Tag: Role Playing Games

2025 Character Creation Challenge Day 2: The Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition

Written by TardisCaptain January 2, 2025January 3, 2025

Here is my Day 2 entry in the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge and today I’ll be making a character for The Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition by Stellagama Publishing. I had used one of their publications in a past challenge where I made a character for Cepheus Deluxe. I also have another game from this publisher scheduled for later in the challenge. SoC2e is based off of the Cepheus Engine (basically the engine that ran Classic Traveller, to complete a task roll 2d6 and add skills and other modifiers to beat a target number). This is another game where the authors did the right thing by explaining the game mechanic near the front of the book in a way that I can explain it to others. If I can understand it quickly, the more likely that I’m going to be able to convince some friends to try it or run it at a convention.

This is a game that I had backed on Kickstarter and recently reviewed the reward on my blog. Since I already talked about the physical descriptions in that blog post, I won’t be talking much about that here. This allows us to get right into the character creation (and probably a shorter blog post than yesterday).

The chapter for character generation starts on page 24 (after a quick breakdown of the system). The first step is to assign a set of numbers listed in the book to the six different characteristics. They are Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Endurance (END), Intelligence (INT), Education (EDU) and Social Standing (SOC). Now Intelligence and Education sound about the same, but are quite different. Intelligence represents your reasoning, creativity and intellectual capabilities where as Education is your general knowledge and formal schooling. I like the fact that they tell us in advance that INT+EDU determines the max number of skills that a character can have (if I wanted to plan in advance). Now it does state that there is an optional rule to roll 2d6 six times and assign the characteristics you desire or using 42 points to spread across the characteristics, however since this is the first time I’m making a character for this system I’ll stick with the Rules As Written (RAW). Let’s stick with a basic swordslinger this time around. Harrik Stol was born in a port town and worked at the docks before signing on with his first vessel. He was captured by a band of pirates who needed to replenish their crew after several bad encounters. Harrik became a pirate to survive and discovered that he enjoyed it. (note: I just came up with this while typing early in the character creation process, it wasn’t a requirement in the process). After assigning my characteristic scores I noted the modifiers for the three characteristics that had them.

Step two deals with Background Skills. At the age of 14 Harrik will have already learned some skills already. I selected the Port Town which gave him Watercraft 1, Craft 1 and Athletics 1. I wrote these down.

In step three we grow from age 14 in a lifepath generation to the final ready to play character. This creates a background for the character with contacts, milestones and additional skills and characteristics. I think this is part of the “character creation game” that I’ve heard about in other Traveller systems. Now the rules state that the Referee will determine the number of career terms the characters will go through before starting the game. This makes sense as some Refs may want to start greener characters out and then let them earn their way up or give you some experienced characters and then throw the big guys at you. With no Ref I elected to roll a d4 to see the max number of terms, which resulted in two.

Uh… now we have a Step-by-step character generation checklist on page 29? Should this have been marked as a Career Term checklist? Just a bit confusing for a first time read through. Anywho, section A. Term 1: Select a career (searches for the careers). As listed above, I’m taking Pirate. I noted the career service skills and raised one of them to 1, the rest are 0 (which means that Harrik knows the basics about them if I understand this correctly). Now pick two skill levels from that career’s available skills table which has Service, Specialists or Advanced (which I can’t take because his EDU score isn’t high enough). Uh… are these selections level 1 or 0? The book doesn’t say. I appreciate that they tried to break this down in an outline, but it doesn’t flow very well from how I’m reading it. I seem to remember having this same issue when I was creating a character for Cepheus Deluxe. I’m going to go with 0. OK, Section A, Part 2 Sub-section ii says that a maximum of one skill level may be spent to improve any Characteristic by +1. iii says that no skill level may be higher than 2 in the first term. iii makes senses and if I understand ii I could have selected one of my skill points to go towards a characteristic. Can I use this to up my EDU or INT to get more skills? I’ve already got them written down so I’m not changing my characteristics in the first term. So I’ll run section iv which is the career events table. He was a landlubber so Harrik gains a skill (level?) or a language. I’m going to add one to streetwise. Part 3 has me add four years to the character’s age, so he’s now 18.

