Tavern is the Day 3 topic for RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge and I think this is a good one. The common thread of taverns with roleplaying games is the “you all meet up at the tavern for the start of the adventure.” Well taverns can be a bit more than that. They can be a home base of operations such as the Inn of the Crescent Moon seen in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons comics from DC Comics, a common gathering place for the community such as Quark’s Bar on Deep Space Nine, a place to find transport such as the Mos Eisley Cantina or just a place to pick a fight…
“Funny, sir, how you always seem to find yourself in an Alliance-friendly bar, come U-Day, lookin’ for a quiet drink.” Zoe- The Train Job, Firefly episode 2
Taverns, bars, inns, etc. can be used as plot points in may different roleplaying games or stories. A place to find a contact or pass on information. Especially if it’s a last minute option for the GM to use. Just in case you suddenly find yourself in need of a name for that shady little dive the players find themselves in, here are some random tavern names.
Fantasy Taverns-
The Silver Stag
The Soot and Song
The Broken Tankard
The Rusted Crown
The One-Eyed Owl
The Whispering Mug
The Moonspindle Inn
The Wyrm and Whistle
The Laughing Lich
The Barrel and Brimstone
The Hearthless Flame
The Twisted Oak
The Sly Fox and Fowl
The Emerald Lute
The Crooked Lantern
The Grinning Gargoyle
The Copper Cauldron
The Wand and Wagon
The Hollow Helm
The Scarlet Manticore
1920’s Speakeasies-
The Velvet Valve
The Blind Canary
The Whispering Flask
The Garter Grip
Club Hush
The Gilded Ghost
The Gin Mill Grin
The Clover Club
The Cat’s Meow
The Backdoor Saint
The Brass Button
The Crooked Ace
The Cinder Lounge
The Owl and Hourglass
The Silver Stitch
The Blue Note Bunker
The Dizzy Duchess
The Blind Ledger
The Staggering Dame
The Clockwork Coda
Space Bars-
The Nebula’s Kiss
The Black Hole Saloon
The Cyro Leak
The Void Cantina
The Binary Shot
The Dockside Drift
The Event Horizon
The Crater and Cask
The Proton Parlor
The Ion Ivy
The Comet and Coil
The Blacklight Bazaar
The Tachyon Tap
The Gravity Well
The Chrome Chimera
The Red Shift
The Wreck Deck
The Quantum Mule
The Circuit Inn
The Infinite Happy Hour
Western Saloons-
The Rusted Spur
The Dusty Deputy
Cactus Canteen
The Whiskey Widow
The Silver Saddle
The Golden Rattlesnake
The Crooked Trail Saloon
The Tin Horn Tavern
The Red Mesa Saloon
The Prairie Rose
The Dry Gulch Tavern
The Coyote’s Cry
The Spittoon and Sparrow
The Gold Tooth Tavern
The Bootjack Burrow
The Hangman’s Harmony
The Devil’s Draw
The Brass Rail
The Blind Bear
The Lone Star Hollow
What adventures have you had in a tavern? Is there a better name of a bar that you’d add to the list? 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 2 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge our prompt is…. Prompt? Uh… yea. Let’s give it a twist instead by designing a sci-fi engineering tool for characters to use. I’m keeping this system agnostic so you can drop it into any science fiction roleplaying game.
Here is one of the new items presented in the Engineering Section of Issue 39,247 of the Spacers Catalog and Bargain Basement Yearly by Crapola Inc.
Introducing the Mark IV version of the Programmable Reconfigurable On-demand Multi-function Portable Tool or P.R.O.M.P.T. for short. Designed by the team of Allyce, Auroro and Noxx who had previously developed the Neural Duct Tape and the Tachyon Muffler.
The Mark IV P.R.O.M.P.T. has three times the battery length of the Mark III and re-charges 27% faster from a standard interface power port. The memory has been increased to include 95 more common and exotic engineering tools which become instantly available from it’s short-range programmable matter paddle field. Just use your P.R.O.M.P.T. to scan the engineering challenge and the hand-held device will present three possible engineering tools extruding from the top of the device to assist the engineer with their duties.
So how much would you pay for this? Well before you answer, there’s more. Now the Mark IV P.R.O.M.P.T. can link up with other Mark IV devices to coordinate repair efforts. Tired of filing those pesky engineering reports? The Mark IV is now Interstellar Organization for Standardization Alpha-60009 certified so it can link up with your primary shipboard computer. This allows your engineer to provide exact reports on the repair jobs and close the assigned duty tickets upon completion.
Mark IV P.R.O.M.P.T. Statistics: Weight- 200 grams Length- 24 cm * Width- 12 cm * Programmable Matter Extension Length- 1-8 cm Battery Life Constant Use- 59 days Standard Use- 128 days Internal Processor- Holly V Pro Maximum Programmable Matter Tool Storage Limit- 287 ISO Alpha-60009 Certified HBZZ Cybersecurity Enabled
Interested in expanding your engineering toolbox? Authorized accounts can order directly from the catalog or by visiting one of Crapola Inc.’s many retail locations on Earth, Neptune, Venus, Ganymede and Titan. And remember, if we don’t sell it, then it’s not Crapola!
