John Tynes
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John Scott Tynes (born 1971) is an American writer best known for his work 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 ...
s such as ''
Unknown Armies ''Unknown Armies'' is an occult-themed roleplaying game by John Scott Tynes and Greg Stolze, published by Atlas Games. The first edition was published in 1998, with the second and third editions being released in 2002 and 2017 respectively. The ...
'', ''
Delta Green ''Delta Green'' is a contemporary era setting for the ''Call of Cthulhu'' role-playing game created by Adam Scott Glancy, Dennis Detwiller, and John Scott Tynes, a.k.a. the Delta Green Partnership, of the Seattle gaming house Pagan Publishin ...
'', ''
Puppetland ''Puppetland: A Storytelling Game with Strings in a Grim World of Make-Believe'' is a role-playing game written by John Scott Tynes. The game was first published in Arcane magazine issue 16 in early 1997, then later by Hogshead Publishing togeth ...
'', and for his company, Tynes Cowan Corporation. Under its imprint,
Pagan Publishing Pagan Publishing is a role-playing game publishing company founded by John Scott Tynes in 1990. It began by publishing a '' Call of Cthulhu'' role-playing game fanzine, '' The Unspeakable Oath''. In 1994, the company moved from Columbia, Misso ...
, Tynes Cowan Corp. produces third-party books for the '' Call of Cthulhu'' role-playing game under license from
Chaosium Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include '' Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft'', RuneQuest Glorantha'', ''Pendragon'' ...
as well as fiction and non-fiction books under its imprint,
Armitage House Pagan Publishing is a role-playing game publishing company founded by John Scott Tynes in 1990. It began by publishing a '' Call of Cthulhu'' role-playing game fanzine, ''The Unspeakable Oath''. In 1994, the company moved from Columbia, Missou ...
.


