Tag: Character Creation Challenge

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Doctor Who, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 3: Time Lord

Written by TardisCaptain

As most readers of my blog may have already guessed (by the title) I’m a big Doctor Who fan. It was another sci-fi genre that my father introduce me to while I was growing up. So for day 2 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge I’m going to create a character for a rare game called Doctor Who: Time Lord. I had picked this book up when it came up really cheap on Ebay. And I didn’t know until after it arrived that it was a discarded book from a public library. Luckily I wanted it for the information inside and not as a collectors item. So, I didn’t complain about it to the seller. But be certain you know what you are bidding on with that site.

Now I’ve created several Doctor Who RPG characters in past challenges. During the first year I had created a character for the FASA Doctor Who RPG which I had played in the 90s. Also in that same challenge I later made a character for the Cubicle 7 Doctor Who RPG 1st Edition. In 2025 I had the opportunity to make a Sontaran for the 5e inspired Doctors and Daleks RPG.

When I started reading the Time Lord core rulebook, something became very clear. This game, which was published in 1991, was meant to be played by the players as one of the characters seen in the TV series. Every single Doctor that had appeared on the TV screen (at the time) had been stated. Same with all of the companions, enemies and other characters. The bulk of the book is a character guide with their stats in tow. I was actually quite impressed and a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to use it for the challenge. But then I came across Appendix I on page 276 where it gave you the rules to create a companion based upon yourself. Thus began my descent into the weirdest character creation process I had ever come across.

There are several attributes for a Time Lord character. Strength, Control, Size, Weight, Move, Knowledge, Determination (aka Bravery) and Awareness with a score ranging between 1 (extremely bad) and 6 (extremely good) with 3 being the average. These are pretty basic RPG attributes. The book states that you are supposed to create the character representing you with the referee. I’m going to base this Carl character off what he would have been back in the early 90’s when this book was published.

For Strength, the referee and the player has an arm-wrestling match to determine the rating. Now you see why I picked 1991 Carl. In all likelihood, I would have been arm-wrestling Geothan or Jill back then. But we were basically the same stature when we were younger. If I was beaten, I would have gotten a lower score (like 2 for puny) or if I won then I could have been awarded a score of 3 or 4. I know I wouldn’t have had a 5 for body-builder. I’m going to guestimate that I would have been average (score 3).

Control was pretty easy. 1991 me wasn’t in track and field and I didn’t play sports or exercise three times a week. So the book states that most players will have a Control score of 3 (again average).

Size was a little weird. It stated that male characters will usually have a score of 3 (average) but females will have a score of 4? I went back to the abilities descriptions on page 51 and re-read them. For some reason with size, the smaller the number, the taller you are. Very weird. So I guess that makes sense that some females could have a score of 4, but the book says Size affects both bulk and height and should be modified according to the player’s extremes. 1991 Carl is a little tall compared to others, do I make him a 3 or a 2? This is where having all of the characters in the show stated helped out. I flipped through them and found random characters and even the ones I thought would be taller (Ogrons, Zygons, etc.) and they were still listed at a 3, so a score of 3 it is.

Weight is our next attribute. The average person has a score of 4. We are back to the higher number representing more on the character (thus heavier). I didn’t argue on this one and wrote down the score.

For Move it only says that all human characters have a score of 3 with a special ability (a sub-skill under an attribute) of Running 1. As we all know, there is a lot of running in Doctor Who. Usually in a gravel quarry substituting for an alien planet.

Knowledge used examples from the UK Educational system (which I seem to be learning a lot about while making different characters). It is based upon what education level you had reached. Well 1991 Carl had been to some community college, but didn’t have his university education (score 5) just yet. So I put him down with a score of 4.

The average Determination score was 3. I wasn’t stubborn as a mule, or in a brave occupation (firefighter, soldier, etc.) so I couldn’t bump it up higher.

Awareness is the use of sight, smell or hearing. I don’t think the use of glasses pushes me down to a score of 2, so I kept it at a 3. With how many girls flirted with me in the 90’s that I missed (according to friends who told me after-the-fact) I know I couldn’t bump this up to a score of 4.

Now we have the Special Abilities of the character. These are based upon the background and training of the character and refers us to chapter 3. The attributes listed above are the “Common Abilities” that each character has. Under each Common Ability, are special abilities (such as the Running 1 under Move listed above). The guidelines in the back of the book suggests that the Referee should provide Cheat Death 1 to Humans with average Strength (3). Again I thought of 1991 Carl and wrote down what I thought would be reasonable. I didn’t give any of the Special Abilities a score of more than 1.

There wasn’t anything in the Appendix about the wounds or equipment on the character sheet. I went back and looked at the chapter they were described in. You mark off wounds when damage is taken, but I couldn’t see anything about what each character starts with. When I looked at the boatload of character stats in the book, they all had the same number of wounds to check off. So, I guess I’ll leave that be. As for the equipment, again little is listed other than a few weapons that are usually carried by the opponents. I went back to the many characters listed and it looks like common sense items that they carried. So I just jotted down a few things and called it good. Here is the character sheet that I would have presented to the Referee for their approval.

