TardisCaptain's Blog of Holding – Page 48 – Random musings from a Geek Dad

Quotes, Star Trek

Daily Star Trek Quotes: January 16-22

Written by TardisCaptain January 16, 2023January 16, 2023

What we were doing on Sunday. Test driving cars.

Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Twitter account and the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account for the week of January 16th through January 22nd.

January 16
Star Trek: Voyager premiered on this date in 1995 with the episode Caretaker. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Voyager #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet

“We should not dwell on what’s been lost, but on all that’s been gained.” Toscat- Caretaker, Stardate: 48315.6 #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet

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

“Tell me about Data. What was he like?” Soji- Broken Pieces, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekPicard #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet

January 18
“Children are a lot stronger than you think. As long as they know you love them they can handle just about anything life throws at them.” LaForge- Imaginary Friend, Stardate: 45832.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet

January 19
“They’re engineers. They’re use to being given a problem to solve and then going out and figuring out how to do it.” O’Brien- Starship Down, Stardate: 49263.5 #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet

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

“Have you got some reason you want my atoms scattered all over space, boy?” Dr. McCoy- Encounter at Farpoint, Stardate: 41153.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet

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

“I’m neither one for following orders nor giving them. No, the solar winds are my mistress, and I follow her wherever she beckons.” Mudd- Magic to make the Sanest Man Go Mad, Stardate: 2136.8 #StarTrek #StarTrekDiscovery #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet

January 21
(On Humans) “They tend to be easily infatuated with things they find new.” T’Pol- Dear Doctor, Date: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet

January 22
“Then employ one of your own superstitions. Wish me luck.” Spock- The Immunity Syndrome, Stardate: 4307.1 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 15: Star Fleet Intelligence Manual

Written by TardisCaptain January 15, 2023April 25, 2023 1 Comment

When FASA was publishing the various supplements for their Star Trek Role Playing Game line, one of the books was Star Fleet Intelligence. This allowed game masters to set up espionage campaigns for players. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Star Trek Role Playing Game by FASA, I thought that I would submit an entry into the Character Creation Challenge by creating a Star Fleet intelligence agent. An in honor of my recently departed friend who cut his Star Trek RPG teeth on the FASA game, I’m going to name him Taylor, Roger Taylor.

One of the things that FASA did very well was create the character generation short form. I used this form quite a few times when generating FASA Star Trek characters. For the Star Fleet Intelligence Manual, this form is found on page 92 of the Agent’s Orientation Sourcebook. This version is slightly different than that found in the core rulebooks as it is geared towards creating an intelligence character.

Step one is to generate the attributes. For STRength, ENDurance, INTellect, DEXterity and CHArisma you roll 3D10 and add 40. For LUCk and PSIonic Potential it’s a straight percentile roll (D100). The only racial modifiers for humans is -30 to PSI. There are also bonus points (D100/2 rounding down). Final results are STR 57, END 55, INT 68, DEX 60, CHA 53, LUC 55 and PSI 07.

There are a large number of skills generated through the next several steps. These include Step 2: pre-academy skills (what you did before you attended Star Fleet Academy). Step 3: Academy Skills (what you learned at the academy). Step 4: Intelligence Branch School. Step 5: Cadet Cruise (how many cruises did you take? What did you learn on that cruise?) Step 6: Intelligence Command School and finally post-academy experience (how many tours has your character been on?). The last step is to determine the character age.

Roger gets six skills from his days before the academy. These are generated by rolling a D10 and half are taken from the educational background and the other half come from the personal development. I selected the skills I thought Roger would have. Added his academy skills. For his branch school, I selected the Field Operations and added those skills.

For his cadet cruise, I rolled the Operations Forces Subdivision. The result of this cadet cruise was Passed assigned as Ensign (barely missed getting passed with honors). I then added his intelligence command school skills on step 6.

With the post-academy experience, Roger ended up with three tours. I rolled an 85 which resulted in Starfleet Military Operations Command which lasted for 4 years and he earned an officer efficiency report of as expected. His second tour was with the Field Operations Department/Operating Forces Sector (he was studying for Klingon) which lasted for two years and he earned an officer efficiency report of excellent. For his last tour we rolled at Technical Department for the Klingon department which lasted one year and earned an officer efficiency report of outstanding. There were some skills advancements from the post-academy experience, which I wrote down.

Roger’s final age at the end of the process is 33 and he has the rank of Lieutenant. I’m pretending that the GM is going to set us up for a Klingon mission with the Klingon Field Operations division. I looked up what his SECLAR (security clearance) would be. Along with his combat and heal rates.

