GeekGirlCon is returning to Seattle for its 15th year on November 8-9, 2025! GGC 2025 will be a weekend full of the incredible, diverse programming you know and love—panels, gaming, cosplay, and SO MUCH MORE.
We’re so excited to introduce and celebrate our 2025 Featured Contributors! Here’s your opportunity to learn a little more about the who’s who of GeekGirlCon 2025, and discover where you can find and admire them at the con!
Dungeons & Drag Queens
Witness high-fantasy, high-heeled, high-rolling, high-larity as three Drag Queens play Dungeons and Dragons Live! Since starting in Seattle, the show has inspired many, and now sells out across the country and globe (Canada)! Dungeon Master Comedian Paul Curry and improvisational violinist Carson Grubb will lead three Drag Queens on a brand-new storytelling adventure, chock full of danger, snark and audience participation. Experience the adventure or fail your quest- atDungeons and Drag Queens!
Sistah Scifi
A lifelong bibliophile, Isis Asare launched Sistah Scifi after a conversation about Afrofuturist literature sparked a deeper mission to amplify Black and Indigenous speculative fiction authors and build a vibrant literary community. Sistah Scifi is the first Black-owned bookstore in the U.S. focused on sci-fi/fantasy and uplifting Black and Indigenous authors through literature, community, and imagination. In 2023, Isis brought these stories to even more readers by opening three Sistah Scifi Book Vending Machines.
Jasmine Bhullar
Jasmine “ThatBronzeGirl” Bhullar is a performer, game developer, writer and a content creator on Twitch and YouTube. She is the DM behind Dimension 20’s Coffin Run and the creator of DesiQuest.
In addition to writing and performing for Critical Role and Acquisitions Incorporated, she is also writing and voicing a character in the unreleased video game “Fading Echo”.
Gigi Murakami
“Queen of Horror Manga” Gigi Murakami is a Harvey and Ignatz-nominated manga artist & illustrator, and content creator at the intersection of horror media, alternative and Japanese nerd culture, and (schlocky) film. Her both traditionally published and self-published works blend Japanese manga art, vintage grindhouse poster art, and pulp comic aesthetics, while thematically focusing on the dark, dramatic, fantastical, and often introspective.
Marin Miller
Voice actor, writer, and vocal coach Marin M. Miller has had a fruitful career in foreign dubbing and ADR. You may know Marin as Nimbus in Destiny 2, Athena in Hades, or the Caretaker in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Their voice brings life to countless beloved characters across anime, gaming, and film, and they also work as a script adapter/writer on projects like Shogun, Kengan Ashura, and Lupin the 3rd: The First.
Chad Quandt
Chad Quandt is a multi-Emmy and Peabody award-winning showrunner, writer, and producer. He is currently a Co-EP and lead writer on the upcoming AVATAR: SEVEN HAVENS.
Born in the misty Midwest Mountains and now residing in Los Angeles, Chad has a true passion for epic tales about underdogs, found families, and comedy that punches upwards with the fury of a robot rocket punch.
So, where can you find these amazing humans at GeekGirlCon 2025?
Saturday:
Scream Queens: Women of Color in Horror 11:00am – 12:00pm | Storm Mia Ginaé (Moderator), Isis Asare, Gigi Murakami, Lily Meade
The horror genre has exploded in popularity over the past years. Join Isis Asare (Sistah Scifi) Gigi Murakami, the Queen of Horror Manga, and author Lily Meade as they discuss why horror matters. They’ll discuss how horror intersects with women’s lived experiences, their approach to crafting terrifying tales, and what the future of the genre looks like.
Compels Me Though: Crafting A Compelling Narrative 1:00 – 2:00pm | Furiosa Evan Peterson, Chad Quandt, Jasmine Bhullar, Lily Meade, Ashlee Lawson-Kilpatrick
Whether you’re writing for gaming, manga, or television you need to make sure your audience is engaged with your topic. Join writers from across genres as they discuss what goes into crafting engaging characters, exciting plots, and keeping readers, viewers, and players hooked!
Hustle & Heart: Making it As a Creative in 2025 4:00pm – 5:00pm | Uhura Terry Redfield, Isis Asare, Jasmine Bhullar, Gigi Murakami, Marin Miller
From Game Master to Horror Mangaka, these creatives are not just surviving but thriving. Join a panel of creatives from a variety of creative fields as they share what they’ve done to ‘make it’. Hear about the trials, tribulations, and triumphs they’ve encountered on each of their unique paths and learn how to apply their experiences to your own creative future.
