Tag: Doctor Who

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, 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: Collecting, Comic Books, Conventions, Doctor Who, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Ogden-Con Spring 2025 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain
Some cheap loot I picked up at Ogden-Con 2025

So last year I talked about attending my first Ogden-Con, a local small event convention. If I understand this correctly, this is the third year for this event. There was a Christmas version of Ogden-Con last December, which was a ‘mini’ version of the event. But, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it to see how it compared.

Like last year’s event, this was put together by Rudy Entertainment. There was no charge to get into the event this year. And there were several other changes as well which showed small steps needed to grow the event. I think this is a good way to do this so that you don’t get project creep pushing the event beyond the capabilities of the organizers and volunteers. I’ve seen smaller events with some good ideas get too overloaded which either burned out the people or ran out of funding.

It was still at the Comfort Inn Ogden Conference Center (located in West Haven, not Ogden) and one of the changes was the addition of food trucks outside the event. I had forgotten that this was planned as I had grabbed some food on the way in. I wish I had remembered since one of the food trucks had chili dogs. Another change was the opening of an additional conference room that contained some gaming elements (see photos below). This was primarily Warhammer tactical gaming with a lot of miniatures. There was also a cosplay contest that was held in a very interesting manner. The participants signed up and when it came time for the judging, the coordinator went to the different vendors and asked them what costume they thought was best. So if you visited the different tables and booths, you were seen more. While the wrestling group had returned, there was no wrestling ring set up this year. Probably because there were more vendors this time around. I actually ran into a former manager of a gaming/comic store that I had a hold with back in the mid to late 2000’s. He had recognized me while I was talking with the convention chair. We were able to reminisce about some old times.

As you can see from the photo above, I came away with some good treasures. Like last year, the bulk of vendors were selling comics. Some had some graded comics protected in collector boxes, but there was a lot of $1.00 comic boxes. It was these that I went through and I found some older items that I was looking for as well as some surprising new titles. I also found some good deals on collector cards that were very low priced. These included cards from Doctor Who and a Star Trek behind the scenes card set. I did see a vendor with some older Dungeons and Dragons modules from the 80’s, but they were graded and in protection boxes (and a little higher than what I was willing to pay). There were also several local artists who were drawing and displaying their latest works. A few toy vendors, a company that could 3D print you as a figure and other collectables. A raffle was also being held with some very good prizes, but again I had limited funds at the time.

It was a relaxing small event. I’m discovering that I enjoy these more as I get to talk with more people than I do at a large mass gathering. I’m also not so overwhelmed that I want to escape as soon as I can. I’ve noticed that I’ve been buying more from these smaller events as well. Speaking of buying, make sure you bring some cash with you when you attend a smaller con like this. Some of the vendors are just people selling their private collections and don’t even have venmo, paypal or a credit card reader.

So moving forward, the con chair/owner did talk with me about having the USS Ticonderoga run a charity booth at a future event. They are planning for an October event (no date yet) probably at the same location. I let him know that this would be a charity booth just like we do at other conventions. With the extra room, I could see some RPG sessions or other tactical games being set up. From what I’ve seen, the two conference rooms are the only ones at this facility so there really isn’t room for a panel track. But a track set up with local volunteers or businesses would be a possible idea. Yea, I don’t want to see too much project creep, but I’m certain that one of these could be a future baby-step for the convention.

I would strongly suggest setting up a website for the event, nothing too flashy, just the basic information needed for attendees to find out more. The Facebook posts are kind of hard to find since they are under the Rudy Entertainment account. Not everyone is on Facebook. I’ve also seen flyers at some of the local comic stores. I know that after the event I swung by a few other geek stores and one owner asked if the event was still going on Sunday as he wanted to come check it out. Unfortunately it was only a one-day event (again baby steps, I think one day is the best for this event).

Here are some other photos I took at Ogden-Con.

