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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Holy crap I made it. I was able to get 31 characters made for the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge. The last character was officially done on March 14th, but I rolled up (well mostly) 31 characters using 31 different systems. Thank you for sticking with me and for cheering me on until I made it to the finish line. I had several of you reach out to me after reading my SitRep Report towards the beginning of February. A few more real life issues came and kicked me hard. After several vet visits, overnight stays and stressful financial burdens, one of our younger beloved cats unfortunately crossed the rainbow bridge. This had devastating mental and financial issues (vet bills) that the family is still working through. On top of that, the real world issues of government shutdowns and layoffs has been adding to my stress. I also wanted to make sure that my gamemaster commitments for SaltCON-Spring 2025 were fulfilled, which I gladly did so. Especially since I was receiving two admission passes for myself and my geek wife.
OK, enough real world bitching. What are my final thoughts on the 2025 challenge? (Why do I suddenly feel like Jerry Springer at the end of one of his shows?) While this was probably the most challenging of the five years I’ve been doing this, I’m still really glad that I did it. I’m even more glad that I stuck with it and made 31 characters. I think one of the bad things that happened after January 31st is that I let a lot of distractions (most legit) get in the way of me completing the last few characters. During January I’m in “go go go” mode. Taking a lot of time to make sure a daily post is made and uploaded. Once that urgency was gone, I had to focus on real life sacrificing play time. For those of you who can post significant daily content on your blogs, I salute you.
The entries that stood out to me in the 2025 challenge included Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition, Planet of the Apes and Red Dwarf The Roleplaying Game. All three of these books were beautiful, the character creation process was easily explained and I want to homebrew for all three of them. Look forward to more from me on these games.
The games that were disappointments in this challenge were actually quite limited. While there were a few that were frustrating, I wouldn’t really call them disappointments, with one exception. The Strange. It started out with so much high potential, then crashed hard. The feedback I had received from that blog post has already been documented in the “additional notes” sections of other entries, but it was from people who had similar experiences that I encountered with this RPG.
Speaking of feedback, I really want to thank the publishers/authors of the GI Joe RPG and Shadow Ops RPG for providing feedback to my blog posts. This tells me that they loved working on their projects and were grateful to their customers. I’m hopeful that my feedback will help improve future publications/editions of their works.
Also, the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server during this challenge. Even now we are still having some regular conversations on a variety of subjects. For those of you who have joined me there, thank you.
For all of those who are still reading my little corner of the internet, thank you. For all of those who reached out to me or came up to me in person to give me a hug, thank you. The friendships and camaraderie of the geek and gaming community has really been a rock that has helped stabilize my life right now. If you made it to 31 days, congratulations. Send me a note via email (carl (at) tardiscaptain.com) on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. I want to make sure you got the completion graphic for completing the challenge.
Also, if you purchased anything after clicking on the affiliate links to DriveThruRPG or Amazon, thank you. I’m not doing this blog to make money, but the kickback helps when making game purchases for future challenges.
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.
This was probably one of the most interesting and entertaining SaltCONs that I’ve attended. There were some games that I missed, but I still played in many others and the games that I ran were very well attended. I think what helped the most is the friends that I met up with at the convention. As most of my regular readers know, 2025 has been sucky to say the least (at least using words that don’t involve swearing). In fact one of the issues that has been affecting my household came to ahead when one of our furbabies (not the one pictured in the Prepping for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge post) passed beyond the rainbow bridge a few days after the con. That is what delayed this after-action report. We are happy that he is no longer in pain, but it has been one of the things on our minds for the past two months.
Sigh. Back to talking about the con and the fun that I had there. I arrived on Thursday and checked in. I had some time before running my first game and I started wandering around the convention center. I found one set of friends, but they were in the middle of a session. I found a second set of friends, but they were running the Artemis bridge simulator. After wandering through the dealers room and seeing all of the stuff I wasn’t able to buy because of lack of funds, I walked into a hallway and found a friend who was attending the convention for a first time. I sat down next to her and asked for a hug. She instantly grabbed me and said “I’ve known you for 35+ years I can give you a hug.” That was the start of making this conventions one of the best conventions I’ve attended in a while. Not only did she spend a lot of time with me making sure that I was OK, as we were wandering around together for most of the con a lot of other friends ran up to me and asked for hugs. I didn’t know if they had heard about my issues that I’ve blogged about, or they just wanted to see me. The small acts of friendship really helped me out. I tried to make sure all of you heard a “thank you” from me individually, but if I didn’t get to you, please know that you really boosted my spirits. Thank you.