The art was last minute as the idea struck me today. Did this entry bring a smile to your face while reading it? 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 the month of August. I didn’t get a chance to do a “Prepping for…” blog post (damn real life getting in the way) but I’m planning to participate in the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge as coordinated by David F. Chapman. As you can see in the image above, there are 31 different topics to inspire discussion. There are also additional Questions, Moods and Subjects. I might use these if the topic fails to get my fingers typing. This morning I’ve had a chance to read a few other blog posts that were participating and I think it triggered some ideas in my brain. So, without further adieu, here is my first entry.
Patron: For some, this term evokes the Warlock Class from the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons. A spell-caster has a pact with some sort of patron that provides them with the power to use as they see fit. Another use of the term Patron is the subscription service that I see advertised on various websites, podcasts, blogs and videographers. I haven’t really used this service as a sender or a receiver. What are your impressions of this? The Merriam-Webster dictionary tells us that a patron can be a special guardian, protector or supporter.
The inspiration that hit me while reading the other entries was the player character being a patron. Not just giving someone else ‘power’ but more like a mentor position. Consider the following ideas:
The Wanna-Be Magician: What if a mid-to-high level non-Warlock magic-user suddenly found out that someone wants to learn the ways of sorcery (or Jedi powers) from them? Perhaps this person was assigned to them by a guild or magic school so they couldn’t just dismiss the person outright. Perhaps this apprentice could be an eager beaver wanting to impress their superiors, a brat of a rich family who thinks that they are already destined for greatness, someone scared of the powers they might obtain, etc. The NPC options are endless and could make for an interesting addition to a mid-to-high level magic-user.
The Voices in my Head: I’ve thought about springing this on players previously, but it never came up in a scenario that it could be properly role-played. The player character (could be any genre) reaches for an ancient artifact, statue, scroll, tchotchke and gets an electric shock. When they recover, they can hear a voice in their head of a long lost archeologist/wizard/supernatural being/etc. that only they can hear. I wanted to have this happen to a strong non-learning character (barbarian, mercenary, etc.) on purpose. Perhaps they felt the stronger character would protect their conscious/spirit/??? and help them achieve their goals. Not following the instructions of the voice, could lead to madness, but the voice could be helpful in sticky situations.
The Next Next Generation: For Star Trek Adventures or any space opera style game with a structured fleet, the characters could be assigned a junior officer that they need to mentor. Like the Command Training Program or younger Ensigns asking Lieutenants for help as seen on Star Trek: Lower Decks. Space navies always need to have officers fresh out of the academy mentored by seasoned officers in real-world scenarios.
Training the Peaceful Villagers:“Across that valley lies an army of darkness such as mankind has never seen. The only thing between them and total victory is this pathetic pocket of resistance. Without a leader, without a plan. Into this bleak arena steps a man, the man for the moment.” Rimmer- Meltdown, Red Dwarf Series IV, Episode 6. The characters can be samurai, gunfighters or even an obnoxious, trumped-up, farty little smeghead who need to train a group of common people into a fighting force. They may not be much of a fighting force, but with the character’s help, they just might pull it off. And who knows, if they survive, perhaps they will want to become followers of the seven… err… characters.
Are there other ideas? Did I miss a possible patron opportunity to put the characters into? 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.
All right, I’m sorry to my regular readers. I know that I owe you guys a LOT of catch up articles. Let’s just say that 2025 has been very sucky on a lot of different fronts. So I’m trying to catch up with this and other articles. I’m also going to attempt to participate in the 2025 #RPGaDAY challenge coming up in August. So the first of my catch up articles will be a look at the Monty Python’s Role-Playing Game Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme published by Exalted Funeral.
I had received this package back in January during the middle of the Character Creation Challenge, so I didn’t open it up then. Since those blog entries take up the bulk of my blog time, I elected to wait until later to do a review. Yea, that was a bad idea.
What I saw when I first opened up the shipping box.
This Kickstarter campaign actually started back in October of 2022. Those who had pledged for the physical items also received PDFs of the rules. This is how I was able to make a character for this game in the 2024 Character Creation Challenge. I discussed some of the items from the game in the challenge entry, so I’ll try to concentrate on the physical items that I received as part of the reward. I wasn’t able to get any of the big-ticket items, but I picked up the book, the special dice for the game. Since several stretch goals were met, the physical backers also received coconut dice rollers.
Yes, they make hoof noises when clapped together. I tested them.
You probably can’t see it very well in the photo above, but the game logo is on the inside of the coconut halves. I’ll have a chance to play this game at the upcoming SaltCON End-of-Summer, so I’ll bring both the dice and the dice rollers to use at the table. And speaking of dice… err… Certified Polyhedral Random Number Generators.
