Related from earlier in the year with lots of anecdotes and discussion:<p><i>Dungeons and Dragons turns 50 today</i><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39141413">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39141413</a>
Another legend has passed on. Farewell, Drawmij.<p>James Ward is responsible for two of my favorite TSR products: Deities & Demigods and Gamma World.
The cover artwork of the D&D manual Deities & Demigods is a core memory of my early teens. I poured over the writings and studied the black and white line art found within countless times.<p>I came to Pool of Radiance later and was completely enchanted.<p>RIP James M. Ward. Your work had an impact on me and hundreds of thousands if not millions of others.
Not too hot on DND these days but I still see the DBZ Card Game as an amazing achievement in terms of game design. People often see games as fitting into certain categories. Crunchy, Narrativist, Gamist what have you. But the DBZ card game managed to deliver narrative, crunch, versimiltude all in one package. I had never watched DBZ or had any special interest in it when the game was demoed at my club, but the cards as martial art moves, with a martial arts style, and a character that brought their own dimension with power level, power stages and their very own gimmick was immediately wonderful.<p>In terms of card game design, without the help of a computer, I have never seen its equal.