So I picked up a physical copy of White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game from Amazon because the book itself was under $5. But it is available in PDF format on DriveThruRPG for free. So either way you really can’t go wrong getting this game. It is based off of the original Dungeons and Dragons that was available in a “white box”. It looks like some popular modern rules were adopted (I don’t have a copy of the original rules to actually compare) but there are some things that are definitely from that era (such as all weapons doing a variant of 1d6 damage.
The book itself is 143 pages long and the character sheet is a single page. There is no actual character creation steps listed, you just start with the attributes on page 7. The order of the standard attributes is STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA (which I believe is not the original order, so an update?). The rules instruct me to roll in order (but state that some DMs may allow you to pick which score goes to which attribute). I’m going to stick with the in order method and let the dice decide what type of character this will be. Intelligence was the highest of the class attributes, but not by much. So I used the rule to move points around (which are done on a 1 to 1 basis to the prime attribute only, no attribute lower than 9. For alignment I selected neutral.
After this I went over to the magic user description and wrote down the hit points (rolled a 5+1 for 6) and XP bonus (+5%). The character gets one spell and has some weapons and armor restrictions.
The equipment was the next chapter. 3D6x100 gold for starting characters resulted in 120gp. Dang, spellbooks are 100gp. I spent all of the 120 on some basic equipment. I then wrote down my languages (I get six in total).
I went to the spell section, and wow the 1st level spells for the magic user was a little lacking. Only one offensive spell (sleep). If I was running this game I might allow some zero-level spells and add a few more options (I didn’t see magic missile anywhere). I filled in the character sheet, including his name of Wingar, and placed it in the scanner.
Afterthoughts:
When I first picked this game up, I thought it was going to be very similar to the B/X editions of Dungeons and Dragons. I was surprised to see some of the different mind-sets in this game that would eventually become B/X, but was different enough that it made me raise an eyebrow.
This character creation process was 100x better than the one I experienced yesterday. I actually wouldn’t mind trying out a session or two with this system just to see how it stacks up to other OSR and retro-clones.
Additional Notes:
A lot of people have been talking about the Wizards of the Coast OGL fiasco. I have some thoughts on it, but I’d like to wait until after the Character Creation Challenge is over. It sounds like some new developments have been announced which I hope are for the good.
Coming Up Next:
Metamorphosis Alpha (2016)
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.
So I had seen the D20 Modern Core Rulebook at various game stores in the past, but never picked up a physical copy. No one that I knew was playing this system. Then one day last year, the PDF version of this game appeared as one of the deal of the day at DriveThruRPG. So I snatched it up for a very reasonable price. One of the first things I thought of was using this system as one of my entries in the Character Creation Challenge. And so, here it is. This is a generic system built around the modern world. There are other supplements for games in the past, post apocalyptic and future. The character I’m aiming to create will be a private detective working in a major city.
There are 384 pages in the core rulebook. The character sheet is only two pages long. Page 12 is where we find the character creation summary. The first step is to generate the ability scores by rolling 4D6 and dropping the lowest. These are the standard ability scores we see in Dungeons and Dragons 3.5.
Next is to select the class. However these are not set up like in D&D 3.5 (example: thief, fighter, cleric, etc.) but are descriptive (example: strong, fast, dedicated, etc.) Reading the descriptions, I believe that a private detective would be in the dedicated class. For his starting occupation, I selected Investigative (fits, huh?) Both the class and the starting occupation listed my starting class skills and bonus feats. I spent my skill points.
There is a wealth bonus system in D20 Modern. I remember having an issue with the one under Blue Rose. Let’s see if this one makes a little bit more sense? My character ended up with a wealth bonus of 10. Basically anything under a DC of 10 I can get automatically. If I want something that is more than that, I have to roll and beat the DC. If I “take the 10” I get the item, but the wealth bonus is lowered by one. I don’t recall what happened back with Blue Rose (that was a year ago) but this seems to make sense with the D20 Modern. I wrote down all of the equipment I could get without having to roll anything. Then I rolled a D20 to try to get a pistol (succeed) and a vehicle (also succeeded). I have no idea where he’s living at. I’m assuming that would be discussed with the GM as a starting character.
