p. 23, The Elements of Style Fourth Edition: Omit Needless Words.

I’ve worked in the hobby game industry full-time since 2002 as a graphic designer, art director, and webmaster. Occasionally I get the chance to write and edit—and sometimes I do it out of necessity. My first published credit was Shadowrun’s Target: Matrix, and I’ve worked on licensed books for Shadowrun, BattleTech, many anime series, and A Game of Thrones.

My position in Catalyst Game Labs: ship ass-kicking games on time and make sure all tiers of the hobby gaming industry know about them.

I’ve been making up stories for a living since ‘97, when I started as an editor at FASA. Since then I’ve worked as a writer and/or editor on game lines such as Shadowrun, Earthdawn, BattleTech, VOR: The Maelstrom, Crimson Skies, and Degenesis, among others. In 2001 I helped start FanPro LLC and took point as the Shadowrun line developer, only to completely throw out the rules and start over with Shadowrun Fourth Edition in 2005 (it simply needed to happen). In 2008, I handed over the reigns of SR development and switched to developing a new game line, Eclipse Phase, which I co-designed with Brian Cross. Eclipse Phase has cleared the gate at a full sprint, with critical acclaim from fans, overwhelming support for its Creative Commons publishing model, and a film option deal.

In my spare time I teach people how to kill, agitate for social revolution, play head-crushing electronic music, dodge balls, and anticipate my transformation into a posthuman entity .

My goals with Catalyst are to continue to push Eclipse Phase as a successful and ground-breaking game line, while also helping Catalyst produce other kick-ass games.

As a game line developer, my job is to explore the EP universe in detail. I oversee every EP book and related project from beginning to end, extracting the best ideas and making them into reality by guiding the writers, artist, editors, and graphic designers. I also answer game-related questions and communicate to our players.

I’ve served as the BattleTech line developer, continuity editor, art director, and a primary author/novelist; under FASA I was also the BattleTech assistant line developer. I’ve also served as the Mechwarrior: Dark Age continuity editor, working with WizKids to help in the creation of the universe—including its thirty full-length novels—assisted in the writing and crafting of the original MechWarrior community campaigns, and was the driving force behind the coffee-table art/universe book MechWarrior: Technology of Destruction. In addition I’ve also published fiction and game design in the Shadowrun, Earthdawn, Crimson Skies and Vor: The Maelstrom universes, as well as am one of the lead writers kicking off the Adventure Boys series of Young Adult fiction as published by the Adventure Boys Company. I’m also one of the two developers of associated games that will be packaged with the Adventure Boys fiction that will see publication next year.

My goals are to continue the quality of Shadowrun and BattleTech products as set with Shadowrun Fourth Edition, and the BattleTech Introductory Box Set and Total Warfare. This involves working closely with both line developers to ensure they receive the necessary resources to maintain that quality, while hitting their release dates. This also allows me the flexibility to throw my skills at new games that Catalyst pursues, such as the post-apocalyptic RPG, Degenesis, set to release at the end of this year.

As a roving developer, I can work at any level of game production, as needed. This may include making outlines, selecting and guiding the fantastic creative talent of authors, artists, painters and so on that work for Catalyst, rules generation, writing and so on.

I’ve been playing BattleTech (and the MechWarrior role-playing game) since 1990 and have been writing for both since about 1997, way back when FASA ran the show. Since then, I’ve served as the BattleTech’s assistant line developer (pretty much throughout the days of FanPro), as well as playing the role of junior continuity editor for the series. Meanwhile, I’ve working alongside the folks at WizKids on their Mage Knight and MechWarrior: Dark Age lines (way more of the latter than the former), while puttering around in some other fantasy and sci-fi game universes.

My goals are to continue the quality established by Total Warfare and TechManual, not only in fleshing out the rules and such, but also to ensure that the universe never gets too stale and peaceful for us. Since the line began back in 1984, BattleTech has always been (in my none-too-humble opinion, anyway) far more than a simple “beer-and-pretzels” game; it’s been a universe, filled with characters, intrigue, and lots of heavily armed, stomping hulks heavy metal. I continue to believe—as my progenitors in this gig before me did—that for both long-time players and newcomers alike, the story and the game should both be top-notch. Praise for that, of course, will always go to the creative team behind the universe—at all levels, from the most discreet playtesters to the contributing authors and artists that make the whole thing up (and, of course, the folks at WizKids and Catalyst who let us put it on the shelves!) Only together do we keep this entire universe alive and wonderfully messy.

As a developer, my job’s pretty much to oversee every book from start to finish. This includes making the outlines, soliciting and assigning the authors, requesting art where needed (an area I rely heavily on the input of my mentor, Randall Bills), assuring a nice flow of continuity and aesthetics, and all that fun stuff. I’ll even write on occasion, and do a “pre-edit” pass of material (part of that continuity and aesthetic flow thing) to best ensure that the material fits the universe as best as it can. (Once more, these tasks come with the heavy aid of a team, but in the end, I suppose you could say the developer is the guy most responsible for the finished product’s quality, and not be too far off the mark.) As a consequence of my past role as assistant dev, I’m also largely responsible for maintaining continuity both into the universe’s history and into its Dark Age “future history”, while establishing the baseline for the overall story arc that runs in between.