Coming to Big Bad Con: Jared Sorensen

The Kickstarter funding campaign is in full swing for Big Bad Con, the sweetest tabletop gaming convention on the West Coast. We quickly funded our basic goals on Day 1, and have been blowing past many stretch goals since. Several of these stretch goals allow us to bring great guests to the convention, to host games, speak on panels, etc. Today’s guest interview is with Jared Sorensen, of Memento Mori Theatricks.

Could you introduce yourself? What would you like the Big Bad Con attendees to know about you?

I’m a writer and game designer, one of the old-guard indie guys from the turn of the century; the creator of Lacuna Part I, InSpectres, Action Castle, and the co-creator of FreeMarket. I wrote for D&D Online, Lord of the Rings Online and a buncha other computerish things and I’m known for wearing lots of black.

Coming to Big Bad Con: Hakan Seyalioglu

The Kickstarter funding campaign is in full swing for Big Bad Con, the sweetest tabletop gaming convention on the West Coast. We quickly funded our basic goals on Day 1, and have been blowing past many stretch goals since. Several of these stretch goals allow us to bring great guests to the convention, to host games, speak on panels, etc. Today’s guest interview is with Hakan Seyalioglu.

Could you introduce yourself? What would you like the Big Bad Con attendees to know about you?

Hi there! I’m Hakan, one half of Thorny Games along with Kathryn Hymes and we’re on a mission to spread play through quirky and thoughtful games. People are hungry to tell stories in new and exciting ways, and whether that be at a table, moving around, inside or outside, we want to make that happen. With our game Dialect, A Game about Language and How It Dies, players tell a story about a language, and how the birth and death of that language mirrors the story of a community in Isolation. With Sign, A Game about Being Understood, players reflect on what having barriers to communication mean to us, through the true story of Nicaraguan Sign Language.

Coming to Big Bad Con: Jason Morningstar

The Kickstarter funding campaign is in full swing for Big Bad Con, the sweetest tabletop gaming convention on the West Coast. We quickly funded our basic goals on Day 1, and have been blowing past many stretch goals since. Several of these stretch goals allow us to bring great guests to the convention, to host games, speak on panels, etc. Today’s guest interview is with Jason Morningstar.

Could you introduce yourself? What would you like the Big Bad Con attendees to know about you?

I’m Jason Morningstar, and I’m a game designer who lives and works in Durham, North Carolina, USA. I make tabletop and live action roleplaying games through my company, Bully Pulpit Games, and I also consult on using games for teaching and learning. I would like the Big Bad Con attendees to know that I love meeting people and playing games, and that my surname is not a pseudonym or nom de plume. 

Coming to Big Bad Con: Misha Bushyager

The Kickstarter funding campaign is in full swing for Big Bad Con, the sweetest tabletop gaming convention on the West Coast. We quickly funded our basic goals on Day 1, and have been blowing past many stretch goals since. Several of these stretch goals allow us to bring great guests to the convention, to host games, speak on panels, etc. Today’s guest interview is with Misha Bushyager, who writes for Unruly Designs.

Could you introduce yourself? What would you like the Big Bad Con attendees to know about you?

I’m Misha, data analyst by day and gamer whenever I can. I’ve got two great kids I’m slowly introducing to gaming and a husband who tags along for the ride when he can. I’ve been a player for over half my life now, and recently plunged into the producing side.

Coming to Big Bad Con: Tracy Barnett

The Kickstarter funding campaign is in full swing for Big Bad Con, the sweetest tabletop gaming convention on the West Coast. We quickly funded our basic goals on Day 1, and have been blowing past many stretch goals since. Several of these stretch goals allow us to bring great guests to the convention, to host games, speak on panels, etc. Today’s guest interview is with Tracy Barnett of Exploding Rogue Studios.

Could you introduce yourself? What would you like the Big Bad Con attendees to know about you?

Hey, I’m Tracy Barnett. I’ve been writing and designing RPGs for the last five years or so. I’ve done most of my work via Kickstarter and have published three of my own games (School Daze, One Shot, and Iron Edda: War of Metal and Bone), as well as a novel (Sveidsdottir), someone else’s game (Dead Scare, by Elsa S. Henry), and a setting book with my creative partner, Brian Patterson (Karthun: Lands of Conflict), which is published by Evil Hat Productions. I thought I was going to be a publisher for a long time, but I feel much better with the idea of moving to writing things for other people to publish. Publishing hard and my hat’s off to anyone who does it successfully. 

