Loren Keith Wiseman (March 7, 1951 – February 14, 2017) was an American

wargame A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...

and

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

, game developer and

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...

Career

Game Designers' Workshop

After graduating from

Illinois State University Illinois State University (ISU) is a public university in Normal, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Illinois State Normal University, it is the oldest public university in Illinois. The university emphasizes teaching and is recognized as one of th ...

, Loren Wiseman co-founded

Game Designers' Workshop Game Designers' Workshop (GDW) was a wargame and role-playing game publisher from 1973 to 1996. Many of their games are now carried by other publishers. History Game Designers' Workshop was originally established June 22, 1973. The founding m ...

with

Frank Chadwick Frank Chadwick is an American multiple-award-winning game designer and ''New York Times'' best selling author. He has designed hundreds of games, his most notable being the role-playing games ''En Garde!'', '' Space: 1889'' and ''Twilight 2000' ...

Rich Banner Paul Richard "Rich" Banner is an American game designer and graphic artist. Beginnings Rich Banner and Frank Chadwick formed the ISU Game Club at the Illinois State University (Normal, Illinois). Banner engineered a grant which funded the printin ...

, and Marc Miller on June 22, 1973. Wiseman published ''

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just ...

'' (later published by

Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company' ...

as '' Caesar's Legions''), his first wargame, and the fifth game published by

, in 1974. As a partner at GDW, his primary responsibilities were

game development Video game development (or gamedev) is the software development, process of developing a video game. The effort is undertaken by a video game developer, developer, ranging from a single person to an international team dispersed across the globe. ...

– editing and revising game manuscripts and preparing them for

publication To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Conve ...

. During this period he designed the wargame ''

Pharsalus ''Pharsalus''Melichar L (1906) ''Monographie der Issiden. (Homoptera). Abhandlungen der K. K. Zoologisch-botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien.'' Wien 3: 1-327 21 is the type genus of planthoppers in the subfamily Pharsalinae (family Ricaniidae); it ...

'' (1977), and wrote the award-winning ''

Twilight: 2000 ''Twilight: 2000'' is a 1984 post-apocalyptic military tabletop role-playing game published by Game Designers' Workshop (GDW). Set in the aftermath of World War III (the "Twilight War"), the game operates on the premise that the United States/NATO ...

'' role-playing adventure ''Going Home''. Wiseman helped Frank Chadwick,

John Harshman John Harshman is a game designer who has worked primarily on role-playing games. Career In 1975, Game Designers' Workshop published '' Triplanetary'' by Harshman and Marc Miller. Harshman, Frank Chadwick Frank Chadwick is an American mul ...

, and Marc Miller design '' Traveller'' (1977). Wiseman was editor of the ''

Journal of the Travellers Aid Society ''Journal of the Travellers' Aid Society'' is a role-playing game magazine devoted to Traveller (rpg), Traveller, commonly abbreviated JTAS. History In 1979 Loren K. Wiseman created a magazine to support ''Traveller (role-playing game), Travel ...

'' (24 issues), and its successor '' Challenge'' magazine (53 issues). Wiseman brought on

J. Andrew Keith John Andrew Keith (August 31, 1958 – August 7, 1999) was an American author and games developer. Career J. Andrew Keith, and his brother William H. Keith Jr., responded to ads in ''Journal of the Travellers Aid Society'' for authors to wri ...

and

William H. Keith, Jr. William H. Keith (born August 8, 1950) is an American author mainly contributing to military science fiction and military fiction and related game design, who writes also under several pen names, such as Ian Douglas, Robert Cain and H. Jay R ...

to GDW to start freelancing in either 1978 or 1979, and author Shannon Appelcline noted that "Together the three would end up setting a lot of the early tone for the ''Traveller'' universe. Wiseman became the line developer for ''

''. The process at GDW was for the designer to write the text, but the developer brought together that text, plus draft diagrams and art into a manuscript, typeset it, and then made sure it was properly published. It also fell to him to design titles in the series (out of 46 supplementary titles for the series, he is credited with designing 20).

Steve Jackson Games

When GDW closed in 1995, Wiseman was unemployed for a short time and then worked a succession of part-time jobs, before being offered a job at

Steve Jackson Games Steve Jackson Games (SJGames) is a game company, founded in 1980 by Steve Jackson, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, and card games, and (until 2019) the gaming magazine ''Pyramid''. History Founded in 1980, six years after the cr ...

as Art Director and ''Traveller'' Line Editor. Steve Jackson brought on Wiseman to produce the ''

GURPS Traveller ''GURPS Traveller'' is a set of table-top role-playing game books by Steve Jackson Games, designed to allow game play in the Third Imperium science-fiction setting from the original '' Traveller'' using the ''GURPS'' rule system. Loren Wiseman ...

'' (1998) line. He wrote ''GURPS Traveller'' and several supporting products, including ''GURPS Traveller Nobles'' and '' The Interstellar Wars''.

Awards and recognition

Wiseman was recognized for his excellence and expertise with the H. G. Wells Award for ''Twilight: 2000 Going Home'' (1986), and the H. G. Wells Award three years running for the ''

'' (1979-1980-1981). In 2003 Wiseman was Gaming Guest of Honor at the 26th CoastCon

science fiction convention Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of the speculative fiction genre, science fiction. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expres ...

. In 2004, Loren received perhaps the highest of honors within the gaming community: he was inducted into the Adventure Gaming Hall of Fame, and the above recounting of his credits gives some insight into the rationale. He was honored as a "famous game designer" by being featured as the king of clubs in

Flying Buffalo Flying Buffalo Inc. (FBI) is a game company with a line of role playing games, card games, and other gaming materials. The company's founder, Rick Loomis, began game publishing with ''Nuclear Destruction'', a play-by-mail game which started the pr ...

's 2010 Famous Game Designers Playing Card Deck.

Death

Reports on Facebook and at Steve Jackson Games report that Loren Wiseman died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

on February 14, 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wiseman, Loren 1951 births 2017 deaths Illinois State University alumni American game designers GURPS writers Role-playing game designers