Month: January 2022

2022 Character Creation Challenge Day 15: Covert Ops

Written by TardisCaptain January 15, 2022January 17, 2022 1 Comment

Day 15 of the Character Creation Challenge and I’ll be using the Covert Ops RPG from DwD Studios. This is part of their Barebones system.

For the previous entries of the various espionage RPGs, I’ve been creating characters based in the 1960’s. This character will be a spy in the modern times. Let’s see where the game takes us. I’m going to try to go as random as possible and play were the dice take me.

There are four abilities. Strength, Dexterity, Logic and Willpower which have a score from 1-100. Then there are ten skills which are Academic, Leader, Detective, Martial Artist, Medic, Pilot, Scout, Soldier, Technician and Thief. These have a level between 1 to 6. Characters also get Bones at the start of each session which can be used as a type of heroic luck (re-roll, automatic success, increased damage, etc.).

A chart is provided with different origins for your character. You can pick one or roll D100 to select randomly. I rolled a Medic. From the listing I got to choose one advantage and I selected +5 to my LOG score. For the abilities, I could select from some pre-rolled scores or roll 5D+30 four times and assign them. Wanting to roll dice, I let them fly. This resulted in 54, 49, 64 and 52. I spent a bone to re-roll the 49 and got a 61. Next for the skills you can select a primary skill or roll for a random. This skill is marked with +20. A secondary skill (also picked or randomly selected) is marked with a +10. Sticking with the dice I ended up with primary of scout and a secondary of martial artist. Now you can select or randomly roll one skill to gain a level in. I selected Soldier since I also wanted this character to be good with weapons. I also spent a second bone to get a level in another skill. So far this is turning out to be an interesting character.

The game wants you to select two descriptors for your character. One that is beneficial and one that is not. If you use these during role play, it can earn you development points (this game’s version of XP). While there are random charts for Master Villain descriptors, no additional suggestions are made for player characters. I really had a hard time coming up with two of them. I wished that I could have asked the GM if these could be developed while in play. Next came a Moral Code (an interesting way to do alignment)

For equipment each agent gets a basic weapon (I’m glad that I didn’t have to buy it like I did in other games) and an Operative Pack (very basic spy equipment). Then I had six allowance points to buy other gear (I can get six more by spending a bone if I want). Some equipment was pretty standardized, the other options were vague enough that allowed players to outfit their characters as desired if the GM allowed it and if they had the points for it. Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

I like the percentage system in RPGs. I wonder how the system runs at the table. As I was creating this character, I could see where some homebrewing of characters from other sources could come into play. Now I just need a way to run/participate a game at a table or online.

Additional Notes:

This character was completed on Day 15, but with the technical issues on my website it wasn’t posted until January 17th. I posted a picture of the character sheet on social media. One of the unexpected benefits is that the DwD Studios twitter account responded to the post complementing the character. I love having the interaction with the creators/publisher.

Coming Up Next:

The Computer is your friend. Paranoia 2nd Edition

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

2022 Character Creation Challenge Day 14: Boldly Go!

Written by TardisCaptain January 14, 2022March 29, 2022

Boldly Go! is a science-fiction roleplaying game that was released in 2021 by Geoffquest and backed by a Kickstarter campaign. Like Starships and Spacemen, it is a Star Trek inspired game with the serial numbers filled off. I heard about this game just after last year’s Character Creation Challenge. And since I am very interested in Star Trek (and Star Trek-like) roleplaying games, I knew I had to pick this up and use it for this year’s challenge.

When I created a character for the Dune: Adventures in the Imperium RPG, the first thing I needed to do was to create a Nobel House. In Boldly Go! the players not only create their characters in session zero, they can also create the ship that they will be serving on. This will be a vessel serving in Space Fleet for the Stellar Alliance. While the players can just pick a ship listed in the core rulebook, creating a ship, like creating a Nobel House, would give the group a little bit more cohesion.

Boldly Go! uses the Traits System. Character, ships, equipment and other items all have traits. These traits can be positive or negative, permanent or temporary. When a character has to complete a task they add one base D6 to a dice pool. For each positive trait that applies to the scene (justified to the Fleet Admiral (GM) if they have any questions) you can add an additional D6 to use. A roll of 5 or 6 counts as a success. If more successes are rolled than what is required (the more difficult tasks require more successes) then the character succeeds the task they are attempting to do. Negative traits can make the task more difficult. There are also Drama Points that can be earned during play. Drama points can be used for a variety of positive options including adding to your dice pool.