The top of the dice box for the game.
The text at the bottom of the box.
The contents inside the box.
The only item that seemed to have a printing error.
Yes, I had to get the dice for the game. No, I don’t have enough dice. While I’m not up to full dice goblin mode, I’m getting closer. I can’t wait to see how these are used in the game.
As for the hardback book itself, it’s beautiful. Brian Saliba and Craig Schaffer are the names posted on the front of the book. The cover art is by Keith Lowe. The ISBN is 979-8-88756-079-3 with a suggested price of $50.00. There are 450 pages with content on both inside covers. There are nine chapters and several appendices and an index. The hardbound book also contains a bookmark ribbon.
The first chapter is “An introduction to cocurricular reenacting” followed by “A brief historical remediation for those who didn’t apply themselves at school.” The third chapter provides the information on how the system works with the “How the programme programmes” and character creation is in the fourth chapter under “Participant Primer.” For the game masters, chapter five gives us “Head of Light Entertainment Handbook” with the “Heads of Light Entertainment Directory” following right after. A whos-who of characters from some different Monty Python films are included in chapter seven’s “Notable Historical Figures” with chapter eight providing “A field guide to creatures, historical, mythical and mundane.” The last chapter contains various “Quests” that the HoLE (aka GM) can use in a campaign. Since I’m going to be playing this RPG soon, I did not read any of these adventures. A character sheet is included (also available for download on the Exalted Funeral website. While I was looking at the book I noticed that they had provided different colored pages for the different chapters. This was also reflected on the edge of the pages for quick searches.
Hopefully the different colored pages show up in this photograph.
The text on the back of the book.
While I covered the character creation steps in the 2024 Character Creation Challenge entry, I didn’t really go into detail on the system. Each class… err… situation that the participant (aka character) is a part of has a series of traits. The player describes to the HoLE what their participant is doing and a trait is selected to roll against. Which of the many die is selected depends upon if the participant is being serious or silly. There are also accouterments that may give the participant bonuses to their roll. The HoLE will roll for the opposing NPC or situation. However if the player describes the action well (or silly) enough, then the HoLE may just declare “Intercourse the Dice” and award an automatic success. I’m not certain if I’m describing the basics very well. Perhaps I’ll be able to explain it better after SaltCON. But the feel that I’m getting is that this is has a lot of narrative feel, but keeps the soul of randomness going with the different types of dice.
The traits in the game are Animal Husbandry (aka Animal Handling), Argumentation (aka Debating, but I wanted an argument), Authority (aka Leadership), Bardistry (aka Performance), Chasity (avoiding temptation), Decorum (are you trained to be high class or are you just a peasant), Druidry (healing through nature), Glibness (the ability to use quick wits or not), Heartiness (aka Charisma), Lorefulness (aka Intelligence and Wisdom), Luck (self explanatory), Nimbleness (aka Dexterity), Purpose (aka Force of Will or Faith), Sorcery (There are some that call me… Tim), Strategy (aka Tactical knowledge), Subtlety (aka skills a thief would have), Valour (aka battle skills and bravery), and Wisdom in the Ways of Science (aka Thinking outside the box). Not all situations will have all traits. If the player attempts to use a trait that they don’t have, then they roll the lowest die (d4), but they can still try.
Going through the book there is a ton of in-jokes from the various Monty Python episodes and movies. Primarily it is geared towards The Life of Brian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. But fans will notice other entries as well.
I am glad that I backed this Kickstarter campaign. I can’t wait to actually try it out at the table. It will probably be one of the first Kickstarter games that I’ve picked up that I’ll be able to play. So I will hopefully have more to say after SaltCON EoS is over.
Do you have any questions about Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme? Have you backed any Kickstarters lately? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
I’m writing this the day after SaltCON-Summer 2025. Let’s just say I’m really happy that I was smart enough to take the Monday after the convention off. It gave me a chance to not only unwind from the very busy weekend, but get somethings done that I usually do on Saturday or Sunday to prep for my next week. I’m also very happy for the time I spent at the convention. Thank you to those who gave me hugs. I hope you realize how much this is helping me keep my spirits up. I also had one of my readers come up and tell me that he enjoyed my blog posts. Thank you. I know that recent posts have been rare, but I’m going to keep going. I do have plans to participate in the upcoming RPGaDAY 2025 activity this August. I also still owe you guys different reviews and first-looks at some of the KickStarter rewards that I’ve received.
