Tag: SaltCON

Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Horror, Pirates, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Star Wars

SaltCON-Spring 2026 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain March 18, 2026

August sez “Who said you could be gone fur-ever?”

And another wonderful SaltCON is in the bag. Let me take this opportunity to thank the gaming coordinators, the volunteers and the people I met for helping to make this an enjoyable weekend. I had some disappointments, but they were far and few between. I also had a roleplayer come up to me to say “Hey you want to see my convention backpack?” after he had read about the backpack that I use at conventions. It was interesting to compare the two of them. Last year, I really needed the emotional support after some real-life events. This year I was providing the emotional support to others (and I was glad to give out the hugs when needed). It reminded me of the quote from Saru on Star Trek: Discovery.

“Before we can care for others, we must care for ourselves.” Saru- New Eden, Stardate: 1027.32

I was able to pick up a lot this year. The convention theme for 2026 is pirates (last year was a cyberpunk theme) and there were several articles of clothing that combined gaming and pirates together. My zip-up Star Trek hoodie (that looked like a uniform) was starting to get a little threadbare, so I decided to replace it with a black SaltCON pirate hoodie that says “Dead men play no games.” I also picked up the regular con shirt for spring which was a pirate riding a fish guiding it with a D20. The SaltCON GameMaster’s Guild shirt that I got for free said “Release the Kraken” And speaking of free shirts, Evil Genius Games provided me with an Evil Gamemaster shirt for running one of their games. On the sleeve is a bonus rule that allows the GM to make a player re-roll a D20 two times during a game. I didn’t use this at the con, but a friend who also got the same shirt did.

Some of the gaming loot that I picked up at the con.

As is usually the case with SaltCON, they give you free games when you pick up your registration badge. The free games this year included an interesting card game called Tacta and a humorous looking game called Riot at the Round Table. I’ll have to subject the family to these and see how they play. At the Saturday morning swap meet someone brought in the Star Trek Super-Skill Pinball that was still sealed and was a low price. So I snagged it. I really wish that more people brought their RPG books to this Saturday morning event. At the regular game swap (which is 99% board games) I did find an unusual looking RPG called Arzium which appears to be a fantasy game. And one of my thank you gifts for running quite a few RPG sessions was the Werewolf The Apocalypse Core Rulebook. Both of these I’ll be using in the 2027 Character Creation Challenge.

There were a couple more giveaways that I had received at the convention. The first was the SaltCON RPG pin which showed a kraken wrapping itself around a pirate ship. There was also a pin I got for running the Evil Genius game for Nacho Haus that came from the Origins Game Fair. I don’t know what that represents. I reached out to my contacts at EGG and I’ll report back what I find out. Another free gift was a small 3D printed dice tower that fit nicely inside my leather dice tray. Usually dice towers are too unwieldy or big, but this one worked just right. This was given to a GMs at the con and was provided by Scorehaven which appears to be some sort of gaming meet up group. A local young artists had a booth at the con and from her I purchased a set of dice that glow under a ultraviolet light (I’ll blog more about that later) and a special coffin box for the Geek Wife who loved it. Plus we wanted to support those who created with their hands and not tried to use AI.

For the four games that I ran at SaltCON Spring 2026 I think I must have picked a bad time-slot for Basic Fantasy. Only one person had preregistered for the game and they backed out the morning of the con. But this only gives me a chance to polish up this self-written adventure for a future event. The next day I ran Everyday Heroes: Escape from New York (for the prizes seen above). This game had a full complement (five pre-gen characters) and we had fun. However I may have disappointed a player who was playing an RPG for the first time. She chose a character that was a manipulator instead of a fighter. However the first part of the game (that was all we could do in the four hour slot) didn’t get to the point where she could use her talents. I let them name their own characters at the table, so Lady Lockbreaker, if you are reading this, I should have let you manipulate the guards you were trying to approach. I had thought about it later and I realized then what you were trying to do. I hope your future RPG sessions go a little better. For any GMs running some of the Cinematic Adventures from Evil Genius Games, be prepared to shorten the material to get it into a convention gaming slot. Friday I ran Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition with the Thursday’s Child game written by Roger Taylor. This ran very well and challenged the characters in a Star Trek way. There were lots of compliments at the end of the session (that ran longer than we were expecting, but it was the last game at that table for the day). On Sunday I ran the Star Wars D6 RPG from West End Games. While there were a couple of first time players who wanted to see what the fuss was all about, there were also several players who loved the original game. They loved the theater of the mind and how I used an opening script to get them all into character. Thank you to my players who showed up and had fun.

