Chris Avellone

Chris Avellone is an American video game designer and comic book writer. Avellone worked for Interplay and Obsidian Entertainment before working as a freelancer. He is best known for his work on role-playing video games such as Planescape: Torment and the Fallout series.

Chris Avellone
Avellone in 2009
Born
Christopher Frederic Avellone
NationalityAmerican
OccupationGame designer, comic book writer
Known forWriting and designing role-playing video games

Biography

Avellone is an alumnus of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia.[1] He studied at the College of William & Mary, graduating with a major in English and a minor in fine arts, focused on architecture.[2]

Working initially as a freelancer in the two years after college, Avellone wrote campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons-inspired fantasy role-playing games.[2] After entering the video game industry through the company Interplay in 1995, he briefly worked on the development of the 1997 title Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. In 1997 he took over the development of Descent to Undermountain, which he later called a disappointment. Avellone contributed to the 1998 game Fallout 2 and continued to work on its franchise.[3]

Interplay acquired the rights to produce a role-playing video game set in the Planescape campaign setting of Dungeons & Dragons with the development led by Avellone. The game, Planescape: Torment was released in 1999 and received critical acclaim for its narrative, where it has been cited as one of the best-written games of all time.[3][4][5]

Avellone worked on all the games of the Icewind Dale series, which were released from 2000 to 2002. As a designer, Avellone contributed to the fantasy titles Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (2001), Champions of Norrath (2004) and led the design of the canceled Fallout title Van Buren, after which he resigned from Interplay and co-founded Obsidian Entertainment. For the company, Avellone worked on the role-playing games Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II (2004) and Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006) and on the action role-playing game Alpha Protocol.[3] He also worked as a senior designer on Fallout: New Vegas.

He worked as the project director and lead creative designer on Dead Money, Old World Blues and Lonesome Road Fallout: New Vegas downloadable content.[1] Avellone worked as a narrative designer on Pillars of Eternity prior to leaving Obsidian Entertainment in June 2015.[6][7][8] Avellone has since worked as a freelancer on games such as Pillars of Eternity, Torment: Tides of Numenera, Prey, Divinity: Original Sin II, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and Into the Breach.[9]

In June 2020, Avellone was accused by three people of using his status for sexual misconduct and harassment towards women during industry conventions. Following these allegations, Techland announced that they and Avellone agreed to end his work on Dying Light 2.[10] Gato Studios also removed Avellone from The Waylanders. Paradox Interactive said that while Avellone had worked on an early version of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, much of his work had since been overwritten.[11][12]

Works

Video games
Year Title Role(s)
1996 Conquest of the New WorldDesigner
1997 Star Trek: Starfleet AcademyAdditional mission design
1998 Descent to Undermountain
  • Lead creative designer
  • level design
Fallout 2Designer
1999 Planescape: Torment
  • Lead designer
  • lead writer
2000 Icewind DaleDesigner
2001 Icewind Dale: Heart of WinterDesigner
Baldur's Gate: Dark AllianceSenior designer
2002 Icewind Dale IIDesigner
2003 Baldur's Gate III: The Black HoundSenior designer
Van BurenLead designer
2004 Champions of Norrath
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
  • Lead designer
  • lead writer
2006 Neverwinter Nights 2Senior designer
2007 Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the BetrayerSenior designer
2010 Alpha Protocol
  • Lead designer
  • lead writer
Fallout: New Vegas
2014 FTL: Advanced EditionWriter
Wasteland 2Level design
2015 Pillars of EternityWriter
2016 Tyranny
  • Original world design
  • original story design
2017 Torment: Tides of NumeneraWriter
PreyWriter
Divinity: Original Sin IIAdditional narrative designer
2018 Into the BreachWriter[13]
Pathfinder: KingmakerNarrative designer[14]
OmensightWriter[15]
2019 Degrees of SeparationWriter[16]
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen OrderWriter[17]
2021 Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms
  • Creative consultant
  • writer[18]
Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Narrative designer[19]
TBA Burden of CommandAdvisor[20]
System ShockWriter[21]

Comic books

Star Wars comics:

  • Unseen, Unheard (2005)
  • Heroes on Both Sides (2006)
  • Impregnable (2007)
  • Old Scores (2007)
  • Graduation Day (2007)

Fallout comics:

Fiction
  • The House of Wael (2016, to Pillars of Eternity Kickstarter backers)

Tabletop role-playing game modules
  • The Puzzle Box (2020, to Pathfinder: Kingmaker Kickstarter backers)

References
  1. "Chris Avellone". LinkedIn. Archived from the original on 2010-07-11. Retrieved 2016-11-20.
  2. Chmielewski, Dawn C. (August 15, 2000). "The writer Chris Avellone, senior designer, Black Isle Studios". The Orange County Register. p. K7.
  3. "Chris Avellone: Dark Knight". Edge. April 20, 2009. Retrieved November 14, 2009.
  4. Hughes, William. "In 1999, video game writing hit a high-water mark". AV Club. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  5. Park, Andrew. "The Greatest Games of All Time: Planescape: Torment". GameSpot. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  6. "GameStar.ru Alma Mater — Kickstarter. Chris Avellone: "Project: Eternity is our chance to return to doing the types of titles we did at Black Isle"". Archived from the original on November 4, 2012.
  7. Sawyer, Josh. "Pillars of Eternity". Forums.obsidian.net. Retrieved 12 December 2013.
  8. Purchese, Robert (June 9, 2015). "Chris Avellone leaves Obsidian Entertainment". Eurogamer. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
  9. "Update 13: Update #13: BREAKING NEWS: Chris Avellone to work on D:OS2! · Divinity: Original Sin 2". Kickstarter.com. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  10. Hall, Charlie; Polo, Susana (2020-06-25). "The game and comics industries are grappling with widespread allegations of harassment and abuse". Polygon. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
  11. Kerr, Chris (June 22, 2020). "Dying Light 2 writer Chris Avellone accused of sexual assault and harassment". Gamasutra. Retrieved June 22, 2020.
  12. Winslow, Jeremy. "Dying Light, Waylanders, Vampire Bloodlines 2 Devs Issue Statements Amid Chris Avellone Allegations". GameSpot. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  13. Meer, Alec. "Chris Avellone sheds light on Into The Breach's time-travel mysteries". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  14. Vitale, Adam. "Pathfinder: Kingmaker Interview with Chris Avellone on storyline, writing, and characters". RPG Site. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  15. Isaac, Ashish. "Omensight Interview: Developing A Narrative Puzzle". GamingBolt. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  16. Brown, Fraser. "Degrees of Separation is a co-op puzzle game written by Chris Avellone". PC Gamer. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  17. Chalk, Andy. "KOTOR 2 designer Chris Avellone has been working on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order". PC Gamer. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  18. Skrebels, Joe. "Alaloth: Champions of the Four Kingdoms Announced for PC and Consoles". IGN. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  19. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/owlcatgames/pathfinder-wrath-of-the-righteous
  20. Stone, Tim (November 17, 2017). "The Flare Path: Emotionally Authentic". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved December 31, 2017.
  21. Frank, Allegra. "System Shock reboot is getting help from Obsidian Entertainment co-founder". Polygon. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
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