As my blog profile says, I'm a freelance game designer.

The trouble is, no one outside the game industry/hobby really knows what that means. It tends to lead to all sorts of confusion about what I actually do and what I actually write. I mean, I think even my family and friends don't quite get exactly what I do. I've been having this conversation regularly lately, so maybe this will help....

A typical conversation usually goes like this:

So, I heard you write for Star Wars.

That's right. Lately its been for the Star Wars Miniatures game but I've written for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game since the early '90's.

So, what kind of computer game is it?

It's not a computer game, they're tabletop games.

You mean like a board game?

Well, the miniatures game is basically like a board game.

But I thought I heard you worked on a website?

Yes, but it's content...articles, scenarios, not coding. You don't play online. You read or download it and play it with your friends.

So, if it's a game, what do you write?

For the website I write previews for upcoming products for the miniatures games and scenarios for use in the game. Scenarios are....look, in the miniatures game, each player plays one side in a battle. Let's say one controls the Rebels, the other controls the Imperials. They use various miniatures/characters in the game to create a team good enough to defeat the other side. I write the part that tells the players what characters to use, what maps to use, what the victory conditions are and what special rules might apply.

OK, but didn't someone tell me you wrote books or something?

Yes, I wrote several products for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game.

um....

You know, like Dungeons and Dragons. Only with Star Wars instead of fantasy.

OK... (I never know exactly what the response will be here, it depends on their D&D knowledge or rumor experiences, often from the '80s or their childhoods.)

Think of it like a TV show. The players each play a single character, like a recurring character or star of the show. I write the plot of the show, the story background, all of the enemies and allies and the locations where the scenes occur. Sometimes they are based off of locations, characters or ships from the Star Wars movies. Sometimes I get to create them myself.

So you write the rules?

Not very often. Usually, the players already own that book. I tend to write other content that uses the rules.

So you must really like Star Wars.

You could say that.

That explains your ringtone.

Yeah, although my wife refused to let me use The Imperial March for her number...before I even suggested it.

Hey, I've always wondered about [insert arcane Star Wars trivia here].

and so on. It's fun, but I'm still trying to come up with a concise way of describing what I do to non-gamers. Unfortunately, the conciseness depends entirely on the other person's knowledge of games and minis and RPGs are usually just outside the mainstream, even today.

Anyway, maybe this will help clear a few things up....but usually, the only way to really understand is to play the games.