Section B covers the second and subsequent terms. As mentioned above I randomly rolled 2 of them. If I understood the Master Character Generation Table, in the second term I get 2 skill levels granted plus 1 for a service skill and in the third term I get just two skill levels to spend. So four skill levels to spend and one more skill added if I’m reading this correctly. OK I’m going to spend one skill level to bump up my SOC skill to 6 (and thus out of the negative modifier range). I spent the three other skill levels and I thought I already had all of the service skills at zero (that didn’t already have a level added to them). I’m confused. I’ll increase the age by 8 (4 years for each term) and roll on the career events table twice. The first event referred me to a Life Event (where is that table, oh on page 49). Life events are listed by Hinterland (the wilds), village or city. It doesn’t say which table I’m rolling on. Is a Port Town a city or a village? Odds it’s city and evens its village, 3, city it is. 10, something good happens, gain an extra benefit role (I believe this is when the character “musters out”). Second career event roll results in Wizards? You learn a little bit from a friendly Wizard. Gain Sorcery or Natural Philosophy. These are skills that I can add to the character sheet. A quick look at the skill descriptions for both I select Sorcery. Yea Pirate Harrik learned a few conjurers tricks to help him with is pirate career here and there, but not enough to declare himself a full blown wizard with the staff and pointy hat. A quick read of the beginning of the Skills chapter on page 17 makes me think this will be a level 0 skill (which means I avoid the unskilled penalty when trying to use the skill). I may have missed where these new skills start out, a 1 or a 0.

OK, if I did this correctly I look at the Master Character Generation Table, Harrik is now 26 has completed three terms (the initial and two more), has some skill levels added to the sheet has two traits (apparently something explained in step 4) five Mustering out benefit rolls (one came from the life event) and a total of 3 events. Let’s roll these benefits and see what happens, it’s a d6 on the Pirate table and I get the following: die rolls a 3 for 100 gold and +1 INT (good), roll of a 5 gives me an Ally and 400 gold (I think I’m getting the gold with the materials), third roll is a 2 gaining 50 gold and some armor, fourth roll is a 6 which results in 500 gold and a ship (probably not a big ship) and the last roll of a 1 gives me 20 gold and a weapon (a cutlass is what I’m guessing).

Alright, step 4 is found on page 55 and it covers the final steps for the character. There is Stamina (add END and Athletics skill) then Lifeblood (resistance to injury) which is END and Athletics skill x2, so 20. Now I can use the cash I earned from mustering out and buy any equipment. There is a pre-purchased equipment package, but I would have to have spent one mustering out benefit to receive it (yea, I’m not giving that up since I got some good rolls). I’ll find the costs later and make the purchase of what’s in the package. Now onto traits, I have two of them according to the master character generation table and I selected: Master Sailor (hey he’s the captain of a small pirate ship) and Signature Weapon (the cutlass he got when mustering out was given to him by his ally).

OH, there’s a character example written out on page 72. Let me take a quick look to see if I missed anything? Ah, if I’m reading this correctly, one of my cash benefits could have been sacrificed to gain the equipment package (I’ll knock one off). There is also chapters on non-human character generation, but I’m already done. I’ll transfer everything to the character sheet from my notes. I’m not certain what my rank is, not certain if I want to look it up now. There is a section for Hero Points which is an optional rule, but you start out with 2. Yea, I’m done. Let’s scan this character sheet.

Afterthoughts:

There are a lot of optional rules presented in this game. Be prepared to ask your Referee which rules they want to run. Some sounded interesting, others sounded complicated.

The system seems pretty sound, but the way the character creation is described could use a little bit more work to make it understandable for those who’ve never played a Traveller type game before. Part of the issue with smaller publishers is that there isn’t a lot of experienced players to immediately ask questions to. I’m sure I would have leaned a lot on my Ref during this process.