Afterthoughts:

I loved the image of the starship Claymore that was seen on the covers of these books. I always wondered what the long protruding wing was below the warp engine? Is it a solar sail? Is it a special scanner? Since I’ve never been able to find out I may have to sit down and homebrew this ship for multiple systems.

I had flashbacks to all of the times I was adding to this skill and to that skill. I can understand Roger’s comment about Star Trek Adventures having streamlined all of that for the player in creation. But I love how all of the different percentages on the skills make each character unique. I forgot how small the text was in the character creation short form.

Additional Notes:

I had a few people respond in regards to the Serenity character posted yesterday. One person recalled how they had been able to break the system by having a character gaining the capability to cause massive amounts of damage in bare hand combat. Another person responded that they were more than willing to run a game if I could get a group together. I’ll have to ask around to see if anyone is interested.

Coming Up Next:

Against the Darkmaster

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 14: Serenity

Written by TardisCaptain January 14, 2023April 25, 2023 1 Comment

So I have a very interesting fandom relationship with the Firefly TV series and it’s full length movie, Serenity. I need to finish my fandom sections so I can just post the link to the story there instead of typing it out in a limited blog post. My recently departed friend, Roger Taylor, loved gaming in this universe. There was one game he was running where the players were having a discussion in town about their “secret plans” and one of the players piped up in character “Perhaps we shouldn’t be discussin the secret plans in the middle of the street?!?” I loved hearing about that story and wished I was there to play.

The Serenity Role Playing Game came up for sale on one of the Facebook RPG auction sites that I frequent (and is one of the few reasons I still pop in on FB every once in a while). When I saw were the price was, I checked it against various internet bookstores and found a copy for a very reasonable price. So I snatched it up. Shiny.

The character creation steps are listed on page 30. The first step is for the game master to determine what level of game the sessions will be in the form of a heroic level. This could be Greenhorn (42 attribute points) Veteran (48 attribute points) or Big Damn Heroes (54 attribute points). Since I don’t have a GM to check with, I’m going to select Veteran. For my character concept, I’m going to make Steven “Dart” Carter. A really good pilot that only gets in individual fights when he has no choice (don’t pick on someone he cares about, because then he’ll step in). For some reason he gets really nervous around Alliance patrols. If his shipmates knew that he was an AWOL from the Union of Allied Planets Navy and had a different name in his different life, would they still trust him? He likes just being able to move about on the Rim.

The next step is to select my character traits. These come in the form of assets and complications and help define your character. When they are used in game play, they can add or subtract from certain roleplaying situations. Knowing my character’s history, I selected Born Behind The Wheel (minor asset), Military Rank (minor asset), Traumatic Flashback (minor complication) and Twitchy (minor complication). I wonder how this character would have been roleplayed at the table? Next comes the attributes.

Each attribute is represented by a die (D4 through D12) and costs a number of attribute points that was determined by the heroic level of the campaign (see above). I calculated out the die I thought a good pilot would need. They are Strength D6, Agility D10, Vitality D8, Alertness D8, Intelligence D8 and Willpower D8. From these the derived attributes are generated.

Selecting the skills is the next step in the process. Starting characters get 20 skill points to spend plus the same amount of points used to generate the attributes (so for Dart, he gets an additional 48). 68 in total. Skills have general skill costs (covers the broad spectrum) and specialty skills (focus on specific things and must be named). I picked the skills and specialties that I thought Dart might be using since he found his freedom.

Last is the finishing touches. This includes equipment, description and background. With the veteran setting, Dart has 1,500 credits, the clothes on his back and a few items that the GM would have OKed. I had to track down what my character’s plot points are.

Afterthoughts:

There were a few things on the character sheet I had to go hunting for as it was not listed in the character creation steps. Annoying, but not bad. The system sounds pretty simplistic. I’d love to see it in action around a table, but I don’t know anyone who still plays. That’s too bad.

Additional Notes:

While I haven’t found any new blogs that are participating in the Character Creation Challenge, I am seeing a lot of participants using the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge on various social media sites. There is also two very active message boards where quite a few characters are being shared. This includes the RPG.net message board and the RPG Geek message board. If you know of one that I may have missed, please email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com and I’ll add it to the board.

Coming Up Next:

Star Trek: Star Fleet Intelligence by FASA

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 13: Ork! Second Edition

Written by TardisCaptain January 13, 2023April 25, 2023

(Ow… stop poking me with that spear. What? You want me to type down the things you say for today’s Character Creation Challenge entry of Ork! Second Edition? Ouch, yes I can do that just stop poking me.)

