Blair Reynolds

Last updated
Blair E. Reynolds
Nationality American

Blair E. Reynolds is a fantasy artist and writer whose work has appeared in various tabletop role-playing games and periodicals.

Contents

The Unspeakable Oath

In 1990, John Tynes founded Pagan Publishing as a vehicle for material related generally to the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and specifically to the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu . The company's first publication was the photocopied digest-sized fanzine The Unspeakable Oath . The black & white cover art was by 26-year-old artist Blair Reynolds, who also contributed some of the interior art. As the magazine developed into a professionally printed magazine, Reynolds continued to produce the cover art, [1] : 244  which reviewer Allen Varney called "unsettling". [2]

In Issues #2 and #4 of The Unspeakable Oath, Reynolds also contributed the first two installments of a serial graphic novel, "Remnant". [3]

Reynolds also contributed a written piece to Issue #4 (December 1991), "From the Investigative Journals of Mikhail Aksakov", but it was his cover art that was notable, featuring a topless multi-armed female god. In 1994, editor John Tynes commented that frontal nudity at the time was "a real taboo in gaming". Despite this, Pagan Publishing did not suffer any serious repercussions.

However, there were repercussions the following year when Pagan Publishing released Courting Madness, an anthology of pieces from The Unspeakable Oath. The cover art by Reynolds featured a nude Rubenesque woman who seemed to be performing a sexual act on a Cthulhu Mythos creature. TSR, Inc., which at the time owned the popular Gencon annual gaming convention, banned Pagan Publishing from selling copies of the anthology at Gencon 25. [1] : 245 

Games 208

Reynolds also did art for Digest Group Publications, but when the company began to fail, some contributors, including Reynolds, were either paid late or never paid. [1] : 206  This exacerbated the discontent that Reynolds was beginning to feel about the games industry, which he felt was limiting his ability to explore the erotic and perverse boundaries of the Cthulhu mythos. In 1994, he stopped providing artwork and prose to industry publications in order to focus on his own personal projects via his own company, Games 208. [1] : 248 

Reynolds wanted to publish edgy Cthulhu mythos materials, and the first work was the sexually explicit horror graphic novel Black Sands (1996). [4] [1] : 248  However, that was the last publication of Games 308 until The Mysteries of Mesoamerica appeared in 2008. [5]

Return to games industry

Following the publication of Black Sands, Reynolds returned to the games industry to illustrate The Unspeakable Oath, [6] now a professionally printed full-sized and full-colour publication. [7] : 78  Reynolds also found work illustrating various pieces for MegaTraveller by Games Designers Workshop, [4] and Blue Planet (1997) by Biohazard Games. [8]

He also provided artwork for Pagan Publishing's Call of Cthulhu campaign The Realm of Shadows (1997), which elicited special comment from reviewer Ray Winninger, who called his reaction to the illustrations "a uniquely Lovecraftian and unsettling experience the first time I flipped through this booklet [...] I stumbled over Reynolds' drawings of horrifying ghouls and monstrosities, all executed in the same photorealistic style." [9]

When Pagan Publishing released a new present-day military setting for Call of Cthulhu called Delta Green , Reynolds provided the sexually explicit story "Operation Looking Glass" [4] for the companion fiction anthology Delta Green: Alien Intelligence (1998), and created the cover art for the sourcebook Delta Green: Countdown (1999). [1] : 248 

Related Research Articles

<i>Call of Cthulhu</i> (role-playing game) Tabletop horror role-playing game

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chaosium</span> Game publisher

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.

<i>Delta Green</i> Tabletop horror role-playing game and game setting

Delta Green is a contemporary era setting for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game created by Adam Scott Glancy, Dennis Detwiller, and John Scott Tynes, a.k.a. the Delta Green Partnership, of the Seattle gaming house Pagan Publishing. The setting first appeared in a 1992 RPG scenario and revolves around a secretive organization tasked with protecting the United States from paranormal and alien threats. Delta Green combines the classic 1920s Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft with modern conspiracy fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Scott Tynes</span> American game designer

John Scott Tynes is an American writer best known for his work on role-playing games such as Unknown Armies, Delta Green, Puppetland, and for his company, Tynes Cowan Corporation. Under its imprint, Pagan Publishing, Tynes Cowan Corp. produces third-party books for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game under license from Chaosium as well as fiction and non-fiction books under its imprint, Armitage House.

