Tag: Modiphius

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

60 Years of Star Trek and Fandom Intertwined

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are your greatest Star Trek fandom memories? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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

SaltCON-End of Summer 2026 After Action Report

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do you have any questions about the convention weekend? This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Conventions, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

Prepping for SaltCON End-of-Summer 2026

Written by TardisCaptain

After a busy busy month with the RPGaDAY entries, it is now time to attend the 2026 SaltCON End-of-Summer at the Davis Convention Center in Layton, Utah. The last I checked, there were still tickets available if you wanted to come roll some dice. I will also be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented about in a previous blog post.

I’ve volunteered once again to help spread the RPG love. Basic Fantasy, Star Trek Adventures and my odd-ball game for this time around is Mutant Crawl Classics. And since you can reserve your spots in advance, I can say that the MCC game on Sunday is already full. As I mentioned in my USS Magnanimous Episode 2 Play Report, I’ll be running a Star Trek adventure that I used with my local gaming group.

The games that I’ve signed up for include Shadowrun Anarchy. I’ve created a character for this cyberpunk game, but I’ve never played it at the table. I’ll be participating in a play test as well with one of the designers at the con for a game called SCP. I’ll post more about it in the after-action report. I’ve got a slot signed up for a Dungeon Crawl Classics game titled Emirikol Was Framed. The next game is Through the Breach which is some sort of wild-west/magic mix game with cards. It will be interesting to try something new. The last game that I’ve signed up to play is called Starship Infernum. A space-horror-Survival setting. I think that DCC is the only game that I’ve played before and that makes me happy. One of the things I try to do at gaming conventions is to try out a system or two that I’ve never played before.

Considering how bad this year has been, I don’t think I’ll be spending a lot at the convention this weekend. But I am very much looking forward to seeing some old friends and meeting new ones. Once again I’d like to give a tip of the hat to the volunteers and coordinators for SaltCON. I hope you realize how much these events are helping me out this year. I’m looking forward to leaving the real world behind when I enter the convention center doors. I’ll see you there. If you are coming to the convention, please come up and say Hi. I’ve met a few readers of this blog face-to-face at this event.

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: Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

STA Play Report- USS Magnanimous Episode 2

Written by TardisCaptain

Star Trek Adventures- USS Magnanimous episode two play report

Wait, Carl, I don’t see the play report for episode one of the USS Magnanimous STA game that you ran. Did I miss it?
Nope, you didn’t miss it. The reason I haven’t posted it yet is because it is the same adventure that I’ll be running at the upcoming SaltCON End-of-Summer event. I know some of the SaltCON attendees read my blog, so I’ll have to post that later.

Today’s episode- The Taylor Incident

Read More “STA Play Report- USS Magnanimous Episode 2”

Posted in: Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2026 Day 27: What is your Star Trek game hungry for?

Written by TardisCaptain

Day 27 Prompt: Hunger
Week 5 Prompt: Emotion
Weekday Prompt: Far to Go

The prompt of “Hunger” is what we’ve been given for Day 27 of the RPGaDAY 2026 Challenge. And I had to wonder how I was going to connect a generic term to a positive post about roleplaying. Then it dawned on me, when you are hungry, you eat. And while eating is a natural biological function, it is also a social opportunity. Every year my Star Trek fan club host the Admiral’s Banquet to celebrate the club’s anniversary and to highlight the member achievements. It’s now a tradition to get together and break bread with members of our Star Trek family.

We’ve seen similar traditions in the show. So today I’d like to talk about some of the traditions seen on the show and how they can be implemented in your Star Trek Adventures campaign. Some of these are food related, some are not. This gives the gamemaster the options to introduce some role-playing opportunities at the table.

The first tradition that came to mind when I saw the prompt hunger is from The Next Generation second season episode “A Matter of Honor”. Commander Riker is transferring to the Klingon Defense Force vessel IKV Pagh as part of an exchange program. He will be serving as the vessel’s executive officer. He participates in the practice of the feast before the transfer to try some Klingon dishes.

