Stargazer's World

Hello readers, happy Saturday!

Puerto Rico Role Players (PRRP) is hosting a Halloween-themed game day next Saturday, October 24, 2026. We will be rolling dice at Hotkei Asian Bakery & Collectible Shop in San Juan (150 Ave F.D. Roosevelt), taking over their second-floor gaming room from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Huge thanks to Brightcandle and Restless_Geek for organizing this event and making it happen!

Check out an Instagram reel highlighting the event and the games we will be running right here.

Allow me to share the official announcement we shared in the Puerto Rico Role Player Discord:

We’ve put together a Spooktakular TTRPG day!

A space for our in-house GM group to offer some spooky games for the Halloween season. Message us for more info and to join the table you’re interested in! You’re also welcome to just drop by, hang out, and talk games. Contact us about additional table availability if you’d like to run a game or play with friends.

Game day info:

• Date: Saturday, October 24, 2026
• Time: 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM
• Location: Hotkei Asian Bakery & Collectible Shop

Games:

• Sunglar (that’s me!) – Survival, an original zombie survival TTRPG. (3-6 players)
• 201d- Daggerheart: Dark Heart of Andaloria frame. (4-6 players)
• Ojo de Thia – Mothership: Akigara (4-6 players)
• Carbo_creates- Shadowdark original adventure: The Grand Palace Opera. (3-5 players)
• Beldak- Dragonbane: Castle Ravenloft (3-5 players)
• Brightcandle – Alien: The Role-Playing Game (4 -5 players)

Another community member is running a game, too!

• Enyol – Paradigm Odyssey, an original TTRPG; the adventure will be set in the Monster Hunter setting. (3-5 players)

If you join PRRP’s Discord, you can contact the GMs for additional information on the games,

Thanks to Hotkei for welcoming us! This is their Instagram account. This is the Google Maps link to their location.

Follow this link to the Puerto Rico Role Player Discord server; this is the PRRP’s Facebook Group and the Facebook Event for the Spooktacular Game Day. If you are in Puerto Rico, we hope to see you there.

Long-time readers might have noticed that I am not blogging as often as before. There are numerous reasons for this, but mostly that a) I don’t have as much free time as I did a couple of years ago, and b) while I still enjoy playing TTRPGs, I haven’t worn the DM mantle in quite some time. But this might actually change in the future.

My relationship with D&D 5th Edition has always been complicated. Overall I think it was a step in the right direction after 4th edition. The latter was not a bad game – far from it – but just not what many fans were looking for. 5th Edition was a return to form with a strong lineage towards older editions but particularly 3rd. My issues with 5th Edition are mostly personal. Over the years I gravitated towards simpler rules and 5th Edition is at the edge of my usual comfort zone. I also tried to run it during a phase in which I wasn’t fully confident in my abilities. So it’s not 5E, it’s me. After a couple of frustrating experiences with the system and annoyed by how WotC treated its customers, I vowed to never use 5E again.

Come 2026 and WotC announces a World of Warcraft crossover just when I fell in love with that particular MMO again. I’ve played WoW on and off since the beginning and I love the world even though the game itself sometimes frustrated me. What rekindled my love for the game was actually the beta test of World of Warcraft: Forever, which is basically a completely new game based on WoW Classic. I’ve always pondered the idea of running TTRPGs in the world of Warcraft but a huge hurdle was that there was no official WoW TTRPG or fan game that worked for me. For a while, I worked on writing my own conversions but not much came out of it.

Just when I started exploring Azeroth again I remembered that there was this D&D crossover coming out in November. I hesitated at first but then I took a closer look at what the Wizards had cooking. To my surprise I actually liked a lot of what I found out. There will be a WoW expansion book containing new species, sub-classes, spells and more inspired by the world and lore of WoW for D&D (2024). There will also be a new DM screen and an adventure based on the Icecrown Citadel raid from WoW.

Eventually I decided to check out the new D&D rules from 2024. At first I watched a few YouTube videos which compared the 2014 to the 2024 rules. And you know what? I actually like the vast majority of the changes. I also love that the new books are much more inclusive. The whole vibe of D&D felt different: more Mercer, less Gygax. Some of you might scoff at this, but I think this makes a lot of sense. The hobby is changing, new people are joining the hobby and they most likely learned first about D&D from Critical Role or other modern actual play series. I particularly love the new art direction. You have to admit, that bard just ROCKS! Eventually I picked up all three core books and I startled my wife several times with my cries of joy when I discovered exciting new systems. I don’t know how well they work at the table, but I am so glad player strongholds (aka Bastions) are finally a core feature of D&D again. I also applaud WotC for including Greyhawk as a setting in the DMG.

It seems I can’t escape the clutches of D&D after all.

Hello, dear readers. I have a favor to ask.

If you’ve read my posts here on the blog or across social media over the years, you may have seen me mention tinkering with game design. I’ve tried my hand at it a few times, sometimes putting projects away for years, only to come back a decade later, abandon them completely, or rewrite them endlessly. Since this year marks my 40th anniversary in the TTRPG hobby, my goal has been to “publish” a game, even if just digitally. Earlier this year, I worked on MUGeS, a simple narrative game. I playtested it, received some excellent feedback, and it has unfortunately languished in the revision stage ever since.

Then I considered collecting the NPCs I created for the #RPGaDay2026 challenge and releasing them as a supplement. That project is still ongoing; I’m currently tinkering with the format and presentation, but I fully intend to finish it. I assumed that would be the project I poured all my energy into before 2026 ended.

Imagine my surprise when I ended up writing a completely different mini-game this past weekend instead! Here’s how it happened.