Me iz Togg. Even if great Ork god Krom am hate you, hez still want big squishy mans to roll shiny math rocks to play Ork! Second Edition. Squishy mans am already use magical scribe box to make Ork! character parchment, now squishy man am write down character scratches with those county things. (I think he means number, oww… stop with the spear).

You am turn book to page with character stuff. Do it now! (Ok, I’m on page 8). Good. Krom says you pick name for pretend Ork person. (Um… Grukk came up in one of online name generators) Wut you use? (This online name generator that I found…..) Booorrrriinnnggg…. just go to next step Grukk man.

Says here Grukk will haz um… one, two (oh smeg, he’s counting on his fingers) uh… four attributes. Dem be Meat: which is am body stuff like breaking things or jumping top of table, Bones: how tuff Grukk man is, Twitch: no not stream thing, how well Ork use hands or shoot bow and Mojo: What Ork warlocks use for power and leading. Who am Austin Powers? *SMACK* Squishy man no tell Togg of puny man gods, just type. Krom says each attribute gets assigned a different shape shiny math rock. There’s da one that looks like pyramid (oh the D4), the square one (OK, D6), the two pyramids stuck together (uh… D8), more pyramids stuck together (that’s the D10) and one that almost looks like ball but not look like ball (D20? No, they are talking about the D12). Rounder math rocks better than sharp pointy ones. In book Krom gives examples of which sets of rocks me can pick from (Yea, I see eight combinations with each one totaling 32 points in total.) Togg no use numbers that high, just trust Krom. Pick combo for Grukk and write down. (Uh.. OK, lets go with combo F that has D10, D10, D6 and D6) NO! Wez want strong Ork like Togg, pick set that has one round math rock. (Ah, OK, then combo D has a D12, D8, D6 and D6) Good, write down on sheet like Krom wants. (OK, that’s done)

Now Grukk haz skills to be Ork. Dis wut Grukk good at doing in the name of Krom. One, two, three… three skills under each attribute. Now wut that county thing? (That’s a six) OK, each set of skills am get six points to use between them. (OK, I see the skill number under the attribute is the number of attribute dice I roll. So if I’m swinging a sword I take my Fight skill of 2 and roll 2D12 for my attack roll) *SMACK* Togg explain rules. But Krom says you correct, now squishy man choose skill county things for Grukk and don’t forget one, two bonus skill points. (Done) Am at point where wez find out how many times Grukk can get hit. You make county things do things as on parchment. (Uh, OK I’ve got it written down)

Now Togg whisper so Krom won’t hear us. Wez can cheat Krom, but only at one thing. Wez pick something special that only wez can do. When wez use this cheat, we take some of Krom’s shiny math rocks to use for meselves. But Krom gets them back later in the game, so if am cheat too many times, Krom come back to hurt you. And Krom can be very angry when hez finds out hez was cheated. Wut cheat squishy man pick for Grukk? (How about When me am hit people with spear?) Good, squishy man was listening. Write it down on parchment. (OK, I’ve got that written down).

Next we… (Why are you still whispering?) OH! Next wez pick Grukk’s equipment. Squishy man said he was good with spears, so Togg suggest pick outfit with spears in it (Yea me… um… I see the different packages but only one has spears in it.) WRITE DOWN! (OK, OK, keep your shirt on. Done.) Final step in making Grukk is to go kill squishy men. Here, give Grukk this spear and hez use it to kill you. Now Togg needs cup of Earl Grey Tea and to kick kids of TV so me can watch Gilmore Girls. Remember, Krom am hate you.

(What the frak just happened?)

Afterthoughts:

OK I had fun putting this character together with Togg (Gods he’s asleep on the couch now, I hope he didn’t spill his tea). There were a few steps in the character creation process that explained things like initiative and armor class, but I’m sure they are listed elsewhere in the book. I could see this being a fun pick up game to play with friends. I like the idea of rolling against Krom’s roll (as performed by the Orkmaster) instead of just trying to beat or meet a difficulty rating. I had to look up Ork points which sound like luck or fate points.

Additional Notes:

The Mutant Future character creation session yesterday really got the creative juices flowing. I’ve got to wait for some of this OGL hullabaloo to calm down (blog post with my thoughts on that mess later) but I’ve got some ideas that I really want to explore.

Coming Up Next:

We go into the black with the Serenity RPG

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 12: Mutant Future

Written by TardisCaptain January 12, 2023April 25, 2023 1 Comment

In the 2021 Character Creation Challenge I created characters for two Goblinoid Games systems. Apes Victorious (think Planet of the Apes with the serial numbers filed off) and Starships & Spacemen (think Star Trek with the serial numbers filed off). I was impressed by both works which used OSR style D20 rules for the game. For this year’s challenge, I am using Mutant Future from the same publisher for the Day 12 entry. This was Goblinoid Games entry into the post-apocalyptic genre were you can make characters that are mutated plants, animals or robots.

