Category: Conventions

Comic Books, Conventions, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

60 Years of Star Trek and Fandom Intertwined

Written by TardisCaptain September 8, 2026September 8, 2026

Myself with a 3-foot model of the Enterprise at Starfest in 2006.

Today is the 60th Anniversary of a television show that changed the world. And in turn, it created a group of fans that helped with that change, but changed the show itself. In this blog post I’m going to explore some of those intertwined histories that are out there. Some of them you may know, and some of them may be new to you.

Just recently I was asked, “Are you a trekkie or a trekker?” I responded with “treknologist” which made her blink a few times. There are many names that Star Trek fans have called themselves. While I was thinking about the question asked, I remembered that I was introduced to Star Trek by my father in the 70s. He would come home and watch the syndicated re-runs. My young mind kept asking questions like “If they are in space, how come they are not floating around with no gravity?” or “Where does the power come from to fly that ship?” It then made me wonder if I was a Syndi, a person who was introduced to the show during the syndication years of the 70’s. Then my mind clicked and said, “It doesn’t matter. Only one term should come to mind to describe us. And that is ‘fan’.”

Star Trek is a buffet of choices. Some dishes are directly prepared for us, other dishes are prepared for different tastes. But it’s all Star Trek. As consumers not only do we choose what we want, but we’ve made our own dishes in the form of filk, fan-fiction, fan-films, head-canon theories, human created art, role-playing games, cosplays, community service and more. Some of these have echoed back into the licensed media, the shows themselves and even the world around us.

In the 1960’s while the show was airing, fans consumed the first Gold Key Star Trek comics. Fans talked about this exciting new show with other people that made them fans as well. And fans wrote in support of the show to help secure a third-season at NBC. This was done by a pair of fans named John and Bjo Trimble. I was invited to attend a backyard party where they were the guests of honor. We sat and talked for hours. Bjo wanted to make sure that John got just as much credit as she did for the letter writing campaign. She had tried to point this out to a reporter in the 60’s, but he wanted to focus on her as “local housewife saves Star Trek” sounded like a catchier article than “guy saves Star Trek”. Because of these efforts, Ms. Trimble and other fans got invited to be in the crew briefing scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Fans of the show helped write the FASA Star Trek Roleplaying Game. Not only did this open the door for fans to “make” their own Star Trek episodes, but the information provided by this game was used in other Star Trek media. The information about characters, planets, ships and more appeared in the DC Comics run of Star Trek, but also in the IDW Star Trek comics as well. FASA STRPG background information and art appeared in episodes from The Next Generation to Discovery and Prodigy.

The Vulcan name of Ni’Var that was used in Enterprise and Discovery came from a Star Trek fanzine in the 1960’s. In the mid-1970’s many fans wrote into NASA campaigning to name the first Space Shuttle “Enterprise”. Footage of this real-life vessel was later used in the title scenes for Star Trek: Enterprise.

Star Trek fandom has also opened professional doors for some talented individuals. My good friend Larry Nemecek started by running Star Trek conventions in Oklahoma. This led to him writing his own brand of TNG fan encyclopedias. From there he became a historian for the show as Dr. Trek. Writing for various Star Trek magazines, releasing the Star Trek Next Generation Companion, Star Trek Stellar Cartography and even writing a Star Trek Voyager episode. And Larry isn’t the only one. Michael Dismuke started Continuing Missions website dedicated to Star Trek Adventures. This gave him an opportunity to write for the game, a short story, and eventually his brand new book on Star Trek Timelines: A Visual Voyage Through Generations of History. I don’t know about you, but seeing that Larry, Michael and others can expand their fandom into a career, gives me hope that I’ll see my name in credits some day.

I’ve talked a lot about some of the influences this 60-year old show has provided. And I can tell you that this doesn’t even scratch the surface of what it has influenced. Look around you. You’ll see NASA employees in the 70’s wearing Spock ears while conducting a mission. People will drop Star Trek quotes all the time like “He’s dead, Jim” or “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose” or even a simple greeting like “Live Long and Prosper”. Fans will look for hope, entertainment, inspiration and self-reflection. We will realize that we are all together on this blue marble so we better take care of it and each other. Sure, we may wonder if a certain flavor on the buffet is for us, but in the end, we just need to keep enjoying this meal that a lot of people helped put together.

Thank you Star Trek for the last 60 years, I can’t wait to see what comes around for the next 60. Live Long and Prosper.

What are your greatest Star Trek fandom memories? 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.

Character Creation Challenge, Collecting, Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Friends, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

SaltCON-End of Summer 2026 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain September 7, 2026September 7, 2026

The last SaltCON for 2026 is now in the books and boy was it a good one. And I’m not just saying that because I know the fine people who run it. I’m saying it because I had fun. I got a few hugs. I was able to catch up with a few friends and make some new ones. So yea, this convention did exactly what I needed it to do.

As you may remember from my SaltCON 2026 Summer After Action Report, attendance had been down for that event due to our bad economy. Well I can tell you that the three-day passes and Saturday passes for the September event did sell out. This may have been a combination of things. The organizers had done some advertising that may have helped. Summer is a very busy time in Utah and also the last con of the year is the smallest. In the past, single-day passes for all three days would have been sold out. So I’m hoping that things are on the rebound, but I know there’s a way to go. I was able to have two of my three games “fire” this time around so I was very grateful for that.