If an officer is transferring to a planetary assignment, they could use this feast to learn about the local dishes. I could see an eager young ensign using this feast to learn about the traditional dishes from the home region of his new commanding officer. Confirming what those dishes are (or the favorite dishes) could lead into a B-plot similar to Ensign Sato being assigned to find out what Lt. Reed’s favorite food is in the Enterprise first season episode “Silent Enemy”.

We saw even more food-based rituals when we saw Cadet Uhura attending her first meal at the Captain’s Table in the first season Strange New Worlds episode “Children of the Comet”. Welcoming banquets have been seen in “Journey to Babel” (TOS season 2), “Sins of the Father” (TNG season 3) and more.

Now not all of these traditions require physical sustenance. In the first season Strange New Worlds episode “Spock Amok” we learn about Enterprise Bingo. A list of challenges that lower ranking crewmembers try to accomplish without their superiors catching them in the act. It is very possible that each Starfleet vessel has its own bingo traditions. While there is a list of the Enterprise entries in the link above, here are some possible suggestions for a bingo list.

  • Sneaking into a ceremony or banquet that they were not invited to.
  • Touching the warp core.
  • Find the ‘sweet spot’ on the vessel.
  • Make it from Deck 1 to Engineering without using the turbolifts.
  • Swim in Cetacean Ops.
  • Find the oldest food recipe in the replicator.
  • Hide your signature in a space you don’t think anyone will find it.
  • Spend one minute alone on the bridge.
  • Change the ringtone on a crewmember’s combadge without them noticing.

There is a current naval tradition called “Crossing the Line.” Sailors who travel over the equator transform from Pollywogs to Shellbacks in a ceremony held on the ship. A Shellback is someone who has been accepted by King Neptune. Well, there isn’t really an equator in space, but there is the border between the Alpha and Beta quadrants. This could be called “Crossing the Divide” with an initiation process that marks the crewmembers as “Wayfarers.”

And sometimes new traditions starts on a lone vessel. This could spread to other vessels with transfers and interactions with fellow Starfleet ships. In the Deep Space Nine sixth season episode “Behind the Lines”, there was a crew practice held at the end of a successful mission with the used power cells from the phaser array. Rather than recycling them immediately, the spent power cells became visible reminders of what the crew had endured together.

In your Star Trek Adventures game, look for opportunities for the players to create their own traditions like this for their characters. After each successful cargo haul, the crew has to drink a certain brand of Saurian brandy. What happens if they are getting low on that brand? For each new first-contact, how would the crew want to mark the occasion? The options are endless.

So, are your players hungry for something that makes your sessions actual Star Trek episodes with an “A” plot and a “B” plot? See what traditions you can shuffle into the adventure.

What traditions would you have on your Starfleet vessel? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Campaign Update: STA and C&C

Written by TardisCaptain
These are the adventures of the USS Magnanimous.

So apparently I am insane enough that I’ve been busy working on my two new campaigns (and getting ready for SaltCON End-of-Summer) that I haven’t blogged about them yet. So this is a quick catch up on what has happened so far.

Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition:

We held a session zero where the players made their characters for the Starfleet game. We are going to run a six-episode season and then re-evaluate from there (keep going, change eras, etc.). We will be playing in the “Lost Era” just after the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and before the end of the 23rd century. We did have one more player drop out, but that left us with seven players in total with the following crew:

Captain Fae Hy-Lyra- Efrosian Commanding Officer

Commander Jean LaFluer- Human Executive Officer

Lt. Commander Gemini Jones- Human Chief Engineering Officer

Lt. Commander Shiftar Vong- Edosian Chief Security Officer

Lieutenant K’Mara (Doctor)- Caitian Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Nikael Dulas- Betazoid Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Clay Frtizberg- Human Chief Communications Officer

As for the vessel they would be serving on, while I was scanning their hand-written character sheets, I pulled out my massive book of FASA Starships and dropped it on the table. It was so heavy that it made the table bounce in a loud thud. I advised against any dreadnoughts or massive battleships. This crew would be filling in the gaps while there was a massive shift of fleet resources to help out with the Klingon evacuations. They almost went with the Chandley Class Starship, but they didn’t want to deal with a Marine contingent. They voted for the Miranda Class Starship that was used quite a bit in the show. The name of the vessel came down to USS Magnanimous or USS Taylor (to be named after Roger Taylor) with the Magnanimous getting the larger number of votes. So I reached out to a friend who was a massive starship fan and he generated the registry number of NCC-31947 (note the 47 in the registry). Another friend who generates starship SFX for several Star Trek fan films was generous enough to make a graphic that I could use for the campaign (see the image above). Thank you Dennis and Ross.

