Tag: FASA

Posted in: Comic Books, Conventions, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

60 Years of Star Trek and Fandom Intertwined

Written by TardisCaptain
Myself with a 3-foot model of the Enterprise at Starfest in 2006.

Today is the 60th Anniversary of a television show that changed the world. And in turn, it created a group of fans that helped with that change, but changed the show itself. In this blog post I’m going to explore some of those intertwined histories that are out there. Some of them you may know, and some of them may be new to you.

Just recently I was asked, “Are you a trekkie or a trekker?” I responded with “treknologist” which made her blink a few times. There are many names that Star Trek fans have called themselves. While I was thinking about the question asked, I remembered that I was introduced to Star Trek by my father in the 70s. He would come home and watch the syndicated re-runs. My young mind kept asking questions like “If they are in space, how come they are not floating around with no gravity?” or “Where does the power come from to fly that ship?” It then made me wonder if I was a Syndi, a person who was introduced to the show during the syndication years of the 70’s. Then my mind clicked and said, “It doesn’t matter. Only one term should come to mind to describe us. And that is ‘fan’.”

Star Trek is a buffet of choices. Some dishes are directly prepared for us, other dishes are prepared for different tastes. But it’s all Star Trek. As consumers not only do we choose what we want, but we’ve made our own dishes in the form of filk, fan-fiction, fan-films, head-canon theories, human created art, role-playing games, cosplays, community service and more. Some of these have echoed back into the licensed media, the shows themselves and even the world around us.

In the 1960’s while the show was airing, fans consumed the first Gold Key Star Trek comics. Fans talked about this exciting new show with other people that made them fans as well. And fans wrote in support of the show to help secure a third-season at NBC. This was done by a pair of fans named John and Bjo Trimble. I was invited to attend a backyard party where they were the guests of honor. We sat and talked for hours. Bjo wanted to make sure that John got just as much credit as she did for the letter writing campaign. She had tried to point this out to a reporter in the 60’s, but he wanted to focus on her as “local housewife saves Star Trek” sounded like a catchier article than “guy saves Star Trek”. Because of these efforts, Ms. Trimble and other fans got invited to be in the crew briefing scene in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Fans of the show helped write the FASA Star Trek Roleplaying Game. Not only did this open the door for fans to “make” their own Star Trek episodes, but the information provided by this game was used in other Star Trek media. The information about characters, planets, ships and more appeared in the DC Comics run of Star Trek, but also in the IDW Star Trek comics as well. FASA STRPG background information and art appeared in episodes from The Next Generation to Discovery and Prodigy.

The Vulcan name of Ni’Var that was used in Enterprise and Discovery came from a Star Trek fanzine in the 1960’s. In the mid-1970’s many fans wrote into NASA campaigning to name the first Space Shuttle “Enterprise”. Footage of this real-life vessel was later used in the title scenes for Star Trek: Enterprise.

Star Trek fandom has also opened professional doors for some talented individuals. My good friend Larry Nemecek started by running Star Trek conventions in Oklahoma. This led to him writing his own brand of TNG fan encyclopedias. From there he became a historian for the show as Dr. Trek. Writing for various Star Trek magazines, releasing the Star Trek Next Generation Companion, Star Trek Stellar Cartography and even writing a Star Trek Voyager episode. And Larry isn’t the only one. Michael Dismuke started Continuing Missions website dedicated to Star Trek Adventures. This gave him an opportunity to write for the game, a short story, and eventually his brand new book on Star Trek Timelines: A Visual Voyage Through Generations of History. I don’t know about you, but seeing that Larry, Michael and others can expand their fandom into a career, gives me hope that I’ll see my name in credits some day.

