Speakers

Steve Jackson

Steve Jackson, President of Steve Jackson Games.

Steve Jackson graduated from Rice University in Houston. While there, he spent most of his time playing wargames and working on the student paper, the Thresher (he spent two years as editor). He became a writer and game publisher, proving that college can be very valuable if you don't let classes get in your way. He has survived involvements with the Republican Party (alternate delegate to the 1972 convention, but he got better - he now considers himself a Libertarian), the SCA (former landed baron and National Chronicler) and law school (escaping before the bar exam; game design was more fun).

Steve's first professional design work was for Metagaming, which published his Ogre, G.E.V., Melee, Wizard, and several other games. In 1980, Steve bought The Space Gamer magazine from Metagaming and started his own company. One of his first games, Raid on Iran, was a critical and sales success. The next year, Steve Jackson Games released its first big hit, Car Wars . . . followed shortly by Illuminati, and later by GURPS, the "Generic Universal Roleplaying System."

In 1983, Steve was elected to the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame - the youngest person ever so honored. He now spends far too much time helping to manage Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, which at the moment employs 15 people.

The company made national news in 1990 after the disastrous Secret Service intrusion, which nearly forced the company out of business by seizing hardware and data files. SJ Games filed suit against the Secret Service and the US government, and won more than $50,000 in damages. Steve remains occasionally active with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which works to prevent similar miscarriages of law enforcement. The local group he helped to found, EFF-Austin, has now been subsumed into Electronic Frontiers Texas.

He still writes, when he finds the time. In the 1980s, he tried his hand at interactive books or "game novels" (his first, Scorpion Swamp, was published by Penguin and spent six months on the British children's bestseller list). In 1994, he reworked the old faithful Illuminati to jump on the trading-card bandwagon. INWO (Illuminati: New World Order) became the company's biggest hit yet, and its first million-dollar ship.

In addition to gaming, Steve is a dedicated SF reader and fan, and enjoys attending both gaming and SF conventions. He writes filksongs (adequately) and sings (very badly). He still claims to be working on an interactive computer game about running the Worldcon; the beta-test version has been due Real Soon Now for several years. He is a confirmed computerphile and net addict. His other interests include gardening (especially water gardening), beekeeping, dinosaurs and tropical fish. In his copious free time, he reads, eats and sleeps.

Jim Butler

Jim Butler, President of Bastion Press.

Jim has a degree in both English and Business Management, and he seems to have plenty of opportunity to put both of them to work. He previously worked as store manager of a ComputerLand franchise and managed convenience stores for a number of years as well.

Jim has spent more than 10 years working in the roleplaying game industry, starting with TSR in 1994 as a full-time employee and then transferring to the west coast to work with Wizards of the Coast after their acquisition of TSR in 1997. He's written a number of game products, edited even more, and has spent the last three years or so plotting the course of Third Edition D&D as brand manager for all of the D&D campaign settings (Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Ravenloft, and others). He left in 2001 after managing the licensing relationship for Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro for all of the various D&D computer games. He currently lives in Seattle, Washington with his dog (Storm) and an assortment of colorful characters he calls good friends.

Sean Reynolds

Sean Reynolds, official Forgotten Realms writer.

Well, I grew up in southern California (5 miles from the Pacific and 8 from Mexico), went to college in Riverside (smog capital of the universe), got a bachelor's degree in chemistry, joined the teacher credential program there, and then decided to go work for a CD-ROM/video game company. In 1995 I moved to Wisconsin to be the webmaster/online coordinator for TSR, the makers of the Dungeons & Dragons® game. When TSR was bought by Wizards of the Coast (makers of the Magic: The Gathering® and Pokemon® card games) in 1997, I moved out to their office in Renton, Washington, and took a job in their game design department in the spring of 1998. I was let go in March 2002 (an amiable agreement between myself and WotC, since I was going to be moving out of state soon after).

While I was at WotC, I wrote products for Dungeons & Dragons, Greyhawk, Alternity, Ravenloft, and the Forgotten Realms. My girlfriend lived in Florida until the Fall 1999, but she has now graduated from college with a degree in dance and moved out to Washington. :)

Steve Long

Steven S. Long, HERO System Line Developer.

In addition to being one of the owners of DOJ/Hero, Steve also works for the company as HERO System Line Developer. That means he's the chief creative person - the guy in charge of planning, writing, editing, and developing manuscripts for publication. In addition to doing a lot of writing and design himself, he reviews proposals from hopeful writers, contracts freelancers to write books for Hero, and things like that.

Steve's been involved in the gaming industry for nearly ten years. He got his start right here as a freelancer for Hero Games. He wrote Dark Champions, Justice Not Law, An Eye For An Eye, The Ultimate Martial Artist, The Ultimate Mentalist, Watchers Of The Dragon, and lots of articles for Adventurer's Club, The HERO System Almanacs, and the like. He soon branched out into working for other game companies, such as White Wolf Game Studios.

