Russ Morrissey, also known as Morrus (born June 1974), is a British reporter,

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 ...

podcaster A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing. ...

, author and owner of

EN World EN World, also known as Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News, is a British-owned tabletop role-playing game news and reviews website founded in 2000, which grew from the earlier "Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News" site (which was activ ...

. Morrissey founded the

ENnie Awards 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 ...

in 2001, which he ran until 2018. He also founded the book publisher EN Publishing, and the tabletop gaming news website

, both of which he runs currently.

Career

EN World and EN Publishing

Morrissey wrote his first tabletop RPG at the age of 14 in 1984. He founded d20reviews.com in 1999, which was renamed EN World, also known as ''Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News'' in 2001, a tabletop RPG news website and community. In 2001, Morrissey founded the publishing company

EN Publishing EN World, also known as Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG News, is a British-owned tabletop role-playing game news and reviews website founded in 2000, which grew from the earlier "Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News" site (which was activ ...

and has gone on to publish over 300 books under the brand. In 2014 under EN Publishing, Morrissey wrote and published the W.O.I.N. Roleplaying Game System (''What's O.L.D. IS N.E.W.''). In 2014, he was a judge on the

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 ...

design competition ''RPG Superstar''. In February 2017 Morrissey announced that he would be creating the new officially licensed

Judge Dredd Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of '' 2000 AD'' (1977), which is a British weekly anthology comic. He is the magazine's longest-running c ...

roleplaying game. This was later crowdfunded on

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, K ...

in late 2018 and successfully funded with over 2000 backers. ''The Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD'' roleplaying game was released immediately after the Kickstarter campaign and uses the W.O.I.N. system developed by Morrissey several years earlier. In October 2020 Morrissey's company announced the ''Awfully Cheerful Engine'', a comic-book inspired tabletop game. In August of the same year, he announced a project codenamed ''Level Up'', an advanced take on ''

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 ...

'' 5th Edition.

The ENnies

Morrissey founded the Gen Con EN World RPG Awards (the

) in 2001, which he ran until 2018. The ENnies were created as an annual fan-based award for tabletop

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 ...

products, and since 2002 were hosted at

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 ...

in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Perturbed Dragon and Battle of the Bards

In 2012, Morrissey and his brother Darren Morrissey co-wrote a six-part animated cartoon series called ''The Perturbed Dragon''. This comedy series played on the tropes and cliches of tabletop gaming, and culminated in a music competition called ''Battle of the Bards''.

Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk

In 2018 Morrissey launched a tabletop news and sketch comedy podcast called ''Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk'', which has run for over 100 episodes. The show is presented by Morrissey and his co-hosts Peter Coffey and Jessica Hancock, and features weekly guests and topics. ''Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk'' is currently funded through Patreon. The podcast has include guests such as

Keith Baker (game designer) Keith Baker is a game designer and Fantasy literature, fantasy novel author. In addition to working with Wizards of the Coast on the creation of Eberron, he has also contributed material for Goodman Games, Paizo Publishing and Green Ronin Publis ...

, Sean K. Reynolds,

Jason Bulmahn Jason Bulmahn is an American game designer who has written or contributed to several works. Career Jason Bulmahn coordinated the world's largest organized play ''D&D'' campaign for the RPGA (Living Greyhawk), and then joined Paizo Publishing as ...

Jonathan Tweet Jonathan Tweet (born 1965) is an American game designer who has been involved in the development of the role-playing games ''Ars Magica'', ''Everway'', '' Over the Edge'', ''Talislanta'', the third edition of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and '' 13th Ag ...

, Robert Marriner-Dodds, Owen K.C. Stephens, Dominic McDowall-Thomas, Chris Spivey,

Monte Cook Monte Cook is an American professional tabletop role-playing game designer and writer, best known for his work on ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Role-playing industry career Early years Cook has been a professional game designer since 1988, worki ...

, and

Ryan Dancey Ryan S. Dancey is a businessman who has worked primarily in the collectible card game and role-playing game industries. He was vice president in charge of ''Dungeons & Dragons'' at Wizards of the Coast. When the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons ...

The Cauldron

Morrissey's science fiction novel ''The Siege of Concordant'', set in a galaxy called The Cauldron, was released in 2020.

