Tag: Modiphius

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

Kudos to Modiphius for Star Trek Adventures

Written by TardisCaptain

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have you encountered smooth transitions between editions of your favorite roleplaying game systems? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Collecting, Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

SaltCON-End of Summer 2025 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain
Loot from SaltCON End-of-Summer 2025

When I was thinking about my after-action reports, I almost combined this one with my RPGaDAY 2025 after-action report. However, I realized that they should remain separate as they were both unique events.

SaltCON End-of-Summer 2025 has completed thanks to the many efforts of the volunteers and staff. Having run conventions in the past, I must tip my hat to them. I was talking with one of the volunteers on Sunday and I could tell they were exhausted. They were happy with how the event went, but very tired. I myself had a blast and I had a lot of opportunities to talk with different gaming friends and throw some dice. I also had the opportunity to use the First Aid Kit that I keep in my Convention Backpack. Nothing serious, but I was glad that I was prepared.

I played the following games:

MechWarrior: Destiny was a lot of fun. It was a rules light system and the scenario was pretty straight forward. Get in my mech, go shoot some pirates that had taken over a corporate base (we were hired because we were the closest). I was pretty impressed with how easy this ran. The tactical combat with the mechs was built more for roleplay, but still utilized a hex map. From what I understood, there are more crunchier versions if you just want to beat up other giant mechs. I had a chance to look at the rule-book while we were sitting at the table and if I can find it for a good price, I’ll be very tempted to pick it up.

Dungeon Crawl Classics was a little different from the last time I played it. Instead of being a funnel, we had established level-3 characters. This was being run by a first-time-at-a-convention GM and we all gave him some positive feedback when the session was over. While I didn’t play a magic-user in this one-shot, I did get to see the magic system in action and it looks funky. The randomness and danger from messing around with magic can be appealing for some gamers, but may push others off. When the adventure was over, my fighter character ended up with the MacGuffin we were after known as ‘The Balance Blade.’

I had some fun with Daggerheart and I was able to get my feet wet with it. I liked some things. The hope and fear dice mechanic was interesting and didn’t really turn me off like I thought it would. We had plenty of roleplaying opportunities in the system. The only thing I really didn’t like was the initiative system. If you succeeded with hope, then your side could keep the initiative, but there was no order to go in so someone could go several times (or pass off between the two). It was only when you succeeded (or failed) with fear did imitative move to the opposing side. Like Mechawarrior above, I was able to look through the rule-book at the table. I’ll pick this up if I can get it on a sale, but I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to get it. I also wouldn’t turn down an invite to a game if presented. There is a metric-butt load of fantasy RPGs out there and so I’m not in a rush to play or homebrew for most of them.

My Sunday morning game of Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Prpogramme lived up to the hype. The GM was running it for the first time after picking up the book and our marry troupe was sent by God to spank the Pope because he had been a naughty boy. Now that I’ve had a chance to see the system at the table, I can also say this works for the source material. I could see this system being used for Blackadder as well. One interesting note, the GM didn’t provide pre-generated characters so we had to roll up some before starting the game. Instead of making a new one, he let me play Sir Richard Hammond that I had created in a past Character Creation Challenge. Because I had the unusual dice from the Kickstarter Reward, I had lots of request to use them. But only I used the Coconut Dice Rollers.

I had players for all three of the games that I ran over the weekend:

Basic Fantasy went off better than I expected since this was a home-made adventure. The characters were able to find the missing Guildmaster and complete his quest. I want to polish up the adventure and run it one more time before I submit it to the Basic Fantasy community for possible publication.

This was the most unusual time that I’ve ever run Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition (or any STA game). Because it was a Klingon based scenario where the squad was sent to infiltrate a Dominion outpost during the Dominion War, there was a lot of combat. I GMed more combat in this one-shot more than any of my other STA one-shots combined. I will need to go back and re-read some of the combat rules and probably ask a few questions on the Modiphius discord server. But the characters survived and completed the objective.

