Posted in: Collecting, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

#RPGaDay2021 Day 11: Heavy

Day 11: Heavy

One of the marvels of our internet age is the ability to obtain almost any role playing book from a variety of sources. DriveThruRPG has a large number of current titles and some classic favorites. Charity sites such as Humble Bundle and Bundle of Holding always have sales where you can get a large number of PDF books at a very good price.

However there is nothing like the feel of a physical book in your hands. Every time I pick up a role playing book from the shelf, I feel like this..

These books had weight. The best books were laid out eloquently and had wonderful artwork. Even in my later gaming groups, while we still have access to the information in soft copy and internet, we still had our books on the table. If you had just one or two books, it wasn’t that big of a deal to throw them into a backpack and head off to your friends house for the session. I’ve known some RPG buddies that have started placing their books in those portable filing boxes (with the lids that lock and the handle on top). I even recall a friend from the early gaming days that purchased a moving trunk to put his books into. This way he could just place the trunk in his car when it was time to go to the game.

My last wizard character had an Excel spreadsheet for a character sheet (provided by the DM). I remember spending time making links on the spell list to the online descriptions for quick access. I’m starting to get use to reading books on my tablet (and I like the fact that I can mark some of the text for later reference). Having the RPG books at my fingertips on my laptop for quick reference has been very useful. But when it come time to introducing myself to a new gaming system or just reading an older gaming book to relax, there is nothing like the weight of a heavy book in your hands.

Final Thoughts:

“Wilderness” wasn’t a bad suggestion and I’m sure it will generate a lot of posts about hex crawl adventures. However I think I already touched upon that topic with “Explore” a few days ago. “Listen” will probably generate some posts about past stories of trying to listen at the door. Both were decent suggestions. “Despair” made me scratch my head. I don’t know how that could be a positive #RPGaDAY2021 entry.

RPGaDay 2021 chart
The RPGaDay 2021 chart

Posted in: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

#RPGaDay2021 Day 10: Light

Day 10: Light

One of the things that Game Masters have to keep in mind is the ingenuity of their players. I had one GM keep a tally sheet for the Star Trek RPG by Decipher game that he was running. He had goals he wanted to mark down as they were part of the plot. If we accomplished the items he had set out, we earned points for meeting them. Then he had a miscellaneous section on his tally sheet. We would come up with ideas and solutions that he hadn’t thought of.

Back in the days of gaming with my junior high crew, we had come up with a few of these unusual ideas. One that has stuck with me all these years has been the “D&D Flashlight”. One of the members in our party played a wizard. He took a wand that had run out of charges and cast a spell of continual light on it. He then took some black felt and lined it inside a small scroll case. When he needed light, he would open up the cap to the scroll case and it would shine a beam in one direction. It was a magical short range flashlight. He could pull the wand out if he wanted to use it as a lantern. When he was done, back in the special scroll case it went and the light was covered up.

Every once in a while I’ll see something that reminds me of an older gaming session and how we impressed or shocked (sometimes both) the Game Master.

Final Thoughts:

This was another set of suggestions that had some good and some bad in them. “Trust” was really broad and could have been anything. It is the same with “Conscience”. None of them really inspired me for a blog post. “Advantage” had some possibilities, but lost out on the memory of the “D&D Flashlight” recipe.

RPGaDay 2021 chart
The RPGaDay 2021 chart
Posted in: Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

#RPGaDay2021 Day 9: Percentage

Day 9: Percentage

The primary reason I enjoy role playing games is the opportunity to participate in a story with a bunch of friends. I’m certain that if I asked the reason why most gamers participate in RPGs the answers would be very similar to this one. However there is a secondary reason I enjoy role playing games, especially those based off of an Intellectual Property. It provides me with a system that I can use to compare two different things within the scope of the game. A really good example has been the discussion held in geek circles about how two characters/items can stack up to each other. Would a Klingon have an advantage over a Moclan in combat? Which starfighter would be better in combat, the X-Wing or the Starfury? How would Mr. Spock and Yoda do in a chess match with each other? While there hasn’t been an official multi-IP role playing game, fans have homebrewed stats for popular characters, ships and races for their favorite RPG systems. There have also been enough official publications for generic systems (such as D20 for both Star Wars and Starfleet Battles’ Prime Directive) that you could start to put together an educated guess.

While the above mentioned D20 system is very useful for ease of game play, I feel like it lacks on the comparison side. I believe that both Klingons and Moclans would end up with a +2 to their Strength attributes and doesn’t help with the debate. This is why I thought the FASA entry into the Star Trek role playing license was perfect. It was based off of a percentage system for both attributes and skills.

