TardisCaptain's Blog of Holding

Day 18 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge and we have another vague prompt that reminded me of something from my past. The prompt is ‘sign’. Yes, I must try to avoid the “Here’s your sign” jokes. So here is the memory I have.

There was some movie (again with the movies) that I recall watching when I was younger. It was set in England during World War II. A transient type person was walking down the road and he came across an elderly gentleman paining the sign at the fork in the road. He asked which way a certain town was and the elderly gentleman refused to tell him saying “I’ve got to cover these signs just in case the Germans invade.” So the traveler didn’t know where he was going. I think it may have the Disney film Bedknobs and Broomsticks, but I’m not 100% certain. I wonder if it may have started my interest in World War II history. Later I recall watching another documentary film where the interviewed British men in their teens and twenties who were going to be part of a guerrilla resistance if the Germans were able to successfully invade the UK. They were given sealed containers with instructions to only open them up if there was an invasion. One volunteer stated he had ordered his years after the war had ended and discovered that the first set of orders in the box was to kill the person who had recruited them in order to keep their membership secret. Again, I have seen so many World War II documentaries that I wish I could remember the name of it.

So with that image in my head, I started to wonder. What type of roleplaying scenarios could characters find themselves in if they enter a country that feared an invasion? If the player characters are outsiders to the affected country, they may be viewed with suspicion. Local volunteer forces made up of non-military citizens could harass the characters along the road. If the characters are from a friendly country, they could get recruited as mercenaries or a version of the French Foreign Legion. Perhaps the characters are already a part of a military organization and the eager volunteers are requesting training for their misfit squadron. Or perhaps they just need help building the defenses around their population centers. If the characters are from the country in need then there would be a bigger level of pressure put on them to help defend the homeland. Especially if the characters were not already in the military.

Two different feedback posts on social media came in from my post on Renew. LexTenebris on Mastodon suggested that a Logan’s Run inspired campaign could be run with a system called “On Mighty Thews“. While primarily a fantasy RPG, LexTenebris stated that it could easily be altered for a dystopian science fiction (or any other genre) if needed.

Chantel Jones on one of the RPG Facebook groups responded to my post with her preference for the Fallout RPG for Logan’s Run. But she also stated that she loves Gamma World.

Are there any other campaign options that I may have missed in this scenario inspired by ‘signs’? Do you recall the movie or documentaries that I mentioned 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.

And welcome to Day 16 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge. Today we’ve been tasked with having an RPG chat about ‘Overcome’. This was another topic that I struggled with a little bit (I’ve already got tomorrow’s topic in mind). But eventually I decided to talk about something that comes with the phrase “We shall overcome”. This has been the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement and the symbol of resistance against injustice worldwide.

The theme of resistance, and eventually rebellion, has been prevalent in different forms of literature, movies, and yes, games. What plot points can be used by GMs in a roleplaying game campaign? I’d like to list some possible ideas that can be used in different genres.

The Player Characters are the suppliers- The players are smugglers, gun-runners, run an underground railroad, helping a charitable organization or agents of a certain government. Perhaps they are tasked with getting weapons, information, aid, supplies into an area that is currently under a rebellious conflict. Are they trying to get their cargo past the government, the rebels, both?

Wrong Place at the Wrong Time- The players find themselves at ground zero of a resistance turned rebellion in a certain location. Perhaps it was the only port they could get to or this was where their supplier was located. Perhaps the players have a family member/contact/employer/etc. that they need to get out before they get caught up in this sudden mess.

Have Gun Will Travel- What if the players are mercenaries being paid top dollar by the government, the rebels, a third party or ??? Getting things done efficiently, quickly or without knowing who paid the characters may come into play when certain tasks need to be completed.

We Are the Rebellion- Did the party witness a grave injustice and decided to do something about it? Do they strike while the iron is hot and quickly launch a rebellion? Or do they try to follow the lead from the People’s Front of Judea (or was that the Judean People’s Front?) and try to get the population to rise up by posting different messages through the region? Would it work? I mean, apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us? Which leads us to…

I may have been on the losing side but not the wrong side- What happens after a rebellion fails? Will the players find themselves hunted or exiled? If they were fighting for their homeland, will they ever see it again? Or will they pick up the pieces and start new somewhere else?

Are We the Baddies?- Perhaps the players are a part of a military or government organization that the people are rebelling against. What happens if the players suddenly realize who they work for are the oppressors? Did they see something that was wrong that made them question their participation? If so, what do they do about it? Quickly join the rebels or try to work from within to sabotage the efforts of the oppressors?

I’m sure there are a few more plot points that a GM could use following the rebellion theme. But I’m overcome (giggle) with the amount of stuff I was able to pull out of this topic. Is there one that I could have brought up? 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.

Path is the topic for Day 12 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge. I kind of struggled with this really generic prompt. I was thinking about blogging about the different paths prevalent in the missions for the Star Trek Timelines mobile game. There is also a lot of good information in the X-Treme Dungeon Mastery 2nd Edition book about the path that the GM can provide for the players at the table that I’d recommend reading. However, I think I’m going to take a controversial take on an RPG topic regarding the player’s path.

When is it a good idea to “railroad” the characters in a game? For those not familiar with the concept, a railroad plot is one where there is a beginning and an end, but very little wiggle room for the players to take the shared story-telling experience in a different direction. A lot of players dislike being railroaded because it feels like they are being taken along on the journey instead of helping to develop it through roleplay. Hence, there is only one track for them to travel down. This would be very bad for a campaign.

And that is where our answer comes into play. When a game is not part of a campaign, but a one-shot with limited time. I used this when I was GMing for the 5e group being introduced to OSR gaming because it was a one-shot that lasted for over six hours. I’ve also been both a GM and a player at several SaltCONs. At the most, we have four hours for a time-slot and we’ve got to get to the conclusion of the game. Sure, we may be able to turn left or right in a maze-like dungeon, but the goal was still the same. Get out alive or find the item we came to get. Hence, the railroad. There have been some games that I’ve run in a one-shot where I’ve apologized in advance about the fact that they will be railroaded at the start to get the story moving along. But I remember a couple of one-shots where the GM didn’t keep the game on track and the players got bored, or worse, let the players get really out-of-control derailing the whole story (we never made it out of the house of the noble trying to hire the party). That last example was one of the weirdest sessions I had ever experienced at the gaming table.

So, if you are running a campaign, give the plot some wiggle room (with the appropriate bumpers to keep the collective storytelling moving forward) but with a one-shot, don’t feel guilty about railroading the players.

What are your thoughts on this? Am I incorrect in my thinking or on the right track (Pun? Yea it’s a pun) 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.