Michael O'Brien is a

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 ...

who has worked primarily on

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 ...

Career

With David Hall, Nick Brooke and Rick Meints, Michael O'Brien and others staffed the leading

Glorantha Glorantha is a fantasy world created by Greg Stafford. 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 '' RuneQuest'' and ' ...

fanzine ''

Tales of the Reaching Moon ''Tales of the Reaching Moon'' (also known as ToTRM) was a British fanzine dedicated to the fantasy world of Glorantha and producing material for fantasy role-playing games. Publication history When UK fanzine ''Pavic Tales'', the first notable ...

'' (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, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of Glorantha. It was first publis ...

'' 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''. In February 2007, he elected to join the staff of computer games company B ...

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

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a me ...

, Australia. O'Brien also created ''

Gorp Trail mix or scroggin is a type of snack mix, typically a combination of granola, dried fruit, nuts, and sometimes candy, developed as a food to be taken along on hikes. Trail mix is considered a great snack food for hikes, because it is lig ...

'' #1 (Summer, 2000) a fake fanzine that purported to be a rare collectible from 1982. This magazine was produced for a British gaming convention in 2000, and because it nevertheless featured original material by Ken Rolston,

Greg Stafford Francis Gregory Stafford (February 9, 1948 – October 10, 2018), usually known as Greg Stafford, was an American game designer, publisher, and practitioner of shamanism. Stafford is most famous as the creator of the fantasy world of Gloranth ...

, 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, along with Rick Meints,

Jeff Richard Jeffrey Richard (born March 24, 1979) is a Canadian curler from Kelowna, British Columbia. To date, Richard has won two provincial championships and has made two Brier appearances. In 2010, Richard won the 2010 BC Men's provincial as skip. I ...

and Neil Robinson. Later that year as part of an announcement by

that Moon Design Publications 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 in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include ''Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game), Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft'', R ...

, 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)