Meguey Baker () is a

roleplaying game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, 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, either through literal ac ...

designer, independent publisher and quilt historian. She has been a guest of honor at

Lucca Comics & Games Lucca Comics & Games is an annual Comic book convention, comic book and gaming convention in Lucca, Italy, traditionally held at the end of October, in conjunction with All Saints' Day. It is the largest comics festival in Europe, and the second ...

I-CON I-CON (short for "Island CONvention") was a (roughly) annual fan convention, held on various college campuses in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. First held in 1982 on the campus of Stony Brook University, I-CON became a very eclectic ...

, and was scheduled to be one at

Arisia Arisia is a Boston-area, volunteer-run science fiction convention, named for a planet in the Lensman novels by E. E. "Doc" Smith. The name was chosen in response to an older Boston-area con, Boskone, which took the typical ending for a conve ...

in 2014.

Career

Game designer

Baker is the founding owner of

Night Sky Games Night Sky Games is an American game company that produces role-playing games (RPGs) and game supplements. Description Meguey Baker played RPGs at a young age, starting with ''Dungeons & Dragons'' at age 7, and moving to ''Shadowrun'', ''Cyberpun ...

. Baker's most prominent works are ''A Thousand and One Nights'' (2006) and ''

Apocalypse World ''Apocalypse World'' is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game by D. Vincent Baker and Meguey Baker, published in 2010 with only an implied setting that is fleshed out by the players in the course of character creation. It was the game for which ...

'' (2010). The first, published through Night Sky Games, is a role-playing game based on the collection of Arabic stories, ''

The Book of One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

''. The latter is a post-apocalyptic game co-designed with her husband,

Vincent Baker David Vincent Baker is a designer of tabletop role playing games and the owner of Lumpley Games which also hosts the archives of The Forge. His most notable games are '' Dogs in the Vineyard'' and ''Apocalypse World''. ''Dogs in the Vineyard ...

, published through Lumpley Games. ''Apocalypse World'' won multiple awards such as the 2010

Indie RPG Award The Indie RPG Awards are annual, creator-based awards for Indie role-playing games and supplements. They were established in 2002 by Andy Kitkowski, and are the most sought-after awards in the ''Indie RPG'' community. For the purposes of the Awar ...

for "Game of the Year" and the 2011

"Best Role-Playing Game" award.

Powered by the Apocalypse Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) is a tabletop role playing game design framework developed by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker for the 2010 game '' Apocalypse World'' and later used for '' Dungeon World'', ''Monsterhearts'' and numerous other RP ...

, the game design framework created by the Bakers for ''Apocalypse World'', has made a lasting impact on role-playing game design. Baker co-wrote Fair Game, with

Emily Care Boss Emily Care Boss is an indie roleplaying game designer, theorist and publisher. She was a foundational member of The Forge, an early leader in the indie role-playing game movement and is considered the creator of the American Freeform genre of r ...

a blog-style design and

roleplaying 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 as ...

theory journal from 2005 to 2011. Baker has also designed other

indie role-playing games An indie role-playing game is a role-playing game published outside traditional, "mainstream" means. Varying definitions require that commercial, design, or conceptual elements of the game stay under the control of the creator, or that the gam ...

such as ''Miss Schiffer's School for Young Ladies of Quality'' (2006), ''Psi*Run'' (2012) and ''Valiant Girls'' (2013); the latter were Night Sky Games' third and sixth publications respectively. She co-designed with her husband both ''Firebrands'' (2017), a romance TTRPG in a sci-fi setting focused on mobile frame pilots, and ''Under Hollow Hills'' (2021), an RPG about fairytales and a traveling circus. Jay Dragon, for ''

Polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed '' polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two t ...

'', wrote that "''Under Hollow Hills'' is a game about how we treat each other when times are good and how we treat each other when times are bad — between its gorgeous prose, fascinating imaginative characters, countless treasures, and natural flowing play style, ''Under Hollow Hills'' is the future of tabletop role-playing games, a unique and impossible treasure".

Focus

Baker designs games that are intended to create a voice for the marginalised, and ones that take limited time and resources to play. She believes that everyone has a story to tell and that those stories should be heard.

Textiles and quilting

She is a quilter and quilt historian, particularly interested in how the history of non-dominant voices gets transmitted in objects and oral tradition rather than the official written history. Baker highlighted that her first quilt block was hand sewn at four years old; she wrote, "I checked with my mom. She says I was 4 because my sister was a newborn and sewing helped me keep quiet while she was napping. I'm guessing I did about one seam per nap". Baker now collects and restores antique and vintage textiles, as well as creates new works. Baker is a Collections Assistant for the Hatfield Historical Museum and is part of the curatorial team for the Historical Society of Greenfield.

Personal life

She was born in 1971 in upstate New York, where she started playing roleplaying games in 1978, and she currently resides in Greenfield Massachusetts. She and her husband have three children. Baker studied American History at

Hampshire College Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was opened in 1970 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mo ...

with a focus on early American textile history and material culture''.'' Baker was an activist providing advocacy and support for mothers via MotherWoman Inc.

Bibliography

Role-playing games

*''A Thousand and One Nights'' (2006) *''Miss Schiffer's School for Young Ladies of Quality'' (2006) * ''The Girl Effect'' * ''

'' (2010) **''Apocalypse World'' 2nd Edition (2016) **''Apocalypse World: the Extended Refbook'' (2019) **''Apocalypse World: Burned Over Hackbook'' (2019) *''Psi-Run Revised'' (2012) *''Valiant Girls'' (2013) *''Dialect: A Game About Language And How It Dies'' (2017) *''Firebrands'' (2017) *''The King Is Dead'' (2018) *''Towns Like Ours'' (2021) *''Under Hollow Hills'' (2021)

Other

* ''Unframed: The Art of Improvisation for Game Masters'' (2014)

References

External links

Meguey Baker's page on RPG GeekNight Sky Games
Baker's independent publishing company.
Fair Game
Baker's design and theory journal co-authored by

. 1971 births American game designers American women game designers Indie role-playing game designers Hampshire College alumni Living people People from Greenfield, Massachusetts Place of birth missing (living people) Role-playing game designers {{rpg-bio-stub