Speaking of the games that I ran, the one that didn’t fire was Basic Fantasy on Friday. But I still had an enjoyable time. One of the things that I like about SaltCON is that they use the Table Top Events convention management website that allows for attendees to purchase their tickets and reserve their seats at different games. You can even download the .ica files and import them into your favorite calendar system which provides me with a 10 minute reminder when I have a game coming up. Because of this I knew that I had one player who had registered for the Basic Fantasy game and I was hoping that more would sign up at the con. Unfortunately it was only this one gentleman. So we had a discussion about the advantages and history of Basic Fantasy. That’s when I discovered that he had driven all the way up from Las Vegas to play this game. He had even purchased a hardbound copy of the book. I mentioned that perhaps the title of the adventure, “Guildmaster Quest Part II” may have led to some confusion. The adventure was a continuation for a Basic Fantasy one-shot that I had run at an earlier SaltCON. But if anyone looked at the schedule of events, they didn’t see a Part I. So it’s possible that participants may think that they may be missing something by not playing the first part. I should have also communicated that playing in the earlier adventure was not required and a “previously on…” recap would have been provided. I even had a Part III and Part IV planned. So I’ll put those on the back burner for now and come up with a brand new adventure for SaltCON-Spring 2027. The gentleman from Las Vegas wondered if my adventure had been published through the very strong Basic Fantasy community and had downloaded all of the free adventures that were available. I do need to get off my duff and get my notes polished up for submission. One last enjoyable note about my conversation with this Las Vegas fan, he had been playing since the 70’s. He loved old-school systems and even played D&D with his wife up at Wizards of the Coast headquarters in Seattle before the company had been purchased by Hasbro. We ended up exchanging contact information to keep in touch and he promised to drive back up for a future Basic Fantasy game. This gave me encouragement to continue this line of games.

The Saturday game that I signed up to run was Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition which I had already run my regular players through as part of a test run. While no one reserved spots prior to the con, I had three in-person-sign ups on Friday and two more added on Saturday. So there was more than enough to run the session that I had planned. I can now publicly state that this adventure was my own STA adaptation of the FASA Star Trek Roleplaying Game module, The Vanished. I had changed the title for the convention and my personal campaign to avoid any spoilers. According to the notes in the FASA book, this adventure was actually used as a RPG convention tournament module at the 1983 “Love of Trek” Star Trek Convention in Omaha, Nebraska. The module even included play reports from that convention. It was very interesting to see how the two groups I ran this through the adventure differed from those fans in the early 80s. The party was able to discover the big secret and recover the missing crew within the four hours allotted for the time (we ended right on the dot). The pre-generated characters came from the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Starter Set. I liked how they were presented in the printable format plus some fans had made name tents with a character name on the front and the stats on the back. One player enjoyed this game so much that he sought me out after the adventure to thank me for running this. Yes, I will be polishing up my adaptation notes and presenting them on this blog later.

My Sunday game had all six slots filled online before the convention started. The Geek Wife was also able to join me for this game of Mutant Crawl Classics. Once again, I changed the title of the game to avoid spoilers, but I used The Museum at the End of Time as presented in the DCC Free RPG Day 2016 publication. This is a zero-level funnel and I had dropped a stack of pre-generated characters on the table for players to use. These were teenagers going on their trials to become adults by trying to find technology of the ancients that would benefit the Tribe of the Cog. This was my first time GMing one of the Crawl Classic games and it didn’t go too bad. I wish than I could have done a test run for it prior to the con, but sometimes you’ve just got to jump into the deep end and swim. I really like the Crawl Classics system. I didn’t kill as many zero-level characters that I probably could have, but these players were also very well organized. The party only got about 1/3rd of the way through the museum before they had an opportunity to exit with their newfound technology and they left. I’m not certain if this was because it was one of the last games at the con or if the players thought they had found enough ancient tech to satisfy the tribe leaders. But the players told me they had fun when we wrapped up so I’m a happy GM.

I was able to get to all of my scheduled games that I had signed up for. I really liked Shadowrun Anarchy and how simple the rules were. The GM runs SA 5e for his regular campaign and said it was a little bit more crunchy. But if I was to run a game, I think I’d stick with SA as too much crunch isn’t really my style right now. We had to go rescue a local community doctor who was being hunted by a corporate high-response strike team. Turns out the doc had treated a shadowrunner who had accidentally downloaded an experimental AI from a script-kiddie who somehow got into a corporate mainframe. It was a simple adventure that introduced the world to the players and was very well done. When I was giving con updates on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server, one of the writers for Shadowrun Anarchy responded. I wasn’t aware that this person had worked on this book. I had to run over and grab my dead-tree version to check the credits when he had piped up. So that gave me a thrill.

The SCP playtest was based off of the shared-writing universe called The SCP Foundation. Think X-Files meets Cthulhu meets Warehouse 13 meets Supernatural that’s been running since 2007. My youngest Geekling is a big fan of this universe and has even cosplayed for it at Halloween and conventions. So when I texted my youngest Geekling, they got really excited. When I got home I had to give them a complete run down of the adventure. We were an investigation team that traveled to Denver to check up on a weird warehouse that was gathering a mass audience by some displays in the windows. Long story short, I got to blow up the warehouse before we could contain the “Evil Industrial Cooking Oven” hidden inside. It sounds strange, but it was a lot of fun. I was able to give some feedback on the system used for the game directly to the designer.

