The TTRPG neighborhood has misplaced one among its pioneers. Tim Kask, a person who would form the earliest model of the enduring TTRPG Dungeons & Dragons and the primary full-time worker of TSR Inc., has handed away.
The Passing of Tim Kask
The affect Tim Kask had on the tabletop trade is substantial. He was an avid wargamer, enjoying many tactical conflict video games within the Nineteen Seventies. Ultimately, he had an opportunity to play Chainmail, designed by Gary Gygax.
This expertise led to the 2 males corresponding about miniature sport guidelines, which led to Kask being invited to Gen Con to playtest Gygax’s subsequent sport: Dungeons & Dragons. Kask was the primary playtester exterior of Gygax’s household to play this model, initially known as “The Fantasy Sport.”Â
This relationship deepened when Tim Kask was employed full-time by Gygax’s firm, TSR Inc., in 1975. He edited and contributed to varied D&D dietary supplements, such because the influential and genre-blending Blackmoor setting and Eldritch Wizardry, which launched psionics and Thoughts Flayers to the sport. There’s even a tool within the sport named after a personality he made: the Equipment of Kwalish.
Kask was additionally identified for periodical work. Certainly one of his largest contributions was as editor for the TSR journal, The Strategic Evaluate, which might finally break up into two totally different books: Dragon Journal and Little Wars. Dragon Journal is important because it launched concepts, spells, and magic gadgets that would seem in official D&D merchandise.Â
A type of concepts is the now iconic Forgotten Realms setting. The identical setting that has hosted many epic and beloved D&D adventures, resembling Baldur’s Gate 3.
Tim Kask would depart from TSR in 1980. The rationale for his departure was inventive disagreement across the creation of Superior Dungeons & Dragons. Based on Sport Rant’s findings, Kask thought authentic D&D ought to keep, “a free-wheeling sport” and did not like the brand new rules-focused method.
However Kask did not utterly vanish from the tabletop neighborhood. He would seem at conventions and proceed writing and growing within the trade. His most up-to-date work was the founding of Eldritch Enterprises in 2010.Â
Tim Kask handed away on December 30, 2026, after a sudden sickness. He handed peacefully in his sleep, surrounded by family and friends.
