Category: Friends

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Conventions, Fan Club, Friends, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2024 Day 17: An engaging RPG community

Written by TardisCaptain

Hmmm… an interesting topic for Day 17 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. An engaging RPG community. As humans, we are social creatures. We need to bond together with others that share similar interests. This is why we gather together in clubs, such as Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet for Star Trek fans, or organizations. I remember being in a RPG club back in the 80’s that was being run through a local gaming store. Later I remember there being the Gaming Clubhouse that was next to Comics Utah in Sugarhouse.

In our current days of the internet, I think that meeting up with gamers at local comic stores and conventions is still the best way to meet fellow RPG enthusiasts. Something about the face-to-face brings about a bond that isn’t quite there with online interactions. However I’m not an old-man yelling at a cloud and I have enjoyed meeting people online as well. Participating in challenges such as the RPGaDAY and the Character Creation Challenge has helped me find quite a few good blogs, message boards and social media connections.

If you are looking on social media, do a search for the hashtags that are associated with the gaming community such as: #TTRPG, #RolePlaying, #RPG, #RPGaDAY or #CharacterCreationChallenge. By following these on BlueSky and Mastodon I’ve been able to interact with quite a few other RPGers. On Facebook I always submit my entries to I’d Rather Be Killing Monsters, RPG Blog Hub and others. Sometimes there are groups for specific titles. Sorry I don’t have links for these, I don’t really access Facebook on my computer. Reddit has also become a goldmine for RPG connectivity. Like Facebook, there are also specialized communities for different RPG titles on there. And I’ve become very involved in the RPG scene on Discord. I love being able to follow Discord servers of RPG publishers and Bloggers/Youtubers. Yes, there are also a lot of good Youtube videos as well.

Some of the message boards that I’ve interacted with include the RPG.net Forums and RPG PUB. There are others that pop up during the Character Creation Challenge that I’ve linked to in January. There have also been some Star Trek RPG message boards that I wish were more active like Old School Trek.

Connecting with fellow bloggers has also helped. Some of these are (and not limited to) Barking Alien, Gaming with the Gnomies, The Other Side and more. If you search around there are a ton of blogs about a wide variety of subjects. If you are looking for a good one specifically about Star Trek Adventures, I’d recommend Continuing Mission.

So there is opportunity to find an engaging community both in real life and cyberspace. Do you have a community that you would like to recommend? 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, Friends, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2024 Day 13: Evocative Environments

Written by TardisCaptain

The topic for Day 13 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge is Evocative Environments. I pull up a search engine and learn that Evocative means “To bring an especially emotional response.” So a good memory of an RPG environment that comes to my mind?

I think I’m going to talk about the physical (and not-so-physical) environments that I’ve played in the past. For myself, one of the biggest reasons I want to participate in this hobby is the friendships that I make with my fellow players. Obviously a good gaming environment will enhance the joy of the games we play.

Private Environments: Gaming at my house or the house of a friend. In my humble opinion, this is the best option for gaming. Either myself or someone I know very well is in charge of the room, the times available, what can be brought in for food, etc. This is the one that I find most relaxing, especially if I’m the person doing the hosting. At the previous house we lived in we had a near-perfect setup for a gaming area. The new house that I moved into several years ago isn’t quite there yet, not without attempts from my wife and I. I’d love to get back into a position where we could host a monthly or every-other-week game again. I did host a game when I introduced my daughter’s 5E playing friends to an OSR game.

Public Environments: Back in the 90’s I know that a group or two tried to game at an all night diner. However they tend to frown on you if you stay for more than a couple of hours without ordering a ton of food. We quickly learned that this wasn’t a solution to our gaming location needs. Then and now I’ve gamed in local gaming stores. There have been quite a few over the years that realized that bringing in gamers help drive sales. However if the store gets popular, it can lead to another layer of scheduling issues. Sometimes you can bring in your own food, sometimes you cannot. It would depend upon the store ownership. This isn’t a bad option, but may have it’s own set of challenges. Playing at a park is also a major challenge as well. Especially as more gaming environments are needing electricity for laptops and tablets. I know I’ve tried them in the past and we didn’t continue with that option.