I’ve talked a lot about some of the influences this 60-year old show has provided. And I can tell you that this doesn’t even scratch the surface of what it has influenced. Look around you. You’ll see NASA employees in the 70’s wearing Spock ears while conducting a mission. People will drop Star Trek quotes all the time like “He’s dead, Jim” or “It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose” or even a simple greeting like “Live Long and Prosper”. Fans will look for hope, entertainment, inspiration and self-reflection. We will realize that we are all together on this blue marble so we better take care of it and each other. Sure, we may wonder if a certain flavor on the buffet is for us, but in the end, we just need to keep enjoying this meal that a lot of people helped put together.

Thank you Star Trek for the last 60 years, I can’t wait to see what comes around for the next 60. Live Long and Prosper.

What are your greatest Star Trek fandom memories? 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, Collecting, Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Friends, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

SaltCON-End of Summer 2026 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain
Loot from SaltCON End-of-Summer 2026.

The last SaltCON for 2026 is now in the books and boy was it a good one. And I’m not just saying that because I know the fine people who run it. I’m saying it because I had fun. I got a few hugs. I was able to catch up with a few friends and make some new ones. So yea, this convention did exactly what I needed it to do.

As you may remember from my SaltCON 2026 Summer After Action Report, attendance had been down for that event due to our bad economy. Well I can tell you that the three-day passes and Saturday passes for the September event did sell out. This may have been a combination of things. The organizers had done some advertising that may have helped. Summer is a very busy time in Utah and also the last con of the year is the smallest. In the past, single-day passes for all three days would have been sold out. So I’m hoping that things are on the rebound, but I know there’s a way to go. I was able to have two of my three games “fire” this time around so I was very grateful for that.

Speaking of the games that I ran, the one that didn’t fire was Basic Fantasy on Friday. But I still had an enjoyable time. One of the things that I like about SaltCON is that they use the Table Top Events convention management website that allows for attendees to purchase their tickets and reserve their seats at different games. You can even download the .ica files and import them into your favorite calendar system which provides me with a 10 minute reminder when I have a game coming up. Because of this I knew that I had one player who had registered for the Basic Fantasy game and I was hoping that more would sign up at the con. Unfortunately it was only this one gentleman. So we had a discussion about the advantages and history of Basic Fantasy. That’s when I discovered that he had driven all the way up from Las Vegas to play this game. He had even purchased a hardbound copy of the book. I mentioned that perhaps the title of the adventure, “Guildmaster Quest Part II” may have led to some confusion. The adventure was a continuation for a Basic Fantasy one-shot that I had run at an earlier SaltCON. But if anyone looked at the schedule of events, they didn’t see a Part I. So it’s possible that participants may think that they may be missing something by not playing the first part. I should have also communicated that playing in the earlier adventure was not required and a “previously on…” recap would have been provided. I even had a Part III and Part IV planned. So I’ll put those on the back burner for now and come up with a brand new adventure for SaltCON-Spring 2027. The gentleman from Las Vegas wondered if my adventure had been published through the very strong Basic Fantasy community and had downloaded all of the free adventures that were available. I do need to get off my duff and get my notes polished up for submission. One last enjoyable note about my conversation with this Las Vegas fan, he had been playing since the 70’s. He loved old-school systems and even played D&D with his wife up at Wizards of the Coast headquarters in Seattle before the company had been purchased by Hasbro. We ended up exchanging contact information to keep in touch and he promised to drive back up for a future Basic Fantasy game. This gave me encouragement to continue this line of games.

The Saturday game that I signed up to run was Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition which I had already run my regular players through as part of a test run. While no one reserved spots prior to the con, I had three in-person-sign ups on Friday and two more added on Saturday. So there was more than enough to run the session that I had planned. I can now publicly state that this adventure was my own STA adaptation of the FASA Star Trek Roleplaying Game module, The Vanished. I had changed the title for the convention and my personal campaign to avoid any spoilers. According to the notes in the FASA book, this adventure was actually used as a RPG convention tournament module at the 1983 “Love of Trek” Star Trek Convention in Omaha, Nebraska. The module even included play reports from that convention. It was very interesting to see how the two groups I ran this through the adventure differed from those fans in the early 80s. The party was able to discover the big secret and recover the missing crew within the four hours allotted for the time (we ended right on the dot). The pre-generated characters came from the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Starter Set. I liked how they were presented in the printable format plus some fans had made name tents with a character name on the front and the stats on the back. One player enjoyed this game so much that he sought me out after the adventure to thank me for running this. Yes, I will be polishing up my adaptation notes and presenting them on this blog later.

