All The Rest Have 31

The 31 Days / 31 Characters Challenge begins tomorrow, starting the New Year of 2026 off right with a deep dive into Tabletop RPG Character I Have Known or will create!

Before we get started, let's take a look at the Characters of Challenges Past, shall we?

ADAM - Red Dwarf / ALIEN RPG
Ai Washinda - MAID
Aki Rush - Mobile Racer Championship
Alexander D. Thorton - Ghostbusters

American Dream - Villains and Vigilantes
Arigon - Dungeons and Dragons
Black Adder - Mutants and Masterminds
BLEEP – The SPACE GUARDIAN - Toon

Bloody Sunday - Assorted Superheroes and Horror
Bo - Bunnies and Burrows
Boon Brushborn - Sword World
Carlacc Acen - Star Wars D6
Cat’s Meow, The - Gangbusters
CB Ramble - Car Wars
Ceren-Dee WindDrake - Dungeons and Dragons
Chicken - Red Dwarf / ALIEN RPG
Crimson Cyclone Cybero - Mekton II / Villains and Vigilantes

Curious Merp  - Star Trek Adventures, 1st Edition
David Myers - ALIEN RPG
Dee Hoshiyoru - Creguian

Deeno - Star Wars, The Roleplaying Game, 2nd Edition (WEG D6)
Dietrich Armbuster - Gear Antique
Dusty Dibbs - Odd West
Emil Fujikawa - Traveller

Eto Halo Bright - Meteor City SFRPG - Star Rainy Days
Everyn Wolfshadow - Wares Blade 
Far Future GIrl - Deadline Heroes

Flea Fly - Deadline Heroes
Fleeto Woff - Star Wars, The Roleplaying Game (WEG D6)
Frankie The Ferret - Toon

Gabriel Zimmerman - Ghostbusters
GAMMA MAN - Villains and Vigilantes / Superheroes
Gareth of Ollwood - Mekton II
Gates - Teenagers from Outer Space

He Who Glistens in the Autumn Twilight Beneath the Third and Seventh Moons - GQ/TFOS
Herek - Star Trek
Hinata 'Hellcat' Nekomoto - Cyberpunk 2020 / Mekton II 
Hyborian - Mutants and Masterminds
Ichiko Yoruhime - The Adventures of Horai AcademyII
Ipperius Witspear - Dungeons and Dragons

Ivan Petrovo - Traveller

Jake Topaz - Dungeons and Dragons / Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
Jet 'Ohana' Kahele - Mobile Suit Gundam / Mekton II
Jin'Hoko - Teenagers from Outer Space
Jorran StarsByNight - Dungeons and Dragons
Kashpa - Star Wars, The Roleplaying Game, 2nd Edition (WEG D6)
Kei Okami - Champions / Hero System
Lance Gravity - Space Opera
Red Rider, The - Boot Hill / Various
Shade - Kapow!
Xerek Xeet - Star Trek

Now then, everyone else will be doing this Challenge more or less 'correctly'. There will be variations of course but by the end of January, it's a pretty solid bet that the rest of the participants will end up with 31 brand-new characters. My take on the Challenge, as always, is going to be a wee bit different.

Originally I planned a themed month; Dead Characters. You read that right; every entry would have featured a character who had died in their respective campaigns. 

While I still think the idea is interesting, it's not really what I want to do. I've thought about it and I want to celebrate the new year on a more creative and positive note. So instead of old, deceased characters, I'll be writing up a lot more newly created characters than usual. We'll see how it goes but that's the plan.

Please join me won't you! 

Happy New Year Everyone!

AD

Barking Alien

Let's Get This Party Started

Hi everybody! Welcome to the Party! The Adventuring Party that is.

(Heh. See what I did there?)

This is a 'teaser' for the first entry in my new irregular series, 'Meet The Party', showcasing various gaming groups I've had over the years and their PCs. It is going to be very similar to the Characters section of my Campaigns I Have Known/Played posts but expanded, with perhaps a bit more about the players and the inter-player/inter-character dynamics. Perhaps I should call it Characters I Have Known?

This is kind of an experiment. I'm not sure how well it will go over compared to the Campaigns I Have... series and how many of these I can generate before the two series start to overlap. I definitely want these two works to cover separate ground. Hopefully I will be able to keep them distinct. 

On a personal note, I don't like the word 'Party' for a group of PCs and never have. I don't know why exactly but it just never clicked with me. If you go back to my posts over the years you'll see I use it considerably less often then group, team, or even crew.

It largely boils down to what I heard growing up; the only 'party' I was familiar with in a context related to 'adventures' would've been a Search Party or Landing Party. Lord of The Rings calls it a Fellowship. In Superhero comics they say Team. Star Trek sends down Landing Parties or Away Teams but these consist of Crewmembers. Rebels in Star Wars. Musicians form a Band, as do Merry Men. 

Yeah, Party just sounds weird to me. 

Anyway...Our first Party consists of one of my very first Parties, The Winghorn Guard from my original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (-ish) campaign from 1982-83. 

See you soon,

AD

Barking Alien

Happy 90th Birthday to the great John Williams, composer of all the best movie soundtracks of my youth. 

Rest in Peace to visual effects legend Douglas Trumbull - a pioneer in the field of film special effects who worked on 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture.