Steve Jackson Information

Game Designer
Austin, TX

Biography:
Steve Jackson, founder and editor-in-chief of Steve Jackson Games, is a longtime SF fan, and gets away to cons when he can. He has been playing games for over 50 years, and designing them since 1976. He graduated from Rice University, where a lot of his time went to wargames and the school paper (he spent two years as editor). Now he's a writer and game publisher, proving that college can be very valuable if you don't let classes get in your way.

His first published game was Ogre, released in 1977 by Metagaming. He designed and edited several other games for that company, including Melee and Wizard, before forming Steve Jackson Games in 1980. An early release, Car Wars, became an instant hit. It was followed by Illuminati, in which players build conspiracies to take over the world. Later came GURPS, the "Generic Universal Roleplaying System," which is now in its fourth edition.

In 1983, Steve was elected to the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame. He has received 12 Origins Awards, as well as various other honors, for game design.

In 1990 and 1991, Steve became the "poster child for electronic freedom" after the Secret Service's invasion of his office and confiscation of equipment and manuscripts. SJ Games filed suit against the Secret Service and the U.S. government, and won more than $50,000 in damages. Steve continues to support the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in hopes of preventing further offenses against computer users. You can read about it at www.sjgames.com/SS/.

He now spends a good deal of his time helping to manage Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, which at the moment employs about 30 people. But he's still writing. He is guilty of Zombie Dice. His current mega-hit is Munchkin, a very silly card game about killing monsters and taking their stuff. A Steam version is now available for online play. His current projects include various Munchkin follow-ups, the ongoing republication of his first RPG, The Fantasy Trip, and the new edition of Car Wars - as well as supporting Three Ravens Publishing in their Car Wars fiction series.

Steve was gobsmacked by an invitation to visit Dublin as a Guest of Honour at the 2019 World Science Fiction Convention. He and his partner Monica had a wonderful time.

His other interests include gardening, dinosaurs, 3D printing, Lego, trains, and Lego trains. He writes filk (adequately) and sings (very badly). In his copious free time, he paints minis and reads, usually not at the same time. He has survived involvements with the SCA (landed baron, co-editor of the first Known World Handboke) and law school (escaping before graduation).

He has no cats. Wait, is that even a legal sentence in a GoH bio?

He lives outside Austin, but is a citizen of the Internet until Texas cleans up its act. You can usually find out what he's up to at www.sjgames.com.