dwarf. So I’m going to make a human engineering character that’s a little on the slobby and lazy side. Step two is assigning the attributes. The attributes used in EverReach are Brawn, Determination (mental fortitude), Wits (awareness), Agility, Intelligence and Presence (charisma). There are three methods that can be used to generate the scores for these. Focused (pick one at 4, one at 1 and the rest are 2), Balanced (Two attributes at 3 and all others at 2) or Point Buy (spend 13 points among the six attributes). Since this guy is one of the lower deckers, I went with balanced.

Now to select the Genotype of the character. In this gaming universe there are Humans, Metahumes (weak psychic humans), Spaceborn (humans designed to live in space), Heavy Worlder (humans designed for working on heavy gravity worlds), Reptilians, Avians, Felians and Piscine (genetically modified reptiles, birds, cats and fish) and Androids. Considering I’m making my own version of Lister, I briefly considered Spaceborn or Heavy Worlder, but I don’t think that really fit the concept I was going for, so I stayed with Human. I get to up two of the character attributes by 1 and I get to add +1 to Luck.

Step four is the character background. Where were they born, what type of upbringing and career do they have? We also select two personality traits and a character flaw. Sticking with the Lister theme I’m making the character from the United Kingdom. So he has the language of English and the trait of European. For the upbringing I considered Criminal, Urban or Rural, but I decided to go with Laborer. I wrote down the traits, social network and background listed. After seeing the list of Careers, instead of going with Engineer that I was thinking above, I selected Deckhand since he was a lower decker. This gave the character his first set of skills (rank 2), another social network connection and an additional trait. For Personality I’m instructed to pick two from the list provided (went with Optimistic and Witty) and at least one Flaw (Claustrophobic). I could have picked a few others to match the inspiring character but I didn’t know if it would have provided any additional positive traits.

For the bonus skills and background, I get to choose three additional skills at rank 2, bump two of my rank 2 skills to 3 and then select five skills at rank 1. I also get to choose one additional background talent, one additional social network. Um… are the background talents under the Talents chapter or in the Backgrounds chapter? This is probably where I would have asked the GM if we were making the character together at the table. There is an entire chapter on different talent types, but they appear to be connected to certain skills. I’m going to go out on a limb and think its one of these in the talent chapter since I haven’t seen that come up anywhere else. Under the Mechanics Talents there is a Robot Ally (since Lister had Kryten). No, I’m wrong, steps six (the next one) has the rules for those talents. I guess I’ll just skip this one for the time being.

As mentioned above, step six is to select the talents of the character. Each skill that has a rank of three gets a talent. Since Mechanics is at skill level 3, now I can take the Robot Ally talent that I had mentioned above (Welcome to this character’s Kryten). Since only one other skill was at a 3, I picked a talent for Subterfuge (Disguiser).

Equipment is the next step. The rules state that the character has a a choice of three equipment items that are always in their possession. There are other items that can be used during the game, but these three things appear to be signature items. I think I just pick three things that are not large and bulky.

Step eight is Building the Ship. Work with the crew (other PCs) including who owns it, who does what on the ship etc. Sticking with the Red Dwarf theme, I’m certain that this character has a small mining scout like StarBug 1 that’s owned by the company they work for. There is a whole set of steps just to design the ship. I’m not going to go into on this blog post because it’s already getting to long as it is.

The final step is the finishing touches. This includes determining speed, armor, shields, health, etc. It’s done by various mathematical formulas provided. I was confused by the second sub-step in finishing touches. It says to add the attribute bonuses+2x skill ranks to determine the bonus for your skills. But when I do a Ctrl+F on the document, nothing else comes up for attribute bonuses. I haven’t given a name to the character yet, so I’m going with Charles Craig. Glorified space bum who’s only working before he gets his big break (and hopefully the girl of his dreams) to retire on a farm on Fiji. I transferred everything to the two-page character sheet and scanned it below.

