For Day 16 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge we have been asked to talk about an RPG that is Quick to Learn. This sounds really similar to the Day 6 entry of an RPG that is Easy to Use. In that post, I talked about a game that I had played that covered the subject. To mix things up, I’m going to post about a game that I haven’t played yet, but sounds easy to use from reading the rules.
Back in the 2022 Character Creation Challenge, I was able to make a character for Tiny Dungeons 2nd Edition. The basis of the system is that you roll 2d6 when attempting a task and if you roll a 5 or a 6 on either die, then you are able to complete the task. If the GM determines that you have an advantage while attempting the task, they will let you roll 3d6. Likewise, if it is determined that you have a disadvantage, you only roll a single d6. When I created characters for Tiny Frontiers, Tiny Spies and Tiny Wastelands the system was the same. Making a character was also quick and easy.
I thought someone had mentioned the Tiny d6 system in response to my Day 6 entry, but I couldn’t find it. So thank you to the person who reminded me of this system. It sounds like a good system to use for a quick pick-up game or a convention one-shot. I’d like to try this at a future SaltCON and see how it is received. Another advantage of easy rules is, if I can understand it quickly, I can try to get some friends involved quickly as well.
Is there an RPG that you thought sounded easy from reading the rules? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
Welcome to Day 15 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. Our topic of the day is Great Character Gear. The gear for a character can be an interesting thing. It can be a micromanaging aspect of the game (Do I have enough arrows? Is the character overloaded?) or it can be a new trend that I’ve noticed. The gear is more of a temporary trait that affect the character/scene in the game. If it’s the later, then usually the rules state ‘You start with this’. Sometimes I appreciate that a lot, especially if I’m getting down to the wire on getting the character completed.
The starting gear is always an interesting aspect of roleplaying games to think about. Having created a lot of characters in the Character Creation Challenge, I’ve noticed some things. By the time I get to the “obtain equipment” section of the process, I’m either really happy to pick out the gear, or I’m really annoyed because the character creation process sucked to high heaven. Sometimes I just say “I pick the equipment I think the character would have.” Especially if the equipment obtaining process is convoluted.
One of the most weirdest (and stupid) processes of obtaining character gear came from the True20 system. Immediately I saw how the wealth bonus could both be abused by players and how the wealth system would punish players. Then when I saw how it compared to D20 Modern wealth system, I knew that I’d be using the later if I wanted to run that type of a game.
I like homebrewing for gear in games based off of Intellectual Properties (i.e. shows, books and comics). It allowed me to port over something I had seen into a RPG environment. I did this with Star Trek Adventures in a past RPGaDAY entry.
Another aspect of equipment is when the GM wishes they hadn’t given that out or forgot that you had obtained it. In a past D&D 3.5 campaign, the DM forgot that I had obtained a bottle of matter from the negative plane. In a moment of desperation, I used it as a grenade. Luckily the party survived the encounter. But it did kill the nasty monster that was kicking our butt. The DM had told his son about the encounter later and he reacted with “what was he stupid for using that?”
Do you have a memorable equipment that was given to a character? Have you had a good or bad experience equipping characters during the character creation process? 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.
Here on Day 14 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge we will be talking about Compelling Characters. At first I thought that I’d talk about some of the many characters that I had created in the past Character Creation Challenges. But then I remembered a series of articles that I had been posting with scans of old character sheets that I had saved from past games.
I’ve talked about one of my favorite Dungeon Masters and good friend, Jeff Sullivan and the recent multi-year Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign that we completed in 2019. Years before that he had run another campaign using the same system. I think it was sometime between 2003, 04 or 05. While going through the three-ringed binder full of character sheets I found that first character. I remember playing with Andrew, Gibby and a few other friends. This campaign didn’t last as long as the one I blogged about above.
I don’t recall too much of the background, but I remember being really excited to play Tirik. He was a Ranger, but the DM had a special sub-class that he allowed called The Archer. I think I may still have the Archer write up somewhere in my many boxes of stuff that I need to go through. Besides having the weapons specialization with the bow, he had some ranger spells as well. Looking at some of the notes that I had jotted down on the sheet, someone was casting bless spells on us. Somehow we had a magical weapon glow (I don’t recall if this allowed us to see magical weapons, or if they glowed that way because of their magical nature). For some reason I had “8th Season of the Virgin” written on the side. I’ll have to ask Jeff about that one. Besides having a kickass bow and trick arrows, Tirik also had a +1 magical sword that does other stuff (that I’m sure I would have found out while using it in game) and a dagger called Lumina. This dagger has an adamanite (spelling?) blade with a deer horn handle. I remember Gibby getting his Belt of Giant Strength with Jeff describing how it was made (using the tendon of a giant we had just slain). This was also the first game where I was introduced to carob roots. These were roots we could chew on to regain a small number of hit points (a d4s worth IIRC).