Alright, shaking that off, despite the lack of funds this weekend, I did pick up some loot at the convention. For running a lot of one-shots the gaming coordinator allowed me to pick a book from the box of prizes. I elected to pick up the core rulebook for Tales from the Loop. Primarily so I could use it in the 2026 Character Creation Challenge. Yes, yes… I know, I still have two more characters to pump out to get to my 31 characters. I should be able to get those done very soon. The shirt was also a gift to the GMs from the coordinator and it was specifically for those who had volunteered a certain number of hours at the convention. I was tempted to get the regular convention t-shirt which also looked good, but funds were limited. The convention itself had handed out specialty D6s (this was the 10th anniversary of the convention) that had playing pieces to represent the 6 on the die. I was able to obtain several of these. Another GM had given us a special D6 for his game which advertised his group called RPG Sessions. SaltCON was also having another pin quest and I was gifted a cyberpunk beholder. You probably can’t see it very well in the photo posted above, but he’s all metallic and kewl looking. And finally, a friend saw the “My puns deal 3d8 psychic damage” sticker in the dealers room and had to pick it up for me. Not pictured was a rubber duck dressed up as a witch that someone dropped in front of me. I missed who did this so here is another random “Thank You”.
I’m very happy with the games that I ran for the convention and I had a ton of fun running them. In every single one, someone who hadn’t signed up for a session walked up to the table and asked if they could join. My Star Trek Adventures game was based off of a scenario provided in the Klingon Empire Gamemaster Toolkit and it quickly turned into a “Weekend at Bernie’s” situation. One of the characters had been physically taken over by an entity and didn’t have full control of their body. So the other characters had to drag them around why they flopped their arms in the direction they wanted to go. We were talking about that game over the course of the convention. I was really impressed with the intro adventure for the Doctor Who 2nd Edition RPG that I ran on Friday. Every one got into their characters very well and as I was running it, I thought to myself “I could be talked into running a campaign with this system.” On Saturday morning I ran the intro adventure for the new Planet of the Apes RPG that I had backed on Kickstarter (review coming when I get the physical product). This is the one that is an update to the old D6 system by West End Games that was used for Star Wars and Ghostbusters. This was the first time I had GMed for this system and I could tell it had been a long time since I had actually played. I can’t wait to get the physical book for this game. And finally on Sunday I ran a game that the games coordinator told me was getting lots of talk over the weekend. The Wendy’s Feast of Legends game. We had a full table by the end of the session and honestly, it didn’t run too bad for a joke advertisement game. I had to house-rule a few things just to keep the flow going, but I would have done that with any RPG. I did have to explain some of the in-jokes within the game since the food prices had risen since this game was released. Unfortunately, because of the no-outside food rule at the convention center, no one had any bonuses from bringing in Wendy’s food. The convention organizers had posters made of all the RPG games that were scheduled for the weekend (to try to draw in players from other sections) and here is the one they did for the Feast of Legends.
As for the games that I was able to participate in, this is how it went.
Basic Roleplaying, Cypher System, Curseborn: Ashcan Edition and Pendragon. If you were running these games at the con, I apologize for missing them. Due to some real life issues (one mentioned above) and pure exhaustion I had to miss your games. I really wanted to try them out and I tried to see if I could sign up for another open table spot, but the schedules just didn’t pan out. If they are run at future SaltCONs, I’ll try to see if I can sign up for a seat then. One of my goals is to at least try one or two new games each convention. I like checking out the variety of games that are out there just to see how I like them.
The Starfinder game was listed as a play test of the 2nd edition. But I don’t believe it was an official play test with the publisher. I had asked if there was a way to provide feedback and the GM was running something that they had gotten off of Facebook (if I understood him correctly). I’ve played in a short 1st edition campaign back in 2020, but I don’t recall much of it. I hadn’t been too impressed with it then but part of the issue may have been running on the sucky Fantasy Grounds VTT. The 2nd edition played at the table seemed OK, but there wasn’t anything to write home about. I played a Vesk tank with several big guns and lots of armor and it just seemed like we were in a dungeon, in space. I don’t know, I’m not getting the appeal of Starfinder.
