Tom Wham

Last updated
Tom Wham
Born1944 (age 7980)[ citation needed ]
NationalityAmerican
Known for Fantasy art, Illustration
Website www.tomwham.com

Tom Wham (born 1944) is a designer of board games who has also produced artwork, including that for his own games.

Contents

Career

Early life and Guidon Games

Born in Chester, Illinois,[ citation needed ] Wham worked a variety of odd jobs during his early adult life. After serving four years in the U.S. Navy, he worked for the Guidon Games hobby shop in Maine [1] where he got his first game, a variant on a Civil War naval miniatures campaign, published. [2] One of Wham's books was published in the same series of "Wargaming with Miniatures" books from Guidon Games that began in 1971 with Chainmail . [3] :6 In 1972, Wham got a job with Don Lowry at Guidon Games, in the shipping/layout department of Campaign magazine; there, he co-authored a set of Civil War naval miniature rules, Ironclad . [4] Afterwards he became a prison guard in his hometown, then held an office job in Denver. [2]

TSR

In May 1977 he began working for TSR, Inc. at their Lake Geneva, Wisconsin headquarters as a general office worker, the company's 13th employee. [4] After running the Dungeon Hobby Shop for a summer, he was moved upstairs to the company's art department. [4] Wham worked with Dave Sutherland and Dave Trampier on the original Monster Manual . [4] Wham began doing some creative work for the company, contributing a handful of illustrations for the original AD&D Monster Manual , including the creature called the beholder. [2] Other work included co-editing (with Timothy Jones, Mike Carr, and Brian Blume) the first edition of Gamma World . [5] He also made a deal with Tim Kask, editor of The Dragon , to do a game in the centerfold, called Snit Smashing; this led to other games in Dragon, including The Awful Green Things from Outer Space . [4] These games, printed on cardstock and included in the centerfold of the magazine, usually featured artwork supplied by Wham.

Notable games published this way include:

After TSR

After TSR, Wham collaborated on books with Rose Estes, and did his own novelette in Christopher Stasheff's The Exotic Enchanter . [4] More games followed, including Kings & Things (with Rob Kuntz), the SimCity card game, and Iron Dragon . [4] Later efforts include a reprint of Snits and Awful Green Things from Outer Space from Steve Jackson Games, and Planet Busters by Troll Lord Games. [4]

Wham designed the board game "King of the Tabletop" with Robert J. Kuntz, which was published in Dragon #77 (September 1983); the game was expanded and published separately as the Origins award-winner Kings & Things (1986) by West End Games. [3] :241

Since leaving TSR, Wham has designed many more games, including collaborating with James M. Ward on the board game Dragon Lairds, published in April 2008, and Feudality published by Z-man Games Inc. in 2011. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Gygax</span> American game designer and author (1938–2008)

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Jackson Games</span> American game publishing company

Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and the gaming magazine Pyramid.

<i>Dragon</i> (magazine) Magazine published by TSR

Dragon is one of the two official magazines for source material for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game and associated products, along with Dungeon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TSR, Inc.</span> Former company, publisher of "Dungeons & Dragons"

TSR, Inc. was an American game publishing company, best known as the original publisher of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). Its earliest incarnation, Tactical Studies Rules, was founded in October 1973 by Gary Gygax and Don Kaye. Gygax had been unable to find a publisher for D&D, a new type of game he and Dave Arneson were co-developing, so he founded the new company with Kaye to self-publish their products. Needing financing to bring their new game to market, Gygax and Kaye brought in Brian Blume in December as an equal partner. Dungeons & Dragons is generally considered the first tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG), and established the genre. When Kaye died suddenly in 1975, the Tactical Studies Rules partnership restructured into TSR Hobbies, Inc. and accepted investment from Blume's father Melvin. With the popular D&D as its main product, TSR Hobbies became a major force in the games industry by the late 1970s. Melvin Blume eventually transferred his shares to his other son Kevin, making the two Blume brothers the largest shareholders in TSR Hobbies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Arneson</span> American game designer (1947–2009)

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 role-playing game (RPG) genre, pioneering devices now considered to be archetypical, such as cooperative play to develop a storyline instead of individual competitive play to "win" and adventuring in dungeon, town, and wilderness settings as presented by a neutral judge who doubles as the voice and consciousness of all characters aside from the player characters.