I just realized that in both games the character’s name started with the letter “T”. I’m going to have to send Jeff a link to this blog post to see if he remembers this campaign. Here are scans of the character sheet that we had downloaded from the Mad Irishman website.
Do you have a compelling character from past games? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
The topic for Day 13 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge is Evocative Environments. I pull up a search engine and learn that Evocative means “To bring an especially emotional response.” So a good memory of an RPG environment that comes to my mind?
I think I’m going to talk about the physical (and not-so-physical) environments that I’ve played in the past. For myself, one of the biggest reasons I want to participate in this hobby is the friendships that I make with my fellow players. Obviously a good gaming environment will enhance the joy of the games we play.
Private Environments: Gaming at my house or the house of a friend. In my humble opinion, this is the best option for gaming. Either myself or someone I know very well is in charge of the room, the times available, what can be brought in for food, etc. This is the one that I find most relaxing, especially if I’m the person doing the hosting. At the previous house we lived in we had a near-perfect setup for a gaming area. The new house that I moved into several years ago isn’t quite there yet, not without attempts from my wife and I. I’d love to get back into a position where we could host a monthly or every-other-week game again. I did host a game when I introduced my daughter’s 5E playing friends to an OSR game.
Public Environments: Back in the 90’s I know that a group or two tried to game at an all night diner. However they tend to frown on you if you stay for more than a couple of hours without ordering a ton of food. We quickly learned that this wasn’t a solution to our gaming location needs. Then and now I’ve gamed in local gaming stores. There have been quite a few over the years that realized that bringing in gamers help drive sales. However if the store gets popular, it can lead to another layer of scheduling issues. Sometimes you can bring in your own food, sometimes you cannot. It would depend upon the store ownership. This isn’t a bad option, but may have it’s own set of challenges. Playing at a park is also a major challenge as well. Especially as more gaming environments are needing electricity for laptops and tablets. I know I’ve tried them in the past and we didn’t continue with that option.
Online Environments: I’ve tried and attempted a few online campaigns. I’ve mentioned a previous Starfinder campaign that I did with friends. While the system was OK, gaming with friends was great, but I will never use Fantasy Grounds again as the program sucked to high heaven. Later I was in a Far Trek campaign over Roll20. Being browser-based program it ran 1000% better than the Fantasy Grounds disaster. In both games we used Discord as our method of in and out-of game communication. As I mentioned on my Day 2 RPGaDAY2024 entry I was going to be in a Castles and Crusades campaign that was just about to start on The Foundry VTT, but the Castle Keeper had to cancel after too many scheduling issues came up. I was looking forward to both the C&C system and learning about The Foundry. While in-person gaming is my first choice when sitting down to play, I won’t turn down an online game as long as it’s not on Fantasy Grounds and if we have a good session zero to learn about the (hopefully) new gaming friends that I’m going to play with.
Convention Environments: I’ve become an addict to playing at my local SaltCON gaming convention. Not only am I playing, but I even broke my “no volunteering” rule that I had originally set up for this con and started running games for them. I also like the fact that I’ve been able to network with local (and sometimes not local) members of the gaming community. There are a couple of other smaller gaming conventions in the state, but they are not as close as SaltCON. So I hope to try them out sometime soon, even if it’s only for one day. A con two counties away had a booth at an earlier SaltCON, but there was no one there the entire weekend for me to inquire with. GenCon just ended and I’ve been reading the online reports from attendees. It would be nice for me to attend this event, and perhaps someday it may happen. But right now it looks like I’ll have to put it in the same category as attending a DragonCon other big-ticket events, nice to think about, but logistically not reachable at this time.
What is the most ideal environment for you to game in? Did I miss an environment that I didn’t mention above? 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 12 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge and the subject is an RPG with a well supported campaign. This makes sense since yesterday’s topic was RPG one-shots.
Now I haven’t ran any published campaigns. I’ve created a few for Star Trek and other RPGs. However I’ve been tempted to run a few. At the last SaltCON I picked up two boxed sets that were different campaigns. But the answer that I’m going to post today is the Shackleton Expanse that Modiphius released for the Star Trek Adventures RPG. The game designers set this up so it could be run as a Federation campaign, or a Klingon campaign or a mixture of both. I thought that was an excellent idea since they had both the standard core rulebook and the Klingon core rulebook available.