Afterthoughts:
The different style of characters was an interesting concept. I could see how that would work in a “modern” setting. I really liked how the character sheet had feats as check boxes with the sub-feats nested under the parent feat.
With how much I had played D&D 3.5, I could have easily seen myself playing D20 Modern. While I might try hombrewing a few things for this system, I doubt I’d ever get a chance to play it.
Additional Notes:
This is the rough stretch of the Character Creation Challenge. This year has been more difficult than past years. I think it’s because I’m past the games I’m really familiar with and moving onto newer systems that I happen to pick up over the past year or two.
Coming Up Next:
Fantasy Age
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.
The book actually explains that OSRIC was geared towards players who were already familiar with 1st edition systems. In the PDF the character creation process starts on page 1 (after the preamble). The character sheet is two pages long. The standard six ability scores are presented and you roll 3D6 down the line. I’m sticking with this method and letting the dice decide what type of character we are making. With Dex being the highest at 15, we are making a thief. Looking at the races, we are going with half-elf who just goes by the name Myrin. If you’ve played AD&D 1e, you know the drill. So far nothing process wise appears to be different (part of the reason I selected this game for one of my busy days).
Afterthoughts:
I noticed that in OSRIC they had the attributes listed STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS and CHA instead of STR, INT, WIS, DEX, CON and CHA as it was used in 1st edition. I liked how the savings throws were re-worded slightly (aimed magic items) and how the alignments had examples (lawful good = crusader but neutral good = benefactor) that really helped.
I also liked how simplistic the character sheet was. It wasn’t overly complicated. I think I also enjoyed how the book was primarily just rules. No excess.
In my early D&D days, I preferred B/X or BECMI to AD&D 1e, but I could see myself playing OSRIC.
Additional Notes:
I found one of the roleplaying games that I was going to use for this year, but forgot about. Unfortunately its not one that I can just slip into one of my easy days and all of the games on my tough days (that I give more time to go over the rules) are booked up with games I really want to use. So I may end up making a bonus 32nd day. We will have to see as the time gets closer. Every year I’ve had to make an audible and swap out a game for one reason or another.
Coming Up Next:
The Agency
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.
I picked up Swashbuckling Adventures from an online auction last year. I was very familiar with the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 system and I loved the pirate genre. When I was prepping for the Character Creation Challenge last month, I noticed that there was no separate character sheet for Swashbuckling Adventures like there was for games like Prime Directive D20, Star Wars D20 or Judge Dread D20, so I ended up using a D&D 3.5 sheet. Like the Prime Directive and Judge Dread, it referred to the D&D 3.5 Players Handbook for basic concepts, but added on with campaign specific classes and items of their own.
So while the character creation rules are on page 6 of the 3.5 Player’s Handbook, the campaign book for Swashbuckling Adventures talks about Nationalities on page 5 with new character classes starting on page 13. In Swashbuckling Adventures all of the characters will be human, but what region are you from? From the descriptions the regions are heavily inspired by European countries all the way down to the Middle-East on a planet called Theah. The region you select determines some languages and class skills.
I looked at the new character classes listed in Swashbuckling Adventures. The Highwayman sounded interesting. So did the Inquisitor. But if I’m playing a game called Swashbuckling Adventures, I’m playing a Pirate class. The abilities that the pirate favored the most was strength, Dexterity and Constitution.
So I rolled the 4d6, dropped the lowest die and selected where each score would go to each of the standard attributes in 3.5. I ended up with the following for this character. STR 15, DEX 15, CON 14, INT 11, WIS 13, CHA 8. For the country/region that my character came from, I selected Avalon (think the British Isles).
As a pirate, the hit dice is d10 (I rolled a 4 and added +2 from my CON for 6). They also start with 3d4x10 for starting money (called Guilders instead of gold pieces). My character started with 200 G. I selected my skills and feats (primarily from the Swashbuckling Adventures book) and gathered my equipment. This character is ready.
