Allen Varney (born April 1959 in St. Louis, Missouri) is an American writer and game designer who has designed three board games, written over two dozen roleplaying game supplements, and published over 300 articles, columns, and reviews. He is best known as the designer of the 2004 Mongoose Publishing edition of the classic satirical science-fiction RPG Paranoia.
From 1984 to 1986, Varney was an assistant editor for Steve Jackson Games, where he edited 'Space Gamer' magazine under Editor-in-Chief Warren Spector. In 1986 he left SJG to work freelance for companies such as TSR, FASA Corporation, West End Games, and White Wolf. He wrote computer game documentation for Origin Systems and did design work for Interplay and Looking Glass Studios. He co-wrote (with Warren Spector and Alex Duran) the original design document and wrote the cutscenes for the 2010 Nintendo Wii videogame Disney's Epic Mickey (Junction Point Studios). For many years he was the most frequent contributor to the online gaming magazine The Escapist.
He lives in Austin, Texas.
