Barking Alien's RPG CAMPAIGN TOUR CHALLENGE!

Tim Knight has gone and done the unthinkable. He's given me...an IDEA! 

Get in loser, we're checking out people's campaigns!

Buckle up Buttercup...

Frustrated with some of the TRPG internet 'challenges', I have decided to make my own and I'll be doing it myself next month. Next month?!? That's so soon!

That's right, in February 2026 I will be undertaking the RPG CAMPAIGN TOUR CHALLENGE!

What is that you ask? Well...

The concept is simple; give your readers/viewers a tour of your current (or favorite or in-development) campaign setting using the prompts provided below by yours truly. Imagine the Challenge as a kind of 'travel guide' to the setting of your game.

It's a great way to show off your World-Building chops or to help develop them by thinking about the prompts and answering the questions they present.

Day 1-Campaign Introduction and Overview

What is your campaign called, what system does it use, and what is it all about?

Day 2-About your Tour Guide

Introduce us to a character who can serve as our guide through your campaign and its setting.

Day 3-Where the heck are we?

What is the campaign's location and where is that location in related to other important places. 

Day 4-Is there a Map?

Give us a visual! Show us a map of your setting! Don't have one? WHY NOT?!?

Day 5-Can you tell us about the campaign's history?

In the real world and within the universe.

Day 6-Where shall we start?

Where did the campaign begin and/or where should a traveler to the region start their journey through it? 

Day 7-What's the weather like today?

Is there a particular climate or weather that's prominent in the region of the campaign? Does it vary? What is it like and how bad does it get?

Day 8-Tell us about the local peoples and their cultures.

Describe the people and their Species, Nationalities, and other identifying features. 

Day 9-Who's in charge here?

Who are the major movers and shakers in the campaign?

Day 10-What's the first thing we should do? 

When heading out on a trip through the campaign setting (even just the 'starting area'), where should you go first? 

Day 11-Where would we go to find 'adventure'?

We've left the relative safety of the starting area and now we're looking for action! 

Day 12-What do people do for entertainment around here?

Music? Theatre? Sports? Gambling? What do the adventurers in your campaign do on their 'day off'? What is there for tourists to spend money on?

Day 13-Where can we get a drink and a bite to eat?

Give us a few of your most notable restaurants and bars in the campaign setting. Tell us something about these places and what makes them distinctive.

Day 14-What to order to 'Eat like a local'.

Are there any foods unique to the campaign setting? If so, what are they like?

Day 15-What are some things in the setting that are best avoided?

Dangerous terrain, haunted places, angry natives, and even unpleasant beverages; name some elements in your campaign that should be given a wide berth.

Obviously these are beings and things in the setting the tourist should avoid but which Player Characters would likely run towards. 

Day 16-Are there any direct threats?

Who or what in your campaign actively means the people in it - including the PCs -

 harm?

Day 17-Can you tell us about any famous battles or wars?

Tales of conflicts and combats abound across the multiverse! Any interesting ones in your setting we should know about?

Day 18-Forgot to ask; How do we get around?

What modes of transportation are available to people in the setting. 

Day 19-Any 'Must See' sites?

Are there any places or things a visitor to the setting just has to check out?

Day 20-Are there any mysteries as yet unsolved?

Legendary tales, lost civilizations, or cryptid creatures; does the setting have anything for the amateur detective?

Day 21-What are the major organizations of the campaign? How do they deal with visitors? 

Corporations, guilds, secret societies; what groups with influence exist in the campaign and how do they interact with the setting and its denizens? 

Day 22-Tell use about notable Flora and Fauna! 

Take us on safari around your campaign and its setting. What are some of the unique and/or unusual creatures and plants in your game?

Day 23-What are the major exports of the region?

A campaign can be big and different places within it will be known for different products. Pick a few of the best sellers or most interesting things and tell us about them.

Day 24-What are the major imports to the area?

What is it your campaign region needs but doesn't have and how do they get it? Maybe it's not a need but a want? Some other place has the very best something and the people of your campaign desire some of that action.  

Day 25-Where can I do some shopping?

I want to buy some souvenirs from this trip and maybe snacks for the voyage home.

