Category: Dungeons and Dragons

Posted in: Dungeons and Dragons, Red Dwarf, Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2025 Day 1: Patron

Written by TardisCaptain

Welcome to the month of August. I didn’t get a chance to do a “Prepping for…” blog post (damn real life getting in the way) but I’m planning to participate in the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge as coordinated by David F. Chapman. As you can see in the image above, there are 31 different topics to inspire discussion. There are also additional Questions, Moods and Subjects. I might use these if the topic fails to get my fingers typing. This morning I’ve had a chance to read a few other blog posts that were participating and I think it triggered some ideas in my brain. So, without further adieu, here is my first entry.

Patron: For some, this term evokes the Warlock Class from the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons. A spell-caster has a pact with some sort of patron that provides them with the power to use as they see fit. Another use of the term Patron is the subscription service that I see advertised on various websites, podcasts, blogs and videographers. I haven’t really used this service as a sender or a receiver. What are your impressions of this? The Merriam-Webster dictionary tells us that a patron can be a special guardian, protector or supporter.

The inspiration that hit me while reading the other entries was the player character being a patron. Not just giving someone else ‘power’ but more like a mentor position. Consider the following ideas:

The Wanna-Be Magician: What if a mid-to-high level non-Warlock magic-user suddenly found out that someone wants to learn the ways of sorcery (or Jedi powers) from them? Perhaps this person was assigned to them by a guild or magic school so they couldn’t just dismiss the person outright. Perhaps this apprentice could be an eager beaver wanting to impress their superiors, a brat of a rich family who thinks that they are already destined for greatness, someone scared of the powers they might obtain, etc. The NPC options are endless and could make for an interesting addition to a mid-to-high level magic-user.

The Voices in my Head: I’ve thought about springing this on players previously, but it never came up in a scenario that it could be properly role-played. The player character (could be any genre) reaches for an ancient artifact, statue, scroll, tchotchke and gets an electric shock. When they recover, they can hear a voice in their head of a long lost archeologist/wizard/supernatural being/etc. that only they can hear. I wanted to have this happen to a strong non-learning character (barbarian, mercenary, etc.) on purpose. Perhaps they felt the stronger character would protect their conscious/spirit/??? and help them achieve their goals. Not following the instructions of the voice, could lead to madness, but the voice could be helpful in sticky situations.

The Next Next Generation: For Star Trek Adventures or any space opera style game with a structured fleet, the characters could be assigned a junior officer that they need to mentor. Like the Command Training Program or younger Ensigns asking Lieutenants for help as seen on Star Trek: Lower Decks. Space navies always need to have officers fresh out of the academy mentored by seasoned officers in real-world scenarios.

Training the Peaceful Villagers: “Across that valley lies an army of darkness such as mankind has never seen. The only thing between them and total victory is this pathetic pocket of resistance. Without a leader, without a plan. Into this bleak arena steps a man, the man for the moment.” Rimmer- Meltdown, Red Dwarf Series IV, Episode 6. The characters can be samurai, gunfighters or even an obnoxious, trumped-up, farty little smeghead who need to train a group of common people into a fighting force. They may not be much of a fighting force, but with the character’s help, they just might pull it off. And who knows, if they survive, perhaps they will want to become followers of the seven… err… characters.

Are there other ideas? Did I miss a possible patron opportunity to put the characters into? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Collecting, Comic Books, Conventions, Doctor Who, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Ogden-Con Spring 2025 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain
Some cheap loot I picked up at Ogden-Con 2025

So last year I talked about attending my first Ogden-Con, a local small event convention. If I understand this correctly, this is the third year for this event. There was a Christmas version of Ogden-Con last December, which was a ‘mini’ version of the event. But, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it to see how it compared.

Like last year’s event, this was put together by Rudy Entertainment. There was no charge to get into the event this year. And there were several other changes as well which showed small steps needed to grow the event. I think this is a good way to do this so that you don’t get project creep pushing the event beyond the capabilities of the organizers and volunteers. I’ve seen smaller events with some good ideas get too overloaded which either burned out the people or ran out of funding.

