Thomas Steven Moldvay | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1948-11-05)November 5, 1948[1] |
| Died | March 9, 2007(2007-03-09) (aged 58) |
| Nationality | American |
Thomas Steven Moldvay (November 5, 1948 – March 9, 2007[2]) was an Americangame designer and author, best known for his work on early materials for the fantasyrole-playing gameDungeons & Dragons (D&D).
During the 1970s while a student at Kent State University in Ohio, Moldvay was a writer for thescience fiction fanzineInfinite Dreams.
Moldvay was aDungeons & Dragons player brought intoTSR by the head of design and development,Lawrence Schick, during a time of substantial growth at TSR.[3]: 11 After the publication of the core handbooks forAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons, Moldvay wrote a second edition of theDungeons & Dragons Basic Set (1980).[3]: 11 As an employee of TSR, Moldvay authored or co-authored landmark D&Dadventure modules such asCastle Amber,Isle of Dread, the rewrite ofPalace of the Silver Princess,[4] andSecret of the Slavers Stockade, all published in 1981. Of these, X1 –Isle of Dread was one of the most widely played modules of the time because it was distributed inside the D&DExpert Set rules.
Other Moldvay adventure modules for D&D includeThe Lost City (1982) andTwilight Calling (1986). In the years between 1980 and 1988, he also penned several articles inDragon magazine. The fictional city of Yavdlom in theD&DMystara setting – which in the following years included many locations featured in old D&D material – is an homage to him (Yavdlom being the backward reading of Moldvay). Moldvay also co-developed TSR'sGangbusters role-playing game and wrote adventures for TSR'sStar Frontiers game.
Moldvay developedLords of Creation, a role-playing game published byAvalon Hill.[3]: 177 In 1985 he created the one-shot game "The Future King" based on Arthurian legend. In 1986 he createdThe Challenges Game System, essentially a streamlining of the AD&D players handbook down to 8 pages, and the single adventure published for the system, "Seren Ironhand."
Tom Moldvay died at the age of 58 on March 9, 2007.[2] After Moldvay's death in 2007,Steve Winter calledIsle of Dread "Tom's work that had the widest impact", as its inclusion in theExpert Set "made it one of the most widely known and played adventures for years".[5]
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