Transmedia Visionary Jeff Gomez of Starlight Runner Entertainment to Appear on Five Panels and Present Keynote Session at Hilton Costa Mesa for Wyrd Con 2012

Los Angeles, CA – February 16, 2012 – Wyrd Con (www.wyrdcon.com), an interactive theater convention exploring live-action roleplay (LARP), alternate reality games (ARG), live theater simulations and all aspects of the cross-platform storytelling within and beyond the roleplaying realm, is proud to announce Jeff Gomez, CEO and Founder of Starlight Runner Entertainment (www.starlightrunner.com) as this year’s honored guest, keynote speaker and agenda front-runner appearing on five separate panels and a one-on-one mentoring workshop. Set for June 21 – 24, 2012 at the Hilton Costa Mesa, Wyrd Con is an evolving gathering of the roleplaying world’s most exuberant enthusiasts, coupled with storytelling visionaries and creatives.
Gomez’s expertise in transmedia production, the development of multi-platform narratives and strategies for some of the world’s most well known entertainment properties, originally evolved from his personal experience with LARP and fantasy roleplaying games. He has often attributed his emphasis on storytelling and emotional engagement through various technologies to his background in this type of gaming. Returning to join fellow enthusiasts at Wyrd Con 2012 is a virtual homecoming for him, a reconnection with his roots, his beginnings and aspirations.
Jeff will be appearing on five separate panels, will furnish the convention’s keynote address, and work hand-in-hand with attendees throughout the weekend, including:

KEYNOTE: DREAMING REAL (Saturday, June 23rd, 10am-11:30am)

WORKSHOP: ONE-ON-ONE WITH JEFF GOMEZ (Sunday, June 24th, 10am-1pm)
Spend Quality Time with the World’s Leading Transmedia Producer

1. Gaming Behaviors: What the Entertainment Industry Can Learn from LARP’s and RPG’s?

2. Roleplaying Our Future: How LARP’s and RPG’s can Help You Prepare for a Career in Entertainment, Advertising, Software Development and Social Media

3. Foundations of World-Building – How to develop aspirational themes and messaging in your game narratives and connect them powerfully with your players.

4. NEVER SURRENDER! Roleplaying as a Means to Personal and Social Advancement – How we can take our experience playing LARP’s and RPG’s and use them to improve our lives in the real world?

5. Transmedia Storytelling 101 – What is Transmedia? Whether you are new to the concept, or you want to expand your understanding of Transmedia Storytelling and its potential to change the way we consume media, this is the panel for you.

In addition to the keynote address, workshop and panels noted above, Jeff will be attending a “meet and greet” cocktail party the first night of Wyrd Con on Thursday, June 21st, where each of our guests will give a quick introduction about themselves, followed by the opportunity to mingle with attendees. This is a special event, and tickets will be purchased for $10 in addition to conference badges. Come join us June 21 through 24 at the Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa, 3050 Bristol Street, Costa Mesa, CA 92626. All attendees are welcome.

About Wyrd Con:
Wyrd Con is an interactive theater convention that brings together a program of rich panels, presentations, and roundtable dialogues about the relationship between live participatory culture and transmedia storytelling across multiple platforms with an exciting lineup of LARP’s, ARG’s, pervasive games, and transmedia experiences. If you have ever had a desire to solve the mystery, fight the enemy, or experience a world that mixes theater, costuming, create storyworlds and interact with all of the story worlds you have heard of from Anime, History, or Science Fiction, then Wyrd Con is the place to be.

Wyrd Con also strives to educate others in the concept and applications of Interactive Theater. This knowledge can be applied to daily life in a variety of ways, from personally interacting to understand different roles in situations, to developing innovative interactive worlds, and even training to gain confidence and grow as a leader.  Much of our programming discusses how different interactive narrative threads can have differing psychological effects on the participants; expand a storyline to other media and market concepts to generate new opportunities. Education is central to us, as it allows every participant to better understand, as well as convey the story in the most intimately interactive way possible. Please visit us online at www.wyrdcon.com.

