Tag: RPGaDay

Posted in: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2024 Day 21: Classic Campaign

Written by TardisCaptain

On Day 21 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge and our subject is Classic Campaign. There are campaigns that I’ve played in as a player and run as a GM.

As a player I think the most classic campaign was the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign that I’ve talked about before with Tovark the Sun Elf Wizard with Xon his toad familiar. I think one of the things that made it a classic campaign is how well the DM ran it. We were wondering between sessions on how we were going to handle our situation. I remember trying to make sure I had the excel character sheet up to date and added links to all of the different feats, spells so I could quickly look them up.

As a GM I think the most classic campaign was the Star Trek Roleplaying Game by Decipher. I still have players reminding me of what happened in the different sessions. I had assembled a schedule of self-made and published adventures from different sources leading to a final “bad guy” situation that the players would have to overcome. The only thing I wish is that we would have been able to complete the campaign to it’s conclusion (schedules and players moving away prevented this).

What classic campaigns did you play or GM in? What made it a classic? 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.

Posted in: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 20: Amazing Adventure

Written by TardisCaptain

OK, so we are asked to talk about an Amazing Adventure for Day 19 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. I had a chance to talk about the FASA Star Trek adventure “Demand of Honor” and the B/X Dungeons and Dragons Adventure “The Keep on the Borderlands” in a past RPGaDAY Challenge post. So let’s look at my collection and see if I have another that I’d like to point out as an amazing adventure.

I think I’m going to talk about an adventure that I saw, but never had the chance to play or GM. S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition. It was also covered in the Original Adventures Reincarnated #3 by Goodman Games when they had the license to publish these.

I’ve always been a science fiction fan, so when I saw that my friend had a SF module for Dungeons and Dragons, I went a little crazy. Spells and rayguns? What sorcery was this? From what I understand it was something that was being conceived before TSR released Gamma World. I had inquired if we could play it, but alas, we were never able to get around to it. Apparently this adventure had enough of an impact for Goodman Games to give it the OAR treatment. Could this be a future game that I’d have to run? I don’t know as I’d really like to be a player at the table for this one.

Reader Feedback: LexTenebris on Mastodon posted this to me in response to Sensational Sessions. “It occurs to me that another great game that fits the mold of having a secondary even tertiary characters, which allows you to stay in play is Follow, which as a free version.”

Do you have an amazing adventure that you’d like to talk about? 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.

Posted in: Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Star Wars

RPGaDAY2024 Day 19: Sensational Session

Written by TardisCaptain

Reaching Day 19 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge and our topic is Sensational Session. This one is a little vague. Yesterday we had “Memorable moment of Play” which is just about the same thing. So I’m going to talk about what I think would make for a sensational session.

In my humble opinion, a sensational session is where everyone (GM included) has something to do that contributes to the game in a timely manner. I’ve played in a WEG Star Wars game that had so many players in it, my character could take his turn and then I could take a 15-20 minute nap before needing to do something again. I’ve played in a Cyberpunk game where the hacker had a mission to complete, so the rest of us left to get some food. These are not good sessions.

Now that I’ve been typing up this blog post, I think the RPG that has succeeded in giving everyone the opportunity to play no matter the scenario is Star Trek Adventures. They had the concept of a “Secondary Character” that you can create before hand or create on the fly. If you are playing the Conn officer on a Starfleet vessel and there is an away team going to the planet on a rescue mission, instead of the player being bored, they could create a secondary character that is a member of the security team.

Sure, there might be sessions that are geared more towards one or two players, but remember that there are other players at the table that have taken just as much time and effort to be present for the gaming session. With how limited our gaming time seems to be, lets make sure that everyone gets something sensational out of them.

Feedback from a reader: Phil Hatfield on MeWe responded to my Quick to Learn post noting that he thought MiniSix was an easy to use game systems. It looks like it is free on DriveThruRPG so I’m going to check it out. He also stated that the FATE system was very simple. This is one I keep hearing about, but never had a chance to try.

Do you have any thoughts on what makes for a sensational session? 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.

Posted in: Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 18: Memorable Moment of Play

Written by TardisCaptain

For Day 18 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge we have the subject of a Memorable Moment of Play. I’ve already talked about some of the previous moments on my blog. These include funny encounters in Star Wars, It Came From The Late Late Show or Star Trek.

