Tag: RPGaDay

Posted in: Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 5: RPG with great writing

Written by TardisCaptain

An RPG with great writing is the subject for Day 5 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge. That’s not surprising considering that yesterday we talked about great art.

While I had a specific example for the great art, I want to talk in general about great writing. I’ve noticed a trend with some RPG publications, especially those based on popular franchises. I’d like to remind all of the writers and publishers of one reason that your customers buy your product.

“Your customers are buying a game book, not a guide to the source material. Let me repeat that. Your customers are buying a game book, not a guide to the source material.”

-Me

I have purchased publications because in the first few pages of the book, it gives me the basic concept of the system that will be used in the game. This helps me explain to my friends how the game is played and why we should play it. When I see an RPG based of a specific IP, I worry that the first 20-80 pages will be “Well let’s tell you about the source material this game is based upon, once upon a time…”. I can read the title. I know what the source material is based on. A fan of the source material already knows this, instead they wonder how they can play the game. A fan of RPGs will be looking for the system, not the source material. Publishers are doing a dis-service to both possible customers by not getting to the point. Yes, there should be some explanation of the source material. But that can be in the later half of the book, not the first half.

Game system first, game universe second.

Now primarily this is for the core rulebooks. Adventures and most supplements tend to get to the point fairly quickly. I’ve started adding “Character creation rules start on page XX” when I write up my mini-reviews for the Character Creation Challenge to show how quickly readers will get into the meat and potatoes of the game. I know it’s not much, but I want to try.

So am I on the right track? Or do you think I’m off-base on this writing point-of-view? 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: Art, Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2024 Day 4: RPG with great art

Written by TardisCaptain

Here we are at day four of the RPGaDAY 2024 challenge and our topic is “RPG with great art.” Being the father of an artist who is trying to break into the business, this is a big topic for me. Lately there has been a rash of AI renderings (I refuse to call them art) that has been used in RPG publications. Yes they are cheap, but the old saying is “You get what you pay for”. AI renderings look plastic and uninspiring. I remember when creating a character for Vintage Space in the last Character Creation Challenge and I noted how bad the AI renderings were. They didn’t have any uniformity and just seemed to be a random jumble of bad images that didn’t fit together.

So I’m going to talk about an RPG product that I purchased specifically for the art. It was the X-Treme Dungeon Master 2nd Edition that I picked up from Kickstarter and did a review when it arrived. The book was written by Tracy & Curtis Hickman, but the artist is Howard Tayler. I’ve talked about him before on my blog when he did some personalized art for me. Howard ran a webcomic called Schlock Mercenary and was able to keep it running for twenty years. As a loyal reader, I got use to his art style. The art he created for the XDM 2nd edition book had his style, but not once did I think “oh it’s Schlock Mercenary”. He was able to make it unique, make it his, but also make it new. There were a few color pieces on the cover and just inside the front cover, but the black and white art on the inside flowed along with the subject matter being discussed. There was also a little “flip book” art at the bottom of each page. I really liked the piece where the GM is using the “theater of the mind” to describe the scene. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few photos of the book that I took just for this blog post.

Additional things about the challenge. I’ve appreciated the feedback that readers have given me on my first couple of posts. I’ve had questions about comparing different Star Trek RPG systems. I’ve also enjoyed looking up #RPGaDAY2024 on BlueSky and finding a lot of other interesting gamers to follow. If you’ve followed me back, thank you.

Is there an RPG product that you thought had really good artwork in 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.

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

RPGaDAY2024 Day 3: Most often played RPG

Written by TardisCaptain

The topic for Day 3 of the RPGaDAY 2024 Challenge is “Most often played RPG”.

Spoiler alert: It’s Dungeons and Dragons version 3.5. There was a very long campaign that my friend, Jeff Sullivan, ran for me and my friends for several years. I have talked about this campaign previously in past RPGaDAY posts that talk about my favorite character, most memorable character demise and scariest game you’ve played.

