Meet the RPG Superstar Judges and Staff!
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Owen K. C. Stephens—RPG Superstar Host
Owen K. C. Stephens is a veteran RPG game designer and freelancer, and co-founder of Rogue Genius Games. He joined Paizo in April of this year as a developer. He primarily works on the Pathfinder Modules and Player Companion product lines. You can keep up with his various projects at owenkcstephens.com.
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Neil Spicer—Open Call-Round 5 Judge
Neil Spicer earned his industry stripes as Paizo's RPG Superstar in 2009, penning the popular fey-themed adventure, Realm of the Fellnight Queen. He's since returned for multiple stints as an RPG Superstar judge, and emerged as a consistent author for Paizo's Adventure Paths. So far, he's written for Kingmaker, Serpent's Skull, Carrion Crown, Jade Regent, Skull & Shackles, Reign of Winter, Wrath of the Righteous, and Iron Gods—ensuring a gamer's "hat trick" covering everything from vampires, ninjas, and pirates to witches, demons, and robots. Neil also serves as Executive Partner at Legendary Games, having recently funded a Kickstarter project called Legendary Planet to produce a third-party Adventure Path with sword-and-planet themes. He lives near Charlotte, NC with his wife and four children.
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John Compton—Round 4 Judge
John Compton, once an archaeologist and a teacher, is now a developer at Paizo and the development lead for Pathfinder Society Organized Play. He proudly shows off scenarios published over the last year as if they were photos of grandchildren, continues to pad his 5-Star judge rating with more GMing, and is always ready to rattle off underappreciated Pathfinder RPG trivia to unsuspecting passersby. His hobbies include experimenting with archaeometallurgy, watching nature documentaries, practicing martial arts, and taking on freelance RPG assignments.
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Liz Courts—Round 2 Judge
Liz blames her brother for all of this. An avid gamer for over twenty years, Liz has worked on over 40 different RPG products, helped organize the first unofficial PaizoCon, started and headed the Wayfinder fanzine for its first four issues, then went on to work for Paizo after being a member of its community for five years. Liz also likes art, baking, coffee, and all things ninja, but not always in that order.
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Adam Daigle—Round 3 & 5 Judge
A longtime fan and member of the messageboard community, Adam Daigle grew up on the Gulf Coast of Texas and lived in Austin before coming to work at Paizo as a developer. Adam has contributed dozens of monsters to various Pathfinder products, and continues to dream up dozens of monsters a year to appear in the Pathfinder Adventure Path Bestiary.
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Crystal Frasier—Round 5 Judge
Crystal Frasier is a writer, artist, and designer whose work has been featured in Paizo, Kobold Press, Rite Publishing, Dynamite Comics, Prism Comics, and Palladium Books. She owns an inordinately large collection of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and is currently obsessed with mutating her pet corgi, Calamity Mythos.
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Amanda Hamon Kunz—Open Call Judge
Amanda Hamon Kunz is Paizo's newest assistant developer, and she is a freelance Pathfinder designer, developer, and editor for several third-party publishers. Her freelance design work for Paizo can be found in more than a dozen publications, including Ships of the Inner Sea, Dragons Unleashed, and Inner Sea Gods. For Kobold Press, she has served as the primary editor and developer for the Southlands campaign setting book and for Deep Magic. She loves epic fantasy, gothic horror, and (if you ask her office mates) making a huge mess of her desk in the name of the creative process. Amanda lives in the Seattle area with her husband and their many nonmagical pets.
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Victoria Jaczko—Open Call Judge
Victoria Jaczko won RPG Superstar in 2014 and has since been involved in freelance projects in league with the Four Horsemen, and Kobold Press, Legendary Games, and Rogue Genius Games. She writes fantasy and horror fiction between deadlines, at least when she isn't distracted by pretty Kickstarter games. She lives in Edmond, OK, with her husband, Ivan, and a 4-year-old and 18-month-old who are both destined to be nerds. Right now, she's playing Cyberpunk, Kingmaker, Elder Scrolls Online, and Sims 4.
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Jason Keeley—Round 3 Judge
Jason Keeley was hired as an editor by Paizo in March of 2015, withdrawing from the Top 16 round of RPG Superstar 2015 to take the job. Before joining Paizo, he was published several times in the Wayfinder fanzine and wrote a grimoire for Fat Goblin Games. He continues to edit for the swords-and-sorcery e-zine Worlds Without Master and his own ENnie-honored Pantheon Press. He lives in Redmond with his dog, Bigby, and his wife.
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Chris Lambertz—RPG Superstar Support
Chris Lambertz provides logistics and technical support for the RPG Superstar competition. At Paizo she acts as the Community & Digital Content Director, overseeing all Paizo web content. She is a half-marathoner, hiker, photographer, and lover of gifs and glitter. Definitely not a robot.
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