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.
I’m writing this the day after SaltCON and I’m really happy that I went. I caught up with friends that I’ve been making at past conventions. Saw people that I hadn’t seen in a while and also got introduced to some new gamer friends. I even had a someone find out about my blog and another player tell me that they enjoyed reading my blog. I don’t know why, but when I get the unexpected notice from a reader in person, it really makes my day. I also wanted to say that my Convention Backpack is holding up wonderfully.
You may notice something missing from the loot photo posted above. There were no RPG books to be found this year. Usually something pops up in the game swap. But it 99.9% board games and a bunch of Lord of the Rings action figures. I was really disappointed. There also hasn’t been a dealer with regular RPG books in quite some time (if anyone is looking for a good untapped opportunity). I did pick up a convention t-shirt (which I thought looked great) and a couple of pins. Since it was my wife’s birthday, we went through the dealers area and she picked up a Halloween themed D20 (which came with the cauldron) from Dice Chaos, a small business. She also picked up a few geeky stickers from another local small business called Tip-Top Tabletop. There was also a candy dice vendor called Power Up Candy. I picked up one set for me and one for my daughter. I’ll have to let you know how they taste. They also had different sayings on the package as seen below.
I also had a chance to attend one of the panels that I wanted to catch. I missed out on the GMing panel and the horror in gaming panel (scheduling conflicts). But I was able to attend a panel about Sharing Your Gaming Experience Through Blogging, Podcasting. It tended to focus a little too much on the video blogging side. But there was some interesting things I learned from the discussion. There are plans to have panels at future SaltCONs. I’ve reached out to say that I would be interested in being a panelist.
The games that I had a chance to play.
Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition: Well it was unusual. The pre-generated characters were all over the map. I remember asking “Do you have just a basic fighter?” before I settled on a Dwarf Paladin (and ignored the extra stuff that wasn’t really explained). I raised an eyebrow at the Fairy Barbarian option (and I noticed that no one else picked that character as well). The cat did lead us on a quest and the team performed very well. We had some good role-playing from the group. However it didn’t really entice me to attempt a 5e game. Sure I’d play in a campaign if that’s what a bunch of friends would want to play, but it really didn’t grab me. It just seemed to have more player options in it than what was needed for a convention one-shot.
Savage Worlds: While I had a new friend give me a quick introduction to the system at SaltCON Summer, I hadn’t had a chance to actually play it at the table. One of my goals with each convention visit is to play a game that I haven’t had a chance to play yet. Savage Worlds was the game that checked off this box. We played in a horror/western setting (that I wasn’t familiar with, so I appreciate the GM and other players answering my newbie questions) where we had to solve a murder mystery. There were a TON of characters to choose from and I played the “Mysterious Stranger”. As it turned out, our final target was a succubus and we luckily had a traveling priest in our party that was able to bless our weapons in the final battle. The system seemed pretty simple and easy to use and I appreciated the GM asking for feedback when the game was done. But I don’t know how much I could homebrew for this system since it really relied a lot on the different cards that the publisher had put out. I’m glad that I played this game.
Fallout: A family member wanted to play this game with me so it was a special occasion. We had a blast playing it and once again I marveled in how easy the system fit the 2d20 system that Modiphius put out. I had actually played part of the scenario at a previous SaltCON, but I kept my mouth shut on the sections I already knew about for the rest of the table. We got farther than previously played so I did get to see some new stuff. While playing, I kept running what it would be like to run a Fallout campaign based in Utah. Or even changing it slightly so it was more than just the Fallout Universe.
On the games that I ran.
Basic Fantasy: I was really excited when I saw the number of people that signed up for this session. It was practically a full table. Then when the time rolled around, I glanced at the sign-up sheet at the registration table only to discover that two players had crossed out their names. One player who had signed up turned out to be a no-show. I had one player at the table and the last player called me on my cell phone asking if he could still get in if he was late? I told him yes, but we ended up starting about an hour later. Luckily, it was the last game for the table that day so I wasn’t worried about getting kicked out of the spot. But we ended the game really late that night (which caused me to miss one of my panels that was scheduled early the next morning). The two players took two characters each and I was able to run the one-shot. I had made second-level characters, but I should have taken more care in setting up the magic user. Even at second-level, they had a limited spell range. I should have taken more advantage of the add-on rules that the Basic Fantasy community had provided. But when I asked for feedback, the players told me that they had fun. I was able to use the Game Tiles and the GM’s Screen that I had just reviewed.
Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition: Only two players had signed up for the game, but a third player (someone who had GMed for me at past SaltCONs) showed up asking if he could play. No only did it help, but all three players were so good that they were able to swap between the six characters available. It was interesting seeing the Ensign at Communications and the CO, both played by the same player, talk with each other during an intense moment of the game. This turned out to be the best game for me for the whole con. I had run the scenario before and I think I ran it better this time around. I don’t think the players knew that it was primarily a bare-bones introduction to the game and I improvised some sections for it. They had a really detailed, and Trekkish, response to the final act. When I asked for feedback at the end of the game we practically had another hour of discussion. Two players had never tried the system and agreed that it was a “Star Trek episode simulator” system. One player, who played the security chief Andorian, thought it was interesting that for a game designed to avoid combat, it had a lot of combat stats on the character sheet. I had also used a fan-made “character tent” that had the basic stats for the characters on one side of the table tent. They said that they used that for more of the quick stat look up and only went to the character sheet when they needed to do some deep diving in the extra options and talents. I’ve been asked by members of my local Star Trek fan club if we could get an RPG session going, and running this is making me more inclined to do so. One of the players asked me if I had any leads on possible STA games in his county, which I was able to refer him to one of our sister Star Trek clubs that I knew had a campaign going.
Ork! 2nd Edition: I don’t know if it was the title, or the “Let’s Learn” format that I presented with it. But no one signed up for this game. I already had a basic knowledge of the game, but I spent an hour reading through some of the rules that I hadn’t done a deep dive on. I actually found it really interesting, and a fun read for a comedy game about Orks. The RPG coordinator told me that I wasn’t going to be dinged because I did my part in showing up after volunteering to run a game. Too bad, this game sounds like it would be a blast if everyone played it in the spirit of the system. I’m going to try another “Let’s Learn” with another system in March. I don’t know what it will be yet.
I wanted to thank my friend Jeff for letting me borrow his RPG figures for the Basic Fantasy Game. I had brought them to use for Ork! as well if needed. I also wanted to give my gratitude to the GMs, Volunteers and players at this convention. I know that all of you helped make SaltCON just as fun as previous conventions. Even my wife expressed an interest in coming to the March event. I think that it is also great that the convention is trying new things like setting up panels for attendees to enjoy. Keep up the good work.
Should I attempt to attend TimpCon in November? It’s two counties away (where as SaltCON is 15 minutes from my house). I’d love to hear the experience from people who have attended in the past. Attending other conventions would be great, but I doubt I’ll have a chance to make it to one of the big gaming cons back east.
Have you been to any gaming conventions 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.
So another RPGaDAY challenge has come and gone and I think this is my best one yet. I think one of the biggest reasons is how I prepped for this challenge. Because I knew of my schedule with real life items, concerts and SaltCON End-of-Summer, I would prep some posts ahead of time and schedule them for posting. I had done this last year as well and I remembered how it helped me keep some of my sanity (what little there is left of it).
When I participated in last year’s RPGaDAY event, I ended up connecting with a lot of other participants on Mastodon and BlueSky. This year I experience the same phenomenon. For those of you who started following me (and also reading my blog for the first time), I thank you. The RPG with Great Writing resulted in a few responses from different people and in person at the recent SaltCON End-of-Summer.
Another thing that was successful was the feedback I received from various readers. All of them came from various social media posts. I tried to note most of them here, but I’m certain that I may have missed a few. If I didn’t mention them here, don’t worry. I did read and respond to most of them. Thank you, the interaction added to the enjoyment of the challenge.
Thank you to those who read my posts. Thank you to those who sent me feedback. And thank you to David Chapman for putting this together. I’m looking forward to the #CharacterCreationChallenge in January 2025.
Did you participate in the #RPGaDAY2024 Challenge? Did you have a favorite post of mine from the challenge? 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.
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.