It was still at the Comfort Inn Ogden Conference Center (located in West Haven, not Ogden) and one of the changes was the addition of food trucks outside the event. I had forgotten that this was planned as I had grabbed some food on the way in. I wish I had remembered since one of the food trucks had chili dogs. Another change was the opening of an additional conference room that contained some gaming elements (see photos below). This was primarily Warhammer tactical gaming with a lot of miniatures. There was also a cosplay contest that was held in a very interesting manner. The participants signed up and when it came time for the judging, the coordinator went to the different vendors and asked them what costume they thought was best. So if you visited the different tables and booths, you were seen more. While the wrestling group had returned, there was no wrestling ring set up this year. Probably because there were more vendors this time around. I actually ran into a former manager of a gaming/comic store that I had a hold with back in the mid to late 2000’s. He had recognized me while I was talking with the convention chair. We were able to reminisce about some old times.

As you can see from the photo above, I came away with some good treasures. Like last year, the bulk of vendors were selling comics. Some had some graded comics protected in collector boxes, but there was a lot of $1.00 comic boxes. It was these that I went through and I found some older items that I was looking for as well as some surprising new titles. I also found some good deals on collector cards that were very low priced. These included cards from Doctor Who and a Star Trek behind the scenes card set. I did see a vendor with some older Dungeons and Dragons modules from the 80’s, but they were graded and in protection boxes (and a little higher than what I was willing to pay). There were also several local artists who were drawing and displaying their latest works. A few toy vendors, a company that could 3D print you as a figure and other collectables. A raffle was also being held with some very good prizes, but again I had limited funds at the time.

It was a relaxing small event. I’m discovering that I enjoy these more as I get to talk with more people than I do at a large mass gathering. I’m also not so overwhelmed that I want to escape as soon as I can. I’ve noticed that I’ve been buying more from these smaller events as well. Speaking of buying, make sure you bring some cash with you when you attend a smaller con like this. Some of the vendors are just people selling their private collections and don’t even have venmo, paypal or a credit card reader.

So moving forward, the con chair/owner did talk with me about having the USS Ticonderoga run a charity booth at a future event. They are planning for an October event (no date yet) probably at the same location. I let him know that this would be a charity booth just like we do at other conventions. With the extra room, I could see some RPG sessions or other tactical games being set up. From what I’ve seen, the two conference rooms are the only ones at this facility so there really isn’t room for a panel track. But a track set up with local volunteers or businesses would be a possible idea. Yea, I don’t want to see too much project creep, but I’m certain that one of these could be a future baby-step for the convention.

I would strongly suggest setting up a website for the event, nothing too flashy, just the basic information needed for attendees to find out more. The Facebook posts are kind of hard to find since they are under the Rudy Entertainment account. Not everyone is on Facebook. I’ve also seen flyers at some of the local comic stores. I know that after the event I swung by a few other geek stores and one owner asked if the event was still going on Sunday as he wanted to come check it out. Unfortunately it was only a one-day event (again baby steps, I think one day is the best for this event).

Here are some other photos I took at Ogden-Con.

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.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

2025 Character Creation Challenge Day 27: For Gold & Glory

Written by TardisCaptain

If you are looking for my 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge after action report with completion graphic, it will be posted when I’m caught up from being put behind by real-life events. If you made it to 31 characters, email me or privately contact me on one of the message boards or social media and I’ll make sure you get the graphic. Thank you for participating.

After the disaster that was yesterday’s entry, I’m using a system that will seem like an old friend for day 27 of the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Today I am using For Gold & Glory which is a retro-clone of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition. Now I had created an AD&D 2nd edition character in an earlier character creation challenge so I’m interested to see how this might differ.