On Saturday morning I got to play Dungeon Crawl Classics game titled Emirikol Was Framed. For those of you who don’t know the character, Emirikol was the chaotic wizard whose image was in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide. We got to fight flying monkeys, use mighty deeds and weird spells (each spell in DCC has a chart that you roll against when the spell is cast with varied results) and defeat not one, but two evil wizards plaguing the city. We were playing fourth-level characters and I only wished that the character would have had more equipment on them. Holding only a melee weapon while the flying targets buzzed above you took some creative thinking. But the players at the table had fun.

I was the only player that showed up for the steampunk/western/horror game Through the Breach on Saturday. It was played with a deck of playing cards and had an interesting system. The GM’s brother played at the table as well so that we could have a session. The two brothers reminded me of another pair of geeky brothers that I know. When I was discussing the game with another convention attendee, he told me that Through the Breach had a huge following in Montana for some reason and also had a big miniatures collection line. I don’t know if this is a game that I’d buy at full price, but I did enjoy the opportunity to learn about a new system.

A system that used a deck or two of 52 playing cards also popped up in the Sunday game I played called Starship Infernum. The second player who registered didn’t show up, so I ended up taking three characters and letting the GM walk me through the system. I was also able to ask many questions as I went through the book. This game could easily be used as a convention one-shot or a pick-me-up game if all of your regular players can’t show up for a game night.

As you can see from the photo above, I came home with some interesting loot from the convention. The t-shirt was gorgeous and I had to give a compliment to one of the con-runners. This year’s theme was pirates, but the shirts for Spring and Summer were really busy. I remember wearing the spring shirt and having someone look at it confused as to what it was because of how busy it was in the graphic. The end-of-summer shirt had a very simple logo and quickly made sense. I can’t wait for the right time to wear it. The free game was something called Battlebones and was the only free game that I hadn’t already picked up from previous SaltCONs. A board game that I did buy in the swap meet was Robo Rally. I remember playing this game about 15 years ago with some friends in the local Star Trek club and it was very enjoyable. But every time we had found a copy, even used, it was outside of our price range. Well this one was at a very decent price so I snapped it up as my first purchase of the con. Also in the game swap was the Cy_Borg core rulebook. This is Mork Borg for cyberpunk. And since I had been wanting to try some of the Borg games (Mork for Fantasy or Pirate Borg) I picked this up. For my Thank You gift I found a sci-fi RPG rulebook for Untamed Worlds from Osprey Games. In this universe Humanity has reached the stars, but the bulk of them stay in the core worlds while they send out genetically modified animals to search the uncharted sections of the galaxy. I’ll use both of these books in the 2027 Character Creation Challenge.

Wow, this after-action report turned out to be a long one. But that’s probably because I had a ton of fun at SaltCON End-of-Summer. If you are looking for a good gaming convention, please check out SaltCON. There are a ton of board games, card games, roleplaying games and more. The next two conventions at the Davis Conference Center in Layton, Utah are March 11-14 and June 11-13.

And before I forget, many thanks to the convention organizers and volunteers for putting this together. You guys are the best.

Do you have any questions about the convention weekend? 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.

Conventions, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

Prepping for SaltCON End-of-Summer 2026

Written by TardisCaptain September 3, 2026September 3, 2026

After a busy busy month with the RPGaDAY entries, it is now time to attend the 2026 SaltCON End-of-Summer at the Davis Convention Center in Layton, Utah. The last I checked, there were still tickets available if you wanted to come roll some dice. I will also be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented about in a previous blog post.

I’ve volunteered once again to help spread the RPG love. Basic Fantasy, Star Trek Adventures and my odd-ball game for this time around is Mutant Crawl Classics. And since you can reserve your spots in advance, I can say that the MCC game on Sunday is already full. As I mentioned in my USS Magnanimous Episode 2 Play Report, I’ll be running a Star Trek adventure that I used with my local gaming group.

The games that I’ve signed up for include Shadowrun Anarchy. I’ve created a character for this cyberpunk game, but I’ve never played it at the table. I’ll be participating in a play test as well with one of the designers at the con for a game called SCP. I’ll post more about it in the after-action report. I’ve got a slot signed up for a Dungeon Crawl Classics game titled Emirikol Was Framed. The next game is Through the Breach which is some sort of wild-west/magic mix game with cards. It will be interesting to try something new. The last game that I’ve signed up to play is called Starship Infernum. A space-horror-Survival setting. I think that DCC is the only game that I’ve played before and that makes me happy. One of the things I try to do at gaming conventions is to try out a system or two that I’ve never played before.

Considering how bad this year has been, I don’t think I’ll be spending a lot at the convention this weekend. But I am very much looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting new ones. Once again I’d like to give a tip of the hat to the volunteers and coordinators for SaltCON. I hope you realize how much these events are helping me out this year. I’m looking forward to leaving the real world behind when I enter the convention center doors. I’ll see you there. If you are coming to the convention, please come up and say Hi. I’ve met a few readers of this blog face-to-face at this event.

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.

Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Pirates, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

SaltCON-Summer 2026 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain June 8, 2026June 8, 2026

So just a heads up, while there might be some negative things in this after-action report, none of them are due to the many volunteers at SaltCON. The many volunteers and coordinators at the event were beholden to the same issues that affected the con as a whole, and they did an excellent job under the circumstances.