About Starlight Runner Entertainment:

Starlight Runner Entertainment, Inc., founded by Jeff Gomez and Mark Pensavalle, is the world’s leading creator and producer of highly successful transmedia franchises, maximizing the value of entertainment properties and consumer brands by preparing them for extension across multiple media platforms. Starlight Runner Entertainment also produces animated and live-action feature films, as well as digital content. The company packages books, comics and graphic novels, and develops videogames and alternate reality experiences with world-renowned partners and clients. Since the company launch in 2000, Starlight Runner has been commissioned by corporate giants including Disney (Pirates of the Caribbean, Tron Legacy), Hasbro (Transformers), 20th Century Fox (Avatar) and Coca-Cola (Happiness Factory), offering guidance on how to expand and broaden storyline universes of intellectual properties that can then be marketed in concert across a variety of platforms.

Jeff Gomez
President & CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment

Jeff Gomez is the world’s leading producer of transmedia entertainment properties. As CEO of Starlight Runner Entertainment, a New York-based digital production company, Jeff transforms intellectual properties into global franchises that reach mass audiences as blockbuster films, television series, Triple-A videogames, comic books, novels, theater plays and popular music. He also extends niche properties such as toys, animation or videogame titles across multiple platforms, which in turn generate multiple revenue streams for Starlight Runner’s partners and clients.

Jeff has worked on such blockbuster universes as Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean, Tron Legacy and Fairies, Microsoft’s Halo, James Cameron’s Avatar, Hasbro’s Transformers, Mattel’s Hot Wheels and Coca-Cola’s Happiness Factory. A popular comic book writer and videogame developer, Jeff wrote and edited superhero and Magic: The Gathering series for Valiant Comics, and developed the popular Turok: Dinosaur Hunter Nintendo 64 games for Acclaim Entertainment. Jeff is currently developing original properties such as Adore, in tandem with Witch Factory and based on the artwork of Jasmine Becket-Griffith, and Ku-Mighty with Richard Garfield, Skaff Elias and Ultimate Gaming Hideout.

A Latino raised in the projects of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Jeff learned to express himself and developed his storytelling skills through fantasy roleplaying and live-action roleplaying games. In the late 1980s he published Gateways magazine, which placed an emphasis on roleplay and storytelling in tabletop and LARP gaming. He wrote a number of adventure game modules, and helped to develop the world of Magic: The Gathering for Wizards of the Coast. Jeff attributes his experience as a gamer to his success with multi-platform narrative, particularly in the realm of storyworld development and the validation and celebration of the user experience. Follow Jeff Gomez on Twitter: @Jeff_Gomez

Ancient scrolls, brittle tomes, gilded manuscripts and travel worn journals – books are some of the most beautiful and captivating props a game can have. From the tattered notes of the unfortunately over-curious explorer, to the elven scroll, to the Necronomicon books capture our imaginations, allow us to record our thoughts, and let the Game Master share their world and disseminate lore that will make players hunger for more.

Participants learn about several methods of bookmaking including scrolls, softbound, Japanese, album and hardcover. Make and take home a book of your own as well as detailed instructions on how to keep crafting.

Date: TBA
Location: TBA
Designer: TBA

Of Note: There will be a materials cost.

A full moon rises over the quaint village of Millers Hollow. Ordinarily a peaceful community, tonight a scream splits the air. The body is discovered the following morning, ravaged and mutilated. Only one creature could cause this kind of damage… WEREWOLVES.

Werewolves of Millers Hollow returns to Wyrd Con for its third year running! By day, the villagers vote to hang those they suspect of lycanthropy, but by night, the Werewolves hunt, and they won’t stop. Not until every last one of them has been hanged, or until no villager remains standing… This is a murder mystery style card game, played in multiple rounds throughout the event. If you miss the beginning of the game, no worries! Duck it at any time, and watch and laugh until the next round!

Werewolves of Millers Hollow is a murder mystery game in which players must determine whether their companions are what they claim, or secretly a Werewolf, out to eat them and all their kin!

Date: TBA
Location: TBA
Designer: TBA

Of Note: TBA

Greetings, my dear friends,
In order to thank you for your patronage, I will be throwing a celebration party. This will be a masquerade ball, to be held at a local convention that is running–a Live Action Role Play convention. Considering that costuming is not only encouraged there, but required, I thought it might suit for keeping some of our more unusual quirks discreet!

