Bard Games was an American game company that produced

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

s and game supplements.

Products

Bard Games was formed in 1982 by Steven Cordovano, Vernie Taylor and Stephan Michael Sechi, who each put up $600. Their intention was to market generic fantasy role-playing supplements that could be adapted for any game system. Their first product was '' The Compleat Alchemist''. In 1984, Bard Games published the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

(RPG) ''

Atlantis Atlantis () is a fictional island mentioned in Plato's works '' Timaeus'' and ''Critias'' as part of an allegory on the hubris of nations. In the story, Atlantis is described as a naval empire that ruled all Western parts of the known world ...

''. Over the next three years, two more ''Atlantis'' volumes were published, creating ''The Atlantis Trilogy''. Due to personal and financial disagreements that arose in the wake of the trilogy, Sechi sold his shares in Bard Games to Cordovano and left. Over the next three months Sechi began work on another trilogy of supplements that would form the basis of a new RPG. At the same time, Cordovano decided that he did not want to run Bard Games and sold it back to Sechi, who now had a publishing house to produce a new game. In 1987, Bard Games published the first edition of Sechi's new game, ''

Talislanta ''Talislanta'' is a fantasy role-playing game published by Bard Games in 1987 that forgoes many of the tropes used by popular games of the genre in favor of a unique world and many new game mechanisms. There have been six different English-langu ...

'', which had been inspired by the works of

Jack Vance John Holbrook Vance (August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013) was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. He also wrote several mystery novels under pen names, including Ellery Queen. Vance won the World Fantasy Award for Life Ach ...

such as the

Dying Earth ''Dying Earth'' is a speculative fiction series by the American author Jack Vance, comprising four books originally published from 1950 to 1984. Some have been called picaresque. They vary from short story collections to a fix-up (novel creat ...

series; the first release, '' The Chronicles of Talislanta'' was dedicated to Vance. A revised second edition was published in 1989, and a series of supplements followed, culminating in the Cyclopedia series. The success of ''Talislanta'' allowed Sechi to collect his ''Atlantis'' setting material into a new sourcebook, ''Atlantis: The Lost World'' (1988) and shortly afterward he published a second edition of the ''Talislanta'' game in the ''Talislanta Handbook & Campaign Guide'' (1989). When a buyer from

Waldenbooks Walden Book Company, Inc., doing business as Waldenbooks, was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain and a subsidiary of Borders. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware, as well as a children's e ...

placed a huge order on ''Atlantis: The Lost World'', Sechi was reluctant to fill it but eventually did; about a year later many of the books were returned, forcing Bard Games to refund about $20,000. After Sechi repaid the company's debts to the book trade, he paid off his partner, and then shut Bard Games down. Sechi retained control of Bard Games' properties, and licensed various rights to

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...

, Death's Edge Games, Daedalus Entertainment, and Pharos Press.

References

{{reflist Role-playing game publishing companies