TRON: Vasser’s Game. This was a homebrew of the Genesys system to run a TRON RPG. The GM had things laid out pretty well. Turns out this was the same gentleman that ran the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG at the 2024 SaltCON-Spring. The same tablets were used that had the character sheets but we got to roll the weird dice on the table this time. This allowed me to try to understand the system a little bit better, which I don’t think I did very well. This wasn’t the fault of the system or the GM, I just kept feeling like I was slowing down the pace of the game not understanding the symbols of the special dice. After the game I was thinking about this and if I had prepped myself with a dice cheat sheet I don’t think I would have felt guilty slowing things down. Both myself and the other players were very interested in a TRON based RPG as we kept making references to the movies. I also referenced the TRON 2.0 video game that I’ve enjoyed many times over.
A GM that I knew was running the Star Trek Adventures 1st Edition because he hadn’t picked up the 2nd edition book again. Which was actually good for me because he ran a comedy based adventure called “Blueberry Trill” which was weird. It was one of the mission briefings that he had found online that allowed him to improvise parts of the adventure. One of the things he did was run us through an extended task in the one-shot. This was something that I really hadn’t experienced in the times that I had played 1st edition. I think I’m glad that this part of the game was changed for the 2nd edition of the game. Oh, and if someone offers you a genetically modified blueberry designed to grow on the planet Trill, don’t take them up on it. Trust me.
Titans of Atlantis was not only the last game for me, but the last RPG to be run in the RPG room for the convention. It was a weird D12 system where you got to roll more D12s if the character was more skilled in certain areas. But there was still a low target number to try to roll under. I had a basic fighter that was only armed with a spear and a shield (all with fancy greek/roman inspired names). With how “skilled” he was at fighting, he sure didn’t connect on a lot of strikes. I ended up helping to push one of the big monsters into a magical portal with the other characters instead of trying to slay it since that seemed to be more effective. The game itself was pretty funny, but that was because the players were probably exhausted from the weekend and the constant low success rolls. This resulted in throwing caution to the wind on a lot of antics that were performed in the game. Was this done on purpose to prevent murder hoboing in the game? I’m not certain. While I was grateful to try out a new system, I don’t see this being a repeat system for me to try.
One last nugget to drop before I wrap this up. I had a game designer ask me if I’d be willing to review his RPG that he had just released. He agreed that I was free to write what I wanted in my review. A few days after the con I had a message from DriveThruRPG with a free copy of the game. I hope to get this review posted in a month after I’ve taken care of a few other blog obligations that I need to catch up on.
If you are looking for a good gaming convention, I’d recommend SaltCON. There are quite a few out-of-town people who show up for the spring event. But the Summer event on June 6-8 and the End-of-Summer on August 29-31 are also enjoyable as well. I’d love to see other publishers and blog readers there. I’m already trying to decide what games I’ll run in June as the call has gone out for submissions.
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.
Ignore the 2024 badge, I’ll be picking up my new badge very soon.
It’s time once again for the biggest SaltCON of the year. SaltCON-Spring will be running from February 27 to March 2nd at the Davis Convention Center and I’ve signed up to run four games this year. By running four games I was able to get a ticket for both myself and my geek wife. You can read about my past adventures at SaltCON in my past blog entries. I will be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented in a previous blog post.
As you can see from the photo above, I’ve signed up to run another one-shot for Star Trek Adventures. Two other games that I will be running are also based off of popular franchises. Doctor Who 2nd Edition and the brand new Planet of the Apes RPG that only Kickstarter backers have. I just created a PotA character in the recent Character Creation Challenge. As for the fourth game that I’m running, well because lots of attendees come to conventions to play games that they don’t normally get a chance to play, I’m running Feast of Legends. Yes, that is the RPG that was used by the fast-food company Wendy’s to advertise their product.
