Tag: Doctor Who

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.

Posted in: Collecting, Comic Books, Doctor Who, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Transformers

More IDW Comics in Star Trek Adventures?

Written by TardisCaptain
What I would like to see

So earlier this month I was working on my review of the latest Star Trek Lower Decks releases for the Star Trek Adventures RPG when it hit me. “I wonder if we will see any future cross-over products between Modiphius (publisher of Star Trek Adventures) and IDW run of Star Trek comics?” Back in 2021 there had been a cooperative release with the IDW Year Five Tie In.

So I thought I’d take to social media and ask. On twitter (while dodging spam posts) I submitted the following:

Hey @Modiphius are we going to see any additional #StarTrekAdventures supplements for @IDWPublishing #StarTrek comics like we did for Year-Five tie in? I would love to see more supplements like this. #please

@TardisCaptain

Well, I received a response from Jim Johnson, who is the project manager for Modiphius Star Trek Adventures. Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. He asked what I’d like to see from the IDW run. Well when I read that, my first thought was “Everything!” Yea, I know that’s not going to fly logically. IDW has been publishing Star Trek comics since 2007 and has released over 400 issues and trade paperbacks. Some of them include crossovers with other intellectual properties such as Doctor Who, Planet of the Apes, Green Lantern, The Legion of Superheroes and Transformers. The likelihood of any supplements for these issues are slim to none. Especially since there is already a roleplaying game for Transformers and Doctor Who.

So what was the most likely candidates from the wide catalog of IDW publications would be good for a Star Trek Adventures supplement? Well I have several recommendations in mind. I did mention a few in a quick twitter response to Mr. Johnson, but I felt that this topic deserved a blog post to give it more thought.

I’ve actually mentioned this in past blog posts, but IDW has done a very good series of comics covering the TNG crew in the Mirror Universe. In this setting, the Terran Empire was defeated, but not overrun. (Hey, if you are looking for a reason to keep this within “cannon”, just remember that there are many, many multiple universes as seen in the TNG episode “Parallels“.) This empire was boxed in, was low on resources (Captain’s kept their own secret supply caches) and still had some fight in it (for both external and internal conflicts). RPG scenarios could include Prime Universe Federation members dealing with Terran Empire incursions, more accidental crossovers or a campaign set with PCs playing members of the Terran Starfleet. Some of the advantages to this idea include lots of resource material (13 TNG comics plus additionaly 7 TOS comics, 1 Voyager comic, and 4 Discovery comics) which could include new races, new spacefames, new background information, new characters (we see “The Obnoxious Okona” who is a thorn in Mirror Captain Picard’s side). The disadvantages that I see are also the large number of sources (the supplement could be much larger than the Year Five tie in if they didn’t break it up by comic series), roleplaying in the Mirror Universe is much different than in the Prime Universe (but I do recall playing in a FASA Star Trek campaign where we were accidentally sent to the Mirror Universe) and there is a lot of Mirror Universe seen in the shows. While this is my first choice that I would LOVE to see, I could understand why it may not make the list at Modiphius.

Before there was Star Trek: Year Five by IDW, the comic publisher released Star Trek Year Four. This covered what could have been the fourth season of The Original Series. This would make for an excellent companion piece to the STA Year Five tie-in. This would be an excellent opportunity to present the stats for the Federation Class Dreadnought (seen in the Enterprise Experiment series). There are not as many issues covering Year Four as there are for Year Five (10 vs 26 respectively) but that might make is more of a candidate for a PDF only release. There are other TOS comics presented by IDW, but they cover various times across the Original Series. That could be used to pad out a publication if needed.

The next recommendation may be an issue. I don’t know if Modiphius has any type of license with the Kelvin Universe movies. Creating a tie-in supplement might be possible if a license isn’t fully connected. However there are a LOT of Kelvin Universe comics published by IDW. A total of 106 issues (not counting the two Kelvin Universe/Green Lantern crossovers). Some of these issues cover Starfleet Academy cadets and could be a perfect way to release some Kelvin Universe resource material into the market.

