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Ken Whitman
NationalityAmerican
OccupationGame designer

Ken Whitman is an American game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games and currently writes and directs films under the name Whit Whitman.[1]

Career

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Ken Whitman was a graphic designer from Kentucky who formed the company Whit Productions so that he could publish the post-apocalyptic role-playing game Mutazoids (1989) and get started in the role-playing game business.[2]: 262  Rick Swan in a review of Mutazoids in his book The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games notes that "overall, designer Ken Whitman has done an impressive job of creating an attractively chaotic RPG environment."[3]

Whitman followed that effort by starting a second company, Whit Publications, which published two licensed games: Ralph Bakshi's Wizards (1992) by Edward Bolme and WWF Basic Adventure Game (1993) by David Clark.[2]: 262 

After his investors took over Whit Publications in 1994, Whitman became the Gen Con Convention Coordinator for TSR.[2]: 262  Whitman had the goal of getting TSR a presence in 80 or more conventions in 1995.[4] Whitman worked for TSR from 1994 to 1995.[5] Whitman also worked on the Highlander role-playing game from Thunder Castle Games.[4]

Whitman used this game convention experience and made contacts including Marc Miller, with whom he co-founded Imperium Games in February 1996 to publish Traveller releases.[2]: 262  Whitman was president of the new company, and gathered several role-playing professionals to run it.[2]: 262–263  Whitman helped design the fourth edition of Traveller, and wrote the rules for psionics for the system.[2]: 263  Whitman was at the heart of financial disagreements between Imperium and its backer Sweetpea Entertainment, and ultimately quit because of these disagreements over money expenditures.[2]: 265  Fans became increasingly vocal online because the company continued to promise products that never appeared, to which Whitman responded:[2]: 265 

I feel that others who like starting rumers are only showing their own insecurities and anger to the world. Just because you have failed several time in you life, dont belive everyone else is like you. [Sic] - Ken Whitman, "Imperium Games & Treveller," rec.games.frp.misc (1996)[2]: 265 

Whitman ran Archangel Entertainment from 1997-1998.[2]: 270  While president of Archangel Entertainment, the company published Groo: The Game and the Zero and Dark Conspiracy role-playing games, and Whitman planned to distribute Archangel products in the United States through Chessex.[6] Marcelo Figueroa of Shadis reviewed Groo and said that Whitman got "a burst of inspiration, and decides to make a card game about" the Groo: The Wanderer comic by Sergio Aragones, which he felt was "one of the coolest cards games I've ever played."[7]

Whitman then ran Dynasties Productions, focusing on the new magazine Games Unplugged.[2]: 343  Dynasties Presentations lasted from 1998-2001.[2]: 270 

Whitman then managed Elmore Production, the art company of Larry Elmore.[2]: 343  Whitman helped Elmore produce "The Complete Elmore Art Book" by funding it through Kickstarter.[5]

Whitman then created print companies first with Rapid POD which lasted from 2005-2007, and he then created Sidekick Printing in 2010.[2]: 270 

Whitman later began doing business in late 2013 as D20 Entertainment on Kickstarter.[8][9] Whitman created and funded six projects on Kickstarter between December 8, 2013 and April 7, 2015, for three short movies and three gaming accessories.[10] Whitman led d20 Entertainment into producing a Web series called "Brothers Barbarian."[5] Whitman and Tim Gooch created the series and starred in the cast as the two brothers Russ and Art respectively.[11][12][13]

Since 2021 Whitman is the CEO of Little Monster Entertainment, a film distributor that aims to connect independent film projects with streaming services.[14] Their first film, Unnatural, was released on multiple streaming platforms on October 29th, 2024.

References

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  1. ^ "Whit Whitman | Writer, Actor, Director". IMDb. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shannon Appelcline (2014). Designers & Dragons: The '90s. Evil Hat Productions. ISBN 978-1-61317-084-7.
  3. ^ Swan, Rick (1990). The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 144–146. ISBN 0-312-05060-7. Retrieved 2023-09-17 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ a b "News of people & events in the gaming industry". Dragon. March 1995. p. 54. Retrieved 2023-09-17 – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ a b c Owsley, Becca (2014-06-13). "Brandenburg film company produces geek culture projects" (pages 1 and 2). The News-Enterprise. Archived from the original (pages 1 and 2) on 2023-09-17. Retrieved 2023-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ Bednar, Chuck; Slizewski, Tom (July 1998). "Game Companies Going Exclusive". InQuest. No. 39. p. 20. Retrieved 2023-09-17 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ^ Figueroa, Marcelo A. (September 1997). "Groo: The Card Game". Shadis. Vol. 6, no. 40. p. 78. Retrieved 2023-09-17 – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ "D20 Entertainment".
  9. ^ shane00mail (4 June 2015). "Interview with Ken Whitman of D20 Entertainment" (Interview). Runkle Plays Games. Retrieved 8 June 2018.{{cite interview}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  10. ^ "D20 Entertainment".
  11. ^ "Brandenburg inn becomes setting for web-based fantasy series". The News-Enterprise. 2011-05-19. Archived from the original on 2023-09-17. Retrieved 2023-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "'Brothers Barbarian': Online comedy series filming this weekend in Brandenburg features Goshen man". The Oldham Era. 2012-09-27. Archived from the original on 2023-09-17. Retrieved 2023-09-17.
  13. ^ Downs, Meaghan (2011-08-10). "Local couple stars in webisode series" (pages 1 and 2). The Anderson News. Archived from the original (pages 1 and 2) on 2023-09-17. Retrieved 2023-09-17 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "About". www.littlemonsterentertainment.com. Retrieved 2024-10-21.
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