Career

John Tynes founded
Pagan Publishing Pagan Publishing is a role-playing game publishing company founded by John Scott Tynes in 1990. It began by publishing a '' Call of Cthulhu'' role-playing game fanzine, '' The Unspeakable Oath''. In 1994, the company moved from Columbia, Misso ...
in 1990 at the age of 19 in
Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...
, with a volunteer staff. Tynes founded Pagan's ''
The Unspeakable Oath ''The Unspeakable Oath'' is a game magazine that was published by Pagan Publishing from 1990 to 2001, and later by Arc Dream Publishing starting in 2010. History Pagan Publishing was founded in 1990 in Columbia, Missouri by 19-year-old John Tyne ...
'' magazine.
Dennis Detwiller Dennis Detwiller (born July 12, 1972) is an American video game designer for Hothead Games and a role-playing game designer, writer and artist. Career Dennis Detwiller started volunteering at Pagan Publishing after seeing an issue of '' The U ...
got in touch with Tynes after seeing an issue of ''The Unspeakable Oath'', and then started volunteering with the company. Tynes designed the board game '' Creatures & Cultists''. In May 1994, Tynes took a job with Wizards of the Coast, working under the new Wizards RPG department lead,
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 (game), Over the Edge'', ''Talislanta'', the third edition of ''Dungeons & Dra ...
. Tynes was the first content lead on the '' Magic: The Gathering'' trading card game. Tynes decided to move Pagan Publishing to Seattle that year, and the company became incorporated. After the move many of the projects Tynes envisioned for the company materialized. In June 1995, Tynes resigned from Wizards of the Coast, disliking their new corporate ideals of branding, and briefly moved on to
Daedalus Games Daedalus Entertainment was a Canadian game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements. History Daedalus Games began when Robin Laws approached Jose Garcia in 1993 with an idea for a Hong Kong Action Cinema RPG; Garcia liked the ...
. Daedalus hired him as their RPG line editor. With Dennis Detwiller and
Adam Scott Glancy Adam Scott Glancy is an author and game designer known for co-developing ''Delta Green'', as well as penning game settings, source books, short fiction, and essays related to the H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos. Career Adam Scott Glancy, with J ...
, Tynes developed the ''Delta Green'' (1996) supplement to '' Call of Cthulhu''; they expanded their setting in 1999 with "Delta Green: Countdown". Tynes continued to work for Daedalus Games until they ceased production in 1997. Tynes met Greg Stolze while they were working on "Wildest Dreams" (1993), a supplement for '' Over the Edge''. Stolze and Tynes co-designed the role-playing game ''
Unknown Armies ''Unknown Armies'' is an occult-themed roleplaying game by John Scott Tynes and Greg Stolze, published by Atlas Games. The first edition was published in 1998, with the second and third editions being released in 2002 and 2017 respectively. The ...
''; Stolze helped write the mechanics for the game which Tynes had been developing for a few years. Although Atlas Games expressed interest in ''Unknown Armies'', Tynes decided to go with Archon Games, but Tynes and Stolze learned that founder Lisa Manns was shutting down Archon and she returned the rights to them. They sought a new publisher, and Atlas Games published the game in January 1999. Atlas officially brought Tynes on as a line editor for ''Unknown Armies'' in 1999. Tynes designed ''
Puppetland ''Puppetland: A Storytelling Game with Strings in a Grim World of Make-Believe'' is a role-playing game written by John Scott Tynes. The game was first published in Arcane magazine issue 16 in early 1997, then later by Hogshead Publishing togeth ...
'' (1999) for
Hogshead Publishing Hogshead Publishing was a British game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements. History In October 1994, James Wallis founded Hogshead Publishing, a company which specialised in role-playing and storytelling games. Wallis ba ...
. Tynes and
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 ...
wrote a new version of the '' Feng Shui'' role-playing game for Atlas Games, published in 1999. Tynes was the original line editor for ''Feng Shui''. Tynes wrote the adventure "Three Days to Kill" (2000) for the Atlas d20 brand, Penumbra, and the adventure was the first printed d20 product ever offered for sale. Tynes designed the board game ''The Hills Rise Wild!'' On January 1, 2001, Tynes announced to his partners that he was leaving the role-playing game industry, expecting to be done with the field by 2002, and Adam Scott Glancy was named the new president of Pagan. Wizards of the Coast contacted him with an offer to write the background material for the d20 version of ''Call of Cthulhu'', which he accepted, and he produced the material with the help of writers from Pagan. The book was completed in 2002. Following the end of ''Unknown Armies'' in 2003, Tynes withdrew from the tabletop gaming industry in order to pursue other interests, particularly
film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
and
video games 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 ...
. He was the producer of ''
Pirates of the Burning Sea ''Pirates of the Burning Sea'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) previously developed by Flying Lab Software and Portalus Games, and currently supported by Vision Online Games. The game is set in the Caribbean in an anac ...
'', a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Flying Lab Software, and published in 2008 by Sony Online Entertainment. After its launch, he joined
Microsoft Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...
to work on various Xbox Live Arcade titles including ''
South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play! ''South Park Let's Go Tower Defense Play!'' is a 2009 video game based on the American animated television series '' South Park'', released on the Xbox Live Arcade service for the Xbox 360 video game console. The game was developed by Doublesix i ...
'', ''
Toy Soldiers A toy soldier is a miniature figurine that represents a soldier. The term applies to depictions of uniformed military personnel from all eras, and includes knights, cowboys, American Indians, pirates, samurai, and other subjects that involve c ...
'', and ''
Full House Poker ''Full House Poker'' is a video game poker variant Texas hold 'em developed by Microsoft Game Studios and Krome Studios, published by Microsoft Game Studios and was released for Xbox 360 as an Xbox Live Arcade title and Windows Phone 7 on March 16 ...
'' as a producer and game designer. Tynes has written about games for ''
Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...
'', ''The Escapist'', ''
Pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...
'', ''X360 UK'', and '' The Stranger''.


References


External links


Personal website

Pen & Paper RPG Database
entry for John Tynes {{DEFAULTSORT:Tynes, John Video game designers Role-playing game designers Atlas Games people Living people 1971 births Place of birth missing (living people) People from Columbia, Missouri