Spend a couple hours with one of the most popular authors in the fantasy genre! N.Y.Times best-selling author R.A. Salvatore answers your questions and shares his views on everything from Drizzt Do'Urden to the War of the Spider Queen to Star Wars!
The Forgotten Realms reception is bigger and better than ever as we celebrate the 15th anniversary of the First novel! Join authors and game designers for a question-and-answer session, then rub elbows with all those who keep the Forgotten Realms going.
Adventures in Fantasy (with optional game play), Adventures in Fantasy
Description:
Adventures In Fantasy, a fantasy RPG, has been created by ROC Industries. Some have played. Some have heard. Some still don’t know. Join the creators to discuss the game system. It’s a game for gamers by gamers.
A slide show on how The Hobbit has been professionally illustrated over the years. Douglas Anderson covers the background of the author, JRR Tolkien, and his writings.
Learn about upcoming products and events for the Arcarnis Pro line as well as a Q & A with the creators of the Shattered Empires. Also, find out what’s next in the hottest new RPGA Campaign, Living Arcanis.
Come and meet Jordan Weisman, the founder of FASA, and WizKids. See the future of the Battletech universe as it evolves into Mech Warrior: Dark Ages. Join in a question and answer session about Mech Warrior. Great prizes for the best questions.
Moved to Saturday at 8pm. The Miskatonic University Association is meeting in Milwaukee for the last time.The Libary Association is hosting a Mythos Haiku contest. Bring your pre-written Lovecraftain Haiku and maybe win a prize!
Call of Cthulhu, Novus Ordo Seclorum/Journey Into Darkness Luncheon
Description:
As special gathering for all alumni of GenCon’s journey into Darkness/Novus Ordo Sedorum tournament. If you’ve ever played, please come and join us for a late lunch. Food included in price.Will Etienne Fost attend?
We’re hosting another off-the cuff and seat of our pants seminar. Charlie Krnak & Dustin Wright will field questions and spin yarns. Get the scoop on what’s planned and how to be invloved.We'll even provide free water: Because we care!
Hear the facts from a 22 -year gamer and 13-year WestTexas street cop on the realities of the law enforcement and how to use the police in you game. Includes police campaigns and police officers as NPCs. Hear about the different levels of law enforcement, their equipment and tactics, and how to use them in encounters. Presentations followed by Q and A.
One of the most exciting elements of a campaign, game world, science fiction series (books, TV) etc. is the adventure of meeting and discovering new cultures that are Alien from your own. Your host for this discussion will explore ways that can assist in creating truly alien cultures.
Join the WizKids Crimson Skies design team in a special sneak peek of this upcoming release. Participants will get a Q & A session, a sneak peek at the upcoming figures, plus a special Crimson Skies FREEBIE!!! Event ticket required.
Hear from the product team that developed D&D E-Tools: Character and Monster Generator, including Scott Matthews, product development lead from Fluid Entertainment. Includes information on what D&D E-Tools is, what it can do, and tips on taking advantage of its features to improve your campaigns.
Come and talk about playing D&D beyind 20th level! We'll discuss the new twists and turns the Epic Level Handbook and Deities and Demigods bring to your campaign.
Stop by and find out the latest info on Dungeons & Dragons miniatures! Wizards of the Coast staff will be on hand to show off up-and-coming figures, demo new game concepts, and answer questions.
Dragon Editor-in-Chief Jesse Decker and Polyhedron Editor Erik Mona will guide the attendees in creating a mock mini-game from start to finish. Find out what the editors are looking for and how to avoid common mistakes.
Editors Chris Thomasson and Erik Mona will guide the attendees in creating a mock adventure in this reprise of a popular seminar from last year’s Gen Con. Learn what the editors of Dungeon/Polyhedron are looking for in adventure submissions and what to avoid.
Get together with all of your favorite Dragonlance authors, including co-creators Margaret Weis andTracy Hickman. Listen as all the authors answer questions and talk about the latest events in the Dragonlance world, and then grab the opportunity for a little mingling!
