David Wesely

The Grandfather of Role Playing Games 

Creator of Braunstein

Minnesota Native

Dave Megarry

Original Blackmoor player 

& 

Inventor of Dungeon the board game 

50th anniversary celebration

Minnesota Native

Mike Carr

Original Blackmoor player

TSR Alumni 

Creator of Don't Give Up the Ship 

& 

Dawn Patrol

Minnesota Native

William Hoyt

Original 

BlackMoor

 & 

Empire of the Petal Throne 

Player 

Minnesota Native

Frank

Mentzer

Game Designer 

and 

TSR Legend 

Mark Jeranek

Played both with Gary Gygax's Lake Geneva group 

and with 

Dave Arneson's Blackmoor crew 

Avid AD&D gamer and Order of the Owl founder. 

Alexander Macris

 Has written 16 tabletop roleplaying game sourcebooks and designed four games, including the 2020 superhero game Ascendant. He is the author of the gamester guide Arbiter of Worlds and the creator of the Ascendant Universe. 

Minnesota Native

Ken Fletchner

Local Minneapolis artist 

Staff artist at Dave Arneson's Adventure Games company, and sci-fi and fantasy fan 

&

Davecon Silent Auctioneer

Minnesota Native

Greg Gillespie

Author of Barrowmaze, Archaia, HighFell, and Dwarrowdeep and two-time winner of the Three Castles Award for Game Design.  

Mark 

Rein-Hagen

Game Designer 

and 

author of 

Vampire: The Masquerade

Minnesota Native

The podcasters from Nerdcognito will be broadcasting from the convention and may even do their Saturday morning Speakeasy. 

https://www.nerdcognito.com/

Matthew

Tapp

Creator of
Barrows and Borderlands

William Hart. Illustrator for DaveCon, Mystic Days, Smouldering Dung Games, Adventures Dark and Deep, among others.

Dominic Martyne

Author 

of 

D&D: An American Institution

Authors Store 

Dominic did a lot of his research at DaveCon 2026

Ken Shepro

An original Blackmoor Player and Game Designer

Tenative