Dirk Clarkson was originally going to be a sailor in the navy when his captain announced that they were going privateer. Clarkson discovered that he loved the Pirate life so much that when his vessel was sunk, he hooked up with a gang of pirates instead of returning to Avalon. He now looks to earn his share of the booty on the next adventure.
Afterthoughts:
If you’ve played any Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, then you know the score. It was interesting reading about the different kingdoms in the campaign setting book. They had some items very detailed while leaving others available for the GM to fill in as they saw fit. If an opportunity came up to play in this setting, I would jump at it.
Additional Notes:
The publisher for Low Fantasy Gaming responded to one of my social media posts with their game. It was kewl to see the interaction. When I posted the Tiny Spies character yesterday I received a request to do Tiny Wastelands. While I own that game, I don’t have it in the 2023 schedule. I’ll have to add it to the 2024 lineup.
I’m using a new scanner this year. So far, I haven’t been impressed with the scan quality. I’ll have to see if I can improve the scan for future posts.
Coming Up Next:
John Carter of Mars
This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server.
So as I have mentioned in previous blog posts (Here and Here) that I had volunteered to put together and OSR one-shot in-person game for my college aged daughter and her friends. This group had been playing (mostly) together since junior high school and had only played 5th Edition. I elected to run with the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game using the core rulebook. I added on the 0 Level Spells and Magic User options supplements. During our online session zero, I had the players roll percentages and used the chart found the Background Skills supplement to give them a life before they started their apprenticeship with the Union of Adventurers and Explorers (aka The Adventurers Guild). I sent the players the BFRPG Character Sheet designed by James D. Jarvis (it had the page numbers on the sheet for the different sections, something that I thought was very helpful). For the game masters screen, I printed out the works of Scott Abraham and attached it to a Star Trek RPG Narrator’s screen from Decipher that I had in my collection. The map that inspired me was drawn by Tim Hardin and made available on his website.
In my preparation for the adventure, I decided to purchase a larger battle mat. The one I had used previously to help teach my nieces and nephews Dungeons and Dragons session was too small for the online map I had elected to use. When I read that the mat would only take marks from wet-erase markers, I purchased some of those as well. I also borrowed a case of figures from my friend, Jeff Sullivan, who was my Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 DM for years. This was also the first time I had an opportunity to play with the North to South dice that I had received earlier this year. In the same room was a TV that I had connected to the internet. Bringing up YouTube, I had it run the Diablo dungeon music (it was the only one that I could quickly find that was long enough for our session). I did have one of the players tell me that it added to the spookiness of the adventure.
I also wasn’t the only person preparing. Since this is the first time my daughter’s friends had gotten together in person for quite some time, my daughter wanted to make two recipes from Heroes’ Feast, the Official Dungeons and Dragons cookbook. She made the Mithral Hall Potato Leek Soup and Bytopian Shepherd’s Bread. While making the food, she discovered that the book was very well made as it survived her spilling a little bit of water on the page she was reading from. She wanted me to add that to my review. The players loved the soup and bread when we stopped to eat.
The view from behind the DMs screen
Overall the adventure went really well. I warned the players in session zero that, since this was a one-shot, I was going to railroad the party to the meat and potatoes of the session. I had named this adventure “The Ruined Temple of Glimri Orehaul.” The characters had to go into the catacombs below a destroyed dwarven temple to rescue the son of a dwarven noble and get him out before the orcs guarding the place discovered them (causing a diplomatic incident between the two kingdoms). I’ve had some readers ask me if I’ll “publish” the adventure. I’ve got my notes and some feedback from the players, but I think I may want to re-draw the map. The online one that I used was very good (and gave lots of options for the characters to get lost in) but is very, very large. The number of squares across the map was larger than the new mat I had purchased just for this session. As much as I tired to stay true to the map, I started cutting off sections just to make it fit. I had also written the adventure with some flexibility in mind. The clues (including some handouts) and where the son they needed to rescue could be placed in any number of rooms. This way I could allow the party to explore, but also keep within our limited time frame. I think this helped as I read some of the feedback from the players (see below). I had more plot items that never got fully explored but were hinted at during play. This caused one of the players to ask me at the end of the session to tell us what they missed (and they had missed a few things wandering to and fro). I took this as a good sign that they were interested in the adventure. There were a couple of items I would have loved to seen their reaction to while playing. I may have to run a second play-test when I complete a second draft of the adventure.