As for the games that I’ve signed up for. Well for the first time I’ll have a chance to try Basic Roleplaying (no I won’t be using the character I made in a recent challenge). Another new system for me will be Pendragon. I don’t know what edition, but I’m assuming it will be the latest. Titans of Atlantis is a system that I’ve never even heard of before. A game master is going to be using the Genesys system to run a TRON RPG. Also on the new game front for me is Curseborn: Ashcan Edition by Onyx Path Publishing. I’ve also signed up for a Star Trek Adventures game run by another GM and a Starfinder game.
My wife has signed up for a Labrynth game, something called Lifewish: Ravenheart, another game called Black Powder and Brimstone and The Electric State. She also signed up to be in two of the games that I am running.
With how this year has been so far, I really hope that I can get a nice relaxing weekend with some dice, some friends and hopefully some good memories. I really could use some of that right now. I’ll have an after-action report when it’s all over.
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.
So 2025 started off with a loud clunk. I had a bunch of items prepped for the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge and when I went to type it up (I usually type these up directly to the blog itself as part of my process) and the hosting company for my blog had a technical issue on January 1st and I was unable to get into the site to edit it. I reached out to my provider and messages were sent up the chain, but with it being a holiday I knew it was going to take a while. I was hoping it would be a quick fix otherwise I’d probably have to type these up on a doc file and wait until I had full access again. I don’t know if you guys could see this site, but for me it wasn’t coming up at all. So my apologies if you couldn’t see anything on the 1st day of the year. On Thursday, January 2nd about mid-day everything was restored and I could start editing (and writing) again. And now without further ado, on with the show.
I always start the Character Creation Challenge with the game that I was most excited about in the previous year. Either I wanted to own it, play it, run it or write for it, and this case it was all four. If you know me you shouldn’t be surprised that this year I am starting off with Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition by Modiphius. I already talked about the physical characteristics of the book in the Review of Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition blog post that was published last year, so I’ll skip that portion here. The previous books in this line that I’ve used in past Character Creation Challenges include the Star Trek Adventures 1st edition core rulebook and the Klingon Empire core rulebook.
Each character in Star Trek Adventures 2nd edition has six Attributes that represent your mind and body: Control (think Dexterity and coordination and the ability to do exactly what you want to do), Daring (think Willpower, courage or sanity to do things when you don’t want to), Fitness (think Strength and Constitution for physical power and health), Insight (think Wisdom and empathy, the ability to work out the why questions), Presence (think Charisma and the ability to be stunning, good for leadership) and Reason (think Intelligence, use of logic, perception and fact remembering, the ability to work out the how questions). Each new character starts out with a rating of 7 in each attribute. All characters also have six Departments (previously called Disciplines in first edition) that represent the training your character has: Command (the skill at persuading others by different methods), Conn (the skill of operating and navigating surface or space vehicles such as rafts, automobiles, environmental suits or large starships), Engineering (the skill of of making, maintaining, fixing or reverse-engineering technology), Security (the skill of using, avoiding or understanding different forms of violence or hazards), Medicine (the skill of treating or understanding different life-forms) and Science (the skill of studying and understanding the universe rationally). Each new character starts with a rating of 1 (basic training) in each Department. (if you are homebrewing for Star Trek Adventures, there is an excellent chart on page 90 defining what each Department rating level represents in the real world, thank you for this)
Now, a MAJOR improvement from the first edition of STA is the use of flowcharts in the core rulebook for certain elements of the game. This makes things a lot easier to run and set things up at your table. The flowchart for the Lifepath Summary (aka character creation process) that I will be using can be found on page 98. Not only does it have everything listed step-by-step, it also gives you the page numbers for additional details. Very smart.
