Tag: Character Creation Challenge

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 23: Swords and Wizardry

Written by TardisCaptain

Day 23 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge and I’m using an OSR clone called Swords and Wizardry from Frog God Games. Specifically this is the “Complete Rulebook” version. I had picked it up on DriveThruRPG back in 2020 and I’ve been keeping it ready when I needed an OSR game for the challenge. I’ve got quite a few OSR clones and I like comparing them against each other. So let’s see how the character creation process works for this system.

There are a 144 pages in the PDF that I own. The character sheet is one-page long which looks kinda kewl. The character creation starts on page 7 with the generating of the attribute scores. I’m instructed to roll 3d6 in order. It is mentioned that the Referee may allow the player to move the scores around if this is a long term game or if you have something in mind. I’m going to let the dice decide what this character is. And with a high Intelligence (15) I’m making a magic user.

The next step is to pick a race for the character. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my last two characters for Underhaven and D.A.M.N.I.T. were Dwarves. So I’m going to select an Elf. No attribute adjustments in S&W, but there are some advantages that I wrote down in my notes.

Next comes the character’s alignment. The choices are Chaos, Law or Neutrality. I think this guy is going to be Lawful. Why, because he’s not a bad guy that’s why.

Rolling 3d6x10 for the starting gold to buy equipment is next resulted in 120 GP. I picked up the standard fair that I thought this yet-to-be-named character would need. No armor made the AC easy to calculate, and since it had both descending and ascending AC options, I chose ascending.

We’ve come to the end of the chapter on character creation, but I know I need to pick his spells. Apparently he only memorizes the spells allowed per day (one at 1st level), but can have up to eight spells in his spellbook. But I have to roll under the “Understand Spells” score from my 15 INT. And since I don’t have a name yet, the Elf Random Name Generator came up with Ivasaar Perleth.

Afterthoughts:

There wasn’t really a checklist for the character creation. It was just “now pick this from these descriptions” and move to the next chapter. I was use to this older format having played BECMI a while ago, so it didn’t bother me. But I could see how it would be confusing to players not familiar with OSR styles.

What I didn’t like was the 0.2gp costs listed on some of the equipment. Just tell me what it is in silver pieces, etc.

Some interesting tidbits in this OSR clone. I wouldn’t turn down a game, but as for running one, I’ve already got some others in mind.

Additional Notes:

I want to thank all of the participants and commenters on the #CharacterCreationChallenge channel on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. I’ve loved seeing your entries and interacting with you.

I don’t know why this game wasn’t showing up on DriveThruRPG. My copy was still in my library, but the book itself wasn’t showing up under the vendor’s page.

Coming Up Next:

EverReach

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.

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

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 22: vs D.A.M.N.I.T.

Written by TardisCaptain

The game that I’m using for Day 22 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge is one that I backed on KickStarter. Because of how far behind I’ve been, I haven’t had a chance to write a blog post about it. So this will count as both. The game is called Dwarven Assault Mining And Neutralization Interception Team (D.A.M.N.I.T.) and is a sci-fi game about Dwarves in space. The characters are a part of a trouble team sent to clear dangers out of various space mining locations or fighting pirates. When I read the description it sounded like fun, and they weren’t asking for too much on pledges. There have been a few KickStarter campaigns where the game sounded interesting, but I didn’t want to spend to much for a game that I may only play once or twice.

The physical copy of the game I received has 34 pages, but the PDF extras added several pages more. One of the extra rewards was a 5th Edition version of the game if I elected to play it. For the challenge I’m using the creation rules for the original game. The book has an ISBN number of 2-370021-779178 and was written by Mike Lafferty and Chuck Rice. There is a ton of color art in this book by Jacob Blackmon, Jon Gibbons, Dean Spencer, Kristin Nokes and Rick Hershey.

This is a rules-light system for quick play between players and DM (Dwarf Master). There is a target number and the player rolls a d20 to see if they meet or exceed the TN. The advantage/disadvantage rule is in play within this system. From the looks of things, this is one of those games that I’d pick as my odd-ball one-shot to run at SaltCON. I’ve got a few to set up for the next several conventions since they run three of them a year.

There is a one-page character sheet. The character creation steps are provided in a separate PDF when you pick up the game from DriveThruRPG. There are seven steps in total to get a character ready for the table.

Step one is to pick a class from one of these options. Scout, Medic/Science Officer, Heavy Weapons/Pilot, Engineer or Dwarven Earth Alchemist (DEA Agent). This last class is a special alchemist that can also cast spells. While this last one sounds interesting, I’m eyeing the Scout since he is an infiltrator. The book states that all characters get 15 HP to start, a specific attack and three fixed skills.

The second step is an optional one if your Dwarf Master allows. Picking a personal skill to make the character different from the others. I randomly picked one from the list since the voices in my head said to do so.

A Perk is a unique ability that the character has. For step three, I’m instructed to pick one from the list that I thought would fit this unnamed character.

Steps four and five both deal with gear. Allocating gear points then buying said gear. 10 gear points is allocated per character. I decided to pick both a ranged and melee weapon (I was surprised that there wasn’t a dagger option).

Picking a name and background is step six. I used the online random dwarf name generator to dub this character: Hezan Copperhood. After his brother went missing on a previous D.A.M.N.I.T. team, he signed up to find out what happened to his kin, and dispense justice if needed.