There have been panels at past conventions where gamers were able to tell the “There I was…” stories from their gaming adventures. I think this is part of the reason we love roleplaying games so much. You never know what is going to happen when a bunch of geeks get together and roll some magical math rocks. The improvisational and quick thinking efforts of both the players and the GM can sometimes lead to stories that we want to talk about later on in life. I know that when I’ve bumped into old gaming friends, we usually bring up a session or two that stick out in our minds. To this day I giggle when I think about blowing out a candle, a Gorn captain saying “dude”, or insects disguised as gold coins.

Do you have a memorable moment of play from a past RPG session? 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.

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Conventions, Fan Club, Friends, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2024 Day 17: An engaging RPG community

Written by TardisCaptain

Hmmm… an interesting topic for Day 17 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. An engaging RPG community. As humans, we are social creatures. We need to bond together with others that share similar interests. This is why we gather together in clubs, such as Starfleet Command’s Seventh Fleet for Star Trek fans, or organizations. I remember being in a RPG club back in the 80’s that was being run through a local gaming store. Later I remember there being the Gaming Clubhouse that was next to Comics Utah in Sugarhouse.

In our current days of the internet, I think that meeting up with gamers at local comic stores and conventions is still the best way to meet fellow RPG enthusiasts. Something about the face-to-face brings about a bond that isn’t quite there with online interactions. However I’m not an old-man yelling at a cloud and I have enjoyed meeting people online as well. Participating in challenges such as the RPGaDAY and the Character Creation Challenge has helped me find quite a few good blogs, message boards and social media connections.

If you are looking on social media, do a search for the hashtags that are associated with the gaming community such as: #TTRPG, #RolePlaying, #RPG, #RPGaDAY or #CharacterCreationChallenge. By following these on BlueSky and Mastodon I’ve been able to interact with quite a few other RPGers. On Facebook I always submit my entries to I’d Rather Be Killing Monsters, RPG Blog Hub and others. Sometimes there are groups for specific titles. Sorry I don’t have links for these, I don’t really access Facebook on my computer. Reddit has also become a goldmine for RPG connectivity. Like Facebook, there are also specialized communities for different RPG titles on there. And I’ve become very involved in the RPG scene on Discord. I love being able to follow Discord servers of RPG publishers and Bloggers/Youtubers. Yes, there are also a lot of good Youtube videos as well.

Some of the message boards that I’ve interacted with include the RPG.net Forums and RPG PUB. There are others that pop up during the Character Creation Challenge that I’ve linked to in January. There have also been some Star Trek RPG message boards that I wish were more active like Old School Trek.

Connecting with fellow bloggers has also helped. Some of these are (and not limited to) Barking Alien, Gaming with the Gnomies, The Other Side and more. If you search around there are a ton of blogs about a wide variety of subjects. If you are looking for a good one specifically about Star Trek Adventures, I’d recommend Continuing Mission.

So there is opportunity to find an engaging community both in real life and cyberspace. Do you have a community that you would like to recommend? 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.

Posted in: Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 16: Quick to Learn

Written by TardisCaptain

For Day 16 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge we have been asked to talk about an RPG that is Quick to Learn. This sounds really similar to the Day 6 entry of an RPG that is Easy to Use. In that post, I talked about a game that I had played that covered the subject. To mix things up, I’m going to post about a game that I haven’t played yet, but sounds easy to use from reading the rules.

Back in the 2022 Character Creation Challenge, I was able to make a character for Tiny Dungeons 2nd Edition. The basis of the system is that you roll 2d6 when attempting a task and if you roll a 5 or a 6 on either die, then you are able to complete the task. If the GM determines that you have an advantage while attempting the task, they will let you roll 3d6. Likewise, if it is determined that you have a disadvantage, you only roll a single d6. When I created characters for Tiny Frontiers, Tiny Spies and Tiny Wastelands the system was the same. Making a character was also quick and easy.

I thought someone had mentioned the Tiny d6 system in response to my Day 6 entry, but I couldn’t find it. So thank you to the person who reminded me of this system. It sounds like a good system to use for a quick pick-up game or a convention one-shot. I’d like to try this at a future SaltCON and see how it is received. Another advantage of easy rules is, if I can understand it quickly, I can try to get some friends involved quickly as well.

Is there an RPG that you thought sounded easy from reading the rules? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 15: Great Character Gear

Written by TardisCaptain

Welcome to Day 15 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. Our topic of the day is Great Character Gear. The gear for a character can be an interesting thing. It can be a micromanaging aspect of the game (Do I have enough arrows? Is the character overloaded?) or it can be a new trend that I’ve noticed. The gear is more of a temporary trait that affect the character/scene in the game. If it’s the later, then usually the rules state ‘You start with this’. Sometimes I appreciate that a lot, especially if I’m getting down to the wire on getting the character completed.

