John A. Nephew is an American

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 ...

, who has worked primarily on role-playing games.

Career

John Nephew began freelancing for TSR as a ''

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 Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

'' author in 1986 while he was still in high school, first writing material for '' Dragon'' and ''

Dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...

'' magazines. While writing for the magazines, Nephew was invited to contribute to projects such as '' Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms'' (1988), '' Castle Greyhawk'' (1988), and then his first solo book, '' Tall Tales of the Wee Folk'' (1989). Nephew went to Carleton College in Minnesota, where he met the team from

Lion Rampant The lion is a common charge in heraldry. It traditionally symbolises courage, nobility, royalty, strength, stateliness and valour, because historically the lion has been regarded as the "king of beasts". The lion also carries Judeo-Chr ...

Jonathan Tweet Jonathan Tweet (born 1965) is an American game designer who has been involved in the development of the role-playing games '' Ars Magica'', ''Everway'', '' Over the Edge'', '' Talislanta'', the third edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and '' 13th ...

and Mark Rein Hagen founded Lion Rampant in 1987 while they were attending Carleton's traditional rival St. Olaf College, and Nephew was one of the Minnesota locals who joined the company later. Nephew joined the company in 1988, and his roles at the company during his tenure included acquisitions director, editor, and briefly president. Nephew left Lion Rampant in 1990 when the company moved to Georgia as he did not want to leave Minnesota. He had purchased a photocopier for Lion Rampant to use, and struck a deal with the company when they moved that allowed them to keep the photocopier, while they gave Nephew a license to publish supplements for ''

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 ...

''; Nephew then founded

Atlas Games Atlas Games is a company which publishes role-playing games, board games and card games. Its founder and current president is John Nephew. History When Atlas Games did not have the finances to publish '' On the Edge'' (1994), they partnered with J ...

with help from friends from Lion Rampant such as Nicole Lindroos and Darin Eblom. In addition to supplements for ''Ars Magica'', ''

Underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

'', and ''

Cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and c ...

'', Nephew published Tweet's '' Over the Edge'' and supplements, including ''Wildest Dreams'' which first brought together

Robin Laws Robin D. Laws (born October 14, 1964 in Orillia, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian writer and game designer who lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of a number of novels and role-playing games as well as an anthologist. Career Robin D. Laws ...

Greg Stolze Greg Stolze (born 1970) is an American game designer, writer and novelist, whose work has mainly focused on writing for role-playing games and related intellectual properties. Career Stolze began his career writing role playing games professional ...

, and John Tynes near the beginnings of their careers in the RPG industry. Nephew and Jonathan Tweet designed '' On the Edge'' (1994), a collectible card game based on Tweet's role-playing game '' Over the Edge''. When the CCG industry crashed in 1996, Atlas was forced to lay off all the staff other than Nephew and

Jeff Tidball Jeff Tidball is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. 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 car ...

to pay the final printing bills for ''On the Edge''.

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidia ...

shut down its RPG lines in 1995 and put their games lines up for bid, so Atlas Games made an offer for ''

Everway ''Everway'' is a fantasy role-playing game first published by Wizards of the Coast under their Alter Ego brand in 1995. Its lead designer was Jonathan Tweet. Marketed as a "Visionary Roleplaying Game", it has often been characterized as an inno ...

'' and ''Ars Magica''; on February 12, 1996, Nephew withdrew the bid for ''Everway'' and on March 6, Wizards announced that it had sold ''Ars Magica'' to Atlas Games. In addition to his major roles, managing Atlas Games and editing its publications, Nephew wrote supplements for ''Ars Magica'', ''Over the Edge'', and ''d20'' over the next few years.

Personal life

Nephew won a seat on the

Maplewood, Minnesota Maplewood is a city in Ramsey County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 42,088 at the 2020 census. Maplewood is ten minutes' drive from downtown Saint Paul. It stretches along the northern and eastern borders of Saint Paul. Maplewo ...

City Council in 2007. His wife Michelle Nephew gave birth to twins in 2009.

References

External links

*
John Nephew's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nephew, John Atlas Games people Carleton College alumni Dungeons & Dragons game designers Living people People from Maplewood, Minnesota Year of birth missing (living people)