So step one is to select a species. Another change between the first and second edition is the inclusion of non-Starfleet/Federation species if the GM and Players wanted to run a Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Orion, Ferengi or Merchant/Civilian campaign. The species present in the core rulebook include the Andorians, the Aenar, the Bajorans, the Betazoids, the Cardassians, the Denobulans, the Ferengi, the Humans, the Klingons, the Orions, the Romulans, the Tellarites, the Trill and the Vulcans. There are also guidelines for characters of mixed species (like Spock or B’Elanna Torres) and augmented or cybernetically enhanced characters. By comparison, there were only eight species in the first edition book. The selection of your species adds +1 to three attributes (depending upon the species) a unique species ability (a new addition to the 2nd edition) and a species trait (something that all members of this species has). Now when I was printing out the character sheet for this challenge, I could have printed one for any of the major campaigns listed above. Since I didn’t know which character I would be making, I elected to print out a Federation/Starfleet character sheet since they had the most options. I made a Vulcan in the first edition entry to the challenge and a Klingon for the Klingon core rulebook entry, so let’s create a Trill character. I don’t think I’ve done one of those yet. So I add +1 to my Control, Presence and Reason as per the description. I also write down the details for the species ability of Patient. In the first edition, you had to use one of your ability slots to take a species ability, now it’s an automatic add-on in the second edition. While it isn’t part of this step, I selected the name of Keman Les from the list of possible names since I had the page right in front of me.
OK, step two is to select the Environment that Keman was born or raised at. There is a d20 chart here with different options, and since I want some randomness, I rolled a 13, Isolated Colony. This gives me the first opportunity to select a Value (which is a statement that describes the attitude, belief or conviction of the character, it is usually represented by a small quote (oh, I like that) and there is some in-game benefit when it’s used or challenged. In an isolated colony I think that everyone would be supportive of everyone else so I selected “We are all in this together now.” (originally spoken by Picard in the TNG episode “Loud as a Whisper“). I can bump up Reason or Insight by one point, and I selected Insight since it hasn’t been bumped up yet. Now I also get my first Departmental increase, 1 point for Engineering, Science or Medicine. I selected Engineering.
On to step three and I get to select the upbringing that Keman was raised in. This is his education and influence during his formative years. Another d20 roll on another chart gives me Science and Technology. Perhaps the reason the colony was isolated is due to the fact that his parents were researchers working remotely. I can accept or reject (rebelled) against this upbringing which both provides different character enhancements. I elected to go with acceptance. So Keman gets +2 to Control and +1 to Reason. Other additions include +1 to another Department (I selected Science on this one) a Focus (think a specialty to compliment the Department listed above) in which I selected Power Systems (If I am attempting a task dealing with Power Systems, I get a bonus to my rolls) and I gain a single Talent. A Talent is an additional benefit the character possesses which also gives some bonuses to task rolls. They come in General categories or categories defined by species, culture, enhancements (such as cybernetic) or department (command, engineering, etc.) I already have my species talent, so I’m going to pull from the General category at this time. Again thinking Isolated Colony I selected Extra Effort (and I wrote down the benefits on the sheet).
Alright, step four the career path. What is Keman doing in Starfleet (which I’ve decided he joined to expand his engineering expertise he learned at the isolated colony of Vaxian III. In the first edition or Klingon books, the career path was limited to Starfleet or the Klingon Defense Force. Here the random paths could include diplomatic or civilian options. But as mentioned above, I’m selecting Starfleet Officer in the operations (engineering) track. I write down the trait of Starfleet Officer, find an engineering quote for a value (“The right tool for the right job.” said by Scotty in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier), additions to his Attributes and Departments, three new Focuses (Transports & Replicators, Warp Field Dynamics and Computers) and a Talent (Maintenance Specialist).
Next is step five where we cover the Experience of the character. Of the three options there is Novice (young and usually just out of the Academy), Experienced (been in the service for a while) and Veteran (been doing this for a long time, wised and experienced). Kemen is Experienced and gets to choose a freely selected Value an Talent. For the Talent I selected Bold (Engineering) and from my master list of Star Trek quotes I picked “All you have to do is relax and use your imagination” said by Jadzia Dax in “The Way of the Warrior“.
There are two Career Events in step six which are randomly rolled. The first event was Mentored and the second was First Contact. With Mentored a highly-respected officer (I’ll name him/her later) took notice of the character’s career and Keman served as this person’s aide and learned from the benefit of the officer’s vast experience. He gets +1 to any attribute (I selected Fitness) and +1 to Conn (that’s good as it was a weak one) and a Focus (I selected Etiquette from the list). I like this because I probably wouldn’t have selected these on my own. For First Contact, Keman was involved with a first contact mission with another culture. This gains the character +1 to Presence +1 to any Department (I selected Medicine as it was his lowest) and a Focus (selecting Infiltration from the list, why, because they had to sneak in and study before revealing themselves to the local population).
