Jeff Grubb

Jeff Grubb (born August 27, 1957)[1] is an author of novels,[2] short stories, and comics, as well as a computer and role-playing game designer in the fantasy genre. Grubb worked on the Dragonlance campaign setting under Tracy Hickman, and the Forgotten Realms setting with Ed Greenwood.[3] His written works include The Finder's Stone Trilogy, the Spelljammer and Jakandor campaign settings, and contributions to Dragonlance and the computer game Guild Wars Nightfall (2006).[4]

Jeff Grubb
Born (1957-08-27) 27 August 1957
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationWriter
Spouse
​
(m. 1983)​

Personal life

Grubb was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He met Kate Novak in high school, and married her in 1983.[1] His first year of employment involved work with air pollution control devices.

Beginnings in role-playing games

Grubb became a wargaming enthusiast during his high school years. He started to play Avalon Hill wargames including PanzerBlitz and Blitzkrieg, and the SPI game, Frigate. As a freshman, he attended the campus war-gaming club and was introduced to the role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons.[1] Grubb said,

"I walked up to a group of players to ask what they were doing. One turned to me, handed me three six-siders, and said, 'Roll these. We need a cleric.' It was all downhill from there."[5]

Within the year, Grubb attended Gen Con, a table-top gaming convention, for the first time. He also ran his own campaign set in Toril, his own game universe.[1]

Career

TSR

Grubb's overseeing of the design of the "AD&D Open" at Gen Con in 1982, led to his employment as a game designer at TSR.[1][5] He was a design consultant on Gary Gygax's 1983 work, Monster Manual II for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.[6] Tracy Hickman got Harold Johnson, then Grubb, Carl Smith and Larry Elmore in on the idea of Dragonlance before Margaret Weis and Douglas Niles joined them.[7]: 16  In 1984, Grubb was the principal architect of the Marvel Super Heroes game system.[8]

Grubb was a consultant on the first edition of Unearthed Arcana,[1] and authored the first edition of the Manual of the Planes.[5] Grubb contacted Ed Greenwood, author of numerous articles in Dragon about his home campaign setting, and soon Greenwood began sending Grubb packages full of maps of his world and background information for the setting; this collaboration resulted in the publication of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting beginning with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (1987).[7]: 19  He is the designer of the Spelljammer campaign setting,[5] and the Al-Qadim setting.[3] Grubb felt that Al-Qadim was well received because the designers were able to hide the potential of the setting from the executives at TSR.[7]: 26 

In the late 1980s, Grubb wrote four fill-in issues of the DC Comics licensed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons comic book, and wrote 25 issues of DC Comic's Forgotten Realms series.[5] Grubb started the Buck Rogers line for TSR with a board game published in 1988.[7]: 27  Grubb continued to work on role-playing games with TSR for many years, long enough to be regarded affectionately as an "old timer" by Scott Haring.[9] In 1994, he left TSR to pursue freelance work.[5] Grubb wrote three supplements for the Jakandor setting, published in 1997–1998 as the final publications in the Odyssey series.[7]: 283 

Freelance work

When Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR inc., Grubb was engaged to work on games, settings, and source books such as Tempest Feud for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game,[10] d20 Modern[11] and Urban Arcana.[12] He wrote The Memoirs of Auberon of Faerie for R. Talsorian Games and was one of the authors of the D20 Warcraft: The Roleplaying Game[13] for Sword & Sorcery Studios. He has also been involved with Sovereign Press, founded by Margaret Weis and Don Perrin in 2001.[14] He designed the HeroClix Unleashed set.[3]

Comics, novels, and short stories

In 1988, Azure Bonds, Grubb's first novel, which was coauthored with his wife, Kate Novak, was published as part of The Finder's Stone Trilogy. The second and third books in the trilogy, The Wyvern's Spur and Song of the Saurials, were published by TSR inc. in 1990 and 1991. Grubb and Novak continued to write novels in the Forgotten Realms setting, releasing Masquerades, Finder's Bane, and Tymora's Luck. Other settings such as Magic: The Gathering, Warcraft and StarCraft have also featured in his novels. Grubb also wrote the 45th issue of Superman Adventures, "Mateless in Metropolis" (cover date July 2000).

Grubb's short stories are set in a variety of fictional worlds, including Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft and Thieves' World. In general, his short fiction has been well received, with his story "Malediction" being described as amongst the best of those included in Thieves' World: Enemies of Fortune,[15] while "Beowulf in the City of the Dark Elves" has been regarded as the best of the original fiction in The Further Adventures of Beowulf: Champion of Middle Earth.[16]

Among his favorite novels that he authored are Azure Bonds, Lord Toede, and The Brothers' War, and his favorite short stories include "The Judgement of abd-al-Mammat" and "Lycanthrope Summer."[3]

Grubb is the author of over a dozen novels and 30 short stories.[17]

