Allen Varney Legacy Author, Author at The Escapist

An Innocent at Essen

Veteran of a hundred American conventions, blooded in many an Origins registration line, in 2010 I finally matched myself against the largest tabletop ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorOctober 10, 2011

Happy Anniversary

The Escapist‘s Bold Experiment

I can admit, now, that I thought the whole project doomed. An online-only magazine for cutting-edge game writing, published by a Harvard lawyer ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorJuly 6, 2010

The Way of the Future

Jane McGonigal Lives the Game

In her San Francisco apartment in July 2009, Dr. Jane McGonigal, who wants to see a game developer nominated for the Nobel Peace ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorMay 4, 2010

Days of High Adventure

Days of High Adventure: Satanic Panic

For longtime tabletop roleplaying game (RPG) fans, a February 16, 2010 Boston Herald article by Laurel J. Sweet, “Suspect in slays fan of ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorApril 29, 2010

Uphill, Both Ways

Honoring the Man Who Started Everything

As co-designer of Dungeons & Dragons (with Dave Arneson), co-owner of D&D publisher TSR, designer of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and founder of ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorApril 27, 2010

Days of High Adventure

Rolemaster, Puppetmaster, Catan Master: Pete Fenlon

Tabletop roleplaying game designer, mapmaker and Chief Executive Officer: Peter C. Fenlon, Jr. has achieved, if not always enjoyed, one of the most ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorMarch 25, 2010

Days of High Adventure

Behind the Masks of Nyarlathotep: Larry DiTillio

Larry DiTillio designed Masks of Nyarlathotep. That single statement is all the introduction DiTillio needs, at least for fans of Chaosium’s classic Call ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorFebruary 18, 2010

Anti/Hero

Batmanalyzed

Batman fans must avoid thinking about many things. Some are thuddingly obvious, like how one guy can’t possibly be the world’s greatest detective ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorFebruary 2, 2010

Days of High Adventure

A Perpetual Traveller – Marc Miller

From its debut in 1977, Traveller, the first successful tabletop science fiction roleplaying game, has been the roleplayer’s default path to the stars. ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorJanuary 14, 2010

Days of High Adventure

Gaming’s Renaissance Man

In some future dissertation on the Secret Masters of 20th-Century Tabletop Gaming, one or another lucky historian of pop culture will earn tenure ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorDecember 3, 2009

The Family Business

An Offer You Can’t Refuse

As of last week, Zynga’s free-to-play Facebook social game Mafia Wars claimed 26 million active players, adding more than a million from the ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorNovember 17, 2009

Days of High Adventure

Greg Stafford, Mythmaker

Greg Stafford – founder of Chaosium, creator of Glorantha (setting of the original RuneQuest roleplaying game), designer of the illustrious Arthurian RPG King ...

By Allen Varney Legacy AuthorOctober 29, 2009

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