Meet the people who plan and design the products for the Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game. Come ask questions about the game and learn what’s going on with your favorite RPG.
Join the fun as the Sage of Shadowdale shares his thoughts on all that's going on in the Forgotten Realms! This memorable event is hosted, as always, by Realms creator and best-selling author Ed Greenwood.
Want to know what’s up with Classic Battletech now that FanPro is publishing the game? Want to know how WizKids’ new game will impact Classic Battletech? Hear those answers and all about the latest products and plot developments that we have planned!
Learn about the various freelance opportunities available from Wizards of the Coast, including design and editing for RPGs and writng for Periodicals and Novels. Discuss guidelines and needs, get advice, and ask questions of the WotC staff.
What makes a fantasy game an Epic Fantasy Game? The line developer of Earthdawn discusses and answers questions on making your fantasy game larger than life.
Game Mastering Roleplayers, Roleplaying Game Masters
Description:
Explore the interaction of GM and RP gamers. Presentation of roleplaying styles, discussion of GMs that encourage roleplaying. http://infinite.vvww3.50megs.com
A game master must be a teller of stories, a cartographer, a creator of cultures, and an architect of adventures. On top of all that the game master must be a riveting orator of the adventures he/she creates to run.
GenCon Symposium, Bombs and Bombing in World War II, Part 2
Description:
Major Wesely’s informative and entertaining seminar continues to explain why British bombsights made the Air Corps distrust the RAF: what was the industrial web: who tried to kidnap Carl Norden: if American daylight bombing won the war, and which Allied aircraft destroyed more German economic power than any other.
If your ideas flow like concrete rather than a raging river, Gen 1 of fiction authors and game designers can tell you how to hatch ideas and nurture them, how to turn IthlS Peed into a thriving garden of story lines. Panel moderated by Jean Rabe, with Chris Pierson, Steve Sullivan, and
GenCon Symposium, Crafting Critters for Fiction and Games
Description:
Put some thought and care into your bug-eyed monsters, sculpt an undead creature to send non-stop shivers down your readers’ spines and give your net alien a special bit of whimsy or malevolence. Janet Pack and Jean Rabe moderate.
This panel of fantasy and science fiction authors gives your advice on building bad guys that will advance your plot, make your heroes tremble, and put your readers on the edge of their seats. Moderated by Chris Pierson, Jean Rabe, Steve Sullivan, and Janet Pack.
GenCon Symposium, Designing and Publishing the Source of the Nile Game
Description:
Ross Maker explains how two inexperienced game buffs designed and published the most award winning game of all time. He also tells of the rewards and disappointments with the Avalon Hill version of their design, and prospects for this game's future.
If you can write or want to write, but your words won’t go anywhere, you need to develop the writer’s discipline. Authors Janet Pack and Jean Rabe tell how to turn off the TV and make yourself write, how to meet deadlines, and how to build your office or workspace. Handouts provided.
Authors and editors Jean Rabe and Janet Pack discuss how they broke into print and tell how to give your manuscript the edge. Learn how to improve your chances and move your manuscript toward the top of the stack.This applies to fiction and game writing.
Tips on giving the good guy in your fiction some heart, soul, and a flaw or two. Fiction authors Janet Pack and Jean Rabe discuss how to add an extra dimension to your fantasy and science fiction heroes, including how to come up with memorable and important names.
Lt. Col. Zocchi covers copyrights, patents, trademarks, costs, royalties, pricing, profit margins, discounts, timing releases, agents, and getting others to publish your work. All Zocchi’s lecture data is taken from his $6 book, How to $ell your Game Design.
Lt. Col. Zocchi tells how several guilty Pentagon brass hats shifted their blame. He also explains many of the what ifs and tells why Lt. Kermit Tyler thought the Japanese raiders were B-17’s.Top Secret American War Plans were printed by the Chicago Tribune just 3 days before Pearl Harbor.
The plot is the essential element of your novel, short story, or game adventure. How do you create one that compels your readers and keep your editors asking for more. Where do you throw in the crucial twist? Moderated by authors Steve Sullivan, Janet Pack, Chris Pierson, and Jean Rabe.
