This year for KublaCon, the games I played in and ran were:
It was the third year of doing the first-come, first-served signups. I got early access for being a GM, so I got most of the games I wanted. However, I would still prefer a shuffler system because that is friendlier to casual attendees.
KublaCon does seem to be booming in attendees, though, so maybe they want to prioritize pleasing GMs over attendees. I attended one seminar on the state of the game industry. What I generally hear is that there is some contraction after a huge boom in tabletop games during the pandemic lockdowns. In the long term, though, tabletop games are continuing to grow - just at a slower pace than the boom. And con attendance seems to reflect that.
GM: phanfasm / Marty
System: Delta Green
Description: A Delta Green Horror scenario inspired by a 2023 film starring a beloved doll with a penchant for hot pink.
Content Warning: body horror, mental illness, gore, adult themes, sexuality, pregnancy.
This was a game of Delta Green inspired by the 2023 Barbie movie, and specifically by a pink t-shirt from Arc Dream that says "Delta Green" on the front and "Hey Guys, Do You Ever Think About Death?" on the back. We started without any character sheets - just picking a hot pink nametag with a name and one-word answers for "Job", "Home", and "Love". (Mine was Job: Shop, Home: Store, Love: Money.) We then each got a Barbie/Ken figure for ourselves. The players and their characters were eventually teased out to be:
A lot of the action was us navigating finding ourselves in plastic bodies and trying to remember who we were. Each of us got to a point where we remembered our real identity, and then got handed a standard Delta Green character sheet - including some details on the mission we were on tracking a superyacht named "Barbie".
I didn't find the mystery very satisfying, but it was atmospheric. There did come a "murderhobo" moment where a little while after we retrieved our guns, the mercenary and spook shot Weird Barbie in the head and then started after the others. I interpret it mostly as a frustration move - since our investigation wasn't getting us any real answers. It didn't completely devolve, though, and eventually we confronted the source of horror.
GM: Hanju Kim
System: Savage Worlds
Description: This is an alternate history of Middle Earth, where very different heroes try to destroy the One Ring. You are among those chosen by the Lady of Lothlórien - with a dozen options ranging from a turncoast Easterling general, to a pure-hearted dwarf scholar, to a curious giant eagle. The group could have no hobbits, or be all women, etc. -- and the choices will change how they get into Mordor.
This will be an action-filled and dramatic game about a new set of characters trying to bring the One Ring into Mordor. It mixes cinematic action and soulful drama, reinventing the spirit of Tolkien's dramatic adventure rather than sticking to old stereotypes.
This was my third run of this branching storyline to Lord of the Rings. It was the first time I had the Easterling general, who turned out well.
This allowed some more social interactions as they went into Mordor - since the Easterling general could pass. This lead to a dramatic confrontation where an orcish lieutenant challenged the Easterling - and in an amazingly bad stroke of luck, they were near-fatally wounded in one blow. They did have an elven healer, and were able to drag him off to slowly recover.
GM: tyriless
System: Thirsty Sword Lesbians
Description: You are the Necromancers and their Death Knights of the Imperial Necrohorde, servants to Lich Prime, the Conqueror of the Galaxy. For two centuries, the Necrohorde has warred with the Archon Alliance to conquer their homeworld of Crystalia, yet only half the planet is under your control. The Princesses of the Archon have proven to be troublesome adversaries, countering your might and wrath with beauty and love. Thus, you have been tasked to infiltrate their ranks and defeat them from the inside. The first part of the plan was a success, as you have gained the trust of the Princesses and absolute victory is just within your reach. However, now you realize you can’t go back to the life of cruelty and hatred of the Necrohorde, nor betray the only beings in the galaxy who have shown unconditional compassion and kindness. All this time you have been hiding behind a mask, pretending to be someone you are not, and now that you must lift that veil, who will you find underneath?
This is a Romantic Spy Thriller using Thirsty Sword Lesbians which uses the Powered by the Apocalypse system with simple and fast character creation. However, I will contact players who sign up early to give them first access to available archetypes and also make myself available to discuss desires, tone, and anything else that will make the game more enjoyable for us all.
