 | Christopher Loizou, is a business executive and part time game designer, owner of the Cursed Empire IP and creator of the Thargos setting.
He lives in France and moved there in 2008 from the UK. Chris has released 10 indie role-playing game books from the Cursed Empire setting, a graphic novel and a related miniatures range over a 10-year period from 2003 through to 2012. Also, he released an Ancient Greek setting game book revolving around the 300 Spartans and their famous battle of Thermopylae.
Chris is a huge fan of the Ray Harryhausen films, and a host of other swords and sandals epics and these shaped his taste very early on in terms of atmosphere and setting. He likes epic adventures and the quirky feel of stop animation whilst being a huge fan of horror, fantasy and sci-fi films from the 1950âs through to the 1980âs. More recently films like Ridley Scottâs Gladiator, Oliver Stoneâs Alexander, Peter Jacksons LOTR and The Hobbit, Frank Millers 300, the Game of Thrones & Vikings series are all to his taste.
J.R.R Tolkien, Steven Pressfield, Frank Herbert, Raymond E Feist, Michael Moorcock and H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe to name a few, have all inspired Chris to develop his own setting and stories. He is passionate about ancient history revolving around Ancient Greece, Egypt, Rome and the likes of Carthage with Alexander the Great being a particular favourite inspiration and the details of his military campaigns and interpretations of the incredible individual he would have been for his time have been regular reading for Chris. Reading up on the Middle-Ages is also another era Chris enjoys.
Chris was introduced to role-playing games in Monaco when he was 12 when a friend of his recommended, he purchases the D&D red box (this was in French and at the time, Chris did not really speak the language). He was so taken by the fun and the impact on his imagination that he got into regular D&D gaming and ran many campaigns over years, including occasional games of Stormbringer, Runequest and MERP (Middle-Earth Roleplaying) and one-shot Call of Cthulhu & Paranoia games. Chris used to run a home brew game in his mid to late teens that started out as Cult Master, then mutated into F.A.T.E. (Feu Air Terre Eau â the 4 basic elements in French) and finally Cursed Empire. Chris is more Games Master than player, participating as a player in less than 1 in 50 RPG gaming sessions on average. When Chris started his studies at the Tours Business School in France, he had planned to get involved in some business related association but ended-up, much to his delight, in forming with what became some of his closest friends, a gaming association called Stalagmythes. He was the Chairman of the association for the duration of his studies and gaming such as tabletop, paintball, murder mystery nights etc. were very much back on the menu.
It was after years of being told by his Monaco & Tours friends that he should publish the game, he did exactly that in 2003. Cursed Empire has been dormant now since 2012⦠until now⦠|
