The Guild to produce DDM skirmish cards

Dungeons & Dragons Brand Manager Scott Rouse announced Nov. 20 on Wizards of the Coast’s D&D web page that the company would license the rights to produce new cards for the D&D Minis skirmish game to a fan group known as The Guild. According to Rouse, several groups had submitted formal proposals for continuing the skirmish game.

“We decided that the group known collectively as ‘The Guild’ had the right people, experience, enthusiasm, and most importantly the overwhelming support of the players to take on this license,” Rouse said. “We’re very excited to begin forming an official relationship with them to continue producing D&D skirmish rules moving forward.”

Rouse also said that the license was royalty-free and not-for-profit, although The Guild could accept donations to help cover expenses. While Wizards will not review or playtest skirmish material produced by The Guild, the company will continue to maintain tournament sanctioning and player ratings and rankings through the DCI database. The Guild will be responsible for maintaining and updating the tournament floor rules.

Finally, Rouse introduced the individual members of The Guild:
“The Guild is a group of dedicated D&D skirmish fans including Kevin ‘ktatroe’ Tatroe, D. Garry ‘Tried’ Stupack and Jim ‘JohnnyQuest’ Ansaldo. These guys have been at the heart of the D&D Minis community since the beginning and their bios speak to their passion for the game.

“Kevin Tatroe has run the popular D&D Miniatures fansite Hordelings for five years. More recently, he took on the mantle of developing the DDM Oracle and DDM Comprehensive Rules Guide. He was co-designer of the War of the Dragon Queen restats and led the teams designing the Deathknell and Giants of Legend restats.

“Garry began playing D&D Miniatures in 2003 as a way to share time and a common hobby with his son, Darien. As they became entrenched in the competitive side of the game, Garry was recruited to help support the Organized Play activities, and has been judging all types of WotC miniatures games at major cons since Gen Con So Cal in 2004. (He’s also been the head judge for most of the events in the recent years after finishing in the top 8 at the constructed Championships in 2005 and 2006.) Garry has been involved with the Wizards D&D Miniatures team since the coming of the Revised Battle Rules (check the credits inside). As the leader of several restat teams (beginning with the recently released Blood War) and a coauthor of the DDM Oracle resource, he’s shown both a knowledge of the game and a dedication to it that make him a prime pick to sustain future D&D Miniatures skirmish game development.

“Jim Ansaldo has been playing D&D for 30 years and has been a D&D Miniatures enthusiast since Harbinger. In his online guise as JohnnyQuest, Jim has been a prolific contributor to the DDM community on several different forums. Jim currently serves as a Volunteer Community Lead on the WotC DDM forums and acted as the DDM Section Organizer, as well as a contest host, for this year’s UnCon. Jim has judged local DDM tournaments and championship qualifiers in Bloomington, Indiana, and filled the Head Judge role for the 2008 Constructed Championship Qualifier held at Origins. He continues to work as a freelance designer for WotC, updating D&D Miniatures expansions to the current ruleset. In his other life, Jim works in the field of education, facilitating change efforts focused on creating inclusive school communities.”