Anyone's Game Tabletop Game Conference

10am: Designing a Live Experience: Tools and Practice
Caro Murphy

Have you had a great idea for a live-action game or experience, but aren’t sure how to put those ideas into action? Overwhelmed by the amount of theory available, but not finding the resources you need to simply get started? Then this workshop is for you! Together, we will work with tried-and-true design structures, systems, and templates to be able to turn ideas into reality.

11am: The Face of Your Game
Will Hindmarch

Many tools we use to create or portray characters in games were honed for roleplaying games. Now, these tools are yours for any kind of game. Characters express what your game world is about and how it is about it, but playable characters differ from protagonists in novels and movies. Let’s look at how characters dramatize a game’s world and systems, from the established heroes in THE ADVENTURES OF INDIANA JONES (1984) to the bespoke protagonists of BALDUR’S GATE III (2023), and discover how characterization shapes games—and how play shapes characters.

12pm: LUNCH BREAK

1pm: Pitching You
Carlos Cisco

This workshop helps you construct a quick and modular personal pitch/bio usable out in the world/networking events that confidently tells your story and pitch yourself.

2pm: Start with Earth: Using History in Game Design
Kenneth Hite

Games based on history go back at least two centuries, and have anchored the tabletop boardgames field from GETTYSBURG (1956) to DARWIN’S JOURNEY (2023). Many people play CALL OF CTHULHU for the 1920s action as much as or more than they do for the Lovecraftian mythos. Even games not explicitly historical draw on history, from DUNGEONS & DRAGONS to AGRICOLA. Kenneth Hite guides designers interested in incorporating history into their games through best practices and known pitfalls, with interactive questions and (hopefully) useful answers.

3pm: PLAYING WITH FIRE: A Workshop on Designing Self-Destructing Games
PS Berge

In this hour-long workshop, we’ll discuss and design self-immolating games 🔥. We’ll learn how inescapable demise, doomed characters, and burning worlds change our orientations towards play. We’ll then work together in groups to build evocative incitements of play that can only end in ash and fire. Safety equipment and pyrotechnics will be provided.