The cover to the Time Magazine Dungeons and Dragons special edition
So walking through a local drugstore I finally saw my first copy of the Time Magazine Special Edition on Dungeons and Dragons. The history of this roleplaying game was interesting enough for me to pick this up as a curiosity buy. I’m going to take a look through this magazine and see if it was worth the $14.99 cover price.
This special edition will be displayed on stands until December 6, 2024. The editor-in-chief is Sam Jacobs. The magazine itself has 96 pages. I couldn’t find an edition number but the bardcode on the front of my issue was 0 70989 10230 9 (ISBN number?) As with all Time Magazines, it has the red border on the cover. There are no advertisements in this magazine.
There is an introduction, four sections and a last page about the dragon. The introduction (titled “Storied Roots”) talks about the literary influences that helped Dungeons and Dragons. It also talked about the days of wargaming in the 1960’s that influenced Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and the early development of Chainmail.
The first chapter is titled Origins. Some of the information is similar to the Storied Roots listed above, with a little bit more detail. It was interesting to read some of the history contained in this section. I wasn’t aware that Gary Gygax’s four-year old daughter came up with the name “Dungeons and Dragons”. There was more information on the “satanic panic” that happened in the 80’s, the departure of Gygax and the development of 2nd and 3rd editions. I’m not surprised that in this history, they didn’t even mention fourth edition. A timeline is provided in this chapter, which was interesting.
The second chapter talks about D&D on the screen. The first section is about Critical Role, which I’ll admit, I’ve never seen. While I’ve watched a few “how to play” videos on YouTube when trying to learn a new system, just watching someone else play is kind of depressing. Because I want to play myself. So I kind of skipped this section for now, but I intend to go back and read it in detail so that I can understand. Then there was an article about Stranger Things (a show I’ve only seen a hand full of episodes of) and one about Vecna. Finally there was an article about the recent Dungeons and Dragons movie that just came out. Now this one I’ve seen. I was a little surprised that there wasn’t anything more on the inspirational Dungeons and Dragons animated show from the 80’s in this section. I watched the heck out of that series.
I’ve reached the third chapter titled “Modern Ventures”. This discusses the reach of D&D into other business realms. This includes dice, video games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and other partnerships in the merchandising that I wasn’t aware of. It was an interesting read.
The last chapter, Healing Words, talks about how playing rolepaying games can be therapeutic. This is something that I’ve told other people for years. I’ve had one DM that would use D&D to help teach math to younger players. There were two articles in this chapter.
Alright, now that I’ve had a chance to go through the magazine, I can see where there will be some sections that I’ll get a chance to learn something. I enjoyed reading the history sections (and I would like to read more). I can see where some sections could have been expanded (more on B/X or BECMI, the animated series, etc.) but I also understand that there is a limit in the printed medium. So, I am happy that I picked up this issue as I’ll be giving it a deep read soon.
Do you have any questions about the Time Magazine special? Feel free to ask me about them. 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 we are starting off this blog post with a disclaimer. I was contacted on September 4th by Lee Smart, the owner of Mystery Dice Goblin. He inquired if I was interested in reviewing their Mystery Dice Bags that they sell on their family business website. I asked if I was allowed to review the products as I saw fit (i.e. not giving a good review just because I received a free product) and he responded with an enthusiastic “yes of course”. So, I gave him my address and moved onto other balls that I had in the air.
England? I wasn’t expecting that.
On Monday, September 16th, the following package arrived from England. Had I know this was a husband and wife company in the UK, I might have (jokingly) asked for a bribe with Doctor Who, Monty Python, Top Gear or Red Dwarf. I’ve always been a fan of British TV, humor, culture and even some of the food. Having a local restaurant run by British immigrants is something that I’m very grateful for.
There were three mystery packs inside.
Inside the box were three mystery packs. These are factory sealed bags with an easy tear-off top. Just inside the tear-off top is a zip-lock style closure. So, if you wanted to continue to use the bags for your dice, you could do so without worrying about them escaping and rolling initiative.
All three bags had the same information on the back.
