Cody Pondsmith
Cody Pondsmith joined R. Talsorian Games years ago, entering in the deep dark depth of the mail room and working his way up from the bottom all the way to the prestigious position of General Manager. Tutored by his father, Mike Pondsmith, Cody was well prepared to take on the task of heading the Witcher TRPG, a project he’s sunk his very heart into! Now Cody is eager to break out this year and show the world what he’s capable of!
Joseph Z Chen [He/Him]
Joseph Z Chen is a local board game designer most known for co-designing and self-publishing Fantastic Factories. He also did game development for Verdant, Knitting Circle and is active in the game design community helping playtest up and coming games. He was also a past LUCI Award game design judge and has been attending OrcaCon since 2018.
Chris Pramas [He/Him]
Chris Pramas is an award-winning game designer, writer, and publisher. His best-known game designs are the Dragon Age RPG, Fantasy AGE RPG, and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, 2nd Edition. He was a D&D designer and creative director at Wizards of the Coast and wrote a series of books about fantasy warfare for Osprey Publishing. He is the founder and President of Green Ronin Publishing, whose roleplaying games include Blue Rose, The Expanse, Mutants & Masterminds, and Fifth Season (based on N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy). Green Ronin celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2025.
Fertessa Allyse [She/Her]
Fertessa is a Seattle designer who worked on Wicked & Wise, Mansplaining, Star Trek Cryptic, and the Goofy Movie Game. She loves long walks in her house and the never-ending sound of her dog cleaning her paws (just kidding no one loves that). If you see her, invite her to a game!
Stefan Pokorny
Stefan is the founder and CEO of Dwarven Forge. His modular gaming terrain, introduced in 1996 started a whole industry of similar 3-D offerings for gaming. He is also a painter and sculptor and professional Game Master. He has been the subject of various documentary’s including “The Dwarvenaut” directed by Josh Bishop. He is currently working to bring his world of Mythras to publication and to realize his dream of a TV travel series related to gaming
Jacob Mundell
Jacob is an actor, playwright and stand up comedian. He is also a member of the LGBTQ community and an artist of disability, he was born with one hand. Jacob’s most notable role was Erich on Season 5 of The Expanse on Amazon. Most recently, he produced his own one-man play entitled, Into That Darkness in Chicago in 2023. Jacob loves Catan and plays several games on his Nintendo switch with his husband, including Animal Farm, Hogwarts Legacy, Pokemon Violet and Dynasty Warriors.
Estefania Rodriguez
Estefania is an Argentinian-American Game Producer, Graphic Designer, and Game Designer in the tabletop industry. She has worked with many brands such as Funko, Disney, Lucasfilm, Asmodee, WizKids, Violet Daisy Games, Rose Gauntlet Foundation, Keymaster and more! She designed an 80’s inspired card fighting game called, PopCats Fighter.
Brian Cortijo [He/Him/His]
Brian Cortijo is a writer, designer, and lore-wrangler who’s been tinkering under the hood in the Forgotten Realms for over two decades. He has written for Green Ronin, Paizo Publishing, Wizards of the Coast, working on such projects as Second Darkness: Descent into Midnight, Aldis: City of the Blue Rose, Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, and Shadow of the Dragon Queen. In addition to his contributions on the page, he’s been a panelist and guest at PAX Unplugged, OrcaCon, and Gen Con. He believes fervently in many things, like equity, justice, and serial comma.
Ruel Gaviola [He/Him]
Ruel Gaviola is a showrunner, producer, and host for several board gaming channels, including Good Time Society and Rahdo Runs Through. He has created gaming content in various formats and platforms for over a decade. Ruel currently serves on the committees for the American Tabletop Awards and Tabletop Writers Guild, and is part owner of Play to Z Games.
John “OnlyPlayWizards” Bultena [He/Him]
John Bultena, aka OnlyPlayWizards, is a continuing lecturer in the Merritt Writing Program at the University of California, Merced where he teaches a class titled, “Dungeons & Dragons Skills IRL?” that examines tabletop roleplaying games from interdisciplinary approaches with first year students. In addition, he is the GameMaster and producer of Abraxas’ Precipice, an actual play of The Expanse Roleplaying Game that has been ongoing since 2021. In addition, he owns and operates Cauldron & Tower, RPG minded apparel.
PhantomMeeple
Originally from Staten Island, NY, Joe aka PhantomMeeple is a variety streamer on Twitch streaming both video game and tabletop content. He first ventured into tabletop gaming in 2013 when he played his first game of Pandemic.
Joe enjoys all kinds of board and video games but has an affinity for medium to heavy weight board games like 18xx, anything by Vital Lacerda, and Hansa Teutonica but definitely not opposed to trying and playing all kinds of games! As far as video games; JRPGs, Puzzle Games, Platformers, and retro games are where it’s at!
When not streaming Joe loves watching hockey and anime, cooking all kinds of food, hanging out with his fiancée, occasional co-host and fellow staffer Abby, our kid, and enjoys having (a rather large) knowledge and love of game shows!
Joe is a big proponent of maintaining and curating a welcoming, inclusive, safe space and community that folks can be comfortable being a part of and being in. You can find Joe everywhere on social media and Twitch @PhantomMeeple.
Su Mon Han
Author of the upcoming GADIA novel series and game designer of the LEGENDS OF GADIA card game, Su Mon grew up obsessed with JRPGs and aspired to be a manga artist until she realized writing prose is *way* faster than drawing. Her first game, LEGENDS OF GADIA, released on September 30, 2025 and basically boils down to a 1.5-year writers’ procrastination ploy to avoid working on her books. Su Mon (back to writing furiously now) lives in Bothell, Washington and can generally be found abiding in quality boba tea shops with her nose buried in a book or typing furiously away on her laptop.
Simon Berman
The Brush Wielders Union is a passion project created by Union General President, Simon Berman. Simon has been a wargamer since 1993 and has worked in the tabletop games industry for over fifteen years. He was formerly a staff writer and social marketing manager at Privateer Press where he contributed to WARMACHINE, HORDES, and the Iron Kingdoms Full Metal Fantasy Roleplaying Game. These days he’s a freelancer who has contributed to a number of roleplaying games like Eclipse Phase, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and Unhallowed Metropolis, runs his own publishing company, Strix Publishing, and paints more miniatures than he can keep track of. He lives with his partner in Tacoma, Washington along with a number of cats and a pack of wiener dogs.
Thor Knai [He/Him]
Thor an actor, game designer, and veteran with a special passion for D&D and the collaborative and emergent storytelling it so wonderfully creates!
Originally from Norway, “Thor” and the “Knai” family name are both ancient and steeped in folklore, and roaming around castles and forests in Europe was his childhood. The feel of old magic is real there, and he’ll make sure to weave it into your stories in a way that would make even the mystical “Sorcerer of Knai” proud. He has 25 years of DM-ing and almost 20 years of acting under his belt (Rebel Moon, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Reign, The Outpost ++), and he’s confident you’ll will be able to tell your stories together in a memorable way.
He has run private games with some fairly illustrious players in Hollywood on a regular basis (Joe Manganiello, Vince Vaughn, Tom Morello, Craig Mazin, Dan Weiss, Kyle Newman ++), and although he absolutely encourages player participation, which you can imagine these folks are very good at, each table plays it’s own way. Everyone enjoys different aspects of the game, from voices, dramatic descriptions and morally challenging choices, to the thrill of battle, tactics, and great teamwork. Thor loves it all!