More sad news
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Tom Moldvay, 58 passed peacefully into his next adventure on March 8th 2007 . Tom was a game designer and author most notable for his work on early materials for the fantasy role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). As an employee of TSR, Inc., he authored or co-authored many landmark D&D adventure modules. During the early 80's when home computers were not prevalent, Tom was creating thought provoking games that stirred the imagination and were played by thousands of enthusiasts across the country. The Classic Rulebooks and Player's Handbooks written by Tom had been in print for several years and played so intensely that many gamers had them practically memorized. Odds were that if you'd played a published adventure, most likely you were a fan of Tom Moldvay. Most of those early modules achieved classic status, some of them being collected and reprinted again and again in the years that followed.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Tom graduated from Mayfield High School and went on to receive his Masters degree in Anthropology from Kent State University.
Preceded in death by parents Thomas and Selma Moldvay and sister Jody Brown
Tom is survived by his sister, Rebecca (David) Welner of Akron, nieces and nephews, Lauren Welner, Dave Welner, and Kurt Brown Jr.
Toms wishes were to be cremated without a formal service.
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Holy crap! This guy wrote Isle of Dread and edited Keep on the Borderlands and had something to do with the almighty Slavers series (and about million other things early on in DnD). wow!
And B4: The Lost City.
Zargon, anyone?
How terribly sad.
And he wrote Castle Amber and Palace of the Silver Princess.
All those early B modules. I really loved those.
Wrote some Slavelords stuff as well.
And he wrote Castle Amber and Palace of the Silver Princess.
Palace of the Silver Princess was the first module I DM'd. Good times and good memories. Thanks for those, Tom.
- Chris Shadowens
For years I didn't realize he did so much with the early Dungeons & Dragons lines. Instead, I will always remember him from the October (Halloween) issues of Dragon as the "undead guy" who wrote those fantastic new undead monsters. I think I shall pull out some of those issues (#138, #162, #210) and see if I can't "resurrect" some of them for a tribute appearance in a game very soon.
Adventures would not be the same without his early guiding hand. Thanks for DMing us through those formative years.
-Matt
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I was very sad to hear about this. My condolences to his family.
His red and blue Basic D&D box set with the Erol Otus art work introduced me to the game and it think it was one of the finest RPG products ever produced. His adventures The Lost City, The Isle of Dread, Palace of the Silver Princess and Castle Amber are four of my favorite adventures of all time.
Thanks for the memories Mr. Moldvay.
Thanks for the good times, Mr. Moldvay, and keep on gaming up there!
I had just found out today that Tom Moldvay passed away. His "Castle Amber" and "Isle of Dread" adventures were perhaps my two favorites since those were among the two earliest modules that I was either a player or DM. I liked the story that Steve Winter told about Moldvay keeping a note in his boot for two weeks as a visual aid for a Boot Hill game. The idea that this note probably smelled horrible only added to the realism. Apparently, Moldvay had a LOT of ideas that got incorporated into adventures and campaign worlds. He will be very much missed in the gaming community.
Damn.
Castle Amber will alway have a place in my large blue heart. One of the finest old school modules ever published.
Sad to see you go Tom.
When I found out about his passing away ,I went and took out my old copy of X1:Isle of Dread and just paged through it for a while. What a great writer. What else can I say?