Ken Cliffe

Last updated
Ken Cliffe
Nationality American
Occupation Game designer

Ken Cliffe is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. He is known primarily as the author and developer for the third edition of Ars Magica , and as co-author and developer of the Trinity , Hunter: The Reckoning and "new" (2004) World of Darkness role-playing games.

Contents

Career

Villains and Vigilantes

Ken Cliffe began his career writing supplements in support of Fantasy Games Unlimited's role-playing game, Villains and Vigilantes, [1] : 239  including Vigilantes International, which was published much later as part of a revival of the line. [2] He was credited with developing the supplements he authored into a coherent universe for the game. [3]

White Wolf Publishing

Cliffe later came to White Wolf Publishing, contributing to the second book it published: The Campaign Book Volume One: Fantasy (1990). [4] : 9  Cliffe was the line editor on Ars Magica for the majority of the time the game was in publication at White Wolf, and developed and authored the third edition of Ars Magica (1992). [4] : 20  With Robert Hatch, Cliffe launched Mind's Eye Theatre in 1993, the live action role-playing game based on Mark Rein•Hagen's Vampire: The Masquerade tabletop role-playing game.

In 1992, Cliffe became editor of White Wolf magazine, and was apparently supervising all of the legacy products published by White Wolf, in the years when it was releasing the early World of Darkness games. [4] : 21  Cliffe made White Wolf magazine a monthly publication beginning with issue #39 (January 1994); [4] : 21  at this time he regularly contributed reviews of games by other publishers to the magazine. Subsequently, Cliffe was one of the authors on the Creature Collection (2000), a book of monsters and the first release from White Wolf's Sword & Sorcery imprint. [4] : 33 

World of Darkness games

In collaboration with Bill Bridges, Cliffe developed and launched new game lines for White Wolf: Trinity (1997) and Hunter: The Reckoning (1999). Again he collaborated with Bridges to develop the reboot of White Wolf's game lines in the early 2000s. He developed and authored The World of Darkness core book (2004), which combined the new World of Darkness setting and rule system into one book. [4] : 41  With Justin Achilli, he also co-authored Vampire: The Requiem for Dummies, [5] which concentrates on the Chronicles of Darkness setting and character creation rules for the Storytelling system . [6]

In 2008 and 2009, White Wolf released the board games Hunter: Deadly Prey and Monster Mayem, also designed by Cliffe. [7] [8]

Related Research Articles

White Wolf Entertainment AB, formerly White Wolf Publishing, was an American roleplaying game and book publisher. The company was founded in 1991 as a merger between Lion Rampant and White Wolf Magazine, and was initially led by Mark Rein-Hagen of the former and Steve Wieck and Stewart Wieck of the latter. White Wolf Publishing, Inc. merged with CCP Games in 2006. White Wolf Publishing operated as an imprint of CCP hf, but ceased in-house production of any material, instead licensing their properties to other publishers. It was announced in October 2015 that White Wolf had been acquired from CCP by Paradox Interactive. In November 2018, after most of its staff were dismissed for making controversial statements, it was announced that White Wolf would no longer function as an entity separate from Paradox Interactive.

World of Darkness is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, Mage: The Ascension, Wraith: The Oblivion, and Changeling: The Dreaming, along with off-shoots based on these. The series ended in 2004, and the reboot Chronicles of Darkness was launched the same year with a new line of games. In 2011, the original series was brought back, and the two have since been published concurrently.

<i>Hunter: The Reckoning</i> Tabletop role-playing game

Hunter: The Reckoning is a horror tabletop role-playing game, and the sixth main game in the World of Darkness series. It was originally released by White Wolf Publishing in November 1999 as part of their Year of the Reckoning line, and is planned to be released in an updated edition by Renegade Game Studios in Q2 2022. It is supported by a series of supplementary books which expand the game's setting and describe types of characters.

A Splatbook is a sourcebook for a particular role-playing game that is not needed for play, but is devoted to a particular facet, character class, or fictional faction, providing additional background details and rules options. For example, a "swords and sorcery" fantasy game might offer splatbooks for each of the races in the setting: humans, dwarves, elves, and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Rein-Hagen</span> American game designer

Mark Rein-Hagen, stylized as Mark Rein•Hagen, is an American role-playing, card, video and board game designer best known as the creator of Vampire: The Masquerade and its associated World of Darkness games. Along with Jonathan Tweet, he is also one of the original two designers of Ars Magica.