The character creation steps start on page 10 of the book. The first is to generate the abilities. Mutant Future has the standard six abilities that you find in the OSR except that Wisdom has been replaced with Willpower. According to the conversion guides in the back of the different Goblinoid Game books, the two attributes are the same. As with most OSR style games, I can generate the abilities by 3d6 down the line, 3d6 and select where they go or 4d6 and drop the lowest die. Since I have no Mutant Lord (aka game master) I’m going to go with the later since we haven’t done that in a while. This character, let’s call him Carath, is a mutant human and started with the stats of STR 16, DEX 16, CON 11, INT 10, WILL 12, and CHA 10. I rolled a 5 for the character’s starting hit points.

The next step was to roll for mutations which can be good or bad depending upon the roll. There can be 1d4 physical mutations and 1d4 mental mutations. I ended up with 3 physical mutations and 2 mental mutations. For my physical mutations I rolled Shriek (beneficial, once a day I can let out a horrible sound that will affect everyone in a 10′ radius), Vision Impairment (drawback, not totally blind, but something that effects the eyes. I’m going with severe light sensitivity) and Energy Ray (beneficial, a type of blast of energy that does damage. After rolling, Carath can shoot heat beams). Rolling for the mental mutations I ended up with Know Direction (beneficial, pretty self-explanatory) and Temperature Control (beneficial, since I already have heat ray, let’s stick with the heat theme).

Starting gold is 3d8x10 and I ended up with a total of 140 GP. Carath has studded leather (a workers protective jacket), a shield (it was a piece of industrial steel that he fashioned into a shield) so his starting AC is 3 (after DEX adjustment). For his weapons I selected a war hammer (an industrial tool) and a dagger (an industrial knife). He has a backpack, bedroll, crowbar, flint & steel, trail rations (8 days worth), a waterskin, candles (not a fan of large fires), a large sack and a guard dog named Squire (a faithful companion that Carath had raised from a pup).

Since the savings throws were not filled in yet, I found the section in the book for them and wrote them down. I think this character is done.

Carath was raised in a community of mutants that lived in the various tunnel levels under a heavy industrial complex just outside a ruined city. He was content living in the safety of the undergrounds when a rival (with whom he had argued with the night before) was found murdered. Despite protesting his innocence, Carath was banished from the community. Taking some equipment and his faithful dog, Squire, Carath is now searching for a new home. He has heard rumors of a mutant friendly place called “the Valley”. Is this place real, or just another tale told by the passing merchants. Carath was setting off to find out.

Afterthoughts:

I can see myself playing or running this game. I could even see myself homebrewing for this system. Since it was based off of OSR fantasy, it was pretty simplistic and easy to set up. I was a little surprised that there wasn’t any type of firearms or “modern” armor to select for starting equipment. It felt like I was making a fantasy character. I had to describe some of the items in a post-apocalyptic terms.

I’ve always loved how Goblinoid Games has decorated their character sheets.

Additional Notes:

On one of the RPG message boards, I had a reader respond to my Star Frontiers entry. Apparently they had never heard of the game and was glad to be introduced to it. So I know I’m doing some good out there. I love it when I hear that a player has been introduced to a new game.

Coming Up Next:

Krom am hate you, but me want make Ork! 2nd Edition character

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Humor, Role Playing Games

2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 11: XD20 Second Edition

Written by TardisCaptain January 11, 2023April 25, 2023

One of the kickstarters that I backed last year was the 2nd Edition of X-Treme Dungeon Mastery by Tracy and Curtis Hickman and illustrated by Howard Tayler. While the book is an excellent guide for Dungeon Masters, it also contains it’s own roleplaying game called XD20 Second Edition. Yes, the first XDM book also had an RPG in it. So for day 11 of the Character Creation Challenge, I’m going to make a character for this system. Just as I had to make a disclaimer for Fantasy Craft, I need to drop one here. I’ve known Howard Tayler for years and had no problem backing his kickstarter since I knew that I’d get what was promised. But I’m going to do this mini-review based upon what I read while creating the character without considering my relationship with the artist.

This system is generic and can be used for any genre. So for the purposes of creating a character, I’m going to pretend that an XDM is going to run us through a fantasy campaign. I’m going to create Blix the Barbarian.

