Tag: Role Playing Games

Collecting, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

More FASA catalogs

Written by TardisCaptain December 2, 2021March 29, 2022

I posted a bunch of scanned catalogs from FASA in a previous blog entry. There was also a second blog entry where readers had sent me a couple of scans that were missing. Well I’ve come across a couple more catalogs for my collection. Technically both of these catalogs have been posted before on this blog, but now that I have physical copies, I decided to scan them in myself. As I continue to empty out boxes in storage, I’ll keep an eye out for additional catalogs that I haven’t scanned in yet and post them here.

FASA-2-1983-Catalog Download

In the first blog post, I only had photos of this catalog provided by a friend. In the second blog post, this catalog was posted but was in two parts. I had recently picked up a 1st edition Klingons boxed set by FASA off of Ebay. This catalog was one of the books contained within the boxed set.

FASA-Spring-1986-Catalog-Full Download

I found this catalog while going through some of the boxes in my garage. When a reader sent me a PDF of this catalog for a previous blog entry, I knew it looked familiar. And my suspicions were confirmed when it had been uncovered. Since that catalog only contained the Star Trek items, I decided to scan the entire book into a PDF format. This will allow anyone wishing to conduct research on early FASA products to see the book in it’s entirety. One thing I did notice while going through the PDF. The description for the module “Decision at Midnight” talked about how the commanding officer of the USS Arkadelphia was Captain Barbara Vellacora and how she was the youngest woman to ever be promoted to the center chair. When the module was published, the name had been changed to Ian Vellacora and the sex changed to male.

The quest to get more of my collection out of generic (and falling apart) cardboard boxes continues. There are several items that I’ve got listed down in my records, but I am unable to locate now. I’m really hoping that I haven’t lost them. Seeing some of the prices for things that I already own on Ebay has only made me more determined to find them. I really can’t afford to replace these games.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games

2022 Character Creation Challenge

Written by TardisCaptain November 19, 2021November 20, 2021

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

I’ve already had people ask me if there will be a Character Creation Challenge in 2022. I had so much fun participating and running the 2021 challenge that I knew I wanted to do this again. So here is the official announcement, yes we will have the challenge in January 2022. New year, new you (errr… new character). Have fun with this event.

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 message boards. The forums at RPG.net was a popular place that a lot of participants had posted their completed characters. UPDATE: The new thread on RPG.net for the 2022 Character Creation Challenge can be found here.

In 2021 I took part in this challenge by making different characters for different systems using just the core rulebook for the game. Because I would be creating on a daily basis, I used a spreadsheet to schedule out what games would be on which days. This way the games I was very familiar with would take place on my busy days. Games that I was not familiar with or had difficult creation rules were saved for my non-busy days (usually weekends). I was able to create characters for systems that I had not played in quite some time. It was a blast going through the steps that I had not taken in years. Some games I had remembered playing, but forgot how clunky the creation process was for a book printed in the 80s and 90s.

For 2022 I’m going to go with another random assortment of games. Some I thought about after seeing others post their characters (like Feast of Legends from Wendy’s) and others were from games that I had picked up over the past year or gifted to me by friends. There were also several games that I didn’t get a chance to use in 2021, so they will be strongly considered. I’ve also decided that I’m going to use official supplements for the game in my character creations for 2022 instead of just sticking to the core rules.

I had other participants tell me that they had chosen a theme (like all Witches as seen in different roleplay systems) or a favorite setting (Al-Qadim for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition) or even a favorite system (all characters were from Classic Traveler). When I first suggested this idea, I had one person respond that they wanted to try this with games they had never played or haven’t played in five years. If a common theme helps you with your #CharacterCreationChallenge then go for it.

As I was writing up this blog post, I visited several of the sites that had participated in the 2021 challenge. I think I’m going to try to come up with something for those who complete the challenge in January. I don’t know what it will be yet, but I’ll come up with something.

If you would like to participate, email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com 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.

