Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the @STrekQuotes Bluesky account for the week of March 3rd through March 9th. Note: Because Twitter/X will use posts to train AI, we will no longer be posting on that platform. This is out of respect for the owners of Star Trek.
March 3 Remembering James Doohan who was born on this date in 1920. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/James_Doohan #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #StarTrekFilm #StarTrekTNG #StarTrekProdigy #IDIC #Quote
“But you’ve got to admit, if we’ve got to have tribbles, it’s best if all our tribbles are little ones.” Scotty- More Tribbles More Troubles, Stardate: 5392.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTAS #IDIC #Quote
March 4 “Sometimes what we imagine can be just as scary as something real.” Troi- Imaginary Friend, Stardate: 45832.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #Quote
“You are human. You are free to choose.” T’Pol- Breaking the Ice, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #Quote
March 6 “You want to acquire peace. Fine. Peace is good but how much are you willing to pay for it?” Quark- The Maquis, Part II, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #Quote
“Geordi must not be assimilated.” Hugh “But you are Borg.” Picard “No. I am Hugh.” Hugh- I Borg, Stardate: 45854.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #Quote
March 8 “Liberty and freedom have to be more than just words.” Kirk- The Omega Glory, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #Quote
March 9 “There are other kinds of courage; like the courage to accept that there are some situations beyond your control.” Chakotay- Scorpion, Stardate: 50984.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #Quote
What are your favorite daily Star Trek quotes selected for this week? 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.
Ignore the 2024 badge, I’ll be picking up my new badge very soon.
It’s time once again for the biggest SaltCON of the year. SaltCON-Spring will be running from February 27 to March 2nd at the Davis Convention Center and I’ve signed up to run four games this year. By running four games I was able to get a ticket for both myself and my geek wife. 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.
As you can see from the photo above, I’ve signed up to run another one-shot for Star Trek Adventures. Two other games that I will be running are also based off of popular franchises. Doctor Who 2nd Edition and the brand new Planet of the Apes RPG that only Kickstarter backers have. I just created a PotA character in the recent Character Creation Challenge. As for the fourth game that I’m running, well because lots of attendees come to conventions to play games that they don’t normally get a chance to play, I’m running Feast of Legends. Yes, that is the RPG that was used by the fast-food company Wendy’s to advertise their product.
As for the games that I’ve signed up for. Well for the first time I’ll have a chance to try Basic Roleplaying (no I won’t be using the character I made in a recent challenge). Another new system for me will be Pendragon. I don’t know what edition, but I’m assuming it will be the latest. Titans of Atlantis is a system that I’ve never even heard of before. A game master is going to be using the Genesys system to run a TRON RPG. Also on the new game front for me is Curseborn: Ashcan Edition by Onyx Path Publishing. I’ve also signed up for a Star Trek Adventures game run by another GM and a Starfinder game.
My wife has signed up for a Labrynth game, something called Lifewish: Ravenheart, another game called Black Powder and Brimstone and The Electric State. She also signed up to be in two of the games that I am running.
With how this year has been so far, I really hope that I can get a nice relaxing weekend with some dice, some friends and hopefully some good memories. I really could use some of that right now. I’ll have an after-action report when it’s all over.
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.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the @STrekQuotes Bluesky account for the week of February 24th through March 2nd. Note: Because Twitter/X will use posts to train AI, we will no longer be posting on that platform. This is out of respect for the owners of Star Trek.
