Jennell Jaquays was a designer of tabletop and video games whose work helped change the way adventure modules are designed in the popular tabletop game “Dungeons & Dragons.”
- Died: January 10, 2024 (Who else died on January 10?)
- Details of death: Died in Seattle from complications of Guillain-Barré syndrome at the age of 67.
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Jennell Jaquays’ legacy
While attending Spring Arbor College in Michigan in the 1970s, Jaquays found herself drawn to an emerging game making the rounds on college campuses: “Dungeons & Dragons” (D&D), a freeform, imagination-driven game in which players take on the roles of adventuring heroes. She formed the Fantastic Dungeoning Society with her friends to share in their love of the hobby, then founded the pioneering fanzine The Dungeoneer. It was among the first publications to provide players with pre-created “D&D” adventures.
Jaquays also submitted work to the official magazine of “D&D,” The Dragon (later called Dragon). Both her art and adventure designs quickly became a publication mainstay. Soon, she was creating official adventure modules such as “Dark Tower” and “Caverns of Thracia.” She helped pioneer an open, interlocking, and looping style of dungeon design that allowed players greater freedom of choice when exploring these adventure settings. Her approach is now commonplace in the hobby. Jaquays’ art also graced the cover of such adventures as “Dragon Mountain.”
In the 1980s, Jaquays broadened her skills to include video game design, working to port popular arcade games to new platforms. Later, she worked as a level designer on such games as “Quake II,” “Quake III Arena,” and “Age of Empires III.”
In her personal life, Jaquays was the creative director for the Transgender Human Rights Institute in Seattle, and she helped lobby President Barack Obama to ban conversion therapy for minors. She was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design Hall of Fame.
Tributes to Jennell Jaquays
Full obituary: Game Developer
