Tag: Dungeons and Dragons

Posted in: Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Horror, Pirates, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Wars

SaltCON-Spring 2026 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain
August sez “Who said you could be gone fur-ever?”

And another wonderful SaltCON is in the bag. Let me take this opportunity to thank the gaming coordinators, the volunteers and the people I met for helping to make this an enjoyable weekend. I had some disappointments, but they were far and few between. I also had a roleplayer come up to me to say “Hey you want to see my convention backpack?” after he had read about the backpack that I use at conventions. It was interesting to compare the two of them. Last year, I really needed the emotional support after some real-life events. This year I was providing the emotional support to others (and I was glad to give out the hugs when needed). It reminded me of the quote from Saru on Star Trek: Discovery.

“Before we can care for others, we must care for ourselves.” Saru- New Eden, Stardate: 1027.32

I was able to pick up a lot this year. The convention theme for 2026 is pirates (last year was a cyberpunk theme) and there were several articles of clothing that combined gaming and pirates together. My zip-up Star Trek hoodie (that looked like a uniform) was starting to get a little threadbare, so I decided to replace it with a black SaltCON pirate hoodie that says “Dead men play no games.” I also picked up the regular con shirt for spring which was a pirate riding a fish guiding it with a D20. The SaltCON GameMaster’s Guild shirt that I got for free said “Release the Kraken” And speaking of free shirts, Evil Genius Games provided me with an Evil Gamemaster shirt for running one of their games. On the sleeve is a bonus rule that allows the GM to make a player re-roll a D20 two times during a game. I didn’t use this at the con, but a friend who also got the same shirt did.

Some of the gaming loot that I picked up at the con.

As is usually the case with SaltCON, they give you free games when you pick up your registration badge. The free games this year included an interesting card game called Tacta and a humorous looking game called Riot at the Round Table. I’ll have to subject the family to these and see how they play. At the Saturday morning swap meet someone brought in the Star Trek Super-Skill Pinball that was still sealed and was a low price. So I snagged it. I really wish that more people brought their RPG books to this Saturday morning event. At the regular game swap (which is 99% board games) I did find an unusual looking RPG called Arzium which appears to be a fantasy game. And one of my thank you gifts for running quite a few RPG sessions was the Werewolf The Apocalypse Core Rulebook. Both of these I’ll be using in the 2027 Character Creation Challenge.

Smaller loot from the con.

There were a couple more giveaways that I had received at the convention. The first was the SaltCON RPG pin which showed a kraken wrapping itself around a pirate ship. There was also a pin I got for running the Evil Genius game for Nacho Haus that came from the Origins Game Fair. I don’t know what that represents. I reached out to my contacts at EGG and I’ll report back what I find out. Another free gift was a small 3D printed dice tower that fit nicely inside my leather dice tray. Usually dice towers are too unwieldy or big, but this one worked just right. This was given to a GMs at the con and was provided by Scorehaven which appears to be some sort of gaming meet up group. A local young artists had a booth at the con and from her I purchased a set of dice that glow under a ultraviolet light (I’ll blog more about that later) and a special coffin box for the Geek Wife who loved it. Plus we wanted to support those who created with their hands and not tried to use AI.

For the four games that I ran at SaltCON Spring 2026 I think I must have picked a bad time-slot for Basic Fantasy. Only one person had preregistered for the game and they backed out the morning of the con. But this only gives me a chance to polish up this self-written adventure for a future event. The next day I ran Everyday Heroes: Escape from New York (for the prizes seen above). This game had a full complement (five pre-gen characters) and we had fun. However I may have disappointed a player who was playing an RPG for the first time. She chose a character that was a manipulator instead of a fighter. However the first part of the game (that was all we could do in the four hour slot) didn’t get to the point where she could use her talents. I let them name their own characters at the table, so Lady Lockbreaker, if you are reading this, I should have let you manipulate the guards you were trying to approach. I had thought about it later and I realized then what you were trying to do. I hope your future RPG sessions go a little better. For any GMs running some of the Cinematic Adventures from Evil Genius Games, be prepared to shorten the material to get it into a convention gaming slot. Friday I ran Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition with the Thursday’s Child game written by Roger Taylor. This ran very well and challenged the characters in a Star Trek way. There were lots of compliments at the end of the session (that ran longer than we were expecting, but it was the last game at that table for the day). On Sunday I ran the Star Wars D6 RPG from West End Games. While there were a couple of first time players who wanted to see what the fuss was all about, there were also several players who loved the original game. They loved the theater of the mind and how I used an opening script to get them all into character. Thank you to my players who showed up and had fun.

