I got to play 7 games and I ran one game. So, this was a pretty full schedule. Though, I only got into 4 games via the Shuffler. I crashed into two games and joined a game of Blood on the Clocktower. It was pretty crazy that the Shuffler gave me ZERO games for Saturday.
I had a great table for the game I ran. I enjoyed most of the games I played in. The highlight was experiencing Steven Drouin's Bibliomancy.
I had fun in all the games, even though I complain about somethings, they're minor compared to the pleasure I experienced, so overall, I had Excellent Adventures.
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Fri 2/13, Noon-6pm (took 5:15 hrs).
A-Paw-Calypse Meow
System: Year Zero Engine
GM: Morgan Hua
5 Players: Emily W (Bryd), Joshua L (KFC), Chris E (Tinkerbell), Gil T (Wild Thang), Nichole W (Snoop Cat)
Level: Pets of Rich and Famous People, Animals can talk to each other.
Pregens provided.
You play Jackie Chan's Squirrel, Samuel Jackson's Parrot, Snoop Dogg's Cat, Paris Hilton's Chihuahua, and Gary Busey's Dog. Your human is at some charity event and they abandon you at the hospitality suite. As the world spirals into collapse, you must work together to survive and travel to your wormiest hea>rt of darkness.
Tone: Darkly Humorous (Dale & Tucker vs Evil, Evil Dead 2, Shaun of the Dead, Animal Farm)
Content Tags: Horror Tropes, Apocalyptic, Cannibalism, Harm to Animals, Drug Use (light), Political Satire (definite), Fowl Language (possibly)
I had a great table. Out of all the times I've run this, this table laughed the most throughout the full 5 hrs. Chris killed it as Tinkerbell with the funniest version; a spoiled dog that only ate gourmet food and asked others to do things for it.
I also think this was my best run. At KublaCon, I forgot some stuff; and this time, I remembered some little bits and flourishes and put them in at the right time.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
This time, I changed how Byrd selected his 5 English phrases. They're not set, but once used, it's locked in. This worked a lot better. Emily decided to challenge herself by using iconic movie dialog from Samuel Jackson's movies. At the very end, she got in 5 of them. Personal challenge complete.
PCs set the National Zoo's gift shop on fire with RFK Jr's body in it.
KFC's archnemesis was Dobbie the Golden Retriever. This is the first time, the PC didn't use the Signature Attack on his archnemesis. I also moved the archnemesis to the National Zoo. When KFC checked out the taxidermized Kung Fu Panda, Dobbie steps out to face KFC. Once KFC knocked Dobbie to one die, he told him he had lost and to leave. Dobbie does. This was pretty cool.
In the end, the PCs rescued all their humans and left the White House.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Fri 2/13, 6pm-Midnight (took 6 hrs)
Lancer: The Kerberos Campaign
System: Lancer
GM: Keegan Pincombe
5 Players (+1 extra crasher): Roberto G (Peasant), Corbin F (Mariner), Ian (Cornora), Na S (Vahalla), Greg B (Playwright), Morgan Hua (Fullmoon - Gremlin).
Power Level: LL3
Pregens Provided.
When Union sent you to the resource-rich Kerberos system, it was as a security escort for the diplomats and mediators aboard the frigate UNS-LS Sacramento. You were there to show the flag, act as impartial observers, and deliver much-needed relief supplies as three warring nations made the first tentative overtures towards global peace.
Forty-eight hours ago, that plan went up in a blaze of nuclear fire.
Crash-landed and cut off, your squad must now make a daring insertion into hostile territory to rescue a priceless asset: Stacy, the Sacramento's command-and-control NHP. Within her armored escape casket are Schedule 1 matter printers, long range omnihook transceivers, reserve coldcore fusion batteries...everything you need to resupply and call for help.
This is not your world. This is not your war. It seems you'll be fighting anyway.
--
Lancer is a hex-grid tactical combat game set against the rich tapestry of the interstellar human Diaspora in the far-flung future of 5016u. You are a mech pilot of exceptional skill (or exceptional luck), piloting a bespoke war machine of your own design into conflicts large and small. Rules-light narrative play supplements a flexible combat engine that encourages teamwork, tactical gameplay, and player customization.
I knew nothing about Lancer except it had good reviews. We had a great GM as this game is very, very crunchy, but the GM ran it smoothly. First 30 mins was roleplaying where we tried to find our NHP. The last 5.5 hrs was spent on one battle, so this game was basically a tactical combat game (full hex battlemat) with mechs.
I enjoyed this, but I won't play this again.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The game started with us crashed on a moon. We look for survivors and get a signal from our NHP which was still re-entering the atmosphere and sending a distress call. We contact it and tell it to stop broadcasting the distress call and to give us it's telemetry. Once that was done, we hoof it towards it's crash site. On the way, we run into a small town, get directions and get to the crash site. This was the 30 mins of roleplaying.
Because we found the crash site quickly (one day travel without stopping), we got the benefit of deciding whether we setup an ambush or a defense perimeter around the NHP. If we had gotten there late, we would have to fight the enemy already there. We picked ambush. If we control the NHP's location at the end of round 6, we win. If not, we lose. In the middle of combat, the GM sent the second wave of enemy mechs (reinforcements).
We won on round 6.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sat 2/14, Noon-8pm (took 8 hrs)
All for One, and Ia Ia Cthulhu Fthagn!
System: Call of Cthulhu 7e
GM: Darin Owen
5 Players (+3): Jack Y (Felix Beaumont), Mike (Etienne Pelletier), Justin G (Louis St Martin), Wally S (Olivier Donnadieu), Sean P (Armand Charpentier), Rubin (Gilbert Marchand), Morgan Hua (Isabeau Girard), Drunk Dude (Claude Brienne).
Pregens provided.
Game Content: Mature Themes
As former Musketeers, you protected the body of Louis XIII. As members of The Ordre de la Fleur de Lys Noir, you protect France from her enemies both human, and eldritch. Gather all for a swashbuckling adventure of treasonous plots, arcane malfeasance, daring escapades, and confrontation with the Grand High Priest of France himself, Cardinal Richelieu.
I didn't get into any games on Saturday. So, I tried to crash into this one. The bad news was it was set for 5 Players and I saw 8 seats. GM told me there were 3 extra seats and one was mine if there was a no show. So that was the good news. Also Jack was playing, so that was good news too.
Here's the very bad news. The GM has 3 extra seats because his buddies sign up for his game and if they don't get into it officially, he lets them take an extra seat.
I got one of the empty seats. This left one empty seat.
GM spots a buddy and asks him to take the last seat. Buddy says he has errands to run. GM insisted. Buddy said he would be back later. We started the game and he finally shows up and starts drinking. He was a noisy drunk and wasn't paying attention to the game. Throughout the game, he was making jokes and talking over everyone. GM tried to quiet him multiple times, but with varying effect. It was very disruptive.
GM insisted we sit in initiative order. My seat was next to the drunk. He didn't sit in his seat, but sat on top of the table behind me. Because there were so many chairs around the table, my seat was also the seat that was up against that table and everybody needed me to move before they can get out of the room, or get a drink, or go to the bathroom. It sucked.
In the last two hours of the game, the drunk started coughing continuously (sometimes on me). And the GM and his buddies brought out various bottles of alcohol and started drinking. (If he was deliberately coughing, that's an asshole move, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.)
I concluded the drunk buddy didn't really want to play and was actively aggressively trying to disrupt the game. In the final fight, we were all stealthing and the drunk charged into the room, doing a Leeroy Jenkins. Earlier in the game, a Player animated one of the dead enemy, so he could question it. When the dead rose, drunk buddy said, "You mean it just got up? I kill it!" You should have seen the look of shock around the table.
I spoke to Jack afterwards and we came up with some minor criticisms:
Some of the handouts were way more than needed as the handouts gave us clues to the next scene. They actually became more like the glue between scenes vs a clue needed to figure out what was going on. The GM didn't really ask us where we were going, but told us where we were going. The excuse was the handout.
The GM liked to reinterpret our actions to make it more cinematic. Interesting and good, as an example of pulp action to those who lack imagination, but I thought it was ok at the start, but at some point, let the Players act the way they wanted to.
There was one scene we thought was totally unnecessary. It could have been merged into the finale. This would have shortened the game from 8 to 6 hrs.
I also noticed sometimes the GM didn't answer a direct question from me, I was met with silence, and he moved on to something else which was odd and later, during the game, that question got resolved.
I think the main sin is those 3 extra seats. Here I am complaining and I benefited from it.
As a GM, the GM is pretty good and the scenario was good too.
I had fun, but I'll probably make sure not so sign up for this GM's games due to the head count and drinking.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
I had to crash this game, so, I picked the second to last PC, the only female PC because the GM said she was necessary for the game and no one else picked her.
We're given a mission to retrieve a book.
