KublaCon Con report.

     Kublacon is one of the three big local gaming conventions that I go every year.  Kublacon is the biggest one that attracts a bit over 2,500 gamers.  It is held at a very nice Hyatt Regency in Burlingame Ca.  It has a large open atrium.

   We had made plans to arrive a day early because arriving on the Friday that the Con starts can be a bear.  But my son's school thwarted my plans by putting on a school concert where my son plays the clarinet, damn! 
   So when we arrived at 9:30 pm we were all tired and relaxed a bit and went to bed.  There were tables set up and plenty of people were playing but I was pretty tired so I didn't go down to find a boardgame to play.
    I normally sign up for at least one evening rpg game and the rest I boardgame. At KublaCon for the past 12 years I have run/put on with the help of friends and family what I call Aliens L.ive A.ction B.oardgame.  
     I took the idea from my brother about a game he saw put on years before at another gaming convention that doesn't exist anymore.  That idea is taking the Aliens Boardgame from 1989 based on the 1985 movie and making a "life sized" version.  Using masking tape we tape off the floor in a large rectangle.
    I bought tons of 1/2 inch pvc pipe to make frames from which we hang dark dyed bed sheets from to make different sized barriers to block line of sight and give that claustrophobic feeling.  We line up marines on one side and the Aliens start on the other.  

              

     The game is a lot of work we run it on Satuday night from 8pm to 12 midnight.  We usually run from 2-5 games a night depending on many different factors.  We have a great time running the event though last year we did take the year off.  The Colonial Marines lost the 3 games we ran that night.        In fact the last time the Colonial Marines won was back in 2008, and the alien handler(one of my co-gms) says there is an asterisk next to that win due to a last minute rule change by me.  

    On Sunday I ran a Fate Core inspired Monterey Dresden game.  It is the world of Dresden Files but based in Monterey California.  I had at one point 6 crashers for my 6 player game.  What was really strange is that 5 of those crashers who arrived 30 minutes before my game was to begin, started chatting and decided to leave and play Dresden by themselves and they took one of the players that actually got into my game. 

    Cool I thought because I hate telling people they can't play in my game.  After all that I was a player short, fine by me but that was quickly filled by a crasher that was 15 minutes late.  

   It all worked out in the end the players I got were pretty good to fantastic.  The players laughed, yelled, were stumped to what was going on, and generally had a good time.  At one point they were going in a totally crazy direction and I feared that I would have to come how coerce them back on track(railroad).

    Then one of the players had that Ahh HA!! moment and had to shush the other players as all kinds of ideas where being exchanged as to "what was really going on."  It was pretty funny to me. And then they all yelled gleefully "That's it."  I felt pretty smug at that point.  

     My four hour game ended in 5 hours with no breaks, I would have ran another adventure with the group as they wanted to keep playing but my voice was already horse from the Aliens LAB game, so I decided not to keep running.

    Another thing that helped me decide not to run was this was a dreaded rpg room with two games.  Now its a large suite type room but at DunDraCon another game con I go to, they have all private RPG rooms which really has me spoiled.  

   Now I was voice was horse but I was still able to project enough to be heard over the other table when they got loud but they at times came over to tell up we were being too loud.  UGGGHHhh...  What a pain in the ass.  

     I mean when they got loud our table just ignored them but I guess our group was just having too good of a time?  Anyway I probably won't run another rpg at Kublacon again since I run the large Aliens LAB game there and there is no way of knowing if your game will be by itself or stuck with another fuddy duddy group.

     Overall I had a great time as KublaCon as per usual.