Tag: KickStarter

Bree-YARC Quickstart Guide a Kickstart Reward

Written by TardisCaptain February 22, 2026February 22, 2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 26: Modern Necessities

Written by TardisCaptain January 26, 2026January 25, 2026

Another KickStarter game is being used for my Day 26 entry 2026 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Modern Necessities is a series of sourcebooks that sets up modern day rules (or future and western options) for Old-School Essentials. You can read my review of the KickStarter reward at this blog post.

So this one is going to be a little weird. Because I’m going to be using the character creation steps from Old-School Essentials. But when it comes to the class, spells (if needed) and gear, I’m going to be using Modern Necessities. I have used OSE for a past entry in the Character Creation Challenge that you can read here.

So the character creation process in the OSE book is listed on page 18. As mentioned in the last entry, there are multiple creation methods, but to use my Modern Necessitites options, I’ll need to follow the advanced path where race and class are separate. Everyone sing along now. To generate the ability scores, roll 3d6 down the line. Got some OK stats between 10 and 14.

From these I can now check which minimums the character meets for the different race options. I used the Half-Orc in the 2025 challenge, so this time around I’m going to go with Drow. I don’t know if I’ve had a chance to make one yeet. I added the ability modifiers and racial benefits to my notes.

Now we are to the part where we can switch over to the new Modern Necessities book, picking a class. I’m only using the modern times book, not the western times (with the Single Action book) and futuristic times (with the Cutting Edge book). My choices are Crook, Detective, Exorcist, Face, Heavy Gunner, Hired Killer, Martial Artist, Medic, Ninja, Psychonaut (drug powered users of magic or mental powers), Sapper, Scout, Secret Agent, Sniper, Soldier, Survivalist, Tech Expert, Treasure Hunter (think Laura Croft), Vigilante (think Punisher) and Wheelman. There are minimums for each class which helped with my consideration. While this unnamed character could have been most of them, for some reason I was drawn to Tech Expert (which includes some technomancy abilities). I wrote down the information presented from the class and picked his first spell.

OK, returning to the OSE book where step four is adjust ability scores. This is where I can raise a prime requisite ability by 1 by lowering another ability (STR, INT or WIS) by 2. Unfortunately a 1 point raise wouldn’t do the character any good on their attribute benefits so I elected skip any adjustments. I then went to step five which is noting the ability score modifiers and step six which was noting the attack values utilizing the optional Ascending Armor Class since I don’t like THAC0. Step seven is noting the savings throws and class/race abilities (which I already had done).

Ah, finally. Hit Points. Tech Experts are like magic users so they only roll a 1d4. I’m glad that I rolled a 4 since this yet-to-be named character has no CON bonus. I then proceeded to the next couple of steps by selecting the alignment and known languages.

Step eleven is buying the equipment. I rolled the 3d6x10 and then went back to the Modern Necessities book to look at what was available. After picking up the gear I noted the AC, level and XP for the next steps.

Step Twelve is an optional rule for secondary skills. The OSE book had fantasy based secondary skills. I didn’t see a listing like this in Modern Necessities. Honestly I think this was an oversight since Modern Necessities was based off of OSE. Perhaps writing up one of my own could be a homebrew project? But that will have to wait until later when the challenge is done.

The last step is naming the character. Hey look, a favorite website has a Random Drow Name Generator. I was able to pull the name Xathel Dalla. I also went to the Random Hacker Name Generator and selected BL4NK. Now there wasn’t a special character sheet for Modern Necessities or any of it’s two side books (yet, hint) so I used an OSE character sheet and tried to fill in the blanks.

Afterthoughts:

I can see where these two books can fit in with each other. And in old-school fashion, I can see where there are gaps that a GM may have to fill in (example, they gave extras to the basic races, but not the Drow as I discovered while creating this character). Not that this is a bad thing, because it leads to homebrew opportunities.

Now I really want to try this one at the table.

Additional Notes:

On the RPG.net message board, there is a participant going by the handle of “Hunter” who is making a set of characters for “The Alpha Squad” using the Outgunned: Adventure RPG. This is The A-Team in 1933 Los Angeles instead of the 80’s as seen in the TV show. I need to give him a golf clap for this one because it is very well done.

Another reader made a purchase on DriveThruRPG after clicking on one of my affiliate links. Thank you, that will help with future RPG purchases. I try to pick up games for the next #CharacterCreationChallenge.

Coming Up Next:

The Terminator

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Reviews, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 22: vs D.A.M.N.I.T.

