Windmill Game Co.

Hello Friends, Family, and Windmill Patrons! As most of you know, we opened this month with a most excellent run at Gen Con in Indianapolis. (Technically, the end of July into the beginning of August, but we are only now fully recovered from it!) The games there were a rousing success, with excellent turn-out all around, plenty of enthusiasm, and new and old friends alike. WE ARE NOT A CULT!

Thus we are presenting, here and now, a photograph record of all those antics and shenanigans. Were you present for one or more of our events? Take a look, maybe you’ll find a prize memory of yours on record! Did you face the perils of Monkey Attack Beach? Hang out in the Teacher's Lounge? Get drawn through the Crimson Gate into a world of magic and adventure? Reach for triumph only to see the tower tumble before your eyes? Explore ancient Rome? Fight to take over another show's time slot? Perhaps you attended the LARP and played "Last Kid On the Bus" at Secret Go-Racer's Birthday Party?

All this and more, presented just for you. Because we wouldn’t and couldn’t have all these wonderful memories and adventures without all of you, our players. Thank you, and we hope you enjoyed it all as much as we did!

To satisfy Al Gore's Rhythm, a photo of the amazing birthday cake that the Windmill Game Co crew presented to Akira!

Hello friends, family, and Windmill Patrons! BEHOLD our schedule for GenCon!

All of our RPG games are running in JW Marriott (NOT the Marriott) room 301, from 8 AM until something resembling 1 AM!

Lots of our games are sold out, but even if they are, please show up and we'll do our best to get you in (many of our games allow for extra players, and we try to have spare GMs in case we get overflow), and worst case scenario you can hang out in our Teacher's Lounge!

Hello friends, family, and Windmill Patrons! And new contacts, and acquaintances, and random wandering sages, and another sort of myriad folk!

In the days of the not too distant past, our fine crew of adventurers went a-wandering. We a-wandered to the far-flung land of Columbus, where we traversed the halls of the annual festival that is Origins Games Convention, where we sought to bring merriment, joy, and other forms of entertainment for all who chose to join us and play!

These experiences would not be possible without all of you, and of course you and they were jointly memorable. Even as we wandered a bit more than usual, we sought to keep spirits high and the shenanigans flowing. Do shenanigans flow? Well, no matter! In the process of these adventures, we aspired to keep a visual- and at times audio, as well as moving!- record of the events in question.

In other words, this month our offering is presented here for your perusal and hopefully enjoyment is a pictorial and video record of our days at Origins with all of you who came to join us! Covering the entire breadth of the convention, from the first Dread game Wednesday night to the final LARPening on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! There are antics! Crafts! Falling and fallen towers! Absurd impressions! Copious levels of random chanting! WE ARE NOT A CULT!

So step up, take a gander, and we hope you enjoy. If you find yourself- or just see something you especially like, or a record of a moment you remember fondly whether it involved you or not- please speak up! We’d love to hear your own stories!

To satisfy Al Gore's Rhythm, one of our awesome pics! Link to the folder it and its friends live in is in the first comment!

Hello friends, family, and Windmill Patrons!

Origins is just around the corner, next week!! (And I totally lost track of time, as per usual, sorry for the lateness!)

Our June offering is going to be running tons of games for you at Origins! We are running a ton of extra events, and have some new GMs on our staff - Andrew will be running Dread, and Zeshan and Rydia will be running 8 AM sessions of an awesome new game Daggerheart!

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday all of our games are in GCCC - 2nd Floor - Meeting Room D #280, ALLLLLLLLL the way down at the end of the Convention Center, past the dealer hall, near the Columbus Pride Gaymers (who are awesome and you should totally visit them and get ribbons). Saturday our daytime games are in Hyatt - 1st Floor - Ohio Center A, but the evening games are back in GCCC - 2nd Floor - Meeting Room D #280!

To satisfy Al Gore's Rhythm, a screenshot of our events! Link to the spreadsheet (including number of tickets available) are in the first comment!

Hello friends, family, and Windmill Patrons!

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

We are so grateful for your patience and support! We had a really active March Madness, and now we have a bit of April Madness! This month's offering is a Dread Skeleton of The Scottish Play, a community theater production of the famous Shakespeare tragedy!

(Because this is a couple days late, we will leave this one available to all of our Patrons until the end of May!)

To satisfy Al Gore's Rhythm, the image is a thumbnail to Extra History's "Macbeth - William Shakespeare - So You Haven't Read", link in the comments!

