Larry Niven and Steven Barnes co-created and wrote the much respected DREAMPARK series which spawned one of the first LARP games in the USA, the International Fantasy Gaming Society (IFGS), in 1981. Both award-winning writers are known for their multitude of fiction works spanning novels, television scripts, articles and beyond.

Larry Niven is a SoCal native and attended the California Institute of Technology before graduating from Washburn University in Kansas with a BA in Mathematics, a Minor in Psychology, and a D. Litt, an honorary doctorate in Letters. His first story publication in December 1964 was "The Coldest Place", Worlds of If. Now residing in Chatsworth, California, he lives happily with his wife, Marilyn Joyce Wisowaty, whom he met at the Nycon World Science Fiction Convention in 1967 and their cat. His interests include Sci-Fi conventions, Role playing games, Comics, Filk singing, Hiking and Yoga, and making mankind's space endeavors attractive to commercial interests. He and his wife have also hosted a gathering of the top minds in the space industry in an attempt to write a space program for the government and were behind the revival of the X Program.
Awards include: Hugos (Science Fiction Achievement Awards) for "Neutron Star", "Inconstant Moon", "The Hole Man", "The Borderland of Sol", and RINGWORLD. He won a Nebula Award for Best Novel: RINGWORLD and a Ditmars (Best International Science Fiction, Australian) for RINGWORLD and PROTECTOR. He also won the prestigious Inkpot Award from the San Diego Comic Convention. Currently he has numerous titles out on the stands.

Steven Barnes has published twenty-three novels and over three million words of science fiction and fantasy. He's been nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Cable Ace awards. While his television work includes Twilight Zone, Stargate SG-1, and Andromeda, his "A Stitch in Time" episode of The Outer Limits won the Emmy Award, and his alternate history novel LION'S BLOOD won the 2003 Endeavor. He wrote the New York Times bestselling novel STAR WARS: THE CESTUS DECEPTION, as well as the Star Trek Novel FAR BEYOND THE STARS and issues of Legends of the Dark Knight (Batman: Underground Railroad). His GREAT SKY WOMAN and SHADOW VALLEY, adventures set 30,000 years ago in East Africa, were published by Ballantine/One World Books in 2006 and 2009. Barnes co-writes with his wife, Tananarive Due, also an accomplished author, on various projects including the Essence best-seller, CASANEGRA, it's sequel, IN THE NIGHT OF THE HEAT, which won the 2009 NAACP Image Award, and their currently in-development comedy script, INAUGURATION DAY. Barnes is also a lecturer and personal consultant who has lectured on creativity and human performance technologies from UCLA, USC, and Pasadena JPL to the Smithsonian Institute. He was for three years Kung Fu columnist for Black Belt Magazine, and hosted the "Hour 25" radio show on KPFK Pacifica Radio for four years. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, daughter Nicki, and son Jason.