As you can see from the loot photo above, I was able to pick up a few items. SaltCON has always had a good t-shirt design for each event. This year seems to be following the cyberpunk genre. I had some money to pick up both the current con shirt, but the spring shirt as well that I missed out on a few months ago. One of the nice things that SaltCON does is sell the older con shirts at a discount. When I picked up my badge, I was notified that I was one of the random winners of the game giveaway. Out of the two possible options, Chicken Time Warp sounded like fun. And since it was the size of a deck of cards, it wouldn’t take up too much room in my convention backpack. There was a dealer that had a sale on geeky pins, I picked up some that said “Dungeon Master”, “I’m not procrastinating, I’m doing side quests”, “Sarcasm +5” and “I don’t have any ducks in a row. I have squirrels and they are at a rave.” I also received a couple of thank you prizes for running games that included the RPG Attack from Space (medieval knights vs. invading aliens from outer space) and a mug that says “DnD Diplomacy, Persuasion, Deception, Intimidation, FIREBALL.” I’ll be using the mug for my end-of-day sleepytime tea and I’ll be using Attack from Space as one of my entries in the 2026 Character Creation Challenge.
Posters made by the con to advertise my games.
I was scheduled to run three games at SaltCON-Summer 2025. I’m not sure if it was karma for dropping out of some games at the spring event, or if I simply waited too long to submit my events and got stuck with bad time slots—but unfortunately, no one showed up for my Basic Fantasy and Teenagers from Outerspace sessions. I did get a chance to run the TfOS game at The Queen’s Realm a few weeks ago (in preparation for the con) but I also put a lot of effort into the home-brewed Basic Fantasy adventure. So I may make another attempt with one or both games at a future convention.
The Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition game. Let’s just say that the players and I were laughing and having a very good time with the scenario. Probably one of the best one-shots that I’ve ran in quite some time. We even ended up with a “There I was…” type of story out of it. Long story short, the players were disguised on a planet with a pre-warp civilization. The Prime Directive was in full effect, but the players had found themselves in a dangerous situation where the villagers were chasing some of them. One player hid in a merchant’s shop and wanted to use his back door. The merchant, wanting to make a sale, said that he was willing to allow paying customers slip out the back door. The character had not thought to bring any of the local currency with them when they went into the village, so he accepted the offer to trade his hat, for one of the agrarian level hand tools. The moment he had made the exchange, I spent a level of threat and reminded him that the hat had been replicated with his advanced technology. While it was an imitation of the local headgear the natives wore, it wasn’t the same material. There was another PC in the store with him so he couldn’t just say he had lost it. This put the player in a panic and we ended up spending an extra amount of time over this one plot point and the hand-wringing it brought about. Was this a violation of the Prime Directive like Dr. McCoy leaving his communicator behind on Sigma Iotia II? When they rejoined the Commander leading the expedition, I did give him a chance to notice the missing headgear, which he did which lead to further awkward. When the game was over and I asked for feedback from the players, one of the first-time players said he was glad that I had used the threat in-game currency (which I had on several different times) to spice up the scenario. Some of these I only came up with on the fly during the course of play. Another first-time player stated he now needed to go out and pick up the core rulebook because of how much fun he had. Had there been a merchant at the con selling books for the games being run, they would have made a sale. Jim J, if you or any of your team are reading this, just know that the first time players picked up the system very easily and had a great time around the table playing your game.
Some of the characters I played this weekend.
For the first time ever, all of the games that I participated in as a player was completely new to me. Usually I just try to get one or two in so I can try out different systems. Two of the games were played with the actual designers who had attended to show off their works.
Shadowdark: This was an interesting game since we were playing zero-level characters in a funnel similar to the kind I experienced in Dungeon Crawl Classics. Every single one of my randomly pulled characters only had one hit point, so I went through a stack of them trying to get out. What made this D20 clone interesting is that none of the PC races had any type of infravision or dark vision. So if our light source went out, we were at a disadvantage. The timer would run in real time and to demonstrate this, an hourglass was placed on the table that would match one hour. This made for a very interesting scenario that I’m glad that I tried out. I wouldn’t turn down a Shadowdark session if an invite was extended and I’m interested in seeing the character creation rules.
Pirate Borg: Another game that I’ve been hearing a lot about and that I’m hoping I can pick up for a future Character Creation Challenge. Ran by the same GM who ran the Shadowdark game earlier. The character was higher than level 0, and thus a little bit more hardier. All of the players got into the pirate theme of the game (one even kept talking with a Jersey accent the entire time) which added to the enjoyment. One of the players ended up getting killed at the very last second of the game which showed me how weird this game could be. Again, I wouldn’t turn down a chance to play it again.
Untold: This is a fantasy game that uses D12s. A LOT of D12s. It kind of reminded me of the 2d20 system where you have target numbers based off of skills and attributes, but you had to roll over the target number. Which wasn’t easy to do sometimes. I played a barbarian so I didn’t get a chance to try the unusual magic system, but it wasn’t Vancian. It was interesting to try the game and a lot of players got into their characters. This was one of the creator run sessions.
