Morgan's KulbaCon Fall 2024 Excellent Adventures

KublaCon decided to add another convention in the Fall. Held in Santa Clara, it's just a few miles from my home. Because it was the first year at this new convention space, there were some hiccups. I ran my game in the first time slot, long lines were at registration, there weren't enough maps of the venue, people weren't familiar with the venue, and there was a question about what was free parking.

Because of all these issues, though my game was fully booked, there were 2 no shows, but 3 people showed up to crash. I did wait an extra 6 minutes to start the game when the 3rd registered Player showed up (with another crasher in tow who I had to turn away). But even with all these minor problems, everything got sorted out and I had a great time.

The notices sent to us told us there was discount parking, which was an error by omission. The 2nd and 3rd levels of the parking structure attached to the venue was FREE for day parking; no overnight parking. The announced discount was for overnight parking. As long as you left the venue before 2-3am (no overnight parking), you were ok. The only issue was on Saturday, there were two other events at the Convention center, so the free parking got filled pretty quickly. 

On the first day, I parked on the 3rd floor near the Santa Convention Center entrance and went through the upper level walkway, wound up walking through the convention center before finding most of the convention was in the Hyatt. The next 2 days, I parked closer to the hotel entrance for a shorter walk, though you had to take the stairs, the parking lot elevators there were out of order, but the out of order sign was only posted on the 2nd level elevator doors, not on the other floors. WTF?

Most of the RPG rooms held two games with a partition to cut down the noise. This was mostly fine, except in one instance, where the other table got a bit too noisy for me, almost drowning out the GM. Not sure why some people need to shout. Maybe some GMs weren't used to private rooms where you didn't need to project so loudly?

I also got to play giant versions of Azul and Formula D. Never played either before. I won Azul (beginners luck) and came in 3rd (out of 6) in Formula D. The giant mat and race cars were fun, hard to not make vroom-vroom and screeching tire noises while playing.

Overall, an excellent experience.

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11/8/24 Fri 1-5pm (4 hrs) 

Hope's Last Day

System: Alien RPG

GM: Morgan Hua

5 Players (Gregory B, Joshua Z, Allan A, +2 crashers).

Level/Power: colonists

Pregens: yes

Hadley’s Hope is a “shake and bake” colony located on the moon LV-426. Hope's Last Day tells the story of the final hours of Hadley’s Hope, all through the eyes of five colonist workers. The time frame is 2 weeks before Ripley arrives with the Colonial Marines in Aliens. The PCs return from a routine maintenance run and find everything has gone to hell. This scenario is from the core book. I was introduced to Alien RPG with this scenario and I love it. I've run this about 8 times already.

I had a good table of Players and had a really fun time. Of the Players, one had never seen the movies before; two owned the game. None had Played before. The newbie to the Alien universe actually was the sole survivor and got off LV-426 with secret agenda achieved.

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One funny bit, well, to me, but not the Player. His PC got killed in the first 15 minutes by a Xeno. When the PCs found the Chief Scientist in the quarantine of the Medical Lab, he got that PC as his replacement PC. There was a big argument as to whether that new PC was safe or not. After the Lab Tech failed his Medicine roll and cleared the new PC, they decided to let the new PC go with them. Outside of Billy's Bar, the PCs killed another Xeno. After all the shooting, the Pilot shot the new PC, caused a critical and it was a head shot, instant death. Pilot claimed the gun just went off. Player then got to play the survivor from Billy's Bar. At the shuttle, the Lab Tech got a Facehugger on his legs, then it got to his face. At that point, the PC panicked and ran out of the shuttle. The two remaining PCs, the survivor from Billy's Bar and the Pilot, closed the doors and got the shuttle off planet. The Pilot let the other get into cryosleep first, sabotaged the cryopod (death), then went into cryosleep. The Player (3 dead PCs) got really pissed, picked up the Pilot's character sheet, read the Hidden Agenda: "Make sure no one knows what happened at LV-426, even if it means killing your friends." He swore, then threw the character sheet on the table. 😀

The synthetic had lured a Xeno away, letting it drag him away from the shuttle to the hive. His last view was the shuttle taking off, satisfied he has saved as many humans as he could.

In the end, only the Pilot survived. The Player never saw any of the Alien movies, but played very Burke-like, cool.

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11/9/24 Sat 10am-2pm (4 hrs)

Frontier Scum: Escape The Organ Rail

System: Mörk Borg

GM: David Pier

4 Players (3 players, one no-show): Cameron F, Isaac R, Dave L, Morgan Hua

Level/Power: 1

Pregens: yes

You are prisoners aboard the Organ Rail, a penal train clad in black iron, spewing blood-red smoke as it rattles across the tracks of the Big Nothing. Rumors say its belly-vault contains the confiscated swag of a thousand robberies gone wrong.

The next stop is Fort Gullet, where you’ll be hanged for your crimes, so you better get a wiggle on! To get out alive, you’ll need enough supplies to get you across the sweltering sands to the swamp-oasis of Sickwater; no straight-shootin’ lawfolk would ever set foot in that veritable rat’s nest of thieves and outlaws. Yup, that’s your only chance.

