Tag: Character Creation Challenge

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 24: Crypts & Things

Written by TardisCaptain January 24, 2024 1 Comment

And here we are at Day 24 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Today I am using Crypts & Things: The Chronicles of Zarth from D101 Games. I had picked this book up at a game swap held at SaltCON Spring for a decent price. I figured that it would be a good entry in the challenge, plus another blog series that I hope to release soon.

This hardbound book has 149 pages and was written by Newt Newport. This is a first printing book that was released in 2012. A one page character sheet is found in the back of the book. The character creation steps start on page 8.

Being a retro-clone I’m not surprised to find that we roll 3d6 down the line. I like this because I don’t know what type of character this will turn out until then. Well the highest is Intelligence and Charisma. So he’s a good looking magic user (which I found out is called the magician). I wrote down the different bonuses from the attributes. A high wisdom and high charisma can earn you an XP bonus of 5% each. Then you get an extra 5% for the prime attribute of your character. So you could end up with +15%. There wasn’t any rules written about moving attribute points around. But I’ll let the scores stand as they are.

OK so Magician it is. As it turns out the spells are broken down into White, Grey and Black magic. White is like the clerics, grey is standard stuff and black is harmful magic. There was some very interesting magic rules about using grey and black magic (it hurts you to use it in the form of HP and savings throws needed, ouch). Because of my high INT I get an extra 1st level spell during character creation. You write down three 1st level spells and one 2nd level spell in your spell book. Then if you want more, you have to find them or pay another magician to help you write it down. I like this idea. Magicians can use leather armor without losing any spell casting ability (nice) and can use standard weapons as long as they are not two-handed (other than the staff) but they have a -1 to damage if they use them. This helps match the Gandalf using a sword as well as his spells.

Next comes the Generating Life Events chart. Roll a D20 three times and check the numbers on page 19. Some gave me some bonuses to certain savings throws. But the one that really made me raise my eyebrow was the “I was a slave at a royal court” which increased the character’s charisma by +2. So now it’s a 17 so he’s a really good looking magician.

Last step was to roll for gold (standard 3d6x10) and buy some equipment. I did so and then filled in the blanks that I may have had on the sheet. This included a name (hey random name generator) which came up with Azor. After scanning the character sheet I realized that I probably should have put down Azor the Charming or Azor the Handsome. Oh well, here is the scan.

Afterthoughts:

This is a D20 OGL clone with some interesting twists. Combining the cleric and magic user together into one class and then having a payment system (usually in lost HP) was an interesting idea, but not one that I think I’d go with if I was running a game. I think I’d have the cost for grey magic on a roll of 1 out of 20 and dark magic on a higher scale (1-2? 1-3? I’d have to test). I can just see a magician rolling a repair spell (a grey spell) and then suddenly dying because it took his hit points. In the middle of a massive battle and you need the magician to strike with the spell that may bring the big bad guy down? Sorry, he doesn’t have enough hit points to cast the spell and survive. The rules did state that magic was rare and dangerous, but I don’t know about that dangerous.

I liked the Life Events chart. I’d probably expand the idea to more than twenty entries. But it did make for some interesting twists (and possible back story) for the character. I also liked that there was a choice of ascending or descending armor classes.

There is a remastered version of this game. I wonder how that book compares to this one?

Additional Notes:

Because of my schedules today, I ended up taking the book with me and creating the character away from my computer. I think it added to this being one of my less stressful character creations. I’d usually type down my thoughts while I was creating the character. With this entry, I had to note them down in my head for later. Which could have been a bad thing considering all of the items rolling around in there. I may have to try this same technique with tomorrow’s entry.

Coming Up Next:

Cyberpunk Red

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 23: Starfinder

Written by TardisCaptain January 23, 2024 1 Comment

Day 23 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge and I elected to use the Starfinder RPG by Paizo. Now I actually participated in a Starfinder campaign in 2021 so I’m familiar with the system. But I didn’t create a character using just the book since we were all playing on Fantasy Grounds. While I will never let Fantasy Grounds soil any of my computers again (another blog post for another day), I did enjoy the game and the company.

I picked up my PDF of Starfinder at a charity bundle sale last year where I also picked up 2nd edition of Pathfinder (which will be used later in the challenge). When I had created the character we used the online tools in the virtual tabletop which did a lot of heavy lifting inserting information from multiple books. But I’m only going to use the core rulebook and follow the steps as written.

The PDF is 531 pages long with the character creation steps (actually listed this way) on page 14. The PDF is bookmarked (thank you). The core book has an ISDN of 9-781601-259561 and…. the cover price isn’t listed on the PDF. The character sheet is two pages long. The D20 core mechanic is based off of the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition, but it is a stand-alone book.

The first step listed is to create a character concept for a science fantasy game. I already know what race I want this character to be, a Vesk. I had been trying to write up the racial Star Trek RPG stats for a reptilian race called the Tarn that came from a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel. But for the longest time I couldn’t find a good image of a sci-fi based reptilian race. There were lots of fantasy based images, but no sci-fi, at least until the Vesk arrived from Starfinder. They met the description of the race that had formed in my minds eye while reading The Forgotten War. So I’m going to give back by making a Vesk character. Looking at the racial description, I’m going to use the name “Sarangari.” Yea he’ll be a mercenary type character who is also a pilot.

Step two, choose a race. See above. I wrote down the stat information for the Vesk.

Next is selecting a theme. This represents a core aspect of the background and possible motivations. Again as mentioned above, Sarangari is going to be a mercenary. Reading the description the character gains an attribute increase and a knowledge skill.

Step four is selecting a class. Well it’s going to have to be soldier. I wrote it down on the character sheet, but they instructed me not to add the other abilities until I get to step six.

Now we finalize the ability scores. Each ability score starts at 10. Adjust for racial and theme adjustments. Then you have 10 more points to spread through out the abilities. I made my selections and wrote down the modifiers.

As mentioned in step four, we will now be applying the class features for the soldier. These include the base attack bonus and savings throws. It also includes the class skills and how many skill ranks I can use at the first level. I tried to make sure that I had everything written down.

