Richard "Rich" Dansky is a writer and a designer of both

computer games A personal computer game, also known as a PC game or computer game, is a type of video game played on a personal computer (PC) rather than a video game console or arcade machine. Its defining characteristics include: more diverse and user-deter ...

and role-playing games.

Early life and education

In the late 1980s and early 1990s Dansky attended

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

in Middletown, Connecticut.

Personal life

Dansky is an enthusiast of cryptids, and in particular of Sasquatch or Bigfoot. He lives in North Carolina "with an ever-changing number of bottles of single malt scotch and a cat named Goblin". He swears she was named that when he got her.

Career

Richard Dansky worked for four years as a game developer for

White Wolf, Inc. White Wolf Publishing was an American roleplaying game and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant

where he worked on games such as '' Wraith: The Oblivion'' and '' Vampire: The Dark Ages''. He also worked on the '' Mind's Eye Theatre'', '' Kindred of the East'', and ''

Orpheus Orpheus (; Ancient Greek: Ὀρφεύς, classical pronunciation: ; french: Orphée) is a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jaso ...

'' game lines. He has written, designed, or otherwise contributed to over a hundred role-playing sourcebooks. He is also credited with creating the humorous

t-shirt A T-shirt (also spelled tee shirt), or tee, is a style of fabric shirt named after the T shape of its body and sleeves. Traditionally, it has short sleeves and a round neckline, known as a ''crew neck'', which lacks a collar. T-shirts are general ...

which reads "Don't Tell Me About Your Character", a reference to the habit many role-playing game enthusiasts have of talking at length about their

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

s. His writing has also appeared in sources such as the '' Green Man Review'' and ''

Lovecraft Studies Lovecraft studies is the body of research that has emerged surrounding the works of H. P. Lovecraft. It began with the dissemination of Lovecraft's works by Arkham House during the decades after his death. The scholars in the field sought to establi ...

''. He lives in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

where he works for Red Storm Entertainment as "Manager of Design" as well as serving as "Central Clancy Writer" for

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', '' ...

. He has contributed to video games in series including '' Splinter Cell: Double Agent'' and '' Rainbow Six: Black Arrow''. He also contributed to ''

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon ''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon'' is a series of military tactical shooter video games published by Ubisoft. In the series, the player is in charge of a fictional, newly conceived squad of U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers from Delta Company, 1st Ba ...

'', '' Far Cry'', and ''

Blazing Angels ''Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII'' is a flight combat video game for Microsoft Windows, Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii. It was developed by Ubisoft Bucharest during the second fiscal quarter of 2006 for both the North American and Europe ...

'', as well as helping to design the setting for the new '' Might and Magic'' universe. Dansky has published four media tie-in novels through White Wolf, including ''Clan Novel Lasombra'' and the ''Trilogy of the Second Age'' for ''

Exalted ''Exalted'' is a high fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally published by White Wolf Publishing in July 2001. The game is currently in its third edition. It was originally created by Robert Hatch, Justin Achilli and Stephan Wieck, and wa ...

''. His original fiction includes the novella ''Shadows In Green'' (Yard Dog Press, 2013); the novels ''Firefly Rain'' (Wizards of the Coast Discoveries, 2008), ''Vaporware'' (JournalStone, 2013), and ''Ghost of a Marriage'' (Crossroad Press, 2022); and the short story collection ''Snowbird Gothic'' (Crossroad Press, 2018). A former executive of the IGDA Game Writing Special Interest Group, he serves on the advisory board on the Game Narrative Summit at GDC. In 2007 he contributed the opening chapter to ''Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames'' alongside other members of the IGDA Game Writing SIG. His namesake, ''Rich Dansky'', appears as a

in the scenario "And I Feel Fine," by Geoffrey C. Grabowski, which was published in the ''One Shots'' sourcebook for ''

Unknown Armies ''Unknown Armies'' is an occult-themed roleplaying game by John Scott Tynes and Greg Stolze, published by Atlas Games. The first edition was published in 1998, with the second and third editions being released in 2002 and 2017 respectively. The ...

''. The fictional version of Dansky is described as "a bohemian academic living the simple life of a

trailer park A trailer park,caravan park, mobile home park, mobile home community or manufactured home community is a temporary or permanent area for mobile homes and travel trailers. Advantages include low cost compared to other housing, and quick and eas ...

manager." Another role-playing game author,

Jenna K. Moran Jenna Katerin Moran, previously known as Rebecca Sean Borgstrom and in early publications credited as R. Sean Borgstrom, is an American role-playing game (RPG) writer and designer, and novelist. Early life While in high school, Moran began to play ...

also appears as a player character in the same scenario.

References

External links

Interview with the Deadguy
retrieved August 23, 2005.
Interview at FlamesRising

''orycon.org''. retrieved August 23, 2005.
Richard Dansky's bio
at Red Storm Entertainment. retrieved August 23, 2005
Pen & Paper listing for Richard Dansky

Richard Dansky's web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dansky, Richard American video game designers Living people Role-playing game designers Video game writers Wesleyan University alumni Year of birth missing (living people)