Afterthoughts:

I was wishing that the chapters and layout describing the characters was in the same order as the character creation steps listed on page 14. I was jumping all over the place in the PDF. It would have been helpful in the step-by-step guide to say (see page x for more information). Another issue was the AI images. They had the usual issues of merging body parts, plastic skin and more. Like the Vintage Space RPG that I had used in a past Character Creation Challenge, none of the images seemed to be related to each other other than being in space. It was really distracting.

Now usually when I create a character for the challenge, I usually say “I wonder how it plays at the table?” Well, as mentioned above, I was able to play it in a convention one-shot. We did a lot of pre-planning for our raid into the facility we were hired to break into. When we got to tossing the dice, I don’t recall thinking anything like “that didn’t work” or “that seems to be too steep for a success ratio” like I had in some other games. So with a good GM and players, this should be a game that can be used in a campaign. The GM is encouraged to develop house rules for their table if needed.

I would also like to point out, that in the same vein as Chris Gonnerman, Bill Logan, Mark Hunt and more, Patrick Buckendorf has done something that I want to do. Write a roleplaying game and get it out into the wild. Like others, I say I want to do it. But the actual act of getting it done and out is a major accomplishment that I hope to achieve some day.

Additional Notes:

In the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge the proper Top Gear crew came up in several characters. This year it appears that Red Dwarf is inspiring some of the characters that I end up using. Even if it’s towards the end of the creation process.

Coming Up Next:

The Walking Dead

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 23: Swords and Wizardry

Written by TardisCaptain

Day 23 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge and I’m using an OSR clone called Swords and Wizardry from Frog God Games. Specifically this is the “Complete Rulebook” version. I had picked it up on DriveThruRPG back in 2020 and I’ve been keeping it ready when I needed an OSR game for the challenge. I’ve got quite a few OSR clones and I like comparing them against each other. So let’s see how the character creation process works for this system.

There are a 144 pages in the PDF that I own. The character sheet is one-page long which looks kinda kewl. The character creation starts on page 7 with the generating of the attribute scores. I’m instructed to roll 3d6 in order. It is mentioned that the Referee may allow the player to move the scores around if this is a long term game or if you have something in mind. I’m going to let the dice decide what this character is. And with a high Intelligence (15) I’m making a magic user.

The next step is to pick a race for the character. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my last two characters for Underhaven and D.A.M.N.I.T. were Dwarves. So I’m going to select an Elf. No attribute adjustments in S&W, but there are some advantages that I wrote down in my notes.

Next comes the character’s alignment. The choices are Chaos, Law or Neutrality. I think this guy is going to be Lawful. Why, because he’s not a bad guy that’s why.

Rolling 3d6x10 for the starting gold to buy equipment is next resulted in 120 GP. I picked up the standard fair that I thought this yet-to-be-named character would need. No armor made the AC easy to calculate, and since it had both descending and ascending AC options, I chose ascending.

We’ve come to the end of the chapter on character creation, but I know I need to pick his spells. Apparently he only memorizes the spells allowed per day (one at 1st level), but can have up to eight spells in his spellbook. But I have to roll under the “Understand Spells” score from my 15 INT. And since I don’t have a name yet, the Elf Random Name Generator came up with Ivasaar Perleth.

Afterthoughts:

There wasn’t really a checklist for the character creation. It was just “now pick this from these descriptions” and move to the next chapter. I was use to this older format having played BECMI a while ago, so it didn’t bother me. But I could see how it would be confusing to players not familiar with OSR styles.

What I didn’t like was the 0.2gp costs listed on some of the equipment. Just tell me what it is in silver pieces, etc.

Some interesting tidbits in this OSR clone. I wouldn’t turn down a game, but as for running one, I’ve already got some others in mind.

Additional Notes:

I want to thank all of the participants and commenters on the #CharacterCreationChallenge channel on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. I’ve loved seeing your entries and interacting with you.

I don’t know why this game wasn’t showing up on DriveThruRPG. My copy was still in my library, but the book itself wasn’t showing up under the vendor’s page.