I really wish that I had a physical copy of the Space: 1999 Quickstart Rules as I was running the scenario from it. I didn’t want to print out too much from the book as it was graphic heavy (and would have eaten up a lot of the ink in my printer). So I was using the PDF on my tablet which meant a lot of scrolling. Most of the players were familiar with Star Trek Adventures, so I was able to read off some of the slight differences in the rules out loud. And they made sense. Two of the things that I really liked in the rules I plan to adapt to my STA games. When I reported on the Modiphius discord server the results of one of the characters using a photo of his family to calm down a panicked crew member, the writer of the game gave me a thumbs up. The team had lots of fun and one participant played the Space: 1999 opening and closing themes at the appropriate moments in the game. I even got an email from one of the players a few days later telling me how much fun he had at the table.

While I was running Space: 1999, I had someone come up to the table and ask if I’d be willing to run games as a paid GM. I signed up for more information, but I’m kinda-sorta hesitant about making a hobby into a paid thing. I’m sure I’d have fun, but I’d hate to take something fun and turn it into work. I may have to investigate this more.

One of the big reasons to attend a gaming convention is to make connections. Talking with one GM he mentioned that he only ran games that were in print for purchase. He was worried that a player would want a copy of a game after his session. I understood this as I overheard two of my STA players at the Summer SaltCON say they wanted to pick up the 2nd edition core rule-book after playing. Both myself and another player encouraged him to run any game that he wanted to play. Part of the reason to play at a con is to play those games you don’t get a chance to play elsewhere. At past SaltCONs I’ve had a chance to play older out-of-print games like James Bond, Ghostbusters and Red Dwarf. I didn’t get a chance to play, but I passed a table where they were playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition.

A merchant that sells roleplaying books would be smart to find out what games are being ran at SaltCON and sell them at a vendor’s table. I know there has been a few times that I was tempted to pick up a game right after finishing a game. Had Mechawarrior: Destiny been within reach, I would have been seriously tempted to buy it.

Speaking of loot from the con. You can see what I picked up at the convention in the photo above. The Fallout Starter Set was in the game swap (still sealed and a very good price). The convention usually gives away a freebie game to attendees and this time around it was a card game called Flip 7. The family looked interested in trying it out. As a thank you gift for GMing, I was gifted the core rule-book for a game I didn’t know existed. It was called Rivers of London by Chaosium and was based off of a series of novels called, you guessed it, Rivers of London. It reminded me of The Dresden Files but with police officers investigating wizards and magic crimes. And the convention t-shirt had a robot playing a game on a red background.

Overall I had a ton of fun. I can see where the organizers are putting their heart and soul into a gaming convention like this one. The next SaltCON is the big one in the spring and will be held at the same Davis Convention Center on March 12-14. I’ve been trying to recruit some friends to come and GM at the convention because I think they would have fun as well.

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, Conventions, Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Star Wars

RPGaDAY2025 Day 29: Connect

Written by TardisCaptain

It’s time to link up for Day 29 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge and our topic is ‘connect’. Roleplaying games are social events. Sure, there are solo games, and video games. But when it comes down to it, sitting around a table and seeing the faces of the other players, hearing the inflection in their voices, making memories, it’s infectious. It is one of the main reasons we play our different games. We get to geek out with someone that has a common bond. We get to yell at little pieces of plastic when they don’t roll the right number. We get to wear robes and chant from ancient texts… wait, did I give away too much? (No, that doesn’t happen. Bad Carl for making a joke again.)

So, how do you connect with other gamers. Well in this day and age, it’s a lot easier than it was previously. Here are a few suggestions to connect with fellow dice throwers.

Go to your local game store. Most game stores worth their salt will have events where you can meet up. The more people play the game, the more games that they can sell. Sure, a lot of their gaming events are of the collectible card variety. But most will allow you to schedule an RPG session or two there. Meeting in a public place may get you some additional players for your campaigns as people may be more comfortable than going to someone’s home that they don’t know. I’ve also noticed a trend that more smaller game stores are setting up discord servers as a way to connect members of the gaming community together. Some may have Facebook pages, but there’s been a bit of a push back on using that social media platform with the weird algorithms that they keep pushing.

If there is a gaming convention near you, check it out. My time at SaltCON has lead to exchanging information with a lot of local gamers. It also included a one-shot invitation to a D6 Star Wars RPG by WEG and writers sending me their games to get my feedback. And, as I’ve recently said, I really needed the community at SaltCON during this troubling year.