Have you recently attended a smaller convention? What is the best way to let you know of local events. 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, Red Dwarf, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Spy-Fi, Star Trek, Star Wars

2025 Character Creation Challenge After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain

Holy crap I made it. I was able to get 31 characters made for the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge. The last character was officially done on March 14th, but I rolled up (well mostly) 31 characters using 31 different systems. Thank you for sticking with me and for cheering me on until I made it to the finish line. I had several of you reach out to me after reading my SitRep Report towards the beginning of February. A few more real life issues came and kicked me hard. After several vet visits, overnight stays and stressful financial burdens, one of our younger beloved cats unfortunately crossed the rainbow bridge. This had devastating mental and financial issues (vet bills) that the family is still working through. On top of that, the real world issues of government shutdowns and layoffs has been adding to my stress. I also wanted to make sure that my gamemaster commitments for SaltCON-Spring 2025 were fulfilled, which I gladly did so. Especially since I was receiving two admission passes for myself and my geek wife.

OK, enough real world bitching. What are my final thoughts on the 2025 challenge? (Why do I suddenly feel like Jerry Springer at the end of one of his shows?) While this was probably the most challenging of the five years I’ve been doing this, I’m still really glad that I did it. I’m even more glad that I stuck with it and made 31 characters. I think one of the bad things that happened after January 31st is that I let a lot of distractions (most legit) get in the way of me completing the last few characters. During January I’m in “go go go” mode. Taking a lot of time to make sure a daily post is made and uploaded. Once that urgency was gone, I had to focus on real life sacrificing play time. For those of you who can post significant daily content on your blogs, I salute you.

The entries that stood out to me in the 2025 challenge included Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition, Planet of the Apes and Red Dwarf The Roleplaying Game. All three of these books were beautiful, the character creation process was easily explained and I want to homebrew for all three of them. Look forward to more from me on these games.

The games that were disappointments in this challenge were actually quite limited. While there were a few that were frustrating, I wouldn’t really call them disappointments, with one exception. The Strange. It started out with so much high potential, then crashed hard. The feedback I had received from that blog post has already been documented in the “additional notes” sections of other entries, but it was from people who had similar experiences that I encountered with this RPG.

Speaking of feedback, I really want to thank the publishers/authors of the GI Joe RPG and Shadow Ops RPG for providing feedback to my blog posts. This tells me that they loved working on their projects and were grateful to their customers. I’m hopeful that my feedback will help improve future publications/editions of their works.

Also, the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server during this challenge. Even now we are still having some regular conversations on a variety of subjects. For those of you who have joined me there, thank you.

Here is my 2025 list of characters:

Day 1: Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Character: Keman Less
Day 2: Sword of Cepheus Character: Harrik Stol
Day 3: Traveller 2nd Edition (Mongoose) Character: Denton Wilkinson
Day 4: Castles and Crusades Reforged Character: Barakas Nimblebarrel
Day 5: Doctors and Daleks Character: Vrogg
Day 6: Basic Roleplaying Character: Jacob Green
Day 7: Everyday Heroes Character: Alex Carter
Day 8: Dark Places & Demogorgons Character: Kenneth Manchester
Day 9: Fantasy Age 2nd Edition Character: Harsk Redaxe
Day 10: See You Space Cowboy Character: Mortimer Point
Day 11: Terra Primate Character: Caleb
Day 12: Star Wars Edge of the Empire Character: Corvo Sturig
Day 13: Tales of the Valiant Character: Gunnbawk
Day 14: Stars Without Number Character: Zan Camrin
Day 15: Shadow Ops Character: Mason Gordon
Day 16: Barbarians of the Ruined Earth Character: HLPR-47
Day 17: The Witcher Character: Styd Ralart
Day 18: Traveller The New Era Character: Jarl Barkton
Day 19: OGL Wild West Character: William Keetley
Day 20: Cyberpunk 2020 Character: Xenos
Day 21: Old School Essentials Character: Thamar
Day 22: GI Joe Character: Spacebar
Day 23: No Day To Die Character: Daniel Knight
Day 24: Metamorphosis Alpha 1st Edition Character: Drixxian
Day 25: Twilight 2000 2nd Edition Character: Blaine Dawson
Day 26: The Strange Failed to make a character
Day 27: For Gold & Glory Character: Marcus Dexius Arcavius
Day 28: Planet of the Apes Character: Flint
Day 29: Red Dwarf Character: Carl Stark
Day 30: Mazes & Minotaurs Character: Flavius Antius Tiribius
Day 31: Iron Kingdoms Character: Blackadder

For all of those who are still reading my little corner of the internet, thank you. For all of those who reached out to me or came up to me in person to give me a hug, thank you. The friendships and camaraderie of the geek and gaming community has really been a rock that has helped stabilize my life right now. If you made it to 31 days, congratulations. Send me a note via email (carl (at) tardiscaptain.com) on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. I want to make sure you got the completion graphic for completing the challenge.