So first the group comes up with the name for the ship. I consulted the voices in my head and we came up with the SFS Valiant. For the concept, the Valiant would be an exploration cruiser. The other classifications we could have selected from included Cruiser, Diplomatic, Medical, etc. If there are four or fewer players, they all get two trait points to purchase traits for the ship (higher number of players gets 1 point per player). So the number of voices in my head is classified, but we will say that there are four players in the game. It would be interesting to see what could happen as each player selects a trait. Some may think that certain traits are needed more than other. They have a sample list of positive and negative traits (yes ships can have negative traits) but they don’t define what they are. So this is something that the group and Fleet Admiral would have to discuss when making the ship. Each trait is worth one trait point. Ship traits can be a physical item (such as Advanced Engines) or non-physical (such as Crew Like Family). I think I filled out the sheet correctly (the systems ran out of room). Since the CO is going to be an NPC, I just filled in a name.

Like the ship creation, you create a concept, name and backstory. Then you select a species and write down the traits and special ability that the race has. The races for PCs in the game include Humans (I don’t know if anyone will know who these guys are), Gatoan (cat people), Krakenoid (humanoid octopuses), Mordons (Silicon-based humanoids), Rittians (sloth people), Syntoids (self-aware androids) or Hybrids (combine two non-Synthoid races into one). Since Krakenoid’s are not really found in any other game that I’ve seen so far, I’m going with that one. Since the Krakenoids are a militant race, I’ll go with the occupation of security. Each member of the Space Fleet gain the Academy Training trait. Then I selected the rank of Lieutenant (he was going to be the Chief of Security) which earned the character two free drama points. It also meant that I had five trait points that I can spend. There is a list of sample traits or you can make some up of your own.

In the equipment section, everything was pretty straight forward. Your character gets this as a member of Space Fleet. If other equipment is assigned or found, you’ll be able to use it. Here is the character and ship sheets.

Afterthoughts:

I really feel like this system has a good start. Perhaps I’d change my mind with actually experiencing the game in play, but I felt that it still needed one or two more steps to being a really great system. I didn’t get this feel from my initial read-through when I first got the book. But now that I’m looking at it while actually creating a ship and creation, it feels like there could be a little bit more. Or at least I would try to implement it if I was actually running a game. I could see myself playing and homebrewing for this system.

Why would a player select a negative trait for a character or a ship? In this read through there was nothing stating that you would gain a positive trait for selecting a negative trait or if you’ve had to take a balance.

Having used the FASA Starship Construction Manual in the past, the ship creation was simple, but somewhat too simple. If I was a FA for a game, I’d probably put limits on how many systems and traits a certain class of ship might have. I didn’t see any guidelines for this.

I like the graphical design of the Character Sheet and Ship Sheet. Speaking of graphics, the images used to show Captain Raymond Sexton Jr. reminded me of Nick Diamond from Celebrity Death Match.

Additional Notes:

On the Character Creation Challenge thread at the RPG.net forums a user by the handle Golden Age Superhero asked me more about my entry for Castles and Crusades. I mentioned that my Knight could not be a Halfling as per the rules. GAS reported that there were no class/limit restrictions. I went back and looked over the racial descriptions. The classes listed were the “typical” classes and that with your Castle Keeper’s (C&Cs name for a DM) permission you could use others. So in hindsight I could have made Godfrey a member of the Halfling race. Thank you for pointing that out. Just the thought of a proud Knight having to be taken seriously by those who only see his short stature just sounded like an interesting role playing opportunity.

While I can do a little prep work before hand, the bulk of my workday is spent on real life work duties. I create my character afterwards (with the blog entry open for editing so I can write my thoughts down as they happen) and I’ve had a few times where I’ve run into snags or deadlines. So there are times I’m trying to push to get the entry for that day done, which may lead to mistakes. The majority of the entries I feel good about, but I know that not all of them are going to be up to satisfactions. If I noticed it, I’ll try to point it out (like I did with the Modern Age entry). If I missed something, feel free to let me know. Part of the reason I’m participating in this challenge is to learn about some of these roleplaying games and what they have to offer.

Coming Up Next:

Covert Ops

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2022 Character Creation Challenge Day 13: The Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game

Written by TardisCaptain January 13, 2022

The Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game, published in 2002 by Mongoose Publishing, is a D20 based system. I received these books last year when a friend was looking to reduce the number of books on his bookshelf. I’ve read a few of the Judge Dredd comics (it’s been a while) and I enjoyed both movies that came out. Yes even the over-acting of “I AM THE LAW!!!!” in the first movie. Of course I’m of the opinion that most science fiction/fantasy/horror shows are better than some of the drek that comes out of Hollywood. So I decided that this would be one of my entries in the 2022 Character Creation Challenge. And while it may not be totally based on me, he will carry the name “Judge Stark.” (insert curled lip grimace here)

The campaign can consist of all Judge characters or all civilian characters trying to survive in this post-apocalyptic world. The rulebook stated that the Judges would be too powerful when compared with civilian. In my quick read through I could see where they were coming from. The rules also state that Judges should start out as Level 3 characters because of all the training that they have received in the academy before being set loose on the streets. They also included the info for levels 1 and 2 if a GM was interested in running an academy game.

