Category: Humor

Anime, Character Creation Challenge, Dungeons and Dragons, Horror, Humor, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Top Secret, Westerns

2024 Character Creation Challenge After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain February 4, 2024February 16, 2024 1 Comment

And we’ve reached the end of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge. If you made it to 31 days, congratulations. Send me a note via email (carl (at) tardiscaptain.com) on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. My daughter is currently working on a new graphic for those that completed the challenge and I’d like to make sure that it gets sent to you upon completion.

I did make it to 31 characters, but I was delayed by a few days due to a family emergency. Thank you to everyone who reached out to me to ask. One poster mentioned that they had seen a lack of entries for the last two days. My mother and grandmother were involved in an automobile accident. The good news is that they are OK with no injuries and they are just fine (other than needing to replace a minivan). But it was a little scary for me when I found out.

I noticed that the Scooby Doo gang was used in a lot of different themes by participants (seeing Velma and Daphne in the Doctor Who RPG was a hoot). It was interesting to see them show up in different gaming systems. On the discord server there was a very good representation of characters from 80’s movies represented in the Power Rangers Roleplaying Game. It was kind of a trip down memory lane since I hadn’t seen some of these moves in a LONG time. There was also a participant who was making Star Trek characters for three different RPG systems for several entries. It was interesting to see the characters side-by-side. One of the most unexpected discoveries wasn’t a current participant, but someone who participated back in the first challenge in 2021. Apparently it got him out of some serious mental funk that he had been dealing with. It got him back into blogging and eventually back into writing RPGs (that he had done before). It was an emotional moment for me when I read his blog post.

Of the entries that I used for 2024, the games that stood out to me were Monty Python, Fallout, White Lies and Star Trek Alpha Quadrant. I really enjoyed making a character for Teenagers from Outerspace and I’ve been watching some classic comedy anime lately While Vintage Space didn’t fully scratch the FASA Star Trek itch that I was trying to recall, it did get some gears turning that may result in a future project. I also appreciated the publishers that responded when I posted characters for their games. They were able to answer some of my questions that I had raised in the blog posts. I tried to post those responses in the “Additional Notes” section of an entry a day or two later.

The disappointments were those games that were needlessly crunchy or overbearing. I had a few readers on Mastodon and a few of the message boards respond with similar experiences, which made me feel like I wasn’t such an idiot. I’m still digesting Cowboy Bebop and I have a few things I want to check out before I post my unboxing and final thoughts entry.

Here is my 2024 list of characters:

Day 1: Fallout Character: Ragnal Walker of Vault 47
Day 2: Hackmaster Basic Character: Cid the Kid
Day 3: White Star Galaxy Edition Character: Jenker Slix
Day 4: Fantasy Quest (Dicing w/ Dragons) Character: Alric Hinman
Day 5: Top Secret S.I. Character: Nick Tanner
Day 6: Tiny Wastelands Character Stewart Barlow
Day 7: The Dark Eye Character: Halmar
Day 8: Star Trek: Alpha Quadrant Character: Tropp
Day 9: Monty Python Character: Sir Richard Hammond
Day 10: Basic Fantasy 4th Edition Character: Durlan Torven
Day 11: Teenagers from Outerspace Character: Prince Zaxxod
Day 12: The Spy Game Character: James “Captain Slow” May
Day 13: Star Ace Character: Balkor
Day 14: Ninjas and Superspies Character: Luke Ward
Day 15: Conan Character: Braga
Day 16: Boot Hill Character: Noah ‘Lasso’ Johnson
Day 17: White Lies 2nd edition Character: Jack Sterling
Day 18: Vintage Space Character: Troxtor
Day 19: Fantasy Hero Character: Drokkin the Dwarf
Day 20: Shadowrun Anarchy Character: Spike
Day 21: Nights Black Agents Character: Kendal Barker
Day 22: Barbarians of Lemuria Character: Kruk
Day 23: Starfinder Character: Sarangari
Day 24: Crypts & Things Character: Azor
Day 25: Cyberpunk Red Character: Indigo
Day 26: Dungeons and Dragons Essentials Characters: Pelloth Graysoul
Day 27: Cowboy Bebop Character: Wayne Wolf
Day 28: Rolemaster Fantasy Character: Hobson Silversting
Day 29: Tiny Frontiers Character: YYZ-2112
Day 30: Pathfinder 2nd edition Character: Rogar of the Granitebender Clan
Day 31: Anarchy Character: Marcell Freeman

Also, if you purchased anything after clicking on the link to DriveThruRPG or Amazon, thank you. I’m not doing this blog to make money, but the kickback helps when making game purchases for future challenges.

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.

