Morgan's Most Amusing KublaCon 2017 Adventures

This year the Shuffler gods smiled down on me. I was able to get into my top 3 choices in the first three time slots. This time all the games I got into were humorous. Two were Star Wars themed games and coming from a completely wonky angle.


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SANDSCRAWLIN'
System: FATE Core
Friday 4pm (6 hrs)
GM: Dovi Anderson
5 Players

A once great Jawa clan must scavenge and swindle their way out of debt before the tracks of their dilapidated Sandcrawler come grinding to a halt.  Hijinks and hilarity await!

Yep, we're Jawas and we're just ripping people off, but the amount we get for our little transgressions just isn't enough, so we have to do a big score to pay off our ginormous mountain of debt or it's the end of our clan.

My main issue with FATE is that in various scenes, almost all the other players windup being supporting cast members as they add aspects to a scene and finally, one player who is most qualified, taps all the aspects to get an EPIC success. But in this game, it wasn't the case, Players tapped aspects in just the right amount to keep the story going and in the end we still got a satisfying ending. I think it was because we weren't meta-gaming the system and we played for story instead of that EPIC success die roll at the end.

I have issues with FATE, but not when Dovi is running it.

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The core plot is that we get hired to transport a Rancor to Jabba the Hut and two other Jawa clans want to steal the cargo from us. So, we wind up in a three way fight in the desert with a Rancor and a Krayt Dragon (looking for its egg that we have possession of).

We actually paid off the debt by selling a Krayt Dragon egg, a Krayt Dragon pearl (some sort of gizzard from the dead Krayt Dragon, delivering the Rancor, various small con jobs (selling transport on a Sandcrawler that we don't own, selling defective droids, stealing chips from a casino), and selling two Sandcrawlers.

Highlights of the game:

The Rancor needs tummy rubs to calm down.

Driving a Sandcrawler between the Krayt Dragon and the Rancor in order to save our Rancor.

Musical Jawa Clan Chieftans. I started off as the Chieftain, but due to various rises and falls in fortune, the title shifted between various PCs and NPCs.

Unifying the 3 Jawa clans into one clan.

Tying our history to the StarWars IV: We were the Jawas that picked up CP-3O and R2-D2. We were down and out because we got ambushed by Stormtroopers and we were the 12 remaining survivors with a mostly broken Sandcrawler. We were also the clan that took the Rancor to Jabba and introduced the Rancor Keeper to Rancor tummy rubs.

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The Queens Cup
System: 7th Sea 2nd Ed
Sat 10am (6 hrs)
GM: Jay Loucks
6 Players

Privateers for the Triple Kingdom, you ply the seas for Queen and Country, fortune and glory. The first Queen’s Cup competition promises rich rewards for the winning crew, and the wagering is fierce. But could the furor conceal a more sinister purpose by shadowy figures looking for their own power and/or profit?

Please join me for a rollicking, swashbuckling adventure using the new 2nd Edition rules. The flavor is much the same, but many of the game details are different. You will still need a double-handful of D10s, for when you are very, very good.

I supported the Kickstarter and listened to a short podcast of actual game play run by the system's designer, John Wick, so I really wanted to play in this to figure out its nuances before running it myself.

One issue I observed was that in various scenes, our duelist doctor got 3 successes and our massive brute canonneer got 15 successes. And actions counted down in decreasing order of success, so when the cannoneer did something that took only one success, he got to go again, and again and again, until it was finally the doctor's turn, and by then, not much was left to do at the end of the round.

The system also tended to allow players to meta-game their character by picking a trait and skill they're best at to start off the scene with so, they can carry on their successes to the rest of the scene. For example, the brute cannoneer, would pick some physical action like brawn and brawl and get a lot of successes such as 15, then spend only 5 of the successes beating up a monster, then with the 10 left over successes, he would do two other things, such as lashing down a cannon and hauling up a fallen crew member, and pay only a small penalty for changing actions. As a GM, I think I would limit the scope where a PC can spend their successes based on their initial declarations, so if you declare you're "Beating up the monster," but didn't declare the action as, "As I grab a rope and swing through the water, picking up a the fallen crew member, and when I get to the deck, drop the crew member safely, and muscle the loose cannon into the monster, injuring it as the cannon slams into it's proper cradle." Then you can't do the other actions. But then what Trait / Skill combo is it? Also the loose cannon and the overboard crew members were considered consequences which the system lets you buy off with successes.

In one scene our doctor duelist finally got into a duel and got 15 successes vs the other duelist who also got a high number of successes. And we watched a very long extensive duel. The issue is that the duel action in addition to causing damage, also negated damage from an opponent's earlier action, so it became this never ending duel as the duelists slowly whittled each other down.

