MSJX Blog

Today I want to mention Matt Jackson's MSJX blog. 

 

MSJX is full of fun gaming stuff.  Little games, small maps, compact character sheets, actual game plays.  I always enjoy reading it.

 

Two of my favorite things are the maps of Burrowmoor and Willowford that Matt did.  These maps focus two areas in James Spahn's mini setting Willowford Valley that appears in his White Box Omnibus.  The maps help flesh out the setting in a nice way.

 

The blog is here. 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Recap

Well, what can I say?

 

- I did it!  31 characters in 31 days.  I didn't complete the Challenge the last time I attempted it. This time I fell behind once but pulled through.

- I did some prep work ahead of time but even though I tried to stay ahead of the game it wasn't easy.  I pretty quickly chewed through the pregens.  Once or twice I got a couple of days ahead but it didn't last long. 

- Although I did repeat a couple of systems, the majority of the characters were from unique games. 

- My preference for rules-lite games helped.  Most of the games had a simple character creation process. 

- Speaking of rules-like games, I probably could've created 31 character using just The Black Hack variants alone. 

- One of my goals was to introduce people to interesting but somewhat obscure games.  I hope I succeeded.

- I really do like creating characters.  This exercise has reinforced that I do prefer systems where the creation process also aids building the characters backstory. Once again, this is why I love creating characters for Barbarians of Lemuria and the games in its family.

- And thank you for looking at my posts.  Knowing that someone was reading them helped keep me motivated.  

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 31: WEG Star Wars 1st Edition

I have created a couple of character using WEG Star Wars for this challenge.  So, I decided to finish off the challenge with one.  

 

Star Wars, for me, will always be the original trilogy.  The first three movies I saw in the theaters.  Star Wars before it was "A New Hope", that sort of thing.  WEGs Star Wars, all editions, came out before the prequels did and created a whole universe that all Star Wars games and media drew on until recently.

 

My Star Wars does not really include the prequels.  In fact, after all these years, I haven't watched all of the prequels.  I've seen the sequels and although I enjoyed them to a certain extent, I was disappointed with them. 

 

I don't know why I writing all of this other than maybe it explains why I like WEGs Star Wars so much.  It focuses on my Star Wars. It's not that I reject everything else (except midichlorians), I just know what I prefer and have the most fun with.

 

As a side note, there are several threads on RPG.Net and other forums speculating on what the Star Wars universe was like if only the original trilogy existed.  Or if only the original movie existed and then speculating on the characters, the old republic, the Jedi, etc.  I really enjoy these threads. 

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 30: Lasers & Feelings

Lasers & Feelings is a simple, free one page RPG based vaguely on a famous 1960s television series that boldly went were no man had gone before.  

 

The mechanic is extremely simple.  Each character has a single Number that ranges between 2 and 5, player's choice.  The higher it is the better you are at Lasers: that is technology, rationality and action.  The lower it is the better you are at Feelings: intuition, diplomacy, passionate action.  If you are trying a Laser action, you try to roll under.  A feeling action, over.

 

There's a bit more to character creation, too, but not much.  You also assign a few descriptors to your starship to personalize it a bit.  The game also includes an adventure generator. 

 

Lasers & Feelings has been hacked dozens of times into almost every genre imaginable.  S&S, Westerns, other types of SF, Superhero, Spy, Noir, vanilla Fantasy. You name it, it's probably been done.  And most of them are one page and most of them are free.  I even took a whack at it with a Heroic Greece take called Doratas & Philosophia.

 

I've made two characters.  One for Lasers & Feelings itself.  One for a sword & sorcery hack called Sorcerers & Sellswords.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 29: Dungeon Crawl Classics Part 2

You’re no hero.
You’re an adventurer:
a reaver,
a cutpurse,
a heathen-slayer,
a tight-lipped warlock guarding long-dead secrets.

You seek gold and glory,
winning it with sword and spell,
caked in the blood and filth of the weak, the dark, the demons, and the vanquished.
There are treasures to be won deep underneath,
and you shall have them...

Grobland survived!  Mechanical statues, giant snakes, animated clay statues, he survived them all.  And even came out of it with with several weapons and a bit of gold.  Unfortunately, only a few of his 20 companions lived.  The village lost a large percentage of its population.  Through the terror and the pain, Grogland discovered he enjoyed smacking things with his shovel.  Crushing heads, breaking limbs.  He liked it.  When he returned to the village, digging graves just wasn't the same.  He wanted to fill them. 

 

So he sought out an old warrior to train him.  His companions sought mentors, too.  Soon they would be ready for another adventure.  But much better prepared this time.  Grobland heard that the village of Hirot and its jarl are having trouble with a savage beast.  They plan to travel north to look into it.

 

 

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 28: Dungeon Crawl Classics Part 1

Dungeon Crawl Classics is the oddball cousin to D&D and OSR games.  You know the one.  Part of the family but kind of askew and random.  But boy can it be fun.

 

DCC was the first place I encountered the character funnel.  Instead of creating a fully formed 1st level character and sending him off to his death, you instead create four of five average schlub 0 level characters and send them off to their (sometimes hilarious) deaths in what is called a character funnel.  Many go any, few come out.  If one of your characters survives, you fully flesh him out and he becomes your 1st level character. 

