Randy Richards

Randy Richards & Gary Gygax, at Gen Con in 1998

Randy Richards is a game designer and author of Dungeons & Dragons adventures and articles. His first published article, "Dark Magic in New Orleans," appeared in Dungeon issue #71 in 1998; his book, "Dreadmire" (ISBN 0977338339) a campaign setting for the d20 system, was published by Spellbinder Games in 2005.

It was announced on July 1st, 2008, that a series of fantasy novels, the "Dreadmire Chronicles", would be produced, based on the Dreadmire campaign setting. The author of this first book, Elizabeth Donald, posted this information on her blog[1]. Comments by Randy Richards at the last BabelCon stated the working title of this first novel is "Knight of Darkness".

Biography

Randy Richards was born January 9th, 1966. He originally hails from Chalmette (LA), the location of the Battle of New Orleans. He currently lives in Baton Rouge (LA), where he runs a photography business and writes for publications.

Randy Richards has been playing Dungeons & Dragons since the late 70s, but started in earnest in the early 80s. "In the 1980s," Randy says, "we had the Basic D&D boxed game in our Gifted & Talented class, and I used to play a Cajun halfling. The other kids loved it, especially the accent." Randy graduated from Chalmette High School in 1984, then from college in 1989, and moved to Tennessee. The move proved to be beneficial for Randy's career in photography. "People know me for my writing," he says, "but they don't know my day job is photography. Olan Mills, which operates out of Chattanooga, hired me to work for them as a kids photographer, then a glamour photographer, and finally a church directory photographer."

After five years in Tennessee, Randy was transferred to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and started a family. "Thats when I first got published. I wrote "Dark Magic in New Orleans" for Dungeon Magazine. After receiving scores of complimentary letters from people all over the world, I decided to start writing on a regular basis. With all my traveling with work there really wasn't time, but while driving I would make notes on anything available: cardboard boxes, gum wrappers, paper cups -- anything!"

In the late 90s Randy hosted a series of Gen Con events, one of which included the co-creators of D&D, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and other big names including Frank Mentzer, Lisa Stevens (now CEO of Paizo Publishing), and Anne Brown.

A few years later, Randy got the idea to write a book. "My daughter was getting older, and I wanted to have more time for her, so I decided to start my own photography business. The icing on the cake is that I had more time available for writing. I would copy the scrap notes down when I got home, and as I was reading through them I realized they started to form a swamp theme. That's when I started writing Dreadmire."

There were some false starts and delays before Dreadmire came to print. "First I submitted it to Necromancer Games but we had creative differences and parted ways. Later... I was contacted by Spellbinder Games. They gave me a lot of control over the project. After my other experiences that was very important to me."

In April of 2008, Randy Richards was featured as "Business Person of the Month" by Louisiana's East Baton Rouge Parish Library in their monthly spotlight on local businesses. Randy is the owner of The Camera Krewe, a "photo, video and DJ" company that advertises on local TV with a voiceover by Richards.

Gaming Industry

• Richards is also the former editor of the Greyhawk Grimoire, an online publication devoted to the World of Greyhawk campaign setting; and is the founder of the World of Greyhawk Fan Club, which Randy claims to be "the largest Greyhawk fan organization in the world.In 1998 Randy sponsored the "Celebrity Greyhawk Dinner" and "Greyhawk Celebrity Panel Seminar." He has written numerous online fan-fiction adventures set in the Greyhawk campaign setting, including "Slerotin's Tunnel" and "Suel Imperium: Age of Glory".

The 'Greyhawk Celebrity Panel Seminar', at Gen Con Front Row: Frank Mentzer, Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson Back Row: Anne Brown, Randy Richards, Lisa Stevens

• Richards is active in the gaming industry, giving seminars and hosting panel discussions at various conventions. Common topics of his seminars have included the "'Random Fandom Trivia Challenge," "How to Get Happily Published," "Science vs. Magic," "World of Greyhawk," "Dreadmire," "The Future of Gaming," and other gaming industry subjects. His latest project is Dreadmire Adventures, an adventure-book expansion of the campaign setting he created.
• In February of 2009, an interview with Randy Richards appeared in InRegister Magazine.[2]
• In January of 2009, the Metro section of the Advocate newspaper featured a photo and caption of Randy Richards at a science fiction meeting. [3]
• In early 2006, Randy Richards was the subject of an interview for Gloomwing Magazine, a periodical "geared toward the self-publishing community." (In February 2009, Publisher David Hoffman of Gloomwing confirmed that "if, and when, the second issue of Gloomwing magazine is published, the interview with Mr. Richards will be included.")
• In 2002 there was a dispute between Necromancer Games, who was scheduled to publish Dreadmire, and author Richards over content in the Dreadmire Project which resulted in terminating Richards' association with Necromancer Games. "Dreadmire" was subsequently published under the imprint of "Spellbinder Games", an entity which has been identified as "a New Orleans, Louisiana based publishing company" but with no independently verifiable history as such. Its current business address on the Spellbinder Games website is given as a Baton Rouge address, which is also alleged to be his home address.

Media Appearances

• In April of 2008, Randy Richards was featured as "Business Person of the Month" by the Baton Rouge, Louisiana library system[4].
• Randy Richards has appeared in multiple TV commercials[5] for Cox Cable, done voiceover ads in local radio spots [6], and appeared in local TV newscasts[7] both in Baton Rouge and New Orleans for his photo tour after Katrina.
• Richards placed third in the Adult Landscape category of the LUMCON 2006 Bayous of Louisiana photography contest.[8]
• Richards' Hurricane Katrina photographs are part of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade's "Life in the Wake of Katrina" tour.[9][10]
• In addition, Randy Richards has appeared as the subject of two other newspaper articles ("One Man's Quest for Science Education", The Advocate, June, http://www.2TheAdvocate.com 

) and ("Local Photographer on National Tour", Times-Picayune, October, http://www.Times-Picayune.com 

).

Guest Appearances

• Randy Richards has been a guest at local gaming and fantasy conventions, including Dragon*Con as a D&D author guest in 1998, 2001 and 2006; Gen Con where he hosted a panel discussion with Gary Gygax and others; Crescent City Con as an Gaming Guest in 1998 and 2001; Exoticon circa 2001; BabelCon as an author guest in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 (scheduled); ConCarolinas as a Gaming Guest in 2006, 2008 and 2009 (scheduled); CoastCon as a D&D Guest in 1998, 2000, and 2006 and was elected to their board of directors in 2006. Two months after his election as a member-at-large, he was removed by vote of his fellow governing committee members.
• Richards joined Star One Delta, a Baton Rouge-based Science Fiction club in 2006, and later that year was elected to an office on the board of directors in the Science & Engineering Education Foundation, an off-shoot of Star One Delta that took over the management and sponsorship of their annual convention, BabelCon. He was re-elected to his post within that organization in 2007 and 2008, and elected as an officer of Star One Delta in 2008.

Published works

• Dark Magic in New Orleans. Dungeon #71 (TSR, 1998).
• Dreadmire (Spellbinder Games, 2005).
• Suel Imperium: Age of Glory- Available as a free download.
• The Impossibly Precarious Balancing Truck,' part of the nationally traveling photo exhibit Life in the Wake of Katrina (scroll to bottom of page)
• Dreadmire Adventures (Spellbinder Games, 2009).

External links

• Randy Richards at the Pen & Paper Database
• Randy Richards' Camera Krewe, Photography, Video & DJ