We were able to have the first session, but we haven’t completed the episode yet. So I’ll have another blog post when the episode is completed. So far, the crew is reacting in typical Star Trek fashion.

Castles and Crusades:

We had a session zero for this campaign as well. There are two less players for this campaign so we have five in total. I’m hoping that the last player who had to bow out at the last minute can get his his schedules freed up to play. I have a place in the campaign where he could be slotted in.

This world is a new one of my “making”. I’ve set down some basic items, but I haven’t filled in every nook and cranny. The reason for this is that I’m allowing the players to contribute to this world since this is a shared storytelling experience. They get to make up the names of the villages and kingdoms their characters are from. If they follow a deity, they get to make that up as well. This means that I don’t have to work on minutia that may or may not be used in the campaign. Already some of the players have come up with some items from their backstories that I’m weaving into the campaign.

The magic users in this world received a special “Puzzle Scroll” that challenges them (those that pass get a free 0-level cantrip that allows them to easily create the Puzzle Scroll on a blank parchment). If the magic user solves the puzzle, then they have made it to the next level and a new puzzle appears. This is how the player knows that their character has received enough experience points to go up to the next level. It also allows them to test possible recruits into the Magic User’s Guild.

After the session zero, I was able to get some one-on-one RPG sessions with individual players to find out why their characters are traveling to the Grand City of Roses. Think a medieval city with a cross between London and Venice where different races (even Goblinoids) have their own Petal (sector). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get all of the one-on-one sessions done, so I ended up having a session 0.5 to get them all caught up. The players are under strict orders not to talk about what happened in their one-on-one with each other. I wonder how the married couple are getting along with this challenge? We will be having the session one very soon and I’ll blog about that separately as well.

So far the characters are:

Noturin Boshk- Half-Elf Rogue

Ellywick Cogsprite- Gnome Wizard

Victor Goldweller- Dwarf Bard

Lorelei Murphy- Human Cleric

Albert Shepherd- Human Ranger

I can’t wait to torture…. errr…. put the characters through the story that I’ve planned out.

Do you have any questions (that I can answer publicly) about the campaign? I’ve even set up special channels for the two campaigns on my Discord server. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Pirates, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

SaltCON-Summer 2026 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain
Standard picture of loot from SaltCON.

So just a heads up, while there might be some negative things in this after-action report, none of them are due to the many volunteers at SaltCON. The many volunteers and coordinators at the event were beholden to the same issues that affected the con as a whole, and they did an excellent job under the circumstances.

Bottom line up front (BLUF): Attendance was down at this particular event due to the economy.

When I talked with several coordinators, they mentioned that they had seen the same pattern previously over the past seventeen years. When money gets tight, the attendance drops as people try to trim the budget. How this affected me and some of the other volunteer gamemasters is that some scheduled events didn’t “fire”. This is the metric that the convention uses to state that the game started on time with players. All three of my scheduled games did not “fire” which disappointed me. With the lower attendance, the players flocked to the games that had other attendees signed up so that they could get a full experience (kind of hard to play in a game with only 1-2 players). At first I wondered if I had picked the wrong games or time-slots, but I saw that other GMs had the same issues that I had. So while talking with the RPG coordinators, they encouraged me to continue to volunteer as they appreciated my efforts. So yes, I’ll be signing up to run some games at SaltCON-End of Summer in September. Hopefully the economy will not be as skitterish as it is now (crosses-fingers).

There, now that the elephant in the room is out of the way, I can tell you what I enjoyed this weekend. First, the hugs. Thank you to those who provided or accepted them. I had a chance to see a few friends that I see regularly and a few that I hadn’t seen in a while. A convention is also a chance to network with other geeky people. I had a chance to meet the organizer for ICON, a gaming convention that happens in eastern Idaho three times a year (once in Pocatello and twice in Idaho Falls). I’m giving some thought to possibly volunteering to GM some RPG one-shots at this event in the future. But there is more logistics that will have to be put into place before I can commit to it.