And finally step seven appears to be another optional one as well. If the Dwarf Master give their OK, then make your own custom skill, perk, gear or spell. I like this idea that gives the player a chance to contribute something. I’m going to go with a family heirloom which turns out has a special function. The Ancestors’ Ring. This alien technology discovered by one of his forefathers on an exploration mission can cause silence for two rounds once per game. Do you think that the Dwarf Master would allow it?

After reprinting the character sheet (see below) I was able to scan it to wrap up this blog post.

Afterthoughts:

When I went to transfer my notes to the character sheet, I realized that I had accidentally printed out the sheet for the D.A.M.N.I.T. 5th edition game. So I quickly printed out the original character sheet if you are wondering why it looks different from the photo at the top.

I hope I did the gear right. I spent all of the equipment points before I realized that I could make my own special item at the end of the process. So I may have too much gear on this guy.

This game looks simple and straight forward. My games for the spring SaltCON are already locked in, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I try to run this for Summer or End-of-Summer SaltCON later in the year. I’m very happy that I backed this Kickstarter.

Additional Notes:

This is my third of four games used in the challenge that I had picked up from KickStarter over the past year. I should go back and count how many KickStarter games I’ve used over all of the years of doing the #Character Creation Challenge.

Coming Up Next:

Swords & Wizardry

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.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 21: Underhaven

Written by TardisCaptain

On Day 21 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge we are using the Underhaven OSR Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying Game. I had picked up this game from a Kickstarter campaign where I reviewed it here. I also gave a brief rundown of the system used and a brief background of the game world. There is a two paged character sheet used for Underhaven.

The character creation steps begin on page 58 and end on page 71. The first step is to generate the stats used by the character. They are Strength (STR), Constitution (CON) and Dexterity (DEX) as the physical stats. Then Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS) and Charisma (CHA) for the mental stats. Being an OSR inspired game it uses the standard stats. However instead of rolling 3d6 (or 4d6) you distribute either d4, d6, d8 or d6, d6, d6 to each stat group. As mentioned in my Kickstarter review (linked above) a player would roll a D20 and a stat die to try to meet or beat a target number. I selected my stats for this character.

Next you select your Ancestry. The races available in the core rulebook are Dwarfs, Gnomes, Gray Elves (aka Emo Elves who were banished from the surface), Halflings, Humans and Zurkhas (aka Armadillo people). For this character I’m running a Dwarf and wrote down the traits in my notes.

On step three we select the character’s archetype (aka class) from one of the ten presented in the book. These are Artificer (aka Inventor), Cleric, Confidant (aka Face Man), Fighter, Mycologist (a mushroom searcher and apothecary), Ranger, Thief, Spelunker (Cave navigator), Verminists (spellcasters who summon swarms) and Wizard. Since I’ve never made a Spelunker before, I went with that class and wrote down the traits that came with it.

The Background is the item that is selected next. This is what the character doing before they became an adventurer. When the character uses a skill that they would have learned from the background, they get to add their Proficiency Bonus (+2 at first level) to the die roll. There was a few examples listed but it was very generic. “pirate”, “beggar”, “scholar”, etc. I had to think about this for a moment. What would a dwarven do before he became a spelunker? I fell into the trope and made him a former Smith.

Here we are at step five and we get to equip the character. I love the fact that the book is pretty straight forward. Choose up to 2 weapons, an armor that is allowed by your class and 3 pieces of gear that costs 25 GP or less. Then we get to roll (for the first time in the creation process) 5d6 for the starting gold. This can be kept or used to round out the equipment. I picked some equipment and rolled up 16 GP. With this I purchased some additional items that I thought my unnamed character would need.

The last step contains the finishing touches. Hit Points are calculated by the highest number of the CON die. And since the character is a Dwarf, he has a +1 to the starting HP, so 5. Defense is 8+max of DEX die (in this case 8) for a total of 16. If the character had a shield this would have been increased by 1, but nothing was listed for the type of armor (light, medium, heavy). I checked the combat section really quick and it turns out the type of armor worn gives a damage reduction. The Proficiency Bonus for a level 1 character is +2 (this can be raised when the character advances levels). Since the character is not a magic user, he doesn’t get any magic points (used in spell casting). I’m then instructed to record the ancestry and archetypes traits (already done above), give the character a name (um…. lets go with Thorronlir Whitbraid) and note a Fate point (aka the ability to reroll a failed roll). The character sheet is two pages, but I didn’t scan the second page since it was all organized for spell casting abilities.

Afterthoughts:

I liked the fact that they had an ending to the character creation process with a “You’re Done!” comment. There were too many times the writers would start the process without telling readers that they have reached the end.

The way they did the equipment allocation helped out quite a bit. A character should already have armor, weapons and some equipment. But I did find myself picking the most expensive items that I could before spending the randomly rolled starting gold.

I could see myself playing this game. Most likely a one-shot at an upcoming SaltCON. I could also see myself homebrewing for this game. For a game with a “locked in” world, there is a lot of sandbox play present.

Additional Notes:

In response to my Rocket Age entry with Ace Rimmer, a lot of feedback that I received was “Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast.” I’m glad to see that everyone got the Red Dwarf reference.

Coming Up Next:

D.A.M.N.I.T.

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.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 20: vs Ghosts

Written by TardisCaptain

Who are you going to call for the Day 20 entry in the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge? Um…. not who you think you’re gonna call. Today I am using vs. Ghosts. This is using a system called the VsM Engine that has been used in several small publications covering a variety of genres. I was actually wondering which one I was going to use for the challenge. When I thought about it, doing a game with the Ghostbusters serial numbers filed off sounded like fun.

