Jeff Tidball


Jeff Tidball is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games.

Career

After the success of On the Edge, college student Jeff Tidball became one of the new full-time employees at Atlas Games. When the collectible card game scene imploded in 1996, all of the staff other than John Nephew and Tidball were let go. Tidball adopted the title of Director of Creative Development and was soon tasked with preparing Atlas Games's next RPG for market, Ars Magica, and Tidball began developing the game for Atlas after they acquired it from Wizards of the Coast. Tidball also became the Ars Magica line developer, and the Feng Shui line developer as well. Tidball's Cthulhu-influenced Cults Across America had been part of Atlas's releases in the board and card game market. In 2000, Tidball left Atlas Games for an MFA film script-writing program at the University of Southern California. When John Nephew was skeptical about producing the licensed game Rune, Tidball convinced him to publish it. Tidball was later hired Last Unicorn Games, but by January 2004 the Last Unicorn Games RPG division of Decipher Games consisted of just Tidball and Jess Heinig, so Decipher shut down its RPG division and laid off the remaining staff. Tidball designed the Cthulhu 500 card game for Atlas. Tidball worked as the line developer for Decipher's The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game. Atlas published Pieces of Eight, a coin-based game designed by Tidball. Will Hindmarch and Tidball later formed a new small press called Gameplaywright. Tidball subsequently worked as the senior developer and editor for the board and card game departments at Fantasy Flight Games, before returning to Atlas Games on a contract basis as chief operating officer. He has also continued to write in the roleplaying industry, notably the massive Eternal Lies campaign he wrote with Hindmarch for Pelgrane Press's Trail of Cthulhu RPG.
Tidball lives with his wife and sons in the Twin Cities area.
Notable WorksRoleYear
Ars MagicaLine Developer1996
Cults Across AmericaDesigner1998
The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying GameLine Developer2002–2004
Cthulhu 500Designer2004
Pieces of EightDesigner2006
Developer2007
Things We Think About GamesCo Author2008
Horus HeresyDesigner and Producer2010
The Bones: Us And Our DiceCo Author2010
EcotopiaDesigner and Writer2011
SkullgirlsWriter2011
League of LegendsWriter2011
Dragon Age Roleplaying Game Set 2Developer and Co-author2011
MercanteDesigner2012
Doctor Who: Time ClashDesigner2016
The White Box: A Game Design Workshop-In-A-BoxDesigner and Writer2017