Jennell Jaquays, Tabletop RPG Trailblazer, Passes Away at Age 67

The iconic tabletop RPG designer is best known for designing Dark Tower.

By Christian Hoffer

Jennell Jaquays, a prolific designer who worked on some of the earliest D&D publications, has passed away. Jaquays died on Wednesday January 10th, after a battle with Guillain-Barré syndrome. The game designer is best known for her work during the earliest days of the tabletop RPG industry. Jaquays helped publish the fanzine The Dungeoneer, one of the first RPG publications ever. She also wrote the adventures Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia for Judges Guild, with Dark Tower in particular being an early example of a successful third-party module. She later went on to write multiple modules and sourcebooks for TSR, including The Savage Frontier and The Shattered Statue.

Jaquays was also a prolific artist – her art appeared in the first issue of The Dragon magazine and later graced the covers of several issues. Her work appeared on the covers of several TSR publications, including Dragon Mountain and Practical Planetology

In addition to her RPG work, Jaquays also worked in the video game industry. She developed arcade versions of Pac-Man and Donkey Kong and became the director of game design for Coleco when it was a leader in the video game industry. She also worked for id Software, where she designed levels for Quake 2 and Quake 3, CCP Games, and most recently Olde Sküül, Inc. Her credits also include Age of Empires III and Halo Wars. 

Jaquays was named to the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame in 2017, and her work was nominated for multiple H.G. Wells awards for best Tabletop RPG. Jaquays was also a transgender activist and was the creative director of the Transgender Human Rights Institute in Seattle.

Our condolences to Jaquays' family. 

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