New post to avoid the male outrage of the other one.
So the Green Ronin recruitment drive has me curious but how many female game writers / designers are there?
From the top of my head
Jenna Moran
Margaret Weis
Who else and what did they write/design?
Cat Tobin is Managing Director and co-owner of Pelgrane Press who did an anthology of games by female authors last IIRC. Their Stone Skin Press imprint does use a mix of female writers as well.
A quick look down the list of authors for TSR/WOTC scenario authors has Gwendolyn F M Kestrel. Jean Wells did Palace of the Sliver Princess early on (1981) even if they had Tom Moldvay do a rewrite later. There are several other female scenario authors in later years as well.
As far as Indie games go there are a number of authors/designers in that space that are female.
Wikipedia lists a few as well List_of_female_role-playing_game_professionals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_role-playing_game_professionals)
Sarah Newton (https://sarahnewtonwriter.com/rpgs/) comes to mind. I'm familiar with her work on Achtung! Cthulhu, World War Cthulhu, and Chronicles of Future Earth.
Barbra Blackburn is one of the oldest, continuous, women in the hobby and is forgotten way too often. She edits KoDT, writers for Kenzer&Co games and has been doing so for like 30 years.
The real question is, how many of them are fascists, and would you give them any of your money?
Five posts to get to the outrage. About what I expected.
How about Jennell Jaquays?
I'd forgotten Sarah Newton, she did Mindjammer and Legends of Anglerre too, tight?
Quote from: Willie the Duck;957909Five posts to get to the outrage. About what I expected.
How about Jennell Jaquays?
I'm just ignoring it.
What did Jennell Jaquays do?
Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia for Judge's Guild, loads of stuff for video games (mostly design and conversion stuff for Coleco), Griffin Mountain published by Chaosium, loads of stuff for Traveller, worked for Id on Quake games.
Quote from: HorusArisen;957910I'd forgotten Sarah Newton, she did Mindjammer and Legends of Anglerre too, tight?
Yeah. Click the link (her name) in my post to see what Rpg material she's produced.
Quote from: K Peterson;957913Yeah. Click the link (her name) in my post to see what Rpg material she's produced.
Shows how observant I am I own LoA and Mindjammer
Christine Morgan wrote Naughty & Dice, and some RPG fiction.
Emily Care Boss, who most recently worked on Bubblegumshoe.
Michelle Nephew has had a hand in a lot of projects over at Atlas Games over the years.
Dipping back into history, there is Jean Wells who worked on B3 The Palace of the Silver Princess.
Monica Valentinelli has worked on a wide variety of games.
Names and games guys, names and games :D
Primarily an artist and editor, but Liz Danforth's influence on Tunnels & Trolls has been front and centre since the beginning of the hobby.
Quote from: HorusArisen;957911I'm just ignoring it.
What did Jennell Jaquays do?
Changed his name from Paul Jaquays a few years ago, about 30 years or so since his work for Judges Guild as a man. So not really an example of female game design AFAICS, except in some kind of bizarre retcon.
Andria Hayday (Ravenloft, Al-Qadim, others)
Sue Weinlein [Cook] (Dragonlance, others)
Cindi Rice (Ravenloft, D&D, WotC licensing)
Miranda Horner (Dragonlance, Ravenloft, others)
Teeuwynn Woodruff (Ravenloft, World of Darkness, others)
Nicky Rea (Ravenloft, World of Darkness, others)
Jackie Cassada (Ravenloft, World of Darkness, others)
Some I have worked with or playtested for.
Susan Van Camp = Dragon Storm(CCG/RPG) co-designer and artist, and publisher.
Lise Breakey = Furry Outlaws and Furry Pirates(RPG)
Victoria Borah Bloom = World Tree(RPG)
Liz Danforth = Co-designed Tunnels & Trolls 5e(RPG) and some other stuff, and artist for T&T and various other games.
Liz Spain = Designer and publisher Incredible Expeditions (board game)
Few more, but Id have to go backtracking to be sure.
Jean Rabe did a fair bit of work for 2e D&D, some of it unfairly maligned I think.
Lisa Smedman did several of the better 2e Ravenloft modules, today the one probably best appreciated is the Castle Forlorn box set.
Here's a nice list; http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/theory/gender/womenauthors.html
Also, this search (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=The+best+female+rpg+authors) on Google returns pictures. When you click on one, it returns search results for that author.
Nicole Lindroos.
Who works for (co-runs?) Green Ronin and may therefore not be terribly popular here at the moment, but she's certainly a female game designer and so deserves mention. :p
I see Emily Care Boss was already mentioned (Breaking the Ice, Shooting the Moon, Under My Skin).