Anime, Character Creation Challenge, Humor, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 11: Teenagers from Outer Space

Written by TardisCaptain January 11, 2024January 11, 2024

When I received both a physical and PDF copy of Teenagers from Outer Space from my RPG.net “Secret Satan” (a play on words for Secret Santa) I promised that I would use this game in the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge. And to keep that promise, I’ll be using it for my Day 11 entry. Looking through the book, it had reminded me that I hadn’t seen any comedic anime in a while so for the next several days I had been watching Project A-KO on one of the streaming services.

This core rule book was published by AnimechaniX (a division of R. Talsorian Games Inc.) that also published several other anime RPGs including Bubblegum Crisis. It is 127 pages long (Including the character sheet in the back) with the character creation rules starting on page 22. The PDF contains links to the different chapters. Thank you for having that set up as it helps out a lot.

OK first is the character going to be Human or some sort of Alien? Well duh, this is Teenagers from Outer Space so this character is going I want this character to be an alien. The types of aliens are Near-Human (perhaps just some cat ears and a tail or something minor), Not-Very Near Human (more weird stuff is on your body, but still looks kinda Human) and Real Weirdie (You got big wings or you’re just a blob). Human or not, what is your character about? So this guy is going to be an Icaanian Alien Prince who has been sent to school on Earth while his royal parents take care of business back home on Icann Prime. Are they OK, fighting to save the kingdom or already dead? He doesn’t know because his handlers are keeping him in the dark on purpose. Since he is unaware, he’s just trying to survive math and see if he can get an invite to the party on Saturday. I’m going to go with Near-Human with with green hair covering some small horns and silver eyes.

Alright, our second step is to come up with the statistics for the character. The stats used in this game is Smarts (i.e. Intelligence), Bod (Strength & Dex basically), Relationship with Parents (called RWP on the character sheet), Luck (self-explanatory), Driving (piloting anything from a car to a flying saucer), Looks (i.e. physical Charisma), Cool (i.e. mental Charisma) and Bonk (i.e. a mental or health stat like hit points). You can’t really die (this is a comedy game after all) but you’ll be shaken up and looking foolish for a turn or two if you Bonk stat drops below zero. I’m instructed to take a D6 and roll it for each stat in order. Heh, the book states if you attempt to re-roll a bad stat die that it may void the warranty of the game and may result in the self-destruction of the game book. I did not re-roll any stat generating rolls since I didn’t want to destroy my gift. Luckily the RAW states that I can then move stats around as I desire as long as no stat goes above a six or below a one. I rolled really good (three sixes) of which I kept two of them in place (Bonk and Luck) and move other points around. I wanted RWP to be low to match the concept of the character and I wanted better looks than what was rolled.

Next (it is listed Advanced Teenagers) is to pick a number of Knacks. These are basically special items that are connected to your stats but you are really good at. Roll a D6 and that tells you how many Knack points you have. I rolled a 3, so I could select three at one point each, one at three points or 2 knacks with one and two points respectively. I could come up with one of my own with the GMs approval or look over the list of suggestions. I’m going to go with Sweet Talk Guardian (he has a couple of chaperones from his parents keeping an eye on him) with one point and Dance with two points (he has to make himself look good at he party).

As an alien, he gets a Strange Alien Power (Humans have their own special table to roll against to gain some kewl stuff). There are five charts with six random powers. I can pick from three different charts and roll to see what the character receives (if any, nothing is an option). The roll results are Teleport, Monster Out (the character can transform into a 50-foot silly-looking rubber monster at will with Super Strength) and Talk to Aliens (the character can talk to anyone, animal or inanimate objects or living people). Weird, but that’s where the dice rolled. I’d probably talk with the GM to see if the Monster Out could be an involuntary thing after a certain event had happened just to make it interesting (say Bonk gets down to a score of 1). Teleport could be a defensive mechanism and Talk to Aliens could be part of his future roll as a leader and ambassador for his people.

The next step is titled “Last Minute Wrap-Ups”. They include selecting three basic traits that define the character (habits, preferences or world view). There was a suggested list, but I could come up with some of my own if so desired. For some reason when my eyes fell upon “Talk to Trees” it clicked. Perhaps there is no Trees on Icann Prime so he is fascinated by their wit and wisdom. How the trees will respond to him could vary from tree to tree, but I thought it would be silly. He is also Trusting and Forgetful. Why those two? Why not. The character gets a weekly allowance/stipend/source of income. To determine this I roll 2D6x5 which resulted in $45. Starting money comes out to rolling one more D6 and using that result to times your weekly stipend (in this case $180). On the character sheet you can see actual TFOS currency that could be cut out and used.

Also in this section is the items your character owns. You automatically get a vehicle of some sort (since most teenagers want mobility the moment they can) but it’s a piece of junk. You can use your starting money to pimp it out, but you still have other things to buy as well. I added a good stereo to the junky saucer (I figured the tunes may distract from the neon green paint job) and picked up a few items.

