Featuring: Nels Anderson, Jesse Turner & Paul Dean.
When: Friday Oct. 6, 11:30AM
Theatre Capacity: 630

The Terminal7 Podcast team discuss one of the biggest challenges in game design: effectively connecting theme to mechanics.

Featuring: Paul Dean, Matt Lees & Quintin Smith.
When: Friday Oct. 6, 1:00PM
Theatre Capacity: 630

Ever wonder how the SU&SD crew puts together those lovely Friday Videos? We’ll screen one that has NEVER BEFORE BEEN SEEN. Well. Matt saw it. He edited it. And then we’ll do a brief panel and Q&A spilling all our secrets and magic about creating cool Internet Videos!

Featuring: Jonathan Ying, Fred Wan, Nels Anderson & Quintin Smith.
When: Friday Oct. 6, 2:30PM
Theatre Capacity: 630

Games with a competitive component like Magic: The Gathering, Android: Netrunner, and L5R, have a problem when it comes to play and design: the incentive to win. This drive for success and the tournament structure often incentivizes players towards safer, consistent and often uninteresting strategies or builds. Or worse, it encourages players to indulge in abusive techniques or rules esoterica to score victories.

So how do communities have fun? How do designers encourage players to enjoy the game or indulge in the narrative themes without having a negative impact on the play experience? How do you make sure your community is welcoming and inclusive when a game’s meta slowly becomes more and more insular with jargon and inside-jokes?

Join our group of cool panelists as we explore this strange but very interesting corner of the industry.

Featuring: Matt Lees, Paul Dean, Dane Beltrami & Chris Hosch.
When: Friday Oct. 6, 4:00PM
Theatre Capacity: 630

How did they do it?! Go behind the scenes with both the SU&SD film crew and TI4 developers to go deeper into the storytelling of boardgaming’s most epic game, and the film crew that captured it.

Featuring: Rich Sommer, Paul Dean & Special Guests.
When: Friday Oct. 6, 5:30PM
Theatre Capacity: 630

Rich Sommer loves board games. But we’re not talking about the stuff of your grandparents’ rec room – things have changed a lot since people started to gather around the bridge table. Whether you’re a serious player or a newbie, give a warm welcome to your personal board game evangelist.

Featuring: Quinns, Matt, Paul, Pip & Cynthia!
When: Friday Oct. 6, 7:00PM
Theatre Capacity: 630

You thought we were only going to do ONE live podcast at our own bloody convention?! You were wrong friend. The very best kind of wrong. Come join us as we talk about … games, probably?

Featuring: Jesse Shepherd, Clayton Hughes, Evan Lewis, Trond Nilsen & Witt Yao.
When: Friday Oct. 6, 8:30PM
Theatre Capacity: 160

Think Game Mastering for 6 players is hard? Try 60! The team at Seattle MegaGames specializes in large, live-action gaming events that are equal parts roleplaying game, board game, and group storytelling. Join the crew as they share their experiences designing and running megagames, including tricks to design for emergent storytelling, heighten player agency and immersion, and how letting things go wrong can make the overall experience go very right.

Featuring: Quinns, Matt, Paul, Pip & Cynthia!
When: Friday Oct. 6, 10:00PM
Theatre Capacity: 160

Have a question for the SU&SD crew? Come ask it!

Featuring: Grant Rodiek, Sen-Foong Lim, Isaac Vega, Joshua Buergel, Nicole Hoye & Marguerite Cottrell.
When: Saturday Oct. 7, 9:00AM
Theatre Capacity: 120

You and a gaggle of friends, new and old, will be given a silly theme, a box of nonsense, and one hour to design a game. Don’t worry! Experts will be on-hand to guide you through this process that is sure to be loud, hilarious, and creative. A perfect group adventure down the creativity rabbit hole. Be ready for nonsense. Which is our favourite kind of sense.

Featuring: Kurtis Wiebe & Special Guests.
When: Saturday Oct. 7, 3:00PM
Theatre Capacity: 160

Kurtis Wiebe runs the SU&SD crew through a D&D 5th edition adventure featuring the Rat Queens.

