Jeff Tidball
Jeff Tidball | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Game designer |
Jeff Tidball is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.
Career
After the success of On the Edge (1994), college student Jeff Tidball became one of the new full-time employees at Atlas Games.[1]: 254 When the collectible card game scene imploded in 1996, all of the staff other than John Nephew and Tidball were let go.[1]: 254 Tidball adopted the title of Director of Creative Development and was soon tasked with preparing Atlas Games's next RPG for market, Ars Magica, and Tidball began developing the game for Atlas after they acquired it from Wizards of the Coast.[1]: 254 Tidball also became the Ars Magica line developer,[1]: 255 and the Feng Shui line developer as well.[2] Tidball's Cthulhu-influenced Cults Across America (1998) had been part of Atlas's releases in the board and card game market.[1]: 257 In 2000, Tidball left Atlas Games for an MFA film script-writing program at the University of Southern California .[1]: 255 When John Nephew was skeptical about producing the licensed game Rune, Tidball convinced him to publish it.[1]: 257 Tidball was later hired Last Unicorn Games, but by January 2004 the Last Unicorn Games RPG division of Decipher Games consisted of just Tidball and Jess Heinig, so Decipher shut down its RPG division and laid off the remaining staff.[1]: 318 Tidball designed the Cthulhu 500 card game for Atlas.[2] Tidball worked as the line developer for Decipher's The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game.[2] Atlas published Pieces of Eight (2006), a coin-based game designed by Tidball.[1]: 259 Will Hindmarch and Tidball later formed a new small press called Gameplaywright.[1]: 260 Tidball subsequently worked as the senior developer and editor for the board and card game departments at Fantasy Flight Games,[2] before returning to Atlas Games on a contract basis as Chief Operating Officer. He has also continued to write in the roleplaying industry, notably the massive Eternal Lies campaign he wrote with Hindmarch for Pelgrane Press's Trail of Cthulhu RPG.
Tidball lives with his wife and son in the Twin Cities area.[2]
| Notable Works | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Ars Magica | Line Developer | 1996 |
| Cults Across America | Designer | 1998 |
| The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game | Line Developer | 2002-2004 |
| Cthulhu 500 | Designer | 2004 |
| Pieces of Eight | Designer | 2006 |
| Beowulf: The Movie Boardgame | Developer | 2007 |
| Thing We Think About Games | Co_Author | 2008 |
| Horus Heresy | Designer and Producer | 2010 |
| Ecotopia | Designer and Writer | 2011 |
| Skullgirls | Writer | 2011 |
| League of Legends | Writer | 2011 |
| Dragon Age Roleplaying Game Set 2 | Developer and Co-author | 2011 |
| Mercante | Designer | 2012 |