The core mechanic when confronted with a challenge is to roll a d20, add a stat bonus and if you meet or beat a target number, your character succeeds. There are additional items (I’m not going to give away the whole system) but it is very rules-light system. The character creation rules start on page 120 and you start with five stats. TAC (Toughness and Constitution), PSYCH (intelligence, wisdom and smartness), WAH (mystical power, luck and karma), HEALTH (self-explanatory) and LEVEL (a class level basically). Roll a D8 three times for each stat and note it (not on the sheet yet). There is some stat adjustment if the character has any type of mystic power, but Blix is a big ox with a sword, so we can skip this. So the first three stats are TAC 18, PSYCH 13 and WAH 10. Next we take the two lowest stats and add 14 to the total, this is our HEALTH score. Since this is a starting character, his LEVEL is 1.

Now for the next step, we are going to draft a story. What is something they’ll fight about (Blix was always picked on as a child and he hates it when adults pick on children), what is something they’ll run from (Snakes? Why’d it have to be snakes?) and what is something they’d die for (Blix wants to recover his dead father’s stolen sword).

Next we get to pack some stuff. It’s actually a little refreshing to see an interesting equipment section like this. You decided on three things. What is something sensible (why would I be carrying this? Because I need a gem that lights up when I give it a command, just don’t ask me where I got it), what is something precious (don’t want to loose that, it’s the armor my father had when he was an adventurer and it was made out of the same metal as the sword) and something random (Where did this sealed letter come from? There was a fancy looking guy on that last boat ride, I wonder if he dropped it?) Then your other equipment is what a prepared adventurer would have (Backpack, bedroll, rations, etc.). So I wrote a few things down and called it good. For once I was glad that there was no, “lets be different for difference sake” when it came to the equipment. For the illustration, I’m mentally thinking of something along the line of The Legend of Bill. Unfortunately I can’t draw as well as my daughter.

Afterthoughts:

I’ve seen some pretty complicated and crunchy systems in character creation and actual play. There is a reason that Pathfinder has the nickname of Mathfinder. I’m also worried about the GURPS character I’m going to be making later this month. But XD20 is very simplistic and gets the job done for what it’s designed to do, get a bunch of friends to throw some dice around the table while cracking Monty Python jokes and eating things that are not good for you. Character creation was quick and simple. I think the biggest concern would be making sure you are communicating with your game master and the other players in your group. This could easily be put together for a quick last minute game when half the players can’t make it to the table and you still want to play with those who showed up.

I may even try to run a game or two on this system. If I do, I’ll report it here.

Additional Notes:

I had one reader respond to me how much they had loved the D6 System that I used for yesterday’s Character Creation Challenge entry. I also have many good memories playing the Star Wars D6 Roleplaying Game from West End Games. I’ve even found my original character sheets from different SW sessions.

Coming Up Next:

Mutant Future

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.

Character Creation Challenge, No One Lives Forever, Role Playing Games, Spy-Fi

2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 10: The D6 System

Written by TardisCaptain January 10, 2023April 25, 2023

As a fan of Star Wars, I eagerly jumped into the West End Games D6 system for Star Wars The Roleplaying Game. As with most games based off of intellectual property, the contract ended and West End Games stopped selling their books. But they still had a perfectly good RPG system. So they released The D6 System which is the selection for my Day 10 entry into the Character Creation Challenge. I was able to pick up this book last year in an online auction.

The D6 System is a generic RPG that could be used for any setting or era. So I will be making another spy for UNITY named Paul Reynolds (code named: Cold Crown).

So on page 4 we find the character creation steps. The first real step is to distribute attribute dice between the character’s attributes. These are Coordination, Endurance, Reflexes, Strength, Knowledge, Perception, and Mechanical. When the GM is making their game, they could add or subtract any of these attributes (like magical or psychic, etc.). Since I don’t have a GM, I just kept the ones listed on the character creation template in the back of the book. The book recommends 21 dice to distribute. A die can be broken down into pips (Three +1s or a +1 and a +2) that can be part of the distribution. I wrote down my choices on the creation template. Next there was 7 dice of skills to select and allocate. I decided to take the skills that I thought a spy would need.

On our next step, we write down the character’s name and descriptions. I added these to the regular character sheet. Step 7 has us choosing advantages and disadvantages (which some GMs may see as optional). It is possible to gain or lose extra skill dice. I looked over the list and it was primarily disadvantages. After reading the options I decided that the character had Extraordinary Hearing (+2D) but Always Needed A Backup Plan (-2D) so it evened out. Next was any special abilities (which there wasn’t any since this was an espionage campaign). But I did use this time to note down the character’s fate points (1) and body points (20+ roll of my Endurance score, hey I get to roll something, which resulted in 33). There is a movement score on the sheet and notes about how to use that score in the GMs section, but I did not find out how to determine the character’s starting movement score.

