Andy Collins (game designer)

**Andy Collins** is a game designer whose writing credits include numerous books for the *Dungeons & Dragons* fantasy role-playing game.

## Early life and education

Andy Collins grew up in Olympia, Washington. His uncle gave him a copy of the original *Dungeons & Dragons* boxed set for his tenth birthday; although he did not know any other *D&D* players at the time, and found it hard to figure out how to play a game with no board or playing pieces, he said "my brother, a friend, and I sat down to play one day. Nine hours later, we'd missed both lunch and dinner, and we were all hooked." He was also a fan of the Star Wars franchise, having seen the original film several times while it was in the theater. Collins continued gaming throughout high school and college, and graduated from Stanford University in 1994 with a degree in English.

## Career

Collins began working at Wizards of the Coast in April 1996, and after working for a time for Wizards' Organized Play division, he moved to the R&D division and worked as both an editor and designer. His first project was a new science-fiction game line, *Alternity*, for which he worked on a number of products, notably the *Dark•Matter* campaign setting. After Wizards cancelled the *Alternity* game, Collins was one of the people working on Wizards of the Coast's new *Star Wars Roleplaying Game*. While working on that game, Collins commented "It's been interesting working with Bill [Slavicsek]. I know all the movies, and I've read several of the books, but he pretty much knows everything about Star Wars – all the books, all the movies, all the comics, all the source material. *Everything.*" As a long-time gamer and Star Wars fan working on a Star Wars RPG, Collins summed up his feelings: "I could paraphrase Lou Gehrig. 'I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth to be working in this industry with as many great people as I have around me.' I sometimes still have to pinch myself when I'm walking down the hall."

Andy Collins was also the author of the *Sage Advice* column in *Dragon*, and later *Sage Advice Online* at Wizards of the Coast's website. Collins was a part of the revision team for *Dungeons & Dragons* version 3.5. Early in 2005, Bill Slavicsek organized a team to work on some early designs for a fourth edition of *D&D*, which was headed up by Rob Heinsoo and also contained Collins and James Wyatt; Heinsoo, Collins, and Wyatt formed the core fourth-edition team. David Noonan, Collins, Mike Mearls, and Jesse Decker were part of Heinsoo's "Flywheel" design team for the fourth edition of *Dungeons & Dragons*, and did the final concept work from May 2006 to September 2006, before the first books for the edition were written and playtested. Collins was one of the authors of the *Dungeons & Dragons* 4th edition *Player's Handbook*.

## Bibliography

### Dungeons & Dragons

#### 3rd edition

* *Complete Warrior*
* *Draconomicon*
* *Epic Level Handbook*
* *Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead*
* *Magic Item Compendium*
* *Unearthed Arcana*

### Star Wars Roleplaying Game

* *Star Wars Roleplaying Game Revised Edition*
* *Star Wars Gamemaster Screen*
* *Living Force Campaign Guide*

## Media mentions

Andy Collins has appeared in the following newspaper and magazine articles, websites and podcasts.

### Podcasts

* RPG Countdown: Andy appeared on these episodes: 25 March 2009 (*Dungeon Delve*).

## References

{{#vardefine:numCol|2}}

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Kenson, Stephen (June 2000). "ProFiles: Andy Collins". *Dragon*. Renton, Washington: Wizards of the Coast (#272): 18–19.<templatestyles src="Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css"></templatestyles>
2. ↑ NEWS: Latest Website Updates. Wizards of the Coast. (10 November 2006). Retrieved on 6 December 2008.
3. ↑ Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook v3.5 (2003). RPG Database. Pen & Paper. Archived from the original on 9 May 2008. Retrieved on 6 December 2008.
4. ↑ Andy Collins. RPG Database. Pen & Paper. Archived from the original on February 15, 2005. Retrieved on 6 December 2008.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Shannon Appelcline (2011). *Designers & Dragons*. Mongoose Publishing, 297.
6. ↑ Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Player's Handbook. d20 RPG Game Index. RPGnet. Retrieved on 6 December 2008.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Rob Heinsoo (June 2008). *Player's Handbook*, 4th, Wizards of the Coast.
8. ↑ Collins, Andy (November 2003). *Complete Warrior*, 3rd, Wizards of the Coast.
9. ↑ Collins, Andy (November 2003). *Draconomicon*, 3rd, Wizards of the Coast.
10. ↑ Collins, Andy (July 2002). *Epic Level Handbook*, 3rd, Wizards of the Coast.
11. ↑ Collins, Andy (October 2004). *Libris Mortis: The Book of Undead*, 3rd, Wizards of the Coast.
12. ↑ Collins, Andy (March 2007). *Magic Item Compendium*, 3rd, Wizards of the Coast.
13. ↑ Collins, Andy (February 2004). *Unearthed Arcana*, 3rd, Wizards of the Coast.
14. ↑ Collins, Andy (2000). *Gamma World Campaign Setting*, 5th, Wizards of the Coast.
15. ↑ Bill Slavicsek (May 2002). *Star Wars Roleplaying Game Revised Edition*. Wizards of the Coast.
16. ↑ Collins, Andy (2001). *Star Wars Gamemaster Screen*. Wizards of the Coast.
17. ↑ Collins, Andy (2001). *Living Force Campaign Guide*. Wizards of the Coast.
18. ↑ RPG Countdown. (25 March 2009). Archived from the original on 26 May 2009. Retrieved on 25 March 2009.

## External links

* D&D 360, a *Dragon* article including an essay by Andy Collins.
* Celebrity Game Table: Spelling is Everything, an essay by Andy Collins.

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