Robert N. Charrette

Robert N. Charrette (born 1953) is an American graphic artist, game designer, sculptor and author. Charrette has authored more than a dozen novels. His gaming materials have received many Origins Awards. Charrette was inducted in the Origins Hall of Fame in 2003. His work is known for a clean, realistic style that invokes themes from Feudal Japan and Chanbara films and in particular, historical and fantastic representations of Samurai culture. His early work in game design and miniature sculpting set the tone for depictions of Japanese mythology in American fantasy and science fiction. His 1979 role-playing game "Bushido" was one of the first role-playing games with a non-Western theme and remained in print for more than three decades. Charrette produced gaming products for Fantasy Games Unlimited, Grenadier Models Inc. and Ral Partha Enterprises, FASA and currently operates Parroom Enterprises, LLC, a boutique miniatures game company.
Early life.
Charrette grew up in Rhode Island. He earned an interdisciplinary degree in biology and geology at Brown University. He is a lifelong fan of dinosaurs and participates in the "La Belle Compagnie", a non-profit dedicated to educating the public about daily life during the Hundred Years War.
Career.
Charrette began his career in 1976 as an illustrator for Little Soldier Games. He continued on at the company's successor, Tyr Games, which became Phoenix Games and then Fantasy Games Unlimited in 1980.
Charrette added game design and sculpting to his repertoire. With Paul R. Hume, he co-wrote and illustrated "Bushido" (1979), "Aftermath!" (1981) and "Daredevils" (1982). Charrette co-wrote "Spacefarers" with Ed Lipsett. By 1979, Charrette had created 25 mm miniatures to accompany "Bushido" and Fantasy Games Unlimited's "Gangster!" and "Space Opera" game worlds. Those initial Japanese-themed figures began a series that he would revise many times. He produced similar Samurai-themed lines for Grenadier Models Inc., Ral Partha Enterprises, Reaper Miniatures and others.
Charrette became a prolific sculptor. He joined Ral Partha in 1984 and contributed to Tom Meier's "The Hoplites", "1200 A.D." and "CS/02-xxx Collector Series" lines. In 1985, Charrette inaugurated figures for Chaosium's "RuneQuest" and a line of pulp era adventurers that were initially called "20th Century Plus", but were later renamed "20-xxx The Roaring Twenties". They were an update of the line of figures he sculpted in 1979 to accompany Fantasy Games Unlimited's "Gangster!". and included cinematic themes such as the intrepid archaeologist.
He was part of a team of sculptors that produced a line of miniature robot war machines for Ral Partha in 1985. The miniatures were for a game that was first called "Battledroids" and renamed "BattleTech" in 1986, for FASA's game of the same name. It was the beginning of a permanent relationship between the two companies that would eventually lead to Ral Partha's sale to FASA. Charrette began a long-term relationship with FASA as a sculptor, game designer and novelist.
In 1986, Charrette introduced Ral Partha's "53-9xx Bushido", an expansion of his earlier line. "Bushido" coincided with TSR, Inc.'s 1985 release of "Oriental Adventures" supplements, a gaming world that resembled the one crafted by Charrette and Hume in 1979.
At the time integrated campaign worlds such as Games Workshop's "Warhammer Fantasy Battle" were showing early success, Ral Partha introduced the "Chaos Wars" theme into their 1986 and 1987 product lines. It was the first step toward unifying a collection of disparate product lines into an integrated game world. Charrette added a fantasy component to Ral Partha's existing "Rules According to Ral" for medieval battles. It was released in 1987 as part of a boxed set "Rules According to Ral: Chaos Wars". "Chaos Wars" unified existing product lines and their packaging was marked with stickers. Among these sets were Charrette's popular "Fangs of Fury" Beastmen. Still Nascent, the Chaos Wars theme, was dropped in 1988 to promote a new contract for a line of official miniatures for TSR, Inc.'s "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" game.
As Ral Partha became engaged with TSR, Charrette solidified his relationship with FASA. In 1988, he joined his longtime partner Paul R. Hume and others to construct FASA's 1989 Shadowrun game world. Charrette provided design elements and artwork for "Shadowrun" and sculpted a line of figures produced by Grenadier Models Inc. While at Grenadier, Charrette also crafted a line of miniatures for "" (by West End Games), "Lost Lands" range of dinosaurs and 15 mm "Warlord" ranges. As the creative focus of Grenadier Models Inc. moved to the United Kingdom in 1991 and 1992, FASA moved its production of Shadowrun figures to Ral Partha.
Charrette had quickly become an integral member of FASA's creative team. In 1989, he expanded his design concepts for FASA games into supporting novelizations. Over the next six years, Charrette produced nine novels for FASA's Shadowrun, Battletech and Mechwarrior game worlds. As FASA's attention turned to video games, Charrette wrote "Strange World of John Reddy Trilogy" (1994-1995) for Warner Books, "Chronicle of Aelwyn Trilogy" (1996-1997) for Harper Collins and two "Interstellar Defense League" (1999, 2004) novels for Eos and under the pseudonym "Richard Fawkes."
In 2001, Charrette returned to game design and began Parroom Enterprises, LLC. and miniature and games company which offers miniatures, games and supplements with fantasy themes inspired by the Victorian and medieval Japanese periods.
Bibliography.
Roleplaying Games and Supplements.
Bushido
Aftermath! 
Spacefarers
Daredevils 
The Mines of Keridav
Rules According to Ral
Runequest
Shadowrun World
Earthdawn
Parroom Station
Novels.
BattleTech Series—FASA, ROC
MechWarrior Series—ROC
Shadowrun Series—ROC, Fanpro
Strange World of John Reddy Trilogy—Warner Books
Chronicle of Aelwyn Trilogy—Harper Collins
Interstellar Defense League (as Richard Fawkes) -- Eos
Non-Fiction
Awards.
Origins Awards / H.G. Wells Awards
Origins Hall of Fame