Stephen Herbert Perrin (January 22, 1946 – August 13, 2021) was 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 ...

and

technical writer A technical writer is a professional information communicator whose task is to transfer information between two or more parties, through any medium that best facilitates the transfer and comprehension of the information. Technical writers researc ...

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

, best known for creating the

tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (typically abbreviated as TRPG or TTRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech. Participa ...

RuneQuest ''RuneQuest'' (commonly abbreviated as RQ) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson (game designer), Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of ...

'' for

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'' ...

Early life and education

Perrin earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

. In 1966, Perrin was a founding member of the

Society for Creative Anachronism The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) is an international living history group with the aim of studying and recreating mainly Medieval European cultures and their histories before the 17th century. A quip often used within the SCA describes ...

(SCA).

Early career and Chaosium

One of his first contributions to the world of RPGs was "The Perrin Conventions" in 1976, a set of alternative rules for ''

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 TSR (company)#Tactical Studies Rules ...

'' combat, which led to his work on ''RuneQuest''. Perrin was interested in getting more involved with the RPG industry, and with Jeff Pimper he talked with Chaosium about publishing a ''D&D''-based monster manual, which they called '' All the Worlds' Monsters'' (1977), which beat TSR's ''

Monster Manual The ''Monster Manual'' (''MM'' is the primary bestiary sourcebook for Monsters in Dungeons & Dragons, monsters in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'' fantasy role-playing game, first published in 1977 by TSR (company), TSR. The ''Monster Manual' ...

'' to market. Perrin - along with Steve Henderson and Warren James - began working on an idea for an original gaming system for

Glorantha Glorantha is a fantasy world created by Greg Stafford. It was first introduced in the board game '' White Bear and Red Moon'' (1975) by Chaosium and then in a number of other board, roleplaying and computer games, including ''RuneQuest'' and ''He ...

, and were soon joined by Ray Turney from the original failed design team; this was finally published in 1978 as ''

''. Perrin officially joined Chaosium in 1981, although he just stayed a few years. He was one of several authors who contributed to ''

Thieves' World Thieves' World is a shared universe, shared world fantasy series created by Robert Asprin, Robert Lynn Asprin in 1978. The original series comprised twelve anthologies, including stories by science fiction authors Poul Anderson, John Brunner (n ...

'' (1981). Perrin's '' Worlds of Wonder'' (1982) was the third release under Chaosium's ''

Basic Role-Playing ''Basic Role-Playing'' (''BRP'') is a tabletop role-playing game which originated in the ''RuneQuest'' fantasy role-playing game. Chaosium released the ''BRP'' standalone booklet in 1980 in the boxed set release of the second edition of ''RuneQu ...

'' system (''BRP''). ''

Superworld ''Superworld'' is a superhero-themed role-playing game published by Chaosium in 1983 that uses the generic ''Basic Role-Playing'' rules system. The game began as just one part of the '' Worlds of Wonder'' product before being published as a stand ...

'', one of ''Worlds of Wonders worlds, became its own game, although it was only moderately successful and Perrin later acknowledged that it was too similar to

Hero Games Hero Games (''DOJ, Inc dba Hero Games'') is the publisher of the Hero System, a generic roleplaying rules set that can be used to simulate many different genres, and was the co-developer of the ''Fuzion'' system. History In 1981, George MacDon ...

' ''

Champions A champion (from the late Latin ''campio'') is the Victory, victor in a challenge, Competition, contest or competition. There can be a territorial pyramid of championships, e.g. local, regional / provincial, state, national, continental and w ...

''. In 1984 he wrote the ''BRP'' based '' Elfquest'', based on the '' Elfquest'' comic book. While at Chaosium he also created ''

Stormbringer Stormbringer is a magic sword featured in a number of fantasy stories by the author Michael Moorcock. It is described as a huge, black sword covered with strange runes, created by the forces of Chaos with its own will. It is wielded by the doo ...

'', and contributed to '' Call of Cthulhu''.

Later career

published its sixth RPG, ''

Robot Warriors ''Robot Warriors'' is a role-playing game published by Hero Games in 1986. Description ''Robot Warriors'' is a system of science-fiction mecha, giant-robot rules, based on the Hero System. The rulebook covers robot construction and battle rules, ...

'' (1986), by Perrin. He also wrote the 1987 ''

'' role-playing game supplement ''The Voice of Doom''. He worked at

Interplay Productions Interplay Entertainment Corp. is an American video game developer and Video game publisher, publisher based in Los Angeles. The company was founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by developers Brian Fargo, Jay Patel, Troy Worrell, and Rebecca ...

Maxis Maxis is an American video game developer and a Division (business), division of Electronic Arts (EA). The studio was founded in 1987 by Will Wright (game designer), Will Wright and Jeff Braun, and acquired by Electronic Arts, EA in 1997. Maxi ...

, and Spectrum Holobyte, doing game design, playtesting, and writing manuals for such

computer games A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-deter ...

as '' Mechanized Assault & Exploration'', '' Star Trek: Starfleet Academy'', and ''

Descent to Undermountain ''Descent to Undermountain'' is a role-playing video game developed and published by Interplay in 1998. Based on the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' setting of Undermountain in the Forgotten Realms, it casts the player as an adventurer out to explore th ...

''. He has also worked freelance for many of the major players in the games industry including TSR,

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 ...

West End Games West End Games (WEG) was a company that made Board game, board, Role-playing game, role-playing, and wargaming, war games. It was founded by Daniel Scott Palter in 1974 in New York City, but later moved to Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Its product line ...

, and

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 ...

. '' Steve Perrin's Quest Rules'' (SPQR) was sold independently through Chaos Limited. In 2004, he collaborated with Taldren on ''

Black 9 Ops Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have ...

'', which Perrin decided to make available for free. In 2010, Perrin began creating PDF adventures for the games ''Icons'' and ''

Mutants & Masterminds ''Mutants & Masterminds'' (abbreviated "M&M" or "MnM") is a superhero role-playing game written by Steve Kenson and published by Green Ronin Publishing based on a variant of the d20 System by Wizards of the Coast. The game system is designed to ...

'', and completed several scenarios for Vigilance Press and Fainting Goat Press. In 2019, he returned to Chaosium as a creative consultant. In 2020, he contributed to the ''

Wild Cards ''Wild Cards'' is a series of science fiction superhero shared universe anthologies, mosaic novels, and solo novels. They are written by a collection of more than forty authors (referred to as the "Wild Cards Trust") and are edited by George R. ...

'' novel ''American Hero''. On August 13, 2021, Chaosium announced Perrin's death.

References

External links

''Steve Perrin's Worlds of Wonder'', Steve Perrin's personal website

''The Perrin Conventions''

Steve Perrin
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

Advanced Designers & Dragons #54: Giants of the Industry: Steve Perrin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perrin, Steve 1946 births 2021 deaths American video game designers Chaosium game designers Dungeons & Dragons game designers