I mentioned discord earlier. There are a lot of discord servers that are put out for the gaming community. I even have one for my blog that is gaining some traction (thanks guys). Several publishers have their own discord servers. I’ve received some feedback from publishers to my reviews and Character Creation Challenge entries via discord. I know that Basic Fantasy still uses a message board. Two good message boards with lots of activity is the one on RPG.net and RPGPub. And yes, even with the pitfalls that Facebook has, there are a lot of gaming sites on it. I’m on some of the MeWe gaming groups, but that hasn’t caught as much attention. And I’ve been very impressed with the gaming community on BlueSky. All of these have options to find players in your area. When I posted on the Modiphius discord server that I was running a Star Trek Adventures 2e one-shot, a gentleman from two counties distant drove up to play. If I had access to these resources in the 90’s (the closest we came were local BBSes) I would have loved it.

And probably the best way to get someone to game with you is talk with your friends. Pick an RPG system that you can explain the rules in under two minutes and show your excitement for the game. If the rules are too complex to explain, they might not jump on board as fast. But try to emphasize the fun that can be had around the table.

Are there other methods that you’d recommend for connecting with fellow RPG gamers? 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: Conventions, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

Prepping for SaltCON End-of-Summer 2025

Written by TardisCaptain
I might need to use this book this weekend.

The end of August is almost upon us and that means that SaltCON End-of-Summer is just around the corner running during from August 29-31st at the Davis Conference Center in Layton. There are still tickets available if you want to stop check it out. Use the code SUMMEREND for a discount price (not valid after August 28th)

I volunteered to run three different games this year. I’m also signed up to play in three games that I’ve never played before and I’ll be re-visiting a game that I’d love to play in a campaign. I will also be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented about in a previous blog post.

Games that I’ve volunteered for include Basic Fantasy 4th Edition (The Guildmaster’s Quest) and Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition (a new Klingon scenario, which was wildly popular last time I ran one of this style). The new game that I’m going to be running at this con is the new Space: 1999 roleplaying game by Modiphius. The amazing thing that shocked me is, the Space: 1999 session is already sold out and it’s my Sunday game. Usually that is the one that doesn’t sell out. At the time I was typing this blog post up, my other two games only had two seats left each.

For the games that I’ve signed up for, my only repeat system is Dungeon Crawl Classics that I will be playing on Friday. I like that this is a D20 clone (with some twists) and has a zero-level funnel. This DCC one-shot will be level three characters.

Of the three other games that I’ve signed up for, they are all new to me. I made sure to give myself breaks between games so that I can get a lunch (I did that wrong one year, wow won’t make that mistake again). The first of the new games is MechWarrior: Destiny. This is in the BattleTech universe. While I was aware of it in the 90’s because it was also published by FASA, I steered clear of it as I could have seen myself making a collection of different Mech stats in a three-ringed binder like I did with the FASA Star Trek starships.

If you’ve been watching a lot of the RPG video podcasts you’ve probably been hearing about a new game called Daggerheart from Critical Role Productions. Well I signed up for a demo to check this out and see what the hype is about.

And finally I backed the Kickstarter for the Monty Python Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme. Well now I’m going to have a chance to play it at the table. When I wrote my review linked above, I on-purpose did not read any of the scenarios within the book just in case one of them was used at the con. I can’t wait to see this game in action and to use the special coconut dice-rollers that came with my reward.

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

What should I be on the look out for? Any recommendations for the games I’m going to be playing? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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

RPGaDAY2025 Day 28: Suspense

Written by TardisCaptain

So, what do we have here for Day 28 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge? A topic of ‘suspense’. According to Dictionary.com the definition of suspense is “a state or condition of mental uncertainty or excitement, as in awaiting a decision or outcome, usually accompanied by a degree of apprehension or anxiety. It can also be a state of mental indecision or the state of being suspended.


I’d like to invite you to my future blog post about suspense that will be published later.

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No, I guess that joke won’t fly as well will it. I seriously considered making that the blog post.

Trying to come up with the text for this post that doesn’t automatically reach for the “how do you have suspense in your game” was something I struggled with. I’m not big on the suspense expected in horror games. How can you experience the emotion of horror when you are comfortably sitting around the gaming table with your friends in a safe and relaxing location?

