Tag: Mutant Crawl Classics

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

SaltCON-Summer 2026 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain June 8, 2026June 8, 2026

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.

Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

Prepping for SaltCON Summer 2026

Written by TardisCaptain June 1, 2026

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

RPGaDAY2025 Day 17: Renew

Written by TardisCaptain August 17, 2025August 17, 2025 1 Comment

And here we are at Day 17 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge. Today our topic is ‘Renew’. I’m going to show some of my geekness by describing a world that I think an RPG campaign can come about from the memory I have with this word. This is from the 1976 dystopian Science Fiction film Logan’s Run. In the 23rd century, survivors of a devastating war lives in a domed city. They have no wants or needs as everything is self contained and provided for them. They don’t even know that the rest of the world exists outside the city walls. However, when they reach the age of 30, they report to the Carousel on Last Day in order to Renew as demonstrated in this video.

The members of the city who didn’t report for renewal were considered runners and hunted down by a special police force called Sandmen. There were ruined parts of the city where untamed youth ran rampant and an underground resistance trying to get runners to a mythical place called Sanctuary.

While I never saw this movie in the theaters, it was one that I caught on those Saturday matinees on different TV stations looking to fill time. I found it interesting and would stop to watch it each time it came on. I didn’t know there was a TV spin-off series until later (it seemed like everything in the 70’s ended up with a one-season spin-off series).

I thought this would make for a good serious Science-Fiction roleplaying campaign. What happens when you just take orders from the computer. Is it more than just the computer in charge? This theme was touched on in the TV series but not in the movie. What is outside the city walls? Should the players just save themselves and go explore, or should they try to shut the city down and save everyone?

So what system would work for this campaign? If the first thing that came to mind was Paranoia, you wouldn’t be far off. There are a lot of similar concepts, but I don’t think it would have worked for me. While I enjoyed making a Paranoia 2nd Edition character in a past Character Creation Challenge, the base for this game is silliness. I don’t recall seeing any mutants in Logan’s Run, so if you ignored those you probably could run Mutant Future or Mutant Crawl Classics. Another game that might work is Fallout (characters come from a bunker like shelter). I’ve never played (or owned) Gamma World, but I assume that it could be used as well.

Do you think that the setting in Logan’s Run could make for a good RPG campaign? Are there other systems that would fit this movie/series better? 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.

Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 25: Desirable Dice

Written by TardisCaptain August 25, 2024August 24, 2024

For Day 25 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge we are going to talk about Desirable Dice. Now I’ve mentioned past dice (and dice like items) on past blog posts. There is the Jason Fox Lucky D20 that I purchased from the artist that drew the daily newspaper comic Fox Trot. One post that continues to get a lot of online visitors years after publishing it covers dice I purchased from the Dollar Tree store. Every time I check my visitor logs, that post gets a lot of visits from online searches. From Amazon I picked up the Lynx RPG Dice Dunce Chair with cap. This is a type of dice shaming jail. I’ve had a couple of free dice sets sent to me that I’ve reviewed in the past. These include the North to South Gaming Dice and the Dice Legends products. A very good dice like product was the 20-in-One Card Deck from Precis Intermedia. It is a set of 56 playing cards that also contain random dice rolls (and other random responses) for players and GMs to use. I’ve used this last item in several games that I’ve GMed.

So for this entry I thought I’d show pictures of a few dice items that I have in my dice bag. The first is a 30-sided die that I had picked up back in the 90’s. I remember using it a few times and even found a book with tables needing a D30. I believe it was from the same manufacturer of the die.

I’ve never really used it, but I keep it in my bag for some reason or another. It’s a D6 that is oddly shaped. It obviously wouldn’t roll very well and is quite large. In the photo I placed a regular sized D6 next to it.

The next photo is the original dice that I had picked up from the original Basic D&D boxed sets and other original gaming boxed sets. Most of these are the dice that needed the crayon to fill in the numbers. I haven’t really used these in a while, but they do stay in the dice bag to bring me luck.

This last set is the unusual dice (D3, D5, D7, D14, D16, D14 and D30) used for the Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics RPGs. This one was labeled the DCC Special 7 that are black dice with white numbers.

Do you have any desirable dice that you have used for role-playing games? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2023 Character Creation Challenge Day 26: Star Crawl

Written by TardisCaptain January 26, 2023April 25, 2023 1 Comment

So in the first year of the Character Creation Challenge, I created a set of zero-level characters for Mutant Crawl Classics. In the second year, I created a set of zero-level characters for Dungeon Crawl Classics. I loved the concept of the zero-level character because you didn’t know if they were going to survive, and if they did survive, what class would they end up being? At the upcoming SaltCon, I’m already signed up to go through a DCC funnel for zero-level characters and I can’t wait to give it a try.

In 2022, I won a copy of Star Crawl from an online auction. I’ve always been a science fiction fan and to find a crawl version of the game thrilled me. When it arrived, I discovered that it wasn’t published by Goodman Games, but by a company called the Tuesday Night Fiend Club. Star Crawl is based on DCC and MCC and licensed through Goodman Games. Kewl, I didn’t know they were doing that. So I’m using this game for today’s entry into the challenge.