So I’m going to tilt this subject on it’s side slightly. Most often RPG that I’ve GMed. Back in the mid 2000’s. The Star Trek Roleplaying Game by Decipher was the first Star Trek RPG that I played with my local Star Trek club. I was even able to GM a few sessions. I had a group of young Ensigns (the player characters) lead by an NPC Lieutenant as the CO, head to a shipyard to recover the USS Crockett for refitting just after the end of the Dominion War. Starfleet needed to pull some older, but still serviceable ships out of mothballs to rebuild the fleet and get back to the primary duty of exploring. Because the PCs got kicked off the station managing the shipyard, the team left with the Crockett before making sure the ship was ready to go. There was a very large nest of Talarian Hook Spiders that woke up from hibernation when the environmentals warmed up. As the crew tried to re-take back the ship, one of the PCs accidentally set the Lieutenant on fire who then fell in the turboshaft that they were traversing through. Luckily he survived despite being very injured. After the players recovered the ship and got to their destination, the poor Lieutenant was placed on a medical leave and eventually retired somewhere far away from the PCs. The Ensigns were assigned to the USS Crockett to investigate an unknown signal coming from an unexplored sector of space. There they encountered a band of rogue Kzintis, a planet of robots and more. One of the PCs being diplomatic with a Gorn captain gave him the impression that the word “Dude” was a universal greeting in the Human language.

What is the RPG that you’ve played the most? Was there a game that you GMed for quite a while? 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 2: Most recently played

Written by TardisCaptain

Well this is going to be a disappointing entry for me. For Day 2 of RPGaDAY 2024 challenge the topic is “most recent game played”. If things had gone the way I had hoped, I would be talking about the session zero of the new Castles and Crusades game that I had been invited to. The Castle Keeper wanted to start us on a weekly long term campaign. It would have been my first game on The Foundry VTT and my first C&C game. I’ve been wanting to play in a C&C campaign after creating a character for it in a past Character Creation Challenge. But real life popped up with the dreaded scheduling curse. Too many players had dropped out due to real life issues and there wasn’t enough players to justify a game. So, hopefully a C&C campaign will start up soon.

But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been active with my RPGs. Yes I’ve been playing and GMing at SaltCON, but that wasn’t the latest. My local Star Trek fan club had a Star Trek Game Night at a local gaming store in June. I finally had a chance to run the Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition Quickstart game. I had run a few STA games previously, but I wouldn’t call myself an expert. I did alter the scenario slightly and I noticed that the group got more out of the alteration that I did than the other listed events. I think I need to get more experience with running STA as I saw where some of my GM rust was still present. Now that I have the new 2nd Edition in PDF (physical book and it’s review coming soon), I’ll have to give it some serious thought.

What was your latest RPG game? Were you a player or a GM? 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 Wars

RPGaDAY2024 Day 1: First RPG Bought This Year

Written by TardisCaptain

Welcome to Day 1 of the RPGaDAY 2024 challenge. The first topic for today is “First RPG bought this year.” I elected to give two answers to this.

According to my records, I purchased a Bundle of Holding for Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition at the start of January. This came with quite a few books including the Starter Set, the Vehicle Handbook, the High Guard Update and a few other items. I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet as I had picked it up right in the middle of the last Character Creation Challenge. But I should be using it for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge.

The physical purchase was a dead tree version of the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire core rulebook that I had picked up at SaltCON-Spring. I was grateful that I had found it at a bargain price. Every time that I found a core rulebook, it was mega expensive. I think that’s because it has the name “Star Wars” on the cover. I’m planning to also use this for the upcoming Character Creation Challenge.

