Luke Crane is a game designer specializing in indie role-playing games.
Luke Crane designed the role-playing game The Burning Wheel (2002), which uses a six sided dice pool, and a "Beliefs" mechanic. [1] [2] Crane also designed the Burning Empires and Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game role-playing games. [3] Crane has crowdfunded several of his own game designs, including Torchbearer. [4] Crane designed the 2010 role-playing game Freemarket with Jared Sorensen. [5] Crane held an annual weekend gaming event in New York City called Burning Con. [6] Crane posted the question "Why are there so few lady game creators?" on Twitter in 2012, which started the hashtag #1reasonwhy, as hundreds of people shared their own stories. [7] [8] [9] [10] Crane also designed the 2015 Mouse Guard board game. [11]
Crane joined Kickstarter after he saw a surge in gaming campaigns on the website. [12] Crane became a community manager at Kickstarter, and persuaded his company to host the arcade game Killer Queen for its annual block party in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. [13] Crane was the head of games at Kickstarter, where he critiqued projects to determine their fan appeal. [14] [15] [16] [17] Crane later became the vice president head of community at Kickstarter. [18] Crane launched a campaign for The Perfect RPG in 2021, but quickly cancelled the campaign after receiving public backlash because of the inclusion of designer Adam Koebel as a contributor. [19] Crane resigned from Kickstarter after this controversy. [20]
Luke Crane lived in the same apartment in New York City for many years with three of his friends that he met at New York University in 1991. [2] Crane managed the Manhattan Mayhem women's roller derby team. [3]
Keith Baker is an American game designer and fantasy novel author. In addition to working with Wizards of the Coast on the creation of Eberron, he has also contributed material for Goodman Games, Paizo Publishing and Green Ronin Publishing. In 2014, Baker and Jennifer Ellis co-founded the indie tabletop game company Twogether Studios.
Fate is a generic role-playing game system based on the Fudge gaming system. It has no fixed setting, traits, or genre and is customizable. It is designed to offer minimal obstruction to role-playing by assuming players want to make fewer dice rolls.
The Burning Wheel is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game independently written and published by Luke Crane. The game uses a dice pool mechanic for task resolution and a character generation system that tracks the history and experiences of new characters from birth to the point they begin adventuring.
The Robotech Role-Playing Game is a licensed science fiction role-playing game published by Palladium Books in 1986 that is based on the Robotech and Robotech II: The Sentinels anime television series, which were, in turn, based on the Japanese mecha anime television series Macross. A second edition of the game, based on Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, was released in 2008.
Evil Hat Productions is a company that produces role-playing games and other tabletop games. They are best known for the free indie RPG system Fate, Blades in the Dark, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians, all of which have won multiple awards.
A tabletop role-playing game, also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a classification for a role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech, and sometimes movements. Participants determine the actions of their characters based on their characterization, and the actions succeed or fail according to a set formal system of rules and guidelines, usually containing Dice-Rolling. Within the rules, players have the freedom to improvise; their choices shape the direction and outcome of the game.
The One Ring Roleplaying Game is a tabletop role-playing game set in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, set at the time between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Designed by Francesco Nepitello and Marco Maggi, the game was initially published by Cubicle 7 in 2011 under the title The One Ring: Adventures over the Edge of the Wild. Cubicle 7 continued to publish the first edition of the game until 2019. Nepitello and Maggi developed the second edition, which is published by Free League Publishing under the same title, The One Ring Roleplaying Game.
Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) is a tabletop role playing game design framework developed by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker for the 2010 game Apocalypse World and later adapted for hundreds of other RPGs.
Edward P. Healy is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. He co-founded Eden Studios.
Robert E. Howard's Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of is a sword and sorcery pen-and-paper role-playing game set in the world of Conan the Barbarian, the fictional Hyborian Age. Both the character and the setting were first imagined by author Robert E. Howard. Howard's original literary work has since spawned a vast franchise of novels, comic books, films, video games, board games, role-playing games, etc. Following this tradition, Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of is the third officially licensed Conan role-playing game. The two precedent games were Conan Role-Playing Game (1985-1988) and Conan: The Roleplaying Game (2004-2010), although there also had been supplements for independent generic systems, like GURPS Conan (1988-1989).
Shannon Appelcline is a game designer and game historian.
Russ Morrissey, also known as Morrus, is a British reporter, game designer, podcaster, author and owner of EN World. Morrissey founded the ENnie Awards in 2001, which he ran until 2018. He also founded the book publisher EN Publishing, and the tabletop gaming news website EN World, both of which he runs currently.
The Cortex System is a collection of related roleplaying games. Its most recent iteration, Cortex Prime, was designed by Cam Banks and initially published by Fandom Tabletop, then acquired by Dire Wolf Digital. Prior versions appeared in the licensed roleplaying games published by Margaret Weis Productions, where it was used as the house system. Cortex is an adaptable game system focusing on characterization and story development.
Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game produced by Magpie Games. It is set in the world of the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, and takes place in five different time periods. It sees players take the roles of martial artists, technological experts, or benders – people who can manipulate one of the four classical elements – who fight for balance in the world while also working towards their own goals and struggling with inner balance, represented by opposing ideals held by a character.
Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience. Actual play often encompasses in-character interactions between players, storytelling from the gamemaster, and out-of-character engagements such as dice rolls and discussion of game mechanics. The genre emerged in the early 2000s and became more popular throughout the decade, particularly with the 2015 debut of Critical Role, an actual play webseries featuring professional voice actors.
Thirsty Sword Lesbians is a narrative-focused tabletop role-playing game that emphasizes telling "melodramatic and queer stories". The game was funded via a 2020 Kickstarter campaign and published by Evil Hat Productions in 2021. It uses a modification of the Powered by the Apocalypse game system.
Lucian Kahn is an American role-playing game writer/designer and musician based in Brooklyn. His work focuses on LGBT, Jewish, and subcultural themes, typically utilizing satire and farce. His games include Visigoths vs. Mall Goths and his music includes Schmekel.
Alex Roberts is a Canadian tabletop role-playing game designer. Her games typically lack a gamemaster (GM) and include romantic themes.
The Gauntlet is a publisher/producer of tabletop role-playing games and podcasts. In addition to game books, they publish a monthly game zine called Codex to encourage experimentation in indie role-playing games and OSR. They have won and been nominated for ENNIE Awards.
Designers & Dragons is a book by Shannon Appelcline about the history of the tabletop role-playing game industry.