2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 6: Kristen Shane Vassen

It's the sixth day of the 2025 Character Creation Challenge. Let's make another Mothership character! I'll be using the basic character sheet again so folks unfamiliar with Mothership can better follow along.

I've selected the Marine class this time around. And now, I move beyond the Alien franchise for inspiration. The idea for this Marine comes from the television series "Space: Above and Beyond" - one of many sci-fi shows canceled by Fox after only one season. Most of the characters on that show were young Marine aviators serving in the 58th "Wildcards" Fighter Squadron off the carrier USS Saratoga. I selected my second favorite character from the show for this post, as I didn't feel I could do Lieutenant Colonel Tyrus Cassius McQueen justice with a starting character. Kristen Vassen often goes by her middle name of Shane.

Kristen Shane Vassen, Marine

My rolls for Stats were alright, but Saves weren't as high as I would've liked. However, the adjustments from the Marine class helped offset my low rolls. The Health roll was also nothing to write home about.

Marines automatically get the skills Military Training and Athletics. Marines get a choice between one Expert Skill or two Trained Skills. The only two options for an Expert Skill are Firearms and Hand-To-Hand Combat. Both have appeal, but I have something else in mind for this character. There's no way to make Vassen a pilot like the Space: Above and Beyond character that inspired her, but I could take the prerequisite for Piloting: Zero-G. My other choice for a Trained Skill came down to Jury-Rigging. This gives Vassen the prerequisites for some interesting Expert Skills, if she survives long enough to get more skills.

The result for her loadout turned out well. Standard Battle Dress is good protection, a Pulse Rifle is one of the better weapons, and Infrared Goggles aren't bad. And, yes, the game uses the term "mags" rather than "clips" or anything else that might make firearms enthusiasts erupt with rage. I used her starting money to buy a combat knife (using the stats and cost for a scalpel) and 50m of paracord. This left her with 10cr for beer money.

Vassen's Trinket is the "PANIC: Harbinger of Catastrophe" manual. I'm sure it's full of useful advice. Her patch reads "Keep Well Lubricated" and I'm not going to leave a comment on it.

Kristen Shane Vassen comes from a family of Marines. She was already knowledgeable about Marine traditions and legends before she entered training. Unfortunately, her rosy view of the organization often clashed with the mundane reality. Her career has also been impacted by the high expectations her superiors have because of standards set by prior generations of Vassens. Kristen has held up well under these pressures. So far.

The TV Tropes entry for Space: Above and Beyond.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 5: Trasadon Faestar, Wood Elf Ranger

Welcome to the fifth day of the 2025 Character Creation Challenge. I'm circling back to Old School Essentials with another convention-defying character - a wood elf ranger. I promise I'll be more original with the next OSE character As before, I focus on the decisions I made rather than presenting a blow by blow of the process.

Trasadon Faestar, Wood Elf Ranger, page one of two

All OSE characters generated for this challenge use the Advanced Fantasy rules and the Advanced Method of character creation. The wood elf can be found in Issue #2 of Carcass Crawler. A list of optional and house rules I use are provided in my day two post.

My dice were pretty hot, except for one roll. Let's say that our wood elf ranger spends much of his time alone for a reason. My lowest roll got consigned to the traditional dump stat of CHA. Everything else was straightforward. The highest score went to STR, the prime requisite for a Ranger. Anticipating the adjustments from being a wood elf, I put a 15 in WIS.

Wood elves have minimum requirements of DEX 9 and INT 9 that this character met comfortably. The ability modifiers for a wood elf are -1 CHA and +1 WIS. This makes this guy slightly more unlikable and increases his WIS enough for a bigger modifier.

Both rangers and wood elves have a bunch of special abilities. This combines into a truckload of stuff this guy can do. The most influential to this build is the bonus that wood elves get to missile attack rolls. To nobody's surprise, he's going to be an archer.

Specializing in the long bow further maximizes his potential as an archer. The remaining weapon proficiencies go to the sword and hand axe.

Most of the results of the Secondary Skills table would be nonsensical for this character. I selected Huntsman. Although animal trainer or bowyer/fletcher might have fit as well.

