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Avangion
''Dark Sun'' is an original ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (D&D) campaign setting set in the fictional, post-apocalyptic desert world of Athas. ''Dark Sun'' featured an innovative metaplot, influential art work, dark themes, and a genre-bending take on traditional fantasy role-playing. The product line began with the original ''Dark Sun Boxed Set'' released for D&D's 2nd edition in 1991, originally ran until 1996, and was one of TSR's most successful releases. ''Dark Sun'' deviated from the feudalistic backdrops of its Tolkienesque pseudo-medieval contemporaries, such as ''Greyhawk'' or ''Forgotten Realms'', in favor of a composite of dark fantasy, planetary romance, and the Dying Earth subgenre. ''Dark Sun''s designers presented a savage, magic-ravaged desert world where resources are scarce and survival is a daily struggle. The traditional fantasy races and character classes were altered or omitted to better suit the setting's darker themes. ''Dark Sun'' differs further in that th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Timothy Brown (game Designer)
Timothy B. Brown is an American game designer, primarily of role-playing games. He has been a designer at Game Designers' Workshop, an editor at ''Challenge (game magazine), Challenge'' magazine, and the director of product development at TSR (company), TSR. Career GDW Marc W. Miller, Marc Miller, Frank Chadwick, Lester W. Smith, Lester Smith, and Timothy Brown of Game Designers' Workshop, GDW designed the new game ''2300 AD, Traveller: 2300'' (1986) as an expansion of the original ''Traveller (role-playing game), Traveller'' role-playing game. Brown also designed the Gamer's Choice Award-winning ''Star Cruiser'' board game. Brown served as editor of GDW's ''Challenge (game magazine), Challenge'' magazine. TSR Brown went to TSR, Inc., TSR in 1989, where he eventually became Director of Game Development. Brown was TSR's director of product development from 1991-1995, and oversaw the creation of their Ravenloft and Planescape game lines, among many other titles. Brown co-created th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Planetary Romance
Planetary romance is a subgenre of science fiction in which the bulk of the action consists of adventures on one or more exotic alien planets, characterized by distinctive physical and cultural backgrounds. Some planetary romances take place against the background of a future culture where travel between worlds by spaceship is commonplace; others, particularly the earliest examples of the genre, do not, and invoke flying carpets, astral projection, or other methods of getting between planets. In either case, it is the planetside adventures which are the focus of the story, not the mode of travel. ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' mentions two caveats as to the usage of the term. First, while the setting may be in an alien world, if "the nature or description of this world has little bearing on the story being told," as in ''A Case of Conscience'', then the book is not a planetary romance. Second, hard science fiction tales are excluded from this category, where an alien pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Corben
Richard Corben (October 1, 1940December 2, 2020) was an American illustrator and comic book artist best known for his comics featured in '' Heavy Metal'' magazine, especially the ''Den'' series which was featured in the magazine's first film adaptation in 1981. He was the winner of the 2009 Spectrum Grand Master Award2009 Spectrum Grand Master Announced from '''' and the 2018 Grand Prix at Angoulême. In 2012 he was elected to the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame. Biography Richard Corben wa ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Den (comics)
Den is the name of two identical sword and planet fictional characters created by Richard Corben. The first appeared in the 1968 animated short film ''Neverwhere''. The second has been appearing in the medium of comics since 1973, and in short stories that have been collected for the most part in trade paperbacks. The second Den also appeared in the animated film '' Heavy Metal''. Background and creation Corben created Den as the protagonist of a film short titled ''Neverwhere'' while working at Calvin Studios, an animation company in Kansas City. The film is animated, with framing sequences filmed in live-action. Corben's boss at Calvin played the title character in the movie. He drew the whole animated sequence by hand in his spare time. His employers, impressed by his work, helped him to finish it by editing it and adding a new professional soundtrack with actors' voices. It was submitted to film festivals and won several awards, including the CINE Golden Eagle Award. The story c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Game Designers' Workshop
Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) was a wargame and role-playing game publisher from 1973 to 1996. Many of their games are now carried by other publishers. History Game Designers' Workshop was originally established June 22, 1973. The founding members consisted of Frank Chadwick, Rich Banner, Marc Miller, and Loren Wiseman. GDW acquired the Conflict Games Company from John Hill in the early 1970s. GDW published a new product approximately every twenty-two days for over twenty years. In an effort to bridge the gap between role players, board wargamers and miniature wargamers, the company published RPGs with fantastic settings alongside games with realistic themes including rulesets for 15mm and 20mm miniatures set during the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the modern era; and boardgames involving these eras such as the ''Air Superiority'' series and ''Harpoon''. The company disbanded February 29, 1996 after suffering financial troubles. Products Role-pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David "Zeb" Cook
David "Zeb" Cook is an American game designer, best known for his work at TSR, Inc., where he was employed for over fifteen years. Cook designed several games, wrote the '' Expert Set'' for ''Dungeons & Dragons'', worked as lead designer of the second edition of ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'', and invented the Planescape setting for ''AD&D''. He is a member of the Origins Hall of Fame. Early life Cook was born in East Lansing, Michigan, and grew up on a farm in Iowa. His father was a farmer and college professor. In junior high school, Cook played wargames such as Avalon Hill's ''Blitzkrieg'' and ''Afrika Korps'': "I was primarily a wargamer, but there wasn't any role-playing available then." In college, he was introduced to the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game through the University of Iowa gaming club. Cook earned his B.A. in English (with a Theater minor) in 1977. He married his high school sweetheart, Helen, with whom he had one son, Ian. Cook became a high school t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steve Winter