Perhaps I should run with the last part of the definition that is posted above. The state of being suspended. In my post about ‘tactics’ I mentioned how a poorly executed plot conclusion from a GM ended the FASA Star Trek game that I was in. That was a bad way to suspend a campaign. Occasionally, there is a human-interest story that talks about a D&D campaign that has lasted for 20 or 30 years. I think the reason these are interesting is due to our real-world experiences with RPG campaigns. The Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign that lasted a few years was highly enjoyable. I was able to get a character from the lower levels to a higher one through the experience point process. It was kewl to see the character getting increasingly powerful. But suddenly the DM stated that the campaign was ending soon (this was 2019) and that we would pick it up again later after we had taken a break. We were looking forward to getting back together again and added it to the curses we give the year 2020.

Should a GM plan for an end to the campaign? If yes, should the GM announce it at the beginning of the game that there would be an endpoint to reach? How is the best way to do this?

I think it depends upon the game that is being played. Dungeons and Dragons, or most fantasy systems, could go on for quite some time (as demonstrated in the articles mentioned above). But once the characters have made a certain level, perhaps it’s time to retire them. Make them NPCs that the new characters hear about, work for, use as patrons, fight against, etc. This could make the game world continue to grow and expand.

Sticking with D&D, there are some published modules that are a campaign unto itself. B# The Lost City is one that I’d love to run. Basic Fantasy released a campaign called “Morgansfort: The Western Lands Campaign”. At a past SaltCON I picked up two boxed sets by Goodman Games called “The Heroes Arise” and “Saga of the Dragon Cult” which contained several individual modules that took the characters from first level to tenth by the end of the campaign.

Another game that has a different thought process is Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition. This is an episode simulator, not a tactical simulator like D&D. The adventure is broken down into 3-4 scenes just like an episode is. Because it is episodic, the GM could plan a season of 10+ episodes with a possible season ending story arc. Then, just like in the TV series, there could be a ‘summer break’ with some changes made to the ‘show’ when it returns for another season. I recall in one fan-made Star Trek RPG called Where No One Has Gone Before, they had a ratings system for the ‘episodes’ and if they were not high enough, there were charts with changes from the studio owners to try to boost the ratings. It looked silly, but I don’t know if I’d ever try to implement it at the table. I wonder if the ratings were low enough, then the series could be canceled? And if so, perhaps there could be a game where a letter-writing campaign by fans could bring the ‘show’ back?

Have you experienced a good or bad suspension to a campaign? Have you planned for a campaign suspension? 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

RPGaDAY2025 Day 20: Enter

Written by TardisCaptain 2 Comments on RPGaDAY2025 Day 20: Enter

On Day 20 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge our topic is “enter”. What do you usually do when you are entering a location? Well, most of the time you are entering through a door. This is the angle I wanted to blog from because getting past a door has been one of the examples that I’ve used to explain a roleplaying game system to new players. Especially for a simple one-shot game like those played at SaltCON or at my local gaming store.

One of the games that I’ve GMed quite a few times for these one-shots is Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition. When explaining the rules, the first thing that I say is that this game is an episode simulator, not a tactical simulator. Then the second thing explain is how the 2d20 system works. After talking about the attributes and the departments developing your target number based on your action, I bring up the challenge. The characters trying to get past the door that is between them and their objective. Perhaps they are being pursued by an enemy, or someone on the other side of the door is critically injured, etc. In STA2e, your character sheet doesn’t define what steps you can or can’t take, the player does. You see the door in front of you, it has these traits (reinforced, computerized, looks frail, strong lock, etc.) what do you do? One character may try to break down the door. In that case as the GM, I’d tell them what attribute and department to use for your target number and how many successes that need to be rolled. If the door was reinforced, the target number would be higher, if it was already damaged, it could be lower. Another character may try to pick the lock, check out the computer controls for the door (if present), try to communicate through the door to guide someone through the process of unlocking the door, etc. Again, I like the ability for the player to decide instead of the character sheet. At the last SaltCON a father and son team heard this explanation, was quickly able to get into their first STA2e game and enjoyed themselves. Even the son was asking if they could pick up the core rulebook after the one-shot. I was quite proud when I heard that.