The rulebook does reference the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 Player’s Handbook for some sections. So it is probably a good idea to have that book handy.

So let’s make Judge Stark. Well first all players are human. There are no special languages. Judges already have their equipment assigned (and added to the character sheet). While I could have made the character a Psi-Judge, I’m not very big on the psionic powers. I kept trying not to get distracted by the background info on this game world and concentrate on getting the character done. Since it was based off of the D20 system, I was able to get through it pretty quickly.

Afterthoughts:

I liked that the game had different character sheets for the different classes and that they were already filled in with class specific information. It made things go a lot faster in the character creation process.

This is another game that I’d like to see run. I’m wondering how it would play on the table. However the likelihood of it happening is not very big.

Additional Notes:

Going through the #CharacterCreationChallenge hashtag on twitter I discovered another blog participating in the challenge. I’ve added it to the links on the CCC page.

Coming Up Next:

Boldly Go!

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2022 Character Creation Challenge Day 12: Castles and Crusades

Written by TardisCaptain January 12, 2022January 10, 2024

So the books seen in the photo are dead-tree versions of several Castle and Crusades sourcebooks. I have the 7th Printing of the Castles and Crusades Players Handbook that I picked up one one of the DriveThruRPG specials. This is published by Troll Lord Games who has put out a lot of material for this D20 fantasy game. I’ve read some good reviews on other websites so I thought I’d add it to the 2022 Character Creation Challenge.

So the RAW states that 3d6 are rolled for the attributes (as used in the D20 SRD) and are assigned as desired by the player. You also selected two (possibly more) primary attributes which your character is really good at using when making non-combat checks. Primary attributes are easier to succeed with. I rolled these and the next step was to pick the class (before picking your race). The Knight was a class that I had not seen in other D20 fantasy games so I selected that one. I had to read up the differences between a Fighter and a Knight. The Knight gets some leadership abilities and seems Paladin-like without the minor Cleric powers. Like the classic games, each class has it’s own Experience Point Progression instead of using the same scale for all classes.

I was really tempted to make the character a Halfling Knight, but alas, the RAW do not allow it. I kept trying to pull away from the idea of playing this character as a Human because the image of Prince Charming from the Shrek movies kept popping into my head. I eventually gave in and made him a blond haired human but not as evil as the character in the movies. He will be quite good when it comes to actions and alignments.

All right, equipment time. Thanks to my character being a knight he already has a mount and all of the items that come with it. I didn’t roll enough starting gold pieces to get any type of plate armor, but that will be a goal for him as he travels on his quest as a Knight in the Order of the Griffon.

Afterthoughts:

I’d really like to see how C&C plays at the table. Other than the friend who gave me the books in the photo, I haven’t personally known anyone to collect or play this game.

When I picked up my digital copy of the C&C Players Handbook, it was still the 7th printing. Troll Lord Games has recently released an 8th printing of the Players Handbook. I do not know how the two printings compare.

I also tried something different with this PDF copy of the game. I took advantage of the bookmarks already in the document. I was a little frustrated that I could not make my own bookmarks. I don’t know if there was a technical or permissions issue. I’ll have to explore this further.

Additional Notes:

I’m seeing more people re-tweet posts using the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge. Let’s see some more.

Coming Up Next:

I AM THE LAW!!!! The Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2022 Character Creation Challenge Day 11: Farscape Roleplaying Game

Written by TardisCaptain January 11, 2022March 29, 2022

After I had posted my daily entry for Modern Age yesterday, I kept thinking that I should have done a deeper dive into the rules. I had assumed that since the rules explained the basics of the game quickly at the start of the book that the character creation steps would have also been as quick. I’m thinking that I didn’t give the game a good enough shake in my comments. So I started looking at getting a dead-tree version of the rulebook because I could easily flip back and forth between chapters while trying to get a handle on the rules (as compared to trying to scroll back and forth on a screen). I had found a copy on Amazon, but I didn’t pull the trigger just yet because I had just bought a new (to me) book a few days ago and I needed to stay within a budget. That book that was just purchased was slotted into Day 11 of the Character Creation Challenge. The book is the Farscape Roleplaying Game by AEG. I didn’t know this book existed until I saw it at a local store that had new and used books just this past weekend. I wasn’t expecting to find anything when I checked the RPG shelf and was pleasantly surprised. So I pulled one of the games I was planning to use (Rocket Age, I’ll probably add it to the 2023 challenge) and placed this one in it’s place. The flexibility to make changes like this is the reason I don’t post my entire list of games prior to the start of the challenge.

