Steve Jackson (born 1953) is an American

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 ...

whose creations include the role-playing game ''

GURPS The ''Generic Universal Role Playing System'', or ''GURPS'', is a tabletop role-playing game system published by Steve Jackson Games. The system is designed to run any genre using the same core mechanics. The core rules were first written by St ...

'' and the card game '' Munchkin''.

Education

Steve Jackson was born in 1953. Jackson is a 1974 graduate of

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

, where he was a resident of

Sid Richardson College Rice University contains eleven residential colleges which function as the primary housing, dining, and social organizations for undergraduate students. Each student is randomly affiliated with a residential college upon matriculation and becom ...

. Jackson briefly attended the

University of Texas School of Law The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Texas at Austin, a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas. According to Texas Law’s American Bar ...

, but left to start a game design career.

Career

1970s: Metagaming Concepts

While working at Metagaming Concepts, Jackson developed '' Monsters! Monsters!'' (''ca.'' 1976) based on a design by Ken St. Andre connected to his '' Tunnels & Trolls'' role-playing game, and '' Godsfire'' (1976), a space conquest game by Lynn Willis. Jackson got his first design for the company published as ''

Ogre An ogre (feminine: ogress) is a legendary monster depicted as a large, hideous, man-like being that eats ordinary human beings, especially infants and children. Ogres frequently feature in mythology, folklore, and fiction throughout the world ...

'' (1977), followed by '' G.E.V.'' (1978), which were both set in a futuristic universe that Jackson created. Jackson became interested in ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'', but did not like the various-sized dice or the combat rules, and bemoaned the lack of tactics, so he designed ''

Melee A melee ( or ) is a confused hand-to-hand combat, hand-to-hand fight among several people. The English term ''melee'' originated circa 1648 from the French word ' (), derived from the Old French ''mesler'', from which '':wikt:medley, medley'' and ...

'' in response. Jackson joined the SCA to gain a better understanding of combat, but as his interest grew he started fighting in SCA live-action combat as Vargskol, the Viking-Celt. Metagaming also published his game '' Wizard''. Jackson realized that ''Melee'' could be expanded into a complete fantasy role-playing game, and started working on '' The Fantasy Trip'' before ''Melee'' was even published. ''The Fantasy Trip'' was initially scheduled for release in February 1978, but the design and development required more work than Jackson had anticipated and the game was not released until March 1980. Howard Thompson, owner of Metagaming, decided to release ''The Fantasy Trip'' as four separate books instead of a more expensive boxed set, and changed his production methods so that Jackson would be unable to check the final proofs of the game. As a result of these actions, Jackson left Metagaming and founded

Steve Jackson Games Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''. History Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...

later that year.

1980s: Steve Jackson Games

His game '' Raid on Iran'' was an immediate success. Jackson bought ''

The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...

'' from Metagaming, and sold the rights to ''The Fantasy Trip'' to Metagaming. However, Thompson sought legal action against SJG for the rights to the short wargame ''One-Page Bulge'', and the lawsuit was settled with an agreement that was reached on November 26, 1981, leaving Jackson with the full rights to ''One-Page Bulge'', and to ''Ogre'' and ''G.E.V.'' (whose ownership was questioned during the legal proceedings). Jackson wanted to purchase ''The Fantasy Trip'' back from Thompson after Metagaming closed down in April 1983, but Thompson declined the offered price of $250,000. Jackson designed or co-designed many of the games published by SJ Games, including minigames such as '' Car Wars'' (1981) and '' Illuminati'' (1983), ''

Undead The undead are beings in mythology, legend, or fiction that are deceased but behave as if they were alive. A common example of an undead being is a cadaver, corpse reanimated by supernatural forces, by the application of either the deceased's o ...

'' (1981), and a published version of an informal game played on college campuses, called '' Killer''. Jackson wanted to get into computer gaming software in the early 1980s, but wound up licensing the rights to

Origin Systems Origin Systems, Inc. was an American video game developer based in Austin, Texas. It was founded on March 3, 1983, by Richard Garriott and his brother Robert. Origin is best known for their groundbreaking work in multiple genres of video games ...

instead, which produced games such as '' Autoduel'' (1985) and ''

'' (1986). Jackson had an idea in the middle of 1981 for designing and publishing a new detailed and realistic roleplaying system, intending it to be logical and organized well, and wanted it to adaptable for any kind of setting and play level. Jackson announced ''

'' in 1983, although his time spent managing magazines delayed development of ''GURPS'' until 1984, making the combat system book '' Man to Man: Fantasy Combat from GURPS'' (1985) available for

Origins Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...

