Jeff Tidball is a game designer who has worked primarily on

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 ...

Career

After the success of '' On the Edge'' (1994), college student Jeff Tidball became one of the new full-time employees at Atlas Games. When the collectible card game field crashed in 1996,

John Nephew John A. Nephew is an American game designer, who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career John Nephew began freelancing for TSR as a ''Dungeons & Dragons'' author in 1986 while he was still in high school, first writing material for ...

and Tidball were the only staff retained by Atlas. Tidball became the Director of Creative Development and soon began developing Atlas Games's next role-playing game, ''

Ars Magica ''Ars Magica'' is a role-playing game set in 'Mythic Europe' – a historically grounded version of Europe and the Levant around AD 1200, with the added conceit that conceptions of the world prevalent in folklore and institutions of the High Mi ...

'', which Atlas had acquired from Wizards of the Coast. Tidball also became the ''Ars Magica'' line developer, and the '' Feng Shui'' line developer as well. Tidball's ''Cults Across America'' (1998) was one of the board and card game releases from Atlas. In 2000, Tidball left Atlas Games for an MFA film script-writing program at the University of Southern California. Tidball was later hired by Last Unicorn Games, but by January 2004 Tidball and

Jess Heinig Jess Heinig is an American game designer best known for working on the Mage: The Ascension series of games in the early 2000s. Since then he has worked on several other role-playing games and served as a programmer for Fallout 1. Career Jess He ...

were the only remaining employees in the Last Unicorn Games RPG division of Decipher Games, so Decipher shut down Last Unicorn Games. Tidball designed the ''

Cthulhu 500 ''Cthulhu 500'' is a motor racing-themed card game designed by Jeff Tidball based on H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. The game was released by Atlas Games at Gen Con 2004. Object of the game Players compete by racing Cthulhoid vehicles (such ...

'' card game for Atlas. Tidball worked as the line developer for Decipher's '' The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game''. Atlas published ''Pieces of Eight'' (2006), a game designed by Tidball using coins as a game mechanic.

Will Hindmarch Will Hindmarch is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Atlas Games brought on Will Hindmarch as a new employee following the success of their d20 lines. Atlas published a few final d20 products in 2004 and whe ...

and Tidball later formed the small press company called Gameplaywright. Tidball subsequently worked as the senior developer and editor for the board and card game departments at Fantasy Flight Games, before returning to Atlas Games on a contract basis as chief operating officer. He has also continued to write in the roleplaying industry, notably the massive ''Eternal Lies'' campaign he wrote with Hindmarch for

Pelgrane Press Pelgrane Press Ltd is a British role-playing game publishing company based in London and founded in 1999. It is co-owned by Simon J Rogers and Cat Tobin. It currently produces GUMSHOE System RPGs, '' 13th Age'', the Diana Jones award-winning '' ...

's ''

Trail of Cthulhu ''Trail of Cthulhu'' is an investigative horror role-playing game published by Pelgrane Press in 2008 in which the players' characters investigate mysterious events related to the Cthulhu Mythos. The game is a licensed product based on the hor ...

'' RPG. Tidball lives with his wife and sons in the Twin Cities area.

References

External links

Home page

Jeff Tidball :: Pen & Paper RPG Databasearchive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tidball, Jeff Atlas Games people Living people Role-playing game designers Year of birth missing (living people)