I was really looking forward to the two Cowboy Bebop games, but they didn’t happen. One was with Lasers and Feelings and the other was the official RPG that I had backed on Kickstarter. The GM fell ill and wasn’t able to return for the two games. I know another player who had signed up for both who was disappointed as well. Another player volunteered to run Lasers and Feelings for us and we pushed our way through it as an improv game. Thanks to that player for stepping up and showing how the community supports each other. To the GM that was running the early Sunday morning Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition game, I apologize for pulling out the night before. With how late my STA game ran, I didn’t think I was going to get there on time for the early morning session. I hope you found a replacement player and I thank you for bringing one of the classics to the con. I have a bit of a conundrum on the Tunnels and Trolls game. It wasn’t actually Tunnels and Trolls, it was a retro-clone called the Leopard Empress or something. Another player who also wanted to really try T&T had even brought his books from home. I think we got an idea how the system works with the clone, but I was also wondering if I would have signed up had it been advertised under the actual game name. I don’t know, am I thinking about this too hard? If I had advertised my Basic Fantasy game as BECMI and someone showed up expecting to play that, would they be giving me the side eye? The other game that I was able to play is called DC20, which turned out to be a beta version of the game that was backed by Kickstarter years ago. It made sense, but I could see where some of the betaness of the game came into play as the players had a few questions about things. We had fun. But the IT side of my brain kept saying “Beta version, wait for full release.” The most fun I had was with the Paranoia game. Because there was a long line to get into the con (and I had to stop to help a friend at the ER beforehand) I was a little late getting there. The GM was actually having the players create their own characters. Since I had missed the first of this process, I asked if I could just use the character I had recently created in the Character Creation Challenge, and the GM agreed. So bonus points for me to use a character that I had created manually. I want to say that the Paranoia game lives up to its reputation if you have a GM and players with the right mindset (and warped sense of humor). Good job. Overall I had fun in the games that I actually played and thanks again to the GMs for their efforts.

Again, if you are looking for a good gaming convention, I can’t recommend SaltCON enough. There are a ton of board games, card games, roleplaying games and the Artemis Bridge Simulator ran by Starship Frontier was always full. The next two conventions at the Davis Conference Center in Layton, Utah are June 5-7 and September 4-6. I already have an idea for my next Star Trek Adventures game that I want to try out.

So was I putting to much thought into the Tunnels and Trolls concern? Did I do the new player in Escape from New York wrong by not letting her play to her character strengths? 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, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Star Wars

Prepping for SaltCON Spring 2026

Written by TardisCaptain
Some of the games that I’ll be running at SaltCON Spring 2026.

Wow, 2026 is flying by already. In less than a week I’ll be at SaltCON Spring at the Davis Convention Center in Layton to throw some dice and see some friends. This will run from March 12-15 and is the largest of the three SaltCON conventions held at this location.

I volunteered to run four different games this year. I’m also signed up to play in four games that I’ve never played before and I’ll be re-visiting a game that I haven’t played since my early days of gaming. I will also be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented about in a previous blog post.

Once again, my Sunday game has filled up first. But this shouldn’t surprise me because it’s the classic Star Wars D6 RPG by West End Games. I’m certain that all of the players probably remember (or heard about) how well this game ran. I’ve also followed up with some games that I’m getting known for, Basic Fantasy 4th Edition (The Guildmaster’s Quest Part II) and Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition where I’ll be running a scenario written by my late friend, Roger Taylor that I converted over to 2e. I think that Roger would have loved 2nd edition. Another first for me is running the Everyday Heroes cinematic adventure, Escape from New York. What is especially interesting about this last game is that it will be a sanctioned play recognized by the publisher. I’ll get some swag for running the game and the players can get some points as well if they sign up online. The publisher had one of their convention coordinators reach out to me and ran me through a quick online session about a month ago.

I’ve signed up to play in six games. The one that I’ve played before is Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition (role play like it’s 1979). In 2025 I did see a couple of pick up 2nd edition games start. If I hadn’t already been booked for another session, I might have joined them. The remaining games are all new to me. I am really appreciative of the opportunity to try new games. There are 5th Edition/Pathfinder games at all of the local gaming stores, I want to try other things. The first game is the new Paranoia All New Shiny Edition (aka “Perfect Edition”). I recently had the opportunity to make a character for this in the 2026 Character Creation Challenge. I’ve really wanted to try this game ever since I first heard about it back in the 90s. I’m not certain what version it is, but another game that I’ve signed up for is Tunnels and Trolls. Yea, speak about old-school. This was another game that I saw advertised over the gaming publications at the time. I’ll have more to report about this later. There is a sci-fi game out there called Lasers and Feelings which looks like it was inspired by Star Trek. This game has had several hacks published for it to cover other genres and this one will cover the Cowboy Bebop anime. And speaking of Cowboy Bebop, someone will be running the official RPG at the con and I’ve signed up for it. After backing the Kickstarter for this and being very disappointed (see my review) I’ll get a chance to play it at the table. Will this opportunity change my mind? We’ll see. My final game that I signed up for is called DC20, which is a 5e variant. I had seen it scheduled at SaltCON in the past, but the schedules never lined up for me to try it. So I’m taking another plunge to see what it’s like. This game will actually have the players make their character at the start of the game instead of using pre-generated characters.

I’m looking forward to geeking out and forgetting about how bad this year has been so far (again). If you are going, feel free to come up and say Hi. Seeing friends is exactly what I need right now. And a way to help myself is to help others. So let me know if you need a hug as well.

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: Dungeons and Dragons, Reviews, Role Playing Games

Bree-YARC Quickstart Guide a Kickstart Reward

Written by TardisCaptain
The cover to the quickstart guide.

