Tim Kask
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Timothy James Kask (born January 14, 1949) is an American editor and writer in the
role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as 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 ...
industry. Kask became interested in board games in his childhood, and later turned to miniatures
wargames ''WarGames'' is a 1983 American techno-thriller film directed by John Badham, written by Lawrence Lasker and Walter F. Parkes, and starring Matthew Broderick, Dabney Coleman, John Wood and Ally Sheedy. Broderick plays David Lightman, a ...
. While attending university after a stint in the
US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
, he was part of a group that playtested an early version of the new role-playing game ''
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...
'' (D&D) for game co-designer
Gary Gygax Ernest Gary Gygax ( ; July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008) was an American game designer and author best known for co-creating the pioneering tabletop role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') with Dave Arneson. In the 1960s, Gygax creat ...
. Gygax hired him as the first employee of TSR, Inc. in 1975. After editing some of TSR's early ''D&D'' publications, Kask became editor of '' The Strategic Review'', which later became '' The Dragon'', and then ''Dragon Magazine''. Kask left TSR in 1980 to publish a new magazine, '' Adventure Gaming'', but when that failed, he left the games industry in 1983 and spent some time as a freelance editor and speechwriter before becoming a teacher. In 2010 he returned to the games industry as one of the co-founders of Eldritch Enterprises.


Early life

Tim Kask was born and raised in
Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in the 2020 census, it is the largest city in Rock Island County and the List of municipalities in Illinois, ninth-most populous in Illinois outside ...
. At age 11, he became interested in
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 compan ...
's board wargame ''
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
'', and played it frequently for three years. During a four-year stint with the
US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
(1967–1971) during the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
, he often played ''
1914 This year saw the beginning of what became known as the First World War, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip ...
'', another Avalon Hill game. He married his wife Cheryl in 1970, and they have a daughter, and a son. After leaving the navy, Kask attended
Southern Illinois University Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois. Board of trustees The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of T ...
’s campus in
Carbondale, Illinois Carbondale is a city in Jackson County, Illinois, United States, within the Southern Illinois region informally known as "Little Egypt". As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 25,083, making it the most po ...
. While there, he was introduced to
miniature wargaming A miniature wargame is a type of wargame in which military units are represented by Miniature model (gaming), miniature physical models on a model battlefield. Miniature wargames are played using Toy soldier, model soldiers, vehicles, and arti ...
, including ''
Chainmail Mail (sometimes spelled maille and, since the 18th century, colloquially referred to as chain mail, chainmail or chain-mail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common milita ...
''. Kask phoned ''Chainmail'' author Gary Gygax with some questions about the game. This developed into a series of long late-night phone conversations about miniatures rules that eventually resulted in Gygax's invitation to Kask to come to the
Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...
gaming convention A gaming convention is a gathering centered on role-playing games, collectible card games, miniatures wargames, board games, video games, or other types of games. These conventions are typically two or three business days long, and often held at ...
in
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Lake Geneva is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located in Walworth County and situated on Geneva Lake, it was home to 8,277 people as of the 2020 census, up from 7,651 at the 2010 census. It is located southwest of Milwaukee and no ...
. There Kask finally met Gygax in person for the first time. At the time, Gygax was co-developing the rules for a new type of game that he called "The Fantasy Game". Kask sat in on the two sample sessions that Gygax offered, thereby becoming one of the first people outside of Gygax's family and friends to play what would become ''
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...
''.


