This year we decided to try something new for Go Play NW with GPNW sponsorships. We asked the community to sponsor some people to attend Go Play, and the community stepped up. Thanks to generous members of our community, 31 days worth of sponsorships were gifted. These sponsorships are going to people who otherwise might not be able to attend Go Play for financial or other reasons. Thank you! You help make Go Play better.
You can still buy a sponsorship to Go Play when you purchase your tickets. Any sponsorships paid for after today will be used for next year’s event.

Game scheduling is open!
Go Play NW always has a mix of scheduled games and games that are organized on site. You can have a great time at Go Play without scheduling a single game.
That said, scheduled games are great for players and game masters who have games they really want to enjoy at the convention. Head over to the game scheduling forum and check it out.
Is there a game you really, really wan to play, or can’t run yourself? We have a great community of game masters and facilitators at Go Play NW. Post your game wishlist in the brainstorming forum and there’s a good chance someone will be willing to run it. Or, if you prefer discord, post about it in the Go Play NW Discord channel.
We always need more scheduled games! So if you’ve never run one at Go Play before, consider making this the year to run your own game!
HOW TO GET IN A GAME
Head over to the Game Scheduling forum and look at the games on offer. Post in the thread for any game you want to join. If there are slots free, the game master will add you to the list.
HOW TO POST A GAME
Official game scheduling is handled through our forums. To schedule a game, start a new threat and put the time slot for the game at the start of thread title, like this:

Go Play NW is getting closer! I want to take a few minutes to introduce our team for this year. One thing you may notice is that our team is a lot bigger than in past years (a little more on that later).
John Powell, Philip LaRose, and Tony Dowler (me) will be continuing in our roles on the Go Play NW team this year.
We’ve also added three new members:
ET: ET will be joining us as volunteer coordinator this year. In the past, the volunteer coordinator has typically been brought into planning late in the process. With the growth that Go Play NW has been experiencing, we realized it was far past time to make the volunteer coordinator part of the core team from the start. ET has worked with Narrative Games Northwest, Games on Demand, and other organizations, in addition to being a stalwart volunteer and donut organizer for us in recent years. We’re happy to have ET on board!
Eric Levanduski: Eric ran our very successful streaming room last year and has agreed to come on again this year as streaming coordinator. He’s going to be very active in recruiting a group of streamers and helping them to showcase their craft at Go Play NW. Streaming is playing a huge role in expanding the hobby and extending the positive impact it can have on people’s lives. Eric has had amazing success streaming Indie and other RPGs on his Twitch channel, EricVulgaris. We’re very happy to be able to have him on our team.
Isaac Thummel: Isaac was instrumental in helping us coordinate opening day last year, which is only one of the reasons we’ve asked him to join us as the hospitality bard for Go Play NW. Isaac has rich experience working in the hospitality industry and is an all-around great person. Isaac and his team will be helping us make Go Play NW a friendly, safe place for gaming.
Go Play NW has been growing steadily since it began in 2007. And as it has grown, its membership has changed. On average, nearly half of the people at Go Play NW each year are attending for the first time. Not only that, but more and more of our members are new to gaming, new to story games, and even new to the Seattle area. We believe that growing the team is an essential step to improving and evolving the convention for everybody’s benefit.
This year will also feature an expanded team of volunteers. As we sifted through the feedback from last year, it became very clear to us that the key to improving Go Play NW and making it a convention that can continue to grow was to get more help. Growing the core team and recruiting more volunteers is the first essential step to improving everything else about Go Play NW.
We’re really excited for this year. We hope this will be the best year yet. See you in July!

One of the things we’ve been hearing from our community is that the cost of attending Go Play NW is significant expense for many people. While there are a lot of things we can do to keep the cost low, we’re also limited by the expenses we have to meet to hold the convention. That’s why we have introduced a sponsorship option alongside our ticket sales for this year.
Now, when you purchase your tickets to Go Play NW, you can also choose to sponsor someone for one or three days at Go Play NW. We will use all of these funds to provide Go Play NW passes to members of the community who might otherwise find it difficult or impossible to attend. Several people have already donated memberships!
Our goal with this program is to make our community more accessible and diverse. If you know someone who you think would make a great addition to our community, or who you know faces financial barriers to attending, please email us at info@goplaynw.org. Let us know who the person is, how we can reach them, and why you would like them to receive a sponsorship. We cannot guarantee that everyone will get a sponsorship, but we will do our best.
We believe that a larger, more inclusive community, wither fewer barriers to participation makes Go Play NW better for everyone!
You can register for Go Play NW and sponsor another attendee by going to the registration page.
EDIT: Just wanted to add that we will hand out all sponsorships for this year’s Go Play by June 7. Any sponsorships we get after that day will be saved and used to sponsor someone next year.