So Prince Zaxxod of Icann Prime has two chaperones/body guards (they have to take shifts) who try to keep him out of trouble, but he keeps trying to ditch them as third-wheels when he wants to go out on a date or go to a party. Little does he know that rebels from his home planet would love nothing more than to get a hold of him to use as ransom/bait/who knows back on the home world. Prince Zaxxod has not been told about the troubles on his home world (his father believes it would interfere with his studies) and has instructed the two body guards to keep him oblivious. Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

Since this is a game based off of Anime, I like how they used several pages of Anime art to set up a possible story-line. And speaking of references, they used several examples from Star Trek, X-Files, ET, Alien and more through out the book. I thought this helped as well.

There are conversion guidelines to connect this to the other R. Talsorian anime systems. I like how they used the term “Bubblegum 90210” as a possible example.

The system looks pretty simplistic. Roll a D6, add a stat/equipment/trait bonus and try to beat a difficulty number between 1 and 10. (LOL, out-think Mr. Spock is a difficulty 20) I could see this being a silly game to play in a one-shot or at a gaming convention.

Additional Notes:

After the success of finding a message board participating in the challenge in my visitor’s history, I took a second look and found two more participants. Another message board, started by a reader who has posted on several message boards, thank you. An another WordPress blog. I’ve added both to the links section of Character Creation Challenge page.

If you are looking for a new game to use in the challenge, or even play. Troll Lord Games has the Amazing Adventures 5E core rulebook in PDF for 50 cents. I don’t think you can even get a cup of coffee for 50 cents any more. They had put several of their 5E products for sale at this same price. I was able to pick up a few books at a massive discount. I don’t know how long this sale will be going on for so I’d recommend grabbing them as soon as possible. I used this game in the 202x Character Creation Challenge and I’ve been eyeing it for a possible one-shot.

Coming Up Next:

The Spy Game

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Humor, Role Playing Games

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 9: Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme

Written by TardisCaptain January 9, 2024April 13, 2024 1 Comment

It’s… Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactement Programme. (Liberty Bell march starts playing) and it’s my Day 9 entry in the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge.

I’ve been a fan of Monty Python every since I saw my first episode on our local PBS station. There isn’t a gaming session that didn’t make it out with at least one Monty Python quote (much to the chagrin of my Dungeon Master). So when I discovered that there was going to be a Kickstarter for a Monty Python ~~Role Playing Game~~ Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactement Programme, I had to make a pledge. And no, Mediaeval is not spelled incorrectly. Yea, I had to look that up.

In the past I’ve posted about some of my Kickstarter rewards, such as the one for Mystery Science Theater 3000, The B/X Advanced Bestiary and the XDM 2nd Edition book. I haven’t written about the Monty Python RPG and the RPG for Cowboy Bebop because the physical books haven’t arrived yet. But I promise that I’ll give you first looks when I can. Until then, they have sent me the PDFs for both books. Today I am making a Participant Character for this comedy game. This is for students of history who will use the programme for a memorable learning experience. Most of the items in this game came from the Monty Python movies: The Life of Brian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But there are references to other works from the comedy troupe.

The PDF is 360 pages long with the Character Creation process listed on page 84. The character sheet is one page. And now for something completely different.

Oh and I should mention, the GM is called the Head of Light Entertainment aka The HoLE. It is possible that the HoLE could get sacked while in session.

Your participant is a member of a Situation. This is also called job, role, career or calling. Basically it’s the character’s class, but the game doesn’t call it that. Probably because when you choose your Situation, you also choose if you are Upper Class, Middle Class or Lower Class which is how some NPCs might react to your character (not all class types available for all situations). The possible Situations to choose from are Churl (peasant), Cleric, Enchanter (aka the Wizard), Eremite (A hermit like the one seen in various Monty Python episodes), Knave (aka the Thief), Knight, Monarch (Well I didn’t vote for you.), Monk/Nun (Pie Jesu Domine, Dona eis requiem. [WHACK!!]), Noble (not Donna from Doctor Who) and Troubadour (aka the Bard). Do I want to be a king? Do I want to be a knight? I wanna hit things. Knight it is.

So look at the “Creating a Knight” section and it says that he is definitely upper class. So I circle that. On my character sheet is a very colorful section for Traits. A Knight has the Valour trait, which is doing various manly deeds of strength and arms. This could be serious or silly. If it is more on the serious side, you roll a larger die when attempting to complete a task or a test. These dice range from D4 to D30 (there are a lot of standard and no-so-standard dice for this game). Now for each Trait, you get an Accoutrement. This is a device that your character owns (and may have some minimum requirements for). I roll a 1d10 and it came up with Shield which gives me +1 to Strategy. I also get to roll the type of shield and it came up Buckler. Next Trait for the Knight is Chastity, which helps my character avoid temptation (oh boy, avoid the Castle Anthrax). The Accoutrement for this Trait rolled up an elaborate codpiece (why am I suddenly thinking of first season Black Adder?) which gives the character +1 Decorum. A Knight also has a Manservant as a retainer (it takes one of my colorful slots) which will be the character’s squire. The remaining two slots are selected from a list available, which I chose Heartiness and Strategy. My character’s indifference is Subtlety (i.e. he can’t do this trait).

