Savage Saturday Night at KublaCon 2024

As I write this, KublaCon 2024KublaCon 2024 is history!

One of the highlights of this convention is our Savage Saturday Night event (a multi-table event celebrating all things Savage Worlds). This year, after a bit of a rocky start (I'll reserve that story for a future post) a terrific time was had by all as six packed tables all buzzed with exciting RPG adventures!

Here are the six games (with brief descriptions) that were played that night beginning with mine:

Pinebox Middle School - Savage Saturday Night

"The Locked Door." A locked door alone can be mysterious. It is even more mysterious when one appears in the home of one of the students of Pinebox Middle School! What dark secrets lie beyond this padlocked portal and are the heroes brave enough to find out? Play with Scott Woodard, the designer of 'Pinebox Middle School' for Pinnacle Entertainment Group at this year's Savage Saturday Night special event!

A Night to Remember - Savage Saturday Night

HIGH SOCIETY, BATHTUB GIN, & UNSPEAKABLE HORRORS! As the Prohibition rages on, claim your member of the Mythos Resistance and begin your investigation of the N'Orleans Opera House… Occult Lore, Gun Play, and Rubbing Elbows with Ne'er-do-wells to solve a mystery and prevent our destruction from forces beyond reckoning.

Deadlands: A Cowboy Legend - Savage Saturday Night

Maverick - Paladin - Cheyenne - Matt Dillon - Miss Kitty - and more.

These famous Heroes of the Wild West have gathered in Dodge City. Grave danger awaits them there, as the Deadly Drifter Jasper Stone, springs a trap aimed to end their illustrious careers.

Do these Living Legends dare duel Death himself?

Trailer Park Shark Attack! - Savage Saturday Night

The river is overflowing and your mobile home community is caught up in the deluge… wait, is that a shark fin? No, it's actually two shark fins… scratch that, it's a LOT of shark fins!! It's Trailer Park Shark Attack!

A Billion Miles From Home - Savage Saturday Night

This adventure for Deadlands: Lost Colony sends your spacers to the outer fringes of the Faraway system to discover the fate of the long-lost Bosphorous. What terrors lurk aboard her frozen halls? And why do they call this region of space “Johnson’s Folly?"

Star Wars: Murder on Arcturus Station - Savage Saturday Night

Can your group of undercover Rebels discover who murdered the station administrator and get access to supplies for the Rebellion - before the Imperial commander finds out who you really are?!

Huge thanks to KublaCon's Mike Eckert (who also ran Deadlands: Lost Colony during Savage Saturday Night) for helping to make this happen and for providing us with another glorious set of custom Bennies! Oooooh, shiny!!!

If you've never attended KublaCon and getting out to the Bay Area isn't too difficult for you, I highly recommend it! 

Hope to see you next year for Savage Saturday Night at KublaCon 2025!

Prepping for KublaCon 2024

In this post-pandemic era of virtual tabletops, a large number of gamers around the globe get their regular RPG fix via apps like Roll20, Foundry VTT, and Fantasy Grounds. For many others, organized conventions offer the rare opportunity to play their favorite games face-to-face.

I’m one of those lucky gamers who actually has a semi-regular, in-person game group, however whenever the opportunity arises for me to attend a convention, I leap at it because cons offer a truly unique gaming experience.

As I write this (in early May), KublaCon, my favorite west coast convention, is just a couple weeks away. This year, I have two games on the schedule including a published adventure (John Goff’s Final Rest Stop (the first release in the new Savage Saturday Cinema line) and an original adventure I wrote for Pinebox Middle School that I will be running as part of our SavageSaturday Night event.

Whenever I run games at conventions, I always bring plenty of “toys” to the table. Themed components, custom character sheets, maps, minis/tokens, etc. Whether people are paying to participate in individual sessions via a ticket system or the events are included in their overall registration fee, they are investing their hard-earned money in the hope of being entertained for a few hours, and I always feel compelled to deliver that experience.

As a designer who frequently runs sessions of his own games, I’m also there to function as a salesperson and company representative, so it behooves me to take an extra step or two in my presentations.

For this year’s Savage Saturday Night (a multi-table event celebrating all things Savage Worlds), I am running an original adventure for my latest game, Pinebox Middle School titled "The Locked Door." Thus far, I have playtested this game with two groups (my regular local game group and a group at DunDraCon back in February). The promotional blurb posted to Tabletop Events reads:

“A locked door alone can be mysterious. It is even more mysterious when one appears in the home of one of the students of Pinebox Middle School! What dark secrets lie beyond this padlocked portal and are the heroes brave enough to find out?”

