Midwest GameFest This Week

I will be a guest at Midwest GameFest later this week in Independence (Kansas City), MO. I’ll drop by Thursday evening, but will be running games on Friday evening (Twilight Imperium Embers of the Imperium / Genesys), Saturday evening (Star Wars), and Sunday morning (Paranoia). Saturday’s game is currently full, but you never know if everyone will show up. Plenty of other events as well from RPGS to table top to seminars and more of the usual convention offerings.

Details at midwestgamefest.org.

Gen Con Online 2021 Events

I am running events for Gen Con Online again this year. It was a fun if different experience last year, and we had some international players, too. This time I’m running a new (unofficial) Star Wars Edge of the Empire convention game called Project Deflect. It’s set in The Mandalorian time frame, and new players are certainly welcome. I’ll be using Roll20 for the tabletop, and Discord for audio and video (video is not required). The provided pregenerated PCs include some Mandalorians and other characters. Gen Con Online badges are free, but there is typically a cost for each event.

Here are the event times and IDs:

RPG21197450 Project Deflect Sep 17th (Fri) 8:00 pm 4 hrs Cost: $2

RPG21197451 Project Deflect Sep 18th (Sat) 8:00 pm 4 hrs Cost: $2

RPG21197452 Project Deflect Sep 19th (Sun) 10:00 am 4 hrs Cost: $2

Your band of inexperienced bounty hunters must retrieve a combat gear engineer who was forced to flee a corporate testing facility within a New Republic/Imperial warzone.

I won’t be attending Gen Con in person this year, for the first time since skipping 2000 due to travel out of the country. 2020 doesn’t count, plus I participated in Gen Con Online. Along with other factors, my wife and I thought it was too soon to risk such large crowds over so many days. Gen Con is trying to balance running the event versus safety, updating their rules as needed. We’re vaccinated (and highly encourage everyone to do so), but the skyrocketing delta variant has made things worse then we imagined. Beyond a potential breakthrough infection, the travel risks include a random accident sending someone to an overloaded emergency room or hospitals at capacity during the trip. We had to make an emergency room trip in a normal year, and it wasn’t fun then.

Hopefully things will improve next year. Whether you’re going or not, stay safe.

BGG@Home is Next Week

BoardGameGeek Con was cancelled and moved online this year, for obvious reasons. It is November 18 thru 22. I, along with several others, will be running sessions for Edge Studio for Genesys (Android and KeyForge), Midnight (5e version), and Legend of the Five Rings. Edge took over these RPGs from Fantasy Flight Games earlier this year. I will be running Genesys Keyforge The Maw of Abraxas on Saturday and Sunday. BGG@Home information is here. The schedule of events is here.

Midwest GameFest This Week

Midwest GameFest is this week, November 12-15. It is online, as so many others have been forced to do this year. I’m running a game each day, usually in the evening. Most of the events I have run at previous cons or online cons this year. You can find the full convention information here. The event schedule is here.

Here are my events:

• Thursday: Savage Worlds The Last Parsec: Pranac Pursuit

• Friday: Star Wars: Edge/Age: The Sandcrawler Gambit

• Saturday: Genesys: Android Shadows of the Beanstalk: The Solar Storm

• Sunday: Paranoia: Perfectly Safe

Kantcon Online 2020 Events

As with most conventions this year, Kantcon was cancelled and is hosting an online version July 17-19, 2020. I’m running a pair of events - Star Wars Edge of the Empire (The Sandcrawler Gambit) and Genesys Android (Solar Storm). Both are adventures I created, though The Sandcrawler Gambit has been a regular con event for me for a while, including a previous Kantcon.

Kantcon registration information.

Gen Con Online 2020 Events

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With the unsurprising cancellation of Gen Con 2020 came the news that there would be an online version this year. The events list was released this week, and I’m running a couple of sessions of Star Wars Edge of the Empire (The Sandcrawler Gambit) and a couple of sessions of Genesys Android (Solar Storm). Both are original adventures by me, though I’ve used Sandcrawler Gambit as a convention regular for a while now. I’ll be running them via Roll20.

Gen Con Online registration is free, but some events including mine have a small fee ($2 for most RPGs). There are a lot of free events, though, and a fair number of seminars etc. using a variety of online resources like Twitch or Zoom or other virtual tabletops. More events are being added. At this point, when you select a game or event, it goes to your wishlist. All wishlists get processed in about a week to give people a chance to get into at least some events. People selecting events after the wishlists are processed can get tickets to events that still have openings.

Gen Con Online registration and information.

My Gen Con Online events.

Numenera - Explorer's Keys Now Available

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My first work for the Numenera RPG appeared unexpectedly at Gen Con. Explorer’s Keys, Ten Instant Adventures for Numenera was available at Monte Cook Games’ booth. Explorer’s Keys has everything you need to immediately run a Numenera session with no preparation. As part of that, it includes my first game related published cartography in quite a few years. It was fun, and given how weird the Numenera setting is designed to be, it makes for some entertaining approaches to map making. I’ve updated my cartography portfolio with a couple of them.

My contributions were for the adventures Embassy of the Inconstant Moon, Protomatter Heist, Goliaths in the Earth, Flight of the Seraph, and Microfuge State. Flight of the Seraph was also featured as the Gen Con Numenera adventure and included in an exclusive collection of Monte Cook Adventures given to the game masters running their sessions.

One of my maps is related to the weird ship featured in the Numenera short film The Strand:

While copies of Explorer’s Keys were on sale at the Monte Cook Games booth, it releases sometime this week or next, and is available for preorder on the Monte Cook Games’ website. I presume it will also become available at DriveThruRPG as well upon release.

Guest at Midwest GameFest This Weekend

I’ll be one of the special guests at Midwest GameFest this weekend November 1st thru the 4th in Independence, MO (Kansas City metro area). I’ll be running Star Wars RPGs, as well as a little Savage Worlds Flash Gordon, Numenera, and the latest version of Paranoia. I’m also hosting seminars on writing RPGs and cartography. Preregistration event sign up has passed, but there are still plenty of space available to sign up on site. Click here for events and schedules.

Recruits Convention This Weekend

I’m one of the Special Guests at Recruits Convention 23rd show this weekend, September 28-30, 2018 at Lee's Summit High School in Lee's Summit, Missouri. I'll be hosting seminars and running some games. The game schedule is available (no pre-registration for games, sign up on site). I’ll be running a shorter version of my Kessel Breakout con adventure. The seminar schedule isn’t up yet, but I’ll be hosting three. Since the con is at a high school, the first two will have more of a how-to/educational approach.

• Friday 6pm-7pm - Creating Maps & Deckplans for Games

• Saturday 1pm-2pm - Writing for RPGs

• Sunday 11am-12pm - Star Wars RPG Q&A

There will be a lot of games, particularly war games, along with some RPGs hosted by RPGKC. It is an inexpensive event to check out.

Recruits Convention Special Guest

Recruits Convention announced I'll be a Special Guest at this fall's event. Recruits' 23rd show will be September 28-30, 2018 at Lee's Summit High School in Lee's Summit, Missouri. I'll be holding a couple of seminars and running some games. More on that when the seminar schedule is available.