The For Gold & Glory PDF is 384 pages long and was edited by Justen Brown. This is version 2.0.1 of this game that was released in June 2016. The armor class is given in descending values and uses THAC0. The character sheet is two pages long and the character creation process starts on page 6.

Being a D20 based game it has the standard ability scores of STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS and CHA. The first step listed is generating the ability scores. There are four methods listed. Traditional (roll 3d6 in order), Contemporary (4d6 and drop the lowest number then assign to attribute). New Age (roll 4d4+2 six times and assign) I wonder if I need to be playing Yanni if I do this one? Then there is a Points System for Method IV. Characters have 60+4d4 points to assign to their abilities. I’m not a fan of the points system in character creation, but I am interested in trying the New Age method that I’ve never seen or tried before. So let’s see what we get with that. Interesting, nothing was below 12 and nothing above a 14 by the time I had generated the stats. I didn’t have any class in mind when I started rolling as I wanted to see if the dice would lead me in one direction. The AD&D 2nd edition character was a wizard. I wanted to make an Illusionist, but even with any racial ability modifiers I didn’t think that I’d meet the minimum requirements (see afterthoughts below). So I selected a Human Cleric. Which is also the 2nd and 3rd steps in the character creation process. I wrote down the appropriate languages, THAC0, savings throws and other information provided so far. As a new cleric they automatically get a wooden holy symbol for equipment.

The fourth step is to select an alignment. This book uses the nine alignments from Lawful Good to Chaotic Evil. I didn’t find anything about pantheons within these pages, but I would assume that this unnamed character would match his alignment to his deity. Plucking something out of the air the deity is going to be Apollo (a god of travel according to one of my quick internet searches) and the alignment is going to be Neutral Good. Since it seems like this is turning into a Roman campaign, I pulled up a random name generator for ancient Roman names and selected Marcus Dexsius Arcavius.

Steps five and six are to choose the skills of Marcus. At first level there are a series of skill points for combat skills. A Cleric has 2 points. According to the rules, I can pick two weapons, or I can choose a weapon group for 2 points that would give Marcus a proficiency in all the weapons listed for that class on Table 5.2 on page 31. The Club Class gives him training in Club, Morning Star and War Hammer. I’m going to go with that one. If the character had 3 combat skill points, he could have chosen a weapon by type (slashing, bludgeoning or piercing). But only the Warrior classes have 4 combat skill points. Additional skill points can be earned when the character reaches higher levels. The fighters also had access to buy combat methods like hurled weapon, brawling, shield bash or dual-weapon.

With the non-combat skills, a character rolls a d20 against their ability score (and adjusts it by any bonus or penalties from that ability score) and if the roll is equal or less then the character succeeds in the task. In the character generation process. As a a member of the Priest classes, Marcus has 4 starting skill points and gets one every 3rd level advancement. Marcus also gets a pre-game trade skill that they performed before starting their life as an adventurer. For this, I selected Brewing that he learned from his father before he entered the priesthood of Apollo. I picked the other four skills that I thought this character would know.

Equipment is usually the end of the character creation process. I made sure to get the starting money right after messing up on my Old School Essentials entry I made sure to roll 2d6x10 for this priest (I rolled 70 GP). There was a special rule that once I was done picking equipment that he was only allowed to keep 1d3 GP. The rest must be donated to the church. I wonder how this affects finding treasure? The book listed standard equipment first so I scrolled down to weapons and armor since those were usually the most expensive.

I realized that the Turn Undead and Spells section were blank, so I found them and filled them in. I think I’m done. Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

Reading through the classes I was thinking about making an Illusionist. I don’t think I’ve rolled one up yet. However when I looked at the Specialist Mage section it had conflicting information. The Ability requirement on page 21 was INT 9+, but table 3.10 (specialist wizard restrictions) on the same page showed a minimum score of 16 DEX. So I abandoned that idea and chose another class.

The combat skills were interesting to read. I don’t recall if I saw these in AD&D 2nd edition. It’s been so long since I’ve actually played that so I don’t recall at all. If I get some time, I’ll have to look it up. But if a helpful reader wants to throw some wisdom my way, I’d be very grateful.

