(6/41: 1993) Jeff Arnett
The Assistant’s Credit
Jeff Arnett’s documented contribution to tabletop game design comes through a single credit: assistant designer on the WWF Basic Adventure Game, published by Whit Publications in 1993. The game translated the spectacle of professional wrestling — larger-than-life characters, theatrical rivalries, crowd-driven momentum — into a tabletop adventure format.
As assistant designer, Arnett worked within an established creative framework, contributing to the development of a licensed product that had to serve two masters: the mechanical needs of a playable game and the narrative expectations of the WWF brand. It’s a supporting role, but supporting roles in small-press game publishing carry real creative responsibility. Someone has to make the pieces fit.
The Honest Assessment
A single assistant designer credit on a small-press licensed product is the thinnest possible thread connecting a name to the history of tabletop game design. There’s no way to evaluate a career arc, design philosophy, or creative evolution from one supporting credit. Arnett helped build one game. That game exists. That’s the record.
What earns a place in this collection at all is the simple fact that the work was professional, credited, and shipped. The WWF Basic Adventure Game was a real product that reached real players. An assistant designer helped make that happen.
The Scoring Case
Invention (2): “Minor Contribution”
Assistant designer on a licensed product. The creative framework — wrestling as tabletop adventure — was defined by the lead designer and the license itself. Arnett contributed within those constraints, helping develop content and mechanics for the final product. The role implies creative input but not creative direction. 2.
Architecture (2): “Basic Construction”
Supporting structural work on a single game. The assistant designer role involves helping translate design concepts into playable form — organizing content, testing interactions, ensuring components work together. Functional contribution to one product’s architecture without evidence of independent structural design. 2.
Mastery (2): “Early Practice”
One documented credit represents the beginning of a potential craft journey rather than an established body of work. The credit demonstrates basic professional competence — the ability to contribute meaningfully to a shipped product — but offers no evidence of growth, refinement, or accumulated skill across multiple projects. 2.
Adjustments (+0):
- ■ Longevity 10+ years: +0 — Single credit in 1993, no documented span.
- ■ Longevity 20+ years: +0 — Not applicable.
- ■ Full-time career: +0 — No evidence of game design as primary profession.
- ■ Awards: +0 — No documented industry awards.
- ■ Branded name: +0 — No products with mainstream name recognition.
- ■ Cross-genre success: +0 — Single game in one genre.
- ■ Commercial success: +0 — Small-press distribution.
- ■ Design propagation: +0 — No documented mechanic adoption by others.
- ■ Field stewardship: +0 — No documented mentorship or organizational contributions.
Total: 6 points. Year: 1993.
What Remains
Jeff Arnett’s name appears once in the credits of tabletop gaming history. He helped build the WWF Basic Adventure Game — a small-press product that brought professional wrestling to the tabletop through a licensed adventure format. One credit. One game. One contribution to a catalog that existed at the intersection of sports entertainment and role-playing.
Not every designer builds a career. Some pass through, leave a single fingerprint on a single product, and move on. The fingerprint remains.
6 points. 1993. One ring, one credit, one mark.
Sometimes one game is the whole story — and even a single credit means someone sat down and did the work.