The Players: Note, all players are identified by their character name.
Chad McBuffman is a human fighter. The player has been enjoying RPGs for 4 years. The only other game she has previously played is D&D 5th edition. As the DM, I had to remind myself not to start blurting out MST3K “Big McLargeHuge” names from the riffing of Space Mutiny. But I loved the humor this player had.
Irisk Vannfu is a dwarven thief. The player has been enjoying RPGs for 7 years. Besides 5th edition she had also played D&D 3.5 and her first game was with the Decipher Star Trek RPG. She loved the fact that her character had been a cook before the adventure.
Sillari is an elf magic-user. The player has been enjoying RPGs for 9 years. She has previously played 3.5, 5th edition and something called Pokemon D&D. She had typed up her spell list with her cantrips and 1st level spells. She also made a sketch of her character.
Tryx Smolfollow is a halfling thief. The player has been enjoying RPGs for 4 years and has only played 5th edition prior to the Basic Fantasy one-shot we just played. The player had a ton of notes (before and during the game) for her one-shot character and drew several drawings of party members.
Zephyr Silversong is an elf cleric. The player has been enjoying RPGs for 6 years. She has also played 3.5 and 5th edition D&D. The player also came up with the name of the god her character worshiped, Azalea (uh-zay-lee-uh). She even provided an image of the holy symbol.
Player Questions:
I had asked the players in session zero if they would be willing to fill out a questionnaire after the game. I wanted to use the answers on this blog. Thankfully they agreed. They answered these questions without conferring with each other.
–Question: What did you think of the Basic Fantasy character creation system?
Chad: It felt limiting, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But one of my favorite parts of RPG’s is making all these fun fantasy characters, so I wasn’t a fan of that.
Irisk: I didn’t mind it! It made me choose something I might not have on my own. I really grow to like the guy I got.
Sillari: It was good! It was fairly straight forward and easy to understand. Thought I was confused on some mechanics just because I’m so used to 5e at this point.
Tryx: It was very interesting. It’s interesting what race and class you could play was limited by your dice rolls. Also interesting that you had to roll them in order rather than picking and choosing what stat goes where. Normally I think of a character idea and have my stats, class and race match that. For this one, I dreaded to roll my character first and then figure out what I wanted to play. Also interesting that there wasn’t backgrounds or personality stuff so you could play a wide variety of characters.
Zephyr: It was simplified which made it easier to understand. Rolling for stats in order was a fun challenge. I do wish there was more for backgrounds since that helps me flesh out a character’s story.
–Question: What did you think of the Basic Fantasy game?
Chad: It was fun. Definitely different than 5e, but similar enough that the learning curve was pretty easy.
Irisk: I loved how simple and simplified it was. I think it’s more approachable than 5e is. I especially loved initiative rolling and as a lazy player I liked that the DM helped handle many traits and tasks. I love percentages. (DM note: I rolled all spot, search, find type rolls behind the DMs screen so they didn’t know if they failed the roll or not)
Sillari: It was fun, and while it felt very different from what I’m used to, I definitely appreciate the simplicity and use of playability. It was definitely different from what I was expecting, but it was very enjoyable.
Tryx: Again, very interesting. It’s interesting that there wasn’t skill stats, though that makes sense because you can still just use the overall ability stats. Also interesting that the GM rolled a lot of things for you rather than the character rolling. I think I’m most intrigued by initiative. Rolling it each round means you’re not always at the beginning or end of initiative – you get to move around more. But having it change also, I think, adds more complexity to combat, which I already struggle to keep track of.
Zephyr: It was very fun! It ran similarly enough to 5e that it was familiar, but new enough that I had a bit to learn. Rolling imitative every round was a fun change, but overall it provided a good roleplaying experience for me.
–Question: What feedback would you give the DM on the adventure?
Chad: It was fun! I liked the improv and humor. Though sometimes I felt like I was misheard, but we were always able to clear things up.
