{"id":6706,"date":"2026-06-04T10:30:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/?p=6706"},"modified":"2026-06-04T10:40:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T09:40:35","slug":"ttrpg-trio-triumph-in-latest-diana-jones-emerging-designer-program-win-expenses-paid-trip-to-gen-con","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/boardgamewire.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/04\/ttrpg-trio-triumph-in-latest-diana-jones-emerging-designer-program-win-expenses-paid-trip-to-gen-con\/","title":{"rendered":"TTRPG trio triumph in latest Diana Jones emerging designer program, win expenses-paid trip to Gen Con"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The\u00a0Diana Jones Award<\/a>\u00a0committee has picked a trio of TTRPG creators as the latest winners of its emerging designer program, who will each receive a $6,500 prize package that includes an all-expenses trip to\u00a0Gen Con<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Glaiza Champion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Glaiza Champion, J Strautman and Kodi Gonzaga will also receive one-year memberships to trade bodies\u00a0GAMA<\/a> and the Tabletop Game Designers Association through the award, as well as prizes including prototyping credit at\u00a0The Game Crafter<\/a>, an online badge to\u00a0Protospiel<\/a>\u00a0and a game demo spot on\u00a0Gen Con TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emerging designer program, now in its sixth year, seeks to amplify the voices of up-and-coming tabletop creators, with a particular focus on designers from marginalized communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filipino-American designer Glaiza Champion describes themself as a ‘third-culture’ kid whose experiences span Brunei, Cambodia, the Philippines and Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Champion is a game designer, writer, performer, podcaster and variety streamer, whose work is rooted in tabletop roleplaying games and storytelling – with designs to date including Beef, Missing Month and Meet Your GelCub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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J Strautman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Toronto-based RPG designer J Strautman, who also works under the name Yes No Goodbye, combines game design with a career as a professional musician. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strautman has released the GM-less zine-sized RPGs Contact and Insatiable Cravings, and in 2025 co-released A Fool\u2019s Errand through Planet Arcana Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside their design work, Strautman tours internationally as a professional bass player, and co-hosted, and scored and edited the tarot-infused science fantasy actual play podcast Planet Arcana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Los Angeles-based designer Kodi Gonzaga began designing games in 2018, and has since created a growing catalogue of tabletop RPGs including Extra Ordinary, Misfits & Mayhem SRD, Down the Road Through the End of the World, Voxinn: A Firebrands Hack and In This Echoing World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kodi Gonzaga<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gonzaga is also a creative writer, actual play performer, Big Bad Con POC Scholar and former IGDN convention coordinator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other finalists in this year\u2019s competition included Wyrmspan and Apiary designer Connie Vogelmann, Cretaceous Rails designer Ann Journey, and Elijah Djan – the co-creator of FinMaster, a game designed to help teach families about investing and enable positive discussions about money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also making the list of finalists this year was board game designer Gene Koo, who works to promote tabletop game designers based in the Washington DC metropolitan area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year\u2019s emerging designer program winners<\/a> were High Tide designer Marceline Leiman, Ashraf Braden, Elliot Davis and Lyla McBeath Fujiwara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to BoardGameWire after being selected last year, Leiman said the award had enabled her to attend Gen Con at a time when financial pressures and industry uncertainty would otherwise have made the trip impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Gen Con is an incredibly important convention for freelance designers to get their work noticed and signed,\u201d Leiman said. \u201cThis amazing opportunity for underrepresented and underprivileged folks represents a great step in equalizing this dream of a creative field for all.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Diana Jones emerging designer award program was launched in 2021, with Jeeyon Shim picking up the inaugural award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emerging designer program is part of the wider Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming<\/a>, which was founded and first awarded in 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That award is presented to the person, product, company, event, movement, concept or any other thing that has, in the opinion of its committee, best demonstrated the quality of “excellence” in the world of hobby-gaming in the previous year \u2013 and is traditionally hugely wide-ranging in its choice of candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous winners across the award\u2019s 22-year run have included Blood Rage<\/a> designer Eric Lang<\/a>, Nigerian games industry publisher and evangelist NIBCARD<\/a>, and the entire \u2018actual play\u2019 movement of people livestreaming and podcasting roleplaying games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year\u2019s Excellence in Gaming award\u00a0was deemed a tie between author Rose Estes and the climate action-themed board game Daybreak<\/a>, designed by Matt Leacock and Matteo Menapace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more stories like this direct to your email inbox, click here to sign up for BoardGameWire’s free email newsletter. \n\nAnd if you’ve found our reporting interesting or useful, please consider a paid subscription to help support our journalism!<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The emerging designer program, now in its sixth year, seeks to amplify the voices of up-and-coming tabletop creators, with a particular focus on designers from marginalized communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2410,6,135,596,755,256,2411,756,11,757,2412,2407,2408,2409,760],"class_list":["post-6706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ann-journey","tag-board-game","tag-board-games","tag-connie-vogelmann","tag-diana-jones","tag-diana-jones-award","tag-elijah-djan","tag-emerging-designer","tag-gama","tag-gen-con","tag-gene-koo","tag-glaiza-champion","tag-j-strautman","tag-kodi-gonzaga","tag-ttrpg"],"blocksy_meta":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t