Written by TardisCaptain January 22, 2026January 20, 2026

The game that I’m using for Day 22 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge is one that I backed on KickStarter. Because of how far behind I’ve been, I haven’t had a chance to write a blog post about it. So this will count as both. The game is called Dwarven Assault Mining And Neutralization Interception Team (D.A.M.N.I.T.) and is a sci-fi game about Dwarves in space. The characters are a part of a trouble team sent to clear dangers out of various space mining locations or fighting pirates. When I read the description it sounded like fun, and they weren’t asking for too much on pledges. There have been a few KickStarter campaigns where the game sounded interesting, but I didn’t want to spend to much for a game that I may only play once or twice.

The physical copy of the game I received has 34 pages, but the PDF extras added several pages more. One of the extra rewards was a 5th Edition version of the game if I elected to play it. For the challenge I’m using the creation rules for the original game. The book has an ISBN number of 2-370021-779178 and was written by Mike Lafferty and Chuck Rice. There is a ton of color art in this book by Jacob Blackmon, Jon Gibbons, Dean Spencer, Kristin Nokes and Rick Hershey.

This is a rules-light system for quick play between players and DM (Dwarf Master). There is a target number and the player rolls a d20 to see if they meet or exceed the TN. The advantage/disadvantage rule is in play within this system. From the looks of things, this is one of those games that I’d pick as my odd-ball one-shot to run at SaltCON. I’ve got a few to set up for the next several conventions since they run three of them a year.

There is a one-page character sheet. The character creation steps are provided in a separate PDF when you pick up the game from DriveThruRPG. There are seven steps in total to get a character ready for the table.

Step one is to pick a class from one of these options. Scout, Medic/Science Officer, Heavy Weapons/Pilot, Engineer or Dwarven Earth Alchemist (DEA Agent). This last class is a special alchemist that can also cast spells. While this last one sounds interesting, I’m eyeing the Scout since he is an infiltrator. The book states that all characters get 15 HP to start, a specific attack and three fixed skills.

The second step is an optional one if your Dwarf Master allows. Picking a personal skill to make the character different from the others. I randomly picked one from the list since the voices in my head said to do so.

A Perk is a unique ability that the character has. For step three, I’m instructed to pick one from the list that I thought would fit this unnamed character.

Steps four and five both deal with gear. Allocating gear points then buying said gear. 10 gear points is allocated per character. I decided to pick both a ranged and melee weapon (I was surprised that there wasn’t a dagger option).

Picking a name and background is step six. I used the online random dwarf name generator to dub this character: Hezan Copperhood. After his brother went missing on a previous D.A.M.N.I.T. team, he signed up to find out what happened to his kin, and dispense justice if needed.

And finally step seven appears to be another optional one as well. If the Dwarf Master give their OK, then make your own custom skill, perk, gear or spell. I like this idea that gives the player a chance to contribute something. I’m going to go with a family heirloom which turns out has a special function. The Ancestors’ Ring. This alien technology discovered by one of his forefathers on an exploration mission can cause silence for two rounds once per game. Do you think that the Dwarf Master would allow it?

After reprinting the character sheet (see below) I was able to scan it to wrap up this blog post.

Afterthoughts:

When I went to transfer my notes to the character sheet, I realized that I had accidentally printed out the sheet for the D.A.M.N.I.T. 5th edition game. So I quickly printed out the original character sheet if you are wondering why it looks different from the photo at the top.

I hope I did the gear right. I spent all of the equipment points before I realized that I could make my own special item at the end of the process. So I may have too much gear on this guy.

This game looks simple and straight forward. My games for the spring SaltCON are already locked in, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I try to run this for Summer or End-of-Summer SaltCON later in the year. I’m very happy that I backed this Kickstarter.

Additional Notes:

This is my third of four games used in the challenge that I had picked up from KickStarter over the past year. I should go back and count how many KickStarter games I’ve used over all of the years of doing the #Character Creation Challenge.

Coming Up Next:

Swords & Wizardry

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 21: Underhaven

Written by TardisCaptain January 21, 2026January 20, 2026

On Day 21 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge we are using the Underhaven OSR Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying Game. I had picked up this game from a Kickstarter campaign where I reviewed it here. I also gave a brief rundown of the system used and a brief background of the game world. There is a two paged character sheet used for Underhaven.

The character creation steps begin on page 58 and end on page 71. The first step is to generate the stats used by the character. They are Strength (STR), Constitution (CON) and Dexterity (DEX) as the physical stats. Then Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS) and Charisma (CHA) for the mental stats. Being an OSR inspired game it uses the standard stats. However instead of rolling 3d6 (or 4d6) you distribute either d4, d6, d8 or d6, d6, d6 to each stat group. As mentioned in my Kickstarter review (linked above) a player would roll a D20 and a stat die to try to meet or beat a target number. I selected my stats for this character.