Coming to Big Bad Con: Tora Shae

The Kickstarter funding campaign is in full swing for Big Bad Con, the sweetest tabletop gaming convention on the West Coast. We quickly funded our basic goals on Day 1, and have been blowing past many stretch goals since. Several of these stretch goals allow us to bring great guests to the convention, to host games, speak on panels, etc. Today’s guest interview is with Tora Shae.

Could you introduce yourself? What would you like the Big Bad Con attendees to know about you?

Hello!! I’m Tora Shae, a correspondent with BlackGirlNerds where I write, vlog, and podcast about my love for anime, magic, games, and Steven Universe. Get to know me! I promise I’m not as serious as my bio picture would suggest! 

Coming to Big Bad Con: Dev Purkayastha

The Kickstarter funding campaign is in full swing for Big Bad Con, the sweetest tabletop gaming convention on the West Coast. We quickly funded our basic goals on Day 1, and have been blowing past many stretch goals since. Several of these stretch goals allow us to bring great guests to the convention, to host games, speak on panels, etc. Today’s guest interview is with Dev Purkayastha.

Could you introduce yourself? What would you like the Big Bad Con attendees to know about you?

My name is Dev Purkayastha, and I’m a creator of small-press story games, working with Laura Simpson as Sweet Potato Press. I’ve published The Dance and the Dawn, and will be publishing Love Commander soon. I’m also a fan of digital games and board games — I just love the power of what all kinds of games can bring to people. It’s really important to me find games and communities that are inclusive and welcoming, and this is what drew me to Big Bad Con.

Coming to Big Bad Con: Alex Roberts

The Kickstarter funding campaign is in full swing for Big Bad Con, the sweetest tabletop gaming convention on the West Coast. We quickly funded our basic goals on Day 1, and have been blowing past many stretch goals since. Several of these stretch goals allow us to bring great guests to the convention, to host games, speak on panels, etc. Today’s guest interview is with Alex Roberts.

Could you introduce yourself? What would you like the Big Bad Con attendees to know about you?

I’m Alex, from the computer! I do this show on the ONE SHOT Podcast Network called Backstory, where I interview all kinds of people about their contributions to the gaming community – designers, organizers, scholars, and more! Behind the scenes, I do administrative and project management type stuff for Pelgrane Press and Bully Pulpit Games. I also write for games sometimes–you’ll see contributions from me in Dialect, Sig, Threadbare, the next edition of Misspent Youth, to name a few. I’m also trying my hand at design these days… I have a piece in the #Feminism supplement that Pelgrane is putting out, and Tension, my 2-player Jenga-based RPG about forbidden love, is currently in open playtesting!

In which direction lies progress?

I have not forgotten that I promised to go back over the “Two Minutes Hate” issue for the three-month assessment of its impact onto the tabletop role-playing community, and particularly the parts of the community centering on indie and small-press games. Since I started the assessment, I have tallied responses from a variety of threads online, and discussed with and interviewed many people closely involved with and/or affected by the events.

In short, based the evidence I collated I believe that after three months (I’ll get back to this in a moment), the impacts of “Two Minutes Hate” and its follow-up FAQ have been more negative than positive, and that the negative impacts are disproportionately felt by a few people who were already on the receiving end for frequent online abuse. The post failed to clearly convey Mark’s intended message and caused harm both directly and indirectly to people singled out as examples. I see the following as key errors:

RPG a Day: Giving back to the community

6. What is the most amazing thing that you know a game group has done for their community?

I don’t know about the most amazing, since gamers organize lots of beautiful things like fundraisers to help send cash-strapped gamers to conventions, holiday toy collections, food drives, games for enlisted personnel, etc.. But I’m awed at what Big Bad Con has become in just a few years. Right from the beginning (2011) it was always about community, with all proceeds left after paying for hotel,, supplies, etc. going to the Alameda County Food Bank, Doctors Without Borders, and Child’s Play. The goal of the convention itself was to build up the gaming community by offering “great games for awesome gamers.”

By the third or fourth year, you could already feel the event had moved further into community building by focusing on diversity, making gaming more welcoming to everyone, promoting new voices, supporting game designers, inviting game community organizers more than celebs, organizing workshops and demos, and establishing formal community standards. As a result, it has become the safest, most welcoming game convention in the already diversity-friendly San Francisco Bay Area.

#RPGaDay2016