The PDF that I own has 64 pages in it. The character sheet is only one page and looks pretty simple. Simple is very good for some types of games so let’s see if this makes sense. The character creation steps are presented on page 5. The first step is to pick a name and the book states you can pick something boring or something fun. So I’m going with Professor Proton. Because why not?

Next we write a Bio. Sure since we are keeping it silly. Professor Proton, is not really a professor. He just thinks he is. He may, or may not, have escaped from a certain type of hospital. He needs to stay out in order to continue his research to prove that the supernatural things he has seen really exists. Let’s run with that.

There are five attributes in vs Ghosts. Offense, Defense, Mental, Physical and Investigation. The first two have to do with combat. Mental covers knowledge, willpower or intelligence. Physical is self-explanatory and Investigation allows the character to look stuff out-of-the ordinary (aka clues). I’m given the point values of 6, 4, 4, 3 and 3 to assign as I see fit. Well this guy is more of a egghead than a body builder, so I put the points where I saw fit.

Now I have to choose Professor Proton’s gimmicks. There are good and bad gimmicks. For each good one I select, I also have to take a bad one and the game suggests just taking one of each. I’m going to go with Lucky (he’s been able to give them the slip so far) and Nemesis (those men in the white coats that keep popping up at the most in-opportune time).

The last two steps are recording the character’s Health and Traits. Since I didn’t take any gimmicks that alter it, Professor Proton’s health is 10 and traits are just things like appearance, personality quirks, etc. Apparently you don’t write down any equipment now (even though there is a space for it on the sheet) as it is acquired at the beginning of the gaming session. This is done by drawing cards and looking at the value of the card itself. Apparently no dice are used, just cards. When taking an action in the game, you draw the number of cards equal to the attribute used and compare the highest card value against a target number. I could use my 20-in-One Card Deck by Precis Intermedia that I picked up after I saw a GM use it at a SaltCON.

Afterthoughts:

The character creation was simple. The system seems simple. This could be easily used for a pick up game or a one-shot at a convention. Some of the other VsM games that I could have used instead of this one included vs Assassins, vs Empire, vs Pirates, vs Dragons, vs Moon Men and vs Wastelands.

Additional Notes:

I’m still looking for any blogs that are participating in the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge that I may have missed. Please let me know if you come across any of them. I’d love to give them some love for taking part of the challenge.

Got some family stuff coming up over the next few days. I hope that I’ve got my ducks in a row to get all of my posts up. But if I miss a day, I’ll try to get it up as soon as I can.

Coming Up Next:

Underhaven

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.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Red Dwarf, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 19: Rocket Age

Written by TardisCaptain

Day 19 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge and I’m using a pulpy science fiction RPG that I had picked up in a charity bundle sale years ago. This game was published from Cubicle 7 called Rocket Age. It has Humans exploring the solar system with adventures on Venus, Mars, the moons of Saturn and Jupiter and more with a 1930’s attitude. It appears to be similar to the Doctor Who RPG that this same publisher released. Let’s dive in to see.

There is a one-page character sheet. The character creation rules are found on page 94 (after a TL/DR intro into the game universe) with a total of 257 pages for the core book. A summary is listed on page 95 and has four steps.

The first is what type of Sophont is your character. Well this is the games fancy term for race. My choices are Earthlings, Eurpoans, Ganymedians (both of these are from the moons), Ioites (a race that had their homeworld blown up by the Europans), eight different types of Martians (gee, I wondered what inspired this) and Venusians. I’m keeping it simple and sticking with Earthling. I’m told that I have 42 character points and the cost to be an Earthling is 1 of them. This also gives me the attribute modifiers and traits for Earthlings which I wrote down in my notes.

Step two is the occupation of the character. I looked at the choices and they are Citizen, Diplomat, Explorer, Merchant, Military, Miner/Scavenger, Native, Scientist, Law Enforcement, Europan Emissary, Deutsche Marskorps War Walker Pilot (Nazi cyborg mech drivers on Mars who left the service), Martian War-Priest, Rocket Pilot, Rocket Ranger and Venusian Harvitioi (wandering Venusian). Well the non-Earthling options are out. Again, keeping it simple, I selected Rocket Pilot which cost me 11 character points. I wrote down the attributes, skills and traits listed for this occupation in my notes.

On step three we now take the remaining character points (of which I have 30) and spend them on Attributes, Skills and Traits. Some of these have already been added from the first two steps above. The Attributes for a Rocket Age character is Awareness, Coordination, Ingenuity (aka Intelligence), Presence (aka Charisma), Resolve (aka Willpower) and Strength. These were the same in my Doctor Who RPG first edition entry. Also the same was the skills each character has. Athletics, Convince, Craft, Fighting, Knowledge, Marksman, Medicine, Science, Subterfuge, Survival, Technology and Transport. Traits are good and bad things about the character. The bad traits can give you back character points to spend elsewhere. I spent my points trying to make an Ace pilot.

What a guy.

The last step is the character’s story. What is their name and do they have a nickname. Pulling from one of my favorite shows, I’m going with Arnold “Ace” Rimmer. The image of the silver suited pilot from the Red Dwarf popped into my head. His friends are… well you know (or should know). The book also says that equipment is picked in this step. It just says, look at the equipment section and pick the reasonably logical items. It already stated that there was a ship connected to this character in one of the above steps so I’m marking that down as well. This looked like it was both vague and too much in some sections. So I’m going to skip it (other than I already wrote down the silver leather jacket and the ray gun). Here is the character sheet after I transferred my notes over.