Also, if you purchased anything after clicking on the affiliate links to DriveThruRPG or Amazon, thank you. I’m not doing this blog to make money, but the kickback helps when making game purchases for future challenges.

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, Conventions, Doctor Who, Friends, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

SaltCON-Spring 2025 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain
Loot from SaltCON-Spring 2025.

This was probably one of the most interesting and entertaining SaltCONs that I’ve attended. There were some games that I missed, but I still played in many others and the games that I ran were very well attended. I think what helped the most is the friends that I met up with at the convention. As most of my regular readers know, 2025 has been sucky to say the least (at least using words that don’t involve swearing). In fact one of the issues that has been affecting my household came to ahead when one of our furbabies (not the one pictured in the Prepping for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge post) passed beyond the rainbow bridge a few days after the con. That is what delayed this after-action report. We are happy that he is no longer in pain, but it has been one of the things on our minds for the past two months.

Sigh. Back to talking about the con and the fun that I had there. I arrived on Thursday and checked in. I had some time before running my first game and I started wandering around the convention center. I found one set of friends, but they were in the middle of a session. I found a second set of friends, but they were running the Artemis bridge simulator. After wandering through the dealers room and seeing all of the stuff I wasn’t able to buy because of lack of funds, I walked into a hallway and found a friend who was attending the convention for a first time. I sat down next to her and asked for a hug. She instantly grabbed me and said “I’ve known you for 35+ years I can give you a hug.” That was the start of making this conventions one of the best conventions I’ve attended in a while. Not only did she spend a lot of time with me making sure that I was OK, as we were wandering around together for most of the con a lot of other friends ran up to me and asked for hugs. I didn’t know if they had heard about my issues that I’ve blogged about, or they just wanted to see me. The small acts of friendship really helped me out. I tried to make sure all of you heard a “thank you” from me individually, but if I didn’t get to you, please know that you really boosted my spirits. Thank you.

Alright, shaking that off, despite the lack of funds this weekend, I did pick up some loot at the convention. For running a lot of one-shots the gaming coordinator allowed me to pick a book from the box of prizes. I elected to pick up the core rulebook for Tales from the Loop. Primarily so I could use it in the 2026 Character Creation Challenge. Yes, yes… I know, I still have two more characters to pump out to get to my 31 characters. I should be able to get those done very soon. The shirt was also a gift to the GMs from the coordinator and it was specifically for those who had volunteered a certain number of hours at the convention. I was tempted to get the regular convention t-shirt which also looked good, but funds were limited. The convention itself had handed out specialty D6s (this was the 10th anniversary of the convention) that had playing pieces to represent the 6 on the die. I was able to obtain several of these. Another GM had given us a special D6 for his game which advertised his group called RPG Sessions. SaltCON was also having another pin quest and I was gifted a cyberpunk beholder. You probably can’t see it very well in the photo posted above, but he’s all metallic and kewl looking. And finally, a friend saw the “My puns deal 3d8 psychic damage” sticker in the dealers room and had to pick it up for me. Not pictured was a rubber duck dressed up as a witch that someone dropped in front of me. I missed who did this so here is another random “Thank You”.

