James Desborough | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | December 5, 1975 [1] |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Grim |
| Occupations |
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| Website | "Postmortem Studios". |
James "Grim" Desborough is a British game designer, author, and blogger who has worked primarily on role-playing games, as well as card games, board games, and social computer games.
James Desborough wrote The Munchkin's Guide to Powergaming in 2000/2001, [2] winning an Origins Award for that work along with his co-authors Steve Mortimer and Phil Masters. [3] Desborough was a co-author of CS1: Cannibal Sector One he also briefly worked as the line editor for SLA Industries . [4] Desborough is also the owner of Postmortem Studios. [4] Postmortem Studios was one of Cubicle 7's first company partnerships due to Desborough's connections with Angus Abranson. [4] He later became creative director at Chronicle City, Abranson's new venture [5] but this partnership ended in July 2021. [6]
In 2017 he released a licensed role-playing game based upon John Norman's fantasy series Gor, which also included art by Michael Manning. [7]
Desborough's work was included in Red Phone Box, [8] and in The Mammoth Book of Erotic Romance and Domination. [9] He also self-publishes.
His D&D design work includes Monster Manual V (2007) and City of Stormreach (2008).
Desborough's career has often been characterised by humour and adult content, leading to his role as Games Master for the adult stream 'Tabletopless'. [10] While the stream primarily plays Dungeons and Dragons they have also played Cyberpunk, The Witcher and others.
Desborough is the author of Inside Gamergate: A Social History of the Gamer Revolt which was self-published August 2017. This described Gamergate was "a genuinely important battle in the ongoing culture war" [11] : ¶79.3 . Here, he portrayed Gamergate as a necessary "social revolt" against a new Satanic Panic, which critics have described as a harassment campaign. In the book's first chapter, Desborough writes that his distress regarding opposition and harassment related to Gamergate, as well as a sense of betrayal led him to attempt suicide in October 2014. [11] : ¶3.9
Desborough has appeared as a commentator on men's issues on The Stream on Al Jazeera. [12]
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