Fantasy – TardisCaptain's Blog of Holding

Prepping for the 2024 Character Creation Challenge

Written by TardisCaptain December 24, 2023January 11, 2024 2 Comments

Some of the games that I plan to use in the 2024 #CharacterCreationChallenge

For the three previous years of the Character Creation Challenge (in 2021, 2022 and 2023), I’ve prepped ahead of time to make the challenge a little bit easier. Especially since I try to use a wide variety of games in January 2024. I’ve already had some 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.

If you are posting on any of the social media websites, please use the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge so that other participants can find them. I love seeing what other RPG fans have come up with.

The photo above shows the physical books that I’ll be using. Some have been gifts, others were picked up at local gaming conventions or found at thrift stores. I also have a collection of games purchased from Kickstarter, DriveThruRPG, HumbleBundle and Bundle of Holding.

I’m once again using a spreadsheet with the date, day and game type to schedule my games. This way I won’t have two fantasy games next to each other. I can also plan a game that may take more time and energy on a day off. This is also a good idea for those dates I know are going to be busy, I can schedule the systems I’m more familiar with for these days.

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. And I will have all of the character sheets printed out before the challenge starts. I’ve found that this helps me get everything ready.

My entries will be blog posts on this website. Then I will post links on my various social media sites along with the three main roleplaing message forums at RPG.net, RPGpub and RPGgeek.

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.

You can also post your characters on my discord server in the #Character-Creation-Challenge channel. 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.

Role Playing Games

Character sheets from past games: Fantasy Hero

Written by TardisCaptain December 10, 2023

Here is another obscure character sheet that I had found in my book of character sheets. Fantasy Hero (and from the copyright, it appears to be the 3rd edition). Like Star Ace, I don’t recall playing this game, so it may have been a one-shot or another victim of the dreaded gaming scheduling curse.

So a little bit of a background. In 2021 I was going through some old boxes and found a three-ringed binder full of old character sheets. So one of the things I thought I’d do is scan them and post them here in this blog. In my previous character sheet entries I posted characters from Dungeons and Dragons, the FASA Doctor Who RPG, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, Vampire: The Masquerade, WEG Star Wars the Star Trek RPG by FASA, GURPS, Marvel Superheroes and Warhammer Fantasy.

I have a vague memory of seeing the book while at a friends house. That may have been the time we had created the character. I had named him Sleetos (with Red Storm in parentheses). Why? I don’t recall. But I do see under my disadvantages that he had belonged to a clan that he now hated. Was Red Storm a clan name, or a name that the clan wouldn’t know? He has an accent, but he also had powers such as flight, a force field and energy blasts. As I was reading this, I wondered if it was a super hero game or a fantasy game? But on the back (not scanned) I wrote down the character’s equipment. They were all standard fantasy rpg items such as weapons, rope (Why if he can fly), a lantern with flint & steel and… 15 Caramel Nut Clusters with Peanuts. OK that last item was very strange. I really wonder what past me was thinking or experiencing at the time.

Another thing that had me scratching my head is that I had “(R.L.)” written down next to my player name on the character sheet. Real Life? Rusty Lance? Robot Liposuction? Why R.L.?

I don’t recall anything about the system. I could see that Fantasy Hero 6th Edition was available on DriveThruRPG or Amazon, but I couldn’t find the 3rd edition to see if I could recall anything. I do have a physical copy of the 6th edition that I’ll be using in the upcoming Character Creation Challenge. So I’ll have to see how that character sheet compares to this one.

Did you ever play any of the versions of Fantasy Hero? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Prepping for SaltCON-End of Summer

Written by TardisCaptain August 30, 2023November 16, 2023 1 Comment

I’m going to need one of these for the con.

So in my gaming convention trifecta, I’m going to be attending SaltCON-End of Summer over Labor Day Weekend. My wife had purchased a ticket for me as a Father’s Day gift. It will be interesting to compare this event to the big SaltCON in March and the smaller SaltCON-Summer that was in June. While I do have to take off for a birthday, I don’t have any concerts scheduled for this same weekend.

Once again, I’m really grateful that I can schedule my games in advance. While scheduling mishaps can (and have) taken place, I’m sure that I’m going to have fun at this event. I’ve got an opportunity to play several common games, but several rare games as well.

Game line up for SaltCON-End of Summer:

Hyperborea– A game of swords, sorcery and weird science-fantasy. Reading the description sounded really interesting. This will be my first time playing this system.

Dragonbane– A fantasy game released by Free League Publishing (the same company that released the Alien RPG). This will also be the first time I’ve played this game.

Fallout The Roleplaying Game– Based off of the video game series. I’ve only played part of one of these games, but the world they are set in sounds really interesting. This game was released by Modiphius and uses their 2d20 ruleset. It will be interesting to see how this compares with Dune and Star Trek Adventures.

Low Fantasy Gaming– A system that I’ve been interested in for a while. This has been on the schedule at the last two SaltCONs, but the schedule had never lined up so that I could give this game a try.

Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition- This adventure is called The Mystery of the Moonstream and it sounded interesting.

Star Trek Adventures– This game is being run by a friend of mine.

Pathfinder 2nd Edition- I actually have two sessions for this system (that’s just how the schedule lined up). I’m wondering how it will compare to the first time I played it at my first SaltCON.

Ghostbusters- The original RPG from West End Games with the D6 system. I’m glad when older RPGs are played at conventions. I’d jump on more of these if they were available.

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.

Role Playing Games

Character Sheets from past games: Warhammer Fantasy

Written by TardisCaptain July 13, 2023July 13, 2023

If you haven’t had a chance to see the other past character sheets in this series, here is a quick rundown. In 2021 I was going through some old boxes and found a three-ringed binder full of old character sheets. So one of the things I thought I’d do is scan them and post them here in this blog. In my previous character sheet entries I posted characters from Dungeons and Dragons, the FASA Doctor Who RPG, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, Vampire: The Masquerade, WEG Star Wars the Star Trek RPG by FASA, GURPS and Marvel Superheroes.

This is the character sheet for Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play from 1987. So this game would have been played in the late 80’s or early 90’s. In all likelihood it was played with some of my gaming buddies I had met through Comics Utah. This is my handwriting on the character sheet, but I have no recollection of the game itself. It is very possible that this may have been a one-shot game or a game that was intended to become a campaign, but never did. I did have the character sheet placed in a plastic sleeve, so it wasn’t just stuffed loosely in the book. I seem to recall getting annoyed that the sheet was larger than the sleeve itself so I had to fold it over.

Why is “corn” listed as the hair? The color of corn? Why didn’t I just say “blonde”. This rogue character is plundering tombs to feed his wife and three kids at home (that must have been randomly rolled). I have some money listed under wealth, but then I wrote some extra stuff in the side margin. So Udo Roughouser must have found something in his travels. I didn’t find any other notes with the character sheet.

Looking at it, I think this is a percentile based system. I believe this is first edition Warhammer Fantasy. Doing a little research I see that the latest version of the game is 4th edition as released by Cubicle 7. I do recall a lot of weird art when looking at past Warhammer products. I wasn’t much into the tabletop military games at the time. I think it had to do with my lack of patience when it come to assembling and painting miniatures.

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.