The game swap room was moved to a larger location which was very nice. Usually it’s stuck in a narrow room where the attendees are shoulder-to-shoulder as they try to look over the selections. I liked the additional room much more and I hope that we can keep this at the new location. I’d like to thank those who brought in roleplaying books. I was able to pick up the Creature Codex and the Tome of Beasts at a decent price. From the photo above you can also see that the free boardgame was something called Tiffin (which I honestly picked up because it was the smallest game to grab). As my thank you gift for GMing at the con, I picked up a $20 gift certificate to The Queen’s Realm. The convention t-shirt is blue with a pirate crab and a pirate parrot playing cards with the caption “It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye.” My geek wife liked mine so much that she asked me to pick her up one as well.

An interesting twist this year is that a collectable card event was happening in the same convention center on Saturday. I walked through it since it was free. But I didn’t pick up anything since it was mostly Pokemon and sports cards. A nice thing about having that part of the convention center open was the better food options were available within. I wonder if this event will happen again at the same time next summer?

Mini-posters the convention used to advertise my games.

As for the games that I played, Everyday Heroes was a time-travel adventure where we had to prevent Professor Moriarty from messing with time by preventing the Titanic from not being sunk. We were only able to get through one scenario since we had to create characters from scratch. But I was a pirate from the 1800’s which helped with the naval theme. Since one of my games didn’t ‘fire’, I ended up jumping into my first ever HeroQuest game, which was interesting. It was a cross between an RPG and a board game. The Savage Worlds one-shot was also fun. Apparently it was for a sci-fi setting that had just been released called the Han Cluster. It was ‘technology is magic’ based and was an interesting challenge. I had forgotten that I had already played Savage Worlds previously (and it was from the same GM). But it was good to be reminded about the system. Lorecraft 5e was very different. It was a homebrewed game that took Fifth Edition and added some additional items to it. Which explains why I wasn’t able to find anything for it online. But the GM/designer put a lot of work into it. The character sheet alone was a laminated folder with character and equipment card slots. You would write on any side with a dry-erase marker and included a booklet for additional abilities and equipment slots (see photos below since he let all players keep their characters for possible future gaming sessions). He had an interesting lazy-susan grid-playing field where he could put on our figures and terrain (all held with magnets). He could spin the playing field around to move characters or point things out. What I really appreciated with this GM was the way he handled two young RPGers (possibly 14 years old) at the table who attended all seven of his events that were all linked together. They were really getting into the system and their characters. When he cornered me after the session I played in he really wanted to ask me some feedback questions about his works. I let him know the encouraging things that I saw in the game. I didn’t really see any improvements he needed to make, but perhaps I could have noticed something if I had played in other sessions.

The back of the Lorecraft 5e character folder.
The front facing the other players and GM.

Again, if you are looking for a good gaming convention, please check out SaltCON. There are a ton of board games, card games, roleplaying games and more. The next two conventions at the Davis Conference Center in Layton, Utah are September 4-6 and March 11-14. I thinking of making a homebrew game for the Spring 2027 event.

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: Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

Prepping for SaltCON Summer 2026

Written by TardisCaptain
Some of the games that I’ll be running at SaltCON-Summer 2026.

Holy cow. It has been so busy for me that summer sneaked up on me. In a few days it will be time to geek out with my fellow RPGers at SaltCON-Summer at the Davis Conference Center.

I volunteered to run three different games this round. I signed up for three games so far, but I’m keeping this year pretty flexible and I may sign up for some games on the spot. I will also be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented about in a previous blog post.

I’m really excited about my Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition one-shot since I’m running something special. I can’t really talk about it until certain things have passed. But the players in my upcoming STA2e campaign will also get to experience it as well. I will be running Basic Fantasy 4th Edition on Friday and on Saturday I’ll get a chance to run a game that I got as part of a Secret Satan gift exchange a long time ago. Mutant Crawl Classics. This last game is my ‘unusual’ entry that I always try to come up with. It makes the conventions unique by allowing others to participate in a game that they might not normally get a chance to play.