Day 26-Are there any dramatic events from the campaign you can share?

Tell us about a moment of exciting action or tense thrills that has happened during your game. When and where did it take place?

Day 27-Do you have any amusing anecdotes from the campaign?

Forget dramatic, tell us about a moment that made everyone laugh out loud.

Day 28-Is there anything else we should know before we head home?

Any parting knowing you want to leave us with that didn't fit anywhere else?

***

Inquiring minds want to know what makes your milieu special! I want to know!

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Barking Alien

Incidentally, how about a warm Barking Alien welcome for Woofia, Barkley's cousin, who will be helping out around the blog from time to time.

Welcome aboard Woofy!

Getting Into Character

No response here or on Facebook regarding my continuing with the 31 Day / 31 Characters Challenge so I guess I'm done. Since this series of posts isn't grabbing anyone's attention or interest, I'll just bow out and go one to discuss other things.

Next year I'll get back to posting memorable characters from campaigns [and one-shots] of the past.. 

In the meantime...

I've been thinking analytically and introspectively about why I don't like Character Creation in most Tabletop Roleplaying Games. In some ways its pretty easy to comprehend, I think...

When I create a character, it's a concept in my head. The character is simply an idea for a component of the adventure, setting, or whathaveyou. It is envisioned as serving a purpose; they are an obstacle, an ally, a love interest, comedy relief, or an example of 'local color' to give the game...well, um...character. 

As I tend to GM far more than I play as a Player, my 'Gamemaster Brain' is at the forefront of my approach to characters. When I want or need a character that does X or serves X purpose, I create them. I make them as interesting as I can so that the players in my game get invested in said character and their role in the campaign, whatever that may be. I'm aware that some GMs have been known to roll up their NPCs in systems with random generation and the very idea is baffling to me.

Why? You need a bandit, you stat up a bandit. You need a wise and powerful Jedi Master, you give them more dice where you feel they need it. Do you really want to roll up a handsome and seductive spy just get a really low Charisma/Comeliness score? That's...well...dumb IMHO. 

As a player, my outlook is not so different. Say I need to come up with a character for a Star Trek game set during The Next Generation Era. OK. What is everyone else playing? I see...no Doctor or Science Officer yet, huh? I do love playing the Science Officer when I get the chance. As for a Species, ooh, so many options.

In any game where non-Human Player Characters are a possibility, there's a very good chance I will play a non-Human. Hmm, I've never played a Kasheeta, a matriarchal dinosaur-saurian species that first appeared in the Federation Council chambers of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Yeah, that'll be interesting. I love seeing TOS and TOS Movie Era Aliens in later periods. The Kasheeta can seem arrogant, aloof, and off-putting but aren't really. It's a cultural thing I can creatively expand on and add my own twist to. I like it. 

The point it, I didn't roll this character up. This is an idea for a character that I came up with and can now extrapolate from and build upon. What I want now is a rules system that allows me to make this character in the game.

Therein lies the key to why I like or dislike a game's Character Creation. I don't want a system that gives me a character and tells me what they can do. I like creating a Character outside of any system and using an RPG's mechanics to make that character to the best of my [and the game's] ability. This is why I like Champions, Smurfs, Star Trek Adventures, Star Wars D6, and why I don't like D&D and 'Playbook' games like Blades in the Dark and Apocalypse World. Don't tell me who my character is and what abilities they are allowed to have. Tell me all the options available and I'll pick the ones that fit my character. 

This dynamic is a big reason why I don't like playing most Fantasy RPGs other than Ars Magica, which I love. Most Fantasy games have hard and fast Classes that give you particular skills and abilities and Races that only have or do specific things. Ars Magica says, here are a variety of different kinds of characters that fit the setting. They're all made of points. Here, I'll give you that amount of points so you can make what you like. There isn't a Wizard Class, there are characters who can have any combination of talents and skills including casting spells and we call that person a Wizard (or a Mage in Ars Magica proper). 

That's it for now. Onward...

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Barking Alien

31 Days / 31 Characters - Talking Out of Character

I have fallen behind something fierce. 