1985, and the full ''GURPS Basic Set'' appeared the next year in 1986. Sean Punch replaced Jackson in 1995 as the line editor for ''GURPS''.

Recent years

Jackson also designed the strategy card games '' Munchkin'' (2001) and '' Ninja Burger'' (2003), and the dice games '' Zombie Dice'' (2010) and '' Cthulhu Dice'' (2010), as well as Zombie Dice variants ''Trophy Buck'' (2011) and ''Dino Hunt Dice'' (2013). Jackson has exhibited his elaborate Chaos Machine at several science fiction or

wargaming A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to st ...

conventions, including the 2006

Worldcon Worldcon, officially the World Science Fiction Convention, the annual convention of the World Science Fiction Society (WSFS), is a science fiction convention. It has been held each year since 1939 (except for the years 1942 to 1945, during Wor ...

. On May 11, 2012, Steve Jackson's

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

funding project for the 6th Edition of his ''Ogre'' game became the highest grossing boardgame project at Kickstarter, with 5,512 backers pledging a total of $923,680. The success of the ''Ogre Designer's Edition'' project prompted the launch of a second successful project - running from Nov 29, 2019, through Jan 6, 2020 - to help re-launch the popular ''Car Wars'' franchise as well.

The two "Steve Jacksons"

Jackson is often mistaken for Steve Jackson, a British

gamebook A gamebook is a work of printed fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making choices. The narrative branches along various paths, typically through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages. Each narrative typically does not ...

and video game writer who co-founded

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer (game), Warhammer'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake ...

. The confusion is exacerbated by the fact that while the UK Jackson was co-creator of the '' Fighting Fantasy'' gamebook series, the US Jackson also wrote three books in this series ('' Scorpion Swamp'', '' Demons of the Deep'', and '' Robot Commando''), and the books did not acknowledge that this was a different 'Steve Jackson'.

1990 Secret Service incident and legal actions

The

United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security tasked with conducting criminal investigations and providing protection to American political leaders, thei ...

raided the offices of Steve Jackson Games on March 1, 1990 based on suspicion of illegal hacker activity by game designer

Loyd Blankenship Loyd Blankenship, better known by his pseudonym The Mentor, is an American computer hacker and writer. He has been active since the 1970s, when he was a member of the hacker groups Extasyy Elite and Legion of Doom. Writings Hacker Manifesto ...

, and seized (among other materials and media) his manuscript for '' GURPS Cyberpunk''; when Jackson went to Secret Service headquarters the next day to ask them to return his book drafts, the Secret Service agents told him that they believed ''GURPS Cyberpunk'' was a "handbook for computer crime", despite his protestations that it was just a game. Through the newly created civil-rights organization

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...

, SJG filed a lawsuit against the government, which went to trial in early 1993 as '' Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service''. SJG won the lawsuit, receiving $50,000 in damages.

Personal interests

Jackson is an avid collector of

Lego Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

(especially

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

-themed) sets. He has written a miniatures game that uses Pirate sets, ''Evil Stevie's Pirate Game'', and has run it at several conventions. Jackson has combined his fondness for model trains and

LEGO Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

through the

train community and has been an active member of several LEGO users groups including TBRR (Texas Brick Railroad) and the Texas LEGO Users Group.

Honors

*Jackson has received over a dozen

Origins Awards The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the gaming industry. They are presented by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for games released in the preceding year. For example, t ...

. *In 1982, he became the youngest game designer to be inducted into the

Charles Roberts Awards Hall of Fame The Charles S. Roberts Awards Hall of Fame, formally known as the Clausewitz Award Hall of Fame, is named after legendary military writer Carl von Clausewitz. The recipients of this award have made an important contribution and left their mark on th ...

. *His role-playing game ''

'' and card game '' Munchkin'' were named to the Origins Hall of Fame for 1999 and 2012 respectively. *He was honored as a "famous game designer" by being featured as the king of clubs in Flying Buffalo's 2011 Famous Game Designers Playing Card Deck.

References

External links

* at SJgames.com
Steve Jackson: Biography and Public Warning
at SJgames.com
Steve Jackson Games v. US Secret Service
(1990 to 1993 legal case) at SJgames.com * * *

by Tom Vasel, April 2005 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Steve 1953 births Living people American role-playing designers American board game designers Rice University alumni Discordians American gamebook writers Fighting Fantasy GURPS writers