Peter Adkison

Peter D. Adkison
Adkison at Gen Con Indy 2007
Occupation	CEO, Owner of Gen Con

Peter D. Adkison is the founder and first CEO of Wizards of the Coast (1993–2001), as well as a hobby game professional.

During Adkison's tenure, Wizards of the Coast rose to the status of a major publisher in the hobby game industry. Wizards achieved success with its creation of Magic: the Gathering, which started the collectible card game genre. It also distributed the Pokémon trading cards, and later acquired TSR, publisher of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, releasing a successful new edition.

Adkison is the current owner of Gen Con, a major yearly game convention in the Midwest. In January 2001, Adkison sold Wizards of the Coast to Hasbro.

As a longtime fan of role-playing games (RPGs), Adkison has become an advocate for indie RPGs. His own game design work includes The Primal Order, a "capstone system" for use with any of a number of different role-playing games.

As a child, Adkison enjoyed playing strategy games and war games, and in 1978, was exposed to Dungeons & Dragons, which "blew [him] away." His friend, Terry Campbell, suggested the idea of starting a game company to Adkison and his friends using the name "Wizards of the Coast", based on a guild of which one of their player characters was a member.

In the early 1980s, Adkison self-published a wargame for fantasy role-playing games called Castles & Conquest, using the "Wizards of the Coast" brand. In 1981, he created a Dungeons & Dragons campaign titled Chaldea, which he continues to run today.

As of 2002, Adkison was running two Dungeons & Dragons campaigns and playing in three. He enjoys a wide variety of games including Magic: the Gathering, Twitch, The Settlers of Catan, Robo Rally, Call of Cthulhu, Vampire: The Masquerade, and the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game.