The character sheet has some of the skills out of alphabetical order. Sorcery is listed before Sneak, Athletics is listed before Archery. Healing is listed after Liaison.

I was getting a lot of AD&D 1st edition vibes with this book. Lots of good stuff present, interesting system, but things are lacking some explanations or just found in random order. If this was going to be my go-to fantasy RPG, I’m sure I’d get use to it pretty quickly, but I’d have to explain a lot to new players. I’m still happy that I made the purchase and that I backed the Kickstarter, but I’d have to make some cheat sheets if I was going to run this at a convention or on a campaign. I’d still like to try a game or two just to see how the system handles at the table.

Additional Notes:

I’m still playing catch up after getting delayed on the first day. But I’ve been able to get some new blogs added to the Character Creation Challenge FAQ page. I’ve also been getting some feedback from participants on social media and the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. A few participants have been posting their characters there. Thank you.

Coming Up Next:

Traveller (Mongoose Publishing)

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

2025 Character Creation Challenge Day 1: Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition

Written by TardisCaptain January 1, 2025January 2, 2025

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Spy-Fi, Star Trek, Star Wars

Prepping for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge

Written by TardisCaptain December 27, 2024December 28, 2025

Some of the games that I plan to use in the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge and one of my fuzzy overlords.

As you can see, I had a volunteer model helping me out with the photo of the physical books that I’ll be using in the 2025 Character Creation Challenge. This is August (no, I don’t use any pet names for passwords, and neither should you) and after I had arranged the books he suddenly wanted to get up and see what was going on. I didn’t even know he was there until I had turned around to get my camera for the photo. After inspecting all of the books, he settled down in front of the one he liked the most. But attempting to get him to look at the camera for the photo was another matter. There are other games that will be used that I own on PDF.

For the four previous years of the Character Creation Challenge (in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024), I’ve prepped ahead of time to make the challenge a little bit easier. Especially since I try to use a wide variety of games in January 2025. I’ve already had some people reach out to me using various methods to let me know of their participation. Please let me know, Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com if you plan to post your characters up on a blog. I’ll link to it from the Character Creation Challenge section of my website.

I’m once again using a spreadsheet with the date, day and game type to schedule my games. This way I won’t have two fantasy games next to each other. I can also plan a game that may take more time and energy on a day off. This is also a good idea for those dates I know are going to be busy, I can schedule the systems I’m more familiar with for these days.

As in the past, I’ll try to walk through the character creation process as I understand them in the rules-as-written (RAW). This also gives me a chance to do a review of the process. I will then scan the character sheet for all to see. And I will have all of the character sheets printed out before the challenge starts. I’ve found that this helps me get everything ready.

I have had some people tell me that they are pre-making some of there characters before the challenge. And I’m not going to blow the referee whistle at them. As I’ve stated when this was started five-years ago, this is for fun. I know we all have real lives to worry about. And as much as we’d like to be able to focus on our hobbies and what makes us happy, we still have to function in this society. So I’m not going to dock you for setting up a buffer. All that I ask is that you post your entries in at least one location (the #Character-Creation-Challenge channel on the TardisCaptainDotCom discord, on a personal blog (tell me the URL), on one of the many RPG message boards, on social media with the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge). I love seeing what other RPG fans have come up with.

If you are reading this after January 1st and you still want to jump into the challenge, please do. A few participants last year either did a quick catch up or just made sure they ran a full 31 days. The choice is yours. This challenge is just for fun with our gaming systems.

Remember to have fun with this. That was one of the primary goals of the challenge.

You can also use this graphic to help promote the #CharacterCreationChallenge.

31 Day Character Creation Challenge — Feel free to share this image on social media to spread the word.

What games are you using for the challenge? Do you have any questions about the challenge that wasn’t covered on by the FAQ? 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.

