Greg Stafford

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Greg Stafford (2005)

Francis Gregory Stafford (born February 9, 1948 in Waterbury , Connecticut , † October 11, 2018 in Arcata , California ) was an American game designer , editor and, according to his own account, a practicing neo-shaman .

life and work

Stafford was the inventor of the fantasy world Glorantha and an influential writer of pen and paper role-playing games . His interest in fantastic games was rooted in a youthful fascination with mythology. Greg Stafford started playing conflict simulations after purchasing a copy of the Avalon Hill game U-Boat . In 1966, as a freshman at Beloit College , he began writing texts about Glorantha. After being rejected by a publisher, Stafford developed the conflict simulation White Bear and Red Moon , which is set in Glorantha. After three more unsuccessful attempts to publish the game he developed, he founded Chaosium . White Bear and Red Moon (1975) was the first game released by Chaosium. Stafford also wrote the games Nomad Gods , Elric (1977) and King Arthur's Knights (1978) during this period .

Stafford wanted to make the world of Glorantha tangible in a pen-and-paper role-playing game. This plan culminated in Steve Perrin's RuneQuest (1978), which was set in Glorantha. Stafford and Lynn Willis simplified the RuneQuest rules into Basic Role-Playing (1980) role-playing game with only 16 pages. He wrote the miniature game Merlin . Stafford considered his role-playing game King Arthur Pendragon , published in 1985, to be his most important work. He was a co-author of the Ghostbusters role-playing game. Stafford wrote the Prince Valiant RPG, released in 1989, which featured strong narrative elements and other innovations. Stafford decided to produce a series of novels on Cthulhu's reputation after he realized that many Lovecraft fans of the early 1990s had never read Lovecraft's stories, only knew them through the role-playing game Cthulhu's reputation .

Stafford left Chaosium in 1998, retaining all rights to Glorantha. Shortly thereafter, he founded the game company Issaries . Stafford was the co-designer of the computer game King of Dragon Pass . Stafford convinced Robin Laws to create a new game set in Glorantha. It was released as Hero Wars in 2000 as the first product for Issaries. Stafford published the second edition in 2003 under the originally invented name HeroQuest after Milton Bradley's trademark rights to that name had expired. Stafford moved to Mexico in 2004 and stopped production at Issaries to. When the Hasbro trademark rights for RuneQuest expired, Stafford transferred them to Mongoose Publishing , which published a new version of the rules in 2006. After White Wolf acquired the rights to Pendragon , their 2006 ArtHaus series published The Great Pendragon Campaign , a very extensive role-playing campaign written by Stafford, set in the mythical Britain of King Arthur between the years 485 and 566. After Nocturnal Games acquired the rights to Pendragon , Stafford wrote version 5.1 of Pendragon (2010).

In 1999 Pyramid magazine named Greg Stafford one of the "most influential people of the millennium, at least in the realm of adventure games".

In June 2015 it was announced that Greg Stafford and Sandy Petersen will be returning to Chaosium Inc.; Stafford acted as president and executive director.

Stafford was a practicing neo-shaman and a member of the editorial board of Shaman's Drum , a magazine of that belief. He published a few short articles on the King Arthur myth. Stafford lived in Mexico for 18 months , where he worked as an English teacher.

He died at his home in Arcata, California in October 2018.

Web links

Sources and Notes

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Shannon Appelcline: Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry . Mongoose Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7 .
  2. ^ A b c d Greg Stafford: Kingmaker . In: James Lowder (Ed.): Hobby Games: The 100 Best . Green Ronin Publishing , 2007, ISBN 978-1-932442-96-0 , pp. 164-167.
  3. ^ Scott D. Haring: Second Sight: The Millennium's Best "Other" Game and The Millennium's Most Influential Person . In: Pyramid (online) . December 24, 1999. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
  4. ↑ Greg Stafford: GREG STAFFORD & SANDY PETERSEN REJOIN CHAOSIUM INC. . June 2, 2015. Accessed June 3, 2015.
  5. ↑ Michael O'Brian: Chaosium Blog . October 12, 2018. Retrieved October 12, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Stafford, Greg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stafford, Francis Gregory (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American game designer and editor
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Waterbury , Connecticut , United States
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 2018
Place of death Arcata , California , United States