I didn’t watch the Farscape TV series when it first came out. About a year ago I started watching the series and I’ve gotten through the first year and a half (I need to pick it up again and finish it out). There were four seasons in total plus a TV mini-series . So I am somewhat familiar with this universe setting.

There are a few items that you would need from the Dungeons and Dragons v3.5 Players Handbook for this roleplaying game. The Farscape game is a D20 based system that uses the OGL. So this should be a quick review mostly talking about the differences that were introduced in the Farscape game.

Wow, the character creation information doesn’t come up until chapter 5 on page 145. The earlier pages gave a Farscape short story (written by Keith R.A. DeCandio) an episode guide, a guide to the characters, aliens and planets (none have stat information). All with a weird column setup that starts in one corner of the page and slides down at an angle to the other.

Generating the attributes refers to the D&D3.5 PHB so we roll 4d6 and drop the lowest and then assign the score to the attribute you want. Then select your race and add the racial modifiers. Not surprising, Humans are not on the list of available races since John Crichton was the only member of that species in the far side of the galaxy. So our selections are Banik, Delvian, Hynerian, Ilanic, Luxan, Nebari, Scarran, Sebacean, Sheyang, Tavlek, Vorcarian and Zenetan. For this character I’m going to select Banik. I applied the racial stats and abilities. Instead of Hit Points, your character in the Farscape RPG has Wounds. At 1st level they are maxed out (add class and any CON modifier) and randomly rolled afterwards. Something different from a standard D20/3.5 game is Control Points. From the RAW it looks like these are used for mystic powers, combat actions and other common actions. Like Wounds, 1st level are maxed out (add class and any WIS modifier) and rolled for each level afterwards.

Now onto the classes which are Aristocrat, Commando, Diplomat, Mystic, Pirate, Priest, Rogue, Scavenger, Scientist, Tech and Warrior. An option of a pirate is too good to pass up. I filled in the class skills, feats and other details. The characters get to choose two backgrounds which (at the cost of skill points) gives you certain skills and details. These backgrounds kinda made sense. The cost was more expensive than just taking the skills in some cases (but you could also substitute a background for a selected feat). If I was GMing a game, I’d probably give the PCs a little bit more for the cost of skill points. It also sounds like the backgrounds are optional, so I’m just going to select skills on my own. Wrapped up the equipment that a pirate in the uncharted territories would have and added them to the sheet.

Drellith was going to be a craftsman in his city before his transport was taken by the Peacekeepers. They accused everyone on aboard (passenger or not) of being pirates and imprisoned everyone. Learning from the pirates that were incarcerated with Drellith, he learned their tricks. When they had an opportunity to escape, he joined them.

Afterthoughts:

Would I play this game? Yes. Would I homebrew for this game? Yes. Will I get a chance to play? Probably not.

I was a little surprised that AEG still had games like Farscape and Stargate SG-1 still listed on DriveThruRPG. Usually when the license expires, they can no longer offer the product. This is a good thing for fans of the series or games still looking to obtain the product.

Additional Notes:

I re-visited the blogs from the 2021 challenge (that I had not already moved to the 2022 list) and found two more that had started participating. I’ve added these to the new list. I’m still looking for any additional sites of anyone that is participating.

Coming Up Next:

Castles and Crusades

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Spy-Fi

2022 Character Creation Challenge Day 10: Modern Age

Written by TardisCaptain January 10, 2022 1 Comment

I remember looking at the rulebook for Modern Age before buying it and I was impressed. Within a few minutes of looking at the book, I knew the basic concept of the system. It bugs me when I have to flip past 20-50 pages just to find the basic rules in a rulebook. Remember publishers, players want to find the details quickly and not have to go through a ton of fluff to find it. Yes the setting is important, but it shouldn’t overshadow the rules. So I’ve elected to use this system for my latest entry into the Character Creation Challenge.

Speaking of setting, Modern Age is a system that can be used for any type of setting from pirates on the sea to the industrial revolution to current times to near-future. The system is also used for The Expanse RPG so you can go into some science fiction settings as well. There is a “World of Lazarus” setting included with the rules, but what caught my eye was the Agents of ACRONYM in the Modern Age Companion book. Creating another spy? Yes please.

So let’s make Raymond Ray, freelance intelligence agent that started out as a member of the CIA before retiring from the agency in the 1960’s. He held a brief position with UNITY’s North American branch before deciding that he could help more people by being an independent. While the goals of UNITY and the CIA were noble, they tended to focus on the big things (and they still consider him an asset to use). Ray noticed that smaller governments, organizations and even individuals needed assistance in the modern world just about to enter the new decade.