Are there other games that have similar concepts of allowing the players to get past the door in any method of their choosing? While I’m certain that most experienced players can come up with ideas of their own, I’m looking for systems that actively encourage this thinking. While I haven’t played it yet, I’m eager to try the Siege system used for Castles and Crusades. It’s a D20 system, but the character has two (or three) primary ability scores that when used in a skill test, has a lower base target number to reach. A character can try to use a skill that would fit a non-primary ability, but the base target number would be higher. Then that target number is adjusted based upon the traits of the scene (like a door being reinforced instead of barely holding on its hinges).

I know I’ve seen other games like this, but in the short amount of time that I have to write this blog post, I can’t do a deep dive into them all. But like that father and son team, I hope that it gives players a chance to enter into a system that they really like.

Feedback from LelxTenebris on Mastodon: @TardisCaptain Did you know that Gallant Knight Games is putting together a new edition of the D6 System? The Kickstarter definitely funded, and if you take a look at it, there is guaranteed to be a module which is essentially Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off. My suspicion is that this is going to probably be the best choice for classic WEG-style Star Wars play, if that’s the kind of mechanics that you want to go for. I was not down for the Fantasy Flight version, specifically for the custom dice, which I thought was way too fiddly and ignores the fact that pretty much everyone already has some dice. At this point, if I wanted to play a Star Wars game, I would probably either break out Scum and Villainy if I was interested in playing/GMing for a group, or just Starforged and go with the narrative framework.

Are there other RPG systems that you could explain using the door example? Do you like the idea of the players trying to enter past a door as a way to explain the system to them? 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, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2025 Day 8: Explore

Written by TardisCaptain 1 Comment on RPGaDAY2025 Day 8: Explore

The prompt of ‘Explore’ is being used for the Day 8 entry of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge. There were quite a few blog posts that came up about setting up a game for the players to explore distant lands or strange new worlds. But when I was thinking about this topic, I looked within. I like exploring some of the different roleplaying game systems that are out there. How are they different? What twist was added to a similar system like D20? Does the system make sense for the genre it’s used for?

So, how do I explore these different systems? Well, I’ve been approaching this in different ways.

First and foremost is to just sit and read the book. When I’m doing this, I find that physical books are better for the first read through. Then when I’m doing research or in a game, PDFs and their quick search features are very handy. Most RPG books are well written enough to explain the system without making me want to claw my eyes out. Then there are others that I just toss the book to the side and say ‘nope’. The two examples of bad books are The Strange and my big disappointment known as The Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game (sigh). There are badly organized books with good systems such as the first edition Star Trek Adventures core rulebook that made me want to re-write it. I am very grateful that the people behind this game took the fans feedback to heart and made vast improvements with the release of Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition. The system is nearly identical, but the presentation was much easier to read and understand. I give thanks to them for being willing to listen to the fans.

Another method of exploring new systems has been creating characters for the annual Character Creation Challenge. I’ve noticed that the better written books give you enough information about the system so that you can make good decisions while creating your character. Then it can do a deeper dive into the system farther into the book for clarity. I’ve mentioned before that a good RPG book will give me a quick one-minute pitch on how the game is played so I can try to talk friends into trying it at the table. Plus, if I can tell them how easy it is to make a character, the more likely they may take me up on that gaming offer.

And sometimes the best way to explore a new system is to just sit down and play it. At SaltCON, I try to sign up for at least one game that I’ve never played before just to learn the system. What has really been cool is that several designers have brought their own games to the convention for players to check out. I’ve had a lot of fun asking the designers questions after they have run their one-shots.

What methods have you used to explore a new gaming system? 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, Red Dwarf, Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2025 Day 1: Patron

Written by TardisCaptain

Welcome to the month of August. I didn’t get a chance to do a “Prepping for…” blog post (damn real life getting in the way) but I’m planning to participate in the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge as coordinated by David F. Chapman. As you can see in the image above, there are 31 different topics to inspire discussion. There are also additional Questions, Moods and Subjects. I might use these if the topic fails to get my fingers typing. This morning I’ve had a chance to read a few other blog posts that were participating and I think it triggered some ideas in my brain. So, without further adieu, here is my first entry.

Patron: For some, this term evokes the Warlock Class from the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons. A spell-caster has a pact with some sort of patron that provides them with the power to use as they see fit. Another use of the term Patron is the subscription service that I see advertised on various websites, podcasts, blogs and videographers. I haven’t really used this service as a sender or a receiver. What are your impressions of this? The Merriam-Webster dictionary tells us that a patron can be a special guardian, protector or supporter.