Of course, it couldn’t hurt to have a look in that vault while you’re here … could it?

I found out this was the scenario in the core book. Another good table of Players. I had the most fun in this game. This is the second game of Frontier Scum I've ever played and it didn't disappoint.

The best two things -- no the three best things -- about Frontier Scum are: the Hats (you can elect to have your hat shot off instead of being shot); guns automatically hit unless you have cover, then you roll to hit; the character generation is incredibly flavorful (check that out here with the online generator).

The GM brought little hats and full sized bandanas to wear. When you get shot at, you can elect to take your hat off. Hats off to the GM.

This was my favorite game of the convention.

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Going through various screwed up sections of the train was a lot of fun. It was also designed so the PCs can't screw it up because each train car was sound proofed (making it more dungeon-like, gunshots don't alert other sections) and you can't detach sections of the train (couplings were welded shut). 

After escaping from our cells, we learned that the train is owned by a mad scientist (Dr Moreau-ish), making animal-human hybrids. At one point, he offers us a deal to prevent an escaped hybrid from stopping the train. He also gave us healing syringes (of red liquid). We took the job. Then we proceeded to kill his guards further down the train. In the end, we got to the beating heart of the train (literally) and had to decide to either destroy it or let the train get to its final destination. That's when the mad scientist showed up again and offered more money. And told us those who took the healing syringe (blood from the heart), were tied to the heart and if it died, you died. We negotiated more money, horses, and getting off the train. The mad scientist sang a lullaby to the heart and the train slowed down to a stop. When he opened up his safe to pay us, a PC decided we should take everything in the safe and shot the mad scientist instead. PCs took the money and ran, leaving the train intact. One PC had taken the serum. That's why we didn't destroy the heart.

I liked that every train car made sense and were part of the overall crazy mad science. The heart ran the train, but the engine was just burning the failed experiments of the mad doctor, and blood and meat going up the smoke stack were eaten by a flock of vultures that followed the train. There were prison cells, guards, a dining car with a kitchen, cages with animals, a lab, and strange animal-human hybrids.

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11/9/24 Sat 6-11pm (5 hrs)

Cowboys vs. Aliens

System: Alien RPG

GM: Sam Scott

6 Players (GM took a 7th): Helen B (Piano Player), David B (Gambler), DD B, Rob C, Robert D, +1 crasher, Morgan Hua (Saloon Girl)

Pregens: yes

1875 Crystal Springs, Nevada Dang it and tarnation! The Hudson Gang has robbed the bank train! Sheriff Gorman and Deputy Apone are rustlin' up a posse to chase them down. Never mind the strange things happening recently, we got some frontier justice to dispense! (Rules: Free League's Alien RPG; all characters provided, no experience necessary, just pull up and play!)

I played in Scott's The Night of Knives and Shadows game at KublaCon and it was Yakuza vs Aliens and a lot of fun.

This time, Scott reskinned Aliens with a western. He reused some of the movie characters as NPCs and named various towns and such after things in Aliens as a homage.

I enjoyed the game, but I felt the last act fell a little flat. Also GM shouldn't have added a 7th Player. I know it's tempting, but never add extra Players because that steals screen time from the other Players.

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The Hudson Gang stole the town's silver shipment and PCs are deputized to go after them. We first run into an odd stampede of animals: zebras, then giraffes. After that we found a derailed circus train. Everyone was dead, but the Hudson Gang blew open their safe and took their money too. There was also evidence of some sort of giant dinosaur eggs (Xeno eggs) in one of the train cars. PCs killed a giant scorpion (facehugger) in that car.

Finally, we get to the Hudson Gang's hideout, an old abandoned mine.

I really enjoyed most aspects of the game except for the mine. I understand why it's there, it's the faux replacement for the atmospheric processor in Aliens. But as PCs we really didn't have a reason to go in there. When we finally did, the Hudson Gang, off screen, set off their dynamite and we wind up in a cave-in and had to dig ourselves out as Xenos attacked us. It felt very anti-climatic. I'd rather we had to hunt the Hudson Gang and accidentally run into Xenos while doing so.

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11/10/24 Sun 9:30-2:30pm (5 hrs)

Mothership

System: Mothership

GM: Lee Randazzo

6 Players (only 4 showed up): Adrian R, Alex Z, Brandon D, Morgan Hua

Level/Power: first level

Pregens: yes

Join a crew of misfits as they navigate the dark mysteries of deep space. This game contains strong horror elements.

GM told us his game is a highly modified version of 10000 Too Many Jumps. I've never played Mothership, so I didn't care which scenario it was, but for people who've played Mothership, I think putting that in the game description would prevent people who've played the scenario before from accidently signing up for it.

Another good table of Players. GM was great. Told us this was the first time he ran Mothership. Another Player was familiar with the system and helped the GM with reminders about the Stress system. I felt the system was a bit fiddley due to the record keeping and felt the game design wasn't fully baked. I liked the Alien RPG system better. That said, I really enjoyed the game because of the excellent GM.