The game started with a chase scene. My PC is kidnapped and in a carriage. Ahead and behind the carriage are guardsmen on horses, 6 in front, 6 in the rear. The coach has a driver and guardsmen on top, one with a blunderbuss. The carriage is racing along a road. On one side is a drop off into the sea and the other a cliff face rising upwards. This made an exciting chase and fight scene.
Inside the carriage was a chest. The bad guys (one who I recognize) finally open it. Inside, a crystal on a necklace, a large metal gear (manhole sized), and the book (giant tome). In the end, I saved the book. The PCs took out all the guards. The carriage went into the sea with a major bad guy with the crystal and the gear. During the fight, as each guardsman died, a red ball of light flew into the necklace.
We take turn in the book to our patron who translates it (massive handout). Are told to go to a Nunnery. Inside the catacombs, we find a massive gear (different from the one in the carriage). Once we take it, the dead rise to attack us. At some point, the dead tell us if we give it up (all in unison), it would spare the nuns and us. We refused to do so, eventually, enough undead attack us that we had to give it up. (GM tells us we're even being attacked by dead buried cows and peasants, not just the dead buried in the catacombs, we were being attacked by all the dead in all of France.) This felt like GM forcing the plot. I did tell Jack I did like the catacombs, it was a cool set piece. Jack countered that the catacombs could have been merged into the finale instead. So, we don't have the GM forcing us here. I agreed. The guy who summoned all the undead is a necromancer in a mask. With him is another man who one of the PCs recognized as the brother of the man in the carriage.
Once we gave up the gear by telling the undead we would, a PC uses a spell the hurl to it way from us smashing many of the undead. The hordes of undead surge to it and takes it away.
The next scene, we meet Cardinal Richelieu outside of a siege. We get sent to infiltrate the city to reach a ruined cathedral. Once inside, we go through tunnels to the finale. This is where Jack said the tunnels should have been replaced with the catacombs. In the tunnels we kill guardsmen, free some prisoners that were going to be sacrificed (sent them with weapons to free other prisoners), faced a Shoggoth (PC binds it and sent it back towards the big bad, so we follow it). In the main chamber, we face 3 major bad guys. This was actually neat. Generally, you get only one main bad guy. Later, we realize, it's one Major bad guy in a mask, and his two lieutenants, the two brothers. But all three of them were pretty powerful.
In the main chamber are prisoners to be sacrificed, a giant crystal, the two gears placed in their proper slots and souls flying to the small crystal fragment the man in the mask was holding. There are also various guardsmen.
PCs sneak in to attack various targets. The Shoggoth, now ordered to remove one of the gears and to protect it, enters and some PCs use it as cover.
This is when Claude, alone, charges in with a frontal assault against the necromancer in the mask. Luckily, the prisoners we had rescued, arrive, charging in behind Claude. As if we planned it this way.
The necromancer unsummons the Shoggoth.
During the fight, the ground splits as the ritual of the necromancer is being completed, tentacles come out of the rift.
I'm freeing prisoners.
One PC shoots the necromancer's hand, destroying it and sends the crystal flying. The necromancer reforms his hand. I want to put the crystal into my pistol and shoot the necromancer with it, so I ask how small was it and whether it would fit into the barrel of my gun, if so, I'd try to get to it, take out the lead ball and shoot the crystal instead. GM said it wouldn't fit. Another Player says the blunderbuss would take anything. Luckily, one of the PCs had asked for one.
A PC puts a chisel into the spot, on the large crystal, where the small fragment of crystal came from, and uses a spell to pound the chisel to shatter it. It explodes and we all take 44 pts of damage. Luckily we have Flesh Wards (21 pts) and Heavy Cloth (3 pts), and Cardinal Richelieu's blessing (+10 HPs). All of us survive. But so do the bad guys, but they're very hurt.
PCs kill the two lieutenants, but the necromancer is still standing. Everyone dog piles attacks on him to buy time as one of the PCs loads a blunderbuss with crystal shards. The blunderbuss kills him. The rift closes. A tentacle comes out of a crystal shard and pulls the remains of the necromancer into oblivion.
This final fight was pretty cool.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sun 2/14, 8pm-Midnight (took 4 hrs)
Blood on the Clocktower
This is actually a social deduction game. More or less a LARP. I was about to go home, but got invited to play and wanted to try this out. I thought it would take 1/2 an hour, but setup was about 1/2 an hour. I was the Fortune Teller. After the first round of accusations, there were two Players who I suspected were bad guys. I was going to use my ability on them, but I got murdered.
This game went on a lot longer that I wanted. There were times where people kept on negating previous votes and then lots of repeats of previous arguments.
In the end with 4 Players left, another Player got fed up and randomly chose someone to execute and that ended the game, the bad guys won because they supported the execution. What was sad, was if they talked it out a bit and accused the right person, the villagers would have won.
Once the solution was revealed, my initial hunch was correct. What was interesting, was the longer the game went, the more doubt crept into my head.
Sun 2/15, 8am-Noon (took 4 hrs)
Games without Frontiers
System: Alien 1e
GM: Dave Sokolowski
5 Players: Dave B (PFC Albert Lee - comtech), Corey C (LCpl Dani Boor - medic), Geoff G (Lt Rebecca Jimenez - CRN), Jerry C (Casey Bolton - Company Man), Morgan Hua (Sgt Tyler McIntosh - Assault Rifleman).
Pregens provided.
Game Content: Mature Themes
Outer Veil - Two weeks ago, a Weyland-Yutani team arrived at the classified We-Yu Research Facility Crest-Magma 231.a to retrieve goods. Shortly thereafter, the base went dark, and all team communications ceased. Your quickly assembled section of Marines and Company Representatives has been sent to investigate the communications outage, reclaim control of the base, and ensure the safety of any lost scientific data and research materials.
I had fun, but the scenario is a bit railroady as there's only one path (ok for a short 4 hr convention game). In the end, only my PC died, everyone else made it out alive, well maybe, the Medic got infected and won't live.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We stealth to the research facility, a space station that's dark. It's locked down. It has 2 docking ports. On one end, is a WY high-end freighter; a UPP assault ship on the other. We break into the UPP ship and find the pilot is dead and it has tried to send a message. We decrypt the message and it's a video explaining that they were wiped out by violent synthetics and there's something else onboard the station. We stop the broadcast and delete the message.
Inside the station is signs of violence. Also a yellow crystal is growing along the corridors.
We go to the other docking port. There's a damaged synthetic, a David in the pilot seat. On a white board is the message "Don't Trust." It sees us, makes sure we see the message and it erases it. It tells us about the UPP assault and that two other Davids are trying to access the lab which is locked down. Company Man shoots the David in the head at point blank.
PCs go to the bridge and see two Davids working on the electronics. Company Man talks to them, both Davids act in unison, after we get info, Company Man tries to draw his pistol, but the Davids attack us. We take out the Davids.
The only way to get the research data is to get to repair damaged equipment in the bridge and access MUTHER. We repair the damage. The only way to MUTHER is through the lab. More yellow crystals coat everything leading to the lab. The lead scientist asks us to unlock the door. We do. Talk to her. Then she transforms into something monstrous.
My PC does major shock damage to the creature. In response, she smashes and kills my PC. The other PCs kill her. Company Man goes to MUTHER, gets the lab data, and sets a self-destruct. PCs escape on the luxury freighter.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sun 2/15, 2pm-8pm (took 4 hrs)
What the Sea Taketh, the Sea Keepeth
System: Obscure RPG
GM: Sean Phelan
5 Players (2 no shows): Morgan Hua (Eddie Foster - Olympian swimmer wannabee), Glen H, Patrick A, Thomas C (not sure who the no show was). One PC was Hernandez -- our Medic who wants to be in medical school; Other was our Leader, from a long line of navel men.
Pregens provided.
Game Content: Mature Themes
You're members of the U.S. Coast Guard's Aviation Rescue Swimmers (ASTs), investigating the mysterious disappearance of the cruise ship, Splendid Sojourn. Communication was lost as it sailed from Florida to Barbados — and was never heard from again...until now.
Obscure is the Found Footage Inspired Horror RPG.
Website is to Obscure's completed Kickstarter, which has information on game.
I thought this game was a full multi-media event with video, audio, and pictures. I was wrong. It was more or less a standard RPG. The seed for the scenario is found footage, but we didn't see it, it was described to us like in all other RPGs.
Since we only had 3 Players, the game ended early. The issue is with less than the full compliment, the finale was a lot tougher. The game system is very unforgiving as Anxiety Points mount up and there's no way to succeed when that happens. I basically don't think this system works.
Each Anxiety Point = 1d6, if any of the Anxiety dice rolls a 1, you panic. Near the end of the scenario, I had 6 Anxiety Pts. The chances of not rolling a 1 was very low.
The game is a bit railroady (which is ok for a convention game, but lacks complexity).
