No Chupacabracon This Year - Looking Back at a Local Tabletop RPG Convention

My original plans - made last year - for first weekend of May was to go to Chupacabracon. I would take in the cyberpunk theme for the year (the con's name was even changed to Chupacabracon 2020 for the occasion), attend a couple of panels, and sit down for as many roleplaying game sessions as I could before my body reminded me that a man of middle years can't game all weekend like he could a couple of decades ago. Unfortunately, putting that many bodies in close proximity for a whole weekend is a bad idea these days. The convention organizers made the announcement that they would be shutting down a couple of months ago. It was the best choice they could make. I'm just a little bummed out that my favorite local tabletop roleplaying game convention was canceled this year.

This seems as is as good a time as any to look back.

Chupacababracon V was the first I attended.  I published a post about it a week after it wrapped up in 2018. That post doesn't properly convey the feeling I came away with after it was over. Something about Chupacabracon clicked with me. Looking back, the magical moment may have been while I was munching on Round Rock Donuts and slurping coffee while listening to Kenneth Hite and Mark Carroll discuss horror (Lovecraftian and otherwise) in roleplaying games. Or it could have been playing a Star Wars D6 game run by Bill Slavicsek. Or it could have been something I couldn't quite put my finger on. I just knew that I had found something I liked and was looking forward to experiencing again.

I did attend Chupacabracon VI last year, but didn't post about for a couple of reasons. First, I mostly ended up going to panels that year. Not really the most exciting stuff to write or read about. Second, I didn't take many photos while I was there. It just slipped my mind. This blog doesn't include the phrase "over the hill" for nothing. With little in the way of thrilling game-play or photos to spice up a post, I decided to skip doing a Chupacabracon post for 2019.

That may not have been the best call.

I played two games at Chupacabracon VI. The first was a Savage Worlds game held Saturday evening. The other was a session of Grim War on Sunday afternoon. My recollections of these games were aided by Tabletop.Events, the tabletop game event management site used by Chupacabracon. Tabletop.Events still had the schedule I set up for last year.

The beginning of the Savage Worlds game. Before we all split up. Because that always works out.

The Savage Worlds game was a reverse dungeon scenario. We played Orcs defending our subterranean home from invading adventurers. The Orc who seized the most treasure - by fair means (taking it off the bodies of adventurers) or foul (taking it off the bodies of other Orcs) - would be the winner. Naturally, between the group splitting up and backstabbing each other, it was the Orc who spent much of the game as far from danger as possible who won! Our host - Steve Kellison - mentioned that this was one of a series of scenarios he's run with this set up of terrain and miniatures. Great fun!

Grim War is a superheroes game with weird and horror elements using the One Roll Engine (ORE). It was my first experience with ORE. Fortunately, one of the designers - Greg Stolze - was running the game and had plenty of experience at explaining how everything worked. The experience turned out to be not quite my cup of tea. I'm not sure if it was the game itself or the fact that everyone was a little punchy on the last day of the con. I'd probably give it another shot if the opportunity comes up. I did pick up a few valuable lessons about running a convention game.

The scenario that Greg Stolze ran was simple - we were supers trying to get by while maintaining a low profile. Only government sanctioned supers are legal in Grim War. Naturally, we were independents operating without the approval of the powers that be. There was an item - I don't remember what - stored in a nearby bank that we had to retrieve. Greg Stolze produced a map of the bank building and let us start planning the heist. Most of the session was taken up with casing the bank, other preparations, and a confrontation with a team of government supers at the bank.

What stuck with me was the minimalist approach that Greg Stolze took. He provided each of us a few handouts including a character sheet and the map of the bank, but relied on a "theater of the mind" approach for everything else. He was able to run most of the session from memory, but I do recall him consulting a set of notes at least once. With a simple scenario that he obviously had run before, he wouldn't have to look up a bunch of rules. With minimal materials, he wouldn't have to pack pounds of stuff into his luggage. It's a clean, elegant approach that I might borrow if I start running convention games.