Irisk: It was fun (smiley face). I wish we had more time to explore, because I wanted more colorful dialogue and world building, but that wasn’t really possible with our time limit.
Sillari: I really had a great time with it! I’m not use to just doing dungeon crawls, but they’re always really fun and I had a lot of fun. It had a good balance of encounters.
Tryx: It was a lot of fun! This was the first time I’d used a mat and figures and I really enjoyed that. I also enjoyed the maze and getting to uncover it. I’m a little sad we didn’t get to discover the whole thing, but that’s okay. There was a lot of interesting depth I didn’t expect in a one-shot. Not just an abandoned dwarf temple with dead orcs and dwarves, but also kobolds, rats serving/reporting to rat man, and Sheeka the spider and her children. Also removing the helmet resulting in the undead. Very curious if we could have removed that differently, if it wouldn’t have triggered the undead… Anyways, all of this to say I really enjoyed it. Thanks for putting so much thought in!
Zephyr: I really enjoyed it ! It was a well rounded adventure with puzzles, traps, encounters, roleplay, treasure, etc. The party worked well together and I enjoyed the ambiance and suspense added by the DM’s descriptions throughout the game. there were also several ways to accomplish our goal which made it fun to figure out for ourselves.
–Question: What advice would you give other D&D 5e players who try OSR for the first time?
Chad: Let loose and have fun and have a good party! The best part of RPGs is, well, the role playing. So as long as you have fun characters and don’t get caught up on the differences, you’ll have fun.
Irisk: Don’t get attached to your character too early.
Sillari: Familiarize yourself with the rules, but don’t get overwhelmed by the reading! It’s more simple than you probably think. Have fun, loosen up, do what ever you enjoy, whether that’s roleplaying, min/maxing, stat crunching!
Tryx: Don’t go in with an existing idea of what you want your character to be. Let the dice determine it. After the dice tell you your race and class, figure out a personality that is fun for you to play and goes along with it. I think a lot of the game is kind of like simplified D&D (may be pretty similar to earlier editions, I dunno), so just have fun and don’t worry so much about all of the complexities you’re use to in 5e.
Zephyr: Read the rules. It’s very similar in concept, but uses different dice and different methods. Overall though, just have fun! Be open to the new methods and use them to your advantage.
Final thoughts from the DM:
Overall, I’m very pleased with how this one-shot went. The players were very interested in the game and I’m glad that they had fun. They were more worried about the encumbrance rules than I was. As they were wandering through the dungeon, I kept thinking “yes they are about to reach one of the kewl areas of the map” only to turn at the last minute and go in a different direction. But they bumped into enough of the planned events that I was able to present the clues. They didn’t know it, but they had figured out one of the puzzles even before I had all of the clues put into place. I think this was more of a testament of the players ingenuity than the puzzle itself. I’m also grateful that they let me throw notepads at them with notes for them so they could roleplay off of the knowledge only they knew (such as if they spotted something everyone else missed)
I have had some of the fans of Basic Fantasy ask if I would submit the adventure to them for possible “publication”. I have all of my notes and sending a party through the game was a good way to see where the rough spots were at. I think I want to re-draw the map as it is about 10-25% to big for the adventure (as well as the battle mat itself). I think once I have this done I’ll round up another set of victims…. errr… players and run it again.
Thank you to the players (you know who you are), Tim Hardin for his map that started the creative juices flowing, Chris Gonnerman (I watched some of your BFRPG videos prior to running the game) and to all of the blog readers out there who gave me feedback in preparation for the session.
And finally, here is a gallery of the characters drawn by the players during or just after the game. They gave me permission to share them on this blog post.
Chad McBuffman, human fighterSillari the magic userThe cleric Zephyr SilversongMultiple images of Tryx SmolfollowTryx seeing a brown bear in the distanceTryx finding an orc necklace decorated with dwarf earsTryx and Chad teaming up to solve one of the puzzles Tryx hearing her guide staying “stay on the path”Irisk and TryxSillari finding herbsKeeping a book from the temple library as a treasure find
So last month I made a blog post about Introducing OSR to 5E players. After I had released the post to the wilds of message boards and social media, I received a ton of very good feedback. Thank you. Some of the additional games that were suggested included Dungeon Crawl Classics, Beyond the Wall, Worlds Without Number and others. There are a few other games that I may have to check out just to read the rules.