I enjoyed the creepiness of the game and had fun. I don't recommend the system.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
PCs get dropped into the water to investigate a sunk ship. Every room we explore is full of very, very creepy stuff. We take pictures and try to inventory the dead and try to find the manifest for the ship. The problem is once we went through a big part of the ship, our Anxiety Point count was so high, we stopped looking in every room because we knew we'd increase our Anxiety and just flee (fleeing does not decrease your Anxiety). Also because we looked in the mirror image of those rooms and they were just passenger rooms.
In the end, with 3 PCs, our leader (with the least Anxiety) decided to join the evil, and dropped his speargun. So, it was left to me and the medic to try to kill the evil. The medic went to pick up the dropped speargun, our leader tried to stop him, I tried to intercept our leader. Medic actually made his die roll (even with 6 or 7 Anxiety pts). I panicked. GM ruled that in my panic, I get in the way of the Medic's shot and I get shot with the speargun. This actually takes me down to 1 HP. So we flee the evil looking for something else to destroy the ship or interrupt the ritual. We find possible things to do (pools of oil and fuel), but we didn't have the equipment to ignite it.
What I didn't like was early in the game I asked for underwater flares. I was told we didn't get them. After the game, we found out that inside the ONE door we didn't open, was a supply closet with underwater flares, air canisters, and lots of other stuff we could have used. WTF?
With our Leader volunteering, the ritual was complete and the darkness engulfed us and the entire world. THE END.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sun 2/15, 6pm-Midnight (took 6 hrs)
Bibliomancy
System: Bibliomancy
GM: Steven Drouin
5 Players: Morgan Hua, Z Morgan, K Reichhold, M Durkee, J Means, N Geier. (there was one no show, so I took their seat. I'm not sure who the no show is).
Characters created at game.
Libraries across the globe are under attack. Books are disappearing in puffs of purple-green mist. You are a book, violently brought to life, and bound to defend the written word. Learn to draw power from within yourself and unravel the mystery of these coordinated assaults.
Bibliomancy is a new mystery/horror TTRPG that uses player brought books as the characters for the session. Books should be approximately 200 pages in length. You will be destroy your book as part of gameplay. GM will bring extra books just in case.
This was the standout game for me.
A very cool game mechanic. You definitely need to love books, words, and libraries. If you don't, this game probably isn't for you. In our game, one of the Player's real life job is Librarian. So is Steven's.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We first have to pick a book to be our character. The Librarian brought her own. I immediately took The Mammoth Book of Slasher Movies.
We're summoned by another book, a Summoner, told that libraries are under attack, and we're taught two ways (out of 4) to fight:
LitText (non-fiction book filled with text): Tear out a page from your book and to circle words to make a spell which manifests physically to attack.
FigText (fiction book filled with text): Tear out a page from your book and circle letters to spell out words which manifests physically to attack.
The spells do damage. If the target book matches our attack method (LitText vs LitText), damage is doubled. If we rip out two more pages, the damage is doubled again. Books HPs are = number of pages, thicker books have more HPs. NPC books just have blocks of HPs, we don't have to physically tear apart a real NPC book, but just a NPC sheet which has the book cover and inside, a sample of it's contents.
Right after we learn our two spells, books (with bookmarks) show up and attack our Summoner, killing it. They also attack two other books.
We guess as to whether our enemy books are LitText or FigText by their covers (yes, judging books by their covers 😀).
After defeating our foes, torn book marks fall to the ground. We examine them and they contain instructions. It looks like they've been tasked to go to our library and another and to destroy a list of books. We find two of the books are present, but not the third.
At this time we create our characters. We tear another page out of our book and circle words to create our character sheet: My name: Low Budget. Appearance: Large Boobs. Demeaner: Unreserved. Drive: Killing Annoying Teenagers.
My PC: Low Budget
Back of Bookmark and my surviving pages, down to page 111.
The back of the bookmark also has some interesting spells. We realize the enemy books used Crossing to arrive at our library by putting the numbers 1592 on to PLACE HERE.
We learn we can ask books questions at the cost of 1 page. So we question the two books that survived as to their contents.
Then we go to the enemy second library goal by tearing numbers out of our pages, 1800, and placing them in the correct order in PLACE HERE. We arrive at the Library of Congress. Another Summoner greets us and asks if we want to pledge our Oath to the Ordo VVallum Libria. Three of us do. After pledging our oath, we gain one of three Oath Enrichments. I picked Popular, as I'm a Popular Low Budget book. 😀
Once there, enemy books arrive and books are attacked again. We fight back, but realize we've mis-judged some books by their covers and they're hardly damaged and we've lost a handful of pages to them. In the end we defeated them. They were visual books, and we learned how to attack them properly:
LitVis (non-fiction book filled with illustrations): Tear out a page, and tear the paper into the shape of letters and spell a word or phrase. The spell manifests physically to attack.
FigVis (fiction book filled with illustrations): Tear out a page, and tear the paper into the shape of an object. The spell manifests physically to attack.
How we choose our attacks are based on how the enemy manifested. Some show up as giant flaming fists or dark clouds. I believe Steven picked imagery based on words in the book's titles.
Again we get more enemy bookmarks pointing to our next location. Steven also showed us beautiful pictures of each library.
At the next library, we had to solve a puzzle to get into the hidden restricted section, using the library's statues and a poem. Underneath the flooring, we find chained up books.
Chained books
More enemy books show up, all had flowers in their title. This time, we decide to do an Appraisal. If we tear half of our back or front cover off, we can figure out what type of book they are. I actually get two free Appraisals because I was a Popular book. When you do an Appraisal, you can open up the book covers and read the text (or see the illustrations inside), then you can figure out what type of book it is.
At one point, I tried to figure out what type of books they were by the spells they used to attack us. I guessed wrong.
We defeat these books too. We question the books that were their target and start to understand what was going on. Books are like prayers, creating a cacophony of noise that the gods can't hear, but by destroying First Editions and their lineage, that noise is quieted. Then the True Voice can be heard. Someone wanted to manifest their vision as the truth. We also found the enemy books were infested with moths (and other book destroying insects).
Our last stop was the British Museum. The goal, the Necronomicon. Where new hidden pages were found through a non-invasive technology. The book is protected behind sturdy glass. The only way to get through is to do something Physically which required destroying one of our Bibliomantic Quadrans, one of our spell combat skills. One if the PCs does that and shatters the glass.
This is where I should say that when books fight books, it's more of a literary fight, a combat of ideas. So, we imagine the spells manifesting (metaphorically) and see the fight, books do get damaged, but to interact with real physical objects like glass, a table, or human, they must do it Physically.
We fight more books and a human where another PC had to sacrifice a Quadran. The books and person was feeding on the Necronomicon. A PC tried to question the book, but lost half his remaining pages. When a PC picked up the damaged book, costing another Quadran, moths fell out of it and a note, the hidden pages. It tells us that its goal is to contain the moths and we must either repair it or contain it.
I sacrifice a Quadran to draw a rectangle around the book, then we have to tear out a page and sacrifice a Truth (read out loud a truth from the page) for each side. We learned this spell from various books we talked to earlier. Once we succeeded, we won!
For our epilogue, we got to tear out a page from our book and circle phrases that describes what happens to us.
I became one of the replacement Summoners. You should never judge a book by it's cover. 😀
The book that was torn in half was a young juvenile book with few words, large text, illustrated, big margins. The Player probably had a challenge for his spells. I had an easy time as my book was full of violent words and commentary about various directors and movies, and dates, so I had an easy time of it. His denouement was brilliant, about fading into the void and being lost forever.
One Player had a large fantasy novel. Another a non-fiction book on archeological digs. Another a non-fiction book on ancient myths.
Overall, a very, very creative game.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Mon 2/16, 10am-4pm (GM was sick, so we only played about 2 hrs)
Into the Forbidden Zone (Murder in Ape City)
System: Planet of the Apes (D6MV Magnetic Variant)
GM: Norm Albert
6 Players: Sam S (Perdita - Mutant), Tom M (Thomson - Astronaut), Tom M (Maguhilo - Orananutan), Alex Z (Twitch - Mute Human), Paul M (Dr Sabastiano - Chimpanze), Morgan Hua (Sergent Ulmar - Gorilla).
Pregens provided.
The unthinkable has happened! Ape has killed ape! Join the investigation and help restore peace and order to Ape City.
GM told us his earlier run of Murder in Ape City didn't work, so he decided to run Into the Forbidden Zone which is a published scenario. We played for about an hour, then GM was sick, fighting nausea and disorientation. We took a 1/2 hr break. Started again and it was clear the GM wasn't doing very well. We discussed ending the game, but he said he felt bad about letting us down. Someone suggested a break for an hour, GM went to sleep. We left. An hour later, we returned to the room and to my surprise everyone was there. We played another 1/2 hr and the GM finally said, he couldn't go any longer and called it.
Things I liked about Planet of the Apes system: We had a variety of Apes (Gorillas, Chimpanzees, and Orangutans) and Humans (Mutants, Natives, Astronauts). Art is very consistent and evocative. The society gives the PCs lots of things to have conflict about; During play, we had a lot of misunderstandings, snide comments about other races, jokey comments (references to the movies).