One thing of note, it takes only one success to swing a sword and one success to fire a loaded pistol, but another five successes to reload a pistol or cannon. So, the game favors sword play over gun play. The one advantage is that a pistol does one wound, plus a dramatic wound, so you need to shoot someone 4 times to kill them; whereas swords can do multiple wounds, one per success, requiring 20 wounds to kill someone.

Overall, the game was fun and very Pirates of the Caribbean.

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The game started with a storm at sea and having to save our ship. This was where our doctor didn't have much to do. This was an extended action scene and it was action packed an fun. I wound up with another character retrieving a treasure chest sitting on a rock in the middle of the raging storm.

The next scene was back at Port Carleon, where a Competition for the Queen's Cup is announced and we sign up against 7 other ships/crews.

Through various shenanigans (mostly crooked), we get a leg up on the first contest which is to get to the other shore of  the river and to raise a flag and return to the shore we departed. We wound up being the only crew to succeed. This was fun because we got to be the dastardly rogues that we should be.

The next test was firing 3 cannons at a target, we scored 60, the next closest competitor was 18, so we blew our competitors out of the water.

But before we had our third contest, we were to attend the Queen's Ball. During the ball, a Portal opened and some bad guys showed up to kidnap the Queen. So, we moved into action to save her. This is where our two duelists suddenly had multiple successes. This was another action packed scene.

And that was the end of the game. I personally had a good time with the game, but I felt the player who got the doctor got short shrifted and it would be an issue to look out for if I ran the system.

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Emergency Alert in Detention Block AA-23
System: One Roll Engine
Sat 6pm (6 hrs)
GM: Gil Trevizo
6 Players

The Death Star is the crown jewel of the Imperial armada, the flagship of a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude, Palpatine’s Fist! Only the best of the best, the most dedicated, and those who score perfectly on the Imperial Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery test are allowed to serve amongst the elite that wield the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station!

You used to be one of them. Now, after failing to serve the Emperor with the necessary zeal and/or competence, you have been stripped of rank and thrown into a detention cell to await your fate, whether that be death by blaster, death by garbage chute, or (if Lord Vader isn’t busy) death by Force-choke.

Then you hear muffled voices outside your cell… something about a “prisoner transfer”… BLASTER FIRE… “boring conversation anyway”... more blaster fire... and a “click” as your cell door is suddenly unlocked.

This Star Wars game uses the One-Roll Engine, the system behind games such as GODLIKE, WILD TALENTS, and NEMESIS. Rules have been stripped down to run lean and light, and beginners are welcome. Knowledge of Star Wars is useful, but anyone who knows the official name of the Death Star or refers to Star Wars as "Episode 4" will be mocked. This is an extremely profane and raunchy take on the setting, a juvenile game not intended for juveniles: Star Wars as a red band trailer. 

We're playing dishonored and possibly criminal personnel of the Death Star. Recently escaped as a side-effect of various rebels escaping from detention. This game was a lot of fun as we poked fun at Star Wars and its characters.

In ORE, due to hit locations, you can lose body parts, Gil used LEGO Star Wars figures for our characters and the NPCs. When a body part got blown off, he got to remove it off of a figure. And there were lots of "Oh, no!" and parts scattered onto the battle mat.

I had tremendous fun in this game.

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The game started with us picking from 8 identical Stormtroopers sent into Detention Block AA-23 and we quickly proceeded to being shot by rebels in the head. After seeing two of my compatriots being killed, I surrendered, but those rebel scum shot me in the head anyway. Oh, the new helmets we have have a targeting malfunction that messes up our aim.

After the smoke cleared, we got to pick characters from various Imperial Personnel now freed as an after affect of the rebel action. We also have other prisoners with us, including a Sith Jawa, a dark version of Yoda.

We start off with some force points which we can use to affect some dice rolls.

Our first move was to disable the tractor beams, so we can steal a shuttle and escape the Death Star. Of course we run into an old pervert in a bathrobe messing with our tractor beam.

After a big shoot out with Big D, we head to the hanger deck to steal a shuttle and run into Vader killing the pervert in the bathrobe and he also kills our Sith Jawa.  At this point, a number of us get full blown Force skills.

There's another big fight in the hanger deck against Imperial Guards and we escape in a Shuttle and see The Death Star explode.

But then we get pursued by Tie Fighters and an Imperial Star Destroyer and there's Space Ship-foo with Force powers.

In the end, we win and escape.

We never did run into a ball-gagged Jar-Jar in a gimp suit, maybe next time.

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Ties That Bind
System: Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed
Mon 10am (6 hrs)
GM: Morgan Hua
6 Players

Published scenario from Doors to Darkness. CoC 7th Edition.

Group of 1920s investigators are hired to uncover who is behind the vandalism of a fountain in the ongoing construction at the Carrington Estate.