I’m very happy with the games that I ran for the convention and I had a ton of fun running them. In every single one, someone who hadn’t signed up for a session walked up to the table and asked if they could join. My Star Trek Adventures game was based off of a scenario provided in the Klingon Empire Gamemaster Toolkit and it quickly turned into a “Weekend at Bernie’s” situation. One of the characters had been physically taken over by an entity and didn’t have full control of their body. So the other characters had to drag them around why they flopped their arms in the direction they wanted to go. We were talking about that game over the course of the convention. I was really impressed with the intro adventure for the Doctor Who 2nd Edition RPG that I ran on Friday. Every one got into their characters very well and as I was running it, I thought to myself “I could be talked into running a campaign with this system.” On Saturday morning I ran the intro adventure for the new Planet of the Apes RPG that I had backed on Kickstarter (review coming when I get the physical product). This is the one that is an update to the old D6 system by West End Games that was used for Star Wars and Ghostbusters. This was the first time I had GMed for this system and I could tell it had been a long time since I had actually played. I can’t wait to get the physical book for this game. And finally on Sunday I ran a game that the games coordinator told me was getting lots of talk over the weekend. The Wendy’s Feast of Legends game. We had a full table by the end of the session and honestly, it didn’t run too bad for a joke advertisement game. I had to house-rule a few things just to keep the flow going, but I would have done that with any RPG. I did have to explain some of the in-jokes within the game since the food prices had risen since this game was released. Unfortunately, because of the no-outside food rule at the convention center, no one had any bonuses from bringing in Wendy’s food. The convention organizers had posters made of all the RPG games that were scheduled for the weekend (to try to draw in players from other sections) and here is the one they did for the Feast of Legends.

As for the games that I was able to participate in, this is how it went.

Basic Roleplaying, Cypher System, Curseborn: Ashcan Edition and Pendragon. If you were running these games at the con, I apologize for missing them. Due to some real life issues (one mentioned above) and pure exhaustion I had to miss your games. I really wanted to try them out and I tried to see if I could sign up for another open table spot, but the schedules just didn’t pan out. If they are run at future SaltCONs, I’ll try to see if I can sign up for a seat then. One of my goals is to at least try one or two new games each convention. I like checking out the variety of games that are out there just to see how I like them.

The Starfinder game was listed as a play test of the 2nd edition. But I don’t believe it was an official play test with the publisher. I had asked if there was a way to provide feedback and the GM was running something that they had gotten off of Facebook (if I understood him correctly). I’ve played in a short 1st edition campaign back in 2020, but I don’t recall much of it. I hadn’t been too impressed with it then but part of the issue may have been running on the sucky Fantasy Grounds VTT. The 2nd edition played at the table seemed OK, but there wasn’t anything to write home about. I played a Vesk tank with several big guns and lots of armor and it just seemed like we were in a dungeon, in space. I don’t know, I’m not getting the appeal of Starfinder.

TRON: Vasser’s Game. This was a homebrew of the Genesys system to run a TRON RPG. The GM had things laid out pretty well. Turns out this was the same gentleman that ran the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG at the 2024 SaltCON-Spring. The same tablets were used that had the character sheets but we got to roll the weird dice on the table this time. This allowed me to try to understand the system a little bit better, which I don’t think I did very well. This wasn’t the fault of the system or the GM, I just kept feeling like I was slowing down the pace of the game not understanding the symbols of the special dice. After the game I was thinking about this and if I had prepped myself with a dice cheat sheet I don’t think I would have felt guilty slowing things down. Both myself and the other players were very interested in a TRON based RPG as we kept making references to the movies. I also referenced the TRON 2.0 video game that I’ve enjoyed many times over.

A GM that I knew was running the Star Trek Adventures 1st Edition because he hadn’t picked up the 2nd edition book again. Which was actually good for me because he ran a comedy based adventure called “Blueberry Trill” which was weird. It was one of the mission briefings that he had found online that allowed him to improvise parts of the adventure. One of the things he did was run us through an extended task in the one-shot. This was something that I really hadn’t experienced in the times that I had played 1st edition. I think I’m glad that this part of the game was changed for the 2nd edition of the game. Oh, and if someone offers you a genetically modified blueberry designed to grow on the planet Trill, don’t take them up on it. Trust me.