Bottom line up front (BLUF): Attendance was down at this particular event due to the economy.

When I talked with several coordinators, they mentioned that they had seen the same pattern previously over the past seventeen years. When money gets tight, the attendance drops as people try to trim the budget. How this affected me and some of the other volunteer gamemasters is that some scheduled events didn’t “fire”. This is the metric that the convention uses to state that the game started on time with players. All three of my scheduled games did not “fire” which disappointed me. With the lower attendance, the players flocked to the games that had other attendees signed up so that they could get a full experience (kind of hard to play in a game with only 1-2 players). At first I wondered if I had picked the wrong games or time-slots, but I saw that other GMs had the same issues that I had. So while talking with the RPG coordinators, they encouraged me to continue to volunteer as they appreciated my efforts. So yes, I’ll be signing up to run some games at SaltCON-End of Summer in September. Hopefully the economy will not be as skitterish as it is now (crosses-fingers).

There, now that the elephant in the room is out of the way, I can tell you what I enjoyed this weekend. First, the hugs. Thank you to those who provided or accepted them. I had a chance to see a few friends that I see regularly and a few that I hadn’t seen in a while. A convention is also a chance to network with other geeky people. I had a chance to meet the organizer for ICON, a gaming convention that happens in eastern Idaho three times a year (once in Pocatello and twice in Idaho Falls). I’m giving some thought to possibly volunteering to GM some RPG one-shots at this event in the future. But there is more logistics that will have to be put into place before I can commit to it.

The game swap room was moved to a larger location which was very nice. Usually it’s stuck in a narrow room where the attendees are shoulder-to-shoulder as they try to look over the selections. I liked the additional room much more and I hope that we can keep this at the new location. I’d like to thank those who brought in roleplaying books. I was able to pick up the Creature Codex and the Tome of Beasts at a decent price. From the photo above you can also see that the free boardgame was something called Tiffin (which I honestly picked up because it was the smallest game to grab). As my thank you gift for GMing at the con, I picked up a $20 gift certificate to The Queen’s Realm. The convention t-shirt is blue with a pirate crab and a pirate parrot playing cards with the caption “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.” My geek wife liked mine so much that she asked me to pick her up one as well.

An interesting twist this year is that a collectable card event was happening in the same convention center on Saturday. I walked through it since it was free. But I didn’t pick up anything since it was mostly Pokemon and sports cards. A nice thing about having that part of the convention center open was the better food options were available within. I wonder if this event will happen again at the same time next summer?

Mini-posters the convention used to advertise my games.

As for the games that I played, Everyday Heroes was a time-travel adventure where we had to prevent Professor Moriarty from messing with time by preventing the Titanic from not being sunk. We were only able to get through one scenario since we had to create characters from scratch. But I was a pirate from the 1800’s which helped with the naval theme. Since one of my games didn’t ‘fire’, I ended up jumping into my first ever HeroQuest game, which was interesting. It was a cross between an RPG and a board game. The Savage Worlds one-shot was also fun. Apparently it was for a sci-fi setting that had just been released called the Han Cluster. It was ‘technology is magic’ based and was an interesting challenge. I had forgotten that I had already played Savage Worlds previously (and it was from the same GM). But it was good to be reminded about the system. Lorecraft 5e was very different. It was a homebrewed game that took Fifth Edition and added some additional items to it. Which explains why I wasn’t able to find anything for it online. But the GM/designer put a lot of work into it. The character sheet alone was a laminated folder with character and equipment card slots. You would write on any side with a dry-erase marker and included a booklet for additional abilities and equipment slots (see photos below since he let all players keep their characters for possible future gaming sessions). He had an interesting lazy-susan grid-playing field where he could put on our figures and terrain (all held with magnets). He could spin the playing field around to move characters or point things out. What I really appreciated with this GM was the way he handled two young RPGers (possibly 14 years old) at the table who attended all seven of his events that were all linked together. They were really getting into the system and their characters. When he cornered me after the session I played in he really wanted to ask me some feedback questions about his works. I let him know the encouraging things that I saw in the game. I didn’t really see any improvements he needed to make, but perhaps I could have noticed something if I had played in other sessions.

The back of the Lorecraft 5e character folder.

The front facing the other players and GM.

Again, if you are looking for a good gaming convention, please check out SaltCON. There are a ton of board games, card games, roleplaying games and more. The next two conventions at the Davis Conference Center in Layton, Utah are September 4-6 and March 11-14. I thinking of making a homebrew game for the Spring 2027 event.

Collecting, Comic Books, Conventions, Doctor Who, Star Trek

Ogden-Con 2026 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain April 7, 2026

The USS Ticonderoga had a booth this year at Ogden-Con.

April 4th was the date for the 2026 Ogden-Con. I’ve blogged about this naturally growing convention for the past two years (here are my reports from 2024 and 2025). This year the convention was moved to the Ogden Union Station downtown. It was right next to the UTA Frontrunner stop and was a great place for a small convention. I hope that it can stay here for a few years as it continues to naturally grow. It also has several museums in it for trains, cars and guns (admission was extra for these items).

As you can see from the photo above, the USS Ticonderoga had a booth this year. On display was our Borg Alcove and TOS Transporter Console. This is the first time these items have been out in quite some time. It was good to see them back in action. Several attendees had their photos taken with them. The local Warhammer group was also in attendance as well as several local authors. Two of them that I knew personally.

