Jeff Dee | |
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![]() Jeff Dee on The Atheist Experience television series, January 4, 2009 | |
Born | United States |
Known for | Fantasy art, illustration |
Jeff Dee is an American artist and game designer. He was the youngest artist in the history of pioneering role-playing game company TSR when he began his work at the age of eighteen. He also designed the Villains and Vigilantes superhero game. He was a co-host on The Atheist Experience and Non-Prophets atheism advocacy podcasts. [1]
In the late 1970s, while Dee was still a teenager, he and Jack Herman created Villains and Vigilantes , the first complete superhero role-playing game. [2] The game was published by Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1979. [3] : 73 Dee and Herman persuaded Scott Bizar to produce a second edition, which was published in 1982. [3] : 75 Dee came up with the idea of creating a role-playing game based on cartoons when he, Greg Costikyan, and other designers were discussing which genres had no role-playing game systems yet; although they agreed that it would be impossible for such a game to be designed, a few years later Costikyan designed Toon as a full game with the assistance of Warren Spector. [3] : 104
Dee was the youngest artist in TSR history when he began working for them at the age of eighteen. [4] In 1997, with his partner 'Manda, Dee founded UNIgames, a publisher of role-playing, board and computer games.[ citation needed ] Dee designed a new superhero role-playing game originally titled Advanced Villains and Vigilantes, which was ultimately published as Living Legends in 2005. [3] : 77 In 2009, he co-founded Nemesis Games, developers of an MMO named Gargantua. [5]
Dee has long been an advocate for the role-playing game industry. [6]
In addition to his artistic and game-related work, Dee is an outspoken atheist and transhumanist. [7] He has been the host of a bi-weekly Internet podcast called The Non-Prophets and a former host of a live, weekly, public-access television program, The Atheist Experience . [8]
Marvel Super Heroes (MSH) is a licensed role playing game set in the Marvel Universe, first published by TSR in 1984. The game lets players assume the roles of Marvel superheroes such as Spider-Man, Daredevil, Hulk, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, and the X-Men. The game was designed to be easily understood, and this approach proved popular. TSR published an expanded edition, Marvel Superheroes Advanced Game in 1986.
Superworld is a superhero-themed role-playing game published by Chaosium in 1983 that uses the generic Basic Role-Playing rules system. The game began as just one part of the Worlds of Wonder product before being published as a stand-alone game. In competition against other well-established and popular superhero games, Superworld never found an audience, and was discontinued after only three supplements were published for it.
TWERPS is a minimalist role-playing game (RPG) originally created by Reindeer Games in 1987 and distributed by Gamescience. Presented as a parody of the complicated RPG systems which were prevalent at the time while still being a playable game in its own right, its simple structure and humorous nature gave it unexpected popularity.
Villains and Vigilantes is a superhero-themed role-playing game which competed primarily with Champions and Superworld in the early to mid-1980s.
Champions is a role-playing game published by Hero Games designed to simulate a superhero comic book world. It was originally created by George MacDonald and Steve Peterson in collaboration with Rob Bell, Bruce Harlick and Ray Greer. The latest edition of the game uses the sixth edition of the Hero System, as revised by Steve Long, and was written by Aaron Allston. It was released in early 2010.
Warren Evan Spector is an American role-playing and video game designer, director, writer, producer and production designer. He is known for creating immersive sim games, which give players a wide variety of choices in how to progress. Consequences of those choices are then shown in the simulated game world in subsequent levels or missions. He is best known for the critically acclaimed video game Deus Ex that embodies the choice and consequence philosophy while combining elements of the first-person shooter, role-playing, and adventure game genres. In addition to Deus Ex, Spector is known for his work while employed by Looking Glass Studios, where he was involved in the creation of several acclaimed titles including Ultima Underworld, Ultima Underworld II, System Shock, and Thief: The Dark Project. He is employed by OtherSide Entertainment, where he was part of the development team for the stalled System Shock 3. He is currently working on a new immersive sim based on an original intellectual property.
Jeff Grubb is an author of novels, short stories, and comics, as well as a computer and role-playing game designer in the fantasy genre. Grubb worked on the Dragonlance campaign setting under Tracy Hickman, and the Forgotten Realms setting with Ed Greenwood. His written works include The Finder's Stone Trilogy, the Spelljammer and Jakandor campaign settings, and contributions to Dragonlance and the computer game Guild Wars Nightfall (2006).
Toon is a comedy tabletop role-playing game in which the players take the roles of cartoon characters. It is subtitled The Cartoon Roleplaying Game. Toon was designed by Greg Costikyan and developed by Warren Spector, and first published in 1984 by Steve Jackson Games.
Greg Costikyan, sometimes known under the pseudonym "Designer X", is an American game designer and science fiction writer. Costikyan's career spans nearly all extant genres of gaming, including: hex-based wargames, role-playing games, boardgames, card games, computer games, online games, and mobile games. Several of his games have won Origins Awards. He co-founded Manifesto Games, now out of business, with Johnny Wilson in 2005.
Ares was an American science fiction wargame magazine published by Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI), and then TSR, Inc., between 1980 and 1984. In addition to the articles, each issue contained a small science-fiction-themed board wargame.
Crisis at Crusader Citadel was a 1982 introductory module written by Jeff Dee and Jack Herman for the Villains and Vigilantes role playing game released by Fantasy Games Unlimited.
Redmond Aksel Simonsen was an American graphic artist and game designer best known for his work at the board wargame company Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI) in the 1970s and early 1980s. Simonsen was considered an innovator in game information graphics, and is credited with creating the term "game designer".
The Atheist Experience is an American live, weekly televised webcast based in Austin, Texas, United States. Listeners are encouraged to call in to discuss the existence of God and related topics. Calls from theists are usually given priority, as the aim of the webcast is to encourage theists to question their theistic beliefs and thus, theists are often asked to explain what they believe, and why.
Denis Loubet is an artist who has worked on several pen-and-paper role-playing games and video games, including the MMORPG Ashen Empires.
Scott B. Bizar is the founder of Fantasy Games Unlimited, a game publisher which contracts writers and artists that work primarily on role-playing games.
Jack Herman is an American game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Marvel Super Heroes: The Heroic Role-Playing Game is a role-playing game boxed set published by TSR in 1984 for the Marvel Super Heroes role-playing game, and was the debut product for the game.
Crimefighters is a TSR pulp-themed tabletop role-playing game created by game designer David Cook. Crimefighters was originally released in issue 47 of the March 1981 edition of Dragon magazine. This issue of Dragon magazine also contained an introductory Crimefighters adventure called The Case of the Editor’s Envelope.
FORCE is an adventure published by Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) in 1982 for the superhero role-playing game Villains and Vigilantes.