Things I didn't like: The dice system. On most tasks, we failed a lot unless we used our Hero Points, then we succeeded by a wide margin. Either we barely hit and did nothing, or we hit very well and wounded our opponents. At one point, someone shot a Gorilla successfully and nothing happened (Ok, I looked at the rules, the Gorilla should have been Stunned for 1 round), so chalk this up to GM error. System used a d6 dice pool, summing all the numbers up. One die is replaced with a special Wild Die which can explode on a 6 (continue rolling until a non-6 is rolled, all numbers rolled are added to the total). When you spend a Hero Point, you double the number of dice rolled. And if your total is double your Difficulty Number (DN), you do double damage.
At first we thought the Hero Points were very limited, but we asked how to recover them and GM didn't know. Someone looked it up, if you roll a 6 on the Wild Die, you gain at least 1 Hero Point. So, they're a lot more common than we thought. I looked at the rules and if a 1 is rolled on the Wild Die, GM can introduce Setbacks (for free) or adjust the success and award Hero Points.
GM didn't have a good grasp of the system, but it was probably due to his disorientation, so we spent a lot of time waiting as he looked up rules. It also didn't help Players would ask questions and derail the GM as he's still trying to figure out earlier stuff, almost like throwing more plates at a juggler who was in the middle of dropping 1 or 2 plates.
The GM getting sick isn't his fault. He also had some neurological problems, I noticed hand tremors and weakness in his hand. Later, I remembered another game that he had run, and he had the same problems with the rules, but this time it was a lot worse.
My goal of checking out Planet of the Apes was fulfilled. I may try this system again, but with a different GM.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
PCs are in an Ape prison. We learned things about each other, escaped, found our stuff, and the game ended. This was more or less an open sandbox for the PCs. Once they escape, they can go anywhere since the PC group had apes, humans, a mutant, and an astronaut. Our plan, after escaping, was to go into the underground tunnels Twitch knew about, get supplies, and escape into the Forbidden Zone (Perdita's home).
After putting some plans into action to escape, an earthquake happened that aided our escape. I actually didn't like this as it was very Deus Ex Machina. I believe it was part of the scenario and not a way for the GM to hurry us along.
Bay C decided to run a small invite-only RPG convention to replace BigBadCon (which didn't happen this year). He went all out: T-shirts (provided by Sean M), wooden name tags (provided by Kim F), lunch and dinner (provided by Bay), gorgeous modern venue (provided by Bay).
T-shirt & Name Tag
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Sat Dec 6, 10am-2:30pm (4 hrs excluding 1/2 hr for lunch)
The Haunting of Ypsilon 14
System: Mothership
GM: Sean M
3 Players: Josh H (teamster), Kim F (scientist), Morgan Hua (Manson - marine)
During a routine cargo job on a remote asteroid mining base the crew learns that one of the miners has disappeared. No blood, no body, no record of the airlock opening. Just gone.
Mothership is the Alien RPG that came out before Free League licensed the rights to the Alien IP (Intellectual Property) and created the Alien RPG. It uses a d100 system with other polyhedral dice.
The good news is that since it's not tied to the Alien IP, whatever horrors you run into can be anything and it gives you surprises.
I enjoyed the game and had a good time. My Marine rolled great on save throws and horribly on attacks which was bad for everyone as we TPKed and then had to use backup characters.
Sean did tell us the scenarios are very OSR, lightly described, and the GM has to do a lot of heavy lifting to figure out what's going on and to make their own connections and conclusions. If you look at the published scenario, you'll notice it's a double-sided single-sheet of paper, tri-folded, to look like a pamphlet. That's it.
I still like Alien RPG more than Mothership, but I might run Mothership scenarios using the Alien RPG system.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We started off looking for a missing Mining Engineer, Mike. Clues pointed to a yellow slime found on the mining asteroid and Mike entering the mine (missing vac suit). Attached to the asteroid was our ship (a freighter) and a science ship.
We discover the head scientist, Dr Giovanni, who had gotten a sample of the yellow slime was isolating himself, so Kim's PC used bureaucracy to force the ship's captain to open up the lab doors. Dr Giovanni's at the door and he opens his mouth and a stream of yellow slime comes pouring out. I open fire and miss. We finally take down Dr Giovanni. We find his lab notes.
Another miner is devoured/crushed by something invisible in the mine.
We take the 10-minute elevator into the mine. Use squirt bottles to spray a water mist ahead of us, to see if there's gravity anomalies or something invisible. Go to where Mike found the slime, entered a crevasse, and found a computer setup, more slime, and a large alien fleshy pod. While looking around, the invisible thing attacks. I missed all my shots at it (4d10 damage) whereas Josh's PC did damage it, but not enough. It kills us all. One funny bit is my Marine is the last one standing and Sean had that GM look of "I think you should run," but I took one more shot at the thing, missed yet again, and died.
We take over a few NPCs as replacement PCs and Kim is now playing Sonya, the mining operations team leader and orders all of us to arm up and to go down into the mine. Josh takes the android. I take the captain of the science ship.
We find Mike's vac suit (filled with slime), rescue Josh's PC (was unconscious but we hit him with a Stimpak) who tells us what's happened. Two NPCs take him back to the freighter's medical facilities. Meanwhile, the invisible creature attacks. PCs retreat, send mining robots down the main hallway to buy us some time as we wait for the elevator.
After Josh's PC enters the code to the freighter ship and opens the airlock, the two NPCs drop him and run into the ship. Josh crawls after them, dripping yellow slime from his injured ankle.
The elevator arrives downstairs, and Sonya gets on the elevator. My PC, the last one standing is trying to kill the creature and is being swallowed, and I'm attacking it from the inside. Sonya hits the up button. My PC crits the creature, but rolls the weakest crit possible. My PC dies.
Josh decides to sabotage the freighter as he's going to die and wants vengeance against two NPCs who abandoned him.
Sonya gets on the science ship and abandons the asteroid. In the distance she sees the freighter self-destruct, taking out the asteroid.
THE END.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sat Dec 6, between games, about 1 hr
Ghost Court
Players: Bay C (Judge), Kaui D, Saul M, Jolene M, Hannah G, Josh H, Morgan Hua
It's a game modeled on People's Court, but ghosts vs living or vice-versa. This was pretty funny. Bay got a gavel, long black robes, and a wig of long curly white hair. We played plaintiffs and defendants in ghost court. Cards were handed out for various cases. I thought it was a cute idea, but the cases weren't pushed as far or as funny as they could have been. I thought the cases were "friendly" and a bit too cleansed for general consumption. If the cases were more twisted or outrageous like People's Court, it would have been a lot more funnier. It was still a fun party game of improv.
Sat Dec 6, 4-8:30pm (4 hrs excluding 1/2 hr for dinner)
Back to Bodie
System: Feng Shui
GM: Kim F
5 Players: Chris F (Shawn Cho - Sorcerer), Hannah G (Liam Cheung - Exorcist Monk), Jolene M (Kellie Jones - 2-Fisted Archaeologist), Saul M (Shellie - Martial Artist), Morgan Hua (Max Hunter - Magic Cop).
Martial arts heroes take on fiendish foes in a Hong Kong action cinema style.
In a flash of blue light, two influencers go missing in Bodie in the middle of a video streaming broadcast.
This is set in California vs the default Hong Kong setting. Overall, a fun game.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Jennie May and Steve Stubbins are the influencers. Watching the video, Max knows the blue flash is a nexus gate. The influencers were outside of a western style saloon.
We get to Bodie, a historic state park, a gold mining ghost town, preserved by the climate. In the parking lot is Steve's car (I ran the plates). The entrance booth is manned by a shifty park ranger. I notice a Mason pin on his lapel. He tells us we can't enter at night, it's closed. I give him the hidden Mason handshake and he lets us in, but warns me to take everyone's cellphone. I don't do that.
We notice new powerlines running from the mines to the cemetery with glass insulators. Shawn senses Chi power flowing from the shutdown mine.
PCs hear piano playing at the saloon right near where the two influencers vanished. We find Rosa May playing the piano. Questioning her, we find she's from the past, Lincoln was president at her time. We tell her to stay put and we'll get her home.
PCs split up. One group heads to the Mason building (Shawn, Liam, and Shellie). One group heads to the cemetery (Max and Kellie).
At the Mason building, Shawn finds an old Mason tome on an altar, the owner is Solomon Stubbins with his death date continuously crossed out. Shawn has a vision of a calamity and is thrown back.
Before getting to the cemetery, Max and Kellie hear horse hooves and a posse rides up. They try to hide, but fail. It's the park ranger demanding their cellphones. I give him my phone, but I try to shoot him with my shotgun (hidden in a plain case), and miss. Combat ensues, but the others hear the shotgun blast.
