Geek Chat: Interview with Steve Johnson and Leighton Connor of Hex Games Part 2

And now for Part 2 of my interview with Steve Johnson and Leighton Connor of Hex Games. Part 1 showed us how Hex came together and their process of bending genres and coming up with new ideas. In Part 2, the guys discuss where they see the company going from here, their convention experiences, and women in tabletop gaming.

Newly released from Hex Games is Dynateens: Surf Force, which is available at Drive-Thru RPG.

When the evil forces of Megalodon the Mighty threaten the submarine city of New Atlantis, a team of super-powered teenagers, the Dynateens, arise to meet that threat. But are they strong enough to defeat the Great Shark menace and save humanity?

Dynateens: Surf Force is an action-packed game of aquatic adventure designed for use with the QAGS Second Edition rules. It includes background on the setting, rules for creating Dynateen characters, genre tropes, sample characters, adventure templates, character sheets, and more!

Dynateens: Surf Force is written by Ian “Aces & Apes” Engle and illustrated by Joshua LH Burnett, with a cover by James Hornsby.

Go go, Dynateens!

Be sure to enter to win a copy of Dynateens and QAGS 2nd edition! Details about the contest are at the bottom of the interview!

Geek Chat: Interview with Steve Johnson and Leighton Connor of Hex Games Part 1

I met Steve Johnson, Operations Director of Hex Games, at a convention a few years ago when I attended a couple of Hex's sessions in the gaming track. I learned that we were alumni of the same college and I've kept up with the goings on of the company over the last few years. The folks at Hex have been very supportive of Kentucky Geek Girl and I'm delighted to feature their new release, Dynateens: Surf Force here on the blog.

From Drive-Thru RPG:

When the evil forces of Megalodon the Mighty threaten the submarine city of New Atlantis, a team of super-powered teenagers, the Dynateens, arise to meet that threat. But are they strong enough to defeat the Great Shark menace and save humanity?

Dynateens: Surf Force is an action-packed game of aquatic adventure designed for use with the QAGS Second Edition rules. It includes background on the setting, rules for creating Dynateen characters, genre tropes, sample characters, adventure templates, character sheets, and more!

Dynateens: Surf Force is written by Ian “Aces & Apes” Engle and illustrated by Joshua LH Burnett, with a cover by James Hornsby.

Go go, Dynateens!

I'm delighted to be joined on the blog today by Steve and Leighton Connor, Creative Director, as they shed some insight on how Hex came together, their creative process, and their convention experiences. I'll have info on how you can win a copy of Dynateens and QAGs Second Edition at the end of the interview!

CONversations: Interview with Greg Franseth of Lexicon Gaming Convention

Lexington is getting a brand new convention, y'all, and this one happens to fall right within my interests. Lexicon Gaming Convention will be held May 2-4 at Clarion Hotel and Conference Center near Newtown Pike and I-64. The fellas have been putting together a plethora of fun activities for the weekend, but have also taken to community outreach in the form of bi-monthly board game meetups at West Sixth Brewing Company.

Greg Franseth, one of the founders of Lexicon, took the time to have a CONversation with me about the upcoming event, but you can also hear him on the latest episode of The Rad Ass Bitches podcast.

CONversations: Interview with James Maddox of Tri-State Comic Con

Show organizers James Maddox (left)
and Eric Watkins (right)

I had the esteemed pleasure of attending Tri-State Comic Con in Huntington, West Virginia last April.  Now in its third year, Tricon has become the largest comic-centered show in West Virginia. Thought it still remains a one-day show, it has been recognized for gaining the participation of the best and most active creators in the comic community. And while these attractions bring people through the door, the show’s primary interest is to help shine a spotlight on independent creators in the region. Be sure to read my thoughts on the show and, after the break, check out my interview with one of the key members of the TriCon team, James Maddox.

Interview with Author Stephen Zimmer

Last summer, as I was going through the "likes" on the Kentucky Geek Girl Facebook page, I noticed one from someone by the name of Stephen Zimmer. Up until that point, most of the people who liked the page were those that I had invited to be a fan or were somehow connected with the blog. So, it was refreshing to see what I thought was organic blog and Facebook traffic. It was shortly thereafter that I attended the George R. R. Martin book signing at Joseph-Beth and saw a banner hanging from the banister which read talked about a local author's book signing later that month. The name on the banner was "Stephen Zimmer." I was delighted; an author, A CELEBRITY!, liked my humble little Facebook page! A couple of months later I had the pleasure of meeting him at a book signing at The Morris Bookshop, where he informed me that he was the Literary and Gaming tracks director for FandomFest, a convention which I attended last summer. We chatted for a few minutes about my thoughts on the convention. Fast forward a few months to a lovely spring day as Stephen and I sat down at (of course!) the Bronte Bistro at Joseph-Beth for me to learn more about his inspiration as an author and what we can expect from FandomFest this year. I'll be including the FandomFest portion of our interview with this week's preview of the convention, which will be held June 29-July1.

Stephen Zimmer is originally from Denver, Colorado and moved to Lexington with his family when his father took a job at the University of Kentucky School of Medicine. About Lexington he said, "I just never left, but it’s turned out to be a great place for what I do now because Lexington is so centrally located in relation to so many larger urban centers. It’s turned out in retrospect to be a good place to be an author."

Stephen is part of a stable of authors with Seventh Star Press, a small press publisher based out of Lexington. It was established in 2008 and specializes in speculative fiction. Other authors from Seventh Star Press include Jackie Gamber and Steven Shrewsbury. They release titles in all formats and more information about the company can be found on their website. His newest book in the Fires of Eden series, Spirit of Fire, is available now. Check back to Kentucky Geek Girl on Sunday, June 10 for a stop on the Spirit of Fire book tour!

Many thanks to Stephen for having a cup of coffee with me and answering the following questions:

Q & A with Jasmine Hruschak

If you follow me on Twitter, you'll see that I retweet a lot of posts from Gamebreaker TV, an awesome network of shows related to video gaming. Check out their site for news updates related to your MMOs and other games, including World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Guild Wars 2. It was through GBTV that I was introduced to the wonderful Jasmine Hruschak, who at the time was a regular on a show about the game Rift. Though I never played the game in depth, I admired her commentary greatly.

Jasmine, known to many as IRLJasmine, streams games on her Twitch.tv channel, and hosts Q & A sessions with fans, including TMI Tuesday in the magical land of Tumblr. She was born and raised in Humboldt County, California and now travels back and forth between there and Southern California. She attends events like Blizzcon and PAX East, where she reports on gaming news. Jasbro was awesome enough to sit down and answer a few questions for me about what it's like to be a professional gamer.