Afterthoughts:

I repeat myself. Rule book first, lore second. Rule book first, lore second. When a gamer picks up an RPG book, they can (usually) tell from the cover what genre of game it covers (fantasy, sci-fi, horror, etc.) They want to know “How do I play it? How do I quickly explain it to my friends to try to get them to play it?” If you can’t do that near the front of the book, then most gamers are going to use a system they are already familiar with and adapt your lore for what they want. The lore did sound a little interesting from what I skimmed through, but I didn’t take a deep dive into it as I wanted to learn the system.

The bookmarks in this PDF were… weird. I finally had to go to the index and find the page number and tell my reader to go there. That’s when I realized I was skipping over 90 pages of fluff.

I had picked up this game because it was cheap in a bundle charity sale (I don’t recall which bundle service it was). But at the time I was thinking homebrew. Now…. I’m not certain. It’s pretty much fleshed out. The system is pretty simple (that I recall from playing the Doctor Who RPG). Roll 2d6 and add the attribute and any skill or trait modifiers to reach a target difficulty.

Had I known that I was going to make this character into Ace Rimmer, I might have adjusted some of the attributes and skills to make it more like him. But I didn’t want to go back and change anything. So don’t think this is my 100% interpretation of Ace Rimmer in Rocket Age.

Additional Notes:

I kept wondering why I had the thoughts of a Mallard character who was a Mage for my Dragonbane entry in the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge. Then it dawned on me that I had shared this video online years ago and I had to find it again. At the time I was thinking of my D&D 3.5 magic user in the last big campaign I played in.

Coming Up Next:

vs Ghosts

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.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 18: Dragonbane

Written by TardisCaptain

And here we are on Day 18 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge and I’m using a game that I had a chance to play at a previous SaltCON. This is Dragonbane, a fantasy roleplaying game that originally came from Scandinavia and was called Drakar och Demoner. It was brought to the US by Free League Publishing that also released some of my other challenge entries such as Tales from the Loop and Twilight: 2000 4th Edition. I still have two more games from this publisher scheduled for later in the month. What are they? You’ll have to return to find out.

As I mentioned in my SaltCON report, one of the races that you can play in this fantasy game is a Mallard. Come on, I want to make a freeking duck character (look at the art above). And yes I promise he won’t be Howard the Duck, Count Duckula or Darkwing Duck. But I’m making a duck.

Ok, yes I’m calm. The rulebook that I had picked up on DriveThruRPG came from a boxed set. The rulebook has 116 pages on the PDF and the character creation starts on page 9 and contains 13 steps. There is only one page in the character sheet.

The first item on the checklist is to select (or roll) your Kin. Mallard. This is the race of the character. Mallard. There is a random table that you can roll a D12 on to decide. Mallard. An you can choose from Human, Halfling, Dwarf. Elf. Mallard or Wolfkin (which is a non-monster wolfman). Gee, what should I pick? Yea, the Mallard. But I will say I played a Wolfkin in the one-shot at SaltCON and he was very kewl. There is a list of possible names that I can randomly choose from, but I pulled some online options together to make Drake Grandfeather.

Step two is about the innate ability that each Kin has that is unique to themselves and uses a Willpower Point to activate. And the Mallards have two of them, so I wrote them down in my notes. One of them is called Ill-tempered. I wonder if this is for all the times we see Daffy Duck or Donald Duck wig out?

Next step is the character’s profession. This is something that they were before they started on their adventures. The ten options are Artisan (like a blacksmith or another type of builder), Bard, Fighter, Hunter, Knight, Mage, Mariner, Merchant, Scholar and Thief. I can randomly roll if so desired, but for some reason, I’m getting pulled towards the Mage. Probably because all of my other fantasy characters so far in this challenge have not been magic users. As a mage, there has to be a school of magic that Grandfeather follows with the options being Animists (everything has power), Elementalism (the four elements) and Mentalism (magic comes from within). All of them look good when I read the description, but eventually I went with Elementalists. I’m suddenly getting the thought that Drake Grandfeather is going to turn into an Obi-Wan type character. I wrote down the skills for this school of magic. There was another random chart for gear, but I decided to go with the one that had the staff. Now, the other professions get a heroic ability, but with the power of magic, mages do not have this. I was also instructed to pick three rank 1 spells and three magic tricks (which sounds like cantrips).

There are three age ranges for step four. Young, Adult or Old. Each one has a different number of trained skills and possible attribute adjustments. There is another random table and for the first time I’m going to let the dice decide. It came up with Adult, so no attribute changes, but 10 trained skills.

Despite the names already being listed under the Kin (and I picked one above) the next step is to select a name and a possible nickname (suggested by the profession). Or you can let the nickname come up in play. Well I already have a name in my notes and I’d be willing to let the nickname come when the time is ready.

Step six is the attributes of the character. They are Strength, Constitution, Agility, Intelligence, Willpower and Charisma. The primary attribute for the Mage is WIL. The book instructs me to roll 4D6, drop the lowest die in order of the attributes. Once this is done, I can swap two scores of my choosing. Had there been some age adjustments, they would have been made at this time.

On to step seven and the Derived Ratings. This included Movement (decided by Kin and AGL score), Damage Bonus (one for melee and one for ranged weapons), Hit Points and Willpower Points. WP is used for magic and the abilities of innate and heroic. This is the same as the WIL score.

