Gamehole Con is proud to display this list of our 2023 Special Guests!
Teos Abadia
Teos Abadía is a Colombian-American freelance author and developer working with Wizards of the Coast, Penny Arcade, Dwarven Forge, Hasbro, and several organized play programs. Teos was a primary author on the Acquisitions Incorporated D&D book and on the vast Dungeon of Doom and Caverns Deep adventures for Dwarven Forge. Board game work includes the recent HeroQuest game relaunch. Blogging at Alphastream.org, Teos shares knowledge and advocates for diversity and better industry pay. Reports that he was created by tinker gnomes in a device powered by space hamsters are incorrect… it leaves out the important role played by flumphs.
Justice Arman
Justice Ramin Arman is a Senior Game Designer for the official Dungeons & Dragons team at Wizards of the Coast. Previously, Justice worked as a game designer and producer for Beadle & Grimm's, as well as a freelance writer for Critical Role, MCDM, and 2C Gaming. You can find him cooking delicious Iranian dishes and talking about D&D over on Twitter @justicearman.
William Benham
Bill hails from the Land of One Cloud, Seattle, WA. Bill has played RPGs and tabletop games since 1981, the year he first experimented with D&D and was subsequently possessed by demons, exactly as his mother had predicted. He's honored to spend his days working as an associate producer for the D&D team at Wizards of the Coast. Prior to joining Wizards, Bill spent 20 years in the United States Army as a combat medic, retiring as a First Sergeant. He also worked in healthcare administration for the Dept. of Veteran's Affairs and several local nonprofits. In his limited spare time Bill enjoys writing, consuming media of all sorts, and doting on his dogs- Sancho Panza (Mildly Concerned Pug), and Kizzy (Perpetually Excited Frenchie).
Peter Brett
Peter V. Brett is the internationally bestselling author of the Demon Cycle series, which has sold more than three and a half million copies in twenty-seven languages worldwide. Novels include The Warded Man, The Desert Spear, The Daylight War, The Skull Throne, and The Core. His new novel, The Desert Prince, book 1 in the Nightfall Saga, published worldwide August 2021. The sequel, The Hidden Queen, publishes early 2024. He lives in Brooklyn. petervbrett.com Instagram: @pvbrett Twitter: @PVBrett Facebook.com/PVBrett
Stephen Chenault
Born in Monticello, Arkansas in 1967, he spent the early years as an Army brat. Stephen started playing Dungeons & Dragons in and around 1977. After receiving his undergraduate degree in history, he joined the Army serving during (but not at) Desert Storm. After leaving the service he received his Masters degress in history. Stephen settled in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1996. Soon after, in 1999, he founded Troll Lord Games with Mac Golden and Davis Chenault. Stephen took over sole management of the company in 2003. He has published hundreds of RPG books, working with such industry founders as Gary Gygax and James M. Ward. He has written a score of adventures, created and wrote the Codex of Aihrde, has written fiction and continues to be a major designer and writer for Castles & Crusades.
Wesley Chu
Wesley Chu is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of thirteen published novels, including The Art of Prophecy, Time Salvager, The Rise of Io, and The Walking Dead: Typhoon. He won the Astounding Award for Best New Writer. His debut, The Lives of Tao, won the Young Adult Library Services Association Alex Award. Chu is an accomplished martial artist and a former member of the Screen Actors Guild. He has acted in film and television, worked as a model and stuntman, and summited Kilimanjaro. He currently resides in Los Angeles with his wife, Paula, and two boys, Hunter and River.
Levi Combs
Levi Combs is the owner, publisher and creative head at Planet X Games. He is a lifelong gamer, RPG enthusiast and is just as stoked about role playing games and all those funny little dice as he was in the summer of 1983 when he first got his hands on a copy of the D&D red box (you know the one!). You can find him on Instagram at it_came_from_beyond_planet_x, on Twitter PlanetXGamesCo and on Facebook at Planet X Games.