The Star Crawl book has 112 pages with the character creation process starting on page five. When you actually get to 1st level the character sheets are a single page. The crawl games are based off of the D20 system with some minor changes. The Star Crawl rulebook states that the party could consist of characters generated in DCC or MCC or Star Crawl, but all of the characters that I’m making will be from the Star Crawl book.

It is recommended that you have a copy of Dungeon Crawl Classics or Mutant Crawl Classics for reference while using Star Crawl.

The first step is to roll for the attributes of Strength, Agility, Stamina, Personality, Intelligence and Luck. This is done with 3D6 and is rolled in order. I have four zero-level character spots on the sheet so I’ll be making four characters. Three of the four characters had some decent stats (dare say, good?) but one was almost in the hopeless category. But I left him in anyway because you never know what will happen in the funnel.

The next step is to roll for the starting occupation and birth sign. These are standard steps that we saw in DCC and MCC. I rolled a percentile for the four character occupations. The occupations also came with some basic equipment and some credits. For the star sign, I needed to roll a 1D30 (it said percentile in the book, but the chart only goes to 30). Luckily I have one in my dice bag that I had purchased back in the 90s. When I roll on the star sign, I add the Luck modifier. The star sign tells us what type of rolls the character can use their luck modifier as part of the roll. This could be good or bad.

Since we are making level-zero characters, we can skip the racial profiles. However during play, if inspired, a race can be chosen. I don’t know if they would get any of the adjustments at that time or after the funnel is completed. So the next step after that is to fill in the rest of the character sheet. The only addition in Star Crawl is the perception (add Intelligence and luck modifiers to get the perception modifier). Hit points are determined by a 1D4 modified by Stamina. I also calculated the savings throw modifiers, combat modifiers and speed.

The Star Crawl book doesn’t say if we get any other equipment other than the items provided by the occupation. The book is very, very thin compared to the thickness of DCC and MCC. I think that these characters are done. Here they are, but will they survive their first adventure?

Afterthoughts:

When I was printing up the character sheets for all of my challenge entries, I could not find any zero-level sheets for Star Crawl. They had character sheets for various classes after 1st level, but none for zero-level. So, as you can see from the scan, I “borrowed” a MCC zero-level character sheet and used it to note down my victims….err…. characters.

It could be interesting to play a Star Crawl game. However I don’t know of anyone playing this. Usually there are quite a few other science fiction games out there. But I really enjoyed the look of the book. Sure the art wasn’t the best, but I think this added to the charm of the game being put together by a fan of the crawl system and adapting it for sci-fi scenarios. Some of the aliens look hilarious (there are the Pigs in Space muppets).

Additional Notes:

We only have five more days left in the challenge. I can see the finish line from here. We can do it. We can make it.

Coming Up Next:

GURPS 4th Edition

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.

Role Playing Games

#RPGaDay2021 Day 19: Patron

Written by TardisCaptain August 19, 2021April 24, 2022

Day 19: Patron

Star Trek Adventures is not the only game I’m interested in learning and playing. Over the past year I have obtained the core rulebooks for both Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics. I found a used DCC book at one of my local gaming stores. My hardbound copy of MCC came as a Secret Satan gift that I’ve previously posted about on this blog.

When I first saw Dungeon Crawl Classics at a local store, I thought that it looked like they put a lot of work into it (the book was thick and heavy and lots of B&W artwork) but it seemed like another retro-clone. So I really didn’t pick it up. But after I picked up the books in one of the charity PDF bundle sales, I realized that the rules were classic D&D with some twists to make it unique. And since I like physical books better for my first time learning, I started searching out and books I could get my hands on.

One of these twists was the use of Patrons in the magic system for both games. Wizards (or Shamans in MCC) would bond with a mystical Patron who would grant the spellcaster extra powers. In exchange, the Patron may ask for favors in return. This could be a sacrifice or a quest or something dreamed up by the Game Master. In the fantasy based DCC, Patrons could be a supernatural being, a very powerful wizard, an elder god or a host of other options. GMs were encouraged to create Patrons that would fit their game world. In Mutant Crawl Classics, the Patrons were Artificial Intelligence (AIs) that somehow survived the cataclysm that befell the planet. They would grant wetware (i.e. spells) to the Shamans in exchange for services rendered. GMs were also encouraged to create their own AI Patrons for their adventures.

The spells/wetware granted could have a variety of effects (as most spells in the Crawl games). An entry for a spell wasn’t just a few sentences with some stats. A spell could be several pages long detailing the different effects that could happen depending upon the roll of the dice. Any time that a spell was cast, there was a chance of Patron Taint that affected the spellcaster. Again these could be very minor inconvenience or a major change to the character depending upon the dice rolls. I thought it was interesting that the gods worshiped by Clerics would not allow them to use their healing ability to cure a taint. Standard damage that occurred during a game, yes. But not removing or healing a patron taint. Since the gods were usually opposing some of the supernatural beings, why would they help one of their servants.

I thought it was an interesting magical system. I really wish that I could get together with some friends (we are still having to deal with some of the effects of the pandemic) just to sit and have play test sessions. Afterwards we could decide which one we wanted to run a campaign with.