The reasons are many and I'm too exhausted to go into them but suffice to say, life's been kickin' my butt lately. There is also the fact that I'm kind of getting bored doing the Challenge this way. Yes, I get that its the 'Correct Way' but the thing is, as I've noted:

• I'm a [largely] Forever GM. Most of these characters will never see use except as NPCs.
• I don't make NPCs this way. I have a need, a concept, and just decide what the NPCs can and can't do.
• I don't enjoy the Character Creation systems and processes of most RPGs.
• I've already done a lot of my favorites. Others just take too long.
• I've got other things I want to discuss that are waaay more interesting to me than making up essentially purposeless characters. 

So what do I do? Getting kind of burnt out on the whole thing which is disappointing as I was pretty excited about it not a week or so ago. 

*Sigh*

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Barking Alien

31 Days / 31 Characters - GOSSIP SMURF

I am constantly amazed that the most fun I've had with a Tabletop Roleplaying Game in 2025 was with The Smurfs RPG by Maestro Media. 

First announced in 2024 and followed by a highly successful Kickstarter, the upcoming RPG about three apples tall blue people is way better than it had any right to be. Better than it had any need to be. I mean, if this game was a simple, silly game fit for 5 year olds and their Generation X grandparents, that would've been fine. I'd tip my hat to the creators for a job well enough done and that would be it. 

Instead, the people at Maestro Media created a cool game with clever mechanics, an excellent reflection of the subject matter, and a few surprises I definitely didn't see coming. There are base-building rules for making your own Mushroom Cottage and that is as awesome as it was unnecessary. 

Not surprisingly, I really like making Smurf characters. It was a real effort holding off on making one before this.

Character: Gossip Smurf

AKA: None

Player: Possibly me. Possibly an NPC. I hope me.

System: The Smurfs Roleplaying Game
 
Nature: Created for this Challenge

Gamemaster: None yet. Possibly me.

Circa: January 11th, 2025

Origins: It was a given that I'd be making a Smurfs character for this year's 31 Day Character Challenge (in fact I might make two). The real mystery, even for me, was 'what character should I make?' 

I decided I wanted to make an 'imperfect Smurf', one that is defined as much by his flaw as his advantage. I figured something more along to Clumsy or Vanity might be interesting. It was the letter I was up to, 'G', that gave me the final form of my newest little blue friend. 

 
Backstory: Not too long ago Gossip Smurf was just another Smurf, one of the many identifcal Smurfs who live and work in Smurf Village. That was until he overheard Papa Smurf telling Brainy Smurf that Gargamel was up to something and he passed on that information to his friend Reporter Smurf. Reporter ended up printing it in the Smurf Tattler. Papa Smurf was very angry at first as he didn't want to panic the Village before he had more information. 

As it turned out, the Smurfs did panic and the Smurf who would become Gossip felt responsible. He decided to use his 'talent' of picking up and dishing out rumors to make Gargamel think the magical relic he was searching for was over by the Sarsaparilla Fields - where Handy and Hefty had set up a trap! Gargamel fell for it and while he was trying to escape, Brainy, Smurfette, and Grouchy moved the item from where it really was and brought it to Papa Smurf's house. 

Gargamel eventually got out of the trap but was so disoriented he got lost in the nearby Western Woods and eventually gave up. He would later learn that the Smurfs got to the artifact first. 

Reporter Smurf decided to hire the rumor spreading Smurf, giving him the name Gossip Smurf. 

Overview: Gossip Smurf has got something to tell you. Now to be perfectly smurfy, its just a rumor but he's smurfed it through several sources and it seems legit. Now before he tells you, and you know he'll smurf it to straight, he was wondering if you'd heard anything about what that new contraption is that Handy's building. Really? You don't say? Oh no, I won't tell a Smurf. My smurfs are sealed. 

The Highlights: I decided to give Gossip Smurf a different sort of Advantage than I usually go with. Instead of using the type that lowers an Action's Difficulty Level, the type that adds a +2 to an Attribute, or the kind that awards you a Smurfberry, I went with the kind that Clumsy Smurf has:

When obtaining or spreading rumors, a roll that fails or succeeds by no more than 1 becomes a Partial Success instead.

