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David Vincent Baker (he/him), usually credited as D. Vincent Baker or Vincent Baker and sometimes known by the handle lumpley, is a designer of tabletop role playing games and the owner of Lumpley Games which also hosts the archives of The Forge. His most notable games are Dogs in the Vineyard and Apocalypse World.[1][2] Dogs in the Vineyard was the 2004 Indie RPG Game of the Year and won the Innovation Award and was one of three games shortlisted for the 2004 Diana Jones Award[3] and Most Innovative Game.[4][5] Apocalypse World won Game of the Year, Best Support, and Most Innovative game at the 2010 Indie RPG Awards, and was 2011 RPG of the Year at both the Golden Geek Awards and Lucca Comics & Games.[6]

Career[]

Vincent Baker is the designer of the indie role-playing game Dogs in the Vineyard (2004), one of the first indies to be notably successful, both financially and sociologically.[7] This game was the story of God's Watchdogs, trying to preserve the faithful on the hostile American frontier of the 19th century, and introduced the idea of "say yes or roll".[7] Baker also designed kill puppies for satan, Mechaton, and other indie role-playing games. His publishing imprint is called Lumpley Games. He currently resides in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He is the father of three children and is the husband of Meguey Baker, also a roleplaying game designer.

Baker and Emily Care Boss are attributed as formulating the Lumpley Principle.

Baker maintains a blog-style design journal called anyway..

Games[]

  • Amazons, available in Worlds Without Master issue 11
  • Apocalypse World (with Meguey Baker), a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game that launched the Powered by the Apocalypse movement in RPG design
    • Apocalypse World: the Extended Refbook (with Meguey Baker)
    • Apocalypse World: Burned Over (with Meguey Baker)
  • Dogs in the Vineyard, a Diana Jones Award-nominated game about religious judges in a Wild West that never was, and notable for its raising the stakes mechanics.
  • In a Wicked Age
  • In Dreaming Avalon (with Meguey Baker)
  • kill puppies for satan, an irreverent role-playing game about the sort of clueless cultists who would actually kill puppies for Satan and other such over the top acts of evil.
  • Matchmaker
  • Mechaton, a tabletop wargame using Lego robots for pieces.
  • Midsummer Wood
  • Mobile Frame Zero: Firebrands (with Meguey Baker)
  • Murderous Ghosts (with Meguey Baker)
  • Poison'd, a game about playing as pirates.
  • Rock of Tahamaat, Space Tyrant, a game built around the IIEE model of resolution
  • Spin the Beetle
  • The Abductinators
  • The King is Dead (with Meguey Baker)
  • The Seclusium of Orphone of the Three Visions, a supplement for Lamentations of the Flame Princess providing rules, guidelines, tables and suggestions for creating wizards's seclusia.
  • The Sundered Land, a series of 5 single-page games plus 2 supplements set in the Sword & Sorcery ruins of the future.
  • The True & Preposterous Journey of Half-a-Fool (with Meguey Baker)
  • The Vengeful Demon of the Ring, a roleplaying game for three players, one unwitting
  • The Wizard's Grimoire
  • Under Hollow Hills (with Meguey Baker), a role-playing game about a circus of fairies.
  • Wizard Pit Fight

Baker also wrote a story called "In Ssef Seat: the Cannibal Queen" for Worlds Without Master issue 1, and an essay called "Coherence and Contradictions" for Unframed: The Art of Improvisation for Game Masters.

References[]

  1. Guest of Honour profile at Fastaval 2013
  2. Guest of Honour profile at Ropecon 2013
  3. "INDEPENDENT GAME OF THE YEAR, 2004". The RPG-Awards Site. Retrieved on 2007-10-10
  4. "INNOVATION IN A ROLEPLAYING GAME, 2004". The RPG-Awards Site. Retrieved on 2007-10-10
  5. "The Diana Jones Award 2005". The Diana Jones Award committee. Retrieved on 2007-09-08
  6. RPG Geek page
  7. 7.0 7.1 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons: 411. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7

External links[]

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