Moving forward, it looks like tabletop gaming conventions are moving online. There was some discussion of running Chupacabracon 2020 as a virtual event in August, but I haven't heard anything recently about the idea. Tabletop.Games is running its "Con of Champions" on May 23-25 to keep itself afloat. Given how many tabletop gaming events have canceled this year, it's no surprise that Tabletop.Games needs a hand. I'm still considering it, but it will give me a chance to see how games are run online. That's gonna be a handy thing to learn these days.

My Favorite Things - 2018

The end of the year is as good a time as any too take a look back. As I've found more time and energy for my hobbies, I've run across more things that I'd like to share. Below are five noteworthy things that I'm happy to recommend. As this is a tabletop gaming blog, all of them have a connection to that theme, even if it is a pretty tangential one. The list is in no particular order.

A gamemaster's work is never done.

Star Trek Adventures

Some may find the following statement to be heretical: Modiphius Entertainment's Star Trek Adventures is currently my favorite Star Trek role playing game. The game was created by fans for fans and does something that many licensed games fail to do - convey the feel of the setting. The writing assumes that the reader has a working knowledge of Star Trek. This means that the word count saved by not having to explain things like "what the Borg are" can be used for "how the Borg are going to ruin the player characters' day" and other stuff that is useful in play. The streamlined version of Modiphius' 2d20 system implemented in the game provides a strong mechanical framework without being cumbersome. The rules are also flexible enough to allow for some tinkering without too much effort from the gamemaster. I had fun trying it out as a player and am having a great time running the voyages of USS Yamato for my group.

Sharpies in Metallic Silver and Gold

Painting small details has always been a challenge for me and my hands aren't as steady as they used to be. The marker and its firm tip seem to be easier for me to control than a fine detail brush. Additionally, the reflective metallic color is as good as any acrylic metallic paint I've used. These came to my attention thanks to Adam Savage's Tested (see below). He uses the silver version to weather props - a little applied to the edges simulates bare metal showing through worn paint. In addition to that, I've started using them to pick out metallic details on miniatures and terrain pieces. Even better, I've found out that Sharpie also offers metallic bronze, sapphire, ruby, and emerald.

Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff

I listen to many, many podcasts while driving around. This one rarely fails to inform and entertain me. Kenneth Hite and Robin Laws cover a wide variety of subjects including, but not limited to: tabletop gaming, history, food, the occult, and all things Lovecraftian. Their knowledge as game industry veterans shows through in their conversations about rules mechanics and game development. They aren't speculating as relative outsiders, they are laying out facts drawn from decades of experience. Their discussions on game design and gamemastering advice have greatly improved my own understanding and skills. The history segments - usually presented as time travel scenarios - promise to be handy for a campaign I'm planning to run down the road. And their cooking segments have given me a few things to try in the kitchen! Odds are that there will be something of interest in a given episode.

Chupacabracon

Chupacabracon is a local roleplaying game convention and Chupacabracon V the was the first tabletop gaming convention of any kind that I've attended in awhile. Although I wasn't able to attend the whole weekend, it was good to get out again. I discuss my experience in more detail here, but the short version is that I enjoyed the chance to meet folks outside of my regular gaming circle. I'm looking forward to attending again next year!

Adam Savage's Tested

I usually listen to the podcasts from Tested, but their videos have been inspiring and helpful as I work through my pile of unfinished miniatures and terrain pieces. Both their podcasts and videos cover a range of nerdy topics - science, nature, technology, the latest in geek entertainment, and the hosts' most recent "builds" or other projects. While Adam Savage - the same one from Mythbusters - mainly works on props and costumes, his work on those and on models has informed my approach to tabletop miniatures and terrain. He freely offers up tips and tricks that he's picked up from his long career in the special effects industry. Plus, he's generally got something cool to see or hear about in the works!