And speaking of skill ranks, in step five we allocate the skill points (four) and also select the feats. This character only gets one feat at first level.

Now we are onto purchasing equipment. The book states we have 1,000 credits to start with. And wow, that doesn’t cover very much. I knew that I wasn’t going to get some advanced weaponry and equipment right away, but holy cow some of these prices. I know I went over, but I would have probably come up with some story to the GM how the 95 credit survival knife was a gift/inheritance/found or something. After weapons and armor, there was nothing left over for other equipment. Soooooooo I hope the GM has a good way to get us taken care of.

Final step is the finishing details. Alignment (Neutral Good), Deity (need to look that up) and the like. I filled in what I could.

Afterthoughts:

Because of how many choices there were and my familiarity with the D20 system, I kept trying to stop myself from jumping ahead in the process. I wanted to make sure that I was following the rules as written. Especially with all of the additions that the Starfinder system seems to have in it. I keep hearing it’s so players can make any character they want, but they should just stick to the basics for the core rulebook and add more with the additional books (of which Piazo has a lot). It seemed overwhelming at times in just the core rulebook. But I’ve heard fans of Starfinder and Pathfinder talk about how they liked having all of the different options and choices from the different books. So I can see that appeal if you are into that.

Would I play this game? Well I already have. And I’d play it again at a con or if someone wanted to run a campaign. Would I run this game? Probably not. There are a lot of other Sci-Fi RPG choices that are not overbearing that I REALLY want to try. Would I homebrew for this game? That’s a possible-maybe. If I’m playing in a campaign, perhaps I’d be inspired to homebrew something. But with the amount of stuff already rattling around my head, coming up with stuff just for Starfinder may be at the bottom of the list.

Additional Notes:

There is a participant in the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge who is posting his entries on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server using the handle of Zonrad. This person is using the Power Rangers Roleplaying Game to make ranger characters out of the teenagers from The Breakfast Club. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that movie, but I’ve never had any interest in Power Rangers. After reading several of these entries, I’m eagerly awaiting the next one. This is the type of creativity that I love seeing from fellow RPG enthusiasts. Keep it up.

Coming Up Next:

Crypts & Things

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 22: Barbarians of Lemuria

Written by TardisCaptain January 22, 2024

Barbarians of Lemuria is my Day 22 entry in the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge. I was able to pick up a hardbound copy of this book at a gaming swap meet at SaltCON last year at a good price. So I thought I’d use it for a challenge entry.

The book appears to have been published in 2009. There is no copyright date, but the authors note at the front of the book have the 2009 dates on them. The book is 104 pages in length with and ISDN number of 5-800090-99678. It was written by Simon Washbourne and published by Beyond Belief Games. The character sheet is one page long and the character creation steps start on page 7. The core mechanic (explained on page 6) is to roll 2d6+attribute+combat ability or career skill+modifiers to exceed nine to succeed.

First step is to look over the careers and come up with a character concept. I see the standard class types, but then there are those like farmer, serving wench and beggar. I wonder if some of these were put in for the GM to create NPCs. With the name of the game being Barbarians of Lemuria, I think I’ll make a standard barbarian type character.

The four attributes are Strength, Agility, Mind and Appeal (aka Charisma). You start off with four points to spread between the attributes with no attribute being higher than 3 and you can buy down one attribute if you wanted to gain an extra point. An attribute with 0 represents an average rating. I made my selections.

Step three is to select your combat abilities. You once again have four points to spend between Brawl, Melee, Ranged or Defense (dodging, etc.). Same rules, max of 3 and can buy down if needed. Your Lifeblood (aka hit points) is 10+Str.

Next you choose four careers. I guess this may explain why there were some odd careers listed before. The character could have started out as a farmer then moved over to pirate (wink back at the Dread Pirate Roberts). Most of these don’t say anything about changes to the character stat wise, they just give some background and suggestions. So this guy was a Barbarian from the Valgardian Northlands. He also became a Hunter for his tribe until he was captured by slavers and turned into a Slave. The slavers sold him to be a Gladiator until he escaped.

Next you select your origin, or where you are from. Now you obtain boons an flaws for your character. As mentioned above, this guy is from the Valgardian Northlands, so I wrote down the boons and flaws obtained from his upbringing. He only gets one language, but thanks to one of his boons, he gets one more hero point than the standard five.

I don’t think the character creation process is done yet as the character isn’t equipped yet. The next chapter goes into combat and GMing.

Ah here it is on page 44. And it states “Give the players what they want”. Simple. The GM is advised on how to handle players who get greedy in this step.

Next it goes into spells. Not for this guy. Next. And, the book goes into descriptions of the game world and creatures. So I guess I’m done. I should write down a name. He random name generator come up with the name of a barbarian. Wow, there isn’t a good list on this one. After a few pages of choices came up I settled on Kruk. Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

The system seemed pretty simple and was explained before character creation (and expanded upon afterwards). I really wish that the book had a step-by-step guide as it suffered from next-chapteritis syndrome.

The system seems pretty straightforward and I liked the lightness of the book (especially after some of the doozies I’ve experienced recently). It’s too bad that I’ll probably never get a chance to play this at the table. There are a ton of fantasy RPGs and its hard to get excited about one that you’ll never get a chance to play.

Additional Notes:

After posting yesterday’s entry for Night’s Black Agents, I was able to locate the SRD for Gumshoe online. However I have not had a chance to look at it (I had already moved onto my next entry). I did get a response from a reader on Mastodon who talked a little about the system, but it was still a flavor that you’d have to get use to. It did lead to a discussion that I hadn’t considered with NBA. How the page layout and font size made the book a little hard for the person to read. Perhaps I hadn’t noticed it because I had the PDF set to display over 100%. A reader on the RPG.net forums mentioned that the mechanic was in the first two chapters, but admitted that the crunchiness in the text may have made it easier to overlook. He also informed me that the Trust, Drives and Sources of Stability were optional mechanics in the game. I was glad that he had pointed this out because I thought it had been a requirement.

