Meet the Judges

Wolfgang Baur

Wolfgang Baur is the founder of Open Design and the publisher of Kobold Quarterly, a magazine of RPG goodness. Wolfgang is the author or contributor to dozens of RPG adventures and supplements, including Pathfinder #4: Fortress of the Stone Giants, Pathfinder Chronicles: Classic Monsters Revisited, The Book of Roguish Luck, Empire of the Ghouls, GameMastery Module J3: Crucible of Chaos, and the Dark*Matter campaign setting—and most importantly for our purposes here, the Kobold Guide to Game Design, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. 

Baur has foolishly agreed to return and judge RPG Superstar for a second year. Some of the entries he saw last year can never be unseen...

Clark Peterson

An attorney by trade, Clark Peterson doubles as the president of Necromancer Games, perhaps the most prolific adventure publishers in the d20 industry. Necromancer's products boast a "First Edition Feel" that hearkens back to the quality of many of the classic adventures. Clark's professional design credits include Rappan Athuk: The Dungeon of Graves, Crucible of Freya, the Tome of Horrors series, the Wilderlands of High Fantasy, Tomb of Abysthor and the recent City of Brass.

Sean K Reynolds

Sean K Reynolds was born in a coastal town in southern California. A professional game designer since 1998, he's best known for his work on the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, Greyhawk, and the 3rd edition Monster Manual. He lives in Seattle with his four cats, and spends his free time reading, painting miniatures, and writing three-sentence biographies.

Guest Judges

Clinton J. Boomer

Clinton J. Boomer, known to his friends as "Booms," resides in the quaint, idyllic, leafy paradise of Macomb, Illinois, where he attended school from the 4th grade through college. He began playing D&D with the 1993 release of Planescape, and currently devotes a full 99.9% of his waking hours to thinking about RPGs. Boomer is a writer, filmmaker, gamer, bartender and janitor; his short films, the "D&D PHB PSAs," have over 2500 subscribers on YouTube. A member of the WereCabbages freelance creative writing guild and frequent Paizo contributor, Boomer is currently the happiest he has ever been in his entire life. His first Pathfinder Society Scenario, The Third Riddle, was released in January.

Rob McCreary

Rob McCreary was born in Japan and raised in the United States. He started gaming when the red Basic D&D boxed set came out. Rob currently lives in Prague, Czech Republic, where he is an English teacher by day and freelancer by night. Rob made it to last year's RPG Superstar Top 4 with a combination of coin belts, ziggurat-filled jungles, and monkey-goblins. Thus far he has contributed to the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, several Pathfinder bestiaries, and the upcoming Dungeon Denizens Revisited. Rob is currently scrambling to finish writing the final installment of the upcoming Legacy of Fire Adventure Path, "The Final Wish".

Jason Nelson

Jason Nelson is in the job market as a professor of education (have doctorate, will travel!) and a devoted Christian who lives in Seattle, Washington with his two kids, Allen and Meshia, and has been gaming since 1981. He's hardcore enough that he uses the name of his first-ever D&D character, Tjaden, in his email address, and he's also devious enough to have slipped the name of his fiancee into the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, to her great amusement and delight. Jason was some combination of lucky and good enough to make the Final Four in the inaugural RPG Superstar and has also written a number of adventures and articles for Paizo (be on the lookout for "The End of Eternity", the fourth adventure in the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path!) as well as over a hundred web columns for Wizards of the Coast. Jason and Boomer had the great pleasure to represent Paizo and RPG Superstar as guest panelists at VCON33 this year (road trip!).

Leandra Christine Schneider

Leandra Christine Schneider was born in Germany, and still lives there. She developed her first game, a clone of "Frustration," two decades ago in elementary school and hasn't stopped gaming since. Raised and nurtured by Greek myths, the Brothers Grimm fairytales, and hyperborean legends, she was well prepared when her friends started playing AD&D 2nd edition and realized that this type of game required the use of a DM. In addition to spending as much time behind the screen as possible, Christine studies bioinformatics and contributes to Paizo; Clash of the Kingslayers, the Pathfinder Module based on her winning RPG Superstar outline, was released in January.

Ed Greenwood

Ed Greenwood is the chair of a Canadian library board and a longtime librarian, writer, magazine columnist, editor, and game designer. He is best known as the creator of the Forgotten Realms fantasy world setting, and has designed more than a hundred game products, is a former Contributing (later Creative) Editor of Dragon Magazine, and the New York Times bestselling author of over two dozen fantasy novels. Ed has won several Origins and Gamer's Choice Awards, has been a judge for the World Fantasy Awards, and is currently judging the Sunburst Awards, which honor the best in Canadian science-fiction and fantasy writing.

Jason Bulmahn

Jason Bulmahn is the Lead Designer of Paizo Publishing, LLC. After having coordinated Living Greyhawk, the world's largest D&D organized play campaign for the RPGA, Bulmahn joined Paizo Publishing as the Managing Editor of Dragon magazine in 2004. Since then, Jason has published dozens of articles and adventures in Dragon and Dungeon magazines. His RPG design credits include Dungeonscape, Elder Evils, Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk, Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer, Secrets of Xen'drik, and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. His work has earned an Origins Award and nine ENnie Awards.

Monte Cook

Monte Cook has been working on games professionally for more than 20 years. In that time, he has worked on a variety of games, including Dungeons & Dragons, Rolemaster, Champions, Call of Cthulhu, and Alternity. He designed HeroClix, and co-designed Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition, and wrote Planewalker's Handbook, Dead Gods, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and the Book of Vile Darkness, among many other D&D supplements. In 2001, he founded Malhavoc Press, and over the next few years published titles like the Book of Eldritch Might, Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, and Ptolus: Monte Cook's City by the Spire.

James Jacobs

James Jacobs: the man, the myth, the legend. Raised on the wild shores of Point Arena, CA, Jacobs was traumatized early on by the scaled and tentacled creatures of the deep, and has spent the last 30 years trying to expurgate these horrors from his subconscious via therapeutic game design. Something of a child prodigy, Jacobs published his first adventure in Dungeon at the age of 14 and later went on to become the magazine's Editor-in-Chief. In his role there and as the Editor-in-Chief of Pathfinder, Jacobs has made major contributions to roleplaying with his many adventures (Red Hand of Doom, Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk, installments in the Shackled City, Age of Worms, Savage Tide, and Rise of the Runelords Adventure Paths), sourcebooks (Dungeon Master's Guide II, Lords of Madness, Fiendish Codex I), article series (Demonomicon of Iggwilv), and countless pseudopoded monsters, as well as vast and incalculable additions to the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting. He's won numerous awards and accolades, from ENnies to Origins Awards, but just how many is unclear, as he's not really one to brag. (Note: This bio was written by Mr. Jacobs' adoring underlings without either his knowledge of consent.)