My Sunday game had all six slots filled online before the convention started. The Geek Wife was also able to join me for this game of Mutant Crawl Classics. Once again, I changed the title of the game to avoid spoilers, but I used The Museum at the End of Time as presented in the DCC Free RPG Day 2016 publication. This is a zero-level funnel and I had dropped a stack of pre-generated characters on the table for players to use. These were teenagers going on their trials to become adults by trying to find technology of the ancients that would benefit the Tribe of the Cog. This was my first time GMing one of the Crawl Classic games and it didn’t go too bad. I wish than I could have done a test run for it prior to the con, but sometimes you’ve just got to jump into the deep end and swim. I really like the Crawl Classics system. I didn’t kill as many zero-level characters that I probably could have, but these players were also very well organized. The party only got about 1/3rd of the way through the museum before they had an opportunity to exit with their newfound technology and they left. I’m not certain if this was because it was one of the last games at the con or if the players thought they had found enough ancient tech to satisfy the tribe leaders. But the players told me they had fun when we wrapped up so I’m a happy GM.

I was able to get to all of my scheduled games that I had signed up for. I really liked Shadowrun Anarchy and how simple the rules were. The GM runs SA 5e for his regular campaign and said it was a little bit more crunchy. But if I was to run a game, I think I’d stick with SA as too much crunch isn’t really my style right now. We had to go rescue a local community doctor who was being hunted by a corporate high-response strike team. Turns out the doc had treated a shadowrunner who had accidentally downloaded an experimental AI from a script-kiddie who somehow got into a corporate mainframe. It was a simple adventure that introduced the world to the players and was very well done. When I was giving con updates on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server, one of the writers for Shadowrun Anarchy responded. I wasn’t aware that this person had worked on this book. I had to run over and grab my dead-tree version to check the credits when he had piped up. So that gave me a thrill.

The SCP playtest was based off of the shared-writing universe called The SCP Foundation. Think X-Files meets Cthulhu meets Warehouse 13 meets Supernatural that’s been running since 2007. My youngest Geekling is a big fan of this universe and has even cosplayed for it at Halloween and conventions. So when I texted my youngest Geekling, they got really excited. When I got home I had to give them a complete run down of the adventure. We were an investigation team that traveled to Denver to check up on a weird warehouse that was gathering a mass audience by some displays in the windows. Long story short, I got to blow up the warehouse before we could contain the “Evil Industrial Cooking Oven” hidden inside. It sounds strange, but it was a lot of fun. I was able to give some feedback on the system used for the game directly to the designer.

On Saturday morning I got to play Dungeon Crawl Classics game titled Emirikol Was Framed. For those of you who don’t know the character, Emirikol was the chaotic wizard whose image was in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition Dungeon Master’s Guide. We got to fight flying monkeys, use mighty deeds and weird spells (each spell in DCC has a chart that you roll against when the spell is cast with varied results) and defeat not one, but two evil wizards plaguing the city. We were playing fourth-level characters and I only wished that the character would have had more equipment on them. Holding only a melee weapon while the flying targets buzzed above you took some creative thinking. But the players at the table had fun.

I was the only player that showed up for the steampunk/western/horror game Through the Breach on Saturday. It was played with a deck of playing cards and had an interesting system. The GM’s brother played at the table as well so that we could have a session. The two brothers reminded me of another pair of geeky brothers that I know. When I was discussing the game with another convention attendee, he told me that Through the Breach had a huge following in Montana for some reason and also had a big miniatures collection line. I don’t know if this is a game that I’d buy at full price, but I did enjoy the opportunity to learn about a new system.

