Role Playing Games – Page 25 – TardisCaptain's Blog of Holding

Conventions, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDay2023 Day 14: Favorite Convention Purchase

Written by TardisCaptain August 14, 2023August 11, 2023

Day 14 of the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge and the subject is “Favorite Convention Purchase”. Well I’ve been to a ton of conventions. I really need to get my convention resume updated and placed on this site. However since this is a challenge geared towards roleplaying games, I’ll have to think about an item I purchased from an RPG convention.

My very first convention ever back in the late 80’s was an RPG convention. It was held at a local library and there were a ton of D&D games going on. Comics Utah ran Kublai Con when it was still around, but heck if I can remember if I had purchased anything from that event. Another gaming store that had been located in the Southtown mall that ran a quarterly gaming convention (I met several friends there for the first time). But I don’t recall if I had purchased anything from these events. In the 90’s to early 2000’s, CONduit had some gaming going on and I know I purchased items there. But it was primarily a literary convention so I don’t know if this would count?

This year I’ve been to SaltCON-Spring and SaltCON-Summer. And I documented what I had purchased from these events. So from those two events my favorite convention purchase (at least for now) are the Star Trek Adventures Player’s Guide and the Star Trek Adventures Gamemaster’s Guide. I had purchaesed these from a small local RPG store that had a table at the convention. I was able to support a small business. If you read my after action reports for both events, you’ll see that I also picked up several other books that I plan to use in the 2024 Character Creation Challenge. So it is a possibility that I may change this answer in the future.

What is your favorite convention purchase? 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.

Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

RPGaDay2023 Day 13: Most memorable character demise

Written by TardisCaptain August 13, 2023August 10, 2023

The #RPGaDay2023 Day 13 topic is “Most memorable character demise.” I can see this being a good topic because many RPG war stories probably cover this. While I’m certain that I’ve had a lot of characters die, most of them probably fell into the category of me proclaiming “oh smeg!”

For the Day 8 entry of “Favorite Character“, I introduced you to my Sun Elf, Tovark. I can say that he died at least once, but it was on purpose. The party that Tovark was a member of had been contracted by a god called The Great Oak (hey, he was a nature god) to rescue his chief druid from the clutches of a demon lord named Ballhonith. He was using the druid as a conduit to send his power and attacks against other demons in their various unholy wars. There was a series of dangerous settings that I’ll talk about in my Day 28 entry of the RPGaDAY challenge. But to assist with this, the Great Oak had granted us the power to return to life once (not only back to full health, but back to full power as well).

I figured that when we had our final confrontation against the demon lord, I would need to be back at full strength with all spells and abilities. I tried to finagle it so that my character wouldn’t get killed (and have to re-use my regeneration) before the final boss battle.

I succeeded. Not only did I get a few good spells off before I died, I was able to take out a bunch of the demon’s spell casting lieutenants before I went down. As mystic powers re-charged me back to life (ILM spent a lot of money on the special effects to film it), Ballhonith was shocked to see me get back up and start magically wailing on him with UNLIMITED POWER!!! OK, all of the power for a 14th level wizard, which is still a lot. We were able to hold off the demon lord long enough for the other members of the party to free the druid and get the hell out of Dodge.

While the Great Oak rewarded us greatly. I’m pretty certain that some where, out there, Ballhonith is plotting revenge against Tovark and his companions. It’s probably a good thing he took a very good reward from the Great Oak that could protect him. Or would it?

Do you recall a death scene of one of your RPG characters? 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, Science Fiction

RPGaDay2023 Day 12: Old game you still play

Written by TardisCaptain August 12, 2023August 8, 2023

“Old Game You Still Play” is the theme for Day 12 of the #RPGaDAY2023 challenge. Is it sad that I’m hardly playing anything so I can’t really say “still play”?

What vintage games that I would love to play (either again or for the first time) are as follows:

Star Frontiers– The science fiction game from TSR that I saw advertisements for, but never had a chance to play.

Traveller– The other old school science fiction RPG that I saw advertised everywhere. Like Star Frontiers, I never had a chance to play it.

Gangbusters– While there is a good Gangbusters B/X version that I’d love to play, I’d also like to try the original at least once so I could say that I’ve played it.

Aftermath– A post-apocalyptic game that I saw advertised in various RPG magazines. I have no idea if it was any good or just clunky. But, I’d love to try it out to form an opinion.

Gamma World– TSR’s entry into the science fiction/post-apocalyptic genre that, again, I saw advertised all over the place, but my friends were only interested in a limited number of games.