Next comes the Trained Skills. I can pick six trained skills from my profession (there are eight to choose from) and four more other trained skills. Every skill has a base chance that is determined by the attribute score (chart provided). The trained skills are twice this base chance. It took me a second to confirm what went where, but I think I got them all down.

Step nine is the Heroic Ability, which the Mage does not have due to his magical powers. but there is an optional step ten to choose or roll a weakness. I’m going to go ahead and roll just because I haven’t dropped a lot of dice so far. And if fate was with him, his weakness is Craving Knowledge. Sometimes this can be distracting or more important than his friends.

Now we are onto the starting Gear. This was already determined back with the profession. There is also an optional Memento, or an object of great sentimental value. Normally it may not be very helpful, but once a session a memento can be used to recover and additional condition during a stretch rest. Randomly rolling a D20 resulted in this being an old pewter tankard. Sure, why not. Perhaps it has the name of his favorite tavern on the side.

Not on the list for character creation, there was a brief discussion on encumbrance, then we moved onto the last step of Appearance. There is another random D20 chart if I elected to use, which came up with Thin and Wiry. Sure, why not. He’s a scrawny duck. Also not on the list is now a description of the Experience the character may gain during the adventures. I think I’m done with the process so I transferred everything over from my notes to the sheet.

Afterthoughts:

I kind of liked the ability generation instructions listed above. While I was rolling in order, I kept wondering which roll I was going to swap out for the character’s primary attribute. I had to make a decision instead of stat dumping.

I also liked that every skill had a base stat based off of the ability score. Sure my mage may not be acrobatic, but he can still try if needed.

I remember enjoying this game when I played a one-shot at SaltCON. Things made sense. The character sheet made sense. We were able to run the combat without feeling confused or frustrated. So now I wonder how this would work in a campaign? This is probably one of the few non-D20 based fantasy games that I’d probably play (don’t know about run yet). Rolling low on a D20 is the goal in this system.

Additional Notes:

I’ve noticed a few trends in the other 2026 #Character Creation Challenge entries. The first is that fans of the 80’s Masters of the Universe cartoons are making characters based off of that series. The second is a lot of Star Trek and Star Wars characters. Some are using officially licensed products (Like Star Trek Adventures), but others are making characters from these universes using other systems. All of these have been interesting reads.

Coming Up Next:

Rocket Age

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.

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

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 17: FTL Nomad

Written by TardisCaptain

On Day 17 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge I’m using a game that I had originally intended to use last year. I had it on the list and I believe I even had the character sheet printed out. Then a friend had gifted me one of my holy grail of RPG collectables that I had been trying to get my hands on. A copy of Red Dwarf The Roleplaying Game. It was late January and I had already done most of my challenge entries. So I looked at the list and originally I was going to bump Mazes and Minotaurs, but that game had already been bumped several times. So I bumped FTL Nomad since I would be swapping one sci-fi game with another. When I schedule out my games, I try not to have two of the same genres next to each other.

So what is FTL Nomad by Stellagama Publishing? My initial thought is it’s a retro-clone(ish) game of the Traveller 2d6 system that contains some modern rule ideas such as advantage/disadvantage dice. The universe is set as a near future cyberpunkish interplanetary setting which can be expanded to interstellar. I’m sure there is more to it than that, but that was my first impression. Stellagama Publishing also put out several other titles that I’ve used in past challenges including The Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition, Cepheus Deluxe and more.

The PDF of the rulebook has 277 pages and our character creation summary starts on page 14. The character sheet only has one page. Let’s dive into this system and see what we can come up with.

Step one is the character concept. Since I’m keeping this simple and easy, I’m going to make up a hot-shot human pilot. Yes there are aliens in this game, but I’m sticking with human. As a human (as detailed in step two) I get to distribute five points among the seven skills that are all currently at zero. As a starting character none of these can have a score more than three. The skills listed are Combat, Knowledge, Physical, Social, Stealth, Vehicles and Technology. Pretty self-explanatory.

Step three is to pick an Archetype (aka class or basic concept of the character). As mentioned above, I’m already picking Pilot. But the other options were Agent (spy, bounty hunter, troubleshooter, etc.), Diplomat, Engineer, Merchant, Mystic, Outlaw (pirates to con artists), Outsider (barbarian, exile, etc.), Roughneck (workers in space), Scholar (doctors, scientists and more), Scout or Soldier.

Since this character is human, on step four I get to pick a Talent or special ability. These were in three categories of combat, character or professional. I found one for Ace Pilot and wrote it down in my notes.

Next comes calculating the Stamina. This was a mathematical formula with any bonuses from the Physical skill (which I had at one). The next step (six) is calculating the Encumbrance that the character can carry. Another mathematical formula also involving the physical skill.

Now we are purchasing equipment for this currently unnamed character. Hey, I get to roll something. 2d6x1000 for the number of credits he has. Now I can go to the equipment list or go pick an equipment package that is based around the Archetype. I’m going to go with the later as to not take up too much time. I wrote it down on my notes and subtracted the cost for the package. Actually I am going to take a peak at the equipment to see if there is anything else I think he should have. I did add a few more items that I thought the character would need.

The last step is to finalize the character. Name- Marcos Tryladar. Appearance- Good looking with short black hair and brown eyes. Trying to see if he can meet the next piloting challenge and left home to find his fortune. Let’s see how this looks when I transfer my notes to the character sheet. There are some blank spots that should be easy to fill out with a GM such as languages. But there is one glaring thing I noticed. There’s a Hero Points section. Quick search of the PDF shows that they are tucked all the way down on page 31. Each player starts with two and can be used for re-rolls or to activate special talents or abilities. That would have been nice to know before I had filled out the sheet.