Pagan Publishing is a role-playing game publishing company founded by John Scott Tynes in 1990. It began by publishing a Call of Cthulhu role-playing game fanzine, The Unspeakable Oath. In 1994, the company moved from Columbia, Missouri to Seattle, Washington where it incorporated. The staff at this time included John Tynes as editor-in-chief, John H. Crowe III as business manager, Dennis Detwiller as art director, and Brian Appleton and Chris Klepac as editors. Tynes, Detwiller, and Adam Scott Glancy released the Delta Green modern Call of Cthulhu campaign setting in 1996. Pagan has released multiple other Call of Cthulhu products, including a foray into card games with Creatures & Cultists and miniature games with The Hills Rise Wild!.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Detwiller</span> American game designer

Dennis Detwiller is an American video game designer for Hothead Games and a role-playing game designer, writer and artist.

Adam Scott Glancy is an author and game designer known for co-developing Delta Green, as well as penning game settings, source books, short fiction, and essays related to the H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.

John H. Crowe III is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.

Shane Ivey is an American game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.

The Unspeakable Oath is a game magazine that was published by Pagan Publishing from 1990 to 2001, and later by Arc Dream Publishing starting in 2010.

<i>1920s Investigators Companion</i> Horror tabletop role-playing game supplement

1920s Investigators' Companion is a role-playing game supplement for Call of Cthulhu by Keith Herber, published by Chaosium. Volume 1 was published in 1993, volume 2 in 1994. An updated single volume of The 1920s Investigator's Companion was published in 1997.

<i>Amberzine</i>

Amberzine is a magazine that was published by Phage Press that covered The Chronicles of Amber books, the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game, and associated material.

<i>Blood Brothers</i> (Call of Cthulhu) Tabletop horror role-playing game supplement

Blood Brothers is a light-hearted anthology of short adventures published by Chaosium in 1990 for the Lovecraftian horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.

<i>The Golden Dawn</i> (Call of Cthulhu) Tabletop horror role-playing game supplement

The Golden Dawn is a Horror Fiction supplement published under license by Pagan Publishing in 1996 for Chaosium's horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.

Creatures & Cultists is a card game for 3–5 players that was published by Pagan Publishing in 1993.

<i>Cthulhu Now</i> Tabletop horror role-playing game supplement

Cthulhu Now is a supplement published by Chaosium in 1987 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.

<i>Horror on the Orient Express</i> Tabletop horror role-playing game campaign

Horror on the Orient Express is a campaign boxed set published by Chaosium in 1991 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. In this adventure, the player characters use the Orient Express to search for pieces of an artifact, while a cult tries to stop them. The original edition won two Origins Awards and received positive reviews in game periodicals including The Unspeakable Oath, White Wolf, and Dragon. A revised and expanded edition was published in 2014, which won three ENnie Awards.

<i>Kingsport: The City in the Mists</i> Horror fiction tabletop role-playing game supplement

Kingsport: The City in the Mists is a supplement published by Chaosium in 1991 for the horror role-playing game Call of Cthulhu that describes a mysterious Massachusetts city.

Delta Green: Countdown is a 1999 role-playing game supplement published by Pagan Publishing for Call of Cthulhu.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  2. ↑ Varney, Allen (January 1994). "Roleplaying Reviews". Dragon (201). TSR, Inc.: 68.
  3. ↑ "Remnant - Continued from TUO2". rpggeek.com. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 Delta Green: Alien Intelligence. Tynes Cowan Corp. 1998. p. 158. ISBN   1-887797-09-2.
  5. ↑ "Mysteries of Mesoamerica". Le Grog (in French). Guide du Rôliste Galactique. 2010-02-24. Retrieved 2019-12-27.
  6. ↑ Varney, Allen (August 1996). "Roleplaying Reviews". Dragon (232). TSR, Inc.: 120.
  7. ↑ Shannon Appelcline (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '90s. Evil Hat Productions. ISBN   978-1-61317-084-7.
  8. ↑ Winninger, Ray (August 1998). "Role-playing Reviews". Dragon (250). TSR, Inc.: 109.
  9. ↑ Winninger, Ray (July 1998). "Role-playing Reviews". Dragon (249). TSR, Inc.: 112.
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