Aaron Allston (December 8, 1960 – February 27, 2014) was an American game designer and novelist of many science fiction books, notably Star Wars novels. 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 ofTSR's Dungeons & Dragons game setting Mystara. Later works as a novelist include those of the X-Wing series: Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, Starfighters of Adumar. He has also written 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 Jedinovels: Outcast, Backlash and Conviction.

Early life and education

Born December 8, 1960 in Corsicana, Texas, Allston moved all over Texas in his youth and graduated from high school in Denton.[citation needed] Allston moved to Austinin 1979 and attended the University of Texas.

Career

Allston was a circulation manager, assistant editor, and editor of Space Gamermagazine, and by 1983 was a full time freelance game designer. He served as editor of Space Gamer from issues 52 (June 1982) - 65 (Sept/Oct 1983), and as editor of Fantasy Gamer for the first issue (Aug/Sep 1983) and co-editor of the second issue (Dec/Jan 1984). While editor of Space Game, the magazine won the H.G. Wells Award for Best Professional Role-Playing Magazine in 1982. Allston authored the book Autoduel Champions in 1983, which crossed over Champions by Hero Games and Car Wars by Steve Jackson Games. He co-wrote the computer game Savage Empire, which was named Best PC Fantasy RPG by Game Player magazine in 1990. He authored the Rules Cyclopedia (1991), the second revision to the Dungeons & Dragons game. He branched into writing and by the mid-1990s had two novels under his belt.

He began writing on the Star Wars X-Wing series in 1997, when the primary sequence writer Michael Stackpole could not handle the entire workload. Stackpole had worked with Allston in the gaming industry years earlier. Allston produced a new edition of Champions for Hero Games in 2002. In 2006, Allston launched the The Legacy of the Force series with a hardcover entitled Betrayal.

In 2005, Allston made his directorial debut on the independent film Deadbacks, which he also wrote and produced.

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

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

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

Selected bibliography

Non tie-in

• Web of Danger (1988)
• Galatea In 2-D (1993)
• Double Jeopardy (1994)
• Thunder of the Captains (with H. Lisle) (1996)
• Wrath of the Princes (with H. Lisle) (1997)

Doc Sidhe

• Doc Sidhe (1995)
• Sidhe-Devil (2001)

Star Wars X-Wing

• Wraith Squadron (1998)
• Iron Fist (1998)
• Solo Command (1999)
• Starfighters of Adumar (1999)
• Mercy Kill (2012)

The New Jedi Order

• Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream (2002)
• Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand (2002)

Legacy of the Force

• Betrayal (2006)
• Exile (2007)
• Fury (2007)

Fate of the Jedi

• Outcast (2009)
• Backlash (2010)
• Conviction (2011)

Terminator

• Terminator 3 Terminator Dreams (2003)
• Terminator Hunt (2004)

Role-playing games

• The Circle and M.E.T.E. (1983)
• Mythic Greece (Rolemaster) (1988)
• GAZ1: The Grand Duchy of Karameikos (1987)
• Strike Force (1988)
• Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991)
• Poor Wizard's Almanac & Book of Facts (1992)
• Wrath of the Immortals (1992)
• Complete Ninja's Handbook (1995)
• Champions, Fifth Edition (2002)