Steve Peterson is an American game designer 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 ...

Career

When

George MacDonald George MacDonald (10 December 1824 – 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author, poet and Christian Congregational minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll. I ...

started work on role-playing games by adding more detailed super powers to

Gamescience Gamescience is an American game company that produces role-playing games and game supplements. History Gamescience Corp. was started by Phillip E. Orbanes in 1965. In that year, the company published the wargame Vietnam which was reviewed in iss ...

's '' Superhero: 2044'' RPG and ultimately creating his own original system, Steve Peterson typed the game up, which eventually became the superhero RPG, '' Champions'' (1981). MacDonald and Peterson had only enough money to print 1,500 copies of the game and hand-collated the pages, and they sold their new game at Pacific Origins 1981; they were surprised to see it sell very well, selling 1,000 of their 1,500 copies at the convention. After this early success, MacDonald and Peterson started

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 ...

as a publishing label. By 1982 MacDonald and Peterson opened up an office and asked player Ray Greer to join them as a partner and to handle marketing and sales. MacDonald and Peterson designed the game ''

Espionage! ''Espionage!'' is a role-playing game published by Hero Games in 1983. Description ''Espionage!'' is a system of modern espionage rules that use the Hero System. The rulebook (64 pages) covers character creation, skills, combat (melee and firearms ...

'' (1983), which was later updated with L. Douglas Garrett as ''

Danger International ''Danger International'' is a role-playing game published by Hero Games in 1985. Description ''Danger International'' is a contemporary adventure system with rules for characters such as spies, detectives, investigative reporters, and paramilitar ...

'' (1985). By 1986, Peterson was working at

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

. Peterson later formed a new company, Hero Software, which licensed ''Champions'' rights from Hero Games. In 1990, Peterson gathered together a group of four designers and programmers as well as a few long-time Hero artists, as well as Hero founder Ray Greer to create a ''Champions'' computer game, but the project was never completed. Peterson was involved, with Ray Greer and Bruce Harlick, in the Hero Games partnership with

R. Talsorian Games R. Talsorian Games (RTG) is a publisher of role-playing game books and accessories. Originally based in Berkeley, California, but moved to Renton, Washington in 1997. Their titles include the ''Cyberpunk 2020'' series and anime-related titles su ...

that began in 1996. Mike Pondsmith of R. Talsorian, and Hero Games owners Peterson and Greer built conversion rules to connect up Interlock and Hero Games, resulting in the Fuzion system. When Cybergames.com acquired Hero Games in 2000, Peterson was hired on as Vice President of Marketing and Product Development.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peterson, Steve Living people Role-playing game designers Year of birth missing (living people)