Hi and welcome to my home page! My name's Steve Kenson. Like it says, I'm a freelance writer and designer for fantasy role-playing games (RPGs) and the author of five novels (so far). I live in Merrimack, New Hampshire, and that's about all the personal information you're likely to find here, since I perfer to avoid boring people with the details of my life online. (If you want to know more about me personally, there's always e-mail. I welcome hearing from readers of my work and this page.)
You can find information here on my work and some gaming-related information and articles. I've written a number of game books and contributed to many others. I've organized the work here by category, with links to the various publisher and game company home-pages, where available and applicable.
Unless stated otherwise, all material on this site is © 1998 or later by Stephen Kenson and Talon Studio, except for game-specific logos, game systems, and images, which are the copyright of their respective holders.
My first novel for the Shadowrun line. Babel is a technoshaman, transformed by an experience in the virtual reality of the Matrix. He's also hunted by the megacorporations for something he can't remember. You can find it at Amazon.com (along with some of my game books). Read an excerpt from Technobabel.
My second Shadowrun novel. Talon started out as a street-runner, then joined the top shadowrunning team Assets, Inc. Now a mystery from his past draws him back to the streets of 21st century Boston in search of answers and brings him face to face with a evil haunting the underground catacombs of the city, an evil with ties to Talon's past he is not even aware of. Read an excerpt from Crossroads. (Yes, I named my freelance business after Talon. He's still one of my favorite characters ever.)
My third Shadowrun novel. Talon and his team of shadowrunners are back, hired by a representative of the massive Saeder-Krupp corporation to recover a missing archeologist and the artifact he helped unearth. Could it be the key to the end of the world? Guess they forgot about never dealing with a dragon... Read an excerpt from Ragnarock.
The first novel in the MechWarrior series. Sturm Kintaro is a young MechWarrior on an isolated world on the edge of known space. An unexpected invasion leads Sturm to a startling discovery that changes his life forever. Read an excerpt from Ghost of Winter.
A novel set in the Crimson Skies universe that follows the exploits of air-pirate Nathan Zachary from his youth as a pilot during WWI to the early years of his career as a privateer in a shattered alternate America, seeking fame and fortune. Read an excerpt from the Pirate's Gold.
Author: Awakenings: New Magic in 2057, Super Tuesday!, Portfolio of a Dragon: Dunkelzahn's Secrets, Underworld, Mob War!, New Seattle, Magic in the Shadows
Contributor: The Grimoire (Second Edition), Harlequin's Back, Threats, Shadows of the Underworld, The Shadowrun Companion: Beyond the Shadows, Target: UCAS, Target: Smuggler Havens, Shadowrun (Third Edition), Critters, Corporate Download, Brainscan
Author: The Earthdawn Survival Guide, Crystal Raiders of Barsaive
Contributor: Legends of Earthdawn, Magic: A Manual of Mystic Secrets, Prelude to War: An Earthdawn Epic, Arcane Mysteries of Barsaive, Secret Societies of Barsaive, Dragons
Author: The Enchanted (Year of the Ally)
Contributor: Changeling: the Dreaming (Second Edition), The Changeling Storyteller's Guide
Contributor: The Marches, Heaven & Hell, The Angelic Player's Guide, Liber Canticorum
Author: Avengers: Masters of Evil Adventure Book, Live Kree or Die! (Adventurer's Guild Adventure)
Contributor: The Guide to Marvel Earth, Reed Richards' Guide to Everything
Contributor: Enemies of San Angelo
Development Assistance: San Angelo: City of Heroes
Contributor: The Way of D'era, Starfleet Academy, Raiders, Renegades & Rogues, All Our Yesterdays
Development Assistance: Planetary Adventures, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine RPG
Contributor: The Growlers Forcebook, Zykhee Forcebook
Contributor: Aberrant Worldwide Phase I, Aberrant: Elites
Contributor: JLA Sourcebook
Editor: Crusader Faith, League of Super Groovy Crimefighters, Logan and the Bunny Squadron, Tragic Heroes.
Check out the Ancient Studios website by clicking on the logos above.
These are things I've worked on, but are not yet published. Any publication dates are only guesstimates on my part, the actual dates are up to the publisher and Lady Luck.
I have written articles for game magazines like Dragon, InQuest, Pyramid, Shadis, Star Wars Adventure Journal, Adventures Unlimited, Shadowland and Earthdawn Journal. I wrote the Profiles column in Dragon Magazine from January of 1999 to June of 2000. I've also posted a number of my articles online (check the link above).
You can check out some of my other game articles at Steve Jackson Games' online magazine, Pyramid. For $15 a year you get access to new articles every week, SJG playtest files, the latest gaming news, message boards, and article archives for Pyramid and Roleplayer, going back for years (over a thousand articles). All in all, a great deal. Check it out by clicking on the logo below and tell 'em Talon sent you!
Of course, RPGs aren't just work for me. They're also my hobby, and I play once a week or so with a group that has some members who go back with me all the way to high school (yeah, that's way back). We are currently playing:
Our other games (those with a web presence, anyway) include:
If you check out the page, feel free to e-mail me at talonmail@aol.com and let me know what you think. I'm open to suggestions about content and other things people might like to see posted here. Thanks for stopping by!