Bibliography

* 2000-pr Editor-in-Chief, EN World * 2000-pr Publisher, EN Publishing * 2001–19 Founder, Gen Con EN World RPG Awards (“ENnies”) * 2002 Co-author, ''Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns'' * 2002 Co-author, ''Four-Color to Fantasy'' * 2008 Author, ''Advanced Rules for Beginners'' * 2008 Co-author, ''War of the Burning Sky #12: The Beating of the Aquiline Heart'' * 2010 Author, ''Paragons of the Burning Sky'' * 2011 Author, ''Space Fight!'' * 2012 Co-writer, ''The Perturbed Dragon'' cartoon series * 2013 Co-author, ''Russ Morrissey’s To Slay A Dragon'' * 2015 Co-author, ''Russ Morrissey’s To Stake A Vampire'' * 2015 Author, ''Starship Construction Manual'' * 2016 Author, ''What’s OLD is NEW Starter Kit'' * 2016 Author, ''N.E.W. The Science Fiction Roleplaying Game'' * 2016 Author, ''Real Solspace: A Guide to our Stellar Neighbourhood'' * 2016-pr Publisher, EN5ider Magazine * 2016–20 Publisher, TRAILseeker Magazine * 2017-pr Publisher, EONS Magazine * 2017 Author, ''Universal Upgrades'' * 2017 Author, ''O.L.D. The Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying Game'' * 2017 Author, ''Trappist'' * 2017 Author, ''The Moons of Boria'' * 2017 Co-author, ''Xenomorphs: The Fall of Somerset Landing'' * 2018–present Co-presenter, ''Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk'' podcast * 2018 Co-author, ''Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD'' * 2018 Co-author, ''Starship Recognition Manual'' * 2018 Co-author, ''N.O.W. The Modern Action Roleplaying Game'' * 2018 Co-author, ''Judge Dredd & The Worlds of 2000 AD Quickstart'' * 2018 Co-author, ''The Dark Decade: From Dust Till Dawn'' * 2018 Author, ''Galactic Sentience Catalog'' * 2018 Co-author, ''Spirits of Manhattan'' * 2018 Author, ''Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future'' * 2019 Author, ''Simply6: The Fast, Universal RPG'' * 2020 Co-author, ''SolSpace: The Spartan Gambit'' * 2020 Co-author, ''Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters'' * 2020 Author, ''The Siege of Concordant'' * 2020 Project Lead, ''Level Up'' * 2020 Author, ''Awfully Cheerful Engine''

Media mentions

Russ Morrissey has appeared on the following podcasts, radio shows, videos, and articles. * Keith Baker: Six Questions: Russell Morrissey * Mud & Blood Podcast: Judge Dredd Interview With Russ Morrissey * Shane Plays Radio Show: Full Version Of W.O.I.N. RPG Interview With Russ Morrissey * Tabletop Babble Podcast: Morrus * Farsight Blogger: Russell Morrissey of EN World * Shane Plays Radio Show: EN World & The ENnies with Russ Morrissey * Shane Plays Radio Show: D&D Gets Classier with Morrus & Peter! * Gamers Web: The British Are Coming AGAIN: Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD Roleplaying Game Interviews and Insights * Rand Roll: On Random Generators with Russ Morrissey of EN World * Mildra: Interview with Russ Morissey of EN World * Design Notes: 10 Questions plus 1! Russ Morrissey * The Bedrock Blog: Russ Morrissey Interview: O.L.D. and N.E.W. RPGs * RPGnet: Russell Morrissey, What Is Old Is New * BJ Geek Nation Podcast: Russ Morrissey with What's Old Is New RPG * The Tome Show: New Ranger and Evolution of RPGs Podcast * The Smart Party: Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD (Interview with Russ Morrissey) * Plot Points: Maleficent Mythological Monsters For 5E * Shane Plays: Mythological Figures & Maleficent Monsters for 5E * Tabletop Babble: Morrus * RPG Publisher Spotlight: EN Publishing * Bald And Board: 5th Edition * Shane Plays Geek Talk: Advanced 5E RPG Sneak Preview

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrissey, Russ Role-playing game designers 1974 births Living people