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Ken St. Andre

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Kenneth Eugene St. Andre (born April 28, 1947[1]) is an American fantasy game designer and author, best known for creating the fantasy role-playing game, Tunnels & Trolls (T&T), and the computer role-playing game, Wasteland.

Ken St. Andre
St. Andre (right) at his residence in Phoenix, Arizona, with friend Bernard Assaf (left), 2020
St. Andre (right) at his residence in Phoenix, Arizona, with friend Bernard Assaf (left), 2020
BornKenneth Eugene St. Andre
(1947-04-28) April 28, 1947 (age 77)
Ogden, Utah, U.S.
Nickname"Ken", "Trollgod", "Trollgodfather"
OccupationGame designer, writer
Period1975–present
GenreRole-playing games, fantasy
Spouse
Catherine
​
(div. 2012)​
Literature portal

In 1975, St. Andre wrote rules for a fantasy role-playing game he called Tunnels & Trolls (T&T) as a rebellion against the recently published Dungeons & Dragons which he felt was heavily dependent on the use of miniatures, with which he had no experience.[2] In the following decades he published several editions of, and adventures for, T&T, including rules and adventures for a monsters-as-heroes variation named Monsters! Monsters! (M!M!).

St. Andre maintained a 40+ year long professional partnership with Rick Loomis, founder of game publisher Flying Buffalo, which published various Tunnels & Trolls editions and products starting in 1975 and until Flying Buffalo's sale in 2021. He continues to write fiction and gaming materials published under the Trollhalla Press Unlimited[3] imprint, for items produced with his game design partner and artist Steve Crompton, and under the Trollgodfather Press imprint, for everything else St. Andre publishes.

St. Andre has been an active member of The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America since 1989. In June 2018, The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design inducted St. Andre into its Hall of Fame.[4]

Ken St. Andre married once and has two children. He currently lives in Sun City, Arizona.[5]

Game design

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Ken St. Andre first saw the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game in April 1975, and after concluding that the rules did not make sense, he designed his own simpler game.[6]: 35  St. Andre ultimately called his game Tunnels & Trolls, and printed 100 copies of the first edition in 1975.[6]: 35 [7] He asked Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo to sell 40 copies of Tunnels & Trolls at Origins in July 1975. When those copies sold out, Flying Buffalo acquired the publishing rights to the game and published St. Andre's second edition of T&T in December 1975.[6]: 35–36  In addition to writing the game rules, Ken was one of the creators of solitaire adventures which allowed players to experience the game without a game master or judge. St. Andre has written many modules and stand alone adventures for Tunnels & Trolls, including the gamebooks Deathtrap Equalizer Dungeon and Naked Doom in 1977 after Loomis's own Buffalo Castle.[6]: 36 

Flying Buffalo published several editions of T&T throughout the years, all written by St. Andre, including 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 5.5th[6]: 41  editions between 1975 and 2005. Fiery Dragon Productions published a 30th anniversary 7th edition and 7.5th editions in 2005 and 2008, respectively, skipping an official 6th edition due to controversy surrounding a fan-made, self-proclaimed 6th edition.[8] St. Andre collaborated with an independent French publisher on an 8th edition in 2012. In 2015 Flying Buffalo released a Kickstarter-funded Deluxe Edition of T&T, authored by St. Andre, Steve Crompton, Elizabeth Danforth and James "Bear" Peters, known as "The Fellowship of the Troll".[9] As of 2024, Deluxe T&T stands as the latest edition of T&T published.

St. Andre designed Starfaring, published by Flying Buffalo in 1976 as the first science fiction role-playing game ever published.[6]: 36 

 
St. Andre at Gen Con Indy 2014

His third game, Monsters! Monsters!, was published by Metagaming Concepts in 1976; Flying Buffalo acquired the rights to publish a second printing in 1979,[6]: 36  although St. Andre maintained ownership of the game.