Trasadon Faestar, Wood Elf Ranger, page two of two

Background:

Trasadon Faestar never set out to be a murderhobo. It was simply the most expedient way to leave his woodland home, see the world(s), and earn a living. He is beginning to regret his decision. The world(s) are more full of people than he imagined. He plans on returning to the woods once he has enough to gold to meet his modest needs for awhile.


The character sheet I used is by William Braidis Lee and is available on itch.io. It has some quirks, but I like it so far.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 4: USS Phoenix, NCC-65420

It's day four of the 2025 Character Creation Challenge and I'm already bending the rules. It's back to Star Trek Adventures (1e) with our crew's starship.

In Star Trek, ships are as much characters as those played by the cast. Season three of Picard shows how this works and how it doesn't. Titan-A got a proper introduction in Spacedock, as befitting the hero ship of the season. Shrike was designed to be a menacing vessel for the bad guys who would become irrelevant by the last couple of episodes. It's also a weird name for a villain ship - shrikes are handsome little birds. There are the various starships that appear at the Starfleet Museum. And, of course, there was the huge hit of nostalgia that came with the reappearance of Enterprise-D as the end of the show approached. Unfortunately, Enterprise-E only got a passing mention after being the hero ship of the TNG movies. We barely got a glimpse of Enterprise-F, a disappointment for Star Trek Online fans. And the hero ship of previous seasons of Picard - SS La Sirena - ignominiously disappears around the middle of the season. This all shows how "ship as a character" is built into Star Trek and how it feels wrong when that concept is ignored.

Rant complete.

USS Phoenix, NCC-65420

This is the same USS Phoenix that appeared in "The Wounded" (TNG 4x12). This was also the first appearance of the Nebula-class. It's one of the rare canonical starships that doesn't have much of a history beyond a single onscreen appearance. Notably, USS Phoenix seems to have survived the Dominion War. This makes it a canon starship that is available to Star Trek Adventures crews. Of course, USS Phoenix does have a checkered past thanks to its association with Benjamin Maxwell.

The dedication plaque seen in "The Wounded" indicates a commissioning date of 2363. I didn't have a firm campaign date in mind when I started, but using "sometime between Lower Decks and Prodigy" suggests 2383. This makes USS Phoenix fresh from it's second refit.

Most of the build was straightforward. USS Phoenix is known to be a Nebula-class with a sensor pod. The pod could've been changed at some point - it is modular by design - but that particular configuration tends to be associated with this particular starship. I considered "Scientific and Survey Operations" for the Mission Profile, but the sensor pod already comes with Advanced Sensor Suites and High-Resolution Sensors. Also, "Multirole Explorer" offers "Improved Hull Integrity" as an option. As USS Phoenix canonically shrugs off a direct hit without shields, toughing up the hull seems appropriate. I added Diplomatic Suites to give the ship more flexibility. Finally, I put the refit points into Structure and Weapons.

The following is headcanon and shouldn't be confused with official information from any Star Trek series:

USS Phoenix was escorted to Starbase 211 by Enterprise-D after Captain Maxwell stood down. The ship's crew was extensively debriefed. USS Phoenix sat docked at Starbase 211 undergoing maintenance while Captain Maxwell was court martialed. In the aftermath, Starfleet Command put a new crew aboard and redeployed the ship as far from the Cardassian border as possible. USS Phoenix served in the Beta Quadrant carrying out survey work and Neutral Zone patrols until the Dominion War. With the front badly in need of every capable starship, USS Phoenix was sent back to the Alpha Quadrant. The starship served honorably and survived the Dominion War. USS Phoenix is newly refitted and configured for scientific survey and diplomatic duties.


Resources used:

Memory Alpha's entry on USS Phoenix, NCC-65420.

The Star Trek Adventures Character Creator app.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 3: Emma Johansen, Teamster

Day three of the 2025 Character Creation Challenge dawns. I've selected Mothership for my third character of the challenge. Mothership is a space horror TTRPG by Tuesday Night Games. It isn't an OSR game per se, but the influence shows through.

