Manitoba Game Designers is a collection of Manitoba game designers that specialize in creating memorable experiences in both the analog and digital gaming worlds. Represented at Keycon 42 by Arcane Dominion, Bardic Inspirations RPGs, GambitRPG, and Trapped Chest.
Arcane Dominion
Christopher Penner is a writer from Winnipeg who has a passion for story-telling and design. He manages social media and website pages while working on his passion project: the Arcane Dominion Role-Playing Game system. Christopher believes in co-operation and teamwork, which shows in his professional and creative work. The main idea of his Arcane Dominion project is the freedom of growth through character expression. Learn more at www.arcanedominion.ca
Bardic Inspirations RPGs
DM Lytha the Bard is a professional Dungeon Master and Game Designer from rural Manitoba with a deep love of fantasy and horror. As a professional DM Lytha is known for her elaborate collaborative storytelling, weaving her players’ backstories into the campaign and creating a unique experience for each group. Combined with her humour, and the freedom and patience she shows to her players she swiftly became popular with players filling her digital tables from across the globe. Through her work in the online TTRPG industry her career skyrocketed and has even become a brand ambassador for Roll20.
With her passion for world-building and lore writing she was able to publish her first popular D&D 5e adventure module “Treasure Under the Mountain” only a few months into her career and has since published multiple 5e adventures with Elite Adventures. After starting Bardic Inspirations RPGs Lytha has dived straight into writing adventures for indie RPGs, including her latest instant hit adventure the comedic “Zombies of the Corn.” Under her own brand Lytha now can be seen running games for local partners in Winnipeg, speaking at panels, as well as running live stage D&D events at conventions like Winnipeg Comic Con!
GambitRPG
Robert Shaw, known online as Taloswind, is a tabletop RPG creator, 20+ year Dungeons & Dragons veteran, and experienced live-play performer. He thrives in high-stakes narratives where character choices matter and embraces discovery at the table, bringing tactical awareness, emotional depth, and collaborative energy to every role.
He is the creator of GambitRPG, a card-driven RPG successfully launched on Kickstarter and proudly showcased here at KeyCon. Beyond the table, Robert is a former SNES world-record-holding speedrunner who completed a blindfolded charity run raising over $3,500 for Extra Life. He also serves as a volunteer firefighter in Manitoba, including wildfire deployments in 2025.
Raised in British Columbia and now based in Manitoba with his young family, Robert blends creativity, resilience, and heart into every story he steps into.
Trapped Chest
Jed Doerksen is a local game designer that got interested in game design back in the 80s after playing Super Mario Bros, spending much of his youth playing with level editors and trying (poorly) to learn how to code. Eventually he found Dungeons & Dragons, became a forever GM and decided that tabletop games were far better suited to his skill set of writing and graphic design.
As the owner of Trapped Chest his past works include the critically acclaimed RPGs, The Nullam Project and Reanimated, as well as the recently released board game Essence of the Arcane. Upcoming games include the universal RPG, Quest Nexus which has been in production for almost 7 years and has been getting the art professionally done by klur_arts, as well as a mountain of smaller projects, such as Three Merchants, Soku Meshi, Media Override and many, many more. He can often be found running events at every Manitoba convention and occasionally wandering aimlessly at larger events.