So towards the end of 2025 I was notified about another Kickstarter campaign from Third Kingdom Games for the Bree-YARC Quckstart Guide. YARC stands for “Yet Another Retro Clone” and combines elements of BECMI and 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons together with some additional houserules. I’ve backed several Kickstarter campaigns from Third Kingdom Games in the past including the BX Advanced Bestiary Volume 1 and BX Advanced Bestiary Volume 2 (links to my reviews).

Some of you may be wondering why there was a kickstarter for a quickstart? The goal was to provide the internal art for the book and pay the artists for their work. Third Kingdom Games has made the pledge to not use AI generated graphics in their publications. And since that’s a subject very close to my heart, I had to back them. Besides the PDF, I received a print-on-demand from DriveThruRPG. I’ve reviewed some POD publications previously.

Now if Bree-YARC sounds familiar, I’d recommend reviewing the Rumor Table in the Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. Having read and broken down that module for many years, I recognized it immediately. A tip of the hat for the reference.

So the softcover book that I received in the mail has a full color cover and interior black and white art. Probably in a callback to the older RPG books that we use to collect. The ISBN number is 2370022620158 and the book has 50 pages. It was written by Todd Leback. The cover art is by Juan Ochoa with Perplexing Ruins and Dyson Logos providing some of the interior art. There are two sections for Players and GMs. Six short chapters for the players (The Basics, Character Classes, Gear and Gold, Magic, Adventuring and What Comes Next) and three for the GMs (Intro Adventure, Monsters and Treasure). One interesting note, the book measurements are slightly taller than other books. I took a photo of the Quickstart rules with the Basic Fantasy core rulebook which is standard sized.

Side-by-side comparison with a normal sized book both level at the bottom.

As a retro-clone, it might be easier to say what the differences are to the other publications that we are all well aware of. Bree-YARC uses Ancestry (aka race) as a Class just as it would back in the B/X days. In this quickstart there is only Humans, but they do have classes like Thief, Fighter, Cleric and Magic User. On DriveThruRPG, the publisher has been releasing PDFs of other Ancestries and Classes for free. These include the Dwarf, Goblin, Owlfolk and Tiefling. For the new Human classes they have Ranger, Bard, Berserker, Hexblade and Sorcerer. It is mentioned that more classes and ancestries will be presented in the Core Rulebook when it is released.

All characters have their 0-level HP that they roll before they obtain the 1st level HP+CON adjustment roll. Savings Throws use the older terminology (Wands, Breath Attack, etc.) but are calculated differently. There are skill checks that require meeting/beating a DC rating. Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic is the alignment system presented. XP bonuses are given for playing characters with lower ability scores instead of higher ability scores. Each class has their own special abilities and each character gets a Knack or special ability. It appears that this game is using Ascending Armor Class (thank you). There is Advantage/Disadvantage. Experience points for treasure is only earned when the party returns with it to a safe place. There are also opportunities to earn XP through exploring. Before a character moves up a level, they have to complete a certain amount of Downtime in a safe location. This could include item crafting, research, carousing, hiring, etc. And finally each character will have a Renown rating that represents their reputation in the game world. Whew.

The room descriptions in the intro adventure looked interesting. At a glance the GM knows what’s in the room with additional details described below the chart. This can include lighting, secrets, sounds, exits, etc. The monster stats are found in the adventure with the monster section mostly describing the stat description breakdown, morale conversion table, XP chart for creating monsters, etc. The treasure section describes the types of treasure and the value of a treasure horde.

The back cover.

Conclusion: When I first got the physical book, I wondered if I’d be happy backing this Kickstart campaign when I saw how thin it was. I had forgotten that it was just the quickstart book. But I wasn’t too worried because the support levels were very reasonable for a publication of this size. I really dislike the Kickstart campaigns where they want a bunch of money for an unverified product. The smaller prices usually entice me to pull the trigger. However, once I started reading this book for this review, it reminded me why I had backed their earlier Kickstart campaigns. I can tell that the effort put into the Bree-YARC Quickstart Guide had a lot of thought behind it. They were providing an interesting twist to the OSR game instead of a bunch of fluff. When the core rulebook comes out, I’ll be very tempted to purchase it (or back it if it’s a Kickstart campaign). Even if the core rulebook isn’t available by the time the 2027 Character Creation Challenge rolls around, I can still use this quickstart book to make a Human character. Usually RPG quickstarts don’t include character creation steps.

Do you have any questions about the Bree-YARC Quickstart Guide? Have you backed any Kickstarters lately? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Doctor Who, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Wars

2026 Character Creation Challenge After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain

Note: If you made it through 31 days of the challenge, read to the bottom of the post.

The 2026 #Character Creation Challenge has been completed. What a difference a year makes. 2025 sucked so bad that I didn’t complete my 31 characters until March. For 2026 I tried a different approach that was, somewhat, successful. I posted 31 characters in January and a bonus character on February 1st. Now I will admit, since I knew that I had some real-life responsibilities (a funeral and parental duties) in January, I did generate some characters in December. This gave me a little bit of a buffer at the start of the month. But in the latter half, I was making the character the day before it was scheduled to be posted. I think this helped my sanity (what little left there is) a lot.