This allows Gossip to persuade people to give him information or to convince someone of information he has, though with partials the information may not be wholely accurate or wholely believed.

His item, a Quill Pen and Paper, helps him remember what he's heard by writing it down. It can be used in other ways as well of course but I feel like that's its main purpose. 

Game Info: 

Notes: I like this guy! A lot! I haven't made a Smurf character yet I haven't liked but I can totally see having fun with this fellow by getting really creative. Heheh. 

 
Legacy: None yet - the ongoing drawback of this Challenge - but I hope he gets one. I can definitely see using him as an NPC with those friends I have who play Smurfs. 

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Barking Alien

31 Days / 31 Characters - FUMIKA WATANABE

Another of my favorite games to come out in the past few years in the independent Japanese TRPG 'Tokyo Ghost Research'. 

For the most part, I have used it to run a variation on Ghostbusters but in its original form it is a more generic 'Supernatural Office Comedy' game created by Seiji Nakata of Story Engine Lab. A fan-made or 'doujinshi' Tabletop Roleplaying Game in which investigating the paranormal is the job of a small Japanese corporation with overworked employees, obnoxious bosses, budget limitations, and other juxtapositions between the mundane world of business and the spooky world of exorcising ghosts.  

I've made characters for this game before but its one of the rare RPGs where I enjoy the process so...let's meet our Employee:

Character: Fumika Watanabe

Fumika is made up of fumi meaning 'Writing' or 'History/Record' and -ka 'Fragrance/Aroma' or 'Beautiful/Splendid'. Watanabe combines 'Crossing Over' and 'an Area or Border'. My idea for her name aludes to a 'Record of Crossing Over The Border', as in crossing over from the world of the living to that of the dead.

AKA: None

Player: Possibly me, possibly an NPC. 

System: Tokyo Ghost Research

 

Nature: Created for this Challenge

Gamemaster: None yet. Possibly me. 

Circa: January 10th, 2026

Origins: As noted above, I did this one just for fun because I like this game and oddly, creating characters for it. 

Backstory: A former employee of Japan's National Diet Library (the Japanese government's equivalent of the US's Library of Congress), Fumika Watanabe was recruited to the Tokyo Ghost Research company by her college roommate who was already working there. Prior to joining TGR, her roommate was one of the few people in the world who knew that Fumika had the Psychic Ability to summon the aid of a spiritual being. This talent combined with her excellent administrative skills made her a perfect choice for TGR's General Affairs Department.

Overview: As a child, Fumika was scolded by adults and teased by other children about her 'imaginary friend'. She generally hid the fact that this entity never went away and helped her quite a bit throughout high school and college and the passing of her father. She has since learned that the being is a Ghost-like Yokai similar to a Niji-Mitama. It likes her and enjoys helping her in exchange for being told stories about her everyday life. If she is threatened or made anxious by her relationships or job it can become an Ara-Mitama and become rough and violent. It will threaten the cause of her anxiety unless she directs it otherwise.  

I came up with this idea because normally the job of a General Affairs character isn't 'out in the field' but rather gets stuck in the office as the voice of 'the guy/gal in the chair' that assists the team. I figured she could and would definitely do that but in emergencies she'll call on her spirit friend for help. Then I could play the Yokai a little during encounters with the paranormal phenomanon the other PCs are dealing with.

The Highlights: Choosing 'Causal Existence'  allows for her ability to summon the Mitama. You wouldn't normally see a General Affairs Employee with this which is why I chose it. 

I also like her Previous Work Experience being essentially 'worked at the Library of Congress'. This gives her an excuse to know how and where to get additional information on whatever Project she's working on. 

Game Info:

Notes: None right now. I would definitely like to get to know her better.

It wasn't my intention but after I finished her I realized she kind of resembles Ichiko Yoruhime, a character from The Adventures of Horai Academy!! who I posted for a previous 31 Days/31 Characters Challenge from back in 2024.

Legacy: Like Notes, I have nothing yet in this category. I hope I get to play her though some day. She seems like she'd be fun to play.

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Barking Alien