Guests for 2026
Jon Gilmour-Long: Game Designer | Developer
Jonathan Gilmour-Long (formerly Jonathan Gilmour) is a prominent American board game and RPG designer known for co-designing hits like Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game, CoLab, Dinosaur Island, Pinched!, and the RPG Kids on Bikes, focusing on immersive, narrative experiences and inclusive design, hailing from Northwest Ohio and now with TeeTurtle. He's recognized for his work with Plaid Hat Games and Floodgate Games, and many other publishers. Jon’s passion for play-testing and collaborative storytelling is energizing.
Coming Soon: Game Designer | Developer
TBD…
Ed Greenwood: Author | Game Designer
Ed is a Canadian fantasy writer and the creator of the Forgotten Realms game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for Dragon magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sold the rights to the setting to TSR, the creators of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, in 1986. He has written many Forgotten Realms novels, as well as numerous articles and D&D game supplement books.
Grant Lyon: Comedian | Game Designer
Grant Lyon is a comedian from things like Comedy Central, Dry Bar, SyFy, Comics Unleashed, Just For Laughs, and more. His debut album Scheduled Fun Time hit #1 on the comedy charts. During the pandemic, he started making videos about the board games he loves, and now he has hundreds of thousands of followers across his Grant’s Game Recs platforms, putting out short and fun videos daily. Grant also has an hour stand up comedy show all about board games that he takes to conventions and board game stores across the world. In addition, Grant writes funny content for a lot of games sitting on the shelves of stores like Target and Walmart such as Would You Rather, That’s What She Said, Ghosted and more. In 2023, he won a TAGIE award for his creative content for board games. His debut game Curmudgeon was published by 25th Century Games, and he has more games releasing soon.
Our Family Plays Games : Content Creators
Our Family Plays Games [pic. Grant, Mik, and Starla] is an African American family-owned business whose mission is to promote growth and awareness of the modern board game hobby. From day one, their goal has been to bring more BIPOC’s and families into the board game hobby. They launched on social media in 2018 which helped them establish themselves in the board game hobby. In January 2020, they started posting videos on YouTube and by June 2020 were contacted by and featured on Good Morning America. Since then, they have been featured on several programs and in publications, such as - NBC News Online, Senet Magazine (UK), Ligadas.com (Brazil), a variety of YouTube programs, podcasts, and on local television in Omaha, NE. In January 2022, they launched a second program on their channel, called OFPG Voices to highlight other underrepresented voices in the hobby. In addition, they make special appearances at board game conventions all around the country.
Link to Socials: Our Family Plays Games