James M. Ward (game designer)

Last updated

James M. Ward
Born (1951-05-23) May 23, 1951 (age 71)
United States
Occupation
  • Writer
  • game designer
  • author
LanguageEnglish
Genre Fantasy, role-playing game
Notable works Deities & Demigods , Greyhawk Adventures , Pool of Radiance , Metamorphosis Alpha , Gamma World

James M. Ward (born May 23, 1951 [1] ) is an American game designer and fantasy author who worked for TSR, Inc. for more than 20 years.

Contents

Career

Dungeons & Dragons and TSR

Ward was one of the players in Gary Gygax's early Greyhawk games as Gygax developed the Dungeons & Dragons game. [2] : 24  The Dungeons & Dragons character Drawmij was named after him;[ citation needed ] "Drawmij" is simply "Jim Ward" spelled backwards. Rob Kuntz and Ward's Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976) expanded the original D&D game by introducing gods. [2] : 8  Ward designed Metamorphosis Alpha (1976), which was the first science-fantasy role-playing game, and published as TSR's fourth role-playing game. [2] : 9  Ward co-authored Deities & Demigods (1980) . [2] : 382  In the early 1980s, Ward and Rose Estes formed an education department at TSR, intended to sell classroom modules to teachers. [2] : 14  Ward ran Kuntz's adventure "The Maze of Xaene" as the D&D tournament module at EastCon in 1983, although the module never saw print at TSR. [2] : 240  Ward wrote Greyhawk Adventures (1988), a hardcover volume that presented new rules for the Greyhawk setting. [2] : 19  Ward, with David Cook, Steve Winter, and Mike Breault, co-wrote the Ruins of Adventure adventure scenario that was adapted into the game Pool of Radiance . [3]

In 1989 he was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame. [4] When TSR produced a second edition of AD&D (1989), Ward instituted changes such as removing assassins and half-orcs from the game, explaining in Dragon #154 (February 1990) that "[a]voiding the Angry Mother Syndrome has become a good, basic guideline for all of the designers and editors at TSR, Inc"; Ward printed many upset readers' replies in Dragon #158. [2] : 23  Ward can be glimpsed early in the Dragon Strike tutorial video playing the man who is slapped in the face at the king's party. [5] Ward designed the Spellfire collectible card game. [6] Ward was eventually made the VP for Creative Services, but left TSR over disagreements about how the company's crisis involving book sales in 1996 was handled. [2] : 30 

After TSR

Ward designed the Dragon Ball Z Collectible Card Game . [6] Ward founded the d20 company Fast Forward Entertainment with Timothy Brown, Lester Smith, John Danovich, and Sean Everett. [2] : 351  From 2000 - 2005, he was President of Fast Forward Entertainment, an independent game development company.[ citation needed ] Ward wrote Sete-Ka's Dream Quest (2006), an adventure gamebook published by Margaret Weis Productions. [2] : 353  He wrote the Halcyon Blithe novel Dragonfrigate Wizard (Tor, 2006), which he considered one of his better and prouder creations. [6] Ward joined Troll Lord Games, writing books such as the Towers of Adventures (2008) boxed set and the Of Gods & Monsters (2009) supplement for Castles & Crusades ; Ward also became the editor for Troll Lord's C&C magazine, The Crusader Journal. [2] : 382  Ward also wrote the horror fantasy game Tainted Lands (2009), based on C&C's "SIEGE" system. [2] : 382 

In June 2021, Ernie Gygax with Jeff R. Leason created a new, separate TSR company. The company is based out of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin; they plan to release table top games and operate the Dungeon Hobby Shop Museum, which is located in the first office building of the original TSR. Other original TSR employees contributing to the startup include Ward and Larry Elmore. [7] [8]

Personal life

James Ward married his wife Janean in the early 1970s, and they have three sons together, Breck, James, and Theon. [6]

In 2010, Ward was diagnosed with a serious neurological disorder that required treatment at the Mayo Clinic. His friend Tim Kask has helped to establish a fund to help Ward offset some of the medical bills. [9]

Selected works

Fiction

Role-playing games

Television

Other

Related Research Articles

Gary Gygax American game designer (1938–2008)

Ernest Gary Gygax was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) with Dave Arneson.

Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for Dungeons & Dragons—Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign predated it by over a year—the world of Greyhawk closely identified with early development of the game beginning in 1972, and after being published it remained associated with Dungeons & Dragons publications until 2008. The world itself started as a simple dungeon under a castle designed by Gary Gygax for the amusement of his children and friends, but it was rapidly expanded to include not only a complex multi-layered dungeon environment, but also the nearby city of Greyhawk, and eventually an entire world. In addition to the campaign world, which was published in several editions over twenty years, Greyhawk was also used as the setting for many adventures published in support of the game, as well as for RPGA's massively shared Living Greyhawk campaign from 2000–2008.

Dave Arneson 20th and 21st-century American game designer

David Lance Arneson was an American game designer best known for co-developing the first published role-playing game (RPG), Dungeons & Dragons, with Gary Gygax, in the early 1970s. Arneson's early work was fundamental to the development of the genre, developing the concept of the RPG using devices now considered to be archetypical, such as adventuring in "dungeons" and using a neutral judge who doubles as the voice and consciousness of all characters aside from the player characters to develop the storyline.

<i>Expedition to the Barrier Peaks</i> Dungeons & Dragons module by Gary Gygax

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a 1980 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game written by Gary Gygax. While Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is typically a fantasy game, the adventure includes elements of science fiction, and thus belongs to the science fantasy genre. It takes place on a downed spaceship; the ship's crew has died of an unspecified disease, but functioning robots and strange creatures still inhabit the ship. The player characters fight monsters and robots, and gather the futuristic weapons and colored access cards that are necessary for advancing the story.