Featuring: Jae Euteneier, Jarrett Vickzo & Special Guests.
When: Saturday Oct. 7, 6:30PM
Theatre Capacity: 160

Jae & Jarrett of the cast of ZeroD20 will be playing, performing, and recording a special spin-off RPG in front of a Live Audience!

ZeroD20 is a podcast website dedicated to promoting underrepresented voices in tabletop gaming. With their tagline ‘Inclusive. Gaming.’ they work to bring more voices to the table, and into the campaigns, making stories and worlds that are more diverse.

Featuring: Alan Gerding & Special Guests.
When: Saturday Oct. 7, 9:00PM
Theatre Capacity: 160

It’s the popular podcast all about the stories we make while playing the games we love on, around, and under our gaming tables.

Featuring: Jalyn Euteneier.
When: Saturday Oct. 7, 9:00PM
Theatre Capacity: 160

Join Jay from ZeroD20 as she takes the audience on an adventure through the creation of Tabletop Games; from old wargames to today’s modern titles. With a twist. And maybe hot-cocoa! (Pyjamas and pillows encouraged.)

Featuring: A projector screen.
When: Saturday Oct. 7, Midnight.
Theatre Capacity: 160

Looking for something cool to see on the big screen this evening? Well then don’t let us stop you from watching this screening of the Epic TI4 documentary created by the SU&SD team!

Featuring: Alan Gerding & Special Guests.
When: Sunday Oct. 8, 9:00AM
Theatre Capacity: 160

Alan Gerding, clinical psychologist, game designer, and co-owner of Tuesday Knight Games discusses the true purpose behind playing games. Why do we play tabletop games? Why board games and not video games? What does winning actually mean?

Featuring: Joshua Yearsley, Jonathan Ying, Paul Dean & Cynthia Hornbeck,
When: Sunday Oct. 8, 10:30AM
Theatre Capacity: 160

Wo, wooo woo wowowoooo wowowo wo wo. Wo. How the f**k are you going to make that entertaining. Let me tell you – no, let Joshua tell you:

There’s no question. Rulebooks are kinda bad. But why? And how can we make them better? After a short talk on the history and state of rulebooks, we’ll kick off a discussion with a panel of professionals who have collectively critiqued and worked with everyone from tiny crowdfunded publishers to big hitters like Fantasy Flight and Asmodee. What lessons have we learned? What mistakes have we made? How’s that two-rulebook thing working out? Are rulebook apps the future, and will they go SkyNet and try to kill us all? [ok I’m in if SkyNet’s on the panel -Ed]

Featuring: Mark Biggar, Todd Goodman, Aaron Cassidy & Quinten Dreger
When: Sunday Oct. 8, Noon.
Theatre Capacity: 160

Four educators discuss how they think tabletop gaming can be incorporated into the school classroom and how they can be used as learning tools.We will cover tips on running games in the class, which games have worked and which haven’t, and why tabletop games can be such a useful tool to increase engagement for all students. While the focus will be on it’s use in the classroom, we will also offer up ways to use them with your children or co-workers to support learning and team building.

Featuring: Pizzeria Ludica, Stormcrow, EXP and Tea & Victory
When: Sunday Oct. 8, 1:30PM
Theatre Capacity: 160

Ever wondered what it takes to run a boardgame cafe? Join owners from Pizzeria Ludica, Stormcrow, EXP and Tea & Victory for their experiences, lessons, challenges and joys of operating a game pizzeria/bar/café.

Featuring: Tim Fowers.
When: Sunday Oct. 8, 3:00PM
Theatre Capacity: 160

Tim Fowers is going to lead a tabletop design jam with the audience, showing how to build emotion and setting through gameplay. Ooooooooo.

Featuring: Isaac Vega, Fred Wan, Cynthia Hornbeck, & Jonathan Ying.
When: Sunday Oct. 8, 5:00PM
Theatre Capacity: 160

Panelists tell how they became interested in tabletop gaming, their journeys into to the industry, and what tabletop gaming means to them. They will also be delve into diversity in tabletop games, discussing ways the community can become more inclusive, and what they hope for as this hobby moves into the future.

Featuring: Jonathan Ying & Quintin Smith.
When: Sunday Oct. 8, 6:30PM
Theatre Capacity: 160

Tabletop games are a wonderful ground for expressive storytelling, with unique benefits and challenges. With so many moving parts and precious little space for words how do you tell a deep and interesting story without interrupting gameplay? Jonathan Ying (Game Designer and Author) will explore techniques such as flavor text and mechanical theming to create expressive narratives through game design.