This was my first time playing Thirsty Sword Lesbians, and it was inspired by the She-Ra reboot (2018). We were members of the evil Necrohorde who were undercover in the Archon Alliance. Besides picking a playbook, each player also created an Archon they were trying to get close to - which was their planned romantic interest.
We also jointly created our contacts among the Necrohorde. These included:
I feel that it was a mistake for each player to create exactly one potential romantic interest NPC. With no love triangles (or other polygons) and no PC-to-PC romance, it made the tension rather cut-and-dried. One of the players dropped out partway through.
GM: Rob Allard
System: L.A.R.P.S.
Description: The noble Montaigne courtier M. Maryse Gillete’ is hosting a gathering onboard the newly refurbished ship Le Roi Confort, which disappeared and was thought lost at sea seven years ago. M. Gillete’ is an occult artifact collector and some whisper that this ship itself is another curiosity to add to her collection, which already includes mirror ghosts. Guests from across Theah will be in attendance, please come and enjoy the hostess’ hospitality. As with every Montaigne function, this gathering promises extravagance, politics, intrigue and more... A Team Volare’ Production; Adult Themes, costumes encouraged, but not required.
This was a Secrets-and-Powers style larp in the 7th Seas universe, officially a party for nobles on board a supposedly haunted ship. I played the husband to the host of the party.
Obviously, not everything went according to the plan. There were various secret magicians and a plot around ghosts and specifically the disaster that lead to this becoming a ghost ship.
GM: Steven Drouin
System: Torn RPG
Description: You awake in the small village of Point Reyes Station, with no memory of who you were. Artifacts and documents will help you will learn who you were and then you will tear yourself apart to learn what happened to you. Torn is a mystery/horror RPG system rooted heavily in media, character development, and narrative improvisation. No knowledge of the system is required, but willingness to role play is a must.
This was a playtest of an upcoming game, which had dozens of intriguing props and handouts that we used to generate our characters and tease out the plot. A core mechanic was literally tearing off pieces of our character sheet when we were damaged or sacrificing to succeed in some task.
The plot was intentionally rather cryptic, as we had trouble interacting with basic physical objects in a room, and then eventually wandered out into the road beyond, and wondering whether we were dead and ghosts, or if there was some trick with reality. We eventually learned about how to interact with basic physical objects and collected clues about the past - making our way to a nearby university building, and finding a diary about what happened years earlier.
GM: tyriless
System: Golden Sky Stories
Description: You are mythical shapeshifting creatures who hide in plain site and look-after a small seaside village. Even though the village doesn't know you by name, they know your acts of kindness and caring. When someone is in trouble or in pain, you come to their rescue. Not because it is good, but because this village is your home, and these people are your neighbors and family.
Among them are the Alma divers, the very last their profession. For a thousand years these women have dived in the clear blue water, gathering up abalone, clams, and sea urchins; a veritable bounty of the ocean. However, these days, the water is no longer clear and the bounty is almost gone. Fifty years ago, there were dozens of divers, now there are only four. One of whom is a girl who follows in her mother's wake, and though she has passed on, the girl still hears her mother in the Alma's song. When she swims in sea, she can still feel her touch.
Oh henge, children of The Golden Sky, these are the last days of the Alma, May they receive your blessings and know the sea in you.
This was a run of the Golden Sky Stories RPG. I was interested in the system because I'd heard it prioritized non-violent resolution.
The plot revolved around a teenage girl learning to be a pearl diver in a town, when at the same time an asshole billionaire comes searching for a version of mermaids ("sea wolf"). Of course, it turns out the girl is an amazing diver because she has sea wolf heritage - and her sea goddess great-great-grandmother.
There was a lot of fun in setting up the characters, which each had a class-specific template sheet. In play, I recall some issues over interpreting powers, but it went pretty smoothly. There was a polluting industrialist who was the clear villain, but our cat was very cat-like who just went to live with him. The rest of us plotted about how to teach him a lesson and get him to leave the sea alone.