Rollie Tesh

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Rollie Tesh at Spielbound, Omaha, 2018.

Roland "Rollie" Leslie Tesh Jr. (31 July 1958 – 6 January 2019) co-designed Decipher's Star Wars Customizable Card Game (SWCCG) with Tom Braunlich. Braunlich credits him with the ideas that made the game's math work, including Destiny numbers.[1][2][3] He died in Omaha, Nebraska.[4][3]

The credits page of the Premiere Two-Player Introductory Game rules booklet (1995) thanks Rollie Tesh "for creating an amazing structure, one solitary rule at a time".[5]

Service

Dates Service
1993–1994 Co-designer, Star Trek: The Next Generation Customizable Card Game, Decipher[6][7]
1994–1995 Co-designer, SWCCG, Decipher[8][9]
1998–1999 Co-designer, Young Jedi, Decipher[10]
Spring 2018 Designer in residence, Well Played Board Game Cafe, Asheville[3]
2018–2019 Game Maestro, Spielbound Board Game Cafe, Omaha[11][4]

Before Decipher

Tesh was born in Tampa, Florida.[3] He met Braunlich through chess at Booker T. Washington High School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Braunlich got him into Pente. Tesh held an expert chess rating. Pente inventor Gary Gabrel recruited both as playtesters at Oklahoma State University.[12] Both became Pente world champions — Tesh in 1983 — and Tesh proposed the Keryo-Pente variant.[13][7][14] They met Warren Holland through Pente Games, pitched him a licensed card game while living near Seattle, and designed the Star Trek CCG (1994).[15][6] Living on Bainbridge Island near Wizards of the Coast, they met Magic: The Gathering designer Richard Garfield.[16]

Designing SWCCG

Tesh and Braunlich planned the game at Richard Borg's house in Florida.[17] They moved to Virginia Beach in 1995 to work beside Decipher.[9] At first only they and Holland worked on the game with a few staff, until Jerry Darcy and Bill Martinson joined. Tesh described the pair's role as coming up with the concepts, which Darcy and Martinson then worked out in detail.[8]

The core system grew from a base each player builds up. The base became the deck, and the deck became the Force a player spends and loses.[18] Destiny numbers took the place of dice, so the game needed only cards. Strong cards got low destiny.[19][1] Former Decipher staffer Mark Tuttle called SWCCG "Tom and Rollie's … game."[20]

Later Decipher work

Tesh and Braunlich designed the concept of Young Jedi (1999) from the Episode I script. Before the film opened, they built a reconstruction of it from details found online and screened it for the team.[10] They also began a Harry Potter card game for Decipher, which ended when Decipher did not get the license.[21] Tesh is thanked in the credits of the Jedi Knights Trading Card Game rulebook (2001).[22]

After Decipher

Tesh published a couple of dozen tabletop games after Decipher, most notably the Star Trek and Star Wars CCGs, and Spielbound was the third board-game cafe he worked with.[11]

Anagrams

Printed titles scramble Tesh's name.[23][24]

Card Unscrambled Relation
Elis Helrot Rollie Tesh game creator

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Booster Pack #28 — The making of the Star Wars CCG with Tom Braunlich, The Booster Pack Network (24 August 2022), 10:00–11:03. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: The Booster Pack/Episode 28 transcript.
  2. ↑ Star Wars Customizable Card Game, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Roland (Rollie) Leslie Tesh Jr., ForeverMissed. Preserved copy: Internet Archive (14 October 2019).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Spielbound, X (9 January 2019). Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  5. ↑ Introductory Two-Player Game Rules Booklet, Decipher / Parker Brothers (1995), credits page. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Kathy McCracken, The History of Star Trek CCG: The Timeline, Decipher (2004). Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Decipher, Inc., Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Broadcast 14 – Radio Free Decipher (16 April 1999): Rollie Tesh, Tom Braunlich (Part 1), Decipher; posted by Player's Council (aired 16 April 1999), 8:46–10:16. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: Radio Free Decipher/Episode 14 transcript.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Diane Tennant, House of Cards, The Virginian-Pilot, Daily Break p. E1 (11 December 1995). Preserved copy: File:Virginian_Pilot_House_of_Cards_Google_index_2018-02-22.txt; Internet Archive.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Broadcast 16 – Radio Free Decipher (30 April 1999): Rollie Tesh, Tom Braunlich (Part 2), Decipher; posted by Player's Council (aired 30 April 1999), 0:00–2:31. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: Radio Free Decipher/Episode 16 transcript.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Game Maestro joins team Spielbound, Spielbound (8 August 2018). Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  12. ↑ Broadcast 14 – Radio Free Decipher (16 April 1999): Rollie Tesh, Tom Braunlich (Part 1), Decipher; posted by Player's Council (aired 16 April 1999), 1:02–3:08. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: Radio Free Decipher/Episode 14 transcript.
  13. ↑ Pente, Wikipedia. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  14. ↑ Roland (Rollie) Leslie Tesh Jr., ForeverMissed. Preserved copy: Internet Archive (20 October 2021).
  15. ↑ Broadcast 14 – Radio Free Decipher (16 April 1999): Rollie Tesh, Tom Braunlich (Part 1), Decipher; posted by Player's Council (aired 16 April 1999), 4:08–6:44. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: Radio Free Decipher/Episode 14 transcript.
  16. ↑ The Booster Pack #27 — The making of the Star Trek CCG with Tom Braunlich, The Booster Pack Network (10 August 2022), 9:06–10:30. Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  17. ↑ The Booster Pack #28 — The making of the Star Wars CCG with Tom Braunlich, The Booster Pack Network (24 August 2022), 3:06–4:40. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: The Booster Pack/Episode 28 transcript.
  18. ↑ Broadcast 14 – Radio Free Decipher (16 April 1999): Rollie Tesh, Tom Braunlich (Part 1), Decipher; posted by Player's Council (aired 16 April 1999), 10:16–12:19. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: Radio Free Decipher/Episode 14 transcript.
  19. ↑ Broadcast 14 – Radio Free Decipher (16 April 1999): Rollie Tesh, Tom Braunlich (Part 1), Decipher; posted by Player's Council (aired 16 April 1999), 12:47–13:19. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: Radio Free Decipher/Episode 14 transcript.
  20. ↑ Guest Interview: Mark Tuttle, Fantha Tracks (15 March 2018). Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  21. ↑ The Booster Pack #28 — The making of the Star Wars CCG with Tom Braunlich, The Booster Pack Network (24 August 2022), 51:01–53:07. Preserved copy: Internet Archive. Transcript: The Booster Pack/Episode 28 transcript.
  22. ↑ Jedi Knights Trading Card Game rulebook (credits), Decipher (2001). Preserved copy: Internet Archive.
  23. ↑ Anagramed Decipherians. Preserved copy: Internet Archive
  24. ↑ SWCCG Collecting Encyclopedia 3.2 (p.200). Preserved copy: Internet Archive
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