Cold Wars 2019 Game Design School Speaker Bios Dan Murawski Peter
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Cold Wars 2019 Game Design School Speaker Bios Relativity vs playability Friday 11 am 1 pm Dan Murawski , wargamer, writer and game designer, has been involved in all aspects of gaming since the early 80’s. He cut his teeth in wargaming with board games such as Wooden Ships & Iron Men, Ironclads and Napoleon’s Last battles. He grew up around wargaming, miniature gaming and re- enacting. His fascination grew until he was involved in all types of Dan Murawski wargames, miniature games and even role playing. As an enthusiast for miniature gaming, he always sought out games that were aesthetically pleasing and fun to play. Over the years though, leading up to entering the game design part, he quickly realized a lot of games sacrificed ground scale, miniature scale or movement capabilities to make the game work. As a re- enactor and military historian, he was able to notice these holes and sought to bring real life experiences into the world of miniature gaming with the games he designs. Mountain Warfare Rules Friday 12 pm Mountain Warfare Scenarios Saturday 12 pm Author, award winning film maker, wargame designer and decorated combat Peter F. Panzeri Jr. veteran, Pete Panzeri most recently published book is Killing bin Laden: Operation Neptune Spear. US ARMY (Rtd.) He is best known for his first award winning book Little Big Horn 1876: Custer’s Last Stand, recipient of the Editor’s Choice Award from the Military Book Club, The Order of the Indian Wars” and his book has been reprinted 13 times since 1996 by Osprey, Praegar Press and Military Book Club Publishing. Pete was selected as the keynote speaker for Little Big Horn 125th Anniversary Commemoration, is often called to lead U.S. Military and Collegiate “Battlefield Staff Rides” and serves as a documentary advisor and speaker for battles and tactics of the Great Plains Wars. As a military professional, Panzeri’s 30-year U.S. Army career included service as a Drill Sergeant, 82nd Airborne Paratrooper, infantry company and battalion command assignments and multiple overseas deployments. His decorations include The Bronze Star, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and the “Order of Saint Maurice.” He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College, earned a Bachelor’s Degree from Old Dominion University, in Virginia, and Graduate School Degree in Military History at The Ohio State University. His instructor assignments included Chief of Military History at the US Army Infantry School, Tactics Chief at the Military Intelligence School, and three years teaching while assigned to the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. His wargame publications include Crazy Horse Rules! Warfare in the American West 1800-1900, “PLAINS WAR CAMPAIGNS” and his Origins Award recognized: Santa Anna Rules! Warfare in Mexico 1820-1820 (with Buck Surdu Volumes I and II.) His periodical articles include the cover-article for the Wargames Illustrated Anniversary 300th Issue special edition. Pete’s most recent wargame publication FRONTIERS IN FLAMES: WARFARE IN NORTH AMERICA 1600-1900 is published by Old Glory Press. Pete also served several years as Dean of the Origins War College, was the 2014 selectee for the “Duke Seifried GM of the Year Award” and was inducted into the HMGS LEGION OF HONOR in 2002. Mountain Warfare Rules Friday 12 pm Mountain Warfare Scenarios Saturday 12 pm Brian Beal has degrees in Military History & Archaeology, as well as a lifetime of achievement in designing and presenting historical miniature wargames. He has been the Convention Director of Heart of America HMGS Borderwars Brian Beal and Call to Arms game conventions in Kansas City as far back as anyone can remember. And is a frequent lecturer at events such the Origins War College and various HMGS-East War Colleges. Last year, he played the role of the first successful defense attorney (and co-producer giving much research and insight) in the dramatic Custer Court Martial production at HMGS FALL In!® 2017. He is the co-designer, with Richard Nance, of S.U.T.I.C. (Small Unit Tactical Infantry Combat) WWII Skirmish rules, U cow Dukes Napoleonettes and another new release of Napoleonic rules. Brian served for many years as Chief Program Director for the late Duke Seifried's Game Master A-Team At HISTORICON, ORIGINS, GENCON, Little Wars, and many other conventions. Referred to by Duke as "My Master Sergeant & Major-Domo!" Brian Beal travels to HMGS COLD WARS from his home in the Midwest where he is the President of Heart of America-HMGS WWW.HAHMGS.ORG Game Design School: Pleasures and Pitfalls of Researching Game Rules and Scenarios Friday 5 pm Game Design School: Breakthrough! First Look Saturday 5 pm Glenn Kidd was one of the founders of Ral Partha and Frank Chadwick was Glenn Kidd one of the founders of Game Designers Workshop. They have been designing and publishing miniatures games for a combined total of eighty years (which is really a scary number). As Test of Battle Games they have published new editions of Command Decision, Volley and Bayonet, and Men Under Fire. Both are members of the Legion of Honor. Frank Chadwick Mass Mayhem in Miniature: Running a gloriously entertaining convention game for vast numbers of complete strangers. Saturday 11 am Howard Whitehouse is a British writer, model maker and game designer. Since the 1980s he has published two books of military history, six novels, and designed more than twenty sets of wargames rules. He lives with his very Howard patient wife in New York’s Hudson Valley, in a 1900 era church manse cluttered up with books, cats, guinea pigs, model soldiers, miniature Whitehouse buildings and, indeed, himself. As a game designer, Howard believes that the rules are the mechanical support that underpins the game, rather than the game itself. They should be clear, internally consistent, and simple enough to play after three beers and a curry. As a game presenter, he tends towards large, loose, fast-moving events geared towards hilarity as well as history, like Improv Comedy with model soldiers. Over the better part of four decades he points to the game report delivered as a Barry White number, the kid who accidentally sprayed a water pistol over Frank Chadwick's nearby table, and the time he 'borrowed' players from a neighboring game, gave them plastic knives, and had them attack Phil Barker as an assassination paid for by other players. He regrets nothing Mass Mayhem in Miniature: Running a gloriously entertaining convention game for vast numbers of complete strangers. Saturday 11 am Jeff Wasileski is a criminal attorney (please note the absence of an Oxford comma between the two words - he practices criminal law and is not a “criminal, attorney”), who works as counsel for a state Criminal Procedural Rules Committee and so is, quite literally, a rules lawyer. He is also a retired naval officer, whose military career’s high points were, during the height of the Cold War, winning the slot machine in the Bermuda Officers’ Club and Jeff Wasileski accidentally invading Cuba armed with a snorkel. Shortly after entering his fiftieth decade, he became an actor, finding that a much more affordable solution to a mid-life crisis than either a sports car or divorce. He currently can be seen afflicting the stage in a number of theatres in the Harrisburg, PA area, usually playing a walking embodiment of The Man. He has been an avid player with toy soldiers since opening his first box of Airfix plastics as a child in the 1960s. That sense of play has stayed with him throughout his life in the hobby and all of his games include a large amount of role-playing. Although he eschews playing Napoleonics, he has been known to dress the part. Together with his son and fellow actor/gamer Nick, he puts on the annual Historicon Musical Theatre Wargame, which, as one participant described them, are “a weird gumbo of improv theater, music trivia and primal scream therapy.” He charts the progression of his pathology on the blog, “O My Ruritania!” at http://bogdanwaz.blogspot.com/ .