Erol Otus is an American artist and

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

, known internationally for his contributions to the fantasy

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

(RPG) genre, especially early in the ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

'' franchise. He is also known for his artwork on the multiple award winning ''

Star Control II ''Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters'' is a 1992 video game, the sequel to '' Star Control''. It was developed by Toys for Bob ( Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III) and originally published by Accolade in 1992 for MS-DOS. This game features exoplan ...

'' as well as providing the voice for one of the character races, the

Chmmr ''Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters'' is a 1992 video game, the sequel to '' Star Control''. It was developed by Toys for Bob ( Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III) and originally published by Accolade in 1992 for MS-DOS. This game features exoplan ...

, in the same game.

Biography

A self-taught artist since childhood, Otus developed an interest in role-playing games and became employed in the art department of game company TSR in

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Lake Geneva is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located in Walworth County and situated on Geneva Lake, it is home to an estimated 8,105 people as of 2019, up from 7,651 at the 2010 census. It is located about 40 miles southwest of Milwa ...

in the 1970s. After leaving the company, he studied painting at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

and also took classes at the

Academy of Art The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute o ...

in San Francisco. He has cited a wide range of influences on his work from

Dr. Seuss Theodor Seuss Geisel (;"Seuss"
'' Frank Frazetta Frank Frazetta (born Frank Frazzetta ; February 9, 1928 – May 10, 2010) was an American fantasy and science fiction artist, noted for comic books, paperback book covers, paintings, posters, LP record album covers, and other media. He is ...

to modern artists such as

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning (; ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. He was born in Rotterdam and moved to the United States in 1926, becoming an American citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married painter El ...

and

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

Role-playing games

Erol Otus was a prolific contributor to the early ''

'' (D&D) franchise, creating full covers as well as many interior illustrations for TSR materials. For example, he created the cover for the first version of the D&D manual ''

Deities & Demigods ''Deities & Demigods'' (abbreviated ''DDG''), alternatively known as ''Legends & Lore'' (abbreviated ''L&L'' or ''LL''), is a reference book for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game (D&D). The book provides descriptions and game ...

'' and illustrated the

Cthulhu Cthulhu is a fictional cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was first introduced in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine ''Weird Tales'' in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pan ...

pantheon within. According to fellow contributor

Jeff Dee Jeff Dee is an American artist and game designer. He was the youngest artist in the history of pioneering role-playing game company TSR when he began his work at the age of eighteen. He also designed the ''Villains and Vigilantes'' superhero gam ...

, many of the original versions of this work were lost during a later clean-out of the TSR offices. Otus has also provided cover art and interior illustrations for

Goodman Games Goodman Games is an American game publisher best known for the ''Dungeon Crawl Classics'' series of adventure modules and role-playing game, the ''Dragonmech'' role-playing game, and the ''Etherscope'' role-playing games. The company produced l ...

, Oracle Games (in particular '' Alma Mater - The High School RPG'') and the

Arduin ''Arduin'' is a fictional universe and fantasy role-playing system created in the mid-1970s by David A. Hargrave. It was the first published "cross-genre" fantasy RPG, with everything from interstellar wars to horror and historical drama, althou ...

series. His art was featured on the covers of the new ''

HackMaster HackMaster is a fantasy role-playing game produced by Kenzer & Company. It began as a fictional game, a parody of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' played by the characters of the ''Knights of the Dinner Table'' comic strip by Jolly R. Blackburn. The c ...

'' edition and issue #8 of ''Fight On!'' While working at TSR, Otus was a runner-up in TSR's 4th Invitational AD&D Masters Tournament at

Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...

XIII, a contest to choose the game's best overall dungeon master. He competed against the likes of

Lenard Lakofka Lenard Lakofka (January 10, 1944 - October 23, 2020) was an American writer of material for the fantasy role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Although never a formal employee of TSR, Inc., TSR, the company that published ''Dungeons & Dragons ...

and first place was taken by

Frank Mentzer Jacob Franklin Mentzer III is an American fantasy author and game designer who worked on early materials for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. He was an employee of TSR, Inc. from 1980 to 1986, spending part of that time ...

Video games

Otus has also provided illustrations, production design and voice overs for

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

s such as ''

The Last Ninja ''The Last Ninja'' is an action-adventure game originally developed and published by System 3 in 1987 for the Commodore 64. It was converted to the Apple IIGS, MS-DOS, BBC Micro, and Acorn Electron in 1988, the Apple II in 1989, the Amiga, and ...

'', '' Star Trek: Generations'', ''

Mail Order Monsters ''Mail Order Monsters'' is an action-strategy computer game created by Paul Reiche III, Evan Robinson, and Nicky Robinson. It was published by Electronic Arts (Ariolasoft in Europe) for the Commodore 64 in 1985, then released for Atari 8-bit fa ...

'' and ''

''. ''Star Control II'' was named by ''

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

'' as the 17th best game of all time, and by ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' as one of the greatest games of all time.

Other work

Otus provided the cover art for the album ''Down Among The Deadmen'' (2000) by American heavy metal band

Slough Feg Slough Feg (also known as The Lord Weird Slough Feg) is an American Heavy Metal music, heavy metal band from Pennsylvania, formed in 1990 and currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Taking their name from the Celts, Celtic folklore-influ ...

(then known as ''Lord Weird Slough Feg'').

Homage

In the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' adventure module " A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords", part of the treasure on the slaver ships is a series of paintings by a supposedly famous

Drow The drow ( or ) or dark elves are a dark-skinned and white-haired subrace of Elf (Dungeons & Dragons), elves connected to the Subterranea (geography), subterranean Underdark in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. The drow have ...

Artist named "Ool Eurts" (an

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

of Erol Otus). In the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' 2nd Edition Boxed set, "

Night Below ''Night Below: An Underdark Campaign'', often known as Night Below, is a boxed set for the second edition of the ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game. The set, with the product code TSR 1125, was published in 1995, and was w ...

" an encounter in Book III features a crazed exile

named Otyl Erys, another nod to both him and the prior module cited above.

References

External links

* *
The Erol Otus Shrine
(a fansite) {{DEFAULTSORT:Otus, Erol American game designers American speculative fiction artists Arduin artists Fantasy artists Game artists Living people Role-playing game artists Science fiction artists Video game artists Year of birth missing (living people)