GUESTS OF HONOR
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Look whom THE KRAKEN has snatched!

Steadfast KRAKEN allies known for their talents, brawn, wit and humor.

SANDY PETERSEN aka the Great Old One, aka The Only Old One, aka Mr. Shiny, aka Carl Sanford, aka The Bane of Daniel der Zauberer, aka Uncle Sandy is the original designer of the roleplaying phenomenon Call of Cthulhu and thus played a key role in making H.P. Lovecraft and Cthulhu household names. He is widely acknowledged to be the most influential shaper of the fantasy world Glorantha after the creator Greg Stafford himself. He is responsible for most of the fun you had playing computer games like Doom (Thanks for the shotgun!), Quake and the Age of Empires ("Wololooo!") series. Now he is right smack in the middle of his third-act career as a board game designer and Kickstarter honcho. His latest projects are Planet Apocalypse and Hyperspace which he demoed at THE KRAKEN 2016. Sandy serves as Vice-president of the Board of Directors of Chaosium, Inc. and acts as the Chief Creative Consultant and Guidance Ro-Man for the legendary and indestructable publisher. All Krakeneers can look forward to play-test sessions of Sandy's latest creations, lore heavy seminars, disturbing-alarming-and-hilarious movies, intriguing chats and — as tradition dictates — an exclusive Call of Cthulhu scenario sprung fresh from his mind for the 'winners' of our Horror Lottery to play in.

KEN ROLSTON is a Bon Vivant, sage, folk singer and award-winning designer of pen-and-paper RPGs and supplements. He co-designed the 2nd edition of PARANOIA, wrote for RuneQuest, Ghostbusters, Stormbringer and not to forget Superworld, for which he created the eye-popping supplement Bad Medicine for Dr. Drugs (Greg Stafford just can't stop raving about it!). When dinosaurs ruled the earth, Ken served as roleplaying director for West End Games, Games Workshop and the Avalon Hill Game Company. As a video game designer, he was lead designer at Bethesda Softworks for The Elder Scrolls classics Morrowind and Oblivion. During his reign as RuneCzar at Avalon Hill, a period famously know as the RuneQuest Renaissance, he contributed his deathless prose and peerless editorial gifts to Sun County, River of Cradles, Shadows on the Borderland, Dorastor: Land of Doom and Strangers in Prax. Ken enjoyed his first stay with us in 2015 so much he wanted to be back for the next KRAKEN. Sadly he found out too late that there was a KRAKEN in 2016. We are happy that he will spend his yearly Euro-Geek-Jaunt with us again this year and has carved the dates for THE KRAKEN into his calendar.

JASON DURALL got started in the RPG industry with Chaosium, playtesting and writing a tiny bit of Elric! He wrote Slaves of Fate for the ill-fated Dragon Lords of Melnibone. He's best-known for Basic Roleplaying and has worked on Cthulhu/BRP-based games such Magic World, The Laundry, World War Cthulhu, and Achtung! Cthulhu including Assault on the Mountains of Madness. Other work includes material for Amber Diceless Roleplaying, Conan the Roleplaying Game, The Lord of the Rings, Silver Age Sentinels, Supernatural, A Game of Thrones, Serenity, Battlestar Galactica and Lords of Gossamer & Shadow, a diceless roleplaying game from Rite Publishing. His professional career has largely been in the computer games industry, as lead worldbuilder for Shadowbane, creative lead for Wizard101 and Pirate101, writer and designer for several unannounced/defunct games, and most recently he was the lead designer on Drakensang Online in Berlin for two and a half years. Now a full-time writer and game developer, Jason is managing Modiphius's Robert E Howard's Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, and their Star Trek Adventures game lines (among others). Jason recently became Chaosium's line editor for RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha. He will be contributing to and spearheading other Chaosium projects to come. Eventually he will finish Interplanetary. He has no spare time. Oh and yeah: He is a Kickass GM.

JEFF RICHARD is the tireless Vice President and Creative Director of Chaosium. He's been crowned the new RuneCzar by the former holder of that magical regalia, and is the guiding designer behind the relaunch of RuneQuest aka RuneQuest: Glorantha that's been going on this year.

MIKE MASON, aka the real (?) Mr. Shiny, is Chaosium's Line Editor and lead writer for Call of Cthulhu. Mike is an ENnie Award winning writer who co-wrote the latest edition of Call of Cthulhu, as well as writing Pulp Cthulhu and The Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Spells, and has edited, written, and had a tentacle in every Call of Cthulhu book since he was reanimated by Chaosium in 2013 (including the revised Horror on the Orient Express!) Mike has been running games, as well as writing scenarios for Call of Cthulhu for over 30 years (including The Curse of Nineveh and Cthulhu Britannica for Cubicle 7), and was the founder of the 'now gone but not forgotten' Kult of Keepers (who you may remember from numerous Tentacles appearances). Mike was also the co-writer of and line editor for Dark Heresy, the Warhammer 40K roleplaying game, and manager of Black Industries, Games Workshop's old board and RPG games division. Before that, Mike managed Games Workshop's Games Day event, packing in 10,000 crazed Warhammer fans and entertaining them with spiky and plastic goodness. Back in the day, Mike published and edited The Whisperer, a zine dedicated to Lovecraftian horror gaming. Mike will be running some games (maybe the odd play test) and talking on panels at THE KRAKEN, but will also be pleased to discuss horror films, books, why the 1970s is the best decade ever, and enjoying any whiskey or gin available to him.

