The greatest adventures in gaming all start in a tavern with unlikely characters! Come to Petrie’s Gaming “tavern” located on the mezzanine! Grab your “brew” (we have free water and cups!) and band together with strangers who will soon become your companions and life long friends for daring adventures! Will you face dragons in a role playing game? Conquer the dice rolls to become masters of the board games? Or will you betray the others to collect all the cards? Stop by to see what games are being rolled out all weekend or start one of your own. GAMEFEST IS THE CONVENTION FOCUSED ON BOARD GAMES, CARD GAMES, ROLE PLAYING AND MINIATURES. OUR MISSION IS TO BRING YOU INDUSTRY INSIDERS, HELPFUL PANEL DISCUSSIONS AND OF COURSE, PLENTY OF OPPORTUNITIES TO PLAY THE LATEST GAMES!

Tim Brown is a game designer best known for his work on Dragon Kings RPG.

Sean Brown started playing games at 5 with his Uncle Dave every day after school. He first played Chess and then moved on to Feudal and Thinking Man’s Golf. By the age of 7, his older brother Shad had caught the full bug for D&D and the two played role playing games with their close friends Ryan and Dwayne for the next 10 years. At 12, he was consumed by the Gamemaster series of games by MB, mostly Axis and Allies but also Conquest of the Empire, Broadsides, and Fortress America (still to this day, his favorite — thanks Mike Gray!).After spending a year developing the game Teraforming (while recovering from knee surgery) Sean attended his first Gencon to sell the game and landed a job with Eagle Games doing demos. He later helped to build a distribution network (FRED) and continued developing and distributing games for Eagle Games.With Mr. B Games Sean has utilized Kickstarter to provide the financial backing to fulfill his lifelong dream of running his own game company. His current offerings are Alien Uprising, Spurs, Realm of Heroes, Clockwork Kingdom, Posthuman, WarQuest, Prospectus and Helionox.

Jay Little is an award-winning game designer and industry speaker. He has dozens of titles to his credit covering a wide range of board, card, and roleplaying games. Jay’s design work can be seen in games for Star Wars, Star Trek, Warhammer, Major League Baseball, and other popular licenses. He has been invited to share his experience and industry insights at conferences and gaming conventions across the country and is a frequent podcast guest. When not designing his own games, Jay teaches video game design and board game production at UW-Stout in Menomonie, Wisconsin.

Mike Fitzgerald’s first design was the trading card game Wyvern. Fitzgerald is also the designer of the Mystery Rummy series

Sean Patrick Fannon
(aka “Big Irish”) has been professionally involved in tabletop RPGs, computer games, and entertainment for over a quarter-century. His dozens of projects have included Hero Games’ Champions product line; both West End’s and Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars RPGs; various World of Darkness books; and the Savage Worlds Epic High Fantasy setting, Shaintar.

He was the Events Coordinator for GAMA (helping run both Origins and GTS), and chronicled the entire roleplaying game hobby and industry in The Fantasy Roleplaying Gamer’s Bible, which sold over 10,000 copies. He worked for DriveThruRPG & RPGNow as the Marketing and Communications Director; during that period, he helped coordinate massive charity and relief efforts for folks like Doctors Without Borders and Feeding America, leveraging the RPG community’s generosity. He continues that tradition as a member of the Board of Directors for the RPG Creators Relief Fund.

Sean now focuses on his own gaming company, Evil Beagle Games (“Bad Dog. Good Games”), as well as serving as the Pinnacle Entertainment Brand Manager for the Savage Rifts line. He’s also the lead writer and designer on Freedom Squadron, a Savage Worlds setting book that’s a love letter to 80s Action Hero cartoons, comics, and toys (based on the VENOM Assault board game from Spyglass Games). He’s also well underway with co-designing Prowlers & Paragons: Ultimate Edition, a fantastic new superhero game created by Evil Beagle Vice-President Len Pimentel, for which he’s creating two settings: Modern Gods and Unending War.

You can follow his Pick of the Day – a daily showcase of both popular and hidden gem game products – at www.seanspickoftheday.com. He also has a very active Patreon where folks are directly involved in his Freedom Squadron and Modern Gods projects – https://www.patreon.com/SeanPatrickFannon

Ross Watson is an award-winning game designer and author. He helped design games like Star Wars: Edge of the Empire, Savage Rifts, and Torg: Eternity. Ross was the Senior RPG Developer supervising several game lines at FFG, including Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and Deathwatch. Ross also helped successfully Kickstart Accursed, his own unique setting for Savage Worlds. Currently, Ross is the lead designer for Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay: Wrath & Glory at Ulisses North America.

The Board Game Corner crew is back and they will be bringing you live coverage from GameFest. Interviews with the guests, attendees and live taping of some of the latest board games on the market!

 

http://www.boardgamecorner.net/

Our play to win library is BACK!  You could win a game just by playing!  Thanks to our amazing sponsors, Gamefest is proud to bring back the play to win library.  Come visit us on the Gamefest Mezzanine, pick a game that looks interesting and have fun.  It’s as simple as that.   

 

For 2018 we are planning an oversized massive 3D Space Hulk table all weekend long! Drop in and out as your schedule needs! Space Marines and Aliens… what more could you hope for from GameFest at StarFest?

Escape with your life or die trying…

Some say its insanity…Others say its boredom…and yet some believe it is something far more sinister.  Every year around this time, common folk like yourselves are whisked away from their homes into the deep abyss of Pryzaax’s Lair.  It is in this magical place that they scrounge to survive and hope that their wits are enough to see them through.  Although legend has it that a few have made it out; most are never seen from again.  On this day you have been summoned.  What started as a normal day may end in triumph or your agonizing defeat.  Will you conquer your challenges through superior might, overcome each challenge on wits and skill, or will you never be heard from again?  The choice is yours…find out if you have what it takes at Gamefest 2018. Pryzaax’s Lair is a dynamic role playing event that is simple enough for new players and challenging enough for veteran Gamers.  Every entry into Starfest will be given a character they can use to fight their way through.  You can play the whole event or play a few rooms based on how much time you have.  Jump in and jump out as much as you’d like as long as you can survive.  The event will be held on Saturday and Sunday in the Gamefest area.

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Freedom Squadron (Savage Worlds)

Based on the award-winning VENOM Assault board game from Spyglass Games, Freedom Squadron is a love letter to the great 80s and 90s action-adventure cartoons and comics featuring colorful, code-named heroes pitted against a malicious multi-national paramilitary organization bent on ruling the world. This is an officially-licensed Savage Worlds setting created by Sean Patrick Fannon of Evil Beagle Games, and he’s the one who’ll be running it for you as you choose a Vocation like Driver, Medic, Ninja, or Soldier and dive into the player-narrative oriented Plans & Operations rules. Ultimately, you’ll face down the worst VENOM has to offer in a final battle. Join Freedom Squadron and fight FOR FREEDOM!

6 Players, Rules taught, characters provided

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More announcements coming soon!

Petrie’s Family Games  is returning to host again this year, bringing special guests, prizes and as many board, card, and role playing games as we can fit! See some of the Game Library available for you to play at GameFest  here