Afterthoughts:

And for clarity’s sake, the way the system works is that the player rolls two D6s when they are attempting a task with a chance of failure. They then subtract the lowest number rolled from the highest number rolled and add any scores from the applicable abilities. These numbers are then added together to see if they meet or beat a target number between 0 to 10 based on the difficulty of the task.

Looking through the list of Special Abilities I had to chuckle when I saw that Screaming was listed. Yea there was a lot of that in early Doctor Who episodes. Gloating was also listed and specifically mentions The Master.

From what I understand, there was a bit of an online community for this game before the new Cubicle 7 books were released. The fans had expanded the game and included a better character creation system. However, since I’m focusing on the rules themselves, I did not use the fan made system.

As for playing or homebrewing for this game, I doubt I’ll get a chance to do either. The system sounds interesting enough to try and I wouldn’t turn down a chance. But the likelihood of that happening seems very slim.

Additional Notes:

I was able to get a few more links put up at the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge page. Keep them coming in. I’m also following a lot of entries on the different message boards and on the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge on BlueSky and Mastodon.

Some of the feedback on my Rivers of London entry encouraged me to pick up the first book of the series. I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to do that soon, but I’ll see if the e-book ever comes up on sale.

Coming Up Next:

Twillight: 2000 4th 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

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 2: Rivers of London

Written by TardisCaptain

For Day 2 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge I’m going to create a character for a game that I didn’t even know existed until last SaltCON. It is called Rivers of London by Chaosium and was based off of a series of novels called, you guessed it, Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. I had received it as a thank you gift for putting in so many volunteer hours as a GM at the con. From what I can read on the back of the RPG book, there is a branch of the London police department that investigates those who have been changed by magic. It appears to be a percentile based system that may be common with other Chaosium products. I’m not very familiar with this line as I’ve barely dipped my toe in that water with past Character Creation Challenge entries.

There was a solo game at the start of the book. However I jumped straight ahead to the character creation section on page 43. The book does say that the chapter was written for new players who may be unfamiliar with the source material. Thankfully it also directed me to page 76 where a summary of character creation can be found. The scenario I’m running for the purposes of this blog post is: I’ve just been handed the book to create a character for a game that starts in an hour. I’m more interested in gaming with my friends than I am in the world itself so I’m going into it blind. Perhaps a GM friend really likes the source material and wanted to try the game out.

According to the summary there six steps in total to create a character. 1- Determine Occupation, 2- Assign Characteristics, 3- Advantages, 4- Determine skills, 5- Backstory and 6- Equip the character.

On page 45 is a list of Occupations that are used in the game. This is the job that the character makes their living at. Some are used in the source materials, some are added for rounding out the game. I went to the referenced page for the more detailed information on occupations on page 62 and read through some of them before deciding upon Police Officer (I guess I’m going with the path of least resistance here). It gave me a required skill, recommended skills, a contact and equipment.

For step two the summary tells me that I have 280 points to distribute between five attributes with the score ranging between 30 to 80. The summary states that I should have these in blocks of 10 and that the average person has a stat of 50. The attributes are STRength, CONstitution, DEXterity, INTelligence and POWer. I noticed that INT had replaced Appearance that I had used in the Basic Roleplaying character I had made last year. I’m not a big fan on assigning points so I gave each attribute 30 to get the minimum, then bumped up all but POW to the average person (I’m not seeing this guy as a big magic user type character). Then I slowly started spending the rest of my points until I ended up with a strong character that had some good health and dexterity with average intelligence. I guess this guy is a rookie cop. When writing down the attributes, I also had to write their half value on the sheet. And hey, I actually get to roll something. 2d10+50 to determine the luck of the character. Next item to determine is MOVement which is just 8. The last item in this step is the character’s age, which is just determined by the player. A quick internet search shows that public school in the UK ends at 18 and that the average police training is 2-3 years. So, I’m going to say the character is 21 years-old.

Finally onto step three. Advantages. This is something exceptional about the character in the game world. I can select one major advantage or two minor advantages. Some have prerequisites so I looked over the list in the book. There were less than I expected, but it made it easier to pick two that a rookie cop might have. Fast Reactions and Speedy (which bumped up the character’s MOV score).

Next is selecting skills. He had to have Law to meet the requirement for his occupation. The book instructs me to pick six skills in total. There are several common and combat skills that everyone gets. If I pick one of these as one of my six, they get bumped up in value.