“I know I’m not going to cover up my insecurity by becoming a screaming despot. I’ll just be the kind of commander I wish I had had.” Mariner- Dos Cerritos, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #IDIC #Quote
“Right up until the very end, life is to be worn gloriously because, until our last moment, the future is what we make it” Pike- Strange New Worlds, Stardate: 1739.12 #StarTrek #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds #IDIC #Quote
“You’re a sweet, wonderful and brilliant man. There’s someone out there for you, Doctor. I know it.” Leeta- Doctor Bashir, I Presume?, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #Quote
February 27 “…all I’m saying is that there is room in every good story for a little bit of passion.” Torres- Worst Case Scenario, Stardate: 50953.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #Quote
February 28 “Father, are we so sure of our methods that we never question what we do?” Droxine- Stardate: 5818.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #Quote
March 1 “We’re all part of the same crew, no matter which uniform we wear.” Major Hayes- Countdown, Date: February 13, 2154 #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #Quote
“Great explorers are often lonely– no chance to have a family.” Dr. Crusher- Encounter at Farpoint, Stardate: 41153.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #Quote
“Now does matter. What happened before no longer exists. What will happen next has not yet been written. We have only now.” Spock- Perpetual Infinity, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #IDIC #Quote
What are your favorite daily Star Trek quotes selected for this week? 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.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the @STrekQuotes Bluesky account for the week of February 17th through February 23rd. Note: Because Twitter/X will use posts to train AI, we will no longer be posting on that platform. This is out of respect for the owners of Star Trek.
“Well done, Mr. Boimler. You never forget your first death. Only more and more dangerous missions from here on out.” Ransom- In The Cradle of Vexilon, Stardate: 58759.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekLowerDecks #IDIC #Quote
February 18 “It would be illogical for us to protest against our natures – don’t you think?” Spock- Amok Time, Stardate: 3372.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #Quote
February 19 “Well, my father always says the way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach.” Sisko- The Way of the Warrior, Stardate: 49011.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #Quote
February 20 “It’s time you learned to weigh the possible repercussions of your actions.” Archer- Cogenitor, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #Quote
“Torres, I’m the senior officer and I speak for Engineering. Try not to say anything unless someone asks you a question. Fifteen hundred hours, deck one. Don’t be late.” Carey (whispering to Torres) “You should have broken more than his nose.” Seska- Parallax, Stardate: 48439.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #Quote
“When I was a Ranger, things were much… simpler. Trust my instincts. Bring justice to an unjust universe.” Seven- The Next Generation, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #IDIC #Quote
“James, meet our chief science officer, Mr. Spock. Spock, meet James Kirk, first officer of the Farragut.” Uhura- Lost in Translation, Stardate: 2394.8 #StarTrek #StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds #IDIC #Quote
February 23 Remembering Majel Barett-Roddenberry who was born on this date in 1932. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Majel_Barrett-Roddenberry #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #StarTrekFilm #StarTrekTNG #StarTrekDS9 #StarTrekVOY #StarTrekENT #StarTrekDiscovery #StarTrekPicard #IDIC #Quote
“The Resolution is a celebration of life. It allows us to end our lives with dignity.” Timicin “A celebration of life. It sounds very noble, very caring. What you’re really saying is you got rid of the problem by getting rid of the people.” Lwaxana Troi- Half a Life, Stardate: 44805.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #Quote
What are your favorite daily Star Trek quotes selected for this week? 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.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the @STrekQuotes Bluesky account for the week of February 10th through February 16th. Note: Because Twitter/X will use posts to train AI, we will no longer be posting on that platform. This is out of respect for the owners of Star Trek.
February 10 “You will come.” Lawgiver “We’re not going anywhere.” Kirk “It is the law. You must come.” Lawgiver “I said we’re not going anywhere.” Kirk- Return of the Archons, Stardate: 3157.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #Quote
“I suppose it must be nice to have that kind of faith. I’ve always preferred to believe in nothing. That way I’m never disappointed.” Mirror Bareil- Resurrection, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #Quote
February 12 “I am the Goddess of Empathy. Cast off your inhibitions and embrace love, truth, joy.” The Goddess of Empathy- Hollow Pursuits, Stardate: 43807.44 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #Quote
February 13 “I’m a doctor, not a dragonslayer.” The Doctor- Bliss, Stardate: 52542.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #Quote
“I always hope for the best. Experience, unfortunately, has taught me to expect the worst.” Garak- Favor the Bold, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #Quote
“You are Montgomery Scott!” Prime Spock “You know him?” Kirk “Aye, that’s me. You’re in the right place, unless there’s another hard-working equally starved Starfleet officer around.” Scotty- Star Trek (2009), Stardate: 2233.04 #StarTrek #StarTrekFilm #IDIC #Quote
February 15 “The will of the patient is the cornerstone of Denobulan medical ethics.” Dr. Phlox- The Breach, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #Quote
“You’re different than we are. Part of what we do is learn more about other species.” LaForge- I, Borg, Stardate: 45854.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #Quote
What are your favorite daily Star Trek quotes selected for this week? 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.
