Charles Andrew Bates is a game designer, illustrator, and author.

Career

The American game publisher White Wolf had a hole in their 1997 publishing schedule, so CEO

Steve Wieck Steve Wieck (also credited as Stephan Wieck) is best known as one of the founders of the publishing company White Wolf, Inc. He is also one of the original writers of '' Mage: The Ascension''. Wieck is a co-founder of DriveThruRPG which later me ...

asked designer Andrew Bates to come up with new a role-playing game. Bates was able to bring the science fiction game ''Æon'' from idea to publication in only ten months. The game later became known as ''

Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...

'', with Bates serving as both designer and illustrator. ''Trinity'' was the first part of a "thematic trilogy" of games, followed by ''

Aberrant An aberration is something that deviates from the normal way. Aberration may also refer to: Biology and medicine *Form (zoology) or aberration, a rare mutant butterfly or moth wing pattern *Cardiac aberrancy, aberration in the shape of the EK ...

'' (1999) by

Justin Achilli Justin Achilli is best known as an author and developer for White Wolf, Inc. Career Justin Achilli began working at White Wolf Publishing, White Wolf in 1995. Achilli has contributed as an author for numerous ''Vampire: The Masquerade'' and ''Vamp ...

and Bates, and '' Adventure!'' (2001) by Bates and

Bruce Baugh Bruce Baugh is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Bruce Baugh was one of the many authors that Jose Garcia collected together to help fill out his role-playing game '' Nexus: The Infinite City'' (1994). Ba ...

. The first three novels written by Bates comprise the ''Year of the Scarab Trilogy'' of

World of Darkness ''World of Darkness'' is a series of tabletop role-playing games, originally created by Mark Rein-Hagen for White Wolf Publishing. It began as an annual line of five games in 1991–1995, with ''Vampire: The Masquerade'', ''Werewolf: The Apocaly ...

and consist of ''Heralds of the Storms'', ''Lay Down with Lions'', and ''Land of the Dead''.

Don Bassingthwaite Don Bassingthwaite is a Canadian author from Toronto. Early life and education Bassingthwaite was born in Meaford, Ontario. He played ''Dungeons & Dragons'' in high school, attending the Georgian Bay District Secondary School where his project ...

has commented that they were "Well done! The action is suitably intense and the plotting is brisk. Slotting the world-views of the different monstrous factions of the World of Darkness together is no easy task, nor is smoothing over the game jargon, but Bates has done a good job of both. The few rough edges that do remain — frequently repeated information, jarring bits of dialogue, extraneous details and actions, and the odd plot line that ends up going nowhere — are distracting but not detrimental to a good story. ... If the Year of the Scarab Trilogy is anything to judge by, you may want to keep an eye on Andrew Bates."

Name

Bates went by his middle name, Andrew, early in his career. He has since reverted to his first name, Charlie, with "Charles Andrew Bates" used for professional credits.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Andrew Year of birth missing Role-playing game designers