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GC-Guest_Jim-Zub

Jim Zub

Jim Zub

Jim Zub is a writer, artist and art instructor based in Toronto, Canada. Over the past twenty years he’s worked for many gaming companies, including Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf, and Paizo on projects including Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus, Rick and Morty VS Dungeons & Dragons, the D&D Young Adventurer’s Guides, Pathfinder, Exalted and more.

He now juggles his time between being a freelance comic writer and a professor teaching drawing and storytelling courses in Seneca Polytechnic’s award-winning Animation program.

His current comic projects include acting as the flagship writer for Conan the Barbarian, the monthly adventures of Robert E. Howard’s legendary sword & sorcery hero.

GC-Guest_Skip-Williams

Skip Williams

Skip Williams

Skip Williams is a Wisconsin native who hails from Lake Geneva, also the birthplace of the D&D game. As a kid in school. Skip rubbed elbows with many of the people who developed and influenced the original Dungeons & Dragons game, especially Gary Gygax.

After college, Skip did a stint with TSR, Inc. organizing the Gen Con Game Fair. After leaving TSR to become a freelancer, Skip eventually came to pen the Sage Advice column for Dragon magazine. For more than 15 years, Skip applied his unique wit and wisdom to help DMs and players navigate that difficult frontier where the game rules meet the game table.

After a few years on his own, Skip rejoined TSR to work on the RPGA Network and Polyhedron newsine. During his time in the RPGA, Skip undertook some freelance assignments for TSR design department and eventually left the network to become a full-time designer/editor working mainly on TSR’s D&D line, but also Planescape, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, and Dragonlance. Skip was part of the team that designed the Dragonlance 5th age card game.

When Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR, Skip briefly moved to Seattle to work on the D&D 3rd edition game. While in Seattle Skip also helped create a new version of the Chainmail miniatures game, worked to transition the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk lines to the (then) new D&D rules.

Skip has since returned to Wisconsin, where he and his wife, Penny, own a century-old farmhouse and a few surrounding acres. These days, Skip works on some short fiction (publishing several short stories through Daw books), undertakes the occasional commission from small game publishers, serves as co-director of events for Gary Con (held each year in Lake Geneva, and tries to rescue his acreage from the encroaching weeds. Now and then, he finds time to play a game or two or paint some gaming miniatures. A few of Skip’s minis will be available for sale at the auction on Saturday.

GC-Guest_Penny-Williams

Penny Williams

Penny Williams

A long time ago, in the mythical land of Ohio, a nerdy young woman named Penny played role-playing games and dreamed of working for the company that made them. She helped out at conventions and made many friends, both famous and not. Eventually her dream came true, with an offer to work for TSR, Inc. as their Games Questions Expert. So she lived the dream for several years at TSR, where she became a Marvel superhero and head of the RPGA Network, among other achievements. Eventually she moved on to New Infinities Productions, Inc., and then to Wizards of the Coast, where she continued to work on Marvel games, as well as D&D, Star Wars, D20 Modern, and many more. During her tenure at these companies, she found her primary joy as an editor, and was honored to work alongside the legendary Kim Mohan at all three companies, and the one and only Gary Gygax at two of them. In addition, she occasionally co-authored adventures and short stories with the love of her life, Skip Williams. After they moved back to Wisconsin, she pursued her other passion—teaching high school science. Of course, she still games, attends game conventions, edits RPG material, and shares her love of gaming with new generations by serving as Game Club advisor at her school. Say hello to Penny and her favorite playtesters—the kids from the Adams-Friendship High School Game Club—if you see them.

GC-Guest_Tom-Wham

Tom Wham

Tom Wham

Tom Wham is best known for creating whimsical board games that feature his unique artwork.  However, his first design credit is actually a miniatures wargame called “Ironclad”, with Don Lowry, in 1973.

Tom worked for Guidon Games when Gary Gygax asked him to run the auction at Gen Con IV.  A few years later, in 1977, Tom came to work at TSR, Inc.  Tom held many positions with TSR over the years, from general office support, to manager of the Dungeon Hobby Shop.  He contributed to many projects, including artwork for the AD&D Monster Manual, and published several games in Dragon magazine.

His game design credits include: Snit Smashing, Snit’s Revenge, Awful Green Things from Outer Space, Kings & Things, Dragon Lairds with James M. Ward (a game much enjoyed by Gary, Ernie, and Luke Gygax), and most recently, Feudality.