A peak into the car museum at the Union Station.

The convention organizer was really pleased with the move. They had over 400 adults in attendance. They didn’t have a count on the kids as those 10 and under were free. They had also sold out all of the vendor tables. I know when I was talking with one friend at the con, she had found some toys that she hadn’t seen since she was very young. And they were still in the packages. We also had a chance to sample the food trucks that were in the parking lot. There were some growing pains with the new location, but I can see where this convention can only get better. It was more relaxed and more focused on comics.

My only purchases at Ogden-Con this year.

Because I was running a booth, I didn’t get a chance to go through too many $1 comic boxes. But I did find two Doctor Who comics. Just before I sat down to type up this report, I read both of these issues and enjoyed them.

So, many thanks to Rudy Entertainment and the volunteers at the event. I can only see better things for this convention in the future. It was also nice not to be packed into a mega-event when trying to geek out. I had a chance to talk with several possible Ticonderoga recruits including one who’s father grew up with Ray Bradbury. There were some interesting stories there. See you guys next year.

Have you recently attended a smaller convention? What is the best way to let you know of local events. 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.

Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Horror, Pirates, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Wars

SaltCON-Spring 2026 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain March 18, 2026

August sez “Who said you could be gone fur-ever?”

And another wonderful SaltCON is in the bag. Let me take this opportunity to thank the gaming coordinators, the volunteers and the people I met for helping to make this an enjoyable weekend. I had some disappointments, but they were far and few between. I also had a roleplayer come up to me to say “Hey you want to see my convention backpack?” after he had read about the backpack that I use at conventions. It was interesting to compare the two of them. Last year, I really needed the emotional support after some real-life events. This year I was providing the emotional support to others (and I was glad to give out the hugs when needed). It reminded me of the quote from Saru on Star Trek: Discovery.

“Before we can care for others, we must care for ourselves.” Saru- New Eden, Stardate: 1027.32

I was able to pick up a lot this year. The convention theme for 2026 is pirates (last year was a cyberpunk theme) and there were several articles of clothing that combined gaming and pirates together. My zip-up Star Trek hoodie (that looked like a uniform) was starting to get a little threadbare, so I decided to replace it with a black SaltCON pirate hoodie that says “Dead men play no games.” I also picked up the regular con shirt for spring which was a pirate riding a fish guiding it with a D20. The SaltCON GameMaster’s Guild shirt that I got for free said “Release the Kraken” And speaking of free shirts, Evil Genius Games provided me with an Evil Gamemaster shirt for running one of their games. On the sleeve is a bonus rule that allows the GM to make a player re-roll a D20 two times during a game. I didn’t use this at the con, but a friend who also got the same shirt did.

Some of the gaming loot that I picked up at the con.

As is usually the case with SaltCON, they give you free games when you pick up your registration badge. The free games this year included an interesting card game called Tacta and a humorous looking game called Riot at the Round Table. I’ll have to subject the family to these and see how they play. At the Saturday morning swap meet someone brought in the Star Trek Super-Skill Pinball that was still sealed and was a low price. So I snagged it. I really wish that more people brought their RPG books to this Saturday morning event. At the regular game swap (which is 99% board games) I did find an unusual looking RPG called Arzium which appears to be a fantasy game. And one of my thank you gifts for running quite a few RPG sessions was the Werewolf The Apocalypse Core Rulebook. Both of these I’ll be using in the 2027 Character Creation Challenge.

There were a couple more giveaways that I had received at the convention. The first was the SaltCON RPG pin which showed a kraken wrapping itself around a pirate ship. There was also a pin I got for running the Evil Genius game for Nacho Haus that came from the Origins Game Fair. I don’t know what that represents. I reached out to my contacts at EGG and I’ll report back what I find out. Another free gift was a small 3D printed dice tower that fit nicely inside my leather dice tray. Usually dice towers are too unwieldy or big, but this one worked just right. This was given to a GMs at the con and was provided by Scorehaven which appears to be some sort of gaming meet up group. A local young artists had a booth at the con and from her I purchased a set of dice that glow under a ultraviolet light (I’ll blog more about that later) and a special coffin box for the Geek Wife who loved it. Plus we wanted to support those who created with their hands and not tried to use AI.

For the four games that I ran at SaltCON Spring 2026 I think I must have picked a bad time-slot for Basic Fantasy. Only one person had preregistered for the game and they backed out the morning of the con. But this only gives me a chance to polish up this self-written adventure for a future event. The next day I ran Everyday Heroes: Escape from New York (for the prizes seen above). This game had a full complement (five pre-gen characters) and we had fun. However I may have disappointed a player who was playing an RPG for the first time. She chose a character that was a manipulator instead of a fighter. However the first part of the game (that was all we could do in the four hour slot) didn’t get to the point where she could use her talents. I let them name their own characters at the table, so Lady Lockbreaker, if you are reading this, I should have let you manipulate the guards you were trying to approach. I had thought about it later and I realized then what you were trying to do. I hope your future RPG sessions go a little better. For any GMs running some of the Cinematic Adventures from Evil Genius Games, be prepared to shorten the material to get it into a convention gaming slot. Friday I ran Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition with the Thursday’s Child game written by Roger Taylor. This ran very well and challenged the characters in a Star Trek way. There were lots of compliments at the end of the session (that ran longer than we were expecting, but it was the last game at that table for the day). On Sunday I ran the Star Wars D6 RPG from West End Games. While there were a couple of first time players who wanted to see what the fuss was all about, there were also several players who loved the original game. They loved the theater of the mind and how I used an opening script to get them all into character. Thank you to my players who showed up and had fun.