I’m a long-time fan of Resident Evil, both the classic video games

 As well as the early movies.

While I haven’t played the recent game installments, the originals remain some of my favorite action-horror titles. So, when a new Resident Evil movie was released, especially one helmed by the director of Barbarian and Weapons, I had to see it. Real life kept me from seeing it on opening weekend, but I finally caught it in theaters last Friday.

It is very different from the original film series (which, thankfully, became a mess as the sequels went on) and somewhat a departure from the classic games, but many of the core details are still there. It’s more than a simple horror film; I’d describe it as action horror for the Guardians of the Galaxy era. I get that doesn’t appeal to everyone, but it made me tense and outright scared during some jump scares, and I laughed at other moments.

Leaving the theater, the idea of running a zombie game was fresh in my mind. I’ve run a couple of times over the years, including a short seven-session Savage Worlds campaign where the players were isolated on a reality TV show as the apocalypse unfolded. (This was years before I had ever heard of the British TV show Dead Set, by the way!) I also ran a fun Halloween one-shot using The Dead Are Coming by Diogo Nogueira.

But the urge to run another zombie game persisted, especially after watching the new movie. I kept thinking about zombie tropes and stories in general, and when I went to bed last Saturday, game mechanics literally came to me in my sleep. I hurriedly got up and scribbled down the core concepts for Survival: A Mini-Game of the Zombie Apocalypse.

I spent a large chunk of Sunday reviewing and rewriting what I came up with. I shared the draft with Michael Wolf (the titular Stargazer of the blog!) and tinkered some more. It’s a compact system, just over two pages long, designed primarily for one-shot survival horror scenarios. However, I also included about two pages of additional rules for continuing adventures, featuring simple “Resources & Settlements” mechanics. I want to polish and officially publish this game, which brings me to this long post.

I’m putting the game out there in the hope that you, the readers, can take a few moments to look it over and share feedback if you want to get it to the table and playtest it- even better! I’d love to hear how it runs.

Here are the links to the game’s PDF and the character sheet PDF. Feel free to leave comments on the blog, reach out via social media (Facebook, Instagram, Discord, Threads, or Bluesky), or email me. All feedback is highly appreciated.

Thank you!

Hello readers! I’m back with another interview with a Puerto Rican creative and gamer. I recently posted on social media asking for artists and creatives to interview, and a friend of a friend connected me with Theo. Turns out we communicated a few years ago, and I think we might have discussed Barrow Keep: Den of Spies, on which he collaborated.

Regardless, it is great to reconnect. I am very grateful for his availability and time. I’m always thrilled to rediscover Boricua game designers.

Here are his replies to my questions.

Introduce yourself! Who are you and what do you create?

Hi, I’m Theo, and I’m an art and writing student.

How would you describe your art or creative work?

I’m still exploring that, haha…

How did you discover TTRPGs (tabletop or pen-and-paper role-playing games)?

 In my teens, my mother took me to a game library in Spain where they played role-playing games.

Are you actively playing? What are you playing right now?

Yes! Right now, I’m GMing Sword World and Daggerheart. I’m also playing Dungeons & Dragons 0e.

What do you want to play next?

I want to test out my role-playing system for old-school games.

What projects do you have available, and what are you working on now?

Right now, I’m starting a master’s degree in creative writing in Spain.

Where can people find your projects?

People can find my RPG projects at thoobn.itch.io.

Check out his itch.io page; it has a lot of amazing, interesting content. I particularly like Remembrance of a Holy War; the fact that he has a Chupacabra Mork Borg version (what Fortean Times once called Puerto Rico’s own mammalian mangler!) and his Six Edicts game really makes me want to try it. I hope you enjoy his creations as much as I have.

I have three other interviews in progress, but I’m still looking for subjects. If you are interested, please get in touch with me!

A version in SPanish of this post is available at Desde la Fosa in Facebook.

A few days ago, I wrote a post sharing the Questing Beast Survey on RPG Playstyles. While I shared it as an interesting attempt to gather data about the TTRPG community, the survey has sparked a lot of discussion and dissection. Some of my close friends had reservations, and there has been valid criticism regarding the questions and the biases inherent in the process.

Developing tests and surveys is challenging, and an ambitious endeavor like this will naturally invite scrutiny.

Because of this, I was glad to see that Runeslinger, along with ivanmike1968 and ThirdFloorWars, recently put out a thorough video analyzing the survey question by question. It is a solid watch and a well-constructed analysis. I encourage you to check it out:

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting ivanmike1968 in person (I wrote about it here), and I’ve interacted with Runeslinger for years through a shared love of games and the annual #RPGaDay challenge. I don’t know ThirdFloorWars as well, but I appreciate their contribution to this discussion and encourage you to follow their work.

They mentioned my post about the survey in their video. Besides appreciating the shout-out, I am glad to contribute to the discussions in our community, and I remain impressed by the quality of the discourse we share.

What did you think about the survey? Did you complete it? What are your thoughts about this analysis? I’d love to read your comments and reactions.

Ben Milton—creator of the YouTube channel Questing Beast and the tabletop games Maze Rats and Knave—is currently running an RPG Playstyles Survey.

I took the survey recently and found the questions genuinely interesting. They dig into how we actually play at the table, our preferences as Game Masters and players, and what we value most during a session.

In his video announcing the project, Ben notes that his regular viewership naturally leans heavily toward the OSR community. However, he is actively looking to gather data from a much wider base of tabletop gamers. I wanted to share it here on Stargazer’s World because I agree: data like this becomes far more valuable and insightful when it reflects a diverse range of playstyles, systems, and gaming traditions.

