Steve Henderson (1944 - March 8, 2006) was the co-designer of several

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

titles and supplements.

Career

Steve Henderson,

Steve Perrin Stephen Herbert Perrin (January 22, 1946 – August 13, 2021) was an American game designer and technical writer/editor, best known for creating the tabletop role-playing game ''RuneQuest'' for Chaosium. Early life and education Perrin earned a ...

and

Warren James Warren James (1792–1841) was a rebel leader in the Forest of Dean, England. As the Industrial Revolution began to take hold in the Forest of Dean, the Crown resolved to dilute the ''Foresters’'' freemining rights and introduce free-mark ...

, began working on an idea for an original role-playing game system for

Glorantha Glorantha is a fantasy world created by Greg Stafford. It was first introduced in the board game '' White Bear and Red Moon'' (1975) by Chaosium and then in a number of other board, roleplaying and computer games, including ''RuneQuest'' and ''He ...

, and were soon joined by Ray Turney from the original failed design team. Henderson's work includes ''

RuneQuest ''RuneQuest'' (commonly abbreviated as RQ) is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game originally designed by Steve Perrin, Ray Turney, Steve Henderson (game designer), Steve Henderson, and Warren James, and set in Greg Stafford's mythical world of ...

'', '' Worlds of Wonder'' and ''

Superworld ''Superworld'' is a superhero-themed role-playing game published by Chaosium in 1983 that uses the generic ''Basic Role-Playing'' rules system. The game began as just one part of the '' Worlds of Wonder'' product before being published as a stand ...

'', and a partner in

DunDraCon DunDraCon is a four-day gaming convention run by Dundracon Inc. It is held each Presidents' Day weekend, in Santa Clara, California as of 2022, with open registration and the first games starting on Friday morning, concluding on Monday evening. The ...

. He was one of the founders of the

Society for Creative Anachronism The Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) is an international living history group with the aim of studying and recreating mainly Medieval European cultures and their histories before the 17th century. A quip often used within the SCA describes ...

(SCA), where he was known as Sir Steven MacEanruig. He wrote the first ''RuneQuest'' adventure supplement, ''

Balastor's Barracks ''Balastor's Barracks'' is a tabletop role-playing game adventure for ''RuneQuest'', originally published by Chaosium in 1978. Set in Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha, against the backdrop of an ancient ruined city, the adventurers search for ...

'' with assistance from

and Warren James. The adventure is a dungeon crawl where the adventurers seek a powerful magic item as the primary quest. The adventure is intended as an introductory adventure for new players and game masters who are new to the ''RuneQuest'' system, providing practical demonstrations of many of the mechanics of this game system. As Sir Steven MacEanruig, Henderson developed many techniques which advanced the state of the art of the martial arts as recreated in SCA armed combat. Among these were the development of dynamic fighting styles that feature fluid movement on the part of the combatant and coordinating footwork with the timing of sword-blows in such a way as to allow the combatant to deliver forceful blows without pausing in their movement. He was also one of the founders of the "BART" fighter practices (for "Bay Area Rapid Training") often held at the Rockridge

BART Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc. Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Barthol ...

station in Oakland, California. The BART practice has been the starting point for many people who participate in SCA combat, as well as serving as a laboratory for the improvement of training practices, and the development of combat recreation techniques to better and more safely simulate medieval combat. Henderson was at the initial event of the SCA on May 1, 1966. Henderson died on March 8, 2006, as the result of a stroke."Steve Henderson"
''Daily Illuminator'', March 9, 2006,

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 ...

References

External links

SCA announcement

SCA Today obituary

Steve Henderson, An Appreciation by Steve Perrin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Steve 2006 deaths 1944 births Chaosium game designers Society for Creative Anachronism