Following the death of Rick Loomis in 2019, St. Andre released a 2nd edition of Monsters! Monsters! with expanded rules along with an updated The Toughest Dungeon in the World adventure module, both published by Trollhalla Press Unlimited in 2020.[10] St. Andre's aim was to separate M!M! from its parent game, Tunnels & Trolls. After the sale of Flying Buffalo and Tunnels & Trolls to Webbed Sphere in 2021, St. Andre moved the stories and characters still under his control to a new world named Zimrala with the release of Ken St. Andre's Monsterary of Zimrala in 2022. In 2023 he published an expanded 2.7th edition of Monsters! Monsters!, which moved the setting firmly into Zimrala.[11][12]

He designed Chaosium's first licensed role-playing game, Stormbringer, in 1981,[6]: 85  and helped create its 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions.

With Liz Danforth and Michael Stackpole, St. Andre designed the post-apocalyptic computer role-playing game Wasteland, a game published by Interplay in 1988.[6]: 39  He rejoined Danforth and Stackpole as part of the design team of Wasteland 2, released in 2014.

Awards and honors

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In 1986, Ken was the first editor for a fan club newsletter based around the Adventure Construction Set video game, one of the rare cases of a professional designer leading gamer activities for another designer's game.

St. Andre was chosen by vote as a "famous game designer" to be featured as the king of spades in Flying Buffalo's 2014 Famous Game Designers Playing Card Deck.[13][14]

In June 2018, The Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design inducted St. Andre into its Hall of Fame.[15]

Personal life

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St. Andre currently lives in Sun City.[16] He previously lived in Phoenix, Arizona.[5] He has two children, a daughter, Jillian, and a son, James. On August 27, 2010, St. Andre retired after 36 years of service to the city of Phoenix as a public librarian.[17][18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Summary Bibliography: Ken St. Andre". The Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  2. ^ Maliszewski, James (14 May 2012). "An Interview with Ken St. Andre". Grognardia: Musings and Memories from a Lifetime of Roleplaying. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  3. ^ "DriveThruRPG". Trollgodfather Press on DriveThruRPG.com. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  4. ^ "Ken St Andre Inducted in the Orgins [sic] Awards Hall of Fame". Dungeon Master Magazine. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  5. ^ a b St. Andre, Ken (2007). "Shadowfist". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 269–272. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  7. ^ Tresca, Michael J. (2010), The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, McFarland, p. 63, ISBN 978-0786458950
  8. ^ "Tunnels & Trolls 6th Edition? What is this?". RPG.net Forums. June 2007. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  9. ^ "Deluxe Tunnels and trolls pdf's have gone out to kickstarters". forum.rpg.net. 10 July 2015. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
  10. ^ "New Beginning". Monsters! Monsters! on the Ruptured Troll Shoppe of Curiosities. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
  11. ^ Jeffrey Dohm-Sanchez (August 4, 2021). "Webbed Sphere, Inc. Acquires Flying Buffalo, Inc". ICv2. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
  12. ^ St. Andre, Ken; Crompton, Steve (2022). Ken St. Andre's Monsterary of Zimrala. Trollhalla Press Unlimited. p. 4. ISBN 9781732546837.
  13. ^ "Poker Deck". Flying Buffalo. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  14. ^ "Poker Deck". Flying Buffalo. March 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2014.
  15. ^ "Ken St Andre Inducted in the Orgins [sic] Awards Hall of Fame". Dungeon Master Magazine. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  16. ^ "Places Lived on Ken St. Andre's Facebook Profile". Facebook. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  17. ^ Andre, Ken St. "The die is cast. I am retiring from Phoenix Public Library as fast as the law allows. This may be a mixed blessing. It's not a good thing". Twitter. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
  18. ^ Andre, Ken St (27 August 2010). "20 min. left in my last day at work. I'm breaking the rules one last time to say Adios, Phoenix Public Library. You are on the road to ruin". Twitter. Retrieved 10 January 2018.
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