Stephen Chenault -
Chief Executive Officer, Director of Operations, Chief Marketing Director, Managing Director, Author, Graphic Design Apprentice, Janitor, Shipping Clerk, Pick and Packer:
Stephen was born into a world with a bewildering array of worthless "life choices" and meaningless "life options." As a youth, it was with great insight and eagerness he took to examining those options and pathways, promptly ridiculed them and dumped them into the wastebin that would become other’s lives. Stephen chose the path of brutal verbal assaults which, on occasion, lead to brutal physical
rebuttals. Brittle teeth in hand, Stephen chose an academic path to lengthen what was about to
become a shorter than average life span. He wasted years of his life pursuing a higher education
in history before realizing that we all are, no matter what, doomed to repeat it.
Forsaking those noble causes rife in academia (such as bra burning, speech filtration, self-aggrandizement and longer summer breaks), Stephen foundered for mere moments before, in
a dollar bill induced stupor, deciding to strike it rich by creating a company that sold games. He has since gone on to create such luminaries as the Codex of Erde and Troll Lord Game’s best selling adventure module, The Lion in Ropes. He is also well known for his curt phone conversations and one word emails.
Davis Chenault -
Chief Strategy Officer, Author, Game Designer or He Who Does Not Listen to Steve:
Davis was born way back during the 1960s, when free love and happiness reigned in a world seemingly without consequence. A product of a military upbringing he managed to jettison all the cultural baggage that bogged down the whole host of anyone who lived in that era. He wandered the trackless wastes of life spending precious hours trying to decide what to do with his precious hours, until he at last found a home amongst the dead, digging up the debris of other, long dead, people’s lives and examining and comparing their relative value to his own world. “Archeology,” Davis is known to have claimed, “is the well-spring of all my knowledge of social-drinking houses!”
After a decade of cultural anthropology Davis gave up the good life for gardening, in between which he designs and writes games for Troll Lord Games. His most notable achievements: Castles & Crusades and a cast iron out-door stove, acquired from his neighbor.
Gary Gygax - (1938-2008)
Pathfinder, Trailblazer, Pilgrim:
Gary Gygax passed away on March 4, 2008. It has always been a great honor and genuine pleasure to work with and for Gary. In the years that we Trolls worked with him, he became a pillar of all things Troll Lord and a good friend to us all. He always welcomed us into his home, offered his advice and guidance freely (if on occasion forcefully) and never faulted us for mistakes. Gary will be sorely missed here as will his presence throughout the greater community.
Gary will always be a part of Troll Lord Games. His spirit remains as does his wisdom. He believed, above all things, that he, and we, were game smiths and our job is to make things fun so that people can have fun. That is what he devoted his life to and it is a devotion we hope to carry on.
We have set up a dedication page for Gary. You can view it here. We will add to it from time to time so that people can visit it, pay their respects and learn about the man who was the Father of industry.
Peter Bradley -
Artist, Graphic Designer:
Peter Bradley is the son of two english refugee's who fled home due to utter boredom. So, despite any probable wish to the contrary, he became a world traveller before he could fully walk. This being contradicted by his parents statement that he ran the entire distance from Australia to America at the age of 3. Or at least it seemed so to the harried flight attendants. It's probably just as well the family flew, since Peter has yet to learnhow to swim.