A system that used a deck or two of 52 playing cards also popped up in the Sunday game I played called Starship Infernum. The second player who registered didn’t show up, so I ended up taking three characters and letting the GM walk me through the system. I was also able to ask many questions as I went through the book. This game could easily be used as a convention one-shot or a pick-me-up game if all of your regular players can’t show up for a game night.

As you can see from the photo above, I came home with some interesting loot from the convention. The t-shirt was gorgeous and I had to give a compliment to one of the con-runners. This year’s theme was pirates, but the shirts for Spring and Summer were really busy. I remember wearing the spring shirt and having someone look at it confused as to what it was because of how busy it was in the graphic. The end-of-summer shirt had a very simple logo and quickly made sense. I can’t wait for the right time to wear it. The free game was something called Battlebones and was the only free game that I hadn’t already picked up from previous SaltCONs. A board game that I did buy in the swap meet was Robo Rally. I remember playing this game about 15 years ago with some friends in the local Star Trek club and it was very enjoyable. But every time we had found a copy, even used, it was outside of our price range. Well this one was at a very decent price so I snapped it up as my first purchase of the con. Also in the game swap was the Cy_Borg core rulebook. This is Mork Borg for cyberpunk. And since I had been wanting to try some of the Borg games (Mork for Fantasy or Pirate Borg) I picked this up. For my Thank You gift I found a sci-fi RPG rulebook for Untamed Worlds from Osprey Games. In this universe Humanity has reached the stars, but the bulk of them stay in the core worlds while they send out genetically modified animals to search the uncharted sections of the galaxy. I’ll use both of these books in the 2027 Character Creation Challenge.

Wow, this after-action report turned out to be a long one. But that’s probably because I had a ton of fun at SaltCON End-of-Summer. If you are looking for a good gaming convention, please check out SaltCON. There are a ton of board games, card games, roleplaying games and more. The next two conventions at the Davis Conference Center in Layton, Utah are March 11-14 and June 11-13.

And before I forget, many thanks to the convention organizers and volunteers for putting this together. You guys are the best.

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: 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, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

2026 Character Creation Challenge Bonus Day: Jack Photon’s Fan Made Star Trek RPG

Written by TardisCaptain

What? Aren’t you burned out on making characters after January? Well, yes. But before I take a break (and start my final preparations for all the one-shots that I’m running at SaltCON in March) I have one more bonus entry for the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge. Jack Photon’s Fantaversary Revision House Rules 4.0 (for the 40th anniversary of the original release of the FASA Star Trek Roleplaying Game).

Jack was kind enough to send me some physical proofs of his massive project to make a “4.0” version of the FASA Star Trek RPG as a love letter to that game. Why 4.0? Well, besides being the 40th anniversary (which was in 2023 actually) this is the “fourth iteration of the game”. The first edition was published by FASA in 1983. Then, in 1985 FASA, released a second edition of the game which is the version I primarily played with my friends. When the internet connected fans of the game about 15-20 years ago, enough fans got together to make an unofficial “third edition” to polish up the game a little bit. It also allowed fans to introduce stats for various races seen in the other Star Trek series such as The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise.

When I was making characters for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge, Jack had asked me if I would be interested in making a character using his system since I already had the prototype books. I said yes at the time, and over the course of the sucky year that 2025 was, I forgot. Luckily, Jack reminded me about half-way through the 2026 Challenge, so I added it as a bonus entry (which I’ve done before in past challenges). Sorry Jack, I’m still human (at least I think so).

Now, I’ve made several characters using the FASA Star Trek system before including a Starfleet Officer, a Starfleet Intelligence Officer and the Merchant Trader made earlier this year. However, I’ve never made a First Edition FASA character (hmmm…. 2027? I better write things down so I don’t forget this time). In my correspondence with Jack he informed me that his version was primarily based upon the first edition which he had enjoyed more. So this will be a new experience for me.

