Timothy Brown (game Designer)
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Timothy B. Brown 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 ...
, primarily of
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. He has been a designer at
Game Designers' Workshop Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) was a wargame and role-playing game publisher from 1973 to 1996. Many of their games are now carried by other publishers. History Game Designers' Workshop was originally established June 22, 1973. The founding m ...
, an editor at '' Challenge'' magazine, and the director of product development at TSR.


Career


GDW

Marc Miller,
Frank Chadwick Frank Chadwick is an American multiple-award-winning game designer and ''New York Times'' best selling author. He has designed hundreds of games, his most notable being the role-playing games ''En Garde!'', '' Space: 1889'' and ''Twilight 2000' ...
, Lester Smith, and Timothy Brown of GDW designed the new game '' Traveller: 2300'' (1986) as an expansion of the original '' Traveller'' role-playing game.Official Price Guide to Role Playing Games
/ref> Brown also designed the Gamer's Choice Award-winning ''Star Cruiser'' board game. Brown served as editor of GDW's '' Challenge'' magazine.


TSR

Brown went to TSR in 1989, where he eventually became Director of Game Development. Brown was TSR's director of product development from 1991-1995, and oversaw the creation of their
Ravenloft Ravenloft is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' roleplaying game. It is an alternate time-space existence known as a ''Demiplane, pocket dimension'' or demiplane, called the Demiplane of Dread, which consists of a collection of la ...
and
Planescape ''Planescape'' is a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game, designed by Zeb Cook, and published in 1994. It crosses numerous planes of existence, encompassing an entire cosmology called the Great Wheel, as dev ...
game lines, among many other titles. Brown co-created the ''
AD&D In insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) is a policy that pays benefits to the beneficiary if the cause of death is an accident. This is a limited form of life insurance which is generally less expensive, or in some cases is an add ...
''
Dark Sun ''Dark Sun'' is an original ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (D&D) campaign setting set in the fictional, post-apocalyptic desert world of Athas. ''Dark Sun'' featured an innovative metaplot, influential art work, dark themes, and a genre-bending take o ...
setting with
Troy Denning Troy Denning is an American fantasy and science fiction author and game designer who has written more than two dozen novels. Background Denning grew up in the mountain town of Idaho Springs, Colorado. An avid reader of science fiction and fant ...
and
Mary Kirchoff Mary L. Kirchoff is an American author of fantasy and young adult novels. Biography Kirchoff was born and raised in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the city where the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game was invented. "I went to school with Ernie G ...
. Brown and Denning led the project, alongside fiction editor Kirchoff, and they were soon joined by artist Brom, who contributed the unique illustrations that helped set Dark Sun apart from the other TSR settings, making Dark Sun the first of TSR's world designs with a more artistic sensibility. Brown and Denning also put together the 1991 ''D&D'' "black box" set, which became a top-seller for TSR, selling half a million copies in the next six years. Brown contributed to the design of ''
Spellfire ''Spellfire: Master the Magic'' is an out-of-print collectible card game (CCG) created by TSR, Inc. and based on their popular ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role playing game. The game appeared first in April 1994, shortly after the introduction of ...
''.


After TSR

Brown later went on to found Destination Games and work with
Imperium Games Imperium Games was an American game company that produced role-playing games and game supplements. History Marc W. Miller partnered with Sweetpea Entertainment to license his science-fiction property '' Traveller'' in exchange for funding to ...
. Destination Games produced ''
Chaos Progenitus Demon Dice, originally published as Chaos Progenitus, is a collectible dice game for two or more players created by Lester Smith (game designer), Lester Smith (designer of the better-known Dragon Dice) and Tim Brown. Publication history The origi ...
'' dice game (1996) and ''Pulp Dungeons: Uninvited Guests'' (1997) authored by
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 ...
. For Imperium's fourth edition of ''Traveller'' (also called ''Marc Miller's Traveller'' or ''T4'') published in 1996, the designers worked on distinct parts of the rules, with Brown writing about aliens. Sweetpea Entertainment bought out the stock of the many creators who had worked on ''T4'' and took over some of the day-to-day operations of the company; Brown took the helm of Imperium Games under Sweetpea's guidance, and was now the only official staff for Imperium, with others acting as freelancers. Brown,
James Ward James Ward may refer to: Military *James Ward (Medal of Honor, 1864) (1833–?), American Civil War sailor * James Ward (Medal of Honor, 1890) (1854–1901), American Indian Wars soldier *James Allen Ward (1919–1941), New Zealand pilot and Vi ...
, Lester Smith,
John Danovich John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...
, and Sean Everette founded the short-lived d20 company
Fast Forward Entertainment Fast or FAST may refer to: * Fast (noun), high speed or velocity * Fast (noun, verb), to practice fasting, abstaining from food and/or water for a certain period of time Acronyms and coded Computing and software * ''Faceted Application of Subje ...
(circa 2001-2005). Brown also contributed to the designs of '' The Wheel of Time Collectible Card Game'' (1999) and the ''
Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game ''Dragon Ball Z Trading Card Game'' (originally the ''Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game'' and the ''Dragon Ball GT Trading Card Game'') is an out-of-print trading card game based on the Dragon Ball series created by Akira Toriyama. The game was ...
'' (2000).


Bibliography

* *Dark Knight of Karameikos (1995) *Dark Sun:
Campaign Setting A campaign setting is usually a fictional world which serves as a setting for a role-playing game or wargame campaign. A ''campaign'' is a series of individual adventures, and a ''campaign setting'' is the world in which such adventures and ca ...
(Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition) by Timothy B. Brown and Troy Denning (1991) *Dark Sun:
Dragon Kings The Dragon King, also known as the Dragon God, is a Chinese water and weather god. He is regarded as the dispenser of rain, commanding over all bodies of water. He is the collective personification of the ancient concept of the '' lóng'' in Ch ...
(2nd Edition) by Timothy B. Brown (1992) *Wondrous Items Of Power by Karen; Brown, Timothy; Ward, James M. Edited by Boomgaarden (2002) *2300 AD - Man's Battle For The Stars
OX SET An ox ( : oxen, ), also known as a bullock (in BrE, AusE, and IndE), is a male bovine trained and used as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration inhibits testosterone and aggression, which makes the m ...
by Marc Miller, Timothy B. Brown,
Lester W. Smith Lester W. Smith is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Early work and GDW Lester Smith began his game-design career in 1984 with ''Mind Duel'', a science-fiction board game submission to ''Space Gamer'' mag ...
, and Frank Chadwick (1988) *Official Price Guide to Role Playing Games by Timothy Brown and Tony Lee (1998) *Green Races by Timothy Brown and James A. Ward (2002) *Advanced Dungeons & Dragons : Dark Sun, The Wanderer's Journal by Troy Denning and Timothy B. Brown (1991)


Dungeons & Dragons novels

*'' Dark Knight of Karameikos'' (1995)


Personal life

Brown is an accomplished
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
player and teacher.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Timothy 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists American fantasy writers American male novelists Dungeons & Dragons game designers Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)