Our Story

Simon and Shane have worked together for nearly 20 years. Simon has run the company on numerous occasions, overseeing several of its greatest successes and increasing Pinnacle’s production values year over year so that they compete with the largest companies in our industry.

Simon moved from the UK to the US in 2008 when he starting working on video games, culminating in 7 years working on Neverwinter Online in California. He’s back in Arizona now with his wife and three children, where he rides final herd over all Pinnacle products.

It’s widely reported that he is never wrong.

Darrell worked in the corporate world before becoming a full time game designer and writer. He worked with Fat Messiah Games, Third Eye Games, Gunmetal Games, and ran the Torg Eternity line for Ulisses Spiele before joining his friends at Pinnacle. His role is Creative Director: managing content for Pinnacle including writing, production, and making sure everything gets done for various Savage Settings.

Darrell works in Tucson, Arizona, and actually enjoys the weather there. (Madness!) He attends various conventions, and is happy to chat with anyone about the past, present, or future of gaming.

“Landauer” was born and raised in the great state of Colorado where he co-Manages the Rocky Mountain Savages who are responsible for the #Savage100, the Savage Cruise, and Friday Night Bar Fight®!

Agility is his dump-stat and he would have put more points in Performance if he’d have known that he’d be running PEG’s social media, Twitch stream, and official events like Expedition Deadwood and Hollerween.

As Director of Marketing you’ll see him enthusiastically encouraging you all to increase your Savage Worlds collections!

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Clint Black started as a freelance writer with Pinnacle before 2003, but his activity grew significantly with the advent of Savage Worlds. Clint transitioned from a playtester on the original design team to the creator of one of the first settings (Necessary Evil) to one of the contributors to the core rules with the Explorer’s Edition.

Along the way, he worked on multiple Savage Worlds projects and soon transitioned to the Core Rules Brand Manager. In that capacity, Clint worked on multiple iterations of the core rules, Companions, supplements, and setting books for Savage Worlds. He also serves as Pinnacle’s head forum/Facebook admin and has been the Savage Worlds “Rules Guru” and answer person for years.

Michael began playing RPGs at a very young age. He’s run tournaments and enjoyed helping people find games they would love while working at a game and comic store. Beginning with a job at Ninja Bee Studios, he playtested video games, tabletop miniature games, and board games.

Michael began work as a freelancer with several miniature projects and RPGs. In his time with Pinnacle, he’s produced an RPG as an ACE licensee, worked closely with a team to produce Pathfinder® for Savage Worlds, managed the Rise of the Runelords conversion, and has other projects in the works.

In his off time, he continues his own games and running RPGs for his friends.

Jessica’s been playing RPGs since she was a kid in the ’90s. Ever since, gaming has become a huge part of her life. She enjoys connecting with gamers of all types and believes that there should be a place in gaming for everyone.

She joined the Pinnacle family in August of 2019. Under the team’s wings she’s worked on many projects ranging from One Sheets to larger projects like Deadlands: The Weird West. Some of her favorite projects include 50 Fathoms: Fire and Earth, Dawn of Daikaiju, Disaster at Gran Atomica, ETU: Pinebox Perils, Rippers Expedition: South Pacific, Deadlands: Crater Lake Chronicles, and the previously mentioned Deadlands: The Weird West.

Originally introduced to roleplaying games thanks to a gifted copy of the Holmes’ blue box edition of Dungeons & Dragons, Scott hasn’t looked back since, believing that RPGs are the “pinnacle” of the tabletop gaming experience!

Career-wise, Scott has worn a number of oddly-shaped hats over the years ranging from practical special effects fabricator and puppeteer for the film industry to TV and radio promo producer, voice actor, author, playwright, and yes, TTRPG writer/designer. He is one of only five Americans to have written officially licensed Doctor Who in the form of three audio adventures for Big Finish Productions, he won several awards for his on-air marketing work for the Kids’ WB TV network, and his ENnie Award-nominated non-fiction book, Cinema and Sorcery, is a massive guide to sword-and-sorcery films from the silent era up through the present day.

Scott’s very first project for Pinnacle was proofreading a few chapters of Deadlands: Hell on Earth - Reloaded which then led to his editing Deadlands: Noir and eventually lead writing duties on The Sixth Gun, Flash Gordon, and Pinebox Middle School.

He is currently working on something he cannot tell you about.

Caden has been playing games since he was born, back in 1996 with the creation of Deadlands. He has a background in business and marketing, and joined the team officially in 2025. Caden has been attending shows like GenCon and Origins since he was a toddler, and has loved being in the gaming space his whole life. From playtesting to brainstorming, he has loved being involved in Pinnacle’s work. Now he does our customer support, social media marketing, and some product design!

