| Rob Lazzaretti | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Rob Lazzaretti |
| Nationality | American |
| Field | Fantasy art, Illustration |
Rob Lazzaretti is an artist whose work has appeared largely as a cartographer for roleplaying games, particularly the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game from TSR.
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Rob Lazzaretti was born and raised in central Illinois.[1] His father was an avid wargamer, and introduced him to role-playing games; while they were at a hobby shop, Lazzaretti discovered the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books, and as he puts it "was instantly hooked".[1] Lazzaretti was really drawn into the RPG hobby through the game Call of Cthulhu: "In 1984, my father and I went to the Gen Con Game Fair in Racine, Wisconsin. There I met Sandy Petersen, and he introduced me to the game. I was really drawn to the imagery."[1] His interest in the visual elements of RPGs led him to consider a career as an artist: "Everybody in my gaming group had me drawing sketches of their characters. In high school, I was the kid drawing all the weird stuff for people I knew, like Iron Maiden album covers on the backs of their jackets. Art always seems to win people over, even if they think you're a geek."[1] Lazzaretti went on to study fine art at Illinois State University, but then switched over to design.[1]
Lazaretti worked as an intern at Game Designers Workshop for a year, helping produce products such as Dark Conspiracy and Dangerous Journeys.[1] TSR contacted him after seeing his cartography work on Dangerous Journeys, and he took a job with TSR in 1993.[1] He immediately began working on the Planescape campaign setting: "It was a big responsibility. I hadn't done posters before, and suddenly I was doing a ton of them. Huge poster-sized maps. I couldn't believe how many there were. [TSR artist] Dennis Kauth was kind of my teacher and showed me the ropes."[1] After working on numerous TSR products, Lazzaretti became the Art Director of Cartography for Wizards of the Coast, overseeing the production of maps for all Wizards of the Coast role-playing game products.[1] This work included the Dark•Matter setting for the Alternity game: "I had a blast doing the cartography... I read Wolfgang's initial text and started doing conceptual stuff right away. It didn't even seem like work. I think Dark•Matter will be one of the best things I've done for years to come."[1] Lazzaretti also helped to create a cohesive look for the core books and dungeon maps for the Dungeons & Dragons third edition.[1]
Rob Lazzaretti worked as an artist on the Dangerous Journeys and Traveller roleplaying games before working largely as a cartographer for many Dungeons & Dragons products since 1994. He has also worked as a cartographer for other roleplaying game companies such as Green Ronin Publishing and Paizo Publishing.