Christopher Perkins (born February 29, 1968[1]) is a Canadian American[2] game designer and editor who is known for his work on Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, currently as the senior story designer.[3]
Chris Perkins | |
|---|---|
| Born | Christopher Perkins February 29, 1968 |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Christopher Zarathustra |
| Occupation | Game designer |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Known for | Story design for Dungeons & Dragons |
Career
Under the pen name "Christopher Zarathustra", Perkins got his career start in 1988 writing the adventure "Wards of Witching Ways" for Dungeon magazine #11.[4] He later officially started working for Wizards of the Coast in 1997, beginning as the editor for Dungeon.[5][6][7] A few years later, he was promoted to editor-in-chief of Wizards periodicals.[8]
Perkins later became the senior producer for Dungeons & Dragons, leading the team of designers, developers, and editors who make products for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.[5][7] Perkins was the story manager for Dungeons & Dragons in 2007 before the release of the game's fourth edition.[9] Perkins was working on the Star Wars Saga Edition while Dungeons & Dragons fourth edition was being developed, and ideas were exchanged freely between Perkins and the fourth edition team.[10] He was also on the SCRAMJET team, led by Richard Baker, and including James Wyatt, Matthew Sernett, Ed Stark, Michele Carter, and Stacy Longstreet; this team updated the setting and cosmology of Dungeons & Dragons as the fourth edition was being developed.[10] Perkins was the Lead Story Designer of the Ravenloft fifth edition reboot Curse of Strahd, released in 2016.[11][12]
Perkins wrote a blog, "The Dungeon Master Experience", on the Wizards of the Coast website for over two years, where he shared tricks and advice about the challenge of "dungeon mastering" a campaign through the lens of his homebrew world, Iomandra.[13] However, in the penultimate posting of March 2013, he announced the following posting would be the last "at least for a while", whereupon the blog became inactive.[14]
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He was also the longtime Dungeon Master for the Acquisitions Incorporated Dungeons & Dragons games at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), until PAX Unplugged 2018.[15][16][17]
Livestreams
From 2016 to 2019, Perkins was the Dungeon Master in the Twitch livestream Dice, Camera, Action, which was a live play-through of Dungeons & Dragons' latest story lines.[17][18][19] He has also guest starred twice on the Dungeons & Dragons-based show, Critical Role.[17][20]
Personal life
In his free time, Perkins runs a Dungeons & Dragons campaign set in his homebrew world of Iomandra.[5]