Amanda_Hamon_Kunz

Amanda Hamon Kunz

Amanda Hamon Kunz

American game designer

Amanda Hamon Kunz is an American game designer known for her work on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and other d20 role-playing game products.

Career

Hamon in 2023 at a Dungeons & Dragons panel

Journalist and freelance writer

During her time in high school, Kunz joined some friends' long-running Dungeons & Dragons campaign.[1] In 2006, while Kunz was enrolled at Eastern Michigan University, she began to play some of White Wolf Press's modern-day horror roleplaying games.[1] She decided to attend Gencon, and Kunz was impressed by how easy it was for attendees to chat with the authors and designers of the games she enjoyed playing.[2] After graduation, Kunz became a journalist and reported on health, science, and government issues for several different newspapers and organizations.[2]

She was still enjoying role-playing games, and in 2011, she decided she would like to become an editor in the games industry.[1] She returned to Gencon, this time to develop contacts with games companies, one of them being Wolfgang Baur of Kobold Press. In addition to her journalism work, she began to write freelance articles for several companies, including Hammerdog Games, Kobold Press, Legendary Games, Mechanical Muse,[3] and Paizo Publishing.[2] Between 2012 and 2015, she wrote or contributed to 19 Paizo articles and sourcebooks.[4]

Kobold Press

In 2012, Wolfgang Baur hired her as an editor for Kobold Press. She worked on several projects as lead developer and editor as well as designer, including the sourcebooks Deep Magic and Southlands.[5] Deep Magic was subsequently awarded a Judges' Spotlight at the ENnies in 2014.[6] Southlands won an ENnie in 2016 for "Best Cartography".[7]

Paizo Publishing

In 2015 she was hired by Paizo[4] as an assistant developer, and moved to Seattle[2] and then Redmond, Washington.[3] In 2016, Kunz appeared at Gencon as an Industry Insider Featured Presenter.[3] By 2017, Kunz was a Development Coordinator for various Pathfinder projects and the new Starfinder game.[1] Starfinder would subsequently win the 2018 Origins Award for Fan Favorite Role-Playing Game.[8]

Wizards of the Coast

In December 2020, Hamon announced that she had been hired by Wizards of the Coast as a Senior Designer on Dungeons & Dragons.[9] She is one of the authors of the sourcebook Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (2021).[10]

References

  1. [1]
    "The Drift, Episode 5: Interview with Amanda Hamon Kunz". PodBay (Podcast). NerdsOnEarth.com. 2017-06-20. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  2. [2]
    Schneider, Wesley (2019-04-01). "Welcome Amanda Hamon Kunz!". Paizo. Paizo Publishing. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  3. [3]
    "Industry Insider Featured Presenters for 2016". Archived from the original on 2016-07-31. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  4. [4]
    "Amanda Hamon Kunz". Pathfinder Wiki.
  5. [5]
    "Interview with Amanda Hamon Kunz". Kobold Press. 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  6. [6]
    Muth, Stacy (2014-07-14). "Announcing the 2014 Judges' Spotlight Winners". ENnies Tabletop RPG Awards. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  7. [7]
    "2016 ENnie Award Winners". ENnies. Archived from the original on 2019-03-19. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  8. [8]
    "Origins Awards Winners 2018 - 44th Annual Ceremony" (PDF). Origins Awards. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  9. [9]
    "Tweet". twitter.com. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  10. [10]
    Hall, Charlie (2021-02-23). "Next Dungeons & Dragons campaign book reboots the many realms of Ravenloft". Polygon. Retrieved 2021-04-06.
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