Angus Abranson

Angus Abranson
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Game publisher, Game designer, poet

Angus Abranson is a game designer, publisher and poet who has worked primarily on role-playing games.

Career

Angus Abranson began playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in 1984, and began working for Leisure Games by age 14, which one of the biggest London game retailers at the time.[1]: 427  From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, Abranson also wrote for British role-playing game magazines such as Adventurer (1986-1987).[1]: 427  Abranson was also one of the people behind the foundation of the magazine Valkyrie in 1994 for which he regularly reported news, reviews and editorials.[1]: 427 

Abranson was one of a team of London-based UK roleplaying industry professionals, including James Wallis, Simon Rogers and others, who grouped together to resurrect the "Dragonmeet" convention in 2000.[citation needed] Abranson brought Dragonmeet outright in 2005 and subsequently merged Dragonmeet with Cubicle 7 in 2009.[citation needed]

Abranson and Dave Allsop were flatmates by 2003, and they formed a new role-playing game company called Cubicle 7.[1]: 427  The initial priority for the company was the game SLA Industries by Allsop, so Abranson announced a publishing schedule for 2004 which included five SLA Industries books, and as the year began he had the first two of these books in the layout stage.[1]: 427  Abranson and Dominic McDowall-Thomas were friends who often gamed and went clubbing together, and McDowall-Thomas agreed to help edit the SLA Industries supplements for Abranson.[1]: 427  Abranson and McDowall-Thomas formally started Cubicle 7 Entertainment Limited in late 2006 as partners.[1]: 427  Abranson and McDowall-Thomas continued to focus on the business portion of the company, so they assigned Ian Sturrock and Andrew Peregrine to create the second edition of Victoriana.[1]: 428  Abranson recruited Chris Birch to author the licensed Starblazer Adventures role-playing game.[1]: 428  Abranson and McDowall-Thomas acquired the Doctor Who license and needed investment by the end of 2008 to publish the game, so they approached Matthew Sprange of Mongoose Publishing who introduced them to the Rebellion Group.[1]: 429  Abranson and McDowall-Thomas finally became able to work full-time at Cubicle 7 in March 2009, so Abranson left Leisure Games after 24 years.[1]: 429–430  Abranson had made some long-time connections within the games industry, allowing Cubicle 7 to begin partnering with more than 20 other companies.[1]: 430  Cubicle 7 also acquired a number of licenses such as Charles Stross's The Laundry Files and Lord of the Rings.[citation needed] The Cubicle 7 print partnerships were not as successful as hoped, reportedly having a "disastrous effect on the company's cashflow",[2]: 355  and in November 2011 Abranson left Cubicle 7 to form Chronicle City.[3] He continued the print partnership model at Chronicle City, while Cubicle 7 largely abandoned it,[2]: 356 

Abranson went on to partner with long-time associate James Desborough, who was appointed creative director at Chronicle City in 2013.[4]

Whilst at Cubicle 7, Abranson, along with Fred Hicks of Evil Hat Productions, Arc Dream Publishing, Cellar Games, Pelgrane Press, and Rogue Games founded the Bits and Mortar Retailer Initiative in 2010.[citation needed]

Abranson has been a guest at a number of gaming conventions around the world, most significantly a Gen Con Industry Insider Guest in 2013[5] Origins Game Fair Special Guest in 2011, and UK Games Expo where he was also part of the UK Games Expo Dragons Den in 2014.[6]

In 2016 Abranson was appointed business director at EN Publishing.[7]

Abranson has written or contributed to a number of role-playing game book and magazines, such as Hillfolk by Pelgrane Press and Cabal by Corone Design.[citation needed]

Abranson had a poetry anthology called Wild Card Symphonies published through Winter House Press in 2017.[citation needed]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  2. ^ a b Shannon Appelcline (2014). Designers & Dragons The 00s. Evil Hat Productions. ISBN 978-1-61317-087-8.
  3. ^ "The Angus Abranson interview: A look inside Chronicle City". www.geeknative.com. 8 February 2012.
  4. ^ "Chronicle City appoints "Grim" James Desborough". www.geeknative.com. 13 February 2013.
  5. ^ "Alumni List 2002-2017" (PDF). gencon.com. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  6. ^ "Uk Games Expo Dragons Den". www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk.
  7. ^ "Angus Abranson Joins EN Publishing as Business Manager". Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2016.