So after taking these photos, lightning just struck me brain (or as Jeremy Clarkson would have said: “Sometimes, if you listen very carefully, you can hear my genius.”) Instead of just opening up the bags and putting the dice through the same review as I had with past dice products, I ran upstairs and gathered my geek wife and two geek kids. I had each one of them open up the packages one at a time and we checked them out together. My wife went first and opened up the package that contained these red dice with Chinese dragons on them.
I love the color red.
We all thought these were really kewl looking. Everyone took a turn rolling them and seeing how they felt in our hands. They have a good weight and the rolling seemed to come up random. (Sorry, I don’t have the patience to do a complete roll them a 100 times and write everything down test) We then opened up the next package.
Blue and white swirly dice.
The youngest opened the next set. I don’t know what the official name for this set is, but we called it the aquamarine set. The blue and white swirls reminded us of the ocean. This set was slightly smaller than the red Chinese dragon dice that we opened first. Because of this size difference, there is a slightly less weight to them. Rolling them did feel natural and random. My oldest then opened up the next package.
My wife loves this color.
The oldest proclaimed that mother would love this set as she loves the color purple. The numbers were using a different font than the previous two sets and there was a sparkle to these dice. I had seen this gothic type font on the Dice Legends sets that I reviewed prior. They had the same size and weight as the aquamarine set. They also rolled the same as well. Just as random and they felt good.
All three sets lined up together.
When we had opened up the sealed bags, I wondered if I could smell something? But further inspection didn’t reveal anything olfactory wise. I wonder if the muscle memory in my head thought: “A sealed bag has been opened, what food does it contain?”
This should be enough D20s for a Star Trek Adventures game.
In the picture above I lined up the D20s from the new dice sets with some previous dice I had reviewed in the past. The Mystery Goblin Dice are along the top. On the bottom row from left to right are the North-to-South Designs Gaming D20, the Dice Legends D20, the D20 from the Dollar Tree set and the D20 from my Chessex set that I’ve had for quite some time. Apparently I haven’t reviewed this last set yet. Comparing the weights they were pretty similar. At the last SaltCON, my wife and I were talking to a local dice manufacturer who had some sets with similar size and fonts. The colors could vary widely depending upon what material was used in the manufacture. While they had kits to make your own dice, we quickly passed, not needing yet another hobby to divide our limited time. So, we are grateful to those who have been bitten by the dice manufacturing bug. I wonder if these kits include the molds with the fonts and styles?
According to the Mystery Dice Goblin website, the price for these three mystery sets would have been $25 plus shipping. Had I paid that price, I would have been very satisfied with the purchase. I don’t know how much the shipping would have cost, but if you live in the UK they offer free shipping for any orders over 15 British pounds. I was told that the package was shipped on the 6th and it only took ten days to arrive at my house in the states. Coming from England, that is a quick delivery.
Oh and as a thank you to my family for helping me review these dice, I’m going to give them the packs that they would like. I know that they will enjoy them.
Having gone through this experience, I think I’m going to add a new item to my Frequently Asked Questions. I am more than willing to review and item sent to me as long as I have the freedom to review the product as I see fit. If I like something, I’m more than willing to tell others about it. If there are things that could be improved, I don’t mind saying these things as well.
Do you have any questions about the Mystery Dice Goblin packs? Feel free to ask me about them. 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.
Opening the box containing my new STA 2nd edition toolkit
While my daughter purchased the Star Trek 2nd Edition Core Rulebook as a present for me (reviewed here), I purchased the STA Second Edition Game Toolkit for myself. I knew that I was preparing to run a second edition game for SaltCON End-of-Summer and I was hoping that it would arrive in time for me to use. While the shipping gods did not smile on me, Modiphius (in their infinite wisdom) had sent me the PDF of the toolkit so I was able to use parts of it for my one-shot. However since I had received the package, I thought I’d sit down and do a quick review of this supplement. Plus I wanted to note a few more things about the core rulebook that I realized that I had skipped. These additional notes will be after the review.
