James Desborough (game designer)

James Desborough
Born (1975-12-05) December 5, 1975 (age 49) [1]
Winchester. Hampshire, U.K.[1]
NationalityBritish
Other namesGrim
Occupations
Website"Postmortem Studios".

James "Grim" Desborough is a British game designer, author, and blogger who has worked primarily on role-playing games, as well as card games, board games, and social computer games.

Career

James Desborough wrote The Munchkin's Guide to Powergaming in 2000/2001,[2] winning an Origins Award for that work along with his co-authors Steve Mortimer and Phil Masters.[3] Desborough was a co-author of CS1: Cannibal Sector One he also briefly worked as the line editor for SLA Industries.[4] Desborough is also the owner of Postmortem Studios.[4] Postmortem Studios was one of Cubicle 7's first company partnerships due to Desborough's connections with Angus Abranson.[4] He later became creative director at Chronicle City, Abranson's new venture[5] but this partnership ended in July 2021.[6]

In 2017 he released a licensed role-playing game based upon John Norman's fantasy series Gor, which also included art by Michael Manning.[7]

Desborough's work was included in Red Phone Box,[8] and in The Mammoth Book of Erotic Romance and Domination.[9] He also self-publishes.

His D&D design work includes Monster Manual V (2007) and City of Stormreach (2008).

Desborough's career has often been characterised by humour and adult content, leading to his role as Games Master for the adult stream 'Tabletopless'.[10] While the stream primarily plays Dungeons and Dragons they have also played Cyberpunk, The Witcher and others.

Desborough is the author of Inside Gamergate: A Social History of the Gamer Revolt which was self-published August 2017. This described Gamergate was "a genuinely important battle in the ongoing culture war".[11]: ¶79.3  Here, he portrayed Gamergate as a necessary "social revolt" against a new Satanic Panic, which critics have described as a harassment campaign. In the book's first chapter, Desborough writes that his distress regarding opposition and harassment related to Gamergate, as well as a sense of betrayal led him to attempt suicide in October 2014.[11]: ¶3.9 

Desborough has appeared as a commentator on men's issues on The Stream on Al Jazeera.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b Desborough, James (18 February 2023). "I'm the Subject of a Wikipedia Edit War". Postmortem Studios. Archived from the original on 18 February 2023. Retrieved 18 February 2023.
  2. ^ The Munchkin's Guide to Powergaming: ISBN 1-55634-347-7
  3. ^ "Origins Awards 2000". Archived from the original on 7 October 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2014.
  4. ^ a b c Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. p. 430. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  5. ^ Girdwood, Andrew (13 February 2013). "Chronicle City appoints "Grim" James Desborough". Geek Native. Archived from the original on 3 May 2015. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  6. ^ Desborough, James (1 July 2021). ""Grim" James Desborough ends partnership with Chronicle city". Postmortem Studios. Archived from the original on 17 November 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  7. ^ grimachu (23 April 2017). "#RPG – The Gor RPG is RELEASED!". Postmortem Studios. Archived from the original on 28 April 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  8. ^ "Ghostwoods Books". Archived from the original on 28 May 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2014.
  9. ^ Jakubowski, Maxim (8 July 2014). The Mammoth Book of Erotic Romance and Domination. Running Press. ISBN 978-0762452255.
  10. ^ "TableTopless Official Website". tabletopless.org. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2023.
  11. ^ a b Desborough, James (2017). Inside Gamergate: a social history of the gamer revolt (ePub). Postmortem Studios. ISBN 978-0-244-62772-0. OCLC 1011256859.
  12. ^ raisa (2 June 2014). "Through men's eyes". Archived from the original on 8 June 2014. Retrieved 21 June 2014.