Next you select your Ancestry. The races available in the core rulebook are Dwarfs, Gnomes, Gray Elves (aka Emo Elves who were banished from the surface), Halflings, Humans and Zurkhas (aka Armadillo people). For this character I’m running a Dwarf and wrote down the traits in my notes.

On step three we select the character’s archetype (aka class) from one of the ten presented in the book. These are Artificer (aka Inventor), Cleric, Confidant (aka Face Man), Fighter, Mycologist (a mushroom searcher and apothecary), Ranger, Thief, Spelunker (Cave navigator), Verminists (spellcasters who summon swarms) and Wizard. Since I’ve never made a Spelunker before, I went with that class and wrote down the traits that came with it.

The Background is the item that is selected next. This is what the character doing before they became an adventurer. When the character uses a skill that they would have learned from the background, they get to add their Proficiency Bonus (+2 at first level) to the die roll. There was a few examples listed but it was very generic. “pirate”, “beggar”, “scholar”, etc. I had to think about this for a moment. What would a dwarven do before he became a spelunker? I fell into the trope and made him a former Smith.

Here we are at step five and we get to equip the character. I love the fact that the book is pretty straight forward. Choose up to 2 weapons, an armor that is allowed by your class and 3 pieces of gear that costs 25 GP or less. Then we get to roll (for the first time in the creation process) 5d6 for the starting gold. This can be kept or used to round out the equipment. I picked some equipment and rolled up 16 GP. With this I purchased some additional items that I thought my unnamed character would need.

The last step contains the finishing touches. Hit Points are calculated by the highest number of the CON die. And since the character is a Dwarf, he has a +1 to the starting HP, so 5. Defense is 8+max of DEX die (in this case 8) for a total of 16. If the character had a shield this would have been increased by 1, but nothing was listed for the type of armor (light, medium, heavy). I checked the combat section really quick and it turns out the type of armor worn gives a damage reduction. The Proficiency Bonus for a level 1 character is +2 (this can be raised when the character advances levels). Since the character is not a magic user, he doesn’t get any magic points (used in spell casting). I’m then instructed to record the ancestry and archetypes traits (already done above), give the character a name (um…. lets go with Thorronlir Whitbraid) and note a Fate point (aka the ability to reroll a failed roll). The character sheet is two pages, but I didn’t scan the second page since it was all organized for spell casting abilities.

Afterthoughts:

I liked the fact that they had an ending to the character creation process with a “You’re Done!” comment. There were too many times the writers would start the process without telling readers that they have reached the end.

The way they did the equipment allocation helped out quite a bit. A character should already have armor, weapons and some equipment. But I did find myself picking the most expensive items that I could before spending the randomly rolled starting gold.

I could see myself playing this game. Most likely a one-shot at an upcoming SaltCON. I could also see myself homebrewing for this game. For a game with a “locked in” world, there is a lot of sandbox play present.

Additional Notes:

In response to my Rocket Age entry with Ace Rimmer, a lot of feedback that I received was “Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast.” I’m glad to see that everyone got the Red Dwarf reference.

Coming Up Next:

D.A.M.N.I.T.

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 13: The Well

Written by TardisCaptain January 13, 2026January 20, 2026

For Day 13 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge I’m using a game that I received in the Secret Satan (a play on Secret Santa) gift exchange that I had blogged about earlier. This is The Well Roleplaying Game by Shoeless Pete Games. I had never heard of it before I had opened the package and that’s what I loved. When asked what I wanted, I asked for some thing that I could use in the challenge. Past challenge entries that came this way included Mutant Crawl Classics, Teenagers from Outer Space and Fantasy Age 2nd Edition.

I had blogged about the system and the world that this game had been set in, so I’m going to jump right into character creation. Besides having a one-page character sheet, there was also a one-page creation checklist for your gravedigger (the character that you play in the game.

It’s not listed as first on the list, but at the top there is a section for the name of the character. I selected Barton the Bastard just because. There is a list of all the weapons and armor available and I’m instructed to select three of them. The weapons are broken down by 1-handed or 2-handed. I quickly read through the descriptions and picked Sword, Spear and Cuirass and Hauberk.

The Kit is the next item on the checklist and it’s the equipment the character has. Several items are already selected such as a bat, flint & steel, knife and torches. I’m allowed to pick five more items so Barton has bandages, booze, food for three days, 10 m of rope and a waterskin.

The book says history is next, but the checklist shows skills. I’m going to go with the Skills since it’s right there. I pick one for “you are better than most at…” (which I picked Awareness). There is also a section for Runes (the magic system in this game) but Barton isn’t smart enough to know how they are used.

Ok, now History. Before Barton was a gravedigger he was a… Vagabond. Besides being lower-class, I’m not certain what this gives the character. When you go up the well, what waits on your return? There is a list of possible options and I had difficulty choosing here. There were some I eliminated from consideration automatically, but I selected “a vicious rival” so that I could move on.

