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Ken Rolston

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Ken Rolston
Rolston in 1992
Occupation(s)Computer game and pen and paper role-playing game designer

Ken Rolston is an American computer game and role-playing game designer best known for his work with West End Games and on the computer game series The Elder Scrolls. In February 2007, he elected to join the staff of computer games company Big Huge Games to create a new role-playing game.[1]

Tabletop role-playing games

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Ken Rolston began working as a professional games designer in 1982. Rolston spent twelve years as an award-winning designer of tabletop role-playing games. His credits include games and supplements for Paranoia, RuneQuest, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, and Dungeons & Dragons.[1][2][3][4]

Ken Rolston worked as a writer on Basic Role-Playing for Chaosium.[5]: 187  Rolston also worked on the Stormbringer and Superworld lines for Chaosium.[6] Rolston joined the Paranoia team as its fourth creator soon after he was hired at West End Games in 1983, and he was responsible for adding atmosphere to the rules written by Greg Costikyan, the results of which were published at GenCon in 1984.[7] Rolston wrote a complete manuscript for a magic system for Games Workshop to use in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, but they rejected it; the manuscript by Rolston spent years circulating on the internet instead.[8] Rolston left West End Games when Scott Palter decided to move the company from New York to rural Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 1988.[9] Chaosium stopped producing material for RuneQuest through Avalon Hill in 1989, but they returned to RuneQuest in 1992 with Rolston as editor.[10] Rolston started the "RuneQuest Renaissance" with his first publication in the line being Sun County (1992) from Tales of the Reaching Moon contributor Michael O'Brien .[6] Avalon Hill dropped Rolston as a staff member in 1994, keeping him on as a freelancer; his last two books Strangers in Prax and Lords of Terror were published that year, and he went on afterwards to work at a multimedia company.[6]

Rolston also was winner of the H. G. Wells Award for Best Role-playing Game, Paranoia, 1985,[11] and served as role-playing director for West End Games, Games Workshop, and Avalon Hill Game Company.

In 2016, Rolston joined Mongoose Games to assist in editing their newest edition of Paranoia, which was Kickstarted in 2014, in order to "hit all the right notes for both veteran players and newbies alike."[12]

Video game industry

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Rolston was the lead designer for Bethesda's role-playing game The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, its expansions and was also lead designer for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. He was lead designer for two Big Huge Games projects, both of which were canceled in 2009.[13]

Rolston went on to be the lead creative visionary for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, a single player RPG designed by Big Huge Games, a Baltimore subsidiary of 38 Studios.[citation needed]

Selected works

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Year Title Type Role(s)
1987 Paranoia, 2nd edition Tabletop role-playing game Writer
1989 Something Rotten in Kislev for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
1991 Extreme Paranoia: Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Shot Novel
1997 An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire Video game Design and Dialogue
1998 The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard Additional Writing
2000 Sea Dogs Additional design and writing
2002 The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Lead designer
2003 Pirates of the Caribbean Additional design and writing
2006 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Lead designer
2012 Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Executive design director
2017 The Long Dark Designer-in-residence

References

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  1. ^ a b "Veteran Designer Ken Rolston Joins BHG". Archived from the original on February 22, 2007.: February 13, 2007, press release
  2. ^ "RPG Legend Ken Rolston Retires". Joystiq. Retrieved May 13, 2009.
  3. ^ "Oblivion's Ken Rolston Speaks". H Consumer. Archived from the original on February 1, 2009. Retrieved May 13, 2009.
  4. ^ "Masters of Narrative Design 6: Ken Rolston". narrativedesign.org. Archived from the original on February 17, 2009. Retrieved May 13, 2009.
  5. ^ Appelcline, Shannon (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  6. ^ a b c Appelcline 2011, p. 179.
  7. ^ Appelcline 2011, p. 187.
  8. ^ Appelcline 2011, p. 49.
  9. ^ Appelcline 2011, p. 191.
  10. ^ Appelcline 2011, p. 91.
  11. ^ "THQ Signs Oblivion Designer for a 'Big Huge' RPG". Gamedaily. Retrieved May 13, 2009.
  12. ^ "Update 43: Design/Development Diary · Paranoia RPG".
  13. ^ "What Were Big Huge Games Working On (And Have They Found A Buyer)?". April 9, 2009.: Status update
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