Step five is the backstory of the character. There are actually a series of questions for the player to answer at this time with 3-4 possible answers each. So for this yet to be named character, let’s go through them. For childhood: What did “family” mean? Large family with lots of siblings and extended relatives. What did “home” mean? Uncertainty, lots of time we had to move because of the parents looking for work. Where did the character live as a child? It’s complicated. As mentioned above, they had to move around. What culture did the character get brought up in? Proud British, even if they had struggles. For present times: Mom is still alive and the character keeps in touch with most of the family. Returning home brings back memories of Dad’s passing, so it doesn’t happen much. Moving to London to pursue a career in law enforcement was a way to bring about some stability in the character’s life (or so he thought). As for the character’s first brush with the supernatural, since it’s an option I’d probably let the GM provide that in a flashback. The Affluence Rating is part of the backstory and since I didn’t take any wealth advantages, I’m going to assume it’s average. The last sub-step is to identify someone who the character can call when ever they want. I’ve already mentioned the character’s mother above, so I’ll stick with that.

Heh, in step six it says to name the character and then equip them. I don’t think I’ve seen those two items combined together. Uh, name? After pulling up a random British name generator I selected Oliver Cook. I then wrote down the equipment listed in the law enforcement occupation description. And with that, I think the character is done (at least I hope it is).

Afterthoughts:

I liked having the series of questions to ask when it came to determining the backstory of the character. Most of the time when a system says “come up with something” I start drawing a blank unless I’ve already got something in mind.

It was a little bit easier to create a character for this game than I expected. It always seemed that games from Chaosium was overly complicated. This was actually very smooth with how it was written out. Nothing really made me say “I wish I had a GM to explain this to me.” I don’t know if I’ll ever get a chance to play this game, or if I’ll even do anything with it. I’ve got too many books on my reading list to even consider trying this series. I’m glad that I made a character for it, but this book may end up going into the trade pile.

Additional Notes:

Thank you to everyone who has contacted me about getting your blogs and sites on the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge page. I’ve noticed a few of them are brand new just for the challenge. I’d like to encourage you to keep blogging even after you’ve completed the challenge. The more we share our gaming experiences with each other, the better our community is. If I’m missing yours, please let me know ASAP and I’ll get it on there. I’m always worried that I may have missed someone. Especially some of our past participants.

I’ve already received feedback on my FASA Star Trek- Trader Captain’s and Merchant Princes character. There was a lot of encouragement to make a merchant character in Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition so we could compare the two of them together. I don’t know if it will be the exact character, but don’t be surprised if I add it to my 31 day lineup.

Coming Up Next:

Time Lord

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, Star Trek

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 1: Star Trek Trader Captain’s and Merchant Princes

Written by TardisCaptain

And welcome to new year and Day 1 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge. After much soul searching I decided to return to an old favorite, the Star Trek Role Playing Game. In the first challenge I made a Starfleet character and in 2023 I created a Starfleet Intelligence character. FASA released quite a few books for additional character types and I decided to use the Trader Captain’s and Merchant Princes. I had never made a merchant for this system as all of our games in the 90’s were Starfleet based.

As with all FASA Star Trek systems, they provided a Character Generation Short Form. This is found on page 126. So let’s begin. Step one, create attributes. Strength, Endurance, Intellect, Dexterity, Charisma, Luck and Psionic Potential. The last two are a straight up percentage roll. The others are 4D10+30. Then add the racial modifiers to the attributes. So, I don’t think I’ve made an Edoan yet, so I’ll make one now.

Step two is the Character Background. We are rolling a 1D10 to see what three possible background options come up between Privileged, Normal and Disadvantaged. This yet to be named character came up as Normal.

The background skills are determined in step three. The number of skills are INT/10 rounded down. With my INT of 65 I get to pick 6 of them and roll a 1D10 to come up with the starting score. I picked the six skills.

Step four is the Advancement Lane. Where did the character get some education from? After a D10 roll he went to the Merchant Academy. So onto step five I added the skills that came from attending the Merchant Academy. This included the Outside Electives. In the Mid-Program Evaluation, the character was approved for specialty training, so I selected Helm/Navigation to focus on.

Step six is the Apprenticeship Program. Again a lot of skills scores were added or updated. On the Mid-Program evaluation he must have done something bad because no further education was allowed. The character now has to enter the base-level labor program which is step seven.

So if I’m reading this correctly, the character gets a year of unspecialized labor (hopefully flying a ship). For this first year he gets 10 unspecialized and 1 specialized skill at 1d10 that I pick. Then we get to roll on the opportunities table and add some modifiers. He didn’t get an apprenticeship, but he did get specialized labor which was another round of 1D10 to different skills. After the second year I rolled again and he barely made it into the Apprenticeship program. That he was forced out of, so do I just go to next step that I didn’t do in step six? It seems like I’m kinda in a loop. I’m going to guess I’m back in step 6-D (each step had a series of sub-steps) and continue from there.