Contacts is next and I pick two of them. One Barton knows, the other he owes a favor to. The first is other Gravediggers who give him advice. He owes a favor to Criminals (perhaps this is where that vicious rival comes from?). On the Reputation, the checklist says “You have a reputation for…” and I selected Greed.

Next on the checklist comes the Self-Image. I’m instructed to pick three words that describes how Barton sees himself and his actions. I picked hard, observant and shifty. The last item was two Habits that Barton has. Well since I picked up booze in the kit, I’m going to say drinking and suspicion.

I think I transfer information to the sheet. The checklist states that the resilience is 10 and the asset points is 0. I noticed that there were several sections not filled in on the character sheet. Complications (which happens during game play) and Tasks in Progress. This last item I believe that the GM would let me know what to put here. I scanned both sheets so you could see them.

Afterthoughts:

Character creation was short and sweet, which I appreciated. I would have liked a little more information on what the history of the character provided (if anything). Like I said in my review, I wonder how this game plays at the table? I do like that the reason for humanity being in The Well and why the dead are rising back up is completely up to the GM. Some possible suggestions are given, but left vague.

Additional Notes:

While I had been re-posting their posts on BlueSky, I was unaware that Chant Evans had been posting his entries in the challenge on the Ex Stasis Games blog. I’ve added it to the links found at the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge page. If I’m missing any blog or message board, please let me know.

Coming Up Next:

Worlds Beyond

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.

Collecting, Reviews, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Spy-Fi, Westerns

Modern Necessities a Kickstarter Reward

Written by TardisCaptain December 6, 2025December 6, 2025

Continuing my catch up process, here is my report on the Kickstarter rewards that I have received for backing the Modern Necessities campaign by The Scrying Dutchman (that is the name used in the credits of the book). This set of books takes the B/X style rules from the Old-School Essentials books by Nerotic Gnome and provides different options for modern style games. This includes current times (with the Modern Necessities Professional Edition book), western times (with the Single Action book) and futuristic times (with the Cutting Edge book) that were included as part of the stretch goals. These three books are not stand-alone games, so they would need to be used with Old-School Essentials or another B/X set of rules. The level I backed included the PDFs as well as POD versions from DriveThruRPG. So far, I’ve been pleased with my POD purchases from DTRPG. You can read about my comparisons on this blog post.

The primary book is Modern Necessities Professional Edition. The two add-on books would need this book first. The ISBN for this softbound book is 2-370021-833733 and has 170 pages. While the cover has some color on it, all of the artwork is black and white. The cover was drawn by Noeland Collins with interior art provided by Galen Pejeau, Jonathan Torres, Carlos Castilho, Adam Black, Earl Geier, Jeshields and The Wonkee. The last two were listed that way in the credits.

The chapters covered in this book are Gameplay (primarily the use of modern firearms and a couple of optional skills system that can be used in OSR style games). New Classes (such as Crook, Detective, Face, Heavy Gunner, Hired Killer, Martial Artist, Medic, Ninja, Psychonaut (drug powered users of magic or mental powers), Sapper, Scout, Secret Agent, Sniper, Soldier, Survivalist, Tech Expert, Treasure Hunter (think Laura Croft), Vigilante (think Punisher) and Wheelman. Racial Traits used in modern based games (Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling, Half-Orc and Human). Chapter five covers all of the different weapons both modern and racial (such as the differences between a dwarven or elfin gun).

The next two chapters covers different types of armor and equipment. Magical items comes up in the next chapter (magically enhanced gun anyone?). Chapter nine tells us about the vehicles used within Modern Necessities.

Chapter ten takes us into a new section of the book, Technomancy. The use of magic with technology. I love the spell Crypto that converts physical monetary items into cryptocurrency. When you try to convert it back again, there’s a chance that the money/treasure returns at a lower value. In a similar vein, chapter 11 covers Psionics.

Chapters 12 and 13 provide information on NPCs and Hired Help. Kind of like a monster manual and lists of hirelings for modern times. There are some common types here (street punks, security guards, grey aliens, etc.) and some may be supernatural or alien in origin. I remember seeing a similar listing in the White Lies RPG and thinking how helpful it was. One of the opponents is obviously the Terminator with the serial numbers filed off.

The Extra Rules chapter is like a GMs section with information on how to make the game more cinematic. There are other rules that make the game unique if the GM wishes to add them. This is then followed by the Loot Tables in the next chapter. Different items that can be dropped by civilians, criminals, law enforcement, etc. The sixteenth chapter provides some different plot hooks with the last chapter presenting an introductory adventure for the GM to use.

Some of the examples of artwork used in Modern Necessities.

