Michael O'Brien 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

Michael O'Brien, along with David Hall, Nick Brooke, Rick Meints and others were part of the staff on the leading

Glorantha Glorantha is a fantasy world created by Greg Stafford. Overview It was first introduced in the board game '' White Bear and Red Moon'' (1975) by Chaosium and then in a number of other board, roleplaying and computer games, including ''RuneQ ...

fanzine '' Tales of the Reaching Moon'' (1989-2002). When new ''

RuneQuest ''RuneQuest'' (commonly abbreviated as RQ) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson (game designer), Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford (game designer), Gre ...

'' line editor

Ken Rolston Ken Rolston is an American computer game and role-playing game designer best known for his work with West End Games and on the computer game series ''The Elder Scrolls''. Tabletop role-playing games Ken Rolston began working as a professional g ...

began the so-called "''RuneQuest'' Renaissance" for

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the compan ...

, his first publication was '' Sun County'' (1992) by O'Brien. O'Brien contributed to ''later RuneQuest'' releases in the product line during Rolston's tenure at Avalon Hill. O'Brien published two issues the Glorantha Con Down Under fundraiser fanzine ''Questlines'' (1995-1998). These were published in 1995 and 1998 as fund-raisers for gaming conventions held in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. O'Brien also created ''

Gorp Trail mix is a type of snack mix, typically a combination of granola, dried fruit, nuts, and sometimes candy, developed as food to be taken along on hikes. Trail mix is a popular snack food for hikes, because it is lightweight, easy to sto ...

'' #1 (Summer, 2000) a mock fanzine that was allegedly a rare collectible item published in 1982. This magazine was produced for a British gaming convention in 2000, and because it nevertheless featured original material by Ken Rolston, Greg Stafford, David Hall and O'Brien, ''Gorp'' is considered valuable and collectable in its own right. In 2015 O'Brien became a co-owner of

Moon Design Publications Moon Design Publications are publishers of tabletop role-playing game books set in Greg Stafford (game designer), Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha. They were founded in 1998 by Rick Meints and Colin Phillips in the UK. History Rick Meints was an ...

, along with Rick Meints, Jeff Richard and Neil Robinson. Later that year as part of an announcement by Greg Stafford that

had joined the ownership group of his iconic game company

Chaosium Chaosium Inc. ( ) is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford (game designer), Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include ''Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game), Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fic ...

, O'Brien became vice president of Chaosium.

References

External links

Michael O'Brien :: Pen & Paper RPG Databasearchive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Michael Living people Role-playing game designers Year of birth missing (living people)