Additional feedback received from readers: From the MeWe social media site I had readers talk about some of my posts. Phil Hatfield mentioned that the RPG he had played the most could have been FASA Star Trek, Twilight 2000 or WEG Star Wars. He had also listed Twilight 2000, the Hollow Earth Expedition and Star Trek Adventures as a game with really good artwork. Phil Hatfield responded to the Easiest To Play entry with the FATE System and Star Wars WEG. Phil also mentioned that for One-Shots the he had run some good ones for Star Wars and Chill. I think I got all of them from MeWe comments. If I missed one, sorry about that. But thank you for reading my blog.
Can you recommend a good campaign guide for an RPG? 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 11 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge we’ve been tasked to talk about RPGs with well supported one-shots. Since I’ve been volunteering to GM games at SaltCON, I’ve become more and more interested in one-shots that I can run an a four-hour block.
I’ve created a few one-shots that I used to introduce my daughter’s 5E playing friends to OSR. I also had to do a mashup of Top Gear meets a Star Trek: Lower Decks style crew. I need to get these polished up and published for other GMs to use. Yes bad Carl, not doing as much writing as you need to do.
Of the one-shots that I’ve pulled for usage, I’d have to say that the Adventure Anthologies put out by the Basic Fantasy RPG community has helped a lot. If you reach out to this community on their message board, discord or facebook page, they will respond quickly to any questions.
The Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Quickstart also has a good one-shot that I’ve used to get new players into the game. I’ve been able to run it for members of my Star Trek club, but I haven’t had a chance to run it at a con yet. Yet being the keyword.
I plan to run a one-shot for Ork! 2nd Edition at the next SaltCON. So I should have more to report on that soon.
What one-shots have you ran? Any suggestions for running one? 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.
Oh, we have an interesting topic for Day 10 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge which is RPG you’d like to see on TV. Because I have a lot of games based on TV and Movies, this may be difficult. These games for TV that I own/play/write for/collected include Star Trek, Doctor Who, Star Wars, Fallout (OK this one started from a video game), Dune, Aliens, and more. I wished that I owned the Red Dwarf RPG and the Babylon 5 RPG is one that has been on my radar (if I can find it at a good price). I backed the Planet of the Apes kickstarter and I’m looking forward to the Space: 1999 RPG that Modiphius just announced.
But RPGs that need their own TV series? Let me look at my collection and pick a few that I’ve enjoyed looking at or playing.
When the Moon Hangs Low by Isolation Games. You play cursed hunters in a gothic type city that is plagued by demons and other things that go bump in the night. Yea there have been similar TV shows, but usually those hunters are in modern day settings. I used this in a past Character Creation Challenge.
Teenagers from Outer Space by R. Talsorian Games. Another game that I was able to use in a past Character Creation Challenge. Yea, I know it’s basically a parody game of most comedy anime TV series, but the background listed just sounded like it would be fun to watch.
This next one could be done really really well, or really really sucky depending on how they use it as a mirror to society (see the movie Idiocracy) . But my last recommendation is Paranoia by Mongoose Publishing. I created a character for the 2nd edition Paranoia in a previous Character Creation Challenge and it sounds hilarious. Think, The Prisoner meets Logan’s Run meets… well Idiocracy.
What RPGs do you think would make for an entertaining TV series? 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.
And here we are at Day 9 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge and we have a companion topic to yesterday, “An accessory you’d like to see.” I talked a lot about the accessories that I’ve already purchased, but what am I missing? Some of the things that I haven’t mentioned yet are the dice tray that I roll into. I saw something similar where it held the dice when rolled up but then flattened out to a tray.
But something I’d like to see? How about a phone app that is similar to the dating and hook-up apps where it lets you find someone within so many miles that may want a date. However, instead of dating it shows players and GMs that want to play roleplaying games. “Hey look, there are five people near me that are willing to play Star Trek Adventures and are free this Friday night. I’ll send them a message.” Technologically possible, but would require a lot of setup and maintenance.
Another accessory that just game to mind is a portable roll-able LCD screen that’s durable enough to be used as a battle mat on a table (because no one will spill their drinks). The GM can control it from a computer so different maps and views can be set up, and the character’s miniatures would also interact with the map to show things like ranges. It could be expensive, but would look very kewl.
All right let me see if I can come up with a third one. Something not electronic or digital. Blank white dice of the various varieties that can be marked by a wet-erase marker. This way you could come up with your own custom dice for different RPGs.
OK, I’ll end there. I think I’ve wracked my brain enough for today. What gaming accessories did you think of? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
Welcome to Day 8 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. Today we will be talking about “An accessory you appreciate.” I like the wording of this one. It didn’t ask for best or latest, just one you appreciate.