The Second Edition Game Toolkit has an ISBN number of 978-1-80281-325-8 with a Modiphius product number of MUH0142405. I had noted that the core rulebook was marked as a Phase II Core Rulebook and this trend continues with this product. It is marked “Phase II Game Toolkit”. Like the core rulebook, the toolkit was published in 2024 in Lithuania. We are already aware that Jim Johnson is the project manager and edited this product with Marieke Cross. Some of the writers listed included Michael Dismuke, Nathan Dowdell, Jim Johnson, Thomas Marrone, Aaron M Pollyea and the STA development team. The art director is Ariel Orea with interior art by Aurea Freniere, Thomas Marrone, Paolo Puggioni, Tobias Richter and Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo. The cover art was provided by Carlos Cabrera.
The 1e Klingon Empire Gamemaster Toolkit (left) compared to the 2e STA Game Toolkit (right)
Previously I had purchased (and used) The Klingon Empire Gamemaster Toolkit (I don’t know why the name is slightly different). The Game Toolkit for the 2nd edition game is similar, but has some differences. Both publications contain a GM’s screen geared towards their respective editions. With the PDF version of this product (that I’m very grateful that Modiphius will provide customers with a PDF if you buy any of their dead-tree products) I was able to print out the GM screen inserts and slip them into my Stratagem “The Master’s Tome” 4-panel customizable GM screen for the con. There is a galactic map in both products, but on the back of the map in the 2nd edition kit is a poster with the cover to the core rule-book. Both products also contain double-sided reference sheets on sturdy card-stock. These are the type that you can drop in front of the players for easy reference to core rules, combat flowcharts and player options. There are eight of these in total.
Where the biggest difference between the Klingon and 2nd Edition toolkit comes into play is the booklet. In the Klingon kit there is a one-shot adventure that the GM can use to introduce the Klingon game to their players. On the 2nd Edition kit the 40 page booklet contains information that expands some of the rules and information from the core rulebook. This booklet is broken down into two chapters marked Players and GMs. For the players we get some new spaceframe rules that can be used to design (or in my case, homebrew ships from other Star Trek sources) starships for the game. We also get the spaceframes for the following classes: Freedom (as seen in Star Trek Beyond), Walker (Star Trek Discovery), Pioneer (Star Trek Picard), Crossfield (Discovery), Miranda (first seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), Oberth (first seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock), Columbia (Star Trek Online), Constellation, Nebula (both first seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation), Akira (Star Trek: First Contact), Nova (Star Trek: Voyager), Defiant (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Luna (originally from the Star Trek: Titan novels), Sagan (also from Star Trek: Picard), Odyssey (also from Star Trek Online). Alien starships include the Vor’Cha (Klingon) and Mogai (Romulan). There are some additional mission profiles and talents are listed. There is also details on what happens when a vessel goes to Yellow or Red Alert. No it does not require changing the bulb.
The later half of the book has additional suggestions and details for the gamemaster. This includes items for running B-Plots, story threads and Chekhov’s Gun. For GMs that have used extended tasks in their games, there is some additional tidbits listed as well. I could almost see Jim Johnson holding onto these 40 pages needing to cut space from the core rulebook wondering how he was going to get this information to the players and GMs. This was a perfect opportunity and I think added value to this toolkit. The sections are color coded just as they are in the core rulebook.
The contents of the second edition kit spread out.
So something that is interesting in both the toolkit and the core rulebook is the examples that explain some of the rules. The writers used examples directly from the shows themselves. This gives a sense of familiarity to those that know the show. In my initial review I had noted the use of Star Trek Quotes in the sample values, well the writers had also used various quotes scattered throughout the book to add flavoring. I mentioned Star Trek Online above. Besides this cross-pollination with another Star Trek licensee, the core rulebook also mentioned some of the details from the IDW Star Trek Comics. I was glad to see this after the very well done IDW Year-Five Tie-In that Modiphius released several years ago. I’ve had a few readers ask me questions about combat and how the game compares to the FASA Star Trek RPG, which I’ve responded to in the respective mediums. And yes, I’ve been continuing to carry the second edition book around to read at my leisure.
I had mentioned in my Second Edition core book review that it was inspiring me to get a Star Trek Adventure campaign going (especially after the successful one-shot that I ran at SaltCON). Physically holding the Game Toolkit in my hand is only feeding that inspiration. I’m really glad that I had picked this up. I think that the booklet was a better use than another adventure.