SUSAN O'BRIEN is Chaosium's boardgames line editor. Sue loves boardgames — as a player, playtester and designer. Most recently she has been working with Germany's game design legend Reiner Knizia on his two titles for Chaosium — Khan of Khans, set in Greg Stafford's Glorantha and Miskatonic University, a new Call of Cthulhu-themed boardgame. Sue's professional background is in editing, publishing and project management. Her career has also included coordinating clinical research trials across the world, working as a jillaroo on a sheep station in the Australian Outback, avoiding being kidnapped in the Philippines and serving as the ghost writer for various Arabian dignitaries. After a decade living and working overseas, Sue returned to Melbourne, Australia several years ago, where she lives with her husband (Chaosium's MOB) and their two teenage sons. In 1996, Greg Stafford explained the God Learner Secret in great detail to Susan, just out of MOB's earshot. Ever since, she has remained silent on the subject.

MICHAEL O'BRIEN, better known as MOB, is Vice President for Chaosium, Inc. His role encompasses creative development, community engagement, licensing and MGF. He has been a long-time creative force for RuneQuest and Glorantha, going back to the days of Tales of the Reaching Moon magazine, where he was associate editor. The 1992 RuneQuest release Sun County, which he wrote under RuneCzar Ken Rolston, kicked off the brief but glorious flourish known as the RQ Renaissance. After taking part in what was essentially a 10-year long LARP in the Middle East, MOB returned to Australia with his family in 2014. His most recent creative projects for Chaosium include Call of Cthulhu: The Coloring Book, the Glorantha Quickstart and assisting in the completion of the 13th Age in Glorantha Rulebook.

LYNNE HARDY discovered roleplaying games at university thanks to the Seattle Seahawks (strange, but true). The first game she ever played was RuneQuest, closely followed by Call of Cthulhu. Introduced to GMing through the legendary D&D Red Box, she soon graduated to Talislanta, which led to a writing gig for Nightfall Games’ SLA Industries. Since then she has written for Dying Earth, Victoriana 3rd Ed, 13th Age, Seven Wonders and Cabal, edited Victoriana 3rd Ed, Blue Rose 2nd Ed and Katanas & Trenchcoats’ two supplements, and contributed to numerous other projects as a playtester, proofreader and consultant. Shortly after quitting her former life as a biomedical research scientist and lecturer, she helmed the multi-award winning Achtung! Cthulhu Kickstarter project as line editor and lead writer, and is also responsible for Cogs, Cakes and Swordsticks, cracking steampunk adventures for all the family. When she’s not writing and editing, she gives talks and workshops on traditional embroidery techniques.

SIMON BRAY has sadly informed us that events have conspired against him and that he can't attend after all. Simon has been doodling and scribbling for RPGs for over 20 years. His still-raging obsession for Glorantha, particularly the Slave Pits of Fonrit, has led to some very unsavoury behaviour. Mr. Bray began his servitude by writing and illustrating for Tales of the Reaching Moon. He went on to become an illustrator and contributor to an array of products for the late Issaries, Inc. eventually becoming one of the their art directors. Simon has always been proud of working with the design team of the computer game King of Dragon Pass. He also collaborated with Moon Design Publications since the release of the Gloranthan Classics as a writer, illustrator and art director. Other publishers treasuring his work are Chaosium, Inc., Mongoose, The Design Mechanism and many other small press companies such as D101. Simon ended up working on nearly every fanzine dedicated to Glorantha from 1995 onwards. He even set-up his own fan publishing company The Unspoken Word, with Dr. Mark Galeotti. The poor lad is known for his unhealthy love of self-torture, his favoured source of pain being a vast number of huge FreeForm games he wrote or co-authored, especially for our very own Tentacles Convention. Lately he has become a cartographer, though he's not sure how. Simon spends much of his time running games for the lovely people at Ruby's Fund Charity Mug & Game Club and trying not to break his family too much.

JAMES LOWDER's publications include the bestselling, widely translated dark fantasy novels Prince of Lies and Knight of the Black Rose; short fiction for such anthologies as Shadows Over Baker Street and Tales of the Lost Citadel; game design for TSR, White Wolf, Chaosium, and Steve Jackson Games; as well as comic book scripts, film reviews, and critical essays about pop culture. On the other side of the publisher's desk, he serves as executive editor for Chaosium's fiction line. His past editorial credits include line editing for the Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, and Pendragon novel series; RPG editing on 1st and 2nd edition D&D releases; and helming more than a dozen critically acclaimed anthologies, including Madness on the Orient Express, Hobby Games: The 100 Best, and The Munchkin Book. His work has received five Origins Awards and two ENnie Awards, and been a finalist for the International Horror Guild Award and the Stoker Award.