Titans of Atlantis was not only the last game for me, but the last RPG to be run in the RPG room for the convention. It was a weird D12 system where you got to roll more D12s if the character was more skilled in certain areas. But there was still a low target number to try to roll under. I had a basic fighter that was only armed with a spear and a shield (all with fancy greek/roman inspired names). With how “skilled” he was at fighting, he sure didn’t connect on a lot of strikes. I ended up helping to push one of the big monsters into a magical portal with the other characters instead of trying to slay it since that seemed to be more effective. The game itself was pretty funny, but that was because the players were probably exhausted from the weekend and the constant low success rolls. This resulted in throwing caution to the wind on a lot of antics that were performed in the game. Was this done on purpose to prevent murder hoboing in the game? I’m not certain. While I was grateful to try out a new system, I don’t see this being a repeat system for me to try.

One last nugget to drop before I wrap this up. I had a game designer ask me if I’d be willing to review his RPG that he had just released. He agreed that I was free to write what I wanted in my review. A few days after the con I had a message from DriveThruRPG with a free copy of the game. I hope to get this review posted in a month after I’ve taken care of a few other blog obligations that I need to catch up on.

If you are looking for a good gaming convention, I’d recommend SaltCON. There are quite a few out-of-town people who show up for the spring event. But the Summer event on June 6-8 and the End-of-Summer on August 29-31 are also enjoyable as well. I’d love to see other publishers and blog readers there. I’m already trying to decide what games I’ll run in June as the call has gone out for submissions.

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: Conventions, Doctor Who, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

Prepping for SaltCON Spring 2025

Written by TardisCaptain
Ignore the 2024 badge, I’ll be picking up my new badge very soon.

It’s time once again for the biggest SaltCON of the year. SaltCON-Spring will be running from February 27 to March 2nd at the Davis Convention Center and I’ve signed up to run four games this year. By running four games I was able to get a ticket for both myself and my geek wife. You can read about my past adventures at SaltCON in my past blog entries. I will be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented in a previous blog post.

As you can see from the photo above, I’ve signed up to run another one-shot for Star Trek Adventures. Two other games that I will be running are also based off of popular franchises. Doctor Who 2nd Edition and the brand new Planet of the Apes RPG that only Kickstarter backers have. I just created a PotA character in the recent Character Creation Challenge. As for the fourth game that I’m running, well because lots of attendees come to conventions to play games that they don’t normally get a chance to play, I’m running Feast of Legends. Yes, that is the RPG that was used by the fast-food company Wendy’s to advertise their product.

As for the games that I’ve signed up for. Well for the first time I’ll have a chance to try Basic Roleplaying (no I won’t be using the character I made in a recent challenge). Another new system for me will be Pendragon. I don’t know what edition, but I’m assuming it will be the latest. Titans of Atlantis is a system that I’ve never even heard of before. A game master is going to be using the Genesys system to run a TRON RPG. Also on the new game front for me is Curseborn: Ashcan Edition by Onyx Path Publishing. I’ve also signed up for a Star Trek Adventures game run by another GM and a Starfinder game.

My wife has signed up for a Labrynth game, something called Lifewish: Ravenheart, another game called Black Powder and Brimstone and The Electric State. She also signed up to be in two of the games that I am running.

With how this year has been so far, I really hope that I can get a nice relaxing weekend with some dice, some friends and hopefully some good memories. I really could use some of that right now. I’ll have an after-action report when it’s all over.

What should I be on the look out for? Any recommendations for the games I’m going to be playing? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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

2025 Character Creation Challenge Day 5: Doctors and Daleks

Written by TardisCaptain

The Day 5 entry for the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge is a little unusual. The game is Doctors and Daleks (D&D, get it?) by Cubicle 7. This is a Doctor Who RPG using “The worlds most popular roleplaying game system” (aka 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons) as it is put in the description on DriveThruRPG. I had picked up both D&D and Doctor Who RPG 2nd edition in a bundle sale, but I decided to limit the number of Doctor Who RPGs in the challenge to one this year.