Another thing I did differently this year was not scheduling out the whole month and printing up all the character sheets in advance. This gave me a little bit of flexibility, especially when one game I selected turned out to be a supplement and not a game. However by the middle of the month I had scheduled everything out. I’m not certain how I’m going to do this in the future. Another thing I did was combine some reviews with the character creation. This wasn’t too bad, but I think I’d like to keep these separate in the future.

The entries that really stood out for me in the 2026 challenge included White Lies 3rd Edition, Paranoia “Perfect Edition”, Dragonbane, The One Ring and the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition with the 23rd Century Campaign Guide. When I was re-reading the entries to help me write this report, I remember feeling happy after I had made these characters. Plus a few of them I really want to run at SaltCON as a one-shot or homebrew for.

I really didn’t have any games that disappointed me this year other than Rebel Scum. Sure there were some weird ones like Time Lord or slightly incomplete like the Trader Captain’s and Merchant Princes. But I think Rebel Scum was the disappointment of the 2026 challenge. It needed to really be more a rule book first.

Of the other entries that I read on various message boards, blogs and social media, I noticed a lot of Star Trek characters. One participant was making Star Trek characters with other RPG systems (like the D6 Star Wars game). There was also a participant who created the classic Masters of the Universe characters using the Advanced Fighting Fantasy system. I also loved the Alpha Squad (a 1930’s A-Team) using the Outgunned Adventure system. There were also a lot of other good themes and new system. I wish I had room to mention them all.

Here is my list of 2026 Characters:

Day 1: FASA Star Trek- Trader Captain’s and Merchant Princes Character: Kraxx
Day 2: Rivers of London Character: Oliver Cook
Day 3: Time Lord Character: Carl Stark
Day 4: Twilight: 2000 4th Edition Character: Benton Ward (Stiletto)
Day 5: Dungeons and Dragons Rule Cyclopedia Character: Carthan
Day 6: White Lies 3rd Edition Character: Walter Cunningham
Day 7: Attack From Space Character: Sir Reginald the Fourth
Day 8: Rebel Scum Character: Lifter THX1138
Day 9: Star Trek Adventures-Captain’s Log Character: Valltex of the Kazon-Pikaar
Day 10: Tales from the Loop Character: Kirk Stark
Day 11: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st edition Character: Teowulf the Hunter
Day 12: Star Wars 2nd Edition Character: Arcus Junn
Day 13: The Well Character: Barton the Bastard
Day 14: Worlds Beyond Character: Yirr’baun
Day 15: Worlds Without Number Character: Jarret
Day 16: Paranoia “Perfect Edition” Character: Todd-R-TOT-1
Day 17: FTL Nomad Character: Marcos Tryladar
Day 18: Dragonbane Character: Drake Grandfeather
Day 19: Rocket Age Character: Arnold “Ace” Rimmer
Day 20: vs Ghosts Character: Professor Proton
Day 21: Underhaven Character: Thorronlir Whitbraid
Day 22: D.A.M.N.I.T. Character: Hezan Copperhood
Day 23: Swords & Wizardry Character: Ivasaar Perleth
Day 24: EverReach Character: Charles Craig
Day 25: The Walking Dead Universe Character: Jay Dunn
Day 26: Modern Necessities Character: Xathel “BL4NK” Dalla
Day 27: The Terminator Character: William Harden
Day 28: The One Ring Character: Reginard Grubb
Day 29: Other Dust Character: Trabb
Day 30: Doctor Who 2nd Edition Character: ALAN 1701D
Day 31: Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition with 23rd Century Campaign Guide Character: Kraxx
Day 32: Jack Photon’s Fan Made Star Trek RPG Character: Jayce Newton

Past Character Creation Challenges After-Action Reports:
2025
2024
2023
2022
2021

And if you completed the 31 characters in 31 days, here is the badge that you can display on your blog posts or social media. I’ve already had this badge show up on Welcome to the Eyrie, Paratime, Three Kobolds with a Trench Gun and on BlueSky. If I missed any, please let me know. This graphic is in a large and small format. I commissioned it from AuroraStark.art if you are ever looking for some production art for a project. Additions: The Other Side, Flubs and Boons and Ravaged Renaissance. Let me know if there are more.

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.

Get ready for the 2027 #CharacterCreationChallenge coming up next January. And thank you everyone who had fun. Even if you only made a few characters, I still enjoyed reading them.

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, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 23: Swords and Wizardry

Written by TardisCaptain

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

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

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

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

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

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

Afterthoughts:

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

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

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

Additional Notes:

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

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

Coming Up Next:

EverReach

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

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

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 5: Dungeons and Dragons Rules Cyclopedia

Written by TardisCaptain

And here we are on Day 5 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge and today we will be making a character for the Dungeons and Dragons Rules Cyclopedia. Now I can probably hear a few of you saying: “But Carl, didn’t you already use BECMI for your very first Character Creation Challenge entry back in 2021?” Yes… but the first players handbook in that set walked a new player through the character creation process and rules by going through a solo “pick your own way” adventure. While the character creation is basically the same (no pun intended), there are some extra rules that are available in the Rules Cyclopedia. I had picked up this book quite a while ago via DriveThruRPG PoD (click link for review) and I thought that it would be good to use this system with the extra items.

