You have no idea how much it pleases me to be able to report on the various things that happened at Gamehole Con 2026. Each year I get excited and plan around one of the most impressive conventions for its size in the country. 7,000 people come to Gamehole Con to meet their favorite creators, see new products, and listen to seminars given by people who literally founded the games that shaped our hobby. A lot of people go to GenCon to try to meet folks and in general it’s a great convention, but there is something special about Gamehole Con. I run into big names all the time, wandering the halls, meeting fans and the like. It’s wonderful.

This year did come with some bumps and scrapes as far as being ready for it. My friend and I really pushed hard to get stuff set up for amazing tables of Cosmere games, but I unfortunately dropped the ball due to some heavy life stuff. Luckily, he did not and was able to field several tables to invite new players into the world. I printed up a bunch of different 3D widgets (which you can find here!) to make the games a bit easier for new players to pick up. And you all know me — if I can find a reason to print a physical token for something a player can spend or use in a game, I’m going to do it and almost assuredly overdo it. So I made custom tokens for Stormlight Investiture, Mistborn’s Metal Reserve Investiture, and more. During the convention I also discovered that I was invited to Brandon Sanderson’s Dragonsteel Nexus convention in Salt Lake City this year. I’ll be sure to write a big post about that — it’s supposed to be incredible for us Cosmere nuts.

So what happened this year? Let’s get into it!

Games I Ran

Stormlight Archive’s Speak the Words

This is an adventure I’ve run a few times and I really need to make a post and do a proper review of the Stormlight Archive (and soon, Mistborn) TTRPG. The system is called Plotweaver and it absolutely slaps. It’s kind of the best of both worlds when it comes to purely narrative games and strongly structured combat. I’ll do a bigger review on it soon — promise!

All of that being said, Speak the Words is a con-specific scenario that puts players right into the middle of the action, trying to fend off a lightning-throwing villain who is gunning for one of the most important people in town — someone who holds the very lives of the villagers in their hands. The players are brought in as the only people left who can stand against the coming storm.

What’s really interesting about this scenario is that some of the player characters are poised to get a huge power jump during play. Those who are familiar with the Stormlight Archive already know what that means just from the title, but I’ll say the story doesn’t disappoint. It’s a great setup to draw in new people to the world and show them why the changes running across Roshar are so important — not only to the PCs but to the world as a whole. My players were roaring with excitement, enough that I was actually a little afraid we might get in trouble with how animated they became. Luckily we finished without incident and everyone left the table excited to try more.

As a small but very fun aside, when you join the Envoy team you get stickers to hand out to your players for some special things that can happen in the game. Something about being able to slap those stickers on people’s sheets — or wherever they want to put them — makes the experience just a little bit more memorable.

Games I Was In

Ronin Wong’s Cypher 2 — Once Upon A Spacetime (Twitch Broadcast Game)

This was a first for me. I was invited to be on stream for a new friend of mine, Ronin Wong (who used to go by Tom Wong — one of the writers of Paradise Lost, a Shadowrun Adventure!). He was running the new Cypher 2.0 for a custom game he had written. It was a wild experience, largely due to Ronin’s acting talent and voice work — he absolutely killed it. I’ve never had a GM who could just “flip on” a persona and have you feel the shift in character.

The adventure streamed on Twitch during Gamehole Con (I’ll post the link here once it gets released). It turns out they stream various things during GHC that I didn’t know about. They had a great setup — three or four cameras, everyone was given lav mics. It was super fun! Hoping to be invited back next year.

Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe: Interview With a Vampire

I actually did a whole review on this already which you can find here! It was super interesting to see how this played out. Also oddly entertaining to be running this at the same time as a table of Dungeon Crawler Carl directly across from us — both owned by the same company, apparently. I’m backing it now that it’s out, so hopefully I’ll have a more in-depth review once I get my hands on the book and can run a proper campaign.

Hilariously, when we finished our game they asked if anyone wanted to be interviewed and of course I said yes, because I cannot stop myself from talking about games. So I am now in the official release video for the IU Backerkit. You can see my ugly mug here if you so dare.

Great People I Got to Meet

As always, I go to conventions to meet writers, designers, and fellow nerds of all flavors.

Monte Cook Games

I usually spend a lot of time with the Monte Cook Games folks because they write some of my favorite games and I really enjoy running them at conventions. They run a tidy ship when it comes to handling their event games and really support their GMs. This year I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to run for them (which I will absolutely fix for next year). It was great to see Shanna — who I got to play alongside in Ronin’s game — and Monte again this year, along with the familiar faces of Charles, Bruce, Sean, and Javier. Tammie was leading the charge on the gaming sessions since Kate couldn’t make it, and she kept everything humming along.

I was able to make several prints as giveaways for their GMs this year — something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I made a few custom game aids to help bring players a bit more enjoyment as the GM smiles wickedly and ramps up the tension. I’ll make those prints available for folks in the future, especially for anyone running Magnus Archives or Old Gods of Appalachia.

The Polyhedral Knights

I also got to spend a good deal of time with the folks over at Polyhedral Knights. They aren’t someone I’ve talked about here before, but they’re making games for a dedicated fan base and are genuinely just fun people to hang out with. If you want to see some original stuff and some gamified worlds you didn’t think you’d ever see as a TTRPG, check them out.

2nd Edition News

Would it be a Gamehole Con without me cornering someone from Catalyst about the 2nd Edition scan? No, no it would not. The latest word is that November is the time to grind. Hopefully we’ll hear more news as the year turns, but from what I was told, November is when a good chunk of actual time will be going into editing the book. Apparently the scan itself is done — now it’s just making it print-ready, which is no small feat. So fingers crossed, SR2 fans. We are keeping the flame alive.

Pictures from the Con

Gamehole Con 2026

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Final Thoughts

Every year I drive home from Gamehole Con feeling a specific kind of tired — the good kind, the kind that only comes from spending a few days doing exactly what you love with people who love it just as much. This year had its rough edges leading up to it, and I didn’t show up as prepared as I wanted to be. But the convention has a way of smoothing all that out once you’re in it. New people become familiar faces, familiar faces become friends, and somehow you always end up at a table playing something you’ve never heard of and loving every second of it. That’s the magic of a convention done right. I’ll be back next year — better prepared, more games on the schedule, and probably with an embarrassing number of 3D printed tokens. Until then, go play something and tell a hell of a story.

-D