Mothership features two character sheets - a basic one for those new to the game and an advanced one. The basic character sheet takes a new player through the generation process step by step. Laying everything out like this help to avoid everybody fighting for the rulebook. I'll be using the basic sheet this time and breaking out the other one in later posts.

Emma Johansen, Teamster

I'll focus on the decisions I made during the process. However, Mothership uses die rolls extensively during character generation. So I'll be commenting on some of the results as well.

Yes, there's a space for pronouns right on the sheet. Don't use it if you don't like it. It won't bite you.

I selected the Teamster class in honor of the reigning queen of space horror - Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver. This character's name - Emma Johansen - evokes Ellen and honors a couple of women I worked alongside back in my tech days.

My dice were chilly, but not ice cold. The Stats and Saves are around average. I did bomb the Health roll, so this is not a good character to take into combat against toothy alien critters.

Teamsters automatically get two skills: Industrial Equipment and Zero-G. This reflects their background in blue collar space trucking. Picking a Trained Skill was a toss up between Jury-Rigging, Computers, and Rimwise. I've found that its useful to see what perquisites that the various Expert and Master Skills call for when looking at Trained Skills. Jury-Rigging leads to Explosives and Computers lead to Hacking, which don't fit my idea for this character. Rimwise leads to Hand-To-Hand Combat, which is a bad idea for this character due to her low Health. However, Industrial Equipment leads to Mechanical Repair. So I picked Rimwise as her Trained Skill to reflect her rough and tumble work experiences. Her Expert Skill is Mechanical Repair to represent her ability to fix things properly.

I rolled for a Starting Loadout rather than buy the gear piecemeal. The Flare Gun can be used as a weapon and the Personal Locator could be useful. I couldn't find what a Subsurface Scanner does, but it could be handy as a source of parts for fixing something else along with the Water Filtration Device. I used part of Johansen's starting Credits on Assorted Tools and a Flashlight.

For her Trinket, I rolled "Pamphlet: The Relic of Flesh" for Johansen. Her Patch reads "DO YOUR JOB" and fits seamlessly with what I had in mind for the character.

Emma Johansen has been doing her job as long as anybody here at this mom and pop operation and is not here to take your guff. The smell of cigarette smoke clings to her thanks to a pack a day habit. She wears her greying hair short - sometimes cropped - to keep it out of the way. Her no nonsense attitude doesn't make her many friends, but she knows her stuff.

Oh, and I deliberately didn't include cigarettes on her sheet. She's out and is getting twitchy for a hit of nicotine.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 2: Sara Rosewood, Human Fighter

Day two and the second of my characters for the 2025 Character Creation Challenge. This time, I'm harkening back to a simpler time and a slightly less complicated TTRPG - Old School Essentials by Necrotic Gnome. Specifically, I'm using the Advanced Fantasy version with options inspired by Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.

Let's begin with that quintessential starting player character - a human fighter. I'll only be covering significant decision points rather than offering a step by step description of the process.

Sara Rosewood, Human Fighter, page one of two

All OSE characters generated for this challenge use the Advanced Fantasy rules and the Advanced Method of character creation. "Expanded Equipment" by Gavin Norman, presented in Carcass Crawler Issue #3 is also used.

Optional rules include:

• Separate races and classes.
• Ascending Armor Class.
• Demihuman class and level restrictions are lifted.
• Humans are granted Racial Abilities.
• Weapon Proficiencies and Specializations.
• Rerolling 1s and 2s while rolling hit points.
• Secondary Skills.
• Individual initiative.

I'll also be using a house rule. OSE uses the "roll 3d6 for each ability score, in order" method. Gary Gygax comments that this method can result in marginal characters on page 11 of the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. He describes various alternatives on the same page. I'm using Method I: "All scores are recorded and arranged in the order the player desires. 4d6 are rolled, and the lowest die (or one of the lowest) is discarded." This is purely a matter of personal taste.

Sara Rosewood, Human Fighter, page two of two

My dice rolls were okay. Using one of the 14s for STR was obvious. Putting the other 14 in CON is debatable - there's an argument to be made for sticking it in DEX. All of the other numbers result in no modifiers at this point, so I dumped an 11 into INT, the 12 in WIS, and DEX got a 10.