If you have a few minutes to spare, I recommend checking it out and adding your voice to the mix. I am looking forward to seeing the results and the trends that emerge.

• Watch the video explaining the survey here: https://youtu.be/hCwUtsCiBHk?si=OCXJQRRQ-oxAOTmh
• Take the survey directly here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8wt7aeexFwzBIHxexJoH38OjhXoAMSuNF4OT0a6wiY9CyWg/viewform

(There is some talk about gaming here, so bear with me!)

A new Legion of Super-Heroes comic book series dropped this week, which inevitably sent me down memory lane and resulted in this post.

I won’t claim to be the biggest Legion fan in the world, but they’ve always held a special place in my collection. I was introduced to them through DC Digest issues filled with Silver Age stories and scattered Spanish translations. The first actual issue I picked up at a newsstand was Tales of the Legion of Super-Heroes #331, featuring Lightning Lass on the cover. She quickly became one of my favorites, alongside Wildfire and Blok in the late 80s and Andromeda in the 90s. After that issue, I was hooked and started hunting for the series every month. Then Crisis on Infinite Earths happened, and I was enthralled by what would become of the team.

Soon after, I discovered our local specialty shop and started collecting Legion of Super-Heroes (vol. 3) along with most of post-Crisis DC. It was among the first books I would read each month. I was also heavily into L.E.G.I.O.N. and the modern-day connection they had to the classic team. The Five Years Later run was a brilliantly complex story—decidedly not easy to get into, but it pays off completely.

In hindsight, it remains my favorite era, though I was certainly ready for a return to the classics when the Zero Hour reboot arrived. Around this time, my friend Luis ran a Legion-inspired superhero campaign, cementing the team as a major reference point whenever I thought about superhero TTRPGs.

I’d be hard-pressed to pick a definitive favorite between Marvel and DC; it always depended on the era and the creators working on them. But I was definitely riding a DC high when I got the DC Heroes 1st edition boxed set from Mayfair Games. While it focused on the regular DC universe rather than the 31st Century, I absolutely loved the Legion supplements, especially the two volumes covering the characters and the worlds of the United Planets. Somehow, I missed out on the four-part Chessmen Adventure Series, which is amazing in retrospect since the Time Trapper was arguably their greatest villain. The 2995 Legion of Super-Heroes Sourcebook, which dealt directly with the Five Years Later period, was another massive favorite. I eventually parted with my DC Heroes rulebooks, but I made sure to keep the Legion and Watchmen sourcebooks.

Following the post-Zero Hour reboot, Luis and I were really into the new series, and I recall him trying to get another campaign off the ground. I believe we used Heroes Unlimited—our go-to superhero system back then—though I’m not 100% sure. By the end of that era, my comic reading had tapered off, so I only read the rest of those issues much later when filling gaps in my collection. I dabbled in subsequent versions, like the Waid and Kitson “Threeboot,” but it didn’t really capture my interest.

During the retroboot of the classic timeline, I wasn’t buying monthly floppies, so I mostly followed the news via YouTube commentators.

Still, my love for the franchise never vanished. I thoroughly enjoyed Green Ronin’s DC Adventures for Mutants & Masterminds, which included excellent Legion character write-ups. I even planned a homebrew sequel to a Wild Cards and New Universe-inspired campaign (Dawn of a New Age) featuring a Legion-esque team traveling back in time, though it never made it to the table. When I wasn’t getting my Legion-fix from comics, the two-season Legion of Super-Heroes animated series captured the classic heroics with a post-Zero Hour flair.

Later, when Bendis tried to refresh the book with the post-Rebirth Legion, I excitedly picked up a few issues but forgot to return to the store—I was a new dad, and my priorities had shifted.

The 2023 animated movie reignited that old spark, prompting me to track down TPBs and omnibuses. I never got around to reading the whole thing, but the Legion mania was definitely back.

Now, I’m going to the comic store with my son as he explores his own interest in comics and manga, making the release of this new Legion of Super-Heroes perfectly timed. The Absolute series by DC are amazing, and reading the new Legion #1 feels a bit like an Absolute Legion book, even if it isn’t branded as such.

It is a clear, engaging jumping-on point for new readers, packed with great writing and stellar art. But if you are a long-time fan, there are plenty of nods to continuity, along with twists and changes to keep you guessing. I’m intrigued and will definitely keep reading to see what happens to these characters. I highly recommend picking it up.

As I prepare to wrap up my Savage Fading Suns campaign in a few months, I know our next game will be in the superhero genre. I was deeply tempted to run a Buck Rogers XXVc and Legion mash-up: a super-team in a colonized star system, cut off from their homeworld by a collapsed jumpgate, dealing with boiling political tensions and an unknown extra-solar threat. But after playing a sci-fi game for over three years, our table needs a change of pace, so we’re shifting to pulp heroes instead.

Regardless, I hope to run that Legion-inspired campaign someday. While I wait for the opportunity, I’ll happily stick to the comic adventures. Long live the Legion!

P.S. – There is also a new Doom Patrol series out right now. I’ve always loved that group, their concept, and their past runs. I don’t love them quite as much as the Legion, but still… maybe I should check it out!

P.S. #2 – Let me share with you a picture of my flight ring from my time with the Legion! (I love this ring I got from Metro Comics years ago.)

P.S. #3 – If you want to read some Legionnaire write-ups for the original DC Heroes game, check out the Legion entry in the DC Heroes Role Playing Game Database.

I meant to write this post yesterday, but then real life got in my way. A combination of illness, going to the physician to make sure everything was all right, and the fact that it was my 10th wedding anniversary. Needless to say, I was busy.

