(14/41: 1991) MIKE NYSTUL (c. 1966–)
The Freelancer’s Circuit
Mike Nystul came up through the freelancer pipeline that fed the RPG industry in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He contributed to products across multiple major publishers—FASA’s BattleTech and MechWarrior lines, TSR’s Ravenloft, White Wolf’s early World of Darkness supplements. His name appears in credits lists alongside dozens of other contributors. This was the standard entry path: write for hire, build a portfolio, learn the craft by working within other people’s systems.
His most prominent credited work from this period is MechWarrior, Second Edition (1991)—FASA’s RPG companion to the BattleTech wargame. Nystul has described his role as having “developed” the game, a term that in industry parlance typically means refining and editing existing material rather than originating core systems. The distinction matters. MechWarrior 2nd Edition is a competent product that served its franchise well, but Nystul’s specific mechanical contributions within it are difficult to isolate from the inherited BattleTech framework and the first edition’s architecture.
He freelanced prolifically. But freelancing across publishers builds breadth, not depth. You learn many systems without necessarily developing your own design voice.
The Vault Opens
In 1993, Nystul published The Whispering Vault through Pariah Press—his first and, as it would turn out, only completed original game design.
The premise was distinctive. Players are Stalkers—entities who once were human, who have passed through death and been recruited as supernatural enforcers. Their purpose: hunt down rogue gods called Unbidden who have escaped from the Vault (a metaphysical prison) into the mortal world. Each session follows a structured framework called the Hunt—investigate the Unbidden’s influence, discover its nature, confront it, and seal it back in the Vault.
The setting dripped atmosphere. Stalkers inhabit a liminal space between the mortal world and the metaphysical Dream, their bodies reconstructed from symbolic components. The aesthetic drew from Clive Barker’s dark fantasy, Neil Gaiman’s mythological horror, and the broader 1990s gothic sensibility that was transforming the RPG landscape.
Reviewers noticed. The Whispering Vault earned strong reviews for its concept and mood. This was a game that knew what it wanted to feel like.
The Matching Dice
The Whispering Vault’s resolution mechanic used a matching-dice system. Players rolled multiple dice of varying types—d4s, d6s, d8s, d10s, d12s—with the specific die types determined by the character’s capabilities. The highest matching set determined success, with the die type establishing the quality of that success.
This wasn’t the standard dice pool of the early 1990s. Vampire: The Masquerade (1991) counted successes on uniform d10 pools. Shadowrun counted successes on uniform d6 pools. Nystul’s approach used heterogeneous dice types, where the mix of die sizes carried meaning. Rolling three d10s and two d6s felt mechanistically different from rolling five d8s—the distribution curves diverged, and the matching resolution created interesting probability landscapes.
The Hunt framework gave sessions a liturgical quality. Investigation, revelation, confrontation, sealing. It’s a structured narrative loop that predates many later games’ formal scene frameworks, though the concept has obvious antecedents in Call of Cthulhu’s investigation structure and the general monster-of-the-week format.
These are real ideas. They demonstrate genuine design thinking. They were not adopted by other designers.
The Company It Built
The Whispering Vault’s most significant legacy is institutional rather than mechanical.
Chris Pramas—who would go on to found Green Ronin Publishing—acquired the rights to The Whispering Vault. Green Ronin became one of the most successful independent RPG publishers of the d20 era and beyond, producing Mutants & Masterminds, Blue Rose, and the AGE system. The company’s origin connects directly to Nystul’s game.
This is real influence, but it’s not design influence. Pramas didn’t adopt Nystul’s dice mechanics or session frameworks. He acquired a property, then built a company that designed entirely different systems. The Whispering Vault was the business catalyst, not the design template. The methodology scores design propagation—other designers building on your mechanical innovations. An institutional lineage, however meaningful commercially, doesn’t meet that standard.
The Unfinished Work
Nystul launched several Kickstarter campaigns in the early 2010s that did not deliver their promised products. This is a matter of public record and has affected his reputation in online communities.
His design career, however, extends beyond those projects, and the work that was completed stands on its own merits.
The Honest Assessment
Mike Nystul’s profile presents a common pattern in RPG history: the prolific freelancer with one strong original vision.
