Tim Kask

Timothy J. Kask
Born	Timothy James Kask (1949-01-14)January 14, 1949 Moline, Illinois,United States
Occupation	Game designer, editor
Genre	Role-playing games,fantasy,wargames

Timothy James Kask(born January 14, 1949) is an American editor and writer in therole-playing gameindustry. Kask became interested in board games in his childhood, and later turned to miniatureswargames.While attending university after a stint in theUS Navy,he was part of a group that playtested an early version of the new role-playing gameDungeons & Dragons(D&D) for game co-designerGary Gygax.Gygax hired him as the first employee ofTSR, Inc.in 1975. After editing some of TSR's earlyD&Dpublications, Kask became editor ofThe Strategic Review,which later becameThe Dragon,and thenDragon 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 inMoline, Illinois.At age 11, he became interested inAvalon Hill's board wargameD-Day,and played it frequently for three years. During a four-year stint with theUS Navy(1967–1971) during theVietnam War,he often played1914,another Avalon Hill game. He married his wife Cheryl in 1970, and they have a daughter,and a son.

After leaving the navy, Kask attendedSouthern Illinois University’s campus inCarbondale, Illinois.While there, he was introduced tominiature wargaming,includingChainmail.Kask phonedChainmailauthor 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 theGen Congaming conventioninLake Geneva, Wisconsin.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 becomeDungeons & Dragons.

In the games industry

In 1975, a year after the original rules toDungeons & Dragonswere published by Tactical Studies Rules (soon to becomeTSR, 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 theBlackmoorrules supplement.Kask became editor ofThe Strategic Review,starting with Issue #5.Kask authorizedJennell Jaquaysthrough a casual license to publishThe Dungeoneeras a fanzine to publish adventures forgamemastersto use.In 1976 Kask edited the final three supplementary rules booklets for the originalD&Drules:Eldritch Wizardry,Gods, Demi-gods & Heroes,andSwords & Spells.Kask's focus within TSR then changed, as he oversaw the formation of TSR Periodicals. He splitThe Strategic Reviewinto two new periodicals:The Dragon,devoted toD&D;andLittle Wars,devoted to historical board gaming and miniatures play. Kask was the editor of the first 33 issues ofThe Dragon(soon renamedDragon Magazine). Kask developed and edited TSR's historical board game,William the Conqueror, 1066,and was responsible for starting theDays of the Dragonline of calendars. During the development ofAdvanced Dungeons & DragonsandBasic Dungeons & Dragonsin 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, includingKim Mohan.

Kask resigned from TSR in 1980.He stayed in the games industry for a few years, re-developingNaval Warfor 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 theongoing 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 ofAdventures Gamesin 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 fromXavier UniversityinCincinnati, Ohio,he became a teacher.

In 2006 Kask was a celebrity auctioneer, withFrank Mentzer,atGen 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 ofThe Crusadermagazine, 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 forGygax 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.

External links

• Tim Kaskat theInternet Speculative Fiction Database
• Eldritch Enterprises
• "Tim Kask:: Pen & Paper RPG Database".Archivedfrom the original on March 11, 2005.