What was your latest RPG purchase? Was it a full game or a supplement? 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

Prepping for RPGaDAY2024

Written by TardisCaptain

August is quickly approaching and I’m electing to participate in the new #RPGaDAY2024 campaign. I’ve participated this challenge for the past three years as I think it helps me as a writer/blogger. I know I need to do more for this blog. Not only do I get a good feeling from creativity, but I’ve loved the interaction that I’ve experienced with the RPG community. Just recently I got a big thrill from discovering that the artist at Dyson Logos reads my blog. While watching a recent Twitch stream where he draws his maps (and plays some damn good music) he buzzed me in the chat to ask me about my recent review of the Shadow Ops espionage RPG. Needless to say, I was jacked. This isn’t the first time someone has reached out to me (or even talked to me in person) about how they have enjoyed reading my blog posts. So, I’m trying to get more posts put up for the geek community. Thank you for sticking with me during my dry/busy times.

Starting on August 1st there will be 31 days of RPG posts based upon various suggestions as seen in the image above. There were two different options for daily subjects this year, but I’ve elected to stick with the standard listing. It will also be an additional challenge because I’ve also been invited to a weekly Castles and Crusades campaign. I’m excited to be in a long term campaign again.

While I will be posting my entries here on this blog, I will be posting links on social media with the hashtag #RPGaDay2024. I also plan to post entries on the RPG.net message boards. I’m looking forward to seeing what I type up.

Do you have any interest in participating in this challenge? Does the list inspire you? Is there anything you want me to focus on during the challenge? Let’s have some fun. 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

RPGaDAY2023 Challenge After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain

So August has come to and end and so has the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge. I must say that I really enjoyed this month. Last year I had issues that prevented me from actually participating in the challenge day-by-day.

Another thing that made this year enjoyable was connecting to the people participating in this challenge on social media using the #RPGaDAY2023 hashtag. I’ve been moving the bulk of my social media engagement to Mastodon and I even picked up a BlueSky invite. By using this gaming hashtag I’ve followed and been followed and (more importantly) interacted with other RPG enthusiasts. Thank you.

I also used a different method than previous years. I queued up my entries and posted them on the day listed on the schedule. I needed to do this so that I could have a buffer on the days that I knew that I would be busy. That has been a pain with past challenges.

Some of my posts from the challenge that I’m proud of include Favorite Character, Favorite Tie-In Fiction (I had inspired others to examine the comics), Game You Wished You Owned (I had some readers state that they would keep an eye out for the Red Dwarf RPG), Funniest Game You’ve Played, Favorite Published Adventure, Best Second Hand Purchase (I still can’t believe I picked it up for that cheap), Unplayed RPG you own, and Most Obscure Game You’ve Played (someone actually found for me where the online PDF can be purchased from).

I was also able to post a reviews for RPG items in the Coolest Looking RPG Product and another past Character Sheet fro the old book of characters that I’ve kept forever.

Thank you to those who read my posts. Thank you to those who sent me feedback. And thank you to David Chapman for putting this together. I’m looking forward to the #CharacterCreationChallenge in January 2024.

Did you participate in the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge? Did you have a favorite post of mine from the challenge? 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

RPGaDay2023 Day 31: Favorite RPG of all time

Written by TardisCaptain

And here we are, Day 31 of the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge. The topic for the final day is “Favorite RPG of All Time.” Boy that’s a tough one.

I’ve played a lot of different Roleplaying Games since I first started in my Junior High days. I’ve dedicated several pages within my own blog towards some of them such as Star Trek, Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons. When I get some time (yea right) I’ve got more that I want to create pages for.

Favorite RPG of All Time? I’m big on the FASA Star Trek RPG. But if I’m thinking of playing in the Trek universe, it’s currently not the first one I’d reach for. I’d probably think Star Trek Adventures or Far Trek.

For my fantasy itch, there are so many systems that I want to try just to see how they are. When I introduced my college aged daughter and her 5E playing friends to OSR, I used Basic Fantasy.

There are games I dislike. There are games that I’d play only because I’d have a chance to socialize with friends. But favorite of all time?

Probably the one I’ll get off my ass and write. Yes, those ideas have been rolling around my head. Eventually they will make it out of the maze that is my brain and escape. Science Fiction author David Gerrold once stated that he writes the books he wants to read. Well in that same vein, the game I’ll write is the one I want to play. And that will be my favorite roleplaying game of all time.