The last recommendation that I’m going to make is for Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor that had four issues. Not a lot of material, but the storyline covered Dr. McCoy after he had left Starfleet and went on a “Doctors without Borders” type of adventure (between the end of The Original Series and The Motion Picture). There would definable be a new spaceframe (The Joanna), several characters and planets and information on how to play in the Frontier Medics Program. A non-Starfleet sourcebook could help with civilian roleplaying.

As I mentioned in my Year Five Tie-In review, there was still some Year Five material that could have been added to the supplement. I wouldn’t be opposed to that type of expansion.

There are still a ton of other IDW Star Trek titles that information could be pulled to create a tie-in supplement. Some cover various races and characters. A few had different inter-ST series crossovers that only comics could pull off. Others had tie-ins with different Star Trek novels and video games. I believe that IDW has the longest run of continuous Star Trek comic publications. Despite recent news that the company had some layoffs, I hope that they will be able to continue to publish new comics for quite a few more years.

Thank you Jim Johnson for inspiring me to expand this subject into a blog post. I had a great time going back through several comics and (quickly) re-reading some of the stories. Jim did respond to my suggestion tweet saying “I just gotta chat with the good people over there and see what’s possible.” So… (crosses fingers).

What IDW Comics would you like to see turned into a Star Trek Adventures supplement? Are there other Star Trek comics that you draw gaming inspiration from? 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: Autographs, Collecting, Comic Books, Community Service, Conventions, Doctor Who, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

FanX 2022 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain 1 Comment on FanX 2022 After Action Report
My haul from FanX 2022

So another FanX: The Salt Lake Comic Convention is in the books. With how hectic my summer has been, I didn’t know if i was going to be able to make it. Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet was going to have a charity booth at the convention again to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Thankfully our Star Trek fan club is set up so that when real life gets in the way others can step forward. The crew of the USS Pulsar led the various volunteers for the booth. They put together a brand new photo op for convention attendees to use which was the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds transporter pad. After talking with Captain Joe Coleflesh, he stated to just come do what I could and they would handle everything else. So on Wednesday (the day before the con opened) I arrived and got the booth registered. I’m in a walking boot now, but I still had to stay off of my foot as often as I could. Luckily a friend of mine had let me borrow a knee scooter. This allowed me to move about the very large Salt Palace with some ease. It was still a toll on my body so every day of the convention was a “game time decision” on if I was going to make it.

On Thursday I rode down with a friend and was able to check out the vendors floor before the con opened (an advantage of being an exhibitor). I saw a few things that I wanted to pick up when everything was opened. I spent most of the day at the Seventh Fleet booth meeting up with new recruits and old friends who stopped by to say hello. Despite being sore, I made the trek back down on Friday and took my youngest to Kid-Con. Unfortunately, that may have been too much so I wasn’t able to come down on Saturday. If I missed meeting up with you, I hope to catch you at a future event. I will be adding some new photos to my online photo album that were taken at the con.

From a Utah vendor I was able to pick up a dice tray and a pin with a graphic of a D20 that stated “This is how I roll”. I purchased the 2022 anthology “Parliament of Wizards“. With several of the local authors in attendance, I was able to get several of them to autograph the book. My last long Dungeons and Dragons campaign allowed me to play a wizard, so I thought I might gain some inspiration from this book for future gaming sessions. Speaking of getting books signed, I also picked up The Complete Elfquest Volume One and meet the creators Wendy and Richard Pini. I’ve been a fan of this series ever since I read the first trade paperback back in the mid-80’s and I was unaware that they were even coming. While there are a lot of geeky things for sale at the con, I hardly see any role-playing books. So when I discovered that Andrew E.C. Gaska, the author of the Alien Roleplaying Game published by Free League was also present, I had to pick up the core book for him to autograph. When I told him that Aliens was my favorite movie of all time, he wrote a special message with his signature. Yes, I will be using this system in my Character Creation Challenge in 2023. And thanks to my friend Tina, I was able to pick up the autograph of Steven Weber who played Colonel Day on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I would have picked up more autographs but I wasn’t informed about the prices before the con so I couldn’t budget before hand.