I don’t see this character going to Command Training School, so I think I skip step 8. On step 9 is the Trading Experience and Skills. I roll 2D10 to see the number of years served. Wow, just to be a regular crewmember on a merchant ship still takes years (more for CO/XO or the equivalent of a Department Chief). If I did this correctly, he served 11 years as a navigator on a merchant vessel. That adds to some skills, but he’s still not at a chief level. Perhaps he’s just on the cusp? Anyway, I added the skills listed in this step.

Technically that was the last step. But when I moved everything from my notes to the sheet, I noticed it didn’t have the combat skills, equipment or anything else. I went back through the book (including the original rulebooks) and found the information. I guess they were expecting experienced RPG players to find these items. Here is the character sheet for my Edoan trader named Kraxx.

Afterthoughts:

There were some printing errors in the short form, I seriously doubt that a character would gain a skill addition of zero. Why even put it in the book with limited space. I’ll have to look back though my collections and notes to see if there was ever an errata for this book.

I think I can see why I never played in a FASA Star Trek merchant campaign. Of course, everyone wanted to play Starfleet officers when we were playing Star Trek. If we wanted to just play merchants, we could have played Traveller or Star Frontiers instead. But now that I’ve made this character, I’m wondering how the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition merchant character would roll up? Perhaps I’ll pick that for one of my later characters in this challenge.

Additional Notes:

I’ve already had a ton of people contact me about making sure their blogs were posted on the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge list. If I’m missing your participating blog, or message board, please let me know and I’ll get it added. I’ve been enjoying the entries that I’ve read so far.

Coming Up Next:

Rivers of London

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, Doctor Who, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Wars

Prepping for the 2026 Character Creation Challenge

Written by TardisCaptain
Some of the games that I plan to use in the 2026 #CharacterCreationChallenge.

Welcome to the end of the worst year that we’ve experienced since 2020. In some ways it was even worse than that dreaded year. Multiple deaths, an economy going bad and too many other things to mention here have cursed the past 365 days. I will eagerly shove 2025 out the door when the clock strikes midnight on New Years Eve. As mentioned before, January is almost upon us which means it’s time to create the characters. Over the past several months I’ve been prepping for what I hope will be a better year. Something that I really look forward to is participating in (and reading the other entries) for the #CharacterCreationChallenge. I like seeing the creativity of those in the RPG community. I like seeing what I come up with as I make these characters. I enjoy trying out (and reading about) different RPG systems that I don’t get a chance to play at the table. Thank you to everyone in the community who participate in this challenge.

From the image above, you can see some of the physical books that I plan to use for the 2026 challenge. Some I picked up at different SaltCONs for volunteering or picked up in the game swap room. A couple of others I received as rewards for backing the Kickstarter campaigns. A few were gifts (thank you again to those who gave me games, you know who you are). And then there were a few that I had owned for quite some time, but hadn’t used in building a character. I have a ton of games on PDF that I had picked up from DriveThruRPG or charity sites.

Because the upcoming January is already hectic I haven’t really nailed down what game will be on what date like I have in the past. The funeral for my mother-in-law is quickly coming up and I have other family commitments that are happier occasions. So I’m hoping my prepping will allow me to get all of the 31 characters done by January 31st. However, should real life dictate that I have to go into February, I’ll not stress out too much like I did last January.

As in the past, I’ll try to walk through the character creation process as I understand them in the rules-as-written (RAW). This also gives me a chance to do a review of the process. I will then scan the character sheet for all to see.

For the five previous years of the Character Creation Challenge (in 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025) I’ve had quite a few people reach out to me using various methods to let me know of their participation. Please let me know, Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com if you plan to post your characters up on a blog. I’ll link to it from the Character Creation Challenge section of my website.

I have had some people tell me that they are pre-making some of there characters before the challenge. I’m not going to blow the referee whistle at them. As I’ve stated when this was started five-years ago, this is for fun. I know we all have real lives to worry about. And as much as we’d like to be able to focus on our hobbies and what makes us happy, we still have to function in this society. So I’m not going to dock you for setting up a buffer. All that I ask is that you post your entries in at least one location (the #Character-Creation-Challenge channel on the TardisCaptainDotCom discord, on a personal blog (tell me the URL), on one of the many RPG message boards, on social media with the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge). I love seeing what other RPG fans have come up with.

If you are reading this after January 1st and you still want to jump into the challenge, please do. A few participants last year either did a quick catch up or just made sure they ran a full 31 days. The choice is yours. This challenge is just for fun with our gaming systems.

Remember to have fun with this. That was one of the primary goals of the challenge.

You can also use this graphic to help promote the #CharacterCreationChallenge.

31 Day Character Creation Challenge
Feel free to share this image on social media to spread the word.

What games are you using for the challenge? Do you have any questions about the challenge that wasn’t covered on by the FAQ? 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

Written by TardisCaptain
31 Day Character Creation Challenge
Feel free to share this image on social media to spread the word.