Danny started tabletop roleplaying while at University studying rock music, fine wine, and bonfires by castle—and sometimes attending classes for his Philosophy and Classical Studies degree. He has edited for some of the industry’s most respected companies including C7, Onyx Path
Publishing, Modiphius, Triple Ace Games, and Third-Eye Games, amongst others.

A long time fan of Savage Worlds, he was brought on by Pinnacle as developer, writer, and editor for Savage Tales of Horror before transitioning to his current position as Licensee Manager.

Alongside his gaming work he is a full-time parent for two little gamers in the making, enjoys board and skirmish games, writing too many songs on guitar to remember how to play them, and all hings movie and music related.

J-M DeFoggi is a lifelong gamer with a deep and abiding love for classic fantasy and weird magic settings. Over the last 10 years, he has worked in the RPG industry as a writer, developer, and designer for companies like ReRoll Productions, Pelgrane Press, and Ulisses Spiele, and he recently joined forces with friends to start Strange Owl Games. He lives and games in the Dallas area with his wife and son and can be found streaming and talking about games on Twitch and YouTube at Iconic Production. As a longtime fan of Savage Worlds, J-M is thrilled to join the PEG Team!

Thomas starting playing RPGs in his early teens. His first endeavors into the game were with the old box sets of D&D. Some of his fondest years of gaming during high school and college were playing Middle Earth Role-playing, Rolemaster and Top Secret/S.I.

He stumbled across Savage Worlds, fell in love with it instantly, and it became his go to system. After several conversations with Shane, Thomas joined Pinnacle as a an editor and layout designer. He has worked on several products including: Lankhmar, Rippers, Weird Wars I, RIFTS®, and several other lines.

In addition to working with Pinnacle Thomas has had the honor of working with other companies in the game industry including Gun Metal Games, Sigil, Modiphius, and GRAmel.

When not working on various projects Thomas enjoys spending time at the beach with his kids after relocating to Australia from the States.

Michelle playtests, proofs, and acts as the sounding board for Shane's terrible ideas, shaping them into something useful and presentable to the rest of the team. She supports the team at events, takes care of our employees, and is always willing to jump in and help when needed.

Aaron Acevedo was a long-time friend of the company and a good friend of Shane and the crew for over 20 years. He passed away on July 4th, 2026, surrounded by his loving family.

Besides being an incredible artist, art director, and art manager, Aaron was a visionary who created Sigil Services to cater to the growing Virtual Table Top market. That was sold and became MetaMorphic, incorporating most of the team Aaron built.

Aaron also created numerous game designs, including Strange Aeons (purchased by Pinnacle, it was later incorporated into Clint Black's Necessary Evil setting and became Doom Guard), Savage Signs (a collection of settings for Savage Worlds), and Supers 5E with Gwendolyn Marshall, among many other projects. Throughout his long career, Aaron and his team also worked on A Song of Ice & Fire, Babylon 5, Call of Cthulhu, L5R, Suzerain, Unknown Armies, Wheel of Time, and World of Darkness properties, and produced art and design for bands, comics, films, and games.

Aaron was an incredible leader who somehow managed to be firm in his beliefs while still being one of the easiest people to work with, even in times of crisis. He was a true friend, a great partner, and he is missed greatly by all those who knew him.

Aaron's wonderful wife Jeannine passed a few years before him and is immortalized in Deadlands: Carnage in the Cascades as Ranger Jeannine Strnisa. Aaron did the art for her.

Jodi Black served as Chief Operating Officer, Editor in Chief, and Licensing Director before she passed on May 2nd, 2026. She was a founder of Carolina (now Legacy) Game Tables, and an entrepreneur with roots in tabletop gaming, nonprofits, and manufacturing.

Jodi was the heart and soul of Pinnacle for well over a decade. She kept up the team's morale through every travail, and was always there to support our staff and friends in their most trying personal crises.

Jodi was dependable, loyal, creative, funny, and above all loving. Literally hundreds of people messaged her when she fell ill, and her funeral was attended by friends from all over the country. She was as loving ... and as loved... as a person can be, and her loss has been devastating to the rest of us. But as Jodi would encourage us to do... and as she would want... we will carry on and try to emulate all the love and wonder she brought to everything she did.

Jodi was known as the “Crit Fail Queen” for her love of how a twist of fate leads to better storytelling. She would post all her Savage Worlds "Critical Failures" on social media along with a fantastic story of what happened next, and inspired others to do the same.

You are missed, Jodi. We love you.