There is a different character sheet provided with this version. The one seen in the red cover Basic Player’s Manual was… well basic with lots of wasted real-estate. This character record sheet has more sections for some of the different rules. The steps for creating a character are found on page 6. They are 1- Roll ability scores, 2- Choose a class, 3- Adjust the ability scores, 4- Roll up hit points, 5- Roll for starting money, 6- Purchase equipment, 7- Generate other numbers, 8- Note adjustments for ability scores, 9- Select alignment, 10- Name, personality and background, 11- Determine the height and weight of the character and 12- Earn experience. I’m not certain what that last one is. If it’s not listed in the next couple of pages, I’ll also be flipping back a few pages to the weapon and non-weapon skills.

This is roll 3d6 in a row system according to RAW. I rolled the six standard D&D ability scores with the special D6s I picked up from SaltCON last year. And it looks like this new character is going to be a not-so good looking Human cleric with the following stats. Str- 10, Int- 11, Wis- 17, Dex- 9, Con- 12 and Cha- 7. I briefly considered forcing this character into a demi-human class, but that’s just to high of a Wisdom score to let go. I looked at the adjust ability scores information and you can trade two points from an ability score to your prime requisite by one. You can’t pull these numbers from Constitution, Charisma or Dexterity. Well I don’t want Charisma to get any worse. I also can’t lower any ability score past 9 so this character’s Strength will not be going down. I could drop the Intelligence to a 9 and not suffer any negative effects, but it could affect any skills that I select that are Intelligence based. So I’m going to not adjust anything at this time.

All right, the important Hit Points of the character. The Cleric rolls a 1d6, so sticking with my SaltCON dice I rolled a 5. Unfortunately, the character’s Constitution score isn’t high enough to earn a HP bonus.

Starting money for this Cleric is determined by rolling 3d6 and multiplying it by 10. I rolled a 14 (I could have used that during the ability score generation), so 140 gold pieces to start. The RAW states that the character already has normal clothes. I picked up the standard fare that most starting characters have including the standard holy symbol. With the higher GP count, I did splurge for some chainmail and a shield.

Next I calculated up the AC and found the character’s saving’s throw information. With the high Wisdom score, I can add the bonus to the savings throws vs magic. There was an option for THAC0, but I stuck with the regular attack roll table. I’ve never really been a fan of THAC0. And to be honest, I’m more of a fan of the Ascending AC (if your opponent’s AC is 13, you need to roll a 13 or higher to hit it). This book has the Descending AC.

For the Alignment, I’m going with Lawful. There are only three of them in this system. As for a name (reaches up into the reaches of my mind), lets go with Brother Carthan of the Good Guy Church. Hey, I don’t know what world this guy is playing in so we’ll go nondescript until the DM tells me what gods they use. After an (insert bad guys here) raid on his farmstead left him an orphan, the Good Guy Church took him in. He is trying to repay the church by going on various quests for them out in the field with his friends the other player characters. Grin. The chart for determining the character height and weight is just a generic chart. Nothing to roll, so I picked something I thought would fit a traveling Cleric. As for the “Earning Experience” section, it just describes going up in level and what happens when you reach “name level” (aka Level 9).

So that’s the end of the standard character creation process, but as I have mentioned above, I wanted to include some optional rules found on page 75 “Other Character Abilities”. This includes Weapon Mastery and General Skills. At first level Brother Carthan gets two weapon mastery slots as a Cleric. Had he been a Fighter he would have started with four. At certain class levels, the number of slots increases that I can spend to learn new weapons, or increase a current weapons mastery that the character has. Anything without a slot is considered “unskilled” and only does half damage if a successful attack is made. And these can’t be generic in nature (e.g. Normal Sword mastery doesn’t cover Bastard Sword). There are some weapons that come in as Basic (the first level of mastery) such as throwing rocks. I selected War Hammer and Sling since that is what I had purchased earlier. If I decided to increase a mastery of a weapon that I’m already skilled in, eventually it would lead to attack roll/damage bonuses, AC bonuses, the ability to attack more than one target and even place an opponent(s) in Despair (which may cause them to flee or surrender depending upon their intelligence). It is not limited to just Fighters, but they get more slots than the other classes.

At creation, each character gets four General Skills. A higher intelligence can add more. There is a list of suggested skills and what ability they fall under. More can be added by the DM if needed. When a character needs to use a skill, they roll a D20 and try to match or roll under their ability score. The DM can give bonuses or penalties depending upon the situation. Later, when Brother Carthan gains more levels, additional skill slots can be acquired and spent on the same skills (making them better) or adding new skills all together. I selected Bravery, Ceremony, Danger Sense and Detect Deception. I then transferred everything over from my notes to the character sheet. Since Clerics don’t get spells until 2nd level, I did not scan the Spell Book Sheet.

Afterthoughts:

I hadn’t noticed this until now, but the page numbers are smack dab in the middle of the footer surrounded by a leafy graphic. It was easy to hide the page number in it.