Additional titles for the second edition game are in the works. So far my Tal Shiar spies have not reported back what they are. I may have to start reverting to Changelings if they can’t find anything out soon. But there is much more coming soon for this game.
Do you have any questions about the toolkit that I didn’t answer? 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.
The hardbound Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Core Rulebook in packaging.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Star Trek Day than reviewing the latest Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Core Rulebook that I just received. My daughter bought it as a gift for both Father’s Day (when she ordered it) and for my birthday (when she hoped it would arrive, which was a few weeks late). While I did have the PDF the moment the book was first released at GenCon, I only looked through it briefly in prepping for the 2nd edition game that I was going to run at SaltCON End-of-Summer. As I mentioned before, when I do a deep dive into RPG rules, I really prefer the dead-tree version of the book over the PDF.
Due to finances, my daughter ordered the standard edition of the STA2e core rulebook. There were three special editions that were also released with bookmark ribbons and special uniform colors. I don’t know how many other differences the special editions have.
For the standard edition, there are 377 color pages inside. Both the front inside cover and the back inside cover contain information for the game. A galactic map on the front and several timelines on the back. The ISBN number (for those of you looking for the dead-tree version) is 978-1-80281-223-7 with an internal product code of MUH0142401 (I just notice that it says “Phase II Core Rulebook Standard Edition” next to the ISBN number. Star Trek Phase II was the original name of the revived TV series that was planned for the late 70’s that got turned into Star Trek: The Motion Picture after the success of Star Wars.) The 2d20 system designer is Nathan Dowell with the Project Manager being Jim Johnson. There are a lot of names next to the writers and artists credits as it takes a lot of people to put a book like this together. I hope they know their efforts are appreciated. There is one thing missing from my book that I noticed while I was using it this past week. The Klingon core book and a few others had ribbon bookmarks that made it easy to use. This standard edition did not have one and I could have used it.
There is a forward, ten chapters broken up into three sections, a character sheet (personnel file), starship character sheet (starship registry entry), a personal log and an index. An interesting tidbit is that the three sections mentioned above have color coded text in the footer with blue (for background information), red (for character creation, the RPG system explanation and social/persona/starship conflicts) and gold (for the game master).
The three blue chapters are a Star Trek primer (in universe, not real-world), information on Starfleet and details/dangers about space (this is a space exploration game). This consisted of about eighty pages and I took two evenings to sit down after work and dive through the bulk of this. If you know Star Trek, most of this will be pretty cut and dry. With my Melllvar level of knowledge there was one item that made me raise an eyebrow when page 25 noted that “the Romulans taught the Vulcans how controlling emotions might lead to a more fulfilling existence.” on Ni’Var. I don’t recall that from the Star Trek Discovery episode Unification III, but I didn’t have time to dig in deeper on this. I enjoyed the section about the Nyberrite Alliance and the various side nuggets that were pieces of a story about a subspace transmission. As I was reading through this section, I remember getting to the topic of lifecycle about stars and I wondered why I was learning about this instead of the actual rules themselves, so I skipped a few pages ahead. When I was running STA2e at the last SaltCON, I had one player who didn’t have a lot of knowledge of the show, but he knew enough to play the game. As the GM, I felt confident enough to drop tidbits to the players of in-universe knowledge that their characters would know and the players took it from there. As a GM, I’d recommend reading these sections, but you don’t have to memorize them. Most players will have a common knowledge of wormholes, warp drive, Klingons and Starfleet to get the gist of the game. Those that don’t can easily be coached by the GM and other players. Who knows, perhaps it would interest them into watching more of the show to help them with future game sessions. I will say I liked how it was organized (a massive improvement from the 1st edition, I went back and re-looked at it while reading the 2nd edition book and I started having bad flashbacks). I also appreciated how the different eras had suggestions like “Run this era if the group would like…” since the GM would know their players better than the writers would.