In the games industry

In 1975, a year after the original rules to ''Dungeons & Dragons'' were published by Tactical Studies Rules (soon to become TSR, Inc.), Gygax hired Kask as an editor, the first full-time employee of the new company. Kask's first assignment was editing, developing, and contributing to the '' Blackmoor'' rules supplement. Kask became editor of '' The Strategic Review'', starting with Issue #5. Kask authorized
Jennell Jaquays Jennell Allyn Jaquays (born Paul Jaquays; October 14, 1956 – January 10, 2024) was an American game designer, Game art design, video game artist, and illustrator of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs). Her notable works include the ''Dungeons & ...
through a casual license to publish ''The Dungeoneer'' as a fanzine to publish adventures for gamemasters to use. In 1976 Kask edited the final three supplementary rules booklets for the original ''D&D'' rules: '' Eldritch Wizardry'', ''
Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes ''Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes'' is a supplementary rulebook for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game. Its product designation is TSR 2006. Contents The work provides information on the pantheons and constructs of the Egyp ...
'', and '' Swords & Spells''. Kask's focus within TSR then changed, as he oversaw the formation of TSR Periodicals. He split ''The Strategic Review'' into two new periodicals: '' The Dragon'', devoted to ''D&D''; and ''
Little Wars ''Little Wars'' is a set of rules for playing with toy soldiers, written by English novelist H. G. Wells in 1913. The book, which had a full title of ''Little Wars: a game for boys from twelve years of age to one hundred and fifty and for that ...
'', devoted to historical board gaming and miniatures play. Kask was the editor of the first 33 issues of ''The Dragon'' (soon renamed ''Dragon Magazine''). Kask developed and edited TSR's historical board game, ''William the Conqueror, 1066'', and was responsible for starting the ''Days of the Dragon'' line of calendars. During the development of ''
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Several different editions of the '' Dungeons & Dragons'' (''D&D'') fantasy role-playing game have been produced since 1974. The current publisher of ''D&D'', Wizards of the Coast, produces new materials only for the most current edition of the ...
'' and '' Basic Dungeons & Dragons'' in the late 1970s, Kask helped Gygax delineate the differences between the two game systems. Kask was responsible for hiring a number of people at TSR who subsequently went on to become influential creators in the role-playing game industry, including Kim Mohan. Kask resigned from TSR in 1980, and later revealed that he had disagreed with the creation of ''Advanced Dungeons & Dragons''. He had originally written in the foreword to ''Eldritch Wizardry'' that "''D&D'' was meant to be a free-wheeling game, only loosely bound by the parameters of the rules." Later he wrote, "It all starting going bad with the publishing of ''AD&D'', '' The Player’s Handbook''. Here come the rules lawyers, the nitpickers and the homegrown experts. The fun started to leech away within months. Now there were dicta, dogma and regulations; gone were the days of guidelines." Kask stayed in the games industry for a few years, re-developing '' Naval War'' for Avalon Hill in late 1981. He also started up Manzakk Publishing in order to become the publisher and editor of a new games magazine, ''Adventure Gaming''. Kask was able to sell advertising space, and on paper he should have made money. But due to the ongoing recession of the early 1980s, many of his advertisers were in financial trouble, and he had difficulty collecting any of his ad revenue. Kask was forced to cease publication after only 13 issues, admitting that "I lost my shirt" in what he called "a crushing defeat."


After TSR

Following the failure of ''Adventures Games'' in 1983, Kask left the games industry to do freelance editing, ghost-writing, and speech-writing. He went back to school in 2002, and after earning a master's degree in Education from
Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier had an enrollment of approximately 5,600 undergraduate an ...
in
Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
, he became a teacher. In 2006 Kask was a celebrity auctioneer, with Frank Mentzer, at Gen Con Indy. He joined Mentzer as a special guest at the Lake Geneva Gaming Convention in 2007 and 2008. Kask and Mentzer frequently returned to the role of auctioneer at Gen Con Indy until 2017, which was ultimately the final year for each in that capacity. Jim Ward, a fellow TSR employee in the early days of the company, who had become managing editor of ''The Crusader'' magazine, persuaded Kask to write a monthly column for his magazine. At the KC Game Fair in November 2010, Kask announced his return to the games industry as one of the founders (with Mentzer, Jim Ward and Chris Clark) of Eldritch Enterprises, which would publish a variety of general works as well as new creations for role-playing games. In 2012, Kask became a contributing editor for ''Gygax Magazine''. This quarterly journal, published by Ernie and Luke Gygax, sons of the late Gary Gygax, was dedicated to "old school" ''Dungeons & Dragons''. Six issues were published from 2013 to 2016, but the Gygax brothers ceased publication when Gary's widow, Gail Gygax, initiated a trademark dispute over the magazine's name.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kask, Tim 1949 births Dungeons & Dragons game designers Living people Southern Illinois University alumni United States Navy sailors