My Creations, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Part VII

Written by TardisCaptain November 4, 2021March 29, 2022

Yes this is part VII of the series. Part VI was the one ship entry into the #RPGaDAY2021 challenge in August.

Past Entries:

Homebrewed Stats for Starships

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Part II

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Part III

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Part IV

Homebrewed Stats for Starships Part V

For those of you reading about this series for the first time, I had a blog post where I talked about finding an old three-ringed binder full of starships for the FASA Starship Tactical Combat Simulator. I had photocopied all of the official starships for the game that I could find from various manuals, sourcebooks, modules, magazine articles, fanzines and more. When I had collected all that I could find, I used the Starship Construction Manual from FASA to convert Starships found in various professional, semi-professional and fan made tech manuals/blueprints.

So I’ve been able to scan in a few more starships of my own conversion (plus an extra). We’ve made it past the Starfleet starships to a group of Klingon and Romulan ships. Note: There is one Klingon ship in the first entry.

D-34-Taqr-Class-XIII-Cruiser Download

The D-34 Taq’r image and information came from a fanzine for a Klingon fan club if I recall correctly. I remember being excited because there were plenty of Starfleet ships to convert, but very few non-Starfleet vessels.

V-3-Sparrowhawk-Class-XII-Cruiser Download

A ship I found from a fan made Star Trek tech manual that was owned by a fellow starship enthusiast. I don’t recall the name of the manual. I’m not certain if this is their attempt at drawing up the Star Fleet Battles Sparrowhawk. I believe that I gave it the V-3 designation, but I could be wrong on that.

V-28-Winged-Slayer-Class-XI-Cruiser Download

So the images came from FASA, but it was for a different ship. In the early publications for Romulans, this was listed as the V-30 Winged Defender. It had the front, top and side views as well as the image seen in the header for this blog entry. Later FASA changed the image to the very birdlike (and very popular) design now marked for the V-30. I thought the original design was too good to go to waste, so I created an original ship using the construction manual.

V-25-Winged-Devastator-Class-XI-Cruiser Download

So here is the bonus ship for this blog entry. I did not create this, but I wanted to share it so others could appreciate the work that went into it. It was created by someone named Burke and published in a Utah gaming fanzine in 1987 or 1988. This page came directly out of the fanzine and was given to me by a friend. On the back are advertisements for gaming stores in Utah that are no longer in existence and an “upcoming releases” announcement. I’d love to find the fanzines that came out during that time. I know to brothers named Burke who are gamers and would have been around during this time frame, however both stated that it wasn’t their creation. If anyone recognizes it, please contact me via Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com to let me know.

Dune, Movies, Reviews, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

Spoiler free thoughts on Dune

Written by TardisCaptain October 30, 2021March 29, 2022

The latest Dune movie adaptation finally came out. As I had mentioned in my James Bond: No Time To Die review, I was planning to see Dune in the theaters. Today my wife and I had some free time to go catch a matinee showing. Not only did I love the movie, but it made me think back to the long relationship I’ve had with this franchise. As I’m writing this blog entry, I can turn my head to the left and see the 1984 Dune movie poster displayed in my office.

Dune is another of the many science fiction and fantasy interests that I inherited from my Father. I remember him being excited for the 1984 David Lynch Dune movie. The advertising was everywhere including a poster on the door at my neighborhood 7-11 store. When the different versions of this movie (with different intros giving more background than the theatrical release) were aired on television, we had to record them on our VCR. On one trip to see family out-of-state, my parents picked me up and we listened to one of the books on CD (it was one of the House books). I remember trying to read one of the later Dune books in high school (I didn’t get very far). But I was able to read not only the first book, but several of the books by Bryan Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. The remaining books are on my reading list to complete.

I don’t recall much from the two mini-series released by the Sci-Fi Channel (now the SyFy Channel). While I’ve watched the 1984 movie again on several occasions, I’ve never sought out the mini-series. I’ll have to make an effort to re-watch these so I can recall them for times such as this one.