Coming Up Next:

Starfinder

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Horror, Role Playing Games, Spy-Fi

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 21: Night’s Black Agents

Written by TardisCaptain January 21, 2024January 22, 2024 2 Comments

Welcome to Day 21 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge and today we will be using a Horror/Espionage based roleplaying game called Night’s Black Agents. I had picked this up in the same DriveThruRPG sale that had Boot Hill and several other games that I had been wanting to get my hands on. I had also seen this game mentioned on some of the gaming blogs that I read so I thought I’d check it out at the discounted price that was offered. Yes I do buy a lot of games when they are on sale since I am a bargain hunter.

This game is using something called the Gumshoe system, that I’ve never used. I hope that the book explains the system enough for me to create a character. In the universe of this game, your character is a secret agent (or ex-secret agent) that discovers that vampires are real and are attempting to rule the world. Sounds interesting. The PDF is 236 pages long. The character creation steps start on page 9. The character sheet is only one page in length.

The rules state that the character creation process is broken down into four broad steps. Choose one or more backgrounds, choose your investigative abilities, choose general abilities and building your personality and dossier. A player has build points for the different sections.

After looking over the different backgrounds for the first step, I selected Bagman. This is basically a courier what handles the money and gets it from point A to point B. This guy was an American OTIF agent monitoring SWIFT transactions in Switzerland. I wrote down the Investigative Abilities and General Abilities that slated for the background.

Selecting the investigative abilities is the next step. These are abilities that do not fail. The amount of build points is determined by the number of players in the game. (Boy, they must believe that our gaming schedules can all coordinate) For the purpose of this build I’m going to pretend that we have four players involved for a total of 22 investigative build points. Oh, I’m already down 6 points to pay for my background package. I like that the rules explain that if you don’t use all of the build points now, you can use them in-game to add a skill that your character always had, but hadn’t been seen until now. The RAW advises that having a variety of 1-point skills are better than having a few specialties. I looked over the descriptions and wrote some down spending my remaining 16 points.

Third step is to select the general abilities. I have 70 points to spend on these (with some already coming from the background at a cost of 18 points, so 52 is the actual starting point). The general abilities do have a possibility of failure unlike the investigative abilities. The rules advise me to put many points into a few different abilities because you spend these points during the game. I also followed some of the other advice the book gave on these including a good athletics (to make the character harder to hit).

OK, last step. Building a personality and dossier. This is broken down into three smaller parts. Picking a sources of stability, the character’s drive and the character’s trust. This is also where we pick the name for the character (pulling up the random name generator and it gives us… Kendall Barker). Ken’s sources of stability are what keep him sane when the life of an espionage agent hunting vampires gets too stressful. If these sources get threatened or taken away, the character can’t refresh his stability. I can see this being part of the horror aspect of RPGs that I hardly get. These sources of stability should connect with the character’s drive or motivation for doing what they do. Since this isn’t a mechanical part of the game, sometimes I trip over this, especially when I’m under a time-limit like I am right now. Screw it, Ken’s partner was killed by vampires (which is how he found out about them) and he’s trying to find the particular vampire that caused the death. The symbol is his partner’s badge, the solace is the partner’s widowed wife and the solace is the motorboat that his partner once owned. OK, onto something called trust. You get something called trust points (5 of them) and you assign 3 points to an other agent (is this supposed to be another member of the party? Yea, I think it is). Another agent gets 0 points (i.e. you don’t trust them) and then the remaining get 1 point each. I can tell the other players who I chose or I can keep it a secret. I’m still not understanding this gaming currency. I think it adds to a dice pool, maybe? I’m really confused by the wording. I guess I’d have to see it in play to see if I really understand this. Since I really don’t have a group of friends around a table to experiment this with, I guess we’ll skip this part. And I think this is the end of the process. Write up a background on how Ken got into the espionage business. We know he got out when his partner was killed. So I’m done? I still don’t know the health score or some other items. I’m confused, but here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

I had to laugh that one of the abilities was “Bullshit Detector”. I know that I get a lot of use out of that in real life.

The investigative steps seemed a little straightforward, but I’d still have to see it in play before I really decided if I understood this gumshoe system. I wonder if this is just a settings book and not the actual core rules? I can’t find a gumshoe core rules on DriveThruRPG. I guess the original game was a crime drama if I’m understanding correctly. There is a ‘discovering of information’ portion of the game and then a ‘confronting/escaping the opposition’ portion. Is this a game that acts like an episode of CSI? I really wish there had been a “core mechanic is…” page where I could get a good idea. Until I understand more, I can’t say if I’d play or do more with this game.

Additional Notes:

I had a couple of readers reach out to me on Mastodon regarding my attempt to make a Fantasy Hero character. The phrase used was “Congratulations, you have now been exposed to the wonder that is Champions/Hero, or as I like to put it ‘the greatest programming language in all of RPGs.'” In the USENET days there were competitions to see who could design a single power to destroy the planet with the least number of points. Others would use the system to describe a toaster using only game power descriptors. They would do everything but play the game as an RPG. There were a lot of comparisons to GURPS (just as I had come to the same conclusion) and there were a lot of “You couldn’t pay me to play the Heroes system again” comments. I’m glad to know that I wasn’t the only one who had his eyes bleeding from the game.

Coming Up Next:

Barbarians of Lemuria

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 20: Shadowrun Anarchy

Written by TardisCaptain January 20, 2024January 20, 2024

Welcome to Day 20 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge and today we will be using the Shadowrun Anarchy Alternate Ruleset. I picked up this book from a gaming swap meet at SaltCON last spring for a decent price and decided to use it for the challenge. I have a Shadowrun character from the first edition of the game. I don’t recall very much about that game. Back in the early 90’s the cyberpunk genre was all the rage in gaming and I think the gaming group was just trying out different versions. I know we played the original Cyberpunk quite a bit.

Shadowrun Anarchy was published by Catalyst Game Labs in 2016 and I had never heard of it before I saw the book. The hardbound book has 213 pages and the ISBN number is 978-1-941582-19-0 and had an original cover price of $39.99. Character creation starts on page 61 and there is a one page character sheet.