When reading the rules for weapons mastery and skills, there were rules for unskilled use of weapons, but not for skills. What happens if my character tried to start a fire without flint and steel? This is something that the DM would have to make a decision on. Later, while I was reading some of the skill descriptions, they had guidelines for unskilled use, but not on all descriptions. I really want to compare some of the different OSR skill rules against each other at some time.

I can see how Weapons Mastery may lead to some roleplaying opportunities. You found a magic weapon, but you are not a master of it’s type, you need to search out a trainer who can teach your character.

I was getting some flashbacks while creating this. But I can also see why I’ve moved onto other OSR systems like Basic Fantasy.

Additional Notes:

I’ve had a few participants in the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge tell me that they are making characters, but not posting them online. I’d like to encourage these participants to post them on social media, discord or one of the message boards. Let’s share them for others to see. I’m already finding out about games that I’ve never heard of. In 2020 there was a game released called Visigoths vs Mall Goths which involves time travel to a 1990’s mall which sounds like crazy fun.

Coming Up Next:

White Lies 3rd Edition

This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

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: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

Better Plus One Sword: Heltath’s Revenge

Written by TardisCaptain
Photo by Anis Rahman on Unsplash

Better Plus One Sword: Heltath’s Revenge

For my first official entry into the new Better Plus One Sword series, I’m writing up the backstory of Heltath’s Revenge. A collection of magic swords that come with a price. This write up is (mostly) system neutral for D20 based games. Feel free to adjust it for your own campaign.

Magic Item: “Heltath’s Revenge” Long Sword +1 plus special abilities

Special Abilities: For each charge used, add 1d4 damage to a successful strike in addition to the standard damage die (2 max charge increase). If a charge is used, damage vs any orcs are 1d6 in addition to the standard weapon damage. Charge activated by stating “For Westbarrow” with a successful strike. The sword will vibrate within 50 feet of orcs when held or sheathed. 

Special Notes: If fighting mixed opponents, the sword will guide the wielder to attack the closest orc-like target first if within 50 feet. The wielder must make a WILL save to attack other opponents of their choosing. Due to the sword’s reputation, orcs automatically distrust any wielder of this weapon if they can see it, even if sheathed. Sword bears the touchmark of the blacksmith Cardius the Giant.

Rarity: Common- found in some magic shops, by traveling merchants or other adventurers. May be found in some dungeon locations, but not in deep confines. (see Lore)

Starting Charges: 3d6 (Max 18)

Add Charge: One vial of orc blood covering the sword for one hour restores one charge. Cannot exceed maximum number of charges.

Identification/Lore Check: Low Success- Weapon is magical that assists the user in attacking and damage.  It may have other abilities.  Medium Success- Higher functions are activated by using a charge. Number of current charges revealed. Ability to detect orcs revealed. High Success- History and manufacturer revealed. Reputation and knowledge of animosity towards orcs revealed. Charge restoration revealed.

Additional: If the sword is found and not purchased, characters may find (GMs discretion) 1d4 vials of unknown (orc) blood with the magical sword on first discovery.

Lore:

Fifteen years ago, the ranger Heltath and her hunting party had returned to her village of Westbarrow after a successful expedition. Upon arrival they discovered that most of the population had been slaughtered by members of the Iron Tusk orc tribe. Enraged, Heltath and her party tracked the raiders down and slaughtered them in a surprise night raid. However, instead of her vengeance being quenched, she discovered that she loved killing orcs. 

Her hunting party had moved on trying to rebuild their village, but Heltath took it upon herself to continue hunting orcs of any tribe. This became an obsession for her over the years. She had joined up with other like-minded adventurers to track down orcs before they could raid any other settlements.

Needing more tools to help her in her quest, she sought out the magical blacksmith known as Cardius the Giant who was known for quickly making magical weapons. He was willing to make a magical sword that would aid her if she could provide orc blood as a component in the creation of the sword. Heltath brought him so much blood, that he discovered he could make many swords with the same capability.  This only pleased Heltath more as she believed it could aid her in her quest to rid the world of orcs. She made plans to get these swords out into the lands where adventurers could obtain them. The total number of swords is unknown but believed to be more than 100.

This caused some riffs with her latest party as they believed her obsession didn’t line up with their long-term goals. These swords became so well known within the orc communities, that they could recognize them on sight. 

Adventure Hooks:

Heltath is still seeking help in hunting down orcs and obtaining more blood and funds for Cardius.  She hooks up with the party and tries to discreetly collect the blood after battles so that she won’t lose her latest adventuring group. She is travelling under an assumed identity. What will happen if the party discovers her true nature? Perhaps a local kingdom, wanting to make peace with the orcs, is trying to stop Heltath on her personal quest.

Some orc tribes are trying to counter the threat of these weapons. They believe that if they can find the magical anvil that was used by Cardius the Giant and destroy it, it may neutralize the blades. (true? false?)  The orcs may follow the party if they believe that they can lead them to Heltath or Cardius.  Or the party may be searching for Caridius’ services when the orcs attack his lair.

