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 ...
s.
Career
Randall N. Bills was a fan of ''
Battletech
''BattleTech'' is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2001, which was in turn acquired by Topps in 2003; and published since 2007 by Catalyst Game Labs. The trademark ...
Gen Con
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 ...
27 in the early 1990s during an all-night ''The Succession Wars'' (1987) game event. Bills got to know some members of the
FASA
FASA Corporation was an American publisher of role-playing games, wargaming, wargames and board games between 1980 and 2001, after which they closed publishing operations for several years, becoming an IP holding company under the name FASA In ...
staff over the next year and a half, and took a tour of their headquarters in Chicago, while he was writing for the fan club newsletter ''Mechwarrior Quarterly''. Bills received an invitation from FASA to fill an assistant developer job that opened up in late 1995, and FASA eventually hired him. Bills became the Line Developer for ''Battletech'' by 2000, and was also writing ''Battletech'' fiction including the novels ''Path of Glory'' (2000) and ''Imminent Crisis'' (2002) which were set in the original era of the game. Bills began working at
WizKids
NECA/WizKids, LLC (commonly known as simply WizKids) is an American company based in New Jersey that produces tabletop games. WizKids is best known for its collectible miniatures games (CMGs) Mage Knight, HeroClix, MechWarrior, and HorrorCli ...
after leaving FASA. When WizKids acquired the rights to the future of the BattleTech Franchise (re-christened as MechWarrior), they approached several of the established BattleTech authors including Bills and Michael A. Stackpole to resurrect the novel franchise.FanPro LLC hired Bills in 2001 to continue working as ''Battletech'' Line Editor; Bills became the second and only other employee of FanPro LLC after Rob Boyle. Bills continued to guide the ''Battletech'' line for FanPro for a few more years.
Bills heard about a new business idea that
Loren L. Coleman
Loren L. Coleman is an American science-fiction writer, born and grew up in Longview, Washington. He is known for having written many books for series such as ''Star Trek'', ''Battletech''/''MechWarrior (role-playing game), Mechwarrior'', ''Age ...
was working on, and in 2003 Coleman created the company InMediaRes Productions to hold his vision, which he founded along with Heather Coleman, Randall Bills, Tara Bills, and Philip DeLuca. InMediaRes started publication with the fiction written by its founders Bills and Coleman. Bills continued to work for WizKids through 2004.Rob Boyle and Bills attempted to purchase FanPro LLC from Fantasy Productions in 2007 but when that failed they threatened to leave and bid for the WizKids licenses when they came up for renewal; WizKids came to mediate and while they would not allow Boyle and Bills to start a new company, they did grant the licenses to InMediaRes. InMediaRes added Boyle and Bills on as regular staff per the agreement with WizKids, once they gained the rights to ''
Shadowrun
''Shadowrun'' is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game set in an alternate future in which cybernetics, magic in fiction, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy, and crime fiction, crime, wit ...
'' and ''
Battletech
''BattleTech'' is a wargaming and military science fiction franchise launched by FASA Corporation in 1984, acquired by WizKids in 2001, which was in turn acquired by Topps in 2003; and published since 2007 by Catalyst Game Labs. The trademark ...
''; Boyle continued as the ''Shadowrun'' Line Editor for a few more years, while Bills was made a Managing Director of InMediaRes (while Herb Beas took over from Bills as Line Director for ''Battletech''). InMediaRes created the subsidiary
Catalyst Game Labs
Catalyst Game Labs (CGL) was created in May 2007 by InMediaRes Productions, LLC for the purpose of publishing print ''Shadowrun'' and ''Classic BattleTech'' sourcebooks. Catalyst did a financial audit late in 2009 and discovered a large amount of money went missing; Bills later explained that the audit determined that there was a "co-mingling of funds between the personal and business had occurred involving the company's primary shareholders".