Ken St. Andre

Born April 28, 1947 in Ogden, Utah. Grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. Was a member of the first group of students to ever attend Maryvale High School, and graduated 13th in 1965, the first group to ever graduate from there. Became a gamer in high school. Graduated from Arizona State University in January 1970 with a B.A. in English Literature. Got my first library job at the Ocotillo Branch of Phoenix Public Library in October, 1972. Attended Library School at the University of Arizona in 1974 and graduated with M.L.S. in December of 1974. Wrote the first edition of Tunnels and Trolls in April 1975, self-published it in June of that year, a limited edition of 100 copies. Tunnels & Trolls was the second role-playing game published in the U.S.A.--and the first one to actually include a copyright notice.

I worked as a Librarian for the City of Phoenix continually from 1975 to 2010, during which time I served at the main library and several of the branches

I seem to have spent the rest of my life expanding and elaborating on that seminal work. Tunnels and Trolls went through four editions quite quickly and in 1975 the classic 5th edition, edited and re-written entirely by Liz Danforth from my notes appeared in 1981. That remained the standard until 2005 when Fiery Dragon Ltd. of Canada produced the 7th edition, entirely rewritten by me. In 2008 the 7.5 edition modified the 2005 rules slightly, and is now my preferred edition of the game. However, I have created a number of other games including Monsters! Monsters!, Stormbringer, and was one of the designers of the computer classic Wasteland.

In 2013 my friends and I did a successful kickstarter to publish the definitive edition of Tunnels and Trolls--called Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls. It is a massive tome of 368 pages--roughly half game rules and half game world setting, and it includes a mini-campaign adventure for players to use as a starting point.

On June 16, 2018, the G.A.M.A. board inducted me into their Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame.

From about 1985 to 2010, I was a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and have published 3 or 4 short stories that are really difficult to find. During my career as a librarian I also reviewed books for Library Journal, and many of my reviews are reproduced on the internet. In addition I wrote scholarly biography articles for Scribners and a collection development article for Library Journal in 2010. In 2016, I set up my own small publishing house called Trollhalla Press, and you can find the catalog of my publications at: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/9559/Trollhalla-Press. My total bibliography would be both lengthy and varied, and even I don't think I could make a complete list. And I am not done yet.