Page 85 is where the red section starts and we get into the meat and potatoes of the Star Trek Adventures 2nd edition system. These chapters consist of Reporting for Duty (character creation) which includes a lifepath summary on page 98. Your Home Among the Stars (starship creation), Technology and Weapons (equipment). Operations (game mechanics) and Conflicts (which covers social, combat and starship combat). As someone who loves Star Trek quotes (and uses them for the values in past STA characters) I did notice that the sample values on page 96 were pulled from various Star Trek episodes. This is where GMs and players are going to live when opening this book. Like the first three chapters, the presentation and organization has been vastly improved. A good example is the Attempting a Task step-by-step guide (with pages numbers for more details) on page 257. I’ve also posted another photo of a guide for starship creation below. Two really good changes from 1st edition is the addition of a Species Ability (freeing up one of the ability slots during character creation) and the addition of Pastimes. I think this took a strength from the FASA Star Trek RPG. In that game there was a skill called “Trivia” where the player could place skill points in something trivial that made the character unique. I recall one player selecting “Kurosawa Films”. While it may never come up in a gaming session, it did make the character unique. It also challenged me as a GM to try to include something that the skill could be used in. Another new item added to 2nd edition is that the character creation gives more options than just Starfleet. Now your character can be a civilian scientist, a diplomat, or even part of another space navy for the Klingons, Romulans or other races.
A very good example of a process that I hope other publishers will follow.
On page 315 we enter the gold section for the game master. Chapter 9 itself is called “Gamemastering” and talks about managing the rules and extended tasks and challenges. There is a narrative flowchart on page 316. Chapter 10 has an introductory adventure called “The Gorgon’s Gaze” and the last chapter gives various stats for NPCs, creatures and starships that the GM may find useful.
I didn’t really cover all of the rules in this blog post, but I will say that one rule change that I did like was the dropping of the challenge dice. When I ran the 2nd edition quickstart a few times, when there was a rare combat encounter, we didn’t even miss the challenge dice.
Another item that caught my attention. The description box for “Enlisting in Other Organizations” on page 13 was the exact same description box with the same title on page 42. I was wondering if this was intentional or a mistake?
Conclusion:
When I got the book, my daughter with the art degree immediately opened up the plastic and started looking at the art credits (she wants to work on something like this). She LOVED the fact that the artist name was next to every illustration (she was hunting for the art by Steve Stark for some reason). When she finished her flip-through I handed the book to my geek wife (and Captain of a local Star Trek fan club) who flipped to page 266 and 267 which contains the Treknobable and Medical-Babble and was immediately impressed.
As for myself, I wish I could have had the book a few days earlier as several attendees at SaltCON came up to me to ask about STA2e. I wished that I could have pulled the book out then to show them some of the kewl items contained within. I loved seeing the references to FASA and the other past Star Trek RPG publishers. But as I was reading the book throughout the week in preparation for this review, I suddenly had a good flashback. In my early D&D days, I never went anywhere without one of my game books. I wanted to study it, I wanted to understand it, I wanted to prepare, I wanted to write my own homebrews for the game. I realized that when I packed the STA2e core rulebook to take to work, to take to the park to read while my youngest roller-skated, etc. I noticed that I was keeping the book near me, like those older D&D books, because I wanted to absorb this system for use. I wasn’t really doing that with the first edition game, but I was now. I’m glad that my daughter got this for me as a gift. After the very-successful one-shot at SaltCON, I may have to start a campaign for my local Star Trek fan club. Thank you to Jim and all of the people who poured a lot of time into putting this book together. I think that you guys succeed in putting together a Star Trek episode simulator RPG. I think this will give fans a chance to “play” their own episodes, and perhaps make a few new Star Trek fans as well.
Have you had a chance to play or look at the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition yet? 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 book is 133 pages long (same length as the first volume). The ISBN number is 2370020959793 and was published by Third Kingdom Games in 2024. It was written by Todd Leback, edited by Brian Johnson and contains art from Adrian Barber, Carlos Castilho, Denis McCarthy, Francesco Accordi, Hodag RPG, Marco Ortiz Walters, Michelle Smallwood and Teresa Guido. I appreciate that actual artists were used for this publication. It is one of the reasons that I elected to back this Kickstarter campaign.
The cover states that it is designed for used with Old-School Essentials, but it could be used for any OSR style game like Basic Fantasy, Castles and Crusades, OSRIC, Swords and Wizardry and others. Armor class is listed with both ascending and descending numbers.
A sample of some of the monsters included in this book.