I was really looking forward to the two Cowboy Bebop games, but they didn’t happen. One was with Lasers and Feelings and the other was the official RPG that I had backed on Kickstarter. The GM fell ill and wasn’t able to return for the two games. I know another player who had signed up for both who was disappointed as well. Another player volunteered to run Lasers and Feelings for us and we pushed our way through it as an improv game. Thanks to that player for stepping up and showing how the community supports each other. To the GM that was running the early Sunday morning Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition game, I apologize for pulling out the night before. With how late my STA game ran, I didn’t think I was going to get there on time for the early morning session. I hope you found a replacement player and I thank you for bringing one of the classics to the con. I have a bit of a conundrum on the Tunnels and Trolls game. It wasn’t actually Tunnels and Trolls, it was a retro-clone called the Leopard Empress or something. Another player who also wanted to really try T&T had even brought his books from home. I think we got an idea how the system works with the clone, but I was also wondering if I would have signed up had it been advertised under the actual game name. I don’t know, am I thinking about this too hard? If I had advertised my Basic Fantasy game as BECMI and someone showed up expecting to play that, would they be giving me the side eye? The other game that I was able to play is called DC20, which turned out to be a beta version of the game that was backed by Kickstarter years ago. It made sense, but I could see where some of the betaness of the game came into play as the players had a few questions about things. We had fun. But the IT side of my brain kept saying “Beta version, wait for full release.” The most fun I had was with the Paranoia game. Because there was a long line to get into the con (and I had to stop to help a friend at the ER beforehand) I was a little late getting there. The GM was actually having the players create their own characters. Since I had missed the first of this process, I asked if I could just use the character I had recently created in the Character Creation Challenge, and the GM agreed. So bonus points for me to use a character that I had created manually. I want to say that the Paranoia game lives up to its reputation if you have a GM and players with the right mindset (and warped sense of humor). Good job. Overall I had fun in the games that I actually played and thanks again to the GMs for their efforts.

Again, if you are looking for a good gaming convention, I can’t recommend SaltCON enough. There are a ton of board games, card games, roleplaying games and the Artemis Bridge Simulator ran by Starship Frontier was always full. The next two conventions at the Davis Conference Center in Layton, Utah are June 5-7 and September 4-6. I already have an idea for my next Star Trek Adventures game that I want to try out.

So was I putting to much thought into the Tunnels and Trolls concern? Did I do the new player in Escape from New York wrong by not letting her play to her character strengths? 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.

Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Star Wars

Prepping for SaltCON Spring 2026

Written by TardisCaptain March 7, 2026March 17, 2026

Some of the games that I’ll be running at SaltCON Spring 2026.

Wow, 2026 is flying by already. In less than a week I’ll be at SaltCON Spring at the Davis Convention Center in Layton to throw some dice and see some friends. This will run from March 12-15 and is the largest of the three SaltCON conventions held at this location.

I volunteered to run four different games this year. I’m also signed up to play in four games that I’ve never played before and I’ll be re-visiting a game that I haven’t played since my early days of gaming. I will also be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented about in a previous blog post.

Once again, my Sunday game has filled up first. But this shouldn’t surprise me because it’s the classic Star Wars D6 RPG by West End Games. I’m certain that all of the players probably remember (or heard about) how well this game ran. I’ve also followed up with some games that I’m getting known for, Basic Fantasy 4th Edition (The Guildmaster’s Quest Part II) and Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition where I’ll be running a scenario written by my late friend, Roger Taylor that I converted over to 2e. I think that Roger would have loved 2nd edition. Another first for me is running the Everyday Heroes cinematic adventure, Escape from New York. What is especially interesting about this last game is that it will be a sanctioned play recognized by the publisher. I’ll get some swag for running the game and the players can get some points as well if they sign up online. The publisher had one of their convention coordinators reach out to me and ran me through a quick online session about a month ago.

I’ve signed up to play in six games. The one that I’ve played before is Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition (role play like it’s 1979). In 2025 I did see a couple of pick up 2nd edition games start. If I hadn’t already been booked for another session, I might have joined them. The remaining games are all new to me. I am really appreciative of the opportunity to try new games. There are 5th Edition/Pathfinder games at all of the local gaming stores, I want to try other things. The first game is the new Paranoia All New Shiny Edition (aka “Perfect Edition”). I recently had the opportunity to make a character for this in the 2026 Character Creation Challenge. I’ve really wanted to try this game ever since I first heard about it back in the 90s. I’m not certain what version it is, but another game that I’ve signed up for is Tunnels and Trolls. Yea, speak about old-school. This was another game that I saw advertised over the gaming publications at the time. I’ll have more to report about this later. There is a sci-fi game out there called Lasers and Feelings which looks like it was inspired by Star Trek. This game has had several hacks published for it to cover other genres and this one will cover the Cowboy Bebop anime. And speaking of Cowboy Bebop, someone will be running the official RPG at the con and I’ve signed up for it. After backing the Kickstarter for this and being very disappointed (see my review) I’ll get a chance to play it at the table. Will this opportunity change my mind? We’ll see. My final game that I signed up for is called DC20, which is a 5e variant. I had seen it scheduled at SaltCON in the past, but the schedules never lined up for me to try it. So I’m taking another plunge to see what it’s like. This game will actually have the players make their character at the start of the game instead of using pre-generated characters.

