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Title says most of it. I was going through the Black Library website looking at some of the upcoming books and noticed that on Page 2 of the "coming soon" section, Andy Chambers is credited with writing PATH OF THE RENEGADE. Is anyone else surprised by this other than me? I thought he was excommunicate tratoris from Games Workshop...?

I didn't think he left on bad terms?

Maybe because that Chambers still has the ability of drawing people to read what he writes.

The "excommunicate tratoris" is the simple BS term used by GW pom pom girls (think of Sailor Bubba to get the mental idea) who like to brag and put down someone who is by far one of the best games designers GW let go of.

Bet ya he's laughing all the way to the bank for his current job at blizzard entertainment.

There were a few different rumours as to why he left GW. Though considering he left to go work for a competitor (Mongoose Publishing) to create the Starship Troopers range and later became the Creative Director for Blizzard Entertainment, I figured he wouldn't ever come back.

He's probably still working for Blizzard and is doing this freelance. Not everyone who writes for Black Library is contractually obligated to only write for them or anything. I have a 40k short story collection from a few years ago and his short story was the best one in the book. I hope the rest of his writing is up to that caliber.

Brother SRM Andy is still working as Creative Director for Startcraft 2.

His rules weren't that great, his 2nd edition offerings were probably the most broken thing ever.

I'm glad to see him back in some compacity. Always assumed he left on bad terms. Like most of my jobs...lol. Starcraft 2 is an amazing game. If he worked on that then my hat is off to him. I'm interested to read his book. Whats the release date?

Adam LongWalker wrote:Maybe because that Chambers still has the ability of drawing people to read what he writes.

The "excommunicate tratoris" is the simple BS term used by GW pom pom girls (think of Sailor Bubba to get the mental idea) who like to brag and put down someone who is by far one of the best games designers GW let go of.

The most reliable rumor is:
He quit, citing 'creative differences' with the management and the other rules writers. Namely: they wouldn't let him write the rules the way he wanted them. The majority of that stuff was put into Starship Troopers, which was his 'start-up' for his own games company(did anything ever come of that? Last I saw it was 'on hold') called Red Star Games.

Bet ya he's laughing all the way to the bank for his current job at blizzard entertainment.

And yet...here he is doing commission work for GW.

Man. That bank must be packed.

It's also important to remember that while SC2 did 'well'...there's not much left for him to be doing, since he was the campaign and storyline creative director.

SC2 is pretty much a Battle.net game, not a SP game.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And before I get this fanboy crap:

He was a terrible games designer. He couldn't write rules to save his life, but he was one of their absolute best when it came to coming up with units.

He was also a hell of a nice guy to chat with at Games Days. Back when the Eye of Terror campaign was about to kick off, I got to sit down and talk with him in between the 40k and Fantasy seminars.
The man had some amazing fluff ideas that it's a shame weren't implemented.

Not so surprising. He's been writing stuff for the 40K RPG's recently (like the most recent Rogue Trader book, Battlefleet Koronus).

I think his games design ideas could have been better, but he had amazing fluff ideas. I've checked out his Red Star games site and it looks pretty crappy. I wish him the best in his future endeavors.

Either way, if its a "PATH OF" book, i expect it to be an eldar novel of some sort. Its supposed to be out March 2012.

Well I maybe making that purchase next year. If it even comes out. Maybe there will be some creative differences and he quits the job before it's published. All kidding aside I never really looked into his Red Star stuff. Never cared to either. Im kind of fond of his 2nd edition 40k stuff though. I started right around that time and it makes me a bit nostalgic to think back on that era.

It's funny to me how people think game designers are rolling in money. Tell that to all the game design school (most of them are down in Florida I think) graduates who are lucky to find a job paying 20-30K a year. Suckers.

Kanluwen wrote:
And before I get this fanboy crap:

He was a terrible games designer. He couldn't write rules to save his life, but he was one of their absolute best when it came to coming up with units.

He was also a hell of a nice guy to chat with at Games Days. Back when the Eye of Terror campaign was about to kick off, I got to sit down and talk with him in between the 40k and Fantasy seminars.
The man had some amazing fluff ideas that it's a shame weren't implemented.

Awww, I rather liked BFG

I too will be quite interested in this novel when it comes out. His vision of the 40k universe is pretty neat IMO.

BFG was pretty good, yeah.

But I think that was the exception in his case.