Being very familiar with the source material helped me watch this latest movie. No, if you are going in cold you won’t be lost. There is a very rich universe that was created for the book and it may be a lot to take in at once. I wouldn’t be surprised if several showings are needed to take in the rich detail. But being familiar with Dune, I noticed little details that made me appreciate the efforts that went into the making of this film. Seeing these smaller items made me appreciate the film even more.

In the 1984 movie, the music was performed and assembled by the band Toto. Finding the rare CD of the music was one of my goals for the longest time. When I finally found a copy that wasn’t overpriced, I snatched it up and listened to the heck out of it. The soundtrack that was played when the Harkonnens were attacking is still one of the best movie music moments that I’ll never forget. For this new movie the very talented Hans Zimmer put together the musical tracks for this movie and he didn’t disappoint.

There are a few familiar actors in this movie and several that I’ve never had the pleasure to watch before (that I know of). Jason Momoa was an excellent Duncan Idaho. Our Duke Leto was played by Oscar Isaac, better known for his role of Poe Dameron in the last round of Star Wars movies. I didn’t recognize him right away as he had a very full beard. I hope we see more of Dave Bautista as the Beast Rabban in the second Dune movie. While he had some good lines in the first movie, his character has a big part in the story. Josh Brolin also delivered as well. Of the cast I was not familiar with, our young Paul Atreides is played by Timothée Chalamet. He actually did quite well in the roll. I felt that this character was green at the start of the movie and was developing by the end. Rebecca Ferguson as Lady Jessica was another high point in the movie. I think that the producers put together an excellent cast for this movie.

The special effects were also really good. The Guild Highliners were very well designed on a grand scale. The ornothopters also had a very good effect that even my wife commented on it. I felt like we were really on a hostile desert world. The sandstorm did give me one moment that I wanted to heckle. I wanted to say out loud (but stopped myself) that I could see Mad Max and Furiosa could be seen driving the rig into the sandstorm. Not to say that this was a bad moment, it just gave me a flashback to the Mad Mad: Fury Road scene. I also really liked how they did the special effects for the personal combat shields. You could tell that there was

We did get to see the Sardaukar Troops and I felt that this interpretation was much better than what we saw in the 1984 movie. The books really described them as a nasty bunch of soldiers and I felt that we got that in this movie. The Fremen that we get to see in this movie also give you an excellent feel of native members of Arrakis. They were brutal and aware of what was happening. We actually got to see the rhythmic walking on the sand.

I had typed in a few additional thoughts on the movie that I then had to remove in order to keep this review spoiler free. They were minor concerns that I hope are resolved in the second movie, Dune Part Two, that was just announced.

And the last note I wanted to make was about Dune: Adventures in the Imperium Role Playing Game that was just released a few months ago by Modiphius. Thanks to a birthday gift card to Amazon I was able to pick up the hardback core rule book. The 2d20 system was similar to what I saw in Star Trek Adventures, but it was better laid out. There are some differences between the two books but after talking with players of the other 2d20 systems from Modiphius, I understand that this is common. I was pretty impressed with how they set this RPG up. There was details about political intrigue and duels.

The next movie that I’m interested in seeing in the theaters is the new Matrix sequel. I don’t think that is one I’d want to watch on my home television. With the matinee viewing the theaters haven’t been too crowded and it has made for an enjoyable experience.

Comic Books, Doctor Who, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Two Trek tastes that go great together

Written by TardisCaptain October 6, 2021September 8, 2023

Modiphius and IDW Publishing working together.

In the “I wasn’t expecting this news today” department, Modiphius released a supplement for their Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game. The IDW Year Five Tie In detailing the events from the Star Trek comic series, Star Trek: Year Five by IDW Publishing.