As mentioned above, I’ve signed up for three games. The first being Everyday Heroes that a friend is running. Yes, I ran it at the 2026 Spring SaltCON, but I want to actually play to see how it looks from the other side of the GMs screen. I’m going to get a chance to play a sci-fi Savage Worlds one-shot. The third game is something called LoreCraft 5E. From the description, it sounds like a sci-fi/fantasy combo that may or may not be like Spelljammer. I haven’t been able to find out anything from it from an online search so I’ll have to report back later.

Once again I’d like to give a tip of the hat to the volunteers and coordinators for SaltCON. I hope you realize how much these events are helping me out this year. I’m looking forward to leaving the real world behind when I enter the convention center doors. I’ll see you there. If you are coming to the convention, please come up and say Hi. I’ve met a few readers of this blog face-to-face at this event.

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: Reviews, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

More Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Book Reviews- Exploration Guide and Species Sourcebook

Written by TardisCaptain
The Exploration Guide from 2025 and the Species Sourcebook from 2026

I’ve got another odd-paring two-book review to blog about for Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition. As mentioned in my review of the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Technical Manual and 23rd Century Campaign Guide, sometimes these books get released when I don’t have the spare funds to make the insta-buy. Something I need to have not only as a Trekkie, but as a GM as well for my new Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition campaign starting soon. In the case of the Species Sourcebook, I lucked out just as release day hit. Which was a good thing as I needed to use it for a STA2e entry in the 2026 Character Creation Challenge. But the Exploration Guide I had to get from Ebay when a good price came up. I really wish that more of my local gaming stores would stock these games since I want to buy from them.

When I realized that I would have both books in my physical possession about the same time, I elected to review both in one blog post. As mentioned previously, if you buy a physical book from Modiphius on their website, they send you the PDF immediately. If you buy a deadtree version from another source, you can still send them a photo to Support@Modiphius.com and they will send you the PDF as soon as they have processed the ticket. This is usually done in a couple of business days and is very much appreciated.

The cover to the STA2e Exploration Guide.

As mentioned above, the Exploration Guide was released by Modiphius in 2025. This hardbound book has 144 pages and includes a two sided poster map for the 23rd and 24th century (see photo below). These same maps are on the front and back interior covers. The ISBN number is 9-781802-812749 and the product number is MUH0142514. Inside on the credits you’ll find names such as Nathan Dowdell (system designer), Jim Johnson (Many hats including Project Manager). I’ve noticed that there are more writers and artists in the credits for these books than there was for the STA2e Technical Manual. These writers include Eric Campbell, Marieke Cross, Michael Dismuke, Nathan Dowdell, AJ Fox, Jim Johnson, Aaron M. Pollyea and Al Spader. The cover artist was Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo (who also did the cover for the Technical Manual) with interior art by Erin Arik, Marc Bell, Carlos Cabrera, Andrew Clark, Elena Conte, Albert Cordero, Enoch Driscoll, Aurea Freniere, Toma Fiezo Gas (kewl name BTW), Andrew Jarvis, Vincent Laik, David Metlesits, Wayne Miller, Berenice Buniz, Dat Phan, Paolo Puggoioni, Armin Rangani, Vadim Sadovsky, Nicola Sivani, John Teska, Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo, Angelos Vadeiros and CBS Studios. Someday I hope to see my kid with the art degree from the University of Utah in one of these credits.

A photo of the map with the Exploration Guide.

The contents of the book include an introduction and five chapters. These includes Supplemental Game Mechanics, Sector Generation, Star and System Generation, Planet Creation and Planetary Biomes. In the back of the book there is both an Index and a List of Tables. There are a lot of tables in this book which makes me happy. We also have flowcharts (with page numbers) that are similar to those in the STA2e Core Rulebook which made it soooooo much easier to read as compared to 1st edition. Proof that Modiphus listens to the fans of the game that provided them with feedback.

A partial sample of one of a flowchart found in the book.

