Russell Ian Morrissey | |
|---|---|
| Born | United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Reporter, game designer, podcaster, author |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | British |
| Genre | Fantasy, sci-fi |
| Notable works | The ENnies, EN World, Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD RPG Core Rulebook, W.O.I.N. (What's O.L.D. IS N.E.W.), Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition |
| Website | |
| enworld.org | |
Russ Morrissey - also known as Morrus [1] - is a British reporter, [2] game designer, [3] podcaster, [4] author, [5] and owner of EN World. [6] Morrissey founded the ENnie Awards in 2001, which he ran until 2018. [7] He also founded the book publisher EN Publishing, and the tabletop-gaming news website EN World, both of which he runs currently.
Morrissey wrote his first tabletop RPG at the age of 14 in 1984. [8] He founded d20reviews.com in 1999, which was renamed EN World, also known as Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News in 2001, [9] a tabletop RPG news website and community. [10]
In 2001, Morrissey founded the publishing company EN Publishing and has gone on to publish over 300 books under the brand. [11]
In 2014 under EN Publishing, Morrissey wrote and published the W.O.I.N. Roleplaying Game System (What's O.L.D. IS N.E.W.). [12] [13]
In 2014, he was a judge on the Paizo design competition RPG Superstar. [14]
In February 2017 Morrissey announced that he would be creating the new officially licensed Judge Dredd roleplaying game. [15] This was later crowdfunded on Kickstarter in late 2018 [16] [17] and successfully funded with over 2000 backers. [18] The Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD roleplaying game was released immediately after the Kickstarter campaign and uses the W.O.I.N. system developed by Morrissey several years earlier. [19]
In October 2020 Morrissey's company announced the Awfully Cheerful Engine, a comic-book inspired tabletop game. [20] In August of the same year, he announced a project codenamed Level Up, an advanced take on Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. [21] The game was published in 2021.
In February 2024 Morrissey wrote the article 'The Rise And Fall Of Evil Genius Games' [22] which investigated the sudden resignation of multiple staff members, the lawsuit between EGG and Netflix over the official Rebel Moon tabletop roleplaying game, the use of Web3 technology, and problems with the company's work environment.
Morrissey founded the Gen Con EN World RPG Awards (the ENnie Awards) in 2001, which he ran until 2018. [23] The ENnies were created as an annual fan-based award for tabletop role-playing game products, and since 2002 were hosted at Gen Con in Indianapolis, Indiana.
In 2012, Morrissey and his brother Darren Morrissey co-wrote a six-part animated cartoon series called The Perturbed Dragon. [24] This comedy series played on the tropes and cliches of tabletop gaming, and culminated in a music competition called Battle of the Bards. [25]
In 2018 Morrissey launched a tabletop news and sketch comedy podcast called Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk, which has run for over 300 episodes. The show is presented by Morrissey and his co-hosts Peter Coffey and Jessica Hancock, and features weekly guests and topics. [26] Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk is currently funded through Patreon. [27] The podcast has include guests such as Keith Baker (game designer), Sean K. Reynolds, Jason Bulmahn, Jonathan Tweet, Robert Marriner-Dodds, Owen K.C. Stephens, Dominic McDowall-Thomas, Chris Spivey, Monte Cook, and Ryan Dancey.
Morrissey's science fiction novel The Siege of Concordant, set in a galaxy called The Cauldron, was released in 2020. [28]
Russ Morrissey has appeared on the following podcasts, radio shows, videos, and articles.