Our Purpose

The Keep is the brainchild of a group of tabletop gamers from the Twin Cities – we call our party the Keyholders because each member has a passkey to our HQ. In 2024, one of our party, Charles Edge, passed away unexpectedly and suddenly. We were sitting around our gaming table on a Saturday night and what was to be a dungeon crawl instead became a table of sorrow.

Charles was not only a heroic and creative gamer, he was also a pillar in the MacSysAdmin community and was a mensch to coders, sysadmins and white hat hackers around the world. In his memory, the Keyholders decided to throw a one-day gaming convention, called Charles Con, at Penn State’s annual MacSysAdmin conference. We flew out, booked a conference room and set up a handful Dungeons and Dragons, Shadowdark and Top Secret games for friends and admirers of Charles to play and enjoy each other’s company. Some were experienced RPG players, some were complete rookies, but everybody had a great time.

In the wake of Charles Con 1, we had a collective epiphany: Conventions are great, but game convention software and typical convention experiences are subpar. And, human connection through gaming is where the true magic lies. We also realized that with expertise within the Keyholders, we could build something that could contribute and improve those experiences for a lot of RPG players.

We started imagining The Keep.

We want a toolset that convention hosts can use to run RPG conventions that can eliminate the pains of registration and schedule management. What do we mean by that? Fast finger registration that crashes the server and leaves people wondering why they couldn’t get a badge or register for a desired game. Where you schedule your day around when an event opens up then hope your internet doesn’t crash at an inopportune moment. This is the default way we sign up for conventions and we haven’t met a player or host that thinks it’s great. When you attend the convention, you text your friends to find what table they’re at, you print out your kid’s schedule so you can find him, you write notes in your game log of everybody’s names so you can keep the folks you meet straight in your head. We think event management software that is customized for RPG gaming conventions can improve this experience.

We want a way to for people to connect at conventions. The little blocks of time at the table can be magical, exciting adventures you build with people you just met. But what if you want to play with that GM again? What if you want to reconnect with Alan from Ohio because he’s an epic player? These days, you are out of luck. Maybe in the table shuffle between games you get their Discord or email and can reconnect. Maybe later, you try to figure out which person on the event listing matches up to the guy who played the elf. Point is, it’s hard. And shockingly, RPG players aren’t always your most extroverted socializers. Luckily, most – ok some - of us Keyholders are extroverted socializers who have made connections at conventions that have turned into friends. What if there was a way - within the same interface that you signed up for conventions and games – to connect with people you meet at those events so you can game together again or maybe just gas on about how cool the game was? What if you could follow the best GMs and see where you can game with them again? We call this connection and community.

We want a way to find in person conventions and games. The Keyholders are based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Turns out, there are a lot of gaming nerds here and a ton of conventions, game stores and events. However, half the time, we find out about these events after they’re over. Why? Even though we attend conventions, we hang out at our local game store (The Source – shout out) and we are in some Facebook groups and Discord servers, it’s still pretty hard to find stuff. We imagine that within The Keep we can build and maintain a directory of gaming events that is not only searchable but will let you know, as a denizen of The Keep, when something is happening in your neighborhood. Turns out, this type of directory is not easy to build or maintain. But it’s the 21st century and we’re gonna give it a try.

Lastly, we want a way to schedule our home games. The Keyholders are six adults – between us we own several businesses, have a gaggle of children, full time jobs, volunteer responsibilities and one of us plays in a rock band. Point is, we have a lot going on and our calendars are a mess. We would love to play every Thursday, but it just doesn’t work. So we send emails, texts, calendar invites, phone calls, Doodles and eventually we all get together. What if The Keep could help parties manage their home games too? Your home game is basically a private event so it makes some sense. We think putting all your gaming stuff in one place could be pretty useful.

So that’s the bones of what we’re building. The Keep will be a place to manage your home table, connect with players and GMs you’ve met in the world, and find and attend public conventions in a way that doesn’t suck. We have ideas to make it cool and beautiful but we’re gonna make it work first. These are the first blocks you see in here. Explore. Contact us. Let us know your thoughts. Together, we can make this world of gaming a little bit better for all of us.

The adventure is afoot.