Coming Up Next:

EverReach

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Reviews, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 22: vs D.A.M.N.I.T.

Written by TardisCaptain

The game that I’m using for Day 22 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge is one that I backed on KickStarter. Because of how far behind I’ve been, I haven’t had a chance to write a blog post about it. So this will count as both. The game is called Dwarven Assault Mining And Neutralization Interception Team (D.A.M.N.I.T.) and is a sci-fi game about Dwarves in space. The characters are a part of a trouble team sent to clear dangers out of various space mining locations or fighting pirates. When I read the description it sounded like fun, and they weren’t asking for too much on pledges. There have been a few KickStarter campaigns where the game sounded interesting, but I didn’t want to spend to much for a game that I may only play once or twice.

The physical copy of the game I received has 34 pages, but the PDF extras added several pages more. One of the extra rewards was a 5th Edition version of the game if I elected to play it. For the challenge I’m using the creation rules for the original game. The book has an ISBN number of 2-370021-779178 and was written by Mike Lafferty and Chuck Rice. There is a ton of color art in this book by Jacob Blackmon, Jon Gibbons, Dean Spencer, Kristin Nokes and Rick Hershey.

This is a rules-light system for quick play between players and DM (Dwarf Master). There is a target number and the player rolls a d20 to see if they meet or exceed the TN. The advantage/disadvantage rule is in play within this system. From the looks of things, this is one of those games that I’d pick as my odd-ball one-shot to run at SaltCON. I’ve got a few to set up for the next several conventions since they run three of them a year.

There is a one-page character sheet. The character creation steps are provided in a separate PDF when you pick up the game from DriveThruRPG. There are seven steps in total to get a character ready for the table.

Step one is to pick a class from one of these options. Scout, Medic/Science Officer, Heavy Weapons/Pilot, Engineer or Dwarven Earth Alchemist (DEA Agent). This last class is a special alchemist that can also cast spells. While this last one sounds interesting, I’m eyeing the Scout since he is an infiltrator. The book states that all characters get 15 HP to start, a specific attack and three fixed skills.

The second step is an optional one if your Dwarf Master allows. Picking a personal skill to make the character different from the others. I randomly picked one from the list since the voices in my head said to do so.

A Perk is a unique ability that the character has. For step three, I’m instructed to pick one from the list that I thought would fit this unnamed character.

Steps four and five both deal with gear. Allocating gear points then buying said gear. 10 gear points is allocated per character. I decided to pick both a ranged and melee weapon (I was surprised that there wasn’t a dagger option).

Picking a name and background is step six. I used the online random dwarf name generator to dub this character: Hezan Copperhood. After his brother went missing on a previous D.A.M.N.I.T. team, he signed up to find out what happened to his kin, and dispense justice if needed.

And finally step seven appears to be another optional one as well. If the Dwarf Master give their OK, then make your own custom skill, perk, gear or spell. I like this idea that gives the player a chance to contribute something. I’m going to go with a family heirloom which turns out has a special function. The Ancestors’ Ring. This alien technology discovered by one of his forefathers on an exploration mission can cause silence for two rounds once per game. Do you think that the Dwarf Master would allow it?

After reprinting the character sheet (see below) I was able to scan it to wrap up this blog post.

Afterthoughts:

When I went to transfer my notes to the character sheet, I realized that I had accidentally printed out the sheet for the D.A.M.N.I.T. 5th edition game. So I quickly printed out the original character sheet if you are wondering why it looks different from the photo at the top.

I hope I did the gear right. I spent all of the equipment points before I realized that I could make my own special item at the end of the process. So I may have too much gear on this guy.

This game looks simple and straight forward. My games for the spring SaltCON are already locked in, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I try to run this for Summer or End-of-Summer SaltCON later in the year. I’m very happy that I backed this Kickstarter.

Additional Notes:

This is my third of four games used in the challenge that I had picked up from KickStarter over the past year. I should go back and count how many KickStarter games I’ve used over all of the years of doing the #Character Creation Challenge.

