Press Vale and farewell, Jennell Jaquays (1956 - 2024)

[Michael O'Brien]

Since the 1970s Chaosium has had the good fortune of working with some of the most talented creators in the industry, often when they were just starting out. Jennell Jaquays was one such creator, who went on to make a long-standing and multi-talented contribution to the hobby games industry as a designer, writer and artist. It is with a heavy heart we say goodbye to her today.

While Jennell created material for a host of game systems, we of course revere her for her highly-regarded work for the RuneQuest TTRPG. She was one of our company's earliest artists, contributing her creative talents to some of our most iconic RuneQuest products. This includes Griffin Mountain, regarded as "a true masterpiece of the early days of gaming" (Grognardia). The original cover art was done as a painting and is one of the most cherished items in my personal collection – it hangs on the wall in my office, I'm looking at it now as I write this.​

Jennell not only illustrated Griffin Mountain, but co-wrote it with Greg Stafford and Rudy Kraft. It's rightly considered one of the greatest TTRPG campaigns ever written.

Other iconic RuneQuest titles Jennell was involved with include Cults of Terror. Jennell not only did the terrifying cover art, but wrote the Cult of Thanatar, one of the most fearsome and horrifying antagonists ever created for the game. Jennell's more recent work to feature in RuneQuest-Glorantha publications includes the covers for Wyrms Footnotes #15 and Greg Stafford's The Sea Cave, part of RuneQuest Classic's Old School RQ Resource Pack.​

One subject near and dear to Jennell was Ducks! The earliest visual depiction of Ducks in a TTRPG context was her cover art for Wyrm's Footnotes #8, drawn in 1979. Jennell brought them to life in Glorantha, probably more than any other single individual, and we thank her for bringing more humor to our gaming table. In that vein, for Judge's Guild Jennell wrote and illustrated Legendary Duck Tower, a spoof on her own 1979 D&D module Dark Tower.​

As a talented sculptor of miniatures, she added another dimension to our gaming experiences, once again often with a bit of humor. Back in the early 1980s Jennell sculpted a series of Gloranthan miniatures for Martian Metals. Her love of miniatures carried on to this day, and some of the last TTRPG projects she was involved with featured or were inspired by her miniatures work.

We grieve with all of those who knew Jennell, especially her family. We are certain her work will live on and continue to inspire future generations of TTRPG creators.

We at the Chaosium fondly remember all the wonderful works you created for us, and for others. You have earned your seat at the table of gaming greats many times over. Vale, and farewell, Jennell.

— Rick Meints, President Chaosium Inc.​

 

[MGibster]

I never knew I wanted a dragon snail until now. Sometime I really miss some of those charmingly bizarre creations folks like Jacquays came up with.

 

[Mannahnin]

Thank you for this loving tribute. She was a titan of our hobby and now she passes into legend with other titans.

Those who knew and worked with her are fortunate.

 

[werecorpse]

Very sad news, her work was awesome. My first encounter with her work was as a player in Dark Tower in an after school rpg club in about 1981.
I later got to play in Duck Tower sometime in the mid 80’s.

Most of her stuff is available on drive thru rpg but not the Legendary Duck Tower, whoever owns it should try and get it on there for future fans.
Edit: Actually maybe I’m wrong, I couldn’t find Dark Tower or Caverns of Thracia on drive thru - I thought they were up there did they get removed? Again I encourage whoever owns them to make them easily available.

 

[darjr]

@Morrus i think this belongs on the front page.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Since the 1970s Chaosium has had the good fortune of working with some of the most talented creators in the industry, often when they were just starting out. Jennell Jaquays was one such creator, who went on to make a long-standing and multi-talented contribution to the hobby games industry as a designer, writer and artist. It is with a heavy heart we say goodbye to her today.