The inspiration that hit me while reading the other entries was the player character being a patron. Not just giving someone else ‘power’ but more like a mentor position. Consider the following ideas:

The Wanna-Be Magician: What if a mid-to-high level non-Warlock magic-user suddenly found out that someone wants to learn the ways of sorcery (or Jedi powers) from them? Perhaps this person was assigned to them by a guild or magic school so they couldn’t just dismiss the person outright. Perhaps this apprentice could be an eager beaver wanting to impress their superiors, a brat of a rich family who thinks that they are already destined for greatness, someone scared of the powers they might obtain, etc. The NPC options are endless and could make for an interesting addition to a mid-to-high level magic-user.

The Voices in my Head: I’ve thought about springing this on players previously, but it never came up in a scenario that it could be properly role-played. The player character (could be any genre) reaches for an ancient artifact, statue, scroll, tchotchke and gets an electric shock. When they recover, they can hear a voice in their head of a long lost archeologist/wizard/supernatural being/etc. that only they can hear. I wanted to have this happen to a strong non-learning character (barbarian, mercenary, etc.) on purpose. Perhaps they felt the stronger character would protect their conscious/spirit/??? and help them achieve their goals. Not following the instructions of the voice, could lead to madness, but the voice could be helpful in sticky situations.

The Next Next Generation: For Star Trek Adventures or any space opera style game with a structured fleet, the characters could be assigned a junior officer that they need to mentor. Like the Command Training Program or younger Ensigns asking Lieutenants for help as seen on Star Trek: Lower Decks. Space navies always need to have officers fresh out of the academy mentored by seasoned officers in real-world scenarios.

Training the Peaceful Villagers: “Across that valley lies an army of darkness such as mankind has never seen. The only thing between them and total victory is this pathetic pocket of resistance. Without a leader, without a plan. Into this bleak arena steps a man, the man for the moment.” Rimmer- Meltdown, Red Dwarf Series IV, Episode 6. The characters can be samurai, gunfighters or even an obnoxious, trumped-up, farty little smeghead who need to train a group of common people into a fighting force. They may not be much of a fighting force, but with the character’s help, they just might pull it off. And who knows, if they survive, perhaps they will want to become followers of the seven… err… characters.

Are there other ideas? Did I miss a possible patron opportunity to put the characters into? 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: Anime, Character Creation Challenge, Collecting, Conventions, Pirates, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

SaltCON-Summer 2025 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain
Loot from SaltCON 2025 Summer.

I’m writing this the day after SaltCON-Summer 2025. Let’s just say I’m really happy that I was smart enough to take the Monday after the convention off. It gave me a chance to not only unwind from the very busy weekend, but get somethings done that I usually do on Saturday or Sunday to prep for my next week. I’m also very happy for the time I spent at the convention. Thank you to those who gave me hugs. I hope you realize how much this is helping me keep my spirits up. I also had one of my readers come up and tell me that he enjoyed my blog posts. Thank you. I know that recent posts have been rare, but I’m going to keep going. I do have plans to participate in the upcoming RPGaDAY 2025 activity this August. I also still owe you guys different reviews and first-looks at some of the KickStarter rewards that I’ve received.

As you can see from the loot photo above, I was able to pick up a few items. SaltCON has always had a good t-shirt design for each event. This year seems to be following the cyberpunk genre. I had some money to pick up both the current con shirt, but the spring shirt as well that I missed out on a few months ago. One of the nice things that SaltCON does is sell the older con shirts at a discount. When I picked up my badge, I was notified that I was one of the random winners of the game giveaway. Out of the two possible options, Chicken Time Warp sounded like fun. And since it was the size of a deck of cards, it wouldn’t take up too much room in my convention backpack. There was a dealer that had a sale on geeky pins, I picked up some that said “Dungeon Master”, “I’m not procrastinating, I’m doing side quests”, “Sarcasm +5” and “I don’t have any ducks in a row. I have squirrels and they are at a rave.” I also received a couple of thank you prizes for running games that included the RPG Attack from Space (medieval knights vs. invading aliens from outer space) and a mug that says “DnD Diplomacy, Persuasion, Deception, Intimidation, FIREBALL.” I’ll be using the mug for my end-of-day sleepytime tea and I’ll be using Attack from Space as one of my entries in the 2026 Character Creation Challenge.

