Industry Guest

Ric Heise is Mythworks' Chief People Person! Ric is the first point of contact for people interested in Mythworks. For Mythworks, Ric handles the Supporter Experience, Retail and Related Relationships, Connecting a Network of Creativity, and Your Curiosity. Ric is a contributing writer and designer for The Wildsea in addition to being Head of Playtesting. Ric is a Lyric Game Creator and Curator of Ephemeral Joys. Ric can be found on Mythworks' related Discords, or reached by emailing contact@myth.works. Ric would love to play a game with you, especially if you made it!

Dillin Apelyan (mirror pronouns) hosts the One Shot podcast, helms several popular productions including The Atomless, Dorkspawn, and Patchwork Productions, and has appeared on media giants like Dropout and Critical Role. Dillin has also designed several successful role-playing games like HUNT(er/ed) and Metalepsis, and uses every opportunity to share the sprawling world of RPGs.

/*-->*/ /*-->*/ Jonathan has been working in and around games for the past twenty years. He began with line license for CyberGeneration and eventually published his own games. He’s published a few things for other people, but mostly focuses on his own content. He has just released the updated version of his latest game We Used To Be Friends (a collaborative teenage detective drama game), Behind You!

Colton Balske is a Canadian Indie TTRPG writer and digital artist. He loves creating memorable experiences that roleplayers can share with their friends. He hopes these experiences will create meaningful face-to-face connections mixed with silliness and laughter. His debut game is Hell's High Rollers, where players are selfish devils at a casual poker game. You can play the game and several free one-page RPGs he wrote at contron.itch.io

/*-->*/ /*-->*/ David Van Drunen loves bringing people together with "fun", and for over a decade has been designing and developing games that connect people around exciting experiences. Beginning their career in video games, David transitioned to tabletop mixing the familiar with the unexpected to create games inspired by architecture, Luchadors, and family traditions.

/*-->*/ /*-->*/ Gwendolyn Marshall is an independent author and game designer, working on products that challenge and supplement D&D, like her ENnie Winning best seller, Ancestry & Culture: An Alternative to Race in 5e, and dozens of other titles. She also develops indie games using OSR and PbtA systems and principles, to explore queer identity, chosen family, and classic adventuring themes.

Joe Slack is a board game designer, publisher, instructor, and the author of the #1 international best-selling book, The Board Game Designer's Guide, along with four other books on game design. He has taught Game Design and Development at Wilfrid Laurier University and runs the Board Game Design Course, an online course for new game designers. Joe has nine published games, including four successful Kickstarter campaigns.

/*-->*/ /*-->*/ Bill Benham started playing Dungeons & Dragons as a kid and knew he would make games one day. “One Day” was the summer of 2018 when he joined the Wizards of the Coast as a producer for D&D. Before joining Wizards, Bill served 20 years in the Army, earned a master’s in healthcare administration, and was a clinic manager in the public sector.

Reed Mascola is a Toronto-based board game designer and cat dad. He has two of his designs published: CATNIP Auction House from Tin Robot Games and Vigilante (self-publish). This year, he is aiming to release Dracula is Dead from Lime Green Games, and Rûnebeasts: Deckbuilding Game (self-publish). 

Greg Leatherman lives in Minneapolis, Mn and is a indie game designer and podcaster. He’s played over 35 TTRPGs on his actual play podcast, Very Random Encounters, and talks about table top game experiences on Game Mechanics podcast. He enjoys making games that fill his current pop culture obsessions. You can find his games, Glitter Hearts and Domeskai Tamers through Japanime games, The Mystery Business through Indie Press Revolutions, which is all linked on his website, Leatherman.games.