Month: August 2024

Posted in: Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 5: RPG with great writing

Written by TardisCaptain

An RPG with great writing is the subject for Day 5 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. That’s not surprising considering that yesterday we talked about great art.

While I had a specific example for the great art, I want to talk in general about great writing. I’ve noticed a trend with some RPG publications, especially those based on popular franchises. I’d like to remind all of the writers and publishers of one reason that your customers buy your product.

“Your customers are buying a game book, not a guide to the source material. Let me repeat that. Your customers are buying a game book, not a guide to the source material.”

-Me

I have purchased publications because in the first few pages of the book, it gives me the basic concept of the system that will be used in the game. This helps me explain to my friends how the game is played and why we should play it. When I see an RPG based of a specific IP, I worry that the first 20-80 pages will be “Well let’s tell you about the source material this game is based upon, once upon a time…”. I can read the title. I know what the source material is based on. A fan of the source material already knows this, instead they wonder how they can play the game. A fan of RPGs will be looking for the system, not the source material. Publishers are doing a dis-service to both possible customers by not getting to the point. Yes, there should be some explanation of the source material. But that can be in the later half of the book, not the first half.

Game system first, game universe second.

Now primarily this is for the core rulebooks. Adventures and most supplements tend to get to the point fairly quickly. I’ve started adding “Character creation rules start on page XX” when I write up my mini-reviews for the Character Creation Challenge to show how quickly readers will get into the meat and potatoes of the game. I know it’s not much, but I want to try.

So am I on the right track? Or do you think I’m off-base on this writing point-of-view? 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.

Posted in: Quotes, Star Trek

Daily Star Trek Quotes: August 5-11

Written by TardisCaptain
Kirk after seeing the Turkish Olympic shooter.

Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Twitter account and the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account for the week of August 5h through August 11th. Coming soon to Bluesky once we can find a scheduler option.

August 5
Happy Birthday to Bruce Horak. @brucehorak https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bruce_Horak #StarTrek #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

“Once again, the magic of science prevails! Too much?” Hemmer- The Elysian Kingdom, Stardate: 2341.6 #StarTrek #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

August 6
Happy Birthday to Michelle Yeoh. @michelle_yeoh https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Michelle_Yeoh #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #StarTrekShortTreks #StarTrekSection31 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

“No, that is the easy way, and I know how that story ends. You die, I die, or both. But as of this moment, our future is unwritten. Let’s make it count, shall we?” Mirror Georgiou- Terra Firma, Part 1, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

Star Trek: Lower Decks premiered on this date in 2020 with the episode Second Contact. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Lower_Decks #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

“I really like this classical band called The Monkees. Ever heard of ’em?” Barnes “Let’s just say ‘I’m a Believer.'” Rutherford- Second Contact, Stardate: 57436.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

August 7
Happy Birthday to Cirroc Lofton. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Cirroc_Lofton #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

“We work to better ourselves and the rest of Humanity.” Jake Sisko “What does that mean exactly?” Nog “It means… it means we don’t need money!” Jake Sisko- In the Cards, Stardate: 50929.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

Happy Birthday to Brett Gray. @brettgray https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Brett_Gray #StarTrek #StarTrekProdigy #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

“You’re growing and adapting.” Hologram Janeway “Eh, what can I say? Resistance is futile.” Dal- Let Sleeping Borg Lie, Stardate: 61284.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekProdigy #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

August 8
“Use every scrap of knowledge and logic you have to save the ship. But temper your judgment with intuitive insight.” Kirk- The Tholian Web #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

August 9
Happy Birthday to Eric Bana. @EricBana67 https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Eric_Bana #StarTrek #StarTrekFilm #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

“What are your orders?” Ayel “We wait. We wait for the one who allowed our home to be destroyed, as we’ve been doing for twenty-five years.” Nero- Star Trek (2009), Stardate: 2233.04 #StarTrek #StarTrekFilm #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

August 10
Happy Birthday to Evan Evagora. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Evan_Evagora #StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

“I have bound myself to Picard as qalankhkai. Anyone who threatens him will be choosing to die!” Elnor- Absolute Candor, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

August 11
“I may be a walking encyclopedia but even I don’t know everything.” The Doctor- Nothing Human, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet #Quote

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

Posted in: Art, Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 4: RPG with great art

Written by TardisCaptain

Here we are at day four of the RPGaDAY 2024 challenge and our topic is “RPG with great art.” Being the father of an artist who is trying to break into the business, this is a big topic for me. Lately there has been a rash of AI renderings (I refuse to call them art) that has been used in RPG publications. Yes they are cheap, but the old saying is “You get what you pay for”. AI renderings look plastic and uninspiring. I remember when creating a character for Vintage Space in the last Character Creation Challenge and I noted how bad the AI renderings were. They didn’t have any uniformity and just seemed to be a random jumble of bad images that didn’t fit together.

