A. Mark Ratner is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 game designer, notable for his work on Space Marines

Space Marines

Space Marines is a science fiction miniatures wargame created by A. Mark Ratner. There were two editions. The first was published by FanTac Games and the second by Fantasy Games Unlimited . Both versions include artwork by David C. Sutherland III.The FanTac version of the game included conversion...

 and Space Opera.

Early life

Ratner lived in New Jersey until he joined the Army in 1972. Dissatisfaction with existing games, such as Star Guard and Traveller

Traveller (role-playing game)

Traveller is a series of related science fiction role-playing games, the first published in 1977 by Game Designers' Workshop and subsequent editions by various companies remaining in print to this day. The game was inspired from such classic science fiction stories as the Dumarest saga series by...

, and his military experience led to the creation of Space Marines.

FanTac

In 1977 Mark formed FanTac Games primarily to market Space Marines. FanTac published 3 titles; Space Marines (a science-fiction wargame), Gi'ac My (a Vietnam wargame), and Orbit War (an interplanetary combat wargame). Mark was the author of Space Marines and he collaborated with Fitzhugh MacCrae and Bruce Lutz on Gi'ac My.

He met Scott Bizar, the founder of Fantasy Games Unlimited

Fantasy Games Unlimited

Fantasy Games Unlimited, often referred to as just FGU, is a publishing house for both table-top and role-playing games. They have no in-house design teams and rely on submitted material from outside talent.-History:...

, at Gen Con

Gen Con

Gen Con is one of the largest and most prominent annual gaming conventions in North America. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card-style games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, board games, live action role-playing games, collectible card games, non-collectible...

 in 1977, and that meeting eventually led to the sale of the rights for Space Marines to FGU.

Fantasy Games Unlimited

After selling rights to FGU, Mark wrote a second edition of Space Marines.

Scott Bizar wanted to produce a science-fiction role-playing game, and asked Edward E. Simbalist

Edward E. Simbalist

Edward E. Simbalist was a role-playing game designer. Two of the most famous games he designed are Chivalry & Sorcery with Wilf K. Backhaus and Space Opera with A. Mark Ratner & Phil McGregor. He was Canadian and lived in Edmonton. He also was a teacher at .-Books written or co-authored by Edward E...

, Phil McGregor, and Ratner to develop it. Prior to publication the three had never met and the development was done by correspondence. However the collaboration with Mark turned out to be mostly Ed drawing on the material in Space Marines. While Mark was listed as an author for Space Opera and the Space Opera supplement "Ground & Air Equipment", he had very little input into the final product and seriously considered asking for his name to be removed from Space Opera entirely.

Academia

Mark spent much of the 1980s as a college professor. His degrees include Bachelor of Engineering, Master of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering, Master of Science in Civil Engineering, and a PhD in Civil/Structural Engineering.

Books written or co-authored by A. Mark Ratner

• Space Marines (1977), FanTac Games
• Gi'ac My (1978), FanTac Games
• Space Marines, 2nd edition (1979), Fantasy Games Unlimited
• Space Opera (1980), Fantasy Games Unlimited
• Ground & Air Equipment (Space Opera) (1981), Fantasy Games Unlimited