I wish they had put the turning ability with the cleric class description.

I wonder if running a FG&G one-shot at a convention would generate some sign-ups? I’d probably have to make a cheat sheet for the game to place on the table.

Additional Notes:

I had quite a few of you respond to my blog post about failing to make a character for The Strange. Apparently several other people experienced the same level of frustration that I had encountered. I’m glad to know that I wasn’t alone on that.

Coming Up Next:

Planet of the Apes

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

2025 Character Creation Challenge Day 21: Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy

Written by TardisCaptain

Day 21 of the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge and I’m going to create a character using the Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy book from Necrotic Gnome. This is a clone of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition which I used to create a character in a past challenge. This PDF from DriveThruRPG also includes the expansion with extra classes, optional rules and spells. There are 257 pages in the PDF and the character sheet is two-pages.

This is a standard D20 clone so it uses the ability scores that we should be familiar with. The character creation options are listed on page 14. There is a basic, advanced an optional character creation option. The basic option states that the class selected also determines the character’s race. If you pick an Elf or Gnome, that is both your race and your class. If you pick a Fighter, Thief or one of the other regular classes, then you are a Human. In the advanced option your race and class are separate (which is how I remember it in AD&D1e). In the optional rules, you still create the character with the two methods just mentioned, but there is an option for secondary skills and weapon proficiency. I think I’m going to let the dice decide. If I roll an even, it’s basic and odd will be advanced. I rolled a five so we are going with the advanced option. On page 16 is a step by step guide for basic creation and on page 18 is the guide for advanced creation.

Step 1 is to roll the ability scores. 3d6 is rolled for each ability. It doesn’t have an option to choose so I’m assuming that we are going down the line. There is a note about sub-par characters with ability scores of 8 or less results discarding all of those rolls and starting again. Let’s see how we do. Actually rolled pretty well and with a high strength, I guess we are making a fighter. This is how it was originally done, roll and then select the class from the abilities.

Step 2 is to pick a race and then adjust the ability scores from the racial descriptions. Our options are Drow (dark Elves), Duergar (grey Dwarves), Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Half-Elf, Halfling, Half-Orc, Human, and Svirfneblin (deep Gnome). Some of these races had minimum requirements that my low CON roll of 8 didn’t meet. So my only options were Drow, Elf, Half-Orc and Human. If I have made an Half-Orc in a past challenge, I haven’t made one in a while. So we are going with that one. I added/subtracted the ability modifiers and wrote down the languages and other abilities. It also listed which classes were available for this race, luckily Fighter was one of them.

Step 3 choose a Class. As mentioned above, I’m selecting a Fighter for this yet-to-be-named Half-Orc.

Step 4 is to adjust the ability scores. Only the STR, INT or WIS can be lowered by 2 for 1 point addition to another ability score. I could drop my WIS by 2 and add the 1 to STR to give me a higher modifier. Yea, I want this guy to be tough so I’m doing it. I really can’t drop my INT because it would go below the minimum of 9 in the adjustment formula.

Step 5 is to note the ability score modifiers now that they are set. I wrote them down.

Step 6 is to note the attack values. Warning, warning, there is a THAC0 involved. While there is an option to use the Ascending AC I’m going to stick with the THAC0 since I haven’t seen it in a while.

Step 7 is to note the savings throws and class/race abilities. There is a listing for weapon proficiencies here as well, but I’m not following that path today.

Step 8 is rolling Hit Points. Unfortunately I can’t add any CON bonus as there isn’t one. But there is an optional rule to re-roll any 1s or 2s for the first-level character. I had rolled a 5.

Choose alignment. The only options were Lawful, Neutral or Chaotic. Had this been an actual organized game I would have inquired with the GM. So on this challenge entry I’ll just use Neutral.

