Meet the Team
ANDREW DART
Lead Creator
Andrew is the lead creator of Places of Power, a project he has been developing since 2022. A keen tabletop gamer, he has played a wide range of RPGs including Dungeons & Dragons, Dragonbane, 7th Sea, Legend of the Five Rings, 13th Age, Blades in the Dark, and Cyberpunk RED, all the while learning from the experienced GMs he has played alongside.
With a Master's degree in Psychology and a background in writing, research and IT, Andrew brings a strongly analytical approach to game design. He has been running an ongoing playtest of Places of Power for almost eight months, continually testing ideas, gathering feedback from players and experienced GMs, and refining the game based on what actually works at the table.
His philosophy is simple: the game matters more than the idea. Mechanics are experimented with, challenged and redesigned when necessary, with no concept considered too precious to throw away if doing so will make the game better.
Andrew is also the author of four self-published books and an avid reader of fantasy, science fiction, horror and historical fiction. His longstanding interest in the Napoleonic era, combined with his passion for skepticism, critical thinking and storytelling, has helped shape the distinctive world and philosophy behind Places of Power.
WESLEY GREEN
DeveloperWesley has been playing and running tabletop RPGs for around 35 years, bringing an extensive practical knowledge of roleplaying games to Places of Power. Over that time he has played and run more than 30 different systems, developing an instinctive understanding of what works at the table and, perhaps more importantly, what doesn't.
Wesley's primary role on the project has been to logic-test its rules and mechanics, challenging ideas from the perspective of an experienced GM and player. He has been heavily involved in playtesting the combat and magic systems, looking for loopholes, unintended consequences and the creative ways players are likely to exploit the system. If there is a way to break a rule, Wesley will probably find it.
Alongside his mechanical expertise, Wesley brings decades of experience in narrative-driven gaming. He regularly runs freeform campaigns using his own rules and mechanics, and has spent years writing plots for the LARP community with a particular focus on making stories feel plausible and immersive. He is a natural storyteller with an encyclopaedic knowledge of games including Legend of the Five Rings and Dungeons & Dragons, as well as extensive knowledge of the sci-fi and fantasy worlds he runs his own games in, such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Star Trek.
Where Andrew's approach to design is driven by experimentation and iteration, Wesley provides a wealth of experience against which those ideas can be tested. Together, they bring two complementary approaches to Places of Power: one willing to ask "What if we tried this?", and the other immediately responding with "but have you considered what happens when the players do this?"
Natalie Hawkins
Illustrator and Developer
Natalie Hawkins is the artist behind Places of Power, responsible for the artwork and visual identity that will introduce players to the world of Asteria. A self-taught digital artist with a particular love of portraiture, Natalie is fascinated by people, their expressions, emotions and individuality, and brings that focus to the characters and scenes she creates for the game.
A lifelong gamer and experienced GM, Natalie discovered tabletop RPGs at university and has since played and run a wide range of games, including Dungeons & Dragons, Spire and Ultima. She currently runs her own weekly campaign alongside taking part in the ongoing Places of Power playtest, giving her a valuable perspective on the game not only as an artist, but as someone sitting on the other side of the table.
While her primary role is visual, Natalie's experience as a GM and player has made her an important part of the playtesting process. Her feedback brings a different perspective to the project, one grounded less in the mechanics themselves and more in how the game feels to experience. She has a particular instinct for character, atmosphere and emotional impact, helping ensure that Places of Power is not simply a game that works, but one that feels like a world players will want to inhabit.
For Natalie, Places of Power is also a chance to bring together two of her greatest passions: telling stories through games and telling stories through art. As the first public TTRPG project for which she has created concept art, she is helping give Asteria its face, and, ultimately, helping players see the world we have created.
NOTE: While some of the placeholder artwork on this website is currently AI generated, all of that will eventually be replaced, and no AI artwork will appear in the finished book.
Additional Development, Editing, Playtesting, and World Building