<i>The Order of Hermes</i> Role-playing game supplement

The Order of Hermes is a supplement published by Lion Rampant in 1990 for the fantasy role-playing game Ars Magica.

<i>Victorian Age: Vampire</i> Tabletop role-playing game

Victorian Age: Vampire is a tabletop role-playing game published by White Wolf Publishing on September 30, 2002. It is part of the World of Darkness series, and is based on the 1991 game Vampire: The Masquerade. Players take the roles of vampires existing in secrecy among humans, in 1880–1897, during the Victorian era. The setting is primarily focused on Europe, but also features locations including Africa, India, and the United States. The core book does not contain the full rules for the game, and so an additional rulebook is required, such as Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition or Dark Ages: Vampire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Dog Game Factory</span>

Black Dog Game Factory was a publishing label founded in 1995 by White Wolf, Inc. for the publication of a number of adult-themed books in their original World of Darkness RPG line. Although several products were critically acclaimed, the audience was limited, and Black Dog ceased publication in 2002.

Justin Achilli is best known as an author and developer for White Wolf, Inc.

<i>Hunter: The Vigil</i> Tabletop role-playing game

Hunter: The Vigil is a tabletop role-playing game originally published by White Wolf Publishing on August 14, 2008, and is the sixth game in their game series Chronicles of Darkness – a reboot of the World of Darkness series. Led by a storyteller, players take the roles of people who have learned of the existence of the supernatural, and fight back against monsters as groups of hunters.

Stewart Douglas Wieck was one of the founders of the publishing company, White Wolf, Inc. He was also one of the original writers of Mage: The Ascension.

Geoffrey C. Grabowski is a role-playing game designer and writer, known primarily as line developer for the 1st edition of the Exalted RPG for White Wolf games from 2001 through 2006. He was described as the "guiding force" of the first edition.

<i>Covenants</i> (Ars Magica)

Covenants is a supplement published by White Wolf Publishing in 1990 for the fantasy role-playing game Ars Magica.

<i>Creature Feature</i> (Chill)

Creature Feature is a supplement published by Pacesetter in 1986 for the horror fantasy role-playing game Chill.

The Masquerade is a 1994 live action role-playing game published by White Wolf Publishing.

The World of Darkness: Storytelling System Rulebook is a 2004 role-playing game supplement published by White Wolf Publishing for the World of Darkness.

<i>Houses of Hermes</i>

Houses of Hermes is a supplement published by Wizards of the Coast in 1994 for the third edition of the fantasy role-playing game Ars Magica.

<i>Tales of the Dark Ages</i> Role-playing game supplement

Tales of the Dark Ages is a collection of adventures published under license by Atlas Games in 1990 for Lion Rampant's fantasy role-playing game Ars Magica.

<i>The Sorcerers Slave</i> Tabletop role-playing game adventure

The Sorcerer's Slave is an adventure released under license by Atlas Games in 1987 for the fantasy role-playing game Ars Magica published by Lion Rampant.

References

  1. ↑ Appelcline, Shannon (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '70s. Evil Hat Productions. ISBN   978-1-61317-075-5.
  2. ↑ Cliffe, Ken (2011). Vigilantes International. Fantasy Games Unlimited. ISBN   978-1-4609-7147-5.
  3. ↑ "Spectrum of Madness: Villains and Vigilantes - Vigilantes International". April 18, 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Appelcline, Shannon (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '90s. Evil Hat Productions. ISBN   978-1-61317-084-7.
  5. ↑ Achilli, Justin; Cliffe, Ken (2006). Vampire: The Requiem for Dummies. Wiley Publishing Inc. ISBN   978-0-4700-3745-4.
  6. ↑ "Vampire : the Requiem for Dummies (0-470-03745-8)". www.legrog.org.
  7. ↑ "Hunter: Deadly Prey". BoardGameGeek.
  8. ↑ Bodden, Bill. "» Monster Mayhem Game Review".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.