On Day 30 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge our topic is a person you’d like to game with. There are a lot of people that I’d like to sit at the table with and game with them. Some are various bloggers that I’ve started following after we’ve interacted online. The two that I’m going to mention now are artists and they are in no particular order.
One of them is Howard Tayler. I’ve mentioned him on my blog in several different posts. As an artist guest of honor at a convention I use to chair he drew me as the “con chair”. I also backed one of his Kickstarters for the X-Treme Dungeon Mastery 2nd Edition book that he provided the art for. He has had an RPG based off of his Schlock Mercenary comic, but I’d play in any system that was at the table.
The other artist I only know from his online persona of DysonLogos. Primarily he is a map-maker who’s work has been featured in Dungeons and Dragons, Steve Jackson Games, Kobold Press and others. Most Monday, Wednesday and Fridays he live streams his map-making on his TwitchTV channel. Not only does he play awesome music while drawing, he interacts with his viewers. This is how I found out that he read my blog when he asked a question about my Shadow Ops review I had recently posted.
With how much I’d love to game, I’m open to gaming with anyone (if we can get the dreaded schedules to line up). Is there someone that you’d love to game with? 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.
For Day 29 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge we’ve been tasked with talking about an Awesome App for gaming. With my recent attendance and involvement with SaltCON, I just want to say how great the TableTop dot Events website is.
Primarily this website allows gaming conventions to organize their events and sell tickets to them. This includes inserting the games ran by the GMs and allowing attendees to schedule their games reserving a seat at the table. It also handles ticket sales and merch sales if needed.
Besides being easy to use on both computer and mobile browsers, I love the fact that I can download an ICS (internet calendaring and scheduling) file after I’ve got my events scheduled and I can import that into my Google calendar. Not only does it add it to the calendar, but it sets up reminders. I’ve found myself talking with friends in the hallways of the convention hall and suddenly my phone will buzz with a ten-minute reminder that a game is coming up. Very handy. As a player I can check up on favorite GMs and as a GM I can see who has signed up for my games.
When I’m scheduling my games, I can make sure to leave gaps in the schedule to grab lunch or check out the dealers room. Also since other gaming events use this same site, if I’m able to attend their convention I don’t have to sign up for a whole new system.
What awesome app have you discovered that helps with your gaming hobby? 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.
Almost to the end of the month with Day 28 and our topic for the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge is Great Gamer Gadget. I wondered about this one until I realized that I hadn’t really talked about the dice tray I had picked up a few years ago at FanX 2022. I had picked it up from a local small business that had a booth at the con called Level 1 Gamers. I had also picked up a pin with the same logo. I’ve used this dice tray at several games in person and at SaltCON. Considering how many dice I’ve lost after they have fallen off of the table, this little gadget has been a lifesaver.
In a flat state for easy transport.
And all snapped up holding my North to South gaming dice.
Do you have a favorite RPG gadget that has helped you in your games? 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.
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.
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.
I’ve been looking forward to Day 26 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. I’m going to be reviewing a Superb Screen for the topic. I’ve had this for a while and I’ve been meaning to post a review of it. I had picked it up for a session at a past SaltCON. When I was running Basic Fantasy for my daughter and her 5e playing friends I had to use a Star Trek RPG screen that I had with some Basic Fantasy inserts clipped on it. So when I was looking for a screen on Amazon, I was looking for a screen that I could slip inserts into. I found one with the Stratagem “The Master’s Tome” 4-panel customizable GM screen. These included several inserts that could be used for both Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition or Pathfinder 1st Edition. But I used the Basic Fantasy inserts since I was running several Basic Fantasy one-shots for SaltCON. If I run another game, I can swap out the inserts for more appropriate ones. I’ve heard that too much use could cause some of the plastic ends could split or break off, but I haven’t experienced it so far. But I also only use them for the one shots. I’ll keep an eye on this as I continue to use this. My photos are posted below.
Feedback from readers: both LexTenebris and Pulp Tickertape on Mastodon reminded me that the GM should also be having fun as well. This is in response to my Acclaimed Advice entry. I went back and re-read my entry and I realized that I had left that part out (while it was floating around in my head). So let me also re-state, everyone should be having fun and that the GM should be a part of that fun. Thanks guys for tapping me on the shoulder with that one.
Do you have a GM’s screen that you prefer? 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.