The first step is to create a character theme. I looked over the sample characters given and elected to go with another Street Samurai that is cybernetically enhanced. He was taken in by an orphanage at a young age and never knew his parents (they could be a plot point to re-appear in a future session). This orphanage trained kids to become adults that would help protect the neighborhood from different street gangs and corporate thugs. So he has a strong sense of community. I’m instructed to create a character name, which will be Spike. The last item in this step is to create some Tags for the character. One or two word descriptions. I selected: Human, Tough, Protective and Street Life.

Step two is to determine the game level. This is done by the player group and not the GM apparently. The decision will determine the character creation stats and range from Gang-level game to Prime-runner game. As a committee of one, I selected the lowest at Gang-level. This gives me 12 attribute points, 10 skill points, 6 shadow amps, 2 weapons and some gear.

Step three is to choose the metatype (aka race). I already had selected human which gives me +1 edge and +1 skill point.

The next step is to determine if your character is awakened or emerged. Basically does the character have magical abilities or the capability to enter the matrix (Shadowrun’s internet) with just your mind. Spike will not have either of these items.

On step five we assign our attribute points. The attributes are Strength, Agility, Willpower, Logic and Charisma. Each starts with one point and I have the 12 to spread around. Now that we have the attributes assigned, some additional stats can be generated such as the Physical Damage Track and the Stun Damage Track (which to appear to function like hit points).

I have 11 skill points to use in step six. There is also a free Knowledge skill that the character has (I selected local neighborhoods to go along with the character concept). Spike fights, Spike shoots and Spike knows how to ride his motorbike to help his neighborhood.

Step seven instructs us to select Spike’s shadow amps These are special powers that enhance the character and I have six points to use. I selected a natural one of Fear (he intimidates people), wired reflexes and cyberarms (both give some bonuses but take two essence.

Next we are instructed to select two positive qualities and one negative quality. I selected Toughness (all damage taken is reduced by 1), Tough as Nails +1 to the Physical Damage Track and Emotional Attachment to the Orphanage organization (they instruct him and he follows those instructions).

The gearing steps are next. Step nine is to assign armor. Since I had an extra shadow amp point left, I used it to get an armored jacket and step ten is to pick Spike’s three weapons. He has a vibrosword, the Browning Ultra-Power Heavy Pistol and HK-227 Submachine Gun. And in the last of the gearing up steps (eleven) is to select other gear. Up to four items of non-combat variety and two contacts. He’s got a Harley-Davidson Scorpion Bike, a commlink, stim patches and a ring that apparently was left with him when the Orphanage found him. As for his contacts, he has the mysterious head of the Orphanage (who seems to be well connected) and the leader of the local street merchants (they are the extra eyes and ears that he depends upon, and in return he helps protect them).

Next we have step twelve where we create cues for the character. These are phrases (quotes basically) that the character might state during gameplay. These sound like the personal quotes from the D6 Star Wars game from WEG or the Values from Star Trek Adventures. I wrote down some, but would probably ask the GM to let me come up with some on the fly while gaming (when inspiration strikes).

Step thirteen instructs us to create a character background. I thought we did that at the first step? I added some personal data (weight, height, etc.) and history (as seen above). The final step is tweaking where you can adjust things now that you have the character down on paper. Does something not look right or needs to be adjusted, do that here.

Afterthoughts:

I like how at the end of the steps it gives you a chance to adjust a few things. I’ve also loved the use of quotes to help define a character. The steps were pretty straight forward. I did have to do a lot of page flipping, but I was able to track some things down. The book did reference the 5th edition Shadowrun core book once to reference additional equipment, but I didn’t really feel like I was missing anything. This sounds like a rules-lite version of the game when I read the core die-rolling process. I’ve been hearing that this game might be played at a local game store or at SaltCON. I may have to check it out.

I don’t know if I’d do any homebrewing for this. The cyberpunk genre, while interesting to play, hasn’t started any creative juices flowing. So that’s more of a me thing than an issue with the game.

Additional Notes:

If you are still reading my posts after twenty days of the Character Creation Challenge, I thank you. I know that some have been entertained by this. Feel free to send me any feedback on the characters or the site in general. I am getting some creative ideas from my attempts (even the unsuccessful ones) and the entries of others. One I’m really intrigued by may even lead to my first homebrewed RPG system.

Coming Up Next:

Night’s Black Agents

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 19: Fantasy Hero

Written by TardisCaptain January 19, 2024January 21, 2024 1 Comment

Day 19 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge and I am using the Fantasy Hero 6th Edition system. I had a past character sheet for Fantasy Hero found in my Book of Characters, but I don’t recall ever playing the game (or any Hero game).

Now I have to tell the story about how I came across this book. Last year I visited one of the local gaming stores that I only get a chance to visit a couple times a year (not too distant, but just enough out of the way that I’m not a regular). I liked visiting this place because they would have a good used selection of RPG books. I was able to pick up a copy of Dungeon Crawl Classics at a very reasonable price from this store. On one visit I found a copy of Fantasy Hero in really good shape and for a very low price. As a bargain hunter I was thinking that it was a steal and something that I could use for a future challenge. Well I got home and started looking through the book and started getting scared and upset. This didn’t seem like an actual core rulebook, it seemed to be just a settings book for the Hero System 6th Edition. But it didn’t tell you this on the front or back cover nor did it tell you in the first few pages of the game (that I was able to find). No wonder it was so cheap. I’m wondering if someone else purchased it and discovered the same thing and then sold the book to this store for credit?

Luckily at the time I had purchased the book, the Bundle of Holding website was running a charity sale with the Hero 6th Edition core books (at the basic level) and some expansions covering different genres (at the higher level). It was quite literally the last day of the sale and I picked up just the basic so that I could have the core rules. So I’ll be using the physical Fantasy Hero book and the Character Creation Book (volume 1) PDF in an attempt to make this character.