Ok, I’ve printed out the character sheet and found the Officer Generation rules and it looks pretty similar to the FASA entries I mentioned above. Roll 3d10+40 for each attribute of STR, END, INT, DEX, CHA and COOL (oh BTW, that last attribute is new in this version). For the LUC and PSI stats it is still just a percentile roll. There is a note here that magnanimous GMs may allow re-rolls of 1s or 2s. There is a random chart of basic alien races to choose or roll a d10 for (dice clatter on table) and this guy is a Human (hey, that’s what the dice came up with). I adjusted the PSI score as the only racial adjustment. And finally on attributes there is a conditional bonus points option of rolling percentile, divide by two and round down. As a human, he can’t raise his PSI score, but the others can be raised as I see fit. I made my choices and wrote them down in my notes.

Before we joined Starfleet Academy, the character already had some education. There is a list of skills for Personal Development and Formal Education. I divide the INT score by 10 and could choose that number from each list rolling a d10 for the score. As this character entered the academy there are some automatic skill scores that he would have learned and I added them to my notes.

Now I’m told that Starfleet maintains three specialized training schools for select candidates if the minimum requirements are met. He just barely missed out on the Contact Team. Nor did qualify for Command School. So I think I just automatically roll over to one of the Service Branches (Command, Sciences or Services) and I choose a major in that branch (the departments we usually see in TOS) and I think I’m going to make this guy an Engineer. I wrote down the stats listed for that major.

The Cadet Cruise. I remember this from making many different FASA Star Trek RPG characters back in the day. Roll percentage dice and add some different modifiers from LUC and INT. And this yet-to-be-named character was sent to a Starbase. Rolling the dice to see how he did and he passed. Did he get noticed (again dice clattering on table) and he got a Commendation which turned into a Minor Award (Silver Palms if I read that part correctly). And now this guy is an Ensign.

As an ensign fresh out of the academy I could start playing him now and watch him grow. But I wanted to at least get one term under his belt. Let’s see if we can get him up to the rank of Lieutenant. But the dice say only one term so perhaps we can make Lt. (j.g.). Starbase duty again for 3 years? Well that’s how the dice came up. Average efficiency rating so I just rolled the extra skill experiences.

Heh, Chapter 5 is called Life’s Lil’ Details. Age and starting cred, terms of active duty, family history, homeworld, etc. Wow, there is a lot to take in. Some of it I didn’t understand so I kind of muddled through it. His homeworld was being shipwrecked for one year? Besides a backstory did that get me anything? What if I already had a character concept in mind? I think I skipped most of this and just came up with a name and transferred my notes to the character sheet. As I transfered this information over, I noticed some additional derived attributes such as Foolies (aka Bluff or avoid being Blulffed), Perception, Focus and two types of Perseverance (mental and physical). Luckily there were some quick mathematical formulas to follow.

Afterthoughts:

There were some in-jokes like the Herbert Department. Also Jack pulled in information for his version of the game from different sources including different magazine articles about the FASA Star Trek RPG. It was quite interesting to see.

There is a TON of character options in here. Non-Commissioned officer, civilian who went through college, etc. I really could have used the quick-guide that was present in the FASA STA RPG 2nd Edition. Was I supposed to roll on the friends and romance tables? I can see where a lot of work went into this labor of love. I don’t think I’ll ever get a chance to play it.

Additional Notes:

I’ve had quite a few of you reach out to me stating that you’ve made 31 characters in 31 days. I’ve sent the reward graphic, lovingly made by my commissioned artist, that is starting to appear in the wild. If you haven’t received yours yet, please email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain dot Com (or buzz me on one of the socials if we follow each other) and I’ll make sure to get it out to you.

Coming Up Next:

After-Action Report

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, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 1: Star Trek Trader Captain’s and Merchant Princes

Written by TardisCaptain

And welcome to new year and Day 1 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge. After much soul searching I decided to return to an old favorite, the Star Trek Role Playing Game. In the first challenge I made a Starfleet character and in 2023 I created a Starfleet Intelligence character. FASA released quite a few books for additional character types and I decided to use the Trader Captain’s and Merchant Princes. I had never made a merchant for this system as all of our games in the 90’s were Starfleet based.

