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 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.
Career
Randall N. Bills had been a fan of ''
Battletech
''BattleTech'' is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2001, which was in turn acquired by Topps in 2003; and published since 2007 by Catalyst Game Labs. The trademark ...
'' back in the early 1990s when he met then-line-developer Bryan Nystul 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 ...
27 over an all-night game of ''The Succession Wars'' (1987). During the next year and a half, Bills had gotten to know some of the
FASA
Fasa ( fa, فسا, Fasā, also Romanized as Fassa) is a city and capital of Fasa County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 110,825, in 33,379 families. Fasa is the fourth most populous city of the province. The city date ...
staff better, even touring their Chicago headquarters, while simultaneously writing for the fan club's ''Mechwarrior Quarterly''. When FASA had an assistant developer job open up in late 1995, they had made sure Bills got the invitation and eventually hired him. By 2000, Bills had become the ''Battletech'' Line Developer. In the meantime Bills had also begun writing ''Battletech'' fiction, and produced two novels for the original era of the game: ''Path of Glory'' (2000) and ''Imminent Crisis'' (2002). After FASA, Bills went to work for WizKids. When WizKids acquired the rights to the future of the BattleTech Franchise (re-christened as MechWarrior), they approached several of the established BattleTech authors including Bills and
Michael A. Stackpole
Michael Austin Stackpole (born November 27, 1957) is an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his '' Star Wars'' and ''BattleTech'' books. He was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, but raised in Vermont. He has a BA in history from ...
to resurrect the novel franchise. In 2001, FanPro LLC hired Bills to continue with his job as ''Battletech'' Line Editor; that made Bills FanPro LLC's second and only other employee. FanPro continued on with the ''Battletech'' line for the next few years, all under Bills' guidance.
Bills heard about Loren L. Coleman's idea for a new business, and in 2003 Coleman created the company
InMediaRes Productions
InMediaRes Productions, LLC is an American game company that produces role-playing games and game supplements.
History
In 2003, Loren L. Coleman created the company InMediaRes Productions, which he founded with Heather Coleman, Randall Bills, ...
to hold his vision, which he founded with Heather Coleman, Randall Bills, Tara Bills, and
Philip DeLuca
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
. InMediaRes kicked things off with the fiction of founders Bills and Coleman. Bills continued working at WizKids through 2004. In 2007,
Rob Boyle
Robert Boyle is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Career
Rob Boyle had been an editor at FASA during its waning days, and decided not to go over to WizKids when the new company was forming, as he knew that they wo ...
and Bills tried to buy FanPro LLC from
Fantasy Productions
Fantasy Productions Medienvertriebsgesellschaft GmbH (a.k.a. FanPro) is a German publishing company based in Erkrath.
History
The company was founded in 1983 by Ulrich Kiesow, Werner Fuchs and Hans Joachim Alpers to produce small metal miniatu ...
and when that did not work out they threatened to leave and implied that they would be bidding for the WizKids licenses, which were just coming up for renewal. WizKids stepped in to mediate; although they were not willing to let Boyle and Bills create a new company, they were willing to give the licenses to
InMediaRes
InMediaRes Productions, LLC is an American game company that produces role-playing games and game supplements.
History
In 2003, Loren L. Coleman created the company InMediaRes Productions, which he founded with Heather Coleman, Randall Bills, ...
. After acquiring the rights to ''
Shadowrun
''Shadowrun'' is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game set in an alternate future in which cybernetics, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime, with occasional elements of conspir ...
'' and ''Battletech'', InMediaRes took on Boyle and Bills as regular staff – which had been part of the agreement with WizKids; Boyle remained as the ''Shadowrun'' Line Editor for the next few years, while Bills became a managing director of InMediaRes (with Herb Beas taking over as ''Battletech'' Line Director). InMediaRes created the subsidiary
Catalyst Game Labs
Catalyst Game Labs (CGL) was created in May 2007 by InMediaRes Productions, LLC for the purpose of publishing print ''Shadowrun'' and ''Classic BattleTech'' sourcebooks. At the end of 2009, Catalyst did a financial audit and discovered that a substantial amount of money had gone missing; Bills would later explain the losses by saying that the audit had discovered that a "co-mingling of funds between the personal and business had occurred involving the company's primary shareholders".