As you can see from the photo above, I elected to go with the Basic Fantasy Role-Playing Game. I had the books in my possession, I really liked what I was reading. I had the option to allow certain supplements if I wanted (I’m going to allow cantrips and other add-ons) and the players could easily get a PDF of the rules from the Basic Fantasy RPG website.
Just as there were several suggestions for the rule-set, there were also several suggestions for which adventure to run. I was pouring through my library (both dead tree and PDF) to see which one stood out to me the most. In the end, I was lead by inspiration. I just happened to be looking at one of the many online freebie maps (I won’t say which one just yet just in case one of the victims… err… players might be reading this blog post.) and a lightbulb went off when I opened up one. One thing lead to another and I ended up with a little adventure in my head. I pulled out my OneNote and started writing things down. Since this only a one-shot adventure, I made it flexible with a clear goal in mind. Kind of like the type of adventure you could end up in if you went to a gaming convention.
I’m going to hold an online session zero next week. There I’m planning to set some expectations for the game. Allow the players to roll up their characters (which may be the first case of culture shock for them) and introduce myself to them. We have an in-person date set for when we will get together to actually roll some dice.
Thanks again for all of the suggestions and feedback. I plan to have a follow up post to let everyone know how it goes.
One of the proud geek-dad moments that I have is knowing that my oldest daughter has been playing 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons with her friends for many years now. Even when all of the friends went to different colleges, they found a way to continue the campaign online (when schedules allow). My daughter mentioned that they wanted to get together over winter break and try to have a game. I mentioned that, if they were interested, I’d be willing to run a one-shot game introducing them to one of the old school rules. To my surprise, they accepted.
Oh boy, now what?
The first question I have to tackle is, which rule-set should I use? The only stipulation from the group was “we don’t want to play fourth edition“. I quickly explained that the OSR style are usually something before Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 or 3.5. So I started looking at all of the original and clone books (and PDFs) that I have available to choose from.
Dungeons and Dragons Holmes Basic– One of the earliest games that I’ve got in my library. But I don’t know if the players could find a copy of the rules. I have many memories of looking through this book.
Dungeons and Dragons B/X- This is the game that I cut my teeth on. The rules are available on DriveThruRPG if the players wanted. It is one of the most popular old-school rules.
Dungeons and Dragons Rules Cyclopedia- BECMI was the first set that I owned. Both the Basic red book and the Rules Cyclopedia are available on DTRPG. I would love to introduce this edition to my daughter’s group.
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons- The first edition of the AD&D rules. As I’ve mentioned previously in my blog, my early gaming group would rotate between B/X, BECMI and AD&D depending upon who is running. AD&D does give more options for players and this is an experienced group. But would it be good for a one-shot?
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition- I still have the original player’s handbook for this game from 1989. It is available on DTRPG. It is slightly different from first edition. I’d have to think about this one.
Basic Fantasy Roleplaying Game- A big advantage for this retro-clone is that the rules are available for free on their website. It combines some old-school feel with some modernization in the rules that have impressed me. I also like the modular setup so if I wanted to add some additional rules (classes, races, special rules, etc.) I just announce which add-ons the players should look at. This option is very tempting.
White Box: Fantasy Medieval Adventure Game- This is a clone of the original Dungeons and Dragons white box. I picked up a POD copy of this game earlier this year. But it is also available on DTRPG for free. This would be a learning experience for both of us if this game is selected.
Castles and Crusades- I had a chance to make a character for this system in the Character Creation Challenge and it impressed me. I’m not certain about a one shot, but I’d love to play this game in a campaign.
There are also quite a few other retro-clones that I haven’t mentioned. I didn’t want to go through my entire collection, but there are a several other options as well.
The next question I need to decide is: do I want to have the players experience the character creation of the selected OSR? We are playing in person and will only have 4-7 hours of gaming time. I could easily create several characters for them to choose from. But I remember rolling up characters all of the time in my early years. If I have the players create their own characters, I want to be available to answer questions. I may set up an online session zero to create the characters so we can spend most of the in-person time actually playing.