Another that comes to mind is Sue Weinlein Cook, who was involved in some of the design work for the card based SAGA System (as used in Dragonlance: Fifth Age and Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game).
I've got a game from 1981 called Wizards Realm that's written and illustrated by a Cheryl Duval. Is this the first RPG (not supplement or adventure) with a woman listed first among the writers? I think it might be but I'd love to find one that's older.
Anyone mentioned Lisa Steele? She did work on Gurps and Vampire if Im not mistaken. She also wrote Fief. While perhaps not a game supplement, it seems to be widely used by gamers as reference.
No one's mentioned Lisa Stevens...
Went to college with Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen.
Worked on the first edition of Ars Magica for Lion Rampant.
Worked for WW when they bought Lion Rampant.
Left WW for WotC, was their first full-time employee.
Was VP of WotC when MtG launched and she launched Duelist magazine.
Left WotC for Paizo and is now CEO of Paizo.
She's written, edited, published, and managed for the top three RPG companies.
Spoiler
...and apparently doesn't hire women so Green Ronin has to do it...:p
What was the name of the woman who first worked on MERP, and later became something of a director or such for ICE, while they published Rolemaster Classic?
Quote from: Trond;958159What was the name of the woman who first worked on MERP, and later became something of a director or such for ICE, while they published Rolemaster Classic?
Olivia Johnston?
Man, it looks to me that women have always been well represented in RPGs. Huhn, who knew.
Quote from: CRKrueger;958157No one's mentioned Lisa Stevens...
Went to college with Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen.
Worked on the first edition of Ars Magica for Lion Rampant.
Worked for WW when they bought Lion Rampant.
Left WW for WotC, was their first full-time employee.
Was VP of WotC when MtG launched and she launched Duelist magazine.
Left WotC for Paizo and is now CEO of Paizo.
She's written, edited, published, and managed for the top three RPG companies.
Spoiler
...and apparently doesn't hire women so Green Ronin has to do it...:p
I did think of her, but she's mostly famous for being the only competent* businessperson in the RPG industry, rather than for her design skills.
*If it weren't for that Ryan Dancey MMORPG thing I'd be tempted to say "brilliant". :D
Quote from: S'mon;958208I did think of her, but she's mostly famous for being the only competent* businessperson in the RPG industry, rather than for her design skills.
*If it weren't for that Ryan Dancey MMORPG thing I'd be tempted to say "brilliant". :D
Mr. Dancey is incredibly persuasive, he managed to confuse a corporation that diluting their brand is a good thing for them, and he managed to kill White Wolf by simply mentioning it to be a 'legacy' product. So I'd have to forgive Stevens for her inability to not be blindsided by him.
Quote from: mrfish;958156Anyone mentioned Lisa Steele? She did work on Gurps and Vampire if Im not mistaken. She also wrote Fief. While perhaps not a game supplement, it seems to be widely used by gamers as reference.
She wrote GURPS Cops and GURPS Mysteries, which are really handy to have if you ever play police or private eye games. I use those books in conjunction with Crime Fighter (from Task Force Games) for some 1970s-1980s Charlie's Angels/Columbo/French Connection/Miami Vice scenarios.
Some more.
Andrea Mills for Flying Buffalo.
Lynn Willis(actually a guy as noted a post below) designer and Donna Baker editor for Metagaming
Dori Jean Hein adventure design for Thri Kreen of Athas and director for Windriders.
Julia Martin was one of the writers for The North set for 2e D&D.
Penny Williams was editor for Dragothas Lair for D&D.
Deborah Christian and Martha Ladyman were one of the writers for Tales of the Outer Planes.
Lyn Willis was a dude. Did some great work at Chaosium and of course also Ghostbusters.
Which brings up one of the problems of this. Sometimes its hard to tell who is an isnt. Theres probably a few left out as I assumed were guys that possibly weren't. So it balances out I guess.
Kinda funny the number of people who aren't aware artists Terrie Smith, Mel White, Roz Gibson and Robin Wood are all female.
Didn't Jennifer Wick co-author the 1E 7th Sea game?
Quote from: Omega;958339Which brings up one of the problems of this. Sometimes its hard to tell who is an isnt.
Yeah from his name I always assumed Willis was a woman from the days when I bought 5th edition CoC. Wasn't until years later I Googled him and learned otherwise.
Jennifer Wick did contribute to the new 7th Sea. Marissa Kelly was lead designer on the horrorish game Bluebeard's Ghost, also produced by Sarah Richardson, who designed the cool looking girl gang Velvet Glove game. Whitney Strix Beltran also worked on Bluebeard's Ghost and has contributed to the new Planescapish Sig: A City Between. Loads of people seem to have contributed something to that book.
