Legendary D&D Designer James Ward Has Passed Away
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It was recently announced that legendary role playing game designer Jim Ward passed away at the age of 72. Ward was one of the early pioneers of the modern TTRPG industry and was instrumental in creating some of the earliest and most popular Dungeons & Dragons supplements of all time, including the ground breaking Deities & Demigods and the seminal Greyhawk Adventures books. He also penned the novel Pool of Radiance, which would go to inspire several sequels and the popular video game series of the same name.
Below, we look back at the incredible contributions and enduring legacy of this remarkable man.
Who was James Ward?
James M. Ward was born in 1951 and was one of the early players in Gary Gygax’s now legendary Greyhawk campaign, which was critical in helping to shape the early version of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In fact, the powerful Greyhawk mage Drawmij is based on Ward (with the name a palindrome of “Jim Ward”).
Ward would later become one of the earliest employees at the fledgling TSR, where he worked with longtime designer Rob Kuntz on the 1976 D&D supplement Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes and later contributed to the seminal Dieties & Demigods.
While at TSR, Ward also designed Metamorphosis Alpha, which was released in 1976 and is considered to be the first science-fiction role-playing game ever produced. That game would go on to form the basis of the popular post-apocalyptic Gamma World system, which continues to be published to this day.
In 1988, Ward wrote Greyhawk Adventures, a hardcover supplement that presented new rules for the Greyhawk setting. He was also instrumental in developing the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. While at TSR, Ward published his first novel, Pool of Radiance (which is also on our list as one of the best Forgotten Realms books of all time), followed by two sequels: Pools of Darkness and Pool of Twilight. The series would form the basis for the popular video game series of the same name.
In 1989, Ward was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame for his contribution to Dungeons & Dragons. At TSR, Ward later designed the Spellfire collectible card game and was promoted to Vice President of Creative Services, but eventually left the company in 1996.
After leaving TSR, Ward worked on a number of collectible card games and eventually co-founded Fast Forward Entertainment, an independent RPG publisher where Ward also served as President from 2000 to 2005.
Ward later joined Troll Lord Games (makers of the popular Castles & Crusades game) where he contributed to numerous products. Over the past few years, Ward also wrote for a variety of other publications and in 2022 released the product GiantLands after a successful Kickstarter campaign.
In 2010, Ward was diagnosed with a serious neurological disorder. His friend and longtime D&D contributor Tim Kask helped to establish a fund to help Ward offset some of the medical bills, but the issues continued into the later of his life.
Mr. Ward leaves behind his wife, three sons and a legacy that has helped shap Dungeons & Dragons and the entire TTRPG industry. His Facebook page features a number of contributions from friends, family and colleagues.
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