 

To create a 0 level character, you roll your six attributes down the line using 3d6s.  The Attributes don't match the classic six one to one.  Instead you have:  Strength, Agility, Stamina, Personality, Intelligence and Luck.  (I rolled well for this character!)  You then roll for Hit Points.

 

You then determine your Lucky Sign.  This only impacts your character if your Luck is high enough or low enough to have a modifier.  One of the Luck Signs is The Bull, which affects your melee attack rolls. 

 

You then determine your everyday, normal occupation.  This will also determine your race:  Human, Dwarf, Elf or Halfling.  It also determines your starting weapon.  Usually something like a shovel or a pitchfork..

 

Choose an Alignment.  Law, Neutral or Chaos.  Most people tend to be Neutral.

 

Roll to see how many coppers you have.

 

Get a bit of equipment with your paltry number of coppers.

 

Go off to die. 

  

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 27: The Black Sword Hack

The Black Sword Hack is a sword & sorcery RPG that specifically seeks to emulate Moorcock's Elric books and Karl Edward Wagner's Kane stories.  It is an interesting game with its roots in the 2nd edition of The Black Hack.  Unlike many hacks of the Hack, it makes somewhat more substantial changes to the game than, for example, The Pulp Hack.  The major change that The Pulp Hack made was with classes.  The author modified the classes to fit the genre.  And some of those paralleled the original The Black Hack classes.  And that was essentially it.

 

The Black Sword Hack went a different route.  One of the major changes it made was doing away with classes.  You roll your Attributes on a table down the line.  The results range from 8 to 13.  You choose a Background:  Barbarian, Civilized or Decadent.  You then choose three Backgrounds, two from your chosen Background and one from any Background.  Backgrounds can modify your Attributes and give you advantages.  You then roll two weapons from Background based tables.  And get money based on your background to buy gear.  Then...let the slaughter begin!

 

It makes some other changes and additions, too, but I won't go into them.  I have the 1st edition of the game so that is what I used to create this character. 

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 26: USR

USR (Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying) is a simple roleplaying game that can be used for any genre.  The basics are simple, roll against a target number => succeeds or an opposed role.

 

Characters consist of three Attributes:  Action, Wits and Ego.  They also have Hits, indicating the amount of damage they can sustain.  Last, they have three Specialisms.  A Specialism is a skill, ability or area of knowledge characters have that will help them perform tasks.  In game, Specialisms are tied to a specific attribute and give a +2 to that attribute roll when the Specialism applies.

 

Character creation is straightforward.  The GM sets the parameters for the characters, mainly by choosing the genre.  You then assign a d6, a d8 or a d10 to the Attributes.  Determine your Hits.  Choose your Specialisms.  Pick appropriate gear and flesh out details as desired and you're done.

 

First, I'll try a pulp detective from the 30's.

 

Bobbie Oliver

Private Investigator

 

Attributes

Action: d8

Wits: d10 

Ego: d6

Hits: 8

EP: 0

 

Specialisms

Detective (W)

Medium Weapons (A)

Streetwise (W) 

 

And how about a space opera character?

 

Col Sarkett 

Space Smuggler

 

Attributes

Action: d6

Wits: d8

Ego: d10

Hits: 4

EP: 0

 

Specialisms

Charming (E)

Medium Weapons (A)

Spaceship Pilot (W) 

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 25: The Pulp Hack

One of the things I like about The Black Hack is that it is a very flexible system.  It was originally used to emulate OD&D.  However, it has been hacked and modified to not only specific flavors of fantasy but also to entirely different genres.  Fantasy-wise, it's been used to not only emulate other flavors of D&D, such as B/X, but also S&S, weird fantasy and Tolkien inspired fantasy.  It's been used for horror, westerns, contemporary and different flavors of science fiction.  It has also been used for pulp.  Which is my focus today.

 

Today, I created a character using The Pulp Hack.  The Pulp Hack is based on the 1st Edition of TBH and takes its rules and changes the classes to fit the Pulp genre from the '30s.  It has classes like Adventurer, Private Investigator and  Masked Vigilante.  I created a Private Investigator.

 

 

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 24: Quantum Starfarer

This month I've created a character for Classic Traveller with its full life-path character creation system.  I've also created a character for Retro Sci-Fi Rules with its abbreviated method.  Now, I am going to use Quantum Starfarer.

 

Quantum Starfarer is in the Cepheus Engine family but it is a very stripped down version.  Character creation is even more bare-bones that it is with Retro Sci-Fi Rules.  In Quantum Starfarer, a character does not have Characteristics.  No UPP.  Instead, a character consists of seven skills, Stamina, Lifeblood and a Trait.

 

You have 5 points to divide between the skills:   Combat, Knowledge, Physical, Social, Space, Stealth and Technical.  

 

You derive Stamina and Lifeblood from your Physical Skill.

 

You choose your Trait from a list.  Easy.

