American game designer
Michael Alyn Pondsmith is an American roleplaying, board, and video game designer. He founded the publisher R. Talsorian Games in 1982, where he developed a majority of the company's role-playing game lines. Pondsmith is the author of several RPG lines, including "Mekton" (1984), "Cyberpunk" (1988) and "Castle Falkenstein" (1994). He also contributed to the Forgotten Realms and "Oriental Adventures" lines of the "Dungeons &amp; Dragons" role-playing game, worked in various capacities on video games, and authored or co-created several board games. Pondsmith also worked as an instructor at the DigiPen Institute of Technology.
Early life and education.
Born into a military family, Mike Pondsmith was the son of a psychologist and an Air Force officer, who traveled around the world with the U.S. Air Force for the first 18 years of his life. He graduated from the University of California, Davis with a B.A. in graphic design and a B.S. in behavioral psychology.
Pondsmith recalls that he had been designing games even as a child, but it was not until college that he was introduced to the idea of pen and paper roleplaying games when a friend got a copy of the original "Dungeons &amp; Dragons" "(D&amp;D)". Having a lot of naval wargaming experience, he became interested in the gameplay mechanics used by "D&amp;D" but not in the fantasy setting it presented. His interest spiked, however, when he acquired a copy of "Traveller", a science fiction role-playing game published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop. Dissatisfied with its mechanics, Pondsmith rewrote the game for his personal use under the name "Imperial Star". Pondsmith later called "Traveller" the best roleplaying game he had encountered in the Green Ronin's award-winning .
Early career.
Before he became a pen and paper game designer, Pondsmith worked in the video game industry as a graphic designer. His first job after college involved designing packaging and advertising materials for the now-defunct California Pacific Computer Company (CPCC). Repackaging Japanese games for the Western world market was the main focus of CPCC in its early days. He later moved on to create designs for the original titles produced by Bill Budge and for the early "Ultima" games designed by Richard Garriott, all of which were published by CPCC. Pondsmith's job at CPCC ended because of problems the owner encountered, and he started managing a typesetting house at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Pondsmith got his start in amateur game design in the early 1980s, designing a game for himself called "Imperial Star" as a result of trying to improve the combat system of "Traveller".
According to Pondsmith, there was not much to do in the area of video game design in the early 1980s due largely to the constraints of available technology. Most of the games released by CPCC were for Apple II machines. However, he was familiar with pen and paper games, which he played at the time, and became interested in paper game design. Thanks to his side-job in typesetting, he had access to very modern (for the time) computers with advanced software used in book and magazine layout. Taking advantage of this access, he wrote a game called "Mekton", a mecha game based on Japanese manga books he had stumbled upon in the past. Due to the interest his work on paper games generated, game design consumed his graphic design career (although he continued designing and laying out most of the R. Talsorian Games' books).
Early role-playing games.
The first game Pondsmith designed from the ground up was "Mekton", a mecha game with heavy manga and anime influences, released in 1984. Pondsmith admitted that he was mostly basing his work on the "Mobile Suit Gundam" manga written in Japanese, which he had acquired. Not understanding the text, he inaccurately recreated the world dynamics purely from the imagery of the comic books. The game's first public testing occurred at a local convention. The initial public release of "Mekton" focused on its battle mechanics with no roleplaying elements at all; this made it a pure tactical war-game. The success of "Mekton" proved to Pondsmith that he could make a living out of game design, and he founded the company R. Talsorian Games (RTG) in 1985. In 1986, "Mekton" was re-released as a proper roleplaying game with Pondsmith and Mike Jones credited as authors. In 1987, RTG released another of Pondsmith's games inspired by Japanese manga, "Teenagers from Outer Space", (RPGA Gamer's Choice Award). In 1987, Pondsmith released "Mekton II", a new edition of the system, featuring mechanics based on the Interlock System, later used with slight modifications in the "Cyberpunk" line. "Teenagers from Outer Space" was re-released with significant changes to the mechanics in 1989. Games such as "Cyberpunk" (later "Cyberpunk 2020") and "Cyberpunk V3" were translated into 9 languages. "Castle Falkenstein" (Best Game of 1994), "Cybergeneration", and "" soon followed. He also collaborated with the Hero Games designers on the Fuzion system.
Cyberpunk roleplaying game.
In 1988 R. Talsorian Games released Mike Pondsmith's "Cyberpunk The Roleplaying Game of the Dark Future". Set in the year 2013 (and often referred to as "Cyberpunk 2013"), the game was a boxed product consisting of three separate books penned by Pondsmith, with Mike Blum, Colin Fisk, Dave Friedland, Will Moss and Scott Ruggels as co-authors. Several expansions by Pondsmith and other authors followed and Pondsmith released "Cyberpunk 2020", a handbook with an updated story arc and mechanics, (although existing expansions remained compatible with the new game) in 1990.
Pondsmith designed "Cyberpunk 2013" as the second game to use the Interlock system. Pondsmith attributes creation of "Cyberpunk" to his interest in the genre sparked primarily by Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" released in 1982. The motivation behind the "Cyberpunk" roleplaying game was his desire to recreate the technology and dark, film noir style of the movie. "Cyberpunk" is the most expansive line of products in the RTG library with forty-four sourcebooks containing over 4,700 pages. The game has had an estimated 5 million players to date.
In 1993, again under the RTG banner, Pondsmith released an alternate timeline for the "Cyberpunk" line. The sourcebook titled "Cybergeneration" was further enhanced by additional expansions and a second edition was released in 1995, that built further upon existing, explored themes. A license for the line was later acquired by Jonathan Lavallee, owner of Firestorm Ink, founded specifically to continue RTG's "CyberGeneration" product line in 2003.
