Sandy Petersen | |
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Born | Carl Sanford Joslyn Petersen September 16, 1955 |
Occupation | Game designer |
Carl Sanford Joslyn "Sandy" Petersen (born September 16, 1955) is an American game designer. He worked at Chaosium, contributing to the development of RuneQuest and creating the acclaimed and influential horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. He later joined id Software where he worked on the development of the Doom franchise and Quake. As part of Ensemble Studios, Petersen subsequently contributed to the Age of Empires franchise.
Petersen was born in St. Louis, Missouri and developed a love for dinosaurs at age 3. He studied paleontology in college and later attended University of California, Berkeley, majoring in zoology. [1]
He became a full-time staff member at Chaosium. [2] His interest for role-playing games and H. P. Lovecraft were fused when he became principal author of Chaosium's game Call of Cthulhu , published 1981, [3] and many scenarios and background pieces thereafter. [4]
He authored several critically acclaimed RuneQuest supplements for Avalon Hill and Games Workshop. [4] Petersen served as co-designer for West End Games's Ghostbusters role-playing game. [4]
He worked some time for MicroProse, where he is credited for work on Sid Meier's Pirates! and Sword of the Samurai . [4] Between 1989 and 1992 he worked on the video games Darklands , Hyperspeed , and Lightspeed . He made some contributions to Civilization .[ citation needed ] Petersen was laid off in 1992 and was jobless for 5 months. He considered that period as one of the worst times of his life. [5]
He left id Software for Ensemble Studios in June 1997. [6] There, he worked as a game designer on several of their Age of Empires titles, including Rise of Rome , Age of Kings , and The Conquerors . [4] During this time, he was a frequent poster on the HeavenGames forums under the username ES_Sandyman. He ran a popular series of threads, "Ask Sandyman", where forum members could ask him about anything they wanted. [7]
Petersen was the executive producer for the 2011 film The Whisperer in Darkness which was nominated for awards at the Chicago International Film Festival and Warsaw International Film Festival. It was produced by H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society Motion Pictures in the style of a 1930s black and white horror film.[ citation needed ]
In April 2011 [8] he served as the publisher of horror magazine Arcane: Penny Dreadfuls for the 21st Century. [9]
Petersen took a professorship at The Guildhall at SMU in 2009 following the closure of Ensemble Studios, where he taught several courses on game design. [10]
Petersen worked at Barking Lizards Technologies as their creative director, after leaving The Guildhall, and worked on their iOS release Osiris Legends .[ citation needed ]
In mid-2013 Petersen led a successful Kickstarter campaign by his company, Green Eye Games, to produce the boardgame Cthulhu Wars. Over US$1,400,000 was raised achieving over 3,500% of the initial target. This success allowed the creation of more figures (60), map expansions and additional scenario options. [11] Green Eye Games also produced the unsuccessful kickstarter Cthulhu World Combat (iOS, Android, Windows, PSN, Xbox Live). [12] [13] [14]
In June 2015, it was announced that Petersen and Greg Stafford returned to Chaosium Inc. [15] Petersen retired from the board in 2019, but continues to do occasional freelance work for the company. [16]
Petersen is a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but sees no conflict between his faith and his design of games involving Satanic elements. While working on Doom, he said to John Romero, "I have no problems with the demons in the game. They're just cartoons. And, anyway, they're the bad guys." [17]
Sandy is married, has five children, and 15 grandchildren.
Year | Title | Developer | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1989 | Sid Meier's Pirates! | MicroProse | Atari ST version |
1990 | Lightspeed | ||
1991 | Civilization (1991) | ||
Hyperspeed | |||
1992 | Darklands | ||
1993 | Doom | id Software | |
1994 | Doom II: Hell on Earth | ||
1995 | The Ultimate Doom | ||
1996 | Quake | ||
Hexen: Beyond Heretic | Raven Software | Sega Saturn version | |
Final Doom | TeamTNT | ||
1997 | Quake II | id Software | Uncredited |
Age of Empires | Ensemble Studios | ||
1998 | Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome | ||
1999 | Age of Empires II | ||
2000 | Age of Empires II: The Conquerors | ||
2005 | Age of Empires III | ||
2006 | Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs | ||
2009 | Halo Wars | ||
2011 | Osiris Legends | Barking Lizard Studios |
Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos. The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium; it was first released in 1981 and is in its seventh edition, with licensed foreign language editions available as well. Its game system is based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (BRP) with additions for the horror genre. These include special rules for sanity and luck.
Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include Call of Cthulhu, based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft, RuneQuest Glorantha, Pendragon, based on Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and 7th Sea, "swashbuckling and sorcery" set in a fantasy 17th century Europe.
RuneQuest is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. It was first published in 1978 by The Chaosium. Beginning in 1984, publication passed between a number of companies, including Avalon Hill, Mongoose Publishing, and The Design Mechanism, before finally returning to Chaosium in 2016. RuneQuest is notable for its system, designed around percentile dice and an early implementation of skill rules, which became the basis for numerous other games. There have been several editions of the game.
Cthulhu is a cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was introduced in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pantheon of Lovecraftian cosmic entities, this creature has since been featured in numerous popular culture references. Lovecraft depicts it as a gigantic entity worshipped by cultists, in the shape of a green octopus, dragon, and a caricature of human form. The Lovecraft-inspired universe, the Cthulhu Mythos, where it exists with its fellow entities, is named after it.
Call of Cthulhu may refer to:
Francis Gregory Stafford was an American game designer, publisher, and practitioner of shamanism.
Cthulhu Live is a live-action roleplaying game (LARP) version of the popular horror roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu, based on the works of horror author H. P. Lovecraft.
Lynn Willis was a wargame and role-playing game designer, best known for his work with Metagaming Concepts, Game Designers' Workshop (GDW), and Chaosium.
Jennell Allyn Jaquays was an American game designer, video game artist, and illustrator of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs). Her notable works include the Dungeons & Dragons modules Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia for Judges Guild; the development and design of conversions on games such as Pac-Man and Donkey Kong for Coleco's home arcade video game system; and more recent design work, including the Age of Empires series, Quake II, and Quake III Arena. One of her best known works as a fantasy artist is the cover illustration for TSR's Dragon Mountain adventure.
H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands is a fantasy tabletop role-playing supplement published by Chaosium in 1986 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu that features six adventures set in the world of H.P. Lovecraft's Dream cycle stories. There have been 5 editions.
S. Petersen's Field Guide to Creatures of the Dreamlands is a supplement published by Chaosium in 1989 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. It features creatures from the world of H.P. Lovecraft's Dream cycle stories.
The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep is an adventure campaign published by Chaosium in 1996 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu; it is the third edition of the adventure campaign Masks of Nyarlathotep originally published in 1984. It is a series of several sequential adventures set in the 1920s that take the player characters from New York, to London, Cairo, Nairobi, and Shanghai as they deal with the threat of the god Nyarlathotep. The Complete Masks of Nyarlathotep is a revised and expanded version of the original adventure scenario with additional material by new authors. It won an Origins Award and received positive reviews in game periodicals including Arcane and Dragon.
Cthulhu Now is a supplement published by Chaosium in 1987 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
Dorastor: Land of Doom is a 1993 tabletop role-playing game supplement, written by Greg Stafford, Sandy Petersen, and Ken Rolston, with a cover by Linda Michaels for RuneQuest, and published by Avalon Hill.
Miskatonic U. Graduate Kit is an accessory published in 1987 by Chaosium for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
S. Petersen's Field Guide to Cthulhu Monsters is a sourcebook published by Chaosium in 1988 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
Terror Australis is a supplement published by Chaosium in 1987 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu, itself based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft. It was written by Penelope Love, Mark Morrison, Lynn Willis, Larry DiTillio, and Sandy Petersen, and is intended to be used as a sourcebook for adventures in Australia in the 1920s. It received positive reviews in game periodicals including White Dwarf, Casus Belli, and Dragon. A revised and expanded second edition was published in 2019, which won two ENnie Awards.
The Asylum & Other Tales is an anthology of seven adventures published by Chaosium in 1983 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
Cthulhu Companion is a supplement published by Chaosium in 1983 for Call of Cthulhu.