Now I’ve created several other Doctor Who characters in past challenge entries. In the first challenge (five years ago), I created a character for the FASA Doctor Who RPG (that I still had my books for luckily) where I made a TimeLord called “The Baron”. Then later that month, I created a companion for him, a small-town police officer who was recruited by UNIT named Tim Bronson using the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game (1st edition) by Cubicle 7. As I quickly scroll through the descriptions of the different races, I wonder if I could make an alien companion for The Barron? Let’s see. I know there’s already a Sontaran that isn’t trying to gloriously advance the cause of the Sontaran Empire, but I’m drawn to this idea of The Baron having saved a Sontaran Warrior who had been taken over (psychically or something) and when he was freed, he discovered he had more free will than before. He was still efficient, but when around other Sontarans, he has to act more guff that normal.

But enough chit-chat, the chapter for character creation starts on page 20. A (sort of) character creation list has the following steps. Decide with your group what type of game they are going to play (A time lord is having an adventure with his own companions, not the Doctor or other canon characters as PCs). Decide on the core concept for your character (mostly done, see above), choose your species (Sontaran), choose your class (OK this will need more than a quick rundown), choose a background (what you were doing before you started your adventures), decide on the Time Machine your group has (The Barron has a TARDIS of his own) and some Finishing Touches.

There is a side-bar with some changes from 5th Edition D&D, everyone can understand the languages of others due to the TARDIS Translation Circuit. There are no alignments (so my car might drive off the side of the road) since the Doctor (or in this case The Barron) only travels with good morals. And Hit Points and Hit Die are replaced with Plot Points and Plot Die. Part of this reason is not all combat is physical. And finally there are different Tech Levels ranging from 1 (Primitive-Stone Age) to 12 (Beyond Comprehension) with our earth at TL5 (Space Faring) and the Time Lords at TL 10.

So when I finally got to the ability scores, it stated that I could generate them in any way that I desired, or I could choose from a set of scores already provided. Nah, I want to roll the dice today and I’m going to go with 4d6 drop the lowest die. I quickly look over the classes to see what their attribute minimums are. The classes are Charmer (fast talker), Empath (wise sage), Protector (guards their friends), Stalwart (dependable jack-of-all-trades), Thinker (brainbox), and the Trickster (uses cunning and guile). Yea, it’s going to be Protector so I made sure the ability scores reflected that.

After writing down a bunch of notes, I decided to start transferring what I already had (and locked down) over to the character sheet. While doing this, I realized I’ve never really played 5th edition much. When I have played it, it’s been at conventions where the characters are pre-generated by the DM.

I’ve moved to the Finishing Touches section as I’m trying to wrap this up. I had already picked a name of Vrogg (it sounded alien enough). But now the game asks 10 questions for your background. Where (and When) are you originally from? Vrogg was cloned on the glorious homeworld of Sontar. What is your family like? Family? A Sontaran warrior doesn’t have a family, but he does remember the others in his clone batch. Most of them have already given their lives for the Sontaran Empire. What was your childhood like? Vrogg was cloned at birth to full maturity. If he did have a childhood, it would have been glorious. What have you done in your past? He’s had the pleasure of serving in the Sontaran Battle Fleet for three years, serving in many countless battles. At least until that last one where he was separated from the fleet and rescued by The Barron. Owing him a life debt, he is serving with the Barron, until released. Who are your best friends? Friendship had no business in the Sontaran Battle Fleet. While he gets along with the other companions of The Barron, he has come to realize that they are people he has… met. What do you wish you could change? Vrogg would have wanted the outcome of his last battle before he was left behind to be different. Would this have resulted in his death, perhaps, but it would have been glorious. What are your best or worst memories? The sounds of the defeated Rutians crunching under his boot. What is your biggest secret? Vrogg doesn’t know if he will feel shame when he he comes back into contact with the Sontaran Battle Fleet. Until that time, he is attempting to serve out his life debt and will, as the Humans put it, “cross that bridge when he comes to it.” What is your biggest fear? Sontarans do not have fear. But he won’t walk on the recently mopped kitchen floor in The Barron’s TARDIS. Why are you traveling with The Doctor The Barron? The Barron rescued Vrogg when he was left behind, thus he owes a life debt to The Barron. There wasn’t really a lot when it came to equipment. Sure there is an equipment chapter, but not much detailing what a Sontaran warrior would have, so I wrote down some battle armor and decided to scan the first page of the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

The book didn’t really go into the character creation system or a few other basics which was annoying. There were several times that the reader was referred to the SRD and I spent my time going back and forth between publications. I’m wondering if the writers thought that everyone would know 5th Edition D&D. While there were several pages describing some of the differences between Doctors and Daleks and D&D, there really wasn’t a step-by-step guide. I wonder if a Doctor Who fan picked up this book and then was a little confused? Remember, system first when writing your RPG manuals.