Carson Grubb, improvisational violinist
Dungeons & Drag Queens Live Show
6:30 PM – 9:30 PM | Storm Witness high-fantasy, high-heeled, high-rolling, high-larity as three Drag Queens play Dungeons and Dragons Live! Since starting in Seattle, the show has inspired many, and now sells out across the country and globe (Canada)! Dungeon Master Comedian Paul Curry and improvisational violinist Carson Grubb will lead three Drag Queens on a brand-new storytelling adventure, with danger, snark and audience participation around every precarious corner. Experience the adventure, or fail your quest- at Dungeons and Drag Queens!
Sunday:
Marin M. Miller Voice Actor Q&A 10:00-11:00am | Furiosa
Marin Miller
Come meet the trans non-binary voice actor raised by two generations of prison guards. They’ve been working for 18 years and have a lot to share. Got burning questions about the voice acting industry? Curious about grassroots organizing? Maybe you wanna throw out some headcanons about Nimbus or Enkidu. Whatever your fancy, let’s do it.
Inside the Writer’s Room: Writing for Television 2:30pm – 3:30pm | Uhura Hadeel Jeanee, Chad Quandt, Marin Miller, Brandon Hoàng
Whether it’s developing new shows for beloved worlds or localizing scripts to bring shows from abroad to eager audiences, writing for television requires special skills, temperament, and a love of the craft! Join television writers Chad Quandt (Avatar: Seven Havens, Star Trek: Prodigy), Marin Miller (Persona 5, Ranma ½), and Brandon Hoang (The Ghost and Molly McGee, Avatar the Last Airbender (Netflix)) as they share their experience in writing for television.
Crafting Comics: Art, Publishing, and Beyond 4:00pm-5:00pm | Storm Michelle Chan (Moderator), Gigi Murakami, Mars Lauderbaugh, Keezy Young
From single issue comics to zines to graphic novels, comics are one of the fastest-growing genres in publishing today! Join a panel of comics creators as they discuss their creative processes, why they love the genre, and the unique challenges that come with visual storytelling.
Signing Schedule:
Saturday 11:00-12:00pm Jasmine Bhullar, Marin Miller
Like a lot of kids, I loved the kind of unstructured make-believe games you’d play when all the toys got boring. Whether we were fairies with magical powers, or adventurers fighting minotaurs in the heart of a labyrinth, my friends and I loved telling impossible stories and being someone else for an afternoon.
I’ve tried many roleplaying games since, but nothing quite scratched that itch for collaborative creation–until I discovered Story Games, tabletop storytellng games with an emphasis on narrative and invention.
Whatever kind of story you want to tell, whatever scale you want to tell it on, however structured you want the game to be, there’s a story game for it.
If you like having the details of your setting defined, there are games like Durance, which explores power hierarchies on a prison planet, and guides the players through figuring out what particular shortages the prisoners suffer. If, on the other hand, you like a game that leaves the setting up to the players, pick something like Shooting the Moon, a game for three characters (one beloved, and two suitors vying for their favor). It has plenty of info on creating complicated relationships, but can take place on a pirate ship, in a law office, on an alien planet, in ancient Rome, or anywhere the players can imagine.
A few of these games need someone to step up and take the storyteller role, which is kind of like the Game Master in a traditional RPG like Dungeons & Dragons, but it usually has far less control over the direction and outcomes of the story. Rather than waiting for the storyteller or MC to fill in what happens next or what’s behind the locked door, players chime in with suggestions, making it a much more collaborative experience. A good example would be Apocalypse World (and all the games that grew from it, like Dungeon World and Monsterhearts). If you want your character to find the diary of their rival, just narrate that you find it. Of course, that doesn’t stop the person playing your rival from interrupting you reading it, or from saying you find out something you were better off not knowing. The Apocalypse World games also use dice to resolve some conflict situations, which can lead to some interesting unintended consequences.
Shock and Shooting the Moon don’t have MCs or storytellers, but there are very clear rules about taking turns in framing scenes, driving the scenes toward a conflict, and resolving that conflict.
At the other end of the scale, there’s Ribbon Drive, a meandering road trip set to a soundtrack. (And yes, players get to make the soundtrack!) Scenes tend to be longer, quieter, and more conversational. Scenes don’t have to contain conflict or obstacles at all, and when they do, it’s more likely to involve interpersonal tension than violence. One of my favorite things about Ribbon Drive is that the whole group collaborates on creating the setting and the characters based on the first two songs of the soundtrack, which gives you an excuse to sit your friends down and make them listen to songs you like. Or maybe that’s just me.