We are in November, and this is the time that those wishing to participate in the Character Creation Challenge should start planning. With how 2025 has felt like a year from hell (just as bad as 2020), I can’t wait to kick off 2026 by doing something fun with my RPG hobby. Especially since I’ve discovered how interactive the geek community has been on the BlueSky social media website. It was really reminding me of Twitter back in 2012-19 back when it was fun and a source of information. I’m seeing feeds as I want them (not four days later like other social media websites). When I ask questions, I get answers instead of ridicule. I’ve made a ton of new connections. I hope you all enjoy reading this blog.

I’ve been getting this website updated in preparation for the upcoming challenge. The 2025 entries and links of participating sites have been moved to their own section. This has the effect of making the main Character Creation Challenge page look pretty blank for participating forums and blogs. If you are participating again this year, shoot me a message and I’ll get you added. I’ll try to search out what I can, but I know I won’t get all of them. This event has been growing every year and now we have reached the fifth year. I can’t wait to see what creativity you all come up with.

I’ve got a few new games to use in the next challenge. Some I had received as thank you gifts from SaltCON for volunteering as a GM, some were Kickstarter rewards. There are also some games that I picked up in different charity bundles or DriveThruRPG sales. Plus I don’t know if I’ll be gifted a game in the upcoming “Secret Satan” gift exchange that always happens on the RPG.net forums. I’m not certain which game will be my Day 1 entry (aka the game I’m most excited about), but I’m sure I’ll pick one for that honor. I’ll have a better idea which 31 games I’m going to use soon when I post my “Prepping for the 2026 Character Creation Challenge” post coming next month. And even then (as I discovered in past challenges) the list of games might change depending upon what falls in my hands.

It feels good to get an actual blog post up about Roleplaying Games. I know that I’ve been able to keep my Star Trek Quotes reports fresh, but I want to type, I want to pass on knowledge, I want to grow and explore. I’m still working on new blog themes such as the Better Plus One Sword series. So look for more soon and thanks for being patient with me.

If you would like to participate, email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com, post on the TardisCaptain.com Discord Channel or find me on social media/message boards and let me know where you will be posting your challenge characters at. If you are posting them on a website, I’ll add the link to my Character Creation Challenge page.

Some forever GMs use this as a challenge to create a character like they were actually going to just play. There are a few other themes posted on the main Character Creation Challenge page. Remember, this is for fun, so have fun with it.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Collecting, Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

SaltCON-End of Summer 2025 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain
Loot from SaltCON End-of-Summer 2025

When I was thinking about my after-action reports, I almost combined this one with my RPGaDAY 2025 after-action report. However, I realized that they should remain separate as they were both unique events.

SaltCON End-of-Summer 2025 has completed thanks to the many efforts of the volunteers and staff. Having run conventions in the past, I must tip my hat to them. I was talking with one of the volunteers on Sunday and I could tell they were exhausted. They were happy with how the event went, but very tired. I myself had a blast and I had a lot of opportunities to talk with different gaming friends and throw some dice. I also had the opportunity to use the First Aid Kit that I keep in my Convention Backpack. Nothing serious, but I was glad that I was prepared.

I played the following games:

MechWarrior: Destiny was a lot of fun. It was a rules light system and the scenario was pretty straight forward. Get in my mech, go shoot some pirates that had taken over a corporate base (we were hired because we were the closest). I was pretty impressed with how easy this ran. The tactical combat with the mechs was built more for roleplay, but still utilized a hex map. From what I understood, there are more crunchier versions if you just want to beat up other giant mechs. I had a chance to look at the rule-book while we were sitting at the table and if I can find it for a good price, I’ll be very tempted to pick it up.

Dungeon Crawl Classics was a little different from the last time I played it. Instead of being a funnel, we had established level-3 characters. This was being run by a first-time-at-a-convention GM and we all gave him some positive feedback when the session was over. While I didn’t play a magic-user in this one-shot, I did get to see the magic system in action and it looks funky. The randomness and danger from messing around with magic can be appealing for some gamers, but may push others off. When the adventure was over, my fighter character ended up with the MacGuffin we were after known as ‘The Balance Blade.’

I had some fun with Daggerheart and I was able to get my feet wet with it. I liked some things. The hope and fear dice mechanic was interesting and didn’t really turn me off like I thought it would. We had plenty of roleplaying opportunities in the system. The only thing I really didn’t like was the initiative system. If you succeeded with hope, then your side could keep the initiative, but there was no order to go in so someone could go several times (or pass off between the two). It was only when you succeeded (or failed) with fear did imitative move to the opposing side. Like Mechawarrior above, I was able to look through the rule-book at the table. I’ll pick this up if I can get it on a sale, but I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to get it. I also wouldn’t turn down an invite to a game if presented. There is a metric-butt load of fantasy RPGs out there and so I’m not in a rush to play or homebrew for most of them.