Monte Cook
Monte Cook has written hundreds of roleplaying game products, along with numerous short stories, novels, nonfiction titles, and comic books. He is probably best known for his work on such notable titles as Planescape, Ptolus, the 3rd Edition of Dungeons & Dragons (which he codesigned with Jonathan Tweet and Skip Williams), Arcana Evolved, and of course Numenera, Invisible Sun, Stealing Stories for the Devil, and the Cypher System. He is a cofounder of Monte Cook Games, and serves as lead designer and creative director.
Bruce Cordell
Bruce has been writing tabletop RPGs for decades, working as a full-time author for D&D 2E, 3E, 3.5, 4E, and 5E. Now a senior designer at MCG, Bruce still writes games. He's also the author of ten published novels and is working on finishing the next two via his page on Patreon.
Dan Dillon
Dan is a Game Designer on the D&D team at Wizards of the Coast. He wrote material for D&D 5e and Pathfinder 1e for both Wizards and Paizo, and a variety of third party publishers including Kobold Press, and Rogue Genius Games. With Dan it's pretty much D&D and sphynx cats all the way down.
Kelsey Dionne
Kelsey Dionne is a critically-acclaimed new and old-school TTRPG designer who founded The Arcane Library in 2017. Her modernized take on OSR gaming, Shadowdark RPG, launched on Kickstarter in 2023.
Matt Forbeck
Matt Forbeck is an award-winning and New York Times-bestselling author and game designer with over thirty novels and countless games published to date. His latest work includes Biomutant, the Marvel Multiverse Role-Playing Game, and the Shotguns & Sorcery 5E Sourcebook based on his novels. He lives in Beloit, WI, with his wife and a rotating cast of his college-age children. For more about him and his work, visit Forbeck.com.
Andrew Gaska
The multiple ENnie and UKGE Award-winning settings and adventure writer for Free League Publishing’s ALIEN Role-Playing Game, Andrew is a narrative director, designer, and sci-fi author with twenty years of industry experience. He is the lead writer for Nightfall Game’s Terminator Role Playing Game the Creative Director on Magnetic Press Play's WEG Carbon Grey RPG. Outside of gaming, Andrew's prose, graphic novel, and franchise consultant works include Predator, Planet of the Apes, and Choose Your Own Adventure. For seventeen years he was a consultant for Rockstar Games on titles such as Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. Known as Drew to his friends and co-workers, Andrew lives beneath a pile of action figures with his glutenous feline, Adrien.
Shanna Germain
Shanna Germain has worked as a writer and editor for more than 30 years, and has myriad books, hundreds of short stories, and other works to her name. Over the years, she has won numerous awards for her work, including multiple ENnie and Origin Awards, the C. Hamilton Bailey Poetry Fellowship, and the Rauxa Prize for Erotic Poetry. The co-owner and managing editor of Monte Cook Games, Shanna's recent books and games include No Thank You, Evil!, Predation, As Kinky as You Wanna Be, The Lure of Dangerous Women, and The Poison Eater. Visit her at www.shannagermain.com
Thomas Gofton
Initiating in film, Thomas produced the tabletop comedy “Nights at the Round Table” as well as the award-winning series “The Gamers: Natural One” and “Hands of Fate”. Thomas founded Lynnvander Studios, an Canadian based design studio responsible for tabletop and RPG games including “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “Pathfinder: Level 20”, the Dungeons & Dragons 5e compatible setting “Legacy of Mana”, “Albion’s Legacy”, “Cowboy Bebop: Boardgame Boogie”, “Dr. Who: Don’t Blink”, “Terminator Genisys: Rise of the Resistance”, “Evil Dead 2”, “Army of Darkness the Boardgame”, “Star Trek Attack Wing’s Alliance System” as well as “Reanimator”, “Snap Ships Tactics”, “Naruto Village Defenders” and “Shadowrun Takedown”. When Thomas is not streaming on his channel www.YouTube.com/sixsidesofgaming or managing his www.perfectpastimes.com series of establishments including board game café’s, archery range and escape rooms, he is found traveling the world hosting screenings, design sessions and panels to creators, gamers, filmmakers and viewers.