And finally, what scenario should I select? With this being a one-shot I could easily run one of the many modules that are out there. I have memories of The Keep on the Borderland, but could I fit it into the time allotted? I modified the adventure, The Jade Hare, when my nephew wanted an introduction session to Dungeons and Dragons. I’m really leaning towards a published module. If this was an actual campaign, I might consider more of a homebewed world.
So what system and one-shot module would you use to introduce some experienced 5E players to OSR? Pre-make the characters or have the players experience OSR character creation styles? While I’m leaning in the direction of a few options, I’m still open to suggestions. Feel free to shoot me ideas to Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com.
Yes, there will be several follow up posts on this event. I would like to keep you informed. Stay tuned.
You can find my past RPGaDAY2022 catch up posts here in Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four. The last week of August was just as equally busy. In fact this whole summer has been extremely busy or extremely crappy. I have been grateful for the distractions when I get to blog about geeky subjects such as the #RPGaDAY2022 challenge. I’ve got several projects in mind that I want to get put up on this blog to share with my fellow geeks. I look forward to posting them soon. Here are my entries for Days 29-31 and a bonus question.
Day 29: Who would you like to see take part in #RPGaDAY?
I’d love to see what my wife would post in such a challenge. I would also be very interested in how a friend and gamemaster Jeff Sullivan would fair with these questions.
Day 30: What should #RPGaDAY do for its 10th Anniversary next year?
Perhaps run a “Best Of” with subjects from the past ten years? I haven’t ready any of the earlier years.
Day 31: When did you first take part in #RPGaDAY?
2021 was my first year after I had read about the challenge on other gaming blogs. You can read all of the posts from this year and last year here. Specifically from 2021 I was quite proud of these entries: Origin, Memory, Challenge, Flood and Weapon.
Bonus: Anecdote Alternative: Roll 1d8+1, tag that many friends and tell a gaming story about them.
The recent Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign that ran from 2013 to 2019 had many different adventures. But one of the things that probably frustrated our Dungeon Master. If he set up a big bad guy, our party worked like a well oiled machine and quickly defeated the final challenge. However the smallest of opponents would sometimes come up with the biggest threats. I’m not certain what the creature was called, but there were these creatures that looked like gold coins. When they were disturbed, they started to come to life and attacked us. I don’t think we were in danger of a total party kill, but it took quite a while to get the battle under control. Just before they revealed themselves as alive, one of the player characters had picked up a coin and licked it (for reasons I can’t remember now). I think the fact that the coins came to life may have scared that player. This was early in our campaign so she was cautious when we recovered treasure after future victories.
And with that final post, I’m considering myself done with the #RPGaDAY2022 challenge. My second year was a little different than last year. With real life issues, I could not post once a day. While it may not have stayed with the spirit of a once-a-day challenge, I felt like I was participating in the event with what I could. Since next year is the 10th anniversary, I’ll be interested to see what questions/options are presented. Thank you, I hope you enjoyed reading these entries.
You can find my past RPGaDAY2022 catch up posts here in Part One, Part Two and Part Three. Another busy week in another busy month in another busy summer has come and gone. Again I’ve been very grateful to the family members who came to help out with our summer projects. With how things have been things are starting to look up. I can’t wait to get this cast off of my foot so I can start doing normal things again. I’ve been enjoying reading the #RPGaDAY2022 posts that I’ve come across. It makes me wish that I could get a bunch of friends around a table to actually game. When some of these time-sink projects are done, I may be a step closer to actually hosting again. Until then, here are my RPGaDAY2022 entries for days 22-28.
Day 22: Who is your current character?
This is Dr. R’imr, the Caitian Lieutenant CMO of the Saladin Class USS Acrux. This is in an online Far Trek game that is being run on the Roll20 virtual tabletop website. So far none of the other players have noticed that the character name came from Red Dwarf.
Day 23: What situation is your character currently in?