It is April, my dude(s/ttes/xs), March Madness just ended yesterday so our April offering (a Dread skeleton!) will be out Real Soon Now (TM)!

And by one vote we have a winner in our Dread Madness 2026.

The winner is.....

Lost in the dreams of a sleeping town, you and your fellow mindwalkers must discover what happened to the residents to trap them in their slumber, while surviving the worst of their nightmares.

Congratulations to all of our competitors.

It has been a long March with our Dread Madness and we have seen tons of great ideas compete, but now it is time for our final round and we leave it to all of you to help us decide.

The link for voting will be in our first comment. Help us decide!

Well our first bracket of round 2 has kicked off with some great ideas in some really tight races

Round 2 Match 1

A) You are members of the punk band Vampire Brides and your old van has broken down on a shortcut to the next gig. Fortunately you broke down outside a picturesque small town so squeaky clean it will make you sick. But you will discover that not everything is perfect in Happy Valley

B) (WINNER) Hrad Houska is a strange fortress with an even stranger history. All of its defenses face inward toward a deep pit. During the war, occult experiments were done. In modern day, the ghost hunter team gets to travel to a new location and see what is the truth.

Round 2 Match 2

A) (WINNER) You and the rest of the squirrel commandos of Squad Many-Threes have done your best to keep the world safe for the big folk of the city but when the rest of R.O.D.E.N.T. starts reverting back to simple animals, will you be able to save yourselves and stop the threat before it spreads.

B) “Endgame” is the thrilling virtual reality gameshow where contestants from all over the world can join in the wacky fun! Players work in teams, competing in physical challenges, trivia, and wits! To ensure fairness, all players are stripped of their memories for the length of the game. Unless, of course, you lose a challenge

Round 2 Match 3

A) (WINNER) Book conventions are a strange time. A place where successful writers, aspirants and fans get to meet and mingle discussing the trials and tribulations of the craft. Today’s panel offers the exciting title “Resurrecting the Dead, How to Finish what you Started”

B) The date is September 6th, 1954 and life is pretty good for you in a rebuilt Tokyo. But this is the day that Godzilla emerges from the sea for the very first time

Round 2 Match 4

A) It was the yearly tradition since you all graduated five years ago. You rent out an old bed and breakfast or ski lodge and have a murder mystery weekend. This year shouldn't have been any different. Though the dead body that was found is real dead and you are trapped because of the weather.

B) (WINNER) You have all volunteered for an overnight sleep study to treat your ongoing night terrors and parasomnias in an isolated sleep laboratory. But the experimental methods employed here may be…unorthodox. Sweet dreams.

Round 2 Match 5

A) The ongoing mine fire beneath Centralia, PA has reduced the former coal town to empty ruins and a mile of broken, graffitied highway in the woods. You are high school students visiting that abandoned stretch of road for a senior class rite of passage the night before it is buried by state officials forever.

B) (WINNER) None of you had heard of the town before you got the call to appear, but hey, the travel is comped, and the check has already cleared so what’s an independent wrestler to do but perform? But does the crowd look a little feral to you? Oh well, the show must go on.

Round 2 Match 6

A) (WINNER) The Tennessee farmers that had worked the land for generations weren't the only ones displaced when the government steamrolled in to build the Secret City. Entities as ancient as the land itself were awoken and did not take kindly to outsiders on their land.

B) Contestants on a reality TV talent competition start turning up dead. Those who are still living have to make sure they’re not next while they try to figure out the cause, be it magical or mundane.

Round 2 Match 7

A) (WINNER) On a late night train to Shibuya, a group of Japanese students miss their stop and must discover the things that live past the last station

B) You joined the alien abduction support group seeking solace and finding acceptance. But there seems to be something off with the newest member, in fact, you don’t remember seeing him at all before your yearly retreat. That has to just be paranoia, right?

Round 2 Match 8

A) (WINNER) 11:00 am, Wednesday,January 15, 1919 Boston Massachusetts. The pit of your stomach is churning with a horrible uneasy feeling and there is a thick sweet smell in the air.

B) Breaking into urban exploration is tough- finding sites that are both safe and cool is difficult, and the veterans don’t share their turf. But an anonymous online tip pointed your group to a prime spot- an abandoned funeral parlor longtime explorers seem to avoid.

Did the votes go thr way you would have wanted them?

See something you are angry didn't move ahead but you weren't sure how to vote.

Well there are still some rounds left and you can still join our large patronage site to get voting rites for the remaining rounds

Check the link in the comments.

And our final block of round 1 has completed and things are definitely shaping up.

