So, what did all the cool RPG designers do, originally?

[Psion]

I wrote Unorthodox Barbarians and I did science advising on Dawning Star. In real life, I'm studying to be a counselor. I used to be a network analyst.

So, nothing to do with astrophysics, geology, or thermodynamics in your background?

 

[malladin]

Gentleman, Adventurer, Lover (Actually bank clark, ccg/comics retailer, archaeologist, museums curator, teacher)

Nigel

 

[Cam Banks]

I graduated from Waikato University in Hamilton, New Zealand, with a degree in counseling and ethics. I spent over a decade in retail and supervisory roles, mostly involving books. At one time I ran a gaming store. I spent 6 months working as a project manager at a startup company after the president saw me serving coffee at a Barnes & Noble. And then I got a job running the library annex at Penn State University until I was summoned to Wisconsin to work full time for Margaret Weis Productions.

I am lousy at IT and computing, have no real head for science or engineering, and I don't like Babylon 5.

But I did once live in my parent's basement.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[pawsplay]

So, nothing to do with astrophysics, geology, or thermodynamics in your background?

In college, I took one semester of biology and one semester of astronomy.

 

[Rel]

Dunno if I qualify. I used to be a freelance writer for ICE.

At the time I worked in commercial real estate. Nowadays I am self employed and work fewer hours but that available free time is taken up by being a parent.

Which is not to say that I don't still have the bug to tinker with RPG's. Only that I do so with an eye toward my own uses rather than publication.

 

[Knightfall]

Like Charles, I'm not sure if I qualify, but I was an English major in college and then I was in sales for several years before finally getting into gaming on a professional basis.

Trust me, my friend. You qualify.

 

[James Jacobs]

A little bit of everything, in my case; a list of the jobs I've had includes commercial salmon fisherman, movie theater assistant manager, comic book colorist, customer service rep, order processor for sales, data entry monkey for the Department of Health, and The Temp (AKA the guy who comes in for 3 days at Job A to make a billion photocopies for an upcoming lawsuit and then next week for 3 days entering sump pump data and then the next week for 3 more doing something else). And also lots of freelance design and writing for Dungeon, Dragon, and eventually Bastion Press, Wizards of the Coast, and Paizo.

 

[Richards]

...comic book colorist...

Really? What titles did you work on?

Johnathan

 

[Firefly Games]

I'd been a newspaper reporter for about 8 years when I started freelancing in the industry. By the time I founded Firefly Games, I'd switched to copy editing, and now I'm mostly a newspaper page designer (aka 'visual editor' or various other titles).

 

[RodneyThompson]

I was a college student when I started freelancing (English major who actually parlayed it into a real job!), and at one point I was going to school full time, working at Electronics Boutique, working the morning shift at a T-Shirt printing shop, and freelancing for Wizards all simultaneously.

Then I graduated, dropped the T-Shirt printing job, quit EB, got a job as a computer geek at a marketing firm in Knoxville, worked there for about a year, and then got hired to work at Wizards.

So, yeah: computer-related AND English major. Look at me, I'm a cliche.