And finally was the starting money and equipment. I determined that UNITY was providing everything he needed for his mission so I selected some standard spy equipment. Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

Just as I was getting ready to start this blog entry, I realized I had printed out the the character creation template and not the actual sheet. Luckily I was able to find it quickly and print one out.

For a generic system, there is a lot of blank spots listed for the gamemaster to fill in. There are alternate names for the attributes. I guess if the GM thought it would sound better for their game. This almost seemed like it was a book for someone who wanted to generate their own D6 system. This would include making templates for the types of characters the GM would allow. That would have helped.

I do remember the D6 system well from my early playing days. I could easily see myself playing one of these D6 systems in a campaign. I might even homebrew for it, but it’s pretty low on the list of systems that I’d adapt stuff for.

Some… um… interesting art that was selected for use in this book.

Additional Notes:

I had a poster on one of the message boards comment on my Fantasy Craft character. He agreed that the system was too crunchy as well. He had attempted to make a Spycraft character in 2022 and scrapped it because of how complex it was.

Coming Up Next:

XD20 2nd Edition

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 9: Fantasy Craft

Written by TardisCaptain January 9, 2023April 25, 2023 1 Comment

So disclaimer. I know some of the play testers for Fantasy Craft. But other than telling me years ago that they liked this game, they haven’t attempted to influence me on this system. So this mini-review in the Character Creation Challenge is all my own.

Fantasy Craft was released by Crafty Games that also released Spycraft. So I suspect that some of this D20 system will follow those same steps. Let’s dive into this and see what we can find.

We start on page 6 with the character creation rules which actually starts out at step 0, the concept. What do you want to play? I flipped through the origins (races) and classes. They added quite a bit to both categories. I assume this was to make their game stand out from the other D20 3.x variants that were out at the time. The Explorer sounded interesting, but with this class I elected to make him a Hafling… err… Pech named Perrich Teagrove. If I was going to take one of the warrior type classes, I was tempted by the Saurian. There was also the option of a Rootwalker (think Ents from the Lord of the Rings films) but I don’t know what class I would have selected.

Being a D20 variant, it hast the standard attributes, STR, DEX, etc. You have 36 points to spend with the costs presented on a table. A score of 8 is zero points and each score higher is a few more points above that. My final result with the racial modifiers was STR 11, DEX 16, CON 14, INT 15, WIS 12 and CHA 12.

The next step is to select the character’s origin, which I already had above, and write down the benefits that the race has. There was then a list of Human talents (makes sense, if you choose that race) and then a specialty like Acrobat, Fencer, Nomad, etc. They give you some bonuses as well. Are these also just Human? The rules don’t say nor do the descriptions, so I’m going to go with the assumption of yes and take Adventurer. I also went to step 4 and wrote down all of the details for my career of Explorer.

Step 5 was to select my skills, so I flipped over to the skills chapter and read the descriptions of where to spend my 8 points. Afterwards I went to step 6 to select my feat which was Pack Rat (keep 1 additional item). The next step was interests. This covered alignment, languages and studies. The alignment was left up to the GM. I’m going to just put down neutral. Teagrove is just interested in exploring. Speaking of interests, you gain your native language and culture count as interests. It doesn’t say if you get a “common” language. I’m going to assume yes. Then you get to choose two more interests which could be other languages or something you studied. I as an explorer, Teagrove studied ancient cities and map making. I think those fit this section.

Step 8 is where you fill in some of the other missing items on your character sheet. Not everything as this is a four page sheet. I’m not going to scan the last page as it covered spells. The last step dealt with the starting gear. There is something called lifestyle points, which honestly I didn’t understand after pouring through everything else. The silver piece is the common coin with a new character starting with 100 sp. (career level x100) And, a lot of stuff is expensive. So we are quite literally equipping on a shoe string budget. I bought some stuff to make my guy (hopefully) survive and called it good.

Afterthoughts:

Straight of the bat. Too much crunch in the rules and descriptions for me to think about running or homebrewing for. There was a LOT of extra descriptive items and text that may not have been needed. If I was running a fantasy game, I would not reach for this game first. I wouldn’t be opposed to playing a character in Fantasy Craft, but I would not run a game in this system. When I had a choice, I kept it simple for example the recent Basic Fantasy game I ran for my daughter and her friends.

I’ve got an idea to test the combat systems in different roleplaying games. But that will not be until after the Character Creation Challenge is done. But it is something I want to blog about.