In 1997, Steve quit his job - he was a practicing trial lawyer - to try game writing and design full-time as a freelancer. Thanks to skill, determination, and luck, he soon had plenty of work. During this time he wrote for lots of companies, including White Wolf, Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Steve Jackson Games, Last Unicorn Games, and Chameleon Eclectic. His work on Last Unicorn's Star Trek RPG lines soon earned him a full-time job with the company as Deep Space Nine RPG Line Developer. He held that job for about fifteen months, until Wizards of the Coast bought LUG. He then became a Designer for WOTC, working on (among other things) the Wheel Of Time RPG.

After leaving WOTC in December 2000, Steve was hired by Decipher, Inc. to work on its new Star Trek and Lord Of The Rings RPGs. He contributed substantial portions of the two Trek core books, but spent most of 2001 writing almost all of the LOTR RPG. (All told, as of late 2001, Steve's written, co-authored, or edited/developed over 70 RPG products.)

After becoming part of the DOJ team of investors that bought the Hero Games assets, Steve's now got his dream job, HERO System Line Developer. It's a lot of work, but no one's heard any complaints out of him. ;)

Steve, who's in his mid-30s, holds down the Hero East office in scenic Greensboro, NC with the help of his cat Osiris, Small Fuzzy Guardian of the Universe. He's a graduate of Duke University and Duke University School of Law (go Blue Devils!). During those rare moments when he's not doing something related to gaming, his hobbies include origami, calligraphy, reading, complaining that all the good women are taken, and being a young curmudgeon.

Shane Lacy Hensley

Shane Lacy Hensley, CEO of Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Inc..

Shane created Deadlands after a long trip back from GenCon in '94. Inspired by a Brom painting of a Confederate vampire (which became the cover to White Wolf Studio's Necropolis: Atlanta), the idea of cowboys and zombies just wouldn't get out of his head.

Shane had written a ton of products for TSR, West End Games, SSI, FASA, and others, and had recently published a set of historical miniatures rules Fields of Honor and John R. Hopler's The Last Crusade under the brand name of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Starting a roleplaying game company was a full-time commitment, however, and Shane knew he'd need help. He first snatched up his longtime friend, John Hopler, then invited help from two of the industry's most-respected freelancers, Matt Forbeck (Brave New World, Wildstorms CCG) and Greg Gorden (TORG, Earthdawn). These two liked the idea so much they wanted in on the company as well. Greg had to move on due to personal reasons, but Matt became PEG's President and was with the company until he created his own game, Brave New World, in 1999.

Shane is 33 years old (though his manitou whispers that he's much older), and is married to Michelle Hensley, one Hell of a cowgirl. They have two sons, Caden Lacy Hensley and Ronan Lacy Hensley. Two dogs also prowl the range near the Hensley homestead, Roadkill and Feebee. You can guess which one he raised.

Elaine Cunningham

The publication of her first book, ELFSHADOW, started Elaine Cunningham on a twelve-year trek through the Forgotten Realms. After a dozen books and about as many short stories, she has become known for her depiction of elves and elf-friends, particularly Arilyn Moonblade, Danilo Thann, Elaith Craulnober, and the drow princess Liriel Baenre. A former music and history teacher, Elaine approaches RPG-related novels as if they were historical fiction. (She considers the fact that this "history" is detailed only in game supplements interesting, but basically irrelevant.) Although most of her stories are set in the Forgotten Realms, she recently ventured into a galaxy far, far away with DARK JOURNEY, book #10 in the Star Wars "New Jedi Order" series. Her next game-related book will be WINDWALKER, the third book in the "Starlight & Shadows" trilogy, the story of Liriel Baenre. Stop by for an informal chat about the Realms, Star Wars, or writing in general.

Matthew Sprange

Mongoose Publishing. After having freelanced for Games Workshop and a number of roleplaying magazines, Matthew decided to take the plunge and start Mongoose Publishing, a determined attempt to demonstrate that the United Kingdom can still produce great RPG material. Over the past two years, Mongoose Publishing has gone from strength to strength, building upon successful lines such as the Slayer's Guides, Encyclopaedia Arcane and Quintessential books, as well as gaining a number of licenced products, including the Judge Dredd and Slaine RPGs. Mongoose Publishing is currently the largest independant d20 publisher in the world.

Matthew is currently playing an incredibly arrogant Sun Elf Noble Paladin in the office campaign but when not roleplaying, he likes to trash other armies in Warhammer 40,000, build radio controlled cars and aircraft, and begin gatghering enough courage to fly his first RC helicopter. . .

Hal Greenberg

The former CEO of Thunderhead Games now the VP of Marketing and Art Director for Mystic Eye Games LLC has ben playing RPG's for over 20 years. Hal has worked from the retail side of RPG's all the way to creating new RPG companies and products. Hal has been instrumental in making Bluffside: City on the Edge one of the most talked about city sourcebooks for any role playing game. He currently is writing for Gaming Frontiers and adds his influence in as many of the Mystic Eye Game products as possible. He has been instrumental in creating "theme boxes" for his adventures as well as coming up with the term "POI" or Place of Interest. Hal is credited for getting Monte Cook, Todd Lockwood and Jason Engle amongst others to have participated in some aspect of making MEG one of the top producing d20 companies.

Speaker Information

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