Please, I welcome you to attend and bring as many friends as you desire–it has been wonderful to work with each and every one of you. Some drinks will be provided for you and your guests, and a card table set up. I do enjoy a game of chance now and again, don’t you?

I understand some of you may be seeking information, as well. Particularly regarding members of a certain military organization… Several of my people will be attending this ball, and all will be available to offer you assistance with your quest for knowledge.

Adieux, my friends, and don’t forget your masks!
Orbitus Mors

Hunter’s Moon is a modern Vampire/Werewolf game, in which the Immortals must face both the growing threat of human technology and the recent attacks of other-worldly shadows.

Please check out our lore database at www.huntersmoon.wikispaces.com for more information, or email HMPlot@gmail.com!

Date: TBA
Location: TBA
Designer: TBA

Of Note: No boffer- “Non-PVP”

Come hang out and chat with us over simple breakfast goodies: bagels, donuts, coffee, mimosas, fruit, etc.

The folks of the Live Game Labs invite everyone to hang out and talk over FREE coffee, mimosas, donuts, bagels, and similar breakfast goodies.

Drop by after waking up, even if your makeup is still on. Leave early to shower before catching a plane out or another LARP. We love to meet and greet everyone.

This is very casual, just come and enjoy our hospitality. If you need to sign up for an event at the same time, take that other one and just drop by before, after, or during a break.

We are asking for RSVPs to indicate roughly how much food and drink to serve. RSVPs will be available in the near future.

Early character submissions are highly encouraged in order to build the game around players.

Date: TBA
Location: TBA
Designer: Live Game Labs

Of Note: RSVPs will be available in the near future.

“Sometimes a guy has to wonder…What with all the Killin’…If someday soon…There’s gonna be a Reckoning.”

The year is 1879, but the history is not our own.
The guns of the Civil War are silent thanks to a tense cease fire between North and South. California is shattered by the Great Quake of ’68, a new superfuel called ghost rock is revealed in the flooded channels and buried in the cliff faces that loom above. Powerful Rail Barons strive to be the first to complete a transcontinental railroad, and the Great Rail Wars exact a bloody toll on an American frontier divided between not only the Union and Confederacy, but the Sioux Nation, the Mormon state of Deseret, and the Independent Commonwealth of California.

Amid the chaos, fortunes can be made by those bold enough to make their way West. These brave souls have more than plain old human violence to contend with. Something’s going on in the West, something downright nasty. Fear stalks the land like a hungry beast, and abominations from man’s myths and nightmares haunt the High Plains. Legends tell of ancient and powerful beings that thrive on the fear created by these horrific creatures. All around, the night grows darker and the shadows grow longer as evil twists the land.

Arrayed against the forces of darkness are the heroes of the Weird West: Grim gunslingers, spell slinging hucksters, brilliant mad scientists, and wizened Indian shamans stake their souls and fortunes on the battle against the evils of the frontier, and often lay down their very lives for the cause of righteousness and light. And sometimes, death is not the end.

For additional information, please contact Blair Crossman or visit Deadlands-larp.wikispaces.com.

Early character submissions are highly encouraged in order to build the game around players.

Date: TBA
Location: TBA
Designer: TBA

Of Note: Medium Combat Boffer. Pre-made characters will be available.

You may have heard the term before, but what exactly is an “ARG”? (Aside from an expression of displeasure, of course.) An ARG, otherwise known as an “Alternate Reality Game”, can include anything from scavenger hunts and video games to phone calls in the middle of the night from characters in the game. In essence, ARGs blur the line between the game and real life. They attempt to draw their players into the world of the ARG with online games and puzzles that often lead to encounters or riddles to solve in the outside world.

For example, the ARG entitled “Conspiracy for Good” would release fake “security leak” information about an imagined evil corporation called Blackwell Briggs, employing game rewards and hidden video stills to simulate a global confederacy of individuals fighting against the oppressive company. Games for smart phones gave players the opportunity to hack into Blackwell’s mainframe to extract valuable intelligence, and others literally smuggled a woman into a London safehouse by van.

