This last weekend I indulged in going to KublaCon in San Francisco.
Friday
I was planning on leaving around 12:30 on Friday to get to the Convention early (very early) but do to a combination of things (Mostly Stupid Gas stations that don’t accept credit cards) I was just on time to start the check in process and get to my first game. I decided that I wanted to run two games this convention. The first was on Friday at 4:00 – 8:00 (I let everyone out about 15 before that just to get everything together for the 8 o’clock set).

My Game ran very well, I was a little thrown off because of the difficult time I had in leaving the concord area, but I got things started and moving. For those who are unfamiliar, Spirit of the Century is a Pulp Action game, a system that accurately emulates Pulp Radio, Comics and Novels. My first Game “To the Ends of the Earth” was about Pulp Heroes going to the South Pole to find and rescue scientists and research teams. And because it was pulp not was as it seams villains of various Pulp heroes were also at the South Pole plotting various nefarious ways to trap and defeat their Heroic Rivals.
By about 7:20 the Climax of the story was in full swing, everyone who had a nemesis was fighting ‘em. At 7:40 we had a wrap up, everyone had a great time playing pulp heroes. I know for a fact that several of the players went and bought the game after the fact (one of my players got it for here husband, a guy I played Deadlands with on Sunday… Small world).

After Spirit I had not signed up for any games (being that I was late and not able to get to the computer). Which was not that bad overall, my Girlfriend was with us for Friday only, so for a little while we wondered around showing he the various stuff at kubla, then we played cards with one of my hotel mates Jarys; waiting for the Flee Market to open. Why were we waiting you might ask… well the reason was because I had left all my nerd games at my home, I had none with me, All I had were four decks of normal playing cards. Which we used and played Rummy before the flee market. We picked up some cools stuff, I always like the flee market.

Saturday
I ran my second game Saturday morning. Despite taking my turn on sleeping on the floor Friday I woke up with a surprising freshness for my game, a quick shower and I was off to the game.
Two of the players from my Friday night spirit game were in the line up for my “Spirit of the 24th Century” game. This game was pure space pulp, Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Dark side of the sun. all great examples of the genre I was trying to emulate.
I had a Legendary [+9] group of players. Everyone seamed to click very quickly on what was needed for the game, the aspects took the longest and are the most fun. They describe your character and are taken two at a time for all of the phases in your life (child hood, The Great War, pulp novel, and two guest star roles).
The Cast kept giving me great fuel for the game I had a few villains to work with, as well as a nefarious organization or two. And eventually we had an alternate reality that needed to be shattered, as everyone wound up in the Phantom Zone.
The More I play Spirit the better I get at playing off of players wants, aspects and rolling with the heroic dynamic of the game. I have come up with a few variations and house rules for the game, but they seam minor and made sense to everyone and made play run more smoothly and more entertaining for all.

Then I qickly rushed from my spirit game to a shadowrun 4th ed game that I had gotten into, this was my first game in the convention as a player.

[On a side note I had been hearing people all weekend rip on the Kubla Shuffle system and how they had only gotten into 1 game by Sunday night. I on the other hand got into almost all of my first choice slots… just makes we wonder what kind of weight factors GM's get and what happens to others…]

The shadowrun game was done well, it was not the best game I had ever been in but it was interesting enough to keep me involved I think that it would have been run better as a 6 hour game but we had fun, I don’t think it was a very a typical look into the Shadowrun universe (of which I am just initiating myself in the secrets) but if was a nice taste and the prep work and props for the game made up for some of the lack of time that we had.

After that I got ready Chad’s CoC Live LARP. I was playing an NPC “Ulf the Mad Viking” the only survivor of the Viking Ship, The Sea Bitch. I did not come into the game until about an hour and a half into the game but when I came in I knew that things were getting good.
After about another half hour of being sulking and nearly insane, I lost it and had to be restrained… I spent the rest of the night tied up and crying out for someone to let me go throw me outside and let the Cthulian have their way with me, all in order to save the kingdom…. Yeah right…
The Game ended when Father Dagon rushed into the Room made a B-Line for Ulf, killed him and then was destroyed by the fearless Viking berserkers. Great game and I would be willing to help out with anymore LARPS that Good Omens does.

I then played a “quick” game of Catan before I left it in order to sleep.

Sunday
I slept in on Sunday, I was in the Ars magica game, but decided that sleep was better.
I got up at 11:00 AM, showered, and then wondered around for a good hour until I decided to break out the board game. We played Planet Busters and then Betrayal at the House on the Hill. I played board games until 7:15 when the evening list was posted, and I got into Matt’s Deadlands Game.
Matt’s game was good, and it ran late, and by the end of it we were all calling for the comfort of our pillows. It was an 8 player game, with a nice player spread, a huckster, mad scientist, man in black, chi master, a preacher, Mexican gun slinger, a plucky kid, and a nun. I played the smartass huckster. It was a fun Game.

Monday
On Monday I was in a Paranoia game, but decided (retroactively) to sleep instead.
Which was a good thing, not only was I ready to vacate my room by 10:30 I was invited to a pickup Changeling: The Dreaming game. This was a continuing game, set in Santa Cruz, this was the continuation of the “Summer Dreams” game at DundraCon. I had a lot of fun with this game, I was very glad that I stuck around for this, then at 4:00 PM I was on the road back home.

I think that Kubla has given me the want to go to Conquest, which I am trying to come up with a game for.

Overall this was by best year at KublaCon.