I’m looking forward to geeking out and forgetting about how bad this year has been so far (again). If you are going, feel free to come up and say Hi. Seeing friends is exactly what I need right now. And a way to help myself is to help others. So let me know if you need a hug as well.

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction

2026 Character Creation Challenge Day 24: EverReach

Written by TardisCaptain January 24, 2026January 24, 2026

Last year I had the opportunity to talk with the game designer for the sci-fi RPG, EverReach at SaltCON. He offered to send me a copy of his game to use in a future blog post. He also gave me the freedom to review the game as I saw fit. So, I am using it for today’s entry in the of the 2026 #CharacterCreationChallenge. Now, I had a chance to play this game with the designer at a past SaltCON.

So the PDF book is 324 pages and was released by Laughing Gnome Games. The ISBN number is 979-8-9925886-1-3. EverReach uses a system called the Luck Die System. To complete a task the player rolls 2d6 and another d6 known as the luck die, add any bonuses from skill, equipment and traits and try to meet or beat a target number. The player has a series of luck points and can replace one of the d6s that they just rolled with the results of the luck die.

The steps to create a character are listed on page 14. Create a character concept. Assign abilities. Pick a Genotype (think race). Select a character background. Select bonus skills and background. Select the character’s talents. Pick up equipment. Build a ship and finally finishing touches. There are little sub-steps or different methods in each step.

Step one is the character concept. As I’m typing this, I’m watching episodes of my favorite science fiction comedy series Red Dwarf. So I’m going to make a human engineering character that’s a little on the slobby and lazy side. Step two is assigning the attributes. The attributes used in EverReach are Brawn, Determination (mental fortitude), Wits (awareness), Agility, Intelligence and Presence (charisma). There are three methods that can be used to generate the scores for these. Focused (pick one at 4, one at 1 and the rest are 2), Balanced (Two attributes at 3 and all others at 2) or Point Buy (spend 13 points among the six attributes). Since this guy is one of the lower deckers, I went with balanced.

Now to select the Genotype of the character. In this gaming universe there are Humans, Metahumes (weak psychic humans), Spaceborn (humans designed to live in space), Heavy Worlder (humans designed for working on heavy gravity worlds), Reptilians, Avians, Felians and Piscine (genetically modified reptiles, birds, cats and fish) and Androids. Considering I’m making my own version of Lister, I briefly considered Spaceborn or Heavy Worlder, but I don’t think that really fit the concept I was going for, so I stayed with Human. I get to up two of the character attributes by 1 and I get to add +1 to Luck.

Step four is the character background. Where were they born, what type of upbringing and career do they have? We also select two personality traits and a character flaw. Sticking with the Lister theme I’m making the character from the United Kingdom. So he has the language of English and the trait of European. For the upbringing I considered Criminal, Urban or Rural, but I decided to go with Laborer. I wrote down the traits, social network and background listed. After seeing the list of Careers, instead of going with Engineer that I was thinking above, I selected Deckhand since he was a lower decker. This gave the character his first set of skills (rank 2), another social network connection and an additional trait. For Personality I’m instructed to pick two from the list provided (went with Optimistic and Witty) and at least one Flaw (Claustrophobic). I could have picked a few others to match the inspiring character but I didn’t know if it would have provided any additional positive traits.

For the bonus skills and background, I get to choose three additional skills at rank 2, bump two of my rank 2 skills to 3 and then select five skills at rank 1. I also get to choose one additional background talent, one additional social network. Um… are the background talents under the Talents chapter or in the Backgrounds chapter? This is probably where I would have asked the GM if we were making the character together at the table. There is an entire chapter on different talent types, but they appear to be connected to certain skills. I’m going to go out on a limb and think its one of these in the talent chapter since I haven’t seen that come up anywhere else. Under the Mechanics Talents there is a Robot Ally (since Lister had Kryten). No, I’m wrong, steps six (the next one) has the rules for those talents. I guess I’ll just skip this one for the time being.

As mentioned above, step six is to select the talents of the character. Each skill that has a rank of three gets a talent. Since Mechanics is at skill level 3, now I can take the Robot Ally talent that I had mentioned above (Welcome to this character’s Kryten). Since only one other skill was at a 3, I picked a talent for Subterfuge (Disguiser).

Equipment is the next step. The rules state that the character has a a choice of three equipment items that are always in their possession. There are other items that can be used during the game, but these three things appear to be signature items. I think I just pick three things that are not large and bulky.

Step eight is Building the Ship. Work with the crew (other PCs) including who owns it, who does what on the ship etc. Sticking with the Red Dwarf theme, I’m certain that this character has a small mining scout like StarBug 1 that’s owned by the company they work for. There is a whole set of steps just to design the ship. I’m not going to go into on this blog post because it’s already getting to long as it is.

The final step is the finishing touches. This includes determining speed, armor, shields, health, etc. It’s done by various mathematical formulas provided. I was confused by the second sub-step in finishing touches. It says to add the attribute bonuses+2x skill ranks to determine the bonus for your skills. But when I do a Ctrl+F on the document, nothing else comes up for attribute bonuses. I haven’t given a name to the character yet, so I’m going with Charles Craig. Glorified space bum who’s only working before he gets his big break (and hopefully the girl of his dreams) to retire on a farm on Fiji. I transferred everything to the two-page character sheet and scanned it below.

Afterthoughts:

I was wishing that the chapters and layout describing the characters was in the same order as the character creation steps listed on page 14. I was jumping all over the place in the PDF. It would have been helpful in the step-by-step guide to say (see page x for more information). Another issue was the AI images. They had the usual issues of merging body parts, plastic skin and more. Like the Vintage Space RPG that I had used in a past Character Creation Challenge, none of the images seemed to be related to each other other than being in space. It was really distracting.

Now usually when I create a character for the challenge, I usually say “I wonder how it plays at the table?” Well, as mentioned above, I was able to play it in a convention one-shot. We did a lot of pre-planning for our raid into the facility we were hired to break into. When we got to tossing the dice, I don’t recall thinking anything like “that didn’t work” or “that seems to be too steep for a success ratio” like I had in some other games. So with a good GM and players, this should be a game that can be used in a campaign. The GM is encouraged to develop house rules for their table if needed.

I would also like to point out, that in the same vein as Chris Gonnerman, Bill Logan, Mark Hunt and more, Patrick Buckendorf has done something that I want to do. Write a roleplaying game and get it out into the wild. Like others, I say I want to do it. But the actual act of getting it done and out is a major accomplishment that I hope to achieve some day.

Additional Notes:

In the 2025 #CharacterCreationChallenge the proper Top Gear crew came up in several characters. This year it appears that Red Dwarf is inspiring some of the characters that I end up using. Even if it’s towards the end of the creation process.

Coming Up Next:

The Walking Dead

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.

Role Playing Games

What is on your own character sheet?

Written by TardisCaptain September 12, 2025September 12, 2025

Which character sheet from the last Character Creation Challenge should I use?

I want to thank the participants of the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server for keeping me on track and thinking about future blog posts. Thanks MoonHunter for the virtual donuts (at least those don’t add to my daily calories, even when I want a real one). He was talking about how continuing to write and work on a project is beneficial. I especially liked his comment of “And remember, you can always edit crap. You can not edit a blank page.” How true.

So I started thinking about what was something I could put together. Sometimes when I place my fingers on the keyboard, the ideas start flowing through them from my brain to the page. I’ve got a few ideas that I need to prep for, or would take longer than a single sitting to put together.

But then an idea hit me. Arsenic_Angel on my Discord server has been talking about crocheting home-made dice bags for an upcoming booth at SaltCON. I had commented back to her that she was doing a good job and had increased the skill level of her character.

So for this blog post I’m going to talk about our own character sheet. The one that represents us. I’m going to throw out a rough idea for “Real Life- The RPG”, but that’s for the purpose of getting the message across for this blog post. So don’t think of it as a finished system but a lump of clay ready to be molded. Sort of like all of us.

When we sit down with a blank piece of paper, or unfilled character sheet, there is a level of excitement. Perhaps we have an idea on what we want to do with the character. Another layer of fun could be finding out about the character as we develop and play them. I think that is why there is a segment of the gaming community that likes using point buys to create their character and another that like random dice rolls. While the bulk of the characters we make are at the starting levels, our own personal character sheet doesn’t have to be that way. You may already have some experience in several areas, but as long as you are still learning, you are still living. That is part of the reason I try to learn something new every day.

So at the top of our sheet is our name. Perhaps some nicknames as well. Don’t worry if you need to change the name later. Your name was a gift and gifts are not meant to be used forever. Think about what went into that name, why it was selected and what it means to you.

In roleplaying games we use attributes to represent the natural abilities of our character. So for us we all have three distinct things. Body, Mind and Spirit. Our health, physical resilience, strength, coordination, balance and more are part of our Body score. The intelligence, recall, perception, insight and more make up our Mind score. And finally our drive, creativity, mental resilience, happiness and more make up our Spirit. Instead of a single rating for these attributes, we would have two. An average rating, and a peak rating. If we keep up with certain daily activities, we can keep our average rating. If we don’t get enough sleep, eat healthy and mentally take care of ourselves, then we may fall below that average rating. But if we push one of our ratings (sometimes at the cost of the other two) then we can use the peak rating on certain tasks. An example of this could be professional and Olympic athletes who train constantly for long periods of time to reach that peak needed for a certain competition.