Most games I’ve mentioned so far are roleplaying games in the usual sense, where each player takes one character (or sometimes more) and speaks their words, narrates their actions, and advocates for their interests. While other players and MCs may introduce new events, facts about the environment, and so on, players get the final say on their individual characters.
Some games, however, are on a completely different scale. Microscope, described as a fractal game of epic histories, has the players explore vast swaths of invented history, only occasionally zooming in to play out scenes with individual characters. Even then, the characters don’t “belong” to any one player, and if they show up again in the story they might be played by someone entirely different. The typical scale of a game of Microscope might be the rise and fall of a galactic empire. This is a great introductory game for someone who feels nervous about roleplaying as specific characters.
Map-drawing game The Quiet Year is smaller in scope, covering one year in the life of a small post-apocalyptic community teetering on the edge of destruction, but rather than playing characters, players represent subgroups and factions engaged in a tug-of-war about how the community should prepare itself for the trouble to come. They don’t collaborate or make suggestions, they just show their contempt in the form of a token whenever another player takes an action they don’t like.
I hope this has given you some idea of the variety of different experiences you can have playing story games, and piqued your interest. If you want to try out the hobby among welcoming, experienced players, a group from Story Games Seattle camps out in the gaming area of most big local cons, including GeekGirlCon. They’ll help you figure out which game you might like, and then play a demo with you on the spot. There are also the annual gaming conventions Gamestorm (in Portland) and GoPlay Northwest (in Seattle), which both feature story games as well as more familiar roleplaying games.
If you can’t wait that long, get yourself to a meetup at Phoenix Comics and Games on Thursdays, or Wayward Coffeehouse every other Saturday. Phoenix’s next session is July 10 at 6:30 p.m., and Wayward’s next session is July 12 at 2 p.m.
From the desk of Kristine Hassell, Twitter administrator
My first foray into the RPG realm was in the fledgling months of my relationship with my current boyfriend. We were together for a month or so when he said he had a confession to make. My mind raced. What on earth could he have to confess? A penchant for Hummel figurines? A love of angsty teen dramas on the WB? While I don’t judge the love of those fat little ceramic children or Stars Hollow, it wasn’t either of those things.
He explained that he was a role-player. As he talked, I remembered kids in my junior high back in Texas who’d gather during lunch with their bags of dice and character sheets safely ensconced in plastic sleeves. My eyebrow arched and I shrugged at his confession.
My first RPG: Big Eyes, Small Mouth
I didn’t understand the big deal. He said that his last girlfriend found the pursuit to be silly. Because he loved me, he wanted me to experience the fun of rolling up a character and playing. In essence, he wanted to introduce me to his greatest passion. And he did!
My first game was Big Eyes, Small Mouth, or BESM. I was nervous at first but my boyfriend and his good friend (a long-time RPG buddy) were patient and made me feel safe. I remember in the first game I ever played with them, my character had to battle some ninjas that broke through the school’s defences. They were many and my base stats were on the lower side. It didn’t look good for my character until I was informed of a game rule that said if I “acted” out the action to the best of my ability, I could succeed in that task, or something along those lines. I exhaled deeply and repeated, “So my character could get the stuffing knocked out of her or I can suck it up and be totally silly in front of you guys?” They both nodded.
I excused myself to go to the kitchen where 20 agonizingly long minutes passed. Neither of the guys were going to hurry me, which was definitely appreciated. My boyfriend did check on me, but left me there in the kitchen as I thought about it. I returned to the living room and took a deep breath. I put my hair up in a high pony-tail, explained my attack that involved using aforementioned pony-tail, and then proceeded to make multiple high-pitched battle cries and yips while flinging my hair around. After about 30 seconds or so, I was done. The two players looked at each other and without prompting from the other, erupted in applause and laughter. Ninjas defeated by my insane kung-fu hair attack!
Ninjas defeated by my insane kung-fu hair attack!
I exhaled deeply and broke out into a smile. It was then, I got it. They weren’t there to laugh at me, they were there to laugh with me when my character did something funny, or to “ooh” at me when my character did something epic. We were there to have fun together, doing things through our characters that we probably couldn’t do in real life. I mean, my hair might be awesome but it doesn’t issue forth with ki blasts that knock ninjas from their hiding places!
Gigi Murakami