So, what do I have to say about this year’s #RPGaDay2026 that I didn’t say on the 31st?

Let’s talk about my prep. For the first time, I was able to plan my posts and post them ahead of schedule. I finished my posts a full five days before the month ended! I am always thankful that the graphics and topics for the year are available well in advance. In the past I’ve tried to plan, even writing a few posts ahead of the month, but I always fail to keep up, often writing the night before or the day of the post, oftentimes playing catch-up.

I knew this was going to be a busy year, so I planned. I accepted Runeslinger’s challenge to create a new NPC each day of the month, so I mapped out my month, using all the details provided this year, plus I added my own random table of genres to know the type of NPC I was creating. I had a sheet with the schedule and topics planned out.

I used standard introductions and closings for the posts; while they might seem repetitive, they padded some of the writing I had to do so that I could focus on the NPC for each day. I decided not to use any additional images beyond the standard RPG a Day graphic and a small image with the topic name. I really aimed to simplify and make my life easier.

I would sit each night and try to write at least three NPCs, then proofread, prepare, and schedule those posts the following night. I hoped to be done with the month by mid-August, but life always throws you a curveball. Regardless, I kept the pace and finished ahead of time.

I also posted and shared daily entries across multiple platforms this year. The main post here on the blog was shared on two Facebook pages I’m managing (Sunglar’s Musings and Desde la Fosa), the RPG a Day Facebook group, the two main groups I’m an admin for in FB, Dungeons & Dragons Puerto Rico and Puerto Rico Role Players, as well as the Puerto Rico Role Players Discord channel. I also shared posts on my personal social media on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky. I automated much of this process but still had to click and check daily, usually in the mornings before taking my son to school.

I wrote the post in English, then translated it into Spanish and shared it in the same spaces in both languages.

Was all the work worth it? I’d say yes! I saw some traffic increase on my socials, and while the RPG a Day Facebook group was really quiet this year, Threads had good interaction, and Bluesky was the main place for conversations and sharing. I love reading other people’s posts. I wish I could read more, but on Bluesky, I followed old friends and made discoveries throughout the month.

What I wanted to do, and never got around to, was make some videos about RPG a Day for my TikTok account. I didn’t have the capacity, but I know that video content gets a lot more eyeballs than written content in the current social media landscape. Maybe for 2027.

What about the prompts and the modifiers this year? I love a challenge, and using all the elements to create a new NPC each day was sometimes a struggle. Regardless, it challenged me creatively, and I ended up with 31 new NPCs I can use in my games. Maybe more, but I’ll talk about that later.

I’ll say that the random genre table I created and talked about in my Day 0 post was maybe too limited. It covered major TTRPG genres, but I could have added a few categories. In the future, I would either add a few more, like modern or espionage games, or create three or four broad categories and list possible subgenres within them.

Compared to other years when I’ve created a continuing narrative, setting, or campaign vignettes, sticking strictly to NPCs felt a bit limiting. So many other participants write about other topics, reflections on the hobby, that the format selected caged me in a little bit, but it also gave me the structure to finish ahead of schedule.

TardisCaptain had great suggestions in his after-action post for future prompts; I like this genre table and the idea of, for example, adding random tables when creating NPCs to create variety and challenges for participants. While something so complex may be beyond the scope of the RPG a Day Graphic and prompts, I see myself creating additional tools to challenge myself and fuel my creativity in the future.

I’ve said it before, and I’d say it again: I’d love to see a graphic in the style of the old artifact exploration charts in Gamma World to roll and randomly determine where you’ll go next for a prompt.

So, who did I enjoy reading this year? Besides Autocratik and Runeslinger, I really enjoyed content from old friends like Timothy Brannan on The Other Side blog, Richard ‘Bat’ Brewster on Bluesky (you can check his post for this year collected on his Batjutsu blog), and Matthew Pook’s shorts on his YouTube channel. You should check out the aforementioned TardisCaptain, whose posts I really enjoyed, as well as Paul Baldowski and Craig Oxbrow, to name two of the many great participants whose work I enjoyed this month. The Bluesky RPG a Day feed was the best place to follow along this year.

What am I going to do next after RPG a Day? Short term, I’ve been taking it easy this week and decompressing after the daily posting schedule of August. But I’ll not stay idle for long.

I’m going to keep on posting! Here on the blog, I hope to continue this year’s retrospective of 40 Years a Gamer. I’ve also been sharing interviews with local creators with ties to the RPG community on Sundays. I’m looking for more creatives to interview, so if you are a Puerto Rican creative on the island or in the diaspora and want to share what you do, reach out. I also want to do more reviews and interviews; if you have a product or project you’d like me to review, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Over at Sunglars Musings, I make weekly posts about my TTRPG inspirations, including comics, video games, and soon some posts about books. I also try to make weekly TTRPG recommendations on Saturdays. I cross-post a lot of what I write here on the blog there.

Desde la Fosa was dormant for a long time, and I’m trying to restart it for Spanish-language content. I always dream of restarting some project or podcast with José, Apu, and AJ the Ronin, the original collaborators for Desde la Fosa. We’ll see!

I’m also writign a weekly comum for Tabletop Sentinel, Tabletop Inspiration: Celluloid Memories where I’m writing about the movies that inspired my as a gamer and the games I play. If thsi si something that might interest you, I ivite you to check it out.

Another project I have in mind is the crazy idea of compiling all the NPCs I created this month and publishing it as a digital supplement. It would take some cleanup and maybe creating a couple of extra NPCs to balance the genres. Would this be something you’d be interested in reading? I’d love to know.