As humans +1 CHA and +1 CON with their optional Racial Abilities, CHA raises to 13 and CON to 15.

The OSE rules allow for raising a character's prime requisite by 1 point for every 2 points that another ability score is lowered. I lowered INT from 11 to 9 and WIS from 12 to 10. This improved STR from 14 to 16, increasing the modifier from +1 to +2 without lowering other modifiers.

I choose to specialize in the sword and take proficiencies in the short bow and dagger.

The entire 100 gold pieces I rolled up were spent on weapons, armor, and equipment. I wasn't able to afford a shield, so that will have to wait.

And then I came up with a name and backstory...

Sara Rosewood wasn't raised to be a murder hobo, but found herself with little choice after her village was raided by an adventuring party of chaotic NPCs. Filled with resolve to avenge her lost home, she spent years of her life doing anything but that. Instead, she trained in the sword and spent her life savings on a weapon, armor, and equipment. She recently joined a motley party of fresh-faced adventurers and will soon brave her first delve into the underground. If she meets with a grim fate, she will be quickly replaced by her hitherto unmentioned identical twin sister - Lara Rosewood. If she survives, hopefully the gamemaster will remember to include her backstory in an adventure so she can confront the destroyers of her quaint village.

The character sheet I used is by William Braidis Lee and is available on itch.io. It has some quirks, but I like it so far.

2025 Character Creation Challenge, Day 1: Captain Sulok

Welcome to the 2025 Character Creation Challenge! I introduced the concept in this post here. 31 days of January, 31 characters. What have I gotten myself into?

Starting off with Star Trek Adventures 1e. Why not 2e? I haven't had the chance to make the change while focusing my TTRPG efforts in other directions. I'll get to it.

I'm slowly assembling a Starfleet crew during this challenge. Among other things. Let's start with the captain.

Captain Sulok was born on Vulcan. He learned Vulcan philosophy from an early age and it guides his actions to this day. Whisked away along his parents' diplomatic travels, he learned to apply what he saw of other cultures to himself. Starfleet Academy instructors saw potential in Sulok's diplomatic background and guided him down the Command track. Those plans were derailed by the outbreak of the Dominion War. Sulok quickly picked up the skills he needed to survive against a ruthless foe. He won a commendation for bravery during the conflict, saving the lives of fellow officers. In the years since the war, he has risen to command USS Phoenix and looks forward to a quiet cruise of science and diplomacy. He won't get his wish.

Sulok is considerably more open minded than many Vulcans and doesn't see logic as the only possible path to a solution. Sulok speaks Federation Standard fluently, but with a slight southern drawl that he picked up from the people who taught it to him. That, his relatively relaxed demeanor, and dry wit often confuse those unfamiliar with him.

Curiously, Sulok doesn't know the Vulcan Nerve Pinch. He just never got the chance to pick it up.

A couple of tools I used here:

The Star Trek Adventures Character Creator app (unofficial).

This "Big List of Focuses" on Reddit.

One down, thirty to go!

My 2025 Tabletop Gaming Plan

My 2024 plan was a measured success. Improving on it seems like a better idea than starting over. Or maybe it's just easier. In either case, it's the way I'm going.

In 2024, I went back to where I started tabletop gaming - role playing games. I intend to maintain my focus on TTRPGs in 2025, but there might be room to squeeze in some miniatures wargaming here and there.

Get more of my collection off the shelves and onto the tabletop.

By collection, I'm referring to my miniature wargames as well as TTRPGs. Solo wargames are simpler to schedule. Another Five Parsecs From Home campaign is the most likely contender.

As for TTRPGs, I should have adventure module X1 The Isle of Dread ready to go when our group gets over our holiday hangovers. I'm planning on posting my notes on converting it to Old School Essentials, but only after we've played it.

The most likely game after that is Tachyon Squadron for FATE Core. Sci-fi in a more narrative system should be a good palette cleanser before diving back into OSE. I'll have whichever classic D&D module I want to run figured out by then. And after that, maybe Lancer?


