Category: Star Trek

Posted in: My Creations, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Final

Written by TardisCaptain 1 Comment on Homebrewed Stats for Starships Final

And we have reached the last of the scans from my 1990’s Starship Homebrew book. I had found this book earlier while unpacking various boxes after a move. It was a book that I had assembled in a three-ringed binder contained copies of ships that could be used in the Star Trek Starship Tactical Combat Simulator by FASA. These were ships from the official Starship Recognition Manuals, Rulebooks, Sourcebooks, Adventure Modules and Magazine Articles. I discovered that I wanted even more starships for the book and I found them in various official and fan-made tech manuals and blueprints. Using the Starship Construction Manual and the stats from the source material I was able to convert several starships for use with the FASA game. These scans look rough, because they are the original dot matrix printouts with, literally, cut and pasted images combined on a photocopier. But I am sharing them here for all to enjoy.

Additional: Here is a photo of the original book that I was talking about.

Master Book of Ships

Past Entries:

Homebrewed Stats for Starships

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Part II

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Part III

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Part IV

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Part V

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Part VI

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Part VII

For the last batch of vessels, we have one Gorn ship, a couple of Tholian ships and some merchant vessels. Now onto the batch.

CK-5-Class-XV-DreadnaughtDownload

The name of this vessel in the fan-made Gorn Guidebook is the “Gorn Space Control Dreadnaught”. I don’t know why I had changed the name to the CK-5. Probably because I was trying to mimic the naming convention seen in the Klingon Ship Recognition Manual and the Romulan Ship Recognition Manual.

Spinner-Class-III-Light-Patrol-CruiserDownload

The image came from The Worlds of the Federation resource book. The stats were guestimated by me at the time of creation. The 2nd edition of the Starship Construction Manual doesn’t provide any stats for Tholian equipment. I didn’t know that the 1st edition of the book had Tholian equipment until I got a hold of it several years later.

H-1-Gravta-Class-V-DestroyerDownload

A friend of mine had several fan-made technical manuals that he let me borrow in the 90’s. This Tholian ship came from one of them. I don’t recall the title of the book. Like the Spinner, I guestimated the stats for this vessel based off of the information in the publication. The name of the class came from the book.

1447-Starliner-Class-XII-LinerDownload

Stats for a passenger liner? Yes, I made these based off of the information on this vessel from the fan-made Starfleet Dyamics book. A liner could be caught in a pirate situation for both the starship tactical combat simulator or on the roleplaying side.

Cabot-Class-IV-TrawlerDownload

There were a ton of ships in the 1979 publication, “Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology“. Some of the illustrations by Rick Sternbach were even used as on-screen graphics in Next Generation episodes. There were a few different ships that I wanted to homebrew stats for. This was the first, and only one, that I did in the 90’s. I had planned to write up others, which may happen sooner or later.

So now that my past works have been uploaded for everyone to see, I’ll start working on new homebrewing ships, races, equipment, etc. Not just for FASA but for other gaming systems as well. I’ve been playing a Far Trek game online with some fellow Trekkies and I’m still enjoying Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius.

Posted in: Humor, My Creations, Star Trek

Making Memes Part V

Written by TardisCaptain

I’ve still been hard at work trying to spread my warped sense of humor. Here is another set of memes for you to enjoy. You can see the past memes I’ve created here: Part I, Part II, Part III and Part IV.

Just the look on Kirk’s face inspired me to make this meme. I could see him saying this. I used MS Paint to create this .

Another “I saw this face and had to meme it” project. Again this was done in MS Paint.

And the last of “Inspired by that look” memes. Here Trip Tucker is doing his Thor “Is it though?” impersonation. Plus we need more Enterprise memes.

I’ve spent some time making blanks of popular memes so that I could easily create my own. Here is one that I created using the goosebumps meme blank.

Posted in: Quotes, Star Trek

Daily Star Trek Quotes: February 14-20

Written by TardisCaptain
When someone asks me if the commercials for the big game were any good.

Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of February 13th through February 20th.