This book covers about a 100 monsters from Efreet to Killer Bee with variants for each entry. One of the more interesting entries covers the horse. Not only does it give stats for different horse types (magical and non-magical) but it also gives random charts for markings, descriptions and traits. Something that could make a campaign a little bit more interesting.
Just as in the first book, there are several alternate rules for OSR type games at the start of the book and two new character races developed from the monsters in the book. You could play an awakened giant ferret or a Loxen (elephant-folk). There are also several new spells in the back of the book. The final appendix includes encounter tables and a combined Monsters by HD that covers Vol 1 and 2.
Another sample page showing the Ghoul Lord.
Like the first book, this was an interesting read. As with any small publisher, there was a slip up or two in the editing, but overall I’m very pleased with the reward for backing this Kickstarter. It gave me several ideas that I could drop into a campaign. I’m looking forward to volume three being announced hopefully next year.
Have you backed any Kickstarters lately? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
I’m writing this the day after SaltCON and I’m really happy that I went. I caught up with friends that I’ve been making at past conventions. Saw people that I hadn’t seen in a while and also got introduced to some new gamer friends. I even had a someone find out about my blog and another player tell me that they enjoyed reading my blog. I don’t know why, but when I get the unexpected notice from a reader in person, it really makes my day. I also wanted to say that my Convention Backpack is holding up wonderfully.
You may notice something missing from the loot photo posted above. There were no RPG books to be found this year. Usually something pops up in the game swap. But it 99.9% board games and a bunch of Lord of the Rings action figures. I was really disappointed. There also hasn’t been a dealer with regular RPG books in quite some time (if anyone is looking for a good untapped opportunity). I did pick up a convention t-shirt (which I thought looked great) and a couple of pins. Since it was my wife’s birthday, we went through the dealers area and she picked up a Halloween themed D20 (which came with the cauldron) from Dice Chaos, a small business. She also picked up a few geeky stickers from another local small business called Tip-Top Tabletop. There was also a candy dice vendor called Power Up Candy. I picked up one set for me and one for my daughter. I’ll have to let you know how they taste. They also had different sayings on the package as seen below.
I also had a chance to attend one of the panels that I wanted to catch. I missed out on the GMing panel and the horror in gaming panel (scheduling conflicts). But I was able to attend a panel about Sharing Your Gaming Experience Through Blogging, Podcasting. It tended to focus a little too much on the video blogging side. But there was some interesting things I learned from the discussion. There are plans to have panels at future SaltCONs. I’ve reached out to say that I would be interested in being a panelist.
The games that I had a chance to play.
Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition: Well it was unusual. The pre-generated characters were all over the map. I remember asking “Do you have just a basic fighter?” before I settled on a Dwarf Paladin (and ignored the extra stuff that wasn’t really explained). I raised an eyebrow at the Fairy Barbarian option (and I noticed that no one else picked that character as well). The cat did lead us on a quest and the team performed very well. We had some good role-playing from the group. However it didn’t really entice me to attempt a 5e game. Sure I’d play in a campaign if that’s what a bunch of friends would want to play, but it really didn’t grab me. It just seemed to have more player options in it than what was needed for a convention one-shot.
Savage Worlds: While I had a new friend give me a quick introduction to the system at SaltCON Summer, I hadn’t had a chance to actually play it at the table. One of my goals with each convention visit is to play a game that I haven’t had a chance to play yet. Savage Worlds was the game that checked off this box. We played in a horror/western setting (that I wasn’t familiar with, so I appreciate the GM and other players answering my newbie questions) where we had to solve a murder mystery. There were a TON of characters to choose from and I played the “Mysterious Stranger”. As it turned out, our final target was a succubus and we luckily had a traveling priest in our party that was able to bless our weapons in the final battle. The system seemed pretty simple and easy to use and I appreciated the GM asking for feedback when the game was done. But I don’t know how much I could homebrew for this system since it really relied a lot on the different cards that the publisher had put out. I’m glad that I played this game.