Do something with the games I've Kickstarted or preordered as they come in.

This was a 2024 goal that no longer applies. I exercised some restraint and don't have any Kickstarted or preordered games on the way. I'll count that as a win here. We'll see if that holds out for another year.


Presenting more of my tabletop gaming thoughts online.

My ideas and opinions aren't special. They do have a way of bouncing around the inside of my head until I find something to do with them. Posting them online qualifies as something. It also spreads the misery by making them other people's problems.

I plan on continuing to make a nuisance of myself on Mastodon and Bluesky.

I've found ways to increase the post count on this blog. The first is getting more organized and posting more regularly. The second is cheating. Publishing the Character Creation and #RPGaDay Challenges as daily updates is a guaranteed sixty-two posts! Seriously, I'll be shooting for weekly or biweekly posts outside of those special challenges.

As for YouTube, I may end up taking the "throw things at the wall and see what sticks" approach. At least I'll be posting something there.


Make a dent in my pile of unread books (and not just TTRPG books).

One thing I might try is to favor fiction for awhile. Non-fiction can be challenging for me to get through. I have the same issue with the mechanically crunchy parts of game rules. Fiction seems to flow better. And it's been a long time since I demolished a novel over a weekend.


Make a dent in my pile of shame (miniatures and terrain).

This demands a direct assault. I need a direction to work towards. A specific goal to focus my efforts. In 2025, I'll be looking at using my long neglected 15mm scale collection for Five Parsecs From Home. That means painting many tiny 15mm dudes and terrain to match. On the bright side, nobody expects better than tabletop standard at that scale.


And that's the plan. I'll circle back and report on my progress around the middle of the year.

How Did My 2024 Tabletop Gaming Plan Go?

"No plan survives contact with the enemy."

- Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (paraphrased)

The end of the year approaches! Let's see how things went with my 2024 Tabletop Gaming Plan.

The games I ran and the miniature I painted in 2024.

Back to where I started with tabletop gaming - role playing.

As mentioned in the Midyear Update, our group finished D&D adventure module B4 The Lost City by June. My general approach to converting it to Old School Essentials and the specific decisions I made can be found elsewhere on this blog.

The other game I ran with our regular group was Mothership. My impression of the game is favorable. My opinion of the adventure in the boxed set - Another Bug Hunt - is mixed.

I also got the chance to play a couple sessions of D&D 5e run by my son. He has some rough edges as a gamemaster, but didn't we all at that age? D&D 5e is not my game, but I'll cherish every chance I get to roll dice with our family.

My goal to focus on TTRPGs was a success. I didn't run or play in as many sessions as I hoped, but even that was a marked improvement over 2023.


Getting more of my TTRPG collection off the shelves and onto the tabletop.

Okay, this could've gone better. I was planning on running FATE Core, Night's Black Agents, or Modiphius' Conan this year. None of that happened. I'll have to work harder to make the schedule come together in the future.


Do something with the games I've Kickstarted or preordered as they come in this year.

This was a mixed success. Mothership hit the table. Lancer did not. That's still much better than my average, so I'll take it.

Presenting more of my TTRPG thoughts online.

Not that my ideas and opinions are anything special, but getting them out of my head makes me feel better. This is my 25th post on this blog in 2024. That's much better than 2023. I'm also babbling about this kind of nonsense on Mastodon and BlueSky.

YouTube, unfortunately, is where I fell down completely. I just couldn't put together the wherewithal to draft a script, set up the gear, talk to a camera, edit the raw video, add music, make a thumbnail, write a description, upload the video, wait for YouTube to process it, and watch as the algorithm tries to figure out what to do with it. It's more work than it looks like and I'm not sure what I can do to make it less demanding.


Make a dent in my pile of unread books (and not just TTRPGs).

I read more books this year than the previous one. It barely made a dent in my book pile of shame, but some books read is better than no books read.


Make a dent in my pile of shame (miniatures and terrain).

I got (checks notes) one miniature painted this year. Something had to give to make progress everywhere else and this was it. I'll need a new plan for next year.