The Independent Archeologist and Outpost Scientist (both of which we see a lot in Trek) are two new career paths that are available for characters. I had to giggle at one of the value suggestions for the archeologist that sounds like it could have been said by a man with a fedora and whip. There are also several possible career events and an interesting sidebar on the Officer Exchange program. A handful of new talents are also listed for players to use that fit the theme of this book. But one very interesting addition to the character creation is the Secret. This could be a secret value, trait or talent and would need to be coordinated between GM and player. New awards and honors are also provided for use by the GM. Now exploring is about observing and becoming aware of unknown things. There is an entire sub-chapter about how the different player attributes and departments can be used in spotting or revealing items during play. This is good as I’ve wondered about this in some of my past one-shots. The use of Challenges and Extended Tasks in exploration is also presented.

As noted in past reviews, I love how Star Trek quotes were utilized to give the book some flavor. Well this book also includes quotes from notable scientists. This made me smile. When talking about the various biomes that are present on the different worlds, the writers elected to provide a list of Star Trek episodes that matched those biomes. I will say that I was confused by The City on the Edge of Forever being recommended for the Forest biome or The Crossing for the Water biome. Various story seeds are also provided for each biome which may assist some GMs in planning out their adventures. I wonder what the pilot of the runabout was thinking in that image on page 119?

The back cover to the Exploration Guide.

The cover to the Species Sourcebook.

Currently the latest publication for STA2e is the Species Sourcebook. While the Exploration guide was a book primarily for GMs to create those strange new worlds, this book is the new life and new civilizations that can be used as possible player characters. Sixty new alien templates are made available in this book with entries from The Original Series all the way to Section 31. There are some species that may not be considered to the “good guys” available in this book, but that would help if a player wants a character that may be an exile or a cross-breed.

The ISBN number for this hardback book is 9-781802-812183 with a product number of MUH0142601. Inside there are 133 pages. The introduction is found at the start and the index at the end. And while there is only one chapter, there are a LOT of sidebars for different chapters species and talents (such as shapeshifting, breathing apparatus requirements or something from the IDW Star Trek comics). After all of these are presented, there is a section for GMs on how to create an original species. I can see myself using this for homebrewing from other Trek sources.

The cover for this book was provided by Paolo Puggioni. Some of the additional art credits include the Star Trek Online MMORPG. The talented wordsmiths mentioned above are all present in this publication. When I showed this book to my daughter with the art degree, she pointed out how much she loved the artwork for the Deltan (how the dress flowed over the character) and the Risian (the shading in the clothing that covered the figure and how it made the character stand out without the use of heavy lines.) She spent some time talking with me about the different styles in the book and what worked for her and what didn’t. I really wish I had been smart enough to write it all down or record it.

For those who are curious, you’ll find the following species available in this book. Androids, Aurelians, Barzans, Benzites, Betelgeusians, Bolians, Breens, Brikars, Bynars, Caitians, Cetaceans, Chameloids, Changelings, Children of Tama, Deltans, Edosians, Efrosians, El-Aurians, Exocomps, Grazerites, Holograms, Hortas, Human Augments, Illyrians, Jem’Hadars, Kelleruns, Kelpiens, Klingon QuchHa’s, Klowahkans, Ktarians, Kwejianis, Kzintis (I’m so glad these got expanded from more than the singled TAS appearance), Lanthanites, Liberated Borgs, Lurians, Medusans, Nanokins, Nausiccans, Ocampans, Blue Orions (Or-E-Ons), Osnullus, Pakleds, Remans, Rigellian Chelons, Rigellian Jelnas, Risians, Saurians, Son’as, Talaxians, Terrans, Vau N’Akats, Vortas, Xaheans, the different Xindi races (Aquatic, Arboreal, Insectoid, Primate and Reptilian) Yridians, and Zakdorns. Some of these had been presented in 1st edition books, but hadn’t been converted to 2nd edition until now. Each entry has two pages worth of material.

The back cover to the Species Sourcebook.

Don’t take the lack of photos or description on the Species Sourcebook to mean that I loved it any less than the Exploration Guide. Both books filled different niches within the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition RPG system and were very well thought out. Recently I was able to convince another GM into running 2nd edition as compared to 1st by my past reviews. If anyone is considering running or playing STA2e, I can’t recommend these enough.