Step 10 is to list down the known languages that the character knows. Since the INT score isn’t high enough to add any new languages, this unknown character only knows what his race and class lists. Alignment, Common and Orcish.

Step 11 is purchasing equipment. I see the familiar 3d6x10 for starting gold and rolled it. Luckily the Fighter can use all weapons, shields and armor.

Now that we’ve got our equipment. Step 12 is to note the AC of the character. I included the DEX bonus.

Step 13 is to note the level (first) and XP (zero). I also noted that the character needed 2,000 XP to reach second level and that he gets a +10% bonus due to primary attribute bonus.

Step 14 is an optional step for Secondary Skill. I looked at the list and it was randomly rolled on a d100. Sure lets see what we get. A 73 shows a… Miner? I’m, sure I guess. Perhaps he was a slave before he escaped the mines?

The last step is to name the character. I pulled up a random Half-Orc name generator and selected Thamar. Sounds good enough. I transferred my notes to the character sheet and scanned it.

Afterthoughts:

I like how the character sheet lists information on how to use the ability check and savings throws. I remember suddenly needing to look them up during some games in the past.

I ended up rolling for 1,000 starting GP. (5+2+3=10 x 100) and the costs of the equipment, armor and weapons left a lot of GP for a starting character. I wonder if this was correct? I went back to the AD&D 1e players handbook and the starting money ranged from 5 to 200 GP on page 35. I thought it was a little strange.

Additional Notes:

I had something really good happen today that has caused me to switch out one of my games that I was going to use in an upcoming Character Creation Challenge entry. I don’t want to announce it now, but you’ll know it when it’s posted. I’m quite excited by this.

Coming Up Next:

GI Joe

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Collecting, Dungeons and Dragons, Reviews

Red Dragon Dice Keeper Review

Written by TardisCaptain
The front of the box.

December 4th is National Dice Day. I’ve already posted most of my dice in previous blog posts. So instead of showing some more dice, I thought I’d break open the seal on a dice holder I obtained several years ago.

This is the Dungeons and Dragons Red Dragon Die Keeper that was sent out in a Loot Crate back in 2018 (at least, that is what the copy-write says on the box). I don’t recall how I obtained this. I didn’t get a Loot Crate, it was part of some trade or a gift where I obtained some other geeky items at the same time. Since it wasn’t the primary thing I wanted in the trade, it went on the shelf for this fateful day. I walked past it just as I was thinking “what should I blog about for National Dice Day?” I’ll take the inspiration where I can.

Here is the text from the back of the box.

The box is a little over three inches wide and just under three inches tall. Red is a very prominent color for the packaging. While I was looking this over, I was curious of how much this collectable would have set me back. I couldn’t find it on Amazon, but on Ebay it appeared to be between $15 to $30 US.

AAAHHHH!!!! You took it out of the box?!?!?

Just before I opened up the package, I noted that the text stated that it included one figure and one D20. That’s kewl. The last dice keeper/jail that I reviewed didn’t have any dice with it. There is a protective plastic sleeve that comes apart (after a little bit of effort) to reveal the figure and die.

Foolish mortal. You have freed me from my containment.

As you can probably see, there is some detail on the scales on this figure. Not a lot of color. It’s a dark red with yellow eyes. On the bottom of the base it confirms that this was made in China for Loot Crate, but it was designed in Los Angeles. So this is a Southern California Dragon. DUDE!!!!

Dis is mine… all mine.

I wanted to see how it would work as a dice keeper. There is a horn/growth sticking out from the bottom of the dragon’s chin. It took a bit of work to get the D20 situated in the keeper. Don’t expect a quick in or out if you are using this at the table. It’s a light plastic figure, but I was worried that I was going to snap off the front part that holds the die in place.

Um… that’s too big for me. But I love the color.

I noticed how light the D20 felt. It was then that I realized the D20 was also smaller than what I was use to. So I pulled out a D20 from my standard Chessex dice set and compared them side by side. The black D20 rolled OK, but not being part of another set, I don’t know if I’d get a lot of use out of it. I’ll keep it with the figurine to keep the two parts together instead of adding it to my dice bag.