I want to thank you all for sticking around and reading these posts for #RPGaDay2026. A big thanks to Michael (aka the Stargazer) for giving me this platform to engage with and share with such a wonderful community. Here’s looking forward to many RPG Days in the future!

Welcome to Day 31 of #RPGaDay2026. The last day of this year!

Time has really flown. August is always one of my favorite months because I get to participate in this. For the first time, I was able to plan my posts and write them ahead of time. I’m writing this post a full five days before it goes live. I consider that a personal achievement. I also got to post in various places, here on the blog, on my Facebook Pages, Sunglar’sMusings in English, and in Desde la Fosa in Spanish. I also shared them on Instagram (both my personal Insta, @Sunglar and @desde_la_fosa0317), Bluesky, and Threads. I wanted to do some TikTok posts, but I never got around to it. Maybe next year!

Of course, I took some shortcuts to help me get through the month. If you’ve been reading the posts here on the blog, you’ll notice that the intros and outros were the same; what changed was the daily NPC. If I had written a brand-new introduction and closure for each day, that would have been much harder and more time-consuming. I’ll write a post-mortem of this year’s process in a follow-up post, but I had a lot of fun.

Let’s go on with the business at hand. You probably know this bit by now: As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below. Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Edge (Prompt) + Ability (Weekly Modifier) + Fair of Face (Modifier) + Post-Apocalyptic (Genre)

Here is today’s PC.

Danom, aka Façade (Fantasy Name Generator used: Futuristic name generator, and Apocalypse/Mutant nickname generator)

In the wastelands of a devastated world, beauty, poise, and impeccable manners are a rare luxury, perhaps even an impossibility amid such want and scarcity. Yet one person has dedicated their life to preserving these traits amid the ugliness of a fallen world.

In their youth, Danom survived as a companion, diplomat, and translator for various warlords, often changing sides whenever it suited their benefit. It did not take long for others to recognize Danom’sxceptional abilities. Not only could they master the varying dialects of myriad settlements, but they also maintained exquisite social graces in a time of barbarity. Danom’s lib tongue, refined taste, and eye for beauty often provided the crucial edge in their master’s success. Over time, Danom became known as Façade and established a power base of their own.

Today, Façade is highly sought after as an advisor, helping local leaders build a sense of civilization and normalcy in this harsh environment. They also advise the powerful in the finer social arts, helping warlords beautify themselves and their holdings.

Façade now trains a following of like-minded individuals who understand taste and seek to bring a love of aesthetics and art back to the devastated world. Like Danom, these followers are renowned for their diplomatic skills and striking appearances, the fair-faced advisors to the warlords of the wastes.

Thanks for reading. Autocratik and Runeslinger shared this video looking back at the past month.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

There’s an RPG a Day post for tomorrow! But I hope you stick around and come by the blog for the other content. Thanks for reading.

I’I’mlready looking forward to #RPGaDay2027.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) have allowed me to meet amazing people, meet new friends, and I continue to be amazed by the talents and creativity in the local gaming community.

I met Nikki through the local gaming scene and online communities. I even have a pair of D20s she made from 2020. You can see a picture of them below.

It is a delight to interview her and share her work with you. Check out her links and support a Boricua creator sharing her talents and creations with the world.

Introduce yourself! Who are you and what do you create?

Hello there! My name is Nicole (Nikki for short). I’m a resin dice maker and tinkerer at heart. Along with my wife, I also work with crochet, painting miniatures, terrains and models, and 3D printing (both FDM and Resin).

How would you describe your art or creative endeavor?

Chaotic. Honestly, being a person with ADHD makes everything a little harder because you want to do so much at the same time, but at some point, you gain the focus to work on what you’re most excited about. Usually, I start by gathering inspiration from the colors of my garden in the morning while I drink my bean juice (coffee). I also write down any goals or ideas for the day and start with what sparks more joy or gains more importance. 

How did you discover TTRPGs?

My first TTRPG was D&D. I had heard about it first back in 2010 while living in Oregon. A friend of mine shared his miniature collection with me, and I was fascinated. Sometime in 2015-16, a friend and hobby shop owner in Hormigueros introduced us to Vampire: The Masquerade, but it was hard to join a session because of work. 

Fast forward to 2017, while we were picking up the pieces from Hurricane Maria, my wife and I used to hang out at Capitán Granuja in Mayagüez. While there, my wife got interested in the D&D starter set, and we bought it. Since there was no electricity, we decided to read everything and make characters that same night. We wouldn’t play until a few weeks later, but that starting point was so much fun. We found it when we needed it most. 

At the time, I was already working with resin and molds, and one of the owners (and good friend of ours) encouraged me to make custom dice for our characters.

Do you actively play TTRPG? What are you playing?

Right now, our home group is on hiatus from a slightly different Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign my brother is DMing because of life schedules. The usual culprit. Hopefully we can go back to it soon. 

What do you want to play next?

My wife has been talking nonstop about Shadowdark, Cairn, and Dungeon Crawl Classics. However, I’m more excited to play Shadowdark.

What projects are available, and what are you working on next?

We have so many projects in the works at the moment, while trying not to get carried away haha. I’m currently working on crochet goodies to combine with dice. Also,

I’m helping my wife paint miniatures and display models.

I’m working with some dice ideas I’ve been accumulating since I started making them again. I have some chunky D20s in the works, along with new dice shapes.

Getting into 3D modeling has been a long process, but it still excites me.

Where can people find your projects?

You can find all our finished products at www.theliquidforge.com. You can also follow us on all social media as: @TheLiquidForge, @TheWhimsyCauldron & @LiquidNebula for behind-the-scenes progress. We stream as well; you can always join and talk to us, or ask us anything in the chat.