Featuring: Jay Cormier & Special Guests.
When: TBD
Theatre Capacity: 160

Interested in how games work? Maybe you’re an aspiring designer, or maybe you have a thirst for knowledge about how games are made and what kind of levers a designer can pull. The biggest lever any designer must pull is in determining what kind of decisions their game will have. This session will explore the various types of decisions with examples and activities for the attendees, as we learn that not all decisions are good decisions. Attendees might well leave with the ability to identify the various types of decisions in any board game and even come up with solutions on how to improve them.

When: Friday Oct. 6, 2:00PM-3:00PM, running every 15 minutes!
Capacity: 50

Everyone is a scientist, and they all need to work together in order to build enough escape suits to leave the undersea lab. The problem is that some of the scientist might be infected…and spreading it. This goes well beyond con germs. Another large social game from Alan Gerding.

When: Friday Oct. 6, 3:00PM-4:00PM, running every 15 minutes!
Capacity: 50

Stop your President from being blown up! But who is the President? More importantly… Who is the Bomber?!

In this social game of hidden roles and deduction, players are divided into 2 different rooms. Find your teammates, establish trust, and exchange hostages before time runs out and the bomb explodes! It’s the party game that’s always a blast.

Did we mention we’ll be running new, never-before-seen prototype expansions? No? Well that’s because it’s HIDDEN INFORMATION!!

When: Friday Oct. 6, 4:00PM-5:00PM, running every 15 minutes!
Capacity: 50

Everyone shows up to the magical ball, but the evil powers summon a magical tornado within. Now everyone is mixed up and needs to find and reclaim their lost item of power. Will Cinderella find her shoe in time? Will Jack find his magic beans? Careful, because the cleverly disguised Big Bad Wolf and Rumpelstiltskin are doing their best to try to stop you. Another large social game from Alan Gerding.

When: Friday Oct. 6, 7:00PM-10:00PM, running every 15 minutes!
Capacity: 50

Stop your President from being blown up! But who is the President? More importantly… Who is the Bomber?!

In this social game of hidden roles and deduction, players are divided into 2 different rooms. Find your teammates, establish trust, and exchange hostages before time runs out and the bomb explodes! It’s the party game that’s always a blast.

Did we mention we’ll be running new, never-before-seen prototype expansions? No? Well that’s because it’s HIDDEN INFORMATION!!

When: Saturday Oct. 7, 10:00AM-5:00PM, running every 15 minutes!
Capacity: 50

Stop your President from being blown up! But who is the President? More importantly… Who is the Bomber?!

In this social game of hidden roles and deduction, players are divided into 2 different rooms. Find your teammates, establish trust, and exchange hostages before time runs out and the bomb explodes! It’s the party game that’s always a blast.

Did we mention we’ll be running new, never-before-seen prototype expansions? No? Well that’s because it’s HIDDEN INFORMATION!!

When: Saturday Oct. 7, 5:00PM-6:30PM

Math Trades are a fantastic way to do some trading without the hassle of finding trade partners and haggling. Loads of info on BGG at that link if you’re up for some swapsies.

When: Sunday Oct. 8, 1:00PM-2:30PM

Quinns, Matt, Paul, Pip, Cynthia and SHUX poster illustrator & designer Kwanchai Moriya sign your s***. Well, hopefully not your actual s***, but I mean, we’ve done weirder.

When: Sunday Oct. 8, 3:00PM-5:00PM, running each hour.
Capacity: TBD

Come on down! You’re the next contestant on the Wits & Wagers Game Show! We will be playing a big team game of Wits & Wagers, featuring trivia questions about Shut Up & Sit Down, Canada, Board Games, and MORE! The show will be hosted by Aaron & Quinten of the Boards Alive Podcast and the Dominic Crapuchettes, the creator of Wits & Wagers himself, doing their absolute worst game show host impressions. Come and join a team to win great prizes provided by North Star Games. You may even get to use the new Vegas expansion (if Quinten & Aaron can figure out how to incorporate it in before the convention).