As with all FASA Star Trek systems, they provided a Character Generation Short Form. This is found on page 126. So let’s begin. Step one, create attributes. Strength, Endurance, Intellect, Dexterity, Charisma, Luck and Psionic Potential. The last two are a straight up percentage roll. The others are 4D10+30. Then add the racial modifiers to the attributes. So, I don’t think I’ve made an Edoan yet, so I’ll make one now.

Step two is the Character Background. We are rolling a 1D10 to see what three possible background options come up between Privileged, Normal and Disadvantaged. This yet to be named character came up as Normal.

The background skills are determined in step three. The number of skills are INT/10 rounded down. With my INT of 65 I get to pick 6 of them and roll a 1D10 to come up with the starting score. I picked the six skills.

Step four is the Advancement Lane. Where did the character get some education from? After a D10 roll he went to the Merchant Academy. So onto step five I added the skills that came from attending the Merchant Academy. This included the Outside Electives. In the Mid-Program Evaluation, the character was approved for specialty training, so I selected Helm/Navigation to focus on.

Step six is the Apprenticeship Program. Again a lot of skills scores were added or updated. On the Mid-Program evaluation he must have done something bad because no further education was allowed. The character now has to enter the base-level labor program which is step seven.

So if I’m reading this correctly, the character gets a year of unspecialized labor (hopefully flying a ship). For this first year he gets 10 unspecialized and 1 specialized skill at 1d10 that I pick. Then we get to roll on the opportunities table and add some modifiers. He didn’t get an apprenticeship, but he did get specialized labor which was another round of 1D10 to different skills. After the second year I rolled again and he barely made it into the Apprenticeship program. That he was forced out of, so do I just go to next step that I didn’t do in step six? It seems like I’m kinda in a loop. I’m going to guess I’m back in step 6-D (each step had a series of sub-steps) and continue from there.

I don’t see this character going to Command Training School, so I think I skip step 8. On step 9 is the Trading Experience and Skills. I roll 2D10 to see the number of years served. Wow, just to be a regular crewmember on a merchant ship still takes years (more for CO/XO or the equivalent of a Department Chief). If I did this correctly, he served 11 years as a navigator on a merchant vessel. That adds to some skills, but he’s still not at a chief level. Perhaps he’s just on the cusp? Anyway, I added the skills listed in this step.

Technically that was the last step. But when I moved everything from my notes to the sheet, I noticed it didn’t have the combat skills, equipment or anything else. I went back through the book (including the original rulebooks) and found the information. I guess they were expecting experienced RPG players to find these items. Here is the character sheet for my Edoan trader named Kraxx.

Afterthoughts:

There were some printing errors in the short form, I seriously doubt that a character would gain a skill addition of zero. Why even put it in the book with limited space. I’ll have to look back though my collections and notes to see if there was ever an errata for this book.

I think I can see why I never played in a FASA Star Trek merchant campaign. Of course, everyone wanted to play Starfleet officers when we were playing Star Trek. If we wanted to just play merchants, we could have played Traveller or Star Frontiers instead. But now that I’ve made this character, I’m wondering how the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition merchant character would roll up? Perhaps I’ll pick that for one of my later characters in this challenge.

Additional Notes:

I’ve already had a ton of people contact me about making sure their blogs were posted on the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge list. If I’m missing your participating blog, or message board, please let me know and I’ll get it added. I’ve been enjoying the entries that I’ve read so far.

Coming Up Next:

Rivers of London

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: Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Video Game

RPGaDAY2025 Day 27: Tactic

Written by TardisCaptain

We have maneuvered ourselves to Day 27 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge and closer to the end of the month. Today’s topic is ‘tactic’ and it’s one that connects with multiple forms of gaming.