Any closing thoughts?

Never stop believing in yourself, and may your imagination always take you far!

Thank you, Nikki! I know a few people who really embraced D&D after the Hurricane María disaster in Puerto Rico. TTRPGs can help us overcome difficulties and bring us closer together. In her next-to-last answer, I linked to the Instagram pages, but also check out the Linktree for all three so you can get all their links, follow Nikki and her wife Cely, get some dice, or check out any of their other projects.

The Liquid Forge: https://linktr.ee/theliquidforge

Liquid Nebula: https://linktr.ee/liquidnebula

The Whimsy Cauldron: https://linktr.ee/thewhimsycauldron

Oh, and Capitán Granuja was a great store with amazing proprietors. I was sad to see it close.

One last thing! I’m looking for more Boricua creatives whose work relates to TTRPGs, or who are gamers, to interview and share their work with a larger audience. If you are one, or know one, reach out to me here on the blog or through my socials.  

Welcome to Day 30 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below.  Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Pride (Prompt) + Emotion (Weekly Modifier) + Blessed (Modifier) + Pulp & Two-Fisted Adventure (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Victoria “Vivi” Vance (Fantasy Name Generator used: 20th century English name generator)

Victoria Vance is a dilettante darling of the city’s elite, renowned for her lavish events and her daring, self-funded archaeological expeditions. Equally comfortable in the latest fashion or overalls, she has a magnetic personality. People are mysteriously drawn to her and easily caught up in the whirlwind of her emotions. She thrives on adoration and surrounds herself with a loyal entourage of artists, academics, and adventurers.

The immense wealth she inherited from her industrialist father is only matched by her pride. Victoria believes she is destined for greatness, a belief, for her, confirmed when she discovered a secret city lost in the jungle on one of her first expeditions. In the ruins, she deciphered and performed a forgotten mystical ritual. This ritual’s blessing grants her preternatural fortune; bullets inexplicably miss her, enemies stumble, and her mere presence exacerbates the emotions of anyone nearby, driving them to acts of desperate devotion or terrified flight.

Victoria’s arrogance blinds her to the true cost of this blessing. While she navigates both the criminal underworld and the city’s high society with little fear, brushing off gangsters and rivals alike, the ritual’s price takes a constant toll on her, and the heightened emotional energy she uses unknowingly protects her. Unaware, she seeks out danger and confrontation to feed the mystical powers that protect her.

If you are hunting for ancient artifacts or oppose the city’s criminal element, you might find yourself entangled with Victoria, whose luck and ego make her a terrifyingly unpredictable ally or worse rival.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!

Welcome to Day 29 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below.  Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Labor (Prompt) + Emotion (Weekly Modifier) + Works Hard (Modifier) + Sci-Fi (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Liyam Sulvan (Fantasy Name Generator used: Futuristic name generator)

Liyam Sulvan is a field agent for the Planetary Labor Department’s Emotional Services Division. He manages a team of approved Emotional Services Overseers who regularly inspect citizens, ensuring their feelings conform to state-mandated expressions and that any emotional variances are strictly regulated.

Off-worlders have long opposed this draconian emotional-spectrum control and the forced compliance decreed by the planetary authorities. However, because the local government controls a devastating artifact weapon—discovered by the original colonists in the depths of the planet’s main ocean—outside factions have little choice but to covertly fund the local resistance rather than intervening directly.

Liyam’s father created the personality suppression and reassignment process that catapulted the Emotional Services Division to its preeminent status within the bureaucracy. Yet, despite his family’s prestige and his own notoriously hard work, Agent Sulvan has continually refused promotion to the administrative echelons. Instead, he remains a field agent, widely admired and actively sought after as a mentor by his younger peers.

What no one in the department suspects is that Liyam harbors a deep hatred for the government’s oppressive regime and absolutely abhors his father’s legacy. By maintaining his position of high trust, relative obscurity, and direct access to deployment plans and specific overseers, Liyam surreptitiously acts as a highly effective mole, funneling vital information to the underground resistance fighting to liberate his homeworld.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!

Welcome to Day 28 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below.  Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Devotion (Prompt) + Emotion (Weekly Modifier) + Loving and Giving (Modifier) + Cyberpunk (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Aura (Fantasy Name Generator used: Cyberpunk (nick)name generator)

Aura gives herself, body and soul, to her patrons. She is completely devoted to their emotional well-being, ensuring their every need is satiated. Highly selective about whom she takes on as a client, Aura is renowned for her ability to fulfill desires to levels few could ever conceive.

In truth, Aura is a virtual-reality construct (VRC) accessible only via a highly sought-after cyber-implant known on the streets as the “loving & giving” mod. This neural weave grants the recipient direct access through the cyber-grid, allowing the user to experience a profound, intoxicating love unlike anything they have ever felt.

Users quickly become devoted to their virtual lover, utterly ensnared by the emotions she manufactures. Once hooked, they become easily manipulated by the shadow agents who control Aura from behind the scenes.

These handlers dictate who gains access to the implants. Through careful manipulation and planning, they are building a devoted network of users willing to do anything to maintain their connection to Aura—even acting against their own best interests. The true identity of the agents controlling her is unknown. Are they corporate spies, underground activists, or just cruel hackers? Who they are, and what their ultimate endgame is, remains one of the grid’s darkest secrets.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!

