Tag: STA

Posted in: Character Creation Challenge, Dungeons and Dragons, Role Playing Games, Science Fiction, Spy-Fi, Star Trek

RPGaDAY2026 Day 14: Me giving my regards

Written by TardisCaptain

Day 14 Prompt: Regard

Week 3 Prompt: Associates

Weekday Prompt: Loving & Giving

Regard is the Day 14 prompt for the RPGaDAY 2026 Challenge…. and I’ve got nothing. I wracked my brain for this topic, and I really don’t know what the organizers are going for. Let’s look at some of the other entries that have been posted for inspiration. (Checks BlueSky social media)

Wait, Fellow RPG blogger Craig Oxbrow asked a question “What is a game held in high regard you have yet to play?” Perfect, I’m going to go with that one. Thank you Craig. (and after I started working on this, it looks like other participants used this same idea)

“Have yet to play?” Hmm… I’m going to break this into two categories since they would both count. “Never played” and “Never played outside of a one-shot.” As I’ve mentioned in my SaltCON reports, when I sign up for RPG sessions at conventions, I try to play at least one game I’ve never played before. I had also had the pleasure of being invited to a few one-shots outside of conventions (thanks guys). And no, I don’t count making characters for the Character Creation Challenge as playing the game.

Amazing Adventures– This is the “D20 Modern” variant of Castles and Crusades by Troll Lord Games. It’s a D20 based system that uses the siege system for resolving skill issues (driving a motorcycle, climbing wall, finding a hidden item, haggling with a merchant for a lower price, etc.) What I like the most about this system is it allows the player to say, “I want my character to do this” instead of “My character sheet says I can only do this.” Kind of like how you can with the 2D20 system Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius.

Planet of the Apes– The D6MV (the “magnetic variant” of the D6 system used for the Star Wars D6 game from West End Games). This game had a very successful KickStarter from Magnetic Press Play. Yes, I ran this at a SaltCON, but it was the intro adventure from the Quickstart. I would really love to play this in a campaign as a player.

Traveller– The latest version from Mongoose Publishing. 1- I’m a fan of science fiction. 2- This is one of the original RPGs that shaped a generation like Dungeons and Dragons did. I’ve seen the 2d6 system spawn off many retro-clones and imaginations. So I’d like to try it in a campaign at least once.

FrontierSpace by DWD Studios. This company is a small one-man operation that has put out a lot of different games . This entry covers science fiction and is his love letter to Star Frontiers (while using an original system). He has also created the espionage game, White Lies, which should also be on this list. While White Lies is based off of the Whitebox Fantasy Adventure retro-clone, the system used for FrontierSpace is very unique. It also has the “do what I want, not what my character sheet says” vibe.

And you know what? I’m going to call it there before this turns into a post 20 miles long. There are quite a few more that I could hold up and state that I hold it in high regard. I own them either in PDF or deadtree version. I’ll probably bring them up in future blog posts.

What are the four games you’d hold up in high regard that you haven’t played yet? 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 or click on my social media links with any comments.

Posted in: Role Playing Games, Star Trek

Campaign Update: STA and C&C

Written by TardisCaptain
These are the adventures of the USS Magnanimous.

So apparently I am insane enough that I’ve been busy working on my two new campaigns (and getting ready for SaltCON End-of-Summer) that I haven’t blogged about them yet. So this is a quick catch up on what has happened so far.

Star Trek Adventures 2nd Edition:

We held a session zero where the players made their characters for the Starfleet game. We are going to run a six-episode season and then re-evaluate from there (keep going, change eras, etc.). We will be playing in the “Lost Era” just after the end of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and before the end of the 23rd century. We did have one more player drop out, but that left us with seven players in total with the following crew:

Captain Fae Hy-Lyra- Efrosian Commanding Officer

Commander Jean LaFluer- Human Executive Officer

Lt. Commander Gemini Jones- Human Chief Engineering Officer

Lt. Commander Shiftar Vong- Edosian Chief Security Officer

Lieutenant K’Mara (Doctor)- Caitian Chief Medical Officer

Lieutenant Nikael Dulas- Betazoid Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Clay Frtizberg- Human Chief Communications Officer

As for the vessel they would be serving on, while I was scanning their hand-written character sheets, I pulled out my massive book of FASA Starships and dropped it on the table. It was so heavy that it made the table bounce in a loud thud. I advised against any dreadnoughts or massive battleships. This crew would be filling in the gaps while there was a massive shift of fleet resources to help out with the Klingon evacuations. They almost went with the Chandley Class Starship, but they didn’t want to deal with a Marine contingent. They voted for the Miranda Class Starship that was used quite a bit in the show. The name of the vessel came down to USS Magnanimous or USS Taylor (to be named after Roger Taylor) with the Magnanimous getting the larger number of votes. So I reached out to a friend who was a massive starship fan and he generated the registry number of NCC-31947 (note the 47 in the registry). Another friend who generates starship SFX for several Star Trek fan films was generous enough to make a graphic that I could use for the campaign (see the image above). Thank you Dennis and Ross.

We were able to have the first session, but we haven’t completed the episode yet. So I’ll have another blog post when the episode is completed. So far, the crew is reacting in typical Star Trek fashion.

Castles and Crusades:

We had a session zero for this campaign as well. There are two less players for this campaign so we have five in total. I’m hoping that the last player who had to bow out at the last minute can get his his schedules freed up to play. I have a place in the campaign where he could be slotted in.

This world is a new one of my “making”. I’ve set down some basic items, but I haven’t filled in every nook and cranny. The reason for this is that I’m allowing the players to contribute to this world since this is a shared storytelling experience. They get to make up the names of the villages and kingdoms their characters are from. If they follow a deity, they get to make that up as well. This means that I don’t have to work on minutia that may or may not be used in the campaign. Already some of the players have come up with some items from their backstories that I’m weaving into the campaign.

The magic users in this world received a special “Puzzle Scroll” that challenges them (those that pass get a free 0-level cantrip that allows them to easily create the Puzzle Scroll on a blank parchment). If the magic user solves the puzzle, then they have made it to the next level and a new puzzle appears. This is how the player knows that their character has received enough experience points to go up to the next level. It also allows them to test possible recruits into the Magic User’s Guild.

After the session zero, I was able to get some one-on-one RPG sessions with individual players to find out why their characters are traveling to the Grand City of Roses. Think a medieval city with a cross between London and Venice where different races (even Goblinoids) have their own Petal (sector). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get all of the one-on-one sessions done, so I ended up having a session 0.5 to get them all caught up. The players are under strict orders not to talk about what happened in their one-on-one with each other. I wonder how the married couple are getting along with this challenge? We will be having the session one very soon and I’ll blog about that separately as well.

So far the characters are:

Noturin Boshk- Half-Elf Rogue

Ellywick Cogsprite- Gnome Wizard

Victor Goldweller- Dwarf Bard

Lorelei Murphy- Human Cleric

Albert Shepherd- Human Ranger

I can’t wait to torture…. errr…. put the characters through the story that I’ve planned out.

Do you have any questions (that I can answer publicly) about the campaign? I’ve even set up special channels for the two campaigns on my Discord server. 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.

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