Posters made by the con to advertise my games.

I was scheduled to run three games at SaltCON-Summer 2025. I’m not sure if it was karma for dropping out of some games at the spring event, or if I simply waited too long to submit my events and got stuck with bad time slots—but unfortunately, no one showed up for my Basic Fantasy and Teenagers from Outerspace sessions. I did get a chance to run the TfOS game at The Queen’s Realm a few weeks ago (in preparation for the con) but I also put a lot of effort into the home-brewed Basic Fantasy adventure. So I may make another attempt with one or both games at a future convention.

The Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition game. Let’s just say that the players and I were laughing and having a very good time with the scenario. Probably one of the best one-shots that I’ve ran in quite some time. We even ended up with a “There I was…” type of story out of it. Long story short, the players were disguised on a planet with a pre-warp civilization. The Prime Directive was in full effect, but the players had found themselves in a dangerous situation where the villagers were chasing some of them. One player hid in a merchant’s shop and wanted to use his back door. The merchant, wanting to make a sale, said that he was willing to allow paying customers slip out the back door. The character had not thought to bring any of the local currency with them when they went into the village, so he accepted the offer to trade his hat, for one of the agrarian level hand tools. The moment he had made the exchange, I spent a level of threat and reminded him that the hat had been replicated with his advanced technology. While it was an imitation of the local headgear the natives wore, it wasn’t the same material. There was another PC in the store with him so he couldn’t just say he had lost it. This put the player in a panic and we ended up spending an extra amount of time over this one plot point and the hand-wringing it brought about. Was this a violation of the Prime Directive like Dr. McCoy leaving his communicator behind on Sigma Iotia II? When they rejoined the Commander leading the expedition, I did give him a chance to notice the missing headgear, which he did which lead to further awkward. When the game was over and I asked for feedback from the players, one of the first-time players said he was glad that I had used the threat in-game currency (which I had on several different times) to spice up the scenario. Some of these I only came up with on the fly during the course of play. Another first-time player stated he now needed to go out and pick up the core rulebook because of how much fun he had. Had there been a merchant at the con selling books for the games being run, they would have made a sale. Jim J, if you or any of your team are reading this, just know that the first time players picked up the system very easily and had a great time around the table playing your game.

Some of the characters I played this weekend.

For the first time ever, all of the games that I participated in as a player was completely new to me. Usually I just try to get one or two in so I can try out different systems. Two of the games were played with the actual designers who had attended to show off their works.

Shadowdark: This was an interesting game since we were playing zero-level characters in a funnel similar to the kind I experienced in Dungeon Crawl Classics. Every single one of my randomly pulled characters only had one hit point, so I went through a stack of them trying to get out. What made this D20 clone interesting is that none of the PC races had any type of infravision or dark vision. So if our light source went out, we were at a disadvantage. The timer would run in real time and to demonstrate this, an hourglass was placed on the table that would match one hour. This made for a very interesting scenario that I’m glad that I tried out. I wouldn’t turn down a Shadowdark session if an invite was extended and I’m interested in seeing the character creation rules.

Pirate Borg: Another game that I’ve been hearing a lot about and that I’m hoping I can pick up for a future Character Creation Challenge. Ran by the same GM who ran the Shadowdark game earlier. The character was higher than level 0, and thus a little bit more hardier. All of the players got into the pirate theme of the game (one even kept talking with a Jersey accent the entire time) which added to the enjoyment. One of the players ended up getting killed at the very last second of the game which showed me how weird this game could be. Again, I wouldn’t turn down a chance to play it again.

Untold: This is a fantasy game that uses D12s. A LOT of D12s. It kind of reminded me of the 2d20 system where you have target numbers based off of skills and attributes, but you had to roll over the target number. Which wasn’t easy to do sometimes. I played a barbarian so I didn’t get a chance to try the unusual magic system, but it wasn’t Vancian. It was interesting to try the game and a lot of players got into their characters. This was one of the creator run sessions.