And our last step is Finishing Touches. I get to pick one final Value (Quote selected is “Focus on the goal, not the task” said by Tanis in the episode “Cold Fire“). Increase two Attributes by 1 as long as I do not exceed the maximum rating of 12 (I selected Daring and Fitness). As for Departments, I hadn’t exceeded the maximum of 5 so I was instructed to add +1 to two departments (again not exceeding the maximum) so I selected Engineering and Command. I’m instructed to make sure I have a minimum of six Focuses from the previous steps (I do) and three Talents (also good). So I’m now instructed to select one more Talent. It doesn’t say if it has to be selected from a specific category so after looking over the list I selected Former Initiate (a Trill talent). There is a final check for the Attributes (added together they should add up to 56, which I had) and Departments (should all add together to 16, which I confirmed), the correct number of species ability, four values and six focuses (all checked). Now we choose the character’s name (see above) age (randomly selected 32 from the guidelines) and a rough description of the character’s personality and appearance (I’ll nail this down later when I find an image to use). Now one of the new features of the 2nd edition game comes into play, each character gets a Pastime. This is a hobby or interest of the character that makes them unique, but may or may not really come into play. This could be a game/sport, something creative or a subject the character is really interested in. Keman is interested in writing Holo-Comics after seeing some while on leave. As for selecting a Role with the team I would have obviously worked with the GM and other players, but I’m running with the assumption that Keman is the Chief Engineer (which comes with some benefits) on a smaller starship (USS Nova Scotia, NCC-72719, Nova Class) and I’m going to pluck the rank of Lieutenant Commander out of the air. I also wrote down the equipment listed on page 141. The flowchart on page 98 instructs me to record the derived ratings of Stress and bonus damage in this step, but none of that is present in the “more information” chapter in pages 132-141. A quick search in the book found on page 277 where it states that Stress is equal to the Fitness attribute and may be adjusted by other Talents. This blog article is already too long, otherwise I’d go into more detail on how Stress works in this game, but it’s basically your health. Looking at the other blank spots on this character sheet I see there is nothing for Resistance (something that would have been provided by a Talent or Equipment) and Determination (page 261) which describes this as something like luck or fate points and work alongside your Values or a Mission Directive. Each character starts with one determination at the start of a mission and may gain up to a maximum of three through roleplaying opportunities. With attacks, I copied the information from one of the characters in the Quickstart Guide as I was running short on time. Here is the character sheet that I scanned.
Afterthoughts:
There were only a couple of items that I had to look outside of the flowchart and the character creation chapters. An experienced GM could easily guide a new player through these hiccups very easily and speed up the character creation process. Otherwise it was a pretty easy experience (especially compared to the 1st edition) Yes there is a very good fan-made online character generator for Star Trek Adventures, and I’ve used it to quickly make characters for convention one-shots, but actually siting down and following the process helps me learn the game. Something that I think that others should do as well if you want to learn more about this system.
I apologize for the length of this blog entry. As I realized how big it was getting, I realized that I was just excited about this game. Not only does it work for a Star Trek setting with the exploration and cooperation working more than the combat, but it could be used for other popular franchises as well such as Babylon 5 or The Orville. As I’ve stated above, I will be homebrewing for this system. There is a vast library of Star Trek novels, comics and games that could be mined for Star Trek Adventures material. I’ve already done this once with the entry for the Tarn (which adjusting to 2nd edition will probably be done in another blog post).
Additional Notes:
Thank you for your patience in getting this blog entry out. While I will mark it down for January 1st, it still frustrated me that it got delayed until the 2nd. I still need to catch up on my other entries.
As you can see from the title photo above, I’ve changed the format slightly to include the challenge year and my blog URL. In the past I’ve had at least one (that I know of) image from a past Character Creation Challenge get pilfered and used in someone’s YouTube video (which they make money on) without asking for permission first.
I’ve also been adding to the list of participating sites on the Character Creation Challenge FAQ page. I’m still adding them as I find more on message boards and social media. If I’m missing yours, please let me know. Following the #CharacterCreationChallenge hashtag on BlueSky has helped me find new accounts to follow.
Coming Up Next:
Sword of Cepheus
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.
