Fastaval’s guests of honour
Every year, an exciting or well-known person/group is invited to Fastaval as a guest of honour to talk about their work within Fastaval-related activities, such as board games or role-playing games. Each guest of honour is different and has different approaches to role-playing, board games and game design.
Sometimes the guest of honour is a well-known, influential cultural figure with many years of work within an established institution or game, such as Mark Rein Hagen or Steve Jackson. But just as often, Fastaval also makes a point of finding lesser-known guests of honour with a new and unique perspective on games and design that can surprise and inspire participants.
At Fastaval, we want to learn and absorb others’ experiences and approaches to game design. But being a guest of honour is not just about receiving, it’s also about passing on Fastaval’s traditions and unique environment. Over the years, we have seen how several guests of honour have been deeply inspired by the Fastaval tradition, but also returned in subsequent years to contribute creatively to the role-playing and board game competitions. We are proud of the creative space that Fastaval has become over the years, and we always look forward to inviting new and exciting people to visit us at Easter.
Guest of Honour at Fastaval 2026
Paula Deming
To celebrate Fastaval’s 40th anniversary we have invited someone who has their roots in both board gaming and table top roleplaying: Paula Deming.
In the board game community she is, amongst other things, known for her YouTube channel PaulaDeming where she has her show Things Get Dicey. Premiering almost 7 years ago, Things Get Dicey features comedy sketches about everyday life situations as a board gamer. Paula quickly added her music talent to her sense of comedic timing and Things Get Dicey also includes musical parodies of known songs telling the life stories of a board gamer.
Her Youtube channel also features play throughs, strategy tips, convention vlogs, and much more. She has also contributed to the channel Watch it Played, hosting the monthly Top 10 List “On the Radar” and solo play through series “Table for 1”.. And she is a cast member of the Golden Geek winning podcast “This Game is Broken” and the board game variety show “Lost in the Shuffle”.. She adds a sprinkle of that special comedy she masters so well to all of it.
For the tabletop roleplaying game community Paula is known for hosting and participating in several TTRPG sessions on her and others’ channels.
You can see her performing in Actual Plays with The Glass Cannon Network, Push the Roll with Ross Bryant, and Faster Purple Worm, Kill Kill from Beadle & Grimms, where a team of players play out an adventure for an audience.
In addition to this, she also streams board games and video games on Twitch, hosts several podcasts, and has acted in tv shows, film, and theatre.
If you want to check out more about Paula, you can find it at her website: paulademing.com
We don’t know how, but somehow in her busy schedule she has found time to come visit Fastaval for our 40th anniversary, where she will be having a talk, run a game or two and if you are lucky she might teach you a board game.
And if that is not enough she has also made a New years video greeting here below.
We look forward to welcoming Paula as our Guest of Honor for Fastaval 2026.
