Ralph Williams, almost always referred to as Skip Williams, is 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 ...

. He is married to Penny Williams, who is also involved with the games industry. He was the co-creator of ''

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 Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

'' 3rd Edition and the longtime author of the "Sage Advice" column for ''

Dragon Magazine Dragon Magazine may refer to: * ''Dragon'' (magazine), an American magazine for ''Dungeons & Dragons'' players * ''Dragon Magazine'' (Fujimi Shobo), a Japanese light novel magazine {{disambig ...

''.

Career

Born in

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Lake Geneva is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located in Walworth County and situated on Geneva Lake, it is home to an estimated 8,105 people as of 2019, up from 7,651 at the 2010 census. It is located about 40 miles southwest of Mil ...

, Williams was informally acquainted with many of the people who developed and influenced the original ''Dungeons & Dragons'' game, going to school with

Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax created an ...

's son Ernie and participating in a gaming group that Gary used to

playtest A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and design flaws before releasing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise, and are very common with board games, collectible card games, ...

some of the ''AD&D'' rules. Williams started out working as a part-time clerk in TSR's Dungeon Hobby Shop in 1976. Williams first worked for TSR in an administrative capacity, working as a cashier, in shipping, and doing various office tasks. Williams directed the

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-playin ...

game fair from 1980-1983. Williams was laid off after a time but continued to work for TSR in a freelance role, performing odd jobs; it was in this circumstance in 1987 that he came to write "Sage Advice" in the pages of ''Dragon'' - Williams recalls that ''Dragon'' editor

Roger E. Moore Roger E. Moore (born July 11, 1955, in Winchester, Kentucky) is a designer of role-playing games. He is best known for his long-running tenure as editor of ''Dragon'' magazine and was the founding editor of ''Dungeon'' magazine. Early life Moor ...

simply couldn't find anyone else willing to regularly write the column. Williams held the position until 2004. In 1989, Williams joined the

RPGA The RPGA (also called the Role Playing Game Association and the RPGA Network at various times), was initially part of the organized play arm of TSR, Inc and later of Wizards of the Coast. From 1980 to 2014, it organized and sanctioned role-playing ...

staff for a few years before becoming a roleplaying game designer for TSR. From 1990 to 1992 he was also Associate Editor of ''

Polyhedron In geometry, a polyhedron (plural polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices. A convex polyhedron is the convex hull of finitely many points, not all o ...

'' magazine. When TSR was purchased by

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidia ...

, he moved from

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. Williams was promoted to Senior Designer, and worked on the 3rd Edition design team with Monte Cook and Jonathan Tweet. Cook, Tweet, and Williams all contributed to the 3rd edition ''

Players Handbook The ''Player's Handbook'' (spelled ''Players Handbook'' in first edition ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons'' (''AD&D'')) is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D''). It does not contain the complete set of ru ...

'', ''

Dungeon Master's Guide The ''Dungeon Master's Guide'' (''DMG'' or ''DM's Guide''; in some printings, the ''Dungeon Masters Guide'' or ''Dungeon Master Guide'') is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game '' Dungeons & Dragons''. The ''Dungeon Master's Guide'' ...

'', and ''

Monster Manual The ''Monster Manual'' (''MM'' is the primary bestiary sourcebook for monsters in the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'' fantasy role-playing game, first published in 1977 by TSR. The ''Monster Manual'' was the first hardcover D&D book and includ ...

'', and then each designer wrote one of the books based on those contributions. Williams also worked on the new edition of the

Forgotten Realms ''Forgotten Realms'' is a campaign setting for the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as ...

campaign setting. Although he was released from Wizards of the Coast in 2002 and has since moved back to Wisconsin, he continued to produce ''D&D'' and d20 material on a freelance basis up until 2005. His publications from this time include "Cry Havoc!" published by Monte Cook's Malhavoc Press and ''

Races of the Wild ''Races of the Wild'' is an optional supplemental source book for the 3.5 edition of the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. Contents ''Races of the Wild'' contains background information on the elves and halflings, introduces a race of w ...

'' from

. He has appeared as the author of the "Ask The Kobold" column for '' Kobold Quarterly''. In 2015, he agreed to write scenarios for the Kickstarter "Dungeon of the Day", a

Megaton Games Megaton may refer to: * A million tons * Megaton TNT equivalent, explosive energy equal to 4.184 petajoules * megatonne, a million tonnes, SI unit of mass Other uses * Olivier Megaton (born 1965), French film director, writer and editor * ''Me ...

production. Williams and his wife Penny live in rural Wisconsin in a century-old farmhouse surrounded by several acres of abandoned farmland.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Skip 20th-century births Living people American game designers Dungeons & Dragons game designers Year of birth missing (living people)