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Aaron Allston

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Aaron Allston
Aaron Allston in 2005.
Aaron Allston in 2005.
Born(1960-12-08)December 8, 1960
Corsicana, Texas, United States
DiedFebruary 27, 2014(2014-02-27) (aged 53)
Springfield, Missouri
Resting placeOakwood Cemetery (Corsicana, Texas)
OccupationWriter, game designer
NationalityUnited States
GenreTabletop 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

  • Appelcline, Shannon (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

References

  1. ^ Edward Nawotka (2008-04-24). "Nebula Awards puts Austin and Texas writers at center of science fiction world". Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on 2009-05-02.
  2. ^ Roqoo Depot: "Happy Birthday, Aaron Allston"
  3. ^ a b http://www.dentonfuneralhome.net/obituaries/Aaron-Allston/?gclid=CL_83svE9LwCFTBgMgodFXsA5A#!/Obituary
  4. ^ a b c d e Jeff Salamon (May 19, 2005). "So a guy walks into the Mos Eisley cantina...". Austin American-Statesman. p. E1.
  5. ^ Denton High School Annual "Bronco 1977", 133
  6. ^ a b c Peter F. Panzeri Jr. (2006-07-01). "32nd Hall of Fame Inductees Announced" (PDF). Talsorian. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-12. Retrieved 2008-12-04.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Allston, Aaron". Writers Directory 2005. 2004. Retrieved June 27, 2013. – 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. ^ Mike Shea (December 2007). "Aaron Allston". Texas Monthly. p. 74.
  14. ^ "Aaron Allston in the Hospital". Archived from the original on 10 June 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-04. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ a b TheForce.Net story on Allston's death
  16. ^ http://www.locusmag.com/News/2014/02/aaron-allston-1960-2014/
  17. ^ Richard Gawel (September 19, 2012). "A short time from now in a library not too far away...". Suburban Trends. p. D1.
  18. ^ a b Swan, Rick (February 1996). Anthony J. Bryant (ed.). "Role-playing Reviews". Dragon (226). TSR, Inc.: 94.
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