Afterthoughts:

I really like the fact that this book gave us the basic mechanics and a rundown of the attributes at the very front of the book. I’m really disliking the publishers who follow the online recipe formula where they give the TL/DR story of whatever before they get to the actual instructions we are looking for. Remember, a core rulebook is a source of information, make that information easy to find and people will be more likely to play your games.

Being a Sci-Fi fan, I could see myself playing FTL Nomad. I don’t know if I will because I don’t even know any one local who plays Traveller, let alone any games based off of the 2d6 system. I’d love to try it just to see how it plays at the table. It’s generic enough that I could see some some homebrew possibilities for it.

Additional Notes:

After the flub with the Six-Shooters & Wagons the other day, and with a very busy schedule coming up (more family responsibilities that come first), I’ve actually sat down and scheduled out the rest of the month. Before today I had been winging it to give it a little bit of spontaneity. Let’s see if this pre-planning will help the rest of the month go smoother.

Coming Up Next:

Dragonbane

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.

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

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 16: Paranoia “Perfect Edition”

Written by TardisCaptain

The computer is your friend. The computer wants you to be happy. Friend computer says the last Paranoia entry in the challenge was in 2022. So for Day 16 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge I’m instructed by friend computer to use Paranoia “Perfect Edition” (aka The All New Shiny Edition) that was released by Mongoose Publishing in 2023.

For those of you not familiar with Paranoia, it is a role-playing game that is set in the future where humanity lives in a computer controlled Alpha Complex. No, this is about the future not about today. The central computer controls everything and is trying to keep you safe from conspiracies, communist plots, secret societies and enemies of the computer. Why do you keep asking if this is a game set in modern times? Your character is a troubleshooter for the computer trying to discover the hidden fiendish plot that is about to be sprung upon your paradise-utopian society. All while trying to hide the deep dark secret that you harbor from other troubleshooters. No, I’m tired of that question. The computer says we should move onto character creation.

Of the 146 page PDF that friend computer instructed me to purchase last year, the character creation can be found on page 20. It is broken up into four steps (A-D) with sub-steps in each one. Friend computer is organized very well.

In Step A we are instructed by friend computer to create some PII (Personally Identifiable Information). This includes a punny name which is based upon the character’s clearance level (R for Red) and where they are from TOT section of the Alpha Complex and what clone this character is (starting is 1), so his name is Todd-R-TOT-1. Friend computer gave me a traitor star saying that if I have to explain the joke, it’s not very funny. Next I have to select the Service Group for Todd-R-TOT-1. After looking over the computer approved list, I selected PLC, which has the glorious purpose to create and distribute items including food. Button, button, who’s got the button. Each character has two buttons for Violence and Treason that is observable. I looked at the ideas that was presented in the book and selected two that I think would make friend computer happy, because I want him to be happy as well. Sub-step 4 are items that will be assigned by the GM at the start of the mission (Team Name and MBD).

Step B according to friend computer is to set the skills and stats for Todd-R-TOT-1. Gun Skills is an automatic +2 to hit the fleeing Commie Mutant Traitor. However on sub-step six, I run into a problem. I tried to tell friend computer that I was creating the character by myself, but friend computer states that we should stick to the rules. Because without rules, everything would descend into chaos. So one player (me) picks a skill (not guns) and assigns a +1 to it, the player clockwise to them takes a -1 in that same skill. This continues clockwise until all players have a single +1 and -1 skill listed. I picked a skill for Todd-R-TOT-1 and then since I was clockwise to myself, I picked a different skill to be a -1. I think friend computer is happy with me? I didn’t get any additional traitor stars or zapped with a laser. Next another player (uh, me again) picks a skill and makes it a +2 and the character that is clockwise gets a -2 in the same skill. This will continue up to +5/-5. I randomly rolled 2d4 to come up with the rest of the skills to simulate a group of players at the table. Once this was done, friend computer said to generate the four stats of the character (Brains, Chutzpah, Mechanics and Violence) look at the skills under each category and give it a +1 for each positive skill.

We are being naughty for Step C and we focus on the other character sheet. Not that we would do anything like that to our friend computer. But when he’s not looking, we pick a Secret Society from the list. Any of them sound dastardly, and since there are twelve of them, I secretly rolled a d12 and let fate decide Todd-R-TOT-1’s Secret Society which is [REDACTED]. Todd-R-TOT-1 also has a mutant power according to a table of 15 choices. No, I did not make a random roll and I did not write down [REDACTED]. The next two sub-steps apply the Service Group skill modifiers then the Secret Society skill modifiers.

Friend computer is wise because Step D is titled “Finish Up Already” and provides the final details to write down on the character sheets. This includes Moxie, XP, and gear. Everything that I’ve been instructed to write down is now on the sheets. But if I scan them, then friend computer can see my naughty side. Ah, friend computer says that the user agreement confirms that my naughty side will remain hidden and not fed into the AI learning module by a large corporation. I trust friend computer and scanned the character sheets.

Afterthoughts:

I loved how the four sections of the public character sheet had different ways of displaying the part numbers. Little details like that made me smile.

After re-reading my 2022 entry for the 2nd edition of this game, I can see where I got frustrated. Here the only snag was trying to do this by myself. This sounds like a perfect pick-up game or a one-shot played at a convention. I’d love to play in one for this edition at a con (hint, hint).

