Aaron Allston

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Aaron Allston
Aaron allston 2005.jpg
Aaron Allston in 2005.
Born (1960-12-08)December 8, 1960
Corsicana, Texas, United States
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.
Springfield, Missouri
Occupation Writer, game designer
Nationality United States
Genre Tabletop role-playing games, fantasy, science fiction

Aaron Dale Allston (December 8, 1960 – February 27, 2014) was an American game designer and author of many science fiction books, notably Star Wars novels.[1] His works as a game designer include game supplements for role-playing games, several of which served to establish the basis for products and subsequent development of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons game setting Mystara. His later works as a novelist include those of the X-Wing series: Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, Starfighters of Adumar, and Mercy Kill. He wrote two entries in the New Jedi Order series: Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream and Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand. Allston wrote three of the nine Legacy of the Force novels: Betrayal, Exile, and Fury, and three of the nine Fate of the Jedi novels: Outcast, Backlash, and Conviction.

Early life and education

Allston was born December 8, 1960 in Corsicana, Texas to Tom Dale Allston and Rose Binford Boehm.[2][3] Allston moved all over Texas in his youth and graduated from high school in Denton.[4] An avid fan of science fiction from an early age, by high school he was the secretary and reporter for his high school science fiction club.[5] Allston moved to Austin in 1979 and attended the University of Texas.[4]

Career

Allston was a circulation manager, assistant editor, and editor of Space Gamer magazine,[6] and by 1983 was a full-time freelance game designer.[7] He served as editor of Space Gamer from issues 52 (June 1982) to 65 (September/October 1983),[citation needed] and as editor of Fantasy Gamer for the first issue (August/September 1983) and co-editor of the second issue (December/January 1984).[citation needed] During Allston's tenure as editor, the magazine won the H.G. Wells Award for Best Professional Role-Playing Magazine in 1982.[6] Allston authored the book Autoduel Champions in 1983, which crossed over Champions by Hero Games and Car Wars by Steve Jackson Games.[8] Allston helped launch the Fantasy Gamer spinoff magazine.[9] He co-wrote the computer game Savage Empire, which was named Best PC Fantasy RPG by Game Player magazine in 1990.[6] He authored the Rules Cyclopedia (1991), a revision and compilation for the Dungeons & Dragons game.[10] He branched into fiction, and in the mid-1990s wrote five novels.[7]

He began writing for the Star Wars X-Wing series in 1997, when the primary sequence writer Michael Stackpole could not handle the entire workload.[4] Allston produced a new edition of Champions for Hero Games in 2002.[11] In 2006, he launched the The Legacy of the Force series with a hardcover entitled Betrayal.[4]

In 2005, Allston made his directorial debut on the independent film Deadbacks, which he also wrote and produced.[4] The film went into post-production but was never released.[12]

Allston lived in Round Rock, Texas.[13] For a short time, he worked for the Austin American-Statesman newspaper.[7]

Health issues and death

In early April 2009 Allston had a heart attack and underwent an emergency quadruple bypass surgery,[14] while on the book signing tour for Outcast,[citation needed] the first book in the Fate of the Jedi series.

On February 27, 2014, Allston collapsed during an appearance at VisionCon in Branson, Missouri, apparently from a massive heart failure.[15] He died later that day in Springfield, Missouri at the age of 53.[3][15]

Selected bibliography

Stand-alone titles

Doc Sidhe

Star Wars

X-Wing

The New Jedi Order

Legacy of the Force

Fate of the Jedi

Terminator

Role-playing games

Sources

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References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Roqoo Depot: "Happy Birthday, Aaron Allston"
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://www.dentonfuneralhome.net/obituaries/Aaron-Allston/?gclid=CL_83svE9LwCFTBgMgodFXsA5A#!/Obituary
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Denton High School Annual "Bronco 1977", 133
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. – via HighBeam Research (subscription required)
  8. ↑ Appelcline 2011, p. 146.
  9. ↑ http://www.sjgames.com/ill/archive/2014-02-28
  10. ↑ Appelcline 2011, p. 27.
  11. ↑ Appelcline 2011, p. 152.
  12. ↑ https://plus.google.com/+AllenVarney/posts/8ogyNeuYUgY
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 TheForce.Net story on Allston's death
  16. ↑ http://www.locusmag.com/News/2014/02/aaron-allston-1960-2014/
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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