The starting gear is always an interesting aspect of roleplaying games to think about. Having created a lot of characters in the Character Creation Challenge, I’ve noticed some things. By the time I get to the “obtain equipment” section of the process, I’m either really happy to pick out the gear, or I’m really annoyed because the character creation process sucked to high heaven. Sometimes I just say “I pick the equipment I think the character would have.” Especially if the equipment obtaining process is convoluted.

One of the most weirdest (and stupid) processes of obtaining character gear came from the True20 system. Immediately I saw how the wealth bonus could both be abused by players and how the wealth system would punish players. Then when I saw how it compared to D20 Modern wealth system, I knew that I’d be using the later if I wanted to run that type of a game.

I like homebrewing for gear in games based off of Intellectual Properties (i.e. shows, books and comics). It allowed me to port over something I had seen into a RPG environment. I did this with Star Trek Adventures in a past RPGaDAY entry.

Another aspect of equipment is when the GM wishes they hadn’t given that out or forgot that you had obtained it. In a past D&D 3.5 campaign, the DM forgot that I had obtained a bottle of matter from the negative plane. In a moment of desperation, I used it as a grenade. Luckily the party survived the encounter. But it did kill the nasty monster that was kicking our butt. The DM had told his son about the encounter later and he reacted with “what was he stupid for using that?”

Do you have a memorable equipment that was given to a character? Have you had a good or bad experience equipping characters during the character creation process? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 14: Compelling Characters

Written by TardisCaptain

Here on Day 14 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge we will be talking about Compelling Characters. At first I thought that I’d talk about some of the many characters that I had created in the past Character Creation Challenges. But then I remembered a series of articles that I had been posting with scans of old character sheets that I had saved from past games.

So a little bit of a background. In 2021 I was going through some old boxes and found a three-ringed binder full of old character sheets. So one of the things I thought I’d do is scan them and post them here in this blog. In my previous character sheet entries I posted characters from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition, and a second AD&D 1st edition character, the FASA Doctor Who RPG, Shadowrun, Cyberpunk, Vampire: The Masquerade, WEG Star Wars the Star Trek RPG by FASA, GURPS, Marvel Superheroes, Warhammer Fantasy, Star Ace and Fantasy Hero.

I’ve talked about one of my favorite Dungeon Masters and good friend, Jeff Sullivan and the recent multi-year Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign that we completed in 2019. Years before that he had run another campaign using the same system. I think it was sometime between 2003, 04 or 05. While going through the three-ringed binder full of character sheets I found that first character. I remember playing with Andrew, Gibby and a few other friends. This campaign didn’t last as long as the one I blogged about above.

I don’t recall too much of the background, but I remember being really excited to play Tirik. He was a Ranger, but the DM had a special sub-class that he allowed called The Archer. I think I may still have the Archer write up somewhere in my many boxes of stuff that I need to go through. Besides having the weapons specialization with the bow, he had some ranger spells as well. Looking at some of the notes that I had jotted down on the sheet, someone was casting bless spells on us. Somehow we had a magical weapon glow (I don’t recall if this allowed us to see magical weapons, or if they glowed that way because of their magical nature). For some reason I had “8th Season of the Virgin” written on the side. I’ll have to ask Jeff about that one. Besides having a kickass bow and trick arrows, Tirik also had a +1 magical sword that does other stuff (that I’m sure I would have found out while using it in game) and a dagger called Lumina. This dagger has an adamanite (spelling?) blade with a deer horn handle. I remember Gibby getting his Belt of Giant Strength with Jeff describing how it was made (using the tendon of a giant we had just slain). This was also the first game where I was introduced to carob roots. These were roots we could chew on to regain a small number of hit points (a d4s worth IIRC).

I just realized that in both games the character’s name started with the letter “T”. I’m going to have to send Jeff a link to this blog post to see if he remembers this campaign. Here are scans of the character sheet that we had downloaded from the Mad Irishman website.

More reader feedback: Phil Hatfield on MeWe responded to my Well Supported Campaign post. He let me know that one of his favorites was the Star Wars Lords of the Expanse from West End Games. And while he didn’t love the system, he really enjoyed the material for Twilight Imperium: Embers of Imperium. I’m going to have to check those out.

Do you have a compelling character from past games? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Conventions, Friends, Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2024 Day 13: Evocative Environments

Written by TardisCaptain

The topic for Day 13 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge is Evocative Environments. I pull up a search engine and learn that Evocative means “To bring an especially emotional response.” So a good memory of an RPG environment that comes to my mind?

