Once again, Sen was in la belle province, recording at FLIM when he heard about *another* convention in Montreal! Ludicon offers open gaming, competitions, and merchandise in the heart of the city every November. Alain Fragman and Mario Haché brought Ludicon to life in 2024 and the 2026 edition will be on November 6-7-8 at Montreal's Palais des Congrès. They tell Sen all about the event and how it came into being in this installment of Pros and Cons.

Check out www.ludicon.ca for more info.

Sen hopes to be there this November, so come join him!

(Side note: If you're interested in learning more about the Society of Curiosity's 5-bedroom B&B that is an overnight escape room experience in a Victorian manor, sign up for more info here:

https://www.societyofcuriosities.com/immersive-overnight/manor-of-curiosities/

and check out Episode 29 1 Curiouser and Curiouser at https://ludology.libsyn.com/webpage/ludology-291-curiouser-and-curiouser to hear the purveyors of fine escape experiences describe their venue.)

This week, Erica and Sen speak with Dr. Marc Engfield and Shawn Roske about the game they co-designed to explore and address issues surrounding managing Chronic Pain. Using Sarah Lynne Bowman's theories of Transformational Play as the backbone, "The Pain Clinic" has pairs of players take on the roles of a patient who is experiencing chronic pain and the doctor who is treating them.

For more information about this game, please contact the creators at:

marcengfield@gmail.com
or
shawn.roske@gmail.com

Sen and Erica talk with Steenz (www.oheysteenz.com), a St. Louis cartoonist and professor, about the graphic novel she illustrated, "Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games". In the book, Steenz and co-creator Samuel Sattin take readers on a journey through time and space as they look at the historical roots of Roleplaying Games around the globe. Steenz talks about her own relationship with RPGs as well as what she found most fascinating while doing the research for the book.