John Wick is an American role-playing game designer best known for his creative contributions to the tabletop role playing games Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea. He self-published Orkworld under the Wicked Press banner, and later co-founded the Wicked Dead Brewing Company with Jared Sorensen. His games under that company include Cat, Schauermärchen, Enemy Gods, and Thirty. He has won the Origins Award for Best Role-Playing Game and Best Collectible Card Game twice (for both the Legend of the Five Rings and 7th Sea role-playing games and collectible card games).

He has also written for White Wolf, Inc., Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and worked for various video game companies, providing storyline and dialogue. He has written two regular online columns: The Game Designer's Journal (for The Gaming Outpost) and Play Dirty (for Pyramid Magazine).

Career

In 1995, Wick was a freelance writer living in Southern California. He had submitted articles to Shadis Magazine, Alderac Entertainment Group's independent game magazine, attracting the attention of the magazine's assistant editor, D.J. Trindle. He was brought on as a staff writer at Trindle's request.

Legend of the Five Rings

Soon after joining AEG, Wick became involved with the production and design of the Legend of the Five Rings Collectible Card Game, along with the rest of the company. He worked with Matthew D. Wilson, the game's art director and David Williams, the game's lead designer. He served as "continuity editor", which meant that he was responsible for the game's characters and plot details.

Wick served as L5R's continuity editor for the Emerald edition, Obsidian edition, and Jade edition sets, including the Shadowlands, Forbidden Knowledge, Anvil of Despair, Crimson & Jade, and Time of the Void expansions. He was also the primary source for storyline, flavor text and character for The Scorpion Coup set. Wick also led the design team that created the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game (1997).

Orkworld

Wick wrote, designed, and developed Orkworld, Wick released a soundtrack with the new game, focusing on "ven blood opera," an in-game element. Songs from the opera can be heard on the Houses of the Blooded website.

Wick was keeping an open log of his design of this game on LiveJournal. He has stated that his intention was to release several stand alone supplements that would detail various aspects of the world of Shanri. Each book would allow players to play a different role in Shanri and, and said, "almost feel as if they're playing a different game." The books mentioned were a 'slumming' book where players play ven nobles from cities (as opposed to 'country' ven detailed in the main book), a wilderness book where vassals of the ven nobles fight off orks, explore dungeons, and possibly kill dragons, and a Suaven book where details regarding the Ancestor worship religion of the ven would be revealed.

In 2009 Wick started a new company — John Wick Presents, and partnered with Cubicle 7 to reissue Houses of the Blooded. Wick was a founding member and the drummer for the band The Awful Lot.

Publications

  • Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game (author and lead designer)
  • Legend of the Five Rings (collectible card game) (design team and story editor)
  • Legend of the Five Rings: Roleplaying in the Emerald Empire
  • 7th Sea (role-playing game) (creator, co-author, lead designer)
  • 7th Sea (collectible card game) (co-creator, design team, story editor)
  • How Bashthraka Lost His Spear
  • Orkworld (author and designer)
  • Time of Void

Awards

  • 1997 Origins Award Best Card Game - Legend of the Five Rings: Battle of Beiden Pass
  • 1997 RPGA Gamer's Choice Award Best Roleplaying Game - Legend of the Five Rings: Roleplaying in the Emerald Empire
  • 2017 ENNIE Awards Best Game (Silver), Best Rules (Gold), Best Free Product Free Rules (Gold), Best Supplement Pirate Nations (Silver), Product of the Year (Silver) - 7th Sea

References

Commercial and professional sites

  • John Wick Presents (Official Website and Webstore)
  • Houses of the Blooded website and forums

Interviews

  • Interview with James Maliszewski
  • Interview with Sons of Kryos and Game Design Seminar
  • Interview with Paul Tevis
  • Interview on Endgameradio
  • Interview with Mark Kinney for GenCon (Almost) Live
  • Interview on Pulp Gamer
  • Interview at Theory from the Closet

Articles

  • Blowing Out the Nostalgia Candle
  • Hit 'em Where It Hurts
  • Five Favorite Roleplaying Games