The graphic I commissioned for those who have completed the challenge.
So, I’m sure a few of you are wondering what has happened. Here we are on February 7th and I haven’t finished posted my 31 characters for the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Let me just say three words. “Real Life Sucks.”
First, I’m not having serious health issues. I wanted to say that up front so no one would panic. I’m also not losing my job. But some of the job stress has contributed to the perfect-storm of suck that 2025 is handing me right now. The hosting company having two hiccups in January didn’t help. There were also other real life and family duties that required my attention. It has not only affected my challenge entries, but my other relaxation pursuits as well. I think this has only led to some of the stress I’ve been feeling. Make sure you guys are taking care of yourself mentally as well as physically.
I commissioned artist Aurora Stark (yes I’m a proud Papa) to design and draw up the graphic for those of you who have completed all 31 characters. I didn’t want to delay getting it to those who were able to complete the challenge on time. If I haven’t responded to your email/private message, feel free to virtually tap me on the shoulder again as I have two sizes of the graphic to send you.
Aurora Stark does concept art and visual development with her art degree from the University of Utah. They based this design on the old black-and-white art seen while studying my older role-playing game books. It’s a medieval flail with three D20’s spelling out 2025. If you would like to see some of their other artistic examples, or perhaps even inquire with them about commissions, feel free to visit their website at https://aurorastark.art/.
So what is next for me on this project? I will finish the remaining characters as I hate leaving something half-completed. Especially since a friend surprised me with an RPG publication that had recently been my ‘Holy Grail’ of books that I’ve been searching for. I will be making a character for this game and I may need some curries or gazpacho soup to complete it (major hint there folks). When I post them, they will be back-dated to the dates they would have been posted on originally. But, I will post the links on my various social media sites and message boards. Once that is done I will write up a proper post-mortem that I usually post at the end of the challenge. That will not be post-dated, but it will have links to all of my entries along with my thoughts on them.
I’ve also received some KickStarter rewards. I should have some first-look articles posted in the next few weeks. I can’t wait to talk about one that I’ve been waiting for more than a year for. So I do have some articles in the pipeline.
If you are still reading this post, thank you very much for sticking with me. If you participated in the challenge, thank you. If you completed it on time, I hope you take a moment to be proud of your accomplishment. I didn’t make it within the time allotted, but I will complete it to join you guys.
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.
Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account and the @STrekQuotes Bluesky account for the week of February 3rd through February 9th. Note: Because Twitter/X will use posts to train AI, we will no longer be posting on that platform. This is out of respect for the owners of Star Trek.
February 3 “I’ve seen old photographs of this period. An economic upheaval had occurred.” Kirk “It was called Depression, circa 1930. Quite barbaric.” Spock- The City on the Edge of Forever, Stardate: 3134.0 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #Quote
February 4 (sees Mirror Worf) “Look who the Regent is!” Rom “So?” Quark “So who’s president of the Federation, Gul Dukat?” Rom- The Emperor’s New Cloak, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #Quote
February 5 “We found better ways to handle our conflicts but I think that no one can deny that the seed of violence remains within each of us.” Picard- Violations, Stardate: 45429.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #Quote
February 6 “Perhaps you should forget logic and devote yourself to motivations of passion or gain. Those are reasons for murder.” Shras- Journey to Babel, Stardate: 3842.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #Quote
February 7 “I don’t understand why humans would feel compelled to frighten themselves.” T’Pol “Gets the heart pumping.” Archer “Cardiovascular activity would be more efficient.” T’Pol- Horizon, Date: January 10, 2153 #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #Quote
“On Talax, it’s a tradition to share the history of a meal before you begin eating. It’s a way of enhancing the culinary experience.” Neelix- Flashback, Stardate: 50126.4 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #Quote
February 9 “I am tired of lies.” Soren- The Outcast, Stardate: 45614.6 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #Quote
What are your favorite daily Star Trek quotes selected for this week? 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.