EverReach: This is a science fiction/cyberpunkish game with the designer of the game. The system was pretty easy to follow along as it only used D6s with the ability to swap out one of the D6s rolled (by the player or GM). We played an independent crew that was hired by a corporation to perform a smash and grab. As the players, we spent the bulk of the session planning out the heist and bouncing ideas off of each other. How were we going to get past the defenses and neutralize the third-party gang hired to protect the server we were after? How were we going to extract ourselves? Because we did a bunch of planning (something I had experienced in a past Spycraft game) there wasn’t a lot of rolling until the very end. So I got a little taste of it. But I’m going to be doing a deeper dig on this game as a review in a future blog post.
The Expanse: So I had only seen the pilot episode of this hard sci-fi TV series, but it turns out the game is based off of the books (it’s a rights thing). So there was still a lot of explaining to the newbies at the table like myself. There were different factions controlling different parts of the Sol System and there was no FTL in this universe. The main reason I wanted to play this game is to try the Age System that comes up in Fantasy Age and Modern Age. The dice roll mechanics was easy to get down, but there were pages and pages of stunts that each character could pull from when they ended up with special Stunt Points. So we were continuously looking through these pages to see what fit the situation we currently found ourselves in. In the end, we completed the mission in style due to these stunt points, but I’m going to have to go back and take a deeper dive into the Age books that I own to see if I’d want to do anything further with this system. Something I don’t know if I would have noticed without getting my hands dirty with it.
So in conclusion, I had a ton of fun (again) at SaltCON. Yes, the summer event is smaller than the spring one. But there were a couple of temping RPG pickups at the swap meet and game exchange. If there is a regular RPG book seller who’s looking for a market, this convention could easily make you a lot of sales especially if you had the books for the games being run at the con. As I was writing this blog post, one of the con-organizers posted on FaceBook that this had been the highest attended SaltCON-Summer ever. Once again, a big shout-out should go to the other attendees, volunteers and organizers for putting this together. As someone who has retired from the con-chair business, I know how much effort is put into these events. It was noticed and appreciated.
SaltCON-End of Summer is coming up on August 28-31 at the Davis Convention Center in Layton, Utah. Currently I’m planning to attend and run some RPG one-shots. Let me know if you plan to go so I can meet up with you.
Do you have any questions about the convention weekend? 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.
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been several months since SaltCON-Spring ended. With how busy, hectic and downright painful that this year has been, I really need a geek-out break. And here comes SaltCON-Summer to deliver. I will be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented in a previous blog post.
So I’ve signed up again to run several games so that both my wife and I can attend. But one of the things I (tried) to do differently this time around was pre-run some of the games that I plan to run. While I’ve I’ve ran Basic Fantasy 4th Edition and Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition several times before, this is the first time that I’m running Teenagers from OuterSpace. Yes, I’m running an odd-ball game again like I did with the Wendy’s Roleplaying Game in the spring. The reason I do this is to make the con memorable for someone. Sure you’ll find a bunch of the games that you can find in the big box stores at the con, but seeking out that game that you don’t normally get to play may be just as enjoyable. And for me, it’s just as enjoyable to try to run something different.
I was able to secure a table for three different nights at The Queen’s Realm, a nearby gaming/geek store and event center. My scheduled date for my Basic Fantasy test run had to be postponed because of the passing of my 95-year old grandmother. I was able to make it for Teenagers from OuterSpace and Star Trek 2e. Of those two, only Teenagers actually happened (not enough players for STA2e unfortunately as several people had to back out). I’m hoping that the test run will help me run a better scenario at the con.
So what games did I sign up to play? Well all of them are games that I’ve never played before. These include ShadowDark, Pirate Borg, Untold, EverReach (a game that I’m currently reviewing for a blog post) and The Expanse. I think this is the first time it’s been all new-to-me games. This should make for an interesting after-action report.
As mentioned before (and probably demonstrated by the lack of blog posts which has bugged me very much) I really needed a relaxing weekend. If you are coming, please walk up and say “Hi”. At the spring event several people came up and gave me hugs and greetings which really helped lift my spirits.
What should I be on the look out for? Any recommendations for the games I’m going to be playing? 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.
Holy crap I made it. I was able to get 31 characters made for the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge. The last character was officially done on March 14th, but I rolled up (well mostly) 31 characters using 31 different systems. Thank you for sticking with me and for cheering me on until I made it to the finish line. I had several of you reach out to me after reading my SitRep Report towards the beginning of February. A few more real life issues came and kicked me hard. After several vet visits, overnight stays and stressful financial burdens, one of our younger beloved cats unfortunately crossed the rainbow bridge. This had devastating mental and financial issues (vet bills) that the family is still working through. On top of that, the real world issues of government shutdowns and layoffs has been adding to my stress. I also wanted to make sure that my gamemaster commitments for SaltCON-Spring 2025 were fulfilled, which I gladly did so. Especially since I was receiving two admission passes for myself and my geek wife.