Peter started drawing at an early age, inspoired by a barely remembered TV series called Automan, and has been drawing steadily for the last 20 years or so. Such variety of work
included many a logo design for various sorts of people, including a badge design for the San Diego Sheriff's department. One of his first professional commissions, a political satire cartoon strip, was at the age of 14 or so to a local news paper. He once nurtured ambitions of becoming a comic book artist, but as his current employers know, it takes him forever to finish anything, so comic deadlines are clearly not for him. Much of his current line of work can be found on the Troll Lord Games website. But some cover works can be found at Yard Dog Press as well as some works for a new Deadlands book release. Next year looks just as busy, for despite any desire for fame, others fully intend to see work by him appear in publications by other companies
Mark Sandy -
Journeyman Printer, Shipping and Receiving, Convention Hound, Lord of the Bread:
Mark Sandy cut his teeth in the wilds of Iowa. As a young man his family limbered up there wagons and headed south to the cotton belt where they immersed themselves in the rice fields of eastern Arkansas. After discovering the only VW Bug that has both a manual and automatic transmission Mark became entranced with all things bizarre and that partially worked. Thus his joining Troll Lord Games was a natural next step
Mark has long been associated with Troll Lord Games, attending and helping with the Troll Lords at various conventions across the country. He participated in the great Troll Trans-migration of 2002 when he Davis and Todd wandered from coast to coast trying to earn gas money to return the dens, all the while Steve grew gloated and fat on the proceeds of their wanderings…but we digress.
As of March 31 Mark Sandy joins the Troll team full time. He’ll be buried in the warehouse working the machines and running the mailroom and inventory. Mark will be somewhat isolated as the warehouse has no phone lines. He’ll be the one you complain to about messed up or late orders so please direct your complaints to him as he has no phone or email address.
Casey Christofferson -
Troll Smith, Lord of the Highlands:
Case was born in Iowa in 1971 and started playing Dungeons and Dragons in 1978. He currently lives in Wichita, Kansas where he teaches art to elementary school kids. His sideline hobbies and writing assignments keep him very busy, so busy in fact that he doesn't have much time to fill out silly bio pages. Here are some random dribblings from his fans, foes, and other folks who just happen to have had the dubious pleasure of crossing his path.
Casey has a long history with TLG. Early on Casey was tapped to convert all of Steve’s modules to 3.0 and 3.5. Steve only wrote for earlier editions and had no idea how to play 3.0 so Casey filled the gaps, crafting rules material for Winter Runes and other books. After a gathering at a pub in Vegas TLG and Casey launched a bunch of projects which include Blood Royal, Book of Familiars, Temple of Kubla Khan, Dungeon of Kubla Khan, Tomb of Kubla Khan, the Haunted Highland series and more. Casey has worked cons, slaved over manuscripts and bothered Peter to no end for years.
Todd Gray -
Director of Financial Affairs, Head of Security:
Todd was born a while back, sometime around the annihilation of the Viet Cong during the Tet offensive and the famed “Moon Landing.” He came of age with a silver spoon in his mouth, one decidedly jammed there by his mother after he refused to eat a plate of eggs she had made just for him.
Todd gained an early appreciation for music and took up the saxophone (aka Lisa Simpson) in between playing baseball and football. He quickly established his musical roots by tossing aside the rabble rousing knuckleheads and free love music of the ‘60s, and the idiotic babble of noise that was the ‘70s, only enjoying the sounds of pure rock and roll...with groups such as The Band, Boston, Kansas and 82 Airborne division veteran Jimmy Hendrix!
Todd has lived the good life ever since. In between his academic career he works an average of three jobs and 80 hours a week. Perpetually in motion, if he’s not moving, he’s sleeping or annoying Steve who together form the last of the true meat and potato men in the USA.
Mac Golden -
Game Designer, Defender of the Trolls:
Shadowy behind the scenes figure. Noone knows much about this dude.
Brian Kowalski -
Chief Technology Officer, Game Designer, Official WebTroll:
Brian Kowalski is one of the newest additions to the TLG crew. Former webmaster for Guardians of Order, Brian makes all the TLG web pages look pretty. Brian holds a degree in commercial art and has spent the past 12 years developing corporate industry and small business/personal web solutions. He works professionally in Albany, NY for Spiral Design Studios and teaches at Saint Rose University. Brian is also the CCO (Chief Cookie Officer) of Blue Kabuto Games and creator of Cookie Fu, the world's only Collectable Fortune Cookie Game. He also speaks Japanese.
In his off hours (among other things) Brian is the bass player for renown progressive rock group Aztec Jade. As an avid GM/Gamer for 25 years, he has played (and run) most every RPG/wargame under the sun. Sushi lover, suspected shakuhachi enthusiast, lover of all things zen, Brian shares his life with his Japanese wife and 3 polydactal cats: Ryoko, Ayeka, and JJ.
