John Nephew started writing
Dungeons & Dragons material freelance for
TSR in 1986 while he was still in high school, initially writing material for
Dragon and
Dungeon magazines. While writing for the magazines, TSR invited Nephew to contribute to projects including
Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms (1988) and
Castle Greyhawk (1988), and then the first book he wrote on his own,
Tall Tales of the Wee Folk (1989). Nephew went to
Carleton College in Minnesota, where he met the team from
Lion Rampant. Nephew was one of the Minnesota locals who joined Lion Rampant after
Jonathan Tweet and
Mark Rein Hagen founded the company in 1987 while they were attending
St. Olaf College, the traditional rival of Carleton. Nephew joined the company in 1988, and his roles at the company during his tenure included acquisitions director, editor, and he served briefly as president. Nephew left Lion Rampant in 1990 when the company moved to Georgia as he did not want to leave Minnesota. Nephew had purchased a photocopier for Lion Rampant to use, and he made a deal with the company allowing them to take the photocopier with them, while they gave Nephew a license to publish
Ars Magica supplements; Nephew then started
Atlas Games with assistance from Lion Rampant friends including
Nicole Lindroos and
Darin Eblom. In addition to supplements for
Ars Magica,
Underground, and
Cyberpunk, Nephew published Tweet's
Over the Edge and supplements, including
Wildest Dreams which first brought together
Robin Laws,
Greg Stolze, and
John Tynes near the beginnings of their careers in the RPG industry. Nephew and Tweet designed
On the Edge (1994), a
collectible card game based on the role-playing game
Over the Edge by Tweet. Nephew and
Jeff Tidball were the only staff that Atlas did not lay off when the CCG industry crashed in 1996, to pay the final printing bills for
On the Edge. Atlas Games made an offer for
Everway and
Ars Magica when
Wizards of the Coast shut down its existing role-playing game lines in 1995 and put them up for bid; Nephew withdrew the
Everway bid on February 12, 1996, and Wizards announced on March 6 that it had sold
Ars Magica to Atlas Games. In addition to his major roles, managing Atlas Games and editing its publications, Nephew wrote supplements for
Ars Magica,
Over the Edge, and
d20 over the next few years. ==Personal life==