Conclusion: The figure looks kewl. I could see myself placing this down on a battle mat before my unsuspecting players. The die is nothing special. It’s just there as part of the set. As a dice holder itself, well it will hold a die, but like any dragon, it won’t give it up easily. So display or figure, not really a quick grab from the holder device. I don’t think I would have paid more than $15 for this. But I am happy that I have it in my collection.

Happy National Dice Day everyone. Now I need to write up a scenario where the party encounters a dragon. Hmmm…

Do you have any questions about the Red Dragon Dice Keeper? Feel free to ask me about them. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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

A look at the Time Magazine D&D Special

Written by TardisCaptain
The cover to the Time Magazine Dungeons and Dragons special edition

So walking through a local drugstore I finally saw my first copy of the Time Magazine Special Edition on Dungeons and Dragons. The history of this roleplaying game was interesting enough for me to pick this up as a curiosity buy. I’m going to take a look through this magazine and see if it was worth the $14.99 cover price.

This special edition will be displayed on stands until December 6, 2024. The editor-in-chief is Sam Jacobs. The magazine itself has 96 pages. I couldn’t find an edition number but the bardcode on the front of my issue was 0 70989 10230 9 (ISBN number?) As with all Time Magazines, it has the red border on the cover. There are no advertisements in this magazine.

There is an introduction, four sections and a last page about the dragon. The introduction (titled “Storied Roots”) talks about the literary influences that helped Dungeons and Dragons. It also talked about the days of wargaming in the 1960’s that influenced Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and the early development of Chainmail.

The first chapter is titled Origins. Some of the information is similar to the Storied Roots listed above, with a little bit more detail. It was interesting to read some of the history contained in this section. I wasn’t aware that Gary Gygax’s four-year old daughter came up with the name “Dungeons and Dragons”. There was more information on the “satanic panic” that happened in the 80’s, the departure of Gygax and the development of 2nd and 3rd editions. I’m not surprised that in this history, they didn’t even mention fourth edition. A timeline is provided in this chapter, which was interesting.

The second chapter talks about D&D on the screen. The first section is about Critical Role, which I’ll admit, I’ve never seen. While I’ve watched a few “how to play” videos on YouTube when trying to learn a new system, just watching someone else play is kind of depressing. Because I want to play myself. So I kind of skipped this section for now, but I intend to go back and read it in detail so that I can understand. Then there was an article about Stranger Things (a show I’ve only seen a hand full of episodes of) and one about Vecna. Finally there was an article about the recent Dungeons and Dragons movie that just came out. Now this one I’ve seen. I was a little surprised that there wasn’t anything more on the inspirational Dungeons and Dragons animated show from the 80’s in this section. I watched the heck out of that series.

I’ve reached the third chapter titled “Modern Ventures”. This discusses the reach of D&D into other business realms. This includes dice, video games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and other partnerships in the merchandising that I wasn’t aware of. It was an interesting read.

The last chapter, Healing Words, talks about how playing rolepaying games can be therapeutic. This is something that I’ve told other people for years. I’ve had one DM that would use D&D to help teach math to younger players. There were two articles in this chapter.

Alright, now that I’ve had a chance to go through the magazine, I can see where there will be some sections that I’ll get a chance to learn something. I enjoyed reading the history sections (and I would like to read more). I can see where some sections could have been expanded (more on B/X or BECMI, the animated series, etc.) but I also understand that there is a limit in the printed medium. So, I am happy that I picked up this issue as I’ll be giving it a deep read soon.

Do you have any questions about the Time Magazine special? Feel free to ask me about them. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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

BX Advanced Bestiary Vol. 2 a KickStarter reward

Written by TardisCaptain
The covers of the BX Advanced Bestiary Vol 1 and Vol 2.

