About Christopher Allen

Christopher Allen is the Founder & President of Skotos Tech. He provides company oversight and direction, as well as managing some of the day-to-day aspects of development. He is also a long-time advocate of social software and a producer of many games.

Producing

Christopher has taken an oversight role in many game & other media, providing general advice, direction, and support for the productions. The online game designs have included socialization-based games that deviate from the achievement-based standards of the industry.

Castle Marrach. Computer Game. A socializer fantasy RPG set in a world of mystery, romance, and intrigue. Grendel's Revenge. Computer Game. An achiever fantasy roleplaying game where you get to play the monsters! Lovecraft Country: Arkham by Night. Computer Game. A socializer horror game set in Lovecraft's witch-town of Arkham Castle Marrach: Awakenings. Comic Book. A black & white comic set several years before the Castle Marrach game. Lovecraft Country: The Comic. Comic Book. A black & white comic set in Arkham in 1933. Arkham Horror. Board Game. A classic game of Cthulhu horror, revised by FFG. Beyond the Mountains of Madness. RPG Supplement. A mammoth campaign for Call of Cthulhu.

As the President of Skotos, Christopher has also helped to bring two user-produced games to market: Ironclaw Online and The Lazarus Project. Each was built entirely from user content.

Game Design

Christopher did design & development work on all the games he produced, including Castle Marrach, Grendel's Revenge, and Lovecraft Country. He was also a contributor to Maxim's SimEarth.

He is currently working on several tabletop designs. A Cthuhloid tabletop boardgame will expand on some of the design ideas from Lovecraft Country. A series of card games will offer new looks at socialization-based mechanics, with the first two in the series covering role selection and trading.

Social Software

Christopher has been involved with social software for over 15 years, since he founded Consensus Development as a Groupware developer. The social games of Skotos Tech are an extension of this interest. Christopher's notable current & past social software projects include:

RPGnet A tabletop roleplaying site that now supports several user content systems intermingled with collective choice systems, including a ranked index of games and regular reviews. Life with Alacrity An irregular blog talking about all aspects of social software design. SynchroEdit A WYSIWYG simultaneous multiuser editor for online work. TLS Standards The standards for the next-generation SSL.

Christopher has worked with numerous clients on the topic of social software. He recently gave a keynote speech at the Future of Voluntary Health Associations Conference on the topic.