Cam Banks

Cam Banks is a game designer who was lead designer for the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and the supplement to Serenity Role Playing Game, the Big Damn Heroes Handbook.

Cam Banks and Christopher Coyle wrote a new Dragonlance campaign saga produced by Sovereign Press in three parts: Key of Destiny (2004), Spectre of Sorrows (2005) and Price of Courage (2006). The series totalled 730 pages and detailed major events in the Age of Mortals.:353 His first novel was published in 2007. He wrote the 2008 Dragonlance novel The Sellsword. Banks was later the Cortex System line editor for Margaret Weis Productions, and in 2010 the system was renovated into the Cortex Plus system.:354 Banks was the line developer for the Smallville Roleplaying Game (2010), which he co-designed with indie publisher Josh Roby.:354 Banks co-designed Leverage: The Roleplaying Game (2011) with Evil Hat Productions' Rob Donoghue, Clark Valentine, and others.:354

A native of New Zealand, Banks lives in St Paul, Minnesota, where he has been working as a brand manager and production specialist for Atlas Games since February 2013. Before this he was the line developer at Margaret Weis Productions, where he led the development of the Smallville Roleplaying Game, Leverage: The Roleplaying Game, and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying in addition to continuing with Margaret Weis' historical properties, leading the development of the Big Damn Heroes supplement for the Serenity Role Playing Game, and working on the Dragonlance setting.

On November 1, 2016, Margaret Weis Productions released a statement announcing that Cam Banks and his new design studio Magic Vacuum had licensed the original Cortex System and Cortex Plus system and would be "taking over the design, development, and publishing of games based on these rules... for 2017 and beyond," coinciding with "Margaret’s retirement from RPG development to focus on her current novel and film projects."

As a lead designer on pre-existing products, Cam Banks was responsible for Margaret Weis Productions second ever Origins Award with Big Damn Heroes. His Supernatural: Guide to the Hunted was applauded for the design and detail work although criticized slightly for the adherence to Supernatural's canon. After becoming line developer he ceased to use the Cortex System, instead working with members of Evil Hat Productions to produce all the new games he created using the Cortex Plus.

Reception for the Cortex Plus games has been generally positive. Both io9 and RPGamer reviewed the Smallville Roleplaying Game, Banks's first game as lead designer. They praised the way the game "had the heart of an independent role playing game and focused on conflict rather than powers." Leverage: The Roleplaying Game was nominated for an Origins Award, and Marvel Heroic Roleplaying won two Origins Awards and an ENnie and was praised by SF Signal for how "authentic and true to the characters the representations felt."