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Aaron Allston

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Aaron Dale Allston (December 8, 1960 – February 27, 2014) was an American game designer and author of many science fiction books, notably Star Wars novels.[1] His works as a game designer include game supplements for role-playing games, several of which served to establish the basis for products and subsequent development of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons game setting Mystara. His later works as a novelist include those of the X-Wing series: Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, Starfighters of Adumar, and Mercy Kill. He wrote two entries in the New Jedi Order series: Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream and Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand. Allston wrote three of the nine Legacy of the Force novels: Betrayal, Exile, and Fury, and three of the nine Fate of the Jedi novels: Outcast, Backlash, and Conviction.

Aaron Allston
Aaron Allston in 2005.
Aaron Allston in 2005.
Born(1960-12-08)December 8, 1960
Corsicana, Texas, U.S.
DiedFebruary 27, 2014(2014-02-27) (aged 53)
Springfield, Missouri, U.S.
Resting placeOakwood Cemetery (Corsicana, Texas)
OccupationWriter, game designer
GenreTabletop role-playing games, fantasy, science fiction

Early life and education

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Allston was born December 8, 1960, in Corsicana, Texas, to Tom Dale Allston and Rose Binford Boehm.[2][3] Allston moved all over Texas in his youth and graduated from high school in Denton.[4] An avid fan of science fiction from an early age, by high school he was the secretary and reporter for his high school science fiction club.[5] Allston moved to Austin in 1979 and attended the University of Texas.[4]

Career

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Allston was a circulation manager, assistant editor, and editor of Space Gamer magazine,[6] and by 1983 was a full-time freelance game designer.[7] He served as editor of Space Gamer from issues 52 (June 1982) to 65 (September/October 1983),[citation needed] and as editor of Fantasy Gamer for the first issue (August/September 1983) and co-editor of the second issue (December/January 1984).[citation needed] During Allston's tenure as editor, Space Gamer won the H.G. Wells Award for Best Professional Role-Playing Magazine in 1982.[6] Allston authored the book Autoduel Champions in 1983, which crossed over Champions by Hero Games and Car Wars by Steve Jackson Games.[8] Allston helped launch the Fantasy Gamer spinoff magazine.[9] He co-wrote the computer game Savage Empire, which Game Player magazine named the Best PC Fantasy RPG in 1990.[6] He authored the Rules Cyclopedia (1991), a revision and compilation for the Dungeons & Dragons game.[10] He branched into fiction, and in the mid-1990s wrote five novels.[7]

He began writing for the Star Wars X-Wing series in 1997, when the primary sequence writer Michael Stackpole could not handle the entire workload.[4] Allston produced a new edition of Champions for Hero Games in 2002.[11] In 2006, he launched The Legacy of the Force series with a hardcover entitled Betrayal.[4]

In 2005, Allston made his directorial debut on the independent film Deadbacks, which he also wrote and produced.[4] The film went into post-production but was never released.[12]

Allston lived in Round Rock, Texas.[13] For a short time, he worked for the Austin American-Statesman newspaper.[7]

Health issues and death

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In early April 2009 Allston had a heart attack and underwent an emergency quadruple bypass surgery,[14] while on the book signing tour for Outcast,[15] the first book in the Fate of the Jedi series.

On February 27, 2014, Allston collapsed during an appearance at VisionCon in Branson, Missouri, apparently from heart failure.[16] He died later that day in Springfield, Missouri, at the age of 53.[3][16]

Selected bibliography

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Stand-alone titles

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Doc Sidhe

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Star Wars

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X-Wing

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The New Jedi Order

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Legacy of the Force

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Fate of the Jedi

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Terminator

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Role-playing games

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Short story anthologies

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  • 2013 A Hero by Any Other Name (Short story anthology edited by Jean Rabe)

Sources

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  • Appelcline, Shannon (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.

References

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  1. ^ Edward Nawotka (April 24, 2008). "Nebula Awards puts Austin and Texas writers at center of science fiction world". Dallas Morning News. Archived from the original on May 2, 2009.
  2. ^ Roqoo Depot: "Happy Birthday, Aaron Allston"
  3. ^ a b "Aaron Dale Allston - View Obituary & Service Information".
  4. ^ a b c d e Jeff Salamon (May 19, 2005). "So a guy walks into the Mos Eisley cantina...". Austin American-Statesman. p. E1.
  5. ^ Denton High School Annual "Bronco 1977", 133
  6. ^ a b c Peter F. Panzeri Jr. (July 1, 2006). "32nd Hall of Fame Inductees Announced" (PDF). Talsorian. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 12, 2012. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Allston, Aaron". Writers Directory 2005. 2004. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2013 – via HighBeam Research.
  8. ^ Appelcline 2011, p. 146.
  9. ^ "Daily Illuminator: Aaron Allston".
  10. ^ Appelcline 2011, p. 27.
  11. ^ Appelcline 2011, p. 152.
  12. ^ "Novelist and game designer Aaron Allston has died in Branson, Missouri, age 53". Archived from the original on April 14, 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2022.
  13. ^ Mike Shea (December 2007). "Aaron Allston". Texas Monthly. p. 74.
  14. ^ "Aaron Allston in the Hospital". Archived from the original on June 10, 2009. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
  15. ^ Allston, Aaron (2010). Backlash. New York: Del Rey/Ballantine/Lucas Books. pp. Acknowledgments. ISBN 978-0-345-50908-6. OCLC 326529036.
  16. ^ a b TheForce.Net story on Allston's death
  17. ^ "Aaron Allston (1960-2014)". February 28, 2014.
  18. ^ Richard Gawel (September 19, 2012). "A short time from now in a library not too far away...". Suburban Trends. p. D1.
  19. ^ a b Swan, Rick (February 1996). Anthony J. Bryant (ed.). "Role-playing Reviews". Dragon (226). TSR, Inc.: 94.
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