NASAGA 2026 Schedule: Part 2
It’s conference week! We’ll close out the schedule with the listings for Friday and Saturday. As before, the below are subject to change: the best place for the most up-to-date information is the NASAGA conference website.
Friday
8:00am - 9:00am: Breakfast and Networking
9:00am - 10:30am: Breakout Session 3
Creating the Friendship-Building Sabotage Game - Julia Bueno. Why do Catan, Uno, Monopoly, and Risk have a reputation for destroying friendships? My game explores how we can create sabotage-based games that avoid hostility while still offering the same gameplay delights that friendships destroying games have. This playtest session for Psychopomp Dreams, a 3D map deformation racing game, seeks to refine the mechanics for a game intended to bring people together, even as they pull the ground out (literally) from underneath each other.
For Those Who Come After: Processing Grief and Loss through Games - Brian Stauber. Games in all their forms have the ability to elicit emotions - most often joy but also frustration, disappointment, and even fear. What happens when they instead explicitly focus on processing feelings of grief and loss? This session will examine the story and cultural impact of 2025's award winning game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, how the mechanics and player choices of Dimension 20's Gladlands season drove the story to an emotional narrative apex, and offer participants an opportunity to explore their own feelings of grief in a unique experience crafted for the conference.
11:00am - 12:30pm: Breakout Session 4
Riddle Race - Jessica Andrews-Wilson. Join a team, grab a uniform, create your cheer and let’s RACE! During this high-energy team building activity, you will work together to solve riddles, compete in physical challenges and engage in some over-the-top fun – with purpose. Teams competing in the Riddle Race report building new relationships, laughing harder than they have in a while and getting ideas for activities they can use immediately. Grab your pompoms and meet us at the starting line!
200-Year-Old Vampires: Reflecting on Motion Picture - Christopher Jeansonne. You’ll play a teaser version of an educational tabletop roleplaying game wherein student-players create characters that were born in the 1800s and became vampires shortly after the invention of the photographic image—those characters then witness, and become a part of, the evolution of images and motion pictures across 200 years. You’ll learn about the inspirations, development, and successful deployment of the game, and will brainstorm how to design similar collaborative-storytelling frameworks for learning.
12:30pm - 1:30pm: Lunch on your own
2:00 - 4:00 PM: Strong Museum of Play
Optional Curator-led tour from 2:30 - 3:30 pm
5:00pm - 6:00pm: Interactive Expo and Poster Presentations
Come see what our sponsors and attendees have to offer, and browse some emerging research!
6:00pm - 8:00pm: Silent Auction, Gala, and Annual Business Meeting
The Gala is a choose-your-own attire situation. Some people dress up in business or business casual, some people keep on the same clothes they wore during the day. It’s totally up to you.
8:00pm - 10:30pm - Game Night
Saturday
8:00am - 9:00am: Breakfast and Networking
9:00am - 10:30am: Breakout Session 6
Serving The Table: Building Belonging and Community for TTRPGs - Mark Bylancik. Let's cook up something magical, together! The bonds forged around TTRPG tables can last a lifetime, and in this workshop we'll explore and practice skills to intentionally craft community and connections that go the distance. With our easy four-step process, you'll be able to build and sustain safe, positive, meaningful game experiences for everyone playing. You belong at our table, come find out why!
Negotiating with Dragons: An experiential negotiation game exploring how creativity and connection emerge - Dr. Joe Lasley. Join us for an engaging live-action game that challenges participants to navigate a high-stakes negotiation dilemma with a powerful dragon intent on destroying their village. Set in the fantasy town of Oakwood, players step into the roles of villagers faced with a difficult choice: attack the dragon and risk everything, or strike a deal that sacrifices freedom for survival. This interactive experience develops negotiation, communication, and decision-making skills in an immersive, collaborative environment. The fate of Oakwood is in your hands.
10:45 - 11:30: Rapid Fire Breakout Sessions 2
Immersion Beyond Visuals: Storytelling Through Pressure Meter - Christyana Walker. Immersion is often treated as a visual achievement, but Pressure Meter asks a different question: can a simple 2D decision game feel immersive through story, role, and emotional responsibility? In this interactive session, participants playtest Pressure Meter, interpret unstable mindscapes, compare choices, and explore how storytelling and real human experiences can create connection in digital play.
Spoonies: A Serious Game About Chronic Illness - Carolyn Noe. Chronic illness affects not only the body but also identity, relationships, and social connection. People with chronic illnesses, often called spoonies, face limited daily energy, or "spoons," to manage both essential tasks and social life. This energy gap can create distance between spoonies and their friends, who may struggle to understand the hidden costs of illness. To address this empathy gap, I designed Spoonies, a cooperative board game that uses Spoon Theory as a framework for simulating the everyday trade-offs of living with chronic illness. In the game, players balance weekly living needs, personal goals, and a shared community goal while managing fluctuating energy and navigating unexpected events. My study examines whether playing Spoonies together improves friends' understanding and compassion toward the chronically ill players in their lives. This project situates itself within disability justice by centering lived experience in both design and research, ensuring nothing is done "about us without us." By framing gameplay as both education and dialogue, Spoonies seeks to reduce social alienation, strengthen support networks, and demonstrate the potential of games as tools for compassion, collective care, and social change.
11:30pm - 2:00pm: Lunch and Facilitated Discussion
2:00pm: Optional Visit to Millennium Games