OK, enough real world bitching. What are my final thoughts on the 2025 challenge? (Why do I suddenly feel like Jerry Springer at the end of one of his shows?) While this was probably the most challenging of the five years I’ve been doing this, I’m still really glad that I did it. I’m even more glad that I stuck with it and made 31 characters. I think one of the bad things that happened after January 31st is that I let a lot of distractions (most legit) get in the way of me completing the last few characters. During January I’m in “go go go” mode. Taking a lot of time to make sure a daily post is made and uploaded. Once that urgency was gone, I had to focus on real life sacrificing play time. For those of you who can post significant daily content on your blogs, I salute you.
The entries that stood out to me in the 2025 challenge included Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition, Planet of the Apes and Red Dwarf The Roleplaying Game. All three of these books were beautiful, the character creation process was easily explained and I want to homebrew for all three of them. Look forward to more from me on these games.
The games that were disappointments in this challenge were actually quite limited. While there were a few that were frustrating, I wouldn’t really call them disappointments, with one exception. The Strange. It started out with so much high potential, then crashed hard. The feedback I had received from that blog post has already been documented in the “additional notes” sections of other entries, but it was from people who had similar experiences that I encountered with this RPG.
Speaking of feedback, I really want to thank the publishers/authors of the GI Joe RPG and Shadow Ops RPG for providing feedback to my blog posts. This tells me that they loved working on their projects and were grateful to their customers. I’m hopeful that my feedback will help improve future publications/editions of their works.
Also, the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server during this challenge. Even now we are still having some regular conversations on a variety of subjects. For those of you who have joined me there, thank you.
For all of those who are still reading my little corner of the internet, thank you. For all of those who reached out to me or came up to me in person to give me a hug, thank you. The friendships and camaraderie of the geek and gaming community has really been a rock that has helped stabilize my life right now. If you made it to 31 days, congratulations. Send me a note via email (carl (at) tardiscaptain.com) on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. I want to make sure you got the completion graphic for completing the challenge.
Also, if you purchased anything after clicking on the affiliate links to DriveThruRPG or Amazon, thank you. I’m not doing this blog to make money, but the kickback helps when making game purchases for future challenges.
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.
This was probably one of the most interesting and entertaining SaltCONs that I’ve attended. There were some games that I missed, but I still played in many others and the games that I ran were very well attended. I think what helped the most is the friends that I met up with at the convention. As most of my regular readers know, 2025 has been sucky to say the least (at least using words that don’t involve swearing). In fact one of the issues that has been affecting my household came to ahead when one of our furbabies (not the one pictured in the Prepping for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge post) passed beyond the rainbow bridge a few days after the con. That is what delayed this after-action report. We are happy that he is no longer in pain, but it has been one of the things on our minds for the past two months.
Sigh. Back to talking about the con and the fun that I had there. I arrived on Thursday and checked in. I had some time before running my first game and I started wandering around the convention center. I found one set of friends, but they were in the middle of a session. I found a second set of friends, but they were running the Artemis bridge simulator. After wandering through the dealers room and seeing all of the stuff I wasn’t able to buy because of lack of funds, I walked into a hallway and found a friend who was attending the convention for a first time. I sat down next to her and asked for a hug. She instantly grabbed me and said “I’ve known you for 35+ years I can give you a hug.” That was the start of making this conventions one of the best conventions I’ve attended in a while. Not only did she spend a lot of time with me making sure that I was OK, as we were wandering around together for most of the con a lot of other friends ran up to me and asked for hugs. I didn’t know if they had heard about my issues that I’ve blogged about, or they just wanted to see me. The small acts of friendship really helped me out. I tried to make sure all of you heard a “thank you” from me individually, but if I didn’t get to you, please know that you really boosted my spirits. Thank you.
Alright, shaking that off, despite the lack of funds this weekend, I did pick up some loot at the convention. For running a lot of one-shots the gaming coordinator allowed me to pick a book from the box of prizes. I elected to pick up the core rulebook for Tales from the Loop. Primarily so I could use it in the 2026 Character Creation Challenge. Yes, yes… I know, I still have two more characters to pump out to get to my 31 characters. I should be able to get those done very soon. The shirt was also a gift to the GMs from the coordinator and it was specifically for those who had volunteered a certain number of hours at the convention. I was tempted to get the regular convention t-shirt which also looked good, but funds were limited. The convention itself had handed out specialty D6s (this was the 10th anniversary of the convention) that had playing pieces to represent the 6 on the die. I was able to obtain several of these. Another GM had given us a special D6 for his game which advertised his group called RPG Sessions. SaltCON was also having another pin quest and I was gifted a cyberpunk beholder. You probably can’t see it very well in the photo posted above, but he’s all metallic and kewl looking. And finally, a friend saw the “My puns deal 3d8 psychic damage” sticker in the dealers room and had to pick it up for me. Not pictured was a rubber duck dressed up as a witch that someone dropped in front of me. I missed who did this so here is another random “Thank You”.
