The 2025 Busan Tabletop Gaming Con Was a Success

Last Sunday, November 30, was our first game con. I picked up Justin around 9am, and we arrived at the cafe just a little before 9:30. Richard was already waiting, as well as Jonathan (Kojaq) who I only had interacted with online before this. We got everything set up, and most players, and Peter the other morning GM, made it there by 10am when we were scheduled to start. But Kurt, the cafe owner, didn't show up until around 11 so we had to make due with water or drinks people brought in from outside for a bit. Kurt had given me the door code so we could get in early, if you're wondering. 

In the morning session, I ran Classic D&D, using the same dungeon from the previous Online Summer Con arranged by Amae's Seoul group. This party followed the same route at first, but had a TPK in their first encounter. Four carrion crawlers took out a party of five 6th to 8th level PCs. As they can, especially if the party only has a cleric as a caster. The players got new PCs from the pre-gen pile and set out again in a different route. They didn't have time to make it to the dragon, but they had a great time anyway. 

Just before the thief misses on a backstab and everyone fails their saves (the Dwarf is already down).

Richard's Call of Cthulhu game only had one character death, but that PC died, was brought back, and died again. 

Richard brought his King in Yellow robes.

 

I didn't hear of any PC deaths in Peter's Black Sword Hack game, but everyone said they had a great game. 

Justin's BSH character sheet

We took a lunch break, and more people arrived for the afternoon games. A couple of people also went home (or elsewhere, anyway) after the morning games. I was a player in Keith's Cyberpunk Red game, which was a lot of fun. I got to play the Solo (combat character), which is always nice. But our new player David (who played his first RPG ever in my morning D&D game) was the star of the show. Of course, Richard's PC managed to shoot Peter's PC in the back...twice! None of us died, though several gang-bangers and scumbags died at our hands. 

The start of the game, in our gang's alley base, dealing with druggies

Jonathan's Mothership game was really good, too, from what I heard. There were definitely some PC deaths as well. 

An alien gestated inside one of the PCs. You'll never believe what happened next~!

Both Scott's 5E game and Elyse's Pathfinder game went over time, but this is something they'd planned for, and the players were aware of this. Scott did have one PC death. Elyse runs a more story-forward sort of game, so no PC deaths in her game. She did a think where players started with blank, or nearly blank character sheets, and had to discover who their PCs were as they played. 

Scott's got a lot of style when he runs a game. We could hear lots of laughing and some shouting from them.

Elyse's players were all really intent on the story that unfolded. 

Then it was the dinner break time. Most folks went home (or elsewhere), but a stalwart few soldiered on through into the night. Peter, Richard, Elyse, Jada, Justin, and I were there the whole day. Keith and his partner CC stayed for evening games, too, but they weren't here for the morning session. 
 

Justin had his group (Jada, CC, Elyse) play board games including Whitehall Mysteries. They also played a few smaller games. Justin had planned to play 1775, a tactical wargame of the Revolutionary War, but I guess they never broke that one out. 

London was scoured for clues.

 

My evening game was Gamma World. Richard, Keith and Peter chose their mutants and set off to explore a ruined tower. They dealt with crumbling infrastructure, hungry mutants, friendly mutants, and at the top of the tower androids intent on capturing Richard's mutated ape PC. Keith dropped to negative HP twice, and Peter once. At the end of the game, Richard escaped with his companions' bodies, evading the androids to survive the horrors of Gamma Terra. We had a blast. 

Peter's altered human scout is down thanks to poisonous two-headed bat mutants. The espers are about to meet the androids. 

It was a long day, but very much worth it. And we plan to do it again sometime soon. Scott wants to do the next event in May. I'll be back home for my son's high school graduation that weekend, but I'll probably help with the organizational side of things as best I can. 
 

 

 

Prepared

The 2025 Busan Tabletop Gaming Con is in a few days (Sunday). I'm ready for the game. I'm running D&D in the morning, playing Cyberpunk RED in the afternoon, then running Gamma World in the evening. It's gonna be a full day. Luckily, my Monday schedule will be light on Dec. 1st. 

We're ready for the event. The cafe is prepared for us. I've got all the schedules and games sorted. Justin bought some supplies (name tags, extra pencils/paper/etc.).  I guess I could make a sign-in sheet to make things feel more official. But with fewer than 25 people involved, I don't think that's completely necessary. 

I ordered dice sets online, planning to give a set to each GM as a thank you gift or as a reward to their MVP player, whichever they chose. The listing said it was seven sets (49 pieces) and we originally had 14 games people were prepared to run, so I ordered two. They arrived yesterday and to my happy surprise, there were ten sets of dice in each pack. And we're down to only 9 game sessions, two of which I'm running. So enough for me to give each GM a thank you set and an MVP player prize set. And I'll have some sets left over to keep for another time. 

For my games, I've got a dry erase mat, some board markers, minis for the creatures in both my D&D and Gamma World games (close enough on the GW side) organized, adventures and pre-gen PCs printed. I tried to write up the adventures so I'd have minimal book references during the games, but I'll bring the rulebooks anyway. 

I'm ready for the first (hopefully annual) BTGC!  

On Track

 After a frustrating at times past 24 hours, we have our table rosters set for the 2025 Busan Tabletop Game Con. Nine tables open, and around 23 total participants. Small, but close to what we were shooting for. We had hoped for around 30 people to participate. Close. [I need to update the webpage game rosters, we had a few changes/additions during the day.]

