Wow, 2026 is flying by already. In less than a week I’ll be at SaltCON Spring at the Davis Convention Center in Layton to throw some dice and see some friends. This will run from March 12-15 and is the largest of the three SaltCON conventions held at this location.
I volunteered to run four different games this year. I’m also signed up to play in four games that I’ve never played before and I’ll be re-visiting a game that I haven’t played since my early days of gaming. I will also be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented about in a previous blog post.
Once again, my Sunday game has filled up first. But this shouldn’t surprise me because it’s the classic Star Wars D6 RPG by West End Games. I’m certain that all of the players probably remember (or heard about) how well this game ran. I’ve also followed up with some games that I’m getting known for, Basic Fantasy 4th Edition (The Guildmaster’s Quest Part II) and Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition where I’ll be running a scenario written by my late friend, Roger Taylor that I converted over to 2e. I think that Roger would have loved 2nd edition. Another first for me is running the Everyday Heroes cinematic adventure, Escape from New York. What is especially interesting about this last game is that it will be a sanctioned play recognized by the publisher. I’ll get some swag for running the game and the players can get some points as well if they sign up online. The publisher had one of their convention coordinators reach out to me and ran me through a quick online session about a month ago.
I’ve signed up to play in six games. The one that I’ve played before is Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition (role play like it’s 1979). In 2025 I did see a couple of pick up 2nd edition games start. If I hadn’t already been booked for another session, I might have joined them. The remaining games are all new to me. I am really appreciative of the opportunity to try new games. There are 5th Edition/Pathfinder games at all of the local gaming stores, I want to try other things. The first game is the new Paranoia All New Shiny Edition (aka “Perfect Edition”). I recently had the opportunity to make a character for this in the 2026 Character Creation Challenge. I’ve really wanted to try this game ever since I first heard about it back in the 90s. I’m not certain what version it is, but another game that I’ve signed up for is Tunnels and Trolls. Yea, speak about old-school. This was another game that I saw advertised over the gaming publications at the time. I’ll have more to report about this later. There is a sci-fi game out there called Lasers and Feelings which looks like it was inspired by Star Trek. This game has had several hacks published for it to cover other genres and this one will cover the Cowboy Bebop anime. And speaking of Cowboy Bebop, someone will be running the official RPG at the con and I’ve signed up for it. After backing the Kickstarter for this and being very disappointed (see my review) I’ll get a chance to play it at the table. Will this opportunity change my mind? We’ll see. My final game that I signed up for is called DC20, which is a 5e variant. I had seen it scheduled at SaltCON in the past, but the schedules never lined up for me to try it. So I’m taking another plunge to see what it’s like. This game will actually have the players make their character at the start of the game instead of using pre-generated characters.
I’m looking forward to geeking out and forgetting about how bad this year has been so far (again). If you are going, feel free to come up and say Hi. Seeing friends is exactly what I need right now. And a way to help myself is to help others. So let me know if you need a hug as well.
What should I be on the look out for? Any recommendations for the games I’m going to be playing? 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.