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.
Here is my entry for Day 31 of the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge and I’ll be using a game that I picked up at a thrift store. Iron Kingdoms Full Metal Fantasy Roleplaying Game. I had never heard of this game before I had found it. On the surface it appeared to be a store brand version of a steampunk Warhammer 40K RPG, but who ever owned this previously must have loved the rules. The book was so worn from use that I’m afraid that pages were going to start falling out if I’m not careful. There were also stick on tabs on various pages to easily pull up different rules. This was a table copy for this game and very well loved. So let’s see how it looks when I dive in for the first time trying to make a character.
This hardbound book was published by Privateer Press in 2012. It has 359 pages with an ISBN number of 978-1-933362-89-2. Iron Kingdoms was created by Brian Snoddy and Matthew D. Wilson. The fist 100 or so pages covers the history of the world that this game is set in. Basically it contains steam-powered machines, magic, various races, alchemy and lots of dangerous guns. The artwork shows a world filled with dirt, soot and ash.
The character creation chapter starts on page 102. It describes the primary and secondary stats for the character. The primary stat of Physique (PHY) describes the physical aspects of the character with the secondary stats of Speed (SPD) and Strength (STR). The second primary stat of Agility (AGL) covers the reflexes and nimbleness with the secondary stats of Poise (POI) aka hand-eye coordination and dexterity and Prowess (PRW) aka grace and balance. The last primary stat is Intellect (INT) which includes wits, deduction and speed of thought with the secondary skills of Arcane (ARC) aka magical power and Perception (PER). There are also several derived stats of Defense (DEF), Initiative, Armor (ARM), Willpower (WILL). There is also definitions of MAT (Melee Attack) and RAT (Ranged Attack), the Life Spiral (aka health), Abilities (things the character knows how to do which do not increase in level), Connections and Skills (things the character knows how to do that can increase in level).
The Character Creation steps are listed on page 107. They are 1- Pick a race, 2- Pick an archetype, 3-Select two starting careers, 4- Increase the stats and 5- Finishing touches.
The races available for the first step that are listed in the core book include Human, Dwarf, Gobber (aka Goblins), Iosan (they look like gold skinned elves), Nyss (they look like pale elves), Ogrun (aka Ogres) and Trollkin (aka Trolls). As much as I’d love to explore some of the unique races in this book, I’m trying to play catch up with the challenge so I’m going to go with a simple Human to see how a basic race is presented. The race determines the starting stats, which I wrote down. It also details what possible archetypes are available to that race, languages, height and weight and additional characteristics (which bumped up some of the stat values).
The archetypes listed for the second step are Gifted, Intellectual, Mighty and Skilled. Each archetype has a series of benefits that are awarded when selected. One is automatic, the other is selected from a list of available feats and advantages. I picked Mighty and Back Swing. I guess I’m leaning towards a fighter character (obviously I may have picked different if I was creating in a group for a party).
Step three is to pick not just one, but two careers. This would provide the character with a set of skills and abilities. Some careers have prerequisites such as race or archetypes. There are 28 different careers so I’m not going to list them all. They were all very dark steampunkish in nature. Some of these were very close in nature that trying to decide which two to select was a little hard. This is where having other party members might have helped. I knew that I wanted to have this character be some sort of fighter, but which one and what to pair with it? After going through them several times I think I settled on two of them. The Aristocrat (basically a member of high society within the Iron Kingdoms) and a Bounty Hunter. This character is turning out to be someone who was raised with a silver spoon but left that lifestyle (probably upsetting his family in the process) to forge his own path out in the world. Why not. I wrote down what was earned from the two careers on my notes.
Now the book leads us to step four, Increase Stats. On page 150 it states that I have 3 advancement points to the primary or secondary stats. So far I don’t know how the RPG system works, so I just picked three secondary stats and increased them. Now that these numbers are determined, I’m instructed to fill out the life spiral to match the stat numbers by blocking out the excess numbers not used.
