BasedCon 2026 Schedule

Lunch Buffet for Early Arrivals

Socializing and Games

Welcome and Dinner

Meet the Authors

Each of our authors will tell you a little about themselves, read an excerpt from one of their works, and let you know how you can purchase their books.

Nerd Trivia

Breakfast

Writing Advice: S-Tier to Garbage Tier

“Show, don’t tell.” “Write every day.” “Kill your darlings.” “Never use adverbs.” “Write what you know.” Our panelists rank famous pieces of writing advice from indispensable to useless—or actively harmful.

Rachel Fulton Brown, Karl Gallagher, Sarah Pierzchala, Robert Kroese, D.S. Blake (mod.)

The Baby Bust: What Happens to a Civilization That Stops Reproducing?

Birth rates are falling across much of the world. What is driving the decline? Can anything reverse it? And what happens to economies, politics, families, cities, and culture if the trend continues for generations?

Fred Heimbach, MD Boncher, Karl Gallagher, Sarah Pierzchala, Hans Schantz (mod.)

The Case Against the Chosen One

Prophecy, secret bloodlines, destined kings, and farmboys who discover they’re the only person who can save the world. Is the Chosen One a timeless mythic structure, an overused shortcut, or both?

Tony Andarian, Hans Schantz, Rachel Fulton Brown, Wally Waltner, Ann Margaret Lewis (mod.)

Lunch

Magic Should Be Dangerous

Magic becomes less mysterious when it functions like another branch of engineering. Should magic have rules, costs, risks, and unpredictable consequences? What makes supernatural power feel genuinely magical rather than just technology with different terminology?

Dan Gainor, Tony Andarian, Wally Waltner, MD Boncher (mod.)

When Science Fiction Isn’t Science Fiction: The Return of Science Fantasy

Star Wars, Dune, Warhammer 40K, planetary romance, psychic powers, gods that might be aliens, and technology indistinguishable from magic. Where does science fiction end and fantasy begin—and does the distinction actually matter?

Travis Corcoran, Fred Heimbach, Dan Gainor, Ann Margaret Lewis, Lawrence Railey (mod.)

Good Storytelling Requires Fidelity to Genre Conventions: A Debate

Rachel Fulton Brown, Hans Schantz

Choose Your Regime: Who Should Rule the Galaxy?

The Federation, Heinlein’s Terran Federation, the Galactic Empire, Dune’s Imperium, the Foundation, and other fictional governments face off. Which would you actually want to live under? Which could survive? And which might work better than its creators intended?

Travis Corcoran, Karl Gallagher, Ann Margaret Lewis, D.S. Blake (mod.)

The Dark Lord Problem

Sauron worked. Thousands of imitations didn’t. What makes an embodiment-of-evil villain effective? When does morally uncomplicated evil make for a stronger story, and when does a Dark Lord become nothing more than a fantasy cliché?

Herman Hunter, Michael Kane, Dan Gainor, Adam Misner, Wally Waltner (mod.)

Dinner

The Telegraph Prophets (Musical Interlude)

The Telegraph Prophets will sing a set of six songs showcasing their trademark combination of spooky and zany imagery, including BasedCon favorites “Mars Is America” and “Abraham Lincoln Was an Invader from Space.” Members of the group: Frederic Heimbach (lead vocals, banjo), Brian Altevogt and Alan Young (backup vocals), and Gregg Powell (bass).

The Colonists are Revolting!

From the Moon to Mars to the Belt, science fiction assumes distant colonies eventually tell Earth to get lost. Is political separation really the inevitable consequence of physical separation? We’ll look at the economics, logistics, history, and technology behind extraterrestrial independence movements.

Michael Kane, MD Boncher, Joe Lewis, Travis Corcoran, Karl Gallagher (mod.)

Cowboys in Space

Why does science fiction keep reinventing the Western? From frontier planets and bounty hunters to company towns, homesteaders, gunslingers, and lawmen, we’ll explore the enormous influence of Westerns on science fiction and the enduring idea of space as the final frontier.

Travis Corcoran, Michael Kane, Patrick Abbott, Dan Gainor (mod.)