Stefan Pokorny

Stefan Alexander Pokorny is an American designer and artist, known for his origination and popularization of miniature three-dimensional terrain systems, now widely used in role-playing games (RPG) including Dungeons & Dragons. Pokorny is a significant figure in the Dungeons & Dragons community, widely known as a "legendary Dungeon Master."

Early life At age 2½, Pokorny was adopted by New York architect Jan Hird Pokorny (1914–2008) and his wife Marise Angelucci-Pokorny. Pokorny has played Dungeons and Dragons since the 1980s and has said that he discovered Dungeons and Dragons at the age of nine or ten while he was away at a three-month sleepover camp. He attributes his introduction to one of his camp counselors who was a member of The Judges Guild.

Career In 1996, Pokorny co-founded Dwarven Forge to manufacture and distribute his designs for the first fully modular 3-D terrain systems for games. The company rose to prominence in 2013 when it raised $2 million with its first Kickstarter campaign.

Pokorny was the subject of the 2016 documentary feature film, The Dwarvenaut, exploring him and his role-playing alter ego, The Dwarvenaut. Reviews for the film were mixed noting that the film focused on the story of turning an idea into a business and less on the personal aspects of Pokorny as a person (such as his girlfriend) or the actual way in which his business functions claiming the film began to "feel more like a commercial than a documentary."

Design and influence Prior to Pokorny's innovation, D&D was generally played on 2-dimensional maps drawn on graph or grid paper, with miniature player pieces. Pokorny's terrains add elaborate 3-D aspects to the environment of play. To achieve his design objectives, Pokorny developed a proprietary PVC-based casting material he calls Dwarvenite. Users report it is fairly indestructible and holds its finish well.

Publications