Also some of the font sizes on the character sheet were just way too small. On a four-page sheet, they shouldn’t be this small. There were some interesting ideas in the book that I may steal, but in a glut of fantasy games out there, Fantasy Craft will not be near the front of the line. I would be interested in hearing other players experiences with this game.

Additional Notes:

I’m still looking for additional blogs or message boards where participants have been posting their #CharacterCreationChallenge entries. I’ve been pouring over a few corners of the internet I don’t often visit (or just visited for the first time) and I haven’t found anything new lately.

Coming Up Next:

The D6 System

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.

Quotes, Star Trek

Daily Star Trek Quotes: January 9-15

Written by TardisCaptain January 9, 2023January 8, 2023

Here are the Daily Star Trek Quotes that will appear on the @STrekQuotes Twitter account and the @STrekQuotes Mastodon account for the week of January 9th through January 15th.

January 9
“Maybe we were meant to fight our way through, struggle, claw our way up, scratch for every inch of the way. Maybe we can’t stroll to the music of the lute. We must march to the sound of drums.” Kirk- This Side of Paradise, Stardate: 3417.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDC #WeAreStarfleet

January 10
“I’m not here to command.” Picard “Then you must be ready to fight. Something Starfleet does not teach you.” Duras “You may test that assumption at your convenience.” Picard- Sins of the Father, Stardate: 43685.2 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet

January 11
“These people you’re fighting… what makes them heretics?” Archer “We believe the Makers created the Chosen Realm in nine days. They believe it took ten.” Yarrick “For that, you’ve been at war for over a century?!” Archer- Chosen Realm #StarTrek #StarTrekENT #IDIC #WeAreStarfleet

January 12
Remembering Kirstie Alley who was born on this date in 1951. @kirstiealley https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Kirstie_Alley #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDC #WeAreStarfleet

(In Vulcan) “He’s never what I expect, sir.” Saavik “What surprises you, lieutenant?” Spock “He’s so… Human.” Saavik- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Stardate: 8130.3 #StarTrek #StarTrekTOS #IDC #WeAreStarfleet

January 13
(trying to stop a bar fight) “Gentlemen, please! Love thy neighbor!” The Doctor- Fair Haven, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekVOY #IDC #WeAreStarfleet

January 14
Remembering Barry Jenner who was born on this date in 1941. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Barry_Jenner #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDC #WeAreStarfleet

“Don’t tell me this is your first glass of Romulan ale.” Cretak “Well, it was illegal.” Ross- Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges, Stardate: Unknown #StarTrek #StarTrekDS9 #IDC #WeAreStarfleet

January 15
“There is always an option.” Phillipa Louvois- The Measure of a Man, Stardate: 42523.7 #StarTrek #StarTrekTNG #IDC #WeAreStarfleet

Character Creation Challenge, Horror, Role Playing Games

2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 8: When The Moon Hangs Low

Written by TardisCaptain January 8, 2023April 25, 2023 1 Comment

Special Note: I’ve had a few readers contact me on various message boards and via email stating that they are unable to log into my wordpress site to make comments. This site is not hosted on wordpress.com and the host that I am using has a lot of security set up after previous issues. So to get the feedback that I would love to see, you can email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or use the TardisCaptain Dot Com discord server that my lovely wife set up and maintains for me. I’ve already had a few people hop on this server. It has allowed me to have some interaction while keeping my hosts security concerns in mind. I was able to get the some links set up on the sidebar. Sorry about any confusion that may have popped up. And now, onto today’s entry for the Character Creation Challenge.

One of the bad events of 2022 was the invasion of Ukraine. I wanted to help in some way but I wanted to make sure that my support was going to a legitimate organization. DriveThruRPG had a special fundraiser around this time for gamers who wanted to help. They posted several sales of RPG bundles with the proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders. So I picked up one of the bundles that was made available. I could have done almost the entire 31 days of the challenge from this bundle alone. However I had some other games that I really wanted to create characters for (cough, cough, Alien).

One of the games in the bundle that caught my eye is When The Moon Hangs Low by Isolation Games. This is a gothic action RPG set in a fantasy Victorian inspired world where characters are tragic monster hunters in the capital city of Harrowmire. For Day 8 of the Character Creation Challenge, I’m going to create one of these monster hunters.

The character creation rules start on page 13. The first step is to generate a name for your character. I’ve noticed some systems put this step at the first and some at the last. If you have a good idea of what your character will be, I like having this step at the start. This way I can refer to the character by name as I’m writing this up. There are some sample names provided, but I already had my heart set on William “Kitt” Smythe.