Last step is step five, the finishing touches. This deals with party setup (um… OK) and purchasing additional equipment to go with the starting assets from the career choices (only gold crowns for the two I selected). The money is to be used for weapons and armor as there is a basic set of adventurers equipment that each character is assumed to have and doesn’t need to be noted on the character sheet. Even thought it wasn’t listed, I would assume that the character name and background would have been selected here as well. In the Bounty Hunting world he’s known as the Back Adder (yea, I’m being inspired here) those in more polite circles might know him as Sir Edvard Blaccadicus. I still had to do some filling in of the character sheet but there were still a lot of blank spaces. I’m done, here is the scan.
Afterthoughts:
Creation wasn’t too bad, but seemed to be lacking a few steps to make sure that all the “T’s” were crossed and “I’s” were dotted. They could have also used some additional “see page xx for more information” sections. While they did a good job of explaining the stats, I wish that I could have quickly found the “this is how the system works” section. With how the book was starting to come apart I didn’t want to do too many page flips. There were some missing sections on my character sheet. What is social stats? Feat points? I’m sure I could have spent some time digging through the book, but I was done by that point.
While this was an interesting experience, I don’t see myself playing this game. I don’t even know of anyone else who actually owns this game.
Additional Notes:
After I had posted my character for Mazes and Minotaurs on one of the RPG message boards, someone responded. They told me how much they liked the post and wanted to try the game out themselves, but then they asked why I gave a character in a Greek inspired universe a Roman name. I hadn’t even realized that I had done that. The only thing I could chalk this up to is how exhausted I’ve been lately. 2025 has not been a good year so far, so I won’t miss it when it’s gone.
If you’ve stuck with me through these challenging times, thank you. I really appreciate the readers of my blog. Especially those who have contacted me, interacted with me on social media or just joined the conversation on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. I’ll leave my final thoughts for the after-action report, but I wanted to make sure you all heard a thank you from me for being a light in this dark time.
One last note, I was talking with my wife about this while we were driving around. In the future I’m going to try to make the last character of the challenge from a system that is easy to use. This way I’m not looking at a daunting task to wrap up the month.
Coming Up Next:
The real After-Action Report for the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge
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.
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.
I’ve been wanting to use Mazes and Minotaurs for an entry into the #CharacterCreationChallenge since it first started back in 2021. During the month of January, the month of the challenge, another game always seemed to fall in my lap that pushed out one of the games that I had planned. Every year I added it back to the list in my prep sessions and something would force me to replace it. Well this year, when the Red Dwarf RPG was handed to me, I elected not to replace Mazes and Minotaurs. The description of this game is a “what if” scenario of the first fantasy roleplaying game being influenced by Jason & the Argonauts and Homer’s Odyssey rather than The Lords of the Rings. The images are in black and white and the system seems to be very OSR inspired.
There are 51 pages in the Players Manual. The character creation process is listed on page 4. There are seven steps in total. 1- Select class, 2- Roll attributes, 3- Determine character specifics (name, gender & age), 4- Determine combat scores, 5- Determine other scores, 6- Wealth and equipment, 7- Flesh out character.
The classes that are available are broken down into three categories. Warriors, Specialists and Magicians. The warriors include Amazons (female warriors), Barbarians (savage warriors from the wild lands), Centaurs (the guys who horse around), Nobles (warriors from a ruling class) and Spearmen (elite warriors). For the Magicians we have the choice of Elementalists (earth, fire, air, water), Lyrists (bards that follow the god of music), Nymphys (female spirits of nature), Priests (servants of the gods) and Sorcerers (both illusionists and mind magic). The two classes in the specialists category are Hunters (aka Rangers) and Thieves. I haven’t made a magic user in a while, so I selected Sorcerer. The book states we start at level 1. From the class description I wrote down the basic hits (health), possessions, and other class attributes.
