Chris Avellone is an American

video game designer Video game design is the process of designing the content and rules of video games in the pre-production stage and designing the gameplay, environment, storyline and characters in the production stage. Some common video game design subdiscipline ...

and

comic book writer A script is a document describing the narrative and dialogue of a comic book in detail. It is the comic book equivalent of a Television, television program teleplay or a film screenplay. In comics, a script may be preceded by a plot outline, and ...

. He worked for Interplay and

Obsidian Entertainment Obsidian Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Irvine, California. It was founded in June 2003, shortly before the closure of Black Isle Studios, by ex-Black Isle employees Feargus Urquhart, Chris Avellone, Chris Par ...

before working as a freelancer. He is best known for his work on role-playing video games such as '' Planescape: Torment'' and the ''

Fallout Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...

'' series.

Biography

Avellone is an alumnus of the

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (also known as TJHSST, TJ, or Jefferson) is a Virginia state-chartered magnet high school in Fairfax County, Virginia operated by Fairfax County Public Schools. The school occupies the buil ...

in Fairfax County, Virginia. He studied at the

College of William & Mary The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William I ...

, graduating with a major in English and a minor in fine arts, focused on architecture. Working initially as a freelancer in the two years after college, Avellone wrote campaigns 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 Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (TS ...

''-inspired

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and d ...

role-playing games. After entering the video game industry through the company Interplay in 1995, he briefly worked on the development of the 1997 title '' Star Trek: Starfleet Academy''. In 1997 he took over the development of ''

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 ...

'', which he later called a disappointment. Avellone contributed to the 1998 game ''

Fallout 2 ''Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game'' is a 1998 role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Productions. It is a sequel to ''Fallout'' (1997), featuring similar graphics and game mechanics. The ...

'' and continued to work on its franchise. Interplay acquired the rights to produce a role-playing video game set in the ''

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 de ...

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 c ...

with development led by Avellone. The game, '' Planescape: Torment'' was released in 1999 and is frequently cited as among the best-written games in history. Avellone worked on all the games of the ''

Icewind Dale ''Icewind Dale'' is a role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios and originally published by Interplay Entertainment for Windows in 2000 and by MacPlay for the Macintosh in 2002 (both the Classic Mac OS and OS X). The game takes pl ...

'' series, which were released from 2000 to 2002. As a designer, Avellone contributed to the fantasy titles '' Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance'' (2001), ''

Champions of Norrath ''Champions of Norrath: Realms of EverQuest'' is an action role-playing video game for the PlayStation 2, set in the ''EverQuest'' universe. The game is playable with one single player or cooperative for up to four players. However, with a Networ ...

'' (2004) and led the design of the canceled ''Fallout'' title ''Van Buren'', after which he resigned from Interplay and co-founded

. For the company, Avellone worked on the role-playing games '' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II'' (2004) and ''

Neverwinter Nights 2 ''Neverwinter Nights 2'' is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Atari Interactive. It is the sequel to BioWare's ''Neverwinter Nights (2002 video game), Neverwinter Nights'', based on the ''Dungeons & ...

'' (2006) and on the action role-playing game ''

Alpha Protocol ''Alpha Protocol'' is a 2010 action role-playing game developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Sega. The player assumes control of agent Michael Thorton, a new recruit at a clandestine United States agency called Alpha Protocol, whic ...

''. He also worked as a senior designer on '' Fallout: New Vegas''. He worked as the project director and lead creative designer on ''Dead Money'', ''Old World Blues'' and ''Lonesome Road'' ''Fallout: New Vegas''

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...

. Avellone worked as a narrative designer on '' Pillars of Eternity'' prior to leaving

in June 2015. Avellone has since worked as a freelancer on games such as '' Pillars of Eternity'', '' Torment: Tides of Numenera'', ''

Prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

'', '' Divinity: Original Sin II'', '' Pathfinder: Kingmaker'', and ''

Into the Breach ''Into the Breach'' is a turn-based strategy video game developed and published by indie studio Subset Games, consisting of Justin Ma and Matthew Davis. ''Into the Breach'' is their second game, following '' FTL: Faster Than Light''. It feature ...

''. In June 2020, Avellone was accused by three people of using his status for sexual misconduct and harassment towards women during industry conventions. Following these

allegation In law, an allegation is a claim of an unproven fact by a party in a pleading, charge, or defense. Until they can be proved, allegations remain merely assertions.

Techland Techland S.A. is a Polish video game developer and publisher founded in 1991 by Paweł Marchewka. It developed ''Call of Juarez'' (2006) and its prequel '' Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood'' (2009), as well as ''Dead Island'' (2011) and '' Dying ...

announced that they and Avellone agreed to end his work on ''

Dying Light 2 ''Dying Light 2: Stay Human'' is a 2022 action role-playing game developed and published by Techland. The sequel to '' Dying Light'' (2015), the game was released on February 4, 2022, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox ...

''. Gato Studios also removed Avellone from '' The Waylanders''; according to lead writer Emily Grace Buck, Avellone had "very little writing" over that project, having only penned a few quests that they planned to rewrite.

Paradox Interactive Paradox Interactive AB is a video game publisher based in Stockholm, Sweden. The company started out as the video game division of Target Games and then Paradox Entertainment (now Cabinet Entertainment) before being spun out into an independen ...

said that while Avellone had worked on an early version of '' Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2'', much of his work had since been overwritten. Avellone published a denial of the allegations through ''

Medium Medium may refer to: Science and technology Aviation *Medium bomber, a class of war plane *Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design Communication * Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data * Medium of ...

'' in June 2021 and stated he had filed a libel suit against his accusers in a California court.

Works

Video games

Comic books

''Star Wars'' comics: *''Unseen, Unheard'' (2005) *''Heroes on Both Sides'' (2006) *''Impregnable'' (2007) *''Old Scores'' (2007) *''Graduation Day'' (2007) ''Fallout'' comics: * ''Fallout: New Vegas, All Roads'' (2010, part of the '' Fallout: New Vegas'' collector's edition)

Fiction

* ''The House of Wael'' (2016, to ''Pillars of Eternity'' Kickstarter backers)

Tabletop role-playing game modules

* ''The Puzzle Box'' (2020, to ''Pathfinder: Kingmaker'' Kickstarter backers) * ''Dystopia'' (1994, ''Champions'' module published by

Atlas Games Atlas Games is a company which publishes role-playing games, board games and card games. Its founder and current president is John Nephew. History When Atlas Games did not have the finances to publish '' On the Edge'' (1994), they partnered with J ...

)

References

External links

*
The Guardian interview with Chris Avellone

SugarBombed interview with Chris Avellone (part 1).Chris Avellone Interview
wit
Scripts & Scribes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Avellone, Chris American comics writers American video game designers American writers of Italian descent Black Isle Studios Dungeons & Dragons video game designers Fallout (series) developers Interplay Entertainment people Living people Obsidian Entertainment people Place of birth missing (living people) Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic developers Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology alumni Video game writers Year of birth missing (living people)