Steve Wieck
Other namesStephan Wieck
Occupation(s)Game designer, CEO
Notable workMage: The Ascension
RelativesStewart Wieck (brother)

Steve Wieck (also credited as Stephan Wieck) is best known as one of the founders of the publishing company White Wolf, Inc. He is also one of the original writers of Mage: The Ascension. Wieck is a co-founder of DriveThruRPG which later merged with RPGNow to become OneBookShelf. Wieck is currently the CEO of OneBookShelf.

Career

White Wolf

Steve Wieck and his brother Stewart Wieck had their first published work in 1986 as the adventure The Secret in the Swamp for Villains & Vigilantes from FGU.[1]: 215  Later that same year, while they were still in high school, the brothers began self-publishing their own magazine, Arcanum; Stewart soon retitled the magazine as White Wolf, publishing the first issue in August 1986.[1]: 215  The Wiecks were fans of Elric, and named their magazine after him.[2] Stephan Wieck wrote the Shadowrun adventure Queen Euphoria (1990).[3]: 280  The Wiecks had befriended the company Lion Rampant, and when that company encountered financial trouble, White Wolf and Lion Rampant decided to merge into the new White Wolf Game Studio, with Stewart Wieck and Mark Rein-Hagen as co-owners.[1]: 215–216 

Steve graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1991 and left White Wolf to start MBA-equivalent training at General Electric.[1]: 217  Steve returned from GE after completing two years of training in business, and Stewart made Steve the CEO of White Wolf in 1993.[1]: 220 [4]

The company encountered economic problems in 1995–1996, which resulted in a falling out between Rein-Hagen and the Wiecks, and Rein-Hagen leaving White Wolf.[1]: 222 

Steve co-designed the Exalted role-playing game with Robert Hatch and Justin Achilli, and the game was published in 2001.[1]: 227 

Steve left his role as President of White Wolf in 2002, and Mike Tinney became the new president.[1]: 227 

CCP Games

In November 2006, it was announced that CCP Games had entered a merger agreement with White Wolf Publishing.[5][6] Steve left White Wolf in 2007 for a seat on the board of directors at CCP.[1]: 230  He served on CCP's board of directors for 9 years.[citation needed]

DriveThruRPG and OneBookShelf

In 2004, Mike Todd, Chris McDonough, and Wieck created DriveThruRPG, an online RPG PDF distributor.[7][8] In 2006, DriveThruRPG merged with RPGNow, another online RPG distributor.[1]: 230  The merger formed OneBookShelf.[9] As of July 2022, Wieck remains the CEO of OneBookShelf.[10]

In July 2022, Roll20 and OneBookShelf announced a merger between the two companies. This merger will combine the content libraries of both companies[11][10] and make "OneBookShelf's PDF libraries accessible within Roll20".[12] Ankit Lai, CEO of Roll20, will become the new company's CEO and Wieck will become president of the new company and join Roll20's board of directors.[12][11] The combined company's name has not yet been announced.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  2. ^ "A Brief History of Game #11: White Wolf, Part One: 1986-1995 - RPGnet". www.rpg.net. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  3. ^ Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-653-5.
  4. ^ "bizjournals". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  5. ^ "Gaming Industry Innovators CCP and White Wolf to Merge". gamesindustry.biz. 13 November 2006. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  6. ^ "EVE Online Dev CCP to Merge with White Wolf (UPDATED)". Shacknews. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  7. ^ SVENSSON, PETER (2007-12-04). "Slow-Starting E-Books Find Niche Markets". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-09-19.
  8. ^ SVENSSON, PETER (2007-12-04). "Slow-Starting E-Books Find Niche Markets". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  9. ^ "RPGNow & DriveThruRPG Merge". icv2.com. October 26, 2006. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  10. ^ a b c Sheehan, Gavin (2022-07-13). "Roll20 & OneBookShelf Announce Company Unification". Bleeding Cool News And Rumors. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  11. ^ a b "Roll20 and OneBookShelf are merging into one TTRPG platform". VentureBeat. July 13, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
  12. ^ a b "Roll20 and OneBookShelf To Merge". ICv2. July 13, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.


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