I wrote down the character’s Spiffing Serious Ability, which is Slay. If I use it during a game, I roll a D30 and consult a chart. This could have good or bad results. And if I’m reading the steps correctly, we are done making this character. There is a section on the sheet for money (of the different types of currency) and Merits/Demerits (system currency earned in the game). Let’s give our Knight a name, which is Sir Richard Hammond (wink). Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

I liked that some of the links within the PDF didn’t go where you thought they would go. Very sneaky and on tap with the brand of humor. There was a ton of in-jokes and easter egg references. But you don’t need to know them all to understand the game.

While making this, I was thinking that it could be useful for that other famous British fantasy comedy, Blackadder (well not the fourth season that takes place during World War I). But I was getting the same vibes.

I know I didn’t really go into the system too much for this blog entry, I think I’m saving that for the physical book review. But what I read, it did make sense. There were a lot of flowery words used in the book, but this was part of the Monty Python charm. I really think that the writers were able to capture the spirit of the comedy troupe. They even had warnings about forcing the humor. If played well, the humor would naturally come into the game.

There is a lot of unusual dice used for Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactement Programme. Luckily I had some dice for the Dungeon Crawl Classics which had all but one of the need die. I wonder where I can find a D18?

(in bad French accent) Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.

Additional Notes:

There were quite a few readers who did not know that Star Trek: Alpha Quadrant existed. This is not surprising since it is a fan made game that was released about the same time as Star Trek Adventures. It probably got brushed to the side with the first official Star Trek licensed RPG in 15ish years.

I discovered another message board with a Character Creation Challenge thread. I’ve added the link to the list of participating sites. The thread itself isn’t very large, but the other threads have been interesting to read. I’ve signed up to post on The Piazza, but at the time of publication, I hadn’t been authorized yet.

Coming Up Next:

Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game 4th 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.

Humor, Role Playing Games, Top Secret

RPGaDay2023 Day 26: Favorite Character Sheet

Written by TardisCaptain August 26, 2023August 23, 2023

I initially had an answer in mind when I read that Day 26 of the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge was “Favorite Character Sheet”. I had seen a lot of them recently after three years of participating in the Character Creation Challenge. However just to be on the safe side, I did a quick run through the scanned character sheets that I had presented. I then decided that I would present a favorite for each year of the Character Creation Challenge. Primarily because I couldn’t pick just one sheet to be my favorite.

Favorite Character Sheet from the 2021 Challenge:

This is the character sheet for Top Secret: New World Order that was written by Merle M. Rasmussen, the original author of the 80’s Top Secret RPG. What made me like this character sheet was the design. It looked like a folder that the dossier of a secret agent would have been found in. And I don’t know why, but the image of the match book made it stand out.

Favorite Character Sheet from the 2022 Challenge:

Like the Top Secret New World Order sheet above, the sheet for the Star Trek inspired Boldly Go! RPG has an aesthetic that fits the science fiction theme of the game. I also like that it has some gaming rule information on the sheet itself to assist players during the game. Quite a few other sheets had this as well, but the aesthetic made this one stand out. The players “roll up” the starship first which is why there is a sheet for the vessel.

Favorite Character Sheet from the 2023 Challenge:

I had a blast putting together the character of Grukk for the Ork! 2nd Edition RPG. This game sounds like it would be set up on the fly when real-life prevented all of the players from attending a session. Let’s whip up some silly Ork characters and laugh at the scenario as we still play. Oh, and since most of the players probably don’t know all of the rules, there are some simple guidelines on the sheet itself. Perfect for a quick pick-up game.

Do you have a favorite character sheet from any roleplaying game? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Humor, Role Playing Games

RPGaDay2023 Day 17: Funniest game you’ve played

Written by TardisCaptain August 17, 2023August 18, 2023

Day 17 of the #RPGaDAY2023 is “Funniest Game You’ve Played”. I’m certain that we will see several other entries for this date for Toon or Paranoia. But unfortunately I’ve never played these games.

What I have played is a game that came out in 1989 called It Came From The Late, Late, Late Show. This was a roleplaying game is a humor based game where you play an actor (or someone pretending to be an actor) trying to help a low-budget film get made. The director had a script which was the plot of the session. It was all tongue-in-cheek.

A bunch of RPG buddies had the opportunity to play this game sometime in the early 90’s in a late night gaming session. What I recall is that we had our main character and their stunt double. If we were going into a combat situation, the stunt doubles could go in first. This kept the main character safe until the stunt double ran out of health and could no longer be used.

