The second day of the 2026 Busan Con was yesterday (Sunday), and I had a full day.
The first games started at 9:30. I was in an indie game called Goblin Quest. Matt was the GM (although the game says it can be played GM-less) and guided us through making our five goblins each, creating the quest we would go on, and then adjudicating the wacky hijinx we got into on the way. None of my goblins survived, but we managed to complete the quest just slightly over the time limit, and had a lot of laughs along the way. It's obviously a very narrative first/improv RPG, with lots of stuff decided on the fly and super simple rules.
Fellow players included Elyse (my friend, who plays CoC and sometimes D&D with us), McKayla (who played in M&M the day before), Leo (who I'd met the day before and said M&M was a good idea to fill the niche of modern-era non-horror RPGs), and another guy whose name I've already forgotten but who only lost one goblin the whole adventure.
After a too short lunch break, it was time for my Star Wars d6 game. Charles (one of my regulars), Ling (who played in my Classic D&D game last Fall), Jacob and Cindy (a couple who I just met) were my players. Rowan, one of the organizers of the con, was scheduled to play, but she was exhausted and over-stimulated so bowed out that the last minute, and I don't blame her.
The adventure was the Coruscant Grand Ball, an adventure I'd originally run four years ago with my regular group. Charles hadn't joined us yet, so it was OK for him to play. He'd wanted to play in my M&M game on Saturday, but he'd just run through that one two weeks or so ago.
The adventure played out pretty differently from the first go around. I made a few changes, as well. Instead of "social combat" I made a chart of the three suitors' attitudes towards the five debutantes, and their pre-scripted interactions were set, but then PC actions could countermand or enhance the effects of the events that were scripted to play out.
This group of players actually spent a lot more time BEFORE the event, trying to tarnish the reputation of the other debutantes or learn what might help endear Marjon the Hutt to the other suitors. I had to shorten the interactions of the Ball itself in order to fit into the time slot. I also dropped the Zygerian slaver attack, although I had that waiting in the wings.
In the end, everyone had a good time (and too much Tattooine Spice), and we never had a combat. Also, yes, they got Marjon to dance with the hunky Togruta playboy, rather than the nerdy Bith artist or the biz-bro Arcona exec's son.
We had a bit more break time before the evening game, so I went to a nice Japanese restaurant nearby. Rowan and two of her friends dropped in when I was halfway through my gyudon, so I joined them and we discussed Stranger Things Season 5 as we ate. They had very different takes on the season than me, mainly stemming from the lazy writing (which I agreed with) and their disappointment with the teased Will-Mike romance never happening (something I didn't think the writers were actually teasing, but that's my straight perspective vs their LBGTQ+ perspectives). Despite the disagreements, we had a civil discussion.
Anyway, on to the final game. Richard (our usual Keeper) ran Call of Cthulhu. I pulled up one of my old characters who'd survived and not gone mad, the rum-runner Monte Perrineau. Fellow players included Rowan, Chris (who works at the same uni as me, but we've strangely never played an RPG together until last night), Keith (who ran Cyberpunk for me last fall and in Daegu last year for Flynn) and his girlfriend Cray (who was also in the Cyberpunk game), and Alan (who I've been acquainted with through Halloween events for quite a few years, and who delivered a big box of 1/72 miniature knights and a castle to me on Saturday so we can maybe play some Chainmail at a future event).
We all did our best to stay in character, using our funny voices. I was exhausted from the long day, and still a bit jet lagged from our recent trip to the USA, so I struggled a bit, but managed to stay awake through the whole game. Rowan was also yawning a lot at the end. But we managed to "solve" the mystery, rescue Rowan's character's friend, and only Alan's doctor went a little crazy. It was a good time, but it finished at 11pm. Long day.
Scott and Shane had been giving out tokens all through the two days, and had prizes that could be purchased. I had one after the CoC game, and got a capsule with a bunch more tokens. That got me an RPG setting book I'll probably never use (for 5E) and a set of mini dice.
And that's about it for the con. A successful event, and much bigger than the one Justin and I put on last fall.
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