Chupacabracon V

Had a great time at the local role-playing game convention Chupacabracon V last weekend. My original plan was to make a weekend of it, but I ended up only attending on Saturday. The work week wore me out to the point that I needed to turn in early on Friday. Even then, I ran out of juice by Saturday evening. This was my first time at Chupacabracon and my first gaming convention in awhile. I was looking forward to a good experience outside of my regular gaming circle.

A quick selfie with the Chupacabracon mascot.

Spent Saturday morning having coffee and donuts while attending a great pair of panels featuring Kenneth Hite and Mark Carroll. Kenneth Hite first showed up on my radar with his "Suppressed Transmission" column in Pyramid magazine. He authored Trail of Cthulhu and Night's Black Agents for Pelgrane Press and is one of the hosts of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff podcast. Mark Carroll is best known to me for his work on the Conan and John Carter of Mars RPGs for Modiphius Entertainment.

The first panel was the "Cthulhu and Donuts Breakfast Special" and, as promised by the name, featured boxes of freshly baked treats from Round Rock Donuts. The discussion focused on Lovecraftian horror in tabletop role-playing games. The second panel was "Dark Campaigning: Beyond the TPK Horror One Shot" and dealt with the consequences of player character mortality in horror role-playing games - what to do when they all die to whatever they were investigating. The panels were lively, the hosts displayed deep knowledge of the subject matter, and the questions were on point. In particular, there were a couple of game recommendations - Ten Candles and Silent Legions - that I'll have to follow up on. There was also excellent gamemastering advice - the best of it was: "Never walk into a place you don't know how to walk out of." In addition to being a quote from the movie Ronin, it tells gamemasters to never commit the group to a long, multi-session series of adventures without a way to pull the player characters out if things don't turn out to be as interesting as planned. An example given was tracking down the source of the Nile - if the players get tired of going up the river, there's no quick way of getting them back to where they started.

I thought that presenting the convention floor plans as a dungeon map was clever.

I left for lunch after inspecting the wares the various dealers had on offer. On returning, I discovered that the parking situation at the Wingate by Wyndham Round Rock Conference Center was pretty dire. My circling the lot like a shark for awhile was rewarded with a choice spot.

Lunch and the time spent looking for a parking spot gave me time to consider what to buy. My completionist desires won out over everything else with the purchase of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Module D3: Vault of the Drow. This completes my set of the Queen of the Spiders "supermodule" by Gary Gygax - modules G, D, and Q.

The people at Chupacabracon - guests, staff, and attendees - were all friendly. I spent much of my time wondering around and chatting with various folks about the hobby. It's always good to share experiences with people outside of your usual circle - it helps ideas circulate.

Never agree to meet with a Hutt on a floating platform with "maintenance" droids hidden underneath it.

I had the opportunity to play in Bill Slavicsek's "Ghost of a Chance" Star Wars RPG session. He used a modified version of West End Games D6 system. Our Rebel cell was dispatched from Yavin 4 to track down and retrieve the Ghost and its crew. Our first lead was a Hutt on the Smuggler's Moon of Nal Shaddaa who was the last to have dealings with them. Some intense - and well-armed - negotiations led us to a technology dealer on the Bothan homeworld of Bothawui. He revealed that the Ghost and its crew were taken captive by an Imperial Security officer who happened to be celebrating in a bar nearby. That officer was kind enough to let us know the location of the Imperial base where the Ghost and its crew were being held. He also "donated" his uniform and code cylinders. Our Rebel cell entered the base through the time-honored tradition of impersonating Imperial personnel, but trouble quickly found us. This led to another time-honored tradition in Star Wars - shooting up Stormtroopers and Imperial facilities.

I had a bad feeling about this.

My long week at work was catching up with me after the Star Wars game. I decided to call it a day and return home for dinner and an evening spent unwinding.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience at Chapabracon V. It's a great convention with great people. I wish I could have spent more time there, but I've long ago learned not to push things too far. I'm looking forward to attending next year!