Elizabeth Chaipraditkul has done work for 7th Sea and designed the games Witch: Fated Souls and the recently KS'ed The Monster which sounds like it could be fun.
Alek*san*dra Son*towska co-designed The Beast, a very Clive Barkerish solo game about fucking a monster. Her co-designer name checked Barker, Ballard, Sweet Movie and COUM Transmissions so it at least is promising in its fuckedupness.
Did someone already mention Jenna Moran who made Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Machine?
Quote from: Voros;958481Did someone already mention Jenna Moran who made Chuubo's Marvelous Wish Granting Machine?
Do trans count? Honest question, because I was under the impression that Jenna Moran AKA Rebecca Borgstrom was one.
Didn't realize she use to be a man. I would count trans women myself, to which we could add Avery Alder of Monsterhearts.
Not sure if its OT or not but it is notable that trans people are relatively well represented among RPG designers compared to their representation in the overall population. There's a trans academic whose name escapes me who writes on MMOs and CRPGs who spoke about the rather obvious appeal of RPGs to trans people who are finding themselves.
Shanna Germain is Monte Cook's partner in crime, so the entire Monte Cook Games catalog (Numenera, The Strange, etc.)
Sarah Newton is the best one.
Quote from: RPGPundit;959313Sarah Newton is the best one.
What has she written? About the only game designers whose names I know without looking at the credits page are E. Gary Gygax, Steve Jackson, Marc Miller, Greg Costikyan, Gerard Klug, and Mark Pettigrew.
Sarah is the power behind Mindjammer several/all of the Achtung! Cthulhu campaign books, Monsters and Magic, Legends of Anglerre, Fate Core - Burn Shift, and Chronicles of Future Earth.
Another author is Genevieve Cogman who wrote GURPS Vorkosigan and is a published fantasy author as well.
Lynn Hardy is a writer who is currently writing a campaign for Chaosium, Children of Fear, was lead writer, developer and line editor for Achtung! Cthulhu and also edited Green Ronin's Blue Rose RPG.
Quote from: Hermes Serpent;959340Sarah is the power behind Mindjammer several/all of the Achtung! Cthulhu campaign books
I have a bunch of A!C stuff. Very pretty, but desperately needs some OSR luminary to make it playable as anything more than a '90s railroad type game. Maybe some Chaosium dude?
Yeah I found playing through the campaign a bit of an issue. I cornered Sarah at a UK can and mentioned stuff like the mechanised/motorised artillery unit in one (Heroes of tHe Sea i think) and advised her that the majority of German artillery units were horse drawn and only maybe Waffen SS might be motorised but she suggested that she'd consulted with knowledgeable people about the the minutiae of military facts - I still think it was wrong. I believe the whole premise of Achtung! Cthulhu is too pulpy for 6e and 7e and would work better with Pulp Cthulhu but bogs down with details of military jargon and unit details. I much prefer C7's World War Cthulhu London and Darkest Hour books for Mythos gaming in WW2.
Modiphius have a grab the hi vis IP and pile it high in a ponzi scheme style of game production - Conan, Star Trek etc etc., in an attempt to make themselves a big name in the RPG business. They have some enthusiastic people working for them but the principal, Chris Birch is a moody unsocialable bugger that isn't a good front man for the company.
Quote from: Hermes Serpent;959534I believe the whole premise of Achtung! Cthulhu is too pulpy for 6e and 7e and would work better with Pulp Cthulhu but bogs down with details of military jargon and unit details.
I want to run it as the pulp 'Punch out Cthulu!' game it's presented as, but the material bogs down way too much on 1940s minutiae, agreed. I was very disappointed with the A!C Player's Guide which is purely historical 1940s stuff - wikipedia level - basically nothing about the paranormal or setting-specific elements.
Great cover though. :D
Chaosium do/did great adventures like The Secret of Castronegro (in my 2e CoC hardback) which combine mythos horror with sandbox location. That's exactly what I need to run A!C effectively, not a bunch of 1990s-style railroad linked scenes.
Quote from: S'mon;959551Great cover though. :D
You mean this one? Kind of surprised that one didn't cause more outrage.
Spoiler
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c9/7f/1b/c97f1b5f4d349a7f97a1c4431d23c7fa.jpg)
They can call me a misogynist all they want that's a great cover...my wife thinks so to.
Got to say with the exception of the D&D stuff because I own it Sarah Newton is the best recommendation so far.