Online Environments: I’ve tried and attempted a few online campaigns. I’ve mentioned a previous Starfinder campaign that I did with friends. While the system was OK, gaming with friends was great, but I will never use Fantasy Grounds again as the program sucked to high heaven. Later I was in a Far Trek campaign over Roll20. Being browser-based program it ran 1000% better than the Fantasy Grounds disaster. In both games we used Discord as our method of in and out-of game communication. As I mentioned on my Day 2 RPGaDAY2024 entry I was going to be in a Castles and Crusades campaign that was just about to start on The Foundry VTT, but the Castle Keeper had to cancel after too many scheduling issues came up. I was looking forward to both the C&C system and learning about The Foundry. While in-person gaming is my first choice when sitting down to play, I won’t turn down an online game as long as it’s not on Fantasy Grounds and if we have a good session zero to learn about the (hopefully) new gaming friends that I’m going to play with.

Convention Environments: I’ve become an addict to playing at my local SaltCON gaming convention. Not only am I playing, but I even broke my “no volunteering” rule that I had originally set up for this con and started running games for them. I also like the fact that I’ve been able to network with local (and sometimes not local) members of the gaming community. There are a couple of other smaller gaming conventions in the state, but they are not as close as SaltCON. So I hope to try them out sometime soon, even if it’s only for one day. A con two counties away had a booth at an earlier SaltCON, but there was no one there the entire weekend for me to inquire with. GenCon just ended and I’ve been reading the online reports from attendees. It would be nice for me to attend this event, and perhaps someday it may happen. But right now it looks like I’ll have to put it in the same category as attending a DragonCon other big-ticket events, nice to think about, but logistically not reachable at this time.

What is the most ideal environment for you to game in? Did I miss an environment that I didn’t mention above? 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, Community Service, Conventions, Cosplay, Dungeons and Dragons, Fan Club, Friends, Star Trek

Ogden-Con 2024 After-Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain
Loot from my first Ogden-Con

If you’ve never heard of Ogden-Con, don’t freak out. Two months ago I had never heard of this event either. I was walking out of one of my local gaming stores, I noticed a flyer posted in the window. Curious, I went back in and talked with the owner. He told me that this was the second Ogden-Con after they had successfully run one last year. This came as a little bit of a shock to me as I’m usually aware of the geek events happening in Utah. But wanting to support a convention closer to my neck of the woods, I checked out the Facebook page.

Ogden-Con was organized by Rudy Entertainment Company and would be a charity convention. A raffle would be held that would benefit St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Most of all, the admission fee (according to the flyer) is “ONE LOUSY DOLLAR!” It was held at the Comfort Suites just off of I-15 in Ogden.

I talked with my local Star Trek club about this event. I also talked with a few other fans of geeky things and it peaked an interest in attending. So, how did it go?

Well due to a scheduling conflict, we didn’t get there until after 1:00pm. I noticed attendees walking out of the convention center carrying their newly painted dragon figures from the figure painting class. The convention was held in a large room that had dealers tables on one end and a mini-wrestling ring on the other. The bulk of the dealer tables were comic vendors. As you can see from my loot photo above, I picked up a few comics that I didn’t have in my collection. There were also several dice vendors, a 3D printing vendor, a video-game vendor and a few artists promoting their own work. This include a young child (under the age of 10 I believe) who was selling their own hand-drawn comics.

Not having an interest in wrestling, I mostly stuck with the vendor tables talking with several different vendors. I also had a chance to meet the organizer of the convention. I introduced myself, gave him a business card, and asked “What is your vision for the convention” before offering to help. While I won’t chair a convention again, I’m more than willing to help or advise. He asked if we could get together for dinner at a later time because he wanted Ogden-Con to grow, but stay as a fan-run convention. So it will never be as big as the large scale comic conventions, but that’s a good thing. It was a relaxing place to visit and geek out. I met up with a friend and also compared notes with some other friends later.

My wife and youngest attended with me. My youngest came in cosplay for an online animated series that they liked and got excited when someone recognized the character. There was a couple of other cosplays present, one of which caused a little bit of excitement.

