I'm a freelance writer and game designer based in Austin, Texas. My published work includes six books, three boardgames, nearly two dozen roleplaying game supplements, contributions to several computer games, technical manuals, the fantasy novel Cast of Fate (TSR, 1996), and over 250 articles, reviews, columns, and stories. Austin e-learning company Enspire Learning produces the computer version of my multiplayer business ethics and leadership simulation, the Executive Challenge. The Wall Street Journal covered the Executive Challenge in its May 10, 2004 issue.

I wrote the new edition of the classic 1980s roleplaying game PARANOIA, published in August 2004 by Mongoose Publishing, and am currently editing and packaging the game's support line. My wife, writer Beth Fischi (rhymes with "whiskey"), is helping me on the PARANOIA line.

If you are a student working on a research project, you can go straight to my Frequently Asked Questions list.

This site offers fiction, lots of articles, material for roleplaying games, much fan writing, my letters from Africa and elsewhere, interesting links, and contact info.

News July 17, 2005: I am writing articles for the new weekly online gaming magazine The Escapist. My first article, profiling game designer Greg Gorden, appears July 19 in the second issue, and I have other pieces scheduled.

When you search Google for the exact term "game designer," for some reason I appear on the first page, unlike any other individual designer. Mysterious and unjust -- but the upshot is, I'm getting many "how can I become a game designer?" requests from junior-high students working on class projects. For them I have created an FAQ.

My August 2004 edition of the classic 1980s tabletop roleplaying game PARANOIA has received excellent reviews. I am editing and packaging the PARANOIA support line for the publisher, Mongoose Publishing. Follow its developments on the PARANOIA development blog. The gaggle of contributors has organized as the Traitor Recycling Studio.For more background, check the fine Paranoia-Live fan site, where I am active on the forums.

Noteworthy

---

A roleplaying game played through Weblog (blog) entries.

How to become a game designer

---

In response to numerous inquiries from students working on class projects, I have posted a list of answers to common questions about becoming a game designer.

"Anopheles" (aka "Horror World")

---

A 1990 adventure for the Champions superhero roleplaying game, published in the alternate-worlds supplement Champions in 3-D under the lame title "Horror World." The superheroes visit a modern-day parallel world where Lovecraftian Cthulhoid monsters took over decades ago. Graphic horror in a superheroic mode.

Other gaming material on this site includes Earthdawn Legends, a full-length unpublished scenario collection for the Earthdawn fantasy roleplaying game; "Shaolin Heartbreak," a Feng Shui scenario; "Desire Box," a short Earthdawn adventure; material for Champions, Pendragon, AD&D, and Mage; many articles about card games like Magic: The Gathering; and most of my "Roleplaying Reviews" columns from Dragon.

"Chance Music"

A comic historical fantasy of the chance-derived aleatoric music experiments undertaken in the 1950s and '60s by modern music composers like John Cage. A young New York composer tries using a computer to generate notes randomly, and gets frustrated when it keeps churning out recognizable music. Written for the November 2003 Turkey City writers' workshop in Austin, Texas.

Ultra-Violet (Chapters 1-7) (HTML or 367K .PDF)

My novel in progress, a scramjet-paced fantasy about a boy who journeys up the colors of the rainbow, and each color is a different techno-magical land. Think Wizard of Oz for the 21st Century, times seven. People either love it or stare in sullen resentment, which is probably better than "ehh." I want to write a book that, for better or worse, nobody else in the world could have written. So far, I think, so good. I will post new sections here as I complete them. (Note: Though "Ultraviolet" is a term of use in the Paranoia RPG I'm current working on, this novel is not related to the game.)

More stories: Including In the Swift Workshop, a science fiction novelette wherein science hero Todd Speed opens his long-abandoned laboratory (this story is "trembling on the edge of a major breakthrough in the field" -- Bruce Sterling); "Bollix at the Hamster Race", a Wodehousean SF comedy wherein a major software company decides to test a new Internet protocol by racing hamsters; "Craverlane Bend", an otherworldly fantasy and an allegory of the adventure gaming hobby; "Following the Elephant," a comedic fantasy novelette set in 14th-Century Thailand; and "Rational," a short parody of the work of a well-known Australian writer of hard science fiction.

I've written many magazine articles, including "Turkey's Underground Cities," on my trip to the huge real-world labyrinths of Derinkuyu and Kaymakli under central Cappadocia; a history of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos; "The New Improved Beast", a history of werewolves in legend, fiction, movies, and games; "Movie Munchies," about films that make you hungry; "Blast From the Past" columns from Collect! magazine; and articles that explain adventure gaming to non-gamers.

"Our 21st Century Writers": Join our intrepid reporter in the year 2026 as he visits the leading science fiction writers of the day: first Heinlein Colony (note that I wrote this before Heinlein's death in 1988), then Varley Studios, and finally the greatest of them all. Satire for SF fans.

More fan writing: Including Live Shots from The Austin Chronicle; Thruput, a hoax review of a non-existent cyberpunk shared-world anthology; a tribute to novelist and game designer Aaron Allston; and "Rasputin."

My travel letters include "African Dispatches" (1998-99) from Kenya, Tanzania and Zanzibar, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Namibia, and South Africa; and "Greetings From Seattle," from an extended 1995 business trip.

These sites showcase my interests, friends, esteemed acquaintances, publishers, or odd discoveries.

You can reach me at APVarney [at] aol.com.