Hey, it’s the scene I turned into the Star Trek version of the “Agatha winks” meme.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of April 25th through May 1st.
April 25 “A great poet once said “All spirits are enslaved that serve things evil.'” Picard- Skin of Evil, Stardate: 41601.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 26 “I hold you to a high standard, Ensign, because I know you’re capable of achieving it.” T’Pol- Vox Sola, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 27 “I wish I were on a long sea voyage somewhere. Not too much deck tennis, no frantic dancing And no responsibility.” Kirk- Balance of Terror, Stardate: 1709.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 28 “Don’t deny the violence inside of you, Kira. Only when you accept it can you move beyond it.” Opaka- Battle Lines, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“Mister Kim… we’re Starfleet officers. ‘Weird’ is part of the job.” Janeway- Deadlock, Stardate: 49548.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 30 “Nobody helps nobody but himself.” Okmyx “Sir, you are employing a double negative.” Spock- A Piece of the Action, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
May 1 “Someday, if you work hard you will become a warrior—a Klingon warrior. And you will always feel safe because you will know how to defend yourself.” K’mtar- Firstborn, Stardate: 47779.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
In the late 80’s and early 90’s I had the opportunity to play several sessions of the Star Wars RPG by WEG at a “clubhouse” next to Comics Utah in Sugarhouse (a suburb of Salt Lake). I believe this was the character that I was playing in the campaign when we all discovered how we could use the Con skill to BS our way through certain scenarios. This also may have been the campaign where our rebel ship faked being a merchant vessel called “The Fresh Fruit Express”.
I’m not certain where I came up with the name Sargoth Silverman. I’m sure that Sargoth sounded Star Warsish and Silverman just rolled off the tongue. The “De Commisar” nickname was inspired by the After the Fire song “der Kommisar“. I’m sure if I were to ask the younger me, he would say that he wanted to play a stealthy character this time around.
I’ve got several more WEG Star Wars RPG characters to post as well. I’ll get to them at a later time.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of April 18th through April 24th.
April 18 “Do not patronize me, sir. I invented physics. The day that apple fell on my head was the most momentous day in the history of science.” Issac Newton “Not the apple story again.” Stephen Hawking- Descent, Stardate: 46982.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 19 “These people know that we are neither the enemy nor the devil.” Sisko- In the Hands of the Prophets, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“Don’t call me tiny.” Sulu- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Stardate: 8210.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 21 “I suggest working out an equitable system with the rules clearly spelled out.” Troi- Cost of Living, Stardate: 45733.6 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 22 “Commander Tuvok… Logic would indicate that neither of us has the advantage.” Mobar “Your logic is flawed.” Tuvok- Live Fast and Prosper, Stardate: 53849.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 23 “This is loneliness. Oh, what a bitter thing.” The Companion- Metamorphosis, Stardate: 3219.8 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“Alright, you know what’s shameful? Trying to build a persona by copying other captains. You think Riker did that? You guys are wasting your time on this Redshirt stuff. Be your own captains!” Boimler- The Spy Humongous #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
So last month I posted about the Star Trek: Discovery season one character pack published by Modiphus. I figured that they would be releasing a season two, but I didn’t know how soon. As it turns out, it was earlier than I expected. Just a few days ago Modiphius released the Star Trek: Discovery season two character pack. I had to pick it up the moment I realized it was available on DriveThruRPG. Note, it is only available in PDF version.
The season two book also comes in at 22 pages (the largest of all the character guides) and continues the special report by Kovich to Admiral Vance detailing the events of the second season. While the “report” covers some characters we’ve seen detailed in the season one guide, it also provides information on new characters we saw in season two.
Our first new character is Captain Pike. I did notice that the science rating matches what we saw in the episodes of Discovery. Next comes Commander Saru, a character that was detailed in the season one book. This character has different stats since this is the post-Vahar’ai Saru. Lt. Commander Paul Stamets, like Commander Saru, has some changes from the season one write up as he is now Human augmented with Tardigrade DNA. The stats for Michael Burnham had also changed between her Mutineer write up to her Science Officer information. We also have new stats for Ash Tyler, Sylvia Tilly and Philippa Georgiou. Next comes Lieutenant Spock, and yes he’s different than the Commander Spock found in the Star Trek: The Original Series character packs. But this would be expected as there are several years in the life of the character. We also get the first stats for Commander Jet Reno. The supporting characters are also new with Commander Una Chin-Riley (aka Number One), Lt. Commander Airiam, the Barzan Lt. Commander Nhan and the Saurian Lt. (j.g.) Linus.
