Ulrich Kiesow

Ulrich Kiesow (born June 3, 1949 ; † January 30, 1997 in Wassenberg ) was a German-speaking fantasy author and the intellectual creator of the most successful German role-playing game Das Schwarze Auge ( DSA ).

overview

In addition to numerous DSA adventures and sets of rules , he wrote novels set on the continent of Aventuria , the fictional game world of the black eye. He wrote satirical articles under the pseudonym Andreas Blumenkamp for the role-playing magazine Wunderwelten and the DSA in-house magazine Aventurischer Bote , but also wrote serious official adventures under the same pseudonym.

life and work

Kiesow was initially an art teacher in North Rhine-Westphalia. He worked part-time as a translator of English-language texts, especially from the fantasy area. So he translated the first edition of the most important English-language role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons into German. In 1983 Kiesow founded the Fantasy Productions publishing house with Werner Fuchs and Hans Joachim Alpers , which began as a mail-order company for fantasy literature, pewter figures and tabletop accessories. In the same year Kiesow and Fuchs brought the first professional role-playing game in German to the market: Swords and Demons , a translation of the English Tunnels & Trolls . The black eye , which could not be produced in-house for financial reasons, was designed by Kiesow on behalf of Schmidt Spiele and in collaboration with Fuchs, Alpers and Ina Kramer and published in 1984 with an accompanying advertising campaign. Until his death Kiesow was editor-in-chief of the black eye , he was mainly responsible for all regulations and editions as well as the description of the game world Aventurien.

In 1987 Kiesow first worked as a novelist. His fantasy novel The Gift of the Amazons was one of the first novels in the game world of the Black Eye. Subsequently, he also acted as editor of the series of DSA novels published by Heyne Verlag . It was opened in 1995 with his own novel Der Scharlatan , which later appeared in an English edition. This was preceded by some publications by other publishers (→  List of Aventurian novels ).

Kiesow had to receive intensive medical care for a long time after a severe heart attack in August 1995. During this time he began working on a novel entitled When the Wheel Broke . Two days after completing the book, which was finally published as The Broken Wheel , he died in 1997 of the aftermath of the heart attack. “The broken wheel” is a symbol of death in the fantasy world coined by Kiesow. Many authors in the context of the role play Das Schwarze Auge see Kiesow as a literary role model, which is expressed not least by the numerous dedications in the various associated publications.

Kiesow was married to Das Schwarze Auge author Ina Kramer and had been in a relationship with Britta Herz for many years.

Works (selection)

• The gift of the Amazons . Fantasy Productions, [Düsseldorf] 1987, ISBN 3-89064-503-8 . New edition:
  The gift of the Amazons . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-453-10971-6 (18th novel in the Heyne novel series Das Schwarze Auge ).
• The charlatan . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-453-08676-7 (1st novel in the Heyne novel series Das Schwarze Auge ).
• The broken wheel. A novel from the world of the black eye . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-453-13368-4 . Hardcover ; as a paperback in two volumes:
  The Broken Wheel. Dusk . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-453-18805-5 (56th novel in the Heyne novel series Das Schwarze Auge ).
  The broken wheel. Night . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-453-18810-1 (57th novel in the Heyne novel series Das Schwarze Auge ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Ulrich Kiesow in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ulrich Kiesow in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (English)
• Ulrich Kiesow in the Luding games database

Individual evidence

1. ^ Meyhöfer, Raddatz, Römer: Aventurien, the Lexicon of the Black Eye , Fantasy Productions 1995, page 300ff, ISBN 3-89064-058-3