Ed Greenwood
Ed Greenwood: creator of the Forgotten Realms and a myriad of other worlds, universes, and shared settings, is the New York Times best-selling author of literally thousands of works that have sold over a quarter billion copies (250,000,000) in over 40 languages, in more than 120 countries.
Luke Gygax
Luke was literally born into gaming as he is the son of Gary Gygax, the co-founder of Dungeons & Dragons, the first Roleplaying Game ever created. Luke began his creative endeavors at an early age as he was literally raised playing D&D. He designed the Bullywug and played the iconic fighter/magic-user Melf whose eponymously titled Acid Arrow and Minute Meteors are still used in the latest version of D&D. Luke recently retired from the Army after over 30 years, and spends his time creating new material through his publishing company, Gaxx Worx (gaxxworx.com). His latest products are set in his World of Okkorim setting. Luke is also the founder and head of Gary Con (garycon.com), a memorial convention held in honor of his Dad, in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin every March. The event grew out of the memorial held after his funeral where his family and friends gathered to do what Gary loved so much in life, play games and share camaraderie with fellow game enthusiasts. It has grown into a celebration that encompasses a salute to those great designers who laid the foundation of our community and welcomes all games and gamers. When Luke isn’t creating adventures or coordinating Gary Con, he enjoys spending time with his wife Bouchra, their three daughters and their dog, Grogu.
Amanda Hamon
Amanda Hamon is a Senior Designer working on Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast. An award-winning tabletop game designer, developer, writer, and editor, her work has appeared in dozens of releases from numerous publishers, including Wizards of the Coast, Paizo, and Kobold Press. She is the former Editorial Director for Kobold Press as well as the former managing developer and a co-creator of the Starfinder RPG by Paizo. You can find her on Twitter at @amandahamon.
Shane Hensley
Shane Hensley is the president of Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and a former designer, writer, and Executive Producer on several triple-A video games. He has a MA in military history, was a long-time freelance game designer, novelist, and writer for TSR, West End Games, and many others, and is the creator of the Deadlands intellectual property, the Great Rail Wars miniatures game, and the Savage Worlds roleplaying game system. He lives in Arizona, USA.
LaTia Jacquise
Chicago native LaTia Jacquise (she/her) is a digital strategist, writer, creator, and variety streamer within the TTRPG industry. She is the Community Manager for D&D at Wizards of the Coast, is a cast member of the D&D actual play Rivals of Waterdeep which airs Sundays on Twitch, serving as the Dungeon Master for its ninth and twelfth seasons, and serves on the Community Review Board for the mental wellness non-profit Take This. Her previous escapades include time as Monte Cook Games' Community Relations Coordinator, Community Manager for D&D's Adventurers League, and dealer of your favorite games at her local FLGS. She was also a co-writer on "Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep", a D&D adventure in partnership with Critical Role from Wizards of the Coast, and her previous works can be found on the DM's Guild and D&D Beyond. You can find her sharing the contents of her brain with everyone on Twitter at @LaTiaJacquise, where she frequently laments how difficult it is to write a bio about herself.
Mattias Johnsson Haake
Co-owner and game designer at Free League Publishing, with a special focus on setting and adventure design. Game Director for, and co-creator of, Symbaroum (including the 5e adaptation), and involved as writer, editor, graphic designer and producer on several other Free League games - for example Coriolis, Vaesen, Forbidden Lands, Dragonbane, and Tales From the Loop. Most recently Mattias has co-produced The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying game, and written and produced the sixth and final episode in The Chronicle of The Throne of Thorns for Symbaroum.
Anthony Joyce-Rivera
Anthony Joyce-Rivera (he/him) is a Hispanic, two-time ENnie-nominated game designer, entertainment and gaming military consultant, and an active-duty U.S. Army Strategist. He’s self-published many adventures on the Dungeon Masters Guild and freelances for Wizards of the Coast, Critical Role, MCDM, Ghostfire Gaming, and other prominent companies. You can find Anthony on Twitter at @AJoyce_Rivera or at https://anthonydreams.com.