We were sent to find out why a colony was not responding to Starfleet. When we arrived we discovered Klingons on the scene who were looking for a weapon. What’s really interesting is that the adventure was written by my friend Roger Taylor and adapted to Far Trek. I’ve been on my honor to not pull up the adventure and look at the notes.
Day 24: When did you start playing this character?
At the beginning of 2022. If we are lucky we get a chance to play once a month. Even then, I’ve had to miss a few sessions due to real life getting in the way. Yes the eternal struggle of gaming.
Day 25: Where has that character been?
Boldly going. Oh, more specific than that. The colony is named Tannos IV with “Madsen’s Hope” being the main colony population center.
Day 26: What does your character do what they do?
R’imr studied medicine and joined Starfleet to get away from the homeworld of Cait. He didn’t feel like he was making a difference there so he decided to leave and offer his services to Starfleet. He loves dispensing wisdom when he uses his catchphrase “Now listen to your doctor when he says…”.
Day 27: How has your character changed?
I’m still exploring this. As I noticed changes, I’ll try to report them here.
Day 28: Style Sunday: Roll 1d8+1, tag that many friends with your favorite RPG cover art.
Well once again I can’t really tag anyone in this format. So here is my favorite cover art.
Here is my catch up post for #RPGaDAY2022. Links to Part One and Part Two. It has been a very busy week for me and I am eternally grateful for all of the friends and family that came over to help sheetrock a wall in my garage while I was out with my broken foot. This blog post covers days 15-21.
Day 15: Who would you like to Gamemaster for you?
I noticed a lot of people were listing celebrity GMs that they would like to try out. For myself, I’d like to have my friend Jeff Sullivan return to the GM chair. He did such a wonderful job with the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign that lasted several years with a group of friends. You could see his love of the game, skill in being a referee and how he used the game to make teaching moments for both experienced and new players. Some of his house-rules I’d like to use in my own campaigns.
Day 16: What would be your perfect game?
The game that is so enjoyable that we talk about it afterwards and can’t wait to return to the table. I know that I’ve mentioned some of my past gaming exploits in various blog posts, but I’m going to talk about another one again. We had a FASA Star Trek RPG session where the night ended on a cliffhanger. All of the players kept in contact with each other during the break talking about how we were going to pull our fat out of the fryer. And this was in the days before text messages, instant messages or even the common use of email. We did this all by various phone calls between the individual players. I’ve also noticed that I’ve done the same with computer or card games. If I’m thinking about strategy or how I can improve my gameplay, then I must be enjoying the game.
Day 17: Past, Present or Future? When is your favorite game set?
This is a hard one because I can play in all three settings. Some specific things, like horror, don’t appeal to me. Not because I don’t like that genre, but I had a hard time seeing it translated into a theater of the mind style RPG. If I really had to pick one setting, I think it would be future.
Day 18: Where is your favorite place to play?
At my house. My snacks are there. I’m comfortable. I didn’t need to travel far. Sure I had to prep the house for guests, but that’s a good thing. I also wouldn’t mind playing at a friends house as well, but I worry about games that go into overtime. I wouldn’t mind playing at a convention or a gaming store, but I worry about the noise and distractions.
Day 19: Why has your favorite game stayed with you?
As most of my readers know, it’s the FASA Star Trek RPG. This is because of several reasons. 1- It’s a licensed Star Trek game. 2- The character creation process fascinated me. 3- I thought the percentage system gave us more unique characters. 4- Starship construction rules helped fueled my imagination and creativity. 5- It inspired other Star Trek media and episodes. There are FASA Star Trek references even in Star Trek Discovery episodes and recently released IDW published comics.
Day 20: How long do your games last?
Playing a game, that’s up to the GM and other players. On games that I have run, I try to limit a gaming session to 3-4 hours. If we can’t get at least two hours of game play in, then we need to try again. We get so little time to actually sit down that we need to make sure we get value out of our time.
Day 21: Setting Sunday: Share an intriguing detail from a game setting you enjoy.
I had to think about this one. The answer that I finally decided was the exploration of the unknown. I don’t know what is behind that door, over that hill, across that ocean or on that planet. There are new things out there and I get to discover them with my friends.
