Jeff Tidball is a

game designer Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, Wargame (video games), war ga ...

who has worked primarily on

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 ...

Career

Jeff Tidball was a college student when he began working full-time at

Atlas Games Atlas Games is a company which publishes role-playing games, board games and card games. Its founder and current president is John Nephew. History When Atlas Games did not have the finances to publish '' On the Edge'' (1994), they partnered with J ...

when the company expanded after the success of '' On the Edge'' (1994).

John Nephew John A. Nephew is an American game designer, who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career John Nephew started writing ''Dungeons & Dragons'' material freelance for TSR, Inc., TSR in 1986 while he was still in high school, initially wri ...

and Tidball were the only staff that Atlas retained after the collectible card game field crashed in 1996. Tidball became the Director of Creative Development and soon began developing the next role-playing game from Atlas Games, ''

Ars Magica ''Ars Magica'' is a role-playing game set in 'Mythic Europe' – a historically grounded version of Europe and the Levant around AD 1200, with the added conceit that conceptions of the world prevalent in folklore and institutions of the High Mid ...

'', which Atlas had acquired from

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 ...

. Tidball also became the line developer for ''Ars Magica'', and the ''

Feng Shui Feng shui ( or ), sometimes called Chinese geomancy, is a traditional form of geomancy that originated in ancient China and claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment. The term ''feng shui'' mean ...

'' line developer as well. Tidball designed ''Cults Across America'' (1998) which was one of the board and card game releases from Atlas. Tidball left Atlas Games in 2000 to take a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

film script-writing program available at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. Tidball later went to work at

Last Unicorn Games Last Unicorn Games (or LUG) was a Pennsylvania based corporation with offices in Los Angeles, California. It was formed in 1994 by Christian Moore, Owen Seyler, Greg Ormand, and Bernie Cahill to publish the role playing game ''ARIA: Canticle of t ...

, and Tidball and Jess Heinig were the only remaining employees by January 2004 in the Last Unicorn Games role-playing game division of Decipher Games, so Decipher shut down Last Unicorn Games and laid them off. Tidball designed the '' Cthulhu 500'' card game for Atlas. Tidball worked as the line developer for Decipher's ''

The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game ''The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game'', released by Decipher, Inc. in 2002, is a tabletop role-playing game set in the fictional world of Middle-earth created by J. R. R. Tolkien. The game is set in the years between ''The Hobbit'' and ''The ...

''. Tidball designed ''Pieces of Eight'' (2006), a game by using coins as a game mechanic which Atlas published.

Will Hindmarch Will Hindmarch is a game designer, who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career Atlas Games hired Will Hindmarch following the success of their d20 lines. Atlas published some final d20 products in 2004 and when they cancelled the re ...

and Tidball later started a small press company called Gameplaywright. Tidball subsequently worked as the senior developer and editor for the board and card game departments at

Fantasy Flight Games Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game developer based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing game, role-playing, board game, board, card game, card, and dice game, dice games. As of 2014, it is a division of ...

, before returning to Atlas Games on a contract basis as chief operating officer. He has also continued to write in the roleplaying industry, notably the massive '' Eternal Lies'' campaign he wrote with Hindmarch for

Pelgrane Press Pelgrane Press Ltd is a British role-playing game (pen and paper), role-playing game publishing company based in London and founded in 1999. It is co-owned by Simon J Rogers and Cat Tobin. It currently produces GUMSHOE System RPGs, ''13th Age'', ...

's '' Trail of Cthulhu'' RPG. Tidball wrote '' The White Box: A Game Design Toolkit'' (2017,

) with Jeremy Holcomb in partnership with Atlas Games and Gameplaywright to make use of their mutual backgrounds in writing and teaching about game design. Tidball lives with his wife and sons in the Twin Cities area.

References

External links

Home page

Jeff Tidball :: Pen & Paper RPG Databasearchive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tidball, Jeff American role-playing designers Atlas Games people Living people Year of birth missing (living people)