Brother Ramos, cleric of a lawful/good deity, was a party member that assisted Heltath in her initial quest against the orcs believing their cause to be just. The amount of slaughter performed by Heltath’s actions has caused this deity to punish Ramos for his overzealous participation. Brother Ramos, now stripped of is clerical powers, hires the party to assist him in his quest for redemption. Does his deity require him to make peace with the orcs? Find as many of these swords and destroy them? Stop Heltath from continuing her war against the orcs? Track down Cardius and try to convince him to stop making the swords?  Cardius doesn’t care, he just makes what his clients want, what happens with the items after he makes them is not his concern.

The son/daughter/relative of a nobleman/royal house is traveling through orc infested lands. Perhaps to make peace/trade agreements with the orc tribes. Unbeknownst to this individual, they were given one of these swords as a gift.  The nature of the gift was discovered by an ally.  This ally has hired the party to reach the sword bearer in time before they create an incident which may erupt into violence.

Author’s Notes: Talking about how many vials of blood a character could ‘harvest’ from a dead orc and how many ounces a potion vial holds became an interesting topic on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. Thanks to Chantel and MoonHunter for the insightful comments they provided. I had also recieved feedback on other gaming Discord servers, than you. Also a tip-of-the-hat to my long time D&D friend Jeff S for looking over my initial draft. The feedback helped polish the article up.

Not all entries in the Better Plus One Sword series will be about weapons. There will be other magical items of different varieties. However for the first entry, I had this weapon pop into my head one morning. By the end of the day I had most of the article drafted up.

Also on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server I had a few readers submit their own magic item ideas. These will be included as ‘reader entries’ on a future blog post. If you have any feedback or suggestions for BPOS entries, feel free to 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: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Kudos to Modiphius for Star Trek Adventures

Written by TardisCaptain

When a company screws up, I complain about it. I want other people to know how badly that company handled a situation. Because I don’t want to be someone who complains all the time, I also want to point out when a company excels at what they do. And my latest good example of this is the team behind the Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game by Modiphius.

Like any successful roleplaying game, as time progresses the designers get feedback from players. They also make changes when the same RPG system is used in other games adding and removing portions of the game. Look at the latest version of Dungeons and Dragons. While it still has the D20 aspect, there are a lot of changes to the game if you compare it to Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5 or the older BECMI that I started out with. There are differences that are good and bad. After the publisher had released the first edition of Star Trek Adventures, they took the feedback to heart and made some changes that were reflected in the Klingon Core Rulebook and the STA Rules Digest. Later, they took more feedback (and aspects from other 2D20 games) and released the much superior 2nd edition.

An advantage for the publisher, besides making the game better, is the sales of new books. This also caused some difficulties as well. If a new version of a game is released, then their loyal customers wondered why they invested in the previous books. Most games were not very backwards compatible. This was particularly bad when it came to the Warhammer tactical games with the official miniatures. The older miniatures were not allowed in the new official tournaments to drive up sales. I remember a friend telling me after the latest edition change that he was done with Warhammer because of this. It had gone through it twice and was not going to follow a third time even with how much he had loved the game.

When the second edition of Star Trek Adventures was released, I recall a few players wondering if their books were no longer compatible. I even saw one collection going up for sale online as the seller thought they were no longer needed. The team behind STA2e kept telling us that the older books could still be used. Well, they have started doing something beyond talk. They are releasing free PDF updates to all the older books that makes them “second edition”. Usually, it’s a minor correction to a character stat, or the wording on a certain rule. These ‘revisions’ have been released for the division books covering Command, Operations and Sciences.

As someone who wants to homebrew for this 2D20 game, it’s been fascinating to read some of these revisions and comparing them to the original releases. It helps me get an ‘under the hood’ look in the system.

So, I’m going to grab one Starfleet officer from Star Trek Adventures: The Next Generation Player Characters and compare the 1st edition book to the 2nd edition revision that was released for free. That being our earl grey drinking captain, Jean Luc Picard.

Now the “story line” presented in the 1st edition publication is not present in the revision. I don’t believe that ‘revision’ meant ‘reprint with 2e stats’. The revision just presented the stats. So it’s still worth picking up the 1st edition publications for all of the lore presented within the books. With STA2e relying more on traits, our enterprising commanding officer has some of his traits reworded. For example ‘Former Borg’ is now ‘Liberated Borg’ which makes more sense. His position of ‘Captain of the Enterprise’ is also listed as a trait. In the STA2e stats, the new past time focus of ‘Ancient Earth Literature’ was added. I love the idea of a past time focus as it tells us that the character is more than just a bunch of stats on a piece of paper. For Picard’s talents, Spirit of Discovery is slightly re-worded (as it was between the two books) and the Veteran talent has a change since STA2e dropped the challenge dice (again, seen in the new core rulebook). This is the same reason Captain Picard’s attack stats are slightly different, no challenge dice means he uses the damage listed in the new core book. Besides the past time trait, the only other noticeable change was the ‘special rules’ listed for the character. These contain the Species Ability which gives the character the advantages of being Human. And the role benefit of Commanding Officer. These role benefits have been very interesting to read. Other than that, the character’s values, attributes, departments (called disciplines in the first edition), stress, focuses, protection and equipment are all the same.