Robert Doyel -
Author and Critter Creator:
Robert Doyel, or serleran, as most would recognize him, started life in December of 1975, in the sunshine of Long Beach, California. Roleplaying taste and style began around the release of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, when a fateful Players Handbook for AD&D was obtained; however, lacking anything else for the game, and knowing nothing about the hows, Robert was forced into creative overdrive, spontaneously creating both rules (namely, how attack and saves would work), and “things,” especially monsters. Over the years, additional roleplaying materials were purchased, and integrated, but that overreaching desire to constantly tweak and build was retained. Robert has created and developed, managing to sell a few copies, three roleplaying games of his own, and has numerous unofficial credits, mostly of the playtest and editing variety. In total, it is believed Robert has played, written, or worked with, over one thousand games of one kind or another, though he owns a considerable number less, discounting PDFs.
As for non-roleplaying information, the most important is that Robert is not unaccustomed to the travails of the world, having experienced much. He has received six degrees in different fields, and is a certified “computer geek.” Robert has written works of fantasy, fiction, and nonfiction, in a wide range of areas: the most interesting, perhaps, is a musical written as if it were a mystery play.
Mike Stewart -
Author:
Born at the close of the 1960s, his formative years were spent in the great twin metropolitan centers of culture called Greenwood/Greenville Mississippi. Moving to Texas (as fast as he could), he has busily spent time earning college degrees in a vain attempt to avoid entering the real working world.
His last ditch attempt to avoid 9 to 5 work was to start writing for Troll Lord Games. A Contributing Author to the Castles & Crusades Players Handbook, Monsters & Treasures tome, and editing for Gary Gygax’s Castle Zagyg; as well as authoring the adventure modules U1 Shadows of the Halfling Hall and U3 Verdant Rage—not to mention columns for the Journal of the Crusader magazine. With these works, he fondly anticipates earning hundreds of dollars a year in the lucrative field of game design!
When Mike Stewart grows up, he wants to be a spaceman.
Jason Walton -
Artist:
Jason is one of the coolest people in the industry today. Working in commercial art for years designing corporate logos and the like he broke into the fantasy/sci-fi genre with a gusto in the late 90s. His hobbies include the wildly exotic hunt for mythic beasts, relaxing and trying to figure out why in the heck he associates himself with TLG.
Jason has worked with the Trolls for years, designing their first logo and a host of covers for a host of books. His distinctive landscapes are awe inspiring as are his strong, muscle bound chicks. Jason’s laid back approach to most things has placed him as one of the top artists associated with the whole enterprise. You can see his work on his webpage.
Jeffrey Talanian -
Squire of Gygax:
When Jeffrey Talanian, a Massachusetts suburbanite, was in the fifth grade back in 1981, his best pal one day brought into class an amazing blue box with a dragon on the cover, some books and dice inside, and the chance to pretend you were Bilbo Baggins or Conan the Barbarian! The adventures began that very day in class and continued after school. Within a week or so Jeff got his own such box and before long he was asking his mom, "Ma, what's a sennight?" and "Ma, what's a dweomer?" She didn't have the answers, but the family dictionary did! And so it began . . .
By late 2005 (after completing his first novel -- it took 5 years) Jeff answered a call for submissions from none other than Gary Gygax, one of Jeff's boyhood idols! Luckily, his proposal was accepted, and Jeff became part of the Yggsburgh development team.
These days, Jeff lives in New Hampshire with his wife, his 2.5 children, 2 dogs, 3 parakeets, and fish. Author of 4 of the Castle Zagyg: Yggsburgh modules, and co-author of Gary Gygax's East Mark Gazetteer Folio, Jeff is presently working as co-author with Mr. Gygax on several more important projects, soon to be announced by Troll Lord Games!
Richard Mcbain -
TLG Con Coordinator:
Richard is the Troll Lord Convention Coordinator.
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