In 1996, Wizards of the Coast licensed "Cyberpunk" for their collectible card game "Netrunner". Designed by Richard Garfield, "Netrunner" featured locations, entities, and characters familiar to "Cyberpunk 2020" players. The game was named one of The Millennium's Most Underrated Games in 1999 in "Pyramid" magazine published by the Steve Jackson Games. Mike Pondsmith is featured in the game's credits in the 'special thanks' section and makes a cameo appearance as "Omni Kismet, Ph.D." (character's name is an anagram of his). On May 10, 2012, Fantasy Flight Games announced that they would be releasing "", a new card game based on "Netrunner", under license from "Wizards of the Coast". Another short-lived card game based on Pondsmith's IP was "Cyberpunk CCG", designed by Peter Wacks, and published by Social Games in 2003.
In 1989, West End Games released a "Cyberpunk" and "Paranoia" crossover. The game, called "Alice Through the Mirrorshades", was designed by Edward Bolme and is compatible with both "Cyberpunk" and "Paranoia" games. At least two fan magazines were created around the time of "Cyberpunk"'s peak popularity with Pondsmith's approval: "Interface Magazine", which evolved from the unofficial "Cyberpunk Update" run by Chris Hockabout, and UK-published" 'Punk '21".
Castle Falkenstein.
In 1994, R. Talsorian Games released Pondsmith's steampunk-themed fantasy role-playing game titled "Castle Falkenstein". The game's mechanics were based on playing cards, instead of dice, and geared towards live action role-playing. "Castle Falkenstein" remains Pondsmith's most critically acclaimed game to date with the 1994 Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Rules, and the 1995 Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award for Best Role-Playing Product recognitions. In 2000, "Castle Falkenstein" was adapted to the "GURPS" system by James Cambias and Phil Masters, and released by Steve Jackson Games.
Design contributions outside of R. Talsorian Games.
Pondsmith was briefly associated with TSR, Inc., where he worked on "Buck Rogers XXVC", a science-fiction RPG, and two sourcebooks for the "Dungeons &amp; Dragons": ' for "Oriental Adventures" in 1988 and "Hall of Heroes" for "Forgotten Realms" in 1989. He also made minor, uncredited contributions to the original ' released in 1987 by West End Games.
Pondsmith has also been president of the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA), and in his role of GAMA President in 1993, he arbitrated an out-of-court settlement between Palladium Books and Wizards of the Coast over Wizards' use of Palladium system integration notes in "The Primal Order".
R. Talsorian's hiatus and video game design.
After encountering challenges in the role-playing game industry, on February 15, 1998, Pondsmith announced that R. Talsorian would only operate part-time. Putting the major game lines on hiatus at this time meant doing the same with Hero Games products, and in September 1998, Hero Games announced their separation from R. Talsorian Games. Late in the year 2000, Pondsmith accepted a job offer at Microsoft to produce games for Xbox. As a design manager at Microsoft, he contributed to various games (mostly to the lineup of the original Xbox console's exclusive titles) released by the company's Microsoft Game Studios. In "MechCommander 2", released in 2001, he played the role of Steel, a character featured in cut-scenes (he also voiced the character for the in-game chatter between characters). He was also credited in Stormfront Studios' "Blood Wake" released in the same year. The last Microsoft title he was credited with was "" (2003). In 2004 he left Microsoft to join Monolith Productions where he worked on "The Matrix Online" (2005). During his time at Microsoft, his wife Lisa Pondsmith kept R. Talsorian in business with limited publications.
The idea of a "Matrix" game was initially pitched internally at Microsoft by Pondsmith and one of his coworkers. Despite advanced talks with the Wachowskis, the film's producers, the project never came to fruition. Pitches to Shiny Entertainment did not succeed either and he later learned that a "Matrix" game was being worked on at Monolith. Given the opportunity to join the live team (responsible for maintaining the game and producing content post-launch) he decided to join Monolith. Pondsmith ended up doing mission design for the game under Online Creative Director and Lead Game Designer Toby Ragaini.
Cyberpunk v3.0.
In 2000 Pondsmith announced that he was working on the third edition of "Cyberpunk". The work itself started even earlier, right after the release of the "" in 1999; and the third edition of "Cyberpunk" was expected to ship soon afterwards. Initially called "Cyberpunk 203X", the game was scheduled for a release in the spring of 2001. The first two-page preview of the game was released on August 20, 2001, marking the first pushback of the game's release date. During the prolonged development of the game, Pondsmith released another preview of the third edition of "Cyberpunk" on December 31, 2004. The game's early manuscript was previewed, and the first public playtesting took place during I-Con in Ronkonkoma, New York between April 8 and 10, 2005. The game was written by Pondsmith, Mike Blum, Colin Fisk, Dave Friedland, Will Moss, and Scott Ruggels and was finally released on December 13, 2005, to mixed reviews.
Illustrations in the game were criticized, for being photographs of slightly modified action figures of which Pondsmith was a collector at the time. The game was successful enough, however, to justify several accessories and supplements which were announced immediately after the core book's release. This included "DataPack" (initially called "Dossier Pak"), "FlashPak", "Gangbook" and "AltCult Insider". "Cyberpunk v3.0", much like its predecessors, was influenced by the classic cyberpunk books written by Neal Stephenson and William Gibson, but also incorporated ideas from new literary sources, Japanese animation, and movies. According to Pondsmith, it was designed to become a commentary on the 21st century, corporate influences on everyday life, ideologies of groups, the place of government, warfare and advancements in biotechnology.
Interlock and Fuzion system.
In addition to working at RTG, Pondsmith contributed to the Hero Games' "Champions" line. Working mostly as an editorial assistant on books such as "Alliances" for the "", he was introduced to the Hero Games' mechanics (Hero System) which he later decided to merge with the Interlock System used by most of the