Quote from: CRKrueger;959579You mean this one? Kind of surprised that one didn't cause more outrage.
Spoiler
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c9/7f/1b/c97f1b5f4d349a7f97a1c4431d23c7fa.jpg)
Yeah, I was very surprised that I never heard a peep from the usual suspects when that came out.
The Void was a d20 product that came out in 2001 during the OGL's heyday. It was written by Mr. and Mrs. Stanton, who published it as "Stanton Industries," though I can't confirm either of their names now; in fact, the only further confirmation I could find was that they later formally dissolved the company and split up.
Quote from: Christopher Brady;958176Olivia Johnston?
Man, it looks to me that women have always been well represented in RPGs. Huhn, who knew.
Not really. Take this list we're assembling here, stack it against the list of male authors. 'Nuff said.
Add to the list:
Christina Lea (Peryton RPG and T&T books among others)
Nancy collins (various WoD contributions as well as Sonya Blue fiction)
Debora Kerr (Lejentia Chronicles)
Lee Gold (Alarums & Excursions)
Quote from: nDervish;959676Yeah, I was very surprised that I never heard a peep from the usual suspects when that came out.
I'm not surprised. The PI on the cover may have a nice figure but she's not actively engaged in any of the trigger stuff that causes the usual suspects to flip out (provocative "come hither" pose, torn or skimpy garments, exposed cleavage, etc.)
At best your left with threat of imminent tentacle rape but I think because that's an anime trope it somehow gets a pass or something.
Quote from: camazotz;959753Not really. Take this list we're assembling here, stack it against the list of male authors. 'Nuff said.
Why? What are you implying?
Quote from: camazotz;959753Add to the list:
Christina Lea (Peryton RPG and T&T books among others)
Nancy collins (various WoD contributions as well as Sonya Blue fiction)
Debora Kerr (Lejentia Chronicles)
Lee Gold (Alarums & Excursions)
Even more women, and somehow that's 'not good enough' for what?
Quote from: camazotz;959754I'm not surprised. The PI on the cover may have a nice figure but she's not actively engaged in any of the trigger stuff that causes the usual suspects to flip out (provocative "come hither" pose, torn or skimpy garments, exposed cleavage, etc.)
Some of the images that do draw ire don't have those things either unless tilt your head and squint real hard... ;)
Quote from: nDervish;959676Yeah, I was very surprised that I never heard a peep from the usual suspects when that came out.
Yeah. [outrage] she's attractive, you can tell she's shapely. She's *gasp* bent foward over the desk as if presenting for the shadowy tentacles...[/outage I wonder why it got a pass.
Quote from: Christopher Brady;959760Why? What are you implying?
Even more women, and somehow that's 'not good enough' for what?
I've asked this before and never get an answer. I assume its when women are roughly half or greater?
Quote from: Christopher Brady;959760Why? What are you implying?
Even more women, and somehow that's 'not good enough' for what?
As I have mentioned several times now - there are no female celebrity game designers at the same level of popularity as the many male ones. Monte Cook, John Wick, Robert J Shwaulb, Bruce R Cordel, Jonathan Tweet, James Ward, hell Raggi, Pundit, Zack Smith ... (we could go on for some time...), so now name one female game designer with the same level of clout, name recognition or sheer "brand" as any of these male designers. Could she raise $1 mil in Kickstarters for her company in two years? Would her name light a new Kickstarter on fire to the tune of 300% funding in the first day? The existence of the current cadre of female creators in this hobby/industry hardly compares to the current cadre of male creators in clout. It is easy to see how the hobby favors male creators, male owners and male participants. I'm not saying we're evil for it. I'm just thinking that more awareness, admiration and encouragement might be a good start to reducing the obvious disparity.
It's one thing to note that there is a disparity. It's another to think that this is a problem, when it's just the lawful results of people being people. Just because there's no woman with the brand strength of Gygax doesn't mean that something is wrong.
Could we keep this thread for positive promotion of female RPG names and the other to have the battle of the sexes.
Quote from: trechriron;959781As I have mentioned several times now - there are no female celebrity game designers at the same level of popularity as the many male ones. Monte Cook, John Wick, Robert J Shwaulb, Bruce R Cordel, Jonathan Tweet, James Ward, hell Raggi, Pundit, Zack Smith ... (we could go on for some time...), so now name one female game designer with the same level of clout, name recognition or sheer "brand" as any of these male designers. Could she raise $1 mil in Kickstarters for her company in two years? Would her name light a new Kickstarter on fire to the tune of 300% funding in the first day? The existence of the current cadre of female creators in this hobby/industry hardly compares to the current cadre of male creators in clout. It is easy to see how the hobby favors male creators, male owners and male participants. I'm not saying we're evil for it.