Modern Age characters start out with nine abilities with scales ranging from -1 to +4 with 1 being the average for PCs. These are Accuracy, Communication, Constitution, Dexterity, Fighting, Intelligence, Perception, Strength and Willpower. I’ve noticed that I haven’t been defining a lot of abilities in my character creations/reviews. So if there is an ability that isn’t very obvious and I fail to define it, please let me know. In Modern Age, you can add the total of a 3d6 roll and compare the results to a chart and take them in order, or you can arrange them how you see fit or you can buy abilities (all attributes are 0 and you have 12 points to spread throughout with no attribute higher than 4 or lower than 0). Because I like rolling the dice I’m going to randomly roll then assign them to attributes. As the character creation process continues my character will earn Ability Focuses. Specialized items under an ability (example Accuracy could have a focus of thrown weapons) will gain +2 bonuses to rolls when using the focus.

The next step is determining Ray’s background. I rolled Middle Class-Suburban. While there are different backgrounds, they all give the same bonus. +1 to an ability score, select two focuses and two talents (which haven’t been explained yet) and roll on a benefits table. I selected Investigator for Ray’s profession. He was studying to become a detective when the CIA recruited him out of college. This profession brought about another round of items filled out on the character sheet. After this was the character’s Drive, or what motivates them to act. Some of these in the basic book are good. The companion book only had info on making custom drives. So I’ll select Survivor. Ray survived his time in the CIA and UNITY and knows that things may get worse if he doesn’t prepare better.

Next came sections on resources, health (already determined from the steps above), defense (10+Dex) and speed. I lost track of the process from here as things started going in different directions. So I buckled down and wrapped up the character by selecting some equipment I thought a freelance intelligence agent would have. I think I got everything, but there are still a few blank spots on the character sheet (beyond the background or description). A quick look at the index didn’t help (ugh). I think I’m done, so here is the sheet.

Afterthoughts:

While I’m glad that I have the books in PDF format (and I used multiple books for this character), I really wish that I had them in a dead tree version. I find that flipping pages and setting bookmarks is a lot easier when trying to learn a new game or create a character for the first time.

For the most part, the process moved smoothly. A little better explanation of talents before you had to start choosing them would have helped. Living on the Edge in the character creation process was not listed in the actual talents, but Living on the Fringe was. So? The Same?

I think this book deserves more of a deeper dive than just cracking it open and trying to put a character together. I’m sure there is some good stuff in here, but a little jumbled up. Not as bad as some other games, but enough that I got frustrated with the character creation process. If I was participating a game (and I really want to try this system) I’d probably see about writing up a character creation guide with a little bit more focus for new players. This is a sandbox game (which is good) but it really needs the GM to confirm a few details before creating a character.

Additional Notes:

I had the owner of the Subplot Kudzu blog contact me via Facebook to let me know that they were participating in the #CharacterCreationChallenge. Thank you, I’ve added the blog to the list of participants. On the RPG.net forum thread, someone mentioned that we’ve already surpassed the page count from the 2021 challenge.

Coming Up Next:

Farscape Role Playing Game

Quotes, Star Trek

Daily Star Trek Quotes: January 10-16

Written by TardisCaptain January 10, 2022

Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of January 10th through the 16th.

January 10
“They like to pretend they’re not doing anything to attract a woman even when it’s the most important thing on their minds.” Dr. Crusher- The Outcast, Stardate: 45614.6 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

January 11
“Only when we embraced non-violence did we achieve peace.” T’Pol “We also plan to embrace non-violence. As soon as the heretics are eliminated.” D’Jamat “That’s illogical. It’s not possible to eradicate everyone who disagrees with you.” T’Pol- Chosen Realm #StarTrek #StarTrekENT

January 12
Happy Birthday to Kirstie Alley. @kirstiealley https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Kirstie_Alley #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet

“Humor. It is a difficult concept. It is not logical.” Saavik- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Stardate: 8130.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet

January 13
“I wasn’t a hero, and neither were you! What you did was wrong, and I was wrong to support you, but I was too young and too stupid to realize it! You were the captain; I was the ensign.” Riker- The Pegasus, Stardate: 47457.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

January 14
Barry Jenner born on this date in 1941. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Barry_Jenner #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet

“A great tragedy has ended. We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph. From both we have learned there can be no going back. We must move forward to preserve in peace what we’ve won in war.” William Ross- What You Leave Behind #Star Trek #StarTrekDS9

January 15
“But their planet’s dead. Does it matter now which one’s right?” Sulu “Not to Lokai and Bele. All that matters to them is their hate.” Spock- Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, Stardate: 5730.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet

