Tom Jolly is a

board game Board games are tabletop games that typically use . These pieces are moved or placed on a pre-marked board (playing surface) and often include elements of table, card, role-playing, and miniatures games as well. Many board games feature a comp ...

inventor An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...

Career

Tom Jolly's games include ''

Wiz-War ''Wiz-War'' is a 4-player board game created by Tom Jolly and first published in 1985 through Jolly’s company, Jolly Games. It is described as a "beer and pretzels game". The board in ''Wiz-War'' is made up of individual segments that form a l ...

'', ''

Drakon DRAKON is a free and open source algorithmic visual programming and modeling language developed within the Buran space project following ergonomic design principles. The language provides a uniform way to represent flowcharts of any com ...

'', '' Cavetroll'', ''Light Speed'', ''Camelot'', ''Cargo'', and he co-designed '' DiskWars'' and ''Vortex/Maelstrom''. Additional games he has designed include '' Gootmu'', ''

Knots A knot is a fastening in rope or interwoven lines. Knot may also refer to: Places * Knot, Nancowry, a village in India Archaeology * Knot of Isis (tyet), symbol of welfare/life. * Minoan snake goddess figurines#Sacral knot Arts, entertainme ...

'', '' WayWord'', and '' Got It!''. The publisher of Wiz-War,

Chessex Chessex Manufacturing is an American company that sells dice, primarily for the role-playing game (RPG) and collectible card game (CCG) market. It also offers other accessories used in RPGs and CCGs. The company also has a Chessex Europe branch of ...

, printed the fourth through the 7th editions of Wiz-War.The seventh edition, came out in 1997. The eighth edition was released by publisher Fantasy Flight Games in 2012. The first expansion set, Malefic Curses, came out in January 2014. The ninth edition will be released by ''

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 ...

''.

Fantasy Flight Games Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) is a game company based in Roseville, Minnesota, United States, that creates and publishes role-playing, board, card, and dice games. As of 2014, it is a subsidiary of Asmodée Éditions. History Fantasy Flight Publish ...

published Jolly's ''DiskWars'' game in 1998, and a later fusion of the game was made with

Alderac Entertainment Group Alderac Entertainment Group, or AEG, is a publisher of role-playing game, board game, and collectible card game products. AEG was formed by Jolly Blackburn in 1993 and is based in the city of Ontario, California. Prior to getting into their cur ...

Rokugan Legend of the Five Rings (often abbreviated ''L5R'') is a fictional setting created by John Zinser, Dave Seay, Ryan Dancey, Dave Williams, DJ Trindle, Matt Wilson (artist), Matt Wilson and John Wick (role-playing game designer), John Wick and ...

setting resulting in ''DiskWars: Legend of the Five Rings'' (2000), and another mashup with

Pinnacle Entertainment Group Pinnacle Entertainment Group is a publisher of role-playing games and wargames. History When Shane Lacy Hensley decided to create a 19th-century miniatures game he contacted Charles Ryan's company Chameleon Eclectic about publishing it. The resul ...

's ''

Deadlands ''Deadlands'' is a genre-mixing alternate history role-playing game which combines the Western and horror genres, with some steampunk elements. The original game was written by Shane Lacy Hensley and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group i ...

'' which resulted in ''Doom Town Range Wars'' (2000). In January 2014, Diskwars was yet again revived in the form of Warhammer:Diskwars, combining Diskwars mechanics with the Warhammer fantasy world. Tom Jolly has also written several short Science Fiction and Fantasy stories published by a variety of on-line and paper magazines. He has also designed over 40 puzzles, produced by a number of companies and woodcrafters around the world. Jolly lives in California with his wife, having retired from his career as an electrical engineer.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American game designers Board game designers {{board-game-stub