So I’m going to talk about an RPG product that I purchased specifically for the art. It was the X-Treme Dungeon Master 2nd Edition that I picked up from Kickstarter and did a review when it arrived. The book was written by Tracy & Curtis Hickman, but the artist is Howard Tayler. I’ve talked about him before on my blog when he did some personalized art for me. Howard ran a webcomic called Schlock Mercenary and was able to keep it running for twenty years. As a loyal reader, I got use to his art style. The art he created for the XDM 2nd edition book had his style, but not once did I think “oh it’s Schlock Mercenary”. He was able to make it unique, make it his, but also make it new. There were a few color pieces on the cover and just inside the front cover, but the black and white art on the inside flowed along with the subject matter being discussed. There was also a little “flip book” art at the bottom of each page. I really liked the piece where the GM is using the “theater of the mind” to describe the scene. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few photos of the book that I took just for this blog post.

Additional things about the challenge. I’ve appreciated the feedback that readers have given me on my first couple of posts. I’ve had questions about comparing different Star Trek RPG systems. I’ve also enjoyed looking up #RPGaDAY2024 on BlueSky and finding a lot of other interesting gamers to follow. If you’ve followed me back, thank you.

Is there an RPG product that you thought had really good artwork in it? 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.

Posted in: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2024 Day 3: Most often played RPG

Written by TardisCaptain

The topic for Day 3 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge is “Most often played RPG”.

Spoiler alert: It’s Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5. There was a very long campaign that my friend, Jeff Sullivan, ran for me and my friends for several years. I have talked about this campaign previously in past RPGaDAY posts that talk about my favorite character, most memorable character demise and scariest game you’ve played.

So I’m going to tilt this subject on it’s side slightly. Most often RPG that I’ve GMed. Back in the mid 2000’s. The Star Trek Roleplaying Game by Decipher was the first Star Trek RPG that I played with my local Star Trek club. I was even able to GM a few sessions. I had a group of young Ensigns (the player characters) lead by an NPC Lieutenant as the CO, head to a shipyard to recover the USS Crockett for refitting just after the end of the Dominion War. Starfleet needed to pull some older, but still serviceable ships out of mothballs to rebuild the fleet and get back to the primary duty of exploring. Because the PCs got kicked off the station managing the shipyard, the team left with the Crockett before making sure the ship was ready to go. There was a very large nest of Talarian Hook Spiders that woke up from hibernation when the environmentals warmed up. As the crew tried to re-take back the ship, one of the PCs accidentally set the Lieutenant on fire who then fell in the turboshaft that they were traversing through. Luckily he survived despite being very injured. After the players recovered the ship and got to their destination, the poor Lieutenant was placed on a medical leave and eventually retired somewhere far away from the PCs. The Ensigns were assigned to the USS Crockett to investigate an unknown signal coming from an unexplored sector of space. There they encountered a band of rogue Kzintis, a planet of robots and more. One of the PCs being diplomatic with a Gorn captain gave him the impression that the word “Dude” was a universal greeting in the Human language.

What is the RPG that you’ve played the most? Was there a game that you GMed for quite a while? 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.

Posted in: Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2024 Day 2: Most recently played

Written by TardisCaptain

Well this is going to be a disappointing entry for me. For Day 2 of RPGaDAY 2024 challenge the topic is “most recent game played”. If things had gone the way I had hoped, I would be talking about the session zero of the new Castles and Crusades game that I had been invited to. The Castle Keeper wanted to start us on a weekly long term campaign. It would have been my first game on The Foundry VTT and my first C&C game. I’ve been wanting to play in a C&C campaign after creating a character for it in a past Character Creation Challenge. But real life popped up with the dreaded scheduling curse. Too many players had dropped out due to real life issues and there wasn’t enough players to justify a game. So, hopefully a C&C campaign will start up soon.

But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been active with my RPGs. Yes I’ve been playing and GMing at SaltCON, but that wasn’t the latest. My local Star Trek fan club had a Star Trek Game Night at a local gaming store in June. I finally had a chance to run the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Quickstart game. I had run a few STA games previously, but I wouldn’t call myself an expert. I did alter the scenario slightly and I noticed that the group got more out of the alteration that I did than the other listed events. I think I need to get more experience with running STA as I saw where some of my GM rust was still present. Now that I have the new 2nd Edition in PDF (physical book and it’s review coming soon), I’ll have to give it some serious thought.

What was your latest RPG game? Were you a player or a GM? 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.

Posted in: Role Playing Games, Star Wars

RPGaDAY2024 Day 1: First RPG Bought This Year

Written by TardisCaptain

Welcome to Day 1 of the RPGaDAY 2024 challenge. The first topic for today is “First RPG bought this year.” I elected to give two answers to this.

According to my records, I purchased a Bundle of Holding for Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition at the start of January. This came with quite a few books including the Starter Set, the Vehicle Handbook, the High Guard Update and a few other items. I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet as I had picked it up right in the middle of the last Character Creation Challenge. But I should be using it for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge.

The physical purchase was a dead tree version of the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire core rulebook that I had picked up at SaltCON-Spring. I was grateful that I had found it at a bargain price. Every time that I found a core rulebook, it was mega expensive. I think that’s because it has the name “Star Wars” on the cover. I’m planning to also use this for the upcoming Character Creation Challenge.

What was your latest RPG purchase? Was it a full game or a supplement? 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.

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