John Kovalic
John Kovalic has been writing and drawing professionally in the gaming industry for 25 years, now. John is best known for the comic strip DORK TOWER, and blockbuster games like APPLES TO APPLES and MUNCHKIN. His latest project include his own games, such as ROFL! and DOUBLE FEATURE (Cryptozoic). He was the first cartoonist inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame.
When not writing or drawing, John's spending every minute possible with his wife and daughter. You can find out more about John by visiting www.dorktower.com, or plying him with craft beer.
In his free time, John searches for free time.
Rich Lescouflair
Rich Lescouflair is an longtime gamer turned roleplaying game and graphic designer. He is co-owner of Alligator Alley Entertainment, in which he is the creator and lead designer of Esper Genesis—the sci-fi rules system and setting for 5E. As a freelance writer and graphic designer, his work can be found under various publishers including Wizards of the Coast, MCDM Productions, Ghostfire Gaming, and Green Ronin Publishing.
Chris Lindsay
Chris Lindsay helps to create things that touch peoples heart and bring folks together. He's been known to act silly and speak in funny voices on a stream now and again and is a Product Manager for Dungeons & Dragons at Wizards of the Coast.
James Lowder
James Lowder is the author of the bestselling, widely translated dark fantasy novels Prince of Lies and Knight of the Black Rose; short fiction for such anthologies as Shadows Over Baker Street; comic book scripts for Image, Moonstone, and DC; and RPG material for TSR, White Wolf, and Chaosium. As an editor, he has directed novel lines or series for both large and small publishing houses, edited nearly two dozen anthologies, and currently serves as Chaosium’s executive fiction. His work has received six Origins Awards and two ENnie Awards, and been a finalist for the International Horror Guild Award and the Stoker Award.
Greg Marks
After playing his first D&D game at the age of six at Gen Con, he became enamored with role-playing games. He has worked on products for every edition of Dungeons and Dragons and written too many adventures for organized play campaigns to count. He is currently one of the Content Managers for D&D Adventurers League. Greg has written for Wizards of the Coast, Dragon and Dungeon Magazines, Fantasy Flight Games' Midnight setting, Raging Swan Press, Schwalb Entertainment, Ghostfire Games, and Kobold Press, among other companies. Some of his most recent contributions include Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Tome of Beasts, Queen of Gold, and Grim Hollow: The Monster Grimoire.
Crystal Mazur
By day, Crystal is an educator with an affinity for superheroes and anything geeky. By night, Crystal is a freelance writer and artist who is inspired by horror, fantasy, and New Orleans. She is passionate about using games for education. She was a writer for Third Eye Game's Ennie award-winning Pip System Core Book and is the current Developer, creating Pip System Primer content each quarter, a guide to using the Pip System in different genres of games. Crystal also worked on Chicago by Night and Let The Streets Run Red, a city setting for Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition. She helped develope the Warlocks, Pacts, and co-wrote the spell grimoire for Snowhaven, a snow-punk setting for 5E, and wrote several scenarios and the new Russian Revolution setting for Never Going Home: Blood on the Snow, and wrote Ironbound: Guardians of Novala: So Mote It Be, a Wiccan setting for Pip System. She worked on The Red Opera and Sirens: Battle of the Bards with Apotheosis Studios. She has also written on Black Void: Into The Oblivious Depths. Her writing is powered by gothic horror aesthetic, metal, glitter, and lots of coffee.
Mike Mearls
Mike Mearls has spent over 20 years as a game designer, working primarily on tabletop RPGs. He led the creation of 5th edition D&D and played a critical role in the development of 4th edition. Aside from D&D, he designed the Iron Heroes RPG and worked on a variety of other games, including Unknown Armies, Feng Shui, and Hunter: the Reckoning. His board game work includes Castle Ravenloft, Betrayal at Baldur's Gate, Axis & Allies & Zombies, and Dungeon Mayhem.
