Lee Gold is a member of California

science fiction fandom Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or fandom of people interested in science fiction in contact with one another based upon that interest. SF fandom has a life of its own, but not much in the way of formal organization (although ...

and a writer and editor in the

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 ...

and filk music communities.Lee's personal web page
/ref>

Gaming

Gold became prominent after 1975 as the editor of ''

Alarums and Excursions ''Alarums and Excursions'' (''A&E'') is an amateur press association (APA) started in June 1975 by Lee Gold; publication continues to the present day. It was one of the first publications to focus solely on role-playing games. History In 1964, B ...

'', a monthly

amateur press association An amateur press association (APA) is a group of people who produce individual pages or zines that are sent to a Central Mailer for collation and distribution to all members of the group. History The first APAs were formed by groups of amateur pr ...

to which RPG writers have contributed over the years. It won the

Charles S. Roberts Award The Charles S. Roberts Awards (or CSR Awards) is an annual award for excellence in the historical wargaming hobby. It was named in honor of Charles S. Roberts the "Father of Wargaming" who founded Avalon Hill. The award is informally called a "C ...

for Best Amateur Wargame Magazine in 1984, and the Origins Award for Best Amateur Game Periodical in 2000, 2001, and 2002. Gold began the publication at the request of

Bruce Pelz Bruce Edward Pelz (August 11, 1936 – May 9, 2002) was a US science fiction fan. He was highly active in the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS) and a major SMOF, co-chairing the 30th World Science Fiction Convention. He also wrote ...

, who felt that discussion of '' Dungeons & Dragons'' was taking up too much space in APA-L, an

loosely associated with the

Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society The Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, Inc., or LASFS, is a science fiction and fantasy fan society that meets in the Los Angeles area. The current meeting place can be found on thLASFS website LASFS is the oldest continuously operating scienc ...

. Gold was listed in the 'Top 50 Most Influential People in the Adventure Game Market for Y2000'

Professional Works

Her professional credits in the RPG field include ''

Land of the Rising Sun The word ''Japan'' is an exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by many languages. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon () and Nihon (). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji . During the third-century CE Three Kingdoms peri ...

'' and ''

Lands of Adventure ''Lands of Adventure'' is a role-playing game published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1983. Description ''Lands of Adventure'' is a fantasy system designed for use in historical settings rather than fantasy worlds. The emphasis is on human playe ...

'', published by

Fantasy Games Unlimited Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) is a publishing house for tabletop and role-playing games. The company has no in-house design teams and relies on submitted material from outside talent. History Founded in the summer of 1975 in Jericho, New York b ...

; '' GURPS Japan,'' published by

Steve Jackson Games Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''. History Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...

; and ''Vikings,'' published by

Iron Crown Enterprises Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) is a publishing company that has produced role playing, board, miniature, and collectible card games since 1980. Many of ICE's better-known products were related to J. R. R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth, but the ''Ro ...

. ''Land of the Rising Sun'' (1980) was a Japanese-themed role-playing game using the ''

Chivalry & Sorcery ''Chivalry & Sorcery'' is a fantasy role-playing game first published in 1977 by Fantasy Games Unlimited. Created by Edward E. Simbalist and Wilf K. Backhaus in 1977, ''Chivalry & Sorcery'' (''C&S'') was an early competitor to ''Dungeons & Dr ...

'' game system, and ''Lands of Adventure'' (1983) used a game system meant for historical fantasy role-playing games. Gold's novel ''Valhalla: Absent Without Leave'' was published March 30, 2021 by Penmore Press. Gold wrote, "But the book isn't about the ancient Norse or the Vikings. It's about a modern hero who arrived at Valhalla with her D&D magic sword, Frostbite. Robin Grima isn't content to train in Valhalla to fight and die in Ragnarok. She wants to stop Ragnarok from happening! She doesn't care about the prophecies. She wants to win!"Facebook posting, 2021-04-01 in Barry Gold's (her husband's) timeline
''Valhalla: Into The Darkness''
the second novel in her trilogy, was published in early 2022. '' Land of the Rising Sun #2'' was named ''Best Roleplaying Expansion'' (People's Choice) by

UK Games Expo UK Games Expo (UKGE) is tabletop-game convention and trade fair held annually at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and the Hilton Birmingham Metropole. UK Games Expo is the largest Hobby Games Convention in the UK - where all aspects of t ...

