Tag: RPGaDay

Posted in: Reviews, Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 26: Superb Screen

Written by TardisCaptain

I’ve been looking forward to Day 26 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. I’m going to be reviewing a Superb Screen for the topic. I’ve had this for a while and I’ve been meaning to post a review of it. I had picked it up for a session at a past SaltCON. When I was running Basic Fantasy for my daughter and her 5e playing friends I had to use a Star Trek RPG screen that I had with some Basic Fantasy inserts clipped on it. So when I was looking for a screen on Amazon, I was looking for a screen that I could slip inserts into. I found one with the Stratagem “The Master’s Tome” 4-panel customizable GM screen. These included several inserts that could be used for both Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition or Pathfinder 1st Edition. But I used the Basic Fantasy inserts since I was running several Basic Fantasy one-shots for SaltCON. If I run another game, I can swap out the inserts for more appropriate ones. I’ve heard that too much use could cause some of the plastic ends could split or break off, but I haven’t experienced it so far. But I also only use them for the one shots. I’ll keep an eye on this as I continue to use this. My photos are posted below.

Feedback from readers: both LexTenebris and Pulp Tickertape on Mastodon reminded me that the GM should also be having fun as well. This is in response to my Acclaimed Advice entry. I went back and re-read my entry and I realized that I had left that part out (while it was floating around in my head). So let me also re-state, everyone should be having fun and that the GM should be a part of that fun. Thanks guys for tapping me on the shoulder with that one.

Do you have a GM’s screen that you prefer? 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 25: Desirable Dice

Written by TardisCaptain

For Day 25 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge we are going to talk about Desirable Dice. Now I’ve mentioned past dice (and dice like items) on past blog posts. There is the Jason Fox Lucky D20 that I purchased from the artist that drew the daily newspaper comic Fox Trot. One post that continues to get a lot of online visitors years after publishing it covers dice I purchased from the Dollar Tree store. Every time I check my visitor logs, that post gets a lot of visits from online searches. From Amazon I picked up the Lynx RPG Dice Dunce Chair with cap. This is a type of dice shaming jail. I’ve had a couple of free dice sets sent to me that I’ve reviewed in the past. These include the North to South Gaming Dice and the Dice Legends products. A very good dice like product was the 20-in-One Card Deck from Precis Intermedia. It is a set of 56 playing cards that also contain random dice rolls (and other random responses) for players and GMs to use. I’ve used this last item in several games that I’ve GMed.

So for this entry I thought I’d show pictures of a few dice items that I have in my dice bag. The first is a 30-sided die that I had picked up back in the 90’s. I remember using it a few times and even found a book with tables needing a D30. I believe it was from the same manufacturer of the die.

I’ve never really used it, but I keep it in my bag for some reason or another. It’s a D6 that is oddly shaped. It obviously wouldn’t roll very well and is quite large. In the photo I placed a regular sized D6 next to it.

The next photo is the original dice that I had picked up from the original Basic D&D boxed sets and other original gaming boxed sets. Most of these are the dice that needed the crayon to fill in the numbers. I haven’t really used these in a while, but they do stay in the dice bag to bring me luck.

This last set is the unusual dice (D3, D5, D7, D14, D16, D14 and D30) used for the Dungeon Crawl Classics and Mutant Crawl Classics RPGs. This one was labeled the DCC Special 7 that are black dice with white numbers.

Do you have any desirable dice that you have used for role-playing 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: Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 24: Acclaimed Advice

Written by TardisCaptain

Welcome to Day 24 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge and the list has Acclaimed Advice listed as the topic. If you read various blogs, social media posts, message boards, podcasts, RPG videos, convention panels or just talking with fellow players, you might get a lot of advice about our hobby. There are quite a few of them and it may get a little overwhelming. I think there is a golden rule that everyone should follow for advice when it comes to roleplaying games.

Everyone at the table should have the opportunity to have fun. To make sure you and your fellow players are having fun, please communicate. Communicate with your players and GM before, during and after the game. What may have sounded like fun at the start may turn out not to be fun. You may have stepped on someone else’s opportunity to have fun or vice-versa. Things change, just make sure that you let others know when that happens. These are just games and we play these games for fun. If that goal is in mind, then you’ll have done your part at the table.

There was a time as a player I called up our GM and said “we need to stop this adventure and move onto the next one”. I explained the situation to him and he agreed. We moved onto to the next scenario and continued to have fun. I thanked him for that.

What advice would you give players? What advice would you give GMs? 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 23: Peerless Player

Written by TardisCaptain

The topic for Day 21 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge is Peerless Player. Let’s make sure I get the definition right. So Peerless means “matchless or incomparable”. I’ve had the opportunity to both play and GM a lot of players. I remember the friendships, I remember the jokes (even some of mine were pretty good), I remember the puzzle solving, I remember having fun. There really isn’t one that stands out as “Peerless”. So instead I’m going to say to everyone who has played in one of my games or thrown the dice with me as a fellow player. Thank you. Thank you for the memories. Thank you for the laughter. Thank you for getting me out of situations I got myself caught in. Thank you for the camaraderie. Thank you for the fun. There is no way I could name you all. Some of you are not even here any more and I miss you.

To those that I haven’t had the chance to game with, I hope to toss the dice with you soon. Let’s have pizza while we game. If we can (sigh) get the schedules to work out.

Do you have a memory of a peerless player? Have you played with me or in one of my 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: 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.

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