While Jennell created material for a host of game systems, we of course revere her for her highly-regarded work for the RuneQuest TTRPG. She was one of our company's earliest artists, contributing her creative talents to some of our most iconic RuneQuest products. This includes Griffin Mountain, regarded as "a true masterpiece of the early days of gaming" (Grognardia). The original cover art was done as a painting and is one of the most cherished items in my personal collection – it hangs on the wall in my office, I'm looking at it now as I write this.​

Jennell not only illustrated Griffin Mountain, but co-wrote it with Greg Stafford and Rudy Kraft. It's rightly considered one of the greatest TTRPG campaigns ever written.

Other iconic RuneQuest titles Jennell was involved with include Cults of Terror. Jennell not only did the terrifying cover art, but wrote the Cult of Thanatar, one of the most fearsome and horrifying antagonists ever created for the game. Jennell's more recent work to feature in RuneQuest-Glorantha publications includes the covers for Wyrms Footnotes #15 and Greg Stafford's The Sea Cave, part of RuneQuest Classic's Old School RQ Resource Pack.​

One subject near and dear to Jennell was Ducks! The earliest visual depiction of Ducks in a TTRPG context was her cover art for Wyrm's Footnotes #8, drawn in 1979. Jennell brought them to life in Glorantha, probably more than any other single individual, and we thank her for bringing more humor to our gaming table. In that vein, for Judge's Guild Jennell wrote and illustrated Legendary Duck Tower, a spoof on her own 1979 D&D module Dark Tower.​

As a talented sculptor of miniatures, she added another dimension to our gaming experiences, once again often with a bit of humor. Back in the early 1980s Jennell sculpted a series of Gloranthan miniatures for Martian Metals. Her love of miniatures carried on to this day, and some of the last TTRPG projects she was involved with featured or were inspired by her miniatures work.

We grieve with all of those who knew Jennell, especially her family. We are certain her work will live on and continue to inspire future generations of TTRPG creators.

We at the Chaosium fondly remember all the wonderful works you created for us, and for others. You have earned your seat at the table of gaming greats many times over. Vale, and farewell, Jennell.

— Rick Meints, President Chaosium Inc.​

Oh wow, I didn’t realise she also sculpted miniatures. That is an amazing talent.

 

[Michael O'Brien]

As we reflect on the achievements of RPG pioneer and GAMA Hall of Famer Jennell Jaquays, who passed away earlier this week, at the link is the interview Lynne Hardy did with her for 'Women in Tabletop Gaming Month' in 2018.

Women in Tabletop Gaming Month #15: Chaosium interviews Jennell Jaquays

Lynne Hardy interviews RPG pioneer and GAMA Hall of Famer Jennell Jaquays for Women in Tabletop Gaming MonthSerious ones first:1. What is your background? I went to a small liberal arts college straight out of high school, testing out of (nearly all) my freshman year (except writing—go figure)...

www.chaosium.com

 

[RealAlHazred]

I feel like Griffin Mountain gets some good press, but is still underrated. Back in the day, I loved campaign settings. I picked up loads of them when they hit clearance at the game shop (I was young and poor), but I didn't manage to pick up Griffin Mountain until I was in my 20s. It had long been my Holy Grail; one of my gaming buddies in college owned a copy, and I spent far too much time in his dorm room reading the book. Jennell and Rudy Kraft got it exactly, exactly right.

A lot of campaign settings might include detailed descriptions of every building in an urban center the authors intend your PCs to uses as a home base. Griffin Mountain is an extremely primitive region, so the urban centers are the Citadels, with but a few dozen buildings in each still standing. The grandeur the place once aspired to is everywhere visible, but with the decline of the locals from their once-greatness the knowledge and skill to maintain and rebuild the past is gone. There are detailed NPC descriptions and stats for about 20 of them, but only the ones you're liable to encounter are included -- in fact, many of them are found in the "Encounters" chapter, where it also talks about how the PCs might encounter them and what sort of adventures they might inspire.

It's a really well-made product, designed first and foremost to be something the referee might use at the table; it favors charts over pages of dry paragraphs, brief bullet points over detailed descriptions, and so on. When you're at the table, you don't have time to read a page of text and modify it on the fly for the specific situation; Jennell and Rudy give you what you-as-GM need to know now to keep the game moving.