The Whispering Vault demonstrates genuine design instincts—atmospheric worldbuilding, a distinctive dice mechanic, a structured session framework that gives narrative shape to play. These are real contributions. They also represent essentially the entirety of his completed original design output.
MechWarrior 2nd Edition is contributor work within an inherited franchise. The freelance credits across FASA, TSR, and White Wolf demonstrate professional competence and versatility, but individual mechanical contributions within those products are difficult to isolate.
The Scoring Case
Invention (4):
“Contributed, but it’s someone else’s engine.” The matching-dice mechanic offers genuine novelty—heterogeneous die types creating meaningful probability differences is a real idea that diverges from the uniform pools dominating 1993 design. The Hunt framework provides structured session architecture. These are legitimate contributions to design vocabulary. But neither mechanic was adopted by other designers. No documented cases of other published games building on the matching-dice system or citing Nystul’s Hunt structure as an influence. Ideas that are novel but not adopted cap at this range.
Architecture (4):
“Functional hobbyist work.” The Whispering Vault received strong reviews for atmosphere and concept—the mood is undeniable. But reviewers also noted structural issues: confusion about Hunt resolution sequence, unclear character advancement mechanics, organizational problems in the rulebook. The game works, but it requires table-level interpretation to fill gaps the rules leave open. Atmospheric achievement undermined by mechanical gaps. One completed original design limits the portfolio available for assessment.
Mastery (4):
“Contributed, but limited portfolio.” One completed original game design across a 30+ year career. MechWarrior 2nd Edition is contributor/developer work. Freelance credits demonstrate professional reliability but not distinctive craft evolution. The Whispering Vault shows clear design instincts—but instincts demonstrated once, in one game, don’t establish the sustained craft arc that higher Mastery scores require. The gap between TWV (1993) and the incomplete later projects leaves the question of craft development unanswered.
Adjustments (+2):
- ■ Longevity 20+ years: +2 (Published work from 1991 to present, spanning 30+ years of engagement with the industry.)
- ■ Full-time career: No. Freelance work across multiple publishers with periods outside the industry.
- ■ Awards: No. No major industry award wins, nominations, or Hall of Fame inductions found.
- ■ Branded name: No. The Whispering Vault has cult recognition. Mike Nystul does not have household name recognition in RPG circles.
- ■ Cross-genre success: No. RPG work only. No board games, wargames, or card games.
- ■ Commercial success: No. No single title generated $10M+ in lifetime retail revenue.
- ■ Design propagation: No. Green Ronin’s institutional connection is real but represents business acquisition, not mechanical adoption. No documented cases of other designers building on the matching-dice system or Hunt framework.
The Hidden Pattern
Mike Nystul designs atmosphere first and mechanics second.
The Whispering Vault doesn’t start with a resolution system and build a world around it. It starts with a feeling—the liminal dread of hunting rogue gods through a world that doesn’t quite work right—and builds mechanics to serve that feeling. The matching-dice system exists to create uncertainty with texture. The Hunt framework exists to give horror a narrative shape. The Stalker concept exists to put players in a role that is powerful but alien.
This is the inverse of the simulationist approach. Where Greg Porter derives mechanics from physics, Nystul derives mechanics from mood. Where Steven S. Long builds systems comprehensive enough to model anything, Nystul builds systems specific enough to model one thing well.
The limitation is that he did it once. One game. One mood. One vault. The design instincts are real. The body of work is thin.
What Remains
A single game that knew exactly what it wanted to feel like. A dice mechanic that used die types as meaning rather than just probability. A session framework that gave horror a liturgical shape. A company that grew from its roots, even if that company built different things. A freelancer’s portfolio across the industry’s biggest publishers. A cult following that still remembers the atmosphere.
The Whispering Vault endures in memory because it committed fully to its vision. Most games hedge. Nystul’s game didn’t. That counts for something, even when the mechanical execution couldn’t quite sustain the conceptual ambition.
The question the portfolio can’t answer is whether he could have done it again.
Total: 14 points. Year: 1991.
Total: 14 points. Year: 1991.
The question the portfolio can’t answer is whether he could have done it again.