Additional Notes:

In response to my blog entry for Worlds Without Number, Sharrow on RPGPub responded with this helpful information. “For what it’s worth, focus picks are from the foci list (foci being the plural). Also, your dude should have gotten three: One ‘Any’, one ‘warrior’, and one ‘expert’. ‘Warrior’ means any that the GM agrees should count for a warrior, and ‘Expert’ means any non-combat, pretty much. In my experience, Adventurers who are Expert/Warriors start very strong, but drop back compared to pure Warriors at fighting over time (the Warrior’s Killing Blow ability get really nasty, as it also applies to shock damage). I’m not sure how a pure Expert would compare, as Masterful Expertise doesn’t seem as strong as the Warrior’s two abilities.” So I did mess up on the character. Good to know.

To the person who ordered something from one of my DriveThruRPG sponsored links, thank you. The credits earned will be used to pick up games for future challenges.

Coming Up Next:

FTL Nomad

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.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 15: Worlds Without Number

Written by TardisCaptain

Day 15 of January is considered the middle of the challenge (since it’s the middle of the month). Today for the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge I’m using Worlds Without Number. This is the fantasy version of Stars Without Number that I used in the 2025 challenge. Which interestingly enough, was also used in the middle of the month. For those of you who don’t know, this “worlds without…” series is based off of OSR systems. So those familiar with B/X, BECMI etc. will see things they are familiar with.

Out of the 400 page PDF, the summary of character creation can be found on page 6. Step one is rolling for the standard attributes (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA) using 3d6 and then assigning them where I want. I ended up with some pretty average rolls (9 through 14). Like SWN, I was informed that I could change one of the rolls to a 14 if I randomly rolled, of which I did. Step two is to add the attribute modifiers (my two 14s had +1, everything else nada).

Next comes the background of the character. This is what the character did before they became and adventurer. There is a chart I can pick from or (and you know what’s coming) I can roll a d20 to let fate decide. The die said Thug. Which isn’t exactly a Criminal (which was one of the options) but he could have been a ruffian, gang member or village bully. The last one I like for some reason. Probably because it would explain why he’s on the road after he was run out of town. The background starts off the character with a set of skills that I added to my notes (as per steps 3-5)

That leads us to step six, which is the class. There are four classes in this game, Expert (masters of non-combat skills), Mages and Warriors (both self explanatory) and Adventurers. The last one was listed for players who can’t quite decide or have a concept that mixes parts of the other classes. I think I’m going to go with this one. Partial warrior, partial expert as someone who was not quite a thief, but not quite a sword swinger. This gave me a chart to roll the character’s hit die, attack bonus and Focus picks. I was a little confused because I wondered if the Focus picks were the same as Foci (next step). Are focus picks like the class abilities? Gah, confusion abounds and I would have asked a GM at the time who was familiar with the game to make it clear.

Which leads us to step seven, Foci. These are the side talents or specializations that the character has. If I’m reading this correctly, I get two Foci since this character is a partial-expert. I selected Alert and Die Hard (bonus HP). Step eight had to deal with non-humans (of which he is not) and step nine gives me one extra skill to pick, which I did of Sneak-0. I skipped steps ten and eleven since they had to do with mages.

Step twelve is to roll the Hit Points (Hit + Con bonus + Die Hard bonus listed above) and thirteen is to note down the Base Attack Bonus (listed in the class).

Picking an equipment package is step fourteen and rolling the starting silver pieces the character has (3d6x10). 140SP and I selected the Roguish Wanderer package. This lead to the next several steps that included marking down the hit bonus with the weapons, damage done by them and armor class.

Step eighteen is the savings throws of which there are Physical, Evasion, Mental and Luck. There was a simple mathematical formula using 16 – level – ability mods (depending upon the save). I could see how this made it easy to mark every time the character raised a level.

The last step is a name and a goal. I hadn’t thought of a name yet so Jarret is his name and his goal is to make a big score of money so he could live where every he wanted after getting out (or was that run out?) of the podunk village he was living in. Here are the two pages of the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

I don’t recall being this confused when I made the Stars Without Number character last year. But for some reason the focus skills/foci stuff threw me for a loop. I was told to pick a warrior and expert focus skill, but the foci didn’t have the same.

I’d like to try this game once at the table just to see how some of the system works (especially the 2d6 skills system mentioned in the book). After I’ve had that chance, then I’d want to decide if I wanted to write or run this type of a game. There are already a lot of good fantasy RPGs out there.

Additional Notes:

Originally I was going to do Six-Shooters & Wagons for today. But when I finally had a chance to sit down and try to organize everything (print out the character sheet, take photos, etc.) there wasn’t a lot there. I still have it on my “possible” list, but this is where the change of approach this year came up short.

Coming Up Next:

Paranoia “Perfect 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.

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

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 14: Worlds Beyond

Written by TardisCaptain

For Day 14 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge I’m using a game that I had seen advertised in Dragon Magazine back when I had a subscription to it. It was one of those side-bar advertisements that looked interesting, but I never had the money to order. Well, thanks to this day and age of the legal purchases of PDF games, I was able to pick up the 1989 RPG Worlds Beyond by Precis Intermedia.
This game appears to be a sandbox sci-fi system that encourages the Gamemaster to borrow from SF sources such as The Foundation books, the Alien movies, The Stainless Steel Rat, Ice Pirates, Battlestar Galactica, Forbidden Planet, Starship Troopers and much more. It appeared to be in the same vein as Star Frontiers and Traveller.

So instead of making a character, for Worlds Beyond, you make a Citizen and fill out a Citizen Profile Sheet. The steps to generate one of these starts on page 5, but are listed as steps A through L.

