User:Ebbn/sandbox

Elizabeth T. Danforth is a creator in the role-playing game and video game industries. Although primarily known as an illustrator, she is also an editor, writer, game scenario designer, and game developer. She received her BA in Anthropology from Arizona State University, and her MLS from the University of Arizona. She has worked in the game industry continuously since the mid 1970s.

Art and Illustration
Danforth is known primarily as a freelance artist in the fantasy and science fiction genres, with the majority of her body of work illustrating for the game industry between 1976 and 2004. She has created book covers, maps, and illustrations for many of the significant game publishers including Wizards of the Coast, TSR, Inc, Alderac Entertainment Group, FASA Corporation, Iron Crown Enterprises, GDW, and more. She produced over 50 pieces of art for the collectible card game Magic: the Gathering (produced by Wizards of the Coast) as well as an equal quantity of illustrative artwork for the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game, Legend of the Five Rings, and many others. Her maps and illustrations appear in novels and anthologies from Bantam Spectra, Tor Books, DAW Books, and St Martin's Press. Danforth created a front cover for Rick Loomis' Supernova magazine for her first paid job in the game industry. She illustrated many Flying Buffalo projects in the early 1970s and joined the company in 1978 as staff artist and art director. She left the company in 1985 to work independently, and has continued to work with Flying Buffalo and other game companies as a freelance artist, writer, editor, and designer. Her illustrations appear in Flying Buffalo's Tunnels & TrollsAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons, Middle-Earth Role Playing, Traveller, Shadowrun, and other role-playing game franchises.[1]

Danforth painted card art for Magic: The Gathering and more than a dozen other collectible card games.[2] She is one of the 49 artists selected to create new art for the 20th anniversary book The Gathering: Reuniting Pioneering Artists of Magic The Gathering.[3]

Danforth's illustrations appear in many novels and anthologies. Her maps appear in the Irish Country books by Patrick Taylor; Chronicles of the Cheysuli, the Sword-Dancer Saga, Lady of the Forest, and Lady of Sherwood, all by Jennifer Roberson; DragonCrown War by Michael Stackpole;  Spirit Gate by Kate Elliott; and her map of  Amber appeared in The Road To Amber.[4] She illustrated every story in Highwaymen: Robbers and Rogues (Jennifer Roberson, ed.; DAW Books)[5] and also in the Magic: The Gathering anthology Distant Planes (Kathy Ice, ed., Harper Prism).[6]

Writing, Editing, and Game Design
While employed with Flying Buffalo (1978-1985), Danforth is noted for editing and developing the Fifth Edition of Flying Buffalo's flagship role playing game, Tunnels & Trolls, a role she reprised in 2013 for the current edition, Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls. She contributed extensively as an author and illustrator to Flying Buffalo's award-winning system-agnostic role-playing resources, notably Grimtooth's Traps and Citybooks.[7]  Danforth also edited and contributed to Ken Rolston's The Northern Reaches for TSR's Dungeons and Dragons and she contributed to the Dark Races #1 Compendium  sourcebook for Dark Conspiracy.[1]

Danforth has continued to write for and to edit Game Master and solitaire adventures. Her magazine Sorcerer's Apprentice (1978–1983) ran for 17 issues.

Her short fiction appears in Of Dice and Pen (ed. Fred Poutre; Flying Pen Press, 2008), Shrapnel – Fragments from the Inner Sphere (FASA, 1988)[8], and Mage's Blood and Old Bones (1992, Flying Buffalo)[9].

She designed and wrote scenarios for both the original Wasteland and Wasteland 2. Her work also appears in Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (1992, Interplay), and Star Trek: Judgment Rites (1993, Interplay). She was the lead writer and designer for Crusaders of Khazan (1990, New World Computing).

Other Work
Liz Danforth was one of a dozen “gaming experts” who participated in the American Library Association's million-dollar grant-funded project to explore how gaming can be used to improve problem-solving and literacy skills among teens, and to develop a model toolbox for gaming in libraries. Ten libraries nationwide were selected to receive a one-time grant of $5,000 with funds used to begin or expand on literacy-based gaming experiences at the library for youth ages 10-18.[10]

From May 2009 to December 2011, Danforth wrote the “Games, Gamers and Gaming” blog and column for Library Journal as an advocate and popularizer of games in libraries.[11]

Awards and Appearances
At the 1995 Origins Awards held in July 1996[12], Liz Danforth was inducted into the Academy of Gaming Arts and Design's Hall of Fame .[13] The Academy is the creative arm of GAMA, the Game Manufacturer's Association. She is a member of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists. In 2014, she was chosen by vote as a "famous game designer" to be featured as the King of Hearts in Flying Buffalo's 2014 Famous Game Designers Playing Card Deck.[14]

A retrospective of Danforth's work appears at The Black Gate.[15] Other recent interviews appeared in the 9to5cc blog[16] and Obskures[17].

She speaks at professional and fan conferences, and at libraries on art- and gaming-related topics.