Reviews, Role Playing Games

Castles and Crusades Reforged a Kickstarter reward

Written by TardisCaptain December 26, 2024

The cover to the Castles and Crusades Reforged Players Handbook

Another Kickstarter reward came in just before the deadline to participate in the upcoming 2025 Character Creation Challenge. The Reforged Castles and Crusades books. While “reforged” doesn’t appear on the title, it was used on the Kickstarter page. The rewards included a physical copy of the Castle and Crusades Players Handbook (photo above) and PDFs of the Monsters and Treasure, the Castle Keepers Guide, a Castle Keepers Screen and some character sheets.

The stock numbers of the 7th and 10th printings of the Castles and Crusades PHB.

The physical copy of the Players Handbook has the same cover as the 8th and 9th printings. The quickest way you can discover which printing it you have is by looking at the stock numbers on the book spine (see photo above). The last one or two digits should match the printing information on the credits page. In a way, I wish that Troll Lord Games had given us a different cover with this Kickstarter. A tenth printing and the removal of all OGL material is a major milestone for the book and it would have been a nice way to mark the change. The RPG rules are still the same (more on that below) and I understand that the cover is a tribute to the 1st edition AD&D Players Handbook, but I think this might have been a missed opportunity.

This 10th printing is a hardbound book with 288 pages (this includes additional art and the character sheets) and is published by Troll Lord Games. It has an ISBN number of 978-1-952379-70-3 and a 2024 copyright. It was written by Davis Chenault and Mac Golden with Stephen Chenault, Mark Sandy, Todd Gray, Jason Vey and James M. Ward. The cover art was done by Jason Walton and the interior color art was provided by Peter Bradley, Zoe DeVos, Joel Chaim Holtzman, Michelle Smallwood, Meliora Henning and Vladimiro Rikowski. There are eight chapters and an index (thank you). These chapters include: The RPG, Classes, Races, Character, Magic, Spells, Siege Engine (a GMs section) and a Spell Chart. A good point on the physical version, they printed little color tabs flush with the pages for quick searches.

An example of the quick colored tabs printed on the edge of the pages.

I owned a physical copy of the 7th printing so I took some comparison photos. The 7th printing has a copyright of 2017, so yes there is a big jump between the two publications. I noticed that there is a lot more detail in the 10th printing, but the basic nuts and bolts of the game are the same. I compared the points needed to go up between levels on a few classes, and they were the same. Yes there was some text alteration with the OGL removal (such as the Rogue’s ability to Sneak Attack has been renamed to Back Attack), but it appears to be the same game. Much like the removal of the OGL for Basic Fantasy 3rd Edition to 4th Edition.

10th printing on the left and 7th printing on the right.

A look at the spines for the 288 page 10th printing vs the 192 page 7th printing.

The 10th printing had a blue background tint with a brown background for the 7th printing.

So now that I have the Kickstarter reward in hand (and on PDF), how do I feel? Well, I’m very happy that I backed this project. At the time of the campaign I had been invited to an online C&C game, which unfortunately fell through. The Siege Engine mechanics for resolving skill checks sounds like something that I would like to try. I even offered to run a game for some of the 5e players who I’ve GMed for in the past. The rewards came pretty quick and I could see the quality in the work. Also I did get a little bit of a high from the “new book smell” as I was flipping through it. Now if I could just get into a game. While running a one-shot at SaltCON is very likely, I really want to see how this game runs over the course of a campaign.

Do you have any questions about Castles and Crusades Reforged? 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.

Reviews, Role Playing Games

Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition a KickStarter reward

Written by TardisCaptain December 19, 2024December 19, 2024

The cover of Sword of Cerephus 2nd Edition.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to back another KickStarter campaign. The Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition by Stellagama Publishing. I had used some of Stellagama’s products in past Character Creation Challenges with Cepheus Deluxe (boy I have to be careful when I’m typing out that name) so I was a little familiar with their work. I think the biggest reasons that I backed this campaign was 1- I’ve been wanting to try one of the Traveller style 2d6 games for quite some time now. I keep hearing about how classic this system is, but I’ve never had a chance to play. 2- I’ve got a blog project coming up that uses different Fantasy RPG systems and I could use this game for that. 3- I can create a character for the upcoming challenge to see how the character creation system compares to the Cepheus Deluxe publication. And finally 4- They had a very reasonable price to back the KickStarter. A physical book and PDF for $12 (plus shipping)? Yea, I can spare a few clams to back that. Too many times I see an interesting KickStarter only to discover the prices are well out of my comfort zone for a publisher I don’t know very well.

