Ulrich Kiesow was one of the co-founders of

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 ...

(FanPro) in 1983, together with

Werner Fuchs Werner Fuchs (25 October 1948 – 11 May 1999) was a German football player and coach. Playing career Fuchs was born in Kaiserslautern. A centre forward, he began his professional career in 1967 with a professional contract at 1. FC Kais ...

and

Hans Joachim Alpers Hans Joachim Alpers (14 July 1943 – 16 February 2011) was a German writer and editor of science fiction and fantasy. Together with Werner Fuchs and Ulrich Kiesow he founded Fantasy Productions, which became one of the premier German RPG- and boa ...

. He was the translator of the first

German language German ( ) is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and Official language, official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Ita ...

editions for both ''

Tunnels & Trolls ''Tunnels & Trolls'' (abbreviated ''T&T'') is a fantasy role-playing game designed by Ken St. Andre and first published in 1975 by Flying Buffalo. The second modern role-playing game published, it was written by Ken St. Andre to be a more accessib ...

'', which was the first German language RPG rule book, and ''

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 ...

''. Most importantly, Kiesow was the creator of the pen and paper

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 ...

The Dark Eye ''The Dark Eye'' (German: ''Das Schwarze Auge'', lit. "The Black Eye") is a German tabletop role-playing game with a high fantasy theme created by Ulrich Kiesow and launched by Schmidt Spiel & Freizeit GmbH and Droemer Knaur Verlag in 1984. ...

'' and its accompanying universe. Besides contributing to many publications regarding this game, Kiesow used the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

''Andreas Blumenkamp'' to write satirical articles for the now defunct German roleplaying game magazine '' Wunderwelten'' that was produced by FanPro. Kiesow suffered a severe heart attack in August 1995. While recovering he began to write the ''Dark Eye'' novel ''Das zerbrochene Rad'' (''The broken wheel'', a symbol for death in the universe of ''The Dark Eye''). The novel had just been completed when Kiesow died of heart failure in his home 30 on January 1997.

References

1949 births 1997 deaths German fantasy writers Role-playing game designers German male writers {{Germany-writer-stub