Skip Williams

Ralph Williams, almost always referred to as Skip Williams, is an American game designer. He is married to Penny Williams, who is also involved with the games industry. He is best known as co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition and as the longtime author of Dragon Magazine's column "Sage Advice." (Andy Collins now writes the column.)

Born in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Williams was informally acquainted with many of the people who developed and influenced the original Dungeons & Dragons game, going to school with Gary Gygax's son Ernie and participating in a gaming group that Gary used to playtest some of the AD&D rules.^[1] Williams first worked for TSR in an administrative capacity, working as a cashier, in shipping, and doing various office tasks. Williams was laid off after a time but continued to work for TSR in a freelance role, performing odd jobs; it was in this circumstance in 1987 that he came to write "Sage Advice" in the pages of Dragon - Williams recalls that Dragon editor Roger E. Moore simply couldn't find anyone else willing to regularly write the column.^[1] Williams held the position until 2004. From 1990 to 1992 he was also Associate Editor of Polyhedron magazine.

When TSR was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved from Wisconsin to Washington to work on the 3rd Edition design team. Although he was released from Wizards of the Coast in 2002 and has since moved back to Wisconsin, he continued to produce D&D and d20 material on a freelance basis up until 2005. His publications from this time include "Cry Havoc!" published by Monte Cook's Malhavoc Press and "Races of the Wild" from Wizards of the Coast. Most recently, he has appeared as the author of the "Ask The Kobold" column for the Wolfgang Baur publication Kobold Quarterly.

Back in 1995, while a group of friends were playing Dungeons & Dragons, there was a dispute between them as to what weapons a thief could backstab with. One of these friends decided that he would call Skip Williams at the offices of TSR. Inexplicably, the receptionist simply asked the caller if Skip was expecting his call, to which he answered 'yes'. The call was transferred to Skip, and he kindly and patiently looked up the answer for the gamers.^{[citation needed]} Months later, he also answered a question about Psionics.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Pen & Paper listing for Skip Williams

v • d • e d20 System Role-playing game system published by Wizards of the Coast Main authors Monte Cook • Jonathan Tweet • Skip Williams Games Dungeons & Dragons • d20 Modern (d20 Future, d20 Apocalypse, d20 Past) • Star Wars See also System Reference Document • Open Game License • Game System License • OGL System