By contrast the two additional books, Cutting Edge and Single Action, have a smaller page count, 75 pages and 47 pages respectively. The ISBN for Cutting Edge is 2-370022-615949 and 2-370022-616014 for Single Action. Cutting Edge expands the Modern Necessities with information for cyberpunk and space opera games. This includes more technomancy spells, cybernetic implants, mechs, beam weapons and more. Some of the NPCs and Opponents include those inspired by Aliens, Predator, Blade Runner and more. Single Action allows the GM to run a western themed campaign with or without magic. Both books contain new character classes (six new for Cutting Edge and seven new for Single Action) and equipment.

Overall I got excited looking over these books. This is something that I could have homebrewed myself and seeing the ideas already in print give me energy as per my favorite Ray Bradbury quote. I inquired about a character sheet for Modern Necessities as I want to use this game in the upcoming Character Creation Challenge. The Scrying Dutchman responded that he was only planning to use the Old-School Essentials sheet, but he seemed open to the idea of generating a specific sheet for this game. While I love the art in the books, I was a little confused by one thing. It shows the different fantasy races in modern equipment and garb, but one race in particular was used in different pieces of art. The devil-looking Tieflings. Yet there were not gaming information for this race in Modern Necessities or the Old-School Essentials Advanced Fantasy Player’s Tomb. I’m sure it wouldn’t be that difficult to port the races over, especially after the players see the artwork showing goblin, tiefling and draconian characters in the book. After reading the Skill Throw System and the 2d6 Skill System, I wonder how these would play at the table. Overall I’m very happy backing this project because I started thinking about how I could use the information in a game. I don’t know if I could pull this off as a one-shot for SaltCON or try to put together a campaign. I guess it would have to depend upon finding players to sit at the table and when I get the last stretch goal reward of Bunker on the Borderlands which has an adventure in it. But these books made me want to write and homebrew for roleplaying games.

Do you have any questions about Modern Necessities or the two companion books? Have you backed any Kickstarters lately? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Collecting, Role Playing Games

Underhaven Kickstarter Reward

Written by TardisCaptain November 23, 2025November 23, 2025

The cover to Underhaven with the weathering as part of the art.

Here is another catch up article for you. This is my Kickstarter reward post about the Underhaven OSR Heroic Fantasy Roleplaying Game that I had backed earlier this year. Again, after my disastrous kickstarter lesson from the Cowboy Bebop disaster, I made sure I understood what RPG system would be used before pulling the trigger. For Underhaven they are using an OSR inspired system called TN13. It uses the standard character attributes seen in the original D20 D&D games (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS and CHA) and to resolve the most common checks, the player rolls a D20 and the action die associated with the attribute (D4 to D10) and any other bonuses with a target number of 13 to meet or beat. This target number may be lowered or raised depending upon the difficulty of the task. For any opposed challenges, the target number would be determined by the actions or stats of the opponent. Since the Kickstarter website had the system listed, I felt comfortable backing the project. Especially since the reward prices were reasonable as well. There have been a few Kickstarter campaigns where the reward prices were higher than what I wanted to part with.

The game world set up for Underhaven is all underground (hence the name). The surface world was subject to a disastrous war between two fey courts centuries ago leaving it covered in darkness, ice and completely uninhabitable. The various surface races were driven underground in an attempt to keep their societies alive, only to discover that the realms below contained additional dangers the deeper they went.

The rewards for backing this campaign was produced and delivered by DriveThruRPG. I had backed the level where I would receive a physical softback book and the PDF of the rules. The book was produced by Shadow Drifter Games and was written by Mike Brodu and Daymon Mills without AI. The cover contains color art and the interior illustrations are in black and white. I was also impressed that extra funds raised from the Kickstarter were distributed to the artists who contributed to the project. There are 196 pages in the book and it has an ISBN number of 2-370022-177621.

The back cover with some details of the game.

A sample of the internal text displayed within the book.

Some of the black and white internal art.

Overall I’m very happy with my backing of this Kickstarter project. I found the information contained within the book inspiring and well laid out. I wish there had been more on some of the monsters and how they had adapted to the new life underground. But the world has more of a sandbox feel instead of a “forced into this world” feel that I had felt in other games trying to differentiate from the glut of OSR fantasy RPGs. The system has an OSR feel with enough of a difference to make it something that works. I’m still exploring the different magic system, but I like the TN13 numbers and how it is used with common actions that characters would use in the game (perception, dodging, resisting magical attacks, etc.) I will be using this game in the 2026 Character Creation Challenge and I could easily see myself running a one-shot at an upcoming SaltCON.

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

Reviews, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

Planet of the Apes RPG Kickstarter Reward

Written by TardisCaptain October 14, 2025October 14, 2025

What I saw when I opened up my box with my POTA RPG rewards.