So, as you can see, Jim Johnson and his team of writers have been true to their word. You can still use your STA first edition publications with the second edition with just some minor tweaks. And they are helping you along by taking the time to provide some of these tweaks themselves (at the same time that they are working on new STA2e content).

Besides being impressed with these ‘revisions’, I recently used a 1st edition adventure in a one-shot at SaltCON. I GMed a game using the scenario from the Klingon Empire Quickstart using the second edition rules. Other than a few minor strokes of the pen on the pre-generated characters and a few NPCs, I had no problems running it with the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition rules.

So, don’t sell your first edition books, and if you happen to see any dead-tree versions, snatch them up as they are no longer being printed. Or you can pick up the PDFs on DriveThruRPG. You can use them in a second edition game with minimal effort. Truly something to tip the hat to the writers of this game. Like I said in the title of this blog, Kudos to Modiphius.

ADDITIONAL: It was pointed out to me that I didn’t include a link to the free downloads on the Modiphius website. They can be found here: Star Trek Adventures Downloads.

Have you encountered smooth transitions between editions of your favorite roleplaying game systems? 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: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

Better Plus One Sword- The Introduction

Written by TardisCaptain

So, what’s better than a magical +1 sword? The answer isn’t a sword with a +2 attack and damage bonus. Let me explain.

I have fond memories of reading the early Dungeons and Dragons books when I was first introduced to the game. One of the areas that I particularly enjoyed was the magic items that a DM could place in various dungeons. Especially when reading some of the published modules by several companies. I would go through the text and create a list for the module showing how much treasure and magic items were found within the adventure. Usually, it was a shield +1, a spear +2 or a ring that stored extra spells for a magic user. There was some sort of protection item, or something that added to the offensive power of the character, but they usually had no personality. At the time, I was enthralled with what I read in those older gaming tomes. Now, I’m thinking that I’d want something more for the magic items that I place in my adventures. A sword +1, heh, how original. Nothing memorable, nothing to spark the imagination of the player as they discover what the magic item does, and how their character can use it in the adventure world they find themselves in.

How can we as game masters present magical items to our players that will present more roleplaying and gaming opportunities beyond adding a mathematical bonus to a game mechanic?

How did the players acquire the item?- Sometimes the way they come into possession of the magic item may mean more than the benefits it provides. That sword may only give a +1 bonus, but it was a family heirloom that was given to the character when they first went out into the world. I can’t replace this; it came from my grand-uncle who used it at the Battle of Brodon’s Bridge. It could be proof of family membership or increase the notoriety of the holder. The item could be on a temporary loan from a member of the royal family or a famous adventurer as a sign that they have authorized the character’s mission.

Give the item a name and history- So the DM tells your character that they have found a Sword +5 Sword of Sharpness that can be wielded by a lawful character. Sounds like a lot, but that doesn’t inspire the character. Now tell the player that the historian that accompanied them on their latest quest has told Sir Richards that he has found the sword Excalibur in the tomb of King Arthur Pendragon (as detailed in the AD&D 1e Deities & Demigods book). If the player has any medieval fantasy knowledge, they suddenly see a different sword that is now in the hands of their character. Now, I’m not saying give every fighter this legendary sword, but name the sword. Give it some markings that an expert can look at (for a price) and research its history. Perhaps the researcher needs some items to help identify the item or is willing to identify the item in exchange for a favor (which could send the players on another quest). Perhaps the item was once owned by a hero, adventurer, villain, demi-god, etc. What happens if an heir or a cult wants the item after it’s been discovered in the lost caverns it was hidden in? Perhaps they hid it there.

Let the players help create it- Another option is that the character had a hand in creating the item. The mage and the blacksmith helped create the physical and mystical portion of the item, but they need some additional components that the characters need to acquire. The weapon gives a bonus when used against a certain opponent. Perhaps it’s some blood, or scales or another item from the target creature. The larger the quantity, the more damage it does when the magic weapon hits. A weapon made in such a way would not be looked upon kindly by those it was meant to slay. Think of the reaction that the goblins had when they saw Orcist in the hands of Thorn Oakenshield in The Hobbit. It probably wouldn’t help with any negotiations.

Give the item a limited number of charges- This would be more mechanical than historical within the game. A sword only gives a +1 to hit for each charge used up to a maximum advantage. Need to make sure you hit, spend four charges to give +4 to the attack roll. Give the item one or more special abilities and this ability needs a charge to activate. This makes the player wonder if they use the charge now, or save it for a more dangerous foe?

Allow the player to discover the advantages during roleplay- Imagine the player’s surprise when they realize their item gives the character an ability they didn’t have before. It’s suddenly easier to hit certain targets. Or that the item talks only to them. Just being in possession of the item may be enough to give these benefits, or boons. Which leads us to…

Give the item a bane to go along with the boon- So there are a couple of good advantages the item gives. Perhaps it gives a warning or translates a language. Then give it some bad advantages as well. That sword that is +2 more vs dragons, entices the character to attack any dragon he sees. The translation given is correct, but may take a while to translate. Make it interesting without being too much of a curse.

What magic items can you think of that would be better than just a scroll or a shield +1? I’m planning to write up several magic items to post about in future blog posts. Feel free to share some with me to be included in those articles. 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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