What old role playing games do you still play? What games did you wish you had played? 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, Westerns

RPGaDay2023 Day 11: Weirdest game you’ve played

Written by TardisCaptain August 11, 2023August 10, 2023 1 Comment

Side note from my Day 10 entry, by selecting D&D comics, I had inspired a participant who was having a hard time thinking of a favorite tie-in, until he remembered his own D&D comics. I’m glad that I helped a fellow RPGer out.

So, Day 11 of the #RPGaDAY2023 challenge is “Weirdest game you’ve played.” Like the Smartest Game I’ve Played entry, I had to think about this one.

Recently I had a chance to play the supernatural/western based RPG Weird Frontiers at SaltCON-Summer in June. Sure, weird is in the name of the game, but that is not why I selected this one. It was the combat mechanics with the various firearms. Every time you shot your gun, you had to draw a card from a standard deck of 52 playing cards. The value of the card could either enhance or hinder the attack from your gun. Since Aces and Eights is a bad hand to draw in westerns, it drawing any of those cards were very bad. It made the system stand out that much more when trying to play the game. Not in a bad way, but in a weird way.

What was a weird game (or RPG mechanic) that you’ve experienced? 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.

Comic Books, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

RPGaDay2023 Day 10: Favorite tie-in Fiction

Written by TardisCaptain August 10, 2023August 10, 2023 1 Comment

While I believe that the subject for Day 10 of the #RPGaDAY Challenge “Favorite tie-in fiction” probably refers to some of the many different novels written in RPG settings, I knew I had to pick another medium. Well they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you go.

Just some of the Dungeons and Dragons comics in my collection.

Back in my Comics Utah days I was collecting the various Dungeons and Dragons comics by DC Comics. I actually just re-read most of them a few years ago and recalled how much I loved them. While there have been other publishers that have picked up the D&D line, I don’t think they ever hit it quite right like the DC comic run.

One of the things that I really liked is that they gave you Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition stats for characters, spells and items that came up in the various comics. I really liked that one of the characters in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons comic was a Centaur. I felt that this could have been a player race in the game.

Had there been an option for a non-Fiction favorite tie-in, I would have been tempted to post the Heroes’ Feast, The Official D&D Cook Book that I reviewed last year. That was a good book.

What is your favorite RPG tie-in fiction? I’d love to hear 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

RPGaDay2023 Day 9: Favorite Dice

Written by TardisCaptain August 9, 2023August 6, 2023

The subject for Day 9 of the #RPGaDAY2023 challenge is about dice. Specifically what is your favorite dice.

Well, I have a set of Chessex dice that is red and black. I think the reason I use them a lot is because I still have the plastic container that they came in. So I know the origin and they are easy to grab out of the dice bag. I’ve got a set of Dungeon Crawl Classics dice that have the odd shapes that I picked up for a Mutant Crawl Classics game (that was scheduled, but didn’t happen). I even own a set of dice from the Dollar Tree. I was also tempted to state my Jason Fox lucky dice that I had picked up a few years ago.

But I think my favorite set is the North-to-South gaming dice that I received (and reviewed) last year. This would be the set of normal dice not the mini-set. I’m always worried that the smaller dice are going to get lost or knocked off the table by cats. I did use this set while running the OSR game for 5e players.

Also the nice thing about getting and using dice is that when they are bad, you can always put them in the Lynx RPG Dunce Dice Chair when they are bad.

Do you have a favorite set of dice? Do you have lots of the clicky-clack shiny math rocks? 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.

Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

RPGaDay2023 Day 8: Favorite Character

Written by TardisCaptain August 8, 2023August 5, 2023 1 Comment

Alright we’ve made it to Day 8 of the #RPGaDAY2023 challenge and the topic is “Favorite Character”. I was thinking of selecting one of the past Character Sheets that I had posted on this blog. But then I realized that my most favorite character isn’t on a physical character sheet.

My friend Jeff Sullivan had run a Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition campaign for his friends from 2013 to 2019. I played a Sun Elf Wizard named Tovark that I had advanced from 1st level to 14th before the campaign had ended. Tovark had graduated from the very prestigious school run by Elminster (he even had student loans that he had to pay off). There was even a series of rolls that I had to provide during character creation that Jeff had used to come back with some background information (Are parents still alive? Any siblings? Career prior to becoming an adventurer? etc.) Plus the world that had been created was one that operated with lots of magic affecting people’s lives.

Jeff had created an Excel character sheet that had different tabs for stats, gear, spells, etc. They were all connected together so that if you raised an ability score, it automatically updated your skill stats as well. I took that character sheet and added hyperlinks to the online spell descriptions so that if I needed to look something up, I just clicked on the link.