And in my quest to catch up on the articles that I owe all of you, here is my first look at the Planet of the Apes Roleplaying Game Kickstarter rewards. This box arrived in late August. With how busy things had been between conventions and real life baloney, this is the first time I’ve had a chance to sit down and go through it all.

Because I was a backer of the Kickstart campaign, I had received a PDF of the core rulebook early. This allowed me to use the system in the 2025 Character Creation Challenge. Thanks to the release of the Quickstart Rules, I was able to run a scenario at a past SaltCON. The players had a blast with the scenario. I talked a lot about the system in the Character Creation Challenge entry, but if you are familiar with the D6 Star Wars or Ghostbusters game, you’ll see this game as a spiritual successor and easy to pick up. The new system is called D6MV (Magnetic Variant). I had to make sure it was really a D6 system and not the disaster that came with the Cowboy Bebop Kickstarter. I’ll never make that mistake again when backing an RPG on Kickstarter.

With the level of backing that I had done in the 2024 campaign, I received the following items. A hard-bound core rulebook (See below). An 8×11 art print of the cover on really nice paper. A pad of POTA RPG character sheets. A double sided blueprint poster (the starship fan in me loved this one). A metallic Simian coin (one of the bonus rewards) and an Ape Management patch. Incoming photos below.

The character sheet pad, blue print poster (folded) and Ape Management patch.

The Ape Management patch for size comparison and Simian coin dated with the year 3955.

The front of the blueprints showing the Liberty-Class capsule with game stats.

The back of the poster showing the ANSA Project Liberty details.

The artwork showing the cover of the core rulebook with the patch.

For how much I paid at this backing level (Gama Level), I am really pleased with how much I received from the campaign. I really wish that I would have had the money to get the two other supplements covering the ANSA astronauts and an adventure guide Into the Forbidden Zone. Eventually I’ll pick these up.

As for the hardbound book itself, it was written by Andrew E.C. Gaska and E.L. Thomas. Cover art by Bill Sienkiecz with additional art by Andrew Probert, Chris Moeller, Barron Storey, Erik Gist, Dan Dussault and Colo. The book has a copyright of 2024 with an ISBN of 978-1-962413-03-9 and was released by Magnetic Press Play and West End Games. It is full color with 308 pages and also contains two ribbon bookmarks. One additional comment on the features of the book, it has rounded corners on the open side. At first I thought the book had been damaged until I noticed that all four corners of the hardbound cover were this way. I actually like it.

An interesting, but welcome, design choice.

So now that I have the actual book in my hand (and can experience that new book smell) I’m even more excited about this game. I’ve always loved the classic Planet of the Apes series and I’m very happy that they decided to focus this game on these entries into the franchise. There are several Planet of the Apes comics by Malibu Graphics that I had collected back in the 90’s and I’m starting to wonder if I could homebrew those adventures for this game?

Within the pages of the book I really enjoyed the use of different quotes to add flavor. Some came from the movies themselves, while others appear to be original work (or from other sources I may not be familiar with). While looking at the common situational skill modifiers on page 36, I noticed that the error I had noted in the PDF version of the book (and reported to the publisher) was corrected. I don’t know if they caught it themselves or if I wasn’t the only person who reported it. One of the original aspects of the D6 Star Wars game that thrilled me was the character’s personal quote. It set the tone for the character. I found it interesting that the mute tribal humans also had quotes, in the forms of actions. There are a lot of good charts in this game for creating characters. I may have to steal some of these for NPC traits and quirks creation.

There is a solo adventure in the front of the book. I’ll have to try this out later. There is an introduction adventure in the back of the book, but it’s the same one that was contained in the Quickstart set. I was a little disappointed in this as I run these intro adventures at SaltCON and I was hoping that there would be a new adventure for me to run.

So overall, I’m really happy backing this Kickstarter campaign. I picked up these books because I could see myself playing or even running a campaign. Thanks to the people who put this together. Now has anyone seen my missing astro-nauts?

Do you have any questions about the Planet of the Apes RPG or this Kickstarter campaign? Have you backed any Kickstarters lately? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Humor, Reviews, Role Playing Games

The Monty Python RPG (no it isn’t!) Kickstarter Reward

Written by TardisCaptain July 29, 2025July 29, 2025

The contents of my Kickstart reward package.

All right, I’m sorry to my regular readers. I know that I owe you guys a LOT of catch up articles. Let’s just say that 2025 has been very sucky on a lot of different fronts. So I’m trying to catch up with this and other articles. I’m also going to attempt to participate in the 2025 #RPGaDAY challenge coming up in August. So the first of my catch up articles will be a look at the Monty Python’s ~~Role-Playing~~ Game Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme published by Exalted Funeral.

