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DEEP – Designer Experience Exchange at Pyrkon

Pyrkon is doing a conference for TTRPG designers! We’re putting together a single-day conference for the TTRPG designers community in Poznań a day before Pyrkon.

What is it, and why?

Designer Experience Exchange at Pyrkon (DEEP) is a one-day conference focused on TTRPG design and directed to people working within this field (or aspiring and looking to enter it). Pyrkon is our meeting place for all fantasy & scfi-fi fans, but over the years we noticed that it is rarely allowing our TTRPG guests to meet with each other for more than a quick coffee chat in passing in the Green Room. This is apparently a pretty standard experience for designers at most conventions.

Which is a great shame that people working daily on designing games for players to weave stories together, having wonderful experiences and stories thanks to those games, don’t have their own place and time to freely meet, discuss, exchange experiences, and find interesting new collaborations.

We’d like to make DEEP such a space where you can do that all among your peers, without this nagging feeling in the back of your mind, “I should probably sell my game right now to those people”. Let’s build together a place and time for the TTRPG designers community to come together and foster growth by exchanging experiences and ideas within.

We’d love to know if you’re interested in attending or participating actively in panels, so please fill out the application form. We’ll contact you as soon as possible to discuss the details of your participation in the panels, or we’ll redirect you to the ticket purchase page. You can only purchase tickets for the event after submitting your application (at the price of 94.99 PLN).

application form for DEEP

Conference tickets cost 94.99 PLN!

How will it work? (When and where)

Designer Experience Exchange at Pyrkon is, as the name suggests, connected to Pyrkon and will take place on a day prior (Thursday, 18th June 2026) to the convention in Poznań. We’ll meet at Słodownia, 1st floor, Stary Browar, 42 Półwiejska Street, from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

This is not an open event for people just interested in TTRPG as a hobby. Our focus is on designers, so we expect topics and themes to run deeper than what a regular TTRPG player would find interesting. We’re looking at small, curated attendance..

We are interested in this being more of a discussion and actual exchange of ideas and experiences, so rather than simple talks, we’re looking to have ~2h discussion panels where you can see different viewpoints and approaches.

We want to encourage the exchange of experiences across broader international community, which is why most discussions and presentations will be in English. At the same time, we are not forgetting about our local participants – some sessions will be held in Polish, although they will represent a smaller part of the event agenda.

This year we’re aiming for 2-3 tracks covering 4-5 topics each, keeping in mind that in this case quality is definitely more important than quantity. To truly foster more collaboration and exchange of experiences, we are also making room in the schedule for an extended lunch break (who doesn’t like interesting discussions over a good meal?) and an evening mixer at the venue to keep talking over drinks.

The panels and topics

The current themes and topics we’re looking to discuss are below:

Godzina	SALA 1	SALA 2	SALA 2A
10:00–11:00	The conference is starting! Let’s pick up your badge and dive in DEEP!
11:00–12:30	World-centric vs Game-centric Game Design Do you create game to fit the world? Or a world to fit the game? How often working on one of these ends up changing the other? In which direction? Host: Marcin Kuczyński Speakers: Rowan Hall, Spenser Starke, Grant Howitt, Ray Chou	Evolution of Role-players Are role-players different now than they used to be? Are there noticeable themes or directions of changes? Should games adapt to their changing audience or are they shaping the changes within audience? Host: Jon Peterson Speakers: Wojtek Rosiński, Marcin Segit, Dominic McDowall, Naomi Clarke
12:30–13:00	COFFEE BREAK
13:00–14:30	Who Cares About Game Rules? Do we need game rules? What should be rules? What shouldn’t be rules? Host: Aleksandra “Tygrys” Stan Speakers: Spencer Starke, Rowan Hall, Chris Taylor, Wojtek Rosiński	What do we need rulebooks for? Who reads them? What experience are we designing? Rulebooks as collectible items, as storytelling, as knowledge base, etc. Host: Ross Thompson Speakers: Marcin Kuczyński, Ray Chou, Dominic McDowall,	Jak publikować i nie zwariować – kuluary tworzenia i wydawania gier RPG Czy dobrze jest być twórcą? Jak to jest utrzymywać swój własny projekt, a jak współpracować w dużym wydawnictwie? Jakie są różnice w tworzeniu i wydawaniu gier na Polskę, a tych na zagraniczne rynki? Prowadzący: Marcin Segit Uczestnicy: Adam Wieczorek, Jakub Zapała, Zbigniew “Zed” Zych, Wojciech Słobodzian, Katarzyna Kuczyńska
14:30–16:00	LUNCH BREAK
16:00–17:30	Designing for Genre Are there differences when designing game for different genres? Are there universal games and do they need to be adjusted depending on genre? Do different genres require different design approaches or techniques? Is the game genre just a flavor to be sprinkled on top of a ready game? Host: Ross Thompson Speakers: Grant Howitt, Rowan Hall, Spenser Starke, Katarzyna Kuczyńska, Dominic McDowall	Game Design in the Age of AI How is the TTRPG landscape looking now in the times when AI is being pushed everywhere? Is there any place for it in design space? Is it inevitable? Or maybe it is already fully here? What are the benefits and the dangers of AI in design? Host: Adam Wieczorek Speakers: Marcin Kuczyński, Elaine Lithgow, Chris Birch, Zbigniew “Zed” Zych	Jak pisać i tłumaczyć, żeby redaktor nie osiwiał i czytelnik nie zwariował Czym jest “dobrze napisana gra”? Ile pracy idzie w napisanie tekstu? A w tłumaczenie? Jak duży wpływ ma redaktor lub wydawca na finalny efekt? Prowadzący: Marcin Segit Uczestnicy: Kuba Zapała, Wojtek Rosiński, Wojciech Słobodzian
17:30–18:00	COFFEE BREAK
18:00–19:30	Balancing Safety and Comfort in Game Design What’s the difference between safety and comfort and why should you consider them when designing your game? Can you deal with both at the same time? How do you take care of each and what are the tools available? Host: Aleksandra “Tygrys” Stan Speakers: Marcin Kuczyński, Chant Evans, Naomi Clarke	Lifespan of a Game How do you approach the length of the life of the game? How far the changes go whether it is short game for one sitting, for a few sessions or long campaigns? Are there preferences you see from the players? Host: Adam Wieczorek Speakers: Chris Birch, Ray Chou, Ross Thompson, Alex Levene
19:30–…	Freediving – DEEP industry mixer afterparty

Download the PDF version of the file HERE.

If you’re interested in sharing your experience and insights on any of this topics in front of your peers – please let us know before buying tickets! We’ll contact you as soon as possible in terms of becoming one of the panelists.

Of course this list is not exhaustive, and if there is a topic that you’re interested in and looking forward to discussing with other TTRPG designers, please let us know at [email protected] , and we’ll see if there is enough interest for it and if we can make it into an actual discussion panel.

What we offer

For our DEEP panelists, we have some additional benefits, as we’re offering full 3-day passes to Pyrkon as a thank you for helping to grow the TTRPG designer community by sharing their own perspective, experience, and insights during DEEP panels.

Even if you won’t be a DEEP panelist, we invite you to stay for the weekend and visit Pyrkon! You can find tickets and details below.

Pyrkon tickets