2021.

Filk

In 1988, Gold (who had been filking since 1967) also began publishing ''Xenofilkia'', a bimonthly collection of filk lyrics (and some sheet music). Over 400 songwriters have contributed, including Leslie Fish, Tom Smith and

Bob Kanefsky Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places *Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname) ...

. Although Gold has published filk lyrics, she has never recorded for public distribution. Lee and Barry Gold were jointly inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame in 1997. and were Interfilk guests at Ohio Valley Filk Fest in 2000 Lee and Barry Gold were Featured Filkers at Boskone 44 in 2007. In 2012, Gold published ''Dr. Jane's Songs'', a compilation of all of

Dr. Jane Dr. James Robinson (born 1948, Maine) is an American filk music songwriter and performer (known as Dr. Jane Robinson prior to 2004 sex reassignment surgery) whose songs focus on scientific themes, particularly paleontology. Robinson earned a do ...

's songs that Jim Robinson could find in his archives, plus a few that Lee Gold found from other sources, with illustrations. In 2014, she published a compilation of all the songs by

Cynthia McQuillin Cynthia McQuillin (July 25, 1953 – January 14, 2006) was a filk singer and writer as well as an author and artist. She lived in the San Francisco Bay area. Her songs touched the usual filk topics of science fiction, fantasy, and cats, but ...

that Gold, Robinson, McQuillin's

literary executor The literary estate of a deceased author consists mainly of the copyright and other intellectual property rights of published works, including film, translation rights, original manuscripts of published work, unpublished or partially completed wo ...

s and several other people could track down, over 450 pages of songs.

Publishing history

Lee Gold published the fan fiction fanzine "The Third Foundation" from 1967 until at least 1969. As of September 2022, she had published 563 issues of ''Alarums and Excursions'' and 205 issues of ''Xenofilkia'',''Xenofilkia'' website
/ref> as well as six volumes of ''Filker Up!'', a filk-song anthology. She published ''Tom Digby: Along Fantasy Way'', a collection of writings by

Tom Digby Thomas William Kenelm Digby (born 23 July 1998) is a British national representative rower. He is a two-time world and European champion. School, varsity & club rowing Raised in Henley-on-Thames, Digby was introduced to rowing at the Upper Tham ...

for

ConFrancisco The 51st World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon), also known as ConFrancisco, was held on 2–6 September 1993 at the ANA Hotel, Parc Fifty Five, and Nikko Hotels and the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California, United States. ...

, the 1993

Worldcon Worldcon, or more formally the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during ...

where Digby was an Honored Guest, and has published writings by other prominent fan writers in the Los Angeles area. She has also published a collection of songs by

Dr. Jane Robinson Dr. James Robinson (born 1948, Maine) is an American filk music songwriter and performer (known as Dr. Jane Robinson prior to 2004 sex reassignment surgery) whose songs focus on scientific themes, particularly paleontology. Robinson earned a ...

(2012-9-10), another of songs by

(2014-3-8). In both cases, James Robinson sent copies of all the songs in his possession to Gold. Kristoph Klover and Margaret Davis (McQuillin's literary executors) lent McQuillin's handwritten songs to Robinson, who copied them and sent them to Gold for inclusion. Many other people helped make the McQuillin songbook as complete as possible: the subhead for the songbook reads "all the songs written by Cynthia McQuillin that Dr. James Robinson and Lee Gold and Mary Creasey and Harold Stein and Bob Kanefsky and Alan Thiesen and Margaret Davis and Kristoph Klover could find in 2013."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gold, Lee American science fiction writers Filkers Living people Role-playing game designers Women science fiction and fantasy writers GURPS writers Year of birth missing (living people)