I was really looking forward to the two Cowboy Bebop games, but they didn’t happen. One was with Lasers and Feelings and the other was the official RPG that I had backed on Kickstarter. The GM fell ill and wasn’t able to return for the two games. I know another player who had signed up for both who was disappointed as well. Another player volunteered to run Lasers and Feelings for us and we pushed our way through it as an improv game. Thanks to that player for stepping up and showing how the community supports each other. To the GM that was running the early Sunday morning Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition game, I apologize for pulling out the night before. With how late my STA game ran, I didn’t think I was going to get there on time for the early morning session. I hope you found a replacement player and I thank you for bringing one of the classics to the con. I have a bit of a conundrum on the Tunnels and Trolls game. It wasn’t actually Tunnels and Trolls, it was a retro-clone called the Leopard Empress or something. Another player who also wanted to really try T&T had even brought his books from home. I think we got an idea how the system works with the clone, but I was also wondering if I would have signed up had it been advertised under the actual game name. I don’t know, am I thinking about this too hard? If I had advertised my Basic Fantasy game as BECMI and someone showed up expecting to play that, would they be giving me the side eye? The other game that I was able to play is called DC20, which turned out to be a beta version of the game that was backed by Kickstarter years ago. It made sense, but I could see where some of the betaness of the game came into play as the players had a few questions about things. We had fun. But the IT side of my brain kept saying “Beta version, wait for full release.” The most fun I had was with the Paranoia game. Because there was a long line to get into the con (and I had to stop to help a friend at the ER beforehand) I was a little late getting there. The GM was actually having the players create their own characters. Since I had missed the first of this process, I asked if I could just use the character I had recently created in the Character Creation Challenge, and the GM agreed. So bonus points for me to use a character that I had created manually. I want to say that the Paranoia game lives up to its reputation if you have a GM and players with the right mindset (and warped sense of humor). Good job. Overall I had fun in the games that I actually played and thanks again to the GMs for their efforts.

Again, if you are looking for a good gaming convention, I can’t recommend SaltCON enough. There are a ton of board games, card games, roleplaying games and the Artemis Bridge Simulator ran by Starship Frontier was always full. The next two conventions at the Davis Conference Center in Layton, Utah are June 5-7 and September 4-6. I already have an idea for my next Star Trek Adventures game that I want to try out.

So was I putting to much thought into the Tunnels and Trolls concern? Did I do the new player in Escape from New York wrong by not letting her play to her character strengths? Do you have any questions about the convention weekend? 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.

Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Star Wars

Prepping for SaltCON Spring 2026

Written by TardisCaptain March 7, 2026March 17, 2026

Some of the games that I’ll be running at SaltCON Spring 2026.

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.

Collecting, Community Service, Conventions, Fan Club, Star Trek

FanX 2025 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain September 28, 2025September 28, 2025

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So the latest FanX: The Salt Lake Comic Convention is in the books and it was a good one. It continues to be one of the largest attended comic conventions in North America. I know that I was meeting people from Chicago, Oregon, St. Louis, Texas and beyond.

This year my Star Trek fan club, Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet, continued our community service focus by supporting an anti-bullying organization called R.E.A.C.H. (Raising Education Through Arts Characters and Heroes). I was really impressed with the level of work they had done. Our booth wasn’t on the vendor floor. Instead we were in the main hallway just outside of the Starship Frontier Artemis Bridge Simulator room. We were combined to help save space on the vendor floor as changes are being made to the Salt Palace (more on that later). I also got to dress up as a Borg intruder and assimilate the Captain of the crew before they could stop me. I don’t have any pictures of that but I may be getting a video soon.

We had a chance to meet a lot of people. I’m hopeful that some will join us as members of our Star Trek family. I also had a chance to network with a couple of club leaders for future endeavors.

As for loot, well I didn’t pick up a lot this year. A friend printed up a photo of actor Jerry O’Connell with his Commander Ransom character from Star Trek: Lower Decks. It was my intention to pick up his autograph at FanX, but his flight was delayed and I wasn’t able to make it over to his booth afterwards.

I was able to meet up with actor Doug Jones who played Saru on Star Trek: Discovery and obtain his autograph. Talk about someone who made you feel special. Everyone who he met at his booth got as much time as they needed with him. So we didn’t mind taking longer in the line because we all knew we were going to get the same amount of attention. If you got a selfie with him, he did three poses with you. And when he was done he gave you a big hug. I told him about my encounter getting Jason Isaacs’ autograph on the same photo. And when I gave Doug my favorite quote that Saru had given, he finished it just as I started it. It amazed me that he recalled it after all these years.

“Before we can care for others, we must care for ourselves.” Saru- New Eden, Stardate: 1027.32

I was gifted a convention t-shirt from a friend who discovered that I never had a FanX shirt before. However, just after taking this photo, I offered it to my geek wife who quickly snatched it up since it had her two favorite colors on it.

