James Wallis is a British designer and publisher of tabletop and

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

Career

James Wallis began roleplaying in 1981 through ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' and '' Traveller'', which were both licensed in the UK by

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer (game), Warhammer'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake ...

at the time. Wallis began self-publishing fanzines, starting with ''WEREMAN'' and then ''Sound & Fury'', and got to know game designer Erick Wujcik thanks to the latter; Wallis met Kevin Siembieda through Wujcik at

Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...

22 in 1989, resulting in Wallis writing '' Mutants in Avalon'' (1990) and '' Mutants in Orbit'' (1992) for Palladium Books. Wallis also began developing his own role-playing game based on the '' Bugtown'' comics, and in 1992 he brought the game to Wujcik at Phage Press, where it went nowhere for two years and remained unpublished due to creative differences. ''

Once Upon a Time "Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 in storytelling in the English language and has started many narrative ...

'', a game designed by James Wallis, Andrew Rilstone and Richard Lambert, was published by Atlas Games in 1993, where Wallis met Jonathan Tweet, who soon became head of role-playing games at

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 ...

; Wallis brought his ''Bugtown'' game to Wizards, but cartoonist Matt Howarth was unable to agree with Wizards of the Coast regarding royalties so they did not publish the game either. Walls co-founded the RPG magazine ''Inter*action'' with Andrew Rilstone, the first issue of which was published in Summer 1994. In October 1994, Wallis founded Hogshead Publishing, a company which specialised in

role-playing Role-playing or roleplaying is the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role. While the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' offers a definition of role-playing ...

and

storytelling game A storytelling game is a game where multiple players collaborate on telling a story. Some games primarily feature spoken storytelling, while others primarily feature collaborative writing. In some storytelling games, such as many tabletop role-pla ...

s. Wallis based the company in the UK, and got a license from Phil Gallagher at Games Workshop to publish books for ''

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay ''Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay'' or ''Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play'' (abbreviated to ''WFRP'' or ''WHFRP'') is a role-playing game set in the ''Warhammer Fantasy (setting), Warhammer Fantasy'' setting, published by Games Workshop or its licensee ...

''. Wallis and Rilstone changed the name of ''Inter*action'' to '' Interactive Fantasy'' to resolve trademark concerns beginning with its second issue, which was also the first publication by Hogshead; the magazine only lasted two more issues after that. ''Warhammer'' sold well, but Hogshead had problems with their distributor, and Wallis had to lay off the entire staff of Hogshead. Matt Howarth eventually pulled the license for ''Bugtown'' from Wallis, and the game was never published. By 1996, Wallis had also begun working in the computer industry and soon after he went into magazine publishing, working on ''Warhammer'' on evenings and weekends. By late 1997, there was an improvement in cashflow so Wallis moved the company from his spare bedroom to sharing an office with ProFantasy Software, and hired Matthew Pook. Wallis was able to publish his game '' The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' in 1998. He helped the principals of ProFantasy Software resurrect the Dragonmeet convention in 2000. Wallis announced on 26 November 2002 that he was ending Hogshead Publishing, and Mark Ricketts bought the company name in February 2003. Wallis started the company Magnum Opus Press in 2007 by obtaining licensing for the '' Dragon Warriors'' role-playing game; Magnum Opus Press published a new ''Dragon Warriors'' 1.1 edition with supplements starting in 2008 before problems with the licensor ended publication on 1 April 2011. Wallis released more books through Magnum Opus, including the debut novel ''Game Night'' (2007) by Jonny Nexus, and a new edition of ''The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' (2008). Wallis is a narrative media consultant, creating online games for clients including the BBC, the U.K. Home Office, and Endemol Television. He lives in London with his wife and children. He has also created games and books for other publishers, including the award-winning card game ''

Once Upon A Time "Once upon a time" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past events, typically in fairy tales and folk tales. It has been used in some form since at least 1380 in storytelling in the English language and has started many narrative ...

'', which he co-authored with Richard Lambert and Andrew Rilstone. In 2001, he founded the annual Diana Jones Award for "excellence in gaming". He currently runs the gaming consultancy Spaaace, which includes the publishing subsidiary Magnum Opus Press, and his personal blog,
Cope
'. In January 2013 Wallis launched a Kickstarter for a RPG called ''Alas Vegas''. A PDF download was released to backers in December 2016, and the physical book was published in November 2017.

Games

James Wallis's published games include: * ''

'', co-authored with Richard Lambert and Andrew Rilstone (first released in 1994; named as winner of ''Games'' magazine's ''Best Family Card Game'' section in the 1997 ''Games'' 100 list and one of "The Millennium's Best Card Games" by ''

Pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

'' magazine) * '' The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen'' (first released in 1998, revised and expanded in 2008; named as one of "The Millennium's Best Games" by ''

'' magazine, nominated for the 2009

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the gaming industry. They are presented by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for games released in the preceding year. For example, t ...

for "Best Children's, Family or Party Game") Games he has edited and/or published include: * '' Nobilis'' (second edition, 2002; winner of the

for "Best Graphic Presentation Book Format Product", 2002)

Writing and Periodicals

In 1994 he founded and published '' Interactive Fantasy'' (''IF''), an early journal of 'games design and criticism'. The editor was Andrew Rilstone. The second issue included the first printing of the essay 'I Have No Words And I Must Design' by Greg Costikyan. He wrote for the British

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

newspaper from 2000 to 2001. He also co-wrote scripts for the

television show A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming platf ...

404 Not Found In Data communication, computer network communications, the HTTP 404, 404 not found, 404, 404 error, page not found, or file not found error message is a hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) List of HTTP status codes, standard response code, to ...

''. On October 17, 2023, Wallis released an enhanced audio edition of ''Everybody Wins'' in collaboration with Recorded Books, Inc., further establishing his prominence in board game culture and design. The book examines the transformative impact of tabletop gaming over the past 45 years, providing insights for enthusiasts, newcomers, and those seeking game recommendations.

References

External links

Spaaace, the games consultancy

COPE, James Wallis's personal blog

part of the webzine ''Critical Miss''
Magnum Opus Press
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallis, James British bloggers Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) Board game designers Role-playing game designers Living people