What makes this product so unique is that it’s based off of another Star Trek licensed publication instead of from a television series or movie. This is something that I’ve been wanting to see for quite some time with a Star Trek roleplaying game. There have been comics based off of a video game (Star Trek: Elite Force) and a novel based off of the MMORPG, Star Trek Online (Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many) but nothing with RPGs so far. Since IDW has been publishing Star Trek comics for over ten years, I hope that this is the start of a long line of products. IDW has had a successful series of Next Generation comics based off of Mirror Universe characters. There was an interesting Romulan series dealing with internal politics. The Kelvin timeline was greatly expanded with several comic series. Basically there are too many storylines to list here, most of them very enjoyable.

Having been inspired by the fan created, Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Expanded Universe series, I was planning to write up my own series of Star Trek Expanded Universe publications (not for sale since I don’t want to violate any rights of the IP holders). Since Modiphius has released one IDW supplement (and hopefully more), I’ll avoid stepping on any toes by creating homebrew stats from non-IDW sources.

I’ve really been fired up by today’s release. I had to buy the book immediately from DriveThruRPG. It uses some of the wonderful artwork from the comics (a bonus which helped I’m certain). There are three new playable races. The I’qosa (a new race introduced in the comics), the Iotians (yea, the Piece of the Action guys) and the Tholians. We get the stats for one new Starfleet vessel as well as ships from the Tholians and I’qosa. Some of the character write ups includes Harry Mudd, Surak, Gary Seven and Isis, all of which were represented all over the Year Five series. There are also two new factions that the gamemasters can use in their campaigns.

While there was a lot packed into the 26 pages. I was really hoping for a racial write-up for the Centaurans (A Federation race featured in the series). There were also several possible NPCs such as the various candidates for UFP president that could have been written up as well. Hopefully there will be a supplement to the supplement.

One set of ships that I doubt we’ll see stats for are the original FASA Starfleet ships that made it into the artwork of Star Trek: Year Five. There were several ships that were clearly inspired by the Federation Starship Recognition Manual. FASA Star Trek references have shown up in quite a few episodes and other licensed works.

Once again, thumbs up to Fred Love and the team at Modiphius for releasing this great supplement for Star Trek Adventures. Don’t make me pull out the “Please Sir, can I have some more” meme when it comes to works like this.

UPDATE: After I posted this entry, I went into my local comic store and picked up my hold on my monthly visit. This included the last issue of Star Trek: Year Five. At the back of the comic book was an advertisement for this product. This issue was releasd on the same day as the announcement from Modiphius.

Collecting, Reviews, Role Playing Games

I look at dice purchased from Dollar Tree

Written by TardisCaptain October 5, 2021September 16, 2024

Dollar Store dice — How do you say “Critical Fumble” in French?

I follow several twitter accounts that cover the subject of Role Playing Games and I noticed a trend over the past month. Gamers buying the cheap sets of RPG dice from the local dollar stores and then posting photos of them. It was a cute trend that allowed the collectors of the shiny math rocks to show off their latest acquisitions. As photos of dealers tables from gaming cons have shown up online (mostly to display the older books that were for sale) fans noticed that the dollar store dice had been picked up by vendors and added to their booth with a mild markup (usually $3-5 for a set).

Before this trend had started, I noticed that my local Dollar Tree had a bunch of dice for sale. Like most items you pick up at the dollar store, you are not going for quality. Of the three packages they had at the time, I noticed that one package had two D8 dice instead of two D10s that you normally find in a dice set. So I chuckled and passed on getting a set. The dice sets that I’ve usually picked up from the local gaming stores come in containers that allow you to open them up before purchase. I like giving a few test rolls before purchase to get the “feel” for the dice. Since these dice were sealed in a package, I had no way to test the dice beforehand.

When I realized that the trend was gaining steam, I decided to go grab a set for myself. Not because I wanted to follow the trend, but because I wanted to give a review for the blog. New gamers may want to buy a set for themselves at a lower cost. Other gamers had posted that they were buying the cheap sets to give to potential gamers showing interest in the game. Or perhaps you discovered that you had left your dice bag at home while at the con and you wanted a quick set to play with for the day.