The physical paperback book is printed in a digest size (I think this is called A5). I’ve commented on the print on demand quality from DriveThruRPG in the past and this looks to be just as good. As you can see from the above photo, there is a color cover by Maximilian Schmuecker with black and white art on the inside provided by a number of artists. It was written by Omer Golan-Joel, Richard Hazlewood and Josh Peters. It appears that the ISBN 2-370021-773978 and it has a copyright of 2024.

There are 377 pages in this publication. There are fifteen chapters, two appendixes and an index of spells. The chapters include: Introduction, Basic Game Mechanics (bless you for putting this at the front of the book), Skills, Character Generation (see you soon), Character Advancement, Adventuring, Environmental Hazards, Personal Combat, Chases and Vehicle Combat, Equipment, Sorcery, Bestiary, Treasure, Encounters and Adventure Seeds. Superscience and Inspirational Media make up the two appendixes. I noticed a LOT of references to other roleplaying games in the OGL credits. I’d never really looked at this before since it mostly goes over my head. I didn’t see a character sheet in the physical book, but if you purchase the PDF from DriveThruRPG, it comes with three different sheets. A standard one, a form fillable one and a character sheet with extra art.

With the holidays and prepping for the upcoming Character Creation Challenge I haven’t had a chance to do a deep dive into the rules, but from what little I’ve read, I want to read more. The text is pretty clear and uncluttered. Just the way the basics are explained in the front of the book made me want to play. Also reading about the differences between the three main themes to the game: Gritty Heroism (the characters are skilled), Dark Sorcery (magic can be unreliable and corrupting) and Open World (the world does not scale to the characters). This game could be used for Sword and Sorcery, Sword and Planet (think John Carter of Mars) and Sword and Sandal (think the legends of the Greece-Roman myths and legends).

Overall I’m very pleased with the reward for backing this KickStarter. This book will get used over the next year (at a minimum, making a character, but who knows perhaps I’ll be inspired to run a game at a future SaltCON).

Do you have any questions about Sword of Cepheus 2nd Edition? 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.

Role Playing Games

The Power Of Gaming 2024 Edition

Written by TardisCaptain December 18, 2024

Fantasy Age 2nd Edition by Green Ronin Publishing

It has happened again. I was struck by satan. No, not that one, the Secret Satan (think a play on words for Secret Santa, the gift giving technique used around the holidays). Many participants on the RPG.net gaming forums participate in such a gift exchange every year. A big thanks to “Kid Twist” for putting this together every year with all of the real-world challenges we’ve all been facing. I’ve talked about the past times I’ve been struck by my Secret Satan where I was sent Mutant Crawl Classics, two Ravenloft books and Teenagers from Outer Space.

As you can see from the photo above, a new core rulebook was sent my way. When the Amazon box arrived, I had no idea that it would contain a hardbound copy of the Fantasy Age 2nd Edition rules. For me, this is part of the thrill with this gift exchange. Not knowing what is in the box. When asked what I wanted in the gift exchange, I’ve usually replied with a “surprise me” or “introduce me to a game that you enjoy”. Thank you, I had that surprise when I opened up the box.

I had used the first edition of Fantasy Age in the 2023 Character Creation Challenge. Prior to that I had created a character for Modern Age from the same publisher. I will be using the 2nd edition in the 2025 challenge coming up this January.

I’ve been impressed with the quality and layout of the books by Green Ronin. Especially when it comes to explaining the basics of the RPG system in the front of the book (see example below). I can show this to my friends and possibly get them interested in trying a session or two. I wish that more publishers would follow this trend.

If I can explain this to others, I can probably get a game going.

