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 started playing AD&D in 1984, and by the age of 14 he was working for Leisure Games — one of the top game retailers in London.[1]: 427  In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, Abranson was also writing for Adventurer (1986-1987) and other British RPG magazines and was one of the forces behind the foundation of the magazine Valkyrie in 1994 and regularly reported news, reviews and editorial for Valkyrie afterward.[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. Abranson brought Dragonmeet outright in 2005 and subsequently merged Dragonmeet with Cubicle 7 in 2009.

By 2003 Abranson was the flatmate of Dave Allsop, and they decided to form a new role-playing company called Cubicle 7.[1]: 427  Their first priority was Allsop's SLA Industries, so Abranson announced a publishing schedule of five SLA Industries books for 2004, and by the start of the year he had the first two in layout.[1]: 427  Abranson and Dominic McDowall-Thomas were friends who regularly gamed and clubbed together, and he agreed to help edit the SLA Industries books for Abranson.[1]: 427  In late 2006, Abranson and McDowall-Thomas properly formed Cubicle 7 Entertainment Limited, with the two of them as partners.[1]: 427  Abranson and McDowall-Thomas handed the creation of Victoriana to Ian Sturrock and Andrew Peregrine, as they remained focus on the business side of things.[1]: 428  Abranson recruited Chris Birch to write Starblazer Adventures.[1]: 428  After acquiring the Doctor Who license, Abranson and McDowall-Thomas needed investment by the end of 2008, and went to Matthew Sprange of Mongoose Publishing who introduced them to the Rebellion Group.[1]: 429  Abranson and McDowall-Thomas were then able to go full-time for the first time in March 2009, and as a result Abranson left Leisure Games.[1]: 429  Cubicle 7 began partnering with other companies, many of the over 20 companies thanks to Abranson's long-time connections within the industry.[1]: 430  Cubicle 7 also acquired a number of licenses such as Charles Stross's The Laundry Files and Lord of the Rings. 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.

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.

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

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  2. 1 2 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.
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