They physical book has 480 pages and was written by Steven S. Long. The ISBN number is 978-1-58366-129-1 and had an original cover price of $44.99. There is a character creation chapter that starts on page 52, but it just states pick a theme and a motivation and then goes into some racial templates. The PDF for Volume 1 of Hero System 6th edition Character Creation is 466 pages long. The PDF was bookmarked. The character sheet is two pages long. The original basis for this game was the superhero genre, which may explain why I never looked at this game to begin with. Oh wait, as I started reading some of the introductions it stated that there is a Basic Rulebook, did I get that in my set? Yes, let’s see if that has a basic character creation guide? Hey here is one on page six and it even explains the game basics. OK, change of plans, I’m going to use the 138 page Basic Rulebook instead because it sounds like it might be a little bit more straightforward without the extra fluff (and there is a LOT of fluff in here).

If you have to complete a type of task such as combat, skill use, etc you roll 3d6 and apparently you want a low number. Makes sense and I’m glad that they started it off with that. The characters are built using Character Points as determined by the GM (Heroic characters are 175 points which I’m electing to use). There are seventeen characteristics (what????) with the average human ranging from 5-10. There are also skills (specialized knowledge), Perks (special resources like having lots of money), Talents (unusual knowledge), Powers (probably for the superhero side of this game), Advantages and Limitations (self explanatory), and Multipowers (why am I suddenly hearing: “But wait, there’s more!!!!”)

Page 9 of the basic rules explains the character sheet. Good job. Oh, wait. It doesn’t match the character sheet that I printed out. OK, so I’m going to print out this sheet, but it’s going to look different than the one seen in the photo above. It is still two pages and the second page was the same. There were some minor differences on the first page and since I’m going with the basic rules, I wanted them to match.

Finally, the Characteristics (aka Attributes). There is Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), Intelligence (INT), Ego (EGO) mental strength and strength of will, Presence (PRE) charisma and bravery and leadership capabilities, Offensive Combat Value (OCV) which is the accuracy in combat, Defensive Combat Value (DCV) how hard it is to hit your character, Offensive Mental Combat Value (OMCV) accuracy in mental combat, Defensive Mental Combat Value (DMCV) yea you guessed it, Speed (SPD) how many times your character acts in each combat turn, Physical Defense (PD) protection from physical attacks (that I guess actually made it through your DCV), Energy Defense (ED) protection from energy attacks, Recovery (REC) how fast your character heals, Endurance (END) personal energy that feeds some abilities and powers, Body (BODY) it sounds like hit points and Stun (STUN) hit points for being knocked out. Wow. There is a characteristics table on page 18 that shows the starting value for the character (as a normal human) and the cost for raising that value (some are 1 to 1 while others are much higher). It appears that I don’t have to pay for the starting values.

Now I flipped back to the Character Creation book because the Fantasy Hero book talked about Templates (that is how I knew there were no steps for character creation in the fantasy book). I am going to use the templates with the basic rules (I hope they fit). There is a cost for each template that I’m going to use with the 175 character points. So finally I get to choose something from the fantasy book. On the race, I was thinking about making a Centaur character since I don’t see that option often, but I elected to go with Dwarf so I could see how it stacks up to other fantasy RPGs. I added the dwarf template to the sheet and subtracted the points.

I think I’m just winging it at this time since I’ve been jumping back and forth between three books. Next in the Fantasy Book is the Professional Templates. Yea we are trying to keep this as simple as possible. This dwarf is going to be a warrior. Of the different types of warriors, he will be a Heavy Fighter.

And I’m going to call it here. I’ve been at this for hours going through three books and I’m not even half-way done with Drokkin the Dwarf. I’m calling this a failure. I’ve got some understanding of the game mechanics, but this is way too complicated for a roleplaying game. I just want to get a character done in 30 minutes (60 minutes at the most) and then start playing and I’ve got plenty of choices to meet that goal.

Afterthoughts:

I liked how a lot of quotes from various books were used in the Fantasy Hero book. I thought it did add some flavor. And since I had to look at the index quickly to see if I had missed a page that had character creation steps (still couldn’t find one) I did notice that the first entry in the index and the last entry in the index was noted at the top of each page next to the page numbers. I thought it was a good idea. But to give you an idea of how big the index is, it is seven pages long, each with four columns with very small font.

When I found the basic rulebook, the ball started rolling a little bit easier instead of sloshing through the extra fluff. I was very grateful that this was available. I liked that they gave examples of a character that was weak vs legendary or superhuman. But even then the process was way too convoluted and drawn out. While looking through the character creation book they even suggested going to the publishers website and looking up the character creation software (which I couldn’t find). I’m sorry, but if you have to provide software to make a character.

This game has been around for a long time, so it must be an acquired taste like GURPS. I just don’t have that taste (or patience) to create a character for this game. If I saw this game available at a gaming con where a pre-made character was provided for use, I might consider signing up just to try the system out, but I’m not playing this nor am I interested in homebrewing for it. Too much crunch and fluff when I could be playing instead. I regret buying this book even at the low price it was.

Additional Notes:

We are two weeks away from the end of January. Yes you can start now, or catch up or keep going. I’ve been seeing a lot of wonderful builds out there from different systems. I’ve even checked out a few new ones. Even when I fail to make the character, I’ve learned something and I hope you have as well.

Coming Up Next:

Shadowrun Anarchy

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 18: Vintage Space

Written by TardisCaptain January 18, 2024

On Day 18 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge I elected to use Vintage Space: Retro Disco Sci-Fi Roleplaying. I don’t recall where I read this from, but this game is a retro-clone/refit of the FASA Star Trek RPG with some serial numbers filed off. So I thought I’d check it out and see how it stacks up.

The PDF is 70 pages long and lacks any bookmarks. The character creation process is listed on page six of the index but is found on page 12 of the PDF. There is no character sheet. Because of this I almost dropped the game from my list. But I remembered that in my early years of participating in roleplaying games that I just used a sheet of paper to write my characters down on. So I’ll whip something up on the word processor and see how it turns out.

Generating the character’s attributes is the first step. They are Strength (STR), Endurance (END), Intelligence (INT), Dexterity (DEX), Charisma (CHA) Luck (LUC) and Psychic Potential (PSY). These were the same attributes found in the FASA Star Trek RPG. However instead of using percentage scores, you have attributes plus skill added together for a number to roll under. To generate the attribute scores, some generic guidelines are listed, but on the next page it has the same guidelines adjusted with racial adjustments. So it would make sense to decide which race the character will be first and then follow those guidelines.

