Aaron Allston (1960–2014) was an American game designer and novelist of many science fiction books, notably Star Wars novels. His works as a game designer include game supplements for role-playing games, several of which served to establish the basis for products and subsequent development of TSR’s Dungeons & Dragons game setting Mystara. Later works as a novelist include those of the X-Wing series.
Allston was a circulation manager, assistant editor, and editor of Space Gamer magazine, and by 1983 was a full time freelance game designer. He served as editor of Space Gamer issues 52–65 and as editor of Fantasy Gamer for the first issue and co-editor of the second issue. Allston authored the book Autoduel Champions in 1983. He co-wrote the computer game Savage Empire, which was named Best PC Fantasy RPG by Game Player magazine in 1990. He authored the Rules Cyclopedia 1991, the second revision to the Dungeons & Dragons game. He branched into writing, and by the mid-1990s had two novels under his belt.
He began writing on the Star Wars X-Wing series in 1997. Allston produced a new edition of Champions for Hero Games in 2002. In 2006, Allston launched the The Legacy of the Force series with a hardcover entitled Betrayal. In 2005, Allston made his directorial debut on the independent film Deadbacks, which he also wrote and produced.
