I attended my second KublaCon last weekend. Like last year, I had a fun time overall.
Most of what I wrote last year still holds true (including the frustrating Shuffler), so I won’t repeat it here. It felt like the results were posted sooner this time, which helped. Then again, the website was virtually unusable (it kept timing out) for most of the con… They really need a new system!
Aside from that, KublaCon is well organized, with friendly volunteering staff, a great crowd, and a large dealer hall.
The comprehensive game library remains one of the best things about KublaCon, and one of the advantages that sets it apart from DunDraCon. I played some fun family games with my kids, as well as intense board games with friends and friends-of-friends (such as the crazy Captain Sonar, as well as the classic Dune that one of my friends had had on his shelf for 30 years (!) without every playing it).
I also had a chance to get into two RPGs. RPG con games tend to be a bit hit and miss, and this was no exception.
On Friday, I was lucky to get into a very fun game of Monster of the Week. It’s a PbtA game I had been hoping to play for a while now, and it didn’t disappoint. In just four hours, we were able to create characters and play through an entire episode, with lots of fun moments. It was a great group and GM, including some familiar faces from last year.
On Sunday, I got into a 7th Sea game. While it was a good opportunity to sample a new RPG system (one of the main things I generally try to get out of a gaming con), the session fell a bit short. Part of it might have been that the system didn’t really jive with me, but the group was less ideal as well. Without getting into too many details, there was one very dominant player, one player that alternated between staring at his smartphone and nodding off, and even some inadvertent PvP. In the end, we made very little story progress in 6 hours, which was disappointing.
Overall, a fun con, and I’m looking forward to next year!