Some Jim Ward facts:
- Jim Ward wrote the first sci-fi RPG: Metamorphosis Alpha, which came out a year before Traveller and had a cool premise: you are stuck on a generational ship full of space experiments and don't know it. It also had lots of weird tables.
- RPG historian Jon Peterson, the guy who wrote Playing At The World went around playing games GMed every major game designer he could find and when I asked which was the most fun he unhesitatingly said Jim Ward's Alpha game
- Jim Ward's Facebook posting style was extremely boomer.
- Jim Ward was Drawmij (Jim Ward backwards) of Drawmij's Instant Summons in the AD&D spell list.
- Jim Ward wrote the "mindbending psychedelic blasphemy" known as Deities and Demigods which I am always extremely excited about as in for example this long blog post.
- I enjoyed his work a lot, especially his knack for bugfuck insane details, which is the best thing about old vs new D&D.
- A lot of old TSR guys who knew Jim Ward in real life are still alive and on the internet and if you enjoy those old games and supplements you should talk to them before they die, too.
13 comments:
I think the last point is extremely important.
Sad.
Jim Ward = Drawmij ! Excellent !!!
He joined the other demi-gods in the heaven of first RPG designers...
Metamorphosis Alpha makes me fell claustrophobic and agoraphobic at the same time. Good stuff.
Thank You Jim Ward.
what's a good starting point for someone unfamiliar with his work?
@coral wave
Deities and Demigods
@zak sabbath
will ceck it out, thanks!
My room mate is having a copy of the Deities and Demigods which was bannned for having illegal Lovecraft content. It is being a neat book, and has being a fan of Lovecraft, I would liking to have one myself.
Have you ever been playing Metamorphosis Alpha? I have not been trying any sci-fi based systems and have an interest in it.
@severed fane
i've never played metamorphosis alpha
I'm very ignorant on DnD, TSR, learning everyday. I just made the connection between Jim Ward and Metamorphosis Alpha.
In Dragon magazine #156, the editor writes about making your players scared. He talks about how Jim Ward "has a habit of rolling huge numbers of dice of damage at the snap of a laser." He says how Jim created the Death Machine in Gamma World, an absolutely terrifying, indestructible, flying tank. Then says how "... Jim has run Gamma World campaigns in the past in which whole fleets of Death Machines would fly off into the wilderness and be completely destroyed by mutant strains of crab grass." Finishing with "Thank you, Jim."
A lot of the old TSR guys are up in arms of WotC’s new OD&D book blatantly distancing themselves from Gary Gygax’s legacy. And so they should be. I hope Jim haunts their offices.
I've had a soft spot for Metamorphosis Alpha since I was a kid. Unfortunately at that time in my country was impossible to find any copies. I should remedy now several decades later
Post a Comment