For example: I remember trying to create the FASA stats for the character of Will Decker, the Captain demoted to Commander in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In a D20 system, he would have looked pretty similar to other command grade Starfleet officers. But in the percentage system of FASA, he becomes a little more unique. Sure sometimes the difference may only be a few percentage points, but on paper he is different. I brought my Decker stats to a few of my fellow FASA players and we had a debate on the numbers I had brought in. One friend thought I had Decker’s luck too high (since he lost his ship and his captaincy in a sucky situation). I was really hoping to find my notes from that discussion, but it’s been years since I’ve seen them. Knowing my luck, they will turn up in a box that I’ll be cleaning out of the garage. If I find them, I’ll post them here.

Now I’m not saying that the FASA system is superior to other IP based RPGs. But it is one that I’ve enjoyed a lot more because of the way that they used percentages in the game. I’m aware of other gaming systems that use percentages, but I’ve never had a chance to try them out or look them over.

Final Thoughts:

I’m not certain what to think of all the other suggestions for this date. “Medium” is mostly a size (unless you count the magical medium). I could have done a blog about the different “Role” methods used to generated D&D stats. “Emotion” didn’t elicit any emotion from me. Yea I’ll see myself out for that last one.

RPGaDay 2021 chart
The RPGaDay 2021 chart
Posted in: Quotes, Star Trek

Daily Star Trek Quotes: August 9-15

How the year feels so far.

Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of August 9th through the 15th.

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

“James T. Kirk was considered to be a great man. He went on to captain the USS Enterprise, but that was another life.” Nero- Star Trek (2009) #StarTrek #WeAreStarfleet

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

“Am I better off dead? I’m an xB, I have no home, I don’t belong anywhere. Why don’t I just put a phaser to my head and get it over with?” Seven “Because… I’d miss you.” Elnor- Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 2, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #WeAreStarfleet

August 11
“Well, I’ve been a husband and I’ve been a wife and I know that look from both sides.” Dax- House of Quark, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet

August 12
Jane Wyatt born on this date in 1910. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Jane_Wyatt #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet

“Spock, …the retraining of your mind has been in the Vulcan way, so you may not understand feelings. But as my son, you have them. They will surface.” Amanda- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Stardate: 8390.0 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet

August 13
Happy Birthday to Dawnn Lewis. @dawnn_lewis https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Dawnn_Lewis #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet

“If you ever disrespect me like that again, I’ll skip the court martial and blow you out the airlock!” Freeman “Cool. Well, live long and prosper.” Mariner “Don’t you give me that sarcastic Vulcan salute! BECKETT!” Freeman- Moist Vessel, SD: 57538.9 #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet

August 14
““You canna chance the laws of physics,” I told him but he wouldn’t believe me.” Scotty- Relics, Stardate: 46125.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

August 15
“I’ve been equipped with an autonomous self-sustaining mobile holo-emitter. In short, I am footloose and fancy free.” The Doctor- Future’s End, Part II, Stardate: 50312.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet

Posted in: Dungeons and Dragons, Movies, MST3K, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

#RPGaDay2021 Day 8: Stream

Day 8: Stream

Inspiration can come from a wide variety of sources. The original source can be very good work, or it can be a bad one with a good idea, just poorly delivered. An example of this is the 2000 film, Battlefield Earth. Yes this disaster of a film actually inspired a story idea for me. It was being shown on a channel after midnight (probably the only way to really watch this box office bomb) and I didn’t need to get up in the morning so I decided to see if the rumors of how bad this movie was true. Let me just say, it’s very true. But the ending made me think, what would happen to a series of conquered worlds if the occupying aliens suddenly found their source of power and transportation gone?

So I love watching various science-fiction, fantasy and horror TV shows and movies. Both the good and the bad kind. If a show is too bad, I can elect to not watch it. There is plenty of other shows to move onto. But where can you find these shows? I have lots of memories in the 80’s and 90’s visiting the local video rental store. When I went with my family, I was always trying to find the weirdest, oddest film to watch. Often I was over ruled since my siblings usually wanted to watch something from Disney or other main-stream films. So later when I lived on my own, I had to be lucky to catch the show on a time it was aired (such as Battlefield Earth listed above) or I had to buy a VHS tape (later DVD). This had two issues, if it wasn’t a money maker, it may not have had a lot of media releases. When they were found, they were either really expensive, or really cheap in the discount bin. If cost wasn’t too big of a factor, what would I do with the media afterwards. I don’t mind buying DVDs of Star Trek or other favorites that I would enjoy watching at any time. But would I really want to watch Hell Comes to Frogtown again and again?

