Timothy Brown (game designer)

Last updated
Timothy B. Brown
Occupation
NationalityAmerican
Period1986–2005
Genre Role-playing games, dice games, collectible card games

Timothy B. Brown is an American game designer, primarily of role-playing games. He has been a designer at Game Designers' Workshop, an editor at Challenge magazine, and the director of product development at TSR.

Contents

Career

GDW

Marc Miller, Frank Chadwick, Lester Smith, and Timothy Brown of GDW designed the new game Traveller: 2300 (1986) as an expansion of the original Traveller role-playing game. [1] :58 [2] Brown also designed the Gamer's Choice Award-winning Star Cruiser board game. [3] Brown served as editor of GDW's Challenge magazine. [3]

TSR

Brown went to TSR in 1989, where he eventually became Director of Game Development. [1] :63 Brown was TSR's director of product development from 1991-1995, and oversaw the creation of their Ravenloft and Planescape game lines, among many other titles. [3] Brown co-created the AD&D Dark Sun setting with Troy Denning and Mary Kirchoff. [4] Brown and Denning led the project, alongside fiction editor Kirchoff, and they were soon joined by artist Brom, who contributed the unique illustrations that helped set Dark Sun apart from the other TSR settings, making Dark Sun the first of TSR's world designs with a more artistic sensibility. [1] :26 Brown and Denning also put together the 1991 D&D "black box" set, which became a top-seller for TSR, selling half a million copies in the next six years. [1] :27 Brown contributed to the design of Spellfire . [3]

After TSR

Brown later went on to found Destination Games and work with Imperium Games. [1] :63 Destination Games produced Chaos Progenitus dice game (1996) and Pulp Dungeons: Uninvited Guests (1997) authored by Gary Gygax.

For Imperium's fourth edition of Traveller (also called Marc Miller's Traveller or T4) published in 1996, the designers worked on distinct parts of the rules, with Brown writing about aliens. [1] :331 Sweetpea Entertainment bought out the stock of the many creators who had worked on T4 and took over some of the day-to-day operations of the company; Brown took the helm of Imperium Games under Sweetpea's guidance, and was now the only official staff for Imperium, with others acting as freelancers. [1] :332 Brown, James Ward, Lester Smith, John Danovich, and Sean Everette founded the short-lived d20 company Fast Forward Entertainment (circa 2001-2005). [1] :351

Brown also contributed to the designs of The Wheel of Time Collectible Card Game (1999) and the Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game (2000). [3]

Bibliography

Dungeons & Dragons novels

Personal life

Brown is an accomplished guitar player and teacher.[ citation needed ]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  2. Official Price Guide to Role Playing Games
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Brown, Timothy (2007). "Empires of the Middle Ages". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best . Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 103–106. ISBN   978-1-932442-96-0.
  4. Varney, Allen (March 1998). "ProFiles: Troy Denning". Dragon . Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast (#245): 112.