Our Featured Facilitators for 2022 Are Here!

We mentioned our new program in our last post, but we wanted to give it and our invited guests just a little more spotlight. Go Play NW is committing to better supporting the place of marginalized players and creators in our TTRPG spaces. To further this goal, we have invited a few professional BIPOC GMs to share their games, work, and storytelling styles by hosting games for attendees. Moving forward, we want to invest in supporting our BIPOC community members, and this program, along with our attendee sponsorship program (for paid events), is just one of many steps to accomplishing that. We can’t wait to welcome them to our convention this weekend!

Without further ado, here’s our featured facilitators!

First up: Kaleb Wade! Kaleb (they/he) runs the biweekly actual play podcast Creme Demented (https://anchor.fm/creme-demented-actual-plays). They just wrapped their first arc of Heroes of New Halcyon, so now is a great time to get into it. Kaleb also records video game content, edits podcast audio, and sometimes streams TTRPGs.

He’ll be running Hensin!: A Sentai RPG, a diceless storytelling tabletop game in which young people with transformative powers have to contend not only with monsters but their personal problems. It relies heavily on collaboration, improv, and social interaction to weave the story of people who find themselves having to juggle newfound responsibility, group dynamics, and monsters of the week. Kaleb will be hosting their game on Sunday, June 5 at 3:30 PM PDT. Sign up here to join the super sentai: https://goplaynw.org/events/henshin-a-sentai-rpg/

Next up we have JR Zambrano! JR (he/him) is an experienced writer, designer, and performer in the indie TTRPG space. He streams games with All Nerds Here (https://www.twitch.tv/allnerdshere) and plays a space priest on a Lancer podcast. You can find his writing in Slayer’s Almanac, Roleplayer’s Guide to Heists, and the upcoming Exquisite Corpse in Maggots’ Keep, as well as at his Bell of Lost Souls author page (https://www.belloflostsouls.net/author/jayarr). Keep an eye out for his upcoming adventure set in Bloodbeam Badlands (https://vidityavoleti.itch.io/bloodbeam-badlands) and some new Let’s Plays!

JR will be hosting How I Saved The World Over Summer Vacation, a Kids on Bikes adventure. Kids on Bikes is a rules-lite storytelling- TTRPG that features collaborative world building elements. Players portray ordinary people up against extraordinary forces in stories inspired by 80’s classics like E.T., Weird Science, and The Goonies. JR will be hosting his game on Saturday, June 4 at 10:30 AM. Sign up here for unforgettable summertime adventure: https://goplaynw.org/events/how-i-saved-the-world-over-summer-vacation/

Last but certainly not least, Rue Dickey! Rue (they/he) is a 2022 Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program nominated game designer, sensitivity reader, and tabletop rpg streamer. They have over 10 years experience running a variety of systems, and started writing and publishing both independent and freelance tabletop writing in 2020. Rue is currently working on writing a Nest for Overisles (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tatteredbear/overisles), a zine for PlusOneExp, and a Background for Ma Nishtana (https://manishtana.itch.io/ma-nishtana-rpg), as well as a number of secret projects he’s not allowed to talk about just yet. They are also thrilled to be doing sensitivity reading for Validate: Struggling Singles in Your Area (https://validategame.com/), coming to Steam and console this fall. (They also crafted this well-phrased bio!) For more of Rue’s work, check out his carrd here: https://ilananight.carrd.co/#work

Rue will be facilitating Definitely Wizards for us! Definitely Wizards is, in their words, “a fun, low-prep, rules light game about a group of people who are Definitely Not Lying About Being Wizards trying to pass their final exam.” In this game, players tell a comedic story about magic-users passing themselves off as wizards in order to pass a coveted wizard certification exam and earn the right to practice magic. Rue will be hosting his game on Saturday, June 4 at 10:30 AM. Sign up here for wizard shenanigans: https://goplaynw.org/events/finals-and-tomfoolery/