As you can see from the image above, the dice were packaged for English and French speaking markets. According to the limited information on the back (see image below), the set was made in China but imported for the US market by a company called Grenbrier International. Canadian markets had this product imported by DTSC Imports. A quick Google search revealed that this was the parent company that operated the various Dollar Tree locations across the US and Canada.

Lot’s of white space, but that saves on ink costs.

When I decided to do a review of the set, I decided to compare them against another set I had in my collection from Chessex. Primarily because it was the only set I still had the original container for with the detail sheet inside.

One of the things I noticed is that the choking hazard warning had different ages listed. The Chessex recommended over the ages of eight while the Dollar Tree dice recommended over the age of four. Personally I’d probably feel more comfortable with any players closer to the age of nine than four. The Dollar Tree dice were made in China while the Chessex set came from Denmark. I had actually never paid attention to the country on my Chessex dice until now, but the Denmark dice sounds kinda kewl.

From the various social media posts that I’ve seen, the Dollar Tree set only comes in the satin brown color. If anyone has seen any other colors besides that one, let me know. As you can see, the sizes are about the same. I didn’t notice any difference from the different angles. I did notice a difference in weight. When you hold a D20 from one set in one hand and the other in the opposite hand, the Chessex dice were heavier. While taking the photos I noticed that the number locations were slightly different. The D4 seemed to be the only die matching the number location. I figured this was due to the lack of options in the smaller die. I pulled out several other die from my dice bag and noticed this trend continued with different die depending upon the source. I wonder if this is a copyright issue? Most of the D20s had the “20” opposite of the “1”, but some of the D12s had a “5” opposite of the “12”. This was another item I had never really thought about until now. As long as the dice continued to give me good rolls, I continued to use them.

I can see how the Dollar Tree set could be a good intro set for game masters wanting to give sets away to new players. The lack of a storage container would hopefully encourage the new players to obtain a dice bag of some sort. The dice make the right rolling sound when played on a hard surface. I had thought about doing the 100 roll test and seeing how many of each number comes up for the blog. But I started having flashback to the oddball math questions that came up in school so I elected not to take this route.

So I’ll be tossing the package in the recycle bin and slipping these new dice into the dice bag. Hopefully someday I’ll get a chance to participate in a game around a table with friends soon so I can actually see these dice in action. But before I decided to put the dice away, I wanted to take one more picture with a D4 from the Dollar Tree set, another D4 from the Chessex set and one of my original D4s that came with a boxed game many years ago just for an off the wall comparison.

UPDATE: I’ve been informed by a reader that there were other colors besides satin brown. So you may find different colors at your local stores.

Horror, Role Playing Games

Character sheets from past games: Vampire The Masquerade

Written by TardisCaptain October 3, 2021October 3, 2021

With it being October, I thought I’d post a character sheet from my Book of Characters that is appropriate to Halloween and horror. The same group at Comics Utah that I played DC Superheroes, Doctor Who and Cyberpunk with also delved into a campaign for Vampire The Masquerade. For this game I created a human investigative reporter, Arthur Squire.

Arthur Squire was a reporter following up on strange stories he had heard about regarding an underground society. This society ended up being a clan of vampires. The equipment hand written on the back included camera, a special sleeping bag (I don’t recall why it was special), a camcorder, a cassette recorder and ear phones. If I recall correctly Squire had the habit of dropping listening bugs. Squire had planted one on a vampire that had hired him to track down someone.

This character never became a vampire. I don’t recall wanting him to become a vampire. I know that some of the other players wanted to be embraced. A few years later I participated in a few LARP games with a local Camarilla fan club. But I found paper and dice RPGs more enjoyable.

I’ll be getting more character sheets scanned and posted soon.