I’m very happy with the games that I ran for the convention and I had a ton of fun running them. In every single one, someone who hadn’t signed up for a session walked up to the table and asked if they could join. My Star Trek Adventures game was based off of a scenario provided in the Klingon Empire Gamemaster Toolkit and it quickly turned into a “Weekend at Bernie’s” situation. One of the characters had been physically taken over by an entity and didn’t have full control of their body. So the other characters had to drag them around why they flopped their arms in the direction they wanted to go. We were talking about that game over the course of the convention. I was really impressed with the intro adventure for the Doctor Who 2nd Edition RPG that I ran on Friday. Every one got into their characters very well and as I was running it, I thought to myself “I could be talked into running a campaign with this system.” On Saturday morning I ran the intro adventure for the new Planet of the Apes RPG that I had backed on Kickstarter (review coming when I get the physical product). This is the one that is an update to the old D6 system by West End Games that was used for Star Wars and Ghostbusters. This was the first time I had GMed for this system and I could tell it had been a long time since I had actually played. I can’t wait to get the physical book for this game. And finally on Sunday I ran a game that the games coordinator told me was getting lots of talk over the weekend. The Wendy’s Feast of Legends game. We had a full table by the end of the session and honestly, it didn’t run too bad for a joke advertisement game. I had to house-rule a few things just to keep the flow going, but I would have done that with any RPG. I did have to explain some of the in-jokes within the game since the food prices had risen since this game was released. Unfortunately, because of the no-outside food rule at the convention center, no one had any bonuses from bringing in Wendy’s food. The convention organizers had posters made of all the RPG games that were scheduled for the weekend (to try to draw in players from other sections) and here is the one they did for the Feast of Legends.
As for the games that I was able to participate in, this is how it went.
Basic Roleplaying, Cypher System, Curseborn: Ashcan Edition and Pendragon. If you were running these games at the con, I apologize for missing them. Due to some real life issues (one mentioned above) and pure exhaustion I had to miss your games. I really wanted to try them out and I tried to see if I could sign up for another open table spot, but the schedules just didn’t pan out. If they are run at future SaltCONs, I’ll try to see if I can sign up for a seat then. One of my goals is to at least try one or two new games each convention. I like checking out the variety of games that are out there just to see how I like them.
The Starfinder game was listed as a play test of the 2nd edition. But I don’t believe it was an official play test with the publisher. I had asked if there was a way to provide feedback and the GM was running something that they had gotten off of Facebook (if I understood him correctly). I’ve played in a short 1st edition campaign back in 2020, but I don’t recall much of it. I hadn’t been too impressed with it then but part of the issue may have been running on the sucky Fantasy Grounds VTT. The 2nd edition played at the table seemed OK, but there wasn’t anything to write home about. I played a Vesk tank with several big guns and lots of armor and it just seemed like we were in a dungeon, in space. I don’t know, I’m not getting the appeal of Starfinder.
TRON: Vasser’s Game. This was a homebrew of the Genesys system to run a TRON RPG. The GM had things laid out pretty well. Turns out this was the same gentleman that ran the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG at the 2024 SaltCON-Spring. The same tablets were used that had the character sheets but we got to roll the weird dice on the table this time. This allowed me to try to understand the system a little bit better, which I don’t think I did very well. This wasn’t the fault of the system or the GM, I just kept feeling like I was slowing down the pace of the game not understanding the symbols of the special dice. After the game I was thinking about this and if I had prepped myself with a dice cheat sheet I don’t think I would have felt guilty slowing things down. Both myself and the other players were very interested in a TRON based RPG as we kept making references to the movies. I also referenced the TRON 2.0 video game that I’ve enjoyed many times over.
A GM that I knew was running the Star Trek Adventures 1st Edition because he hadn’t picked up the 2nd edition book again. Which was actually good for me because he ran a comedy based adventure called “Blueberry Trill” which was weird. It was one of the mission briefings that he had found online that allowed him to improvise parts of the adventure. One of the things he did was run us through an extended task in the one-shot. This was something that I really hadn’t experienced in the times that I had played 1st edition. I think I’m glad that this part of the game was changed for the 2nd edition of the game. Oh, and if someone offers you a genetically modified blueberry designed to grow on the planet Trill, don’t take them up on it. Trust me.
Titans of Atlantis was not only the last game for me, but the last RPG to be run in the RPG room for the convention. It was a weird D12 system where you got to roll more D12s if the character was more skilled in certain areas. But there was still a low target number to try to roll under. I had a basic fighter that was only armed with a spear and a shield (all with fancy greek/roman inspired names). With how “skilled” he was at fighting, he sure didn’t connect on a lot of strikes. I ended up helping to push one of the big monsters into a magical portal with the other characters instead of trying to slay it since that seemed to be more effective. The game itself was pretty funny, but that was because the players were probably exhausted from the weekend and the constant low success rolls. This resulted in throwing caution to the wind on a lot of antics that were performed in the game. Was this done on purpose to prevent murder hoboing in the game? I’m not certain. While I was grateful to try out a new system, I don’t see this being a repeat system for me to try.