As we get ready to open registration for this year’s Go Play NW, we want to let you know about some changes!
First, we are expanding our staff. Look for an announcement soon about our new volunteer coordinator. In past years, the volunteer coordinator has been added to staff late in the process and has been largely autonomous from the rest of the planning process. This year, we’re getting the coordinator–and some select volunteers–involved earlier to help us better organize the con.
Secondly, we’ve made some changes that will enable us to have a larger volunteer staff and to comp ticket prices for volunteers. We think this will have a big impact to making a better Go Play.
Sadly, this change comes at a price. We have decided to forgo the Friday feast this year. Over the years, the cost of the feast has only gone up steadily—so much so that covering the cost of the convention has become difficult! Cancelling the feast means that we can improve Go Play NW and even grow without having to raise prices again.
Even with the feast gone, we still want a chance for everyone to socialize, reconnect, and meet new people. To that end, we’re working on an off-campus gathering for Friday night at a location near the convention. We will have more news on this as we work out the details.
We’d love to hear your thoughts. You can always contact us at info@goplaynw.org or via twitter @goplaynw.

Last year, we asked you to respond to a short survey regarding your Go Play NW 2018 experience. 72 of you responded, and you gave us some great feedback to think about as we start planning for Go Play NW 2019. Thank you for feedback! It has been incredibly helpful to us.
Here’s what we learned:
1. Satisfaction with Go Play NW is high
The first thing we learned is that Go Play NW has a huge amount of good will with the community. On average, you rated Go Play NW 9.8 out of 10. That’s huge! And we’re humbled that people are so happy with Go Play NW.

2. But newcomers have higher expectations
However, we also noticed that first-time attendees were less likely to recommend Go Play NW than any other category, at 8.75 out of 10. We take this as a serious call to action. We are working hard to figure out how we need to change so that we can grow without losing what makes Go Play NW unique.
3. And we have a lot of areas we can improve on
Even though you rated Go Play NW highly, we also got a lot of feedback on what you thought could be better. A large number of people who responded gave us clear, actionable feedback relating to one or more areas we can improve on.
We identified 6 main areas we can improve, based on your feedback:

• Challenges finding and getting into games through sign-ups or the donut
• Poor communications from the con or difficulty finding information
• A need for more quiet gaming spaces
• The price of the convention
• The feast and refreshments
• The desire for a more diverse convention and leadership

As you can imagine, a lot of our discussion and plans for 2019 revolve around these topics. We think that we can improve on every one of these for 2019. But total improvement is going to take a little time. So, we’ve identified a few topics we’re going to concentrate on this year. Expect another post soon on this topic!

Go Play NW 2019 will be held July 5-7, 2019. Mark it on your calendars!

Our community is what makes Go Play NW great!

Our volunteers are community members who have chosen to take a special role in our yearly gathering, and we truly appreciate that! that’s why it gives us great pleasure to introduce this year’s volunteer coordinator, Joe England.

Joe is from Bonney Lake, Washington, and he started playing tabletop RPGs with Holmes Basic D&D and then moved on to Gamma World 1st Edition. His favorite RPG is Hollowpoint. Joe has been involved in multiple gaming meetups as an organizer and volunteer mostly in the Tacoma area and at Go Play NW. Go Play is where Joe ran his first giant donut!

Welcome, Joe!

Here’s your Event Guide for 2018. Print a copy and toss it in with your game stuff, and you’ll always have your map, schedule, and event information handy!

Download here: GPNW 2018 Event Guide

Thank you so much for every facilitator who posted a game in the forums! Go Play NW thrives on the contributions of people like you who offer to run and facilitate games. If you haven’t posted a game, but you are thinking of doing so, now is the time!
We are printing final schedule sheets this weekend. Please check your forum posts and make a note in your top post of who has signed up to be in the game.
The forums will stay active until Go Play NW. This means people can still offer games, discuss them, sign up, and so on. However, we can’t guarantee that anything added to forum posts after Friday will be reflected on the final printed sheet.
See you in 8 days!