February 14
Happy Birthday to Andrew Robinson. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Andrew_Robinson #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet

“There’s an old saying on Cardassia: ‘Enemies make dangerous friends.’” Garak- The Search, Part II Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet

Happy Birthday to Simon Pegg. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Simon_Pegg #StarTrek #WeAreStarfleet

“Are you from the future?” Scotty “Yeah. He is. I’m not.” Kirk “Well that’s brilliant. Do they still have sandwiches there?” Scotty- Star Trek (2009) #StarTrek #WeAreStarfleet

February 15
“The vultures are circling.” Paris “Vultures eat the dead, Mister Paris. We’re not dead yet.” Janeway- The Void, Stardate: 54553.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet

February 16
Happy Birthday to LeVar Burton. @levarburton https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/LeVar_Burton #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet

“Just because something’s old doesn’t mean you throw it away.” LaForge- Relics, Stardate: 46125.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

February 17
Happy Birthday to Jerry O’Connell. @MrJerryOC https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Jerry_O%27Connell #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet

“I’m the first officer of a Federation starship and your commander. And nobody crushes my team. (rips shirt off) Let’s do this!” Ransom- Temporal Effect, Stardate: 57501.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet

February 18
“Captain, I’m beginning to understand why you earth men enjoy gambling. No matter how carefully one computes the odds of success, there is still a certain… exhilaration in the risk.” Spock- Patterns of Force, Stardate: 2534.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet

February 19
“I may have trouble telling the difference between a plasma conduit and a phase inducer but there’s more to bring a Bridge Officer than memorizing technical manuals.” Troi- Thine Own Self, Stardate: 47611.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

February 20
“I’m a physician, not an engineer!” Dr. Phlox- Doctor’s Orders, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet

Posted in: Quotes, Star Trek

Daily Star Trek Quotes: February 7-13

Written by TardisCaptain
How it feels working on my computer on some days.

Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of February 7th through February 13th.

February 7
“Let me help. A hundred years or so from now, I believe, a famous novelist will write a classic using that theme. He’ll recommend those three words even over I love you.” Kirk- The City on the Edge of Forever, Stardate: 3134.0 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet

February 8
Happy Birthday to Ethan Phillips. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Ethan_Phillips #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #StarTrekVOY #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet

“You are rigid and inflexible. But maybe if you learn to bend a little, you might have better luck with your class.” Neelix- Learning Curve #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet

February 9
“Sir, I protest. I am not a merry man.” Worf- QPid, Stardate: 44741.9 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

February 10
“Murder is contrary to the laws of man and God.” M-5 Computer- The Ultimate Computer, Stardate: 4729.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet

February 11
Happy Birthday to Philip Anglim. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Philip_Anglim #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet

“The truth is not always easy to recognize.” Bareil- The Collaborator, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet

February 12
“What is their fixation with our ears?” Soval “I believe they’re envious.” T’Pol- Cease Fire, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet

February 13
“Age and wisdom have their graces, too.” Picard- Too Short a Season, Stardate: 41309.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Dune, Role Playing Games, Spy-Fi, Star Trek

2022 Character Creation Challenge after action report

Written by TardisCaptain

Note: If you made it through 31 days of the challenge, read to the bottom of the post.

So the 2022 Character Creation Challenge is now in the books and this was a bit different from the 2021 challenge. I don’t know if I was more enthusiastic about the games in 2021 or if it was something else. Not knowing if there was going to be a 2nd challenge, I used a lot of games that I really wanted to run/play. For 2022 there were more games of “well it’s there, let’s take a look at it” which may have been the wrong attitude. But I’m glad that I used those games. While there are some that I’ll never play and may even trade the games away, I can still say that I’ve dipped my toe into the water. I was worried that my lack of enthusiasm for that game may affect the creation process. There was a few times I told myself “smeg it, I’m done”. I still want to do a variety of games, but I’m wondering if I should just limit it to the games I would actually want to play? I’ve got some time to think about this.

I tried to use the time that would have been allotted to me in a session zero time frame to create a character for the challenge. For some games that I am not familiar with I would probably need a lot more time to learn the system. For games that I am familiar with, I would need time to think about a character concept that would go with a party. During the 31 day challenge I also made a Far Trek character for an online game. That was done in free time and it took a few days because I had to confirm what positions were still available. Unfortunately the Engineering spot had already been taken up otherwise I would have requested the use of the character I made in 2021.