There was an option where the players could create their own skill/ability (I don’t recall what it was called) and one of my friends came up with the brilliant idea of “Parry with Other”. Basically if he rolled successfully, then he grabbed another person and parried with that person (giving them the damage). There was a chance that it could be an opponent, or a chance that it could be an ally. He used this skill a lot in our game so he never had to send his stunt double into battle. But in one battle, he successfully used the Parry with Other to avoid the attack from the last opponent, and succeeded in the roll of grabbing the bad guy. So the henchman attacked and then was thrust into his own sword attack.

But that wasn’t the funniest part for me in the entire game. We were playing in a bad cheesy kung-fu samurai vs ninjas action flick in ancient Japan. I was playing a failed rock-star wanting to start his acting career (so I sang during parts of the game). There was one scene where we had to sneak into this bar in the middle of the night for one reason or another and it was pitch black. One of the players decided to light a candle so they could see. The director then described the comical scene of how the light now illuminated an army of ninjas that had surrounded us in preparation to attack. The director went around the room and asked each player one-by-one what their character was doing. Various answers of drawing weapons or getting into a defensive stance were returned. When it was my turn, my response to the director was turning my head to the side and making a blowing sound as I blew out the candle.

My friend playing the director fell to the ground laughing maniacally. I was quite proud that my joke had taken him several minutes to recover. I loved making people laugh. I know that in another game, if I could make the DM give a laugh at humor injected into the scenario, he would give me experience points.

This is one of the reasons that I like to play these games with my friends, around a table while eating unhealthy snacks. We get to have fun with each other in a place where we are socializing.

Have you had a session that you would consider your funniest? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Humor, Reviews, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

First look at Star Trek Lower Decks STA products

Written by TardisCaptain April 18, 2023April 25, 2023 1 Comment

So the gang at Modphius just announced a Star Trek: Lower Decks campaign guide for Star Trek Adventures. You don’t know how excited this announcement has made me. There is an old running joke that Dungeons and Dragon campaigns start as Lord of the Rings, but turn into Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Why, because we have fun around a table for our roleplaying games. I can see this also happening with Star Trek Adventures. Even at the recent SaltCON there were several STA sessions inspired by Star Trek: Lower Decks. According to the email, this book should come out in Quarter 3 of 2023. Sigh, I hate waiting so long.

To tide us over, Modiphius has released two Lower Decks products on PDF. The Lower Decks Season 1 Player Characters (aka the crew pack) and the Lower Decks inspired adventure Lurkers. Now in past blog entries I’ve reviewed the Star Trek: Discovery crew packs. So I thought I’d do a quick review of these publications.

Like the other character guides, they are written as reports given by the superiors to the USS Cerritos officers. The book comes in at 17 pages, which is smaller than the Discovery character guides. We get eight main characters, several supporting characters and a write up for the USS Cerritos itself. No new races for the game (sad) but most of the races used were already covered. They could have given us stats for Excocomps, however that wasn’t the case. Hopefully that will be in the campaign guide.

I loved Mariner’s “Contraband Stash” but wondered about the claim that Tendi was the first Orion in Starfleet. I wonder how the focus of “catnip” will come into a session? (guess where that was listed at). I think this was a good purchase for me and I can’t wait to see the season two character guides to see what has been added.

I really wondered if I wanted to read through the adventure “Lurkers” as I wanted to play it. But I also wanted to see how a “Lower Decks” adventure was written up. When we had our Lower Decks inspired game at SaltCON, the gamemaster gave a lot of prep and setup for the game. We had players who had never seen the show, but still had fun. So I would recommend that the GM set the tone at the table explaining that this is a comedic episode and letting the players go a little wild. At SaltCON, we had a player end up with two Orion slave women that I don’t think was originally part of the scenario. But the way the NPCs came to be a part of the group (we hid them from the drunk commanding officer by stating they were new crew) added to the humor.

Without giving the plot to Lurkers away, I can see where the setup works. Bad bureaucracy leads to the scenario and the players have several choices to make along the way. There is an option for combat, but most of the adventure is thinking on your feet and not getting caught or left behind by the senior officers. One of the things that I like about Lower Decks is the various Star Trek Easter eggs that are scattered through-out an episode. Lurkers gives the GM an opportunity to through several of these in the adventure. So I would recommend that the GM be very brushed up on their Star Trek minutia trivia. Especially with debates among various Star Trek fandoms. There is even an opportunity to slip Lurkers into a regular Star Trek Adventures campaign, but the main characters use by the players should be of the Lower Deck variety. In a way, I’d really love to see a veteran group of STA players take the actual Lower Deck characters and play this scenario (and record it on YouTube for others to see).

One final note about Lurkers, it actually has a follow up mission briefing listed for GMs to use as part of a follow up. So you are getting more than just a single mission. I’d recommend picking this up.

Until then, I can’t wait to get the Lower Decks campaign guide. Ugh, 3rd Quarter 2023 is such a long ways away.