The races are Humans, Satora (aka Vulcans), Korrin (aka Andorians), Inush (Tellerites but dog based instead of pigs), Neyokso (aka Caitians) and Takka (an octopus based race that seems to be original). Since there are six of them, I rolled a D6 to randomly select one, which was Satoran. I rolled up the attributes and wrote them down on the home-made character sheet.

Next is the Hit Points. This is equal to your END attribute. Simple enough, I wrote it down.

Now the character is going through the Starfleet…. err…. Star Corps Academy. There I choose a division (aka department) to join which will determine the course of study. Yea pointy ear boy is going to be a member of the science department. I wrote down the skills as instructed.

Now if the character was just starting off as a newly minted Ensign, the training would stop there. While this is tempting, I think I’ll make this guy a Lieutenant who is the Chief Science Officer on a smaller vessel. So he gets to add one rank to any one skill for Lt. (junior grade) and one rank for full Lieutenant.

The next section was a character creation example. It seems to have followed what I read previously except that each skill point meant that I pick a specialty that would match the skill. I went back up through the earlier pages and I didn’t see that mentioned in the rules. I found some listed specialties later in the book. Also in the example is the note that each character gets one passion skill (interests or hobbies). If you use a specialty your character has, you roll 2D20 and take the best roll.

Because this character is Vulc…. Satoran I looked over the Psionic Abilities. Especially since I had a very high roll when generating the PSY score. The racial description stated that Satoran characters have unrestricted access to psychic education and training, but the section on Psionic Abilities states that you lose the Passions skill and one rank of a skill that is gained at the academy. But is that only for Non-Satorans? Would I list all of the psionic skills or just pick a number of them? It states that there are specialties, but again, how many will this character get? Uh, I’ll just note that the character has them.

The book then goes into some of the system explanations (roll a D20 wanting a low roll for success on both skills and savings throws). I finally made it down to the equipment section. The items your character has is dependent upon a requisition clearance level that is rank based, but there is no chart for the clearance levels. Ugh. There are several items listed. I’ll just write down what a Chief of Science who is a Lieutenant would have. I named him Troxtor and took a screen shot of the document.

Afterthoughts:

I mentioned the AI images (you can’t really call it art) in my White Lies 2nd Edition entry. While those looked like paintings with some emotion, the AI images in this publication were very distracting and pulled me away from the text. Once again the eyes were off on quite a few images (pupils of different sizes and looking in different directions, etc.) No image matched the others in a theme. You couldn’t look at multiple images and say “yes these are from the same in-game universe”. At least the White Lies book had some consistency. I think the worse part is how plastic and soulless everything looked. Characters had no emotion, nothing to express more than “I’m just an action figure in a pose”. Even the ships were just jumbles dumped into a pot and poured out into a bowl.

I wonder if this was an early draft? There was some minor errors that an editor would have caught. While I was going through the creation process and reading some of the sections, I got the urge to re-write some sections to make it smoother.

I can see where the FASA Star Trek RPG inspired this system. It’s not a direct descendant of the game that has a cult following, but the DNA is present. I can see where references were pulled from other shows with the serial numbers filled off. I would often say “Oh, those are Klingons from Star Trek and those are Cylons from Battlestar Galactica.” The system itself looks like it could work at the table pretty easy. I wouldn’t mind getting a few friends together just to try it out. I could even lead to some homebrewing. But it needs something more, it needs something to give it the extra kick needed to say “I want to play this game.” Clean up the character creation steps is something that I would recommend for a start. If there is an update or re-write of the game, I’d even pay a few extra bucks just to have a publication with real art that gives flavor to the universe.

Additional Notes:

Wow, just wow. Yesterday when I was checking the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge on Mastodon, I came across a post by Lester Smith. He had posted on his blog about his involvement in the 2021 challenge and how it helped him to climb out of a bout of depression. Creating the characters got him back into writing and he has released several new roleplaying games including one called D6xD6 Dungeons. I decided to buy a copy to check it out. Then I started going through his blog. I eventually had to stop myself because I had items that I needed to get done. Mr. Smith had written the first edition of the Dark Conspiracy RPG and contributed to a lot of other works in the gaming industry. Now he is “retired” and just writes the stuff he wants to because he enjoys it. It sounds like a goal of mine. David Gerrold once said that he writes the books he wants to read. We’ll I’d like to get to the same level as Lester Smith and write the games that I’d love to play. I guess I was taken aback by hearing how the Character Creation Challenge had helped someone. It wonder if this is what Jimmy Doohan felt when he had helped save a fans life from suicide. Note, I’m not saying that Mr. Smith was at that level in his issues, but I got the same feelings that Mr. Doohan had when read this blog post.

I started this challenge to have fun and I invited others to participate in that fun. Having fun was the goal. But I should also remember that participating in the group activity called a roleplaying game can be very therapeutic as well. Even just the act of writing, drawing, painting, getting together, etc. for a game would be therapeutic. I guess I’m just awed.

Coming Up Next:

Fantasy Hero

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Spy-Fi

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 17: White Lies 2nd Edition

Written by TardisCaptain January 17, 2024 1 Comment

Day 17 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge is here. And today we are using the White Lies 2nd Edition roleplaying game. Now if this sounds familiar, I used the White Lies 1st edition back in 2022 to create a character. It was based off of the D20 based White Box RPG that used the Open Gaming License (hence the name White Lies). After Wizards of the Coast had their disastrous OGL fiasco last January, the author wisely decided to remove all OGL items from this game and release a second edition. DwD Studios wasn’t the only publisher that decided to pull up stakes and head out to the land of Creative Commons licensees. This is also the reason we got a 4th edition of Basic Fantasy RPG.

The White Lies 2nd Edition PDF is 188 pages long. The character creation process starts on page 10. The character sheet is one page in length.