So a package arrived for me while I was at the recent SaltCON. This was another Kickstarter reward that provided me with a physical hardbound copy of the BX Advanced Bestiary Volume Two. This book covered monsters E-K. As you can see above, I had backed the earlier Kickstarter for the BX Advanced Bestiary Volume One that I reviewed in 2023.

The book is 133 pages long (same length as the first volume). The ISBN number is 2370020959793 and was published by Third Kingdom Games in 2024. It was written by Todd Leback, edited by Brian Johnson and contains art from Adrian Barber, Carlos Castilho, Denis McCarthy, Francesco Accordi, Hodag RPG, Marco Ortiz Walters, Michelle Smallwood and Teresa Guido. I appreciate that actual artists were used for this publication. It is one of the reasons that I elected to back this Kickstarter campaign.

The cover states that it is designed for used with Old-School Essentials, but it could be used for any OSR style game like Basic Fantasy, Castles and Crusades, OSRIC, Swords and Wizardry and others. Armor class is listed with both ascending and descending numbers.

A sample of some of the monsters included in this book.

This book covers about a 100 monsters from Efreet to Killer Bee with variants for each entry. One of the more interesting entries covers the horse. Not only does it give stats for different horse types (magical and non-magical) but it also gives random charts for markings, descriptions and traits. Something that could make a campaign a little bit more interesting.

Just as in the first book, there are several alternate rules for OSR type games at the start of the book and two new character races developed from the monsters in the book. You could play an awakened giant ferret or a Loxen (elephant-folk). There are also several new spells in the back of the book. The final appendix includes encounter tables and a combined Monsters by HD that covers Vol 1 and 2.

Another sample page showing the Ghoul Lord.

Like the first book, this was an interesting read. As with any small publisher, there was a slip up or two in the editing, but overall I’m very pleased with the reward for backing this Kickstarter. It gave me several ideas that I could drop into a campaign. I’m looking forward to volume three being announced hopefully next year.

Have you backed any Kickstarters lately? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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

RPGaDAY2024 Day 31: Game or Gamer you miss

Written by TardisCaptain

We made it to Day 31 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. It’s kind of a sad one in a way. The subject is Game or Gamer you miss. Unfortunately no one lives forever and I’ve lost a few friends in my life. Roger, Rex, Richard, Marcus. I miss you guys and I wish I could hear your jokes around the table again. Thankfully there are a lot of gaming buddies that I just haven’t had a chance to play with in a while who are still with us. Jeff, Gibby, Andrew, Jill, Erin, Libby, Kevin and others, if we can get anything arranged, I’d love it. Even if its on a virtual table.

As for a game that I miss, I’d love a chance to play the West End Games D6 Star Wars once again. I have many memories of past games. To try the FASA Star Trek or Doctor Who game once more would be a dream. I’d never turn down almost any variant of Dungeons and Dragons. Especially if it was an older version that I hadn’t played in quite some time. But I’d be willing to play almost any system just to hear the dice rattle on the table again.

Do you have a gamer that you miss? Is there a game you’d love to play again (even as just a one-shot)? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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

Prepping for SaltCON End-of-Summer 2024

Written by TardisCaptain
Remember, Krom am hate you!

I’ve been doing more than just participating in the #RPGaDAY2024 challenge this month. I’ve been prepping for the SaltCON End-of-Summer gaming convention that happens at the end of every August. One of the first things that is different is that I’m planning to attend a couple of panels this time around. I don’t recall if there were panels at the past SaltCONs that I’ve attended. But I’ve signed up to listen to “Game Mastering Tips from One Shots to Multi-Year Campaigns” and “Sharing Your Gaming Experience Through Blogging & Podcasting” (hmm… I wonder why this last one sounds interesting). There is also a panel about horror gaming but the system wouldn’t let me “snag a ticket” for it because it conflicted with a game that will be ending up just as the panel starts. So hopefully I’ll be able to check that out as well as horror gaming confuses me a little bit. I don’t know how I’d get scared sitting comfortably at a table with friends?