January 16
Star Trek: Voyager premiered on this date in 1995 with the episode Caretaker. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Voyager #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet

“That’s our ship. That’s Voyager. Intrepid class. Sustainable cruise velocity of warp factor 9.975. 15 decks. Crew complement of 141. Bio-neural circuitry.” Stadi- Caretaker, Stardate: 48315.6 #StarTrek #StarTrekVoyager #WeAreStarfleet

Character Creation Challenge, Pirates, Role Playing Games

2022 Character Creation Challenge Day 9: Pirates and Plunder

Written by TardisCaptain January 9, 2022

(singing) “Yo ho, yo ho a pirates life for me.” I’ve always been fascinated by the legends of pirates and privateers. From watching the various movies through the years, visiting the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland in the 80’s (and getting a “real” pirate map as a souvenir), having a pirate mascot in one of my schools to the pirate flag hanging in my office just to my left. You could say I’ve been a life long fan of the lore and legends. So when a pirate based RPG became available in one of the online auction sites (that was still within my price range), I jumped at the chance to pick it up. Thus I became the owner of the 1982 game Pirates and Plunder and knew that I had to create a character for the 2022 Character Creation Challenge.

Luckily the boxed set I bought still had a pad of character sheets included, I was unable to find a character sheet (or anything else for this game) online. Before I had started this year’s challenge, I made it a goal to have every character sheet printed out (more on that in the 2022 Character Creation Challenge after action report).

There are three books in the set. Basic Rules, Advanced Rules and Adventures. While reading the character creation rules they ran you through a scenario of escaping (thus a way to teach the different rules). There were some stats that they stated “This will be explained later” or “Saved for the Advanced Game”. So as I create this character, I may mention a characteristic but not go into detail as it is not covered in the basic rulebook character creation process.

The primary core of the game is using 2d10 to resolve conflicts. The book explained the 20 sided dice with different sets of numbers on them. I did not get any dice with my purchase, but I’m assuming that they included the 20 sided dice that only had 1-0 (10) on them. For the sake of this article, I’m going to use the standard ten-sided dice.

The first step is to name your character, but then the RAW advises waiting to see what stats the character has before completing this step. If you choose a nickname that doesn’t really fit, then you’d have to go back and change it. So the first real step was randomly rolling for the character’s height and weight (again sticking with the 2d10 formula). The weight results could provide some mods for the character. I ended up with 7 (he’s 5’3″ tall) which guided me to a column for the weight table. This ended up being 100 lbs. No positive adjustments to the attributes, but no negatives either (barely). A roll of 20 resulted in my pirate being left handed for the next step in the process.

Next we had a Luck/Adrenaline attribute. This the number of times I can re-roll a bad roll (by you or the GM) that affect your character per adventure. If you use this number for Adrenaline, you can temporarily increase an ability for one turn. Using either one of these items will cause the number to go down. My character ended up with a 6, no lucky breaks, darn. So far this isn’t a very impressive pirate.

Finally we have some statistics. Strength, Encumbrance Points (an advanced rule), Agility, Movement, Stealth (another advanced rule), Vision, Hearing, Senses (think Spider-sense), Constitution (advanced), Stamina and Wounds. Since I have no modifiers from my height/weight, I just roll 2d10 and add the numbers together to get my scores (other than Movement which consults a chart and Senses which is a combo of vision and hearing divided by 2). I didn’t stat any of the advanced attributes at this time. So I ended up with the following. Str- 12, Agi- 10, Mov- 6 (rolled an 11), Vis- 11, Hear- 11, Sen- 11, Wounds- 6 (really?).

Next comes your training with muskets, Pistol, Swordsmanship, Fist/Dagger with each skill getting a training rating. Again roll 2d10 and add any modifiers to two of the skills of your choice. Since I didn’t have any modifiers, I just rolled the following. Musket- 9, Pistol- 17 (wow), Sword- 10, Fist/Dagger- 4 (ugh). Now we do math to get the To-Hit rating for all of these items. Some are simple (Musket+Vision)/2 = To-Hit rating. Others were a bit more complicated. After all was said and done my To-Hit ratings came up as follows: Musket T/H- 10, Pistol T/H- 14, Sword T/H- 10, Fist/Dagger T/H- 7 Throw- 11, Reload#- 9.

Now we get to randomly roll for nationality. I’m up for this. A roll of 15 makes this character Scottish. Now I’m glad that I waited to decide upon a name. If I ever play this character, I hope I don’t drop a really bad accent in gaming sessions.

