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2025: Full Year, Full Time

2025: Full Year, Full Time

2025 was a big year of growth, new partnerships, and bringing tabletop roleplaying games to new audiences across the Twin Cities and beyond. Sortilege had:

  • 190+ sessions gamemastered
  • 27 unique game systems run
  • 5 conventions attended
  • 2 schools served through after-school programs
  • 2 festivals organized
  • 1 crowdfunding campaign fulfilled
  • 1 novel published

But First!

There are two different campaigns starting next week that have seats available.

At Badwolf in Coon Rapids on Mondays at 12pm is a D&D 5e campaign, Ptolus: Velvet Glove, Iron Fist.

And then online through startplaying.games, on Tuesdays at 9am is a Legend of the Five Rings campaign, The Bushi Oni.

Alright, with that out of the way, here's everything that happened in 2025.

Conventions & Major Events

Con of the North (February)

We kicked off the convention season in partnership with Badwolf Adventure Studios, running five games across the weekend:

  • Theros: The Iroan Games (D&D 5e)
  • Pellenicky Glade (Root)
  • Frost Maw (The One Ring 2e)
  • Imperfect Land (Legend of the Five Rings 5e)
  • Speed Run (Cy_Borg)

Tower Games GM Workshop (May)

Jordan presented Running Campaigns in Lore-Dense Settings this year, using his experiences with The One Ring, Ars Magica, Legend of the Five Rings, Vampire: the Masquerade, and others.

Imagination & Liberation Festival (June)

On June 7th, we held the inaugural Imagination & Liberation TTRPG Festival at Sencha Tea Bar on Hennepin. This free event brought together games that explore political imagination and agency, including Marvel Multiverse, Stewpot, Girl by Moonlight, and Rosenstrasse—the latter being particularly timely given current events. We partnered with local organizations supporting queer rights, immigrant support, mutual aid, and local activism. Thank you to Gen and Nova for helping GM! We're talking to Boneshaker Books about doing a similar event in 2026.

CONvergence (July)

Four days of gaming at CONvergence in Minneapolis, courtesy of Badwolf Adventure Studios:

  • ARC: Doom - Clerics puppeteered their dead god's corpse through a parade before finding replacement vessels for her many domains (including baby teeth, bees, alibis, dead languages, and salt)
  • Mouse Guard - A successful kids game where mice took leadership of a flooding town and discovered a beaver dam was the culprit
  • Flabbergasted! - The Peccadillo Civic Post-Hound Society planned its non-dog pet event across the road from the dog show, culminating in the hostess nearly getting thrown out of her own house

Pack Tactics GM Seminar (July)

Badwolf hosted this gamemaster seminar featuring sessions on running games for kids, utilizing improv techniques, and using VTTs and tools like Foundry, Alchemy, dscryb, and Arkenforge.

GenCon (July 31 - August 3)

Jordan's first GenCon, running games for two publishers:

For Green Ronin Games:

  • The Expanse
  • The Fifth Season

For Magpie Games:

  • Fallen London

Open Streets Hennepin (September)

It is always amazing being able to meet so many people, some of whom are delighted to discover us, some of whom have zero idea what a roleplaying game is, and everything in between.

Dreadfest V (October)

The fifth annual horror RPG festival returned to the Twin Cities, coordinating horror one-shots across multiple venues throughout October, scaled down due to life and conflict events at the original location (The Source). Big plans for 2026, however!

Twin Cities Con (November 8-9)

Another three days of gaming at the Badwolf room at Twin Cities Con, running:

  • Hacksaw Dell (Root)
  • The Topaz Championship (Legend of the Five Rings)
  • Up in Smoke (Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork)

Publications & Products

Speed Run (Cy_Borg)

Our Cy_Borg one-shot zine successfully funded on Backerkit in March and shipped to backers after GenCon. Physical copies are available at Oddmart and Badwolf Adventure Studios, with digital copies available on itch.io.

Un Coup de Dés

Volume One of the surrealist exploded view campaign was published and is available here, Royal Road, and AO3.

Homebrew & Design

  • Published homebrew trade rules for Ars Magica
  • Continued work on a private client card game design project
  • First playtest of Draw Steel using the Codex beta

Campaigns

At Badwolf Adventure Studios

Twice is Always (The Expanse, ongoing, online, private) - Space vampires, first contact, dead worlds, and most recently a three-way space battle. This campaign has been a delight and it is what forced me to read the series last January, for which I am very thankful.

