Some Things to Check Out

I wanted to share some information on what our Guests, Vendors, and GMs are up to.

MonRiverGames is hosting their Spring Indie Showcase of regional game studios in Morgantown on April 1st.

Bryan Larch is having a Kickstarter for his solo-play, d6, pen and paper fantasy adventure game: Random Quest Dungeon Delve.

Oh Crap! is collaborating with itgirlfriday for a secret card in the their game. More info will be out on Friday.

John Russo has joined Cameo.

Terry Bartley’s debut book, Tryanny of the Fey, is available for pre-order.

Valiant’s Portal is doing a pop up shop at Milton Flea Market this weekend.

Henlo Press has a Kickstarter coming out soon.

Blue Falcon Gaming will be at the Spring Indie Showcase demoing new board games they are developing.

CharCon has picked their theme for this year; time travel.

Bit of a reunion at HerdCon this Saturday, with lots of familiar faces on the vendors page.

Also we will be helping out local con EagleCon on April 15th.

Guest Streamer MystiqueSiren

MystiqueSiren is a full-time streamer of Wonderlands and Borderlands 3 with some variety sprinkled in. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands Creator Team Member and 2K Nextmaker! She loves looters, shooters, hack ‘n slash, and adventure games!

She will be a the Henlo Press table for all the meet. Along with several panels.

Guest Game Creators Critically Absurd TV

Critically Absurd TV is a producer of media production, journalism, and games.

They produce productions of conventions, business, special events, TV, movies, video games, tale-top games, and more.

They will be interviewing people people at the convention. Find them and have a little chat with them.

Their game of Nights of Strife plays 6-25 players for 30 minutes to an hour of play. It is a social deduction games similar to Town of Salem. A story driven social deduction set in the 1890s Europe filled monsters.

Critically Absurd TV will be running the game for hours starting at 10am. Come by for a pick up game or just hang out and learn to play. They have their own area of the con floor.

Get your own copy here from The Game Crafter.

Guest Creator Richie Ray

West Virginia native Richie Ray combines his professional skills with personal humor, creating the hilarious new trading card game Oh Crap!

As lead designer for That Banner Guy, he creates custom designs and prints items for professional clients nationwide. His company, specializing in ready made and custom novelty items, was among the top 10% of Etsy sellers in 2020, only two years after its founding.

The idea for Oh Crap! flourished from his son’s love of trading card games and a shared love of scatological humor with his wife. Ray committed to creating a game that is both fun and funny for all ages, with dynamic play that’s easy to learn. After partnering with friend and artist Gavin McDonald, he quickly realized the cards also serve as a collectible novelty due to the originality of the artwork and humor.  You can find more info at OhCrapTCG.com or on all social media at OhCrapTCG.

Guest Creators Lonely Hero Games

Lonely Hero Games is a West Virginia based board game publishing company founded in Beckley in 2019.

The company’s first release, Bank Heist, was successfully crowdfunded on Kickstarter in October 2019. The game raised over $13,000 from over 300 backers in just 30 days. Since then, the game has been shipped to customers all across the United States and many countries around the globe including the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Norway, Singapore, and many more.

The company’s newest release, Hungry for Humans, is a WV themed game for 2 to 5 players that incorporates WV cryptids such as The Mothman, Flatwoods Monster, Sheepsquatch, and The Grafton Monster. Additionally, the game features dishes from 19 WV restaurants such as Tudor’s Biscuit World, Pies & Pints, Ellen’s Ice Cream, and more. The game was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2021 raising over $15,000 from 300+ backers. It is now available for sale through their website lonelyherogames.com as well as various locations around the state.

Guest Creator Joe Meade

JOE MEADE is an eastern Kentucky native with a love for writing, storytelling, and tabletop games, especially in the fantasy genre. These interests, coupled with nearly 30 years of experience with various roleplaying games, made it a natural progression for him to create his own roleplaying game.

Joe’s company, NOBLE QUESTS, LLC, has produced the “Mystic Forces Second Edition” roleplaying game, along with several adventure modules and sourcebooks. Mystic Forces Second Edition is an in-depth, high-fantasy roleplaying game that is the culmination of 25 years of work and revision.