Now there isn’t going to be class and levels in “Real Life- The RPG” because we are more than just our occupation. Instead we are going to have talents, skills and traits which could help us in a variety of different jobs. A talent is something that comes naturally that helps with certain ability rolls. These could be athletic, musical, artistic, creative, charming, dedicated, problem solving, etc. Skills are specializations that we develop or need for certain tasks. I mentioned Arsenic_Angel increasing their crocheting skill. There are two writers on my discord with the handles of Chantel and MoonHunter who are constantly giving us updates on their word count and projects. So I can see the Writing skill number going up. If you do something that is trained, then that should be a skill that increases. Some may even get high enough to become a professional skill (aka you get paid for it) while others may just be more a long the lines of hobbies and interests. For myself I’d have a professional skill level in cybersecurity, a hobby skill level in roleplaying games and an interest skill in World War I and II trivia. While I don’t make money off of it, since I’ve been interviewed for Newspapers, TV, Radio and Magazines, my Star Trek knowledge skill is at a professional level. And finally traits are things that affect your character both good and bad. Some may be temporary, such as “exhausted” or some may be semi-permanent such as my myopia (aka nearsightedness) or permanent, like if I was missing an arm (which I am not thankfully).

Instead of having equipment, we would have resources, because not everything is physical. Sure, owning a car is a resource (that comes with a cost), but having friends is also a resource. Internet access, a full-time job, a safe neighborhood to live in, the love of a family, a pet, food storage, and more would make up the resources our character can use. These resources can help with a trait (like my glasses help with my vision), or with the upkeep needed for my attributes (like visiting with friends to lift my spirits). Each resource could have multiple traits as well just like the character. A low-stress job, an older car that isn’t as reliable, etc. These would also be listed on my character sheet.

So, when we make a character, we plan for that character to change and grow as we play the game. We might get access to additional resources, increase an ability, learn a new skill. As I was thinking about this blog post this morning a thought ran through my head. “This Count Chocula cereal may not help my body attribute score, but it sure helps my spirit attribute.” Think of things that we can do to improve our characters for “Real Life- The RPG” and take them. Even if it’s just the daily activities to keep our average attribute score, that is still helping. Don’t forget to use your resources such as your friends and family. We are all playing this game together and there are no NPCs.

OK readers, give me topic and subject ideas (RPG or anything geeky) that you’d like to see me blog about. I have some ideas of my own, but I’d love to hear some short prompts that you might be interested in. This helps encourage me to get off of my duff and write. And that increases my writing skill on my personal character sheet. 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.

Character Creation Challenge, Collecting, Conventions, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

SaltCON-End of Summer 2025 After Action Report

Written by TardisCaptain September 3, 2025December 1, 2025

When I was thinking about my after-action reports, I almost combined this one with my RPGaDAY 2025 after-action report. However, I realized that they should remain separate as they were both unique events.

SaltCON End-of-Summer 2025 has completed thanks to the many efforts of the volunteers and staff. Having run conventions in the past, I must tip my hat to them. I was talking with one of the volunteers on Sunday and I could tell they were exhausted. They were happy with how the event went, but very tired. I myself had a blast and I had a lot of opportunities to talk with different gaming friends and throw some dice. I also had the opportunity to use the First Aid Kit that I keep in my Convention Backpack. Nothing serious, but I was glad that I was prepared.

I played the following games:

MechWarrior: Destiny was a lot of fun. It was a rules light system and the scenario was pretty straight forward. Get in my mech, go shoot some pirates that had taken over a corporate base (we were hired because we were the closest). I was pretty impressed with how easy this ran. The tactical combat with the mechs was built more for roleplay, but still utilized a hex map. From what I understood, there are more crunchier versions if you just want to beat up other giant mechs. I had a chance to look at the rule-book while we were sitting at the table and if I can find it for a good price, I’ll be very tempted to pick it up.

Dungeon Crawl Classics was a little different from the last time I played it. Instead of being a funnel, we had established level-3 characters. This was being run by a first-time-at-a-convention GM and we all gave him some positive feedback when the session was over. While I didn’t play a magic-user in this one-shot, I did get to see the magic system in action and it looks funky. The randomness and danger from messing around with magic can be appealing for some gamers, but may push others off. When the adventure was over, my fighter character ended up with the MacGuffin we were after known as ‘The Balance Blade.’

I had some fun with Daggerheart and I was able to get my feet wet with it. I liked some things. The hope and fear dice mechanic was interesting and didn’t really turn me off like I thought it would. We had plenty of roleplaying opportunities in the system. The only thing I really didn’t like was the initiative system. If you succeeded with hope, then your side could keep the initiative, but there was no order to go in so someone could go several times (or pass off between the two). It was only when you succeeded (or failed) with fear did imitative move to the opposing side. Like Mechawarrior above, I was able to look through the rule-book at the table. I’ll pick this up if I can get it on a sale, but I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to get it. I also wouldn’t turn down an invite to a game if presented. There is a metric-butt load of fantasy RPGs out there and so I’m not in a rush to play or homebrew for most of them.

My Sunday morning game of Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Prpogramme lived up to the hype. The GM was running it for the first time after picking up the book and our marry troupe was sent by God to spank the Pope because he had been a naughty boy. Now that I’ve had a chance to see the system at the table, I can also say this works for the source material. I could see this system being used for Blackadder as well. One interesting note, the GM didn’t provide pre-generated characters so we had to roll up some before starting the game. Instead of making a new one, he let me play Sir Richard Hammond that I had created in a past Character Creation Challenge. Because I had the unusual dice from the Kickstarter Reward, I had lots of request to use them. But only I used the Coconut Dice Rollers.