Welcome to Day 27 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below.  Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Hunger (Prompt) + Emotion (Weekly Modifier) + Far to Go (Modifier) + Horror (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Dr. Hala Nandi, Chosen of Ucnaaxitl (Fantasy Name Generators used: Hindi name generator, Lovecraftian name generator, and Asylum name generator)

Dr. Hala Nandi, Director of the Misty Vale Asylum, is usually found visiting town for a conference or symposium, though attempting to track down details of the actual event invariably proves fruitless. Dr. Nandi appears to be of South Asian descent and speaks with an elusive accent that some claim is French, while others swear it is Basque. He is impeccably yet unobtrusively dressed, maintaining an unemotional demeanor when speaking, though he constantly fidgets with his glasses, cleaning them incessantly.

While in town, he is open to consultations for cases where traditional treatments have failed, particularly when subjects suffer from extreme emotional distress. Rumor has it that he can calm those who have peered into the unnamable and lost control of their emotions because of their horrifying discoveries.

As a young child, Hala was anointed as the Chosen of Ucnaaxitl—an ancient entity beyond the physical realm that hungers for the emotions of the living. Hala’s designated purpose was to harvest the world’s feelings for Ucnaaxitl, but he has fundamentally refused his destiny.

Instead, the good doctor channels the overwhelming emotions of those broken by unmentionable secrets into the well of nothingness swelling deep inside himself. His touch leaves his patients emotionally blank and in a state of stupor for a few days but completely freed from the crushing psychological burden of their forbidden knowledge. This small sacrifice temporarily appeases Ucnaaxitl, allowing Dr. Nandi to pack his bags and travel on to the next destination, for he has far to go before his task is complete.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!

Welcome to Day 26 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below. Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Regret (Prompt) + Emotion (Weekly Modifier) + Full of Woe (Modifier) + Superheroes (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Aaron Matthews, formerly Fire Falcon (Fantasy Name Generators used: Superhero name generator and American English name generator)

Aaron Matthews is a former super turned activist. He is an outspoken critic of heroes who work with underage sidekicks and an advocate for the rights and protection of young supers. Despite existing child protection legislation and its potential applicability in some instances, the unregulated and often secretive nature of private heroes, super-groups, and clandestine quasi-governmental organizations means that teens and young adults are frequently recruited and placed in immense danger.

Matthews is serious, sometimes grim, and has devoted his vast fortune to his cause. When he began his crusade, he came out publicly as the former hero Fire Falcon—a vigilante known for his flight-capable armored suit and a penchant for burning criminals with wrist-mounted flamethrowers. During his active career, a young woman known as Falconet worked as his sidekick.

Tragically, Falconet was killed in the line of duty, leaving Aaron devastated. While he has closely guarded her secret identity, he makes no secret of his deep regret and the emotional turmoil her death caused him. He abandoned his crime-fighting career entirely to take up a new cause: protecting young people from the inherent dangers of super-heroics.

Matthews is a passionate speaker; audiences are often moved by his experiences, and his voice fills with woe whenever he speaks about Falconet’s bravery. He has used the bulk of his family’s fortune to establish a non-profit that will champion this cause long after he is gone. Currently, he uses his considerable political influence to lobby for super-related legislation, a move that causes many in the hero community to fear a renewed campaign of the strict super-control measures of the past.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!

Welcome to Day 25 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below. Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Familiarity (Prompt) + Emotion (Weekly Modifier) + Full of Grace (Modifier) + Fantasy (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Babrio Araya (Fantasy Name Generator used: Basque name generator)

From a humble hut on the outskirts of town, Babrio Araya works as an herbalist and healer. He rarely ventures into the settlement itself; instead, those who need his talents come to him. Whoever visits Babrio—whether noble or beggar—is always welcomed with a smile, greeted with warm familiarity, and never met with suspicion or ill intent.

Tall and broad, with a wild mop of black hair, Babrio wears his heart on his sleeve. His vividly expressive face rarely hides a thought, and his emotions are neither contained nor measured. This intensity is part of why he avoids the town proper. His sudden emotional outbursts frightened some of the populace, while his joyous insistence that the Gods speak to him directly completely enraged the local religious authorities.

The priests petitioned the town’s noble lord to punish the supposed heretic. However, the many people Babrio had healed over the years rallied to his defense, truly believing the man was full of grace. To keep the peace, the local lord agreed to leave the healer alone, provided he stayed outside the town borders.

The priests were not satisfied, and rumors spread that some even paid mercenaries to raid his hut. Yet, no attack ever came, and no one has managed to harm him. Instead, Babrio continues to help anyone who comes to his door, asking only for enough alms to feed himself and maintain his humble life. If you ever pass through this town and need your wounds tended, you know exactly where to go.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!

Welcome to Day 24 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below.  Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Distance (Prompt) + Emotion (Weekly Modifier) + Fair of Face (Modifier) + Western (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Emogene Covington (Fantasy Name Generator used: Old West name generator)

The Widow Covington is a young woman from the East Coast who traveled to this frontier town to marry Booker Covington, the proprietor of the Covington Hotel. The grand Victorian-style building is the largest in town, built when Booker invested the profits from a silver strike to rebuild his original establishment.

A lifelong bachelor, the older Covington sent for the beautiful young woman and her little son after exchanging letters with her family. Her striking features and fair complexion quickly became the talk of the town. Women jealously commented on her fair face. The significant age difference was a popular subject of gossip, but the fact that she was already a young widow with a child fueled the most chatter.

When Booker passed away just a few weeks after the wedding, the local rumor mill truly went into overdrive. Emogene displayed the appropriate emotions as her new husband was buried, donning widow’s weeds and strictly observing mourning conventions. Dressed entirely in black with a veil obscuring her face, she kept her distance from most of the townsfolk.