Are you looking forward to the upcoming Lower Decks STA products? Have you picked up the character guide or Lurkers? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Humor, My Creations, Red Dwarf, Star Trek

Making Memes Part VIII

Written by TardisCaptain February 24, 2023April 25, 2023

Going through my past blog entries I realized that it’s been a while since I posted a batch of my homemade memes. Here are a few that I randomly pulled out of the “My Work” folder. If you are brave enough, you can see the past memes I’ve created here: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI and Part VII. All of the entries in this post were created with MS Paint.

I’ve posted this on some of my social media sites and it has made the rounds on the internet. The look on Dr. McCoy’s face while holding the communicator made me think of the caption.

The only real reason I watch the Superbowl is to see the commercials. Companies spent a lot of money to show us the “best of the best” advertising. Sometimes they work really well, and sometimes they have wasted a lot of money. After the crypto commercials last year with the weird QR codes, I was surprised to see a lot of commercials with QR codes this year. So it inspired me to make this meme.

If you haven’t seen Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, go watch it now. Oh, are you back already? Good. This scene from the first episode was turned into a series of memes where the TV displayed different shows that Captain Pike could have been watching because it was a classic. I had to drop a scene from the Red Dwarf episode “Gunmen of the Apocalypse”. I received lots of compliments on this entry including the use of the letterbox. Honestly, it was just the way the picture fit on the screen.

I actually just made this meme an hour before posting this blog entry. I saw the pun on one of the newsletters I subscribe to and knew I had to meme it. Luckily I’ve been making meme blanks and this one stood out to me.

What are some of your favorite memes? Do any of my past memes stand out to you? I have a Jokes and Memes channel on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. Not only am I posting my latest memes there, but others have been sharing as well.

Character Creation Challenge, Horror, Humor, Role Playing Games, Uncategorized

2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 31: They Came From Beyond The Grave!

Written by TardisCaptain January 31, 2023April 25, 2023

I wanted to wrap up the 2023 Character Creation Challenge with a game that has caught my interest. Onyx Path Publishing has released a series of games titled “They Came From…” that covers a variety of genres. The system that I’m going to be using today is based off of the cheesy 60’s and 70’s horror movies that I’m enjoy watching on Elvira, Svengoolie and Creature Features. I also wanted to promote this game because Onyx Path Publishing was one of the sponsoring backers for season 13 of Mystery Science Theater 3000 as seen on the Gizmoplex. A thank you from me.

The PDF has 268 pages (with several extra pages of printable quip cards). The character sheet is only a single page. I believe that the character creation process starts with Chapter Three on page 49. There really isn’t a checklist (takes a few points away from Gryffindor) so I guess we are winging it through the chapters. I hope they are put together well as I dislike knowing when the character creation process has ended.

Our first step is to come up with a concept for the character. Not knowing if the adventures are going to be set in the 1970’s or earlier, I think I’ll create a curious professor type character that has found a mysterious book with missing pages and he’s wants to find them. So the missing pages will be the long term aspiration. I’m also instructed to pick two short term aspirations. So let’s make them… actually I can’t think of anything now and the few examples are not very helpful. So I’d probably beg the Director (GM) to let me come up with them during play as inspiration strikes.

The next step is to pick a path. These were life experiences before the adventure. These are broken down into three things. An archetype (think class or profession), origin and dark agenda (dun, dun, dunnnnnnn). Well I’ve already selected professor since all of the archetypes were described in chapter two before the character creation started. I selected the four professor skills on my sheet (not added dots, like designating a class skill on a D&D 3.5 character sheet) out of the 10 listed in the earlier pages (a lot of jumping back and forth slows things down). The origin is the background of the character. I can select four un-selected skills that came from this origin and mark them with an “O”. Nothing in the examples really spoke to me. I just selected four skills at random and put down “some guy” hoping that something will come to me later. I really could have used other players to bounce ideas off of. As for the Dark Path, the book says this drives your character. The examples were not very helpful. He’s not going to be a cult leader. Fame and fortune might work, might. Forbidden love? No. Protective Parent? Search for a Cure? They don’t fit. I know it sounds like I’m down on this game, I’m not, I’m just not inspired to write up a whole backstory just yet. I just want to fill out the character sheet and see if anything sparks while that is happening. I’ll put down the fame one now and probably change it later if the creative juices actually start flowing. I marked the skills. Now I have three dots in each category to place in those skills.

Onto step three. Spend six more dots on any skill on the sheet (not just the ones selected above).