My biggest suggestions for game writers, a checklist or worksheet is a big help. Give a start and an end to the character creation process that includes the allocation of equipment. There were some really funky and weird equipment guidelines in some of the games. Some kewl and some made me scratch my head and wonder what they were smoking. Also explain your system before character creation starts. I mean explain it simply and save the extra details for later in the book. If you are going to have a player pick a value or belief for the character, give more than 2-3 examples. Even if they don’t get used they may inspire other ideas.

I would like to say that I’m very surprised by a couple of things. A thank you has to go out to the companies that still have character sheets available online for games that they haven’t touched in years. I was also surprised that some of the dead games were still available on DriveThruRPG. Especially the Farscape RPG since it is based on an intellectual property.

Last year I only printed out the character sheets just before I needed to use them. This year I had this drive to have all sheets printed out and ready to go before the challenge started. I was really glad I did this. When I discovered that one game (sideways glance at Fantasy Imperium) had a six-page character sheet and that I had scheduled it for a weekday, I moved that game to a day I had off. I’ve played with character sheets in excel, fillable character sheets and even sheets provided in a virtual table top. But I have fond memories of writing things down on a printed out sheet and loved doing that as part of this challenge. When I found my three-ringed binder full of old characters that I had played, I had a blast remembering the past games.

Yes there will be a 2023 Character Creation Challenge. Details won’t be posted for quite some time however as I’ve got to decompress.

The reaction to this year’s challenge is one of the many things that blew me away. The 2022 Character Creation thread on the RPG.net forums was named a Staff Pick by the moderators. This year’s thread has made it up to (at the time of this posting) 128 pages. This was three times larger than the 2021 thread of 42 pages. I loved reading all of the different blogs that participated. If I don’t have your blog on the Character Creation Page, please send me the URL. On social media I could not keep up with all of the entries using the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge. This was particularly true on twitter, that place was gangbusters. I tried to like and re-tweet as much as I could but some days that got to be too much. If I missed your post, don’t feel bad. Ten days into the challenge I realized that I should have kept a tally of how many entries there were for each system, but in 20/20 hindsight I’m glad I didn’t. That could have taken up a ton of time. Perhaps I’d do this if I wasn’t actually creating characters, but I really want to roll dice since I haven’t been able to get together with friends on a regular basis. There was a number of entries also posted on Facebook and MeWe. It wouldn’t surprise me if similar threads were popping up on other social media sites and message boards. If you hear of any that I don’t follow, please let me know.

Speaking of reactions, I added a new plugin for my site this year that tracked the number of visitors. It showed the sites that you guys would read. The top five games that brought in the most visitors was Dungeons & Dragons: Holmes Basic, Classic Traveller, Espionage! and Dungeons & Dragons: B/X edition. I still need to find a way to enable followers to comment on blog posts without having to worry about spambots infiltrating everything.

The 2022 games that made the most impression on me are Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, Star Trek Adventures-The Klingon Empire, Dungeon Crawl Classics, Boldly Go!, White Lies! and Covert Ops. I want to take deeper looks at Tiny Dungeon 2nd edition, Amazing Adventures 5E, Modern Age, Castle & Crusades and Classic Traveller. While I may never get a chance to play them, I do have a greater appreciation for Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Paranoia 2nd Edition. The low points of this challenge were Fantasy Imperium and Blue Rose.

A lot of participants were posting their list of games before the challenge started. While I had a spreadsheet created to help me with my entries, I’m glad that I didn’t post it. I swapped out a couple of games when two new games came into my possession. The two I rotated out was Rocket Age and The Frontier, which should be on my 2023 challenge list.

