Wolfgang Baur is the founder and publisher at Kobold Press, the award-winning outfit responsible for the Midgard Campaign Setting and Streets of Zobeck, the Best Adventure of 2012. The kobolds do good work.
As a designer, Wolfgang has contributed to dozens of RPG adventures and supplements, including Bestiary 2, the GameMastery Guide, Pathfinder #4: Fortress of the Stone Giants, The Book of Roguish Luck, the Midgard Bestiary for Pathfinder RPG, and the Dark*Matter campaign setting—and most importantly for our purposes here, the Origins-Award-winning Complete Kobold Guide to Game Design.
Baur has foolishly agreed to return and judge for a third year, after taking some time off from the RPG Superstar contest due to unfortunate Sanity loss. We've convinced him confronting the horrors is part of the healing process. Please play along.
Clark Peterson
Previously an attorney and now a judge, Clark Peterson was the founder and 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. Clark recently founded Legendary Games, an all-star team of authors and designers creating products that support Pathfinder.
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
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.
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 Creative Director of Pathfinder, Jacobs has made major contributions to roleplaying with his many adventures, sourcebooks, article series, and countless pseudopoded monsters, as well as vast and incalculable additions to the Pathfinder 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.
Robert Lazzaretti
Robert Lazzaretti has been drawing maps professionally for 20 years. Most infamously known for creating the maps for the original Planescape campaign setting. Over the years he has drawn thousands of maps for almost every role playing game. He lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife and two children, and spends his free time doing photography, reading, and cooking.
Steve Miller
Also answering to "Space Cowboy", Steve Miller, P.E. uses his engineering background to answer such questions as "How many rounds of falling until terminal velocity is reached?" and "With a levitation spell, how much lateral movement can be achieved when pushing off a wall?" An admitted plastic crack addict, Steve has amassed an enormous collection of miniatures, which his wife hopes will fund their son's college education if Steve's freelance writing does not turn lucrative. Steve authored Pathfinder Society scenario #4-12 The Refuge of Time and serves as the Regional Coordinator for Pathfinder Society in the Raleigh, North Carolina region.
James Olchak
James Olchak is a pop culture dilettante, writer, artist and critic. Aside from playing in two long-running Pathfinder campaigns, James enjoys drawing and sculpting monsters, watching movies of all kinds (except westerns) and people who are clever. James attended the Joe Kubert school of Graphic Art, and you can follow him on Google+, where he discusses art, movies, and stuff he finds interesting. Most recently, after reaching the top 4 in Paizo's RPG Superstar 2012, James helped write The Malefactor, a new base class compatible with the Pathfinder RPG system, available from TPK games, and wrote My Enemy's Enemy, a Pathfinder Society Scenario coming soon from Paizo.com.
Tom Phillips
Tom fell in love with monsters and the macabre at an alarmingly young age, and fondly recalls scribbling a very disturbing number of monsters-eating-stick-people scenes that, had his parents been slightly more responsible, should surely have landed him in psychiatric care. After attending the University of South Carolina, where he lucked into snagging a lucrative English degree, Tom now cringes with the knowledge that he is a responsible, married parent, and owns a life insurance policy. Tom resides in Fleming Island, Florida, with his beautiful wife and daughter.
Mike Welham
Mike has been gaming since 1980, when he received the "Blue Box" Basic set for Christmas. The release of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game ignited a long-dormant desire to write RPG material, and, after four unsuccessful RPG Superstar attempts, he traversed the gauntlet of RPG Superstar 2012. Mike lives with his wife and two children in North Carolina, home to a plethora of RPG talent.
