Chris Perkins (game designer)

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**Christopher Perkins** (born February 29, 1968) is a Canadian American game designer and editor who is known for his work on Wizards of the Coast's *Dungeons & Dragons* role-playing game, currently as the senior story designer.

## Career

Under the pen name "Christopher Zarathustra", Perkins got his career start in 1988 writing the adventure "Wards of Witching Ways" for *Dungeon* magazine #11. He later officially joined Wizards of the Coast in 1997 as the editor of *Dungeon* magazine. A few years later, he was promoted to editor-in-chief of Wizards periodicals.

Perkins later became the senior producer for the *Dungeons & Dragons* role-playing game, leading the team of designers, developers, and editors who produce *Dungeons & Dragons* products. Perkins was the story manager for *Dungeons & Dragons* in 2007 before the release of the game's fourth edition. Perkins was working on the *Star Wars Saga Edition* while *Dungeons & Dragons* fourth edition was being developed, and ideas flowed freely back and forth between Perkins and the fourth edition team. He was also on the SCRAMJET team, led by Richard Baker, and including James Wyatt, Matthew Sernett, Ed Stark, Michele Carter, and Stacy Longstreet; this team updated the setting and cosmology of *Dungeons & Dragons* as the fourth edition was being developed. Perkins was the Lead Story Designer of the Ravenloft fifth edition reboot *Curse of Strahd*, released in 2016.

Perkins wrote a blog, "The Dungeon Master Experience", on the Wizards of the Coast website for over two years, where he shared tricks and advice about the challenge of "dungeon mastering" a campaign through the lens of his homebrew world, Iomandra. However, in the penultimate posting of March 2013, he announced the following posting would be the last "at least for a while", whereupon the blog became inactive.

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He was also the longtime Dungeon Master for the Acquisitions Incorporated *Dungeons & Dragons* games at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), until PAX Unplugged 2018.

### Livestreams

From 2016 to 2019, Perkins was the Dungeon Master in the Twitch livestream *Dice, Camera, Action,* which was a live play-through of *Dungeons & Dragons*' latest story lines. He has also guest starred twice on the *Dungeons & Dragons*-based show, *Critical Role*.

## Personal life

In his free time, Perkins runs a *Dungeons & Dragons* campaign set in his homegrown world of Iomandra.

## References

1. ↑ "Happy Birthday to Dungeon Master Chris Perkins". 29 February 2016. http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/happy-birthday-dungeon-master-chris-perkins.
2. ↑ Perkins, Christoper (4 June 2016). "I was born in Canada...". https://twitter.com/ChrisPerkinsDnD/status/739154584510177280.
3. ↑ Brodeur, Nicole (2018-05-04). "Behind the scenes of the making of Dungeons & Dragons" (in en-US). https://www.seattletimes.com/life/lifestyle/behind-the-scenes-of-the-making-of-dungeons-dragons/.
4. ↑ Baichtal, John (5 March 2008). "Chris Perkins Answers D&D 4E Questions". Condé Nast. https://www.wired.com/2008/03/chris-perkins-a/. Retrieved 13 March 2019.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Kenreck, Todd (30 May 2017). "D&D's Chris Perkins Talks About His Stories, Legacy and Anxiety". https://www.forbes.com/sites/toddkenreck/2017/05/30/dds-chris-perkins-talks-about-his-stories-legacy-and-anxiety/.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Christopher Perkins - D&D Creative Manager". Wizards of the Coast. 12 September 2009. https://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/bio/chrisperkins/staff. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
7. ↑ "Christopher Perkins :: Pen & Paper RPG Database". Archived from the original. Template:Citation error. https://web.archive.org/web/20071004120743/http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=420.
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Chris Perkins". http://dnd.wizards.com/articles-authors/chris-perkins-0.
9. ↑ "The Magic Touch". 2000. Archived from the original on May 3, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140503074211/http://seattletimes.com/pacificnw/1210/cover.html. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
10. ↑ Villoria, Gerald (September 10, 2007). "Dungeons & Dragons: The 4th Edition Interview". IGN Entertainment. http://www.gamespy.com/articles/819/819068p1.html. Retrieved April 18, 2013.
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Template:Cite book
12. ↑ "Chris Perkins and Tracy Hickman on Curse of Strahd". 21 January 2016. http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/chris-perkins-and-tracy-hickman-curse-strahd.
13. ↑ Whalen, Andrew (2018-12-03). "‘D&D’ roleplayers can alter reality with Worldbuilders boons from Critical Role, Patrick Rothfuss" (in en). https://www.newsweek.com/dungeons-dragons-worldbuilders-critical-role-acquisitions-patrick-rothfuss-dd-1241799.
14. ↑ "Article Archive". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2014-10-12. https://web.archive.org/web/20141012040845/http://archive.wizards.com/DnD/Archive.aspx?category=all&subcategory=dmexperience. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
15. ↑ Perkins, Chris (2013-03-14). "Until the Next Encounter". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on February 18, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150218235309/http://archive.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd%2F4dmxp%2F20130314. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
16. ↑ Gabe (2011-08-01). "Acquisitions Inc.". http://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2011/8/1/acquisitions-inc. Retrieved 2015-10-22.
17. ↑ Haeck, James (2018-12-03). "Chris Perkins Steps Down from Acquisitions Inc.; Jeremy Crawford Named Successor". Wizards of the Coast. https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/382-chris-perkins-steps-down-from-acquisitions-inc. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Hoffer, Christian (1 February 2019). "Chris Perkins Makes Hilarious Surprise Appearance on 'Critical Role'" (in en). https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/02/01/critical-role-chris-perkins-cameo-dungeons-and-dragons/.
19. ↑ "Dice, Camera, Action". 17 February 2016. http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/new-weekly-dd-stream-chris-perkins.
20. ↑ "Dungeons & Dragons on Twitter". 3 December 2019. https://twitter.com/Wizards\_DnD/status/1202014954204741632.
21. ↑ "Critical Role: Episode 55 - Umbrasyl". 2016-06-06. http://geekandsundry.com/critical-role-episode-55/. Retrieved 2016-06-15.

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