"Strategy is a system of expedients; it is more than a mere scholarly discipline. It is the translation of knowledge to practical life, the improvement of the original leading thought in accordance with continually changing situations."
- Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

Given how poorly 2023 went for me as far as tabletop gaming is concerned, the modest improvements I made in 2024 feels great. But there's obviously room for more. Next year: new plan.

The 2025 Character Creation Challenge, Introduction

31 days. 31 characters.

That's the essence of this challenge. It's been running every January since 2021. It's time for me to give it a shot.

Carl at TardisCaptain.com is the one who's throwing down this particular gauntlet. Details are presented at TardisCaptain's Blog of Holding. The premise is simple - make a character for any TTRPG every day in January 2025 and post it for the world to see.

I intend to post each character:

• Here on this blog.
• The rpg.net forum thread dedicated to the challenge.
• Bluesky.
• Mastodon.

TTRPGs I will almost certainly be posting characters for include:

• Robert E. Howard's Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of.
• Mothership.
• Old School Essentials Advanced.
• Star Trek Adventures 1e.

Other TTRPGs that I might use include:

• Ashen Stars.
• D&D 4e.
• Lancer.
• Night's Black Agents.
• Star Wars (West End Games).
• Tachyon Squadron (FATE Core).

In addition, there are any number of games I may end up digging up or spotting as I go through my collection.

My plan for now is to crank out characters for games that don't require much effort. Once I have a decent buffer, I'll take on the heavy lifting needed for more mechanically or creatively demanding games. I'd prefer to maintain a buffer throughout the challenge to keep from getting behind.

Looking forward to January!

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Haul 2024

It's been quite awhile since I published one of these posts. There's a couple of reasons. First, many of my tabletop gaming purchases these days are PDFs. Which don't make for great photos to attract eyeballs. Second, many of my tabletop gaming purchases aren't for the games they were written for. It's to ruthlessly pillage for ideas to use in the games I actually run. This year is actually something of an exception. Third, my previous holiday deal shopping posts feature a fair amount of "these are the exciting plans I have for this stuff!" Which gets depressing when I go back and realize how few of those plans actually materialized.

But let's do this thing again anyway.

The only physical products I picked up during the sales.

From Drive Through RPG (all of theses are PDFs):

BattleTech: Periphery
The original version. These days, I'm more interested in reading BattleTech lore than playing any version of the tabletop game. It's also handy for looting ideas for use in other games.

Dark Star Violet Magazine Issue #1
A sci-fi TTRPG zine. I saw a bunch of what I suspect is AI generated art and not much useful content when I flipped through it. I'll give it a more through read through later.

Delayed Blast Gamemaster Issue #1
A fantasy TTRPG zine. Has an OSR feel. Could be fun and maybe even useful. If nothing else, I like the name.

Technophobia
Something unusual - a horror themed adventure for Lancer. I'll give it a look once Lancer moves up the list of games hitting the table.


From Exalted Funeral (all of these are physical products for Old School Essentials):

Carcass Crawler Issues #1-3
The official Old School Essentials zine. Lots of additional material. Not sure how much will be hitting the tabletop.

Old School Essentials Deluxe Referee's Screen
My relationship with GM screens is complicated. I got this more for the vibe than any expectation that's I'll get much use out of it.

The Incandescent Grottoes
I'm eventually going to need a low level adventure to start a new campaign. This one got good reviews, so it's the one I bought.


From itch.io:

The Karrakin Trade Baronies
A supplement for Lancer. Sourcebook for a bunch of space feudalists - a trope that I'll need throw scorn at sometime. Also has some optional rules that were the main attraction of the book for me. I would've preferred a physical product, but a PDF will do for now.


Those are my holiday sale retail therapy purchases for this year. This lists also serves up some clues about my upcoming tabletop gaming plans. I've found that what I purchase on Black Friday and Cyber Monday tends to influence what I'll be playing and running in the coming year. Previous posts in this series are below:

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Haul 2019, Part One

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Haul 2019, Part Two

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Haul 2020

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Haul 2021, Part One

Black Friday / Cyber Monday Haul 2021, Part Two


Happy Holidays!