A quick screenshot of the spell list on the Excel character sheet

I’ve actually thought up scenarios where the players would have to find Tovark in order to gain his assistance with a quest. Tovark, like most wizards, highly valued his privacy. He didn’t just have a tower in some land, nope, you would have to find the god that owed him a favor to find out where he went.

What was a favorite character from a role playing game that you enjoyed? 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.

Conventions, Role Playing Games

RPGaDay2023 Day 7: Smartest RPG you’ve played

Written by TardisCaptain August 7, 2023August 5, 2023

The Day 7 entry for the #RPGaDAY2023 challenge is “Smartest RPG you’ve played”. Um… I guess I’m not really understanding this one. All systems have different moving parts that work (or don’t) to a different level of degrees.

I think for this topic I’m going to go with a smart game master that I’ve seen running a game that I’ve been in. When I attended my first SaltCON this past March I participated in a Pathfinder 2nd Edition game. Not only was the scenario designed to introduce players to the system, it was also not overly-complicated so it could be ran in a quick time session at a convention. The game master, named Jared Walter, also explained the system to the players (who all had a different degree in RPG experience) and made use of different colored tokens to help keep track of initiative and combat. It was interesting to see how organized he was and it made me appreciate the session more.

On a side note, I also think it’s smart how SaltCON uses the Table Top Events website to help schedule games at the convention. The next SaltCON is coming up on the first part of September and I’ve already got my schedule selected (I had to go over all of the options to maximize my playing time while setting time aside for meals and breaks). I’ve been very impressed with this setup.

Has one of your game masters done something smart to make the game run smoother or more efficient? 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, Science Fiction, Star Trek

RPGaDay2023 Day 6: Favorite game you never get to play

Written by TardisCaptain August 6, 2023January 11, 2024

So I had to think about this topic for Day 6 of the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge. “Favorite game you never get to play.” Between physical copies and PDFs purchased online through DriveThruRPG or charity bundles I have a lot of games. Some I’ve read and they were OK, while others I’ve read and I’ve really wanted to try them out. So which one do I choose? Some of these covered science fiction, espionage, post-apocalyptic and more. I’ve never played the Star Trek RPG that was released by Last Unicorn Games, but considering how big of a fan I am of FASA Star Trek and Star Trek Adventures, I wouldn’t mind playing LUG Trek once to try it out, but it’s not really at the top of my list. I want to pick a game that not only would I want to play in a campaign, but I’d want to homebrew for like I have with FASA Trek and STA Trek.

So when I narrowed it down, I felt that Frontier Space by DWD Studios is my selection for this topic. It barely beats out Castles and Crusades (I’ve been told that I can hopefully get into a C&C game if I can get on their discord), Apes Victorious (I don’t know anyone who plays this, but it’s a D20 retro so it should be easy to pick up) and White Lies (an espionage game also by DWD Studios).

I’ve created a character for Frontier Space in a past Character Creation Challenge. The system is rolling a percentile to see if you succeed in a task with your Ability and Skill scores combined creating your target number to roll under (kinda similar to the 2d20 system seen in Star Trek Adventures) The character creation process is pretty straight forward and I thought was easy to understand. The universe it is set in sounds intriguing to play, but the system could easily be adapted for other franchises if desired. I love the use of percentile dice and I am a big fan of science fiction. So perhaps, someday I’ll be able to get some friends into a game?

I’ve actually talked with some RPG fans in my local Star Trek club about an idea of them showing up for a game night not knowing which game we will be experimenting with. I’d run a one-shot for them, explaining the rules and gathering their feedback for a future blog post. I need to get this done because I think it would be fun. Now I just need to get the time set aside to put something like this together. I hate the dreaded real-life/schedule curse.

What roleplaying game would you like to play that you haven’t had a chance to 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.

Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

RPGaDay2023 Day 5: Oldest game you’ve played

Written by TardisCaptain August 5, 2023August 4, 2023

I have to think about this question for Day 5 of the #RPGaDAY2023 challenge. Oldest game you’ve played. I know it’s one of the early flavors of Dungeons and Dragons, but which one? When I was playing with my buddies in junior high, one friend had the blue cover Dungeons and Dragons book written by Eric Holmes (but I don’t recall if we actually played it or just referenced the book), another had the Basic/Expert Dungeons and Dragons book and another had Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (back before it was called 1st edition) and my first official purchase was the Basic Dungeons and Dragons book that was the start of the BECMI line. The version we played depended upon who was the Dungeon Master.

So my answer is, one of these three versions of Dungeons and Dragons. We didn’t limit ourselves. I preferred B/X (later BECMI) but played any of them.

Do you recall what was the oldest roleplaying game that you have played? 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.