<i>Chainmail</i> (game) Miniature wargame

Chainmail is a medieval miniature wargame created by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. Gygax developed the core medieval system of the game by expanding on rules authored by his fellow Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (LGTSA) member Jeff Perren, a hobby-shop owner with whom he had become friendly. Guidon Games released the first edition of Chainmail in 1971.

<i>The Awful Green Things from Outer Space</i>

The Awful Green Things from Outer Space (AGTFOS) is a two-player space combat board game developed and illustrated by Tom Wham.

<i>Mordenkainens Fantastic Adventure</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure module

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.

Snit's Revenge is a two-player board game developed and illustrated by Tom Wham. It originally appeared as an insert in Dragon Magazine in 1977, and subsequently as a boxed game first published by TSR, Inc. and currently by Steve Jackson Games. The Steve Jackson version comes boxed together with Snit Smashing, which was also first published in Dragon Magazine and to which Snit's Revenge is technically a sequel. The rules of this version differ slightly from those of the TSR version.

Guidon Games produced board games and rulebooks for wargaming with miniatures, and in doing so influenced Tactical Studies Rules, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons. The Guidon Games publishing imprint was the property of Lowrys Hobbies, a mail-order business owned by Don and Julie Lowry. About a dozen titles were released under the imprint from 1971 to 1973.

<i>Dont Give Up the Ship</i> (game)

Don't Give Up the Ship is a set of rules for conducting Napoleonic era naval wargames. The game was published by Guidon Games in 1972 and republished by TSR, Inc. in 1975. The game was developed as a collaboration between Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, and Mike Carr. It was the first collaboration between Dave Arneson and Gary Gygax, the co-authors of Dungeons & Dragons. Mike Carr edited the rules and researched the historical single ship actions that are included as game scenarios.

Don Lowry is a wargamer, businessman, illustrator, and game designer who is best known as the publisher of Chainmail and the editor of Panzerfaust Magazine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James M. Ward</span> American game designer and author (1951–2024)

James Michael Ward III was an American game designer and fantasy author who worked for TSR, Inc. for more than 20 years, most notably on the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. He wrote various books relating to Dungeons & Dragons, including guidebooks such as Deities & Demigods, and novels including Pool of Radiance, based on the computer game of the same name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert J. Kuntz</span> 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.

<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.

Brian John Blume was an American game designer and writer, principally known as a former business partner of Gary Gygax at TSR, Inc., original publishers of the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micro armour</span> Small military scale models

Micro armour refers to scale models made of lead, pewter, die cast metal or plastic, usually used for wargaming purposes. Variations of the name include: mini armour, microscale, mini tanks, miniature armour, miniature tanks, micro tanks, minitanks, minifigs, armour figurines, tank figurines, etc. are also used. Micro armour is a sub-category of model military vehicle miniature figures used for military simulation, miniature wargaming, scale models, dioramas and collecting.

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

<i>Kings & Things</i> Board game

Kings & Things is a 4-player fantasy board game designed by Tom Wham and co-published in 1986 by West End Games in North America and Games Workshop in the UK. Other versions of the game include a play-by-mail version in 1987, and a newer edition by Pegasus Spiele and Z-Man Games in 2010.

References

  1. Sacco, Ciro Alessandro. "The Ultimate Interview with Gary Gygax". thekyngdoms.com. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
  2. 1 2 3 Knorr, Bryce (August 1980). "Wham's Revenge: his games". Dragon #40. V (2). Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, Inc.: 14–17.
  3. 1 2 Shannon Appelcline (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. ISBN   978-1-907702-58-7.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Wham, Tom (2007). "Puerto Rico". In Lowder, James (ed.). Hobby Games: The 100 Best . Green Ronin Publishing. pp. 251–253. ISBN   978-1-932442-96-0.
  5. Fewer, Greg. "Gamma World: Science Fantasy Role-Playing Game (1981) :: Pen & Paper RPG Database". Archived from the original on 10 September 2010. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  6. Tom Wham.com