Computer games

The novel Azure Bonds was developed into a computer game, Curse of the Azure Bonds, in 1989, and was published by Strategic Simulations. ArenaNet hired Grubb to write the story for the third installment of their Guild Wars franchise, Guild Wars Nightfall.[4] Although credited as a designer under lead designer James Phinney,[18] in an interview with GameSpy he describes his role as more of an 'embedded writer' than a designer.[19] Grubb was involved in designing the Guild Wars: Eye of the North expansion pack. Primarily responsible for writing the storyline, he describes himself as an 'embedded writer' rather than as a game designer.[20] He has also done world-building and writing for Blue Byte.[3] He is working as a writer and game designer for Guild Wars 2.[21]

Bibliography

Dragonlance (shared universe)
  • Villains
    • Book 5: Lord Toede (1994), ISBN 0-09-945501-3

Forgotten Realms (shared universe)

Magic: The Gathering (shared universe)
  • Artifacts Series
    • Book 1: The Brothers' War (1998), ISBN 0-7869-6639-4
  • Ice Age Trilogy
    • The Gathering Dark (1999)
    • The Eternal Ice (2000)
    • The Shattered Alliance (2000)

WarCraft (shared universe)
  • The Last Guardian (2001), ISBN 0-671-04151-7. This novel has been described as "an original tale of magic, warfare, and heroism based on the bestselling, award-winning electronic game from Blizzard Entertainment".[22]

StarCraft (shared universe)

Guild Wars (shared universe)

Star Wars (shared universe)
  • Scourge (2012), ISBN 978-0099542667 – An adaptation of Tempest Feud.

Forgotten Realms DC Comics
Main article: Forgotten Realms (comic)
  • DC Comics published 25 Forgotten Realms comics from 1 September 1989 to 25 September 1991 where Jeff Grubb was the author.

Role-playing books

Boot Hill

Marvel Super-Heroes

Spelljammer

High Adventure

Miniatures games

References
  1. "TSR Profiles". Dragon. Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, Inc. (#111): 64. July 1986.
  2. Buker, Derek M. (2002). The Science Fiction and Fantasy Readers' Advisory: The Librarian's Guide to Cyborgs, Aliens, and Sorcerers. pp. 127–128. ISBN 0-8389-0831-4. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  3. "Jeff Grubb". Archived from the original on 3 July 2009.
  4. Miller, Stanley A. (25 November 2006). "A new tone in gaming". JS Online: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Archived from the original on 12 February 2008. Retrieved 15 February 2008.
  5. Varney, Allen (May 1998). "Profiles: Jeff Grubb". Dragon. Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast (#247): 120.
  6. Gygax, Gary (1983). Monster Manual II. TSR, Inc.
  7. Appelcline, Shannon (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  8. Rowland, Marcus L. (February 1985). "Open Box". White Dwarf (review). Games Workshop (#62): 10–11. ISSN 0265-8712.
  9. Haring, Scott D.; Kitchens, R. L.; Wolfbauer, G.; Albers, J. J.; Munford, R. S. (19 March 1999). "Pyramid Pick: Eye of the Wyvern". Pyramid. 68 (5): 2410–7. doi:10.1128/IAI.68.5.2410-2417.2000. PMC 97439. PMID 10768924. Retrieved 17 February 2008.(subscription required)
  10. Kessler, Greg (5 July 2002). "Pyramid Review: Tempest Feud (for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game)". Pyramid. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  11. Kohler, Alan D. (13 November 2002). "d20 Modern Roleplaying Game (Review)". Pyramid. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  12. Vetromile, Andy (4 July 2003). "Pyramid Review: Urban Arcana (for d20 Modern)". Pyramid. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  13. deMorris, Alex (23 August 2003). "Review of Warcraft The Role-playing Game". RPGnet. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  14. "Jeff Grubb". Pen & Paper RPG Database. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  15. Ward, Cynthia (11 February 2008). "Thieves' World: Enemies of Fortune". Sci Fi Weekly. Archived from the original on 7 August 2007. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  16. Lott, Rod. "The Further Adventures of Beowulf: Champion of Middle Earth". Bookgasm. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  17. Grubb, Jeff (2007). "Tales of the Arabian Nights". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best. Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 302–304. ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0.
  18. Ephidel. "Guild Wars Nightfall Info". CNET Networks Entertainment (subscription required). Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  19. Rausch, Allen (13 August 2007). "GameSpy: Guild Wars: Eye of the North – Story Time with Jeff Grubb". IGN Entertainment Games. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  20. Hawkeye (15 August 2007). "Guild Wars: Eye of the North – Interview with Jeff Grubb". Profantik. Retrieved 15 February 2008.
  21. Woleslagle, Jeff (15 July 2010). "An interview with Jeff Grub". Ten Ton Hammer. Retrieved 4 October 2015.
  22. "The Last Guardian (Warcraft, book 3) by Jeff Grubb". Fantastic Fiction. Archived from the original on 11 February 2008. Retrieved 15 February 2008.
  23. Thompson, Jon (6 May 2000). "Pyramid Review: D&D: Diablo II Adventure Game". Pyramid. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  24. Haring, Scott D. (11 January 1995). "Pyramid Pick: TSR Audio Games". Pyramid. #11. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
  25. Pook, Matthew (27 May 2005). "Pyramid Review: Star Wars Miniatures: Rebel Storm". Pyramid. Retrieved 17 February 2008.
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