Matthew J. Finch

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Matthew J. Finch is a writer, game designer, and artist.

Early life[edit]

Matthew J. Finch was born Sugarland, Texas, in November 15, 1967. He played Dungeon and Dragons, when he was young, which nurtured his love for games, which helped him create Swords & Wizardry later in life. Matthew did well in High school, and was accepted to Harvard and later Cambridge as well.

Education[edit]

Matthew J. Finch went to Harvard College and Georgetown University Law Center to pursue become a practicing attorney.^[1]

Career[edit]

Matthew Finch is a role-playing game designer who is associated with the Old School Renaissance movement.^[2]

Finch wrote the Swords and Wizardry Complete Rulebook, OSRIC and others, and he also founded Mythmere Games. Swords & Wizardry was developed by Mythmere Games, S&W is a Dungeons & Dragons retro-clone, meaning the game was based on D&D. He has a YouTube "Matt Finch RPG Studio" where he talks about and plays retro games like OSR, D&D and others. Since 2008 Finch has been active on his blog, Uncle Matt's Blog, where he writes about OSR, D&D and S&W.

Matt is an involved member of the community, given he still writes for and makes content for his game Swords & Wizardry. He is featured in many Gaming publications, He was featured on The Save or Die Podcast! to discuss OSR, and his kickstarter, for the Swords and Wizardry Complete box set which reached 50,000$ before the first 24 hours. Matt now lives in Central Texas with his family,he is an active Marathon Runner, and Smoke Jumper.

Matt Finch is a founding partner of Frog God Games, he is also the Creative Director for Frog God Games.^[3]

Game philosophy[edit]

A 2023 PhD thesis by Scott Michael Bruner notes that Finch "argues that the contingent outcomes of actions in early TRPGs, such as D&D, are resolved through an uncertain dialog (between DM, players, and rules), rather than through a set of static rules" and that "Finch implies that modern TRPGs concede more authorial responsibility to their rules rather than through dialog during play. This may be true to make the modern TRPG more accessible to contemporary audiences used to videogames (with bounded mechanics) rather than the flexibility of classic wargames. There are many modern TRPGs which complicate Finch's generalization."^[2]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• RPGnet review of Demonspore: The Secret of the Shrooms
• Finch, Matt. “Uncle Matt's Blog.” 2017, 1 Jan. 1970, swordsandwizardry.blogspot.com/2017/.
• “Matt Finch RPG Studio.” YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/channel/UCwQ6cSVDLklOoQ8VSMsxp5Q.
• “Matthew Finch.” RPGGeek, rpggeek.com/rpgdesigner/18025/matthew-finch.
• “Swords and Wizardry Complete Rulebook by Matthew J. Finch.” Goodreads, Goodreads, www.goodreads.com/book/show/33010180-swords-and-wizardry-complete-rulebook.