I did bump into a gentleman advertising his game galled Delve in Your Pocket by Otherwise, Games. It was a solo RPG that you could keep in your pocket and pull out when needed. It had a dice system that was contained within the text. I’ll have to see if I can complete it. There were a lot of RPG shirts and fans there. I did talk with a few GM groups about coming up to SaltCON. Hopefully we will see some of them there.

I really tried to find other things to buy at the con. At past FanX events, I had found several RPG items to pick up. But for some reason this year was lacking. I will say that the staff was wonderful as well as the added security the event had. I took the time to shake the hand of one Salt Lake police officer who was patrolling the building and thanked him for being there. There were also a lot of police dogs as well.

I am sad about one thing, I had a great time staying at the Plaza Hotel that was right across the street. The convention rate was amazing compared to the other hotels. However this is the last year the hotel will be in operations as it is getting torn down to make way for a parking garage. There is a lot of construction going on downtown for the new entertainment district and the upcoming winter olympics in 2034. This also led to a lot of people wondering about the future of FanX since the Salt Palace will be going under some massive changes over the next few years. At the end of the con, the organizers did announce that the 2026 dates will be September 24-26. So we know there will be a FanX next year. So next year the Seventh Fleet will be returning (and I think we will be back on the vendor floor) with another charity booth. Many thanks to Dan Farr, the staff and the army of volunteers who helped out with this convention.

Did you go to FanX or another nearby convention? 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.

Character Creation Challenge, Collecting, Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

SaltCON-End of Summer 2025 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain September 3, 2025December 1, 2025

When I was thinking about my after-action reports, I almost combined this one with my RPGaDAY 2025 after-action report. However, I realized that they should remain separate as they were both unique events.

SaltCON End-of-Summer 2025 has completed thanks to the many efforts of the volunteers and staff. Having run conventions in the past, I must tip my hat to them. I was talking with one of the volunteers on Sunday and I could tell they were exhausted. They were happy with how the event went, but very tired. I myself had a blast and I had a lot of opportunities to talk with different gaming friends and throw some dice. I also had the opportunity to use the First Aid Kit that I keep in my Convention Backpack. Nothing serious, but I was glad that I was prepared.

I played the following games:

MechWarrior: Destiny was a lot of fun. It was a rules light system and the scenario was pretty straight forward. Get in my mech, go shoot some pirates that had taken over a corporate base (we were hired because we were the closest). I was pretty impressed with how easy this ran. The tactical combat with the mechs was built more for roleplay, but still utilized a hex map. From what I understood, there are more crunchier versions if you just want to beat up other giant mechs. I had a chance to look at the rule-book while we were sitting at the table and if I can find it for a good price, I’ll be very tempted to pick it up.

Dungeon Crawl Classics was a little different from the last time I played it. Instead of being a funnel, we had established level-3 characters. This was being run by a first-time-at-a-convention GM and we all gave him some positive feedback when the session was over. While I didn’t play a magic-user in this one-shot, I did get to see the magic system in action and it looks funky. The randomness and danger from messing around with magic can be appealing for some gamers, but may push others off. When the adventure was over, my fighter character ended up with the MacGuffin we were after known as ‘The Balance Blade.’

I had some fun with Daggerheart and I was able to get my feet wet with it. I liked some things. The hope and fear dice mechanic was interesting and didn’t really turn me off like I thought it would. We had plenty of roleplaying opportunities in the system. The only thing I really didn’t like was the initiative system. If you succeeded with hope, then your side could keep the initiative, but there was no order to go in so someone could go several times (or pass off between the two). It was only when you succeeded (or failed) with fear did imitative move to the opposing side. Like Mechawarrior above, I was able to look through the rule-book at the table. I’ll pick this up if I can get it on a sale, but I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to get it. I also wouldn’t turn down an invite to a game if presented. There is a metric-butt load of fantasy RPGs out there and so I’m not in a rush to play or homebrew for most of them.

My Sunday morning game of Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Prpogramme lived up to the hype. The GM was running it for the first time after picking up the book and our marry troupe was sent by God to spank the Pope because he had been a naughty boy. Now that I’ve had a chance to see the system at the table, I can also say this works for the source material. I could see this system being used for Blackadder as well. One interesting note, the GM didn’t provide pre-generated characters so we had to roll up some before starting the game. Instead of making a new one, he let me play Sir Richard Hammond that I had created in a past Character Creation Challenge. Because I had the unusual dice from the Kickstarter Reward, I had lots of request to use them. But only I used the Coconut Dice Rollers.

I had players for all three of the games that I ran over the weekend:

Basic Fantasy went off better than I expected since this was a home-made adventure. The characters were able to find the missing Guildmaster and complete his quest. I want to polish up the adventure and run it one more time before I submit it to the Basic Fantasy community for possible publication.

This was the most unusual time that I’ve ever run Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition (or any STA game). Because it was a Klingon based scenario where the squad was sent to infiltrate a Dominion outpost during the Dominion War, there was a lot of combat. I GMed more combat in this one-shot more than any of my other STA one-shots combined. I will need to go back and re-read some of the combat rules and probably ask a few questions on the Modiphius discord server. But the characters survived and completed the objective.