PCs defeat the posse, and capture one of the Mooks. He tells them he works for the park ranger who actually is their mine foreman, but he dislikes Solomon Stubbins.
PCs go to the cemetery to check out the gravestones and Solomon Stubbins's tombstone. There's a glowing marker at it's base. Shawn tells us he knows what to do and messes with it. It goes off and we sucked back into the past.
We find the saloon and talk to Rosa May and she tells us that she's seen both Jennie and Steve. That Steve's been working for Solomon, upgrading the electric lines.
Shawn and Liam climb to the roof of the Mason building (people chanting inside), peer in a window on the 2nd floor and see Jennie. They rescue Jennie (out the window) and she tells us that she and Steve had a falling out and that Steve was helping Solomon.
PCs go to the mine (now open). There's Solomon doing some ritual with acolytes. PCs convince Steve to shut the power down. There's a black out and Solomon comes out to find out what's going on. Fight breaks out. Solomon shows that he's a powerful sorcerer with time abilities. During the fight, Kellie uses her whip to grab the amulet around Solomon's neck and crushes it as she pulls it off (rolled some massive number). There's an explosion at the cemetery. We finally beat Solomon (Kellie does the killing blow after I shot him in the back).
We go to the cemetery, the marker is still there, glowing. Shawn messes with it, it goes off and we're Back to the Future. We see Rosa's gravestone at the outskirts of the cemetery with an appropriate death date. Rosa's not in the saloon and we find a time capsule (plaque marker to be opened 2025 that wasn't there before) containing a thank you letter from Rosa.
There's probably a few loose ends which we didn't quite seal the loop on, but overall we fixed it.
I'm always a sucker for time travel stories, movies, and games. So, lots to enjoy.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sun Dec 8, 10am-2:30pm (3 hrs excluding 1/2 hr for lunch)
The Green Knight
System: The Green Knight
GM: Morgan Hua
3 Players: Aaron R (Noble), Josh H (Hunter), Shannon M (Knight)
Characters travel to meet their fateful end with the Green Knight after a year. Moral choices as they encounter situations on their travels. 1d20 roll above/below your morality to succeed.
I played this at BigBadCon 2023 and really enjoyed this. I wouldn't pay the full retail price for this ($35), but I found a copy on eBay for $18 (included tax and shipping).
One rule is that PCs automatically take 1 Dishonor when they encounter something on the road (it's a distraction) and if they interact with the encounter, it'll cost them another Dishonor before they can disengage with it. So basically, every encounter will cost them 2 Dishonor. And the resolution of the encounter will award honor/dishonor based on what they do.
Every failed die roll also costs 1 Dishonor.
PCs TPKed at the beginning of the 2nd encounter. Not really a TPK, but when a PC reaches 20 dishonor, they give up the quest and it's the end of the scenario if all the PCs hit 20 dishonor. Boy did they have really bad die rolls.
So, they opted to reuse the PCs, I set their Dishonor back at 10 and started them at the 2nd encounter. This time around, they made it to the end.
I normally adlib boxed text for RPGs, but in this case, the boxed text is so well written that I actually read to the Players the boxed text.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The first encounter, Act 1, is with toll takers and this is where the PCs had really bad rolls and they made a bad decision. So, at the end, they were at 17-19 dishonor. At the next encounter, they each fell to 20 dishonor easily and ended their quest at the very start of Act 2. Also when your dishonor is high, what you need to roll to succeed gets harder and harder, so it's a death spiral.
1st encounter: the PCs handed the peasant to the toll takers and took the mace that was offered them.
2nd encounter: the PCs let the fox go.
3rd encounter: the PCs recovered the skull and put the ghost to rest.
The Green Chapel: The Knight got his head chopped off. The Hunter got cut down by the Green Knight during combat. The Noble fled.
What I enjoyed is that the scenarios are not exactly as they seem and even the ending is a big surprise. If you approach the encounters in stereotypical D&D murder hobo fashion, it'll quickly lead to dishonor. Remember, this is King Arthur, not D&D. This is a morality tale.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Sun Dec 7, between games, about 1 hr
Action Castle
System: Action Castle GM: Bay C
Players: Kim F, Kaui D, Arron R, Josh H, Shannon M, Hannah G, Morgan Hua
It's a party game, much like classic text adventures of old, but played with a human acting as parser and players issuing commands in order.
We start off in a cottage and the only thing we see is a fishing rod and an exit. It's pretty amusing as we navigate the text adventure and memorize the steps we've taken. We died twice, eaten by a Troll and jumping out of a tree. But we solved the game. It's good to be king!
Aaron wrote a book on classic text adventures and he definitely remembered various commands such as inventory. Aaron's book: 50 Years of Text Games.
The collective brains of 7 people definitely helped us solve the puzzle. It was amusing as we made mistakes (like jumping out of a tree) or when we got lost. Each Player could only "type in" one command before the next Player got their turn. An interesting and fun party game. Well, maybe for nerds.
Sun Dec 7, 4-8:30pm (4 hrs excluding 1/2 hr for dinner)
The Long Dark Teatime of the Soulless
System: Brindlewood Bay
GM: Bay C
3 Players: Josh H (sweater knitter), Shannon M (painter and socialite), Morgan Hua (Hya-cinth - plumber, widow of highly decorated marine)
Murder She Wrote. Play a group of elderly women solving murders with a unique mystery resolution mechanic.
We're invited to meet a friend for tea at a B&B.
We first created PCs. Sample names included Hya-cinth, so I took the name and included the hyphenation and my nickname is Hi-ya.
We had to create our backstories including our dead husbands. I decided mine was Moe, an ex-marine. Children: Able, Baker, Charlie, Dehlia (I got to name the girl). Pets: Dog, Cat, Parrot (yes, Moe named them that). My job was a town plumber. My hobbies was cooking. Style: Speed Walkin'. Maven Move: Angus MacGyver (can build a crazy device). Other players created things in my Cozy Place: a grenade (thanks Bay), Extensive Spice Collection (Josh), My husband's skull that babbles, but 10% of the time gives sage advice (Shannon), I added it wears a helmet.
Josh's maven knits all types of sweaters and wins awards (Shannon). I gave her a life-sized knitted award winning Sasquatch. Can't remember what Bay gave her. Her husband was a butcher.
Shannon's maven paints and is always well dressed. I gave her multiple giant backdrop sceneries that can be scrolled up and down for portrait paintings. Her cat wears a cat-cam on the collar with livestream upload (Josh). Again, I'm drawing a blank on Bay's contribution.
Then we had to introduce our PCs with a short day in the life.
I decided Hya was cooking a recipe from 1001 Dishes from Around the World. Under roast pig, it said to burn off the bristles, so in the backyard is a pig on a spit, but Hya uses a flamethrower to burn off the hair.
There was a lot of hijinks. Too bad we never got to use our items from A Cozy Little Place as we were mainly at the B&B.
The game is fun, but it still lacks the full rush of an Aha! moment when you really figure out a mystery vs making up a solution that happens to fit.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
Shannon's PC's friend has invited us to high tea at the Snowdrop House B&B. We got to add something creepy. Outside the picture windows are the veal slaughter pens (Josh). The gleaming decorations hanging above the tables that look like snow flakes are made of ice picks (mine). The soot on the fireplace momentarily looks like a leering face (Shannon).
Shannon's friend shows up and tells us that there's something she's looking into (she's a journalist). And she immediately falls down dead, knocking over our tower of high tea samplers, and an ice pick drops from above onto the table.
Some of the highlights from the game:
Percy (NPC), a quick change artist, who cos-played as cook, waiter, maid, bellhop, Sherlock Holmes, masseuse. He might have a split personality or was seeped in method acting as he graduated from the Brindlewood Bay Community College, majoring in drama.
Josh and I continuously referencing the Snowdrop House as the Stockton Slaughterhouse (that's what it used to be) to the chagrin of the new owners.
Shannon choosing not to be shot in the back by an unknown person holding a silenced pistol.
Shannon always digging through bodies looking for clues. At one point, the sheriff shows up and catches her red handed. Hey, there's nothing there I haven't seen before!
Lady Carfax warning me to not look under the rugs, but I do it anyway; later my back goes out, requiring a masseuse.
We started the game claiming we've solved 5 murders already, so this is our 6th and 7th solved murders.
We got 9 clues and tied them together.
1. Little glass of welcome pomegranate juice was poisoned. 2. Bus ticket out of town at 4:10am 3. Notebook with shorthand and an article about a Big Pharma in NY where diet pills were killing people, CEO was Pheonix Cole, the co-owner of Snowdrop House. 4. A scarecrow suddenly showed up outside. It wasn't a scarecrow, but a dead body with its face skinned off. 5. A man lifted up rugs when no one else would have noticed him. We later figured out it was Mr Swallow and under one of the rugs was a secret compartment with ancient land deeds which included this B&B. 6. A wad of paper was in the pocket of the scarecrow. They were pages torn out of the Guest Registry from the past week. 7. In Mr Swallow's room, there's a handcuff attached to the bathroom pipe. 8. In Mr Swallow's room, there's a mortar and pestle with red plant material residue in it. 9. Cole's residence, there's a envelope of compromising photos of guests hidden behind the stove.
