02:50 PM: Mike Sugarbaker says...
Live from KublaCon '03

Okay, first: wristbands suck. If anyone out there is planning a con, maybe you're thinking about those locking wristband things as a handy, secure way of replacing those nastily tradeable, fakeable badges. Don't do it. You will drive away any clientele who are not geeks and, hence, have other places to be over the weekend. I'm not gonna wear a long-sleeved shirt out to meet my date in the middle of summer, nor to a business dinner. People can slice them off and glue them, sure. But that defeats your clever plan anyway, doesn't it?

That said, KublaCon is a fine con in a fine location. The atrium lounge is a gorgeous, climate-controlled way to get some daylight, and the free WiFi is, well, the kind sponsor of this post. The con is very diverse, growing in popularity every year, and will be the site of more major new product announcements in years to come unless my instincts fail me.

This year, the only new-at-con stuff I can see is Diceland: Space. At least, I haven't run into it at stores yet. The new-ish games with the biggest buzz are miniatures games: Warmachine, Warmachine, a little Crimson SKies, and some Warmachine. (The Privateer guys are here and workin' it hard; I got two games in yesterday and am very pleased with how the game ends up playing. The different die roll recipes - 2d6 plus what? - take a little time to get into your head, but it's nowhere near as bad as other games I could name; two games and you're fine.)

While I'm thinking about it, I'll add that Crimson Skies is actually a much better deal than it appears at first glance. One person has enough to play for not much more than $20, and the next person gets in for less thanks to the separate Rules Pack. It looks like a very flavorful mix of rules, too. The whole Aces thing, though, is a little weird. There is a whole separate, MK Dungeons-like game to be played with those Inquisitor-scale guys, printed upside-down on the back of the regular rulebook. Plus, Aces affect the regular air-combat games as well. Very odd. I'll be writing up the results by Monday of the air game I hope to get in today.