So do you have a favorite RPG of all time? 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 Wars

RPGaDay2023 Day 29: Most memorable encounter

Written by TardisCaptain

Day 29 of the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge and the topic is “Most Memorable Encounter”. While a few of them popped in my head when I read the question, I’m going to go with this one for the West End Games Star Wars RPG system.

Back in the 90’s I was regularly attending games at a place called The Clubhouse which was next to Comics Utah. There were lots of different games happening in this place. Members of my gaming circle enjoyed playing the Star Wars RPG from West End Games. We played the usual misfit of rebels just after the events of The Empire Strikes Back. We had the smuggler, the pilot, the Jedi, etc.

There was one session where we all discovered an interesting aspect added to the WEG SW RPG. We were flying to some destination when we were spotted by an Imperial patrol. Not a big Star Destroyer, just some patrol along the way.

The captain of the vessel got on the comlink with the Imperials and was starting to talk his way out of them having to board us. Unbeknownst to him, the character of one of the players had an irrational hatred of the empire and immediately ran to one of the gun ports and started firing. He ended up shooting down at least one TIE Fighter. The CO was putting the Imperials on mute, screaming to the other characters about getting him off the guns and then returning to the conversation that they were having a “slight weapons malfunction”.

When asked for the name of the vessel, the CO responded “We are the Fresh Fruit Express” (trying to come up with a name on the fly. The GM tilted his head and asked the player to make a CON roll. Now this wasn’t CON as in Constitution that we normally see in Dungeons and Dragons. This was a skill used to “persuade an NPC to do something that isn’t in the NPC’s best interests.” It could be a distraction or a logical argument. Well the CO had a decent number of dice in the CON skill and rolled very high. High enough that he had been able to fool the Imperials that there was a mechanical issue and that they were carrying fruit.

We did end up having to land on a planet and meet up with the Imperials. The player had his CO character walking down the ramp eating an apple when he stepped out to continue the bluff.

I don’t know if I conveyed how hilarious we had found it at the time, but I still giggle when I think of “This is the Fresh Fruit Express.” Seeing how successful he had been in bluffing the Imperials, a lot of players dumped advancement points into the CON skill for future encounters.

Or was this just nostalgia in my head? It was memorable to me. Do you have a memorable RPG encounter that you’ve experienced? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Posted in: Horror, Role Playing Games

RPGaDay2023 Day 28: Scariest game you’ve played

Written by TardisCaptain

The Scariest Game You’ve Played is the topic for Day 28 of the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge. I had to think about this one for a moment. I really don’t get into the horror roleplaying games. When you are sitting around the table, or at a virtual table, how do you get scared? You are primarily in a safe controlled environment. Especially if you know you are going to be in a horror based game, you are expecting to experience something horrible like zombies or some unspeakable horror.

But I do recall one moment where I was “scared”, not only for one session but for multiple sessions. I’ve previously talked about a recent Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign that had my favorite character (and his demise) and towards the end of that campaign the DM, Jeff Sullivan, pulled it off.

Here is how Jeff did it. He placed us in a demon controlled pocket dimension where the rules of wizard and clerical magic didn’t apply (aka His realm). The ability to rest to recover hit points wasn’t available due to the nature of the dimension. My magic-user character and our cleric couldn’t replenish our spells in the normal manner. And we would be in this dimension for a long time.

Let’s just say it worked. Not only was my character agitated, I was agitated as well and wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. This made me as a player on edge and slightly (more) paranoid that usual. All it took was getting the character out of a comfort zone.

Could this be done in a game like Chill or Call of Cthulhu? I don’t know. I’m expecting horror then. I think the best way to present it is to run a game with a generic rule set where you don’t tell the players that they are going to be experiencing a zombie outbreak or an interdimentional invasion. Then you might actually get some horror elements in there to scare some players.

What do you guys think? Is it possible to scare someone in an RPG where they know that a homicidal maniac or weird beast might pop out of the shadows? What experiences have you had with horror based 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.

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