Coming Up Next:

Swords & Wizardry

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 21: Underhaven

Written by TardisCaptain

On Day 21 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge we are using the Underhaven OSR Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying Game. I had picked up this game from a Kickstarter campaign where I reviewed it here. I also gave a brief rundown of the system used and a brief background of the game world. There is a two paged character sheet used for Underhaven.

The character creation steps begin on page 58 and end on page 71. The first step is to generate the stats used by the character. They are Strength (STR), Constitution (CON) and Dexterity (DEX) as the physical stats. Then Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS) and Charisma (CHA) for the mental stats. Being an OSR inspired game it uses the standard stats. However instead of rolling 3d6 (or 4d6) you distribute either d4, d6, d8 or d6, d6, d6 to each stat group. As mentioned in my Kickstarter review (linked above) a player would roll a D20 and a stat die to try to meet or beat a target number. I selected my stats for this character.

Next you select your Ancestry. The races available in the core rulebook are Dwarfs, Gnomes, Gray Elves (aka Emo Elves who were banished from the surface), Halflings, Humans and Zurkhas (aka Armadillo people). For this character I’m running a Dwarf and wrote down the traits in my notes.

On step three we select the character’s archetype (aka class) from one of the ten presented in the book. These are Artificer (aka Inventor), Cleric, Confidant (aka Face Man), Fighter, Mycologist (a mushroom searcher and apothecary), Ranger, Thief, Spelunker (Cave navigator), Verminists (spellcasters who summon swarms) and Wizard. Since I’ve never made a Spelunker before, I went with that class and wrote down the traits that came with it.

The Background is the item that is selected next. This is what the character doing before they became an adventurer. When the character uses a skill that they would have learned from the background, they get to add their Proficiency Bonus (+2 at first level) to the die roll. There was a few examples listed but it was very generic. “pirate”, “beggar”, “scholar”, etc. I had to think about this for a moment. What would a dwarven do before he became a spelunker? I fell into the trope and made him a former Smith.

Here we are at step five and we get to equip the character. I love the fact that the book is pretty straight forward. Choose up to 2 weapons, an armor that is allowed by your class and 3 pieces of gear that costs 25 GP or less. Then we get to roll (for the first time in the creation process) 5d6 for the starting gold. This can be kept or used to round out the equipment. I picked some equipment and rolled up 16 GP. With this I purchased some additional items that I thought my unnamed character would need.

The last step contains the finishing touches. Hit Points are calculated by the highest number of the CON die. And since the character is a Dwarf, he has a +1 to the starting HP, so 5. Defense is 8+max of DEX die (in this case 8) for a total of 16. If the character had a shield this would have been increased by 1, but nothing was listed for the type of armor (light, medium, heavy). I checked the combat section really quick and it turns out the type of armor worn gives a damage reduction. The Proficiency Bonus for a level 1 character is +2 (this can be raised when the character advances levels). Since the character is not a magic user, he doesn’t get any magic points (used in spell casting). I’m then instructed to record the ancestry and archetypes traits (already done above), give the character a name (um…. lets go with Thorronlir Whitbraid) and note a Fate point (aka the ability to reroll a failed roll). The character sheet is two pages, but I didn’t scan the second page since it was all organized for spell casting abilities.

Afterthoughts:

I liked the fact that they had an ending to the character creation process with a “You’re Done!” comment. There were too many times the writers would start the process without telling readers that they have reached the end.

The way they did the equipment allocation helped out quite a bit. A character should already have armor, weapons and some equipment. But I did find myself picking the most expensive items that I could before spending the randomly rolled starting gold.

I could see myself playing this game. Most likely a one-shot at an upcoming SaltCON. I could also see myself homebrewing for this game. For a game with a “locked in” world, there is a lot of sandbox play present.

Additional Notes:

In response to my Rocket Age entry with Ace Rimmer, a lot of feedback that I received was “Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast.” I’m glad to see that everyone got the Red Dwarf reference.

Coming Up Next:

D.A.M.N.I.T.

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

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