A write up is provided for the Kelpian species, but it is the same as the first season book. The write up for the USS Discovery is listed as the 2257 configuration, but the information appears to the same as the 2256 configuration. These are the only two items that are the same, everything else is different. Originally when I saw the listing of characters, I was worried that it would be the same with some new artwork. But that is not the case. This will be new information for gamemasters and players so this would be a product worth purchasing.
Modiphius sent out an email announcing this product which is how I found out about the release. The other products they announced in the same email also sounded very interesting. This August, Modiphius will be releasing the Star Trek Discovery (2256-2258) Campaign guide. This will include several new races and spaceframes. The book I’m really looking forward to is titled, Utopia Planitia. This is a sourcebook for Starfleet and will be released sometime later in 2022.
Hey Valeris. What is your favorite Beastie Boys song?
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of April 11th through April 17th.
April 11 “The name of my ship is the… Lollipop.” Riker “I have no knowledge of that ship.” Holographic Paul Rice “It’s just been commissioned. It’s a good ship.” Riker- Arsenal of Freedom, Stardate: 41798.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 12 “We all have our darker side. We need it! It’s half of what we are. It’s not really ugly, it’s human.” Dr McCoy- The Enemy Within, Stardate 1672.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 13 “Humans use to be a lot worse than the Ferengi– slavery… concentration camps, interstellar wars. We have nothing in our past that approaches that kind of barbarism. You see? We’re nothing like you.” Quark- The Jem’Hadar, SD: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 14 “Your new designation is Two of Ten.” Seven “Wait a minute. You’re demoting me? Since when did the Borg pull rank?” Kim “It’s Starfleet protocol I adapted. I find it most useful.” Seven- The Omega Directive, Stardate: 51781.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
“We have no devil, Kirk. But we understand the habits of yours.” Kang- Day of the Dove, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 16 “The Seventh Guarantee is one of the most important rights granted by the Federation. We cannot take a fundamental principle of the Constitution and turn it against a citizen!” Picard- The Drumhead, Stardate: 44769.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 17 “Just a little healthy sexual energy. Helps keep the blood pumping.” Dr. Phlox- Bound, Date: December 27, 2154 #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
So like most people, I’m on Facebook. And like most people, I roll my eyes at the “where did that come from” advertising that Facebook throws at me. I guess data mining our information brings in enough money that they can throw any old advertisement at us. So imagine my surprise earlier this year when I saw an advertisement for something I might actually be interested in, a Random RPG Book Club. I looked at the comments and it appeared that this club had been going on for several years. Plus there were no “Wow this sucks” comments so I did some deeper digging.
A Massachusetts bookseller named Chris Korczak has a website at https://www.RpgRpgRpg.com. Besides having several roleplaying books available for regular sale, Chris runs a Random RPG Book Club. For $16.00 (which will include the shipping cost) he will send you two books from a large collection of random books he has in his store. On both the website and in the advertisement there were pictures of stacks of hardbound RPG books. There is an option for a once-a-month or once-a-week subscription. I’ve been wanting to build up my RPG book collection and this sounded like an interesting, and not too expensive, way to add to it. So I signed up for the monthly subscription. Here are my thoughts after the first three months.
Shipping:
In all three months, the books were bubble wrapped and placed in a sturdy cardboard container. When the books were shipped, a USPS tracking number was sent to me and I was able to track the progress. The first month (February), took a little bit longer than usual. But I believe this was the postal system still recovering from the holidays. The other two months it only took 7-9 days for the books to arrive.
Communication:
As mentioned above, an email with a tracking number is sent out when the books have shipped. Just before this happens a receipt was also emailed out for the next month’s order. I did email Chris once after the March order arrived (there wasn’t an issue, it was a question in general) and he responded pretty quickly. With the last shipment that arrived in April, there was a note from Chris hoping that the selection of books will inspire an RPG encounter.
Selection:
I will be commenting on the selection of books and leaving the content of the books for later reviews.
Selection delivered in February 2022.
I was very satisfied with my first month in the Random RPG Book Club. The package contained a hardbound book and a softbound module. Both books were for the D20 based Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5. The first was a hardbound book from Fantasy Flight Games, Legend & Lairs Mythic Races. I enjoyed looking through this book and could see a use for both fantasy and science fiction games. The second book was from Dark Portal Games (yea I had to Google the name of that company myself) which was pretty detailed. It was titled White Robes, Black Hearts: Enigma of the Arcanexus. I checked both books on Ebay and both books would have cost me well more than $8.00 a piece.