EverReach: This is a science fiction/cyberpunkish game with the designer of the game. The system was pretty easy to follow along as it only used D6s with the ability to swap out one of the D6s rolled (by the player or GM). We played an independent crew that was hired by a corporation to perform a smash and grab. As the players, we spent the bulk of the session planning out the heist and bouncing ideas off of each other. How were we going to get past the defenses and neutralize the third-party gang hired to protect the server we were after? How were we going to extract ourselves? Because we did a bunch of planning (something I had experienced in a past Spycraft game) there wasn’t a lot of rolling until the very end. So I got a little taste of it. But I’m going to be doing a deeper dig on this game as a review in a future blog post.

The Expanse: So I had only seen the pilot episode of this hard sci-fi TV series, but it turns out the game is based off of the books (it’s a rights thing). So there was still a lot of explaining to the newbies at the table like myself. There were different factions controlling different parts of the Sol System and there was no FTL in this universe. The main reason I wanted to play this game is to try the Age System that comes up in Fantasy Age and Modern Age. The dice roll mechanics was easy to get down, but there were pages and pages of stunts that each character could pull from when they ended up with special Stunt Points. So we were continuously looking through these pages to see what fit the situation we currently found ourselves in. In the end, we completed the mission in style due to these stunt points, but I’m going to have to go back and take a deeper dive into the Age books that I own to see if I’d want to do anything further with this system. Something I don’t know if I would have noticed without getting my hands dirty with it.

So in conclusion, I had a ton of fun (again) at SaltCON. Yes, the summer event is smaller than the spring one. But there were a couple of temping RPG pickups at the swap meet and game exchange. If there is a regular RPG book seller who’s looking for a market, this convention could easily make you a lot of sales especially if you had the books for the games being run at the con. As I was writing this blog post, one of the con-organizers posted on FaceBook that this had been the highest attended SaltCON-Summer ever. Once again, a big shout-out should go to the other attendees, volunteers and organizers for putting this together. As someone who has retired from the con-chair business, I know how much effort is put into these events. It was noticed and appreciated.

SaltCON-End of Summer is coming up on August 28-31 at the Davis Convention Center in Layton, Utah. Currently I’m planning to attend and run some RPG one-shots. Let me know if you plan to go so I can meet up with you.

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: Anime, Conventions, Pirates, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

Prepping for SaltCON Summer 2025

Written by TardisCaptain 1 Comment on Prepping for SaltCON Summer 2025
The games I’ll be running at SaltCON-Summer 2025.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been several months since SaltCON-Spring ended. With how busy, hectic and downright painful that this year has been, I really need a geek-out break. And here comes SaltCON-Summer to deliver. I will be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented in a previous blog post.

So I’ve signed up again to run several games so that both my wife and I can attend. But one of the things I (tried) to do differently this time around was pre-run some of the games that I plan to run. While I’ve I’ve ran Basic Fantasy 4th Edition and Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition several times before, this is the first time that I’m running Teenagers from OuterSpace. Yes, I’m running an odd-ball game again like I did with the Wendy’s Roleplaying Game in the spring. The reason I do this is to make the con memorable for someone. Sure you’ll find a bunch of the games that you can find in the big box stores at the con, but seeking out that game that you don’t normally get to play may be just as enjoyable. And for me, it’s just as enjoyable to try to run something different.

I was able to secure a table for three different nights at The Queen’s Realm, a nearby gaming/geek store and event center. My scheduled date for my Basic Fantasy test run had to be postponed because of the passing of my 95-year old grandmother. I was able to make it for Teenagers from OuterSpace and Star Trek 2e. Of those two, only Teenagers actually happened (not enough players for STA2e unfortunately as several people had to back out). I’m hoping that the test run will help me run a better scenario at the con.

So what games did I sign up to play? Well all of them are games that I’ve never played before. These include ShadowDark, Pirate Borg, Untold, EverReach (a game that I’m currently reviewing for a blog post) and The Expanse. I think this is the first time it’s been all new-to-me games. This should make for an interesting after-action report.

As mentioned before (and probably demonstrated by the lack of blog posts which has bugged me very much) I really needed a relaxing weekend. If you are coming, please walk up and say “Hi”. At the spring event several people came up and gave me hugs and greetings which really helped lift my spirits.

What should I be on the look out for? Any recommendations for the games I’m going to be playing? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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