Joe is also the author of a book of short stories titled, “Troves of Fantasy”.  His fantasy adventure board game, “Omens of Destiny”, is nearing completion with a polished prototype that is being demoed locally and at a number of Cons!

Be sure to stop by and check out the full line of products, or just come by and chat. To see the full line of Mystic Forces products now.

Also, be sure to join the Noble Quests Discord server for all the latest information on Mystic Forces and Omens of Destiny including announcements, sneak peaks, live streaming of gaming sessions and more. 

You can also find me on Facebook at facebook.com/OmensofDestiny and facebook.com/MysticForces

Guest Writer JD Byrne

JD Byrne started practicing law in West Virginia more than 20 years ago. It wasn’t too long after that he decided he needed some chances to make up the story for once, to make it come out the way it should, or he’d go mad. He started writing short fiction, mostly science fiction with a little bit a fantasy thrown in, before he discovered National Novel Writing Month in 2007 and took a shot at writing longer stuff. Over several years, and more than a few false starts, he published his first novel, Moore Hollow in 2015. It’s a story of family secrets, political corruption, and zombies – but not the kind people usually think of.

In 2016, he released The Water Road, the first volume of the trilogy of the same name, to be followed by The Endless Hills (2016) and The Bay of Sins (2017). The trilogy is a story of explosive secrets revealed and the attempts by the woman who found them to keep them from consuming her world in a blaze of revenge.

In 2019, he released Gods of the Empire, the first volume of the Unari Empire trilogy, about a steampunk work whose single superpower is starting to show cracks. The two main characters navigate the shifting world while digging deep for secrets that others wish would remain hidden. Widows of the Empire (2021) continues the saga, while Heroes of the Empire will bring it all to a startling conclusion early in 2023.

Many of Byrne’s shorter works can be found on his website or in publications like Aether & Ichor and the Flash Fiction Podcast. His latest story, “The Consequences of Sin,” was part of The Dancing Plague: A Collection of Utter Speculation, released in the fall of 2022 by Speculation Publications.

Cosplay Guest Katwoman Cosplay

“Katwoman Cosplay (vocalist, actress, performer)  is known for her “Disney Princess” voice and her motto, “walk a mile in their shoes.” She is honored to guest at Dualcon! She has a YouTube channel (@katwomancosplay) as well as an Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok all under the same name. 

Katwoman (or “Kat”) is a vocal education major at Marshall University. She is planning on teaching children about the beauty of music after she graduates. Musical theatre is her favorite thing in the entire world, and she was a theatre geek most of her formative years. She believes in staying weird and never growing up.”

Guest Writer and Podcaster Terry Bartley

Terry Bartley is a fantasy writer. He has been writing short stories set in his original fantasy universe, Galevyn, for the past year using various characters. You can read all of them on his website. You can also get them in the upcoming collection of short stories, Tyranny of the Fey.

He also hosts the podcast “Most Writers Are Fans,” about the intersection between writing and fandom. Every episode he invites a different writer to discuss their writing journey with them. He features fiction and non-fiction, game designers, and songwriters. It is a lot of fun and provides insight into what it is like to be an independent creative.

Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.

Terry is a journalism, literature, and English teacher at Scott Hight School. Terry has professionally written for the Coal Valley News and Screenrant. He has won awards for writing and broadcasting from the West Virginia Associated Press, the National Broadcasting Society, and MarCom. He has a B.A. in English from the University of Phoenix and an M.A. in English Education from Western Governor’s University.

Guest Game Creator FYRE Games

A junior at WVU, Conner Rush is the founder and sole permanent member of FYRE Games, an independent video game studio that specializes in narrative experiences.  Starting in 2014 when Conner was roughly 12 years old, FYRE Games has found success in numerous games, including their contribution to the Dread X Collection 5 anthology with “We Never Left“, The interactive album companion of The Colossus Is Coming: The Interactive Experience, and most importantly the free-to-play hit walking simulator Summerland.  With a dedicated fanbase and a mission to create a positive environment for both players and developers, Conner and FYRE Games show no signs of slowing down with a new horror-focused project currently in the works.