Here is my final 2022 Character Creation Challenge list.
Day 1: Dune Adventures in the Imperium Character: Tarkin Dal of the House Nimoi
Day 2: Wendy’s Feast of Legends Character: Garthos of the Order of the Spicy Chicken Sandwich
Day 3: Dungeons & Dragons-Holmes Basic Character: Dylath
Day 4: Men in Black The Roleplaying Game Character: Agent C
Day 5: BASH! Sci-Fi Edition Character: TaChar
Day 6: Star Wars Saga Edition Character: Keet Apaal
Day 7: Espionage! Character: Devron Marcus
Day 8: Star Trek Adventures-The Klingon Empire Character: Nurot son of H’unos
Day 9: Pirates and Plunder Character: Jason “Jake” McCabe
Day 10: Modern Age Character: Raymond Ray
Day 11: Farscape Roleplaying Game Character: Drellith
Day 12: Castles and Crusades Character: Godfrey of Cloverdale
Day 13: The Judge Dredd Roleplaying Game Character: Judge Stark
Day 14: Boldly Go! Character: Tigrox Carvor of the SFS Valiant
Day 15: Covert Ops Character: William Greene
Day 16: Paranoia 2nd Edition Character: Car-R-PET-1
Day 17: Fantasy Imperium Character: William Moore
Day 18: Cyberpunk v3 Character: Freejack
Day 19: Amazing Adventures 5E Character: Derick Fieldstone
Day 20: Dungeons & Dragons B/X edition Character: Brother Alexander
Day 21: Prime Directive 1st edition Character: Kovil
Day 22: Werewolf The Apocalypse Character: Hans Brulker
Day 23: MERC Character: Mark Powell
Day 24: Dungeon Crawl Classics Character: Multiple
Day 25: White Lies! Character: Ronald Denton
Day 26: Classic Traveller Character: Tyrell Balto
Day 27: Blue Rose Character: Valk Starn
Day 28: Bubblegum Crisis Character: Taxun
Day 29: Technoir Character: Arron “Trench” Chambers
Day 30: Dark Conspiracy Character: Dale Laslow
Day 31: Tiny Dungeon 2nd edition Character: Rek Son of Talk

While I’m not trying to think of the 2023 challenge yet, I’m really hoping that I can find a copy of Star Frontiers for it. I’m also having doubts that I’ll ever find my Top Secret S/I collection. I may have to break down and see if I can acquire the rules again.

Also, if you purchased anything after clicking on the link to DriveThruRPG, thank you. I’m not doing this blog to make money, but the kickback helps when making game purchases for future challenges.

So did you complete the challenge and make 31 characters? If so, please email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com. My art school kid in college loved hearing about the characters I was making on a daily basis and the challenge in general. She created a badge for those who completed the challenge. If you buzz me, I’ll send you the badge to display.

Posted in: Quotes, Star Trek

Daily Star Trek Quotes: January 31-February 6

Written by TardisCaptain
Do not go to Captain Kirk’s seafood restaurant.

Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of January 31st through February 6th.

January 31
Happy Birthday to Paul Scheer. @PaulScheer https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Paul_Scheer #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet

“I love Starfleet. Okay, and I don’t want to live in a castle with pet dragons and all the mutton I can eat. You need to accept the fact that I’ll be a virgin for the rest of my life.” Billups- Where Pleasant Fountains Lie, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet

February 1
“Vulcans do not approve of violence.” Spock- Journey to Babel, Stardate: 3842.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet

February 2
Happy Birthday to Brent Spiner. @BrentSpiner https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Brent_Spiner #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #StarTrekENT #StarTrekPicard #WeAreStarfleet

“I am superior, sir, in many ways but I would gladly give it up to be human.” Data- Encounter at Farpoint, Stardate: 41153.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

February 3
“’Piece of cake’ – it’s an old human expression. It means they’ll be easy to fix.” O’Brien- Captive Pursuit, Stardate: 46477.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet

February 4
“I’ll see you tonight. BYOB.” Paris “What?” Torres “Bring your own bat’leth.” Paris- Distant Origin, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet

February 5
(Encountering a mysterious alien probe) “This is why I’m in Starfleet.” La Forge- The Nth Degree, Stardate: 44704.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

February 6
“When we’re faced with a common threat, we put our differences aside and try to co-operate.” Archer- United, Date: November 15, 2154 #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet

Posted in: Quotes, Star Trek

Daily Star Trek Quotes: January 24-30

Written by TardisCaptain
And then our eyes locked from across the room…

Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of January 24th through the 30th.