Next is the generating the basic attributes. for Mazes and Minotaurs the six attributes are Might (aka Strength), Skill (training the character has had), Wits (alertness and cleverness), Luck (self-explanatory), Will (resolve and self-discipline) and Grace (aka Charisma). These are generated by rolling 2d6+6 and then placing them in any order desired. Each class has two primary attributes and for the Sorcerer it is Will and Wits. So after I was done rolling I placed my two highest in those categories. Each attribute has a modifier depending upon the score. I noted these down as well. The book did state that if all of the attributes did not total 75+ or did not have at least two scores of 13+ then you could re-roll the character’s attributes until the threshold was met. You could also adjust attribute points by taking from one and giving it to another as long as you don’t exceed 18. I did this to give me a higher Luck modifier since it sounded like I may be needed.
Step three is selecting the name, gender and age. I pulled up a Random Roman Name Generator and picked one from the lists provided. Flavius Antius Tiribius. Since the class wasn’t limited by gender, I kept him as a male. As for the starting age, well page 5 said to roll 2d6+20, but the class description said that the sorcerer uses 2d6+25. Since I had seen the later first, I had already rolled an age and written it down. I’ll stick with that since it’s more specific.
Generating combat scores is step four. These are generated from the basic attributes that were generated above. These include Melee, Missile, Initiative and the character’s Defense Class and Effective Defense Class (aka the Defense class plus and armor worn by the character). This section also told me that the Hits listed in the class were adjusted by any modifiers from the Might attribute.
In step five we are generating the Savings Rolls (athletic prowess (swimming, climbing, etc.), danger evasion (dodging), mystic fortitude (save vs hostile magic) and physical vigor (save vs poison). There are also Personal Charisma scores and scores for special class abilities (that I already wrote down previously) Like the combat scores these were generated from the basic attribute modifiers.
Wealth and Equipment for step six. From the class description I already rolled the character’s starting number of silver pieces (standard coinage in this game). There are also gold pieces as well, but the silver is traded more in the realm. The class description also gave me some starting equipment, so I just filled in what else I thought the character would need. Had this been a normal campaign, I’d be asking the GM for advice (aka traveling adventure vs in-city adventure). While I did see some armor restrictions for the class I selected, I didn’t see any weapon restrictions so I gave my sorcerer a sling to help out from a distance.
The last step was fleshing out the character. Religious backgrounds (the gods were every where in the Roman culture), physical appearance, demeanor, family etc. If this was for a campaign, I’d sit and get this all sorted out, but I’m running up against a deadline so I’ll call it good. The book did say that that M&M Companion had additional items for this step including background skills. I looked at the chapter on magic and it doesn’t appear that I pick any spells, I just use my power points to cast a limited number of options. Here is the character sheet.
Afterthoughts:
I can see where they carried the “This was the alternate universe version of D&D” gag in the book. Talking about the updates to the modernized version, the past conversations between fans, etc. The system looks pretty simple enough and I wouldn’t mind trying it at the table just to see how it runs. But the possibility of that is very low.
Additional Notes:
While looking up the Random Roman Name Generator I realized that I had already used this site before when I made my character For Gold & Glory. So perhaps they are members of the same party?
Coming Up Next:
Iron Kingdoms
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.
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.
The original game that I had scheduled for my Day 29 entry in the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge was the Sci-Fi game Faster Than Light: Nomad when I had put my list of games together. However, just the other day I attended the Seventh Fleet Admiral’s Banquet where a couple of readers of my blog were in attendance. They greatly shocked me by handing me a gift with Red Dwarf The Roleplaying Game inside. Thank you Rich and Evelyn. I had stated many times in past blog entries that this game had been my ‘holy grail’ of RPGs that I had been trying to find. Sure there were copies on Amazon or Ebay, but they were always outside of my comfortable price range for a game that I’ve only played at a past SaltCON. So the shocked look on my face when I opened up this present was probably priceless. And I really didn’t want to wait a year to make a character since I had a physical book in my hand. So, sorry Faster Than Light: Nomad, I’ll try to fit you into the 2026 challenge.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I am a fan of the BBC sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf. A BIG fan of Red Dwarf. I love how it makes me laugh, I love how the show isn’t too serious. There is a line from the MST3K that says “If you are wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts. Just repeat to yourself ‘It’s just a show, I should really just relax.'” Red Dwarf is very much like this line. In one of the seasons the space vessel they use, Starbug, and it’s the size of a small vessel. Then in another season the vessel has grown about twice the size. And this is where this RPG comes in. On the back of the RPG book it states “Create your own alternate Red Dwarf dimension and scour the universe in search of adventure, romance and the edible pot noodle.” So you can make any character you want, drop them on your own mining vessel Red Dwarf and have your own comedic adventures. You could have your own last human, a waxdroid, a Dog or a host of other possibilities.