My Sunday morning game of Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Prpogramme lived up to the hype. The GM was running it for the first time after picking up the book and our marry troupe was sent by God to spank the Pope because he had been a naughty boy. Now that I’ve had a chance to see the system at the table, I can also say this works for the source material. I could see this system being used for Blackadder as well. One interesting note, the GM didn’t provide pre-generated characters so we had to roll up some before starting the game. Instead of making a new one, he let me play Sir Richard Hammond that I had created in a past Character Creation Challenge. Because I had the unusual dice from the Kickstarter Reward, I had lots of request to use them. But only I used the Coconut Dice Rollers.

I had players for all three of the games that I ran over the weekend:

Basic Fantasy went off better than I expected since this was a home-made adventure. The characters were able to find the missing Guildmaster and complete his quest. I want to polish up the adventure and run it one more time before I submit it to the Basic Fantasy community for possible publication.

This was the most unusual time that I’ve ever run Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition (or any STA game). Because it was a Klingon based scenario where the squad was sent to infiltrate a Dominion outpost during the Dominion War, there was a lot of combat. I GMed more combat in this one-shot more than any of my other STA one-shots combined. I will need to go back and re-read some of the combat rules and probably ask a few questions on the Modiphius discord server. But the characters survived and completed the objective.

I really wish that I had a physical copy of the Space: 1999 Quickstart Rules as I was running the scenario from it. I didn’t want to print out too much from the book as it was graphic heavy (and would have eaten up a lot of the ink in my printer). So I was using the PDF on my tablet which meant a lot of scrolling. Most of the players were familiar with Star Trek Adventures, so I was able to read off some of the slight differences in the rules out loud. And they made sense. Two of the things that I really liked in the rules I plan to adapt to my STA games. When I reported on the Modiphius discord server the results of one of the characters using a photo of his family to calm down a panicked crew member, the writer of the game gave me a thumbs up. The team had lots of fun and one participant played the Space: 1999 opening and closing themes at the appropriate moments in the game. I even got an email from one of the players a few days later telling me how much fun he had at the table.

While I was running Space: 1999, I had someone come up to the table and ask if I’d be willing to run games as a paid GM. I signed up for more information, but I’m kinda-sorta hesitant about making a hobby into a paid thing. I’m sure I’d have fun, but I’d hate to take something fun and turn it into work. I may have to investigate this more.

One of the big reasons to attend a gaming convention is to make connections. Talking with one GM he mentioned that he only ran games that were in print for purchase. He was worried that a player would want a copy of a game after his session. I understood this as I overheard two of my STA players at the Summer SaltCON say they wanted to pick up the 2nd edition core rule-book after playing. Both myself and another player encouraged him to run any game that he wanted to play. Part of the reason to play at a con is to play those games you don’t get a chance to play elsewhere. At past SaltCONs I’ve had a chance to play older out-of-print games like James Bond, Ghostbusters and Red Dwarf. I didn’t get a chance to play, but I passed a table where they were playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition.

A merchant that sells roleplaying books would be smart to find out what games are being ran at SaltCON and sell them at a vendor’s table. I know there has been a few times that I was tempted to pick up a game right after finishing a game. Had Mechawarrior: Destiny been within reach, I would have been seriously tempted to buy it.

Speaking of loot from the con. You can see what I picked up at the convention in the photo above. The Fallout Starter Set was in the game swap (still sealed and a very good price). The convention usually gives away a freebie game to attendees and this time around it was a card game called Flip 7. The family looked interested in trying it out. As a thank you gift for GMing, I was gifted the core rule-book for a game I didn’t know existed. It was called Rivers of London by Chaosium and was based off of a series of novels called, you guessed it, Rivers of London. It reminded me of The Dresden Files but with police officers investigating wizards and magic crimes. And the convention t-shirt had a robot playing a game on a red background.

Overall I had a ton of fun. I can see where the organizers are putting their heart and soul into a gaming convention like this one. The next SaltCON is the big one in the spring and will be held at the same Davis Convention Center on March 12-14. I’ve been trying to recruit some friends to come and GM at the convention because I think they would have fun as well.

Do you have any questions about the convention weekend? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Conventions, Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Star Wars

RPGaDAY2025 Day 29: Connect

Written by TardisCaptain

It’s time to link up for Day 29 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge and our topic is ‘connect’. Roleplaying games are social events. Sure, there are solo games, and video games. But when it comes down to it, sitting around a table and seeing the faces of the other players, hearing the inflection in their voices, making memories, it’s infectious. It is one of the main reasons we play our different games. We get to geek out with someone that has a common bond. We get to yell at little pieces of plastic when they don’t roll the right number. We get to wear robes and chant from ancient texts… wait, did I give away too much? (No, that doesn’t happen. Bad Carl for making a joke again.)

So, how do you connect with other gamers. Well in this day and age, it’s a lot easier than it was previously. Here are a few suggestions to connect with fellow dice throwers.