Despite missing Saturday and being sore, I did enjoy getting out and seeing the creativity that our local geek community comes up with. Also a big thank you to the members of the Seventh Fleet for running a successful charity booth and to all of the fans who helped donate to the American Cancer Society. To Dan Farr and the many, many volunteers at the con, thank you for all that you do. FanX 2023 has already set the dates of September 21-23 for the next event. I can’t wait to see what amazing things we will see then. Hopefully I’ll be well enough to cosplay.

Here are some different photos I took at the con.

Note: You can read my 2021 FanX action report here.

Posted in: Doctor Who, Dungeons and Dragons, Fan Club, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

RPGaDAY 2022 catch up #1

Written by TardisCaptain 1 Comment on RPGaDAY 2022 catch up #1

In August 2021 I participated in the #RPGaDAY challenge. I was able to complete all 31 days that had a variety of subjects to blog about. It was an interesting challenge. As you can see from the schedule posted above, they changed the format to follow a Who, What, When, Where, Why, How and a special Sunday question.

I was interested in participating this year, until recent events came up. There is a physical challenge in posting for 31 days while still interacting with family, friends, work, hobbies, etc. After I had broken my foot, I knew that there was no way I could post on a daily basis. So I’m going to try to do the next best thing. When the schedule allows it (between leg rests) I’m going to play catch up and try to post the recent entries into one blog post.

Day 1: Who would you like to introduce to RPGs?

I’m assuming that this introduction would be for people who have never played a role-playing game before. There are certain members of my Star Trek fan club that I wouldn’t mind introducing to RPGs. Fandom is about geeking out together with other fans. Role-playing games are just another way for friends to geek out together. A second answer to this would be some neighbors who have actually asked about RPGs. It would be nice to have some nearby players.

Day 2: What is a great introductory RPG?

I really think this would depend upon the interest of the players. If they were interested in fantasy I might use the game I cut my teeth on which is Basic Dungeons and Dragons. If it was a younger crowd I might use Tiny Dungeon: Second Edition. If the group was interested in the gangster genre, I might pull out Gangbusters B/X. Tall Tales B/X is probably what I’d use if they wanted to play a westerns campaign. Star Trek fans would like the Star Trek Adventures system, while the Whovians might like Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game. If generic science fiction is wanted, I might use FrontierSpace. There are a bunch of other genres that I haven’t listed yet with plenty of games ready to cover them.

Day 3: When were you fist introduced to RPGs?

Many many moons ago I saw some friends playing Dungeons and Dragons in Elementary School. However the bulk of my early playing happened while I was in Junior High School. That is when I really got the dice rolling and my parents concerned. They must not have seen it as too bad because they didn’t try to stop me from actually playing. I’ve mentioned that they took my D&D books once because they thought I wasn’t paying enough attention in school, but returned them later when everything was better.

Day 4: Where would you host a first game?

If I was with a bunch of friends, I’d probably host at my home. I have more control over the area, the food is in my kitchen and I don’t have to go very far once the game is done. If I was going to be gaming with players that I had not played with before (or often) I might host the game at a local gaming store. But I don’t have as much control there when it comes to keeping distractions to a minimum.

Day 5: Why will they like this game?

I’m not certain what the organizers are asking here. If they are talking about the games I mentioned in Day 2, then the players might like it because it aligns with their interests. I also hope that as a gamemaster I’m providing an entertaining game that they players would enjoy in a safe environment. The primary reason we want to play role-playing games is to have fun and escape the troubles we are experiencing in our world now.

Day 6: How would you get more people playing RPGs?

Damn good question. There is no magic wand or trick that you could use to just get players to start. I think ease of access would help get more players. Don’t make the games overly expensive (at least for the basic game) or require special miniatures and dice. Don’t make the system overly complex. As I mentioned before, if you want me to try to convince my friends to play, make it easy for me to explain the system the game uses. And then there is always the dreaded, do the schedules work out. Sigh.

Conclusion:

Yea I snuck in Day 6 on the 5th. I wanted to answer the question now while I had the blog open. I don’t know if I’ll be able to post next in a day or two or in a week. We will have to see how the schedule and leg lets me post. I do have to say I admire the RPG bloggers that can post on a daily basis. Hats off to you.

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