Fallout: A family member wanted to play this game with me so it was a special occasion. We had a blast playing it and once again I marveled in how easy the system fit the 2d20 system that Modiphius put out. I had actually played part of the scenario at a previous SaltCON, but I kept my mouth shut on the sections I already knew about for the rest of the table. We got farther than previously played so I did get to see some new stuff. While playing, I kept running what it would be like to run a Fallout campaign based in Utah. Or even changing it slightly so it was more than just the Fallout Universe.
On the games that I ran.
Basic Fantasy: I was really excited when I saw the number of people that signed up for this session. It was practically a full table. Then when the time rolled around, I glanced at the sign-up sheet at the registration table only to discover that two players had crossed out their names. One player who had signed up turned out to be a no-show. I had one player at the table and the last player called me on my cell phone asking if he could still get in if he was late? I told him yes, but we ended up starting about an hour later. Luckily, it was the last game for the table that day so I wasn’t worried about getting kicked out of the spot. But we ended the game really late that night (which caused me to miss one of my panels that was scheduled early the next morning). The two players took two characters each and I was able to run the one-shot. I had made second-level characters, but I should have taken more care in setting up the magic user. Even at second-level, they had a limited spell range. I should have taken more advantage of the add-on rules that the Basic Fantasy community had provided. But when I asked for feedback, the players told me that they had fun. I was able to use the Game Tiles and the GM’s Screen that I had just reviewed.
Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition: Only two players had signed up for the game, but a third player (someone who had GMed for me at past SaltCONs) showed up asking if he could play. No only did it help, but all three players were so good that they were able to swap between the six characters available. It was interesting seeing the Ensign at Communications and the CO, both played by the same player, talk with each other during an intense moment of the game. This turned out to be the best game for me for the whole con. I had run the scenario before and I think I ran it better this time around. I don’t think the players knew that it was primarily a bare-bones introduction to the game and I improvised some sections for it. They had a really detailed, and Trekkish, response to the final act. When I asked for feedback at the end of the game we practically had another hour of discussion. Two players had never tried the system and agreed that it was a “Star Trek episode simulator” system. One player, who played the security chief Andorian, thought it was interesting that for a game designed to avoid combat, it had a lot of combat stats on the character sheet. I had also used a fan-made “character tent” that had the basic stats for the characters on one side of the table tent. They said that they used that for more of the quick stat look up and only went to the character sheet when they needed to do some deep diving in the extra options and talents. I’ve been asked by members of my local Star Trek fan club if we could get an RPG session going, and running this is making me more inclined to do so. One of the players asked me if I had any leads on possible STA games in his county, which I was able to refer him to one of our sister Star Trek clubs that I knew had a campaign going.
Ork! 2nd Edition: I don’t know if it was the title, or the “Let’s Learn” format that I presented with it. But no one signed up for this game. I already had a basic knowledge of the game, but I spent an hour reading through some of the rules that I hadn’t done a deep dive on. I actually found it really interesting, and a fun read for a comedy game about Orks. The RPG coordinator told me that I wasn’t going to be dinged because I did my part in showing up after volunteering to run a game. Too bad, this game sounds like it would be a blast if everyone played it in the spirit of the system. I’m going to try another “Let’s Learn” with another system in March. I don’t know what it will be yet.
I wanted to thank my friend Jeff for letting me borrow his RPG figures for the Basic Fantasy Game. I had brought them to use for Ork! as well if needed. I also wanted to give my gratitude to the GMs, Volunteers and players at this convention. I know that all of you helped make SaltCON just as fun as previous conventions. Even my wife expressed an interest in coming to the March event. I think that it is also great that the convention is trying new things like setting up panels for attendees to enjoy. Keep up the good work.
Should I attempt to attend TimpCon in November? It’s two counties away (where as SaltCON is 15 minutes from my house). I’d love to hear the experience from people who have attended in the past. Attending other conventions would be great, but I doubt I’ll have a chance to make it to one of the big gaming cons back east.
Have you been to any gaming conventions lately? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
So another RPGaDAY challenge has come and gone and I think this is my best one yet. I think one of the biggest reasons is how I prepped for this challenge. Because I knew of my schedule with real life items, concerts and SaltCON End-of-Summer, I would prep some posts ahead of time and schedule them for posting. I had done this last year as well and I remembered how it helped me keep some of my sanity (what little there is left of it).