I had received this package back in January during the middle of the Character Creation Challenge, so I didn’t open it up then. Since those blog entries take up the bulk of my blog time, I elected to wait until later to do a review. Yea, that was a bad idea.

What I saw when I first opened up the shipping box.

This Kickstarter campaign actually started back in October of 2022. Those who had pledged for the physical items also received PDFs of the rules. This is how I was able to make a character for this game in the 2024 Character Creation Challenge. I discussed some of the items from the game in the challenge entry, so I’ll try to concentrate on the physical items that I received as part of the reward. I wasn’t able to get any of the big-ticket items, but I picked up the book, the special dice for the game. Since several stretch goals were met, the physical backers also received coconut dice rollers.

Yes, they make hoof noises when clapped together. I tested them.

You probably can’t see it very well in the photo above, but the game logo is on the inside of the coconut halves. I’ll have a chance to play this game at the upcoming SaltCON End-of-Summer, so I’ll bring both the dice and the dice rollers to use at the table. And speaking of dice… err… Certified Polyhedral Random Number Generators.

The only item that seemed to have a printing error.

Yes, I had to get the dice for the game. No, I don’t have enough dice. While I’m not up to full dice goblin mode, I’m getting closer. I can’t wait to see how these are used in the game.

As for the hardback book itself, it’s beautiful. Brian Saliba and Craig Schaffer are the names posted on the front of the book. The cover art is by Keith Lowe. The ISBN is 979-8-88756-079-3 with a suggested price of $50.00. There are 450 pages with content on both inside covers. There are nine chapters and several appendices and an index. The hardbound book also contains a bookmark ribbon.

The first chapter is “An introduction to cocurricular reenacting” followed by “A brief historical remediation for those who didn’t apply themselves at school.” The third chapter provides the information on how the system works with the “How the programme programmes” and character creation is in the fourth chapter under “Participant Primer.” For the game masters, chapter five gives us “Head of Light Entertainment Handbook” with the “Heads of Light Entertainment Directory” following right after. A whos-who of characters from some different Monty Python films are included in chapter seven’s “Notable Historical Figures” with chapter eight providing “A field guide to creatures, historical, mythical and mundane.” The last chapter contains various “Quests” that the HoLE (aka GM) can use in a campaign. Since I’m going to be playing this RPG soon, I did not read any of these adventures. A character sheet is included (also available for download on the Exalted Funeral website. While I was looking at the book I noticed that they had provided different colored pages for the different chapters. This was also reflected on the edge of the pages for quick searches.

Hopefully the different colored pages show up in this photograph.

While I covered the character creation steps in the 2024 Character Creation Challenge entry, I didn’t really go into detail on the system. Each class… err… situation that the participant (aka character) is a part of has a series of traits. The player describes to the HoLE what their participant is doing and a trait is selected to roll against. Which of the many die is selected depends upon if the participant is being serious or silly. There are also accouterments that may give the participant bonuses to their roll. The HoLE will roll for the opposing NPC or situation. However if the player describes the action well (or silly) enough, then the HoLE may just declare “Intercourse the Dice” and award an automatic success. I’m not certain if I’m describing the basics very well. Perhaps I’ll be able to explain it better after SaltCON. But the feel that I’m getting is that this is has a lot of narrative feel, but keeps the soul of randomness going with the different types of dice.

The traits in the game are Animal Husbandry (aka Animal Handling), Argumentation (aka Debating, but I wanted an argument), Authority (aka Leadership), Bardistry (aka Performance), Chasity (avoiding temptation), Decorum (are you trained to be high class or are you just a peasant), Druidry (healing through nature), Glibness (the ability to use quick wits or not), Heartiness (aka Charisma), Lorefulness (aka Intelligence and Wisdom), Luck (self explanatory), Nimbleness (aka Dexterity), Purpose (aka Force of Will or Faith), Sorcery (There are some that call me… Tim), Strategy (aka Tactical knowledge), Subtlety (aka skills a thief would have), Valour (aka battle skills and bravery), and Wisdom in the Ways of Science (aka Thinking outside the box). Not all situations will have all traits. If the player attempts to use a trait that they don’t have, then they roll the lowest die (d4), but they can still try.

Going through the book there is a ton of in-jokes from the various Monty Python episodes and movies. Primarily it is geared towards The Life of Brian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But fans will notice other entries as well.

I am glad that I backed this Kickstarter campaign. I can’t wait to actually try it out at the table. It will probably be one of the first Kickstarter games that I’ve picked up that I’ll be able to play. So I will hopefully have more to say after SaltCON EoS is over.