Luckily the internet came to our rescue. The rise of streaming services has given some of these diamond in the rough films a home where you can give them a view. So I thought I’d share where I’ve found some of my more unusual films. Yes there is a large variety on Netflix, Hulu or Paramount+. However these services are like cable channels. They only hold the rights to some films for so long (unless they are originals specifically for the streaming service). I’ve discovered that some of the streaming services like Amazon Prime, Pluto TV and Tubi have held some interesting titles. I’ve been able to watch some of the films in the Darkstalker series (boy that was cheesy). You can also find shows like Mystery Science Theater 3000, Creature Features, Elvira and more where they re-show off-kilter films (sometimes by adding comedy in the process).

Another amazing service for films and different documentaries has been plain old YouTube. As I type out this blog post, I’ve been watching episodes of Timeline (where they are building a medieval castle and exploring the life of ordinary people who built them).

I’ve also added apps on my Smart TV for Xumo, Crackle, Ruko TV and others, but I don’t get a chance to get into those as often. But you can find a cheesy 80’s sword and sorcery film that may give you an idea for your next Dungeons and Dragons game.

Final Thoughts:

I suspect that fifteen years ago this topic wouldn’t have come up in an #RPGaDAY style challenge. At least not one that would have inspired discussion on streaming services. I wonder if this single suggestion was used to gather links on possible streaming sources for other’s to explore?

RPGaDay 2021 chart
The RPGaDay 2021 chart
Posted in: My Creations, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

#RPGaDay2021 Day 7: Engage

Day 7: Engage

Oh come on. With how big of a Star Trek fan I am you’d think I’d pass up on “Engage”? Captain Picard’s catch-phrase when sending the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) into warp. It even got to the point where other commanding officers attempted to try to find a good catch-phrase to jump into warp.

Starships from Star Trek have always been one of my passions. Collecting technical manuals, blueprints, and posters detailing the vast number of starships seen on the show. I’ve even earned the mantel of “Treknologist” when a co-worker brought me a name plate with that title for my office. Years later it now hangs on the wall in my Geek Den.

Back in the early 1990’s when I was collecting all of the FASA Star Trek role playing books, I loved how the Starship Tactical Combat Simulator worked. I was able to compare how different starships stacked up against each other. I gathered photo copies of all the starships I could find from the official guides, the rulebooks, the modules, magazine articles and fanzines into one big three-ringed binder. Even after findings all of these ships and their stats, I wanted more. Luckily FASA created the Starship Construction Manual. With this book I was able to create homebrewed stats for some of the starships that I had in my book and blueprint collection. I recently found this three-ringed binder and I started to scan my original documents into PDF format. You can see the previous scans Here, Here, Here, Here and Here.

There was one starship in my three-ringed binder that I created from scratch. One of the minor governments in the FASA lore was the Affiliation of Outer Free Worlds. Basically it was a mini-Federation found within the Triangle region. A lot of ex-Starfleet officers found employment in the AOFW Space Navy. The only vessel I found for my book came from a Stardate Magazine and it displayed that they used Federation based equipment. So I created the Emerald Class VII Scout. For the image, I quite literally cut-and-paste the top off of a Federation (Upgraded) Class Dreadnought for the images and used the assembly rules from the Starship Construction Manual. Here is the PDF for download.

Final Thoughts:

“Small” as a primary suggestion for a topic made me raise an eyebrow. Yes, Haflings are small. But I wasn’t moved to use small as a subject. I could see some options for “Inspiration” but it had the bad luck of being on the same day as Engage. “Better”? Again not very inspiring. There were a few days like this that the bulk of suggestions were lacking.

RPGaDay 2021 chart
The RPGaDay 2021 chart
Posted in: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

#RPGaDay2021 Day 6: Explore

Day 6: Explore

There are a couple of different types of role-playing styles played by fans of RPGs. Power gaming, more acting than dice rolling and a few others. One of the biggest styles is Exploring. Star Trek is a classic for this style of gaming. Boldly Going Where No One Has Gone Before. Finding a strange new world and discovering new life forms. While I’ve never had the opportunity to play Traveller, I understand that Exploring is a big portion of that game as well. There have been various rules in different Science Fiction games that gave a methodology of creating new worlds (FASA had a very interesting system) and new aliens. I remember being amazed that Starships and Spacemen had a system that could randomly decide what the aliens bumpy foreheads would look like.