Go to your local game store. Most game stores worth their salt will have events where you can meet up. The more people play the game, the more games that they can sell. Sure, a lot of their gaming events are of the collectible card variety. But most will allow you to schedule an RPG session or two there. Meeting in a public place may get you some additional players for your campaigns as people may be more comfortable than going to someone’s home that they don’t know. I’ve also noticed a trend that more smaller game stores are setting up discord servers as a way to connect members of the gaming community together. Some may have Facebook pages, but there’s been a bit of a push back on using that social media platform with the weird algorithms that they keep pushing.

If there is a gaming convention near you, check it out. My time at SaltCON has lead to exchanging information with a lot of local gamers. It also included a one-shot invitation to a D6 Star Wars RPG by WEG and writers sending me their games to get my feedback. And, as I’ve recently said, I really needed the community at SaltCON during this troubling year.

I mentioned discord earlier. There are a lot of discord servers that are put out for the gaming community. I even have one for my blog that is gaining some traction (thanks guys). Several publishers have their own discord servers. I’ve received some feedback from publishers to my reviews and Character Creation Challenge entries via discord. I know that Basic Fantasy still uses a message board. Two good message boards with lots of activity is the one on RPG.net and RPGPub. And yes, even with the pitfalls that Facebook has, there are a lot of gaming sites on it. I’m on some of the MeWe gaming groups, but that hasn’t caught as much attention. And I’ve been very impressed with the gaming community on BlueSky. All of these have options to find players in your area. When I posted on the Modiphius discord server that I was running a Star Trek Adventures 2e one-shot, a gentleman from two counties distant drove up to play. If I had access to these resources in the 90’s (the closest we came were local BBSes) I would have loved it.

And probably the best way to get someone to game with you is talk with your friends. Pick an RPG system that you can explain the rules in under two minutes and show your excitement for the game. If the rules are too complex to explain, they might not jump on board as fast. But try to emphasize the fun that can be had around the table.

Are there other methods that you’d recommend for connecting with fellow RPG gamers? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Anime, Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2025 Day 25: Challenge

Written by TardisCaptain 1 Comment on RPGaDAY2025 Day 25: Challenge

For Day 25 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge how can I not talk about the topic of ‘challenge’ to hype up the movement that I’m proud of. The Character Creation Challenge.

I’ve blogged about this before in a previous RPGaDAY post. And earlier this year I almost didn’t make it through the 31 days because of a lot of real-world issues that popped up. It almost broke me. But even in darkest times I felt the love and support from both gamers and Trekkies. The hugs that I got at SaltCON. Friends supporting me at the club meetings. Those on the message board communities that cheered me over the line. Friends that donated to the financial shortfall I suddenly found myself in. Anything that was small, still helped out in a big way.

I’m energized for the next challenge in 2026. I’ve got plans in place to make sure that it won’t be so rough next year. I’ve got new games that I’ve picked up (some have been donated by the authors). I will get though this because we will get through this. Things may suck right now, but they can’t suck forever. Cyndi Lauper at her farewell tour had everyone take out their phones and turn on the flashlights in the amphitheater. She then said, “Look around at all of the people here giving a little bit of themselves and how it has made this place brighter. This is a community of light.” Everyone of you, just shining the light that you have, have made things brighter. The comments, the feedback, the laughter around the gaming table. We can overcome any challenge, gaming or real-life.

And if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to do a partial lyric dump from a recent anime movie that I watched with my geek family.

We’re shattering the silence, we’re rising, defiant
Shouting in the quiet, “You’re not alone”
We listened to the demons, we let them get between us
But none of us are out here on our own
So we were cowards, so we were liars
So we’re not heroes, we’re still survivors
The dreamers, the fighters, no lying, I’m tired
But dive in the fire, and I’ll be right here by your side

Feedback from LexTenebris on Mastodon regarding my blog post on Recent. I think the better Western example of isekai in our literature is actually A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The protagonist is pulled out of his life and dropped into a fantastic one. His personal knowledge makes a difference to the situation and changes the world elementally. Ultimately, he is returned to our world. John Carter of Mars is another fantastic isekai series before there was isekai. If your GM wasn’t making who you were important to who you are, they really weren’t running an isekai story. They were running a fantasy story with the trappings of the setup of an isekai story. That’s certainly valid, but it’s not nearly as interesting. If you’re looking for a very modern example of isekai in Western literature, check out Forgotten Ruin from Nick Cole. Great novel series, very pulp, much fun. (My note, I did pick up this last book on Kindle to read after reading this response)

Have you recently overcome a challenge? Have you participated in an online RPG challenge? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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

RPGaDAY2025 Day 17: Renew

Written by TardisCaptain 1 Comment on RPGaDAY2025 Day 17: Renew

And here we are at Day 17 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge. Today our topic is ‘Renew’. I’m going to show some of my geekness by describing a world that I think an RPG campaign can come about from the memory I have with this word. This is from the 1976 dystopian Science Fiction film Logan’s Run. In the 23rd century, survivors of a devastating war lives in a domed city. They have no wants or needs as everything is self contained and provided for them. They don’t even know that the rest of the world exists outside the city walls. However, when they reach the age of 30, they report to the Carousel on Last Day in order to Renew as demonstrated in this video.

