Gameholecon2025

Another year another Gamehole Con in the books. This one was a lot different from my first experience because I finally stepped up to Gamemaster a bunch of games. I also worked with Monte Cook games to help show people their games and teach their system. That was an awesome experience to say the least. I also got a chance to talk to Catalyst people and got some news on our 2e battle.

Games I Ran

I had the fortune to run several games for Monte Cook Games along with running one of my favorite games I wrote so long ago. I’ll keep this brief as I think the new games are much more interesting.

Dread Expectations

A super hero games where the players will face off against a mad genius who plots and plans against them. One of the great things about the villain from a GM perspective is that she loves traps and misdirection, so it’s awesome for teaching people how GM Intrusions work for Cypher.

This was a new experience for me as I’ve never run a Superhero game in the Cypher system. It was a bit jarring since so many of my natural instincts for the horror Cypher games were all thrown out the window. Characters could absolutely SCHOOL enemies who were levels 4 and under, instead of them putting up a challenge and the final fight is against a level 8 monster, which would absolutely DECIMATE normal characters. It was really fun to see how this played against the other games I ran.

Pictures of my table from running this a few times:

Ghostbusters

This is my own concoction I wrote and posted here: Ghostbusters RPG! I did add some new mechanics and tried to smooth out some edges. One of the new mechanics was adding a draw section whenever the players fired their proton wands. It feels so much more fun to cause havoc and damage while you’re doing your job. Also allows for the talker in the group to try to worm their way out of damages and discard damage value tokens.

This is still something I want to work on, but I feel like it needs some heavy retooling. Maybe once inspiration strikes again. One day I’d love to run this as a campaign. Games I played

I had the great fortune to play quite a few games during the Con including one that was still in play testing.

Some pictures of me running

Gunslinger Knights

This was a random happenstance that I was able to play this at the very end of the convention and honestly, it was a blast. The basic premise is that each of the players are part of a holy order of knights that has been in an eternal struggle against monsters from a void that has been consuming the planet they have sworn to protect. These knights ride semi-awakened motor cycles made from bits of a holy throne and bare weapons with a sliver of a massively powerful artifact weapon which binds the weapon and its wielder’s soul together. It’s an Arthurian legend with warriors straight out of an 80s cartoon.

There is something kind of beautiful about the juxtaposition of it. It also bears a lot of the symbolism and greatness that Warhammer 40k has in its kind of pomp and circumstance of its elevated members born to fight on the behalf of the normal people. They are born, trained and are held in a kind of reverence of their station and duty. There is something truly incredible about playing characters who are rising above anything put in their way to protect and save the innocent. I’d love the chance to run and play this one again.

If you want to check this one out (and I think you should!!), you can find it here: Gunslinger Knights They also have a free demo you can read about here: Gunslinger Knights Demo. Once I run this a few times i’ll do a full write up on it as well.

Old Gods of Apalachia

This may be my new favorite game. It’s a folk horror game that takes place in the early 1900s in rural times. It’s a game of spirits, remedies, folk magic and reckonings coming to pass. It contains mountains of folk lore heavily researched and beautifully laid out for players to get their hands on. It also uses some of the standard horror rules established in other Monte Cook games such as Horror Mode, no rerolls on natural ones, etc.

This was great because I got to sit with one of the writers of Old Gods (and got my book signed!) and talk about histories, our connections to the old mountains and more. She really helped me get a firm grasp on the atmosphere and I have begun to listen to the podcast when I can in order to get my head in that space again. This one I will do a review on in general once I run it for myself. If you are interested in looking into it yourself however, you can find it here: Old Gods of Appalachia. They offer a free demo as well here: Old Gods of Appalachia Demo

Playtest for Cypher

This is one I can’t really talk about, but it is a very fun game I feel like will make an awesome Halloween game for those that do Holiday games. It all takes place around Halloween night. I look forward to running it myself once it is ready for the tables at a Con. The extra printable assets for the game will really make it interesting too!

2nd Edition News

After talking to Jason Hardy at Catalyst I got confirmation that the 2nd Edition Scan Project was successful and we should be looking at Summer of 2026. So that means Ben’s wild gambit has finally been completed. For those that don’t know, find the video of Ben explaining it himself here: YouTube Link

Once we have more news I’ll post it as soon as I can. Until then we wait for a fully official word from Catalyst about its release. I’ll imagine we will see a PDF first, then a print on demand. I’ll keep you up to speed as I hear more. I really hope this comes quickly so we can all add that sweet 11th printing to our shelves.

Purchases

As always here is a picture of what I ended up pulling out of the con. I think there may be some more stuff coming my way now that I’ve joined the Monte Cook asset team.

A picture of the dealers hall!

Final Thoughts

In the wake of hearing the insanity that happened at Twitch Con over that same weekend. I am glad to say that Gamehole Con continues to be a wonderful experience where you can meet creators, get your books signed and learn some amazing new games without any of the drama that the rest of the world keeps wanting to put in our place. I know the world kind of sucks right now (I know… I’m trying to be positive), but it’s still great that there is still SOME goodness left in this rock for us. Do your best to make this world a little bit nicer than when you left it.

Every year I meet new people, amazing people. I run into my friends who are clearly having a great time. It just is awesome to be able to do this. I can’t wait to keep it up. Next year, more Cypher games and hopefully a long running SR2 campaign. Right now I am thinking of either Dreamchipper or Eye Witness. We will see what I am feeling when it comes around next year!

-D

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