Lisa Stevens is an American editor,

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

and founder of

Paizo Publishing Paizo Inc. (; originally Paizo Publishing) is an American role-playing game publishing company based in Redmond, Washington, best known for the tabletop role-playing games '' Pathfinder'' and '' Starfinder''. The company's name is derived from ...

, and COO of Goblinworks. She began her career in games in the 1980s, working with Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen to help produce the tabletop roleplaying game ''Ars Magica''. She later worked at White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast before founding Paizo. She announced her gradual retirement from her role in June 2020.

Education

Stevens attended

Saint Olaf College St. Olaf College is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American pastors and farmers led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus. The college is named after the King and the ...

, where she met game designers Jonathan Tweet and Mark Rein-Hagen.Appelcline, Shannon
"History of Game, #10"
3 January 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2013. Stevens received an MBA from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. After graduating from St. Olaf, she continued to spend time on campus running ''

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 ...

'' games.

Career

Stevens joined Tweet and Rein-Hagen in the game company Lion Rampant, which published '' Ars Magica'' in 1987. Lion Rampant started as a volunteer organization, and they needed Stevens to volunteer at the company for her editorial experience. Stevens pitched the idea of a merger to Rein-Hagen and Stewart Wieck, and as a result Lion Rampant merged with White Wolf in 1990. While on the road to GenCon 23 in 1990 with Stevens and Wieck, Rein-Hagen envisioned the ideas for what became '' Vampire: The Masquerade'', which the new company published in 1991. After meeting Rich Kaalaas of

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 ...

at a GTS convention in March 1991 and then

GenCon 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 ...

25, Stevens left White Wolf that same year to join Wizards, becoming the first full-time employee of the company. She was a vice president for Wizards when they published '' Magic: The Gathering'' in 1993, and she launched '' The Duelist'' to support it. With her experience on ''Ars Magica'' while at Lion Rampant, she advised Wizards to acquire the game, which they did in January 1994. After the company purchased TSR, Stevens became the Brand Manager for both the RPGA and

Greyhawk Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for ''Dungeons & Dragons''—Dave Arneson' ...

. She is also an expert on ''Star Wars'' collectibles, and was the brand manager for Wizards' '' Star Wars Roleplaying Game''. Stevens left Wizards of the Coast in 2000, and made it known that she wanted to acquire the rights to their magazines if they became available. In May 2002, she formed

, and is the CEO of the company. Wizards of the Coast cut their entire magazine department in 2002, so they licensed ''

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

'', ''

Dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably derives more from the Renaissance period. An oubliette (fr ...

'', and '' Star Wars Insider'' magazines to Stevens through Paizo. In 2011, Paizo set up a company called GoblinWorks with Stevens as COO to handle the development of '' Pathfinder Online'', a

massively multiplayer online role-playing game A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game. As in role-playing games (RPGs), the player assumes the role of a Player charac ...

. On June 15, 2020 Paizo announced that Stevens was going to step down from daily operations in preparation for her retirement.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Lisa 21st-century American women American women science fiction and fantasy writers American women writers Dungeons & Dragons game designers Living people St. Olaf College alumni White Wolf game designers Year of birth missing (living people)