You kept track of die roll failures, each failure increases your Stress by 1 (Stress starts at 2). When you fail a Sanity or Fear check, you roll 1d20 and try to beat your current Stress (core rules says roll 2d10). If you fail, you roll 1d20 on a random Panic table (though core rules says 2d10 + Stress). There was just all this record keeping which I didn't like.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

Basically, the PCs were supposed to sleep 3 years and wake up at a new planet and work for 7 years terraforming it. We wake up and things have gone very wrong. A cult herds us to the barracks and we discover food and water is very, very low. Later we find the ship has 3 factions and each control different parts of the ship. After much investigation, we discover the leaders of each faction are aliens who have taken over the bodies of the faction leaders and were working to crash the ship into their home planet. The PCs take over the ship and wind up landing it on a habitable moon orbiting the alien's planet.

The mystery was complex and we had a good table of Players able to put the pieces together.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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11/10/24 Sun 6-11pm (5 hrs)

Sombra Encima De La Quinecienera (Shadow Over the...)

System: Tales of the Old West (uses Year Zero Engine)

GM: Saul Morales

5 Players (4 showed up): Matt A, Wyn R, +1 crasher, Morgan Hua

Pregens: yes

The Year is 1873, in the area of Northern New Mexico Territory in the town of Jornada Valley, Ynez Quintero turns 15 on Saturday. Usually a special moment in a young girl's life where she leaves behind the girl and becomes a young lady. But joy turned to sorrow, yesterday as the body of Fernando Quintero was discovered, Ynez's oldest brother, out in the scrub range in the middle of nowhere. Shattered is the joyous time that her family, especially Marta Quintero the Matriarch of the family, has been planning for months. Witnesses have come forward claiming a native man was seen in the area. Sheriff Cahill knows a posse of locals would be nothing less than a murderous mob bent on revenge. Somethings for Cahill does not add up. Why was Fernando so far out in the middle of nowhere, why was the body so mutilated, why would the witness claim it was Nahui, a peaceful Otomi far from home. Tensions run high in this dusty town where tradition is long standing, secrets are kept close, tensions exists between cattle ranchers, farmers, natives, new comers and families that have been around for over a hundred years. As strangers passing through town Cahill has hired you to bring in Fernando's killer before the town explodes in blood and violence.

Saul wrote this scenario and a short version of it is in the published game. An excellent scenario.

The only downside of this game was that we had that "one problem Player." The problem Player was the crasher. After confronting the whole table, because the table wouldn't back him up, in a specific scene, he singled me out, and he went to weird social justice mode. After that, we let his PC do his thing; the rest of the party did other things as a split party. Later, he apologized for his behavior. But the damage was already done. We had fun despite his behavior.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

PCs checkout the body of Fernando and discover he's been shot twice. One bullet was still in the body. Shot by a 45 which was new at that time. Fernando's pearl handled 45 was also missing. There were also a lot of knife slashes on the body.

At the crime scene, we found someone had taken his horse. Further away, we found Indian tracks that followed the killer.

Back at the town, Donovan Pickard said he saw an Indian kill Fernando. Donovan was telling this story, surrounded by his friends, at a bar. This was immediately suspicious and this is where we had a Player problem. The PCs were of low social class: an Indian scout, an Irish farmer, a homeless gal, and my Mexican buffalo hunter. Fernando was a wealthy landowner. So were the Pickards. The Indian scout got into Donovan's face and started questioning him in a hostile manner. The other PCs decided not to intervene. The Player got pissed that we didn't back him up and started Social Justice Warrior-ing on us. Asking why we didn't defend his Indian PC. He first asked what our PCs reaction was. We all told him we wouldn't react. He then asked us, as Players, what we thought and asked if someone made an insulting Chinese comment to me how I would feel. Like WTF dude. The table has two Hispanics and one Asian player. You are WHITE. We already answered that we weren't going to react and you feel like we slighted your WHITE ass because we wouldn't defend your Indian PC who was trying to escalate a situation that he wasn't going to win. I told him, if he wanted to, just shoot Donovan. I then had to explain to him the social situation of a bar full of drunk friends of a rich person being insulted. He was still pissed. At this point, Saul intervened and shut the guy down.

Anyway, Donovan was number one on our suspect list. We did more investigation and found Fernando's sister (the birthday girl, Ynez) was meeting a potential lover (an Indian) and had seen her brother's murder. Donovan had seen the Indian, but not the girl, and decided to pin the murder on the Indian, by wounding the body as if it was a victim of an Indian attack.

Donovan had taken Fernando's horse, led it away, and killed it. We found the horse and crates of dynamite. Donovan was using Fernando as a go-between to buy land near a river bordering Indian territory. The plan was to divert the river after the land purchases. Fernando didn't like this as he was friendly to the Indians, so Donovan killed him after asking Fernando to take a look at his fancy pistol.

We found Fernando's pistol on Charlie Pickard, he didn't know who's pistol it was, but he had stolen it from Donovan. With Charlie's confession and Ynez's testimony, the Quintero's farmhands joined a posse to arrest Donovan. At the end, I told the problem Player, "If you shot him, it would have saved us a lot of trouble." (like 4 hours of investigation 😀).

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