I had players for all three of the games that I ran over the weekend:

Basic Fantasy went off better than I expected since this was a home-made adventure. The characters were able to find the missing Guildmaster and complete his quest. I want to polish up the adventure and run it one more time before I submit it to the Basic Fantasy community for possible publication.

This was the most unusual time that I’ve ever run Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition (or any STA game). Because it was a Klingon based scenario where the squad was sent to infiltrate a Dominion outpost during the Dominion War, there was a lot of combat. I GMed more combat in this one-shot more than any of my other STA one-shots combined. I will need to go back and re-read some of the combat rules and probably ask a few questions on the Modiphius discord server. But the characters survived and completed the objective.

I really wish that I had a physical copy of the Space: 1999 Quickstart Rules as I was running the scenario from it. I didn’t want to print out too much from the book as it was graphic heavy (and would have eaten up a lot of the ink in my printer). So I was using the PDF on my tablet which meant a lot of scrolling. Most of the players were familiar with Star Trek Adventures, so I was able to read off some of the slight differences in the rules out loud. And they made sense. Two of the things that I really liked in the rules I plan to adapt to my STA games. When I reported on the Modiphius discord server the results of one of the characters using a photo of his family to calm down a panicked crew member, the writer of the game gave me a thumbs up. The team had lots of fun and one participant played the Space: 1999 opening and closing themes at the appropriate moments in the game. I even got an email from one of the players a few days later telling me how much fun he had at the table.

While I was running Space: 1999, I had someone come up to the table and ask if I’d be willing to run games as a paid GM. I signed up for more information, but I’m kinda-sorta hesitant about making a hobby into a paid thing. I’m sure I’d have fun, but I’d hate to take something fun and turn it into work. I may have to investigate this more.

One of the big reasons to attend a gaming convention is to make connections. Talking with one GM he mentioned that he only ran games that were in print for purchase. He was worried that a player would want a copy of a game after his session. I understood this as I overheard two of my STA players at the Summer SaltCON say they wanted to pick up the 2nd edition core rule-book after playing. Both myself and another player encouraged him to run any game that he wanted to play. Part of the reason to play at a con is to play those games you don’t get a chance to play elsewhere. At past SaltCONs I’ve had a chance to play older out-of-print games like James Bond, Ghostbusters and Red Dwarf. I didn’t get a chance to play, but I passed a table where they were playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition.

A merchant that sells roleplaying books would be smart to find out what games are being ran at SaltCON and sell them at a vendor’s table. I know there has been a few times that I was tempted to pick up a game right after finishing a game. Had Mechawarrior: Destiny been within reach, I would have been seriously tempted to buy it.

Speaking of loot from the con. You can see what I picked up at the convention in the photo above. The Fallout Starter Set was in the game swap (still sealed and a very good price). The convention usually gives away a freebie game to attendees and this time around it was a card game called Flip 7. The family looked interested in trying it out. As a thank you gift for GMing, I was gifted the core rule-book for a game I didn’t know existed. It was called Rivers of London by Chaosium and was based off of a series of novels called, you guessed it, Rivers of London. It reminded me of The Dresden Files but with police officers investigating wizards and magic crimes. And the convention t-shirt had a robot playing a game on a red background.

Overall I had a ton of fun. I can see where the organizers are putting their heart and soul into a gaming convention like this one. The next SaltCON is the big one in the spring and will be held at the same Davis Convention Center on March 12-14. I’ve been trying to recruit some friends to come and GM at the convention because I think they would have fun as well.

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.

Character Creation Challenge, Conventions, Role Playing Games, Star Trek, Star Wars

RPGaDAY2025 Day 29: Connect

Written by TardisCaptain August 29, 2025August 27, 2025

It’s time to link up for Day 29 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge and our topic is ‘connect’. Roleplaying games are social events. Sure, there are solo games, and video games. But when it comes down to it, sitting around a table and seeing the faces of the other players, hearing the inflection in their voices, making memories, it’s infectious. It is one of the main reasons we play our different games. We get to geek out with someone that has a common bond. We get to yell at little pieces of plastic when they don’t roll the right number. We get to wear robes and chant from ancient texts… wait, did I give away too much? (No, that doesn’t happen. Bad Carl for making a joke again.)

So, how do you connect with other gamers. Well in this day and age, it’s a lot easier than it was previously. Here are a few suggestions to connect with fellow dice throwers.

Go to your local game store. Most game stores worth their salt will have events where you can meet up. The more people play the game, the more games that they can sell. Sure, a lot of their gaming events are of the collectible card variety. But most will allow you to schedule an RPG session or two there. Meeting in a public place may get you some additional players for your campaigns as people may be more comfortable than going to someone’s home that they don’t know. I’ve also noticed a trend that more smaller game stores are setting up discord servers as a way to connect members of the gaming community together. Some may have Facebook pages, but there’s been a bit of a push back on using that social media platform with the weird algorithms that they keep pushing.