GenCon Symposium, Secrets of a Best-Selling Author
Description:
Mike Stackpole tells how you can start on the right foot as an author, and how he progressed from game designer to editor and a writer of best selling sci-fi and fantasy stories.
GenCon Symposium, Starting and Running a Game Company
Description:
Gamescience founder Lt. Col. Zocchi explains what type of press prints the least expensive product how to find one, who to identify the best print run length, marking up, factory representatives, and more.
There is a world of writing resources, one filled with markets and contests and writers’ organizations. Learn how to use them and how to find the best sites for research and advice. Moderators Chris Pierson, Jean Rabe, and Janet Pack.
Mr. Ross Maker examines, from both the historical and gaming perspectives, the conflict that catapulted Japan to World Power status and set the stage for the Russian Revolution.
Mike Stackpole defends roleplaying games against those who claim that gaming causes children to kill or commit suicide. He’ll tell how to eliminate future threats and how to avoid persecution.
Hickman’s Armored Chefs: Serving up Killer Breakfast
Description:
Dragonlance authors Tracy Hickman and Laura Curtis reveal the secrets of thier Killer Breakfast Event! Songs, techniques, skills...the entire Do it yourself kit of one GenCon’s annual classic events. Learn how to host your own Killer Breakfast when you get back home. Includes practical demonstrations and hands-on prcatice!
Dragonlance author and game designer Tracy Hickman presents radical player techniques which one designer of Third Edition D&D said threatened gaming itself! Learn both player and gamemaster techniques designed to put fun and adventure back in your games
Draglonace authors Tracy Hickman and Laura Curtis discuss the techniques and process of developing rich and believable fantasy science fiction worlds. Whether as a fully-realized setting for a novel or a detailed backdrop for rpg or computer games, these tools are invaluable in setting the stage for your characters.
Tracy Hickman, Laura Curtis, and the usual crew take on all comers in their classic, no-holds-barred roleplaying game for three-hundred plus players. Take a pre-generated First-level character into certain death or join in the audience participation.
Tracy Hickman and Laura Curtis discuss the foundations of science-fiction and epic fantasy.Topics include tools for the dissection of a story, its characters and themes, the identification of story weaknesses and possible remedies.
The editorial staff and publisher of Dragon and Dungeon/Polyhedron will delineate ways that attendees can contribute to future issues of Dragon and Dungeon/Polyhedron
Join the folk at Kenzer & Company and learn about our upcoming product releases, ask questions, and just hang out and have some fun. (Remember, feeding the staff can have disastrous consequences! Ever see Gremlins?)
Come and hear about the Mage Knight storyline and see how events have changed the course of the Land. Join in a question and answer session with WizKids staffers about the fiction that drives the Mage Knight game. Learn how upcoming figures and events will continue to shape the Land.
B.A., Bob, Brian, Nitro,Weird Pete, and your favorite characters from the award-winning Knights of the Dinner Table magazine come to life in Kenzer & Company’s famous KODT Live Reading! Don’t miss this event, which has quickly become a con-goer’s favorite.
Come get a sneak peek at the great monsters in the upcoming Monster Manual II! Meeuhe new death knight, the gem dragons with their psionic powers, the nimblewright, the imposing chain golem, and more' A PowerPoint presentation showcases dozens of new monsters and updated favorites.
The new publishing company responsible for Dragon and Dungeon magazines will answer questions in a press conference-style format. President Johnny L. Wilson, Editor-in-Chief Jesse Decker, Editor Chris Thomasson, and Editor Erik Mona will answer all reasonable questions.
From the Psionics Handbook to Deities and Demigods and beyond, there’s a lot of rules and resources out there for D&D. Come talk about how you can easily integrate as much or as little of this material into your existing D&D campaign—without going completely insane.
Where do great D&D products come from? A designer, an editor, and an army of playtesters.What’s the difference between playing and playtesting? How can you become a playtester for Wizards? Come to this seminar and find out