This time around I decided to go all out, working with my extremely talented friend, David Okum (Okumarts Games) to create a set of custom, full-color cardstock miniatures featuring all the enemies the heroes will encounter. Along with these (and they are absolutely amazing), I have the official, die-cut character pawns for all the heroes, full-color maps and map tiles (some with 3D elements), several handouts, those Gear Cards I discussed here a couple weeks ago, and customized table tent character sheets (with art from the core game) for all my players.

For a few other necessary accessories, I’ll be using those EERIE playing cards I blogged about back in April for my Action Deck/s, special branded Bennies provided by the convention, a jumbo-size set of dice (I find these really help for con games), and all the usual items needed to best run adventures for Savage Worlds.

Lastly, I made some tabletop signs (5” x 7”) promoting the games at each of our six tables and I’ll have a box of “I Survived Savage Saturday Night at KublaCon 2024” buttons for all participants!

Rest assured, I will be posting an after-action convention report (or three) in a few weeks, so watch this space for photos and much more!

"Kuuuuuubla!!!"

O-Level Funnels: Tips for Players

Over the years, I have both played through and run 0-level funnel adventures for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game, and I still adore the experience!

If you’re not familiar with Dungeon Crawl Classics (henceforth known as DCC), it is:

“…a fast-paced, open-feeling rules set allowing for epic game experiences without unnecessary tethers. It uses modern game-play while paying homage to the origins of role-playing and the fun that it inspired.”

The game (and it’s seemingly endless range of adventures, settings, and supplements) is published by Goodman Games and has been banging around the face-to-face and virtual game tables since 2012.

My first time playing in a 0-level funnel was at a game convention and the mostly experienced group of players showed me that succeeding in such an adventure requires approaching things from a slightly different perspective.

Most of the time, 1^st level (or Novice in the case of Savage Worlds) characters begin their careers with a decent array of skills, magic spells, weapons, and gear. At least enough to allow them to fare quite well in their first few adventures.

In the case of 0-level funnels for DCC, your characters (and each player typically runs a set of three or four at a time) are bakers, barbers, ditch diggers, gamblers, and of course gong farmers (look that one up if you’re not familiar with the term). You’re also heading out with 1d4 hit points and a couple basic items that include a simple weapon (anything from a pair of scissors to a longsword).

At this stage, your characters really are not ready for what they are about to face in their first adventure (aka, their first 0-level funnel). DCC in general can be pretty brutal and when you’re dealing with a ragtag band of rope makers and street urchins, the lethality of the scenario is increased dramatically.

To succeed, I recommend a few adjustments to your play style:

Put yourself in the boots of the three or four 0-level characters spread out before you. If you were walking into a subterranean network of dark caves known to be infested with bloodthirsty creatures, would you do it with little more than a dagger and a ukulele? Of course not. Additionally, ask yourself what should those characters do as inexperienced civilians in order to (hopefully) survive the what’s to come?

Approach everything with caution. Listen at doors, peek around corners, and try to avoid making noise that might alert anyone to your presence.

Take time to search each area for secret doors, hidden caches, and other items and treasures. This also means, as unpleasant as it might sound, looting the corpses of any dispatched enemies and even collecting items from your fallen comrades.

In my first 0-level playthrough, my group examined every nook and cranny of the first level we entered, the results of which had us wearing armor, possessing at least one helpful magic item, and wielding far superior weapons than those we initially set off with. Without those items, we would have been walking into a meat grinder. It was also because we listened at a door and heard some unpleasantness beyond it that we were motivated to take a little extra time searching for anything that might help us deal with whatever lied beyond that barricaded portal.

In the end, it’s not really the fault of the game or the scenario if your party experiences a TPK (total party kill). Often, the PCs have simply been ill-equipped to deal with their opponents, or the players haven’t considered any tactics beyond just rushing into battle.

A 0-level character with 1 hit point expires with a successful attack. Rolling damage isn’t even required in those instances.

Those who survive the funnel advance to level 1 where they can then choose a class and really begin their journey into the wide (and altogether gonzo) world of DCC.

Zero-level funnels can be a lot of fun and a great way to develop your character/s. Don’t let things like a lack of simple tactics or missed loot prevent your characters from escaping back into the daylight and beginning their careers as full-fledged dungeoneers!