In step A, I’m instructed to generate statistics for the adventurer by rolling 4D6 and discarding the lowest roll and then assigning the results to a stat. There is also an option of rolling 4D10+90 to generate a total number of points that can then be allocated. I’m not a fan of allocating in general character generation, so I’ll stick with the first method. The nine attributes are Intelligence (INT), Leadership (LDSHP), Sensitivity (SENS), Dexterity (DEX), Agility (AGL), Physical (PHY), Health (HE), Size (SZ), and Appearance (APP). Leadership appears to be like Charisma, and Sensitivity conveys the character’s observation skills. There is a good Statistic Measurement Table on page 8 which gives descriptions for the different levels present in each statistic. Illiterate intelligence, or Nimble Agility, etc. This would be good for homebrewing. I rolled the stats for the character.

Step B is to select the race of the Citizen. There are four available races presented in the book. Human (mostly harmless), Dolf (think religious Ferengi that look like lizards), Sher’tazi (Arrogant tall grasshopper hermaphrodites with multiple arms and legs) and the Swarr (A prideful humanoid cat race that lives in clans). Each race has its own max level for the attributes and some attribute adjustments. I selected Swarr since I’ve always liked cats.

Step C is the occupation of my Swarr character. I looked over the description of the race and there was one clan that hired out as mercenaries, so I selected Merk. The other occupation were Adexec (business bureaucrats), C-Tek (Computer techs), En-Tek (Engineers), Med-Tek (Doctors and scientists), Monitor (spies, assassins and bounty hunters), Spacer (pilots and smugglers) and Startraders (merchants).

The physical statistics are step D. The hit points, healing rate, etc. I followed the mathematical formulas presented in the book and wrote them down. It wasn’t mentioned (at least in the character creation section) if I should round up or down on the formulas, so I guessed it was rounding up.

Step E has us determining the agility skills such as movement, lift, throw, etc. More mathematical formulas are presented based upon the characters agility, dexterity and more. Once these are calculated, I’m also instructed to times the PHY score by four to gain some additional points that I can allocate to any of the agility skills.

For Steps F and G we are instructed to determine the maximum level for the character’s skills. We add the prime statistics for the character, then divide by four to get the average. This average is then multiplied by five to get 70% as the maximum skill scores. The associated skills start with a base from the INT score, so 13%. I have a 130 points to distribute to the associated skills. So, the skills that are not associated, do I get them at the formulas listed on the character sheet? I could have used an experienced GM here to ask. I think I got my skills in.

Combat skills are generated in Step H. There is also a max skill level on this as well which turned out to be 60%. The Merk is an expert in weapons and a master in the unarmed combat skill. I think I’m supposed to just choose the weapons (the rules were not very clear). I’ll pick some when I look at the equipment section later. I also calculated the Defense Factor.

Step I: Character age and life experience points. The older the character is, the more experienced they are. However the older characters start to lose statistics. To determine this, you can roll 4D10+30 or just pick an age 21 or older. This is where I’d probably talk with the GM to ask what type of campaign they were going to run. Since the voices in my head aren’t talking right now, I’m going to go with Inexperienced (age 21-40) and randomly pick 25. It was listed that the Swarr lifespan is 119 years. For every year past 21, I have 5% that I can add to any of the skills.

On Step J we pick three personality traits. These can be based upon descriptions found in the racial descriptions, or just chosen. I think I’d probably determine these during play. There is also a discussion on reputation, but not much on how it’s determined. Um, again determined during play since there is not much for a 25 year old character. Step K determines the character’s remaining luck. Add all of the prime statistics and that’s the luck base and then subtract half the character’s age from that number. This is a percentage number.

Now we are at the starting money and equipment for the last step (L) and I’m starting to lose a lot of steam. We roll a D4+2 to determine the number of digits in the bank account. Ok, that’s different. Next we roll a D10 five times and that’s the total in the bank. Really different, but my total is 41,554 credits. Then there is a list of starting equipment. So, do we get these already? I think so. I’m really reaching the end of my rope here.

Technically the character is done, but the book has a series of charts for the character origins. While they look interesting, I’m not going to go through them since I need to move on. Oh, a name? Yirr’baun was selected. I made sure everything was on the sheet from my notes and scanned the two pages.

Afterthoughts:

I can tell this is an older publication. There were signs that the editor should have gone through it once more before going to publication such as the “See character species profiles starting on page xx.” mistake. There was also a math issue when describing some of the skills from the attributes. The first one for INT, it was written that we use a x4 modifier to get the percentage score. But on the examples for the other attributes, they were all x3. So, which is it? Also there should have been a chapter describing the different skills. This still took quite some time to get the character done and I could tell I was losing steam at the end.

When describing the different occupations, I liked how the writer used examples from different movies and books. That is something that I’d probably do myself when writing a description.

The system is percentile with a roll the score or below. I understand this as FASA Star Trek was also percentile. When adding a little to this and a little to that on the skills I was also getting a flashback to creating a FASA Star Trek character. While I would probably enjoy this game, I doubt I’d ever get a chance to play or homebrew for it. I wonder how it would do if a second edition was ever released?

Additional Notes:

In response to my Tales from the Loop entry, I had a reader offer to run me through a one-shot. I’m seriously tempted by this just so I can learn more about the system.

Another response on the RPGGeek message board agreed with my Star Wars 2nd Edition comments about it being all over the place.

Coming Up Next:

Worlds Without Number

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.

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