JD Wiker got his start in roleplaying with the old Dungeons & Dragons "blue box," and has been a regular gamer ever since. After fourteen years of rolling polyhedral dice and pretending to be someone else, JD left the witness protection program to take a job in Wizards of the Coast's customer service department. During this time, he wrote articles and adventures for White Wolf Inphobia and the Ars Magica roleplaying game, and eventually parlayed his gaming experience into a position with Wizards' TSR/RPG department, designing for the ALTERNITY Roleplaying Game--specifically, the Dark*Matter Campaign Setting.

In time, though, Wizards discontinued the ALTERNITY line, and JD was cast adrift in a sea of licensed products--most of which are best left forgotten. But then, JD heard of an opening on the team designing the d20 version of the Star Wars Roleplaying Game, and jumped at the chance. Over the next two years, JD gradually came to be the lead designer for Star Wars at Wizards of the Coast, until he was let go in Wizards' tenth "last round of layoffs." During his outplacement seminar, JD realized that Wizards had just laid off enough people to start five more game companies, which he took as a challenge, and he, Rich Redman, Stan!, and Marc Schmalz formed The Game Mechanics, a d20 System game design studio.

Since that day, The Game Mechanics have released 28 products for the d20 System, including the award-winning Initiative Cards (Best Free Product 2003 and 2004) and Thieves' Quarter (Best Cartography 2004 and Best Setting Supplement 2004)--both of which are JD's designs. JD has also continued freelancing for Wizards of the Coast, helping to design d20 Future, the d20 Menace Manual, the Planar Handbook, Sandstorm, and the Ultimate Missions series for the Star Wars Miniatures Game--none of which he's won any awards for, but not for lack of trying.

JD paints miniatures, loves movies, and hates mayonnaise.