Wow, we are finally to the step where we select our attributes. There are nine in total. Might, Dexterity and Stamina make up the physical attributes. The mental attributes are Intellect, Cunning and Resolve. The last three that make up the social attributes are Presence, Manipulation and Composure. I pick one of the three groups above to be the primary focus. There is already one dot in each of these attributes and each group gets a series of dots depending if it is my first, second or third choice. Now I get to choose the favored approach. These are Force, Finesse and Resilience. These all associate with a set of attributes from across the three types. The favored approach get one dot for each attribute. I selected resilience, why? Don’t know, it just sounded good. There was an optional step to take a freebie dot and place it anywhere that wasn’t already at the max of five. My pretend Director said yes to this and I put the dot in the weakest attribute of Might.

Step five is to select a trademark? No, not something I’d file with the US Patent and Trademark Office. It’s described as a signature move (that could be tied with a skill or attribute) that can be used once per story where it provides two additional dice to the pool and gives you something called “Directional Control” if you succeed (hold on, I’ve got to flip down another 40 pages to see what this is). OK, the player gets to alter the story in a logical manner (example: the murder’s ax can suddenly become lodged in a tree trunk). I guess this could be the “we suddenly found a vital clue or gain an advantage we didn’t have before” aspect to the scene. Scrolls back up to the character creation portion. So if I’m reading this correctly, it could be a catch phrase or move. I’m going to go with “I read this in a book once” and connect it to the science and enigmas skills.

Step six is to determine relationships and connections. Apparently this involves coordinating with the other players in the party and determine how your characters feel/know/understand each other. As there is no other party members being rolled up in this challenge entry, I’ll skip this step. I have a lot of voices in my head, but not all of them want to make characters right now.

Now we are at the final touches. Assign three tropes (what are those?) and three quips (what?) Scrolling back up to the earlier description of the archetype I see that it has various trademarks listed. I can select two of them so I picked “Let me guide you” (lend skills to another) and “Don’t be fooled” (snap a companion out of a mental condition). I can also select another trope from anywhere else which was “My lucky dime” (a good luck charm that I can use as a bonus. As for the quips, the are some sort of catchphrase that can be found on the “deck of cards” in the back of the book. There is a quip deck for each archetype. Since I can’t really shuffle and draw randomly, I’ll just select them. It wasn’t exactly clear what the quips do, so I just picked some.

I like the fact that in the final touches it talks about tweaks. Once you’ve played a session or two you can work with the Director to change a few things to fit the campaign and/or party. I have a feeling that I’d probably need something like this.

So I did pick out a name in the middle of the process. This professor is called Bruce Walters (hey it fit). There were a lot couple of blank spaces still left on the character sheet, but I’m going to scan the sheet now.

Afterthoughts:

There is a chapter at the beginning of the book with a lot of movies and TV shows that are inspirational for a game such as It Came From Beyond The Grave! Some I’ve seen, some I need to check out.

I don’t know if I like the “come up with your whole backstory” process when making a character. Sometimes the inspiration for these things come while playing the game itself. Trying to come up with them in a vacuum doesn’t work sometimes.

The humor in this game sounds good. With a group of like-minded friends (with warped senses of humor) who love the cheesy horror genre, this could be a good game to play. From what I read of the system, it makes sense. I just wish the delivery was a little bit better when it came to character creation and explanations of game terms. I did a lot of jumping around in this book. I’m going to have to pick up a PDF of some of the other “It Came From…” books to see how they compare to this one. I’m not certain which books came first.

Additional Notes:

We did it!!!!! 31 characters in 31 days. I am working with my daughter who came up with last years completion logo to make another one. She hasn’t completed it yet because college studies have taken priority. But if you made it, email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com and I’ll make sure to get it to you. I still see the 2022 logo on display on a few websites.

Coming Up Next:

A bonus character (day 32?) and a challenge summary

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

Character Creation Challenge, Humor, Role Playing Games

2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 11: XD20 Second Edition

Written by TardisCaptain January 11, 2023April 25, 2023

One of the kickstarters that I backed last year was the 2nd Edition of X-Treme Dungeon Mastery by Tracy and Curtis Hickman and illustrated by Howard Tayler. While the book is an excellent guide for Dungeon Masters, it also contains it’s own roleplaying game called XD20 Second Edition. Yes, the first XDM book also had an RPG in it. So for day 11 of the Character Creation Challenge, I’m going to make a character for this system. Just as I had to make a disclaimer for Fantasy Craft, I need to drop one here. I’ve known Howard Tayler for years and had no problem backing his kickstarter since I knew that I’d get what was promised. But I’m going to do this mini-review based upon what I read while creating the character without considering my relationship with the artist.

This system is generic and can be used for any genre. So for the purposes of creating a character, I’m going to pretend that an XDM is going to run us through a fantasy campaign. I’m going to create Blix the Barbarian.