One last nugget to drop before I wrap this up. I had a game designer ask me if I’d be willing to review his RPG that he had just released. He agreed that I was free to write what I wanted in my review. A few days after the con I had a message from DriveThruRPG with a free copy of the game. I hope to get this review posted in a month after I’ve taken care of a few other blog obligations that I need to catch up on.
If you are looking for a good gaming convention, I’d recommend SaltCON. There are quite a few out-of-town people who show up for the spring event. But the Summer event on June 6-8 and the End-of-Summer on August 29-31 are also enjoyable as well. I’d love to see other publishers and blog readers there. I’m already trying to decide what games I’ll run in June as the call has gone out for submissions.
Do you have any questions about the convention weekend? 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.
Ignore the 2024 badge, I’ll be picking up my new badge very soon.
It’s time once again for the biggest SaltCON of the year. SaltCON-Spring will be running from February 27 to March 2nd at the Davis Convention Center and I’ve signed up to run four games this year. By running four games I was able to get a ticket for both myself and my geek wife. You can read about my past adventures at SaltCON in my past blog entries. I will be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented in a previous blog post.
As you can see from the photo above, I’ve signed up to run another one-shot for Star Trek Adventures. Two other games that I will be running are also based off of popular franchises. Doctor Who 2nd Edition and the brand new Planet of the Apes RPG that only Kickstarter backers have. I just created a PotA character in the recent Character Creation Challenge. As for the fourth game that I’m running, well because lots of attendees come to conventions to play games that they don’t normally get a chance to play, I’m running Feast of Legends. Yes, that is the RPG that was used by the fast-food company Wendy’s to advertise their product.
As for the games that I’ve signed up for. Well for the first time I’ll have a chance to try Basic Roleplaying (no I won’t be using the character I made in a recent challenge). Another new system for me will be Pendragon. I don’t know what edition, but I’m assuming it will be the latest. Titans of Atlantis is a system that I’ve never even heard of before. A game master is going to be using the Genesys system to run a TRON RPG. Also on the new game front for me is Curseborn: Ashcan Edition by Onyx Path Publishing. I’ve also signed up for a Star Trek Adventures game run by another GM and a Starfinder game.
My wife has signed up for a Labrynth game, something called Lifewish: Ravenheart, another game called Black Powder and Brimstone and The Electric State. She also signed up to be in two of the games that I am running.
With how this year has been so far, I really hope that I can get a nice relaxing weekend with some dice, some friends and hopefully some good memories. I really could use some of that right now. I’ll have an after-action report when it’s all over.
What should I be on the look out for? Any recommendations for the games I’m going to be playing? 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 graphic I commissioned for those who have completed the challenge.
So, I’m sure a few of you are wondering what has happened. Here we are on February 7th and I haven’t finished posted my 31 characters for the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Let me just say three words. “Real Life Sucks.”
First, I’m not having serious health issues. I wanted to say that up front so no one would panic. I’m also not losing my job. But some of the job stress has contributed to the perfect-storm of suck that 2025 is handing me right now. The hosting company having two hiccups in January didn’t help. There were also other real life and family duties that required my attention. It has not only affected my challenge entries, but my other relaxation pursuits as well. I think this has only led to some of the stress I’ve been feeling. Make sure you guys are taking care of yourself mentally as well as physically.
I commissioned artist Aurora Stark (yes I’m a proud Papa) to design and draw up the graphic for those of you who have completed all 31 characters. I didn’t want to delay getting it to those who were able to complete the challenge on time. If I haven’t responded to your email/private message, feel free to virtually tap me on the shoulder again as I have two sizes of the graphic to send you.
Aurora Stark does concept art and visual development with her art degree from the University of Utah. They based this design on the old black-and-white art seen while studying my older role-playing game books. It’s a medieval flail with three D20’s spelling out 2025. If you would like to see some of their other artistic examples, or perhaps even inquire with them about commissions, feel free to visit their website at https://aurorastark.art/.
So what is next for me on this project? I will finish the remaining characters as I hate leaving something half-completed. Especially since a friend surprised me with an RPG publication that had recently been my ‘Holy Grail’ of books that I’ve been searching for. I will be making a character for this game and I may need some curries or gazpacho soup to complete it (major hint there folks). When I post them, they will be back-dated to the dates they would have been posted on originally. But, I will post the links on my various social media sites and message boards. Once that is done I will write up a proper post-mortem that I usually post at the end of the challenge. That will not be post-dated, but it will have links to all of my entries along with my thoughts on them.
I’ve also received some KickStarter rewards. I should have some first-look articles posted in the next few weeks. I can’t wait to talk about one that I’ve been waiting for more than a year for. So I do have some articles in the pipeline.
If you are still reading this post, thank you very much for sticking with me. If you participated in the challenge, thank you. If you completed it on time, I hope you take a moment to be proud of your accomplishment. I didn’t make it within the time allotted, but I will complete it to join you guys.
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.
