Ken Rolston
{{short description|American game designer}}
{{Infobox person
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| image_size = Rolston in 1992
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| occupation = Computer game and pen and paper role-playing game designer
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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.
Tabletop role-playing games
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.{{Cite web|url=http://www.bighugegames.com/press_kenrolston.shtml |title=Veteran Designer Ken Rolston Joins BHG |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070222092001/http://www.bighugegames.com/press_kenrolston.shtml |archive-date=February 22, 2007 }}: February 13, 2007, press release{{Cite web|url=http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/25/rpg-legend-ken-rolston-retires/|title=RPG Legend Ken Rolston Retires|publisher=Joystiq|access-date=May 13, 2009}}{{Cite web|url=http://consumer.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA2NCwxLCxoY29uc3VtZXI= |title=Oblivion's Ken Rolston Speaks |publisher=H Consumer |access-date=May 13, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201073856/http://consumer.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTA2NCwxLCxoY29uc3VtZXI%3D |archive-date= February 1, 2009 }}{{Cite web|url=http://www.narrativedesign.org/2008/09/masters-of-narrative-design-6.html |title=Masters of Narrative Design 6: Ken Rolston |publisher=narrativedesign.org |access-date=May 13, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217210845/http://narrativedesign.org/2008/09/masters-of-narrative-design-6.html |archive-date=February 17, 2009 }}
Ken Rolston worked as a writer on Basic Role-Playing for Chaosium.{{Cite book|first=Shannon |last=Appelcline|title=Designers & Dragons|publisher=Mongoose Publishing|year=2011| isbn= 978-1-907702-58-7}}{{rp|187}} Rolston also worked on the Stormbringer and Superworld lines for Chaosium.{{sfn|Appelcline|2011|p=179}} 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.{{sfn|Appelcline|2011|p=187}} 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.{{sfn|Appelcline|2011|p=49}} Rolston left West End Games when Scott Palter decided to move the company from New York to rural Honesdale, Pennsylvania in 1988.{{sfn|Appelcline|2011|p=191}} Chaosium stopped producing material for RuneQuest through Avalon Hill in 1989, but they returned to RuneQuest in 1992 with Rolston as editor.{{sfn|Appelcline|2011|p=91}} 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 .{{sfn|Appelcline|2011|p=179}} 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.{{sfn|Appelcline|2011|p=179}}
Rolston also was winner of the H. G. Wells Award for Best Role-playing Game, Paranoia, 1985,{{Cite web|url=http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/features/thq-signs-oblivion-designer-for-a-big-huge-rpg/70364/?biz=1|title=THQ Signs Oblivion Designer for a 'Big Huge' RPG|publisher=Gamedaily|access-date=May 13, 2009}} 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 a new edition of Paranoia, which was Kickstarted in 2014, in order to "hit all the right notes for both veteran players and newbies alike."{{Cite web|url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1990654819/paranoia-rpg/posts/1483001?ref=backer_project_update|title = Update 43: Design/Development Diary · Paranoia RPG| date=October 28, 2022 }}
Video game industry
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. From 2007 he was lead designer for two Big Huge Games projects, both of which were canceled in 2009.{{Cite web|url=http://kotaku.com/5204841/what-were-big-huge-games-working-on-and-have-they-found-a-buyer|title=What Were Big Huge Games Working On (And Have They Found A Buyer)?|date=April 9, 2009 }}: Status update
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|date=September 2012}}
Selected works
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Type ! Role(s) |
|---|
| 1987
| Paranoia, 2nd edition | rowspan="2" |Tabletop role-playing game | rowspan="3" | Writer |
| 1989 |
| 1991
| Extreme Paranoia: Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Shot | Novel |
| 1997
|An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire | rowspan="8" |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
| Additional design and writing |
| 2006
| The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion | Lead designer |
| 2012
| Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning | Executive design director |
| 2017
| Designer-in-residence |
References
External links
- {{moby developer|id=16278}}
- {{cite web |url=http://www.pen-paper.net:80/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=3446 |title=Ken Rolston :: Pen & Paper RPG Database |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050311000254/http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=3446 |archive-date=March 11, 2005 |access-date=February 15, 2020 |url-status=live }}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rolston, Ken}}
Category:American board game designers
Category:American video game designers
Category:Bethesda Softworks employees
Category:Chaosium game designers
Category:Dungeons & Dragons game designers
Category:New York University alumni