The core mechanic when confronted with a challenge is to roll a d20, add a stat bonus and if you meet or beat a target number, your character succeeds. There are additional items (I’m not going to give away the whole system) but it is very rules-light system. The character creation rules start on page 120 and you start with five stats. TAC (Toughness and Constitution), PSYCH (intelligence, wisdom and smartness), WAH (mystical power, luck and karma), HEALTH (self-explanatory) and LEVEL (a class level basically). Roll a D8 three times for each stat and note it (not on the sheet yet). There is some stat adjustment if the character has any type of mystic power, but Blix is a big ox with a sword, so we can skip this. So the first three stats are TAC 18, PSYCH 13 and WAH 10. Next we take the two lowest stats and add 14 to the total, this is our HEALTH score. Since this is a starting character, his LEVEL is 1.

Now for the next step, we are going to draft a story. What is something they’ll fight about (Blix was always picked on as a child and he hates it when adults pick on children), what is something they’ll run from (Snakes? Why’d it have to be snakes?) and what is something they’d die for (Blix wants to recover his dead father’s stolen sword).

Next we get to pack some stuff. It’s actually a little refreshing to see an interesting equipment section like this. You decided on three things. What is something sensible (why would I be carrying this? Because I need a gem that lights up when I give it a command, just don’t ask me where I got it), what is something precious (don’t want to loose that, it’s the armor my father had when he was an adventurer and it was made out of the same metal as the sword) and something random (Where did this sealed letter come from? There was a fancy looking guy on that last boat ride, I wonder if he dropped it?) Then your other equipment is what a prepared adventurer would have (Backpack, bedroll, rations, etc.). So I wrote a few things down and called it good. For once I was glad that there was no, “lets be different for difference sake” when it came to the equipment. For the illustration, I’m mentally thinking of something along the line of The Legend of Bill. Unfortunately I can’t draw as well as my daughter.

Afterthoughts:

I’ve seen some pretty complicated and crunchy systems in character creation and actual play. There is a reason that Pathfinder has the nickname of Mathfinder. I’m also worried about the GURPS character I’m going to be making later this month. But XD20 is very simplistic and gets the job done for what it’s designed to do, get a bunch of friends to throw some dice around the table while cracking Monty Python jokes and eating things that are not good for you. Character creation was quick and simple. I think the biggest concern would be making sure you are communicating with your game master and the other players in your group. This could easily be put together for a quick last minute game when half the players can’t make it to the table and you still want to play with those who showed up.

I may even try to run a game or two on this system. If I do, I’ll report it here.

Additional Notes:

I had one reader respond to me how much they had loved the D6 System that I used for yesterday’s Character Creation Challenge entry. I also have many good memories playing the Star Wars D6 Roleplaying Game from West End Games. I’ve even found my original character sheets from different SW sessions.

Coming Up Next:

Mutant Future

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

Fan Club, Friends, Humor, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Rest in peace Roger Taylor

Written by TardisCaptain December 21, 2022December 21, 2022

Well, this isn’t the blog post I thought I’d be writing when I woke up this morning. On my way to work this morning I was informed by friends that a longtime Star Trek and role playing friend, Roger Taylor, had been found dead in his apartment. He had been having heart issues lately and when he hadn’t responded to his ex-wife’s attempts to reach him, she went over to his place to find he had passed away.

I’ve mentioned Roger a couple of times in past blog posts, recently when we had worked together on homebrewing the Star Trek Adventures stats for an alien race called The Tarn. Roger had run several RPG sessions for various friends including a lot of Star Trek by Decipher. He had homebrewed several items for the Decipher Star Trek RPG, Star Trek Adventures, Serenity and several other games. I even discovered that one of his early adventures he wrote was ported over to the Far Trek system. When we were not joking around or talking about our Star Trek organization, we were talking about games.

I first met Roger when he was working at a security guard at an IT company I was working for around 2008. I could often sneak down to the security office while on a lunch break and talk with Roger about common interests. He loved the fleet of Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica ships that I had set up on my desk. I think we knew we were going to be friends when we realized how much we both had a warped sense of humor. When we were discussing the (then) proposal by Madonna to remake Casablanca with a modern twist, my not-so-innocent mind altered one of the famous lines from the black and white movie. “Of all the S&M bars in the world, she had to walk into mine.” Roger was laughing so hard that he practically forgot to breathe. He would bring up this line at random times just to get a chuckle out of me.

Roger joined Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet and with his Star Trek knowledge and organizational skills, quickly moved up the ranks. He started a chapter-in-training which eventually became the full chapter, USS Essex. As a US Navy vet, he had served on the real life USS Essex.

He also loved baking, a pet songbird called Charley, military history (another common interest), building models, playing video games and writing. A phrase I picked up from a common friend for a situation like this was “May his/her memory always be a blessing.” I will have many memories that I will look back on when thinking about Roger. I’ll roll some dice for you in your honor soon.

To Roger’s family, I’m deeply sorry at this time. Heidi, thank you for telling me that Roger cared for me and held a lot of respect for me. I choked up a little bit when I read that message. Roger’s family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses. If you can, please donate.

Rest easy Roger, you’ve earned it.