Final Thoughts:

When I saw “Patron” on the list, I knew I wanted to do an article about DCC & MCC. I can see some posts about “Theme” games or game “Styles”. I’m really curious if anyone comes up with something for “Storm”.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

Character Creation Challenge Day 8: Mutant Crawl Classics

Written by TardisCaptain January 8, 2021March 29, 2022

I just recently obtained this rulebook thanks to my Secret Satan at RPG.net and when I opened up the box, I knew that I would need to make a character(s) for the Character Creation Challenge. Mutant Crawl Classics is a companion game to Dungeon Crawl Classics. Both are D20 based, but just different enough that I don’t know if I’d call them retro-clones. Mutant Crawl Classics was geared towards fans of past games like Gama World and other post-apocalyptic settings. I’ve always had an interest in this genre. A lot of movies out of the 80 and 90’s dealt with the aftermath of a nuclear conflict or some other end of the world event. Mad Max, Damnation Alley and other movies (some really cheesy) graced our screens.

In the rules, you create a number of zero-level characters that end up going through a funnel. The survivor (if any) becomes your first-level character and you select a class then. The character sheet has a slot for four zero-level characters, so let’s see if I can make them up. The character attributes are Strength, Agility, Stamina, Personality, Intelligence and Luck. These are 3d6 rolled in order. Because there are four characters, I’m not going to list all of them down like I had in the past. Some characters had better stats than others.

This game uses some odd dice. For the first time in forever, I actually had to pull out a d30 and roll it for a game. The table for the new character’s birth sign uses a d30. I don’t know if I fully understood the Birth Sign lucky roll. Do they get something extra if they are rolling for that specific challenge? This could have been explained a little bit better.

I really don’t know if I filled out these sheets correctly For zero-level characters it starts with a series of instructions, but then nothing on certain items (I was able to hunt some of them in the book, others I could not find. I think for the most part, these characters are ready to play.

Afterthoughts:

There are a TON of charts in this book. Depending upon the campaign, there could be more than hunters and gatherers as starting occupations. I’ve never been a big fan of a ton of mutations, but that may change if I had a chance to actually play. I’ve never roleplayed in a character funnel before. That could be an interesting experience. I think I’d rather have a person who is an experienced GM in Mutant Crawl Classics for my first campaign. I have a feeling that they may be answering a few questions as I get use to the game.

Additional Notes:

No new additions to the Character Creation Challenge page in regards to new links. But I am still looking for any new ones. Thanks to another visitor who clicked on the DriveThruRPG link and purchased several items.

Coming Up Next:

Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes by Michael Stackpole

Role Playing Games

The Power of Gaming

Written by TardisCaptain December 6, 2020December 22, 2023

Mutan Crawl Classics rule book — Mutant Crawl Classics by Goodman Games.

Today I experience the power of gaming from multiple sources. And as readers of my blog know, I get excited by the power of creativity.

The picture you see above is the latest role-playing game that has been added to my collection. It was sent to me by another gamer that I don’t even know. On the RPG.net gaming forums gamers put together a “Secret Satan” (a play on words of Secret Santa) gift exchange program to try to brighten someone’s day. And believe me, with the way 2020 has gone, we could use all of the brighter days that we can get. I was amazed at how many people responded to the forum post wanting to participate. This surge of goodwill excited me and I signed up. I was assigned a “victim” and given enough details to send them a gift with a cap of $40 to spend. Luckily my “victim” had done some research and provided some Amazon links to possible gift ideas. One of these was selected and the gift was sent. I may have messed up because I let my “victim” know who I was (I thought that gifts sent via Amazon had the sender’s name attached). But it resulted in a nice thank you note for the game that was delivered.

I had also provided a list of possible gift ideas. Mutant Crawl Classics by Goodman Games was one of the items on my list. I had recently purchased the Dungeon Crawl Classics in PDF format from a Humble Bundle sale and I had been pretty impressed with the quality of the work put into the game. So I thought that the companion game, MCC, would be an interesting read. A delivery from Amazon was made today and the excitement of not knowing what was in the box added to the thrill of seeing MCC when the box was opened. There were cheaper games on the list so my “Secret Satan” went the extra mile to make this holiday a special one. (tips hat) To my “Secret Satan”, I thank you. I hope you had just as much fun with your gift (what ever it was) as I did with mine. I also want to give a shout out to the organizers at RPG.net who put this together. This is where I felt one of the surges of energy today.

The second surge of energy came from the Mutant Crawl Classics book itself. It did remind me of when I read the Dungeon Crawl Classics rules on PDF, but there was something more about this game. I couldn’t understand it for a moment until I realized that I was physically holding a brand new RPG book in my hand. The new book smell and feel was there. When I opened it up, I could feel the energy coming from the creativity (both writing and artwork) contained inside. I really want to play an MCC game now. Thank you Goodman Games for your work on this.

Until I get a chance to actually play, I will be adding Mutant Crawl Classics to my list of games for the Character Creation Challenge coming up this January. This way I will have fun creating a character and learning some of the rules in the process.