Jeff Grubb Jeff Grubb ( born August 27 , 1957 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ) is an author and game designer . He has worked on a number of computer and role - playing games and has written a number of successful novels , short stories and comics . His credits include " " with his wife , , the " " and the " " campaign settings , and , more recently , the computer games " " . Biography . Role - Playing Games . A wargaming enthusiast since high school , Jeff Grubb first learned of roleplaying games as a freshman majoring in engineering at , when he happened upon a game of being played by members of the campus wargaming club . Within a year , he had attended his first Gen Con and was running his own campaign set in , a world of his own creation . Jeff Grubb joined TSR , Inc . in July 1982 , where he was involved as a design consultant on " " for the " " role - playing game . The manual was first published in 1983 . He was then retained at TSR as the principal architect of the " " game system , first released in 1984 . Jeff Grubb continued to work on role - playing games with TSR for many years , long enough to be regarded affectionately as an " old timer " by Scott Haring . During this time he was involved in helping to formulate the " " campaign setting , under , and the " Forgotten Realms " setting with . He also was a major contributor to the first edition of " " , and authored the first edition of the " " . He is also the designer of the " Spelljammer " and " Jakandor " campaign settings . Jeff Grubb moved to Wizards of the Coast after they purchased TSR , and continued to work on games , settings and source books such as " Tempest Feud " for the " Star Wars Roleplaying Game " . Outside of the strict TSR / Wizards of the Coast environment , Jeff Grubb has authored " The Memoirs of Auberon of Faerie " for and was one of the authors of " Dungeons & Dragons Warcraft : The Roleplaying Game " for . He ' s also been involved with , which was founded by and in 2001 . Comics , Novels and Short Stories . Jeff Grubb ' s first novel , " " , was coauthored with his wife , Kate Novak , and first published in 1988 as part of " The Finder ' s Stone Trilogy " . The second and third books in the trilogy , " " and " Song of the Saurials " , were published by TSR in 1990 and 1991 . Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak continued to write novels in the " Forgotten Realms " setting over the years , releasing " Masquerades " , " Finder ' s Bane " and " Tymora ' s Luck " . Other settings for his novels have included " " , " " and " " . His involvement in comic books started in 1988 , when he wrote four issues of the " Advanced Dungeons & Dragons " comic for , before writing all 25 issues of the " " comic book series from 1989 until 1991 . He also authored the 45th issue of " " , " " Mateless in Metropolis " " , which had a cover date of July , 2000 . He has written a number of short stories in different fictional worlds , including " Dragonlance " , " Forgotten Realms " , " " and " " . In general his short fiction has been well received , with his story " " Malediction " " being described as amongst the best of those included in " Thieves ' World : Enemies of Fortune " , while " " Beowulf in the City of the Dark Elves " " has been regarded as the best of the original fiction in " The Further Adventures of Beowulf : Champion of Middle Earth " . Computer Games . The novel " Azure Bonds " was developed into a computer game , " " , in 1989 . More recently , hired Grubb to write the story for the third installment of their " " franchise , " " . He has been credited as a designer under lead designer , James Phinney . Jeff Grubb was also involved in designing the " " expansion pack , although , once again , he describes himself as an ' embedded writer ' rather than a game designer , and was primarily responsible for writing the storyline .