I think I’m going to talk about the physical (and not-so-physical) environments that I’ve played in the past. For myself, one of the biggest reasons I want to participate in this hobby is the friendships that I make with my fellow players. Obviously a good gaming environment will enhance the joy of the games we play.

Private Environments: Gaming at my house or the house of a friend. In my humble opinion, this is the best option for gaming. Either myself or someone I know very well is in charge of the room, the times available, what can be brought in for food, etc. This is the one that I find most relaxing, especially if I’m the person doing the hosting. At the previous house we lived in we had a near-perfect setup for a gaming area. The new house that I moved into several years ago isn’t quite there yet, not without attempts from my wife and I. I’d love to get back into a position where we could host a monthly or every-other-week game again. I did host a game when I introduced my daughter’s 5E playing friends to an OSR game.

Public Environments: Back in the 90’s I know that a group or two tried to game at an all night diner. However they tend to frown on you if you stay for more than a couple of hours without ordering a ton of food. We quickly learned that this wasn’t a solution to our gaming location needs. Then and now I’ve gamed in local gaming stores. There have been quite a few over the years that realized that bringing in gamers help drive sales. However if the store gets popular, it can lead to another layer of scheduling issues. Sometimes you can bring in your own food, sometimes you cannot. It would depend upon the store ownership. This isn’t a bad option, but may have it’s own set of challenges. Playing at a park is also a major challenge as well. Especially as more gaming environments are needing electricity for laptops and tablets. I know I’ve tried them in the past and we didn’t continue with that option.

Online Environments: I’ve tried and attempted a few online campaigns. I’ve mentioned a previous Starfinder campaign that I did with friends. While the system was OK, gaming with friends was great, but I will never use Fantasy Grounds again as the program sucked to high heaven. Later I was in a Far Trek campaign over Roll20. Being browser-based program it ran 1000% better than the Fantasy Grounds disaster. In both games we used Discord as our method of in and out-of game communication. As I mentioned on my Day 2 RPGaDAY2024 entry I was going to be in a Castles and Crusades campaign that was just about to start on The Foundry VTT, but the Castle Keeper had to cancel after too many scheduling issues came up. I was looking forward to both the C&C system and learning about The Foundry. While in-person gaming is my first choice when sitting down to play, I won’t turn down an online game as long as it’s not on Fantasy Grounds and if we have a good session zero to learn about the (hopefully) new gaming friends that I’m going to play with.

Convention Environments: I’ve become an addict to playing at my local SaltCON gaming convention. Not only am I playing, but I even broke my “no volunteering” rule that I had originally set up for this con and started running games for them. I also like the fact that I’ve been able to network with local (and sometimes not local) members of the gaming community. There are a couple of other smaller gaming conventions in the state, but they are not as close as SaltCON. So I hope to try them out sometime soon, even if it’s only for one day. A con two counties away had a booth at an earlier SaltCON, but there was no one there the entire weekend for me to inquire with. GenCon just ended and I’ve been reading the online reports from attendees. It would be nice for me to attend this event, and perhaps someday it may happen. But right now it looks like I’ll have to put it in the same category as attending a DragonCon other big-ticket events, nice to think about, but logistically not reachable at this time.

What is the most ideal environment for you to game in? Did I miss an environment that I didn’t mention above? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Role Playing Games, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2024 Day 12: RPG with well supported campaigns

Written by TardisCaptain

For Day 12 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge and the subject is an RPG with a well supported campaign. This makes sense since yesterday’s topic was RPG one-shots.

Now I haven’t ran any published campaigns. I’ve created a few for Star Trek and other RPGs. However I’ve been tempted to run a few. At the last SaltCON I picked up two boxed sets that were different campaigns. But the answer that I’m going to post today is the Shackleton Expanse that Modiphius released for the Star Trek Adventures RPG. The game designers set this up so it could be run as a Federation campaign, or a Klingon campaign or a mixture of both. I thought that was an excellent idea since they had both the standard core rulebook and the Klingon core rulebook available.

Additional feedback received from readers: From the MeWe social media site I had readers talk about some of my posts. Phil Hatfield mentioned that the RPG he had played the most could have been FASA Star Trek, Twilight 2000 or WEG Star Wars. He had also listed Twilight 2000, the Hollow Earth Expedition and Star Trek Adventures as a game with really good artwork. Phil Hatfield responded to the Easiest To Play entry with the FATE System and Star Wars WEG. Phil also mentioned that for One-Shots the he had run some good ones for Star Wars and Chill. I think I got all of them from MeWe comments. If I missed one, sorry about that. But thank you for reading my blog.

Can you recommend a good campaign guide for an RPG? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

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