Nerdhaus Games is a creator-oriented tabletop game studio started in 2015 by Jamie Lindemann, currently based out of Kansas City, MO. Nerdhaus is developing games that strive for more than just mechanical excellence. Nerdhaus Games is going to bring whole worlds to life, providing digital support, expansions, and related material like comics and soundtracks to the table. A Nerdhaus Game is the first chapter to a story you’re invited to continue.
History
- December 1992: Jamie’s parents purchased Shadowrun, 2nd Edition for their sons’ Christmas present. This would prove to be a huge mistake, or the beginning of a massive trend, depending on your point of view.
- August 2004: The apartment that would become Nerdhaus was founded. Under the Latin motto “Alea iacta est” [The die is cast], the dining room table was a permanent Necromunda board, Jamie’s first rpg system Nexus was written (and promptly abandoned), and Savage Worlds was introduced to the team.
- September 2006: A late night drive across Missouri inspired Running on Empty, the first Nerdhaus World.
- 2008: The first Nerdhaus board game, Last Resort, a survival adventure game set in a thawing resort hotel while zombies prowl the floors loosely inspired by games like HeroQuest or DragonStrike went into playtesting.
- 2011: A card game about kidnapping people was developed and quietly withdrawn from playtesting when we determined maybe the market didn’t want a card game about kidnapping people.
- Fall 2012: Cabal began development. In a stunning oversight, the first playable prototype was developed and the rules explained before it was determined how to end the game.
- 2015: Nerdhaus Games was begun in earnest. Business plan, vision statement, all the important stuff like social media accounts. Jamie begins hitting the convention circuit.
- June 2015: Jordon Quattlebaum, an original resident of the Nerdhaus apartment and longtime gamer and friend of the studio, released the first official licensed work in a Nerdhaus World: Running on Empty: Preacher and Ghost was available on Amazon for digital download.
- October 2015: The Nerdhaus Games website went live.
- July 2018: The Nerdhaus Games Patreon went live. We also started stocking Nerdhaus buttons. I’m inordinately fond of these buttons.
- November 2019: The first print run of BITE was received and got into stores.
- July 2020: The first Nerdhaus pdf RPG, Crisis, was uploaded to the itch store. It features scenarios drawing from both BITE and the Steelheart Skies setting.
- October 2020: The Long Way Home came out. The arrival of the game was heralded by the first audio AP Nerdhaus Games has produced, available on YouTube.
- December 31, 2021: On the last day of the year, You Reap What You Sow hit digital shelves, serving as an introduction to the Boneyard setting as well as being the first Nerdhaus RPG laid out in Affinity Publisher.
- NOW: Games are in development and playtest, we’re getting requests for public events, expansions and multimedia projects are in discussion. This is the next phase of Nerdhaus Games, and we’re so glad you’re here for it.