January 24
“Well, gentlemen, we all have to take a chance. Especially if one is all you have.” Kirk- Tomorrow is Yesterday, Stardate: 3113.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet

January 25
“As they say on Talax, ‘Omara S’alas’, ‘Good news has no clothes’.” Neelix- Lineage, Stardate: 54452.6 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet

January 26
“There’s an old Ferengi saying—‘Never ask when you can take.’”  Quark- Babel, Stardate: 46423.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet

January 27
Happy Birthday to James Cromwell. @jamesocromwell https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/James_Cromwell #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #StarTrekDS9 #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet

“And you people, you’re all … astronauts … on … some kind of star trek.” Zefram Cochrane- Star Trek: First Contact, Stardate: 50893.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

January 28
Happy Birthday to Gillian Vigman. @Gillian_Vigman https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Gillian_Vigman #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet

“Wait, like to work on the bridge? Like Jadzia Dax?” Tendi “Who the bleep is that? I don’t know who that is. No, like Spock.” Dr. T’Ana- First First Contact, Stardate: 58130.6 #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #WeAreStarfleet

January 29
“You think that the loss of a colleague or friend doesn’t affect us? It does. But if we give in to those emotions, they overwhelm us. You’re the ones to be envied.” T’Pol- The Forgotten, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet

January 30
“It looks horrible, tastes worse, but it’s absolutely guaranteed to make you feel better.” Dr. Crusher- Angel One, Stardate: 41636.9 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

2022 Character Creation Challenge Day 21: Prime Directive 1st Edition

Written by TardisCaptain

So in the 2021 Character Creation Challenge I created a character for the D20 Prime Directive roleplaying game. I talked about how this is a licensed game set in the Star Fleet Universe, which can only use races/events referenced in the original Star Trek series. Because of this, they would never lose the license (a good thing) but the company has had challenges coming out with newer supplements (still waiting for the various Gorn and cat races supplements). Since the first edition of Prime Directive (also known as PD1) was a different game than the D20 and GURPS versions, I decided that I would create a character for the 2022 Challenge.

The characters in Prime Directive are members of Starfleet. But instead of serving as a Captain or Department Chief, they serve on Prime Teams. A troubleshooting group that, if needed, are expendable. These specialists can come from various backgrounds that are sent to emergency hotspots on various missions.

The first step in character creation is selecting a race. There is the standard Federation races seen on Star Trek like Humans, Vulcans and Andorians. For some reason Tellarites are not listed in the core rulebook. Then there are Rigellians (large humanoids), Alpha-Centauran (Female dominated humanoids) and Cygnans (albino humanoids good with tech). All of these races have different characteristics which are Strength (STR), Accuracy (ACC), Speed (SPD), Leadership (LDR), Logic (LGC), Intuition (INT), Discipline (DIS), Technical (TEC), General Knowledge (GKN) and Perception (PER). All the races have set numbers except for Humans and Alpha-Centaurans. Later in the character creation process you can adjust these numbers.

Let’s go for a race I’ve never played before. Between the three new races I selected this character to be a Cygnan named Kovil. Next for Kovil is deciding which Starfleet service division he would be a member of out of Command, Engineering, Marine Service Combatant, Science, Medical and Psionic. I’m going to make an Engineer.

There are a series of skills that each character has. There are basic skills that each member of Starfleet has plus the skills acquired for the service division and branch. Apparently the Engineering division has only one branch, Technical. As a member of Starfleet, each person has a rank. They could be enlisted or an officer. This was the first dice roll of the game as the rank was randomly assigned. 2d6 and check the chart for your division. Kovil rolled a 10 which resulted in a Lieutenant (j.g.) rank. And, for some reason, you roll for the seniority of your character. Afterwards you come up with the Professional and Heroic Reputation scores along with the Initial Background Ratings. (boy there are a lot of these things in here, I wonder if they will all add up in the end)

Now, that I’ve received my “free” skill points, I get to use Initial Character Improvement Points (which is 56 to start out with plus some bonus points based upon my seniority). Character improvement points can be awarded after adventures to improve your characters. These can be spent on skills or characteristics. Now that we have our final characteristics and skills, we add the two together and divide by 2 (round down) to determine how many d6 dice you roll when using that skill. Ugh, this is a lot of complication, but now this section is finally done.

Now comes the section where you determine how much damage you can take in various forms. These include Stun Damage and Lethal Damage. Had a few movement stats to fill out. Oh gheez, now you get 10 more points to put in to skills that are just personal interests. While this is a kewl idea, I swear this paperwork never ends. Had I known this section was here, I wouldn’t have picked a few things in this category earlier.

There is a whole page for equipment, which is assigned before missions. So yea, I’m done making this character and I’m only scanning in the sheet that I actually filled stuff out on. There was still a few blank spaces, but I think I’m done.