Our solution: Mr Swallow isn't a real estate agent (#5* see below), he's a hit man. He had kidnapped (#7) a source that the journalist was supposed to meet at the B&B and tortured him (#9, involuntary S&M). He then killed him (#4). Mr Stockton (this land used to be his) put the body out there with the Guest Registry pages for us to find (#4 & #6). Mr Swallow poisoned the drink (#8 & #1). The bus ticket is the scarecrow's (#2). Pheonix Cole hired the hitman (#3) because the journalist was going to reveal something criminal about the diet pill scandal and needed the hitman to get rid of the evidence. The diet pill scandal had disgraced Mr Cole, but this new info would put him in prison. Mr Swallow pretended to be a real estate agent, but when he had found the deeds while he was looking for something else, he left them, proving that he wasn't really a real estate wheeler/dealer (if he was, he would have taken them), but he was something else (#5*). Mr Swallow also wasn't perturbed when he first saw the poisoned journalist (#1). Mr Swallow was probably looking for the scarecrow's evidence (#5) that incriminated Mr Cole. The Guest Registery pages (#6) has the name of the scarecrow who had checked-in earlier in the week. The pages were probably torn out by Mr Swallow. Mr Swallow probably found the evidence and had given it to Mr Cole who destroyed it. When Shannon's PC had a gun to her back, after the gunman left, she immediately ran into Mr Swallow which completely makes sense if the gunman and Mr Swallow were one and the same.
We also roll 12+ (natural 12 and +3) on the resolution, so we also found out that spooky old lady Carfax (plays checkers by herself, and makes dark pronouncements) and Mr Stockton (who had a habit of popping out of the bushes) were in league with each other, some sort of dark secret society.
An online free convention. I only signed up for two slots on Friday because a friend decided to run a small invite only RPG convention on the same weekend. I got into one game.
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Friday Dec 5, 10am-2pm
Jamais Vu
System: Kult: Divinity Lost
GM: Dave - gmdave78
2 Players: a.pseudonym (Eric), Morgan Hua (Sophia)
Pre-generated characters provided.
Content Warnings: Disassociation, Depersonalization, Mundane horror, Dissociative amnesia, Acute mental illness, Hallucination, Breakdown of social order, PVP, Death, Violence, Loss of identity.
Eric and Sophie wake up in their suburban home and find that the familiar has become unfamiliar. They remember everything about their life but find themselves unable to attach any emotion to it. Even everyday objects become terrifying aberrations as the couple slowly drifts into insanity.
Before the sun sets that day one of them will be dead.
It was an interesting play test. We did mess with the GM's head a little. I (male) played Sophia (female). And a.pseudonum (female) played Eric (male). GM kept on mixing us up because our voices didn't match the PC and we had to correct him. Heh. GM will still tweak the game to improve it, but I enjoyed it.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
First we created backstories:
Sophie:
Profession: Etsy seller of handmade bad sweaters, custom knit to buyers specifications. Will knit double-necked sweaters as per Addams Family on request. Physical Appearance: Velma from Scooby-Doo, but maybe more scruffy.
What I'm good at: Organizing the house. I know where everything is and can tell Eric where his car keys are. Where the flashlight is. Where the tarragon is on the spice rack.
Collection: Cows. Figurines, plates, refrigerator magnets, Got Milk?, plastic toys, etc. Favorite is a standing cow displaying udders with the phrase "Udderly Fantastic!" Other is a complete collection of Animal Sound Makers with every version of a cow's moo. She has one of the original 1904 Moo Boxes made in Germany.
Eric:
Profession: Works in a local sporting goods store, maybe as manager or at least trying to become manager.
Physical appearance: Pretty average height / build. Dark hair, clean shaven, probably needs glasses but refuses to wear them so when he gets tired he starts squinting a little.
Good at: computers. the only one at work who understands how the ordering system actually works.
Collection: Comic books. Not so much collecting the ones that actually are worth money but the ones he likes. Reads them but puts them back in the mylar bag after.
Each PC had 4 blank sections to be filled out throughout the game: Thoughts, Values, Truths, and Beyond the Veil.
Thoughts are things your PC may think, it could be true or untrue. Values are things your PC values. Truths are things that are true and might affect game play. Beyond the Veil are creepy things you've seen.
During game play, as we rolled partial successes and failures, we mainly got Thoughts added and a number were choices given by the GM and we had to pick between generally 2 bad choices (for dramatic reasons). In some instances, we got new Values or Thoughts which became Truths.
At the end of the game these were my 4 sections:
Thoughts:
There's poison in the food.
I put the poison in the food. If I turn on the TV, I'll die. (got removed)
Eric doesn't know about the danger.
I'm in danger.
I would feel safer if I had a weapon. I love my husband. (got promoted to a Truth)
If Eric touches the rose bush, he dies.
Something is causing this.
I must not look at mirrors.
If stab him now, it'll be all over.
Eric sabotaged the lights.
Eric tried to electrocute me.
The police will kill me. As soon as I leave the driveway, I'm going to die.
I have a few moments to live.
Values:
It's ok to lie if there's a good reason.
Guns are dangerous.
Truths:
I didn't put something in the wine.
I love my husband.
The rose bush is important to me.
Beyond the veil:
There's something divine in me.
There was genuinely creepy moments as you had to choose between thinking you're loved one was going to lock you in the basement or stab you in the back (two Thought choices). Various thoughts were just unsettling. Some thoughts were prescient and foreshadowed what was going to happen.
The best scenes was the start where I'm making breakfast and realize I poisoned the omelets. I dump it in the trash, but pull them back out and put them on a plate to feed my husband. I mean if I was going to poison him, what harm would a bit of dirt do? Of course, he sees me pulling the omelets out of the trash and put them on the plate. He refuses to eat it, so I dump it back in the trash. A pretty funny scene.
Going down into the basement and finding the lights don't work is a standard trope, but it works especially if the husband is carrying an axe and the wife behind him has a chef's knife -- and is given the choice of thinking: lock him in the basement or stab him.
Waiting for the police (we called 911) after I had stabbed an intruder, hoping things would turn out ok, but also thinking, the police will kill me. And of course when they show up, they start opening fire.
In the end Eric lived (he avoided harm from the cops), but I had to dive out of a window, landing on the rose bushes, and stole the police car. Since my glasses were broken and it was raining heavily, I crashed the car and died.
I also liked how the emotional rollercoaster works in this game. We start of very suspicious of each other. During play, we started to trust each other. Then more bad things happened and suspicion came back in. An interesting game.
KublaCon Fall moved to Burlingame from Santa Clara. Attendance level doubled. No free parking across the street at the abandoned theater parking lot. But RPG GMs got an amazing door prize (instead of the normal KublaCon pin which I never really cared for). This beauty lists for about $50.
GMs also get to sign up for games early, just like the VIPs who pay extra for this same privilege.
Overall, a pretty good convention.
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Level: Pets of Rich and Famous People, Animals can talk to each other.
Pregens provided.
You play Jackie Chan's Squirrel, Samuel Jackson's Parrot, Snoop Dogg's Cat, Paris Hilton's Chihuahua, and Gary Busey's Dog. Your human is at some charity event and they abandon you at the hospitality suite. As the world spirals into collapse, you must work together to survive and travel to your wormiest heart of darkness. Tone: Darkly Humorous (Dale & Tucker vs Evil, Evil Dead 2, Shaun of the Dead, Animal Farm) Content Tags: Horror Tropes, Apocalyptic, Cannibalism, Harm to Animals, Drug Use (light), Political Satire (definite), Fowl Language (possibly)
I had a great table and we laughed throughout the 5 hours. As per other runs, whoever picks Wild Thang kills it every time. So far, this run had the most non-stop laughs. Comedy is so much harder than horror. I think the table nailed it.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
After running this twice already, I've modified some things and added some stuff, and extended the scenario, thus the new 5 hr run time.
Some highlights:
When the alligator in the sewer attacked, Wild Thang who triggered the alligator just froze and became trash, so it went after another PC instead.
Wild Thang drinking sludge leaking out from the bottom of a dumpster.
Tinkerbell ankle bit and got the killing blow on a zombie, the cocaine bear, and Alf with her very, very weak bite.
KFC murdered RFK Jr and Trump with a letter opener.
Snoop Catt doing a magic trick by knocking salt and pepper shakers off a counter top. It's magic!
And the whole group, smashing a car through an underground garage gate. Then Byrd who was driving gets smacked in the face by the automatic airbag.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Nov 14, 2025 Friday 8pm-midnight (4 hrs, took 3 hrs)
Into the Odd
System: Into the Odd
GM: Sean Nittner
5 Players (2 empty seats):
Morgan Hua (as Benedict Jongler - The Axe).
