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I'm Jason
Tondro
and I've
written RPG material for several companies, including Iron
Crown
Enterprises
(I
contributed to Southern
Gondor), Hero
Games (Broken
Kingdoms,
Adventurer's Club), Gold
Rush Games
(Blades: Immortal Steel), SHADIS
Magazine,
and plenty more projects that were never published.
The
roleplaying game business is a tough one to survive in, and a lot
of companies have had hard times in it. In fact, pretty much every RPG
company I have worked for has gone under at one point or another,
though the lucky ones have resurfaced (albeit with new people in
charge). With the development of the Open Gaming License, I've realized
I no longer have to write for other companies. Instead, I can do what I
want to do. I created TPK
Productions
as a way to publish RPG material.
I'm not in
the
gaming business to make a lot of money. I am happy if I
can cover expenses, and I would be ecstatic if I could make enough
money selling games to pay for all the games I want to buy. But my
minimum goal -- the thing I must
do -- is produce work of good quality
which improves the game and the hobby at large. I'm not interested in
putting out a line of cheap, quickly-produced, RPG sourcebooks which
look good but play badly. Some people would accuse me of being a
"hobbyist" and, by this label, suggest my work is below industry
standard, but I believe that -- to the contrary -- it is my love of the
game that drives me to excel. If my soapbox doesn't scare you, you can
find out more at Tondropolis.
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In my effort, I
have had the help of some very fine people. Angela
Murray
was my first recruit. A long-time friend from Crucible
City MUX,
she
is a graphic designer and layout artist who, like me, enjoys working
in the gaming industry. With her help, I was free to write the books
and leave layout to the experts. To say the results proved the wisdom
of this strategy would be the understatement of 2005, since Escape
from Alcatraz! did things I
never even imagined. You can see much more of Ang's work on her
website, Roadflare Designs.
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My second and
third recruits were artists. Warren
Belfield
and I met at
the Chicago Comic Con years ago and he was the first guy to try to
illustrate one of my comic scripts, a project called "Coeur de Leon." I
knew
TPK would need original art and Warren's style is bold, with a strong
graphic design element. It's not traditional superheroes, and that's
good. That was exactly what I wanted. Warren has illustrated our third
release, Organized
Crime, an
M&M sourcebook for so-called "dark
& gritty" campaigns. More of Warren's diabolical schemes can be
found at Hand Turkey
Studios.
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Bill
Jackson
was turned my way
by the fine folks at Black
Wyrm Games
(whose M&M2e sourcebook
for the Golden Age, Fires
of War,
can be found here),
and was an illustrator on the Hero Games fanzine Haymaker. His "classic comic
book" style made him the perfect choice for our first product, Escape
from Alcatraz!
While it is always nice to work with an artist who is both creative and
fast, what I like most about Bill is that when I reference comics
arcana like Kirby dots, psychedelic Steranko covers, or Alex Toth he
knows what I'm talking about.
Bill is currently illustrating a new project for TPK which will be our
biggest ever, outsizing Alcatraz
by at least 40 pages.
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Sherry
d'Antonio
is an old
friend of my wife's -- in fact, she was
Nicole's maid of honor at our wedding. She's also a graphic designer
and when Angela was up to her elbows in Alcatraz I turned to Sherry
to do
layouts for TPK's first
non-M&M product, Fantasy
Classics:
Julius Caesar.
I think I drove Sherry crazy with all the changes I wanted made, but in
the end she displayed the patience of a saint as well as first-class
layout skills.
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Michael
Dickson
is the man
behind the art for Julius
Caesar.
Mike and I have had the pleasure of gaming together on many occasions;
he's the only person in this company who's also a local. He and I play
the snooty wizard and brainless paladin, respectively, in Nicole's
weekly campaign of the Worlds'
Largest Dungeon. Everyone in my
local gaming group has been
trying to persuade Mike to go pro for a long while now. I was delighted
when he agreed to do art for TPK's first d20 project.
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Mark A. Miller
is Supreme Overlord of the Markyverse and a veteran GM of some
twenty-six years. He is the author of TPK's upcoming product, Return to Alcatraz! This will be
his first foray into the realm of actual
publishing and he's more than a tad nervous. He is known as Miracleman
at Crucible City MUX (the first and largest M&M Mux) where he has
been a staff member since the game's
inception almost three years ago. A player of many
game systems and genres, superheroes and D&D are his chief loves,
though the list of other games is long and shameful. A geek many times
over, he loves Sci-Fi, Fantasy, High Fantasy, some Horror, and is an
avid reader when time permits. Father of none, he has a fiancee he's
deeply in love with and a dog that is as cute and loveable as he is
neurotic. All Hail Ming!
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Like most GMs, I
just can't stop thinking. This is the place for
editorials, errata, so-called "web extras" and other bits which I hope
you find useful or entertaining. You're welcome to disagree.
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