I really wish that I had a physical copy of the Space: 1999 Quickstart Rules as I was running the scenario from it. I didn’t want to print out too much from the book as it was graphic heavy (and would have eaten up a lot of the ink in my printer). So I was using the PDF on my tablet which meant a lot of scrolling. Most of the players were familiar with Star Trek Adventures, so I was able to read off some of the slight differences in the rules out loud. And they made sense. Two of the things that I really liked in the rules I plan to adapt to my STA games. When I reported on the Modiphius discord server the results of one of the characters using a photo of his family to calm down a panicked crew member, the writer of the game gave me a thumbs up. The team had lots of fun and one participant played the Space: 1999 opening and closing themes at the appropriate moments in the game. I even got an email from one of the players a few days later telling me how much fun he had at the table.

While I was running Space: 1999, I had someone come up to the table and ask if I’d be willing to run games as a paid GM. I signed up for more information, but I’m kinda-sorta hesitant about making a hobby into a paid thing. I’m sure I’d have fun, but I’d hate to take something fun and turn it into work. I may have to investigate this more.

One of the big reasons to attend a gaming convention is to make connections. Talking with one GM he mentioned that he only ran games that were in print for purchase. He was worried that a player would want a copy of a game after his session. I understood this as I overheard two of my STA players at the Summer SaltCON say they wanted to pick up the 2nd edition core rule-book after playing. Both myself and another player encouraged him to run any game that he wanted to play. Part of the reason to play at a con is to play those games you don’t get a chance to play elsewhere. At past SaltCONs I’ve had a chance to play older out-of-print games like James Bond, Ghostbusters and Red Dwarf. I didn’t get a chance to play, but I passed a table where they were playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition.

A merchant that sells roleplaying books would be smart to find out what games are being ran at SaltCON and sell them at a vendor’s table. I know there has been a few times that I was tempted to pick up a game right after finishing a game. Had Mechawarrior: Destiny been within reach, I would have been seriously tempted to buy it.

Speaking of loot from the con. You can see what I picked up at the convention in the photo above. The Fallout Starter Set was in the game swap (still sealed and a very good price). The convention usually gives away a freebie game to attendees and this time around it was a card game called Flip 7. The family looked interested in trying it out. As a thank you gift for GMing, I was gifted the core rule-book for a game I didn’t know existed. It was called Rivers of London by Chaosium and was based off of a series of novels called, you guessed it, Rivers of London. It reminded me of The Dresden Files but with police officers investigating wizards and magic crimes. And the convention t-shirt had a robot playing a game on a red background.

Overall I had a ton of fun. I can see where the organizers are putting their heart and soul into a gaming convention like this one. The next SaltCON is the big one in the spring and will be held at the same Davis Convention Center on March 12-14. I’ve been trying to recruit some friends to come and GM at the convention because I think they would have fun as well.

Character Creation Challenge, Conventions, Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Star Wars

RPGaDAY2025 Day 29: Connect

Written by TardisCaptain August 29, 2025August 27, 2025

It’s time to link up for Day 29 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge and our topic is ‘connect’. Roleplaying games are social events. Sure, there are solo games, and video games. But when it comes down to it, sitting around a table and seeing the faces of the other players, hearing the inflection in their voices, making memories, it’s infectious. It is one of the main reasons we play our different games. We get to geek out with someone that has a common bond. We get to yell at little pieces of plastic when they don’t roll the right number. We get to wear robes and chant from ancient texts… wait, did I give away too much? (No, that doesn’t happen. Bad Carl for making a joke again.)

So, how do you connect with other gamers. Well in this day and age, it’s a lot easier than it was previously. Here are a few suggestions to connect with fellow dice throwers.

Go to your local game store. Most game stores worth their salt will have events where you can meet up. The more people play the game, the more games that they can sell. Sure, a lot of their gaming events are of the collectible card variety. But most will allow you to schedule an RPG session or two there. Meeting in a public place may get you some additional players for your campaigns as people may be more comfortable than going to someone’s home that they don’t know. I’ve also noticed a trend that more smaller game stores are setting up discord servers as a way to connect members of the gaming community together. Some may have Facebook pages, but there’s been a bit of a push back on using that social media platform with the weird algorithms that they keep pushing.

If there is a gaming convention near you, check it out. My time at SaltCON has lead to exchanging information with a lot of local gamers. It also included a one-shot invitation to a D6 Star Wars RPG by WEG and writers sending me their games to get my feedback. And, as I’ve recently said, I really needed the community at SaltCON during this troubling year.

I mentioned discord earlier. There are a lot of discord servers that are put out for the gaming community. I even have one for my blog that is gaining some traction (thanks guys). Several publishers have their own discord servers. I’ve received some feedback from publishers to my reviews and Character Creation Challenge entries via discord. I know that Basic Fantasy still uses a message board. Two good message boards with lots of activity is the one on RPG.net and RPGPub. And yes, even with the pitfalls that Facebook has, there are a lot of gaming sites on it. I’m on some of the MeWe gaming groups, but that hasn’t caught as much attention. And I’ve been very impressed with the gaming community on BlueSky. All of these have options to find players in your area. When I posted on the Modiphius discord server that I was running a Star Trek Adventures 2e one-shot, a gentleman from two counties distant drove up to play. If I had access to these resources in the 90’s (the closest we came were local BBSes) I would have loved it.

And probably the best way to get someone to game with you is talk with your friends. Pick an RPG system that you can explain the rules in under two minutes and show your excitement for the game. If the rules are too complex to explain, they might not jump on board as fast. But try to emphasize the fun that can be had around the table.

Are there other methods that you’d recommend for connecting with fellow RPG gamers? 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.