Steve Winter (born December 8, 1957) is an American game designer who worked on numerous products for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game, which was originally published by TSR and later Wizards of the Coast. Early life Winter was born in Dubuque, Iowa on December 8, 1957. Winter attended Catholic school for grade school and high school, and had two years of Catholic college before he transferred to Iowa State University at Ames. “A nun introduced me to the works of J. R. R. Tolkien in high school ... Previously, I had been mostly into historical novels and military history. For the next several years, I read all the fantasy I could get my hands on — but I didn’t enjoy very much of it. I couldn’t find anything with the same sense of humor and style as Tolkien. I also read a lot of science fiction.” In 1978, while attending college, Winter worked part-time at a department store which carried a few wargames in its small games department. He began play ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Lowder
James Daniel Lowder (born January 2, 1963 in Quincy, Massachusetts) is an American author and editor, working regularly within the fantasy, dark fantasy, and horror genres, and on tabletop role-playing games and critical works exploring popular culture. Early life and education Lowder graduated from Whitman-Hanson Regional High School in 1981 and was inducted into the high school's hall of fame in 1991. While at Whitman-Hanson, he wrote and edited for the school newspaper and yearbook, and did the same for two summers at Project Contemporary Competitiveness at Bridgewater State University. In 1985 he graduated from Marquette University with an honors BA in English and History. While at Marquette, he edited and wrote for the '' Marquette Journal'', the school's literary magazine. After Marquette, he took graduate classes in English at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he also taught writing, film, and fantasy literature courses. Lowder completed a Masters ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Kirchoff
Mary L. Kirchoff is an American author of fantasy and young adult novels. Biography Kirchoff was born and raised in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the city where the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game was invented. "I went to school with Ernie Gygax and a number of people who later worked for TSR... I was vaguely aware of the people who played things like the ''D&D'' game at school. Then I went away to college and learned more about roleplaying games. I realized heywere coming from my home town." Kirchoff graduated from Lawrence University with a B.A. in English. She was hired by TSR as the editor of the ''Polyhedron'' newszine in 1982, shortly after its second issue. Kirchoff also did graphic design for ''Dragon'' magazine, and worked with Roger Moore on TSR's ''Ares'' science-fiction magazine. Kirchoff's first published book, ''Light on Quests Mountain'', was set in Gamma World for TSR's Endless Quest series. She later wrote other books in the collection. Kirchoff decided to w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Baker (game Designer)
Richard Baker (full name L. Richard Baker III) is an American author and game designer who has worked on many ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign settings. Early life, education, and military Rich Baker was born and raised in Florida, then moved with his family to New Jersey at age ten. Baker graduated from Virginia Tech in 1988 with a degree in English. He received a commission as an ensign in the U.S. Navy, and served as a deck officer for three years on board the USS ''Tortuga''; he qualified as a Surface Warfare Officer and was a lieutenant (junior grade) by the time he left the Navy. Baker married his college sweetheart, Kim Rohrbach. They have two daughters, Alex and Hannah. Career Baker began looking for a new career, and found one at TSR. "I'd been playing the ''AD&D'' game off and on since 1979. When I decided to leave the Navy, I sent TSR my résumé just for the pure hell of it. TSR sent me back a writing test, which I must have done pretty well on, since they brought m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battlesystem
''Battlesystem'' is a tabletop miniature wargame designed as a supplement for use with the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game. The original ''Battlesystem'' was printed as a boxed set in 1985 for use with the first edition ''AD&D'' rules. For the second edition of ''AD&D'', a new version of ''Battesystem'' was printed as a softcover book in 1989. First edition Contents ''Battlesystem'' was first released in 1985, compatible with either ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' or the Basic / Expert ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (see editions of Dungeons & Dragons). The game was promoted as a successor to ''Chainmail''. In a ''Battlesystem'' game, each miniature represents a hero, a commander, or multiple troops, depending on the troops' level or hit dice. There are no statistics in the game for any troops or characters, but, instead, all are derived from the relevant ''Dungeons & Dragons'' publications. For instance, to add any creature from the ''Monster Manual'' or similar publicati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psionics (Dungeons %26 Dragons)
In the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game, psionics are a form of supernatural power similar to, but distinct from, arcane and divine magic. Overview Psionics are manifested purely by mental discipline. Psionics were originally introduced in the original ''Dungeons & Dragons'' Supplement III – ''Eldritch Wizardry''. Psionics have appeared in all editions; however, they are only part of the core rules in ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' 1st edition. In 2nd, 3rd and 3.5 editions, psionics are divided into five or six disciplines, or groupings of powers. In 2nd edition, Psionicists gradually gain access to additional disciplines as they advance in level. In 3.5 edition, several psionic character classes are forced to choose one of them, thereby losing access to the most potent powers of the others. In 2nd edition, each power is tied to an ability score (generally Constitution, Intelligence or Wisdom); in 3rd edition, each discipline is tied to an ability score; and in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