The Fallow Season (D&D 5e, ended) - Set in Theros, we experienced the Iroan games, converted the minotaur city of Skophos to Keranos, and discovered sea monsters on the coast. A variation of this campaign will be returned online in 2026, using Daggerheart.

Messy (Good Society, ongoing, in-person) - A dramatic Jane Austen-inspired mini-campaign involving financial ruin, fraught sibling relationships, and accidental betrothals.

A Gibbous Moon Over Constantinople (D&D 5e/Historica Arcanum, ongoing, in-person, 2 Sundays/month, seats available) - Set in mid-1800s Turkey, we are exploring the city of (then-) Constantinople in a magical realism version of the real world. Most recently, the player character discovered and dealt with Vlad Tepes, buried under the derelict church of St. Benoit.

The Enduring Lesser Lights (Daggerheart, ongoing, online, private) - Using the Age of Umbra campaign frame, this story has spiraled into pursuing a witch through the mountains, and discovering the the concentric worlds are a cosmic egg for a the eldritch beings known as gods to hatch from.

At Fox Den Board Game Cafe

Banes of Beleriand (The One Ring 2e, ended) - Two people from Bree, a dwarf, a hobbit, and an elf from Mirkwood took a task from Tom Bombadil that led them to discover horrifying mysteries scattered across Eriador. We ended shortly after spending some time with Círdan at the Grey Havens.

Online via StartPlaying.games

Sjórseiðr (Ars Magica 5e, ongoing, online, seats available) - A covenant of seafaring magi in 1200s mythic Europe navigate the bones of giant sea monsters, rescuing a fellow magus, preparing for the competitions of the Normandy tribunal, and discovering a magical pig.

Blood & Other Drugs (Vampire: the Masquerade, ongoing, online, seats available) - Set in modern Toronto, a group of thin-bloods find themselves over their head as they witness diablerie, discover a seemingly-magical human bone, and pick a fight with the local sheriff.

At Volstead's Emporium

Such an amazing venue that we've continued to run one-shots of Call of Cthulhu and Arkham Horror at throughout the year, featuring secret rooms like these:

Education & Outreach

After-School Programs

We ran D&D programs at two Minneapolis schools in partnership with Badwolf the first half of the year:

  • Northeast Middle School - D&D, including a grand finale using the Kingdoms & Warfare rules from MCDM as 3 players mustered forces against the other 2.
  • Green Central Park Elementary School - D&D, with a one-shot of Troika and a one-shot of Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast.

Focus Groups

We continued running focus groups to introduce TTRPGs to demographics new to the hobby, most recently at Queermunity in uptown Minneapolis.

Library Programming

Good Society Learn-to-Play sessions at St. Paul Public Library in November, bringing Jane Austen-inspired roleplaying to library patrons.

Media & Recognition

Business Development

  • Accepted into the MB Mentors program for business owners in Hennepin County
  • Working with New Publica and Whipsmart through the ELEVATE Hennepin program
  • Explored collaboration with Gametime Hero for event scheduling and organization
  • Sponsor of Double D&D: A Live TTRPG Burlesque at Phoenix Theater

Games Played (As a Player - Jordan)

A big thank-you to Galliard and Friday, who have been the GMs for campaigns of Legend of the Five Rings, Cyberpunk RED, and Pendragon.

New Systems Explored

2025 saw us running several systems for the first time or bringing them to new audiences:

  • Draw Steel (MCDM)
  • Hellwhalers
  • Under Hill, By Water
  • The Cunning Folk
  • Court of Blades
  • Rosenstrasse
  • Flabbergasted!
  • ARC: Doom

Looking Ahead to 2026

We already have games scheduled for Con of the North 2026 (February):

  • GRIDHOG (Triangle Agency)
  • I Go Infinite (DIE)
  • Coriolis Storm (Dune: Adventures in the Imperium)
  • Abyss of Hallucinations (Mörk Borg)

Thank You

To everyone who played at our tables, attended our events, supported our publications, and spread the word about Sortilege—thank you. Here's to another year of rolling dice and telling stories together.

— Jordan Peacock & everyone at Sortilege

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