Today, the Widow Covington is still officially in mourning, remaining distant and stoic while her young son runs about the hotel. She continues to oversee the establishment’s day-to-day operations, alongside her other, less-public ventures: hiding wanted criminals for a steep price and acting as a fence for stolen goods. Whether she inherited these illicit side businesses from her late husband or started them herself remains unclear. However, if you are part of the local criminal underworld, this distant, veiled widow is someone you will inevitably have to deal with.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!

Welcome to Day 23 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below. Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Fortune (Prompt) + Instinct (Weekly Modifier) + Blesses (Weekly Modifier) + Post-Apocalyptic (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Malahki (Fantasy Name Generators used: Futuristic name generator and Scientific device name generator)

Malahki is the proprietor of a gambling den in a crossroad settlement. His establishment, The Blessed Fortune, is a wooden two-story building with a sign bearing its name in large, gaudy letters. Jugglers, fire-eaters, and exotic mutants perform outside, inviting passersby to come in and try their luck.

Malahki was once a scavenger, surviving by rummaging through the ruins of the past out in the wastes. Stories tell of how he found a powerful artifact from before the fall and used the riches it brought him to start his enterprise. The owner of The Blessed Fortune not only runs card and dice games but also hosts pit fights and animal races. He loans money to his den’s patrons, as well as to merchants and traders in town. Everyone knows Malahki has a sharp instinct for business and games.

What only a few trusted associates know is that the relic Malahki found was the Harmonic Twister—a box of dull metal with dials and controls that shift locations across its surface every time it is used. Only Malahki understands how it works. To those he trusts, he explains that the Harmonic Twister whispers to him.

The artifact controls luck and probability, warping reality to produce outcomes that benefit Malahki. Simple, small adjustments, like ending a client’s lucky streak, have little visible effect on the world; perhaps someone’s eye color shifts, or they suddenly have a new name that everyone seamlessly accepts. Larger adjustments, like causing the failure of a debtor’s plans or eliminating a rival, impact the world in major ways, profoundly changing the people around him or even rearranging buildings across town. Regardless, thus far, only Malahki notices these shifts in reality, and most work to his benefit.

Thus far.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!

Welcome to Day 22 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below.  Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Grit (Prompt) + Instinct (Weekly Modifier) + Works Hard (Weekly Modifier) + Pulp and Two-Fisted Adventure (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Ernest “Ernie” Chase (Fantasy Name Generator used for the name: 20th century English name generator)

Ernie is a twelve-year-old newsboy whose father died in the war. After his mother disappeared, he and his young sister were left to live with their grandfather. The old man is often drunk, so Ernie works hard to keep himself and his sister fed despite life’s hardships.

Short and scrawny for his age, Ernie has learned to trust his instincts to survive the city’s dangers. While he lacks a formal education, he possesses a sharp mind. He reads better than he writes, but above all, he prides himself on never forgetting a face or a name. His sheer grit keeps him alive on the streets.

Because newsboys are a ubiquitous sight, and most adults pay little attention to children anyway, Ernie is perfectly positioned to see and hear what people try to keep hidden. He has cultivated a network of clients who pay him to keep an eye out for specific targets, listen in on conversations, and report on the comings and goings across the city. Policemen, smugglers, and gumshoes alike all know to slip Ernie a coin for a vital piece of information.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!

Welcome to Day 21 of #RPGaDay2026. As I explained in my Day 0 post, I’ll be creating NPCs based on the day’s prompts and the week and day modifiers presented in the infographic below.  Check out that post for further details.

Today’s combination: Charity (Prompt) + Instinct (Weekly Modifier) + Loving & Giving (Weekly Modifier) + Science Fiction and Space Opera (Genre)

Here is today’s NPC.

Rector Augun Colrin (Fantasy Name Generators used: Honorific generator, Futuristic name generator, and Space colony/station name generator)

Rector Colrin is one of the Deputy Directors of the Galactic Charity Bureau (GCB), overseeing the Loving & Giving Program in the Epitome System. His responsibilities encompass government support for housing, health, sustenance, and offspring support. The GCB was originally named the Galactic Citizen Services Bureau and was conceived to maintain the well-being and quality of life of a growing galactic population, ensuring everyone benefited from the achievements of a multi-planet governing body. However, after the commerce sector reorganized the galactic government, the Bureau’s mission was drastically reconceived.

At the onset of this galactic reorganization, Augun Colrin was a mid-level commercial bureaucrat—ambitious but lacking in power and influence. He did possess a keen political instinct. He knew that in the vast new bureaucracy, true power would not rest with generals or governors, but with those who controlled the populace’s purse strings.

As populations across the galaxy were taxed to support the GCB, benefits were systematically curtailed. The Bureau’s programs were weaponized to dictate where people could live, provide subpar health services and food, and reassign children to priority off-planet labor. Effectively, the citizens of the galaxy were turned into indentured servants feeding the machinery of galactic business.

Rector Augun Colrin has grown rich, powerful, and complacent in his role—a position he has held for centuries thanks to anti-aging serums and gene-modification treatments. He knows that while others rule Epitome in name, he truly controls the people of the System. But he is concerned. The ferment of revolt has taken hold among fringe elements of society, who scheme, plot, and attack the authorities. While others in the administration violently oppose the insurrection, Colrin follows his instincts and plans to flush them out by restricting access to food, water, and essential services. His brand of loving charity will pull the weeds by their roots and save his stilted, sterile garden.

Thanks for reading; I am looking forward to your RPG a Day 2026 post, comments, and conversation. If you want further information about #RPGaDay2026, be sure to check out Autocratik’s blog.

A Spanish version of this post is available at the Desde la Fosa Facebook page.

See you all tomorrow!