Tom Wham served honorably in the United States Navy for 4 years.  He is a Vietnam War veteran that served aboard a communications vessel in the Gulf of Tonkin.  After many years as an informational technology specialist at the Lake Geneva Library, he retired in 2003.  Tom continues to design games today.

GC-Guest_Rob-Wieland

Rob Wieland

Rob Wieland

Rob Wieland is an author, game designer and professional nerd. He is most well-known for his work with Geek & Sundry, Dicebreaker and the Forbes website. His game design includes Shadowrun, Star Wars Saga Edition, Firefly RPG, CAMELOT Trigger, Save Game, Star Trek Adventures, Pugmire, Vampire: The Masquerade, Hunter: The Reckoning, Everyday Heroes and Werewolf: The Apocalypse. 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.

GC-Guest_Margaret-Weis

Margaret Weis

Margaret Weis

Margaret Weis was hired by TSR, Inc as a book editor in 1983. One of her projects was to work with game designer, Tracy Hickman, on a new project known as Dragonlance. She and Tracy wrote the Dragonlance Chronicles novels to go with the D&D game adventures. They celebrate the fortieth anniversary of Dragonlance this year with a new series, Dragonlance Destinies. She has written other novels, including Deathgate, Darksword, Star of the Guardians, and Dragon Brigade.

She continues to write with help from border collie, Billie Blue, and Sheltie, Clancy.

GC-Guest_Bill-Webb

Bill Webb

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.

GC-Guest_Jim-Wampler

Jim Wampler

Jim Wampler

Jim Wampler is the main guy to blame at Mudpuppy Games, the writer and creator of Mutant Crawl Classics RPG for Goodman Games, and the author of the Marvin the Mage comic strip. Sometimes, Jolly Blackburn even lets him play around with the Knights of the Dinner Table characters on covers. Jim has written adventures for DCC, MCC, and Metamorphosis Alpha, and is the publisher of SCIENTIFIC BARBARIAN megazine. He also co-hosts the Save For Half podcast with some far-more-talented folks.

WEBSITE: www.mudpuppygames.com

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/mudpuppycomics

FnL-GM_B-Dave-Walters

B. Dave Walters

B. Dave Walters

B. Dave Walters (@BDaveWalters) is a Storyteller & proud Scoundrel American. Best known as the Host and DM of Invitation to Party on G4 TV, and DM for the cast of Stranger Things on Netflix Geeked. He is the writer & co-creator of D&D: A Darkened Wish for IDW comics, and creator and DM of the Black Dice Society for Wizards of the Coast, and DM of Idle Champions Presents. He is Lead Designer for Into the Mother Lands RPG.

GC-Guest_Charles-Urbach

Charles Urbach

Charles Urbach

Charles Urbach is an award-winning writer and colored pencil illustrator with 30 years experience in design, publishing, and illustration. His hand drawn Prismacolor pencil artwork pushes the boundaries of what’s possible with colored pencil, resulting in drawn artwork that has the visual depth and sophistication of traditional paintings. Like a traveler on a journey, his work ventures into varied territories, not resting for long in any single genre or subject matter. As a result, his art is recognized for its diversity and dynamic visuals that appeal to many different audiences and age groups.

Charles’ published work includes hundreds of illustrations for tabletop gaming, book covers for authors including Timothy Zahn, cover/marketing art for international conventions including the Gary Con XI “Pirate Queen” artwork, Origins Game Fair, GameHole Con, and graphic design/concept work for the corporate world. Projects have included miniatures designs for Wizkids’ Heroclix, illustrations for “Magic: The Gathering,” “Star Wars,” “Legend of the Five Rings,” “Das Schwarze Auge,” “7th Sea: City of Five Sails,” “Doomtown,” “Infinite City,” “Lord of the Rings,” “The Call of Cthulhu TCG,” “A Game of Thrones CCG” and artwork for many other games and properties. Clients have included Wizards of the Coast, Fantasy Flight Games, NECA, Sony Online, Alderac Entertainment Group, AT&T and many other game publishers and independent clients. Among his accomplishments, he’s won multiple Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (ASFA) Chesley Awards and his work has won convention awards at Gen Con, Dragon Con, Origins Game Fair, PhilCon, and many other events around the U.S. Charles is a frequent Guest of Honor, panelist, and teacher at conventions and gaming tournaments throughout North America and Europe.

In addition to his published work, Charles’ personal artwork is published through his in-house studio and is available via conventions and art exhibits throughout the country. Contact information and galleries of his work are available on his retail site, www.charlesurbach.com and on his personal Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/charles.urbach

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