Christopher Perkins

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Chris Perkins
Chris Perkins, from list of participants on Dice, Camera, Action! (2016)[1]
Nationality:American
Born:20 Feb 1968, Canada
Notabale works:Story design for D&D
Alias:Christopher Zarathustra

Christopher Perkins (born February 29, 1968[2]) is a Canadian American[3] game designer and editor who is known for his work on D&D (WotC), currently as the senior story designer.[4]

Chris Perkins is a 20-year veteran of Wizards of the Coast and principal story designer for D&D. He has served as editor-in-chief for Dragon, Dungeon, and authored numerous D&D articles and books, including most recently Curse of Strahd. He may be best known as DM to "Acquisitions Incorporated".[5]

History

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Chris Perkins decided at an early age that he wanted to make D&D products. He began sending submissions to Dungeon Magazine. He submitted a Top Secret adventure to Dungeon, which was ultimately never used, called "Operation: Ice Capade."[6]

Under the pen name "Christopher Zarathustra", Perkins got his career start in 1988 writing the adventure "Wards of Witching Ways" for Dungeon magazine #11.[7]

When he was in his 20's, Chris was teaching English classes to adults who had gone back to school to get their high school diplomas. He developed a relationship with Dungeon Magazine through his frequent submissions. He sent so many submissions that editor Barbara Young told him: “I’ve seen so much of your work that I’m starting to say, ‘Which of these Perkinses should I take?’ You’re competing with yourself by sending too much at once.”[6]

Career

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In 1997, he was called by Wizards of the Coast and he later officially joined Wizards of the Coast as the editor of Dungeon magazine.[8][9][10] A few years later, he was promoted to editor-in-chief of Wizards periodicals.[11]

Perkins later became the senior producer for D&D, leading the team of designers, developers, and editors who produce D&D products.[8][10] Perkins was the story manager for D&D in 2007 before the release of the game's fourth edition.[12] Perkins was working on the Star Wars Saga Edition]] while D&D fourth edition was being developed, and ideas flowed freely back and forth between Perkins and the fourth edition team.[13] 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 D&D as the fourth edition was being developed.[13] Perkins was the Lead Story Designer of the Ravenloft fifth edition reboot Curse of Strahd, released in 2016.[14][15]

Chris Perkins, from his bio on BoardGameGeek.com.

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.[16] 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.[17]

He was also the longtime DM for the Acquisitions Incorporated D&D games at the [Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), until PAX Unplugged 2018.[18][19][20]

Noteable Works

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Chris has written many popular and influential adventures, including:

  • Umbra (Dungeon Magazine #55): A Planescape adventure about two parents fighting over their child, who is becoming a deity.
  • Life's Bazaar (Dungeon Magazine #97): The adventure that kicked off the Shackled City adventure path.
  • The Lich-Queen's Beloved (Dungeon Magazine #100): A sprawling adventure set in the githyanki city of Tu'narath.
  • fourth edition Against the Giants update/expansion in Dungeon Magazine.
  • fourth edition Tomb of Horrors (2010)
  • Curse of Strahd: Perhaps the most popular fifth edition adventure of them all.
  • Tomb of Annihilation: A journey through the dense and dangerous jungles of Chult.
  • Waterdeep Dragon Heist: The latest officially released fifth edition adventure.

Livestreams

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From 2016 to 2019, Perkins was the Dungeon Master in the Twitch.tv livestream Dice, Camera, Action, which was a live play-through of Dungeons & Dragons' latest story lines.[20][21][22] He has also guest starred twice on the Dungeons & Dragons-based show, Critical Role.[20][23]

Dice, Camera, Action

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Chris has been the DM on every episode except for episode 73, run by Mark Hulmes, and episode 88, run by Anna Prosser Robinson.

On episode 88, as a player, Chris ran an imp named Umpox.

Other Shows

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Chris has run many other games available online:

  • The Dice, Camera, Action Puppet Show
  • Acquisitions, Inc. "Enter the Trash Witch"
  • Acquisitions, Inc. PAX West 2017

Fun Facts

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  • One rejected adventure that Chris submitted to Dungeon Magazine was "Kevin Wickerclock's Whimsical Adventure", an AD&D adventure that included a World War I flying ace, ninja assassins and more.
  • When Chris was headed from Canada to his first Gen Con, he got stopped at the border. The patrol officer thought his Wizards of the Coast paperwork was a forgery and threatened to confiscate his car. Chris actually missed Gen Con because of this.
  • Artist Tony DiTerlizzi gave Chris the original painting from his Dungeon #55 adventure, "Umbra." It hangs in his bedroom.
  • When Chris was young, he ran a Spelljammer campaign that lasted for 3 years.

Personal life

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In his free time, Perkins runs a Dungeons & Dragons campaign set in his homegrown world of Iomandra.[8]

References

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Citations

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  1. ↑ Dice, Camera, Action. WotC (17 February 2016). Retrieved on 2 December 2021.
  2. ↑ Happy Birthday to Dungeon Master Chris Perkins. Dungeons & Dragons (29 February 2016).
  3. ↑ Perkins, Christoper (4 June 2016). I was born in Canada.... Twitter.
  4. ↑ Brodeur, Nicole (2018-05-04). Behind the scenes of the making of Dungeons & Dragons (in en-US). The Seattle Times.
  5. ↑ Dice, Camera, Action. WotC (17 February 2016). Retrieved on 2 December 2021.
  6. ↑ a b Chris Perkins. Dice, Camera, Action Wiki. Fandom.com. Retrieved on 2 December 2021.
  7. ↑ Baichtal, John (5 March 2008). Chris Perkins Answers D&D 4E Questions. Wired. Condé Nast.
  8. ↑ a b c Christopher Perkins—D&D Creative Manager. Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards of the Coast (12 September 2009).
  9. ↑ Christopher Perkins :: Pen & Paper RPG Database.
  10. ↑ a b Chris Perkins. Dungeons & Dragons.
  11. ↑ The Magic Touch. The Seattle Times (2000).
  12. ↑ Villoria (September 10, 2007). Dungeons & Dragons: The fourth edition Interview. GameSpy. IGN Entertainment.
  13. ↑ a b Appelcline, Shannon (2011) Designers & Dragons, Mongoose Publishing, p. 298 ISBN: 978-1-907702-58-7.
  14. ↑ Chris Perkins and Tracy Hickman on Curse of Strahd. Dungeons & Dragons (21 January 2016).
  15. ↑ Whalen, Andrew (2018-12-03). 'D&D' roleplayers can alter reality with Worldbuilders boons from Critical Role, Patrick Rothfuss (in en). Newsweek.
  16. ↑ Article Archive. Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards of the Coast.
  17. ↑ Perkins, Chris (2013-03-14). Until the Next Encounter. Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards of the Coast.
  18. ↑ Gabe (2011-08-01). Acquisitions Inc.. Penny Arcade.
  19. ↑ Haeck, James (2018-12-03). Chris Perkins Steps Down from Acquisitions Inc.; Jeremy Crawford Named Successor. D&D Beyond. Wizards of the Coast.
  20. ↑ a b c Hoffer, Christian (1 February 2019). Chris Perkins Makes Hilarious Surprise Appearance on 'Critical Role' (in en). WWG.
  21. ↑ Dice, Camera, Action. Dungeons & Dragons (17 February 2016).
  22. ↑ Dungeons & Dragons on Twitter. twitter (3 December 2019).
  23. ↑ Critical Role: Episode 55—Umbrasyl. Geek & Sundry (2016-06-06).

Bibliography

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