Now, before we announce the winners we have some questions for you. Have you been enjoying these prompts? Have you grown invested in your personal favorites and need to see them win? And not just see them win ,but be a part of voting them to victory? Well good news, you can all it takes is signing up with us on large patronage site and not only do you get to vote, but you get all the content we put out each year.

New dread scenarios
New ADGNEPSEF555 characters
Essays written by our wonderful GMs about the craft
Stories set in our wonderful settings
Access to our discord server
And more

Check the comments for a link.

With that being said, here is the shake down of our round 1d

Match 25

(WINNER BY 1 VOTE) The Lucky Morning Lead Mine has a long history of strange accidents and deaths, but has dodged close regulatory attention till now. You are part of the investigative team seeking an accounting after the most recent tragedy, but the afflicted mining community is curiously reluctant to cooperate…

With Graduation day looming a group of friends decide to go on one last road trip to celebrate friendship, college and the end of an era. One minute you a re driving down the road belting out Queen and the next you are sitting in a horse drawer carriage careening through the dark woods, howls from each side and a gothic castle on the horizon. Isekai? More like Ise DIE!!!!

Match 26

It is the very last shift on the Space Station Valkyrie before it is to be decommissioned and destroyed. Can you survive your last 8 hour shift with aliens, terrorists, and alien terrorists?

(WINNER) Rides at theme parks are complicated when they don’t have several dozen fully articulated animatronics. Maintenance is a full time job but there are times more indepth fixes have to take place. It is what your team is tasked with as you climb and maneuver your way through the twisting machinery and claustrophobic access tunnels of one of the park's main show pieces. You know for certain you killed the power but there are still parts of the attraction activating all around you.

Match 27

Installation night at the art museum! Between exhausted interns, exacting curators, scheming conservationists, and nutty artists, this all-nighter is a nightmare even before the demonic forces get involved.

(WINNER) It’s summertime, and you’ve signed on to be a camp counselor for the only reason anyone ever signs on to be a camp counselor: because you’re secretly a monster intent on preying on the campers. You’re not the only one this year, though…which might make things awkward. Or dangerous.

Match 28

(WINNER) Archaeologists find what is left of an advanced expedition in the Teutoburg Forest. Troops that had gone far ahead of the legions that Varus lost. Something tracked them and hunted them. You must determine what.

You are the Miraculous. The blessed maidens anointed by the Unseen Power to stand as the mystic barrier against the unholy disease that threatens the world. Your benefactors, The Order of Asmara, guide your steps. But perhaps not all is quite as it seems.

Match 29

(WINNER) New Year’s Eve 1999. Loud music. Pretty people. Penthouse Apartment 50 stories above the city. The party to end all parties. WHen the lights go out the Y2K jokes begin. But when the blood rains from the sprinklers and the fangs pop, the real struggle begins.

Miners in the 20s are being held down by the bosses. Then, when things go poorly, things go even further when they dig far too deep. Will the workers rise up against the horrors in the dark and the boardroom?

Match 30

The Serum was a revolutionary breakthrough in the fight against aging. It was touted as being safe and painless. The testing hadn’t been thorough enough. It took three years for the Serum to mutate, turning a cure for aging into a flesh eating disease. It took only five years for it to become a world wide pandemic, spreading to older individuals that hadn’t even taken it. And now ten years later the world’s population is decimated, governments have toppled, infrastructure has failed, and there isn’t a living soul over the age of 35.

(WINNER) Lost in the dreams of a sleeping town, you and your fellow mindwalkers must discover what happened to the residents to trap them in their slumber, while surviving the worst of their nightmares.

Match 31

(WINNER BY 1 VOTE) The Carpentersville Horror Club is a group of elementary school students who love to be scared. This week, everyone brought in their spookiest artifact…grave dirt, a ‘cursed’ doll. But the clear winner is the mirror whose reflection seems strangely alive….and promises to make your wishes come true.

The book Amy found in the old shop made it seem easy- call upon the Whispering Man, make a trade, and he’d eliminate rivals, exes, anyone who’d wronged you or stood in your way, even give you magic powers. But now the book is missing, Amy is dead…and you’re starting to hear him whisper.

Match 32

(WINNER) In 1500’s Germany, the long-missing princess of a principality has been recovered and restored. Everyone assumed she would lead their region to prosperity. Instead all evidence indicates she came back a monster.

It is January 31, 1915 and you are freezing in a trench as a Russian conscript on the eastern front. The Germans just fired shells that exploded in the air but nothing happened except the snow that’s falling tastes like chlorine