As for the victim I was assigned, I’ve been able to send one of two gifts. It’s an RPG book from a DriveThruRPG wishlist. I’m also planning to send a second gift with something sweet that they wanted. I know that last year’s victim posted how excited they were with the gifts that the Secret Satan had sent them. I haven’t heard anything so far for this year’s victim, but I hope to hear something soon.

So once again thank you to the members of the RPG.net community. You’ve helped make this hectic December a better one. I hope that my contribution gives as much joy as I’ve received.

Have you had a chance to play any of the AGE games? Do you have any questions about this RPG? 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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2025 Character Creation Challenge

Written by TardisCaptain November 26, 2024November 18, 2025

For those of you who have reached out to me to make sure I’m OK, thank you. October and November were busier than I expected. I’m sorry that I made you guys worry, but yes there will be a 2025 Character Creation Challenge coming up this January. I’ve been itching to get back into my geek and RPG blogs. Especially since I’ve discovered how interactive the geek community has been on the BlueSky social media website. It was really reminding me of Twitter back in 2012-19 back when it was fun and a source of information. I’m seeing feeds as I want them (not four days later like other social media websites). When I ask questions, I get answers instead of ridicule. I’ve made a ton of new connections. I hope you all enjoy reading this blog.

I’ve been getting this website updated in preparation for the upcoming challenge. The 2024 entries and links of participating sites have been moved to their own section. This has the effect of making the main Character Creation Challenge page look pretty blank for participating forums and blogs. If you are participating again this year, shoot me a message and I’ll get you added. I’ll try to search out what I can, but I know I won’t get all of them. This event has been growing every year and now we have reached the fifth year. I can’t wait to see what creativity you all come up with.

For those of you learning about this for the first time, the Character Creation Challenge is for fans of various role playing games. You may have looked into a game or collected the books with the intention to play but never have. Or perhaps you have a favorite system that you always turn to for RPG sessions. Well the Character Creation Challenge is an event to create a new RPG character for each day in January (running parallel to the “new year, new you” theme) from what ever system(s) you choose. Once you have the character ready to play, post it on a website, blog, social media (use the hashtag #CharacterCreationChallenge) or online message boards. The forums at RPG.net was a popular forum where a lot of participants had posted their completed characters. Other active participating message boards included the RPG Pub and the RPG Geek forums (which had entries going for most of the year).

To the left of my computer I have a stack of physical RPG books that I’ve picked up in 2024. Brand new books included the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition and some Kickstarter rewards. I had picked up some books from SaltCON, others were picked up from online purchases or found in thrift stores. On the PDF side of things, I’ve picked up a bunch of books from various charity bundles or just from the DriveThruRPG website. I’ll have a better idea which 31 games I’m going to use soon when I post my “Prepping for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge” post coming next month. I’m still crossing my fingers that one more kickstarter reward will arrive in time. Plus I don’t know if I’ll be gifted a game in the upcoming “Secret Satan” gift exchange that always happens on the RPG.net forums.

Some forever GMs use this as a challenge to create a character like they were actually going to just play. There are a few other themes posted on the main Character Creation Challenge page. Remember, this is for fun, so have fun with it.

It feels good to get an actual blog post up about Roleplaying Games. I know that I’ve been able to keep my Star Trek Quotes reports fresh, but I want to type, I want to pass on knowledge, I want to grow and explore. So look for more soon and thanks for being patient with me.

If you would like to participate, email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com, post on the TardisCaptain.com Discord Channel or find me on social media/message boards and let me know where you will be posting your challenge characters at. If you are posting them on a website, I’ll add the link to my Character Creation Challenge page.

Dungeons and Dragons, Reviews, Role Playing Games

A look at the Time Magazine D&D Special

Written by TardisCaptain September 29, 2024September 30, 2024

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.

Collecting, Reviews, Role Playing Games

Mystery Dice Goblin sent me three mystery packs to review

Written by TardisCaptain September 17, 2024September 16, 2024

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Reviews, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Review of Star Trek Adventures 2E Game Toolkit

Written by TardisCaptain September 10, 2024

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.