Guest of Honour: Danielle Lewon

Danielle Lewon had an early interest in her brother's D&D manuals, even if the monster art was scary, and the columns and columns of numbers very scary. But in the eternal spirit of older brothers everywhere, he did not encourage her interest in his interests. So the latent gamer in her lay buried as she fed herself heaping amounts of fantasy, science fiction, cartoons and history.

Fifteen years later, she answers an online dating ad that changes her life. They meet and start to date. The new boyfriend gauges her interest in gaming by telling her about the game he was running, Everway, for a group of his friends. They talked, discussed and even made bets about what decisions they thought his friends would make in the game. She won those bets!

That boyfriend was Paul Czege, also a special guest at InterNosCon. He soon started a new game group and invited her to join. That group proved to be a hothouse of indie RPG design in the early days of The Forge. They played some traditional games, and playtested many early indie games. And the creative output of those days includes Paul's game Nicotine Girls, Matt Gwinn's Kayfabe, and S.R. Knipe's Charnel Gods supplement for Sorcerer.

Danielle met Renee Knipe in that group, who a few years later would write a gender bending game set in feudal Japan called Kagematsu. Playtesting this game had a huge impact on Danielle, ultimately leading to her designing and publishing Kagematsu, a saga of such importance that it is depicted in a poorly drawn manga at the back of the game.

Her involvement with Paul and the independent gaming scene brought her to attend Gen Con regularly and participate in staffing the popular Forge booth at the convention. She befriended amazing gamers and creators from all corners of the globe and played in the best independent games with the creators themselves! In 2007 Paul created the acclaimed Ashcan Front, a Gen Con convention booth and online community for almost complete games, to foster connections between aspiring designers and their target audiences of buyers and players who might have insights about completing the games. In 2008 Danielle had an ashcan of Kagematsu available at the Ashcan Front.

With Kagematsu completed and ready, in 2009 Danielle partnered with Emily Care Boss, Anna Kreider and Julia Bond Ellingboe to create the Pirate Jenny booth at Gen Con. Pirate Jenny emphasized women writers/creators and had 13 games available to purchase from 6 companies. A special edition of Kagematsu was available which featured a hand crafted kimono design on each cover. Danielle made the mistake of not keeping one for herself. The game sold out in two and a half days.

In 2010, Kagematsu was selected for the official Short List for the prestigious Diana Jones Award, and won Game of the Year in the Indie RPG Awards.

Throughout the years, Danielle has attended Forge Midwest in Chicago, Origins in Columbus, Ohio, and Campy Nerdly in Virginia. She and Paul have brought their indie roleplaying games to small shows like STAPLE in Austin, Texas and SMACC in Dearborn, Michigan.

Danielle's game company, Cream Alien Games, has also produced a micro-game, Bitch! (verb), a game of competitive complaining. It comes with a hand-made plastic button and costs $1.

Paul and Danielle have been playing games since they met and he finally married her in 2005. She continues to be a playtester for Paul and his games while she contemplates her next publishing project. Professionally, she molded her interest in history into a career as an architectural historian and has worked for the City of Detroit since 1999. Hobbies include reading, playing music (poorly), history, and historic cemeteries.


    Who will attend INC'11

    The 55 confirmed guests:

  • Ron Edwards
  • Paul Czege
  • Danielle Lewon
  • Michele Gelli
  • Claudia Cangini
  • Moreno Roncucci
  • Mauro Ghibaudo
  • Luca "+1" Ghibaudo
  • Lapo Luchini
  • Matteo Suppo
  • Katia Davoli
  • Ezio "pozzo adiabatico" Melega
  • Lavinia Fantini
  • Luca "Torre piezometrica" Veluttini
  • ZANNA
  • Lorenzo Trenti
  • Alessandro Riccò - Gwilberiol
  • Paolo Bosi
  • Enrico Putaturo
  • Sara "Starcatcher" Porello
  • Rocco Duchi - ROCCO_D
  • Niccolò "Domon" Ricchio
  • Michele Pupo
  • Jasmine El Hadj
  • GABRIELLA AGUZZI
  • Matteo Turini
  • Andrea Castellani
  • Manuela Soriani
  • Mattia Bulgarelli - Korin Duval
  • Ronny "Gunny" Negrelli
  • Emilio Brognara
  • Marco "Mr Mac" Andreetto
  • Dario Delfino
  • Enrico "slauni" Mola
  • Lavinia Barni
  • Mr. Mario Bolzoni
  • Paolo Davolio
  • Alexandra Zanasi
  • Simone -Spiegel- Micucci
  • Luca "bonisol" Bonisoli
  • Andrea Bruna
  • Malinka
  • il mietitore
  • Errezero
  • Arumas-o-thos
  • Humano
  • AleA
  • Elke
  • Andrea 'Mechvigiak' Vigiak
  • Patrick "patmax17" Marchiodi
  • Jessica "Axel Smile" Menegoli
  • Stefano Preda Predieri
  • Trevor "3evil" Devalle
  • Davide Losito ( Khana )
  • Rafu

    Who will attend INC'11

    The unconfirmed guests:

  • Alan Di Giulio
  • Bazinga
  • Berzoni Gabriele
  • Filomena Cesarano