The members of the city who didn’t report for renewal were considered runners and hunted down by a special police force called Sandmen. There were ruined parts of the city where untamed youth ran rampant and an underground resistance trying to get runners to a mythical place called Sanctuary.

While I never saw this movie in the theaters, it was one that I caught on those Saturday matinees on different TV stations looking to fill time. I found it interesting and would stop to watch it each time it came on. I didn’t know there was a TV spin-off series until later (it seemed like everything in the 70’s ended up with a one-season spin-off series).

I thought this would make for a good serious Science-Fiction roleplaying campaign. What happens when you just take orders from the computer. Is it more than just the computer in charge? This theme was touched on in the TV series but not in the movie. What is outside the city walls? Should the players just save themselves and go explore, or should they try to shut the city down and save everyone?

So what system would work for this campaign? If the first thing that came to mind was Paranoia, you wouldn’t be far off. There are a lot of similar concepts, but I don’t think it would have worked for me. While I enjoyed making a Paranoia 2nd Edition character in a past Character Creation Challenge, the base for this game is silliness. I don’t recall seeing any mutants in Logan’s Run, so if you ignored those you probably could run Mutant Future or Mutant Crawl Classics. Another game that might work is Fallout (characters come from a bunker like shelter). I’ve never played (or owned) Gamma World, but I assume that it could be used as well.

Do you think that the setting in Logan’s Run could make for a good RPG campaign? Are there other systems that would fit this movie/series better? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Website

RPGaDAY2025 Day 10: Origin

Written by TardisCaptain

While driving around a thought hit me for my Day 10 entry for the Day 9 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge. If you’ll indulge me, I’m going to describe the origins of my little corner of the internet. This didn’t start out as a roleplaying blog, but as a way for me to gain some joy in this world (and share it as well). Originally I was going to use this like the old LiveJournal that was popular many moons ago. As I detailed in my very first blog post, I was planning to talk about anything that popped up in my head. And I did get a few different posts in here and there. But I noticed from the metrics that the bulk of my visitors enjoyed my roleplaying game posts. And I also noticed that I enjoyed talking about roleplaying games than trying to turn this into my private social media site. I gravitated more and more towards just RPG posts. Sure, every once in a while I scratch the itch with other geeky blog posts. And later I discovered that I could mirror the Daily Star Trek Quotes posts that I organize on a weekly basis.

There are a lot of visitors who come by every January when I run the Character Creation Challenge. These RPGaDAY posts are also popular. My reviews are getting a lot of views (and I’ve had a few people reach out to me with additional questions afterwards). One of the most popular posts has been my review of the RPG Dice that I Picked up from the Dollar Tree. I just received an email just a few weeks ago from someone who wanted to respond to that article. My convention posts have also provided both entertainment and feedback. I also really enjoyed sharing my past RPG homebrews for FASA starships and the characters that I had kept in a three-ringed binder from my early days of gaming.

I do have some pages (not blog posts) that I’ve put together. These cover the FASA Star Trek RPG, Dungeons and Dragons and many different photos in the Photo Album.

So, what do I want to do with this blog? Well on the RPG side I have a few themes in mind similar to RPGaDAY and the Character Creation Challenge, but without the monthly time-table. One would provide examples of combat in fantasy RPGs. Another theme would talk about how the different Star Trek and Sci-Fi RPGs handle certain situations. I did set up a TardisCaptainDotCom Discord server. Besides interacting with readers, I want to have a “Questions for the Blog” to publicly answer questions that fellow geeks might ask.

On the non-RPG side I want to give more reviews on some of the various books that I’ve got in my reference library. Details on the magazines and comics that I’ve collected. Displays of the autographs that I’ve been able to obtain from actors, astronauts and athletes. I want to fill out the other sections that detail some of my interests. I need to get my latest photos up in the album. But, the bulk of my blog posts will be about the different RPG that I experience. As I said when I started this blog, I wanted to get some entertainment out of it, and if I can help provide to entertainment to others, then it makes all the better.

I have received some feedback from past RPGaDAY posts. Phil H on MeWe responded to the entry on Journey by telling me about a D6 fantasy campaign where the characters had to go on a long journey. This campaign ran for 2.5 years. When it came to the post for Explore, Phil H commented how he enjoyed the 1st Edition of Star Trek Adventures, but used some of it with the Captain’s Log version of the game.

What would you like to see on my blog? RPG or non-RPG, I’m open to suggestions. Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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