 

Basic mechanic is 2d6 + Skill => Target Number

 

Robert Sey

Combat 1, Knowledge 0, Physical 1, Social 1, Space 1, Stealth 0, Technical 1

Stamina: 8

Lifeblood: 16

Trait:  Ace (+2 Bonus to gain edge in vehicle combat)

Cr: 8000

100 Ton Scout Ship

Shotgun 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 23: Pax Gladius

Keeping with the Roman theme, today I present characters for the game Pax Gladius. 

 

Pax Gladius is from the line of 1PG games from Deep7.  They are intended to be pick up and play games for one shots or short campaigns.  I found the games via Broadsword, their sword & sorcery entry.

Each 1PG game has a page or two of rules explaining the rules and character creation, a character sheet with complete character creation and condensed rules, a page for the GM and then 5 or 6 one page scenarios.

 

The mechanic is 1d6 roll equal or under stat + skill.

 

I present a Roman Senator and his slave.  I realize that I made the Senator character too young to actually be a senator.  But maybe it is extraordinary times and he's pulling a Scipio Africanus. 

 

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 22: Savage Worlds Weird Wars Rome

Weird Wars Rome is a Savage Worlds setting that brings horror to the ancient empire.  It tweaks the system to better fit it two the setting, adding appropriate edges and hindrances to character creation. It largely focuses on legionary characters, but not exclusively so.  You can play a gladiator type characters amongst others.

 

Weird Wars Rome is a horror game and the players fight evil magic and monsters bent on destroying the empire.  Many of the monsters are drawn from Classical mythology and from the cultures and people who fell under the sway of the Empire.  It is set in the time period that runs from the Second Punic War to the death of Marcus Aurelius and just beyond.

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 21: WEG Star Wars 1st Edition Bounty Hunter

I've always wondered what it would be like if a bounty hunter joined the Rebellion.  He could work as a double agent of sorts.  He could pursue regular bounties most of the time while gleaning what information he could about Imperial forces.  Then, on occasion, nabbing important Imperial officers or officials and turning them over to the Rebels.  It would be a dangerous life.  A lucrative one, but dangerous.

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 20: Spellzard

Spellzard is a simulacrum game of Fighting Fantasy: The Introductory Role-Playing Game.  For those who don't know, the Fighting Fantasy RPG was an RPG based on the simple system used in the gamebooks that so many enjoyed in the Eighties and beyond.  The system has seen a resurgence in recent years as the simple foundation for other games.  Troika is perhaps the most prominent.  Spellzard falls into this category, too.

There are several changes to the game but the two most significant are the core mechanic and character creation.   FF and Spellzard only use d6.  The core mechanic for FF has to do with a characters Skill.  If you are performing a regular task, you throw 2d6 and try to roll equal to or under your Skill.  In combat, you roll 2d6 + Skill and try to beat your opponent’s roll.  In Spellzard, all rolls are 2d6 + Skill => 14 to succeed or higher than your opponent’s roll.

Character creation is changed significantly but it is still simple.  FF has you roll for Skill, Stamina and Luck and, with a little gear, you’re ready to rock-n-roll.  With Spellzard, you still roll for Stamina and luck.  You then choose a class, either Adventurer or Wizard.  This determines your potential Skill level and the number of Special Skills your character can have.  If you choose Skill level 8 for your Adventurer, you receive 1 Special Skill; 7 you receive 2; and 6 you receive 3.  A Wizard starts with a Skill of 7 and the Spellcasting Special Skill or Skill 6 and the Spellcasting Special Skill and one other Special Skill.

There is a restriction on Skill tests though:

If you do have the Special Skill for the task being tested, you make a Skill Test. But if you don’t have the relevant Special Skill, you make a Luck Test instead.

Special Skills are abilities such as Athletics, Healing, Repair and Strength.

Spells do not have levels, but the Wizard must pass a Skill check to succeed and there is a Stamina cost associated with each spell.

You can choose a race but this only has an effect if the GM wants it to.

 

Spellzard Character Sheet
Name	Robert Rednose
Race/Class	Human Adventurer
Skill	Stamina	Luck		Inventory/Spell Slots
7	19	11
				1 Dagger (1/2 slot)
Special Skills
Athletics				2 Adventure Gear (3 Slots)
Notice
				3 Provisions 6
				4 Axe (1d6) (1 slot)
				5 Light Armor (2 Slots)
				6
Money				7
11 GP
				8
Advances
				9
				10

 

 

 

 

 

Character Creation Challenge 2026 Day 19: Tiny Living Dead

On, no!  More zombies!

 

The zombies aren't actually tiny though.  Just the rules-set is.  And the dice pool.  Tiny Living Dead is a TinyD6 game, all of which have their origin in the game Tiny Dungeon. The dice pool is usually 2 dice, no larger than 3 and sometimes only 1.  Certain Traits and circumstances can give you an advantage, just as obstacles or problems can give you a disadvantage.  The goal is to roll a success which is a 5 or 6 on any dice.

 

To create your Survivor you choose three Traits, which can give you advantages on rolls or other benefits.  Then a Weapon Proficiency group along with a mastered weapon.  A Family Trade and Belief.  You start with 6 Health Points and some gear.