I’m already trying to save my Quatloos for the next book. Jim Johnson has been giving hints about it on the Modiphius discord server. So far, my money is on a book based on the medical aspects we’ve seen in the different Star Trek shows. Is my guess the right one? I hope we will find out soon.

And one last thing before I wrap this up. Modiphius has a system set up to report typos in the various books. I found one in the STA2e core rulebook that I submitted to them. And they recently released the latest errata that contained my corrections. I was tickled to see that.

Did you have any questions about the Exploration Guide or the Species Sourcebook for Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition? Ask 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

Am I Insane?

Written by TardisCaptain
The two systems that I’ll be running soon.

So, apparently I have to ask myself. Am I insane? And clearly the answer is yes. I’ve been wanting to get a group of friends together and run a role-playing campaign. But the question was, which one? I’m a big fan of Star Trek (duh) and I’ve been really enjoying running Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition at SaltCON. I also want to homebrew some items for STA2e to carry on the memory of my friend Roger Taylor. But, I’ve also been wanting to run a fantasy RPG. I had several ideas rolling around my head plus I had a ton of modules in both PDF and dead-tree formats. I didn’t know which campaign I wanted to run, Trek or Fantasy. So… why not both?

I sent out a bunch of emails to different players I knew in the area that had played games and seemed interested. I inquired to their interest, availability and which game they wanted to play. I started with a large list because I knew real life would get in the way. And from that initial list, I received a number of hits. So, I arranged for a meet-and-greet (think session -1) which most of the interested participants was able to attend.

I wanted to do a meet-and-greet for two reasons. One, to show them where we would be playing (at my house) and I wanted the players to know each other. Too many times I had been invited to a campaign and was just dropped in like I knew everyone. Especially with some of the online games that I attempted to get involved in. Some of the players were just voices over Discord. I didn’t know them from Adam. Some of the friends I had invited to my campaigns I had known for decades. Some I had met recently at SaltCON. But most of them didn’t know each other. I wanted to see who could be comfortable with their fellow players and if the allotted time would work. I have a cat at home and I wanted to make sure that the players were comfortable around him. He can be a little energetic when a new person shows up in his house.

Well, the meet and greet was a day before I made this blog post and I think it went well. Some of the players were STA only, others just fantasy. But a lot of them were interested in playing both. We got to go over some ground rules and safety guidelines. There was a request for a not-overly description on zombie gore which made sense. I also described how the gaming sessions would be an opportunity to get away from the real world and de-stress for a while. We talked about methods of communication that would be used to keep the players in touch. I also warned them that I’d be blogging about some of the games and the fun we had with this group storytelling adventure.

For the fantasy game, I gave the players three choices that I was willing to run. Basic Fantasy, Castles and Crusades and Dungeon Crawl Classics. After discussing the systems, availability and support for the three choices, the vote came down to a tie between Basic Fantasy and C&C. To break the tie, my youngest as asked to choose and they pointed at Castles and Crusades because there was a woman on the cover. It seemed silly, but it worked. As for the type of campaign the players deemed interested in a classic dungeon crawl. So I’m going to look through the adventures I own and I’ll pick one to convert.

As for Star Trek Adventures, we will be playing in a six-episode season to start off. The players will be the bridge crew of a starship they get to help pick in our session zero. This will be set during the “lost era” of Star Trek between the TOS movies and the 24th century. Once this pilot season is done, the players will decide if they want to continue, or try one of the other formats that I had proposed (mixed crew like DS9, or a Hazard Team presented in the Star Trek: Elite Force video game) or other possibilities. Since I run a lot of STA games at SaltCON, I warned them that they might be beta testers for the one-shots that I was putting together.

Each game will only be played once a month on a Friday that we had set the month before. Since the holidays are a horrible time to schedule around, we’d just skip that month. There is a break between the two games so I’ve got a little bit of a breather between the two.

I’m looking forward to sitting around the table, eating a few snacks and rolling some dice with friends. I’m still setting up the communication preferences agreed with at the meet and greet, but I also set up a couple of channels on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server.

Where will these stories take us? I won’t even know until we sit down and 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.

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