This time around I’m not going to the convention alone. I signed up to run some extra games so that I could get an extra ticket to the event. So a member of my family will be joining me this weekend for some of the games. You can read about my past adventures at SaltCON in my past blog entries. I will be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented in a previous blog post.

I’ve signed up to run three games for the end-of-summer event. I had a lot of good responses to my last Basic Fantasy one-shot, so I’ve lined up another one on Friday. According to the scheduling system almost all of the slots are gone. On Saturday I’ll be running a Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition one-shot. The players will be members of the USS Challenger crew. And finally on Sunday I’m running an experiment. I go to these conventions to try out new games. That doesn’t mean that I can’t try running something new as well. So, I’m going to run a “Lets Learn” session where I bring a game that both the GM and players can try out for the first time. For this convention I’ve selected the comedy RPG Ork! 2nd Edition. The players will see if their un-named Orks can survive the gunk pit and sent on a mission against the squishy mans. There are still slots open for these last two games.

Of the games that I’ve signed up to play they include Savage Worlds Deadlands. The GM is the person who gave me a quick demo at the SaltCON Summer and I’m interested to see how it works out at the table. There is also a D&D 5th edition game that has a cat in it, so the person coming with me wanted to play in that game. They also wanted to play Fallout with me so we will be at that table on Saturday.

I know it doesn’t sound like many games. But SaltCON End-of-Summer is only three days instead of the spring event which has four. But, I’m looking forward to sitting down with some friends (or soon-to-be new friends) and throwing some dice. I wonder if I’ll find any RPG bargains in the game swap? Look for the after-action report soon.

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.

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

RPGaDAY2024 Day 27: Marvelous Miniature

Written by TardisCaptain

And here we are on Day 27 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge and we’ve been asked to talk about Marvelous Miniatures. OK, confession time. I love playing around the table with a battle mat spread out a hand-drawn map and miniatures or standees representing our characters and the bad-guys we were thumping. However I’ve never been a big collector of the miniatures. I’ve got a few that I’ll show photos of in this blog post, but when it came to running a game for my daughter and her friends or GMing at SaltCON, I borrowed the collection of plastic miniatures that my DM friend has been slowly gathering for years. I’m very grateful that he’s been willing to let me use them on an odd-weekend. Another friend who participates in a few Star Trek Adventures games has a done the same thing with various Star Trek miniatures. I really need to get a better collection of my own if I’m going to GM more even if they are used for another genre than what they were created for. There were a few times that the stormtrooper minis stood in for the orcs we were fighting in our past D&D 3.5 campaign.

So for this blog entry I pulled out the two boxes of miniatures that I still had in my collection after many, many moves. I had realized when I was taking the pictures that I hadn’t opened up these boxes in years (and possibly even more than a decade). So it was interesting to look these over and handle the metal pieces again. I don’t think I painted these. I just don’t have the patience or the setup to even attempt painting. But I do admire a very well painted miniature when I see one.

Hmmm… I’m sensing a theme here with these two boxes. Both FASA and West End Games had a large number of miniatures for their respective games. The boxes are battered, but are still intact and not splitting in the corners.

Here are some of the minis that were inside the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan boxed set. It primarily focused on the Regular 1 space station crew. It included both characters and computers. None of them were painted.

When I opened the Star Wars box, I found this miniature still in it’s package. The plastic is brittle and cracked along the top, but still connected to the backing. I believe that I was intending to use this to represent a character in a past Dungeons and Dragons game.

In the Star Wars Bounty Hunters boxed set was these miniatures. As I mentioned above, I don’t think I painted these minis with how shaded some of them are. The big guy with the spikes (in the middle) is obviously from another set and I think the guy in gold and green is also from another manufacturer. All of the figures are loose, but I have them wrapped up in some foamy paper.

If I expand my collection of miniatures to a usable set, I’ll be sure to post about it here. Are there miniatures that you remember from your gaming sessions? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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