The ability assessment is the first step in creating an agent. In the 1st edition, the abilities were the familiar batch as seen in most D20 fantasy games. However with this 2nd edition the abilities have been re-tooled to resemble an espionage game with Toughness, Dexterity, Intellect, Discipline (self control) and Influence (physical appeal and charisma). I rolled a D20 five times and compare it to a chart. This gives a score from -2 to +5 and you assign one per ability. Since all of the scores rolled were nigher than a +2 added together (from the chart) I didn’t need to re-roll the abilities and I assigned them to the character sheet.

The next step is your Division Training. This is basically your class. After reading them over, I elected to go with the Elimination Division. I’m instructed to note all of the division qualification (aka skills) and details.

Step three is the outfitting. There are some items that each agent has automatically, pistol, operative kit with some stuff, etc. Then the division training also provides some additional items and another equipment kit of my choice. I then roll 3d6x100 for starting money to buy additional gear. In the Elimination Division I get two ammo upgrades for my weapons, but is that just clips of ammo or picking two of the improvements listed in the outfitting chapter? The pistol already had one ammo upgrade? I did a search in the PDF and I think it’s just spare clips.

The last step is the final assessment. Rank and merit is 1 and 0. Filled in stamina, defense, movement and initiative. Selected a second language. As for a name, we are going to pull up the handy dandy name generator and this guy is named: Jack Sterling. Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

With the speed that was needed to get the product out, I can understand why the author went with AI generated graphics. The product was free to those who had purchased the 1st edition and it is PWYW afterwards. But some of the AI art still freaks me out for a second. I think its the eyes and some of the skin in the images. The guy in the center looks like he is losing his right eye. The eyes on the tiger on page 142 is like a cross-eyed lion. Some of the images looks like the skin is peeling off. But I did laugh at the “Typical Person” image that was used.

There are lots of good add-ons to this game both in the book and from the publisher’s social media (Me-We or Discord). I like the enemy organization charts to make up some opponents and master villains. I also liked the references to a possible campaign ideas using references like GI Joe, The A Team, RED, and more. There are quick write ups for everything from a mall cop (I also laughed at “some of them even have real guns”) to James Bond type superagents. Also included are details on aliens and supernatural creatures (needs zombies please) if the GM is so inclined to throw them at the agents.

The system was pretty straight forward and I could see the logical changes after dropping the OGL items. I liked how the new attribute names and how they were generated. It still seemed OSR with a new coat of paint. I really want to see how this plays at the table and I could easily see myself homebrewing for this system. I might even want to borrow the system (or some elements) for a core rulebook that I’ve got in mind to write up.

Additional Notes:

It has been a very cold and snowy day. I was wondering if I was going to get this character completed in time. Because of this, I haven’t had a chance to look for other sites/message boards that have been participating in the challenge. If I’m missing any from the link list, please let me know. Did I mention that I hate snow?

Coming Up Next:

Vintage Space

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Westerns

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 16: Boot Hill 3rd Edition

Written by TardisCaptain January 16, 2024January 16, 2024 1 Comment

For Day 16 of the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge I elected to use the Boot Hill Wild West Role-Playing Game 3rd Edition released by TSR in 1990. This was another series that I was very much aware of, but didn’t get a chance to play back in the 80s and 90s. I think a gaming buddy may have had this game (or an earlier version). I know that I had seen several articles in Dragon magazine. During that time you didn’t know much about games unless you saw them on the store shelves or in an advertisement in one of the gaming magazines.

Like The Spy Game, I had purchased Boot Hill from a special theme sale on DriveThruRPG in September. I don’t know why Boot Hill came up at the same time as the other modern military RPGs that were in the sale, but I snagged it anyway knowing that I would probably never see a physical copy.

The PDF is 132 pages long with the character creation process starting on page six. The character sheet is one page long. The character creation process uses D10s, but the play uses D20s and D6s.

A Boot Hill 3e character has five attributes. Strength, Coordination, Observation, Stature (aka fame), and Luck. The rules state that I roll 2D10 and add them together for the score of the first three attributes and only a D10 for the last two. Then there are modifiers to the attribute depending upon what you rolled (so you didn’t end up with any below average scores). The book also had two other methods available which could have generated higher scores, but I stuck with the first method.

Next comes the skills of the character. Each new character gets a number skills that I can choose. To determine this number, I add up all of my attributes and consult a chart. This character ended up with eight starting skills. Half of the skills must be “work skills” (the second category is “weapon skills”). After I selected the skills I thought this character should have, I rolled 2d10 and added the results down the line for each skill score.

The book explains how the handedness works in the game and instructs me to pick a hand (right). If I roll a 20 on a D20, the character will be ambidextrous. Nope, rolled an 8.

Now the book goes into the description of combat and other rules discussions. I still need to come up with some basic background information for the character and give him some equipment. I finally found the equipment section in “The Western Campaign” several chapters later. But that still didn’t have anything on equipping a new character. So I made a good-judgement decision and wrote them down. Here is the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

While the PDF did have some basic bookmarks (the start of each chapter) the PDF was a little annoying. It included a map printed in the portrait format so I couldn’t “Fit To Width” the document to read it. I had to “zoom” into the page so I could get it to the readable size.

I liked how the book explained the rules as you were making the character. Now that you have your skill score, this is how you use it at the table. It helped me learn the game as I was making the character. That is something I really appreciated in a character creation process. There have been some games where I’ve completed making the character, but I don’t know how the numbers/dice work together.

I’ve got a handful of western based RPGs in both physical and PDF form. I don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance to play a western RPG, but I could see myself playing BH3e and perhaps even homebrewing for it. For a game that was released in 1990, it was explained quite well. It had some shortcomings when it came to initial equipment, but a good GM would be able to handle that.

I liked how they had known character stats listed in the book for historical and fictional cowboys.

Additional Notes:

A reader pointed out on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server that my Conan character could have been a farmer that later became a pirate. The example they used was Wesley from The Princess Bride becoming the Dread Pirate Roberts later. I hadn’t thought about that possible story line.

Going through my visitors log, I found that someone had arrived from another message board talking about the Character Creation Challenge. I didn’t recognize the username on this message board so I don’t know if it was the same reader who’s been promoting the challenge on other message boards. To this person, thank you.