Afterthoughts:

While going through the branches, it looked like the had some branches pretty well fleshed out while others seemed lacking. There was a lot of focus on rank and seniority while trying to warn players not to abuse it. I haven’t seen this come up in other system documentation.

I don’t know what it is, but the way this rule book is laid out has made my eyes glaze over. Eventually I was wishing that they could just get to the point when things were being explained. I seriously doubt I’d play this system without seeing it in action first. While it’s a Star Trek game and I want to homebrew for them, this one may be on the bottom of the list. I haven’t heard of anyone playing this game.

I did get the urge to make an actual checklist for character creation that would have helped.

Additional Notes:

10 more days left in the 31 day challenge. We can do this. You can do this. You can still jump in and have fun if you want. That is all this is for, is to have fun. I’m learning a lot. Some good, some bad, but I’m learning. I’m having fun, when my college age kid calls me every night one of the things she asks is “What character did you make today?”

Coming Up Next:

Werewolf The Apocalypse

Posted in: Quotes, Star Trek

Daily Star Trek Quotes: January 17-23

Written by TardisCaptain
I had to get some help in posting blog entries to past dates.

Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes twitter account for the week of January 17th through the 23rd.

January 17
Happy Birthday to Isa Briones. @TheIsaBriones https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Isa_Briones #StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #WeAreStarfleet

“We can’t be your means of redemption. We’re too busy trying to survive.” Soji Asha Et in Arcadia Ego, Part 1, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #WeAreStarfleet

January 18
“You want to watch the Karo-Net tournament. She wants to listen to music. So, you compromise. You listen to music. You like Earth jazz. She prefers Klingon opera. So, you compromise. You listen to Klingon opera.” Odo- A Man Alone, SD: 46384 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #WeAreStarfleet

January 19
“The chronicle is the life of our village. Without that past, our future means nothing.”  Vorin- Homeward, Stardate: 47423.9 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

January 20
DeForest Kelley born on this date in 1920. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/DeForest_Kelley #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #StarTrekTNG #WeAreStarfleet

“I doubt any god who inflicts pain for his own pleasure.” Dr. McCoy- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Stardate: 8454.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #WeAreStarfleet

Happy Birthday to Rainn Wilson. @rainnwilson https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Rainn_Wilson #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #WeAreStarfleet

“Well, they say confession is good for the soul. Too bad none of us have one anymore.” Mudd- Choose Your Pain, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #WeAreStarfleet

January 21
“I’d like to thank you now, for putting your doubts aside and helping me to put mine aside as well. Good luck to each of you.” Janeway- Shattered, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #WeAreStarfleet

January 22
“Evolution is more than a theory. It is a fundamental scientific principle.” Dr. Phlox- Dear Doctor, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #WeAreStarfleet

January 23
Star Trek: Picard premiered on this date in 2020 with the episode Remembrance. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Picard #StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #WeAreStarfleet

“The Federation understood there were millions of lives at stake.” Picard “Romulan lives.” Richter “No. Lives.” Picard- Remembrance, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #WeAreStarfleet

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

2022 Character Creation Challenge Day 14: Boldly Go!

Written by TardisCaptain

Boldly Go! is a science-fiction roleplaying game that was released in 2021 by Geoffquest and backed by a Kickstarter campaign. Like Starships and Spacemen, it is a Star Trek inspired game with the serial numbers filled off. I heard about this game just after last year’s Character Creation Challenge. And since I am very interested in Star Trek (and Star Trek-like) roleplaying games, I knew I had to pick this up and use it for this year’s challenge.

When I created a character for the Dune: Adventures in the Imperium RPG, the first thing I needed to do was to create a Nobel House. In Boldly Go! the players not only create their characters in session zero, they can also create the ship that they will be serving on. This will be a vessel serving in Space Fleet for the Stellar Alliance. While the players can just pick a ship listed in the core rulebook, creating a ship, like creating a Nobel House, would give the group a little bit more cohesion.

Boldly Go! uses the Traits System. Character, ships, equipment and other items all have traits. These traits can be positive or negative, permanent or temporary. When a character has to complete a task they add one base D6 to a dice pool. For each positive trait that applies to the scene (justified to the Fleet Admiral (GM) if they have any questions) you can add an additional D6 to use. A roll of 5 or 6 counts as a success. If more successes are rolled than what is required (the more difficult tasks require more successes) then the character succeeds the task they are attempting to do. Negative traits can make the task more difficult. There are also Drama Points that can be earned during play. Drama points can be used for a variety of positive options including adding to your dice pool.