I had a great group of players. Half the players were female, last year I got an all male group of players.

The game went well and I got a giant bag of swag to hand out as prizes. Since the game ends after the prize vault closed, I was given a tote, t-shirt, 3 pins, several handfuls of dice, and $5 Kublabucks to hand out. Everyone was happy with multiple prizes.

Several people got temporary insanities and there were a lot of nice moments in the game. At one point they all opted for shotguns and wound up in a swamp, in a small skiff. Then someone went crazy and starting shooting - point blank with shotguns. Yep, good times.

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Highlights from the scenario:

The PCs toting shotguns in a small skiff in the middle of a swamp was one. The twig creatures showed up and one PC went mad and shot at their priest and missed, shot again and hit, putting the priest at negative hit points, and knocking him face first into the water. One PC tried to climb a tree and retrieve a small bark scroll tied to a tree, but fell into the water. The mad PC then tried to hit the group's doctor with a wrench (luckily the last round of insanity). The boatman, then started backing up the skiff, leaving the PC in the water (with scroll in hand) and the priest's unconscious body. The doctor picked to save the PC in the water, pulling her into the boat. The unconscious priest failed his CON roll and expired.

Later, the party wanted to go back into the swamp, but two PCs declined to return. I think I ran the scenario right when PCs are too scared to go back. After all, it is a horror game. :-)

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Sticking 6 sticks of dynamite into a cage with the baby creature in order to make sure the momma creature is blown up. Looking up the damage and finding that it does 4d10 per stick. Um, that's 24d10 damage. This blows up the zoology building at Miskatonic University. I was nice and gave various PCs dodge and DEX rolls, to get into safety, as broken glass, debris, and a blast wave washed over them. Depending on distance from the center, PCs got 4d6 (shotgun blast worth of glass) to 6d6 concussion damage. Nobody died, but two got sent to the hospital. When the authorities questioned them, their excuse? "We don't know sir. It was a lab. It just blew up."

"Is it dead?"

I'm a mean GM: "The building was partially collapsed and on fire.  It was the zoology department with various caged animals, you can't tell from the debris and animal remains whether the creature was blown up in the explosion or not. You're not sure."

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In the end, the PCs used the Summoning Ritual to call the pappa creature to them in order to dismiss it. But the summoner suddenly decided it was cool to have a dragon-like creature under his beck-and-call. He ordered the creature to kill the other PCs. Yep, it was that type of game. :-)

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Call of Cthulhu - Library Use or That was Boring

In Call of Cthulhu, Library Use is a key skill, but what happens is that the academic characters goes to a library and does research while the rest of the characters go out into the field and get into trouble.

The issue is Library Use takes a few hours to a few days before they discover any new information. And that is usually only covered by either a single Library Use roll or a series of rolls.

Instead of waiting around, the non-academic investigators go and follow some existing leads and things actually happen to them like running into cultists, following people, being followed, NPC interactions, being ambushed, etc.

So, what is wrong with this? Well, the academic characters roll a few dice and that's it. Not very interesting or exciting. Whereas the other characters actually get to do fun things.

So, what can a GM do?

Make the research mysterious

Have whole tomes missing, or pages or sections of research material be torn out of books. Did cultists do it? Did another investigative group do it? Did a secret government agency do it?

Have key information be hidden deep in the restricted stacks through a maze of musty books. Require some personal skills such as Charm, Fast Talk, Intimidate, or Persuade to get into those areas or Stealth, Navigate, Track, and/or Locksmith.

Have the key information be misplaced. But once found, it is with other key information that the investigators never would have looked for. What the heck is this? Who put this here? Another researcher? Was it deliberately hidden or misfiled? For what purpose?

Have the needed material already checked out. Now they'll have to hunt down who checked it out and visit that person. Is that person dead? Is it a cultist? Is his house full of strange objects and books? Possible ally or enemy?

Make the library an unsafe place

Have cultists watch out for anybody looking up specific research topics. Once that is done, they are alerted and either follow the investigators, threaten them, and/or attack them. Do the investigators notice they're being watched or followed? Is the librarian suspicious? Does the librarian immediately call someone when the investigators aren't watching? Does the librarian tell the investigators that the material isn't available, but the investigators still find some of the material on the shelves?

Have the research material be dangerous in itself or has attracted dangerous creatures to it. Do the shadows darken when the investigators get closer to the tome? Are there strange sounds? Do the investigators lose SAN by just touching the book? Is the book bound in human skin? Does something try to take the tome away?

Bring the adventure to the library

While in the library, why not bring a separate section of the scenario to the investigators. Interrupt their research by a phone call where the investigators must leave the library and take care of another leg of the investigation. Make a reason where the non-academic investigators are unreachable or busy and only the academic investigators must be involved.

The best library to be doing research in Call of Cthulhu.