So?
Quote from: trechriron;959781I'm just thinking that more awareness, admiration and encouragement might be a good start to reducing the obvious disparity.
Why? Because of their work, or because they're women?
Quote from: trechriron;959781As I have mentioned several times now - there are no female celebrity game designers at the same level of popularity as the many male ones. Monte Cook, John Wick, Robert J Shwaulb, Bruce R Cordel, Jonathan Tweet, James Ward, hell Raggi, Pundit, Zack Smith ... (we could go on for some time...), so now name one female game designer with the same level of clout, name recognition or sheer "brand" as any of these male designers. Could she raise $1 mil in Kickstarters for her company in two years? Would her name light a new Kickstarter on fire to the tune of 300% funding in the first day? The existence of the current cadre of female creators in this hobby/industry hardly compares to the current cadre of male creators in clout. It is easy to see how the hobby favors male creators, male owners and male participants. I'm not saying we're evil for it. I'm just thinking that more awareness, admiration and encouragement might be a good start to reducing the obvious disparity.
While Lisa Stevens of Paizo is primarily an executive not an author, I'd say she does have the brand name recognition of most of those names (below Gygax/Arneson but above Wick, probably above Cordell & Shwaulb I'd guess) - and that Pathfinder MMORPG did just about raise $1 million. :)
Say she left Paizo and ran an independent Kickstarter, yes I definitely think she could compare to Monte Cook in sums raised.
Oh, & of course the RPG hobby is not sexist against female creators, as you possibly appear to be saying. That'd be an idiotic thing to say if you meant it.
Quote from: Christopher Brady;959760Even more women, and somehow that's 'not good enough' for what?
It's not a question of what this is 'good enough' for. We are simply assembling a case-control style list, making it relatively useless for answering cross-sectional questions.
This thread is just a list, there is a whole other thread for the debate on the subject itself. Can people keep things from derailing here and any arguments they have to that thread.
Quote from: CRKrueger;959579You mean this one? Kind of surprised that one didn't cause more outrage.
Spoiler
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c9/7f/1b/c97f1b5f4d349a7f97a1c4431d23c7fa.jpg)
What's outrageous about it?
Quote from: Dumarest;960029What's outrageous about it?
It isn't, but keep in mind that people threw an absolute bitchfest over this supposedly sexist cover (https://www.peginc.com/the-future-is-fast-upon-us/), so much so that the book was delayed a week while the art was altered. An attractive woman in tight pants with a possible allusion to tentacle rape could make for an easy target if the right people were paying attention and felt like raising a fuss over it.
Just about all of the female creators I know of have been listed already, but there are a lot who also work in other positions. There are quite a few who take on editor roles or similar jobs. I see this a lot with husband and wife teams. I think there are at least two such duos with the PEG bunch that does Savage Worlds.
Quote from: camazotz;959753Not really. Take this list we're assembling here, stack it against the list of male authors. 'Nuff said.
Lee Gold (Alarums & Excursions)
Lee Gold also did Land of The Rising Sun.
Quote from: Brand55;960033It isn't, but keep in mind that people threw an absolute bitchfest over this supposedly sexist cover (https://www.peginc.com/the-future-is-fast-upon-us/), so much so that the book was delayed a week while the art was altered. .
To be fair, that is a spectacularly unimaginative and supremely boring cover. But this is also OT.
Quote from: camazotz;959753Not really. Take this list we're assembling here, stack it against the list of male authors. 'Nuff said.
Add to the list:
Christina Lea (Peryton RPG and T&T books among others)
Nancy collins (various WoD contributions as well as Sonya Blue fiction)
Debora Kerr (Lejentia Chronicles)
Lee Gold (Alarums & Excursions)
Lee Gold also did Land of the Rising Sun for FGU (Chivalry and Sorcery) and Lands of Adventure/
Quote from: Brand55;960033It isn't, but keep in mind that people threw an absolute bitchfest over this supposedly sexist cover (https://www.peginc.com/the-future-is-fast-upon-us/), so much so that the book was delayed a week while the art was altered. An attractive woman in tight pants with a possible allusion to tentacle rape could make for an easy target if the right people were paying attention and felt like raising a fuss over it.
I'd forgotten about that one. I was expecting a shitstorm more because of the one that came up over Aleena the cleric (https://therpgpundit.blogspot.se/2014/08/can-you-engage-with-someone-who-thinks.html). And I never really thought so much about the potential tentacle rape allusion as simply that she appears to be using her arms to "enhance" her breasts by squeezing them together.