Tim Kask

[Admin] P.S. Tim's Dragonsfoot footer:

Tim Kask

Fewer rules allow more fun.
If you're not having fun, why the hell are you playing?
The "system" is just the means to get to the fun; if you get to the fun, the vehicle becomes irrelevant.
"It is proper to disagree with the views of a person without maligning him; nothing is more contemptible than to smear the name of an author only because his ideas are not to your liking."
John of Salisbury (c. 1120 - 1180) in Metalogicon

[Admin] "Q&A with Tim Kask" from Dragonsfoot.

Just a moment...

[Admin] https://gamerant.com/tim-kask-dungeons-and-dragons-editor-death/

Tim Kask, one of the first Dungeons and Dragons developers, has died at age 76 Tim Kask, one of the original minds who helped shape the very first edition of Dungeons and Dragons, passes away at the age of 76.

[Admin]

I just learned that Tim Kask passed last night. It feels like a punch to the gut. Tim was a friend and a cantankerous mentor, funny, opinionated, brilliant, headstrong, wise, insightful, one hell of a writer and an editor, and the most honest person I’ve ever known.

Gamers know Tim first and foremost because he was the first employee Gary Gygax ever hired at TSR. In addition to his contributions to Dungeons & Dragons, he was the editor of The Strategic Review, and the creator and editor of The Dragon magazine. It was his insightful insistence that The Dragon be an independent voice within TSR that made it the success it was. It would have been easy to have a house organ like Avalon HIll’s The General, but Tim knew that readers needed a place to have honest and open discussions about the RPG hobby as a whole, and a place where ideas and even criticism about D&D could live in a real marketplace of ideas. The Dragon, and later just “Dragon” magazine, was the highlight of my month for years as a kid. It’s absolutely the reason that I love gaming as much as I do, and it’s even the reason I got into magazine publishing myself when I started making music zines as a teenager. Tim started the tradition of putting comics in the back of each issue, and I made sure that even though I was making music publications, there would be comics in the back of ours as well.

So it was only natural that when I had the idea to create Gygax magazine, as an homage to The Dragon, that the person I needed as a mentor was Tim Kask. I’m sure it helped that Luke & Ernie Gygax were involved, and Frank Mentzer gave Tim the “Jayson’s an okay dude” thumbs up, but the fact is that Tim was incredibly generous and kind to agree to come on board as “Contributing Editor” and mentor all of us through the process of making something worthy of the legacy he had begun. Tim didn’t just know about being an editor, he knew game design like nobody’s business. He was ready, willing, and generous with his advice to younger game designers, and happily donated his time and experience to gamers in his hometown through the public library and on his own. His own game design was outstanding as well, I still play ships with the Master Mariner game he published in Gygax magazine.

It’s also because of Tim that I was able to bring back my favorite RPG of all time, Top Secret. I had no idea how to find Merle Rasmussen, or even where to begin. He seemed to be completely off the gaming map, certainly no one at the conventions knew. When I mentioned it to Tim, he found Merle, called him up, and put us in touch. Without Tim, I never would have reconnected with Merle and we wouldn’t be making Top Secret today.

I’ve read accounts of what Tim was like back in the early days of TSR, that some people called him “the enforcer.” It makes me laugh fondly, I can absolutely see that. Tim never suffered fools gladly, and he always spoke his mind. But that was one of the things that made Tim so endearing to me. He had so much integrity. You never got anything fake from Tim. If he gave you praise or a compliment, you could take that right to the very depths of your heart, because you knew he meant it. He was deeply funny, and had so much love for the people that were special to him.

I’m so very sad that I’ll never get another chance to talk to Tim. But I’m so utterly grateful for the joy and the friendship he brought into my life. God bless you Tim, and goodbye.

-Jayson Elliot