If there is a gaming convention near you, check it out. My time at SaltCON has lead to exchanging information with a lot of local gamers. It also included a one-shot invitation to a D6 Star Wars RPG by WEG and writers sending me their games to get my feedback. And, as I’ve recently said, I really needed the community at SaltCON during this troubling year.

I mentioned discord earlier. There are a lot of discord servers that are put out for the gaming community. I even have one for my blog that is gaining some traction (thanks guys). Several publishers have their own discord servers. I’ve received some feedback from publishers to my reviews and Character Creation Challenge entries via discord. I know that Basic Fantasy still uses a message board. Two good message boards with lots of activity is the one on RPG.net and RPGPub. And yes, even with the pitfalls that Facebook has, there are a lot of gaming sites on it. I’m on some of the MeWe gaming groups, but that hasn’t caught as much attention. And I’ve been very impressed with the gaming community on BlueSky. All of these have options to find players in your area. When I posted on the Modiphius discord server that I was running a Star Trek Adventures 2e one-shot, a gentleman from two counties distant drove up to play. If I had access to these resources in the 90’s (the closest we came were local BBSes) I would have loved it.

And probably the best way to get someone to game with you is talk with your friends. Pick an RPG system that you can explain the rules in under two minutes and show your excitement for the game. If the rules are too complex to explain, they might not jump on board as fast. But try to emphasize the fun that can be had around the table.

Are there other methods that you’d recommend for connecting with fellow RPG gamers? 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.

Conventions, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

Prepping for SaltCON End-of-Summer 2025

Written by TardisCaptain August 28, 2025August 28, 2025

I might need to use this book this weekend.

The end of August is almost upon us and that means that SaltCON End-of-Summer is just around the corner running during from August 29-31st at the Davis Conference Center in Layton. There are still tickets available if you want to stop check it out. Use the code SUMMEREND for a discount price (not valid after August 28th)

I volunteered to run three different games this year. I’m also signed up to play in three games that I’ve never played before and I’ll be re-visiting a game that I’d love to play in a campaign. I will also be packing my Convention Backpack that I have documented about in a previous blog post.

Games that I’ve volunteered for include Basic Fantasy 4th Edition (The Guildmaster’s Quest) and Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition (a new Klingon scenario, which was wildly popular last time I ran one of this style). The new game that I’m going to be running at this con is the new Space: 1999 roleplaying game by Modiphius. The amazing thing that shocked me is, the Space: 1999 session is already sold out and it’s my Sunday game. Usually that is the one that doesn’t sell out. At the time I was typing this blog post up, my other two games only had two seats left each.

For the games that I’ve signed up for, my only repeat system is Dungeon Crawl Classics that I will be playing on Friday. I like that this is a D20 clone (with some twists) and has a zero-level funnel. This DCC one-shot will be level three characters.

Of the three other games that I’ve signed up for, they are all new to me. I made sure to give myself breaks between games so that I can get a lunch (I did that wrong one year, wow won’t make that mistake again). The first of the new games is MechWarrior: Destiny. This is in the BattleTech universe. While I was aware of it in the 90’s because it was also published by FASA, I steered clear of it as I could have seen myself making a collection of different Mech stats in a three-ringed binder like I did with the FASA Star Trek starships.

If you’ve been watching a lot of the RPG video podcasts you’ve probably been hearing about a new game called Daggerheart from Critical Role Productions. Well I signed up for a demo to check this out and see what the hype is about.

And finally I backed the Kickstarter for the Monty Python Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme. Well now I’m going to have a chance to play it at the table. When I wrote my review linked above, I on-purpose did not read any of the scenarios within the book just in case one of them was used at the con. I can’t wait to see this game in action and to use the special coconut dice-rollers that came with my reward.

I’m looking forward to geeking out and forgetting about how bad this year has been so far. If you are going, feel free to come up and say Hi. Seeing friends is exactly what I need right now. And a way to help myself is to help others. So let me know if you need a hug as well.

Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games

RPGaDAY2025 Day 24: Reveal

Written by TardisCaptain August 24, 2025August 22, 2025

And now we uncover the Day 24 topic of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge which is ‘reveal’. I had to think about this one for a moment until I decided that I wanted to talk about revealing the map that the player characters are on.

Being a gamer since the early days of BECMI and AD&D 1st Edition, I have many memories of a map on the table being drawn by the Dungeon Master as our characters moved around on it. As I took on DM roles I realized how much of a challenge this can be. My favorite DM is physically unable to move around the table like he was previously to draw the map. When I was planning to run an OSR one-shot for some 5e players, the map that I had downloaded from the internet was too big (by the number of squares) on the dry-erase mat that I had purchased.

