About the
CreatorsAbout the
CreatorsLegendary Quest™ consists of a number of books which were created by several different authors, all of whom have a true passion for role-playing. The books and their corresponding authors are:
All of the LQ books are being edited by Genevieve Burt, a highly skilled technical writer turned editor who has transformed the authors' humble scribblings into professional works. Most of the illustrations in the books are selected woodcuts, drawings, and etchings taken from old artisans (such as the famous woodcut master Albrect Dürer). However, some of the drawings of the various faery races were created in modern times by the talented Matthias Bäuerle.
Matthias, a gifted artist living in Germany, graciously provided many of the delightful drawings of goblins, nymphs, elves, orcs, and dwarves found in The Grimoire of Game Rules™ and The Tome of Terrors™.
Still attending the 11th level of a German Gymnasium, Matthias has also been concentrating on the fantasies he carries in his mind and soul. By drawing these fantasies, Matthias has always been able to express his inner feelings for the inhabitants of fantasy. Of the 17 years he has already visited this earth, Matthias has spent more than half this time role-playing, drawing, and writing fantasy stories. After seven years playing other pencil & paper RPGs he finally started to create his own world. But, it has just begun. When not sitting over scripts and concepts of his world, he spends a lot of time developing his musical skills. As a guitar player in a Melodic Death Metal Band, Matthias takes lot of time to write new songs, but this story has also just begun. And so he will always stand between the twilight world of elves, dwarves, and magic and the world he was born into.
Matthias is interested in creating more commercial artwork and would like to hear from anyone needing his talents. Feel free to contact him at Alerionh@alerionh.de.
Striving against all odds, standing against unassailable foes, and pushing oneself to the very edge of physical endurance. These concepts are so deeply embedded within John Kirk's soul that he'd rather contemplate their meaning than experience them first-hand. It was probably inevitable that John would end up writing a fantasy role-playing game.
When he was in the 6th grade, John found a book on relativity in his father's library and devoured its secrets. Since that time, John has marveled over the elegant and profound theories of space and time proposed by Einstein. He developed a true love for physics, and, in high school, even embellished Einstein's theories with some of his own. John chose to attend the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri because of its reputation of having one of the finest Physics departments in the country. Its reputation was evidently well-earned because the department took little time in determining that John's impressive mind was simply too visionary and too far reaching to pass their classes. Dejectedly, John shuffled over to the Engineering school and signed up.
In hindsight, John's dismal performance in physics was fated. Soon, he met his beautiful wife-to-be in the romantic setting of Engineering 126 recitation (Digital Circuit Design). Despite the near speechlessness brought about by Melissa's good looks and by her audacious assertion that some Freshman women truly belong in Junior-level courses, John stammered through a date proposal. Several times. Although Melissa was somewhat reluctant at first, John finally caught her on the rebound and they became an item.
Perhaps through some clerical error, John earned B.S. degrees in Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering (with a minor in Math) and a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering. His master's work focused on artificial intelligence and neural networks. John's father wholeheartedly agreed that this was his best course of study since artificial intelligence was the only kind John would ever have anyway. (Editor's note: obviously the author is very self-effacing. Author's note: No, Dad actually said that. I think he was kidding. ) During his college years, John's other passion, Legendary Quest, was born.
After graduating, John went to work as a C++ programmer for Bendix, which was later purchased by Allied Signal, which then merged to become Honeywell. (Not bad. One interview, three jobs.) During his time with "the Company", John has worked with world-class engineers in developing manufacturing software for the Department of Energy to augment 3D CAD systems with Tolerancing (FB Tol) and Process Planning (FB Mach) capabilities. His main emphasis in this arena has been on the development of GeMS++ (Generic Memory Structures for C++). His digital creation's most important trait is found in its novel memory management architecture for which John has recently been awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent Office (patent #6421690).
Finally, ten years after graduating from college, John stopped working on LQ and started sending query letters to game publishers. This endeavor proved to be quite frustrating, since most role-playing companies (particularly the big ones) won't even respond to e-mails, much less agree to read an entire set of books having nothing to do with their current product lines. There were a couple of companies that took an interest and provided some much needed encouragement, but they were themselves simply too small to handle the publishing of a project the size of LQ. All thoughts of fame and riches finally faded from John's mind and the realization came that if anybody other than his own close-knit circle of friends was going to benefit from his efforts, he would simply have to give it away for nothing. On the upside, the web provides a remarkable forum for communicating and if, by any chance, you do happen to work for a game publishing company and like what you see, you should feel perfectly free to give us money. We might even let you print our stuff.
Legendary Quest, The Grimoire of Game Rules, The Tome of Terrors, The Lexicon of Lore, The Manual of Mythology, Celtic Creatures and Nordic Nightmares, Monsters of the Mediterranean, and The Handbook of Hazards and House Rules are all trademarks of LoreWeaver, a (notsomuchofa) business based in Albuquerque, NM.