There are several options that I could choose from. I’ve talked about several items that I’ve picked up and used. The Dunce Dice Chair made me chuckle, especially when I put my Jason Fox D20 on it. I’ve gotten a ton of use out of my Convention Backpack. While attending cons I’ve been introduced to various battle mats and a deck of 52 cards that has helped me GM games.
However, I think the accessory that I appreciate the most, when it comes to RPGs, is the internet. I’ve been able to share my creativity through this blog. I’ve been able to read other RPG and Geek blogs, talk on message boards, Discord and social media (while dodging the crap that is on the later). Purchase PDFs from DriveThruRPG, Humble Bundle and Bundle of Holding and more. I’ve been able to do some gaming on Virtual Table Tops, but I will never use Fantasy Grounds again. The interactions with game designers and authors alone has been worth the price of admission. A lot of times I wished I was back in the 80’s and 90’s. But then I look at the advantages that the internet has provided and I’m glad that I’m living now.
Is there an RPG accessory that you have appreciated the most? 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.
First some feedback from my Day 5 post about RPG Writing. LexTenebris on Mastodon responded to me stating that I may be off-base in my line of thinking and that people would buy RPG books purely for the reference on the source material. He referenced some of the GURPS supplements based on licensed products. He also made an interesting comment of “There are a ton of properties that I think are interesting and would like to see someone else’s approach to translating them into a world book. Sometimes it’s purely interest, sometimes it’s because I want to see how someone else deals with a setting in the context of mechanics or a particular issue within that setting.” It spawned an entire conversation with several RPGers on Mastodon,
On my entry for Day 6 on RPGs that are easy to use, Creative Wronging on BlueSky mentioned that the Cypher System is rather easy to use once you understand their stats system. Then he recommended some OSR systems like Mausritter, Cairn or the Odd-Likes. I’ll have to check these out.
Thank you to all of my readers and a big thank you for the feedback/response. It tells me that someone is listening to my scream into the internet void. And now on with the show.
The topic for Day 7 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge is “RPG with Good Form”. OK, so I had to actually look up what Good Form meant. Especially since the first thing that an online search brought up was some song that I had never heard of by an artist I never follow. So a Good Form is a “proper way of behaving.” I wonder if Mr. Chapman was wondering what systems are good? Or perhaps what RPG books flowed when reading them or looking up information? Ya know what, I’m going to go with that last one. And instead of pointing out a particular game, I’m going to stick with general items that have stood out to me when reading various RPG books.
First, I love a properly set up PDF book. If it is searchable, has links, etc. Then it can help quite a bit when quickly looking up information for a game. As I’ve mentioned before, when learning a new game I love using the dead tree version. But when homebrewing, planning a campaign, writing an article, etc., I really appreciate how the PDF options help out a lot.
A book that didn’t have good form was the first edition of the Star Trek Adventures core rulebook. I had mentioned previously how early attempts at reading the book made me want to re-write it. Well the team covering Star Trek Adventures took this to heart when releasing the second edition core rulebook and they have made a massive improvement to the form of the book and made it easier to read and use. They even included step-by-step charts for various portions of the game that have helped a lot. Here is an example, but I’m saving most of my comments about the second edition core book when I get the physical copy to review.
Let me just say “Thank you” for a chart like this.
Good charts and giving us details on how a process should work within a system is something I very much appreciate. Having created a lot of characters using the rules-as-written for the Character Creation Challenge, I’ve noticed a few times that I was wondering if had made it to the end of the creation process. Even something as simple as “Step one: do this, Step two: do this…” Referencing page numbers allows for the reader to quickly find the additional details as needed.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve purchased core books just because the publisher knew to put the basic system for the RPG in a quick easy-to-understand section early in the book. Quick to find, quick to show to friends, quick to help get them excited to try it out.
For core rulebooks (and I’m shocked that I have to say this) please don’t forget to include a character sheet. The bigger publishers remember this, but for some reasons the smaller publishers have overlooked this. If it’s not in your book, at least include it on your website with some other freebies to get me excited about buying the game.
The last thing that I’ll mention before I wrap up this blog post is something that I’m shocked a lot more publishers don’t do. Please include an index at the back of the book. Again when we are at the table or trying to find something for research, it’s gratifying to just open up the index and say “Oh, what I want is on page xx.”
When I sat down I didn’t think I was going to have a lot to say about today’s topic. But when I started typing, the creativity started flowing. I’ve been seeing this as well reading other entries on blog posts and social media under the hashtag #RPGaDAY2024.
Have you experienced an RPG with Good Form? 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.