The next step in making Smythe is creating his mark. This is something that the character experienced with the supernatural that affected them. It could be physical or mental. Something traumatic as this creates an ability that helps the character in the game. There is a list of marks in chapter 4 to select from. I had an idea for the character, but it didn’t 100% fit the concept. So I altered it slightly. Haunted usually means that you can talk and see ghosts. Well Smythe didn’t see a ghost, he saw a demon. The demon Torrazoth never gave his reasons for why he was running, but he needed to possess a body to hide in before other dark forces caught him. Smythe interrupted Torrazoth’s attempt to possess his younger brother. When he discovered that he could not beat the demon, he gave Torrazoth an option, take him instead. The demon agreed, but only if Smythe would help him hunt down the demons that were after him. Knowing that he could leave the countryside farm and hide in the city streets of Harrowmire, Smythe allowed the demon to take refuge within him. Torrazoth can speak to Smythe providing him with insight and sometimes even extra strength when needed. Smythe uses this ability to hunt demons, but knows that someday Torrazoth will fully take control. What will happen then, only the gods know, not that he could step inside a church to find out. I sub-titled this Mark “possessed”.

The next step is to generate the primary statistics and skills. I have a total of 20 character points to spend between the two. The primary statistics are Physique, Intellect and Presence. They seem pretty straight forward. The character starts with 1 point for free in all three. Then for every 2 CP spent, I can increase a primary statistic to a max of 5. I’m going to spend six points on Physique making it a total of 4 (Smythe grew up on a farm doing lots of chores), two points on Intellect for a total of 2 (he learned mostly from the school of hard knocks) and four points on Presence for a total of 3 (Smythe was well liked before he suddenly disappeared from his farming village). With the 8 character points left I’m going to choose the skills. They come in two levels, trained or mastered. When you roll a d6 from your pool, an untrained skill requires a roll of 5 or 6 to count as one of your successes. Trained skills succeed on a 4-6 and mastered skills succeed on 3-6. The GM determines the number of successes needed by how hard or easy the task will be. Untrained skills are free, trained are 1 CP and a mastered skill is worth 2 CP. Smythe was trained in Fight, Fortitude, Shoot, Reflexes, Craft, Drive, Animal Handling, and Willpower. There is also three knacks that I can select from my existing skills. These are skills that your character has a knack for (and increases your die pool for that skill). I selected Fight, Reflexes and Animal Handling.

The next step is to select three Edges from a list in chapter 6. These are unique abilities that separate the hero characters from the common NPCs. However if they are used too many times, it can contribute to your curse becoming more potent. Looking over the list, I believe that these edges come from the possession. So Smythe has Mantel of Darkness (which allows him to blend into the shadows), Shadow Step (step into one shadow and come out from another one within the line of sight) and Eldritch Bolt (shoot arcane energy at a target, Torrazoth only allows this as a last ditch effort).

The instructions tell me to create the derived statistics (Health, Wound Track and Resolve) and pick my equipment. All characters start with some basic items, with the rest selected by spending 200 Shillings. This included Smythe’s weapons and armor. I wrote down the statistics.

There are still a few sections not filled in on the character sheet. I assume that they would come into use when as a game progressed. I’ve scanned the character sheets and posted them below.

Afterthoughts:

This process was pretty much straight forward. The system also sounds pretty easy as well. I would love to see a session for this system. I also like how the character has a curse with the mark. It got some creative juices flowing when I was putting the character together. I would love to hear more about the world this game was set in. I could see it also being a little steampunkish if the GM wanted to go in that direction.

Additional Notes:

Thanks to the responses on the RPG.net Character Creation Challenge thread, we had a discussion about my attempt to make a scout for Cepheus Deluxe yesterday. One poster pulled out his copy of the game and confirmed for me that the aging rules didn’t make much sense to him either. Yet another posted commented about how the aging rules was a carry-over from the original Traveller game that should have been re-written or scrapped all together. He also explained that I should have rolled 2d6 and subtracted the number of terms the character had gone through and then compared it to the chart for the results. This poster stated they did not use these rules as a character with average stats would die at the age of 66 while living in a futuristic world with advanced medicine. I could see the point he was making.

In a way, it was a little bit of a relief to see that others were experiencing the same thing that I was. If instructions for anything are properly explained, I can easily follow along. I know that when I’m trying to write up some instructions in personal or work-related documentation, I always try to have someone unfamiliar with the steps give it a look-over to see if they can follow along. Last year’s Traveller entry into the CCC generated a lot of traffic to the site so I knew this is still a popular game. I was hoping to receive some constructive feedback on my attempt to create a character.

Coming Up Next:

Fantasy Craft

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Disco r d server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.