The Dungeons and Dragons Expert Rules introduced Dungeon Masters and Players to the hex crawl. This was the next step up from exploring underground caverns and dungeons as described in the Basic Rules. What will the players encounter when they blaze a new path (hey did I just connect to another one of the words in the challenge?). I remember reading the rules and wondered how many times the DM would actually keep track of the party getting lost? Is the adventure in the travel or is the adventure in the destination? I don’t recall which one of the retro-clones it was, but one rulebook talked about how the regular population hardly moved past the regional area that was controlled by the local baron. This made travelers from other ares carriers of news. The locals would want to know what they saw on their exploration. This could lead to some role playing opportunities when the party reaches a tavern in a new town. That is, if the citizens of the town trust outsiders (insert dramatic music here). Something for DMs to consider between dungeons and hexcrawls.

Final Thoughts:

Flavor is one of the suggestions? Really? I wonder if anyone will really post about Flavor. Path kinda works alongside Explore (which I tried above). But I couldn’t think of anything that would be interesting to post about. I’m still scratching my head about Flavor as a suggestion. Chase could have been an interesting subject. I’ve heard that the James Bond RPG had a good chase system. I’ve just never played it to try it out. Flavor? What are we going to get the homebrew stats of Flavortown King Guy Fieri?

RPGaDay 2021 chart
The RPGaDay 2021 chart
Posted in: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

#RPGaDay2021 Day 5: Community

Day 5: Community

The stereotype of a person who plays role-play games is not a good one. Like the Trekkie, the general public tends to look upon gamers as socially inept loners who happens to get together with a couple of other loners on a Saturday night and dress up like their characters. I’ve been gaming since the late 80’s and the only time I’ve seen someone dress up as their character was for a Halloween party.

I really think that the general population doesn’t realize how much the gaming community has grown. I still meet up with friends, and possible new friends, at local gaming stores. I talk with the clerk about what is selling and what is not. And while I miss publications like Dragon Magazine and Challenge Magazine, the internet has taken on the load that those publications once served.

Not only are there active gaming communities on social media like Twitter, Facebook and MeWe, but they tend to be more focused. Want a group that only talks about 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons? There is a Facebook Group for that. MeWe has a FASA Star Trek/Doctor Who RPG community. There are a ton of twitter accounts that you can follow for both classic games and the latest releases. Discord has also become a popular destination for the gaming community for several reasons. You can have private chat rooms to hold games in. You can share files in certain channels. It’s a combination social media and communications platform.

I still think that message boards serve a purpose of bringing together the gaming community. Like some social media pages, they can be very specific, or they can be very general in nature. I’m going to link a few of them here for others to check out.

Old School Trek– If you want to talk about classic Star Trek gaming, this is a place to go. This includes some of the older classic Trek games, semi-official games and fan made creations.

Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator Online Database and Archive– This message board specializes in topics for the FASA Starship Tactical Combat Simulator for the Star Trek Role Playing Game. Lots of ship designs and homebrews posted here.

Trek-RPG Forums– This message board talks about all of the different Star Trek RPG products that are out there. Unfortunately it is not as active as it use to be.

Basic Fantasy RPG Forums– Basic Fantasy is a good retro-clone of Dungeons and Dragons with a very active community providing new content.

RPG.net Forums– The good thing about this site is it is very active. You’ll be able to find just about anything here if you just ask. The bad thing is that it is very active. It is easy to get overwhelmed by the number of posts made at this site.

Now like any community, the gaming community has it’s good and it’s bad. But overall I think that the gaming community is a good one. RPG.net has a series of Secret Satan (a joke on Secret Santa) gift exchanges every year. I’ve also seen gamers who have never met offer support to other gamers in times of need.

And there has been an ongoing battle to improve the image of the gaming community. My favorite Dungeons and Dragons DM would take extra time to not only help new players (especially encouraging them with the math in the game) but he would take extra time to talk with a spouse or family member of a gamer to alleviate any concerns they might have (no D&D is not of the devil, etc.)

Final Thoughts:

While “Throne” was begging for a fantasy adventure blog entry, I just didn’t have one that I could post at the time. “Include” could have been integrated in the above post. “Gamble” didn’t bring anything to mind, but I could have talked about gambling in gaming if I had more experience in the subject.

RPGaDay 2021 chart
The RPGaDay 2021 chart

Posted in: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

#RPGaDay2021 Day 4: Weapon

Day 4: Weapon

So I’ve been watching a few shows on my Paramount+ account. Yes I picked it up to get the latest Star Trek shows. But my kids have enjoyed watching the Avatar and Legend of Korra episodes. I just completed a re-watch of the Daria series a few months ago (I forgot how much of a dark ending that had). Another good thing on Paramount+ has been several documentary series on The Smithsonian Channel.