So first the group comes up with the name for the ship. I consulted the voices in my head and we came up with the SFS Valiant. For the concept, the Valiant would be an exploration cruiser. The other classifications we could have selected from included Cruiser, Diplomatic, Medical, etc. If there are four or fewer players, they all get two trait points to purchase traits for the ship (higher number of players gets 1 point per player). So the number of voices in my head is classified, but we will say that there are four players in the game. It would be interesting to see what could happen as each player selects a trait. Some may think that certain traits are needed more than other. They have a sample list of positive and negative traits (yes ships can have negative traits) but they don’t define what they are. So this is something that the group and Fleet Admiral would have to discuss when making the ship. Each trait is worth one trait point. Ship traits can be a physical item (such as Advanced Engines) or non-physical (such as Crew Like Family). I think I filled out the sheet correctly (the systems ran out of room). Since the CO is going to be an NPC, I just filled in a name.

Like the ship creation, you create a concept, name and backstory. Then you select a species and write down the traits and special ability that the race has. The races for PCs in the game include Humans (I don’t know if anyone will know who these guys are), Gatoan (cat people), Krakenoid (humanoid octopuses), Mordons (Silicon-based humanoids), Rittians (sloth people), Syntoids (self-aware androids) or Hybrids (combine two non-Synthoid races into one). Since Krakenoid’s are not really found in any other game that I’ve seen so far, I’m going with that one. Since the Krakenoids are a militant race, I’ll go with the occupation of security. Each member of the Space Fleet gain the Academy Training trait. Then I selected the rank of Lieutenant (he was going to be the Chief of Security) which earned the character two free drama points. It also meant that I had five trait points that I can spend. There is a list of sample traits or you can make some up of your own.

In the equipment section, everything was pretty straight forward. Your character gets this as a member of Space Fleet. If other equipment is assigned or found, you’ll be able to use it. Here is the character and ship sheets.

Afterthoughts:

I really feel like this system has a good start. Perhaps I’d change my mind with actually experiencing the game in play, but I felt that it still needed one or two more steps to being a really great system. I didn’t get this feel from my initial read-through when I first got the book. But now that I’m looking at it while actually creating a ship and creation, it feels like there could be a little bit more. Or at least I would try to implement it if I was actually running a game. I could see myself playing and homebrewing for this system.

Why would a player select a negative trait for a character or a ship? In this read through there was nothing stating that you would gain a positive trait for selecting a negative trait or if you’ve had to take a balance.

Having used the FASA Starship Construction Manual in the past, the ship creation was simple, but somewhat too simple. If I was a FA for a game, I’d probably put limits on how many systems and traits a certain class of ship might have. I didn’t see any guidelines for this.

I like the graphical design of the Character Sheet and Ship Sheet. Speaking of graphics, the images used to show Captain Raymond Sexton Jr. reminded me of Nick Diamond from Celebrity Death Match.

Additional Notes:

On the Character Creation Challenge thread at the RPG.net forums a user by the handle Golden Age Superhero asked me more about my entry for Castles and Crusades. I mentioned that my Knight could not be a Halfling as per the rules. GAS reported that there were no class/limit restrictions. I went back and looked over the racial descriptions. The classes listed were the “typical” classes and that with your Castle Keeper’s (C&Cs name for a DM) permission you could use others. So in hindsight I could have made Godfrey a member of the Halfling race. Thank you for pointing that out. Just the thought of a proud Knight having to be taken seriously by those who only see his short stature just sounded like an interesting role playing opportunity.

While I can do a little prep work before hand, the bulk of my workday is spent on real life work duties. I create my character afterwards (with the blog entry open for editing so I can write my thoughts down as they happen) and I’ve had a few times where I’ve run into snags or deadlines. So there are times I’m trying to push to get the entry for that day done, which may lead to mistakes. The majority of the entries I feel good about, but I know that not all of them are going to be up to satisfactions. If I noticed it, I’ll try to point it out (like I did with the Modern Age entry). If I missed something, feel free to let me know. Part of the reason I’m participating in this challenge is to learn about some of these roleplaying games and what they have to offer.

Coming Up Next:

Covert Ops

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