Do you have any questions about Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme? Have you backed any Kickstarters lately? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2025 Character Creation Challenge Day 28: Planet of the Apes

Written by TardisCaptain January 28, 2025February 20, 2025

If you are looking for my 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge after action report with completion graphic, it will be posted when I’m caught up from being put behind by real-life events. If you made it to 31 characters, email me or privately contact me on one of the message boards or social media and I’ll make sure you get the graphic. Thank you for participating.

We are in the home stretch for the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge and today we will be using one of my KickStarter rewards with the Planet of the Apes Role Playing Game. I backed at a level where I’ll be getting the physical book when they get it published. But until then, Magnetic Press Play provided a special PDF to the backers so they could see the game now. The PDF of the core rulebook isn’t even available on DriveThruRPG yet. Now I have made some characters previously for games inspired by the Planet of the Apes franchise. In 2021 I made a character for Apes Victorious that I thought was well done so much that I had to do a re-watch of the Planet of the Apes movies. Then earlier in this challenge I made a character for Terra Primate which was… OK.

So, two things I need to say about this game. It’s based off of the PotA movies and TV series from the 60’s and 70’s. Second, the RPG system is a modification of the West End Games D6 system that was used in Star Wars and Ghostbusters. This is called the D6MV (Magnetic Variant). One of the classic attributes, Technical, was removed with the skills moved to Knowledge and Mechanical and a new attribute of Willpower (spirit and mind power) was added. So the current attributes are DEXterity, KNOwledge, MEChanical, PERception, STRength and the aforementioned WILlpower. The skills were also limited to just six per attribute. Also when you roll a pool of D6’s one of them of a different color would be known as the “Irradiated Wild Die” which can provide additional bonuses or boons and can even explode if you roll a 6. So this game felt like I was returning home with how many sessions I played of the D6 Star Wars system.

The first several chapters in the book give a good rundown on how to play the game, a taste of the PotA world (not too much to be overwhelming, but just enough to wet the appetite), and information on the templates used in character creation. The actual steps to create a character are listed on page 106. Step One- choose one of the previously mentioned templates. The book highly recommends that the players make an ape character for the first games. There are information on the various humans and mutant characters that could also be created with additional supplements on the way. After reading through them, I wanted to make one of the Chimpanzees. Specifically an Ape Scientist named Flint. This provided some information on the character such as a Memento (a special piece of equipment that provides a bonus), regular starting equipment and the attributes.

The second step is to select the Character Persona which includes a Quirk, Remarkable Ability and Motive. There is a D66 quirks table on pages 108-9 where you can randomly roll for one. The one that came up is Paranoid. Hmmm…. perhaps Flint had discovered something that would be shocking and is worried that the Orangutans will find out that he knows. By taking a Quirk, I can also select a Remarkable Ability from the next list. I selected Lucky which would allow me to re-roll a 1 on an Irradiated Wild Die. It was probably by luck that Flint found out this deep secret. The Motive is a driving force for the character and is also randomly rolled by a D66. This came up as Selfish. I… don’t know how to fold that into the character yet, but perhaps it would come up in play.

Our third step is to select Flint’s skills. Each new character has 7D to distribute among the different skills with a max of 2D in any one skill. After I picked these the next step was to calculate the SRP defenses. This is the Surprised Defense, Readied Defense and Psyche Defense. These are generated by a mathematical formula based on other stats. I wrote them down on the sheet.

Step five is the fine details. It references the quirk and motives. This is also where the character’s appearance is written down with a random D6 resulting in Bulky. Interesting. Step six is the “time to get connected” step where the backstory of how the different characters in the party connected with each other. As I have no other characters to connect, I tried to ask the voices in my head and several of them talked about how it was time to go to bed. So I’ll skip this part. I think I’m done so I’ll scan the character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

While reading through the PDF during some down time I found a major printing error. So much so that I had to make a screen shot and send it to the publisher. I hope they can correct it in time before the physical publishing goes into effect.

Reading the book, I really wanted to play and run this game. In fact, I am. I’m going to be running the quick start adventure at SaltCON spring in a few weeks.

Additional Notes:

I had one reader respond to my entry of For Gold & Glory where I talked about meeting the minimum requirements for the Illusionist. Apparently the character would have had to meet both requirements listed. Another reader wanted to hear more about a possible Rome inspired campaign, which I’ll admit is pretty tempting. And yet another reader (sorry there were quite a few of you and I’m trying to churn these last posts out as quickly as possible) liked how FG&G used the alternate skill rules that were introduced in AD&D 2nd Edition.

And one last feedback note that I received on The Strange (since I don’t want to seem like I’m beating up on them). I had even more “yea I also had major issues with character creation from this publisher” in a Old Gods of Appalachia game (using the same Cypher System) where it took them 2.5 gaming sessions to make their characters. Yikes!!!!

Coming Up Next:

You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to say this. Red Dwarf The Roleplaying Game

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.