Mordenkainen Fictional character in Dungeons & Dragons

Mordenkainen is a fictional wizard from the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. He was created by Gary Gygax as a player character, only months after the start of Gygax's Greyhawk campaign, and is therefore one of the oldest characters continuously associated with Dungeons & Dragons.

In the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Tenser is an archmage who strives to rid the Flanaess of evil. Tenser is a former member of both the Citadel of Eight and the Circle of Eight.

Castle Greyhawk

Castle Greyhawk is one of the central dungeon settings in the fictional World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. The Castle was originally developed by Gary Gygax, for his own campaign and later detailed for publication. Castle Greyhawk is also the name of a 1988 Dungeons & Dragons adventure module that created a treatment of the Castle for the public to use. In 2005, Gygax announced the release of "Castle Zagyg," his new treatment of the dungeon.

The Free City of Greyhawk, also known as Greyhawk City and the "Gem of the Flanaess," is a fictional city-state in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Since the setting was originally published in a folio and then again in a boxed set that were both titled World of Greyhawk, the word "Greyhawk" is often used to describe the entire campaign world setting, although the proper name for that part of the world is the Flanaess. Sometimes the lands controlled by the Free City are also referred to as Greyhawk, though the proper term for the region is the Domain of Greyhawk.

<i>Mordenkainens Fantastic Adventure</i>

Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure by Robert J. Kuntz and Gary Gygax is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, published by TSR, Inc. in 1984. It originally bore the code "WG5" and was intended for use with the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition rules. Because it is one of the WG modules, it is a module intended for the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. It was later updated in 2004 to the Third Edition Revised rules in Dungeon magazine, issue #112, as Maure Castle. There were subsequently two additional installments in issues #124 and #139.

Iggwilv Fictional wizard in Dungeons & Dragons

Iggwilv is a fictional wizard from the Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. She was created by Gary Gygax.

<i>The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth</i> Role-playing game adventure

The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It was written by Gary Gygax and published by TSR in 1982 for the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) rules. The 64-page adventure bears the code "S4" and is set in the Greyhawk campaign setting. It is divided into two parts, a 32-page adventure, and a 32-page booklet of monsters and magic items. The plot involves the player characters investigating rumors of lost treasure. After traversing a wilderness and two levels of dungeons, the players face Drelnza, the vampiric daughter of long-deceased archmage Iggwilv.

Robert J. Kuntz Game designer

Robert J. Kuntz is a game designer and author of role-playing game publications. He is best known for his contributions to various Dungeons & Dragons-related materials.

The legion of fictional deities in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game covers an extensive range of spheres of influence, allowing players to customize the spiritual beliefs and powers of their characters, and as well as giving Dungeon Masters a long list of gods from which to design evil temples and minions. Although the Greyhawk campaign world, when it was merely a home game, started with no specific gods, the value of having deities available for both players and game plot purposes was quickly realized. The number of deities has varied with each version of the campaign world that has been published, but for many years numbered a few dozen. It has only been since 1999 that the number of gods increased dramatically to almost 200, due to the volume of newly published material that was subsequently integrated into the campaign world.

<i>Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes</i> Tabletop role-playing game supplement for Dungeons & Dragons

Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes is a supplementary rulebook for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Its product designation is TSR 2006.

<i>Greyhawk</i> (supplement) Tabletop role-playing game supplement for Dungeons & Dragons

Greyhawk is a supplementary rulebook written by Gary Gygax and Robert J. Kuntz for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. It has been called "the first and most important supplement" to the original D&D rules. Although the name of the book was taken from the home campaign supervised by Gygax and Kuntz based on Gygax's imagined Castle Greyhawk and the lands surrounding it, Greyhawk did not give any details of the castle or the campaign world; instead, it explained the rules that Gygax and Kuntz used in their home campaign, and introduced a number of character classes, spells, concepts and monsters used in all subsequent editions of D&D.

<i>Swords & Spells</i> Tabletop role-playing game supplement for Dungeons & Dragons

Swords & Spells is a supplementary rulebook by Gary Gygax for the original edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. Its product designation is TSR 2007.

Troll Lord Games Game publisher

Troll Lord Games is an American publisher of role-playing games, The Crusader magazine and other board/dice/card games.

Theron O. Kuntz is a game designer who was an early associate of Gary Gygax and employee of TSR.

References

  1. ↑ "Jim Ward". Eldritchent.com.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  3. ↑ The Dragon editors (September 1989). "The Envelope, Please!". Dragon (149): 20–21.{{cite journal}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  4. ↑ "The 1989 Origins Awards". The Game Manufacturers Association. Archived from the original on December 16, 2012.
  5. ↑ Moore, Roger E. (October 1993). "Editorial". Dragon . Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, Inc. (#198): 14.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Ward, James M. (2007). "The Great Khan Game". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best . Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 138–141. ISBN   978-1-932442-96-0.
  7. ↑ "TSR, the Original Maker of Dungeons & Dragons, Has Re-Launched as New Company". ComicBook.com. June 24, 2021. Retrieved June 27, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ↑ "TSR Games cuts business ties with Ernest G. Gygax, Jr. and second RPG publisher calling itself TSR". Dicebreaker. June 29, 2021. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  9. ↑ Friends of Starship Warden: "the James M. Ward Relief Fund". Archived from the original on November 25, 2010.
  10. ↑ "Dragon Magazine #42" (PDF). Dragon .
  11. ↑ Ward, James M. (August 2008). Towers of Adventure. ISBN   978-1-929474-19-6.
  12. ↑ Ward, James M.; Wham, Tom (2008). Dragon Lairds. ISBN   978-1-931567-60-2.
  13. ↑ "The Crusader". The Crusader. Troll Lord Games. 4 (8). March 2008.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.