Coming Up Next:

White Lies 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 or click on my social media links with any comments.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2024 Character Creation Challenge Day 15: Conan: Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of

Written by TardisCaptain January 15, 2024 1 Comment

We are half way through the month and half way through the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Today I will be using Conan: Adventures In An Age Undreamed Of by Modiphius. This is part of their 2d20 system. I’ve created characters under this system for Star Trek Adventures Core Rulebook, Star Trek Adventures Klingon Core Rulebook, Dune Adventures in the Imperium, John Carter of Mars and earlier this month, Fallout. So it will be interesting to see how the character creation process stacks up. Conan came out before Star Trek Adventures. So we will see.

There isn’t any availability for this game other than the physical books through Ebay. Modiphius gave up the license after they decided that they had completed the line. I’ve heard that another company will be picking up the Conan line, but I don’t think it will be using the same system. Just before the Modiphius license expired last year, they had a massive sale for all of the PDF books at a very good price. So I had to pick it up to use in the Character Creation Challenge.

The PDF of the core rulebook has 440 pages and contains bookmarks. The character creation process starts in chapter 2 on page 13. The character sheet is three pages long with the last page reserved for spells.

There are ten steps in the process. The first step is to select a homeland. The RAW states to roll 2d20 and check the chart. A roll of 21 resulted in the character being from Brythunia (and it gives a page number for more information). This gives us the Talent of Cosmopolitan and the language of Brythunian. The Cosmopolitan talent allows you to talk with other characters who also posses this talent.

Step two is the attributes. These are Agility, Awareness, Brawn, Coordination, Intelligence, Personality and Willpower and range from 6-12 when the process is completed. All of these attributes start with a value of 7. Now I am instructed to roll a d20 twice to determine the character’s two attribute aspects. These resulted in “Wise and Friendly” and “Socially Adept”. These both came with two mandatory attribute increases and I can pick one of two optional attribute increases. I adjusted my notes after making my choices.

The Caste is step three in the process. This is the social class that the character came out of. The caste will give the character two talents, one skill and a story. From the chart I rolled a Farmer. I wrote down the skills, effects and social standing and moved onto step four, the story.

A story has the background elements of the character and is rolled on a chart for the caste determined in step three. I found the Farmer stories and rolled a four “Ample for Winter”. For some reason there was a second line for caste on the character sheet, but none for story. So I assumed this was a mistake and wrote my story information there. No skills or other adjustments were provided here that I could see.

Here in step five we get to roll (or choose) an Archetype. This sounds like a class. I looked over the descriptions and decided to let the dice roll. If I didn’t like it, the example stated that I could just pick one. The d20 clacks on the table resulting in 11, a Pirate. Pirates are kewl, but how would a Farmer become a Pirate? Yea, I’m making the choice that this guy will be a Mercenary. More of a land based guy since he was once a farmer. Not only are there several skills obtained, but the first equipment items that I wrote down.

Next on step six, Nature we roll for what the character does or act in a certain way. Sticking with the randomness of the dice I rolled a 13: Sneaky. I looked up what is gained from this. +1 to a single attribute (awareness) and some more skills and my first talent (at least the first that I can see, the example had two listed for them by now, but they were on a different path so??)

Education is step seven. The dice rolled a 15 “On Your Own Terms”. More mandatory and elective skills were adjusted or added. Another talent was selected (perhaps I was just impatient). No new equipment however.

The War Story is step eight. I’m suddenly having to stop myself from saying “There I was…” It was a previous experience of some sort that happened to your character before the campaign started. I know that Star Trek Adventures has something similar to this. While STA has two of these events, Conan characters only get one. And for this guy I rolled a 19 which is “Survived witchcraft or sorcery”. This gave me a +1 Expertise and Focus to Discipline and Sorcery. Interesting.

On step nine we have some finishing touches. I can add +2 to one attribute or +1 to two attributes. I selected the later and decided to bump up my two lowest scores. I can then add several scores of Expertise and Focus to any skills (including skills that the character doesn’t have yet). I made my choices and altered the character sheet. It also explained that while expertise and focus were raised together during the creation process, during game play these would be increased separately. I was starting to wonder about this. I am also instructed to pick one additional talent as long as I can meet the prerequisite. I should also select a second language. The starting character gets three fortune points (i.e. luck points). For personal belongings, I get to roll twice on a table.

Step ten is the remaining aspects of the character. These include Vigor, Resolve and starting gold. It talks about courage and armor soak. It states that his persistent soak for courage is the sum of all soak bonuses bestowed by talents? But I don’t see any. Yea, I’d be asking a GM to clarify the soak stuff so I’ll leave this blank for now. Name, Age, Personality and Appearance discussions are here as well. I was thankful for the name examples.

I think I’m done because the book goes into some alternate character creation options. I know that the weapons and animals don’t have stats, but I’m sure I could look them up. I didn’t scan the third page since Braga (name selected from the homeland list) has no spells.

Afterthoughts:

I liked the fact that this core rulebook got straight into the explanation of RPGs (standard in most books) and character creation process. Several of the other Modiphiuis books for different media franchises had contained a long explanation of the world. As a gamer, I just wanted the rules. This was very much appreciated.

Not bad for a character creation process. No annoying pop ups with sides of information. I did have to re-read a few sections to make sure I understood what they were trying to say. If I did anything wrong, please let me know. But after the annoying character creation process of the last two nights, this was a blessed change.

This game sounds more combaty than Star Trek Adventures and Dune. I wonder how it would play at a table. Hopefully someone would run it at a convention. I don’t think I’ll ever get a chance to participate in a campaign for Conan. But I’d love to see how it runs at the table.

Additional Notes:

I had quite a reaction to my Ninjas & Superspies entry yesterday. On Mastodon, I had several readers tell me that they had the same level of frustration with the system including an attempt at making TMNT characters. One poster on the RPGPub message board told me that the stick figure drawing on the character made them laugh. They could see my frustration in that quick one-second drawing. I don’t know why this person’s laughing made me laugh out loud as well, but I did. And I needed a laugh.

Coming Up Next:

Boot Hill 3rd Edition

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.