MarsCon 2025 - Virginia Beach: Full Schedule

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10:00am EST

Game Demo - King's Coalition

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:00am - 11:00am EST

Learn to play this brand new game, taught by Gaming Guest of Honor Stephen Buonocore. King’s Coalition is a drafting and set collection game where you make the best 7 cards in hand by meeting the requirements of bonuses and creating sets and sequences.

Speakers

Stephen Buonocore

Gaming Guest of Honor

Stephen Buonocore is a hobby game entrepreneur, game media personality, game industry veteran, as well as a former financial services industry IT professional.Buonocore is the retired founder, owner and President of Stronghold Games, formed in 2009 to publish quality hobby board and... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:00am - 11:00am EST
Salon H - TAGS Open Gaming

Gaming, Board Games

10:00am EST

Introduction to Painting Miniatures

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:00am - 12:00pm EST

Salon H - TAGS Open Gaming

Have you ever thought about painting miniatures, but didn’t know where to start? Here is your chance! You will be provided with a primed miniature (either science fiction or fantasy) and will learn introductory techniques that will produce a “table ready” miniature that you can take home. This program is intended for brand new painters or people who have never painted miniatures.

This workshop is space limited, and seats are filled on a first come - first served basis.

Speakers

Dave Seletyn

Gamer, President of Mars Con Board, Mars Con Inc (Virginia)

Dave is passionate about board gaming, tabletop RPGs, and miniatures games. He values the ability of games to transport players into a contained reality and loves the friends he has made through gaming. He is currently playing a lot of Battletech. He is also an award winning miniatures... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:00am - 12:00pm EST
Salon H - TAGS Open Gaming

Gaming, Other Topics

12:00pm EST

Are We the Baddies?

Saturday January 18, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm EST

Salon L

This panel includes discussions on the experience of creating opposition decks in games, of playing “the baddies” (e.g. the Axis powers in Axis & Allies, the anti-suffragists in Votes for Women, etc.), and what is involved in making and playing a game that is fun for all players.

Speakers

Phillip Pournelle

Author, Gamer

Commander Pournelle retired from the Navy after 26 years of service as a surface warfare officer, operations analyst, and joint operations planner. He served on cruisers, destroyers, amphibious ships, and an experimental high-speed vessel. He served on the Navy staff conducting modeling... Read More →

Stephen Glenn

Gamer, TAGS

I've been designing board and cardgames for over twenty years. My first cardgame, Balloon Cup, was nominated for the Spiel des Jahres in 2003. Since then I've published over a dozen games. I'm one of the founders of the local TAGS gaming club and I was also the founder of Protospiel... Read More →

Stephen Buonocore

Gaming Guest of Honor

Tory Brown

Featured Game Designer

Tory Brown is the designer of Votes for Women, which launched on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Tory is a longtime activist and works as a political communications strategist for progressive causes. Inspired to create Votes for Women by games like... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 12:00pm - 1:00pm EST
Salon L

Gaming, Board Games

2:00pm EST

So You Want To Publish a Board Game?

Saturday January 18, 2025 2:00pm - 3:00pm EST

Shenandoah Room

Learn about the experience of designing and producing your board game idea from the perspective of game designers and publishers. Discussion will include the how game mechanics evolve from idea to implementation, how games are playtested and refined, and how games get to market (traditional publishing, Kickstarter, etc.).

Speakers

Stephen Buonocore

Gaming Guest of Honor

Tory Brown

Featured Game Designer

Stephen Glenn

Gamer, TAGS

Saturday January 18, 2025 2:00pm - 3:00pm EST
Shenandoah Room

Gaming, Board Games

3:00pm EST

RPGs as Collaborative Storytelling

Saturday January 18, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm EST

Salon L

Role-playing games, especially table top RPGs, are often more about the story that involves all the players. The players take part in building the story from the DMs outline. Join authors and DMs as they discuss how to have a great outline and how to (as a player) run with that outline and participate in creating a great story together.

Speakers

Jim & John Gaines

Authors

Jim and John Gaines write sci fi together as J.M.R.Gaines. Their novels Life Sentence and Spy Station form part of the Forlani Saga series, along with Earth Regained (in progress). They have also publish space-themed short stories and poetry in a variety of journals. Jim is a retired... Read More →

Nicole Glover

Author

Nicole Glover is the author of the historical fantasy series, Murder and Magic, which begins with The Conductors. When she's not writing, she's working as a UX researcher where her knowledge about murder and other mysteries is surprisingly useful.

Vivian Valentine

Author, Dealer

The author of The Amelia Temple Series, Vivian Moira Valentine is a rad trans lady who loves monsters. When she was a child, she found the Crestwood House Monster Series at her local library and it's all been downhill from there. Now everything she likes is horrible. When not writing... Read More →

David Hensley

Author

David is an East Coast Hepaw born and raised in southwest Colorado. The town of Dolores, to be specific. He's been a lot of places and done a lot of things since then, including cowboying in the Utah desert and twenty years as an aviation structural mechanic for the United States... Read More →

Saturday January 18, 2025 3:00pm - 4:00pm EST
Salon L

Gaming, RPGs

4:00pm EST

Game Demo - Better Letters

Saturday January 18, 2025 4:00pm - 5:00pm EST

Salon H - TAGS Open Gaming

Learn to play this brand new game, taught by Gaming Guest of Honor Stephen Buonocore. Better Letters is a quick playing word game played in 60 second rounds.

Speakers

Stephen Buonocore

Gaming Guest of Honor

Saturday January 18, 2025 4:00pm - 5:00pm EST
Salon H - TAGS Open Gaming

Gaming, Board Games

5:00pm EST

Votes for Women with Tory Brown - Session B

Saturday January 18, 2025 5:00pm - 7:00pm EST

Salon H - TAGS Open Gaming

Votes for Women is a card-driven game covering the American women's suffrage movement from 1848-1920, culminating with the ratification (or rejection) of the Nineteenth Amendment. The game provides competitive, co-operative and solitaire play, with co-operative and solitaire play against the "Oppobot."

To win, the Suffragist player must have Congress pass the proposed Amendment and then have three-fourths of the states (36 of the then 48 states) ratify the Amendment. The Opposition player wins by either preventing Congress from passing the proposed Amendment or by having 13 states reject the Amendment.

The game lasts for six turns - a turn consisting of drawing cards from the players' own decks, bidding on strategy cards, and then six rounds of card play where a player may play a card for an event or discard a card to campaign, organize or lobby Congress. If Congress has proposed the Amendment but neither 36 states have ratified nor 13 states have rejected, then the game goes to Final Voting.

Playing with Tory is on a first come - first served basis. Seating is limited.

Speakers

Tory Brown

Featured Game Designer

Saturday January 18, 2025 5:00pm - 7:00pm EST
Salon H - TAGS Open Gaming

Gaming, Board Games

6:00pm EST

Game Demo - KaleiDOS

Saturday January 18, 2025 6:00pm - 7:00pm EST

Salon H - TAGS Open Gaming

Learn to play this brand new game, taught by Gaming Guest of Honor Stephen Buonocore. KaleiDOS is a ladder climbing, trick taking card game.

Speakers

Stephen Buonocore

Gaming Guest of Honor

Saturday January 18, 2025 6:00pm - 7:00pm EST
Salon H - TAGS Open Gaming

Gaming, Board Games