This kind of tangible adventure is a staple of ARGs in an effort to have players feel, if even for a short time, that they are actually a revolutionary force for good in a world where evil is concrete and visible. But other types of ARGs exist—some of the most widespread include marketing attempts by TV shows and movies such as Heroes, Dark Knight, and the upcoming re-imagining of the Amazing Spiderman. In games such as these, players may find codes in trailers or on merchandise, discovering locations in the real world to meet or to find clues to the next event, all tied in to the overarching theme of the aforementioned story.

All these games and many more are active currently all across the globe. If you think you might like to join an ARG or are just a little curious, please don’t hesitate to visit www.argn.com.

As you enter the room, music from the nearby DJ helps set the mood for your environment. Around you there are people of questionable nature, some that are not even people. But what else is new!

The year is 2045 in the city of New Rome. This isn’t what we thought the future would be. Instead of aliens and spaceships, the world is ruled by large corporations, and I mean literally ruled. As the world turned on itself from nuclear war, disease ran rampant, food was in short supply and the mortality rate increased. Groups were organized to try and combat these problems but due to lack of funding they were purchased by conglomerates. These conglomerates then would sign agreements with countries that were in need of help and getting those countries to give up most of their industrial infrastructure and natural resources. This is the world you now live in and must survive in.

SINergy is a cyberpunk themed boffer LARP system located in Leicester, England. The world of SINergy is best described as the Matrix meets The Minority Report meets Johnny Mnemonic and so much more! Their dedicated group meets on the first Sunday of every month (with a few exceptions) from 5pm-9pm at a fully licensed bar (Leicester Square Club). During the entire game session there is even an in character DJ, helping set the mood for the evening. Unlike most LARPs, time is the same even when there is gae down time. The characters go to their jobs, get money, and every minute counts. This is a unique feature that is not commonly found in LARPing systems and one that works well for the group as they have been running for many years now.

So zip up those leather pants, put on your trench coat, grab your ray gun, and have a look into what the future holds for you! Click here for more information.

Check out the link below and see just some of the amazing experiences that will be waiting for you at this year’s Tri Wyrd!

Highlights include:

• Opening evening cocktail party with special guests
• Language workshop with David Peterson, HBO’s Game of Thrones
• Multiple Nordic style games being run by Lizzie Stark, author Leaving Mundania
• Practical How-Tos, Events and Workshops.
• Panels on ARGs, LARPs, and Transmedia

For a comprehensive list of panels, as well as to register, click here.

Register now before all the panels fill up!

Interested in being a part of Tri Wyrd? You still have time to submit a panel. We will be making our final panel selections mid April.

Designers will receive official notice of their event acceptances with more detailed information by February 21st.

Herofest is a fantasy based LARP/LRP that takes place three weekends out of the year. These events take their adventurers from Friday to Sunday through a magical world of Orin Rakatha. The Tower group system allows new players to come in as mercenaries and be recruited to join the folds of that Tower that provides protection much like a guild. These towers contain races such as Thissessin Tower, the race of the Lizardmen, to more specific schools of magic and knowledge like Dymwan. The land of Orin Rakatha is hard to travel to due to being on separate plane. The only means of transportation between Planes and Orin Rakatha is by using a device called the Rift Gate.

As your character immerses itself into the world, you will find that your actions affect everything around you. Decisions made in one game will affect you and possibly your Tower later down the road. With each game there are no predetermined outcomes, so your actions can have some very interesting consequences.

Within the campaign’s rich world, lie unique economic, political, and environment systems. Don’t like politics? There is plenty for a strong warrior to do whether it be drinking in the tavern or shopping around the vendors.

Herofest is a great place for any level of LARPer/LRPer to start a character. The team who runs Herofest has successfully been running a main campaign called Heroquest (the founding story line for Herofest) since 1987. For 2011, Herofest received 4 LARP Award nominations. More information about Herofest can be found at http://www.live-roleplaying.co.uk/LARP/herofest-larp_awards.html. If you are near Gloucester, UK this is a LARP I highly recommend checking out.