Hey, we are not done rolling up attributes yet. We get to roll 2d10 and add the results together to find our Intelligence score. I would have thought that a good Intelligence could have helped with the training we just went through above. Oh well. I rolled a 13, which is not bad, but still doesn’t earn any bonuses. This leads into the Languages. The RAW states that we are all pirates on an English privateer so we all get English no matter what nationality. A quick Google search states that most people in Scotland speak English and Gaelic. So before I can say what my un-named Scotsman can speak, I have to roll 2d10 to find out how many Language Points he has (seems a little overly complicated). A roll of 17 gives me 12 of these points. Then there is a weird note for the GM to not allow players to let the others know what languages they are taking as to prevent a group with a wide variety of languages (like I said above, overly complicated). Ya know what, screw it. Even though it’s not on the list of languages, my pirate is putting all 12 points into Gaelic since it’s from his homeland and I’m moving on.

Now I go to a chart to randomly find out what my character’s religion is. I rolled a 9 on a single d10 (first time we haven’t rolled 2d10) and checked the Scottish chart resulting in none. Ok, no problem. I’m suddenly thinking of the scene from Muppet Treasure Island when the crew gave Long John Silver the black spot on a page torn from the bible and how he was able to use that to frighten the crew back into line. Had this character had religion, I would had to randomly roll a fervor rating.

For some reason there are a bunch of boxes at the top of the sheet and I need to cross out the numbers that are above my ratings. The previous owner never did this with the characters he left in the boxed set. Next the basic book has the GM take the characters through a prison break scenario to teach the game (and fill in some other sections on the character sheet). Again there are other areas covered by the advanced rules that I didn’t have filled in. Equipment, Encumbrance, Position on ship, Swim, Drink, Greed, Emotional, Compassion, Morals, Courage and Physical. Using the guide on the back of the sheet I quickly filled in these last items. I filled in some equipment I thought my pirate would have.

Using a random name generator, Jason “Jake” McCabe is a Scottish pirate working on an English privateer. While he can’t swim, he can drink pretty well and is a crack shot with the pistol. Not much of a mean streak in him, but get him near gold and jewels and he might go a little crazy. Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

A nice touch, a quick character creation process is listed on the back of the character sheet. The sheet also had the “results of ability dice rolls” explanation. This would be handy when dealing with players new to the game. You can also create secondary characters for the game. Primary characters get the most character advancement rewards earned in play with the secondary getting a smaller amount.

The previous owner had a lot of characters in the box. The advanced rules were very well worn so I think they really enjoyed this game.

I don’t know if I’d use this game to play a pirates campaign, but if I did, I’d probably want to make a character sheet out of Excel so that a lot of the math was already done during the character creation process. I know that I went a little deeper on the note taking for this character since a lot of people are probably not familiar with this RPG system.

Additional Notes:

Still no undiscovered blogs participating in the challenge have popped up. If I recall correctly, this was the same for last year. I’m still searching Twitter for the hashtag of #CharacterCreationChallenge. I’m also reading several Facebook posts in different RPG groups (I’d Rather Be Killing Monsters is a big one). I’ve been posting on MeWe, but I haven’t seen anyone else participating (but to be fair there is not a lot of users on that site in comparison to the big two). I’m not on any other social media sites (lack of time for those I’m on now) so if you see anything, please let me know at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com.

Coming Up Next:

Modern Age

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

2022 Character Creation Challenge Day 8: Star Trek Adventures-The Klingon Empire

Written by TardisCaptain January 8, 2022March 29, 2022

So I’ve put together a regular Starfleet character in Star Trek Adventures for the 2021 Character Creation Challenge. However the Klingon Empire core rulebook looked so kewl, I had to create a character for the 2022 challenge. When I created the 2021 character (which I was able to use in a game later) I had to use a cheat sheet along with the core rulebook. Since the rules in the Klingon book seem to be better organized, I’m going to just use the book for this character. I’m also not going to describe the system as much since I did that last year. So let’s create (runs random Klingon name generator) Nurot son of H’unos.

Since this game uses values which are usually a quote, I pulled out my massive list of Star Trek quotes to assist me. If I get a chance to roll a dice to decide something, I’m letting fate take control. I’ve noticed that a lot of characters lately haven’t had a lot of dice rolling involved. So my Environment was a Starship or Space Station. Pulling up the power of internet search, I found a name for a ship. The IKV notqa’ is a large Klingon cruiser that his parents were serving on when he was born. For Caste I rolled Warrior which he accepted. Training I rolled an Enlisted Warrior. So far this is going where I’m hoping it will. In his career, I selected Young Warrior. The two career events are: Serious Injury (He was injured on a hunting trip and got a nasty scar from it which resulted in an implant as part of his arm) and Conquest (assisted in the conquest of the Jugul homeworld, a previously undiscovered planet on the edge of Klingon space.)

I know there is an option to create a Klingon House, but unfortunately I’m under a time crunch today, so I’ll explore these rules at a later time. Here is the character sheet for the young Nurot who someday hopes to make it up to command his own ship.