One of the nice things about going to gaming conventions like SaltCON is seeing how some GMs have handled the map situation when it comes to revealing where the characters are at. Some just have portions of the map pre-printed and they get laid down as the characters enter the area. One GM introduced me to the Dry-Erase Hexagon Game Tiles that I picked up after finding it om Amazon. Some will cover the pre-drawn map with paper and then remove it as the characters move along.

While I haven’t seen it in person, I’ve had some GMs tell me about a projector that they had set up above the gaming table that would allow them to digitally display the map on the table for the players to move their figures on. This sounds like a dream situation for me. While I love my house, I don’t have a room big enough to host a regular gaming event.

This also reminded me of why I didn’t like some virtual tabletop systems. The worse one was Fantasy Grounds where the map was so graphic heavy that even the GM with a high-powered gaming computer was experiencing massive lag and slowness.

I’m willing to try out new ideas and take suggestions. Have you had any luck with other options to reveal the playing map while around the table? 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.

Doctor Who, Dungeons and Dragons

RPGaDAY2025 Day 21: Unexpected

Written by TardisCaptain August 21, 2025August 21, 2025

On special Day 21 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge we get to talk about the ‘unexpected’. I specifically wanted to talk about keeping things unexpected for the players so that they can experience the storyline that the GM has planned for them. Yes, a proper RPG session is a joint storytelling experience, but the GM still works out the appropriate plot points ahead of time.

To quote River Song from Doctor Who: “Spoilers” (wicked grin). Spoilers in a game can be a bad thing. We hate spoilers for the latest TV episodes and movies. And it should be the same for gaming. Seeing the look on the players faces as they figure out the clues (or completely miss it all together). That is part of the fun of the game.

I recall two things about this from my past. When I was early into the RPG hobby, I remember being at a local gaming store talking about some of the modules that were for sale. I wondered about players buying the module that the GM was going to run to know the story ahead of time. This is probably why I preferred to homebrew my adventures and gaming world to keep this from happening. I remember the person I was talking with making the statement that he could (and had) changed the module to fit his campaign needs. Even to the point of just keeping the module title to present the unexpected to his players.

Recently at a SaltCON event, I signed up to play a one-shot of the Fallout RPG. One of my kids was in attendance and really wanted to play a session with her Father. At the table I quickly realized that I had already played this one-shot at a previous convention. So in order to not spoil the other players fun, I did not say or do anything about the knowledge I already had on the plot. It was actually to my benefit as we got farther along the plot on this session than we had previously.

I’ve also blogged about the multi-year Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 campaign that I played with some friends. While talking with the DM, I mentioned that I was going through some older Dragon Magazine articles looking for some research information. He cautioned me about reading some of the older adventures found in the magazines as he was currently using one for the campaign. I was glad that he had warned me, just in case as I wanted to feel the thrill of the unexpected.

What do you do to keep things unexpected in your game? Would you make drastic changes to the characters or plot? Have you found yourself at a table where you knew the adventure? How did you handle 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.

Character Creation Challenge, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2025 Day 8: Explore

Written by TardisCaptain August 8, 2025August 8, 2025 1 Comment

The prompt of ‘Explore’ is being used for the Day 8 entry of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge. There were quite a few blog posts that came up about setting up a game for the players to explore distant lands or strange new worlds. But when I was thinking about this topic, I looked within. I like exploring some of the different roleplaying game systems that are out there. How are they different? What twist was added to a similar system like D20? Does the system make sense for the genre it’s used for?

So, how do I explore these different systems? Well, I’ve been approaching this in different ways.

First and foremost is to just sit and read the book. When I’m doing this, I find that physical books are better for the first read through. Then when I’m doing research or in a game, PDFs and their quick search features are very handy. Most RPG books are well written enough to explain the system without making me want to claw my eyes out. Then there are others that I just toss the book to the side and say ‘nope’. The two examples of bad books are The Strange and my big disappointment known as The Cowboy Bebop Roleplaying Game (sigh). There are badly organized books with good systems such as the first edition Star Trek Adventures core rulebook that made me want to re-write it. I am very grateful that the people behind this game took the fans feedback to heart and made vast improvements with the release of Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition. The system is nearly identical, but the presentation was much easier to read and understand. I give thanks to them for being willing to listen to the fans.

Another method of exploring new systems has been creating characters for the annual Character Creation Challenge. I’ve noticed that the better written books give you enough information about the system so that you can make good decisions while creating your character. Then it can do a deeper dive into the system farther into the book for clarity. I’ve mentioned before that a good RPG book will give me a quick one-minute pitch on how the game is played so I can try to talk friends into trying it at the table. Plus, if I can tell them how easy it is to make a character, the more likely they may take me up on that gaming offer.

And sometimes the best way to explore a new system is to just sit down and play it. At SaltCON, I try to sign up for at least one game that I’ve never played before just to learn the system. What has really been cool is that several designers have brought their own games to the convention for players to check out. I’ve had a lot of fun asking the designers questions after they have run their one-shots.

What methods have you used to explore a new gaming system? 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.