One series that I found really interesting (and I hope they have additional seasons) was titled “World of Weapons”. They had ten episodes which covered a subject and looked at several weapons that could be found within the subject matter. It ranged from ancient times to modern days with demonstrations by experts and graphical imagery telling the story behind the types of weapons.

I found the details and demonstrations of the Roman pilum very interesting. But the weapon that really caught my attention was the sling. Before watching that episode, I had always thought of the sling as a poor man’s bow and arrow. The cleric could use it as a ranged weapon since it wasn’t edged. We all know of the tale of David vs. Goliath. I even recall using a sling in the first King’s Quest video game and later in Pitfall: The Lost Expedition game on my Nintendo Gamecube.

The World of Weapons documentary episode demonstrated two things about the sling. It was a common man’s weapon. Thus I did not see many noble or aristocratic users of such a weapon. The Greek and Roman armies used “slingers” to rain down a lot of stones upon an enemy and even included sling snipers who were more accurate with the weapon. The episode even showed how a sling could be easily and quickly created by braiding plant fibers. Thus someone familiar with the sling could create a sling and use common stones found on the ground. The documentary also talked about the Roman Glandes which his made by melting lead into a mold to create an acorn looking bullet. Some Roman soldiers also added messages to their Glandes in a similar fashion of messages being added to bombs that are dropped on the enemy. Another online article I read also talked about how some Glandes came with a small hole in the middle that made a whistling sound as the bullet was projected at high speeds. It was believed that this added a psychological effect to the weapon in battle.

For the purpose of this blog entry, I checked the game stats for the sling in the various editions of Dungeons and Dragons and various clones. Most had the sling giving 1d3 to 1d4 at a very short range. After watching the World of Weapons episode, I wondered if we have sold the sling short? Perhaps keep a standard rock at 1d3, a shaped bullet stone at 1d4 with a longer range and allow the Glandes at a higher damage of 1d4+2 or perhaps even a 1d6 at the longest range.

Now I want to create a Hafling character that uses a sling like a sniper. He could hide his slings as various belts and the Glandes could be decorative brooches or buttons on his clothing.

Final Thoughts:

Another good primary suggestion for Day 4. A subject of “Search” could have talked about searching for hidden doors and traps, but I couldn’t think of some content that would have been interesting to read. This would have been the same result with “Reward” and “Figure”. Someone may have been inspired by these suggestions, but I was not.

RPGaDay 2021 chart
The RPGaDay 2021 chart
Posted in: Art, Dungeons and Dragons, My Creations, Role Playing Games

#RPGaDay2021 Day 3: Image

Day 3: Image

I elected to go with the suggestion of “Image” for today’s entry for several reasons. Graphics, artwork and photography go a long way in helping our imagination with role-playing games. It didn’t need to be a complete illustrated story, but show just enough to get the imagination going. The old saying is, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover” but I will say that a good cover usually attracts my attention before a dull one will. For the longest time I had no desire to read The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun because the cover image confused me. The bulk of images used for other modules made sense and attracted me towards the book and gave me a little taste of what I might find inside. But Tharizdun… well I just wasn’t attracted to it and that was due to the cover image.

When we create a character for any system, we usually have an image in our minds-eye of what our character looks like. We can write down a description or bring it up during a role-playing session, but sometimes we just have to have an image of that character. I’ve never had the computer skills to photoshop a image of my characters, but I did attempt to hand draw some of them. Recently I found my old three-ringed binder that I used to store my RPG characters going all the way back to the late 80’s. I started scanning in some of these characters for future blog entries.

One of the AD&D 1e character sheets also included my crude drawings of the character and possible “logos” that could have been used for his in-game persona. Lornic Mynsor was a Half-Elf Fighter/Thief that also went by the name “Stealthblade”. (Hey, I was a teenager, don’t judge) I don’t recall any of the adventures I played him in (it seems like a lifetime ago) but it appeared that we were running with some house rules. There is a Perception attribute that the DM was using. I believe I drew the image and logos while I was waiting for my turn in the game. Here are the images and the character sheet.

Final Thoughts:

The suggestions for today were not bad ones. I was just more excited to post my geeky artwork from a long time ago. A topic on “Tactic” could have easily talked about the Starship Tactical Combat Simulator by FASA. “Risk” could have covered some of the risks that players have to think about as they make their way through the adventure. And “Support” could have been a post about how some companies support (or don’t provide support) for the game that they have published and how the gaming community adds their support as well.

RPGaDay 2021 chart
The RPGaDay 2021 chart
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