Steven K (as Gizzard Wicherspin with faithful dog, Rags).
Max B-H (as Other Benedict - The Sneaky).
Pregens provided (actually characters created at table, but it was very, very quick).
A rules-light, flavour-heavy roleplaying game of industrial horror and cosmic strangeness.
Bastion is the only city that matters. In its industrial age, it sits as the smoke-shrouded hub of mankind, surrounded by a world of lurking horrors and cosmic interference. The Underground spreads beneath our feet and the stars loom above. You are an Explorer, braving places too far for maps and too old for records. Your expeditions touch the bizarre, wondrous, and horrific. You search for riches, but also Arcana, mysterious devices with unnatural powers.
This was actually the scenario in the book, but Sean started us at the bottom of the dungeon.
A great group of Players and we actually made it out in 3 hrs because we found an unlikely exit. I do want to say that the setting for Into the Odd is very cool and interesting because you have no idea as to what you're seeing and what things are, so everything is unsettling and bizarre. I really enjoyed this game.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
We start off with sliding down a chute, escaping the big bad guy, taking a talking skull with us. The skull has amnesia, but once we found one of it's missing memory rods and insert it, it knows more, which we did later; earlier on, it wasn't that helpful.
Our goal, escape which we know is up.
First thing, leave where we are, a butchery full of bodies. Next room, several boxes, since we don't have much we risk making noise and open three boxes and find a Corrosion Cannon (mine), a Coraline Bomb (Gizzard), and a Captain's Shredding Spear (Other Benedict).
We meet some mighty strange bio and bio-mechanical creatures doing their programmed jobs. But you know, it sometimes leads to violence as the Glass Mantis impales Gizzard and starts sucking his blood. Attacks just sends shards of glass at us, so we took cover from behind some chairs in the room.
Gizzard throws his bomb and it kills the Glass Mantis. This shatters the coral ceiling and exposes a ceiling vent. GM tells us that he thought when reading the scenario that no one would find this shaft in 1000 years as it's completely covered with overgrown coral. But hey, we found it.
A weird jellybean thing phases through a door and it merges with Other Benedict. It shows up like some weird tumor at his mid-section. We later learn that it's a Messenger Bean, from the skull.
We decide up is out. Gizzard had climbing gear, so after Gizzard failed a few times in throwing the grappling hook up, I give it a try and get it up there. Gizzard climbs up and finds another chamber. There's a ghostly figure that motions to him. He avoids it. Other Benedict goes 2nd and an arm tries to pull him into the wall, he fights it and falls down the shaft and takes some damage.
Spiders attack us. Other Benedict kills hooks his spear into one. The barbed spearhead starts opening up, tearing the spider apart. One spider wrestles me down, forces open my mouth and deposits an egg, and dies (very Alien-like). The other runs away as Gizzard nails it with a shotgun blast from the top of the shaft. Inside the dead spider is a glass rod. We insert it into the skull and it remembers more and becomes more useful.
Shinning a light up, we see it's a golden arm just sticking out of the wall into the shaft. So, Benedict (me) and Other Benedict squeeze up the shaft in tandem. I arm wrestle the thing and we get past it.
Through some more strange rooms with hints we're getting close to open water, and finally, we actually escape onto a beach.
GM tells me I have from a few hours to a day before the spider egg hatches and kills me. I tell the others, let's take the boat and if I show signs of distress, dump me off the boat into the water.
Other Benedict decides to do some ad hoc surgery. He uses the Messenger Bean to tell the Spear to seek the spider egg without killing me. The spear digs into my body, doing damage, requiring various save throws. It exposes the spider larvae and Other Benedict grabs it, taking spear damage, but can't pull it out. Gizzard helps to pull it out. They kill it. I miraculously make more save throws and live.
Damn! The party members went way above and beyond to save another.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Nov 15, 2025, Sat 9am-Noon (3 hrs)
Rustborn Bastards
System: Mörk Borg
GM: Dan Frederick
5 Players: Ty M, Chad R, Angelo S, Jacob S, Morgan Hua.
Pregens provided.
Mad Max at sea? Wasteland Degenerate + Cy_Borg at sea! 3 hour game run by designer / writer of Rustborn Bastards game.
The GM is the author of the system and is Kickstarting the game. The art is really good and like other Mörk Borg compatible games, the random tables are very imaginative.
I had fun. The GM brought minis, half-sunken rafts, sunk ships, whole ships, and other props. It was more or less a tactical combat game and we did 3 combats. The setting is sort of Water World.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
PCs start on a raft, low on water, low on food, low on ammo. We see the tip of a skyscraper peeking out of the water. There are water-zombies surrounding it and a crate. The water-zombies are bio-mechanical with metal claws; they're really dead flesh on a robotic body. We kill the zombies and claim the crate (new uniforms) and a hidden cask (narcotics). Beneath the crate is a trap door and stairs going down.
Also there's a capsized boat, mostly submerged nearby. One PC goes and investigates. The rest of us go down the stairs. Inside 3 feral Gillmen. We kill them.
Above, we notice a boat just cut it's engines (yeah, we all failed our notice roll earlier). Two PCs go up the stairs, the rest of us go out broken windows and swim towards the boat in strategic positions. The boat tells the PCs who show up to identify themselves, surrender their weapons, pay a tax, and everything will be ok. PC on the raft pretends to comply and accidentally knocks the cask into the water. A PC in the water does a head shot and kills one of the boat security and combat ensues. We murder the whole boat, about 6 security personale with some pretty good energy weapons. We lost only one PC.
One cool thing was I asked if I could hack the water-zombies with my cybernetics. GM said, there's no rules for that, but you can. I got a good die roll and was able to make a water-zombie attack another water-zombie which took two of them out of the action. Did this twice.
6 Players: Ojas T (left after 3 hrs), Lewis W (son), Nicholas W (father), Scott W, John B, Morgan Hua.
Pregens provided.
This educational opportunity will afford participants of English medieval history to accurately portray the grail quest given to Knights of the Heptagonal Table in 925 A.D. Characters provided. If you have your own set of CMRP random number generators, extra merits for you!
The GM also plays the HoLE (the show runner). When I read about this I wasn't sure about it, but playing it, it worked. Though I did find the game very random and not as funny as I had hoped. I didn't laugh that much, did smile here and there. There are demerits and they're not as bad as you'd think.
There's also some events where the PC is sent to "time-out" for 15 mins of real time via a timer where the Player just sits out of the game. I understand what that is for, but didn't like it. If it was a side skit for that one PC instead, I would have liked it more. I don't like game mechanisms where the Player is forced to do nothing. Even though it acts like penalty box, it's not labeled that and you do get bennies for sitting out. But if the tradeoff is missing 15 minutes of play for in-game bennies, I'd prefer to play.
I'm happy to have played this game as I was curious about it. My curiosity is now satisfied. This game wasn't for me.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The first HoLE was a penguin. I tried to brown nose the penguin and got a demerit. Later, we got demerits for not talking about fish or praising penguins. Finally Lewis had enough and filed a complaint letter. But before that, the penguin's head exploded and we got a replacement HoLE. The complaint letter got that new HoLE replaced, and we then got a Church Lady as the new HoLE.
God came down and gave us a quest to get the Holy Grail before Arthur gets it because God thought Arthur was a bit tiring.
One PC got chased by a house and eventually got eaten by it, but we had already fed a few followers and a dozen soldiers to it.
One PC was told that he had to leave the show for another skit. He agreed to it and GM told him it'll be for 15 minutes. The Party continued on the quest. There was a day of travel. So Player asked, that's more than 15 mins, right? GM said, "It's not time yet." Later, a timer went DING! So, it was 15 real time. GM then handed out some bennies and penalties to the PC who had the timeout. Yeah, I'm not a fan of this. I would have preferred that the PC actually had to do the skit.
Later, Lewis was given a choice of 15 mins in the confessional or to decline, he didn't want a time out, so he declined, had to roll for another random event, but instead of a d30, it was a d10. In this system, low is bad. He rolled, GM asked, which PCs are clerics, nuns, or religious. There was a Luck roll off. Who had the worst luck? Oh, you (Lewis got lucky and rolled high). How do you want to die? (I suggested giant foot). Player decided it was on theme. Squash.
At the cave of Aarrggh. We were given instructions that we had to individually face the challenges. There are three: Body, Mind, and Soul. I had the Knight with the Slay ability, so I went into the cave. GM asked me to make a Subtlety test. Knights don't have Subtlety. I die instantly, knight's head rolls out of the cave.
We ran out of back up characters before we finally slew the beast and gained the Holy Grail. About 6 heads had rolled out of that cave.
