Matt James is an American

game designer Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...

and a decorated veteran of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. As a game designer, James is best known for his online and print works for the ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (RPG) originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. (T ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy literature and drama ...

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, 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 these roles within ...

published by

Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (often referred to as WotC or simply Wizards) is an American publisher of games, primarily based on fantasy and science fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail stores for games. It is currently a subsidi ...

, ''

Pathfinder Pathfinder may refer to: Businesses * Pathfinder Energy Services, a division of Smith International * Pathfinder Press, a publisher of socialist literature Computing and information science * Path Finder, a Macintosh file browser * Pathfinder ( ...

'' role-playing game by

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

, and

Privateer Press Privateer Press is a role-playing game, miniature wargame, acrylic paint, board game and card game production and publishing studio. Privateer Press is based in Bellevue, Washington, United States, where they have their headquarters and America ...

. He has also designed game content for Wolfgang Baur's

Kobold Press Kobold Press, also known as Open Design, is an American game company that produces role-playing games and game supplements. History Wolfgang Baur launched Open Design in 2006. Open Design funded projects using a crowdfunding model dubbed "patron ...

(formerly Open Design LLC). In 2012 James won an

ENnie Award The ENNIE Awards (previously stylized as ENnie Awards) are awards for role-playing game (RPG) products (including game-related accessories, publications, and art) and their creators. The awards were created in 2001 by Russ Morrissey of EN World ...

for '' Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale'' and has been nominated for several

Origins Awards The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 aw ...

. In 2014, James won an

for '' Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 4''.

Game design career

James began designing games at a young age while writing content for a

live action roleplaying A live action role-playing game (LARP) is a form of role-playing game where the participants physically portray their characters.(Tychsen et al. 2006:255) "LARPs can be viewed as forming a distinct category of RPG because of two unique feature ...

game called

Avalon LARP Avalon (; la, Insula Avallonis; cy, Ynys Afallon, Ynys Afallach; kw, Enys Avalow; literally meaning "the isle of fruit r appletrees"; also written ''Avallon'' or ''Avilion'' among various other spellings) is a mythical island featured in the ...

. After his service in the military, he began designing professionally. He received his first break when he was asked to fill in for another designer for a ''

'' adventure that would be published in ''

Dungeon Magazine ''Dungeon'' (originally published as ''Dungeon: Adventures for TSR Role-Playing Games'') was one of the two official magazines targeting consumers of the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game and associated products; ''Dragon'' was the other. ...

''. From there, he would regularly contribute to ''Dragon Magazine'' and ''Dungeon Magazine''. Since then, James has co-authored many Dungeons & Dragons and ''Pathfinder'' products, including the award-winning sourcebook ''Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale'' (2011). James and his older brother Brian R. James have teamed up to produce additional content for the Forgotten Realms as well as ''D&D'' as a whole. They have announced that they are moving forward with their long-established game company

Vorpal Games "Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel ''Through the Looking-Glass'', the sequel to '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865). The ...

Honors

* 2012: ''Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale'' wins a Silver

for Best Monster/Adversary product. * 2012: ''Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale'' is nominated for Best Roleplaying Supplement or Adventure by the 38th Annual

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the game industry. They are presented by the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for the previous year, so (for example) the 1979 a ...

s.''Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale''

* 2014: ''Pathfinder: Bestiary 4'' wins a Gold

for Best Monster/Adversary

Bibliography

Red Aegis RPG products, Vorpal Games

* Red Aegis Roleplaying Game (2016), lead developer

Pathfinder RPG products, Paizo Publishing

* Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Equipment Guide (2012), designer * Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 4 (2014), designer - ENnie, ENnie Award winner

Dungeons & Dragons RPG products, Wizards of the Coast

* Fortune Cards: Drow Trechery (2012), lead designer * Into the Unknown: The Dungeon Survival Handbook (2012), designer * Lair Assault: Attack of the Tyrantclaw (2012), designer * Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale (2011), designer - ENnie, ENnie Award winner

Kobold Press

* Soldiers of Fortune (2011), designer

Privateer Press

* Iron Kingdoms: Full Metal Fantasy (2012), designer * Iron Kingdoms: Unleashed (2015), designer

Military

After the US invaded Iraq, Matt James enlisted and served as a paratrooper in the United States Army from 2003-2006. While deployed to Iraq in 2005, James earned the

Bronze Star Medal The Bronze Star Medal (BSM) is a Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, United States Armed Forces decoration awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for either heroic achievement, heroic service, meritorious a ...

for saving the life of a US Marine who was critically injured after being shot with a M2 .50 caliber automatic machine gun. President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

would later award the

Purple Heart The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, ...

to James after he was severely wounded on a separate mission. James was medically retired from military service due to the wounds he suffered during combat operations, and now lives in the Washington, DC area where he focuses on game design and advocacy for disabled veterans. President Bush Awards Purple Heart to Matt James

President Bush Awards Purple Heart to Matt James

External links

Dungeons & Dragons Design & Development
with James regarding the sourcebook Into the Unknown: The Dungeon Survival Handbook

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:James, Matt 1981 births Dungeons & Dragons game designers Living people