Both Doctors and Daleks and the regular Doctor Who RPG from Cubicle 7 assumes that someone will be playing the Doctor. Has this really been the case? When I played with friends using the FASA system back in the 80s-90s, we always had original characters. The Doctor was usually a guest character at the most while we ran around having our own adventures. I’m wondering if this is really the case with other Doctor Who RPG sessions? I checked with one of my 80’s buddies and she confirmed that they just made up their own.

So, would I play this as a Whovian? Possibly. I’m not in a lot of games right now, but I’d consider it if offered or saw it available at a convention. I was really impressed with the 1st edition Doctor Who RPG by Cubicle 7 and I can’t wait to look into the 2nd edition. I may want to play one of those before I play Doctors and Daleks. There’s already a big resource of homebrewed material for the 1st edition DWRPG, which gives that a slight edge.

Additional Notes:

I did get some additional feedback on my Traveller character I made the other day. Apparently I had done some things wrong as the math wasn’t mathing. I may have to go back and try to make a Traveller character again when I’m not under the pressure to catch up on the challenge. I wonder if I’m putting myself at a disadvantage of not giving some games the time to really get into the system itself. But another part of me asks “Can this game be picked up and played on short notice?” Some are definitely yes, some are definitely no and others are in-between.

Please let me know if I’m missing your blog from the Character Creation Challenge listing. I’ve been trying to add them as I find them.

Coming Up Next:

Basic Roleplaying (Chaosium)

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

RPGaDAY2024 Day 31: Game or Gamer you miss

Written by TardisCaptain

We made it to Day 31 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. It’s kind of a sad one in a way. The subject is Game or Gamer you miss. Unfortunately no one lives forever and I’ve lost a few friends in my life. Roger, Rex, Richard, Marcus. I miss you guys and I wish I could hear your jokes around the table again. Thankfully there are a lot of gaming buddies that I just haven’t had a chance to play with in a while who are still with us. Jeff, Gibby, Andrew, Jill, Erin, Libby, Kevin and others, if we can get anything arranged, I’d love it. Even if its on a virtual table.

As for a game that I miss, I’d love a chance to play the West End Games D6 Star Wars once again. I have many memories of past games. To try the FASA Star Trek or Doctor Who game once more would be a dream. I’d never turn down almost any variant of Dungeons and Dragons. Especially if it was an older version that I hadn’t played in quite some time. But I’d be willing to play almost any system just to hear the dice rattle on the table again.

Do you have a gamer that you miss? Is there a game you’d love to play again (even as just a one-shot)? 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: Archer, Character Creation Challenge, Comic Books, Conventions, Doctor Who, Dune, Dungeons and Dragons, Horror, Movies, Music, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Wars, Video Game, Website

Moving from 2023 to 2024

Written by TardisCaptain
Stack of character sheets printed out for the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge

2023 was a weird year to say the least. I was able to see a ton of concerts including several that I wanted to check off of the bucket list. These included Duran Duran, Love and Rockets, The Cure, Garbage, and Depeche Mode. I was able to see a live show that featured some of the comedians from “Who’s Line Is it Anyway” (the show had a different name probably for copyright reasons). I’ll be getting the photos for these up in the photo albums.

For the first time in a long time, I had the opportunity to attend a gaming convention. SaltCON Spring, SaltCON Summer and SaltCON End-of-Summer. I know at the beginning of the year, I stated that I only wanted to participate at this event and not volunteer. Well, after much thought and discussion with others, I’ll be running two games next spring. One will be a one-shot for Basic Fantasy RPG that I already had written up and did some polishing on. The other is a Star Trek Adventures: Lower Decks inspired game where the crew will be meeting the cast of Top Core (a sci-fi parody of the BBC show, Top Gear).