I found the game amusing, sometimes funny, but not laugh out loud funny. It really felt too random. The movie had more coherence than the game we played. There wasn't that much standout absurdity to remember. I wanted things akin to The Black Night, The Knights who say Ni, Dead Parrots, Coconuts, stupid riddles, philosophical musings, bringing out the dead, witch trials, vorpal bunnies, etc. Didn't get that, not at all.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Nov 16, 2025, Sat 10am-4pm (6 hrs, took 6 hrs)
Stowaway
System: Blade Runner RPG
GM: D D Blake
6 Players (1 empty seat): Travis M, Nick J, Jay M, Ric C, Morgan Hua (as Inspector Renaux)
Pregens provided.
SFO Spaceport security footage shows an unauthorized arrival sneaking off a ship from one of the off-world colonies. Some kind of animal, quadruped. So what? Why have you, an LAPD Blade Runner 340 miles away, been rousted from your comfy bed in the middle of the night? .... Beginners welcome, but please be familiar with at least one major IP source: Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, or Blade Runner: Black Lotus (the latter is usually free to stream on Amazon Prime).
GM decided we would make our own PCs. I had run Blade Runner before, but never generated a PC. The other Players were new to Blade Runner. I swore we took 2 hrs making the PCs. It didn't help that the newbies had questions about every step and there was a lot of table talk. GM spent a lot of time describing the world and nuances for our education which also took a lot of time. It was educational, but slowed down character generation.
Once we started the game, it was enjoyable. It was a good table of Players.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The PCs are 5 individual Blade Runners who know of each other, but aren't an existing team. We have my Inspector, an Analyst, a Fixer, a Skimmer (bad cop), and a Replicant Enforcer.
We're shown video of a wolf-like creature with glowing orange eyes getting off of an orbital shuttle at SFO. The problem is that we're in LA. It'll take hours to get there. And we're told to find it, get rid of it, make it disappear, make minimal waves. But we we're granted Alpha level clearance priority. We have 24 hrs to solve this. Another team will be sent if we don't resolve it.
The Inspector and Analyst go to the Esper room and start getting info about SFO, maps, satellite images, flights there, ownership, reports of animal sightings, unusual deaths, etc. The other 3 take their Spinners to SFO. Half an hour later, I'm taking my Spinner also. The Analyst decides to stay in the Esper room.
At the fueling station, the 3 PCs run into a problem. The fuel station is shutdown. Two civvie cars and one unmarked battle wagon is there. The PCs discover the battle wagon is from Wallace Corp. The 3 PCs solve the fuel problem by threatening the station attendant, but find out someone high up ordered it to be shutdown for the day. I arrive just in time to get my fuel.
We all go to SFO. We see men in hazmat suits on the tarmac. I turn on my lights and sirens and the hazmat teams get into their 3 respective vehicles (WY hazmat, Sable Bio van, and ambulance). Ambulance tells us the whole shuttle crew is unconscious and blind. WY hazmat and Sable Bio have no idea what the problem is. Sable Bio tells us there's an empty cage in the cargo hold. I get all their leader's contact info. We don't go into the shuttle. The Replicant figures out where the creature exited the craft and tracks it into tunnels. We pickup the Wallace kill team and bring them with us.
We follow an obvious path of unlocked doors to the bay. It crashed through a glass door. But no more trace of it is found. I spot a person on a rooftop watching us. We get her down and after some convincing, she tells us she spotted the creature and later, a cloaked figure following it with some sort of tracking device 1.5 hrs before we arrived and that person headed south. We get the number she calls when she sees something. Get our Analyst to call the number, I forgot what the result was, but it wasn't helpful.
Our Analyst starts gathering extra equipment: giant bottles of acid, more weapons, and a tracking dog and handler (as at one point we ran out of leads). All flights to SFO got canceled. I have him call the WY contact and LA contacts. The flight gets uncancelled.
Found the cloaked figure took a bus and got off at one or another station. Got the bus driver to tell us which stop (Replicant and I took the bus). Above us the others followed in their Spinners. Replicant got off the bus first, I get off at the next stop. In front is Sable Bio. Bingo. We all gather there.
Replicant spots someone climbing up Sable Bio's skyscraper. We force that person down and find she works for Wallace. We tell her we here to help. She tells us we need to get to floor 83. Wallace kill team watches the exits. Replicant and I go up the elevator. Fixer is in the air with a Spinner outside of floor 83. Skimmer takes the Wallace assassin to the roof, so they can go down.
On the way to the roof, the Skimmer cuts a deal with the Wallace assassin and takes her money. She locks him in his spinner and bricks it (not quite the deal he made) and then heads down the stairs.
The two going up the elevator meet Susan Greenrock, one of the owners of Sable Bio. She shows the creature to the PCs. It's behind glass, in a lab, in a cage. I give targeting info to the Fixer. Susan gets called away. I move away. Replicant readies grenades. Fixer opens up with guns and blows away the exterior wall, misses the creature. Then blows the creature away once the exterior glass is gone.
Susan escapes up to the roof, gets on a cloaked vehicle. Skimmer still can't get his spinner online. So, Fixer tries to shoot down Susan's vehicle (with a missile), but misses.
Inside, we find another creature (actually pointed out to us by the Wallace assassin), but it looks more human, no glowing eyes. Replicant kills that one too. We put LAPD police tape around everything and tell SFPD to go away. Later we learn that that one has Susan's husband's brain in it and that was done as punishment for an affair.
We find some cryptic clues and a sealed dewar of some sort. We don't open it.
Finally, Analyst arrives with our extra equipment and we drop the remains of all the creatures, evidence, and dewar into vats of acid. Mission accomplished.
=== SPOILER SECTION END ===
Nov 16, 2025, Sat 4-8pm (4 hrs, took 3 hrs)
The Celestial Algorithm
System: Star Trek Adventures 2e
GM: Michael M Kelly
6 Players:
Andrew F (as Cpt Pike)
April F (as Una - 2nd in command)
Yune L (as Lt Ortegas - Pilot)
Paul M (as Dr M'Benga - Chief Doc)
David M (as Spock - science officer)
Morgan Hua (as La'an - head of security)
Pregens provided.
Players will get to choose their favorite Starfleet crew: Captain Kirk and the Original Series characters, or Captain Pike and the Strange New Worlds bridge crew, as the USS Enterprise faces the challenges of this published introductory adventure. Second Edition rules will be taught. Beginners welcome!
This was the new Starter Set's scenario. It's pretty good. We had a good table of Players, all Trekkies, but I was the only one familiar with the system. I've run STA 1e. The GM was actually trying 2e out himself, but he knew the rules pretty well, he only had to look up what skill was needed for tractor beams.
GM had the whole SNW crew and TOS bridge crew. SNW crew was about 12 PCs, TOS 8 PCs. I voted for the SNW crew because there was more variety. One Player never saw the SNW series. So, he picked Spock as his PC. He did an excellent Spock.
STA 2e is more streamlined than 1e, but then we didn't do any combat, so I'm not sure how 2e works without the challenge dice (d6s for damage and special effects). I did feel the Momentum cycle (gaining and spending) almost got in the way of the storytelling. We were focused on the Momentum pool and just rolling dice vs doing Trek technobabble. Our group got good at the Momentum cycle. When I first played Modiphius 2d20 system, it took a while to get the hang of it. I did push the group to spend Momentum when they were reluctant to, so maybe that helped. During the game, we only failed one die roll which led to a major complication. But most drama came from rolling 20s. We didn't get any 20s early on, but near the end, we got several in a row which made it more exciting.
=== SPOILER SECTION START ===
The Enterprise gets sucked into a large ship. There's an Orion ship stuck with us too; it has radiation leaks, 4 life signs, all dangerously sick. Hailing it doesn't work. Transporters are sketchy, so we take a shuttle. We rescue the Orions (some diplomacy was required). Spock gets affected by the female Orion captain (pheromones). We tractor beam her ship behind us while an engineering team is onboard fixing it.
The inside of this ship is bigger on the inside than on the outside.
We're decode a message that tells us there's a series of tests we must pass to escape.
We meet some space whales that are sick and we cure them with the help of the Orion captain. She has some illegal drugs that can work to help cure the whales.
In all the STA games I've run, the PCs rarely get additional Determination. A bennie for playing against or in line with one of their Values. I actually triggered some Determination gain in this game.
I asked the Doctor to sedate all the Orions (during treatment) as I didn't trust them. Doctor refused even though one of his Values was anti-Orion. We both got Determination points for this roleplaying.
At another point, I asked the Captain if I could go over to the Orion ship and snoop around, get information on their weapons and tech. Captain denied my request and got a Determination point.
3 Determination points handed out. Well, I've never seen that before. And we actually used them.
Anyway, we pass all our tests. The ship is a machine intelligence. The tests are to prove that we are smart enough to help it. We agree to help it in exchange for whatever data it has hoovered up (from all the species it has trapped).
It says it has in stasis a foreign virus and needed our help to get rid of it. We find that the machine intelligence is pregnant. We convince it is ok (extended test) and its duty is to raise its child. We get our reward and are allowed to leave (with the Orions and space whales). Very Star Trek.