So, enough fan gushing. The roleplaying game? If you read my SaltCON after action report I stated that I thought the system worked really well for a game based off of this series. On page 3 of the book is a quick start guide that covers both character creation and a rules overview. Thank you. Once again I can point to this page and show it to friends and say “this is how you play, do you want to sit at the table and have some laughs?” Basically to complete a task you roll 2D6 and try to get a number under a target number. This number can be determined by adding the character’s attribute and a skill number (and other possibly modifiers). So the better you are with one of your attributes (Agility, Perception, Dexterity, Intelligence, Strength and Willpower) and skills (such a Pilot, Repair, Seduction, Swim, Medicine, or Cool) the more likely that your character will succeed in the task. The GM is referred to as the AI based off of Holly from the show.
As mentioned above on page 3 it lists the Character Creation Overview. And in a case of synchronicity, chapter three of the book covers more details on Character Creation. The first step is to pick a Character Type. This is basically picking what race and style you want to play. The choices for the races are Human (see Lister), Holograms (see Rimmer), Cats aka Felis Sapeins (see The Cat), Dogs, 4000 Series Mechanoids (see Kryten), Hudzen 10 Series Mechanoids, Kinitawowi, Pleasure GELFs (Genetically Engineered Life Forms), Wax Droids, Simulants, Rabbits, Rats & Mice and Iguanas. As you can probably tell, there are a variety of evolved animals to choose from that have been mentioned in the show. One of my kids wanted me to make a Cat character, which was tempting, but I think I’m going to stick with human as I want to make myself into a Red Dwarf character. Each character type also has a special ability and drawback which I wrote down in my notes.
The second step is to distribute 20 points into your character’s abilities. Each race/type has a max number for each ability. Luckily for humans it’s all sixes. I selected the numbers that I wanted to use. From these stats I have some derivative stats of Initiative (who goes first in certain situations), Save (resiliency after taking damage) and Shrug (avoid any damage if it’s under this number).
The third step is to take 30 points and allocate them to different skills. So I looked at the skills that I wanted a younger version of me to have in this alternate Red Dwarf universe and I selected them. No this isn’t the first time I’ve made a character based off of myself in the challenge, but I think this will probably be the most realistic one out of the two.
Our fourth step is to select the Assets (a benefit the character possesses), Liabilities (something that hampers the character) and Behavior Tags (habits the character does that may or may not annoy others). Each Asset has a point value and you buy these points by selecting the Liabilities and Behavior Tags. The first thing I did was look at the Assets to see how many points I may need. Then I selected the appropriate number of Liabilities and Behavior Tags to equal that number of points. In the personality section is the “fill in the blanks”. There were a lot of them that wasn’t equipment so I may have filled in the steps five (fill out vitals) and six (create history and relationships).
OK, time to gear up for the last step. I’m directed to page 55 and there is no cost that I can see. I think, and I may be wrong because this isn’t a serious game, that I just pick some items the character would have. Actually, I’m going to roll with that and put the character sheet in the scanner.
Afterthoughts:
I really liked how they had sprinkled in humor throughout the book. You’d be reading a description about how humans are able to deal with all kinds of psychological trauma that included being able to survive Yanni concert videos.
I have played this at SaltCON, I have many plans for this book in the future.
Additional Notes:
Yea, I know, I’m behind on these. Thank you for going back and reading them. 2025 can die in a fire.
Coming Up Next:
Mazes and Minotaurs
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.