Role Playing Games

#RPGaDay2021 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain September 1, 2021September 1, 2025

So the #RPGaDAY2021 challenge is over and I was able to complete all thirty one days. So what did I think of this challenge?

I went back and re-read my entries, and there are a few that I’m quite proud of. I had the feeling of excitement when I put the post together. I couldn’t wait to share the link on MeWe, Twitter, Facebook and the RPG.net forums. Here are some of my “Best Of” entries.

Day 2: Map: I knew I had a lot of favorite maps from different RPGs. But I didn’t want to list all of them. So I went through my books and decided on the one that I had enjoyed the most.

Day 4: Weapon: I had just watched a documentary talking about how dangerous the medieval sling was. I had to write something up about it.

Day 15: Supplement: I talked about some of my favorite RPG supplements. I actually got some good feedback on this one.

Day 17: Nemesis: I did my first homebrew for Star Trek Adventures.

Day 25: Box: I show some of the damaged boxes that I have of older RPGs. I had a few people who wanted to hear about my efforts to repair the boxes in future blog posts.

There were a few others that I’m also quite proud of, but I think that the above entries are the best of the bunch.

There were several suggestions on the list that just made me scratch my head. When I first put together the spreadsheet to try to plan out the month, there was a lot of blank spots. I almost didn’t participate. But seeing the other blog writers posting their entries on various social media platforms encouraged me to jump into the pool. I’m glad that I did. I think it was a good challenge for me. Being my first year, I don’t know how this list of suggestions compares to past years. Right now I’m about 60-40 on doing this again next year. I didn’t hate it, but it could have been better.

I am still working on some ideas for the blog. Just before I found out about this challenge, I was putting together a personal challenge of my own with Secret Agents and Espionage games. I’m still thinking about putting this together, but instead of being a theme for a month, I may spread it out on a certain date. Secret Agent Saturdays or some general idea.

I want to thank those who took the time to read my posts. If you have any comments for me, feel free to send them to Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com (I’m still trying to set up a feedback section for the blog entries that won’t be spambait). I would also like to thank the organizers for putting this challenge together and the other participants. Reading about some of their entries (after I had done mine) was quite interesting.

Be seeing you.

Role Playing Games

#RPGaDay2021 Day 31: Thank

Written by TardisCaptain August 31, 2021April 24, 2022

Day 31: Thank

I think I did my thanks post yesterday now that I think about it. Perhaps I should have used yesterday’s entry as a “What would you have selected” topic. Oh well, too late now.

So I’d like to thank those of you who have read through my ramblings. Not only for the past month with the #RPGaDAY2021 challenge, but ever since I started this blog last year. Some of you have emailed me or responded on social media. I love getting the responses letting me know that someone has been reading my blog.

I would especially like to thank those of you who have followed the links to DriveThruRPG and ordered games. They do send me a little kickback for you guys doing that. I was able to order a game or two that I plan to review on this website. So far, no one has donated to the Ko-Fi link located on the sidebar. But I also don’t know if I’m using it properly. I’m certain that a regular schedule of original posts would help with that.

I would like to also thank the organizers of the #RPGaDAY2021 challenge. This has been an interesting experience. I wonder what other participants have thought now that it is over?

Final Thoughts:

I’ll be posting an after action report tomorrow.

Role Playing Games

#RPGaDay2021 Day 30: Mention

Written by TardisCaptain August 30, 2021April 24, 2022

Day 30: Mention

There are a few people I’d like to mention.

My wife: I am so grateful that she is a geek and a gamer to boot. She loves anime and sci-fi. I still remember the day she demanded that I build her a computer.

My kids: They have also turned into geeks of their own interest. At least one has been playing D&D 5e with friends. (Proud Papa)

My Star Trek family: Not only have we had a chance to play various Star Trek role playing games, but we’ve RPGed in other systems as well.

Game designers: Thank you for your creativity and your efforts. I hope that someday I’ll be able to share my creativity with other players.

Final Thoughts:

Fumbling over the finish line.