Selection delivered in March 2022.
As mentioned above, the March selection arrived quicker than February’s. When it arrived, I noticed that the box was much lighter than the previous month. Inside was two softbound books that when stacked on top of each other matched up to the White Robes, Black Hearts module that came last month. The first was Wilderness & Wasteland Scarred Lands by Sword & Story Studios (aka White Wolf Publishing). This is a sourcebook with various encounters for some various broken lands for the 3.5 D20 system. It could prove useful in reading and campaigns. The second was a little bit more confusing. The Pathfinder Player Companion: Dungeoneer’s Handbook, which wasn’t much of a handbook. It seemed like a magazine because it talked about the next issue that was ‘coming next month’. I might be able to get a few tidbits out of this… er… magazine? I doubt I would have picked up this “handbook” if I would have had the chance. I did check both items on ebay and they were more than $8.00 each.
Selection delivered in April 2022.
And recently the April package arrived with it’s random selection of books. When I first opened it up I was surprised to see a vampire book and a book of character sheets. Then upon closer inspection, it wasn’t character sheets, it was a single character sheet in an 18 page pamphlet. I’ve already ranted about a roleplaying game that had a six page character sheet, but this seemed to take things too far. Even in 2003 you could download free character sheets (or if you have a good Dungeon Master like I did) have the character sheet on a programed Excel worksheet. This product confused me. The Character Record Folio for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 was releasled by Green Ronin Publishing. When I checked ebay, it ranged between $5.00 and $19.00 dollars in availability and so far has been the most disappointing item from the Random RPG Book Club. The second softcover book was Vampire Hunter$ by Nightshift Games and instead of being a Dungeons and Dragons third-party supplement, it was a core rulebook. The concept sounded interesting and almost made up for the character sheet being included in the package. I’m certain that I’ll be able to use this for the 2023 Character Creation Challenge to learn the system. Ebay did have this book for more than $8.00.
Conclusion:
The primary reason for participating in a random book club where you don’t know what is coming is the anticipation of what may be in the box. I’ve purchased the Star Trek themed mystery boxes before at conventions. The boxes that have 35-40 dollars worth of merchandise inside for $20. Sure, most of the items were things that I had or didn’t need, but there was usually an item or two that was really kewl. I even ended up with an autograph out of one. But my friends and I would open them up as a group and trade items between each other. The Random RPG Book Club is a similar concept. What will be in the May box? I’ll be sticking with the subscription for another month or two to find out. The photos in the advertisement gave me the impression that there would be a couple more hardbound books arriving. But as long as I don’t get any more character sheets then I should be satisfied.
I’ll keep this blog informed as well as reviewing some of the books that I’ve obtained.
“We will be fighting to win back our homes and our freedom, and that will make us even stronger.” Damar- The Changing Face of Evil, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 5 “Klingons do not pursue relationships. They conquer that which they desire.” Worf- In Theory, Stardate: 44932.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 6 “Romulan women are not like Vulcan females. We are not dedicated to pure logic and the sterility of non-emotion.” Female Romulan Commander- The Enterprise Incident, Stardate: 5027.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 7 “Close your eyes and imagine all the energy in your body is floating to the point where your fingertips meet. Nothing else you hear or feel is important. Let the outside-world fade away. You exist only inside your mind.” Tuvok- Innocence, SD: 49578.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC
April 8 “I’ve long been interested in the notion of time travelers.” Samuel Clemens- Time’s Arrow, Part II, Stardate: 46001.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 9 “I am endeavoring, ma’am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.” Spock- The City on the Edge of Forever, Stardate: 3134.0 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
April 10 “A change of scenery for an hour or two couldn’t hurt.” Tucker- Oasis, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet #IDIC
What’s that you say? You want more memes? Here is another set of memes for you to enjoy. You can see the past memes I’ve created here: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV and Part V.
I used an online meme maker for this one. I don’t recall where I found the image, I just thought it fit the phrase as most RPGs result in a lot of collateral damage.
Watching Kirk move away made me think of this phrase. I created this meme with MS Paint.
I almost didn’t share this one because the white text didn’t stand out very well. This was another reaction to the “Share this image with money and you will get some” series of memes that were plaguing social media.
Dayton Ward is a science fiction author that I’ve met several times at different conventions. When this picture was posted from one of his convention it reminded me of the “I love you, random citizen” meme that came from the Megamind movie. I posted this meme on Mr. Ward’s facebook page several years ago. It was created with MS Paint.
