Jim Bambra

Jim Bambra (born 1956) is a British designer and reviewer of fantasy roleplaying games (RPG), and a former company director. He is particularly known for his contributions to "Dungeons and Dragons", "Fighting Fantasy", "Warhammer", and ' which was based on the "Star Wars" films. Later he became head of design at MicroProse, then managing director of Pivotal Games, a publisher of video games including '.
Career.
Jim Bambra worked on game design and materials for various companies during the 1980s and early 1990s, including TSR (publisher of "Dungeons and Dragons"), Games Workshop ("Warhammer"), and West End Games ("Star Wars RPG").
In 1983, Bambra wrote "The Beginner’s Guide to Roleplaying Games" (with Paul Ruiz), published in "Imagine" magazine Issue 6 (Sept 1983), explaining what an RPG is and accompanied by a comic strip, "The Adventures of Nic Novice". He was a reviewer and writer for Imagine magazine 1983-1985, and reviewer for "White Dwarf" and "Dragon" magazines during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
In 1989, Bambra co-wrote the Fighting Fantasy gamebook Dead of Night for Puffins, a Penguin inprint, with Stephen Hand.
During the 1990s he was Head of Design at MicroProse, where he worked on projects including "Fields of Glory", "Grand Prix", "Special Forces", various X-COM products, and "Gunship".
In 1996 Bambra founded Pumpkin Studios, which achieved success with "Warzone 2100", a computer game with a post-nuclear scenario. This company closed in 2000 after Eidos Interactive cancelled its then current project, "Saboteur", a PlayStation video game.
In 2003 he became managing director at Pivotal Games Ltd, a videogame development company based in Bath and owned by SCi Ltd. During his period at the firm it published the series of "Conflict:" videogames, the most successful of which was "". He remained as director until 2008, when SCi closed down the company. Between 2005 and 2009 he was also a board member of The Independent Games Developers Association Ltd.
Gamebooks and materials.
Jim Bambra produced the following gamebooks and materials for roleplaying games, many in collaboration with other authors:
Testimonial.
"Echoes of the Jedi: Episode IV of Star Wars: Dawn of Defiance" was dedicated to "Jim Bambra and all the unsung authors of the early Star Wars Expanded Universe".