Talking with some friends who had been in attendance earlier in the day, they told me about a cosplayer that showed up in full tactical gear (including helmet and gas mask) that had been altered to look like a post-apocalyptic warrior. Someone outside of the hotel had seen someone enter the building with the gas mask and helmet and black gear and thought something dangerous was happening. So they called the police. Law enforcement had showed up and talked with the cosplayer to confirm that nothing bad was happening. In a way, I’m grateful that the effort was made to check in this day and age. Making sure is better than not doing enough if a really dangerous situation was unfolding.

The organizer told me that he wanted to add a costume contest to future Ogden-Cons. He is planning to hold another event in February at the same hotel, but wants to do another summer event at the Union Station in downtown Ogden. Not only would this get in more foot-traffic, but it is also right next to the Ogden Frontrunner station. So attendees could show up from other parts of the Salt Lake metro area. There are also more food options downtown than just off of I-15. I’m really looking forward to having a sit down with this gentleman to see what is plans are. Once I know that, I’ll know what I can offer. It could be help with contacting the local fandom groups in Utah, getting in contact with gaming organizers or just fans in general. This could very easily become a relaxa-con.

My wife told me that she loved going to a local event that wasn’t high pressure or over-crowded. A co-worker had told me that she was able to talk her sister into going since the admission price was very reasonable. A friend I met at the event told me that he had seen more comic dealers at this event than he had at larger conventions. And the members of the USS Ticonderoga who were in attendance had a lot of good things to say about it at our meeting last Wednesday. It will be interesting to see how this starts small and organically grows to a fan-run charity convention. I’ll keep you posted on any future involvement. Even if that involvement is just attending and having fun.

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: Fan Club, Friends, Humor, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Rest in peace Roger Taylor

Written by TardisCaptain
Roger Taylor (1970-2022)

Well, this isn’t the blog post I thought I’d be writing when I woke up this morning. On my way to work this morning I was informed by friends that a longtime Star Trek and role playing friend, Roger Taylor, had been found dead in his apartment. He had been having heart issues lately and when he hadn’t responded to his ex-wife’s attempts to reach him, she went over to his place to find he had passed away.

I’ve mentioned Roger a couple of times in past blog posts, recently when we had worked together on homebrewing the Star Trek Adventures stats for an alien race called The Tarn. Roger had run several RPG sessions for various friends including a lot of Star Trek by Decipher. He had homebrewed several items for the Decipher Star Trek RPG, Star Trek Adventures, Serenity and several other games. I even discovered that one of his early adventures he wrote was ported over to the Far Trek system. When we were not joking around or talking about our Star Trek organization, we were talking about games.

I first met Roger when he was working at a security guard at an IT company I was working for around 2008. I could often sneak down to the security office while on a lunch break and talk with Roger about common interests. He loved the fleet of Star Trek, Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica ships that I had set up on my desk. I think we knew we were going to be friends when we realized how much we both had a warped sense of humor. When we were discussing the (then) proposal by Madonna to remake Casablanca with a modern twist, my not-so-innocent mind altered one of the famous lines from the black and white movie. “Of all the S&M bars in the world, she had to walk into mine.” Roger was laughing so hard that he practically forgot to breathe. He would bring up this line at random times just to get a chuckle out of me.

Roger joined Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet and with his Star Trek knowledge and organizational skills, quickly moved up the ranks. He started a chapter-in-training which eventually became the full chapter, USS Essex. As a US Navy vet, he had served on the real life USS Essex.

He also loved baking, a pet songbird called Charley, military history (another common interest), building models, playing video games and writing. A phrase I picked up from a common friend for a situation like this was “May his/her memory always be a blessing.” I will have many memories that I will look back on when thinking about Roger. I’ll roll some dice for you in your honor soon.

To Roger’s family, I’m deeply sorry at this time. Heidi, thank you for telling me that Roger cared for me and held a lot of respect for me. I choked up a little bit when I read that message. Roger’s family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with funeral expenses. If you can, please donate.

Rest easy Roger, you’ve earned it.

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