Rick Meints
President of Chaosium. Collector of all things Chaosium. Gamer since 1977. Rick enjoys collectable auctions and is honored to be one of the auctioneers for the Charity game auction at Gameholecon. He is most easily found at the con in the Chaosium booth, but tries to play at least one game a day while at the con. A veteran of Kickstarter and printing, he always looks forward to seminars on related topics.
Shawn Merwin
Shawn Merwin's design and editing work in the roleplaying game industry has spanned over 20 years and over 5 million words of content. His Dungeons & Dragons work for Wizards of the Coast has ranged from 3rd to 5th edition, showing up in sourcebooks, adventures, articles, and Organized Play administration. He has written and edited RPG material for D&D and other game systems for Penny Arcade, Kobold Press, Modiphius Entertainment, Pelgrane Press, Gamehole Publishing, and many more. He contributed to the Acquisitions Incorporated hardcover and Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, and is also a co-host of two podcasts: Mastering Dungeons and the Eldritch Lorecast. In 2021 he joined Ghostfire Gaming as Executive Lead Designer, and he occasionally he teaches Writing for RPGs at Fredonia State University of NY.
Marc Miller
Marc Miller is an award-winning game designer with experience reaching back forty years. Best known for his design of the Traveller science-fiction role-playing game, he has also designed boardgames, historical games, card games, and miniatures titles. Along the way, he playtested John Hill’s original Squad Leader; he once slept overnight in Jim Dunnigan’s office; he (well, his company) published a game by Gary Gygax. He designed one of the Europa Series games. He once won a Hunt For Red October naval miniatures game refereed by Tom Clancy. He designed the best-selling science-fiction role-playing game of all time. Marc was the second role-playing game designer inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame (Gary Gygax was the first), and his role-playing game Traveller is in the Hall of Fame in its own name. Did we mention he was a founding member of the legendary Game Designers’ Workshop? Marc lives in Illinois with his wife Darlene (who, by the way, is an industry insider in her own right).
Mario Ortegón
Mario Ortegón (he/him) is a former UX Design Lead who now works full-time as a game designer, writer, and consultant in the TTRPG industry. His work includes D&D's Journeys through the Radian't Citadel, Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, and Keys from the Golden Vault; MCDM's ARCADIA and Flee Mortals, Renegade's Hunter: The Reckoning, and multiple other products for Wizards of the Coast, Critical Role, Guildhall Studios, and more. He grew up in a small town just south of the eastern Mexico-US border and currently claims his domain amid the dry mountains of Monterrey, Mexico.
Chris Perkins
CHRISTOPHER PERKINS is a Game Architect who has worked at Wizards of the Coast for more than a quarter century. When not working on D&D, he's thinking about D&D.
Sean Reynolds
Sean K Reynolds was born in a coastal town in southern California. A professional game designer since 1998, he’s known for his work on Pathfinder, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Numenera, and the Cypher System. He spends his free time reading, fixing up an old house, being a social justice warrior, and writing 2-3 sentence biographies.
Jeff Richard
Jeff Richard is the Creative Director of Chaosium Inc and Chair of the Chaosium Board. An award-winning game designer, Jeff led the creation of the new edition of RuneQuest, and is part of the teams designing the new edition of Pendragon, bringing back the classic boardgames of White Bear and Red Moon and Nomad Gods, and various other sundry things. A native of the Bay Area, for the last 14 years Jeff has lived in Berlin, Germany with his wife and two children, and now lives at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.