When I participated in last year’s RPGaDAY event, I ended up connecting with a lot of other participants on Mastodon and BlueSky. This year I experience the same phenomenon. For those of you who started following me (and also reading my blog for the first time), I thank you. The RPG with Great Writing resulted in a few responses from different people and in person at the recent SaltCON End-of-Summer.
Another thing that was successful was the feedback I received from various readers. All of them came from various social media posts. I tried to note most of them here, but I’m certain that I may have missed a few. If I didn’t mention them here, don’t worry. I did read and respond to most of them. Thank you, the interaction added to the enjoyment of the challenge.
Thank you to those who read my posts. Thank you to those who sent me feedback. And thank you to David Chapman for putting this together. I’m looking forward to the #CharacterCreationChallenge in January 2025.
Did you participate in the #RPGaDAY2024 Challenge? Did you have a favorite post of mine from the challenge? 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.
We made it to Day 31 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. It’s kind of a sad one in a way. The subject is Game or Gamer you miss. Unfortunately no one lives forever and I’ve lost a few friends in my life. Roger, Rex, Richard, Marcus. I miss you guys and I wish I could hear your jokes around the table again. Thankfully there are a lot of gaming buddies that I just haven’t had a chance to play with in a while who are still with us. Jeff, Gibby, Andrew, Jill, Erin, Libby, Kevin and others, if we can get anything arranged, I’d love it. Even if its on a virtual table.
As for a game that I miss, I’d love a chance to play the West End Games D6 Star Wars once again. I have many memories of past games. To try the FASA Star Trek or Doctor Who game once more would be a dream. I’d never turn down almost any variant of Dungeons and Dragons. Especially if it was an older version that I hadn’t played in quite some time. But I’d be willing to play almost any system just to hear the dice rattle on the table again.
Do you have a gamer that you miss? Is there a game you’d love to play again (even as just a one-shot)? 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 30 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge our topic is a person you’d like to game with. There are a lot of people that I’d like to sit at the table with and game with them. Some are various bloggers that I’ve started following after we’ve interacted online. The two that I’m going to mention now are artists and they are in no particular order.
One of them is Howard Tayler. I’ve mentioned him on my blog in several different posts. As an artist guest of honor at a convention I use to chair he drew me as the “con chair”. I also backed one of his Kickstarters for the X-Treme Dungeon Mastery 2nd Edition book that he provided the art for. He has had an RPG based off of his Schlock Mercenary comic, but I’d play in any system that was at the table.
The other artist I only know from his online persona of DysonLogos. Primarily he is a map-maker who’s work has been featured in Dungeons and Dragons, Steve Jackson Games, Kobold Press and others. Most Monday, Wednesday and Fridays he live streams his map-making on his TwitchTV channel. Not only does he play awesome music while drawing, he interacts with his viewers. This is how I found out that he read my blog when he asked a question about my Shadow Ops review I had recently posted.
With how much I’d love to game, I’m open to gaming with anyone (if we can get the dreaded schedules to line up). Is there someone that you’d love to game with? 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.
For Day 29 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge we’ve been tasked with talking about an Awesome App for gaming. With my recent attendance and involvement with SaltCON, I just want to say how great the TableTop dot Events website is.
Primarily this website allows gaming conventions to organize their events and sell tickets to them. This includes inserting the games ran by the GMs and allowing attendees to schedule their games reserving a seat at the table. It also handles ticket sales and merch sales if needed.
Besides being easy to use on both computer and mobile browsers, I love the fact that I can download an ICS (internet calendaring and scheduling) file after I’ve got my events scheduled and I can import that into my Google calendar. Not only does it add it to the calendar, but it sets up reminders. I’ve found myself talking with friends in the hallways of the convention hall and suddenly my phone will buzz with a ten-minute reminder that a game is coming up. Very handy. As a player I can check up on favorite GMs and as a GM I can see who has signed up for my games.
When I’m scheduling my games, I can make sure to leave gaps in the schedule to grab lunch or check out the dealers room. Also since other gaming events use this same site, if I’m able to attend their convention I don’t have to sign up for a whole new system.
What awesome app have you discovered that helps with your gaming hobby? 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.