Next Sunday, we'll be gaming it up. I'm running Classic D&D and Gamma World (4th). I was going to play in the Mothership game in the afternoon, but John M. didn't get anyone signing up for his evening board game, and we got a request from John D. to also join that game. I was gonna hop over into Cyberpunk Red, but then the last guy to sign up on the official form before I closed it wanted that spot, so I'll be free in the middle of the con. That's actually alright with me. I can troubleshoot any problems, take pictures to document the event (I'll probably do a write-up for the local expat scene mag Busan HAPS), and just get a bit of rest between my games. 

We're using the Discord server used for last summer's Daegu One-shot Extravaganza and also for the Online Summer Con. That ended up being a bit of a headache, because Rowan, who owns the server, and Scott, who is an admin, both know Discord functions way more than Justin and I. So they kept hinting at things we needed to do, saying it was simple - just watch/read a tutorial, and then letting us fumble through things until they had to step in and fix our mess. [Hence the past 24 hours' frustrations.] But we've got it done. We've got players all sorted with their GMs, and everyone has both a Discord channel on the server and a KakaoTalk (Korean version of What'sApp) group chat for their games. 

All my pre-gens for both Classic D&D and Gamma World are on my work computer, so I'll be posting them for players to look over and discuss over the next week. I also (on Friday) sorted through minis to get some suitable ones ready for Gamma World. Not all of them are the right fit, but close enough. Various D&D minis, cheap-o toys from Japan and the U.S., old MUSCLE wrestlers and Battle Beast toys... I think I will sort out minis for the D&D game as well. 

After all the organizing was done (and a few family errands), I sat down to consider my OSR Modern game design. I'm still tinkering with the Starting Occupations and class Talents, but I think I'm getting closer. I also made a list of things that probably need rules for resolution in the game (and could potentially be used to earn XP). Here's the list so far: 

What do people do in this game that require mechanics (and might earn XP)?

Movement (jump, run, swim, drive, climb)

Investigate/Gather information

Socialize/Intimidate/Bluff

Get permission/authorization/shopping

Sneak/infiltrate/avoid ambush

Drive/Travel

Hack Computers

Fist Fight/Sword Fight

Gun Fight

Car Fight

Chase/Escape

Sabotage/Destroy

Repair/Build

Heal/Treat Illness

 I plan to implement a set of Challenge Awards in addition to XP for combat. Since it's a modern setting, I want it to be able to implement genres where fist fights or car chases are more prominent than gun fights just as easily as those that do feature prominent gun fights/explosions. For Challenge Awards, I'm thinking 5% or 10% of the amount needed to gain a level for small goals, and 25% for large goals. 

And speaking of genres, I've got a list of adventure/encounter types that I want to give examples of in the book: 

Encounter/Adventure Types

Wandering Do-Gooders

Cops & Robbers

Special Forces

Hot Rodders

The Big Heist

Investigators

Explorers

On the Run

Home for Christmas

X-Treme Action

From Sea to Shining Sea

Out for Vengeance

The Conspiracy

All in “The Family”

 And while I mainly plan to keep things mundane (well, Action Movie heightened reality), I will have some notes on adding some fantasy/sci-fi to the game: 

Mundane, Paranormal, Supernatural, Sci-Fi

Setting the campaign tone. PCs are all normal (heightened reality) characters, but the world also contains: 

Mundane: heightened realism, but otherwise normal (Die Hard, Rambo, Dirty Harry, A-Team, MacGuyver, Cannonball Run, Murder She Wrote, Goodfellas, The Goonies)

Paranormal: cryptids, psychics, ghosts, aliens (X-Files, Lost, The Shining, Scanners, E.T.)

Supernatural: magic, monsters, demons, other realms (Interview with the Vampire, Stranger Things, Indiana Jones, Nightmare on Elm Street)

Sci-Fi: clones, aliens, high tech, superscience (Knight Rider, Blade Runner, Predator, V, Terminator, The Island, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure)

 This should give everyone an idea of where I'm going with this idea. 

 

 

 

 

Arrangements

It's happening. After years of me considering whether to do something like this or not, Justin and I, with help from Scott and Rowan, are finally hosting the first (hopefully annual) Busan Tabletop Gaming Convention. 

The date is Sunday, Nov. 30, at Cafe With, a privately owned cafe with a really cool owner.  It's not a big event, but in just one day we have a bunch of games planned. 

In the morning (10am to 1pm), we have six games, including Call of Cthulhu (Richard), Tales of the Arabian Nights (board game, run by Justin), Black Sword Hack (Peter), Perils & Princesses (Jenifer), Despair (Shane - read about my playtest experience here), and Classic D&D (me). 

In the afternoon (2:30 to 5:30), we have five games (plus Shane's Despair game is expected to go long): Dread (Justin), Cyberpunk Red (Keith), D&D 5E 2024 (Scott), Pathfinder 2E (Elyse -- maybe, she's been ignoring my request to detail her game), and Mothership (Jonathan). 

Finally, in the evening (7 to 10), we have three games: Gamma World (me), Whitehall Mystery/1775  (board games run by Justin), and Clank! Catacombs (board game run by John). Scott's 5E game may also go long into this time slot. 

Unfortunately, the cafe couldn't fit us in on a Saturday, because they have other events planned. And the later Sunday games may not get many players because some people are coming in from out of town, and even people in the city taking public transportation may take a while to get home. And most of us have to work the next day. 

Still, I'm excited to see how many players we recruit. I'll be sending out that pitch this weekend. Hopefully Elyse gets her info to me on time.