In my blog post about the topic Recent, and in other RPG review posts as well, I talked about how my tactical mind engaged while playing. This is usually a sign for me that I’m enjoying the game. Checkers, chess, a collectable card game, other board games, the brightness of a video game and especially roleplaying systems. There’s a point in the game where my mind clicks and suddenly, I’m wondering how I’m going to use or get around the system. I also know that it must be a good system if I’m thinking about how to use/get around it while away from the game.

I recall playing the Warcraft: Orcs & Humans video game in the late 90’s. I quickly observed that the computerized opponent would quickly send available troops that were just generated to attack me. The better tactic would have been to build up the number of troops instead of sending them out one at a time. One of the units in this video game was called the Conjurer who could summon disposable troops like scorpions and water elementals that I could control. So, I’d find a choke point on the map, set a bunch of knights and archers there to kill the lone unit that was sent to attack me. Behind the knights and archers were several conjurers who would all summon the disposable units at the same time which would then be sent in a wave to scout out and attack the enemy encampment. It took a while, but the constant grind would allow me to safely keep the bulk of my troops and resources safe while the enemy was weakened to the point where they could not resist a complete all-out assault from my units.

I’ve previously blogged about a FASA Star Trek RPG session in the 90’s where the GM had painted himself into a corner (we didn’t know that at the time) and, unbeknownst to him, all of the players were calling each other on a daily basis on how we were going to get out of the dire situation. When we saw the lame way the GM ended the scenario, it wasn’t good for him. We (half-jokingly) threatened to hang him, and it was the final game with him. Which was too bad as I enjoyed the FASA Star Trek RPG.

Each game has its own system. Figuring out the system is part of the appeal to me. Sometimes I figure it out and I realize that I can enjoy it more, such as Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition. Sometimes I realize that the system is bunk or too easily manipulated (such as the Warcraft example I posted above). While I still enjoyed the Warcraft game, I realized that the re-playability factor wasn’t there. I think this is why I’m not keen on some board games. I’m wondering how limited they might be as compared to the wide-open options of a roleplaying game.

Oh, and we also used tactics in real life. Protecting ourselves online by not clicking on strange links that were suddenly sent to us in instant messages, not posting things on social media that might announce that we are out-of-town for a while until after we’ve returned. Not leaving valuables in the car where people can see them is another example of the tactics used in OpSec (operational security).

Have you noticed patterns in different game systems that has allowed you to generate tactics? Do you use OpSec online or in real life? 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: Doctor Who, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Star Wars

RPGaDAY2024 Day 31: Game or Gamer you miss

Written by TardisCaptain

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

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

Do you have a gamer that you miss? Is there a game you’d love to play again (even as just a one-shot)? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Star Wars

RPGaDAY2024 Day 27: Marvelous Miniature

Written by TardisCaptain

And here we are on Day 27 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge and we’ve been asked to talk about Marvelous Miniatures. OK, confession time. I love playing around the table with a battle mat spread out a hand-drawn map and miniatures or standees representing our characters and the bad-guys we were thumping. However I’ve never been a big collector of the miniatures. I’ve got a few that I’ll show photos of in this blog post, but when it came to running a game for my daughter and her friends or GMing at SaltCON, I borrowed the collection of plastic miniatures that my DM friend has been slowly gathering for years. I’m very grateful that he’s been willing to let me use them on an odd-weekend. Another friend who participates in a few Star Trek Adventures games has a done the same thing with various Star Trek miniatures. I really need to get a better collection of my own if I’m going to GM more even if they are used for another genre than what they were created for. There were a few times that the stormtrooper minis stood in for the orcs we were fighting in our past D&D 3.5 campaign.

So for this blog entry I pulled out the two boxes of miniatures that I still had in my collection after many, many moves. I had realized when I was taking the pictures that I hadn’t opened up these boxes in years (and possibly even more than a decade). So it was interesting to look these over and handle the metal pieces again. I don’t think I painted these. I just don’t have the patience or the setup to even attempt painting. But I do admire a very well painted miniature when I see one.