Afterthoughts:

I love the fact that they included two ribbon bookmarks with this book. The book is about 10-20% bigger than the STA core rulebook so it needs it. Also having dark text printed on a light background is much easier to read. And yes I didn’t need to use a cheat sheet to create a character for the Klingon Defense Force.

Additional Notes:

No new blogs found today. But I’ve been retweeting any new character that I’ve found on twitter with the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge. On the RPG.net forums, one person stated they had to bow out because of real world issues. No honor lost in that because real life comes first and they can always jump back in if things improve. Keep the new characters coming.

Coming Up Next:

Pirates & Plunder

Character Creation Challenge, No One Lives Forever, Role Playing Games, Spy-Fi

2022 Character Creation Challenge Day 7: Espionage!

Written by TardisCaptain January 7, 2022

Today’s entry is Espionage!: The Secret Agent Role Playing Game (1st edition). This was published in 1983 by Hero Games and is based off of the Champions super-hero RPG. While I’ve had a chance to play a few super-hero based RPGs, Champions had never been one of them. So this will be a new experience for me. I had picked up this game when I won an online auction that contained several different RPGs from the 80’s. Some of the other games will be used in future 2022 Character Creation Challenge entries.

In the 2021 #CharacterCreationChallenge I created characters for several different espionage based RPGs like Top Secret, James Bond, Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes, Spycraft 2nd edition, and Top Secret: New World Order. I had tied all of those characters together in two methods. They were all inspired by characters seen in The World’s End movie and they were replacement agents for a depleted group known as UNITY from the video game series, No One Lives Forever. While I was thinking about making more new agents for UNITY, a read through of the character creation process dissuaded that idea. So I’m going to make a CIA agent since that is what the game is built around.

Devron Marcus was a college student trying to earn a degree in business management so he could follow in his father’s footsteps. Just before Marcus was planning to graduate, his father was killed in Europe in an armed robbery. During his personal investigation, Marcus uncovered evidence that his father had been targeted by East Germany’s Secret Police (the Stasi). A CIA agent, working on the case, took Marcus under his wing and assisted him in confirming the plot and allowing the CIA to respond. This lead to Marcus being recruited by the CIA after graduation. Officially Marcus works as a business salesman working in European markets for the company his father use to work for. Unofficially, he carries out assignments for the CIA.

The primary characteristics for an Espionage! character is Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Body Pips (think hit points), Intelligence, Ego, Presence and Comeliness. While the average person starts with 8 in all scores, the average character (being a little bit more heroic) starts with 10. Each new character starts with 50 Character Points to spend on stats and packages. You can gain additional points by lowering some stats or taking disadvantages. Different attributes had different costs (there’s a lot of math so far in this game) so I selected the stats that I felt a college graduate the age of 25 would have. From these you can generate Figured Characteristics which are Physical Defense, Energy Defense, Speed, Recovery, Endurance Pips and Stun Pips. Thanks to the power of math I come up with the base scores, which I can then improve with any Character Points if I so elect.

I added the skills/advantages/disadvantages from the two CIA packages that I took. I then used the remaining Character Points to add some additional skills that I thought that Agent Marcus should have. There is a section for equipment in the book, but no spots on the character sheet for it. So I skipped that part thinking it would happen in play.

So the breakdown of the system is roll 3d6 and try to get a number lower than a certain amount for a success. Getting that target number to roll under could be a little complicated depending upon the skill/stat level and other factors. It could be interesting to see in play. I wonder if there are any YouTube videos of the Espionage in an RPG session to watch? There are several other espionage RPGs I’d probably play first before this one, but I could have my mind changed. Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

There was only one package in this edition to create characters, and that was for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). I wonder if the 2nd edition of the game had more packages for characters to choose from if you wanted to play MI-6 or an independent agency (like UNITY). Hopefully someday I’ll get a chance to find out. I could tell this was a first edition of a game, it was a little hard to read in some sections. While I know I played at least one session of Fantasy Hero by the same company, I don’t recall any big desire to purchase or play releases from Hero Games.

There is some player notes in the back of the book that advised against turning the game into a shooting fest. I was actually glad to see this. In other spy-fi games I’ve been worried that the game would turn into a merc/shooting-fest. I’d be more interested in actual espionage action instead of run-and-gun style action when playing an espionage style game. Yes some shooting can happen, but if it happens too many times, you’re not much of a “secret” agent are you?

Additional Notes:

The number of new blogs found seem to be coming up in twos. I’ve added the latest two finds to the Character Creation Challenge page. I appreciate those that have linked back to my site. Thank you.

Coming Up Next:

Star Trek Adventures- Klingon