Alexander Stangroom
T. Alexander Stangroom is the Chief Operations Officer at Kobold Press, where he toils in the warrens overseeing everything from convention attendance to recruitment to coordinated kazoo fanfares. When he’s not herding kobolds, Alexander is a tabletop roleplaying Dungeon Master, player, designer, and writer whose publication credits include Wizards of the Coast. Alexander splits his time between the United Kingdom and Seattle, and is waiting patiently for a magical cure for jet lag. He would like you to know that his scales are naturally shiny, thank you very much. You can find him on Twitter at @TA_Stangroom
Bryan Steele
Writer/Game Designer/Novelist, Bryan has been working in the industry for over twenty years on RPGs, miniature games, and board/card games for a wide variety of licenses ranging from Conan, Iron Kingdoms, Power Rangers, Transformers, and more. Recently noted as one of the creators of Renegade Games' Essence20 Roleplaying System, Bryan lives for the game, and truly games for his livelihood!
Jeffrey Talanian
Jeffrey Talanian, publisher for North Wind Adventures, started gaming in 1981, playing Dungeons & Dragons using the Holmes Basic version of the game. From 2005 to 2008, Jeff had the opportunity to develop several Castle Zagyg projects under the guidance of his friend and mentor, E. Gary Gygax (R.I.P.). Since 2008, Jeff’s focus has been on the game he authored, the award-nominated HYPERBOREA, a role-playing game of swords, sorcery, and weird science-fantasy. For more information, please visit www.hyperborea.tv.
Elisa Teague
Elisa Teague is a game designer and RPG author with 23 years in the tabletop games industry. With experience in many areas of game manufacturing, such as game development and design, pre-production design and layout, art direction, game production/manufacturing, she has worked on over 100 game titles. She was the lead designer of the Essence20 Roleplaying Game System, the Wardlings 5e RPG, the Power Rangers, G.I. JOE, and Transformers Roleplaying Games, Geek Out!, Kingdom Hearts Talisman, Betrayal at House on the Hill: Widows Walk, a co-designer and art director of Apocrypha Adventure Card Game, oversaw the development of new Vampire: The Masquerade and Hunter: The Reckoning RPGs, wrote three D&D AL Epics for Gary Con and Gamehole Con, and has written various modules and contributions to D&D and other RPG books, including the puzzle section in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.
Monica Valentinelli
Monica Valentinelli is an award-winning author and narrative designer known for her work in original and established worlds that includes Cyberpunk RED, World of Darkness, The Yellow King, Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun, Mistborn, Firefly, Unknown Armies, and many more. For more about Monica and her upcoming publications, visit her website at www.booksofm.com.
Bill Webb
Bill, along with Clark Peterson, started Necromancer Games during the dawn of the D&D 3E game and immediately the phrase “Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel” became a catchphrase of the new era. Through Necromancer, the pair published dozens of nostalgia-filled adventures that captured that elusive old-school zeitgeist. No product was more an example of this than Rappan Athuk, the deadly mega-dungeon that became one of the most popular settings for a new generation of adventurers. Eventually, Frog God Games became Bill’s playground in the new era of retro-clones and old school classic dungeon adventures. Since its beginnings, Frog God Games has produced several wildly successful Kickstarter’s and IndieGoGo’s for both old and new school role-players with Rappan Athuk, Razor Coast, The Lost Lands, and Quests of Doom.
Rob Wieland
Rob Wieland is an author, game designer and professional nerd. He is most well-known for his work with Geek & Sundry and the Forbes website, his game design on Shadowrun, Star Wars Saga Edition, Firefly RPG, CAMELOT Trigger and Save Game. Other projects include work on Star Trek Adventures, Pugmire, Hunter: The Reckoning, Night's Black Agents and 13th Age. He is the host of the Theatre of the Mind Players livestream. He lives in scenic Milwaukee, Wisconsin with his wife and daughter, both of whom will be far better suited for the apocalypse with their skill sets.
Gamehole Con 2023 Industry Guests
Gamehole Con has quickly become one of the premier shows in the world for gaming industry insiders and designers. Each year, we assemble a very real "who's who" of tabletop gaming. Our attendees have become accustomed to having the chance to meet gaming luminaries and being able to rub elbows with the very best Guests gaming has to offer. This year is no different. We are excited to once again be the place where gaming insiders come to play games. Check out this amazing list of Guests!