Hmmm… I’m sensing a theme here with these two boxes. Both FASA and West End Games had a large number of miniatures for their respective games. The boxes are battered, but are still intact and not splitting in the corners.

Here are some of the minis that were inside the Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan boxed set. It primarily focused on the Regular 1 space station crew. It included both characters and computers. None of them were painted.

When I opened the Star Wars box, I found this miniature still in it’s package. The plastic is brittle and cracked along the top, but still connected to the backing. I believe that I was intending to use this to represent a character in a past Dungeons and Dragons game.

In the Star Wars Bounty Hunters boxed set was these miniatures. As I mentioned above, I don’t think I painted these minis with how shaded some of them are. The big guy with the spikes (in the middle) is obviously from another set and I think the guy in gold and green is also from another manufacturer. All of the figures are loose, but I have them wrapped up in some foamy paper.

If I expand my collection of miniatures to a usable set, I’ll be sure to post about it here. Are there miniatures that you remember from your gaming sessions? 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: Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDay2023 Day 21: Favorite Licensed RPG

Written by TardisCaptain

So, Favorite Licensed RPG is the topic for Day 21 of the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge. I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count.

Various Star Trek RPG books

I have sections of this website already dedicated to the FASA Star Trek game. I’ve started a LUG Star Trek section and plan to create sections for Decipher Star Trek and Modiphius Star Trek Adventures.

Not only am I collecting any of the Star Trek licensed RPGs, but I’ve been gathering the unofficial ones as well. Some of these are games where the IP elements have been filed off, but the game is clearly Star Trek. One example of this is Starships & Spacemen 2nd Edition. Far Trek and Where No Man Has Gone Before are fan created games based off of the Original Star Trek series. Star Trek Alpha Quadrant is a fan-made game based off of the Cepheus Engine. I haven’t had a chance to try STAQ yet, but I may in a future Character Creation Challenge.

What is your favorite licensed RPG? 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

RPGaDay2023 Day 19: Favorite published adventure

Written by TardisCaptain 1 Comment on RPGaDay2023 Day 19: Favorite published adventure

For Day 19 of the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge we were asked to discuss our favorite published adventure. Like some of the other favorites in this challenge, how can I select just one. So in order to make sure this isn’t a huge blog post, I’m going to stick with two that came to mind.

Demand of Honor for the FASA Star Trek RPG

I loved reading through Demand of Honor for the Star Trek Role Playing Game by FASA. There were quite a few good published adventures from FASA that followed up on episodes from the original Star Trek. This one gave us the aftermath of the episode Arena where we first saw the Gorn. From the FASA catalogs we had sourcebooks for The Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Orions, Merchants and more. The planned Starship Recognition Manual for the Gorns was never released. I don’t know if we ever would have received a manual for the Gorns, so this adventure was the closest we got. Insight on the Gorn point of view. It gave details about what the state of affairs after Kirk’s fight with the Gorn. We were also rewarded with a new Gorn vessel (with deck plans) that was probably planned for the recognition manual. This was great to flip through and read. I just wish that I could have played or GMed this adventure.

Into the Borderlands by Goodman Games

I no longer have my original copy of B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. In the mid-90’s when I had to cut down on the amount of D&D books that I owned for various reasons (20/20 hindsight told me that I should have kept them). But I remember reading this module. I remember wanting to play this module. Eventually I even ran this module as my first attempt at being a Dungeon Master. In my conversations a lot of people had this book and loved it as well. So it didn’t surprise me that Goodman Games had obtained the rights to publish a 5E conversion of B1: In Search of the Unknown and B2 called Into the Borderlands. I was able to pick up a copy myself and loved reading through the history and information. I should sit down and do a full review of this hardbound book.

As I mentioned above, there were several other printed adventures that I would love to mention as well. I felt the need to restrain myself at this time. I may make future blog posts talking about some of the others.

Do you have a favorite adventure that was published for a role playing game? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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