I’m still watching a ton of movies at home thanks to the many streaming services that I have access to. In the theater I did enjoy Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. I also saw Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. I also enjoyed this movie and I hope that the ending would lead to another sequel. But I wouldn’t be disappointed if there wasn’t one. My youngest is a Five Nights at Freddy’s fan so we had to go see the movie in the theater. Not knowing much about the video game series, I thought the movie was OK and I wasn’t bored. In 2024 I’m looking forward to seeing Dune: Part Two, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.

Television wise I’ve been soaking up all of the various Star Trek franchises (Picard knocked it out of the park and I demand more Lower Decks). The Star Wars episodes have been good as well. I’m sad that Archer is ending, but I’d rather have it end on a high note. What We Do In The Shadows has also continued to entertain me. MST3K season 13 was a blast. I watch so much TV that I am unable to list them all here. On the weekends I’ve still been enjoying Svengoolie and Creature Features. I’m really looking forward to the new Doctor Who episodes after the great introduction from the 60th Anniversary specials and Christmas episode. The Fallout TV series has also caught my attention. I did cancel my Peacock account because there was nothing on it to watch (and I’d go months forgetting it was even there).

Reading wise I’m still going strong on the Star Trek and James Bond comics. While I’m also enjoying the Star Wars comics, I had to move from buying the physical books to a subscription to Marvel Unlimited due to the high cost of the individual issues. Too many Star Wars comics to continuing to buy them all.

I may have made a mistake with my video games. I set up both a Steam account and a GOG account. So I’ve been getting deals on lots of classic games that I use to play. I’ve been trying to play a few others as well such as Fallout New Vegas and a couple of other hidden gems that were tossed my way. But when it comes to time crunch issues, the video games get put off to the side pretty fast. I need to make sure that I’m spending some enjoyment time playing these games.

I want to get some writing done in 2024. I’ve talked about it, but I need to sit down and do it. Hopefully the Basic Fantasy scenario will be good enough to submit to the BFRPG community for consideration. While I also have some fan projects in mind, I’d actually like to have a few publications that I could legitimately sell online.

Keep an eye on this blog for what happens in 2024. Now off to the USS Ticonderoga New Years Eve party. Tomorrow I dive into the deep end of the pool with the Character Creation Challenge.

What did you enjoy about 2023? What geeky things do you want to do in 2024? 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 or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Doctor Who, Horror, Role Playing Games

RPGaDay2023 Day 25: Unplayed RPG you own

Written by TardisCaptain 1 Comment on RPGaDay2023 Day 25: Unplayed RPG you own

What Unplayed RPG do you own is the topic for Day 25 of the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge. Are you kidding me? I’ve got a good collection of dead-tree books and a LOT of PDF copies of different games. OK, I think I’m going to pick one of each (physical book and PDF copy) that I wish I could play. However, I’m not going to talk about some of the games that I’ve already talked about previously.

Dead-Tree Version:

So I walked over to one of my bookshelves and the first book that jumped out and attacked me was the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game by Cubicle 7. I only own the 1st edition of the game, so I haven’t had a chance to check out the 2nd edition yet. Not only am I a huge Doctor Who fan (duh, look at the URL for this blog) but I loved how this game was presented. They made it very simple to try to explain the system to friends in an attempt to get them to play. (see photo below)

Not only was the basic rule easy to present, but so was the character creation process as I discovered in a past Character Creation Challenge. I liked how the attributes was explained (this score equals this type of human for each attribute). It made me really want to see how the system ran.

PDF Version:

Isolation Games put out an RPG called When The Moon Hangs Low. This is a gothic action RPG set in a fantasy Victorian inspired world where characters are tragic monster hunters in the capital city of Harrowmire. Each character has some connection (or deep secret) to the monsters they hunt. Think Supernatural in a Victorian Age. I had picked up this game in a charity bundle on DriveThruRPG to support Doctors Without Borders just after the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine. The system sounds interesting and the Character Creation process was pretty simple. The company even has their own discord server for players to check out and ask questions.

Again there were a ton of options I could have selected from, but these two jumped out at me when I was looking over the collection.

Do you have an unplayed RPG that you own? 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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